Awesome Teaching Experience

Transfers!!!

Well unfortunately this past weekend something happened with David. We had his baptism all set up and everyone was at the church to attend, we had five minutes until it was supposed to begin and David wasn't there, so we went to go and get David. Well we got to his house and he came outside and started talking to us. It was too bad, because he lost his wallet so he was running a little late, but thankfully we went to the church and baptized him.  Actually it was really cool because we had taught him a couple of times with one of the priests here in hartsville and so we actually let him baptize David. Then we had two other priests be the witnesses which now makes all of them want to have a turn to get in the water and come teaching with us. I absolutely love baptisms, the spirit is always so strong. My favorite part about them though is the sound when they go under the water and come back up. I wish i could just record that sound and listen to it over and over. But David got confirmed yesterday and all is well. 

Now transfers are happening on Wednesday and Elder Harding is getting transferred. Which is a bummer but we were able to baptize twice this transfer. Plus we have a lot set up for the upcoming transfer. I'm definitely gonna miss him, we had good times. But I'm very happy that the Lord has allowed me to stay here In Hartsville a bit longer. Also i'm happy that I'll get to stay here with all these people that i love for my birthday, plus once this transfer is done i will hit my year mark. Which will mean that i was able to stay in this zone (or stake) for my first year. Right now I've been in this zone longer than anyone who is currently here now.

We're pretty excited for the rest of this day because we're gonna have some fun! Our ward mission leader can pull some strings and get us into Darlington raceway. And i mean that I'll be in the middle and get to walk on the track. Plus our ward mission leader has a pond in his backyard and he said we can go fishing. So I'm pretty excited. We'll probably go to taco bell for lunch just to make it that much better!

So we had a really awesome teaching experience this past tuesday. We were at a members home because we were going to be teaching one of their sons friends. Who i believe is 14 years old. But his friend goes to young mens and has been to church a few times and basically knows everything we believe in. Well we sat down and were about to teach when there was a knock at the door. Well it turned out to be the boys (his name is Timmy) mom (her name is Amy)! She said that she was going home so that she could prepare her lesson for bible study that night but had felt a tugging in her that she should come over. She had known and given the okay that we teach her son but wanted to come and hear what we were teaching. At one point she said that she's not really a denominational person and only goes to her church because it's around the corner. Later i asked her why she's not a denominational person. Boom! The flood gates opened and she told us everything wrong with her church and how it was holding her back and how she wanted truth. So teaching the Restoration was really easy especially with the members help. We invited them to be baptized but she said that she wanted to talk to her husband first so that she doesn't do anything behind his back,  which is understandable of course. But after the prayer she asked us a question, she said, "If Timmy and I choose to get baptized but my husband doesn't, can we still fellowship him?" So she wants to get baptized, and Timmy doesnt want to go to any other church because he knows this one is true. Now we just have to get the other two kids and the husband involved!

So something is exciting this month! We get to meet the general authority who is over all of the temples. I forget his name at the moment, but he is touring the mission just as Elder Pieper did a while back. And originally we were going to have to meet in Moncks Corner, which is 106 miles one way. Which as you know would have destroyed our miles for the month again. But it actually got changed to Sumter which is only about 30 miles away! Blessings from on high! So if you can't tell i'm pretty excited for that.

Well i want to thank y'all for all yer prayers and fastin. It really does help and i can see it affect the work here. Right now what we need prayers for is Timmy and Amy, and that we meet our goal of two baptisms in the month of June in Hartsville. 

 

Thanks for everything and i love y'all!

Elder K. (for kool) Olsen