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