The Sun is Shinin!

The sun is shinin!

So i have to say that the weather is perfect down here in the south. It's a little to cold in the morning and at night but during the day it is absolutely perfect. The sun keeps us warm but there's always a nice cool breeze, and then all of the trees are changing colors, so everywhere you go it's all green and yellow and orange and red. It's nice when we have a minute and i can just sit back and stare at the glory of Gods creation.

But as per usual we have been biking a lot. Especially because we get 1050 miles every month. On the 27 we are driving to Columbia for a Leadership Training Meeting and that will eat about 300 of our miles. So it's pretty funny because we had to figure out how to drive less than ten miles to get the groceries today. We figured it out finally and we just have to bike a lot more now.

So the Zone Leaders came out on exchanges with us on Thursday and i got to go with Elder Robinson. Well he is originally a Georgia missionary but when the mission boundaries changed he became a part of this mission. They were definitely taught differently how to contact down there. In the 4 hours i was with him we biked 25 miles, contacted 30 people, and taught 3 half hour lessons, oh and we put two people on date for November 19. The way he taught me to contact was to go straight up to someone and then just ask them a question. Not Hi, how are you today? We would ask things like, Do you ever wonder who wrote the Bible? Or, Why did the Bible end? or, What do you think Jesus Christ expects of you in this life? Honestly these contacts work extremely well, at first people are a little stunned but then they answer the question and we get right into a nice discussion.

At church yesterday it was amazing! We got a new ward mission leader, he is ex-navy and says "roger that" alot. He's a really fun guy, but he also makes sure the work gets done quickly and effectively. We've gone on splits with him a lot and he's a great missionary. We also had 3 non members at church and 8 less actives! Plus we got a page of assignments from the ward council and 5 or more referalls from members! The ward loves us and we have earned there trust. I'm so excited to see how Conway grows, and i really hope i can stay another transfer or two.

Yesterday we biked through a neighborhood and we got sort of nervous. Because the street names were, Civil War rd, Lees Landing, Confederate st. things like that. But we found 4 new investigators anyway and all of the people were actually really nice! It's also funny because they were mostly trailer homes but they were all built up on stilts so they looked like two story trailers. Well they are built that way because they live next to waccamaw river and it floods that high once a year for a day or so. I don't think i would live there, but to each his own.

To answer your questions. Yes we love the Taco Bell gift cards! We eat there quite a bit now even though the employees give us some weird looks because they don't sell gift card in the south. But we have Grandma in our prayers a lot because we are extremely grateful for the wonderful food.

I sent Sadie an e-mail (not the longest one), but HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN!
Thats so great that Jordan has left the states! He's probably so excited right now. Tell his family that he's having the greatest time of his life! Because that's what it should be.

Something i could use though. We talk a lot about family history because a lot of people are interested in that and it's an easy way to bring up the gospel. Well i need some cool family ancestral stories that i could tell to people, and i also want them for myself. Especially some stories about my grandpa James Guy. Because i honestly don't know too much about the man i was named after.

Love Y'all!
Elder K. Olsen

Howdy!

Howdy! (which isn't a word too often used in the south, and when i say it to people they say howdy back.. often sarcastically)

But i am super excited to get all the details about the games. And tell Sammy and Kylee i love their letters and i've tied that green/yellow rope to my backpack for everyone to see.

It's so great to hear that Dad is in the High Council. I'm not really surprised by it just to let you know. Tell Dad i'm proud of him and that if he keeps doing what he does he'll end up in the Stake Presidency. So keep going Dad!
Okay i have approximately 11 minutes to tell you about my week. OH no! only 10!

Okay so whats happened. Well we had our very own Stake Conference in South Carolina and it was a bit different. Instead of walking over to one of the two stake centers so that they could split the stake, we drove about an hour and a half to Florence so that the speakers (two of which were my mission president and his wife) got everyone excited about missionary work so that in three years time we could double the stake. Afterwards Conway ward had a potluck, and let me just say that people in the south know how to cook! It's also amazing how half the food down here i've never heard of. And we thought i wasn't going to a foreign country.

We also had our interviews on friday with President Holm. And let me just say that i have the best Mission President ever, because he just gets me so pumped to go out and work! He just gets super excited when he talks.

So we have some awesome investigators! Lunette, Danisha, Joe, Jerry, Caroline, and a lot more, we got another 15 new investigators this week and I can't even remember all of them now. There's just so many people to work with! Which is a wonderful blessing because Elder Cramer and I were in a rut for a while with not many investigators. I really love missionary work. I can't believe that I'm coming close to the 3 month mark. Time is going by way to quickly and there's still so much to do.

I have a request for everyones birthdays (that's both families please) because I have the months I think. But definitely not the days. But I still love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

P.S. Still love ya!

We got lots of work done this week!

We got lots of work done this week!
           And ' still plenty more to do :D

First of all that package for the camera would be absolutely wonderful. I just can't get myself to Best Buy and i also don't have a box to send it home in. So yes please. But I'll be sure to take more pictures of 'other than trees' i've wanted to. But it's hard when the camera just won't cooperate.

Let's see what's happened this week. I've already said this before, but it's hard to remember what i've done because so much has happened! Well i'm glad that you got the pictures and were able to see my crazy breakdancing skills. Hopefully you also enjoyed the letters that i sent.

So we have 10 new investigators this week! I'll try to name them all.. Patrice, Baynisha, Legrant, Patrisha, Sarah, John + 6 kids, Ariel, Jessica, and probably a few more. But anyways we've been knocking lots of doors. Which is actually really fun and i don't get nervous doing it anymore. You get to meet lots of nice people, and others... well they're probably nice too. But Elder Cramer and i have just knocked doors around all of our appointments. That would explain all of the new investigators right?

Friday/Saturday was the ward campout. And we had permission from bishop Brock to come to the Saturday lunch. That was so much fun, we got to walk on the beach (Bishop said i could), we played some volleyball, i had 4 hamburgers, then we learned how to filet fish, make dutch oven biscuits, and make garden boxes. But something that was actually successful is we got an appointment with the secretary non-member sister and her family. So super excited for that! The funniest part is the amount of food that they gave us. You ready for this? 40 hamburger patties, 30-40 hot dogs, and then enough buns for all of them! Plus a box of lays snack chips, and ketchup, mustard, relish, and of course a bag of cookies. The missionaries are just a place for leftovers i guess. So yeah, not gonna be hungry for a while.

Church was great, although we were sort of lacking in the investigators that came area. A grand total of zero, or bagel as we say. But still i love going to church, it's just nice to have a place to get away from the world and feel the spirit. One of the young women is in charge of the Halloween party for some project. And we're signed up to make a game! So if you have any good Halloween games that are original, i'm open to advice.

Unfortunately this week we couldn't teach many of our progressing investigators. Although we do have an appointment with Jesse at 6:30 tonight!

Oh i just remembered! We had a dinner with the Singleton family on Thursday! And i mean all of them, there was grandma, her three kids, and 8 grandkids. So it was a very loud dinner, because everyone talks at the same time, and of course they're all talking to us. And half the time i don't think they were speaking english. Let me tell ya, the west and the east have different languages. But we had some home made fried chicken (love it!) and of course home made biscuits, and jumbaliya (probably spelled that wrong) rice.

This weeks going to be fun, because this last week was the most lessons we've ever taught in a week. So our goals are even bigger this week! Plus we have our personal interviews with President Holm. Also they're inspecting our homes and our cars this week. So we're REALLY gonna clean today. And we have Stake Conference in Florence! Which is about an hour away.

One of the Zone Leaders had a random transfer last week. So hopefully the new Zone Leader is just as pumped and excited as the last one. The last Zone Leader (Elder Hightower) has an Uncle in a band that made a tribute CD to missionaries called Work. Well the song 'work' is sung by his Uncle. So Elder Hightower took a line from that song and made it our zone motto. And that is "It takes everyone to get'r done!"

Sorry i don't have quite as much to write down this week. Usually i have some good stories to tell. I'm becoming more accepting of dogs actually. They aren't as frightening as they were a couple months ago. I'm still not to fond of them, but you have to learn to accept them in the south. Especially in the country side when you're riding your bike and it turns out nobody has a clue what a leash is. But still it's fun!

I love y'all and I love hearing from ya!
Elder K. Olsen

P.S. So we would like to make a request. If we could get some Christian soul music that'd be great, like the total baptist, or A.M.E. stuff, because that stuff can bring the spirit, plus it gets us pumped.

P.S.S. Also i don't mind long letters either. I know i don't write them quickly. But i'm like number 5 when i read

New pics from Kyle!!

My helmet that I left on the car then got ran over.

Our drive to zone conference

Entry to our kitchen

Our living room

Our home away from home

Awesome oak tree

At the beach :)

Still at the beach

Elder Cramer...at the beach

Rain!

Elder Cramer

What happened this week...General Conference of course!

Okey Dokey then.

What happened this week... General Conference of course!!! We are lucky enough to get to watch all five sessions, i was so happy to hear all of the great things about missionary work. I'm sure it feels this way for almost everyone. But General Conference felt designed for me. It uplifted my spirit, answered most if not all of my questions, it focused on my life in such a way. That the question comes into my mind, How could those talks be as great as they were, unless they were inspired of God. I beg of everyone to study what was taught, it is modern revelation, The All Knowing God is freely giving us guidance in our lives that can be delivered in a magazine to our front door. But still my favorite part was when President Monson announced the temples and began his talk with "Hello!". I love how he shows by example that we can laugh, be so happy, by living the Gospel.

Unfortunately conference wasn't exactly a 'big party' with a whole bunch of food. Including Elder Cramer and I we had 7 people to the Saturday sessions, maybe 25 to priesthood, and 8 or more for Sunday. Definite improvement could be done, but most people (hopefully) watched it at home. On the bright side, guess who came to the Sunday morning session! Jesse Bloodworth and the family! He's not a member (yet) and came to conference, even though he had a pretty bad cold. It makes me feel bad when i think of my past and all the excuses i made up to not watch conference.

For those who went to priesthood session. Isn't Elder Holland Awesome!!! I love that man, especially when he said "you're gonna get some fire."

So it's starting to get chilly down here in the south. So now it's suit coat season. We now have to wear our suits every day until it gets warm again... I'm glad i have two pairs of suit pants, and actually there's a couple suits that were left behind by past missionaries. One of the suits (sort of) fit me. So that's getting dry cleaned and it's totally mine now.

Elder Scott said something that really hit me, he said "A memorized scripture becomes an enduring friend through the eternities." So I'm going to memorize 30 scriptures this week. It seems like a lot at may overload my brain. But i know it can be done, i've already memorized way over 30 songs in my life. Whats 30 small verses? Plus, i know it will help me in my teaching. If you're interested in the 5 scriptures I'm memorizing today they are: Mosiah 4:9-10, 3 Nephi 14: 9-11, D&C 130: 22, Romans 8:16, 1 John 4: 7-9. I'll let y'all find out what the theme of those are for yourself.

We've been biking like crazy this past week! It was seriously 20-30 miles a day. Haha my legs are dead. Because we only get 1050 miles in the car every month. Well when we drove to zone conference it ate up 230 miles. So we have to make all that up with the bikes. It's funny, we were riding through a trailer park when we passed by some people on their porch. Someone said, "Woo! You gotta get some wd40 on those chains!" It's true too. Our chains are squeaking and grinding, not exactly the most pleasant sounds. But it sure is a way to start a conversation with people!

I got to train a District Development Meeting (DDM) either this week or last week. So that was an interesting experience. I'm the newest missionary of the bunch and i had to train everybody how to use a baptismal calendar. At first i was nervous, but as it turned out i had filled out more baptismal calendars then anyone else. I had only filled out one at that point. But either way i was more experienced. It went great though and when i think back on it, it was actually pretty fun.

Let see here's the updated investigator List:
Jesse Bloodworth: He's doing so awesome! I love this guy and his family. They just have to get married and then he's getting baptized. So pray that they can get all of their legal mumbo jumbo out of the way.
Dede McDonald (or Dede MceeDee): She's seems like she really likes reading the scriptures. She's said that she feels the Holy Ghost when she reads the Book of Mormon and like the path that she's going down with the church. We asked her to be baptized, and she said she'll pray about it. Please pray that she'll pray. We know that she believes everything, she just has to act on her faith.
Randy: Unfortunately did not come to church. We're not too happy with him because he gave us a huge promise. That he would absolutely come to church with us. We showed up at his house at 11:30, and he was asleep. His Dad wouldn't let us wake him up. Even though Randy is probably 50. But our lessons go so well that we cant give up on him. He wants to learn a lot.

Those are the main investigators, so pray that we can find success with them. Also please pray that we can meet out goal and baptize 3 people this month. We're going to try our best.

Time unfortunately is limited so i'll have to stop there. But know that i love y'all and this church is true!

Elder K. Olsen

P.S. Special shout out to Alex Johnson! Those CD's saved our lives! Thank you so So SO much!