Yankton #11

This has been a little bit of a different week but it has been rewarding!

We had A LOT of lessons fall through this week. So we had to get creative and figure out how to find and talk to people during that time. So our facebook page runs some ads and people will respond and request a bible study or something and it works really well. But we decided to message all of the people who liked our ads but didn't respond. This had been suggested to us and the other Facebook admins a couple of times, but nobody had really tried it yet and honestly I didn't think it would work out. There were also some other hang ups that I thought would make it not work at all. But we tried it and messaged about 60 people the same message just asking if they would be interested and we saw miracles! Almost immediately one guy messaged back and said that he didn't need a bible or anything, but wanted to go to church! So we got him all set up with the missionaries and it was just so cool to see. We also got around 7 or 8 other responses and were able to send all these people out to be taught by missionaries. The Lord really trusts us to be creative in helping gather Israel and he makes our efforts work! 

We also went up to Sioux falls SD for a Zone conference and had a sleepover with about 16 missionaries. We were all just sitting around talking when a guy in a mask kicked open the door holding a pistol in one hand and a rifle in the other and they were both pointed at us! He yelled a couple times asking things like what we were doing. But then he put his guns down and took the mask off and had a big smile. It turns out it was just Phil. Phil is a member who has tons of guns and likes to mess with the new missionaries sometimes. It was so funny to see everyone's reactions to what just happened. 

And then we had Zone Conference the next day! On the way we drove through a crazy snow storm with huge flakes. In October. It was so weird but beautiful. And it was so good to see all the other missionaries in zone conference and I felt that I am part of something big. I learned tons about how I can improve and be a more effective missionary. We also were able to help some people move into their new house and it was just a solid week. 

Something I've been reading about recently is the war chapters in the Book of Mormon. We can compare these chapters to our fight against satan. In Alma 49 the Nephites had prepared themselves and when the Lamanites came and attacked them they were able to gain a great victory. Thousands of the Lamanites were killed while only about 50 Nephites were injured and the rest of the Lamanites were scared away. I can imagine if I was in their situation I would want to celebrate and take it easy for a while. They had just won and the Lamanites were too scared to come against them. But that's not what they did. Alma 50:1 says that they did not stop making preparations for war. They built even stronger fortifications in every land. They even built new cities. And because they had prepared for hard times even when things were easy, they were ready when the Lamanites came against them again. We need to do the same thing in our lives. You might feel like Satan is attacking you with all his armies or it might feel like you have things pretty easy right now. But either way keep coming unto Christ and you will be so blessed and prepared for those hard times that come. And it says that this was the happiest time in their history. And the same can be true for us as we become more like Christ and stronger spiritually. Have a great week everybody

-Elder Olsen