What a great week...in Spain and America!

(Sent on May 20, 2013)

Hola Familia y amigos,

CORINNE YOU ARE MARRIED! I LOVE YOU!!!

This week has been just amazing.  Monday and Tuesday night we watched the hour Restoration/ Joseph Smith movie with different investigators.  I cried.  Man, I just felt the Spirit sooooo strong!  I know our investigators did too!  I KNOW Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, that he saw God the Father and His Son, and that through Them he restored the ONLY true hurch!  And I tell this to people every day!  What could be better than that?!  NOTHING!  (except maybe being Corinne Olsen and getting married to your eternal companion! but as I am not you, the mission is the best!)

James, who we have been teaching for about a month, finally came to church yesterday.  This amigo of mine is soooo prepared.  He is in 2 Nefi 26 and told us on Monday that he knew Joseph Smith was a prophet because there was no way he wrote the Book of Mormon.  He said it so cute too.  He said, "Joseph Smith could not have written this book, he must have been someone like Moses."  We said, "yeah, he´s a prophet."  James really liked the Restoration movie too.  And Church.  He said he had been praying for a church to go to to learn more about God, then he gestured to the church and nodded.  I told him, "James, I think you found it."  We are going to give him a baptismal date soon.  He is soo awesome.

Gener is new and also came to church.  He is from the Philippines and speaks more English than Spanish, but neither very well.  He is fun but difficult to talk to.  We had a lesson with him on Saturday and he came to church the next day.  He also came an hour-ish early.  I called around 9:20 to remind him that we had church at 10 and he said, "Sister, I will be prepared.  I am in Pavones."  So he came super early.  It was super cute though! 

Gener did not understand much of church, he leaned over to us and laughing said, "I don´t understand anything!!!" it was sooo funny!  But we need to fix that.  Luckily we have a Philipene family in our ward and we introduced them to each other and they are going to help us in our next lesson.  Which is awesome because they speak English, Spanish, and the Philipene lanuage Tagolog.

Also this week I got my residency card.  Por Fin.  We tried three times and finally got it. The first time I went to early and they didn´t have it.  The second, it was closed for a random Holiday celebrating a Saint.  The third time I got it! Yay!

We also got library cards.  There is a beautiful park in Ibiza and inside the park is a LIBRARY.  A library inside a park!  it is sooooo cool! It is cool, because we can now email for FREE! heck ya.  I hope I do not get transferred!

This week, we had a great lesson with Yusri, our muslim friend.  We talked for an hour about Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us and that He is the Son of God.  I really hope Yusri understands.  It is hard to teach him, because his beliefs are different than ours.  And I dont know much about the Muslim religion, so it is hard to know if he understands.  But, we have permission to teach him, and he is super great because he wants to learn and I can see him getting baptized.  It will take time, but I really have so much love for him!

I´m on a blog!  It is just a picture, but one of the MTC Senior Missionaries has a blog and I got on it.  the URL is missionarycoupleinmadridspain.blogspot.com so enjoy that. [Scroll down to the second picture to see Shelby.]

Funny story this week happened to Hna. Hansen and her new companion, Hna. Smith.  They went to teach a less active family and they gave them a jar full of scriptures about love.  In this jar they also had little chocolates.  They each saved one chocolate for themselves and after the lesson they were walking home and they decided to eat their chocolates.  Hna. Smith put the cherry chocolate in her mouth, and her mouth went numb.  The chocolates had ALCOHOL in them!  To make matters worse, they had recently found out that the husband of this family is less active because he has a drinking problem....I felt bad for them, but it is a pretty funny story!

So it was a great week!  I LOVE the Lord, and the Mission.  I LOVE my life.  I wouldn´t change a thing. I am beyond happy.  I realize I am making a sacrifice, but if it turns me into the person I am supposed to be, isn´t it more of a blessing than a sacrifice?

Con Amor,

Hermana Olsen

Address:

Hermana Shelby Olsen

Misión España Madrid

Calle Fuerteventura 4, 2^a, Oficina 8-B

28703 San Sebastián de los Reyes

Madrid, Spain