The Best Christmas Present

With Kyle being on his mission, we were all looking forward to Christmas and the opportunity to talk to Kyle. About the middle of December he e-mailed us and mentioned that he would probably be able to Skype. We were thrilled, and I quickly downloaded Skype and tested it out with my brother-in-law. Kyle mentioned that he would be calling us around 9am, and then he would call his mom around 10am. So at 8:55 we had the computer up and ready and we were waiting by the phone. At 9:43 we still hadn't heard from him, but we knew he was at church and just needed a little time to get things going. At 9:45 we got a call and on the caller ID it read LDS Mission...YAY!! We were all so excited. When I answered the phone, he giggled (I'm serious, he was that excited to hear my voice). But he told me that he only had a few minutes to talk, but that he would be able to Skype with us at 1:00pm. So I talked to him for a few minutes and then we passed the phone to Kylee, Samantha, Mikayla, Sadie and finally Bret. About 15 minutes later he hung up. Sadie and Bret were crying and formed a little "crying club." They told me I couldn't join in their group hug, because I wasn't part of their club.

It was so good to hear Kyle's voice that we almost couldn't wait another 3 hours to Skype. The time seemed to move slowly, but finally at 1:08pm we got a call through Skype, and just a minute later we saw Kyle. I'm pretty sure everyone cheered, we are a house of girls, after all.

I know this is a terrible picture of Bret, but in my defense, when I took the picture, I was only looking at Kyle. I haven't seen him in 5 months! Plus he was doing bunny ears behind Bret, I had to post it, It's exactly like Kyle.

I can't even describe to you how wonderful it was to see him. He is doing so good, and working so hard. It truly was the best Christmas present.

Christmas Cookies

During Christmas break, we usually build an amazing snowman...but so far this year there's no snow. We always go sledding at this fantastic park in Sandy right by my Mom's house, but so far this year, there's no snow. So in an attempt to try to make it feel like Christmas, we decorated sugar cookies.

I have to tell you, I love decorating the first 5 cookies, they are perfect, they are unusually good for someone like me. However, after those 5 perfect cookies, I couldn't care less. My girls have gotten bored after about 10 cookies and they either fade out and stop decorating, or they become insane decorators, and you can't find the cookie they've just decorated because it is buried under 2 inches of frosting and sprinkles! So I usually admit defeat, and decorate half of the cookies with green frosting and red sprinkles and the other half with red frosting and green sprinkles. This year, about a dozen cookies ended up being put in a ziplock bag and placed nicely in the freezer. This bag will probably be found again in June with ice crystals (or "protective ice", depending on how you like to look at freezer burn).

Anyway, I've let out too many dark secrets. So just enjoy the pictures of my girls. They had fun decorating. Hopefully next Christmas we'll have some snow.

Olsen Christmas Party

Bret's Parents decided to spend this Christmas in Oak City. Since they knew it would be a long shot getting all of us to drive down for a few hours on Christmas Eve, we had our Christmas Eve Party the weekend of December 17th. It was a lot of fun.

The day started out like this...
Yep, after we had made it out of the city, and we were about 15 miles out of Oak City, Bret let Sadie drive. This was her first time behind the wheel. She was a little shaky, and besides one little pedal problem, she was flawless.

The pedal problem was probably more like pedal confusion. We were coming upon a curve in the road, so Bret told Sadie that she should slow down a little as she approaches the curve. She started to slow down and took the curve smoothly. But after the curve she kept slowing down. Bret told her that she could now apply the gas, to which she replied "I am pushing on the gas!" to which Bret replied "that is the Brake."

It gave us all a good laugh. Truthfully, I was glad she was confused with her foot on the brake, and not on the gas! I can't imagine how bad that could have been.

Every year at the Olsen Christmas Party, we have to show off our amazing skills. My Mother-in-Law requires talent! Every year we each silently complain to each other how much we hate doing talents, and then we make our kids show off so we don't have to. This year we were required to do a "family" talent. Ugh. My Sisters-in-Law, actually worked on something with their families, I'm assuming to make me look bad. So we had to come up with something on the spot. So we made our girls sing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" while Bret and I danced behind them. It was as ugly as you're imagining. I promise. This picture caught us at our least ugly...thankfully.

And then in an attempt to make us look better, Mikayla performed a solo. She is amazing, so thankfully my Mother-in-Law still loves us. Thanks for saving our family Mikayla :)

Christmas Programs

This year we were able to have 2 Christmas Choir performances. The first one was Mikayla's Concert Choir performance. I forgot my camera, so you get the picture I took with my phone...not bad, I have some cute girls. I enjoy choir performances, because they are short, and almost always all the kids stay on key, so it is painless for those of us listening.

Mikayla's Choir did a wonderful job. She loves choir, and she has an incredible voice. I hope she will continue singing.

Then we had Samanthas Christmas Choir Program. She had signed up this year to sing in the Christmas Choir, and she had practice every Wednesday after school for an hour! She loved every practice and I was proud of her for wanting to do something extra.

This time we got pictures, but not because I remembered my camera, it's because Grandma and Grandpa Olsen came and they always remember their camera. Grandpa got some great shots of Samantha.

She was actually singing in this picture, and she looks like an Angel. I wish she always acted like one ;).

The performances were short and painless, I was thrilled. It didn't hurt that we went out for ice cream after each performance either. :)

Surprise letter with Pictures!!

Surprise!

You probably didn't expect to get a letter from me this week did you? Well today is the first day that the library was open, so sorry for the delay. But anyway it was great talking to y'all on Christmas! I gotta say i understand why we don't talk more often though. I was sort of trunky for a couple hours. But i'm focused again and we are getting some great work done!

So our two new investigators who are on date are fantastic! The first one is Bell, we actually taught her and her friend Trina on friday. We put Bell on date for Jan. 21 and i thought it was kind of sketchy and would fall through. But we taught them, and Bells husband Bernard yesterday and it was one of the most spiritual of my mission. All we did was read 1 Nephi 1 with them and seriously explained every verse. We had already taught them the Restoration but i felt they needed a better understanding of the Book of Mormon. On friday we gave Bell a Book of Mormon. Well at that lesson we gave Bernard a copy with the testimony of Waverly Barnard in the front (I'll tell you that miracle story in a second) (Just so other people reading this will know, the Barnards live in our ward, and Waverly is one of their daughters). I told him that that was a very special copy because of that testimony and i would only give it to him if he actually read it. Well they both promised to read and were telling us that we were an inspiration to them and they were both crying when we were done because the spirit was so strong. Which made me tear up (Elder Brimhall didn't though, he's a marine). But i have a great feeling about those two.

Then we have an 18 year old kid named Daryl on date for Jan 21. We taught him on Friday as well and he asked us when we were done teaching, "Do you know how to get baptized, because my mom and grandpa have been baptized but i havent?" Well i was speechless and Elder Brimhall said, "We can definitely help you with that." Then he started asking us a ton of Plan of Salvation questions to which we told him we would teach him all of that at a later date. So we taught him on Saturday. This kid is solid and i am so excited that Elder Brimhall will see so much success at the beginning of his mission.

Speaking of which, I'm training! My family knows that but i guess other people read this as well, so this is for you. He landed in SC two mondays ago and i picked him up last wednsday. He is an awesome missionary and is completely fearless about teaching the gospel. For this 12 week program every week he gets more responsibilities in teaching. Such as week 1, he invites everyone to be baptized (not me). This week he takes the lead in teaching the Restoration. So that's what he does, sometimes we sit there in silence because he doesn't realize i'm waiting for him to invite people. But he figures it out pretty quick. On the other hand he is a fantastic cook! I spent a lot more than i usually do for groceries last monday. But it was totally worth it. Bacon and pancakes and grits and eggs for breakfast. And french dip subs and lasagna for lunch and dinner. This is going to be a good couple of transfers. Oh, and mom, don't worry he wasn't insulted. It was really funny. But his family was nice to me and asked me questions. I quickly excused myself because it was awkward to take his time away.

Thankfully i am not the district leader, Phew! I'm thankful that i can now just focus on training and missionary work.

As for my miracle from the Barnard family. We had a grand total of two copies of the Book of Mormon and we aren't going to get any more until Jan 5. Well obviously that's not acceptable and i was getting really concerned. Well, in walk the APs with a package for me on Saturday during our companion study. They stayed for a minute then left. Well when i opened my package i found five copies of the Book of Mormon with wonderful testimonies in them from the Barnard family. I started to cry because of how great of a miracle it was (Elder Brimhall didn't, he's a marine). So Barnard family, thank you thank you thank you so much! You saved our Christmas and made it possible so far to give someone the Book of Mormon who really needed it (Bernard).

I also got a package from the Eagle Mountain 1st Ward! And i will tell you whats in it when i get it on Jan 5 haha. But i just wanted to say a pre-thank you for whatever it is. I'm very grateful for everything that i get.

Well since i won't be able to on that day i want to wish everyone a happy new year! Our plans for that are... we have to be in the apartment by six o clock and are free to do whatever (as long as it's obedient of course).

But i love y'all! (Actually i do type y'all without meaning too, it's natural, yes!)

Elder K. Olsen

Elder Olsen and Elder Brimhall with the Bishop and his girls

Elder Olsen and Elder Brimhall

Elder Olsen holding a pet snake. Kyle hates snakes, so this is amazing. I guess you'll go to extreme measure as a missionary to help re-activate a family :)

Kyle's a Trainer :)

Hey! Sorry i'm late!

So obviously it's been an eventful Pday and we just have barely enough time to use the computer. But anyway those hours with the skype won't work for me because I have church from 10-11. So how about I call at 9 and then 10? I'm gonna get on the computer again on either Thursday or Friday so I'll be able to see if that work for y'all.

So I'm training! I got the call on Saturday and I'm so excited. Actually my entire district got affected by this one. They're taking both sisters out of tabor city and probably putting in elders. Then Elder Friel left, and we're losing one in Marion. So out of the 6 we're losing 4. That's pretty crazy. I'm not to sure if I'll be district leader. But either way is fine with me because I'm going to pick up my "son" on Wednesday. Which will mean that there will be 5 generations of trainers and trainees in the mission. That's right, my great grandpa is still alive here.

But the Christmas party was really fun. We dressed up like Roman soldiers and went around taxing people. There weren't a lot of investigators but if anything i had a lot of fun with the members and now I'm really close to them. It's gonna be really hard when i have to leave. But i don't have to worry about that for 3 months! Then we had a Christmas party in Marion. It was funny because Santa came and he had a very strong southern accent (i knew it!). But needless to say i have had a lot of junk food the past couple of days. And earlier that day there was a wedding in Marion that i was able to attend. It was a very quick wedding and the non-members out numbered the members (awesome!). Unfortunately the next day the newly weds were supposed to get baptized, but the brides grandpa died so they left to Augusta. Which is sad because elder Brown has been in Marion for 6 months and 0 baptisms, and he's leaving on Wednesday. But today was really fun because we got together as a district and celebrated elder browns birthday (yesterday) and sister graves (today). Again, way too much junk food.

Like i said before elder friel is gone which is really sad. I really liked that guy. He left me a whole bunch of ties which is fantastic, i don't have to wear the same tie twice a week now. Especially because i spilled red sparkling cider on the tie i am currently wearing (amazingly none got on my shirt). You can't see the cider on my tie, but it smells really good now.

So with all the presents that have been sent to me, I got the letter which told me to not open the presents until Christmas a couple days after i got them. So I've opened them all. Actually the one i got from the erdmann clan had the hair clippers in it, which i really need to use but cant cause they're in Conway so my trainee is gonna see me with long hair... not the best first impression but he'll get over it. and who knows with the other packages i may wait till Christmas to open them. doubtful. But thank you for everything! I use that blanket every night Sadie, it's super comfortable and i can almost fold it up right! The only problem is that this suit attracts every tiny piece of hair and lint in a five mile radius and that blanket REALLY likes my suit. Haha I'll be sending my memory card home on Monday so that y'all can see. I don't have any updates for investigators because I've been in the lovely town of Marion. I got to admit i miss Conway. and my queen size bed that my feet don't hang off of. I'm definitely excited to tell you about my trainee next Sunday and I'll talk to y'all soon!

Love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

Hello again back!

So I'm a little confused that I moved to the top of President Johnson's "favorite people" list. I thought I was already there. ;)

But anyways good news! I'm going to make it to the party! I pulled a few strings to get there but that's because parties are great and I really really wanted to go. So now I'm going to drag "those other two missionaries" to the party with me. But yeah, departing missionaries for this transfer are leaving a few days before actual transfers because of Christmas and all that. So I'll be in a trio from that friday to next wednsday.

Currently our investigator quantity is lacking. We're having trouble with getting new investigators and then they don't want to hear the message anymore in the same week. But we have one great investigator at the moment. His name is Byron, we always have awesome discussions and last time we talked with him he said he was going to read the Book of Mormon to see if he needed to change churches. If there's anything to pray for right now it's him. Then there is a less active family that we are working with, they are the Baker family. Actually Bro. Baker bakes really good bread. I also finally got to eat some boiled peanuts thanks to them! You crack open the peanut which is all wet and it's really salty and sort of soggy. It sounds disgusting but I ate a bowl of them because they're awesome. Plus I had some chicken bog, it's got rice and chicken and other stuff. I'll send you the recipe, it's definitely southern though. But they have 3 daughters and 1 baby boy who actually couldn't walk when I first got here but he's running around now (I've been here a while). I'm really good friends with all their kids though and I'm going to get the kids all excited to go to church so that they tell their parents to go. Because the Bakers always say that they need to go, but they could use some annoying motivation.

I have a funny quote from one of the Bishops daughters who is 7. We were talking about what they want for Christmas and she said "yeah and if Santa doesn't bring it for me than I'll buy it myself." He has four daughters ages (12, 10, 7, 5) so when we have dinner over there it feels like home in a way. Because get this, (the oldest takes her schooling extremely seriously A's or nothing, sound familiar?) (the second likes to cook all the time and made us brownies, reminds me of someone) (then the youngest two are kinda crazy and they do everything together). So yeah it reminds me of home.

But tell me what time you want me to skype you next monday and coordinate with my Mom so that I can do both. Plus I can't do it before 10a.m. here. Talk to you soon!

Love ya!
Elder K. Olsen

It's Monday Again!

It's Monday again!

These weeks are going by way to quickly! Well it finally hit Elder Friel yesterday. We were at church and everyone just kept talking about how he was going home soon and how he only has one more Sunday left. I think it was just too much of a shock for him. Then we got a text today that he has to be a mission HQ on the 16 at 11:00am. Well the Christmas party is on the 16 and i was super excited for it and now i'm going to miss it. Plus I'll have to spend a few days in Marion with those two Elders (That made those Elders sound bad, but i love those guys they're awesome). But i guess technically Elder Friel is getting the worse part of the deal.

Well we have had a ton of dinner appointments this week. And actually the next two weeks are completely full. It's amazing how often we get fed here. But according to other missionaries this is the only area that's like that. Everyone else seems to be lucky to get two dinners a month. So yes i am extremely spoiled.

OH! I got an update on the calling home thing. It turns out I'm actually going to get 40 min. max. for each family. So 40 min for the Olsens, and 40 min for the Erdmanns. I thought you would all really enjoy that. So that is sometime on Christmas day. Now actually i am allowed to skype, but that would mean i would have to find someone who can use skype. So tell me which would be better for y'all, because i can most likely find a family with skype.
You're probably done with Christmas shopping but i have a couple ideas. I think i said this last Christmas, but a pocket watch would be really cool. Something to plug my Sd card into the computer so i can e-mail some pics, More razor blades for my razor. Maybe a cheap hair buzzing kit. A fluffy pillow. more ties would be nice. Another watch, i like watches. That's all i got.

It seems like it's just one of those mondays where i can't remember anything that happened. My mind is totally blank and I'm trying to write a longer letter but don't know what to write about.

Funny story though, yesterday after church we got invited over to eat with the ward missionaries. Well i had two giant plates of food and was pretty sure i was going to puke right after we left. Well we got home and i sat on the couch not believing i had actually eaten all that. I decided that i was just going to skip dinner. Well then Elder Friel (who is feeling the same way) answers the phone. Then he tells me that we just got invited to dinner by a family in an hour. I nearly started to cry. Because the mom of that family owns a restraunt and is an amazing cook, and if you don't eat a lot (she doesn't say anything but you know) she will get offended. I'm still not sure how i survived through all of that. But here I am!

Have i mentioned by the way that i love my hole-e watch? I'm telling you i can't go anywhere without people asking me about it. It's like i have celebrity on my wrist. For instance we went to this mental hospital where people go into rehab. Well when you go in you have to take off all of your metal and stuff. So we went in gave the guy a blessing and when we came out there were four employees gathered around my watch. They told me how awesome it was and all i could say was "thanks." I really need to come up with some good responses about my watch. So if you have any ideas let me know.

But yeah that's my life, lovin every minute of it!

I love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Well first of all! Guess who got baptized! The awesome Jane! I was blessed enough to perform the baptism too. I actually did it right... the second time anyways. But i'm just so excited that someone got baptized, she wanted me to give her your e-mails so she should be e-mailing you soon. The baptism went great, we had about 15 people come, so not a bad turn out. But everyone at church was extremely accepting and open to her. I'm very lucky to be serving in Conway.

But i also had to talk in sacrament yesterday. I didn't have much time to write my talk and i sort of procrastinated. But i wrote it yesterday morning and barely used it at all. Honestly i got up there and the spirit took over. I've never been so calm to give a talk in my life. I was able to talk for 18 minutes too (elder Friel timed me). My topic was on missionary work of course, and hopefully i got the ward excited to build the kingdom.

Last Monday was funny, there's not that much to do in Conway on P days. So after we had cleaned we just sat there for a while. Then we finally decided we were gonna decorate for Christmas. So yeah, we got a tree and lights and decorations all over the place. Then when we were done with that we found a 750 piece puzzle. Got to admit i spent way to much time on that puzzle. But we finished it!!!

Well Thanksgiving is coming up soon and we've had lots of offers. But we were reserved for Thanksgiving about a month ago. We are going to have dinner with the Varas family. Which is good because they're a big family. But besides that i don't know what we will do for Thanksgiving. Because i guess we don't work on that day. I don't know why, everyone is home and that is the perfect day to catch them. But orders are orders.

I got the package! I finally can use that camera now, and i've been taking pictures and videos like crazy, and a lot of them are of me and not trees! One video is really good because i give a tour of the house. I took pictures of all the ridiculously big bugs down here too. I'm telling you they are mutated. Big spiders, big bees, big mosquitos, and big cockroaches. But i'm getting used to them (sort of). I do laugh that i got sent to the south for that reason. I don't like bugs (they're bigger here), i'm not a huge fan of dogs (everyone has one), and those are the only two things really. But it's funny.

As for other investigators right now we're kind of lacking. We've found a few people, but no one is really willing to keep commitments. So we'll keep trying with some of them. But what we really need is member referalls. I'm tellin ya, the church will build as fast as the members want it to. Because knocking doors can only go so far.

I just want to let everyone know, i write in my journal every single day.
I've been trying to think about things that i want for Christmas. But I'm not quite sure if i really need anything. If you'd think I'd like it I'm sure I will. But if i can think of anything down the road i'll let you know.

But i love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

Remember that one time we had the Cops called on us?

Hello everyone!

First off i am not district leader! I've got to say that was a huge relief, i'm just not quite ready for that yet. But anyways my new companion is Elder Friel. He's from Hawaii, he's taller than me and he plays football. He was actually called as a Georgia missionary and then the two missions combined and he became a South Carolina missionary. This is his very last transfer and it's actually his first time serving in SC. I'm learning a lot about contacting people, Elder Friel knows how to knock doors. Plus we invite about 10+ to be baptized every day. Him and I get along perfectly, we can work hard and can have fun doing it. I hear all these stories about how every missionary gets a companion that they don't like very much. But Elder Friel isn't the one, and hopefully i won't have one down the road either. But since this is his last transfer it most likely means that i will have at least one more transfer in Conway after this, possibly two. Because after he leaves I'll have to show someone else how to work the area, and if i get to train then I'll do that for 12 weeks. So my first area I'm going to spend either 6 or 7 1/2 months, which isn't bad because Conway is awesome!

Great news! Guess who's getting baptized on Saturday! Jane is! I'm so excited for her, she told us that she had told her daughter she was getting baptized on the 19 and then her daughter told everyone she knew on facebook. Well unfortunately Jane hadn't been to church yet so after she came to church yesterday we got special permission from President Holm. So pray that everything goes according to plan there. It was funny though, she was so scared at church yesterday. She's had a pretty rough life, and she hasn't come by very many nice people. So she was a little overwhelmed by all the nice people and didn't want to mess anything up. But she had a wonderful time and everyone was so nice to her. I'm so relieved that it went well.Something else that happened yesterday is i found out that i get to speak in sacrament next Sunday. So this next weekend is going to be crazy busy. But of course i'm going to speak on missionary work, i doubt that missionaries give talks on anything else. So that should be fun.

I was so excited to hear about Mikayla's picture winning! I really wish i could be there for these things, but definitely send me some pictures and keep me updated how the event goes. I actually remember that picture when you told me about it, i really like that one. By the way whats happened with my camera since i left. Has anyone been able to use it?It makes me really happy to hear that y'all are doing family scripture study and prayer, i know it will help bring us closer together. Down here i've seen to many family situations that are in a really bad place. I'm very thankful for the way i was raised, and there's a very popular billboard down here in the south. It says "the family that prays together stays together". I testify to that for sure.

So we have a couple bedrooms at the house and one room has queen size beds and the other has twins. Well when i got here with Elder Cramer we used the twins because that just what he had been doing since he got here. But Elder Friel and i agreed that we would upgrade to some beds that we can actually fit on. I've been sleeping so much better, but i have to admit it has made it harder to get up in the morning.

Different thoughts just keep popping into my head. But have i told y'all about mormon.org? Because it's amazing and you should check it out. Actually i even made a profile on there if you can find me. But if you have time watch the "I'm a Mormon" videos. That's all the entertainment that we really get but it's still awesome.About Elder Cramer you can just write 'Elder Cramer' a letter. His name isn't quite as common as Olsen. There's three Olsens in the mission, because we're awesome like that.

So It's been a little rough with this day light savings thing. It gets dark at about 6 which is way too early. People really aren't too happy about people knocking on there door when it's dark either, everyone gives us the excuse that it's too late and they're getting ready for bed or something. Even though it's 6: 30. We're definitely not gonna knock rich neighborhoods at night anymore. The other night we knocked this rich street and when we had finished we were walking back to the car and a policeman drove up and had to get our information because some door we had knocked on was annoyed. It was pretty funny to see the policeman's expression when he found out we were from Utah and Hawaii for some church. Now Elder Friel and I like to say "remember that one time we had the cops called on us?" I love being a missionary.

But anyway I love y'all and i know y'all already know but i just gotta keep tellin ya!

Elder K. Olsen

Fall Break in St George

This year for fall break the girls and I went down to St. George. We haven't been there for over a year! I don't know what's wrong with me, of course it could be argued that I've been a little busy this summer. But since our Stake split and I was released from Stake YW's, and because I get the same vacations as the girls, thanks to my job at the school, and I took time off with Hallmark, I was able to take a much needed vacation.

The girls were so excited. They asked if they could take their swimsuits even though the pool would be cold. I warned them it would be very cold, but they didn't care. Thursday when we got to St. George, the first thing Kylee and Samantha wanted to do was go swimming. I warned them again, that the pool would be cold, but they seemed to love every minute of it. They probably played in the pool 4 times each day for about 15 minutes each time. It was usually around the 15 minute mark that their bodies started shaking uncontrollably and their lips turned blue (mother of the year), but hey, we are on vacation.

Kylee and Samantha testing out the water

Samantha wrapped in a towel, but still not able to pull herself away from the pool.

On Friday we decided to go see Brigham Young's House. We have been going to St. George several times each year for the last 10 years and this was our first time actually seeing the house. We had a good time visiting with the Sister Missionaries, it has always been fun to see missionaries, but now that Kyle is on his mission it makes me love missionaries even more than before. Grandma and Grandpa Smith were in St. George with us, so they came along. The girls actually really liked the tour and asked some great questions at the end, most of the questions the missionaries didn't know the answers to, but they are new missionaries, one had only been out for 2 weeks, so we didn't mind.

Me and the girls on the porch of Brigham Young's House
Grandma and Grandpa Smith with the girls.

After we went to Arbys for lunch, and Kylee decided to show off her mad skills. This is her impersonation of a saber tooth tiger...I think. My mom is easily entertained, as you'll see in the 2nd picture down ;). In fact this gave us all a good laugh.

After lunch my parents went to Las Vegas for the night, because they can, and the girls and I went on some little hikes. We had a great time. A funny story about these next few pictures...The girls had climbed up these rocks, because they love to climb and pose for pictures. After I took the pictures all the girls easily climbed out of the rock, except for Sadie. She decided to try to get out of the rock going backwards and got stuck. Of course being the good mom that I am, I had a good laugh, then made sure all the girls saw how Sadie was stuck and that they had a good laugh, then I took a picture, then I helped Sadie get down. I'm pretty sure that's the order all moms would take care of this situation.

You're probably wondering where the picture is of Sadie hanging off the rock? She swore she'd kill me if I posted the picture, so I decided not to post it, but I'll figure out how to work it in somewhere, someday.

Here we are above the Dixie looking down on St. George. It was so beautiful. I love how white the temple is. They have a nice path and bridge that takes you up to this point above the DIXIE, but Kylee and Sadie wanted to climb up the "old" way. Kylee loved it, but made it look easy. Sadie was a little nervous, but they both did it.

We had a great time, and the next few pictures are just from walking around the park. My girls actually like having their pictures taken. It's a win win really.

We had a very relaxing time. Mikayla got to make a lot of jewelry and helped Kylee and Samantha make some too. She such a great big sister, when she wants to be :)

I can't wait to go back.

The Sun is Shinin!?!

The sun is shinin!

So i have to say that the weather is perfect down here in the south. It's a little too cold in the morning and at night but during the day it is absolutely perfect. The sun keeps us warm but there's always a nice cool breeze, and then all of the trees are changing colors, so everywhere you go it's all green and yellow and orange and red. It's nice when we have a minute and i can just sit back and stare at the glory of Gods creation.

But as per usual we have been biking a lot. Especially because we get 1050 miles every month. On the 27 we are driving to Columbia for a Leadership Training Meeting and that will eat about 300 of our miles. So it's pretty funny because we had to figure out how to drive less than ten miles to get the groceries today. We figured it out finally and we just have to bike a lot more now.
So the Zone Leaders came out on exchanges with us on Thursday and i got to go with Elder Robinson. Well he is originally a Georgia missionary but when the mission boundaries changed he became a part of this mission. They were definitely taught differently how to contact down there. In the 4 hours i was with him we biked 25 miles, contacted 30 people, and taught 3 half hour lessons, oh and we put two people on date for November 19. The way he taught me to contact was to go straight up to someone and then just ask them a question. Not Hi, how are you today? We would ask things like, Do you ever wonder who wrote the Bible? Or, Why did the Bible end? or, What do you think Jesus Christ expects of you in this life? Honestly these contacts work extremely well, at first people are a little stunned but then they answer the question and we get right into a nice discussion.

At church yesterday it was amazing! We got a new ward mission leader, he is ex-navy and says "roger that" alot. He's a really fun guy, but he also makes sure the work gets done quickly and effectively. We've gone on splits with him a lot and he's a great missionary. We also had 3 non members at church and 8 less actives! Plus we got a page of assignments from the ward council and 5 or more referalls from members! The ward loves us and we have earned there trust. I'm so excited to see how Conway grows, and i really hope i can stay another transfer or two.

Yesterday we biked through a neighborhood and we got sort of nervous. Because the street names were, Civil War rd, Lees Landing, Confederate st. things like that. But we found 4 new investigators anyway and all of the people were actually really nice! It's also funny because they were mostly trailer homes but they were all built up on stilts so they looked like two story trailers. Well they are built that way because they live next to waccamaw river and it floods that high once a year for a day or so. I don't think i would live there, but to each his own.

To answer your questions. Yes we love the Taco Bell gift cards! We eat there quite a bit now even though the employees give us some weird looks because they don't sell gift card in the south. But we have Grandma in our prayers a lot because we are extremely grateful for the wonderful food.

I sent Sadie an e-mail (not the longest one), but HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN!
Thats so great that Jordan has left the states! He's probably so excited right now. Tell his family that he's having the greatest time of his life! Because that's what it should be.

Something i could use though. We talk a lot about family history because a lot of people are interested in that and it's an easy way to bring up the gospel. Well i need some cool family ancestral stories that i could tell to people, and i also want them for myself. Especially some stories about my grandpa James Guy. Because i honestly don't know too much about the man i was named after.

Love Y'all!
Elder K. Olsen

Howdy :)

Howdy! (which isn't a word too often used in the south, and when i say it to people they say howdy back.. often sarcastically)

But i am super excited to get all the details about the games. And tell Sammy and Kylee i love their letters and i've tied that green/yellow rope to my backpack for everyone to see.

It's so great to hear that Dad is in the High Council. I'm not really surprised by it just to let you know. Tell Dad i'm proud of him and that if he keeps doing what he does he'll end up in the Stake Presidency. So keep going Dad!
Okay i have approximately 11 minutes to tell you about my week. OH no! only 10!

Okay so whats happened.Well we had our very own Stake Conference in South Carolina and it was a bit different. Instead of walking over to one of the two stake centers so that they could split the stake, we drove about an hour and a half to Florence so that the speakers (two of which were my mission president and his wife) got everyone excited about missionary work so that in three years time we could double the stake.Afterwards Conway ward had a potluck, and let me just say that people in the south know how to cook! It's also amazing how half the food down here i've never heard of. And we thought i wasn't going to a foreign country.

We also had our interviews on friday with President Holm. And let me just say that i have the best Mission President ever, because he just gets me so pumped to go out and work! He just gets super excited when he talks.
So we have some awesome investigators! Lunette, Danisha, Joe, Jerry, Caroline, and a lot more we got another 15 new investigators this week and i can't even remember all of them now. There's just so many people to work with! Which is a wonderful blessing because Elder Cramer and I were in a rut for a while with not many investigators. I really love missionary work. I can't believe that i'm coming close to the 3 month mark. Time is going by way to quickly and there's still so much to do.

I have a request for everyones birthdays (that's both families please) because i have the months i think. But definitely not the days. But i still love y'all!

Elder K. Olsen

P.S. Still love ya!

Saturday Morning Conference

Bret was able to get tickets to Saturday morning Conference this year. I think we both seriously debated going, only because rolling out of bed at 6am to be ready to leave by 7am is not my idea of Saturday morning fun. But since my 2 youngest girls have never been inside the Conference Center, we decided to forgo watching conference in our pajamas and make the early morning trip downtown. It was a beautiful morning, which is not usually the case in October, especially during conference.
We got to the conference center around 8:30, a little early, so the girls and I walked around outside. And I was able to take a few pictures of the girls.

We actually had a great time. Besides having an 8 year old with a minor attitude problem, conference went smoothly. I really loved listening to the talks, and had a few good laughs. It was a fun day together.

Student of the Month

The very first month of school and Kylee comes away with Student of the Month. It's probably best that she receives this "title" early in the year, pretty soon we'll be late handing in book reports, or late with assignments, and then she won't be in the running. I'm just kidding, mostly ;).
Kylee is actually a very good student. She is almost always on task, depending who she is sitting by, and she really always tries to do her best, and she is always willing to help her teacher. We're very proud of Kylee.

Now if we could just get the school to figure out the spelling of our last name...

What happened this week...General Conference of course!

Okey Dokey then.

What happened this week... General Conference of course!!! We are lucky enough to get to watch all five sessions, i was so happy to hear all of the great things about missionary work. I'm sure it feels this way for almost everyone. But General Conference felt designed for me. It uplifted my spirit, answered most if not all of my questions, it focused on my life in such a way. That the question comes into my mind, How could those talks be as great as they were, unless they were inspired of God. I beg of everyone to study what was taught, it is modern revelation, The All Knowing God is freely giving us guidance in our lives that can be delivered in a magazine to our front door. But still my favorite part was when President Monson announced the temples and began his talk with "Hello!". I love how he shows by example that we can laugh, be so happy, by living the Gospel.

Unfortunately conference wasn't exactly a 'big party' with a whole bunch of food. Including Elder Cramer and I we had 7 people to the Saturday sessions, maybe 25 to priesthood, and 8 or more for Sunday. Definite improvement could be done, but most people (hopefully) watched it at home. On the bright side, guess who came to the Sunday morning session! Jesse Bloodworth and the family! He's not a member (yet) and came to conference, even though he had a pretty bad cold. It makes me feel bad when i think of my past and all the excuses i made up to not watch conference.

For those who went to priesthood session. Isn't Elder Holland Awesome!!! I love that man, especially when he said "you're gonna get some fire."

So it's starting to get chilly down here in the south. So now it's suit coat season. We now have to wear our suits every day until it gets warm again... I'm glad i have two pairs of suit pants, and actually there's a couple suits that were left behind by past missionaries. One of the suits (sort of) fit me. So that's getting dry cleaned and it's totally mine now.

Elder Scott said something that really hit me, he said "A memorized scripture becomes an enduring friend through the eternities." So I'm going to memorize 30 scriptures this week. It seems like a lot at may overload my brain. But i know it can be done, i've already memorized way over 30 songs in my life. Whats 30 small verses? Plus, i know it will help me in my teaching. If you're interested in the 5 scriptures I'm memorizing today they are: Mosiah 4:9-10, 3 Nephi 14: 9-11, D&C 130: 22, Romans 8:16, 1 John 4: 7-9. I'll let y'all find out what the theme of those are for yourself.

We've been biking like crazy this past week! It was seriously 20-30 miles a day. Haha my legs are dead. Because we only get 1050 miles in the car every month. Well when we drove to zone conference it ate up 230 miles. So we have to make all that up with the bikes. It's funny, we were riding through a trailer park when we passed by some people on their porch. Someone said, "Woo! You gotta get some wd40 on those chains!" It's true too. Our chains are squeaking and grinding, not exactly the most pleasant sounds. But it sure is a way to start a conversation with people!

I got to train a District Development Meeting (DDM) either this week or last week. So that was an interesting experience. I'm the newest missionary of the bunch and i had to train everybody how to use a baptismal calendar. At first i was nervous, but as it turned out i had filled out more baptismal calendars then anyone else. I had only filled out one at that point. But either way i was more experienced. It went great though and when i think back on it, it was actually pretty fun.

Let see here's the updated investigator List:
Jesse Bloodworth: He's doing so awesome! I love this guy and his family. They just have to get married and then he's getting baptized. So pray that they can get all of their legal mumbo jumbo out of the way.
Dede McDonald (or Dede MceeDee): She's seems like she really likes reading the scriptures. She's said that she feels the Holy Ghost when she reads the Book of Mormon and like the path that she's going down with the church. We asked her to be baptized, and she said she'll pray about it. Please pray that she'll pray. We know that she believes everything, she just has to act on her faith.
Randy: Unfortunately did not come to church. We're not too happy with him because he gave us a huge promise. That he would absolutely come to church with us. We showed up at his house at 11:30, and he was asleep. His Dad wouldn't let us wake him up. Even though Randy is probably 50. But our lessons go so well that we cant give up on him. He wants to learn a lot.

Those are the main investigators, so pray that we can find success with them. Also please pray that we can meet out goal and baptize 3 people this month. We're going to try our best.

Time unfortunately is limited so i'll have to stop there. But know that i love y'all and this church is true!

Elder K. Olsen

P.S. Special shout out to Alex Johnson! Those CD's saved our lives! Thank you so So SO much!

Jesse went to church!

How ya'll doin?

I'm starting to get the accent down really well. I don't talk slow and I don't really have a drawl, but it's just the words I say. Yeah, I love it.

A few days ago we were starting the day off like normal, it was super sunny and everything was good. We drove into downtown Conway parked the car and started to ride our bike... directly towards black (not gray) clouds. Then the sun went away, it got windy and then WOOSH! It was raining, instant drenching. But we just kept riding our bikes because it's not like we could get any wetter. We later described our shoes, they were like fishbowls when the water swished back and forth in them as we biked. Luckily all the stuff that I had in my backpack was in a grocery bag (be prepared). Unfortunately my planner was in my pocket and it got destroyed. But lesson learned! We went back home a couple hours later and changed. There is nothing like putting on a pair of dry socks.

It's not that hot here anymore. It's overcast a lot which has also gotten rid of a lot of humidity also. Yes I'm enjoying that.

Ugh. I sit down at the computer and I can't remember whats happened in the past week. I just stare out the window. Oh here's something! I'm super tired! Haha we've been having trouble getting in on time. Not that we're rebels and we're trying to break all the rules. We just have tons of stuff to do and not enough time to do it. Plus when we get home we just lose track of time (even though we both have a watch and there are clocks everywhere). But our curfew is 10:30 and we've been getting in bed at 11:30 (I fall asleep at about 11:30:27). Then I'm awake falling asleep during my morning prayers. Then Elder Cramer says "ready to go running?" I groan and put on my shoes and we go and run. Thats the morning routine.

Jesse came to church yesterday!!! It was perfect for him! Because the talks during sacrament answered his prayers, gospel principles class was about baptism (which answered my prayers), and in Elders Quorum he made tons of friends! They were inviting him to dinner, and basketball, and to go shooting. And the best part is that we didn't ask any of the members to do that. Later we had dinner at Jesse's house. He made this really good stuff which had, chicken, cheese, mayo, sour cream, other stuff. I had a few helpings of it. But guess what was the appetizer? Come on, guess. Nope! He made fried Okra! Which is actually really good, at least when it's fried. Then after we watched The Prophet of the Restoration with him. It changed his perspective on the church when he really understands Joseph Smiths story. Then for the last part we had a discussion, and bore strong testimony of prayer and the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. He's going to pray about it, and i know he will receive an answer. I love being on a mission!

So there was a baptism in Conway on Saturday. His name is Brother Armando Puga. We didn't baptize him because he was taught by the spanish missionaries. But either way I got to be there and witness a baptism! Yesterday he was confirmed a member of the church. It's amazing to see what just happened with this man. He made a promise with God. He has promised to serve Him and obey His commandments, and God has promised to forgive him of ALL his sins, and has given him the gift of the Holy Ghost -who is the comforter and the spiritual guide of our lives.

I've been reading a lot more in the Bible lately, and I have to say I really regret that I didn't read it a more in the past. There are so many amazing people and stories! My current favorites are either between Paul and Joshua. They were both bold in different ways which is my desire. I want to be bold in speaking and not necessarily in battle like Joshua. If you don't know the story of Joshua then there are 12 really cool war chapters. In those chapters, he destroys Jericho (and many other cities), he splits Jordan River with the Ark of the Covenant, he stops the sun for a battle. Just little things like that. But towards the beginning when the Lord is telling him to prepare for all of this, the Lord says "Have not I commanded thee?" That scripture means a lot to me. Because just like in 1 Nephi 3:7, we can understand that all of Gods commandments are possible. We would Not be asked to do something if our Heavenly Father didn't believe that we could. All we need to do is trust in Him and He will provide a way.

I know that by reading the scriptures and following the counsel of the prophets, who are the mouthpiece of the Lord, that we can find all our answers. Receive help in all our problems. And have happiness, no matter the trials and difficulties in life. The Bible and the Book of Mormon are the word of God. Joseph Smith did see God the Father and Jesus Christ. Through Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ's true and only church has been restored, and his holy priesthood which Joshua used to stop the sun has been returned to this earth today. I know that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today. He is the Lords mouthpiece and has spoken to the Almighty. Gods commandments are gifts and by following them we can have eternal life, and eternal happiness with our families and our Heavenly Father. And I say this in the Saviors name, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Elder K. Olsen

P.S. I Love Y'all

Zone Conference

Kyle had his first zone conference a few weeks ago. He mentioned, in his previous letters, how he really enjoyed it. Here are a few things he mentioned...

* No more knocking doors! They talked to the missionaries about relying on the members for help in finding investigators. It helps the new members stay more active once they're baptized if they have friends who have followed them through their conversion. Kyle said he'd still be knocking doors, but they won't have to knock entire streets.

* He was able to listen to Brother Pieper of the 70 talk about the Atonement. Kyle mentioned that listening to Brother Pieper really helped increase his testimony of the Atonement.

* And I'm sure the best part of zone conference...he was able to pick up a package that his mom had sent him several weeks earlier. All packages have to be sent priority mail, or he has to wait for zone conference to pick them up. Thankfully he didn't have to wait too long :)

Looking at the picture, Kyle looks great and very happy. I can't wait to see the pictures he has taken since he got to SC, of course, he mentioned that there are more pictures of trees than actual people, I guess we'll have to wait and see. I wish my computer was better, or maybe the picture, I have no idea who his companion is...

Stake Talent Show

I don't know where the time has gone, but this was our 3rd Stake Talent Show. I have to say, I enjoyed this one the most, maybe part of that reason was because I really didn't end up doing anything to get ready for it ;). Seriously, all these other women in this picture were the ones responsible for putting together a great talent show. Plus all the performances by each of the wards were fun and entertaining.
These are the beautiful women I serve with. (Laurie, I wouldn't have posted this picture with your eyes closed, but the other picture came out so blurry. I know you have pictures, and I'm pretty sure a terrible video starring me, but hopefully you'll understand...posting this picture was my only option :)

Here is a picture of my beautiful girls, Sadie and Mikayla.

And here we are together.

Thankfully this talent show really went smoothly, and with 14 wards we were able to get everyone out of the stake center by 8:30, depending on how many brownies they decided to eat, that alone makes this night a success!

Kyle's most recent letter :)

Dear Following Persons who are taking time to read this,

Well another week has flown by and i cant believe that its Monday again. Its gotten colder the last few days and i guess after general conference we have to wear our suit every day. So we'll see how that goes! It is a lot nicer to go around biking now that its cold, i'm not sweating like crazy and my energy isn't drained the second i step out the door (okay I'm exaggerating a bit, but still). But hallelujah for that!

Earlier this week i went to a zone conference where we got to hear from Elder Pieper of the 70. Well i think that was this week i hope i haven't told y'all this already... Turns out that was two weeks ago. But if i could tell you one thing about the whole experience is that Elder Pieper has an amazing testimony of the Atonement and it boosted my testimony a lot.

It was a pretty slow week for Elder Cramer and I. We tried really hard but a lot of people canceled on us or just weren't home. But still we found some success!
We spoke with Jesse Bloodworth again. He's doing great! We had a very strong spiritual lesson with him, and we resolved all of the marital issues. It turns out they aren't married because she hasn't been officially divorced yet. But they are planning on getting married once all of that is solved and then he's getting baptized!

The people we didn't see this week: Bro. Pokey, Bro. Philipscheck, Gloria Sarvis, please pray for us this week that we will be able to teach them and that when we do so the spirit will be with us.

We taught Sis. Campbell and it seems that she's golden! Except she will not come to church. Which is one of the biggest things that she needs to do. So please, please, please, pray that she can come to church and that we can help her realize how important church really is.

We have a man on baptismal date for the 15 of Oct! His name is Randy Humes. Unfortunately he didn't come to church either (Aghhh!)He learns a little slower than others, but he has a strong desire. When we brought up church he said he was going to get his really nice suit cleaned and that he's gonna shave (he's gotta beard), and he said he wants to give fast offerings (he said donation). But his understanding is great because we hadn't talked about any of that stuff. That is pure proof that the Holy Ghost is the real teacher in these lessons!

We are getting fed so much food here! The other day we had a huge dinner complete with awesome potatoes, ribs, steak, salad with home made dressing, then this awesome cinnamon cake! We couldn't eat it all so they sent us home with leftovers. We got home and on our front porch were some meals wrapped in tin foil! We already had a couple meals in the fridge from the day before. I don't think I've gained any weight yet, but i haven't been hungry since I got here either.

I'm going to try really hard to write many letters today. But i don't know how long it takes for my letters to get there.

My camera broke even more so now i can't take any pictures at all. I live far away from the Best Buy and don't have time to go. So should i just send home the camera to you? Because I think it's under your name anyways. But on the bright side i will send home the pictures that I've taken so far with it.... Yes, there's more trees than pictures of people. sorry haha

But i know that this is the true church. I know that the Book of Mormon like the Bible is the word of God and has His teachings. I know that by reading them we can gain a strong testimony. I know Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ, and through him has restored the true church of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christs Atonement happened for us and we are always worthy of it, the atonement happened for the sinners so that we could be forgiven and have true happiness. Don't let the Great Sacrifice go to waste.

I love y'all and you are in my prayers.

Love,
Elder K. Olsen

P.S. Elder Cramer and i need some music. Don't worry we have plenty (plenty) of MoTab (Mormon Tabernacle Choir). We need some other music that brings are thoughts to Christ (that's the requirement of our music). If possible we would like the Prince of Egypt soundtrack. Andrea Bocelli is also amazing (we have the Christmas album and have listened to it a lot, so we're desperate). Love Ya!

How y'all doing today!

How y'all doin today!

I looked up that Featherstone talk and he was actually quoting Pres. Kimball. It was about how he predicted that the South would baptize more than any other english speaking mission. That congregations would be baptized. I gotta say. I Reeally hope i'm there when that happens!

So lets see whats happened. On Monday we had zone conference and we got the privelege to have a 3 hour discussion with Elder Pieper of the 70. It was very spiritual and eye opening to what missionary work is and how we can do better.
Something else is the mission has banned knocking doors! Yay! Now obviously we're allowed to knock doors, but they really want us to work with the members because they are the best way to get people coming to church and those converts will actually stay at church. So we're just not supposed to plan on knocking streets. Which i'm happy to say i'm glad happened, because thats one thing i REALLY couldnt do very well. I said um and uh alot...

So we saw Gloria again. We taught her the entire first lesson and she really enjoyed it. She seemed like she understood everything and more so it seemed that she believed everything we said. The spirit was so strong in that lesson. Now for the problem. We called her to get a return appointment. She told me that she thought what we were doing is great and everything, but she was going to stay with her church. I was able to talk her into another appointment, so we'll see.

Jesse is doing great! I don't know if you know about him but he's living with a recent convert. They aren't married but they already call themselves a family so i'm not to worried about that. Hes already started handing out Books of Mormon to his family and he's not even on date for baptism! The issue is that he likes to go off subject, so we havent really taught him everything. So pray that we can keep on track in our upcoming lessons.

Then there's Bro. Philipscheck. He's really open to all our teachings, and he's been taught since before i got here. He likes the discussions but his wife isnt too thrilled about it. She's super nice but i guess she tried throwing away his Book of Mormon, but he wouldnt allow it! Ha ha i love that family.

Sis. Campbell who is on date, or was. She won't come to church! So pray ALOT for that.

A man named Sandy who we already taught the first lesson we are meeting again today, so i'll give you that update next week.
Those are the main investigators i suppose, so Dad, i hope that answers your REQUEST ;)

Unfortunately i have 8 minutes left on my super fancy library computer so i cant give you all the details. But i do have 6 hours to write letters! and do laundry, and clean, and shop, and car wash, and plan, and nap (yeah right).

So i got a request! Someone should give my facebook page an update; 1) change name to Elder Kyle Olsen, i didn't do that. and 2) put down "This is Elder Olsen and I'm in South Carolina! I cant text or call anyone (and i'm not even the one updating my fb stats, i had to write and tell someone to do this) so i thoroughly enjoy getting letters. So family, friends, facebook friends, and even acquaintances. Send me a letter at (place address here). Thanks Y'all!"

Thanks a ton!

Love (and alot of it)
Elder K. Olsen
P.S. I love y'all!

Great Grandma Smiths 80th Birthday!

Isn't that the cutest grandma ever?! We celebrated my Grandma Smiths 80th birthday on Saturday. It was fun to be able to spend time with my big family. Some background on my Grandma Smith, My Grandma has 10 kids, she has 41 grand kids, so you can imagine what family parties were like when I was young. She also has around 72 great grand kids (that number changes fast). And she now has 1 great great grandchild. My grandma is also really small. We were all taller than her around age 10, and her feet are tiny, I'm pretty sure she wears a size 4. I remember each one of my kids laughing about how their shoes are too big for great grandma.

It was nice to be able to celebrate her birthday with some of my very favorite people (Jeff, this does not include you ;)). There is always great food and conversation at a Smith party. We're all loud and we all talk over each other, the one who talks the loudest is listened to, so you can imagine that I get to tell my stories often.

The best part of my grandmas party was when she shared her testimony with all of us. She talked about how much she has relied on the Lord in her life (my grandpa died when their youngest child was only 2). She said she knows that her prayers have always been answered.

My cousin Becca took pictures of all the families with Grandma.

There was even a big bounce house with a slide. Even my older girls took part in the fun. The best part about the slide was when it started raining...it became a water slide. Kylee and Samantha loved it and were soaked, but they didn't care, they jumped until they were dry.