Learning Patience...

Guthrie Elders at the Dickman's home

Guthrie Elders at the Oklahoma City Temple

Duncan and Elder Larson

                                                     Onward Christian Soldiers

                                                 

                                  We went to the temple last Tuesday in OKC. It was awesome.

 I love this gospel and the hope that it brings to us in times of trouble. Joseph Smith gloried in tribulation. He had had it so much in his life and he accepted it and knew that it would make him stronger. I pray that I can one day be as accepting as him towards the storms of life that we all face.  

 

It stormed here and snowed and froze so church was canceled on Sunday. Bishop's mom, the stake patriarch's wife, passed away last Friday. So her funeral is on Wednesday. It was pretty expected to happen. She has had 90% blockage in her heart for a while now. But it's still sad.

I’m feeling better. I've never been as sick in my life as I have been on my mission, probably just working so hard and the stress.

 

 We've been working our tails off and trying to be as obedient as possible, but we have not been as successful as we planned and prayed for. It is a little disappointing. I’m trying to fix it or figure out what area I need to improve in. I know there are many. Ha, Ha! 

I recently read the talk, Safety for the Soul by Elder Holland. Probably the best talk I've ever heard. I have been studying patience. I have learned from the scriptures that it is important to bear trials with patience and faith! –Mosiah 24:13-16 :)

“13 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

 14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

 15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

 16 And it came to pass that so great was their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again, saying: Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage.”

Love you much!

Elder Olson

 

 

 

 

 

Month 5 already...



Me and Elder Reynolds



The 2 sides of missionary work: temporal and spiritual service

Wednesday was mostly service for the Hands of Jesus Food Pantry. After service, we ate dinner at the Morgan's up here in Guthrie. Then we went over to the Rollins for FHE. We read the story of Abinadi with them and talked about it. Then for the activity, Sis Rollins took us to the bowling alley for 25 cent games! 

E Spafford thought that we should try to go see a family we recently met a couple weeks ago. They let us in and we talked and read about faith with them from the Book of Mormon and prayer. The wife told us how happy she was that God has helped her be smoke-free for over a month. Her 14 year old daughter isn't a member so we're going to try to teach her the lessons too and reactivate her parents! 

On Friday we had exchanges. E Reynolds, who came out to OKC with me from the MTC, came up to Guthrie with me and E Spafford went down to Edmond with Elder Halls. Within being here for an hour, E Reynolds flipped end over handle bars on his bike at a stop light in front of 15 stopped cars. I was crying I was laughing so hard! He ended up breaking his bike and having to email home to get money to fix it. So we walked a lot during the day. We saw Orlandress and read 2 Nephi 29 with him. His desire to come back to church is growing! Miracle --> as we were driving, a sad looking man waved to us as we passed him. Reynolds said that we should go talk to him. So I flipped the car around and we did. He and his wife have a couple of small children. He invited us into his house. We talked and were able to leave him with a Book of Mormon and he agreed to read it carefully and pray about it. He said that if it was true, that he'd submit and be baptized! Sweet!:) 

Sunday- Great day at church. The Stuarts gave talks on faith in God. I finished 2 Nephi this morning while studying. I know I've been reading it slowly! The Gardners fed us dinner. David, 11 years old, showed us his pet bearded dragon lizard and fed it a cricket for us to watch. It reminded me of us showing off our pet snake Kaa to the missionaries especially the missionary back in Avondale that was so scared of him that he ran out of our house! After dinner, we went to the Dickman's to eat the ice cream cake that they had had since Monday for Elder Larson's birthday. 

I know that this gospel is true. I love the Book of Mormon. I am eternally thankful for the atonement and repentance. I feel honored to be out here in OKC for two years to serve God. Love,

Elder Olson

Sharing the gospel and loving it!

Armadillo road kill

Australian blue-tongued skinks sighting in Oklahoma?

They are filming a movie about America in Guthrie.

 

Monday- Normal p-day. The carpet in the church building that we normally play basketball and volleyball in is being all torn up. So we went to E Halls and E Reynolds apartment and played basketball on a tiny half court that they have by their apartment. Then we showered and went to the Borgerson's for dinner. Afterwards, we went to the Wade's and met up with Dakoda there to play more basketball.

Tuesday- After studies, Sis Storie took us out to eat lunch at Stables!:) Then we visited Rodger and read 2 Nephi 4:16-35 with him. I had read it during my personal study and felt that it would apply to Rodger as it did to me. We worked a lot with members today. At one of the houses, the lady told us that the person we were looking for had moved away about a year ago. So we thanked her and headed back to our car... not even thinking of asking her if she was interested in the church or anything. As we were getting in the car, she yelled to us, "Are y'all Mormons?" We said yes and she told us she had some questions and would like to make an appointment with us. We set up an appointment with her then left. Awesome!

Wednesday- What a day! We got to see Sis Barrow for a minute and set up an appointment to teach her and her daughter again. We ate dinner with the Chaston's. When we returned home, we brought Dakoda with us to the Bibb's house for a FHE that we had planned. We brought up music and beats that Dakoda had made and Br.Bibb pulled out his phone and plugged it into a speaker and started playing some beats that he had made. I ran out to the car and grabbed the CD Dakoda had burned us of beats that he made and we started to listen to it all together. All of a sudden, I guess Br.Bibb was feeling a beat that Dakoda made and started to freestyle rap to it. (Mom and Dad that means that he started to come up with lyrics off of the top of his head) He rapped about Jesus, the Atonement and Joseph Smith! It was freaking sweet!

Thursday- We met the Schraters. They are members. We visited with them and talked about their missionary work. They are doing awesome! Sis Schrater is discussing some little things about the church with a couple people that she knows. We ate a cheap dinner at Taco Bell then went to the Rollins for cake and bowling because it was Sis Rollins' bday. It was actually a little bit of a surprise party for E Larson because his bday is this coming up Monday. Sis Rollins got a yellow cake with an octopus that had black jerie curls for E Larson. It's an inside joke that's hard to explain ha-ha. The blue frosting stained our tongues.  We went bowling at 89er Bowling Alley. Probably the oldest bowling alley I’ve ever seen ha-ha. I won a game.

Friday- Today we visited the Morgans. We asked them how their missionary work is going and talked about it. We read Isaiah 29 and 2 Nephi 27 with the Ramirez's. Then stopped by Melanie and Nick's to try to set up a time when we could come have a FHE with them. We went to the Rollins and gave Marianne, Sis Rollins' mother, a blessing and Sis Rollins a blessing then shared D&C 4 with them and Dakoda.

 

Love you all,

Elder Olson

Serving with a smile...

Doing service at a farm in Guthrie.

 

Hello,

No more winter weather yet. It rained a little bit this weeks but it was in the 50s most of the week.

Monday- We woke up early and headed to Dakoda's to be guests on his Morning radio show that he created. Then it was a normal p-day. We had a specialized training meeting after we ate an awesome dinner at Adobe. We were trained on goals and planning by our Zone Leaders, Elders Zerkle and Jones.

 

Tuesday- the Zone Leaders came up to Guthrie to go on splits with the other elders and us. E. Jones got stuck with Spafford and me. We saw Rodger and shared with him the Plan of Salvation. We searched for some families of the ward. One was at Guthrie Lake which was actually a pretty lake. They weren't home but their neighbor's giant Rottweiler tried to eat us!

 We had a huge Mexican feast dinner at the Acuna's house:)

Wednesday- Today we were able to visit Sis Barrow. She told us to treat her like an investigator so we did exactly that! We taught her and her 25 year old daughter the Restoration. She is a less active and her daughter, Mary, isn't a member. I did a faith test visual lesson by setting an empty tea bag on fire in my hand. It burns till it's about to touch your hand then it floats off your hand and burns in the air.

Thursday- We felt that we should go see Sister Ford. When we got to her house she told us she had been very sick and trying to call her doctor but he wasn't answering. She didn't know if she should go to the hospital or not, then she thought, "I should call the missionaries and get a blessing from them." Right when she thought of that we knocked at her door! We gave her a blessing and she immediately started to feel better. She wanted to visit with us and talk, but her doctor called her back and said that she should go to the ER to get checked out. Then Sister Rollins took us out to eat at Pop's for dinner. We went to Br.Dickman's afterwards for a meeting.

Friday- After District Meeting, E. Halls, Larson, Spafford and I went to eat at Mr.Lu's Asian buffet. The old Asian lady there continued to flirt with E. Spafford by insisting that he looks like Matt Damon ha! Well today while walking through a neighborhood to find some more people on the list from the ward, a car pulled up by us and rolled down their window. We were like oh no because it's in Guthrie so anything could happen. The lady driving asked us if we had stopped by a certain house and Spafford replied no. She asked why not and he said he just didn't feel like we needed to. She told us that she and her husband are members and she'd like us to stop by. So we did. They are a less active, part member family that was actually on our list but they were on a separate address. We would have never found them unless we were outside walking at that place at that time. We get to go to some service at Melanie and Nick's farm tomorrow and we are going to Family Home Evening next week at the Bibb's!

Saturday- We did a lot of service today. We drove to help the Smith's move a new family into the ward. We just emptied some storage boxes into a storage unit. Then Br.Smith bought us Subway. We went to Melanie and Nick's farm after that to do some service. Their milk barn collapsed because it was super old, so we cleaned it all up and are going to burn all the rotted wood from it. We later visited the Ramirez family and read 3 Nephi 11:1-17 about Jesus coming to the America's. We went to the Rollins' house and her friend, Dee, was there from Denton, TX. We gave Sister Rollins a blessing and the spirit was so strong!

Sunday- Today was a pretty normal day at a church. We had transportation problems so all we could do was visit with one of the other missionaries’ investigators with them.

 

Love,

Elder Olson

 

Ready for the day (notice how clean our apartment is?)

Tracks I cross every day here in Guthrie.

Our snow has melted so it's back to shirt weather.

Thought for the day: Life is like a mirror-- you only get out of it what you put in to it.

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