Last Transfer...Oklahoma University Ward, Norman OK.

I received a call from President Walkenhorst yesterday. He said he wants me to head to Norman and be a Zone Leader. Don't know why he'd choose me of all missionaries. But I’m glad to go. I'll be in the OU college ward there. He said I’ll be there till I come home. I'm excited to work there and work more closely to President as a Zone Leader. I headed there last Wednesday. It's going to be hard on OU game days when I can hear the game no matter where we go in town. We had another baptism a week ago. Tiara, one of Aaron's daughters was baptized and confirmed. It feels so much better when we don't perform the baptism but we have the members baptize and confirm her. The spirit was strong as she came up out of the water with a smile from ear to ear. I love this work. And work it is indeed. 

Love you!

Elder Olson

Transfer Day...some going home others going on to new areas.

Br.Kirby, convert, at the OK temple.

Styling socks and rising water...

We had a specialized training meeting yesterday given by our zone leaders and sister training leaders. It was about being happy and having the desire to get out and find people to teach. Then the second part of it was all about talking to people and turning the conversation into the gospel and sharing a restored truth with the person. It was really good. The missionaries kept bringing up, "I hate how awkward it is," "that'd be really awkward." and so on. So what if it's awkward?? Is that awkward feeling seriously keeping us from teaching more people the gospel? I read a speech by Elder Holland titled, "Cast not out therefore your confidence" it is really good. It talks about how we will always face opposition right before something great occurs. I think awkwardness might be a tool from Satan when he’s trying to get us feel too uncomfortable to teach and testify. Anyways, I hate awkward moments too ha-ha. But I think keeping focused on my vision of the investigator or potential investigator, will help overcome those feelings the best.

We're teaching the quit smoking workshop today to one of our investigators. We have another lesson with L at 3. We fixed her lawn mower last week and she gave us a grocery bag full of pecans from her tree in return. Score!! :)

Things are going well here, despite the storms. We trust in Helaman 5:12 pretty literally. That we won't get carried away in the mighty storms, hail and shafts in the whirlwind here in Chickasha ha-ha!! We haven’t had to help much. Usually after the rain has stopped for a couple hours the drains pick up the rest of the water. We have put some sand bags around downtown area where the flooding was to occur. 

Thanks Dad! Always good to laugh at your funny comments:) I think they're rubbing off on me because I usually send out a daily scripture in the mornings. Here was one from a couple weeks ago, "Good morning America! The daily double-dose of doubt-departing spiritualness is found in this scripture: Helaman 3:35  Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.."

 

Hope you have a great week! Love you tons!

Hiking in Chickasha...

Livin' in Chickasha, OK

Saying goodbye for now to the Lusk family...

Paige's baptism

Holding an Easter chick

New friends in Chickasha

Bitter sweet goodbyes to Oklahoma 2nd Ward. I am now in Chickasha, OK. It is about 45 minutes from Oklahoma City. My companion is Elder Lyman. We are the only missionaries in town. The branch is small (35-50) but growing. I am ready for the new experiences. I love it here!

Settling 'n to a small town...

This week has been pretty good. The branch is so different than a ward. It's pretty much run by 3 families. President Robertson is Branch president, his wife is Relief Society President, Brother Shaw is his first councilor and Sister Shaw is primary president, Brother Gerlach is 2nd councilor and his wife is young women president. There was about 50 people at sacrament, everyone was saying how there was such a large number of people there. Our chapel is 6 pews long. 4 people pass the sacrament, when it could actually do with 3. Elder Lyman and I are speaking next Sunday about the work of salvation or temples or something along those lines. We're teaching a lot of people and many of them are progressing very well.

 
My companion is pretty cool. He's from a tiny town in Utah. Richfield I think or it's nearby Richfield? He wrestled all high school and played football and soccer. I don't think he is related to the Lyman's in our ward. We got to go back to the city on Saturday and I baptized Anna :) it was so awesome! Elder Winslow and I found her back in October. I'm racing an investigator of ours right now in the Book of Mormon. I'm maybe like 1 chapter ahead of her. She's 13 but she reads really fast. Her name is Kalayla and her sister is Tiera and her mom is Aaron. They are all planning on baptisms in June.
I love my time here. Thanks for all the love and support.
Love,
Elder Olson

Baptism of Anna

Month in Review...

Here is a little review of the past month:

Feb. 16: Bishop Gillespie and his family fed us a cool dinner on Valentines Day. We each sat down and had a plate and a menu. But no silverware, cups or food anywhere. The menu was a 3 course meal. We got to select 4 things for each course. I don't remember what all the stuff was but it was all coded. "the devil's tool" was a fork, "a man's best friend" was some bacon, "pucker up" was grapefruit juice, "love handles" was cinnamon rolls, "yellow diamonds" was lemon bars, "cuddling" was the spoon and much more. It was really fun. We could only have one course at a time. So in my first course I got no silverware, so I had to eat all my food with my hands. So transfers are this Wednesday. Elder Quijada and I are the only ones in our district that are staying the same. So now I'm the district leader of what we call a relief society district. 3 companionships of sisters, the APs (which we never see) and the Zone Leaders (which we see every other week at district meeting). I guess this is what I need so I can learn to love sister missionaries more haha:)

Feb. 23: This past week was good. We got to have several great lessons with our investigators. We taught the Restoration to them and they were loving it. We have a new investigator. He even loved Elder's Quorum which I taught. The Elder's quorum president asked me to rebuke and chasten the snot out of all of them for never doing their home teaching. I just used scriptures and what they had to say about home teaching in the lesson. I think the spirit did most of the rebuking cause "the guilty take the truth to be hard."

March 2: This past week was kind of rough. We were grounded to our apartments due to snow/ice weather for 4 days. Then we had a great zone conference on Thursday, but that took up most of the day. On Friday I gave a training on the talk, "flooding the earth with the book of Mormon" by Ezra Taft Benson. It went pretty good.

March 23: Dakoda is coming down here today to feed us and the sisters dinner. I love seeing him again. He is working on his papers for his mission. I love that kid!. Elder Quijada and I have been teaching like crazy and everything is now falling into place just before transfers which are on April 1st. Myrna Lee is getting baptized this Saturday the 28th. Paige is getting baptized April 1st in the evening. Anna is getting baptized April 11th, the Saturday after general conference. And Lance is getting baptized April 18th, the Saturday after Anna. If I get transferred I will be making trips back here for almost every Saturday for the next 4 weeks :)

Today we are going head to head with another zone of missionaries, the Midwest City zone. Elder Debenham, my MTC companion, is a district leader in that zone and he is training Elder Riffenberg, who is from Phoenix. 

This week is going to be fun and exciting! As you can see there are lots of baptisms and miracle happening here!: )I don't want to leave:( 

Love you!:)

Another Wonderful Week....

My Zone and District at the Oklahoma Temple

This past week was awesome! Elder Quijada and I got to go on splits with the members a couple times unexpectedly. I went with Brother Woodhouse (we call him Studhouse) to a lesson with a new investigator, Mary, and her 8 little kids from the ages of 1-10. She is a single mother and raises all her kids and goes to school! The lesson went very well, we taught her the Restoration. Meanwhile, Elder Quijada went out with Brother Kunkel (a  member that I call Uncle Kunkle) to one of our potential investigators named Preston. He wants to come to church so they discussed church and the Book of Mormon. Preston told Elder Quijada he knows what the Book of Mormon is cause his grandma used to read it to him every night til she died in a plane crash before she was baptized. Elder Quijada read from Alma 40 about Spirit Paradise and Preston remembered his grandma reading that to him and thanked Quijada for bringing that memory back to him. He came to church Sunday and really enjoyed it!

On Friday at District Meeting I trained on asking inspired questions and listening. I shared the fiery sermon when I was talking about listening and being okay with silence. It was great:)

Love you!

-Elder Olson