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