Another week in GEORG-IA

Another week in GEORG-IA

 

So Georgia is pretty much ama-za-zing! This last Sunday was stake conference and we got a new stake president here. That's a pretty crazy thing that only happens every 10 years. Isn't it amazing that all that work and service for ten years is rewarded with a simple hand raising in the air in thanks. Obviously you receive other blessings, but that hand in the air is the only recognition really.

 

I learned a lot from stake conference. So i watched this video by Elder Bednar which spoke about having your personal "small plates". Which in the book of Mormon the small plates are all of the spiritual things while the large plates are recorded history. So while i took notes instead of just writing down a ton of quotes that i liked and then never looking at them again. I wrote down all the spiritual impressions that i received and things i realized myself from what was said. It was actually really exciting to realize how much the Spirit is really talking if we just listen to Him.

 

We were able to meet again with Holly! She made us that great stuffed french toast and bacon! She actually made three packs of bacon which she didn't think we'd be able to eat. But in reality we had a rough time saving three pieces of bacon for the other missionaries. We were able to answer a lot more questions and now she has decided that she wants to really get started in the lessons now. So this Thursday we are going over there to teach her a first lesson. This is definitely a different scenario than any other investigator I've had. I love it.

 

We also ran in the the Gardner's. Well actually they ran into us. We were walking down the road when a minivan honked at us. Which happens a lot because people like to wave to the Mormons. But then the minivan pulled over to the side of the road. Well Ms. Gardner rolled down the window and asked if we could teach her about the church.... we said yes just in case y'all wanted to know. Then we went by their house later. Well Ms. Gardner didn't know anything about Mormons. But Mr. Gardner had taken some discussions before, but his girlfriend in the past did NOT like the Mormons so they stopped. But he told us that it doesn't matter what other people say, he's been looking into a lot of religions and plans on going a lot deeper into the Mormon church. Hopefully he means about four feet deep in some warm water wearing a white jump suit! So we're really excited and I'll keep y'all updated on that for sure!

 

So I'm not really prepared this week but I think I"m gonna start something in my letters. I was thinking that it would be cool to take a scripture every week and give my thoughts on it. Because then when I'm done I'll have a whole bunch of my sweet wisdom written down. So we'll see how that goes.

 

I thought it was funny that y'all said that you were addicted to duct tape. Because no joke two weeks ago I bought some checkerboard duct tape and am in the process of making a duct tape suit. I'm almost done with the pants and should finish those today. So it's good to know that great minds think alike, conveniently at the same time.

 

So there's some deaf people in the ward so there's someone at the front who does sign language for them. So every time i see her i ask her knew words. I can now successfully say, "I'm hungry for potatoes with cheese and bacon" I've also learned to say steak, broccoli, bad, and stop touching. I'll be fluent before ya know it!

 

Well I"m gonna go shopping today and write letters and stuff. We were gonna go mini golfing today. But we're missionaries at the end of the month which means that we're broke. So we'll be doing that next week!

 

Let me give you one of the funny quotes i said this week. Okay so we were at dinner Sunday at the Berry's who are the senior missionaries. It was them and us 4 missionaries. We were talking about the statue David made by Michelangelo and Sister Berry said, "I wonder how long that took him." Instantly before i could put on my sarcastic filter i said, "A couple hours." Don't worry though everyone laughed, even sister Berry.

 

Fun fact: David actually took about 6-7 year to make.

 

Love y'all!

 

Elder K. Olsen

I'm a pro bowler

I'm a pro bowler.  Alright I'm not that great. But it wasn't the worst game that I've ever had before! I actually got three strikes and almost won the game. But then Elder Wilkinson got a strike and a spare on the last frame beating me by ten points. But we had a great time, I'm usually really excited if i can just get above 100 points. And i got 102 so that was awesome! Now that i think of it i had zero gutter balls!

 

(I'd asked Kyle information about the people in the pictures a few posts below)So just to let ya know who is who in the pictures. The first couple is the Bedke's, they had only been in the ward about three months but fed us almost every Sunday. They're extremely good cooks! The next family is the McDaniels, they're the ones who fed us on my birthday! They told me that I'm always welcomed back in their home. The next couple is the Tingens! Sis. Tingen got me into the choir and I loved it the entire time. Then Bro. Tingen is probably one of the best cooks I have ever met. He made steak, and wings, and tons of other good stuff. Last but not least is the Ince family. They were the ones who made it possible to talk to y'all on Mothers day, fun fact about the baby that is held in the picture. She would walk into church with her pacifier and her blankie and then she would put her blankie in her left hand so that she could shake my hand. It was awesome!

 

Now I have to say that this week had it's ups and downs. But the ups and downs were amazing! So my favorite person in the world right now is Holly! She's probably one of the coolest investigators I've ever met. She's practically a member already. So she only gets 3-4 hours of sleep before church starts so it's pretty rough but she loves church. Well yesterday morning she called us and... she was sick! But then Elder Cahoon told her she would be blessed if she just came to sacrament. So she totally did! Plus she went to one hour of Sunday School. She even received revelation from church that she needed to start studying more and coming up with more questions so that we have really effective meeting when we come over. She kind of reminds me of grandma smith because she's just super nice. She said she'd make us lunch. Here's what she's making, stuffed french toast with strawberry cream cheese and strawberries, with plates of bacon. Then she asked in a concerned way if that was alright. All i could do was laugh. I love all of these amazing experiences i get on a mission. I'm not perfect, but I'm blessed!

 

We weren't able to see the Jenkins this week sadly. They moved and we don't know where they went and we can't get in touch with them. It doesn't look good but we could really use some prayers from y'all for the Jenkins.

 

But to answer your question, yes we walk everywhere. Now the other missionaries have a car, so what we do is go with them to wal-mart and bowling and p-day stuff. But as for appointments and such, we walk.

 

Also I hope no one got too offended by the "no-mail" video. We were just having fun, because we act like that about mail if we don't get it every day which i know isn't going to happen. So just make sure everyone know that i don't cry myself to sleep when i don't get mail.

 

So I had a slightly embarassing moment the other day. So we went up to this black guy that Elder Cahoon knew who is a legitimate gangster. Well they had a really cool black guy shake and then i went to shake his hand and he didn't even look at me. Then he said, "nope you're the new guy." Well he was just joking around, then shook my hand. Well we talked for a bit then i thought he asked me if there were many black people where i live. I said, No. Not too many. Come to find out he actually asked me if i liked black people............ I quickly replied that i did.

 

So yeah, that's my life!

 

Love y'all and stuff!

Eldr K. Olsn

 

Hot sauce!

New pics

We got a bunch of new pics from Kyle. Of course, most of them are silly, but there are some great photos of him below. He didn't send any information as to who any of these people are, but, enjoy!

Kyle's Haircut :)

Awesomeness

Awesomeness

 Well i just high fived my companion in the library pretty loudly when i heard that Chris is an Elder. Thats so awesome!

 Georgia has been great this week. We got a lot of work done but unfortunately none of them made to church. For both companionships actually. But we weren't that dissapointed because all of us worked really hard and felt that we had a really successful week.

 So it's actually been really fun having two other missionaries in the apartment. Unfortunately all of us are into video games, comics, star wars, etc. So during lunch and dinner where we're all together we have some pretty distracting conversations. Luckily the district Leader Elder Wilkinson keeps us on track pretty good.

ummmm this is looking bad because i'm just kind of randomly typing and i feel i don't have much to update on anything. All of our investigators are progressing well, I'm eating a lot. Taco Bell is just a two minute walk away. I weigh more than two of the missionaries in the apartment which is really weird.

We'll be going bowling today. Hopefully i'll get a score higher than 100, i would really like that to happen. But y'all know me and bowling... not the best.

The lady next to me laughed right when i typed that joke. For a second i thought she was reading what i was writing.

 Well there's some freaking awesome videos by Elder Bednar about light on lds.org. There's three of them and they're about 2-3 minutes long. I love them.

I bet y'all are really bummed when i write a letter about nothing. Sorry! nothins all i got at the moment!

Well hopefully I'll do better next week!

Love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

Guess Where I Am?

Happy labor day... yesterday!

 

Alright everyone guess where i am!!! In the wonderful place call Augusta, Georgia! That's right i have now been to every state that our mission covers. So Augusta is a much bigger place than the little town of Hartsville. We have every restraunt plus some and we even have a mall here. It was really strange getting on the eight lane highway when for the past six months i had been on two lane roads all the time through the country. Also exciting news! This is a biking area, and actually we have been walking around a lot. So i can already tell that this is going to hurt my shoes a bit. But I'll be fine. Also new for me, there are four missionaries that stay in the apartment. Four of us actually cover the Augusta ward, my companion and i just cover the inner boundaries and bike.

 

By the way my new companion is Elder Cahoon and he is from West Jordan, Utah. Sound familiar? So far we've gotten along perfectly. He saw my CD case which was covered in Star Wars stickers and he said, "I can tell that we'll get along nicely" (or something to that extent). And so far we have. He's shorter than me, but that's really probably not a surprise to anyone. But the great thing is that we've been able to get a lot of work done so far.

 

Since i arrived here on Wednesday we have gotten 6+ new investigators. I used a + sign because we found a family and I'm actually not sure how many there are. But four of them are on date for Sep 29. Their names are awesome! They are: Tyeisha, Duvante, Snoopy, Queshan, Brianna, BJ, Quantes, Quantavias, Rica, and Precious. Out of all of those, 4 of them are too young to get baptized, but they are amazing! They came to church last Sunday and will be coming to scripture study tomorrow evening which we have at the church every week. And get this, all of them loved church.

 

Someone else that we are teaching actually found us. Her name is Holly. Our church building has a ward that meets at 9am and another at 1pm. Our ward meets at 1pm. Well last week Holly came to church at 9am and stayed for all three hours. Then she was told that because of where she lives she would actually be in the 1pm ward. So Elder Cahoon and I are in the foyer on Sunday and in walks Holly. After Sacrament we found out that she wanted to meet with us and she even said she would feed us dinner! She is elect!

 

Yes i got your package and my calendar is now hanging up on the wall! Thank you for that i feel pretty great that i have a calendar now! I got the pictures of all the girls catching their fish today and that was pretty awesome. But everybody is growing up way to dang fast! Slow down!

 

But anyways i love y'all and i ain't to sure what else to write about.

 

So until next time!!!

Elder K. Olsen

Before Kyle was transfered, a member of his Hartsville ward sent these pictures of Elder Olsen and Elder Dietz.  You'll notice Kyle is still as skinny as ever, you'd think with all the fried food he's been eating he would have gained a few pounds...nope.  We sure miss seeing his smiling face.