This was a hard week. I had to go down to OKC on Wednesday for a meeting for all the recently new missionaries. It lasted almost all day. We learned more about effective studying and planning lessons better. I got my bike that day and had a hard time replacing the pedals because I didn't have the right tool. But I rode it to a bike shop in Guthrie the next day and the guy there handed me the right wrench and the pedal came off no problem. This week we didn't have many set appointments, so it was a lot of just riding our bikes around and talking to people and trying to have short visits with less active members. Nobody would talk to us or have any time to listen. That made the days long and exhausting because of the entire bike riding up and down hills. Friday I had my first exchange. I went with our district leader, Elder Peterson, down to Edmond and spent the second half of Friday there and the first half of Saturday with him. It was pretty fun. We got to know each other better and he was asking a lot of deep questions. Most of which just made me feel like I wasn't a good enough missionary. But I know I can always improve.

 

On Saturday evening, Elder Spafford and I went to visit with some less actives and investigators to invite them to church the next day. It was a miracle! They were all home and they all wanted to visit with us! One of the last people we saw was Leilani and her son. We had bought her son a white shirt and tie so that they could come to church because they don't have very much money to buy nice clothes. We had handed her a Book of Mormon the last time we saw her with The Restoration pamphlet in it. We had invited her to read the Introduction when we had left before. So this time we asked her if she had read it and she said, "Oh yeah I did, and I read up to chapter... 5 of Nephi." Spafford and I were like SWEEEET! She totally understood it all too. We told her that next time we meet with her; we'll tell her about how we got the Book of Mormon. She pulled out the Restoration pamphlet and said, "oh you mean what it talks about in this?”... Our jaws were on the floor. She had read the whole Restoration pamphlet as well and understood it all without us even inviting her to read it! We asked her if there was anything she didn't understand or that we could clarify for her. She replied, "No. I think I got it all. I know the bible pretty good so I understand about the Aaron priesthood being the less priesthood and I know all about Melchezidek." We were so shocked at how much the Lord had prepared her for us.

October 14, 2013

This is the Mumford & Sons tour name.



The four missionaries in Guthrie, OK

Elder Spafford and me barbecuing some dinner.

My apartment H4

3 inch long cicada

 

I'm getting on the computer at one of the college's libraries. My p-day is every Monday. We usually email around 10-12 in the morning here. It's two hours later here than in AZ.  And yes, across the street from our apartment is a pond with trees and benches under the trees by the water. Guthrie has a Walmart and that's it. For big shopping trips we go down to Edmond.

 

So about all our investigators. We have Natasha and Zack. They are about 30 years old and have their three kids William 8, Lucas 7, and Lexie 5.  William is the only one that is baptized. Zack works at the oil fields so he is here for a week then at the oil fields for a week working. Natasha is a lot like Becky:) We have been teaching them visual lessons and the kids really like it.

 

Next is Cheyanne. She just moved here from Chandler, OK a week ago and she is looking for a church to go to. She is about 27 years old and has a son, but we haven't met him yet. We taught her the restoration this week and committed her to pray, read the Book of Mormon, go to church, and I invited her to be baptized. She said yes to all of them so I tried to throw the baptism one in there but she said she's already been baptized in another church.

 

We met Johna while we were tracting and we prayed with her and her little son and she invited us to come back but we couldn't reach her when she is home. We'll keep trying her.

Lelani works at Walmart and has a son, Edward, that is about 12 years old. She has tons of faith and had a hard past. But we committed her to come to church and left her with a book of Mormon. She is excited to learn more!

We also just met an elderly lady named Linda at church. Her son and daughter in law were just converted a month ago and they're from San Diego. They came up to visit his mom and introduce her to the missionaries and the church. We'll be visiting her on Tuesday.

Our less actives list is quite large. Rodger is about 60 years old and has Multiple Sclerosis. He is in a Retirement home and we visit with him weekly. He has such a strong testimony of the church. He was converted a couple years ago. He likes to play Farmville on Facebook and has such cool stories of his past.

Keith is a 400lb hyper, cussing, funny less active. We visited him in the hospital and he goes thru spurts of wanting the gospel. He is really off and on with it but he likes for us to share scriptures and lessons with him.

Lisa and Dakota are doing awesome! Her tumor started off at a 15.3 (they use some kind of measurement scale to how big the tumor is and how cancerous it is) We gave her a priesthood blessing and she told us at her next appointment it dropped to 4.2, which is amazing! Dakota played volleyball with us and played some basketball with us during the week in the morning. We're going to try to record him and us 4 elders singing and playing the Mumford version of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. If we do I'll be sure to send it home to you to hear!

Phyllis is also one of those less actives. She didn't come to church yesterday though. I don't think she could find a ride.

Orlandress is a 30 year old man that works and goes to school. He doesn't have much time to go to church so we visited him and I talked to him most of the time. I shared a scripture with him on faith and he said that faith is exactly what he has been struggling with. I shared some of my experiences and bore my testimony on faith. He could really feel the spirit and really liked me (haha).

 

My guiding scripture is Matthew 4:18-19 "And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.  And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

I could keep going on but my emailing time is almost over!  I love you so very much! thank you for all the love and support!

 

Love

-Elder Olson 

Provo Temple trip before flying to Oklahoma

Guthrie, Oklahoma

I'm in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

When I went tracting, there were a lot of run down shacks as houses with hillbillies sitting on the porches drinking moonshine and smoking cigarettes. But I love it here. It's actually really green, but very windy. I had my first tornado warning my second night here. Yes the members feed us and take us out to eat. No okra so far.  

There are a lot of bugs here, big flying beetles and lots of spiders.  

My apartment is alright. it smells like weed all the time because the guy above us smokes all the time. the other missionaries and members probably think we get high back at the apartment because all our clothes smell like it haha.
 

Mumford and Sons (a favorite musical group) came to Guthrie in early September and it was such a big deal the whole town shut down. Sister Storie from the ward, took several of the missionaries to lunch today at Stables. The workers were all wearing Mumford shirts so I bought one to remind me of home, family, and friends. 

My companion is Elder Spafford. He is from Syracuse, Utah. He looks just like Ben Olson. He is really cool. The members I've met so far are awesome! I haven't been to church yet because of conference, but I heard that there are like 200 people in our ward.
The dinner with the mission president was eating sandwiches in the gym of the church with like 26 other missionaries.

My bike has arrived, but its like 100 miles round trip to pick it up and go back to the apartment and I guess those miles aren't covered. I'm going to pick it up in a week when my companion and I go down to OKC for a trainer meeting. We have a pretty sweet truck though. I think it's a 2010 Colorado crew cab that's lifted. All the trucks are lifted because the roads here are really crappy and it floods a lot.

I met a mom and a son that are inactive. Lisa, the mom, has cancer, and Dakota, the son, is 19 and stays home to take care of her. She loves the church but can't go cause of her condition.  Dakota is so awesome. He plays guitar and sings. He sounds amazing! We have a cd of his in the car. He writes his own music, plays guitar and sings on the cd. We invited him to come play volleyball tonight with us at the bishop's house. He said he'd come. I think I know what president Forsberg was saying when he called this a "rescue mission".  I am rescuing all inactives or less actives.

I've done a little tracting, but mostly I've been meeting with inactives and becoming friends with them. There is an awesome family I've been seeing. Zack and Natasha are the parents and Zack has one boy that is 8 and Natasha has a boy and a girl that are about 6 and 4. The 8 year old got baptized but hasn't gone to church since. Zack and Natasha struggle with the word of wisdom. and it's hard to teach them because previous missionaries were just really good social friends with them. So it's difficult to switch to teaching them more than hanging out with them.

We helped a inactive lady, Phyllis, move in the second day I was here and we invited her to come to conference. We got her a ride and she came to the Sunday morning session. She loved it and can't wait to come to church next Sunday. Conference was awesome. Pres. Uchtdorf had the best two talks on Saturday and Sunday.

I'll leave you with some of the poem that President Monson said. "Timbers do not grow with ease. By strong winds and storms sprout tough trees."
Love,
Elder Olson

We had a wonderful talk with Duncan at 4 am this morning while he waited to board the plane for Oklahoma City. He is really excited.
Tonight we received this photo and the short message, "President Walkenhorst is shorter than I thought, ha ha!!" Duncan's uncle Jim (FBI) did a Google search while we stayed with them in Utah prior to dropping Duncan off, and told us Pres. Walkenhorst played basketball for BYU and stands 6'11". We are sure Duncan will learn a lot from him and his wife.