The miracles of finding

 Hanging out one day after the temple!

Pictures of Sol (the center of Madrid)

The 2 other hermanas we live with were having a really hard day, and so our district leader asked what he could do.  They didn´t want to ask for something and they weren´t going to make him go out of his way to do anything.  So they said they were fine, and the rest of their week was much better.  But the day after their hard day, we heard our doorbell ring at about 9am and found this on our door step!  Pancakes and syrups-blueberry and maple!!  I´ve said it before, but my district leader now is seriously the BEST district leader  I have ever had on my mission! 

Hola familia y amigos,

This week has been really well.  We are working hard, and finding a ton.  We have been doing a lot of contacting, but we have had many great experiences doing so.

First we were contacting and receiving nothing but rejection after rejection.  It was hard and I didn´t feel like I could keep going. It felt like a waist of time and I didn´t want to do it anymore.  There had to be a better way. 

I felt prompted to go to an empty bench and say a prayer.  We prayed that we could be guided to find the people that were ready to accept the truth and that we could have the strength to continue on. 

Never have I enjoyed contacting so much than I did after that prayer.  And never has it been so successful.  We recieved about 8 numbers and all of them have been contacted and most of them have set up appointments to meet with us.  Only one was a fake number.  Since that day we have prayed a lot more before we go out and contact and we continue to reach our goals and find people willing to learn about the truth!

With all this finding, we already have 15 appointments set up for the week!  And I am sure we will set up more.  We are going to be busy!  We have also focused on families like never before!  If we see a family we feel an urge to talk to them.  We are trying to start teaching more families. I think it will be successful and good, because the gospel is central to the family.

MONTES is getting BAPTIZED!  September 7th. 

The month of August, is the WORST to be a missionary in Spain.  Everyone is on vacation or working more hours because they can get more work because of those on vacation.  So nobody has much time to meet with us. 

This is the case with Montes.  He is working more than he has ever worked before and his schedule is always changing.  But he told us yesterday, that he has all of september off.  So he can start coming to church again, and get baptized!  We are very excited for him!  He has time on Sundays so we will be visiting with him on Sundays to keep him feeling the Spirit, but I really think it is going to happen this time!

I also had a cool experience on the Metro.  Me and Hna. O´keeffe were on the way to a lesson and the ONLY ones on our metro car.  Yet I decided to leave a card on the metro.  I left it on my seat as we got off, and thought nothing more of it. 

About 2 or so hours later, I get a call from a number I do not recognize. I answer and a woman tells me that she found a card on the metro and that it talks about free English classes.  She was super interested in learning English and I had a really nice conversation with her and told her she was more than welcome to come.  She said she would come to the next one, which is Wednesday for us, and I am super excited to meet her.  I know right now, she might not have interest in the Gospel, but I certainly have faith that that can change.  I am excited to see what happens with her.

I look forward to another week as a Representative of Jesus Christ.  It has been the best time of my life, and it goes by too fast!  I hit my year mark this week!  President, I don´t want it to end!  I don´t want to go home!  I´m sometimes scared to lose the power of being a missionary, I don´t want to lose how close I am to the Spirit and how close I am to my Savior and my Father.  I don´t want to lose the responsability of helping others come unto Him! Never have I been so happy or found so much joy, I don´t want it to end!

I love you all and hope you can find joy in missionary work, just as I am. 

Con amor,

Hermana Olsen

P.S. we have found a Piso and are waiting to see if the dueño aproves everything, but we should be moving soon. Hopefully this week.  But we are not moving far and we see the other hermanas many times a week (they serve in the same ward as us and go to our district meetings).