Bellevue #1

Hey everyone! So to start off, last tuesday I found out that I would be going to Bellevue Nebraska, which is a suburb of Omaha, and that my comps would be Elder Dew and Elder Bandley. They are so great and it has been a blast so far. 

We have been doing a lot of knocking on the doors of people who have been taught in the past this week. So there is this place in our area called the projects, which is a bunch of government housing for people who can't really afford it. It's kind of "sketchy", but as long as you're not dumb its not bad at all. Anyways, Saturday we went out knocking and walking around the area and there were tons of people outside. We passed by a big group of 'sketchy' people all wearing red, clearly part of the bloods or something. One of them shouted at us and told us "Tell us a prayer!" So we stopped and kind of shouted a scripture verse at them and we left friends haha. They even kind of invited us to their bbq the next day but we definitely didn't go. 

There was this other group that was kind of making fun of us, but they were far off, and these two others were like "man don't you listen to them they don't know what's up." So we talked briefly and kept walking, until one of them goes "man what's the word today?" So we shared another verse and talked about how God is the perfect coach to help us reach our potential and then she told us that the missionaries used to come over all the time until she moved. So we got her back in contact with the missionaries and she seemed super ready for the gospel!!! 

That same night we knocked on a member's door, and all of a sudden we hear someone talking to us from behind. Turns out it is this old kind of crazy person named seven that has met with missionaries for years but we haven't been able to get in contact with him para nada. So we talked for a little bit, and he went on about how they need to change the name of the Book of Mormon, and then we asked him about the member we were trying to find. He is kind of the guys landlord, so he starts banging on the windows so hard and shouting BILLIE!!!! BILLIE GET UP at the top of his lungs. Billie comes out and is really mad and Seven makes us pray with him before he can go back to bed. It was a wild day.

The title from this weeks email comes from a member lesson that we went to. We knocked a couple of times and he didn't answer so we went to the car and right before we took off, he opened the door. We got out and he told us that he just felt awful, because he had eaten soooo many pancakes earlier. He just felt like crap and I think he said the total count was about 24 pancakes. Legendary. 

Anyways, I just thought I would close off with a scripture that we have been sharing a lot. It is in Job 5:17 and it says, "Behold happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty". I really liked this scripture because it says that when God corrects us, we should be happy! So this is how God is the perfect coach. A coach will correct and expect so much at times, all to make the player better. So when God tells us to stop doing something, when it seems like God is making you run laps around the field even when you have given so much, remember that God knows what we can become and he knows the best way to get you there. Have a fantastic week!

-Elder Olsen

Only one picture this week from Elder Bandley's birthday

Grand Island #24

Hello to all! So I guess I will start off with transfer news! I am getting transferred to somewhere in omaha, but that is all I have really heard. So I'm writing this on the drive to Omaha right now, but I have no idea where in Omaha I'll be or who my companion(s?) will be. I guess I'm going in blind. But besides all that we have had a pretty fantastic week. We also found out that we no longer have to wear masks in public! We went to Walmart and I felt like a real person again haha.

As some of you already know, I definitely struggled with Grand Island at times. When I came in I was in the fourth set of missionaries in this town and because our area was so new we didn't have many people that we were teaching. But I have been so blessed the last 6 months to see the Lord's hand in this city. We have been blessed to find more and more people to teach, build relationships with members and yesterday was even the first time that this area has ever gotten anyone to come to church in person! The Lord is so good and he truly is watching out for his children!

This week we were able to meet with Yajaira and her family again! So a little bit of backstory, when we first started teaching them, we taught her and her husband and mother in law. As we kept working with them, the husband kind of stopped joining lessons. But we were able to start teaching one of the daughters and then last week one of the sons. This week when we went over we watched a few bible videos and talked about why Christ is so important in our lives. And guess what! We started teaching another one of their kids and finally were able to have another lesson with the husband. We had a good conversation with him about faith and it seemed to really help him out! So now we are teaching a total of 6 of them and the best part about it is that they all encourage each other and help each other to be better!

This last tuesday we had exchanges and it was so good! For a while we went and put up flyers for English classes and it was honestly so fun. We got to walk around the hispanic part of town and go into all of the little shops and talk to all the people in spanish. We usually don't get to talk to too many people in person so it was a blast to practice our spanish with so many people. We even ran into some lady who lowkey wanted to start bible bashing in the middle of the street. We definitely ended that as soon as we could, said God bless and then got out if their, but it did catch a couple people's attention. 

We also had the opportunity this last week to give 4 or 5 blessings to people. It has been really cool to see God working through us. I felt inspired to say things that seemed strange in the moment, but once I followed the prompting I saw that it was such an important thing. 

Okay your spiritual thought for this week comes from our district council. We talked about what makes you happy. In preparation,  I looked up the scriptures in the topical guide about happiness and found a few things that make us happy. The first one is simple: God. God is so good and if we realize that and all of the ways he blesses us, we will be happy. Reason two: obedience. When we obey God, we avoid negative consequences of mistakes, and on top of avoiding all of the bad, God blesses us with so many blessings! Reason 3: trials. This one seems weird, but the trials in life are what bring us closer to God. We learn to call on Him like we never have before, search his word like we never have before, and even experience Joy like we never have before! His corrections bring us to Him. God loves us all so much and everything that he does is to bring us unto Him, which in turn brings us joy! Have a spectacular week everyone!

-Elder Olsen

Grand Island #23

Hello everyone! I guess I'll just start off by reporting that we got tics this week! Only kind of haha I found three on me after service where we threw away a bunch of sticks. BUT none of them had attached so it's all good.

We also had this guy come to English class and he is so cool! He is so grateful for everything we did and he even brought papusas to the last class! So that was also a highlight!

And we finally had a lesson with the lopez family! They are still super cool and we talked about how important baptism is. The parents still have a lot that they need to do to get baptized, but they want to so that is great! The parents very much believe that they should let their kids believe what they want to believe. But they got concerned when their 8 year old told them that he didn't believe in God. Anyways fast forward to Thursday and we asked if there was anyone else that would want to talk to us. They convinced that 8 year old and he listened to our message and then had tons of questions! You could see the wheels spinning in his brain when we taught about Jesus. He asked questions about what kind of power Jesus has and asked if he has unlimited lives haha. But it was really good!!

There was also a day that we went out to wood river about half an hour away and knocked on some members doors. And it was so cool! Every door we knocked on answered, and we were even able to get a number for someone that was not the person we were looking for, but was interested in hearing more!

And the last highlight was teaching someone without a religious background who had recently lost their father. So we taught about how he will see his father again all thanks to Christ!

I listened to a talk today about the tender mercies of the Lord and it really stuck out to me. Nephi says, "But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance”. And it is so true! The tender mercies of the Lord are available to all of us if we just look for them. Just today I was wanting to get back in contact with an investigator from Yankton, and couldn't figure out how. And then, just before writing this, his new Facebook profile ( with a completely different name) popped up on my feed and I was able reach out to him! Now some may say that that is a coincidence, but I know that it was the Lord watching out for us. So my invitation is to look for the Lord's tender mercies! Have a great week!

Grand Island #22

Hola hola! This week was pretty cool and I definitely learned a lot. On Wednesday we had a ward bbq! It was a great experience to be with the members and we even had a bunch of people come! We had this super cool less active member who we have had a hard time contacting show up as well as a less active family! And our friends Kathy and Jim came! It was really cool to see the members interacting with these people that they haven't seen in a long time and ministering to them. And I got to play frisbee so that was a plus haha.

Thursday we got to go up to Wolbach Nebraska and meet with the Minnema family! They are this nice member family with two children who want to be baptized! We had a great conversation with them and then taught them the plan of salvation! It was really cool to see the ideas working around in their heads and their 9 year old boy had tons of questions about it including why some people have disabilities and we were able to have a really good discussion! They are so willing to hear the gospel and even though it is pretty new to them, you can tell that it is something familiar, and that's the Holy Ghost speaking to them!

Also this week we got the opportunity to help build a house. And we went to this older couple's house and he is a retired taxidermist! So their basement is full of some of his past taxidermy projects. And on top of that they had some shoes that don't fit him but can't be returned. And these shoes have not one, not two, but three soles in each shoe. They are so comfortable haha. And I found chic fil a sauce in Walmart today so there have been miracles all around this week!

We also had Zone conference this week! We talked a lot about how we need to have a purpose and a vision for everything we do. In life a lot of times we get caught going through the motions. It happens in school, in work, and in church. Even in missionary work a lot of times we go through the motions. And it isn't fun. The word they used is drudgery. We drudge through the motions not enjoying life because we don't have a vision in mind. But as soon as we figure out what our vision in life is, all of a sudden just going through the motions turns into a joyful experience. We don't just go through the motions, but we see our progress in everything that we are doing and recognize how it makes us the type of person that we want to become! So that was my big takeaway from Zone conference was that I always need to have a vision in mind, a goal. Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars. So my invitation for you all is to find the reason for why you are doing what you're doing and then remember that when it gets hard! Make a goal and go for it! 

Invitation 2 is a little bit easier: Have a fantastic week! Love you all!

-Elder Olsen 

Me and Elder Walton before he left Grand Island

Taxidermy

Family history Goggles!

Zone conference 

Grand Island #21

Hello everyone! A lot has happened this week so I will get right into it!

We were able to do a lot of service this week. We helped some members move in, some others clean up, and we closed down an old missionary apartment. One of the members gave us a couch, and we grabbed everything of value from the old apartment so our apartment has been made a lot better this week!

Thursday we had exchanges. Now I usually am not the biggest fan of exchanges. I would usually rather stay with my own companions in my own area. But this exchange was really good and I was able to see where I have been lacking as a missionary. I definitely need to be more focused on doing the best things during the day instead of just good things. We were also able to have a lesson with a recent convert and reteach her the restoration and it was really good! 

Sunday we had a really cool experience where this person who had filled out a missionary visit said we could come over. Honestly I wasn't expecting much from it, but they let us in! I was so surprised but we taught them how to pray and the basics about Jesus Christ. They are both from Cuba and didn't have an opportunity to be religious in Cuba and really want help in their life! It was such a cool experience and they are some of the nicest people I've met out here

And then we had an English class with someone named amaya. She brought her mom and brother which was super cool and all, until we realized that her mom only speaks k'iche' which is an ancient dialect from Guatemala. So we tried very unsuccessfully to teach some English. The kids learned pretty fast but the Mom definitely did not. But I was able to find the Book of Mormon in K'iche'- side note: only about a quarter of the Book of Mormon has been translated into K'iche' and I don't think any of the bible is translated. But we found a scripture and talked to them about religion and it seemed to go really well! They even sang us a song in K'iche' about Jesus and it was just a cool experience.

This week we had stake conference! Elder Jaggi from the seventy was there because they were reorganizing the stake presidency. And there were a lot of really cool things that happened! The first was that one of the recent converts that we've been working with gave his testimony! He talked about his conversion and everyone really seemed to love it! Another highlight was this guy that on Saturday felt like he should go to the church. He's not a member, but he wants to start becoming more religious in his life and the messages on Saturday and Sunday really helped him and he's going to start meeting with the missionaries!! There are people out there who want the truth so desperately! There was also a lady who shared her story. She had converted to the church and was a very active member, went to the temple every chance she got, and then something happened and she broke every promise she had made with God and fell away from the church. During this time, her life looked like it was going well. She was blessed with a family and a good job, but she wasn't happy. She felt this way until a member invited her back to church and she decided to come. She has since become active again, found joy in her life, but most importantly realized that you are never gone too far that God doesn't love and watch over you. That was kind of a theme throughout the entire conference - You are never alone. God is always there for you and his church family is always there for you. No matter how far you've fallen, you can always rise again thanks to Christ. My invitation for you this week is to trust more fully in Christ and see what changes in your life. Have a splendid week everyone!

- Elder Olsen