A Great Week.....

Raymond's baptism with Elder Davis

Elder Olson cooking hotdogs after the baptism.

Elder Olson and Sister Goza, a wonderful family in the Ada ward.

My week was great! I've been trying to write in my journal more often!. Raymond's baptism was awesome! I'm glad you're helping the missionaries there at home so much! 2 Nephi 4 also known as Nephi's psalm is one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. I am studying Alma 46, where Moroni creates the Title of Liberty and kills all the traitors to freedom, to Matthew 12:30 where Jesus states, "he that is not with me is against me." That reminded me of obedience. Why are we disobedient? If we knew the consequences to our actions before we acted, would we still act the same? Elder Robert D Hales mentioned this in his talk at last conference. He said that the reason we are disobedient is found in Moses 5:13: because "they loved Satan more than God." Talk about boldness!

 

Elder Davis and I are working on finding more people to teach because our teaching pool is getting smaller. We have found several nice people. I am so thankful for our Heavenly Father's plan and for temples.

 

Love,

Elder Olson 

Ponderings......

Lanita's baptism. Wonderful!!

Check out this awesome knot I learned!!

I've thought about us being our own worse enemy too and I think of flesh vs. the Spirit. Our spirit wants to do well and knows what is good and bad. But our flesh is what falls so easily into temptation. It just wants what FEELS good and wants it right now. I think of the cookie monster when I think of the flesh. "I WANT COOKIE, I WANT COOKIE NOW" This life is about developing Self-Mastery which falls under the category of Temperance in the Topical Guide of the scriptures. It is not easy, but this life is not easy. Missionary work is not easy. Raising a family is not easy. But the Atonement was not easy either. If we are to call ourselves Disciples of Christ, then we must endure through something, maybe a little speck of something that the Savior went through. Elder Holland gave a great talk about that.

Raymond is getting baptized this Saturday. We had a baptism last Saturday. Our friend, Lanita, ask me to confirm her on Sunday and Elder D. to baptize her. It was a wonderful day. She is so happy and so are we.  Raymond, another man we have been teaching is choosing to be baptized on this coming Saturday. There have been 20 baptisms in Ada since January. The Lord is truly “hastening His work,” and I am so glad to be part of it.

 I want to share a neat quote I found while reading a talk by the apostle, Elder D. Todd Christofferson:

“There is not a higher good than motherhood and fatherhood in marriage. There is no superior career, and no amount of money, authority, or public acclaim that can exceed the ultimate rewards of family.”

Okay so funny story time... Yesterday after the Skype, we went to give Chris, the Sister's investigator, a blessing because he is quitting coffee and is going through caffeine withdrawals. So he asked some questions about the priesthood and my companion answered all of them perfectly. Then we gave him a blessing and he started to say how awesome it felt and how empowered he felt. For some reason I started talking about how he has the power to quit coffee, that he could "punt a bag of coffee beans no problem." And he took that literally and asked me if I wanted to go outside and punt his last can of coffee that he has in his kitchen. Of course I said heck yes, and we went outside and Elder Davis held the can on his foot and I field goal kicked it off of some stairs. Then Chris wanted to try so he ran down and got the can and tried to kick it too, but mostly just nailed Elder Davis' hand and the can rolled down the stairs. So Chris wanted a re-try and he held the can himself and kicked it and it blew up when it hit the ground. It was all so awesome, except we didn't think about the giant smell of coffee that exploded into our nostrils after the can blew up. But Chris thought it was the greatest thing ever! :)

Love you

Elder Olson

 

Temple Joy

Oklahoma City Temple with Sister Rollins and the Dickmans

A wonderful day!

Loving every minute....

Ada District Missionaries

Bottle feeding a calf
 

A little frog I caught.

Little helpers who remind me of my nephews, they wanted to carry our backpacks to the car!

I got to stand in the circle for a baby blessing of Brother Calhoun's daughter, Rosemary Calhoun. It was so cool! It's the first time I’ve ever stood in one of those. My last week was pretty good! We had a meeting with Bishop Niblett on Tuesday night after our Book of Mormon class. He gave us some assignments to look up what the difference between temperance and diligence is. D&C 4:6; 12:8. I came to the conclusion from the tortoise and the hare story. The tortoise had self-mastery. He abstained from working harder than he was able, but yet he didn't stop. He was diligent and he won the race. We did a lot of biking this week. About 32 miles since Wednesday. On Thursday we taught the Restoration to Evelyn, she is in her 50s. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted a date! We need to continue to see her and really work with her to achieve that goal. Later that night we went to the Walton’s' house to teach one of their grand daughter's friends named Lexis. We also taught her the Restoration and she is getting baptized on May 17th! She is already going to girl's camp this summer and has friends in the church. We went on exchanges Friday and Saturday. I was with Elder Garcia. We tried a lot of people but no one was available. We continued to work and the Lord blessed us with people in our path. Elder Garcia stopped and talked with everyone and we found three potential investigators from it. We have an appointment with one of them tonight! There are 14 new missionaries coming in this next transfer. Trainer calls were last weekend and I didn't receive one so I’m not training a new missionary. Yay! That'd be super stressful haha. I hope I get to continue to labor with Elder Davis here in Ada. I'm learning so much from him and we seem to work well together. I love you and hope you have a great week! Thanks for the package and shirts and notes! :)

We usually eat out on Mondays and/or Fridays as a District. Sometimes when we drive all the way to Coalgate with the Sisters we eat at a home cooking restaurant called the Brand-N-Iron cause we can't make it back to eat with a member. I am looking forward to receiving more mail! I haven't gotten any letters in almost two weeks haha. We drove to a tiny Amish town called Clarita to find a less active member. It was awesome and super pretty! I'll send some pictures.

Mother's day is indeed approaching. I love you so much and am so thankful for all you have done for me. Can't wait to Skype!

Love you!

Elder Olson