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Beautiful Logan Mountains!
Hola Familia y amigos,
I hope every one is well. It has been an up and down
week for me, but a really good end. Thanks Mom for the package and the
blog posts / emails.
Okay, this week really was an emotional up and down, but overall
good. Really, not much happened because we have no investigators and we
are still sharing a car with the Logan Hermanas.
It was a hard week for me because I was just really
frustrated all week. It is REALLY hard to share a car. They should
be getting a car soon, and I hope so because I want to be able to focus on my
area and my work rather than wasting time driving the other Hermanas around.
I know it has to be done, because they have investigators and we don't.
But I can't help but think, we don't have investigators because we are
not spending enough time looking for them.
It is really hard to be in an area with so little. It
is hard to start from scratch. I was also frustrated this week because
the other Hermanas are having so much success. I think I was feeling a
little jealous. It is deeper though, I was not jealous that they are having
success, I was jealous that they were having success with investigators that
used to be mine. They visit people that I helped find and I started
teaching. They are teaching people that I know and love. These
investigators, these dear people that I LOVE, are progressing and will likely
get baptized this transfer or next. I think I was feeling jealous because
it is all happening without me. Something that used to be mine isn't
anymore, but I am still close enough to see it. Which is a blessing
because I can go to their baptisms and see them when they come to church, but
it is really hard to drop the Hermanas off at a lesson with someone I love so much
and not be able to go in and teach/ talk with them too.
I have also been frustrated this week, because what I want
more than ANYTHING is to change someone's life. I want to bring someone unto
Christ. I want to help someone enter the waters of Baptism so that they
can have eternal life and Salvation. I want to see miracles. I want
to have the spirit work through me more fully. I miss teaching. I
think we taught 3 times this week. I want these things so badly, and I am
trying to work hard and have faith. I guess I just need patience now.
It has also been a hard week because my Companion has
expected a lot of me. She makes me do phone calls to the English people,
sometimes Spanish, take the lead in doing more contacts, and she even let me
plan a whole day of who to visit and when, and what numbers to set as goals.
She also let me take the lead in planning some lessons. This has
turned out to be a huge blessing in the end because I have learned so much and
it has given me more confidence in myself. But it was really
stressful at first because I didn't know what I was doing or if I was capable
of what she thought I could do.
It was scary to plan a lesson and really hope that the
spirit was guiding me. What if I did not give the lesson they needed?
It was scary to get up to a door and have my companion say, okay this one
is all yours. Or to get home one night and have my companion say, okay
what should we do tomorrow? As stressful as it made the week, I am beyond
grateful that she is making me do these things because I actually feel like i
am being trained and learning and that I can be a part of my companionship.
I don't have to sit back and not do anything. I do have power.
I do know what to say/do. I do know how to help. I do have
good ideas.
We had a lesson this week, and I was so excited because one
of the investigator’s good friends was going to come and we were going to have
a member present. It was just like the district video too. The
member is a neighbor to our investigator Adella. And we met with her
before the lesson to tell her what we had planned and what we wanted her to do.
I was so excited for this lesson. We had studied really hard in the
morning and the Spirit had guided us with such a great lesson plan about the
Atonement and how we can access it more fully only after baptism. I was a
little worried that the lesson would not go well or that I would ruin something
by not following the Spirit or something.
I shouldn't have worried about it at all though. Our
member talked the whole lesson. She took control and hardly let anyone
get a word in. It was awful and we could tell Adella didn't really like
that we had brought her. But we have a lesson with her tomorrow, pray for
me that this one will go better. One more thing to say about Adella.
She knows she needs to get baptized (She has a really strong testimony),
and she would do it in a heartbeat if a certain person would baptize her.
President Uchtdorf. She loves him, and really wants him to baptize
her. I had to try so hard not to laugh when she first told us this.
She is so serious about it. I hope we can make her understand that
she doesn't need him to do it. (her son is a member and we want him to
baptize her!)
This week we did find a few people, and have not had the
chance to go back so we don't know if there will be any success. But we
met Josue knocking on doors and we gave him a book of Mormon and one for his
Wife. He opened the door and told us he was watching a soccer game.
I thought he was going to ask us to leave or be quick. But when we
asked him if we could give him the Book of Mormons he said yes even though he
is Catholic. We even had to run back to the car to get them. I
thought he would go inside and shut the door, but we got back and he was still
there. He has a cute little girl, and I REALLY hope we can find him this
week. We also met a 15 year old boy who we gave some plan of salvation
folletos (pamphlets) to. Hopefully we can find his whole family.
This week we did a service project. We raked leaves
for a member. It took us 3 hours. I was soooo sore the next few
days. But it was fun to do service.
We went to a public library this week to make copies of
something. I didn't realize how bad I missed books until I saw all those
books that I can't read right now. I almost picked one up and started reading
but realized that I can't. It was so hard to be there, but I keep busy so
I don't think about it much. Amanda, you should be able to take pitty on
me for this. Since we are both English Majors and the same person.
We fasted for Lavinia this Sunday to help her be able to
stop smoking and get baptized. She should be picking a date soon. She
went to church on Sunday!
Highlight of the week: Are you all ready for this....
DARIANA GOT BAPTIZED! Dariana is the 12 year old that just came about a
month ago from El Salvador. I taught her some of the lessons and she is
someone I have great love for. I don't know if I would call this my first
Baptism, but I did teach her and I felt the spirit sooooo strongly at her
baptism. Highlight of my mission.
Other highlights of this week include the 2 Family Home
Evening's we taught yesterday.
The first one was actually in the Morning and I planned the
activity. I felt like we needed to do it on the book of Mormon. It
was with a family that has a 2 and 4 year old, both boys. They are a
really active family and so I was a little concerned about committing them to
read their scriptures every week because I figured they already did. But
we did a little scavenger hunt as we read a story from the Book of Mormon
picture book. The little boys loved it. (thanks for doing scavenger
hunts for birthdays mom, thats where I got the idea). We committed the
family to read their scriptures every night and the parents told us that they
were really good about praying as a family but didn't read their scriptures
often because it was hard to keep the boys interested. I know that I was
inspired and directed in planning this lesson.
The one we had last night was even better. It was with
a family that has been inactive for about 10 months. We got there late
and were really worried about it, but they let us in and the whole family
(except the dad) was gathered around the table with their scriptures and their
hymn books. We had such a good lesson about how we can get answers to
questions. We had each person close their eyes and imagine that they were
in their room doing homework or something. We told them to imagine that
someone walked into their room, and that it was Jesus Christ. We asked
them to think of a question they would ask him and to write the question on a
paper and then we went around answering the questions with the scriptures and
what not. Some of the best parts were when the Mom marked a scripture
that I shared and then her little son copied her and marked the scripture too.
Also amazing was when we were answering one of the kids questions about
how the church was true and the Mom told her story of how she knew. She
started crying and the spirit filled the room. We committed the family to
pray, read the scriptures, and come to church. They said yes, and I
really hope they will. Please pray for this family!
I LOVE MY MISSION. The church is true! The spirit
that I feel and the opportunity to help people realize what is important is
amazing. I love that as I help these wonderful people that I love so
much, I help myself. By bringing others unto Christ I bring myself unto
Christ. I get the chance to help others and help myself.
For Thanksgiving, we actually didn't get a solid invite for
dinner, so six of us sisters are getting together and cooking our own
thanksgiving dinner. I am really excited. We bought a lot of good
stuff.
Con Amor,
Hermana Olsen
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