Good morning everyone!

Good morning everyone!

 

So Christmas is coming up soon and at the moment i dont' have a schedule set up for where and when i'm gonna do everything. But most likely we'll be going over to Holly's for Christmas and she has skype so that most likely where we'll do it. As for the when, she has to leave for work around 3 so that's 1:00pm for y'all. So what we need to do it by 2:00pm (for me) and noon (for you) at the latest. But we'll see if we can get a hold of another member for the evening so that maybe we can do it later..... Don't worry though i'll get those plans to y'all this week or next monday. Just keep y'alls schedule open and don't sleep in!

 

It's funny that you say i'm just gonna open all the presents as soon as they get them. I was talkin to elder tippetts and i told him i was actually gonna wait until christmas to open everything unless otherwise notified. Because even though it will take a lot of will power i'll at least be able to have Christmas on Christmas. So I'll probably figure out which ones are the ones to open on Christmas eve..... or maybe i'll just open them all on Christmas eve! .... or maybe you're right i'll open them all as soon as they get them. I'll just figure that all out later i guess

 

So this was a pretty good week. Tons of biking, tons of rain, and tons of knocking. It was funny though because we had been working all week and it seemed like everything was going against us in one way or the other. But we just kept going and working. Well on Saturday we got up and was able to look forward to about 5-6 hours of knocking. Great, right? Well it actually went amazing! We were able to teach 3 lessons and got 5 new investigators. Which in the south is a lot!

 

Tamika and Dequan are still on track to be baptized this upcoming saturday. But about wednesday it got reeeeeally cold here. And right now Tamika's home doesn't have any electricity or heating or anyting. Well she has a 2 year old and a 3 year old and she just couldn't take how cold they were so they're up with her sister right now. They went to a different ward yesterday and right now we're just trying to get them their interview. They'll actually be getting their electricity back on really soon so they should be back home this week. So they're doing great now!

 

So I've decided that i'm gonna be sending out some "Christmas cards" this year but i need some help with the addresses. So if you could send me all the addresses to my aunts and uncles on the guy and erdmann side that'd be great! Also for grandparents and great grandparents.

 

I don't think there was anything that really stood out to me this week. There was lots of knocking and stuff but that's not really new. There was a day this week i ate at Taco Bell twice. But that's probably not a surprise.

 

So just know that i love y'all and i'm excited to 'see y'all' next week!

Love,

Elder Olsen

Fantabulous Week

Howdy howdy!

 

So this week went great! Elder Tippetts and i got tons of work done! And guess what else?! Tamika came to church and so she is definitely getting baptized on the 22. But the best part about the whole thing is that her son DeQuan came to church. He's 13 years old and just a really awesome kid. After church he told us that he wanted to join the brotherhood, i mean the priesthood, but they told him that he needed to talk to us first. So now he's on date for the 22 as well! Christmas miracles! It was way great because after his first week at church what does he do? He goes and helps get all of the trash with the other boys.

 

On Saturday there was a christmas party at the church. Tamika and Dequan and the McBrides came. All of them loved it too. There was a point where the 2nd counselor asked for a volunteer to help clean something up and DeQuan volunteered! That was his first time being at church and we had barely taught him anything. He's just a great kid and i know that he'll be a great missionary one day.

 

Holly helped us out a ridiculous amount this week. So on Saturday there was a swap meet, which is where people donate tons of stuff then other people can come in and get things they need for free. Well Tamika needed to go so we actually got permission for her for friday night. Holly gave her a ride and helped Tamika for a few hours, then she went out to dinner with one of the other elders investigators, then she stayed up all night working on our christmas gifts, then at 8am she went back to the swap meet to pick up the rest for Tamika, after dropping that off she gave one of the other elders other investigators a ride to the swap meet for a few hours. Also a drive to the stake center is 30 minutes one way. Well after all that she went home at 1pm went to sleep, woke up at 4pm and then went to work for 12 hours. Then somehow she managed to make it to church at 9:30 am the next day and gave Tamika a ride to church. Then she went back to work for 12 hours right after church. So the reason i told y'all that is to just admit that my life really isn't all that hard. At least i get sleep haha.

 

So my study of Charity in the Book of Mormon is going great! I'll be starting Mosiah tomorrow morning. It's crazy how when you study something seriously and constantly looking for it while you read, that you start looking for it everywhere else. Then it becomes a part of you. I can begin to see charity in the way i think, the way i act, the way i see everything. But i have to admit i think becoming more charitable makes you a bit more sensitive. I haven't cried but i've gotten close many many times. Once you get this sincere desire to help everyone but they don't except. It hurts a lot. But i'm also happier because i get have the Saviors love constantly running through me.

 

Also if i haven't mentioned anything from letters recieved and stuff its because we found out this week that the entire transfer the mail has been delivered to our old address. So we went to the post office and called the mission office and eventually elder tippetts and i just staked out our old mailbox until the mailman came. Well we asked him to open it and he totally did and guess what we found?! Well i had about 5 letters and the other 3 elders probably had about 15 letters and 3 packages! So we have that all figured out and i have to admit i was getting super depressed after a month of no mail. But everything is back to normal now.

 

Also also tell the Larson family (My sister and her husband and kids) that their package is awesome!!! I got it this past Tuesday and now i have a Lego calendar and Lego star wars christmas people on my desk and it makes me super excited to wake up every morning (They know how much Kyle loves Star Wars, so they got him a Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar). Also tell Molly that i love her and am extremely grateful for all of her prayers.

 

Well that was my fantabulous week!

 

Hopefully this one goes even better!

 

Love ya!

Elder K. Olsen

Some Great Ups And Downs (not great)

Hey everybody!

So this week has definitely had some great ups and some downs (not great ones).

 

First i want to tell you about our new investigator Tamika. Tamika's father was baptized in another ward less then a year ago. She's been going through a rough time and has wanted to get her and her children closer to God. So she requested for missionaries to come by. This week went great with her! We saw her three times! Four if you count when she came to scripture study. And for two of those times Holly was able to come teach with us (she's a ward missionary if i havent already said that). Right now she is on date for Dec. 22. So pray for her. Now unfortunately she was going to come to church but she didn't answer the door or any of our phone calls. So hopefully nothing went to wrong.

 

Scripture study went great this week. Basically since i studied for it so much i was the one who taught today. Guess which chapter? 1 Nephi 20 a.k.a. an Isaiah chapter. I was stressing out so much, and i think a lot of the class could see that haha. But i got a lot of compliments and everyone there learned a lot from it. So I'm glad it went well and that i wont have to be teaching that for a couple more weeks. I need a breather!

 

So one thing that i need a lot of prayers for is the Mcbride family. They were on date for baptism for Dec. 8. But they haven't been coming to church so they won't be able to be baptized on that day. So please pray that we'll be able to come up with a solution there.

 

To answer your question. Yes the Berry's feed us every Sunday and Sister Berry is probably the best cook in Augusta. I look forward to every Sunday dinner just because it feels like we're a family gathered around a loving meal. Haha and Sister Berry makes sure we eat a lot!

 

The other Augusta elders had a baptism on Saturday and Holly gave both the talk on baptism and the Holy Ghost. She is on fire! Everyone told her that is sounded like a talk that someone would give if they had been a member all their life. Not just a month. Her Book of Mormon is filled with markings and notes, she constantly is taking notes of things that she is learning. She's read more church handbooks than i have. Also she got a Preach my Gospel on wednesday so she'll probably know more about it than i do in a month. I'm extremely thankful that i was used as a tool to help in such a wonderful conversion.

 

Also Elder Tippetts and I have become pro bike fixers. We've had to change rims and axles and tires. I've had to patch a few holes already. I'm getting pretty good at that last one. Luckily most of the work being done is on his bike. I've had to patch a few holes only. Also I've made sure to make my bike look ghetto so it doesn't get stolen. I put duct tape on it and wrapped a grocery bag around the seat. It still looks great, but not as great so that's good.

 

Well i love being a missionary and i can't believe how close Christmas is!

 

Love y'all!

 

Elder K. Olsen