Week of Miracles!

So first of all i was able to go to the dentist and i had to get three fillings. Well that wasn't really the fun part because they were all on the top and i guess that area is more sensitive so he had to put three shots in so that he could fix them. Not a fan of that. But anyway my teeth are perfectly fine now and the best part was when we were done, he said that he wouldn't make me pay extra and that whatever the insurance was able to pay was enough. So if you want me to i will gladly send back that money that you gave me.

It's always comforting to hear that y'all were able to get the memory cards, it worries me to send three months of memories in an envelope across the country. Speaking of which did y'all ever get my package that had all of the letters in it?

Now for the rest of the miracles! We were blessed with 8 new investigators this week! David, Cynthia, Tom, Matthew, Deckers, and Mr. Connor! It was amazing how many lessons we were actually able to teach. So let me tell y'all about them.

So since we had to go to the dentist on Thursday we took an hour and a half out of our pday last week to go knocking. While we were knocking we ran into Cynthia. Cynthia is an older lady who at first told us that she didn't have time right then. So we set up a return appointment for Wednesday. But before we left i said "I don't mean to be to pushy but you seem really sad, is everything all right?" Then she expressed to us that her daughter passed away a couple years ago and that she was raising her three grandchildren. So we testified that our message could bring comfort and happiness into her life. We came back on Wednesday and gave a plan of salvation and the restoration to her. She seemed happier but concerned that if she found out that the book of mormon was true that she would have to become a mormon, she was raised baptist. But i feel that she will honestly read and ponder the book of mormon.

Back to Monday we were still knocking on that same street and we found David who has become one of my favorite people in the world. At first he seemed a little slow but it's just because he takes his time to answer everything. We came back later and asked him if he had read, and he had read all of the testimonies and the introduction. He understood all of it as well. We've had some great discussions with him and he is most likely going to become a member of the church but he wants to study more.

Tom was a referral from the letter program I've told y'all about and that went fantastic! I didn't realize it until we left but we were there for a while. We got home at 9:30 and we just lived down the road. But we were able to answer all of his concerns, i was able to answer questions that i never thought i would be able to. I was able to give several good reasons why we don't have the gold plates anymore. Reasons that i truly believe came from the Holy Ghost. We gave him the book of mormon and he really wants to read it and we are having lunch tomorrow with him and the referring member so i bet that he will have read some by then.

Matthew is a nine year old boy who just really wants to get baptized! He lives with his grandpa who is a member but doesn't want to come to church because he's not a "people person" but he's loves the church and the idea that Matthew is getting baptized soon. Matthew came to church yesterday and he loved it, when he was leaving he was skipping away saying "i want to come to church every week!" Now why can't every investigator we have do that?

The Deckers were another letter referral and it was another humbling experience because their son was murdered a couple of years ago so they are really humble people. But they believe that all the churches have a lot of good but are just close to the full truth. Bro. Decker also talked about the Native Americans at one point saying "you know they were a lot better people to this land than we ever were, and it makes you wonder, who told them to be that good?" Then i held up the book of mormon and said "would you like to find out?" It was awesome! So we're invited anytime back to their home and they really want to read the book of mormon as well.

Last but not least is Bro. Connor, who is actually a lead from past missionaries and someone we met our first day in Hartsville. But this whole time we haven't been able to have a great discussion with him, we've been able to talk to him in his front yard and present the book of mormon and what it is and he promised that he would read it. Now let me tell you that Bro. Connor is a lawyer and he is also very well educated in the scriptures. But we sat down with him last night and had a very long educated discussion with him. Which i think is why we weren't able to do it when we first met him because honestly we weren't ready when we first got here. But last night he said "whats the message?" and we asked him what he would like to know. He said "how about the trinity?" Whoa! I wasn't ready for that but decided that i would explain the whole restoration so that i could show him why we believe in three separate beings. But he took everything into honest consideration and came to the conclusion that he now needs to read to the book of mormon to find out if what we're saying is true. It was funny though because he asked us if we had gone to a theology school when we were finished. We told him all that we know were from our studies (I'm so proud of my humility). He also expressed how he wished that he could get us over to our church. I then told him that he would have to completely disprove the book of mormon. So our next visit will be interesting.

Now for a great story, I've gotten a lot bolder over my time being a missionary. For instance we were talking to a baptist minister in training on his front porch. The whole time he was quoting scriptures that had absolutely nothing to do with what we were talking about. But at one point we were talking about prophets and writing scriptures and he said "well i can write scripture i.." Then i cut him off mid-sentence and said "that's not scripture." I wish y'all could've seen the expression on his face. He didn't know how to respond, and i couldn't believe that i had just cut him off like that. But then he finally just quoted a random scripture and eventually i said amen to something he said, and he said thank you very much, and then he went inside and we left. Missionary work can be interesting.

Also everyone transfer calls came on Saturday and Elder Harding and i are both staying! So we got six more weeks to make everything work here.

It took us a while but we are in a really great place here in Hartsville. We finally got all of our records up to date, we're teaching a lot of people, we've gained the respect of the ward council, and now we're getting a lot of assignments from everyone. Finally we are busy again!

Ugh! I forgot to this week but next week I'm going to bring my study journal to the library so that i can tell y'all the amazing things that i have been learning!

I love y'all!
Elder K. Olsen