Yankton #8

Wow it's been a good week. I've definitely grown so much! 

We had exchanges twice. Once with the elders from O'Neill Nebraska, and once with our zone leaders. With covid we don't really exchange companions as much, we just all get together and kind of break off and do missionary work with the other companionship and learn from each other. It is so good though! I learned tons from a couple of the really experienced Elders and it just really helped us to receive revelation for our people and was great!

We also had district council! We discussed how to get people to the next step, whether that's another lesson or coming to church, or being baptized. That's something that is really cool with technology in missionary work. Before missionaries would have long lessons with people maybe once a week. But through phone and video calls, we can have shorter lessons with them as often as they need it! It's a lot more personalized and can help people progress no matter what pace they learn at. 

We had a cool experience where we were eating with some members and someone we're teaching named Frankie, and Frankie just randomly asked about gambling. It was a miracle, because one of the members we were eating with was able to share his experience with gambling and how it has ruined so much in his life. This same member also works at the same place that Frankie is about to start working at and they really became friends! It was such a miracle that they could connect.

Something I've been thinking a lot about this week is the part of I think it's revelations where we're told not to be lukewarm. God doesn't want us to do anything halfway. We either need to be hot or cold, but not lukewarm. If you decide to follow God, do so with all your heart, might, mind, and strength. When you are baptized, you need to go completely under the water, not partially. We don't kind of follow Christ. If you are serving in your calling, don't just kind of serve, serve completely and fully. If you are keeping the commandments, keep all the commandments with joy, don't pick and choose. We need to be all in to whatever we're doing, and the Lord will bless us so much more for it. Haha I'm not sure if that really made sense. Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Olsen

Yankton #7

This week was so good! We have been blessed with many people to teach and they are so awesome. One of them is named Luke. He is the most prepared person I've met. He has great desires to be baptized, the only thing holding him back is that he wants to know even more about the gospel so he can share it with others! We've been able to have some amazing discussions with him and the we've definitely felt the spirit as we've talked. We're also talking with Jay and our first 3 lessons with him were bad. Like really bad. We would try to talk about a gospel principle and he'd start rambling about something only kind of related to what we were talking about. But this week we've really been able to get through to him! We're able to talk and teach about our beliefs and he'll talk to us about how that relates to the things that he already believes! 

We have also seen some other big miracles this week. One of them I call the miracle of the dogs in the yard. On Saturday we were going to go to service in the morning right after a zoom call with our mission. But it got cancelled last minute because dogs in the neighbors yard would've made it very difficult, and the neighbors were out of town. So we were very disappointed and were trying to find out how we would use our time that day. During that time we got a text from one of our friends and he was going through a ton right then. We were able to address his needs right away, pray for him, get our zone to pray for him, contact our mission president, and contact those who could help him all within 10 minutes. If we had been at service during that time, it likely would've been two or three hours or more until we could get him the help that he needed right that second. We don't know the end of the story completely, but it is a great miracle no matter what.

Something I've been learning a lot about in the scriptures recently is Amulek. I love his story and the lessons that we can learn from it. Amulek was just a normal man living in a wicked city. He was "called many times and would not hear." But God gave him another chance and he was able to repent of his past transgressions. God blessed him with the spirit so much that he was able to perceive the thoughts of wicked men and preach with so much power to cause an anti Christ to tremble. I also love Amulek's courage. We learn that he gave up his many riches and friends for God's cause. It wouldn't have been easy at all for him. But God blessed him throughout the rest of his life, while those who didn't accept the gospel were destroyed. God will not give up on us. He is reaching out waiting for us to take his hand and will bless us with power as we strive to follow his will. As we strive to follow him, it won't always be easy, but it will be so worth it. I know that this is true as I have had so much happiness when I do my best to follow Him.

Have a wonderful week!

-Elder Olsen

ps. I'm trying to remember to take pictures, but only got one this week

Yankton #6

Hey Everyone! 

Transfers are this week, but nothing is happening with us. So we'll be staying in Yankton, which I'm so excited about because missionary work is so good right now!

Last time I mentioned some referrals we'd gotten. We got to know them some more and they both came to church! One of them is from South Sudan and he is so prepared for baptism. There are just a couple things we will go over with him, but he is doing amazing. The other one is from New York and he is awesome. He's had a really rough past, but wants to learn, and we went and played basketball with him today! 

We're also working with a lady that knows the church is true and wants to get baptized, we're just waiting for her care home to get off of quarantine so she can start coming back to church! Every time we call her she's been reading the Book of Mormon just waiting for us to call and teach her more. Teaching over phone or video call really does work! The Spirit can definitely be present through these lessons as well. God provides ways for his work to move forward!

We also had a mission tour this week! We had zoom meetings every day with Elder Weatherford Clayton and different groups of missionaries. It was so good and I learned so much about how to be a more effective missionary and to use technology to progress the work even more. 

I think that's about all for the week! If you haven't seen yesterday's face to face with Elder and Sister Rasband you should totally watch it. I absolutely loved it! They had some amazing insights for this whole covid thing and how we need to live. 

I love you all! Have a great week!

-Elder Olsen

Yankton #5

Hey everyone! It's been a couple weeks since I emailed and it's been an absolute blast! 

Last Monday I had the opportunity to go through the temple!! It was absolutely amazing. I felt the love of God so powerfully, and I felt so much peace. The temple truly is the House of God. I cannot wait until I can go back again! 

The next day we had our Zone Conference! It was so good and I learned a lot about how I can be a better missionary. It was also so good to be with other missionaries and see that the work is going forward. Our President and Zone leaders are so amazing, and we were promised amazing blessings for our efforts to be obedient and preach the gospel. We were told that our efforts to be obedient to the mission standards was so much more important than we realize. Because when we're obedient, God guides us to the people that are prepared to hear the gospel. We may mess up, but if we're sincerely trying we'll be blessed!

We got a few awesome referrals! They seem so prepared for the gospel. We have a lot of people to teach and they're really progressing!  And God's given us so many methods to teach the gospel during a time of pandemic. Facebook actually works! It's helped us find some awesome people. We taught one of those people yesterday in Spanish and he's so ready for the gospel and so humble and it was so amazing! The spirit was so strong as we shared the story of the first vision with him in our broken spanish, but the spirit can cross language barriers.

The spirit was so strong this week and it was amazing. During testimony meeting yesterday I was overcome with emotion as I thought about the peace I felt during the temple. God is real and he really wants our eternal happiness. He's provided us with everything we need, and through Jesus Christ we can live with our families forever in happiness. God lives, loves us and helps us through life as we turn to him. 

Love you all!

-Elder Olsen

Winter Quarters Temple