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!