April 25, 2012

Dear Family,

Today i was transferred to Bowie Ward. I get to be in a car for the summer. Yay!!!! My new companions name is Elder Nisson. I haven't decided how i feel about him. Haha We only met each other at 10 this morning. So we will see how this is going to work. Another crazy thing is that we are in a two man apartment which means that we are the only Missionaries living in that apartment. This is going to be very interesting. But at least I don't have to be on a bike in the summer.

The french is going well. I know

"Don't Touch Me"

Na Tooch Pa

That's the coolest thing i learned on my exchange with the French.

As for Me I cried last night as i said good bye to one of my favorite people in the Quince Orchard Ward. He is a less active Marine. We have been getting him back to church for the past couple of weeks. I love that guy so Much.

In 10 days Elder Bednar will be here to "tour" our mission. I'm super pumped to be able to personally meet him and shake his hand. I guess the 70 that came a couple of months ago to tour our mission thought we were pretty amazing. Because Tours only happen like once every Year. Wow We feel Special.

Well that's all folks......

Love-

Elder Olsen

April 18, 2012

Dear Family and friends.
I will send pictures today or tomorrow family. guess what- tomorrow im at 6 months. holy cow its flying... kinda sometimes. hahahaha
well its been an interesting week for our companionship. on Monday night me and elder Bott were biking and he crashed pretty bad. we were going like 25 miles an hour.(i have an odometer giving to me before i left by Erynn) and he took a sharp turn and skidded on the asphalt for like 20 to 30 feet. we have been in doctors offices for the past couple of days and he has to get surgery on his wrist tonight. He has to get a screw placed on one of the bones in the wrist. so looks like i get to practice my french. I get to go with the french missionaries who are our roommates for tonight. Parla voo frans ex..... Hahah NOPE i dont so this will be a fun night.
well thats all the news for this week. Thanks for all you do. I love you guys so much.
Love,
Elder Olsen

Elder Olsen and Elder Bott help decorate for a Zone activity.

April 11, 2012

Dear Mom,
I am so sorry for that. it sounds super hard. I know that the Lord is helping you more then i could if i was there.
My week has been super Fast and a the same time super slow. I had two exchanges this week and i got to be in a car for both of them so that's a bonus. I think my DL and ZL are testing me to see if I'm ready to get a younger missionary. IDK though. We will see. I'm not sure if i want that to happen.hahaha
We went into DC today. and I'm so tired. we walked so much. wow.

but ya I'm doing great. Just super tired. Like always. that's about it. Tell Ryan when i get home for Halloween we are going to be Finn and Jake. I love you guys lots.
Love
Elder Olsen

April 4, 2012

Dear Mom-

Lots has happened this week. Some very depressing and some really
cool. Ill tell you a cool story first.
The guy I met at Walgreens is named Bruce Brown. His is an ex-marine
and loves to ride bikes. When we first went over there we had dinner
with him. i asked why he wanted to get back with the church Now and
not 5 years ago. why Now? he then told us how he had a staff infection
that went on for a year untreated. A normal man would have died in 3
to 4 months. He is a fighter. The doctors didn't know what was wrong
with him so they were pumping him full of steroids that were not
helping with the infection. so basically he Knows that Heavenly Father
has more for him to do on the earth. So he drove us to priesthood
session and to the first session on Sunday.
So here's the miracle. Last night we decided to call him and see how he
was. he seemed kinda sad or worried or something i was unsure at that
moment. he told us that he wanted us to come over but we had an
appointment. So we said that we would see if our appointment held(Most
don't) so we go to our appointment and he dogged us. so we went to good
old Bruce's house.
He said that earlier that day he had called the bishop to get a
blessing because he was showing signs of the staff infection again. so
bishop was going to call us to tell us to give him one. That's when we
called. That's right GO SPIRIT!! So we went there and gave him a
blessing. I preformed the blessing and it was amazing. The spirit was
super strong. By the end of the blessing He was in tears and i was
too. HE thanked us so much and bore his testimony to us and said
before his staff infection he had his testimony hidden under a basket
or bushel as the scriptures say. and that The basket is off and he is
changing his life. I love this guy.

K now for a depressing story. To end on a happy note. HaHaHeHe

Davids dad is not getting baptized anymore. The Spanish sister
missionary's dropped him. I was So sad when i found out. He will come
around i know it. The example that David is showing is great. He will
be baptised. Just not in the near future.

Thank you for the package with the mojo bars in it. Snacky food like
that is perfect. Just what i need.
K
Love u all

Elder Olsen

March 28, 2012

Dear mom,
Nothing new out here. Just going day by day trying to keep up with all the stuff missionaries do. Its super stressful but I'm getting it done. Well we had a zone activity today so I'm super exhausted so i cant even think about anything. My mind is so loopy its not even funny.

                                    Nephites Vs. Lamenites Zone Activity

I'll tell you a cool story that just happened...

We were printing out thank you cards at a rite aid and some guy came up to us and said that he was a member and would like to become active again. we said OK can we come by and see you some time? he says yes hands us all of his information and then leaves. Well turns out he is in our ward and hasn't been active in like 15 years. last night we had dinner with him and he is now coming to watch conference with us this upcoming sat and sun. The Lord works in mysterious ways. well that's all folks

bye bye now-

love Elder Olsen

March 21, 2012

Dear family and friends-
Well my area is pretty big. On Monday we biked over 30 miles in one day!!!!! Holy cow that was hard. My legs are getting so Big!!!! But ya right in the middle of our area is a place called NIST ( National Institute of Science Technology) You could look it up. We have to bike around it every day to get to the main part of our area. We have a sweet oriental market called the Grand Market right by our apartment. they sell lots of weird stuff like live lobsters and fruits and veggies Ive never heard of. Um We live with French Missionaries One from Saint George Utah and one from Belgium. That's fun. I'm learning a bit of every language we have a goal as a companionship to learn a GQ in every language. I'm currently trying to learn Spanish, French, Chinese, Russian. Those are all languages I've run into while talking to people on the street.
Its pretty sweet Tell The Rich family that I've been running into lots of people from Ghana. They speak English very well.
Elder Bott is from Lots of different places. He was born in Utah, Moved to Virgina and then moved to Denver. So ya he is sweet. He is exactly like me... Loud!!!! Elder Probst before he went home said that we were the loudest missionaries in the mission.
So our apartment is super sweet very fun!!! Its getting super hot already here. so i don't know how I'm going to survive the summer. Its going to be Death, i might die just to let you know.
Don't worry about the bike situation. I've inherited a really nice bike from my last companion he gave it to me. so I'm good with that.
Other than that I'm doing peach keen. Love you all. tell everyone hi for me.
Love Elder Olsen    

March 13, 2012

This week was great. I have a new companion Elder Bott.
David Sosa did get baptised on saturday.

                                          David Sosa's Baptism Day
It was so sweet.
His non-member dad came and was crying the whole time.(He dosent even
speak english, but the spirit does not speak through language) David
will hopfully get the Aronic Priesthood soon so he can baptize his dad
himself. So Sweet Hu?
David was baptised by a potential elder in our ward named jake griggs.

Jake Griggs, one of the young men in the Mission Prep. class, that was given the priviledge of baptizing David. 

We have been holding a weekly mission prep class because of
all the perspective elders we have in the ward. We had 9 boys come
last thursday and they are super pumped to be missionaries.

Elder Olsen with two of the young men in his Mission Prep. Class.

  
Elder Olsen took some of his young men to the
visitors center at the temple.


Lots of them participated in the baptisimal service. Danny Escober gave atalk, jake baptised, tony alverez baptised another guy named sabire,
and Sergio Oliva gave the closing prayer. We hope that by giving these
young men the opprotunity to be apart of this special day, they will feel 
the spirit of missionary work.  Its so great to see change
in not only investigators but members as well.
I dont know if i told you but Our ward(Quince Orchard) has two sets of
missionaries. one set are elders(US) and the other set are Sisters. so
they taught Sabir and we taught David.
Well thats been my week. Pretty Great! I hope i did ok this time with information. I
love you guys so much and i hope all is well. Until Next week...

Love Elder Olsen