Patience is a virtue...

 I'm behind in my journal but I keep trying to catch up because I want to remember every day of my mission. I try to write a funny story or something unique that happened each day. I found an awesome scripture while studying the topic of Patience the other day. Alma 17:11. It's the Lord's advice to the sons of Mosiah right after he tells them to go to the Lamanites to teach them. Patience is definitely something I need to improve on.  

Alma 17:11 And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites,(the people of Oklahoma) thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be ^apatient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good ^bexamples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls.

 

What a weird Christmas. It's hard not being home with family and friends. Instead I spent it with 3 guys that I didn't know 2 months ago. I showered, and called home. We ate dinner with the Leonard’s and visited the Rollins after dinner.

Day after Christmas was alright. It's hard to just jump right back into full swing missionary life so soon after Christmas. All the people we tried weren't home. But we felt that we should stop by Sister C's (a less active) house and visit with her room mate since Sister C. is still in Kentucky. Her roommate was nice as always and glad that we stopped by to check on her.

 

 

 

Friday, we got up early to play basketball with Dakoda. We had district meeting and got to meet the sisters in our new district. We came back to the apartment to do weekly planning then head to the library for mormon.org time. While we were at the library, we met a man on the computer by us named Tray. He started asking questions about what we do as missionaries... Perfect! At first he was saying stuff like, "I don't have to go to your church to learn about that do I?" Then by the end he said, "Where is your church? What time does it start? Could you guys meet with me and tell me more?" Haha! Absolutely we can!!:)

Saturday's plans fell thru, but we got to see Rodger in the rest home and meet his sister who is not a member. We shared 2 Nephi 31 with them and touched on the doctrine of Christ.

2 Nephi 31:20-21 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a ^asteadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of ^bhope, and a ^clove of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and ^dendure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have ^eeternal life.

 21 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the ^away; and there is ^bnone other way nor ^cname given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the ^ddoctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the ^eFather, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is ^fone God, without end. Amen. 

 She loved it and liked us, but she lives in Edmond so we sent her name as a referral for the Elders down there.

Sunday was a good day at church. The previous bishop taught Gospel principles class so it was awesome that we didn't have to teach it. We ate some Colombian tamales for dinner. Definitely the most foreign food I’ve ate. It was corn meal and mushy rice with flavorless pork, a bone, and some kind of meaty hard boiled egg wrapped in a plantain leaf. The bone was cooked so much that I bit it and it crumbled in my mouth. It felt all powdery and tasted like blood. I looked at the tamale to see what I ate and I saw the bleeding bone marrow of the pork in the tamale... ha-ha. Definitely a cool experience but not one I’d want to repeat!

Love you!

Elder Olson

 

 

 

Post Christmas

Christmas Ice in Guthrie, OK

Frozen truck antenna

 

We had a great Christmas conference last Saturday at the mission home. Half of the mission was there. We had a major ice storm. On our trip back to Guthrie we had to cross a four lane bridge and to our surprise there were six cars in various accidents on the bridge. We were able to maneuver around them and arrive home safely. When it is icy and snowing here drivers tend to punch on the gas and make things worse. We are grounded from bikes and cars during those times. Church tends to be shortened, rescheduled, or cancelled often also. We have a man in the ward who tries to keep us informed, but sometimes we don’t get the message.

 Guthrie is a town of about 10,000 people and 40+ churches so about everyone is baptized. It is difficult to teach about baptism and the authority given by the priesthood to conduct the ordinance. The answer is, “I have already been baptized.” I have come up with a little analogy to share at that point.

“Say you were driving down the street and a Popsicle van playing annoying music pulls up behind you flashing their lights and waving you to pull over. After stopping your car the Popsicle man comes to your window writing in a little notepad. He announces that he is giving you a traffic ticket complete with a fine. Would you pay it? Of course not, he has no right or authority to issue traffic tickets.” I then pull out the bright yellow index card on which I have listed my line of priesthood authority. Mine begins with Jesus Christ ordaining the apostles, who ordained Joseph Smith, who ordained Brigham Young, eventually my father was ordained to the Priesthood and in September 2013 I was ordained by my father. My priesthood authority is directly tied to Jesus Christ; therefore I am given the privilege and right to baptize in the name of Jesus Christ.

I love my mission. I love the people of Guthrie. I am so glad I get to serve here for a while longer.

 

Love,

Elder Olson

Have shovel...will serve

Duncan with the Dickman children

This is how they get it done in OK.

Wouldn't you love to have these guys shovel out your driveway?

This is a big change for a desert rat.

 



 

Monday- We toured the largest Free Mason temple in the world. It's about half a mile from our apartment. It was pretty sweet. We ate dinner at the stake president's house, we brought Dakoda with us. We went and visited the Wade's then went back to drop Dakoda off. When we went to drop him off, Sister Rollins had made us delicious muffins:)

Tuesday- Finally we were able to drop off the broken Corolla at the car dealership! We walked again today. Only about 4 miles. We visited Rodger and he is doing good! We read Mark 3:1-7 with him and discussed miracles and Jesus since we're getting closer to Christmas. We walked and tried to see the Mallet's, Martinez's, Melanie, Leilani and Bibb's but none of them were home. We came back to the apartment to eat then we went to visit the Rollins for a little bit. We left Dakoda with a reading assignment. D&C 20:38-67, the responsibilities of priesthood holders.

Wednesday- Today we did exchanges. E Larson and I went to do lunch on Noble service. Then E Rumsey and E Spafford did the hands of Jesus food pantry. E Larson and I walked around trying to see people. We ended up in downtown Guthrie and found those awesome Guthrie Native American shirts. The lady working at the shop used to work at a car dealership in San Diego where the missionaries bought and fixed their cars! She was very interested in us so we'll stop by there again soon! We went to the ward Christmas party and ate some more thanksgiving food and watched little kids re-enact the nativity.

Thursday- We tried to see a lot of people today, but almost nobody was home. We were able to see Orlandress. We met an investigator today that E Spafford met when we was volunteering at the food pantry. His name is Jeremy. He is really interested in Mormons and how to become one! Sister Rollins fed us dinner at this awesome Mexican restaurant then we went back to her house with Dakoda to watch a DVD on temples. She gave each of us a Christmas present! I got ear muffs, boxers, a card, a tie, a tie bar, matching handkerchief and matching cuff links!

Friday- We spent all day in Edmond. We had our district meeting then we had to go to a chiropractor's for E Rumsey's back. Between the district meeting and the chiropractor's we did some Christmas shopping. E Rumsey figured out that he had scoliosis. Then we went to visit Zack and Natasha for a little bit and eat dinner with them.

Saturday- We did our studies and tried to see some more families. They were all either busy or not home. We went to Zack and Natasha's again to do some service.

Sunday- We went to church! Finally! I hadn't had the sacrament in 2 weeks! Church was really good. We ate a huge lunch afterwards and did our studies then went to dinner at the Smith's. We ate a really good meal then came back to the apartment and bike sprinted to 4 houses to try to improve our numbers for the week. We were only able to visit with one lady for a little bit. She is a less active. We gave her a priesthood blessing because she was sick then left. We got the call tonight for our transfer doctrine. Whether we were being transferred on Wednesday or not. E Rumsey, E Spafford, E Larson and I are all staying in Guthrie for another transfer! So we will be here for Christmas.

 

Love you all,

Elder Olson

 

Buried in snow and ice...

 

I wasn't able to listen to the Christmas devotional. We haven't been riding our bikes or truck in the snow. We've been walking.

Since I'm in the Bible belt I hear a lot about Grace and being "saved by grace." After studying it for a little bit I feel like I have more of an understanding of it. It's impossible to come to a conclusion on how to be saved by just reading the bible. In Ephesians 2:5-9 it clearly states that "by grace ye are saved through faith... not of your works." I highlighted those scriptures and wrote next to them James 2:14-26 which states, "Faith without works is dead... by works a man is justified, and not by faith only"

This is why The Book of Mormon is a necessity! This is an example on how it clarifies the bible. 2 Nephi 25:23, "for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." The bible dictionary gives an excellent description on Grace. "Grace cannot suffice without total effort on the part of the recipient." God gave us the commandment to be perfect. He doesn't give any commandment that we cannot achieve. To be perfect we have to apply the doctrine of Christ. Continually have faith, continually repent, always be worthy and able to take the sacrament, constantly striving to be more Christ-like and be able to recognize and act on the feelings and impressions from the Holy Ghost. After doing all that, the Atonement, God's grace, makes up for the rest and we are therefore perfect. Anyways, that's my idea on it:)

Monday- pday. I still am sick along with E Larson and E Spafford started to feel sick as well. After emailing we went to Jamba Juice. Missionaries get 1/2 off at Jamba Juice because I think the owner is Mormon! Then we went to the church. It was zone pday but we didn't go with the rest of the zone because we were sick. E Larson and I passed out on the stage floor in the church. We had a specialized training meeting to end the day by the zone leaders. It was on the doctrine of Christ. It was really good:)

Tuesday- Well! E Spafford, ELarson and I were all still sick. We all had stomach aches and throbbing head aches. E Rumsey made me come with him to unload a food truck for service because he wanted to leave the apartment.

Wednesday- Everyone but E Rumsey was still sick. Rumsey made me come with him to do 7 hours of service at lunch on Noble and Hands of Jesus food pantry. I was feeling pretty bad the whole time. So when we got back to the apartment, I took some medicine and passed out. It snowed about 6 inches today too.

Thursday- We're all still sick except E Rumsey. Sister Dickman dropped us off a care package of soup, medicine, "get well" balloons and cards written by her daughter. At night we gave each other blessings and it snowed a couple more inches.

Friday-We were feeling a little better today. But the car and bikes were grounded because of the icy roads and snow. District meeting was canceled as well. So we all stayed inside and took medicine. I taught the other elders how to play some games.

Saturday- Finally we were all feeling better! But our bikes and car were still grounded. So Sister Dickman came and picked us up to go hang out at their house. We ended up shoveling their driveway and driving to 4 other member's houses and shoveling their driveways as well. One of the members gave us hot apple cider:) Afterwards we went back to the Dickman's and ate dinner then they drove us back home. E Spafford and I got to sleep in our own beds again! We had been sleeping on the floor of the other Elder's apartment for the whole week.

Sunday-Church was canceled today because of the ice. Our truck and bikes were still grounded too. So we did our studies then walked about 5 miles in the snow and visited the Martinez family, Sister Martinez's mom lives with her and her mom is a southern Baptist. Then we tried to see the Rollins, but they were in OKC. So we talked with Sister Barrow for a little bit, she is a less active member. Then we walked back to the apartment, warmed up and went to bed!

 

My life as a missionary,

Elder Olson