Bellevue #9

Hello everyone! Once again I have no idea what to say in this part so here we go!

Monday evening we went to teach one of our good friends. He's a teenager and is super solid. His mom is a member and he will be getting baptized hopefully in September! So Monday we were teaching him outside because his mom was cleaning the house and we were teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. We got through faith and repentance and were talking about baptism when this guy walked around the corner and headed straight for us. As soon as he came up to us I just felt my heart drop and the spirit start to leave. He started talking (well almost shouting but that's besides the point) to our friend about how he doesn't need to talk to us because we preach a white Jesus. He also talks about how all the renaissance artists like "Leonardo DiCaprio" all were painting inaccurate pictures of Jesus.  Now this guy was a black man and the person we're teaching is also black, so we're getting really nervous. But we start to explain to this man that we teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and that his atonement is what saves us and not his characteristics, but he definitely wasn't interested in having a conversation all he wanted to do was bash against the church. So he starts pulling bible scriptures out about that and then he starts talking to us and telling us that we weren't saved because we were white and Jesus doesn't like white people. He starts pulling all of these scriptures out of nowhere and completely out of context and then interprets them completely wrong to try to prove to us that God doesn't love all people, only the black person. While we were talking, the uncle of the person we're teaching came out and we got a little bit scared because the uncle isn't a member and we've never talked to him before. Anyways we got this guy to leave and got back to teaching our friend about how the spirit is full of peace and love and then he comes back and starts shouting the same things again. At this point we are all just so done with him and it is taking all of our energy just to stop ourselves from arguing with this person. But we get him to leave again and talk to the family. They were all on our side and were talking about how God loves everyone and it doesn't matter where we come from. So miracle there that we all survived the confrontation! We talked about how satan will do what he can to stop our friend from being baptized and his mom came outside and pitched in and it turned out really good! We just had to go home and take a breather and try to let ourselves calm down before we could do missionary work again haha.

Anyways if you made it to the end of all that you all get a gold star haha. our other main highlight was meeting with another one of our friends! We got a member involved and they are like best friends and the member ended up giving her a couch and we talked about the beatitudes and it was beautiful. We ended up inviting her to church even though that wasn't the plan and she said yes! and she came and brought her 3 kids with her. Her husband is on deployment in turkey and also came to the church over there yesterday so miracles are all around! She is so ready for the gospel and I can't wait to see what happens with them. 

I want to share something that I learned in my studies this week. As I was reading about the wars in the book of ether I was struggling to find any spiritual meaning to them. It's so easy in alma to find significance about the wars because there is a clear good side and a bad side. But in Ether their both bad sides and they both lose. But as I was thinking I realized that the bad side was the adversary and he had gotten these two armies to be angry against each other. In our lives it's the same way. There often aren't people outright attacking us like what happened this week to us, but satan is always on the attack. and he usually attacks us by making us angry or prideful or jealous of other people. He knows that if he can get us to fight against one another he can destroy us just like he did with the Jaredites. 3 Nephi 11 says, "the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil. That's why the second great commandment is to love our neighbor. So my invitation to you all is to find ways to love your neighbor this week! And as you do that I promise that you will have a happier week than if you didn't take the challenge. Have a great week! Love you all!

-Elder Olsen

Bellevue #8

hello everyone! it has been a crazy week so I'll just jump right into it. 

Thanks everyone for praying for king. We had an interview with him and president and found out that he still has some work to do before he can get baptized but if anyone can do it, he can! So if everyone could keep praying for him that would be awesome! We had some amazing lessons with him. The first one was on tuesday and we had a meeting with him and the zone leaders. We were in a good part of the lesson and this guy walks up and says something about how he's never seen 5 mormons team up to convert one poor guy. We kind of try to laugh it off, but this guy doesn't leave. He asks king if we've convinced him to become a mormon yet, and we are all freaking out. There were 5 of us there and nobody had any idea what to do. But King turns around and starts testifying to this man. He testifies about how it isn't the Mormon church, it's the church of Jesus Christ and how the book of mormon isn't meant to replace the bible, but it is another testament of Jesus Christ and it adds on. It was amazing to see him interact with this guy. Anyways we convinced him to leave, finished up our lesson with king, and then the Zone leaders got the great opportunity to listen to this guy rant about how the church isn't true for like an hour. But King has such a strong testimony!

We also went over to this guy named eric's house and talked to him for a bit. He was super down to read the book of mormon and it was way cool to see. He's going to go out of town next week, but we'll stop by after that and see how it's been going.

Friday we had exchanges with the zone leaders and not tons happened. We did some service and ate fried chicken and called a ton of people. We did have a cool lesson where we learned that this member hasn't gotten her patriarchal blessing or been through the temple yet, but wants to! So the Zone leaders will be working with her.

And then Saturday we were going to meet with a couple of ladies, but they had to cancel because one of them didn't feel very good. The asked if we could meet on sunday and we were like sure! Come to church and we can talk afterwards! and they said that they would like that. They almost couldn't find it, but they made it in time and sure enough they loved it! They loved how focused on Christ it was and how there weren't tons of crazy things, it was all just simple truths. It was so good! they even said that they would like to come again! 

The scripture for the week is Doctrine and covenants 78:19. "And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more." And my invitation is to write 3 things you're grateful for every day and see what happens! I'll do the same. Have a great week! Love you all!

-Elder Olsen

Also here's a bunch of awkward spontaneous pictures from today haha

Bellevue #7

Hello Everyone! I'll start off with the update for King. So he is scheduled for baptism on the 31st of July but we aren't so sure if he will be able to make it. He has a strong testimony and has been making a lot of changes to work towards baptism but there are a couple of concerns that we aren't sure how it will work out. We called President Bailey and explained the situation and he wasn't exactly sure on it either. So we are going to meet with him tomorrow and talk to him about a couple of things and probably schedule an interview with President Bailey so that he can get a feel on things. So long story short please pray for him! He has such a strong desire to get baptized and such great faith but we don't know what will happen.

So to give you some other updates since last week. Elder Bandley's and my new companion is named Elder Shami. He has a pretty good british accent and is eager to learn and improve as a missionary. The first day we were with him we had a pretty cool experience. We had just ended a conversation with a guy who basically tried to bash against any scripture except the book of Revelation, and were walking towards one of our investigator's house when some ladies started talking to us. We just had a normal conversation and they asked a couple of questions about who we were, and then one of them asked how much one of those "book of the mormons" costs. So we gave her one right there and then taught them the restoration. They were super receptive and one of them really was excited to go inside and start reading! We got their phone numbers and will be passing one of them off to some other missionaries and then hopefully teaching the other one!

And then Friday night we had a good ole fashioned hurricane right here in nebraska. We woke up on Saturday without power and drove to the church. As we were driving, none of the traffic lights were working and there were tons of tree branches that had fallen down. Basically this massive lightning rain and wind storm blew in and left about 200,000 people without power.  there are some people who still don't have power. So from about 6:45 am to about 4 pm that day we were out checking on our members and people we are teaching and helping to move branches or clean up trees that had fallen down. At 4 we finally got to shower and get ready for missionary work, and right when we were ready to go out, our bishop called and asked us to help with one more house. The guy at the house ended up kicking us off of his property, but we drove around until finally we found a restaurant that wasn't closed, ate dinner, and got to get back to work from 7-9 that day.

This week I was reading in Ether and thinking about God's plan for me individually. I really liked the part that talked about how God asks Ether to make a plan to light the barges and then God would make it work. And that is so applicable to all of our lives. God doesn't want us to be "compelled in all things". He expects us to make our own decisions, and he can make our plan work, or show us a better way for us to go. So I invite you all to prayerfully make your decisions this week and see how God guides you. Have a great week!

-Elder Olsen

Bellevue #6

Happy Independence Day everyone!! So to start off, transfer news! Elder Dew will be leaving, but Elder Bandley and I will be training a new missionary! We are bummed to see Elder Dew go, but it'll be super good! 

I think I talked about King in last weeks email, but I'm not sure and dont want to check so I'll just give an update! We met with him 2 more times this week and he is doing so good. We taught him the law of chastity and the word of wisdom and he committed to follow both of them! He has already been able to cut down a lot with cigarettes and seems so much happier and more confident since we started meeting with him. If you could all pray for him to be able to prepare himself to be baptized on the 31st that would be so great! 

We also had a ward patriotic breakfast and got one of our friends and her kids to come! We have been working with her for a few weeks with one of our members and it was so good for her to meet other ones! They were so thankful that we invited them and we were so glad that they came!

We also had the first meeting with our new mission president! They seemed super cool and super excited about the work. They talked about how we're all different and we need to offer up what we can offer to the Lord. We need to use our strengths to build God's kingdom and work to make our weaknesses strengths. It was super good!

And the last highlight of the week was putting our friend keore on date! We have been trying to contact him since I got into the area, but we finally were able to set up a date for him to get baptized and make a game plan. They are so excited about it and he should start coming to church here pretty soon! 

This week I was studying charity and love. And I really liked learning about how our charity and our nature can increase with practice and prayer. So I have been experimenting on that promise this week. And it has been so cool to see the results! God blesses us so much and he loves effort! So when we try to become more like him, he is that much more likely to bless us. So I invite you all to look at how you can be more charitable with those you interact with and pray and then try it! The Lord will start to make a change in you. Well that's all folks! Remember: God made you special, and he loves you very much. Goodbye!

-Elder Olsen

Random pics throughout the week. The random pic of just me is in front of Warren Buffett's house