An apostle of the Lord

 

Food that I LOVE.  Especially a loaf of bread.  It is like french bread, but tastes sooo good. especially buying it fresh and warm!

 

 

Me and Hna O´Keeffe after the temple. 

 

 Me wearing pants while in the Piso cause it was COLD.  Oh yea, we seem to have beat the worst of the heat.  It is COLD in the mornings.  It is still pretty hot and miserable during the day, but the mornings are nice.  I sleep with a thin blanket too.  Much better!

Villa de Vallecas celebration of a Spanish Virgin.  They had drums beating and people walking in a parade.  It was some real Spain culture that was cool to see

Hola Familia y todos,

We had an INCREDIBLE week.  We worked hard, and have truly seen miracles.  Justino and Oscar, recent converts are progressing well.

We continue to work hard with those that are not progressing as well.  We have found so many people, now we just need to work to find those that are prepared for this message.  The hardest thing for people is to come to church.  They have work, or they cant afford it, or something comes up.  But we are starting to really try and focus on the importance of keeping commitments.

We are trying to teach with the Spirit.  We are trying to teach better and use the book of Mormon more.  We did not teach much this week, but the lessons we had were amazing! 

I love the mission so much.  There is one very special experience that I want to share with you all.  This week, Saturday, we were very blessed to be in the presence of Elder Ballard, an Apostle of the Lord.  He was in Europe doing Priesthood training and organizing stakes and what not.  He did not think he would have time, but he rearranged his schedule to meet with the Madrid missionaries and all the missionaries in the MTC.  He also shook each and every one of our hands.

This is where the amazingness begins.  He is shaking hands and saying good morning, or asking people how they are.  Just expressing nice phrases.  I walk up to him to shake his hand and I don´t remember who spoke first but I said thank you, and he said one word, ¨"Beautiful"  

Stunned, not sure I heard correctly, I sat back down.  Hna. O´Keeffe joins me and whispers, did Elder Ballard say Beautiful to you?  She had heard it too!  How special and blessed I felt.  

I don´t know why this happened, there are about 50 hnas in the mission and I think they are just as beautiful if not more so in looks and in Spirit.  But God blessed me with this experience.  I dont think I needed it, nor was I looking for it.  But it has given me confidence.  How can you not feel confident after an apostle has told you you are beautiful!

And he gave the BEST talk.  He talked about desire.  He read a lot in D&C 11 and talked about desire.  If our desire is right, we will have success.  He talked about the importance of using our time well, and turning it all over to Him.  He talked about studying the gospel and really knowing it, so that we could use it.  And he talked about Gethsemane.  He talked about the Atonement, and it changed my life.

Elder Ballard told us flat out that he was tired.  He said he asked himself why an 85 year old man should be running around Europe like so.  He said his body was tired and sometimes he just wanted to rest.  He talked about how tired he was and how his body ached sometimes and he wanted to rest.  Then he looked up, and looked at us and said (more or less a quote) "But I keep going, because I understand Gethsemane."  

He then told us that he had a picture of Jesus Christ that he always had with him.  Whenever he felt slightly disanimo-ed (dissapointed, discouraged algo asi....) he would pull out this picture and think about how NOTHING God asks us to do, could ever come close to what He asked His Son to do.

So I found a picture of Christ that I LOVE.  I now carry it around with me.  I invite all of you to do the same.  Look for one in an ensign, the internet, an art store.  Carry it around with you.  Look at it.  Remember what He did.  Think about Him more often.

I LOVE my Savior.  This week, and the rest of my mission and LIFE I am striving to strengthen my desire to show Him my love.  I am going to serve Him the best I can, because I have felt His love for me SO STRONGLY that I have to do all I can to return that.  and I WANT to do all I can. I know this church is true.  I love it with all my heart.  It really is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the fullness and completeness of His teachings.

On sunday, we watched the long Joseph Smith movie with Oscar.  I felt and feel so strongly that these things are true.  My testimony grows every day!  I never want these feelings to end! I love the mission and all the blessings and experiences God has given me!

Con amor,

Hermana Olsen

What a week!

Oscar´s baptism.

Justino. I´m almost certain he has seen twice the number of baptisms as he has had days where he was supposed to get baptized.

Me and Hna. Aagard (aka Jordan Johnson’s cousin) we are probably best friends in the mission even though we have never been companions.  At least she is my favorite Hermana in the mission.  And she always tells me how much she loves me, so we are pretty close!

 Me and my companion and hija.  She is so wonderful.  So much like me, she really feels like a hija.  And a good friend.

All the Hermanas!

My clothes hanging out to dry!  SO european.  I don´t know if I ever mentioned it but we hang our clothes out the window to dry them.  Pretty legit huh!

Hola Familia y amigos,

Well, we had another baptism!  Oscar, an investigator being taught by the other Hermanas until this past week, was baptized on Saturday.  We taught him the last few commandments.  He and Justino were confirmed with the Holy Ghost on Sunday. We teased it might take Justino another 6 months and 8 attempts to get confirmed but were very happy to see him at church that Sunday.  He even had a white shirt and tie!  Our district leader helped him tie it.  He was soo cute!

We continue to find and teach and teach and find.  Such is the life of a missionary.  It has been a really good week.  We taught a lot of lessons because we got several investigators from the other Hermanas.  I have really good feelings about this transfer.  I am ready to work hard and expect the Lord to work miracles through me.  A scripture I really like right now is Helaman 10:4,5.  It is my mantra and goal right now!

We tried to find a lot of less actives this week.  The relief society presidency gave us a list of 6 Hermanas they didn´t know and we found information on 5 of them.  We are still working with the last one.  They seemed really impressed.  They might give us more.  We had 45 missionaries enter the mission on Wednesday.  There are now 10 of us in Barrio 8.  The most in the whole mission.  God has a work for us to do!

I can feel something stirring in me too!  And in our ward.  Many of them are talking to us more, and the leadership (mostly bishop and ward mission leader) are really wanting to do more with missionary work.  The whole month of October the ward is dedicating a focus to missionary work.

We had a cool lesson this week.  3 teenage boys (18ish) came to the MTC reception and were asking questions to the receptionist just as we were finishing a lesson.  She directed them to us and we had the chance to show them temple grounds, and the capilla (chapel).  I answered all their questions, and pretty much taught them everything (even a little of the law of chastity).  We invited them to church, they didn´t come, but they seemed very impressed with what we believed in and all.  It was cool.

This week, we have been trying to reach our goals better.  To find more, we decided we would not go home for medio dia until we had found one person.  This helped us talk to more people, and one day gave us a cool experience.  

We were trying to find a less active, and contact as well.  We were talking to a lot of people, but nobody was all too interested.  Mediodia was appraoching and the people were dwindling.  During Mediodia NOBODY is on the streets.  I was worried we were going to have to spend mediodia walking around trying to FIND someone to contact.  I started talking to every. single. person.  Nada.  

A little frustrated, I decided we should go home and see if there were more people in that part of our area.  As we got to the metro, and had to wait a few minutes before it came, I had the impresion that we could find someone while on our way back home.  A little doubtful we sat down next to a guy, and I asked him where he was from.  He said the Philippines.  I asked if he spoke English (they all do).  We then had a conversation in English, I explained why we were in Spain, and he said we could write down his number.  God really blessed us!

So, basically, I LOVE the mission.  I love My Savior.  I know He loves me and all of His children.  He LOVES YOU!  He wants to help you.  I know that no matter how hard, no matter how hopeless, no matter our past, present or future, God will never forget us.  We can never do anything to lose his love and his help.  But we have to want it.  We have to work for it.  We have to try.  And if we do, we will succeed.  Because God asks us to try, and there is success in doing what God asks of us!

I KNOW the Book of Mormon is true.  I have been studying its pages daily and every morning I read and ponder just what I need for the day or for the week!  I know this church is true.  I love it so much!  Only through the truth, and Jesus Christ can I feel such joy and happiness.  Sometimes things are hard, but we can handle everything we are given!  And we never have to do anything alone!

Con amor,

 Hermana Olsen