Bellevue #5

Well hello there! Yesterday we found out that our ward, the Bellevue 2nd ward will be changed to be called the Cold Spring ward and we will be losing and getting some members. So the next few weeks will be pretty interesting to see what happens!

Last Monday we started off the week with the chance to go to the College World Series of Baseball! We got permission from President as long as we wore our missionary clothes - and it was so much fun! We got to talk to a bunch of people and made it on the big screen a couple times and it was way good! 

On Tuesday we went on exchanges! I was with Elder Stubbs who is a new missionary and I think that we were able to help him out! We also had a ton of lessons that day and got back in contact with two super solid people that we're teaching. It was such a good day. We had a lesson with this member who is reluctant to come back to church but seems to be opening up to the idea little by little. He started reading the Book of Mormon and praying again too!

We also had a lesson with a super nice lady. We went over and prayed with her and got a member involved too and they really hit it off. It was super good and we shared some scriptures with her. It went really well! That is until we got outside to our cars and one of their neighbors had put antimormon pamphlets   on our cars. So we are just hoping and praying that they won't try to give anti stuff to our friend.

Friday we had a lesson with our friend King. He is super down to get baptized and quit his bad habits, but he gave us his facebook account and we found some questionable stuff on there. Anyways we asked him about it and he got pretty nervous and wouldn't give us an honest answer. He kept saying things that were more and more exaggerated to try to justify the things we found and it was just kind of a mess. BUT he came to church and had a great experience! We are going to try to work with him on these things, but we are just kind of confused on where things are at with him. 

And an update with Rebecca. We had a rushed lesson with her, but it was super solid and we are going to start going over more regularly! 

Something I have been thinking about this week is our attitude. We were talking with some members and they talked about how the large majority of people complain about things that they can't control and they don't do anything about the things that they can. We all have trials and challenges, and yet some people seem to soar over them, while others seem to always be stuck in the mud. And the main reason that I have observed for this is their attitude. When challenges come do we look to the future with hope or dread? We have the choice to change our attitude. And when we do so, slowly but surely the world around us changes for the better. Have a great week! I love you all!

-Elder Olsen

Bellevue #4

Hello and welcome to the weekly email! As you probably already figured out based on the title, I am now halfway through the mission! It is so crazy to think about the last year and everything that has happened and all that I have to look forward to in my next year! I have met some of the greatest most inspiring people and I can honestly say that serving a mission has easily been one of the best decisions of my life! 

Anyways, on to the week! Tuesday we had exchanges, and Elder Bandley and I went with Elder Day. The day was kind of slow, until we met with Rebecca! Rebecca is the daughter of a super inactive member and someone who definitely isn't interested in joining the church, but she has tons of questions about who God is and where she fits into the world and God's plan. We were able to open up the scriptures to a couple of passages that could help her out, and then we were able to help her realize what the spirit feels like. She had a huge "aha" moment when we told her that she was feeling the spirit right then and that it's not something crazy. So super cool lesson there!

We also went to an activity with the youth on Wednesday! In typical young men fashion, the activity was fighting with foam covered pvc swords. They taped a ziploc with an egg in it to everybody's backs, and the goal was to be the last one with an uncracked egg. Anyways this went all good and well until Elder Dew's finger somehow got cut and we had to go to the hospital and wait for a few hours while he got stitches. He's doing okay though!

We also were able to put our friend King on date to be baptized! We found him by street contracting back before I was even here. He's a little bit crazy and we weren't sure if he really was interested or just liked talking to us. Anyways, we brought up the word of wisdom in like the 2nd lesson with him which was crazy, but he decided to change his life to match what he has been learning! Some concerns have popped up since then, but he has over a month till the day, so hopefully we can resolve all that.

And then Saturday we met with this guy named Frank. Frank has met with missionaries in the past, but they stopped because he was going through a lot of things. Anyways he has things figured out now and was very open to our message about the plan of salvation! He hopefully will be coming to church with us soon. So those are the main highlights for the week I guess!

And to the scripture for the email! In 3 Nephi and Matthew, Jesus tells us that we are the light of the world and that we need to let our light shine to the world. We often do that naturally, by the way we act, but my invitation for you all is to find a way that you can purposefully let your light shine! Whatever that may be, focus on doing that more throughout the week!

Have a great week!

-Elder Olsen

 

Service Project

Birthday Party

Sunset

Cool Sunset

Last Zone Conference with President and Sister Ence

Bellevue #3

Buenas tardes mis amados amigos! 

So recently, we have been approved to street contact people and encouraged to talk to everyone that we can. Anyways, it has been super weird because almost everybody in the mission at this point came out after covid. So we just have had to figure it out on our own. Anyways, Saturday we had exchanges with our zone leaders and we made a goal to talk to literally everybody. So we were knocking a lot of doors of formerly taught people and investigators, and everybody we saw out, we talked to. This ended up in us trying to figure out how to crash a graduation party that was outside in the front lawn. So we were all terrified and had no idea what to do. We slowed down and looked at their motorcycles for a while as we were trying to figure out how to talk to these people. And then we turned around with no plan whatsoever and started walking up. I was freaking out, but I got the prompting to just go for it, so very loudly I say, "yo whose bikes are those?" Most people ignored us, but one guy started talking to us about his bikes and the conversation changed to the gospel. His son came over and we were talking to both of them, and it turns out, the guy's brothers are members of the church, and one of his nephews was getting sealed in the temple THAT DAY. They weren't interested in the gospel yet, but i have faith that with time, their family will soften their hearts.

We also went and prayed with this lady named angel. She was so nice and we are going back over to pray with her with one of our members this week! And we had a lesson with king. He was so down to get baptized, and wants to come to church! We are going to try to set him on date this week hopefully. And we got back in contact with our person on date Keore. He said he talked to his mom about baptism as well and they are both so excited! Anyway I think that is all of the main highlights for the week!

The spiritual thought today is that God is aware of us. It was a hard week this week. We worked hard Monday through Friday and found nothing. Saturday on exchanges we worked harder than ever, and nothing was coming of it. I was tired, and didn't feel like I was a good missionary. I felt so weak and so overwhelmed. and then towards the end of the day, we started talking to somebody about the gospel. We taught him most of the gospel of Jesus Christ and part of the plan of salvation and the spirit was so strong. As we were talking, we could tell that he felt the spirit too, and it was strengthening all of us. He didn't accept an invitation to learn more yet, but we have faith that he will, because he felt the spirit. More than anything, this interaction was exactly what I needed on my hard week. After we were done talking, it felt like I was refilled with energy, motivation and hope. So God is aware of what we need and helps us- but we have to do our part. If we wouldn't have stopped and talked to this random guy, I never would've gotten this answer to my prayers. So follow God and trust in him.

Have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Olsen

Last interview with President Ence

Sister Ence

Bellevue #2

Hello to all!! So before anyone freaks out, yes I was involved in a drive by shooting this week. We were just walking up to a member's door and this guy drove past and fired 3 or 4 paintballs at us lol. We didn't get hit, but we just thought it was hilarious. So miracle there! We were kinda scared that they would flip back around and try again, but they didn't. 

Anyways it has been a really good week! Tuesday we met up with this guy named King. We were going to meet up with him at the library but he called us and told us that he had no strength, so we met him on the little grass strip on the side of the road. He was just lying there and so we kind of just knelt down and shared some scriptures with them! He was talking about how we were angels sent from God and all of that and was super down to go to church with us! 

We also went and talked with this guy named Greg. We taught him the whole restoration and he read the introduction for the Book of Mormon and prayed about it! He said that he hasn't received an answer yet, but he will keep trying. He also said that he wants to believe that it is true, but just isn't sure. So we shared Alma 32 for him and have been praying that he will receive an answer. Could you all pray for Greg? 

We also got the joy of unflooding the church this week! We were about to leave, when we noticed the bathroom flooding and got to spend the next 45 minutes unflooding it! We also got to move people out of a super gross house. It was so bad, but we eventually got all of the stuff out of there and into the truck!

This week I have been reading about the prophecies of Samuel the Lamanite and how the people rejected his prophecies, even after they were fulfilled. And it made me think about how we can choose whether to have hard or soft hearts. We can choose whether we want to let God prevail in our lives or not. At the end of the day, it isn't our circumstances that soften our hearts, but it is us. So my invitation is to find out what you all can do to open your hearts more to God. Have a terrific week!

-Elder Olsen

P-day with Papillion and Omaha zones