Winter Quarters YSA #19

Hello Everyone! I hope that you all had a great Christmas last week and that you have a great New Year this week!

This week has been pretty good here in Nebraska. We met with our friend Devyn 3 times this week. We were a little nervous because he wants to get baptized, but he hadn't been taught any of the commandments. We weren't sure if he was actually committed or if he just wanted to get baptized because it sounds cool. So anyways on Thursday we went through almost all of them and he didn't have any problems with any of it. But Sunday we were planning on going over the word of wisdom and we knew that he drank coffee. But we taught what it is and why it's important and even though he was super disappointed, he committed to stop. So now he is all set for his baptism on Saturday and we are really excited about it! 

We also were able to meet with Holly a couple of times this week. We ran through all of the commandments super fast with her and she understood all of it. She has been taught for like the last year and a half and has finally made the decision to be baptized! She doesn't seem to have any problems, so we are all set for her baptism in about 2 weeks! 

We also had a zone conference this week where every district did a talent or a skit. Our district decided to play Silent Night on the Recorders and let me just tell you all it was absolutely beautiful. We also had a white elephant gift exchange and I got 4 hotwheels cars so it was a pretty good day. 

And then for our Christmas we got to eat dinner with President and Sister Bailey! They are our mission leaders and so we got to spend a couple hours with them and then a couple hours with one of our recent converts and it was a pretty solid day. Christmas as a missionary is very different from any other Christmas. It doesn't have as much of the lights or the fun or the gifts or any of that. But I don't really feel like I've missed out. And I think that the reason for that is that I'm celebrating Christmas in a different way. As missionaries, we Celebrate Christmas by teaching others about him, by doing what he taught by serving and helping and loving one another. But the best part is, you don't have to be a missionary to do that, and it doesn't have to be during Christmas time. So my invitation to you all is to commit this new year to go out of your way more to help one another and to serve one another. And I can promise that you will feel happier and closer to the Savior. 

Love you all! Have a fantastic week!

-Elder Olsen

Ps. The email heading comes because the girl who plays Tony Stark's daughter came all the way from New Orleans to Omaha so that she could get baptized here. Kind of cool haha

Winter Quarters YSA #18

Hey guys! So there has been so much stuff that's happened this last week so I'll try to tell you a little bit about all of it! 

#1: I got to go to the temple twice this week! Our mission President's wife surprised the whole mission and our Christmas present was that the whole mission gets to go through the temple today and tomorrow! We just got to go today and it is so phenomenal. The power and presence of God that you can feel there are honestly. unmatched. And then the other time was to do baptisms for the dead with two of our recent converts, Chris and Mollly! It was both of their first time and it was so good!

#2: I am officially a Nebraska Omaha Mission Missionary! President Bailey called us this Friday and told me that with the amount of time I have left, I won't make it down to Peru. Everybody has been asking if I'm okay with it, and the answer is absolutely! I love it here, I have lots of friends here in the mission, and the important part is that I have been able to be a missionary. It doesn't really matter where.

#3: Transfers happened! So Elder Gleim is back home in California and my new comp is Elder Fails. He is from Philadelphia and we get along great! It's going to be a fun transfer.

$4: The tornado. Actually that's kind of a lie, but Wednesday afternoon it got really stormy and windy and the tornado sirens started going off for probably an hour. It got really dark all of a sudden and super windy and the rain was pounding, but then it all just stopped. Honestly I was a little disappointed, but it was probably for the best.

#5: Elder Fails and I got assigned to be admins over a couple of the facebook pages this week. It was super unexpected and we've been super busy trying to balance that and everything else we are doing. 

#6 We had a ward activity where we were making blankets for those who don't have any, and our friend Brian showed up which is super good for him because he hasn't come to activities for a couple months.

#7: Saturday night we got a call from some other missionaries and they told us that they have a friend who is YSA that wants to get baptized before the end of the year! He came to the other missionaries' church and our church and met a bunch of ward members!

#8: I've been thinking this week about what we can offer to the Savior. Like the wise men gave gifts when he was a baby, we can also give gifts to him. It could be a more kind heart, more thoughtful prayers, small acts of service or whatever you want, but I invite you all to think of something, and then do it this week. Have a great week everyone!!

-Elder Olsen

Winter Quarters YSA #17

Hey guys! So it is transfer week again and because Elder Gleim finished up his mission, I will be staying in the YSA for another transfer and I'll be getting Elder Fails as a comp. He's a great guy so it'll be really fun!

But Elder Gleim and I had a good last week! We started off last Monday with meeting Todd. Todd has been taught for a little while now by some other elders and we are going to start teaching him now! He has a lot of questions and loves learning which is super cool. He also likes talking so that is fun trying to focus him, but it's all good. We had a super cool lesson with him about the Restoration and he seems to want to come to church! He wasn't able to this last week but hopefully soon. 

Tuesday we went to UNO (University of Nebraska Omaha) campus and street contacted and met two people named Nick and Connor that both seemed pretty cool! Connor seemed super excited to learn more about the gospel and it's been pretty cool preaching about Christ during the middle of Christmas time. And then Wednesday we went street contacting on Creighton university campus and we ended up meeting a couple of people who are also named Nick and Connor. They definitely are less interested than the two from the day before, especially cause Nick mostly just wanted to have a friendly debate, but we were able to get their phone numbers so we can talk more later.

Thursday we went on exchanges and I was with Elder Tucker. We had a good exchange except for the part when we were on campus and this guy started off super nice and was down to hear our message, and then when we got into it he started debating a lot of the things we were saying. The sad part was that every time we tried to share why we believe, and bear testimony, he would just follow it up with telling us that we were wrong. But that's just life as a missionary and the great thing is that every time you find someone that doesn't want to listen, you're one person closer to the person who does want to.

Okay the big news for the week! King (from my last area) got baptized!!!! We were teaching him pretty much the whole time that I was there, but when I left, I honestly thought he was kind of a lost cause. He hadn't been making the kind of choices that he needed to and we had been teaching him twice a week for a while. But somehow in the four months since I've left, he quit smoking, moved to a different part of Omaha, and figured out a couple of other things and now is a member of the church! He even spoke at this thing called why I believe and did a great job! God is good my friends.

Anyways I have been thinking a lot about who the Baby Jesus would grow up to be, and I would invite you all to think this Christmas season not just about the birth of Jesus Christ, but about his whole life and I promise that more understanding and appreciation for his Birth will come and that this Christmas can be one of the most meaningful ever. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Winter Quarters YSA #16

Aaahhh I don't know what happened, I had this beautiful long email all written out and it got deleted so here's the condensed version. 

Things are going great! The church put on this nativity celebration thing with hundreds of nativities from around the world and we were able to get two people to come and see and we taught them both the plan of salvation so that was pretty cool. We found one of them on facebook this last week and then the other one was from a street contact on campus. 

That's been the other cool thing! We have been street contacting for months now and have seen some success, but not much has come from it for a while, but we had two lessons with people this week that we found on campus and it was pretty cool! 

And I read in alma this week about how the stripling warriors were strict in obedience and in their faith. I looked up the definition of strict and it talked about how it is exact and uncompromising and I think that's beautiful. If we are uncompromising and exact in following the savior, miracles will come. I know that's true. Have a great week!

-Elder Olsen

Winter Quarters YSA #15

Hello hello! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and saw the Lord's hand in your life this week! 

On Tuesday we met with this guy named Dan. We found him on Facebook and he asked if we could meet up in person so we did! We were able to teach him about the restoration and it was really cool because he seemed to really want a Book of Mormon and he has already texted about how he's excited to meet up tomorrow!

We also had a really cool lesson with Holly. Holly has been coming to church since like March, but in about July hit a wall and hasn't progressed since then. We weren't able to meet with her for the last few months but we finally were able to meet with her this week. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and just kind of had a spiritual discussion. After the prayer and everything we asked if she had any questions. She told us that she had a statement and that was that she wanted to get baptized on January 8th! It was super exciting because we know that she's been thinking about it for a long time, but we definitely didn't expect her to be ready so soon!

This week I read a lot of scriptures about how Jesus Christ is our example. When he was on the earth he always asked people to follow him and to do the things he did. And unlike any other leader, he always did what was right. And then I read Moroni 7:48 which says "...that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure." I know that if we follow Him we really can become more and more and more Christlike every day. 

Have a great week!

-Elder Olsen

Winter Quarters YSA #14

Hello everyone and happy Thanksgiving! This week has been pretty crazy. We had 2 different exchanges as well as zone conference so its been exhausting but rewarding!

For our Zone Conference, Elder Valenzuela from the Quorum of the 70 came and spoke to us. He had a lot of really good stuff to say and we figured out a lot of the things that we need to do to continue to see more and more miracles. 

The ward also had an activity and the entire focus of the activity was to try to invite nonmembers and get them to come and meet the missionaries and the members and there was a really good turnout! Our friend Ethan even came and he met a bunch of members. He has been doing really well.

On our exchange on Saturday we had a pretty wild lesson with this guy named Andy. He brought himself to the missionaries and the first time he met, he thought he was a prophet. The next time he talked about some of his crazy revelations and his list of things that God is telling him. So we had a lesson and it was pretty fun. This guy loved to talk and tell his stories and the whole lesson was an emotional roller coaster. He would go from crying because of the spirit to talking about some random thing that happened when he was 5 and it was just all over the place. There was a member on that lesson and I found out that he is my 2nd cousin on my mom's side! So shoutout to Brother Burton.

So besides that it was a pretty standard week, but I've been trying to be more grateful. This week is Thanksgiving and so I wanted to invite you all to give a prayer this week and don't ask for anything. Just give thanks. You can give thanks for the people I your life, or the experiences you've had or whatever you want. But I know that God will bless you with gratitude the more you show it. Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Olsen

Also here's a photo dump from the last 2 weeks

Winter Quarters YSA #13

Hey everyone! I don't have tons of time so I'll just get right into it!

So this week was kind of crazy but really good! Tuesday was Elder Powells last day in the area and we had a lesson with Ethan! Ethan is the guy that grew up atheist but wants to grow his faith. And we were able to have a super powerful lesson with him. We focused on Jesus Christ and who He was and why He matters to us and the spirit was just testifying to all of us! He said that we helped clear up a lot for him and that he really really wants to come to church now! Sadly he didn't make it this week but next week!

We also went out street contacting and ran into quite a few people who are interested. One of their names is Jocelynn and she was super cool and basically asked when we could call. It was really cool to see. 

This week I've been studying scripture references relating to Jesus Christ the Son of God. It really stood out to me how often it is emphasized that He is the Son of God. Whenever God introduces Christ he always tells people that He is His son. And I think the reason why is that if we can believe that simple truth, then everything else falls into place. It becomes so much easier to rely on Him and His power. Anyways sorry this is short but I hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Olsen