Lincoln #18

Hey everyone! My mission is finishing up this week and I head home on Thursday! I can't believe it's already here and I'm just beyond grateful for the chance that I've had to be a missionary. It's sad that it's over but I'm excited for the next chapter of life! 

So i don't know how i forgot to mention it last week but Jenna got baptized! It was a really good day and she has been doing awesome since! 

Anyways here's some other highlights from this last week:

We found a bunch of really cool people this week! One of them is named Briana and she is going to get baptized on the 25th! 

We had exchanges and I got to go to the Spanish area! We had a really fun day and found somebody else who wants to get baptized! It was a super good example to me of how if we press on and endure to the end, then we will be richly blessed!

A couple weeks ago this guy tried bashing with us. A basher is somebody who tries to prove their religious point by being aggressive and using scriptures out of context. Anyways we were meeting with someone from a different church named Alex who is very set in his ways, but was open to hearing more. And while we were going there we ran into the first basher! I tried to tell him that we didn't have time, but Alex and him started talking and then they both started bashing each other. It was crazy and one guy was talking about how God already came back and it was just wild. Me and my comp were just looking at each other trying to figure out what to do but it was pretty funny!

We set our friend Sang on date for baptism this week too! He is in Vietnam right now but will be coming back to Lincoln here soon!

Our ward mission leader got us ice cream. 

Our friend T got us free Indian food. 

I got to do a baptismal interview in Spanish!

Another member got us ice cream.

We saw lots of miracles.

I won the Kahoot at FHE. 

God is good and as I was thinking over the last couple years, I realized that the only way that I have been able to get through them is by the constant support that God has given me. Missionary work is hard. Talking to strangers is hard. Working all day is hard. 

But God expects us to do hard things, because it is only though the hard things that we can grow. God asked Nephi to get the plates and then showed him that he could only do it God's way. God asked Moses to free the children of Israel and gave him power to do it. And God asked me to serve a mission and helped me in every moment. He has called me, sustained me, forgiven me, and strengthened me. I will forever be in his debt. I don't regret serving a mission for a second. If any of you are wondering if God knows you, he does. Just pray to Him and ask for His help and he will be there!

I could go on forever about the last two years, but if you want to hear more, I'll be sharing some of my experiences this Sunday! Hit me up for the details!

See you all soon! 

- Elder Olsen

Lincoln YSA #17

Tuesday this week we went up to Omaha and I got to go on exchanges with Elder Powell! We were comps back in the fall, and it was a fun day! We were out in the rain most of the day just talking to people and we didn't have much success but it was a good time! We also had our 700th day as a missionary on Tuesday do that was crazy as well!

Wednesday we had a lesson with this guy named Junior! We met him about a month ago, but this was the first lesson we were able to have with him. He told us that there's been a ton going on bit he wants to start coming to church and changing his life! It was a pretty cool miracle and we are super excited to start working with him!

Thursday we had a sweet lesson with this guy named Sean. He was super cool and was talking about how he needs to get back into everything. He definitely felt the spirit so it was a super cool experience!

So anyways I don't usually like to tell people when it's a little tougher, but this week my eye has had some sort of infection or something. I have eyedrops and everything to take care of it, but it's been an adventure trying to do everything as usual. But the only reason I bring that up is that it has helped me understand the Atonement better. Jesus is sometimes called the healer, and the reason that he wants us to follow him is so that we don't have to hurt. By following the doctor and using the eye drops every day, I can avoid a lot of pain. By following Jesus Christ's commandments and repenting, we can avoid so much spiritual pain and live a happier life. We just need to repent and follow Christ. So the reason he wants us to follow him isn't to help him, it's to help us! Anyways follow Jesus Christ everyone and have a great week!

Lincoln YSA #16

Hey guys! This week was crazy busy, just one of those weeks that feels like there's no way it's just been one week since I wrote.

We ended up running into no less than 4 people who just wanted to try to prove us wrong. They just wanted to tear us and our faith down but God won't let that happen! It's kind of crazy to me that people would go so far to try to stop God's work from progressing, but in the words of Joseph Smith, "persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent..." Anyways because the Book of Mormon is true, there is nothing that's going to disprove it.

We had a couple really cool lessons though! One of them was with Jenna! She is so set for baptism this week and it's really exciting. We went over all of her concerns and she has come to church the last couple weeks and is just so excited. We also met with a guy named Chengen. He claims to be atheist, but we think that he's looking for something. He ended up coming to church and we taught him the plan of salvation and it was really good. 

Something else we've been trying to do is help members make lists of all of the nonmembers they know that they would want to join the church one day. Then we pray about those lists and try to receive revelation about who we should reach out to and how. It's been really cool with them, but Elder Wright and I have been doing it as well with people from home and it's been really cool! We don't have to try to do everything always to be a good member missionary. We just need to do what God would have us do and he will help us see what to do! 

Also we had zone conference and it was really really good! We talked about a lot of great things and the mission is heading in a really good direction. I gave my departing testimony which is absolutely crazy, but I think it went pretty well! 

Other highlights include getting invited to a graduation party, Elder Wright getting poison ivy, playing frisbee with the ward, and having a couple of hilarious lessons. 

Anyways it was a good week! This week I read about how the Nephites prepared their cities for the time when they would be attacked and it made me think whether I'm preparing myself for when the adversary attacks. I think it's something really important to think about. When we study the scriptures are we preparing or are we just killing time. When we go to church are we preparing or are we not paying attention. I invite you guys to ask yourself how well you are preparing and then be a little more intentional about it this next week! I can promise that God will help you.

Have a fabulous week!

-Elder Olsen

Lincoln YSA #15

Hey guys! I hope you all were able to watch the devotional from President and Sister Nelson yesterday! It was amazing and I learned so much. If you didn't get to watch it, I would highly recommend!

Anyways with that being said, it was a pretty good week! 

We met with our friend Jenna a couple times and she is doing really really well! She will be getting baptized on the 27th of May and we are super excited for her. She has overcome so many challenges with the word of wisdom and with other things that have been going on, but keeps pressing forward with faith. After church she told us that the spirit was so strong and that she knew that this was the right way to go. She also watched the devotional with the prophet and loved it! It has been awesome to see her faith grow.

So besides her we have had a lot of people moving out because of school getting out. This week most of our high potential people moved to other states or cities in Nebraska for the summer. But hopefully the missionaries over there can keep working with them and helping them to progress! So we've been trying hard to help everyone else start progressing a little bit more. One of those people's name is T! He came to church this week and he says that he wants to keep learning and maybe be baptized, but he's not quite sure yet. His main holdup is that he's super superstitious and feels like there's a lot of bad trying to control him. Some of the lights in our church building kind of flicker a little bit sometimes and that just freaked him out until we just told him it's a normal thing. So we are trying to help him with that as well, but he's awesome!

We also met with this guy named Daniel and  other missionaries gave him off to us because they thought he was YSA, but he's almost 40. Anyways he kept talking our ears off and giving us this terrible advice. Like one of the things he said was that he used to talk to people a lot more, and then he realized it's a waste of time so now he just stays home and watches movies and feels like it's way better. Just stuff like that and he kept talking so that was a fun one. 

Anyways we also have been working with this lady named Vianka that was found on facebook and she is willing to learn, but just a little hesitant because she doesn't know how her family would feel about it, so if you could all pray for her that would be awesome!

So this week I had my last interview with my Mission President, President Bailey. He is a really wise man and I've learned so much from him. It was a really powerful experience, and I thought I'd share one of the things that he told me. He showed me 1 Nephi 15:24, and the last part of it says, "and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction."

If we hold fast to the word of God we will never falter or fail. We won't have to worry about Satan's darts that he's going to throw at us. We just need to follow Christ as closely as we can and when we get off course, get right back on. And so I challenge you all to read from the Book of Mormon every day this next week. If that's already something you do, then your challenge is to put more effort into hearing God's voice as you study. I can promise that it will have more of an effect than you think.

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Olsen

Also here's a district picture, a pday picture, me with Elder Perry and me with Sean!

Lincoln YSA #14

Hey everyone! This was a super good week and the highlight was definitely Sean's baptism! Everything went super smoothly and he is definitely prepared. He will be moving up to Omaha here but it has been awesome working with him!

We met this super cool guy on the street named Maragan. We taught him the restoration and are going back tomorrow! I usually don't mention too many new people that we talk to because you never know what's gonna happen, but Maragan was awesome.

Also we had Jenna at church! We were a little worried about how she would like it, but she loved it and can't wait for next week!

We had a lesson with a guy named Tshering.  It went really well and we invited him to Sean's baptism and he said that he actually wants to get baptized too! So we picked out a day, but then things started getting weird. He told us that he feels like there is a secret organization controlling him and that Covid and hurricane Kitrina were caused somehow by this organization. Weird, but we are going to see if we can clear things up a little bit for him!

Anyways it was a great one. In my studies this week I was thinking about how important it is to do what God asks. I can promise you that no matter what's going on in your life, if you put God first, it will all work out the way God wants it to. So follow Him and He will take care of the rest. 

Have a great week!

-Elder Olsen 

Lincoln YSA #13

Well hello again! Happy May! It's crazy how fast time goes but that's life I guess.

The highlight of my week was probably this lesson we had with a recent convert. We were having a moment and he was talking about death and it was a little somber. Then out of the blue he says, ( and he is 100% serious) "I want to be buried in a Power Rangers suit." Elder Wright and I just lost it. We both started laughing so hard but somehow we were able to convince him that we weren't laughing at him so that was good! He said some other hilarious things, (including demonstrating the entire power rangers morph for us) but that one just killed us haha.

We had a sweet church service yesterday! We ended up getting 2 nonmembers there and then some other missionaries got another one, and then we got 2 inactive members there as well! We got like 3 shout outs in testimony meeting, and then this guy that we got there that hadn't been to church in like 4 years shared his testimony an it was sweet! Plus he gave us another shout out lol.

We were super bummed last week because we were supposed to have a baptism for our friend Carson and then he stopped responding. But then Sean showed up randomly to FHE! He told us that he still wants to get baptized and we were able to meet with him 3 times since then and he is getting baptized this Saturday! We are super pumped for him. 

We also had sweet plan of salvation lessons with Alberto and Joseph. Alberto has a super innate understanding of spiritual things and he just totally understood the premortal life and the fall and it was super cool to see. Joseph understood it all and you could see it making sense in his mind and building off of what he already knew. It was so cool to see!

And then we also were able to find a bunch of new people this week so that was super fun! God is good and he loves us. 

This week I have been thinking about my faith and where it lacks. I think that a lot of times it is easy for me and others to have faith in Jesus Christ, but it's not so easy to have faith in each other or ourselves. For example, I know that Christ will forgive us of our sins. But its harder to believe that he really will answer our prayers, or that we will understand his answer. It's easy to believe in God, but maybe harder to believe that God is working through you, or your church leaders. But I love Ether 12:27, which basically says that God will help us be humble so that we can understand that we are weak. And then he promises that through his grace our weakness can become strength. So we can believe in each other because God's promises are sure. We might not be strong on our own, but with Christ we can be!

If any of you have thoughts on this, I would love to hear them! Anyways have a great week!

-Elder Olsen

Me and Elder Steiner who just left the zone, and then pday at the Nebraska state capital!

Lincoln YSA #12

Hey everyone! This week was full of lots of the good, bad and the ugly.

 But the first good was that I'm starting my last transfer of the mission tomorrow and Elder Wright and I are both going to be staying here in Lincoln! So I'm super excited about that. 

The Bad: nobody was able to come to church this week! That was super sad for us, especially but we have a lot of potential for this week. We also had this guy named Carson who was supposed to get baptized this week that won't be able to.

The Ugly: one of the guys we were working with told us that he didn't want to talk anymore and actually threatened to call the cops on us!

BUT the thing that I've noticed is that when you trust God and do what he asks, the good really starts to outweigh the bad and the ugly.  So with that being said, here's the rest of the good that happened!

We were able to talk to a lot of people on campus and a lot of people were interested in learning more! So with campus we get so many phone numbers and a ton of people who tell us they want to learn more will later block us. But this week a lot of the people have really been open to talking more and we have lessons set up with a lot of them! 

We went on exchanges twice this week and had a great time. 

Elder Wright and I stayed undefeated in frisbee golf for this transfer 💪

Sean who hadn't been responding to us for a couple weeks randomly showed up to FHE and said he still wants to get baptized!

I got to use my Spanish a couple times!

I got a burger with blackberry jam and peach jam on it.

Our friend Kirstin really opened up and she is really progressing. She will be gone for the summer though.

We had a lesson with this lady named Pu'u and she is awesome. She wants to get baptized in June!

We taught another lady and she is really excited about the church and wants to get baptized in May!

I've been reading in Alma about the sons of mosiah and something that I thought was really cool was the story about King Lamoni's father. Basically the dad was really mad at his son Lamoni and Ammon and tried to kill them. Ammon stops him from killing his son, and shows mercy to the dad. And the part that I thought was really cool was that the dad's heart was softened because of the love Ammon had towards Lamoni and him. He later became a believer in Christ and it all started with love. So my invitation to you all would be to show love to somebody that maybe you struggle with sometimes! I can promise that God will help you and you will feel His love.

Have a great week! 

- Elder Olsen

Also here's some exchange pictures and a tree that fell down outside our church building 

Lincoln YSA #11

hello hello! This week flew by again, but i guess that's been pretty normal lately.

We set two of the people we're teaching on date for baptism this week! One of them is named Carson. We talked to him about baptism and he was really excited about it, and should be getting baptized on the 30th of April. He came to our Institute class and then church as well and absolutely loved it. He is honestly so prepared to hear the gospel. 

The other one was Jenna! Some of the sisters found her and within a week of meeting with them she already talked about how she was becoming a "mormon". She is so excited and hasn't even been to church yet because of her work, but she is so excited about the church. Anyways I ran out of time because I didn't plan, but just know that God is working miracles here. 

Love you guys!

- Elder Olsen

Lincoln YSA #10

Happy Holy week everyone! It's been a great last week and super eventful. 

We met this lady named Taryn on Monday night. I messaged her on Facebook and sent her a video talking about the Book of Mormon and then she told me that she had prayed to God to help her know that He was there. Shortly after we messaged and she said that we were an answer to prayers. Anyways we had a video call with her on Monday and then gave her a Book of Mormon on Tuesday! 

So on Sunday there was this thing called Why I Believe where recent converts share their testimonies. So we showed up and they didn't have much planned so I ended up playing the piano and then a sister and I had to figure out a musical number last minute but it actually went really good! God definitely was helping because we only had like 5-10 minutes to figure it out. But the coolest part was that Jourdan spoke! And we had two nonmembers come that both loved it as well! The spirit was really strong and it was a super cool experience.

We also had this really cool lesson with Sean where we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he committed to being baptized on May 7th! We should be seeing him again today. 

And then another huge highlight this week was actually volleyball! We ended up having a bunch of nonmembers and it was a super good time. 

This area is at a point where things are going so well. We have a couple of people on date for baptism and are looking at a few more for this next week! 

And then we also started teaching this guy named Carson! He is super cool and he came to Institute and loved it. We also gave him a Book of Mormon and should be meeting with him tonight also! 

Anyways that was kind of all over the place, but I've been thinking this week about when in the scriptures Jesus says that when we are humble, when we are meek, and when we are peacemakers we are blessed. But he also says that we are blessed when we mourn, and when we are persecuted. God blesses us so much, even when we have trials. President Nelson said, "The Savior is never closer to you than when you are facing or climbing a mountain with faith." 

So keep trying, God is on our side. I hope you all have a fantastic week!

-Elder Olsen

Lincoln YSA #9

Hello hello and welcome to the weekly email!

Wasn't General Conference just amazing! I learned so much and I loved the emphasis the prophet made on bringing up our spiritual momentum. When we have that momentum, we can keep our faith growing and growing and Satan can't stop us. I think my favorite talk was the one by Elder Uchtdorf. It really made me think about the craziness of life, but how if we just put God first and go towards him, we will be able to balance everything else. We just have to keep going towards him. 

This week was full of miracles again! We had Kirstin and a guy named Innocent come to conference! I think they both really enjoyed it, and Kirstin told us that she is going to go back and listen to all the talks that she missed. Innocent said that he was going to try to come every week! It was really cool to see them listening to the prophet for the first time! 

And then Jourdan got to go to general conference! So she was baptized about a month ago and her family and friends are really really against the church. She has had all sorts of opposition, and our mission president suggested that she go to Conference. He actually bought her plane tickets so that she could go down and watch! And she said it was such a powerful experience. 

I also got to go on exchanges with the one and only Elder Joshua Hansen from North Logan Utah! He and I went to high school together and it was a good time. We went street contacting on campus and found a lot of success. Talking to people on campus is always a party cause they are always so confused. One lady straight up ran away from us when we started talking to her haha. But most people are pretty nice so it's awesome!

Anyways I really loved conference so I wanted to share some thoughts from my favorite talk! I really loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk. He talked about how hard it is to balance everything and still lift ourselves spiritually. But he compares it to a bike where if you focus forward it is so much easier to balance everything. And an airplane receives lift from forward speed. So if we want to balance our lives and bring ourselves closer to God, we need to focus on the Savior and everything else will come easier. So my invitation is to figure out what that looks like for you, and then do it!

Well that's all the time I have for today kids. Remember: God thinks you're special, and he loves you very much. Goodbye!

-Elder Olsen

Lincoln YSA #8

Happy General Conference week! You guys if you don't think God has a hand in his work, just look around. God is in the details and he is hastening his work! We had some absolute miracles this week so stay tuned cause it's gonna be a fun one.

We had a super powerful lesson with Kirstin! We could tell something was off when we were talking with her, so we asked a few questions and she opened up about all sorts of hard things she's been going through and how much it means to have the church group here, because our members have become her best friends here. It was super cool. She said she wasn't going to be able to make it to church, but without telling us, she decided church was more important and walked in right as it was starting!

Also last Sunday we were out talking to people and we were going to try to talk to this guy burning leaves on his driveway, but he got into his car right as we got out of our car. But all was not lost because it turns out that the sisters in the area had actually talked to him like 10 minutes before! They gave us his number and we went over on Wednesday. His name is Nick and we taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel and the spirit was definitely there and he said he wanted to come to church with us! He even texted and asked for the details about institute, but then he told us that he wanted to stay a Catholic. We tried asking what happened and calling him, but he just hadn't been responding.

And then we had this guy named Sean who has grown a testimony of the gospel and wants to get baptized. He was doing super good and then he all of a sudden started ghosting us for like the last 2 weeks. Usually this means that someone told him something that's not true about the church and he believed them. So we took him off date for baptism and have been stressing about all that. 

But then last night at 9:58 Sean texted us and said that he has been super sick and that he still wants to meet with us! We were freaking out, but then at 10:03 Nick Texted us back! He said, "sorry for the delay can you guys please come over tomorrow I need someone or some type of faith to get back in to the love of Jesus Christ amen I hope to here from one you soon without you I'm not sure where I would be standing today but I'm always proud to be and American forever sincerely your friend and worshiper." 

God is so good and he works miracles!

We also had a super sweet lesson with this lady named Isabella. We talked to her about the temple and said we were going to show her a video where two apostles lead a tour through a temple, and she got so excited. She said that she didn't realize there were apostles on the earth and she thought it was the coolest thing in the world. She loved the video, and is so excited to keep learning.

It just made me think, how many things do we take for granted? How many times do we forget how cool it is to have apostles or temples or even the scriptures? We just forget because we've had it for so long. But everything in God's church is a miracle! It is a Miracle that his church is on the earth today. It is a Miracle that we have the Book of Mormon. God is a God of Miracles and so I'd invite you going into conference to think about all of the miracles that you have in your life and be ready for God to work more miracles in your life!

Have a great week! If you don't know what general conference is, please reach out, I'd love to tell you all about it!

-Elder Olsen 

Lincoln YSA #7

Hello hello! It's been another week and here we are again on Monday!

The new transfer is starting off well. It has been spring break here so people have been out of town, but it's just helped us to be creative with what we do!

We have knocked the doors of a lot of people this week. Just yesterday we had a lot of cool experiences with that!

We knocked on the door of someone named Innocent. We had stopped by a lot before but he had never been home. But this time he was! He immediately invited us in and stopped what he was doing to talk to us. He was so humble and he even asked when and where church was before we invited him! We taught him the restoration of the gospel and the spirit in the room was so powerful it was crazy. He definitely noticed it as well. 

We also were invited into this house where these two people were drunk and high out of their minds. We were in there for less than 10 minutes and the smell on our clothes was so bad that we could still smell it the next morning. It was an adventure and there is probably 0 chance that they will remember meeting us at all. 

Then we have also been teaching this lady named vida. We found her on campus a few weeks ago and she has been reading the Book of Mormon and believes that it could be true! Our only holdup with her is that she works every Sunday, but we are trying to help her with that!

Something we shared with someone this week is the power of Christ's atonement. We used the example of Alma in the scriptures. He went from being a terrible sinner to being a prophet of God. When he realized his sins and mistakes he says that he was racked with inexpressible torment or something along those lines. But the moment that he called on Jesus Christ, his soul was filled with Joy as exceeding as was his pain. Because of Jesus Christ, God can change whatever we are going through and show us his plan for us. So trust Him!

Anyways everyone have a great week!

-Elder Olsen

Lincoln YSA #6

Hola a todos! This week has been crazy. Elder Gardner from the Spanish branch went to Bolivia. His companion needed to go with another missionary, and I'm the only one in the zone that speaks Spanish! So Elder Peterson and I took Elder Holden and we have been covering the Spanish Branch and the YSA ward this week.

It's been a cool week though! We had a lesson with this guy named Hector. He speaks English and Spanish, so we taught the lesson in English, but when I shared the first vision in Joseph Smith's words, I said it in Spanish and the spirit was so strong. It was so cool and he definitely knew it. He still didn't seem to want to accept the truth, but he felt the spirit!

We also had a super cool experience with Kirstin that we're teaching. We have been trying to get her to read the Book of Mormon but she has kept forgetting. But we had a super powerful lesson and she committed to read! And she has been enjoying it so far. 

Anyways I have 0 time but I hope you all know that God loves you. If you aren't sure, just ask him! Have a great week!

Lincoln YSA #5

Hey everyone! It has been a fantastic week and know that no matter what, God is good. 

This week we were able to set our friend Sean on date for baptism! We asked him where he was at with his faith in Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. He told us that he believed it all. He said that he wasn't sure what it was but there was some supernatural feeling that just made him believe it. We explained to him that that was the Holy Spirit and taught him about it. His only holdup with baptism was that he wants to know as much as he can first. But he is getting baptized on April 2nd! He's been coming to all the activities and is so ready for the gospel. 

Kirstin is also doing super well! She just randomly showed up to FHE, and we hadn't really invited her so that meant that one of the members had! She came to like all the activities this week and then to church and seemed to like it! We were super confused why she was meeting with us, because she had been going to a different church and it didn't seem like she had any struggles, but I think she was drawn to us because of the Spirit of God that is present at church!

We were out knocking on the door of this person who was taught in the past and we saw this girl getting her mail so we went up and talked to her. We taught her the restoration and she told us that she's been struggling and she thinks that us going up and talking to her was a sign from God! We told her that it was and that we are actually messengers of God, and we are meeting up with her this week!

And then we met a bunch of people on campus this week, but two of them, Nani and Daniel we have had lessons with since and they are also so ready to hear the gospel. God is so good. He lead us to them and is preparing them to accept his gospel!

Your spiritual thought comes from the story of Joseph in Egypt. He was living his best life when he got sold into slavery by his own brothers. I want you to stop and imagine what that would've been like for him. His own brothers sold him and he was going to live as a lowly slave for the rest of his life. He somehow managed to make his way up and became potiphar's (I think that's how you spell it) right hand man. Right when things were finally looking up for Joseph he was falsely accused and sentenced to jail. Stop and imagine how that must have felt. He still did his best in jail and trusted in God. Because he trusted God, he had God's power on his side and he went from lowly slave sentenced to jail, to second in command in all of Egypt. And because of all that he saved his family from a famine.

Alright so here's where this can connect to each of you. God can make something beautiful out of your trials. That's why the Bible teaches about beauty for ashes. God has all power and he has a plan for you even in the middle of your trials, so trust him and it will all work out!

Have a great week!

-Elder Olsen

Pic: Exchanges with Elder Grover

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