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Friday, July 18, 2014
A little catching up on the happenings in Ada, OK
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Happenings from Ada...
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| Punt kicking the last can of coffee for Chris |
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| Fix'in a tractor |
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| Storm rolling in.... |
So some of
what happened this past week...
On Monday we
played sand volleyball for p-day and had family home evening with the Berry's.
The lesson was on modesty. Sister Berry taught the lesson and Elder Davis and I
just jumped in to say some stuff every once in a while. The Berry family
reminds me a lot of Cammie and Ben, Noah and Nathan:)
On Tuesday we
had interviews with President Walkenhorst. He shared with me Doctrine and
Covenants 121:45. We talked about what does "wax" mean. We came to the
conclusion of Wax and Wane (I don't know if that's how it's spelled) Then he
started talking to me about "dew".
"Elder
Olson, what time does the dew come?"
"umm...
maybe like 5 in the morning?"
"Well
what about 6?"
"uhh
yeah I suppose it could come then too."
"But
what about 3 in the morning?"
"Well
President, I suppose anything is possible."
Ha-ha, the
moral of the story was that some things take time. "Elder Olson, when will
you be a perfect missionary? I don't know. But keep doing what you're doing and
be patient." -President.
Wednesday, we
taught Lanita the Plan of Salvation again and she remembered most of it! Then
we went to teach it to her Sister, Wilena, that has recently been diagnosed
with Lupis. We also had an awesome lesson with our less active Tamara and her fiancé/
our investigator Mike. We read 3 Nephi 11. We did a little scenario with them.
We had them shut their eyes while I read Christ's words when he was descending
to them. It was so dang sweet! Mike started to tear up! We mentioned to them
the idea of them getting sealed in the temple next year on their anniversary
when they were planning on getting married. They thought that'd be a great
idea. Tamara asked if Mike had to be baptized to go through the temple. We said
yes, and she invited him to be baptized ha-ha!:) He said they'd have to talk
about it, but we are praying for them! That evening for dinner a member took us
to a Chinese buffet and I convinced Elder Davis to try sushi for the first
time. He did so and afterwards felt extremely sick:)
Thursday, We
drove out to Asher with Brother Devoss to meet a referral from church
headquarters. His name is Richard Webb. He recently lost his right leg and his
Mom. We decided to teach him the Plan of Salvation. He absolutely LOVED it. He
totally accepted it all. Our only problem is that he can't drive, no members
live in Asher and it's a 45 minute drive from Asher to the church. We don't
know what to do besides pray and fast. We also went to the Grays' house and
fixed JD's tractor and ate dinner with them.
Friday, I was
on exchanges here in Ada with the Zone Leaders. Elder Apedaile stayed in Ada
with me and Elder Davis went with the other Zone Leader, Elder Bender, to Pauls
Valley. No one was home and it was embarrassing to me cause it looked like we
didn't do any work. We tried an investigator, Angel, three times that day. On
the last try, she was home and we taught her the restoration. She accepted a
baptismal date and is very excited. Her friend, Taloa, was baptized my first
weekend here in Ada. She has a daughter, Avionna, that's 18 months old and
probably the chunkiest baby I've ever seen! Angel is planning of getting
baptized June 21st:)
Saturday was
pretty uneventful. I suppose it's cause of the holiday weekend. We got to visit
some people, but they don't listen very well and generally don't follow through
with the commitments we leave them.
I love my
mission.
Elder Olson
Monday, May 19, 2014
A Great Week.....
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| Raymond's baptism with Elder Davis |
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| Elder Olson cooking hotdogs after the baptism. |
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| 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
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
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Monday, May 12, 2014
Ponderings......
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| Lanita's baptism. Wonderful!! |
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| 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
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
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
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Thursday, May 8, 2014
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Monday, May 5, 2014
Loving every minute....
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| Ada District Missionaries |
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| Bottle feeding a calf |
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| A little frog I caught. |
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| 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
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
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