Elder "old"sen

Batman socks

 

First off i have to say that i thought that it was really funny to see those batman socks. Because i actually have that exact pair. As you can imagine i really can't wear them too often. I wore them on a Pday once and forgot to change them before i went proselyting. Hopefully no one noticed, but oh well.

 

Anyway this week has been pretty good. Although i have to say i don't like transfer weeks because they hold all of your mail. So now my mailbox has been empty for almost two weeks. Transfer weeks blehhh...

 

This week should be exciting though! So there is an Leadership Training Meeting this week. Well Elder Young and I aren't going because President Holm isn't crazy enough to give us leadership. But was is crazy is that this meeting is two days. So where will all these missionaries be staying? I don't know about all of them, but i know that we'll be cramming nine missionaries into our single wide trailer. I honestly don't know if we have enough carpet for that... i definitely know we don't have enough frosted flakes, or enough food in general. So yeah, this will be interesting. Honestly I'm excited to find out if they can actually find our trailer off a few dirt roads, around the bend, and surrounded by trees. So yeah, i can't wait for that excitement.

 

In other news the two new missionaries came in... and now i'm pretty much an ancient missionary. Because if you add up all the other 5 missionaries in the districts time on their mission. I still have one month on them. So yeah, the old jokes are hilarious.... Elder "Old"sen, hahahaa, really funny guys. But i love em anyways.

 

Hmmmm... Looking at my plans over the last week we did missionary stuff. But i can't really think of anything that stands out. Walked down a lot of muddy dirt roads, knocked for hours, met about 100 new dogs, thanked God for those electric fences that keep big german shepherds and pitbulls from killing me, taught some lessons, found a whole bunch of confederate flags out in the woods, met less actives who were nice, met some who weren't, ate really unhealthy stuff, drove through big puddles, covered the bike in mud, slam dunked the ball, got called Shaq, actually won a basketball game, slept, told to do the dishes, told again, elder young cooked for me so i would do the dishes, did the dishes. Ya know, same old stuff as always.

 

So yeah! That's my life and i love it!

 

As for my profound deep deep well of wisdom. Today my mind is kind of drawing a blank. Maybe y'all could give me some subjects to sermonize about so i feel smart and important.

 

...All the other missionaries look like they're super into their e-mailing. Not even blinking. Haha all their mouths are open in awe. I currently just counted the tiles on the ceiling... there's 155, counting the lights and stuff. But there's enough space for 190. Not that anyone probably cares about that at all. But now you can guess and imagine the size of the room!'

 

Well remember!

KJO <3 U (my initials btw)

Happy Easter!

Magnets and Paperclips

Magnets and Paperclips

 

So the title of this e-mail will in no way apply to anything i talk about. It was just something that popped into my head to catch your attention.

 

Anyway! Let me think about what happened this week! Well first off last pday was really fun. We ended up playing 10 games of bowling for five hours. Which if you didn't know, if your finger is not used to that amount of bowling it causes a blood blister. Yup right on the tip of your finger. But i got a new highscore of 146 which is awesome! Actually i didn't have 1 game lower than 100 points. Then right after, we played basketball with Isaiah and family and i got destroyed. Fact is I'm just not very good at basketball. I just don't quite know how to dribble, or shoot, or pass.... i can rebound pretty good though because I"m a foot taller than everyone! But yeah, that was way too much physical work for the both of us, we were hurting everywhere.

 

We got transfer calls this last Saturday and Elder Young and i are staying together another transfer! Which basically means that I will most likely finish my mission here. Because this will be his fourth transfer here and so he'll definitely leave at the end of the transfer. Well I'll probably stay here and show my next companion the area for two transfers... which adds up to the end of my mission. I don't even want to think about it though because I have no idea what I'm gonna do when that happens.

 

So we've been teaching this one guy named Roberto. Roberto is spanish. He speaks really good english but his family just barely came (legally) from mexico. They don't speak english at all. So we have two members in our ward that can speak spanish. It's funny, my two years of spanish actually paid off! I can't really speak spanish at all but i can follow along rather well. But anyway i love teaching them when it's all in spanish. Because even though i don't understand the words very well i do understand the spirit. And honestly i can pay more attention to the spirit. It's been very good experiences for me.

 

So much happened this week and yet i can't remember a thing.

 

Yesterday was ward conference so all of the stake leadership came and talked and stuff. Well let me first say that last friday Elder Young and i made a list of all the less actives in Pellion. Pellion is this huge part of our area that's probably a 30 minute drive from the church. Well we found 76 less actives that we are going to visit this transfer. Well then the stake president stands up and begins to give his talk, then he announces that what this ward needs to do is to create a branch in Pellion. That it's possible and can happen soon. He was the first stake president in a while who actually went out to visit those members and saw first hand how far away it was. He said that they would rent a building for the saints out there if he had too. Which would be great because many members out there would go if it was just simply closer. This is a trend i have seen my entire mission. Well anyways we went up to the stake president and thanked him for saying all that because we had set up to go see all of those members but didn't know what to do and how to accomplish it. He then told us that while he was giving his talk he hadn't planned to talk about Pellion at all. But the spirit prompted him to do so. So I'm really excited! Especially if i can spend the rest of my mission here. Who knows? Maybe I'll be one of the first missionaries to serve in the Pellion branch.

Also Elder Young hit the pavement this week. It was pretty funny. He was running down the street with a soccer ball doing some fancy soccer moves when all of a sudden he stepped on the ball, flipped to the side, and hit the pavement. So now he has a big scab on his knee and a big hole in his suit pants. Haha good times, goooood times.

 

I decided randomly this week to read the book of Romans. Last week was 1&2 Samuel. But anyways i have fallen in love with Romans (the book). A few of my favorite verses are... and i don't have my new testament with me! That's what i get for changing suits. Well there's a verse in chapter 14 i believe, either verse 3 or 4 (maybe). But anyways it talks about how the scriptures were written for us so that we can obtain patience and hope. But it doesn't talk about what we obtain a hope in, when i read that verse Moroni 7:41 popped into my head which reads, "And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold i say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life, eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise." See one thing about the scriptures is, that back then words had different meaning in some cases. Hope is a great example, what is hope in our day and age. Hope is expecting something, or wanting something, but having a sense of doubt that it may happen. Yet in the scriptures hope is steadfast, sure and immovable, and an anchor to our soul. It causes us to act in faith on Christ and do the things which we are commanded. And what is that hope in? The atonement and the resurrection. This hope does not have any sense of doubt. I have this hope in Christ and know that one day all will be resurrected and that all can be washed clean by and through Jesus Christ and His atonement. And say that in the Holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

So there's my two cents

Love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

Penguins, Giraffes, and Hedgehogs, oh my!

So if y'all cant tell by the title of this e-mail. I went to the zoo! That was so much fun! We got to feed the giraffes and actually crazy Elder Young decided he wanted to put the lettuce in his mouth and have the giraffe to eat it that way. So Elder Berenyi got a slow motion video of this giraffes giant purple tongue slapping Elder Young in the face a few times. I'm gonna get that video because it is hilarious!

Did you know that six missionaries in suits at the zoo get stared at a lot? Well if you didn't know that before you do now! I guess people just aren't used to that for some reason.

 

I think my favorite animals at the zoo were the penguins. At first they were all just standing around looking all cute like you wanted to pick them up and take them home. Especially when they taunt you by putting there wings out like they're pretending to give you a hug. Yeah, then there's this thick glass in the way. Well anyways then they all jumped in the water and were zippin all over the place! It was awesome because the water went up to the glass so they'd go right by you. Really good exhibit.

Well and of course the sharks were cool. I'd have a pet shark. I'm not sure what i would name him though... hmmm.

Oh and i got a video of these howler monkeys! Funniest thing ever! Be excited to see it!

 

Well we also had a zone meeting this week along with interviews. They actually announced something pretty awesome! So the church has now allowed for everyone to e-mail me (excluding those people that live within the mission boundaries, unless we get permission)! So yeah, friends, church people, random strangers, e-mailing is the future. So yeah, that's kind of cool!

 

Some more exciting news! Let me tell you about Isiah. Isiah is a 14 year old boy who recently moved here from New York with his family. Well we were going to another investigator and he was playing basketball. So we asked if we could come by later and play a game to 21 with him and then teach him a lesson. Well we came back and ended up playing with his 3 older brothers and his sister. We got owned, they're all really good. But then we went in and started teaching Isiah, then his brother came in, then his other brother, then his mom and sister, and it was awesome! We came back the next day and played again, met the father, and then we taught mom, dad, and Isiah and they're are on date to be baptized for the 30! They all have book of mormons too! So Isiah was the only one who came to church this week, the others wanted to learn a bit more. Well Isiah had an awesome time! After church he was invited to a members home for dinner (a lot of people from the ward were getting together), well this member lives in a small community with a small airport. All these houses have personal planes in their garage (including the members) well he let Isiah get in and flip some switches ( i got in there too of course). Well after all that the member said come back and I'll take you flying in it. So yeah, Isiah had a really good first experience.

Well basketball has become the tradition to play, and then to teach. So our neighbors have a hoop and we'll be practicing in the mornings. We may also start running... maybe.

 

So it's starting to warm up here now! I really just wish that i could have a swinging bench on the back porch so i could do my studies out there. That would be so awesome! I love the mornings here. Especially because we have the woods as our backyard (and front yard and side yard too). But it's just really peaceful. But yeah the temperature is jumping close to 75! We can almost take off the jackets again! I can't wait for that.

 

OH i almost forgot! So ya know Jeff and Anisha's daughter who lives with them and never comes out of her room to talk to us??? Welll the other day we had dinner at their house and she was there! I even taught the family how to deep fry oreos (and everything else) I absolutely love those things. Anyways she agreed to let us teach her the lessons on Tuesday. And she came to church yesterday, and she's going bowling with us today. She seems pretty confident that she's going to beat us. I'm pretty sure that she's right. So that's what we'll be doing all p-day, since we're bowling with Jeff and Anisha it's only a dollar a game. Boo yeah!

 

Well let me talk about some scripture missionary spiritual wisdom stuff. So this week I've been learning and pondering about God's will and sacrifice. I've always thought that sacrifice was getting rid of something bad. Ya know, you sacrifice drugs, or alcohol or something. But then I think about Abraham and Isaac, the Lord asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, "who he loved." Why is that? Why would God make Abraham go through something like that? Especially when Abraham was almost sacrificed by his father back in Egypt. He knew how terrifying it was to be on the altar. Well we know God didn't actually make Abraham sacrifice his son, but he wanted to see if he was willing to do it. At least that's what i got out of it.

I heard a talk which mentioned how we have this sacrifice buffet table for the Lord to pick from. All of the things which we are WILLING to sacrifice. Such as reading a verse a day, or bearing our testimony in sacrament, or stuff like that. And the Lord really appreciates all of that. But then we take some things and try to hide them behind us. Things that we could just never get rid of. Such as certain music or movies, or coffee or tobacco, or in Abraham's case Isaac. Well that's when the Lord comes up to the buffet table and asks what you are hiding behind you. And THEN he asks you for it. Why? Because the Lord doesn't want you to become addicted to worldly things that you can't take with you into the next life, he doesn't want you to make wrong choices, he knows whats best for you. And when you take that thing that you are hiding behind you and finally submit to the Lord and give it to him. All of a sudden you grow closer to him, because he is all that's left. You realize how much happiness and joy he has to offer, and you feel more self confident because you sacrificed something that you previously thought was IMPOSSIBLE to get rid of. But with the Lord's help you did it. Does this not grow your faith in his power and his promises? Does this not want to make you do what he says because you know the happiness behind it? When sacrifice is viewed in the manner, we should be thankful that the Lord asks for those things we hide and could "never" get rid of. I suggest that everyone thinks and ponders (chances are you already know) about what you are not willing to give to the Lord. Then i suggest you pray about it, and then give it to him. He's has more blessings in store for you then you can imagine.

 

17 Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;

18 And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.

19 And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more.

20 Wherefore, do the things which I have commanded you, saith your Redeemer, even the Son Ahman, who prepareth all things before he taketh you;

 

I love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

 

P.S. Keep the faith, make His will your will, and Everything will be ok! :)

Zoo Day!

Hello!

 

Today is zoo day! I am so excited and am bringing my empty 16gb card and plan on taking a ton of pictures and videos and i may even include myself in some of them.

 

Anyways this week was pretty interesting. So we worked really hard the first few days and got zero lessons mon-wed. Which i admit beat me up quite a bit. It's hard to continue working hard sometimes when you're not getting good results. So the last half of the week we worked hard still... but just not as enthusiastically. But we've repented and are going to work hard again this week no matter what, and we're going to have fun doing it.

 

This chair i'm on right now is the most squeakiest and uncomfortable chair ever.

 

So we met Elder Nash this week from the 70. It was a really good experience and i learned a lot. It was great how in the beginning (first couple hours) we focused a lot on the Atonement. I've been studying that a lot lately and I've learned what i must study to better understand it. So i don't have a great understanding of the atonement right now. But i see the pathway on how to obtain a better understanding,

 

But it was really nice going to that meeting. I was able to see a lot of missionaries who i've become good friends over my mission. Plus i was able to see Elder Tippetts again which was awesome! I love that kid, we got a lot done and had a good time doing it. He did give me the update of Augusta though... our investigators have all fallen through by the sounds of it. So pray for him that he'll be able to find a lot more investigators down there.

 

Oh! In other news i am deep frying stuff again! I taught Elder young how to deep fry oreos, and as always they are delicious!

 

I love the south!

and y'all!

Elder K. Olsen