So I will be recapping my week and some of it might sound familiar from yesterday. But oh well!
So i don't really need to update on biking. Needless to say we've been biking a ton and today i have to put a new tube in cause i got another flat tire. I could probably patch it but i have a lot of extra tubes and i just don't feel like patching this tube again.
Also this week Elder Bowen and I did a service project! Theres a member who needed to put metal roofing on his trailer, and also put siding around the bottom, and there was some plumbing to get done as well. Well Elder Bowen and i weren't aloud on the roof, which pretty much left us the siding. But we actually had almost too many people show up. So for about an hour we were just standing around, or maybe carrying some stuff. But then someone comes around the front and says, "Hey we need a skinny person!" Without thinking i volunteered because i really was tired of just standing around and wanted to contribute. Well they take me to the back of the trailer where the skinny person was needed. Okay so they have a wooden deck on the back of the trailer, and the trailer is held up on cement block pillars. The siding needed to slide between the trailer and the deck. What they wanted me to do was get on the outside part of the cement block pillars so that i could feed this siding through. Well between the siding and the pillars was about my shoulder width (not very much). So when they slid this in i had to drill it into the deck. So now i am under a trailer in a very small spot and it's very dark, did i mention they just put the siding in so now i'm under a trailer with the siding complete? Well except for one small part... ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TRAILER! So now here i am belly crawling over pipes and in mud to get out of this crazy mess. Oh yeah, i forgot to mention one little part. Did you know that underneath trailers there are about 10,000 spiders complete with their own webs?! My hat is still covered with webs. But just to show that God really hears and answers prayers. I said a prayer before i went in that i wouldn't be scared and that nothing would harm me. And i wasn't, in fact i was having a lot of fun realizing how great of a story this would be and how much attention i was getting. Then Elder Bowen and I helped dig out the shape for one of those thick plastic ponds. Once you go down a couple feet there is tons of clay and fire ants. I only got bit once... Elder Bowen on the other hand stepped in the ant hill. But don't worry, he's a tough rancher from wyoming and is just fine. ;)
I know that we've done a lot this week but i wanted to tell y'all about the service project so much that I've kind of forgotten what else i wanted to talk about.
We had an experience with a man this week who wanted to prove us wrong by having us read the bible. He kept throwing verses at us, he'd be like, "well what do you think about this verse?" And i would say something like, "I completely agree with that verse." Which usually didn't make him happy. He kept on telling us that we didn't need the Book of Mormon and should stop listening to what we've been told. He then told us that we should read the Bible so we could see the truth. I told him that I had read the bible twice and hadn't found anything that contradicted the book of mormon. But i don't think he understood because he just kept saying, "I know you've read the book of mormon but you need to read the bible." And it just kept going on and on. I realized how much knowledge i had truly gained over my mission, because if we had bible bashed i could have destroyed him. I knew that wouldn't get us anywhere though... but i wanted to at some points. I am happy to say i have never been part of a bible bash on my mission. Well anyway we continued to bear fervent testimonies and eventually Elder Bowen challenged him to read the Book of Mormon (I'm so proud). And he agreed and told us to come back in a month. He also gave us one of his bibles so that we could read it to find out that we're wrong. So we'll see what happens in a month!
Also after looking at a few verses at the bible he gave us I've realized why we state we believe in the bible as long as it's translated correctly. Because whenever we tell someone we read the king james version, they say they read the new american version or something. Then they always say, "it's basically the same thing but it's just put into simpler words without all the thees and thous." And since I've never looked at other versions for myself i just agreed with them. Let me say that they do not basically mean the same thing! By altering words, it alters meanings, which alters teachings, parables, doctrines, and stories. By reading a chapter out of the KJV and the NAV you will not read the same thing. It may be similar, but its not the same. I just find it interesting when people throw revelation at us and how it says that, "you should not add or take away from this book." Referring to the Book of Mormon, when by translating the Bible to simpler terms they are themselves doing exactly what that verse says not to do. As you can tell I've ranted about this before. I'm just not a fan when God's words and doctrines are altered and changed to something false to make it "easier."
Well anyways enough about that. I love being a missionary! Elder Bowen is doing great and i can tell will becom a great missionary. I see him definitely being a trainer, or an assisstant to the president. Because he definitely is capable of taking those responsibilites once he gets the hang of things. We are being exactly obedient and having a fun time doing it.
Well I talk to y'all later!
Love ya!
Elder K. Olsen
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