Lincoln YSA #4

Alrighty mates another week is gone! It has honestly been a week of ups and downs, but God is good and he turned each of our low points and made something great out of them.

So Tuesday we had a pretty solid day, then Wednesday we had exchanges. I went with Elder Lawler for the day and it was super sweet! We had some really good lessons and were able to help one of their friends almost commit to Baptism. It was super cool and we had a really good day. 

Thursday we had zone conference! It was super good and we talked a lot about the doctrine of Christ and what that means for us personally. It was kind of cool because as missionaries we hardly ever seem to talk about our own conversion, we are always so focused on others, but our mission president really wanted us to think about what this meant to us in our lives! 

We also had a couple super cool lessons, one of them is with this guy named Sean and he is so ready for the gospel and it was so cool to share it with him!

Friday was kind of a tougher one, we had weekly planning and we had a couple people who texted us and told us that they no longer would be meeting with us. That was super super sad for us, but we think it is what is best overall, because it will give us more time to focus on those who are ready!

And then Saturday we had Jourdan's Baptism! It all went super smoothly, and it was super exciting to see her make this huge step in her life. We had Evan and Kirstin who ended up coming and they both seemed to really enjoy it! We've been able to meet with Kirstin a lot more regularly recently and it is super cool to see her really start taking the gospel into her life!

And then later that night Satan decided to attack us again. One of our people on Baptismal date blocked us and another one asked us to stop reaching out to them. We were super disappointed and it was just a rough night because we were stressed about a lot of things, but God is good!

Sunday was so much better. I was super prayerful that he would guide us and the day went so smooth. The person who asked us to stop talking to them actually decided to come to church, and the one who blocked us decided to set up a lesson with us! Evan came to church and we had a lesson with Kirstin. 

But the coolest part was knocking on the door of this lady named Katy. We were actually looking for someone who didn't live there anymore, but Katy said we could come back! So that was pretty cool on it's own, but then about 20 minutes later we get this call from some sister missionaries in Nevada and they are freaking out, because Katy is her best friend and she has been teaching her and she's so excited that Katy wants to meet up with us!

So with all that being said, my invite for y'all is to pray mightily whenever you're going through good times or bad, and I can promise that God will lead you along!

Have a fabulous week!

-Elder Olsen

Lincoln YSA #3

Alright so this week was a pretty sweet one. Tuesday we went over to someone's apartment to cast out Ghosts. It was pretty sweet. Jk we just dedicated an apartment, but the people in the apartment were absolutely convinced that there had been demons in their apartment. But it turned out alright and they said it helped! And then the sister missionaries called like the next day and they have someone that thinks they're haunted and needs us to dedicated their house. So we're the unofficial Ghostbusters now 😎.

The rest of the week was pretty sweet as well! 2 weeks ago was super hard to find, but this week God helped us out so much and it was awesome. One of them was this guy named Cameron and he is super down to hear about the gospel and to progress. He has a lot of things he would need to change, but he's ready to make those changes in his life.

And then on the way to Cameron's lesson,  we talked to this guy named Troy and he has had a death in the family recently and it’s really turned him towards God. We testified to him and grabbed his number! He has been responding and we are going to meet up with him and teach him!

Also this last Friday marked two years from when I opened my mission call! It is so crazy to think what has happened in the last two years. While my expectations about my mission have changed a lot, my testimony has only increased. It's always crazy looking back, because time always flies. But looking forward, we seem to doubt. But what can we achieve in the next year if we put our minds to it. What if we try every day to be a little bit better. We would be able to look back with no regrets for the things that we accomplished. So I invite you all to look at something you need to work on, and work on it every day this week! Anyways you all have a great week! Love you all!

-Elder Olsen

Lincoln YSA #2

Happy Valentine's day everyone! I know that no matter what you're going through our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ will always love us. They are there for us!

This week was an interesting one. We ended up going up to Omaha on Wednesday for an MLC mission meeting, and then Thursday we had exchanges in Omaha as well! It was super fun because I got to go with Elder Powell, one of my favorite past companions. We found this lady named Tammy and had a super powerful lesson with her where we were able to testify to her that despite her challenges and her anger towards God, He still loved her and would be there for her. 

We also had a super cool lesson with our friend Gauri! We hopped on the video call and she decided that her friend Pallavi should learn more too, so we taught both of them the Plan of Salvation. It was super cool, especially since Gauri has lost multiple family members in the last year, and we were able to bring a lot of peace and closure to her. She was going to come to church, but ended up having some health challenges that kept her back. 

We also found this guy on campus named Levi. He gave us his number and said we could call, but we honestly didn't expect him to answer. But he did, and he really opened up to us about his religious background and we were able to teach him the restoration of the Gospel and be with him for his first prayer ever! It was super sweet and he definitely wants to learn more.

And then we had this suuuper long lesson with this guy named Igor. He is a youth minister and knows the Bible really well, but is open to the thought of more revelation. He had so many questions and it was really kind of all over the place, but we were able to bring sense to all his questions except one, and we will look into that one a little more and get back to him. He asked us if God just chose certain people who could receive spiritual witnesses about the Book of Mormon and didn't choose others, but we assured him that he doesn't. He gives a witness to all with a sincere heart and real intent. We told him that real intent meant that he would have to be ready to leave his ministry and be baptized if he wanted to receive a witness and he told us that he was willing to have real intent as he asks God!

Moroni teaches us, "But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." So on valentine's week I want to invite you all to study the charity section of Preach My Gospel and strive to truly exercise charity in all you do this week. I'll attach a link. Anyways love you all, have a great week!

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/preach-my-gospel-a-guide-to-missionary-service/how-do-i-develop-christlike-attributes?lang=eng

-Elder Olsen

District pic 

District pic

we won the gold metal at fhe😎

exchanges with Elder Powell and Josiah from my last area

MLC pic

Lincoln YSA #1

Hey what's up everyone! So this week has been crazy with transferring to Lincoln and all that. But God is good and he can make anything work out for our good! 

So we are teaching some pretty sweet people! I'll tell you a little bit about them.

Jourdan is a lady that was found on facebook and she is so solid! She is getting baptized on the 26th and can't wait. Her family is super against her decision to be baptized, but she doesn't care. She is pressing forward and putting her trust in God, and the miracles have already started in her life.

Evan is super cool as well. We taught him the plan of salvation and it was super powerful.  We talked about what he needs to do in this life to follow Christ and brought up baptism and invited him, and he said yes! It was kind of funny because he went out drinking with his friends right after our lesson, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Meleah is this lady that was found at a gas station. We got dinner with her and our bishop and his wife and it was super sweet! She is eager to belong in a community of believers and came to church so that's sweet.

We also found this lady named Kirstin who is super sweet. She is also trying to belong in a new city, and she is trying to figure out what she believes. We found her after church yesterday, but she is coming to FHE tonight with the ward and it should be awesome!

Aaand then there's also someone named Julius who came to church, and a lady named Zekiah who looked up the church and asked to learn more! She came to church as well and wants to get baptized! So we're going to figure out all the details this week and it should be awesome!

Anyways your spiritual thought is from Mosiah 3. It says, "7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people. 8 And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary. 9 And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him, and shall crucify him. 10 And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world; and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men."

That was kind of lengthy, but I hope you realize how much Jesus really loves you. He didn't have to go through any of those pains or anguishes or any of it. But he did it just for us. And he paid the whole price. If you ever think you can't be forgiven, just remember that Christ already paid the price for you, and all he wants is for us to accept his gift. He loves us so much and he doesn't leave us behind. 

That's all I have for this week! Have a good one!

-Elder Olsen

Pics: me and Elder Peterson, and then Winter Quarters YSA goodbyes!

Winter Quarters YSA #24

Hey everyone! So the big news of the week is that I am getting transferred! Tomorrow I'll head out and start serving in the Lincoln YSA ward! So go Huskers! I'm super excited and It will be cool to stay YSA. This week was a crazy one again. It's honestly hard to believe that it's only been a week since emailing last, but that's just because we've been so busy! Covering two areas is kind of insane, but I'll try to just give the highlights and how the YSA people are doing. 

Caleb is doing well! We met with him again this week and taught the plan of salvation, and he really enjoyed it! He wants to start joining the YSA more and more for activities and we're super excited for him. 

We met with Denton again! He is super excited about the gospel and he wasn't able to come to church, but he came to institute with a lot of the other Creighton Law school students. It was kind of a crazy discussion about Moses, but hopefully he enjoyed it.

Kayla said she read the Book of Mormon and as she was reading, she noticed that it made her so happy! She said that it's the only time that she hasn't had to turn to cigarettes to make her feel better! There is power in the Book of Mormon.

Todd is doing okay. He might not want to progress much further, but we are going to try to get him to meet other members and hopefully that will inspire him to keep moving.

Elder Reep was messaging a lady and she asked him to marry her! So we offered her the gospel instead and gave her a church tour. It was SUUUUPER awkward, but it turned out okay. Hopefully it doesn't get more weird.

We also gave a church tour to a guy named Alejandro and we are going to start teaching him!

We finally got to go back on campus because school is back in and it was warm enough, and we ended up getting 5 people's phone numbers!

We also gave a blessing to someone right before they went into surgery!

We had a pass off lesson with two people who were kind of crazy. It was super hard to control the conversation, but we shared the first vision, and the catholic guy thought we were quoting the Bible, and the other lady told us it was a dream, and when we explained how it wasn't she got kind of upset haha.

We had exchanges with the APs and that was fun, and we also had one with Columbus!

We found this person on facebook and taught him the first two lessons!

And we talked to some sweet members and have started them on studying Preach My Gospel!

I read in Moroni this week and a scripture stuck out to me that i've never noticed before. It is Moroni 9:6 and says, "And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God." I think this is super applicable in our efforts to share the gospel. People are sometimes hard hearted, but our duty is to invite them! So I invite you to help others come closer to Christ this week! Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Olsen