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Monday, November 21, 2011

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

Monday, November 14, 2011

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