Hey. It's Elder Olsen!

Hey. It's Elder Olsen!

This past week has been pretty good. But i know what everyone wants to hear about and that's Johns baptism. Everything was set up the night before and good to go. But an hour before the baptism he sent us a text and asked if we could reschedule. Not exactly the way that we wanted to start off our day, but what can you do? Fortunately he is still going to get baptized just not in the month of February.

Last Monday something exciting happened, we were driving back home and we passed by a pawn shop with a big sign outside that said gps half off. Elder Brimhall has been saving for a gps and so we pulled over really quickly. We went inside and found he got a gps for 30$. Well these are really nice gps(plural) so i decided i couldn't pass up an offer like that. We told a member and he said he would put on some stuff for us. So now instead of a blue arrow that resembles my car on the gps, i have either an x-wing, or the millenium falcon, plus 100+ other things. I'm pretty excited.

Last wednsday was zone conference, and it was car inspections as well so we had to drive the whole way. So since then we have been biking because we currently have 1 mile left for the month. So of course haha it's been windy and rainy (not always at the same time but still).

Guess what i did this morning? A couple members of the church took us golfing at Legends Golf Course (look it up if you want to). I feel i did okay for my first time ever. Luckily we just played at the range because if we would of tried an actual game i would have made a lot of people upset. Because theyd have to wait a looooong time.

So transfers are coming up on march 14, and i have a bad feeling that i'll be leaving this time... I just want to stay one more transfer, and another, and another. But i have a feeling that the Lord may need me elsewhere. Now of course i don't know for sure and i don't want to think about it too much because maybe the Lord wants to keep me here instead... i hope He does.

Tell grandma that i'm praying for her, and that i love her.

Tell madison she looks CUTE with her new braces.

Some weeks i have more to write about then others i guess. Today has been our p-day also and i admit i just got done taking a really awesome nap and i don't regret it one bit! But anyways i think because of that nap i'm kind of out of it at the moment.

But anyways i Love evrbody because they are awesome and i will try and write some super exciting stuff next week!
Elder K(yle) Olsen

What happened this week? A Baptism!

Okay let me think about what happened this week.. OH yeah! BAPTISM! So the week was practically perfect for that reason. The baptism went really well too, although it was kind of funny because we had to fill up the font really quickly which made the water pretty cold. But luckily i wasn't the one in the water! Elder Brimhall got his first baptisms! But like father like son he double dipped the first time. He missed one word when Morgan was being baptized so he got to do it again. It was funny when he baptized sissy though because she's maybe half his size so he just towered over her. Unfortunately Sissy and her mom moved up to North carolina on Saturday. But that also meant that i was able to confirm Sissy right then and there! It's so great when you give a priesthood ordinance because when you start talking you completely forget anyone else is there. In a way i didn't really feel like i was there when i did it. I just heard my voice giving this little girl a blessing. Now Morgan is staying with his grandma down here and he was confirmed and received the aaronic priesthood on Sunday! Those kids are so awesome. We were able to have dinner with them on friday and we had hot dogs and smores around a burn barrel. We stayed for a while because we probably won't see Sissy again for a long time.

Funny story, we got invited to Morgans basketball game at Langston Baptist Church. Now the thing to know about Langston is that it is a great and spacious building. They have a small section, then they built a medium section, then they built the large section (which holds about 1000 people). It looks like the raising the bar commercials using churches. Then behind the building they have a full size indoor basketball court with a track that you can run on around the top. So imagine that, now imagine two mormon missionaries walking into the center of it. Yeah we got some great looks. So of course everyone that looks at us i just say, "where is the basketball game?" . So they just have chairs sitting around the court and at one point this one lady give an older guy her chair and just crouches on the floor. It felt awkward so i gave her my chair to go find and then got another one for me. Well after the game the preacher gave a lesson about sin which was actually really good. Well it turns out the lady i gave my chair to was his wife. So hopefully we got less evil glares after that haha. Well Morgan won his game, he's got a couple of friends and they're just a great team, but I have to admit i was pretty happy when i got into the car and drove out of the parking lot.

In other news guess what's happening on Saturday? Baptism! John came to church this week and he absolutely loved it. We have his baptism all set up now all he needs is his interview. It's great though because he knows one of the priests so we taught John with that priest. So now Landon (the priest) is going to be baptizing him! I'm super excited because John is just perfect. It's funny how every baptism just falls into our lap. We may work hard every day, but the real miracles are when the Lord just hands us a baptism. I love it!

Now unfortunately with the Coon. We weren't able to have one, because she wasn't able to get one. They don't sell them at wal-mart, you have to go out and catch one. But she said that as soon as she finds it she'll let us know! But on saturday we had an awesome dinner. A family took us to this place called King Kong sushi, well i had about 3 or 4 sushi rolls myself, i ate waaaay too much. But it was worth it.

Payton finally got a job! Except guess which day she works? Sunday!!! So this will put a kink into the system but i know she'll get baptized, because she is still progressing.

By the way HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!! I'll be sending you a letter today so expect one by the end of the week! I Love You!!!

You'll have to send me pictures of all of the tables at the banquet. I wish i could be there at that one, but then again if i was i wouldn't be able to see my table because it wouldn't exist. But definitely send me some pictures!

Check in next week for another episode of Elder Olsens Southern adventures!

Love y'all

Elder K. Olsen

Elder Olsen, Sissy, Morgan and Elder BrimhallSissy is 8 and Morgan is 12. They were both baptised on February 15th
Elder Olsen, Sister Newman (mom), Sissy, Morgan, Sister Newman (grandma), and Elder Brimhall
Kyle playing around with Sissy

Elder Brimhall with a Chick

A VERY tired Kyle :)

Pics from Kyle.

Sorry -- these pics came in a seperate email from his letter. Enjoy :)

Me at a better NC sign

Morgan who is getting baptized on Wednesday

Elder Brimhall pushing the car to save miles

Elder Brimhall fell asleep praying

Happy Valentines Day!!! Sort of almost!!!

Happy Valentines Day!!! Sort of almost!!!

Well i actually have some exciting things to write about this week. First off i want to tell you what i'm going to be doing for Valentines day tomorrow. Well we were invited to dinner by Bell and Trina. These ladies are "big for a reason", I'm quoting Bell. But they were asking us what we wanted for dinner. So we told them that we wanted Coon. So we are actually gonna have Raccoon for Valentines day. I'm really excited.

Now let me tell you about dinner yesterday! So we were at the Hudackos, and Mr. Hudacko isn't a member, but he is an excellent cook! So for Thanksgiving when i come back i'm gonna cook the turkey. Except i'm gonna fry it! You'll never want a roasted turkey again after this. So I'll tell you how it was made. First you cover the turkey with Cajun seasoning, then you inject it with butter! No joke, you get this big syringe and inject it with butter in several places. He put 16 oz. into it, and when you cut the turkey melted butter is coming out of it! But before you cut it you fry it in a turkey fryer. But make sure you do it outside because several housed burn down around thanksgiving because people try to fry the turkey inside. Then we had twice baked potatoes. You bake the potatoe, and then you open it mash the potatoes then put it in the oven for about five minutes. Then we had the best salad ever! First you take a pound of bacon (you can already tell its great), cook all the bacon, eat the bacon and stuff. Then you pour the bacon grease over the salad. Needless to say i ate waaaay too much and i don't regret it at all.

Now for some more exciting news. BAPTISM! This wednsday at 8 pm we are baptizing a 12 year old boy named Morgan. It was great, his grandma and mom are members. But they haven't been to church in 28 years. About a month ago they decided they wanted to get back into church. Now Morgan came to church and he told us that he wanted to pass the sacrament. So we taught him, he got interviewed, and Elder Brimhall is baptizing him! Also Morgans little sister Sissy is getting baptized on the same day, but she is 8 and since her mom is a member it doesn't count as a convert baptism. But I'm still really excited that she's getting baptized!

So if every companionship in the zone reaches their baptismal goal this month, then everyone in the zone will get to go to the temple! Our goal for this month is 2. We have Morgan and we were so close with Sissy, but then at the last minute we were told she wouldn't count as a convert baptism. So now we just got to work really hard to get another one.

We have another excellent man on date for the 25. So please pray for John. A little over a week ago John had ordered a Book of Mormon. So we delivered and then we saw him again this past Saturday. In that one week time span John read from the beginning all the way to Mormon Chapter 3!!! Needless to say i was extremely excited! Also he doesn't have any law of chastity issues or word of wisdom problems so everything is good so far. He came to church yesterday and we think that he really enjoyed it, he doesn't talk much but really likes to listen. But then here is the best news. Yesterday evening we get a text from John, what did that text say you might ask? It said, How does someone become a member of the church?...... We answered very quickly. We haven't met his wife yet, but he told us that she was interested, and after we gave him the Book of Mormon, his brother in law ordered one. I love being a missionary.

Payton is doing wonderful. She's quit all of her word of wisdom problems, she reads every day, she comes to church. I have never seen the gospel change someone so much. You can feel how she is just a different person, she so much happier now. Her vocabulary isn't quite as colorful as it used to be. Even her boyfriend and her other friends are happy to see us when we come over. Which is strange because they didn't like us at all when we first met. The only problem is, is that she's living with her boyfriend! They either got to move out or get married and then Payton can get baptized. So it may take a good bit before that happens.
We had a whole bunch of people scheduled to come to church yesterday. We had rides set up and everyone was really solid to come. We had 10 people ready to go. 10!!! How many came? 2. Satan is just too good at his job! He really bugs me sometimes.

We are teaching the Kellett family right now and it's great! Because as we were teaching them Mr. Kellett said, "God works in mysterious way, we moved down here a month ago and then you show up. And none of my children have been baptized and they need to be." I nearly passed out because he has four children that could be baptized and I thought that everyone in the south had been baptized at least three or four times. So please, please, please, please, pray for the Kellett family, because that is a family of six. And that's really good.

By the way did you get my memory card with a 1000 pictures on it?

Now for my reply,
Sorry i sent the letter to the wrong grandma erdmann. I have the card back home and it said grandma erdmann. Sooo my bad, but i love them both!
I thinks that so awesome that Chris is getting close to going on a mission! I hope he does, it's only two years and it goes by too quick if you ask me. Like I said before, I love being a missionary. Because here's the cool thing about a mission. I was sent to South Carolina by revelation from God. Because, there are people here waiting for me. Because People are People (name that band) and people only click with certain people if that makes sense. For instance Jane Marriott, maybe someone else could have baptized her, but her and I "clicked", and she got baptized. Missionaries get sent to certain places because there are certain souls that that certain missionary can only save. If i wouldn't have come, some people probably wouldn't have heard about the gospel.

I love the valentine cards that Madison made. That's way more creative then i would have done when i was a kid. I just wanted Godzilla valentine cards.
I think that you should let Morgan go competitive, it's about time one of us has talent. Haha i'm kidding we all have talent, she's just the only one that can do gymnastics, I'm not a fan of leotards myself.

I don't think i need anything, except maybe a picture of that super old Book of Mormon. What's the story behind that?
Anyway i think this letter made up for last weeks boring one.
So,
    I love y'all!
                    Elder K. Olsen

Elder Olsen is Tired

Well whats up!

Elder Olsen is tired just to let everyone know, so if my letter today is kind of crazier (than usual) it's cause I'm sleepy. But anyway let me think... Oh Payton came to church yesterday! and Bill did too! So we actually had a really good week. We should be able to baptize Payton really soon here but unfortunately she's living with her boyfriend. So that may delay it a bit. Bill on the other hand is doing great and i can easily see him getting baptized this month.

My mind is broken and i cannot remember anything that we did this week. Let me ask Elder Brimhall....He said we did nothing at all. I wonder where he's picked up his sarcasm? Actually we gave a ton of blessings this week. We gave three on Friday and three on Saturday. But it was cool because Friday was actually the first blessing I've been able to give. Now i have anointed people a thousand times, i have that down great! But i was able to give a baby a blessing who has had a really rough first three weeks of life. Then i was able to bless Payton in the same day. Then the next day i blessed a couple more less active members. I'm going to have to consecrate more oil soon.

I've been sitting here for about ten minutes trying to figure out what i should write. Okay well I'm just gonna write a ton of random stuff so that it looks like a wrote a long letter. Yesterday it was really warm but today it is kind of cold (about 55). Yesterday was the super bowl and I'm kind of bummed that i wasn't able to see all of the commercials. I still don't even know who won actually. So that will show you how secluded i am at the moment. I really got to take this suit to the dry cleaners, it's not as clean as when i first bought it. We were out of milk this morning so my peaches and cream oatmeal wasn't as good as i would have liked. But luckily today is pday and we can go pick up some groceries.

So yesterday was fast Sunday, but somehow we had two dinners at members houses before 5:00. Then after the second dinner Sister Brooks asked us if we wanted some cake to take home. Well what she meant was, do you want a huge piece of cake and strawberries with ice cream with a big cup of whole milk to eat right now before you leave? So of course we ate it and it was delicious, but i was way full before i had that cake.

I really love the scriptures and i love that i get the chance to read them so much. It's amazing that you can find guidance to any situation and answers for every question if we just pray and study the scriptures diligently.

(For our Blue and Gold Banquet this year, we were asked to set up tables and make a display to tell more about the area our Missionaries are serving in, we were also asked to get some recipes that are unique to that area, these are Kyle's suggestions). Alright I'll give you some good food. Boiled Peanuts, fried sticks of butter, fried oreos, fried pepsi (yes it's possible), alligator, chicken bog, possum. Plus anything else you can fry! Something else you could do is put up a thousand different churches, plus the words y'all, skreet, skrawberry, teef, toof, ima, fixin, perty. You could even put all that in a sentence : Ima fixin to see y'all at skrawberry skreet later after ma teef are cleaned at the dentist and em'll look are perty then we can have some tobacca (or tobaccer). You may laugh at that but i'm not really joking actually.

Ummm that's all i got this week. Sorry. Hopefully i can be more exciting to y'all
next monday.

Elder K. Olsen

P.s. Here are some pictures to spice things up a bit.

Elder Olsen and Elder Brimhall at Elder Lane