Emily, 8.29.11

Hey famª my keyboard is crazy right now and I can÷t use any of the the
exclamation points or periods or anything, so forgive me for my
awesome grammer... Mom is that last picture Jack? Your pictures are so
awesome, your camera must be super nice, they look beautiful.

Sounds like an awesome week with the fair. The mud scrammble sounds
like a blast, I÷m definitely missing mud volleyball. Next year for
sureª  I÷m glad JOhn got a deer, they bought a horse and trailer¨???
QUe crazyª I÷m defintely looking forward to letters from them. And
from Dane, it sounds like its been a summer of crazy amazing
adventures. I can÷t believe school is starting again. I wonder who is
the PE teacher at Manti Elementary, and who is coaching my soccer
team? Its crazy to think how much has changed in a year.
´
I have been thinking about Aunt Renon all week, and been praying for
all of her family. I read in Alma 27 yesterday, and it says that the
sting of death is swallowed up in the resurrection of Christ, and its
true. Its sad, and a little hard, but its ok. Because the best is yet
to come. Tell everyone hi for me, and know that you÷re all in my
prayers.

Well, this week was good. Monday we had two family home evenings, both
successes and super fun. During lunch we had a cool experience. We eat
in a small restaurant, so we always bless our food silently and
personally. I blessed mine and was eating when the man behind me
leaned over and said thanks for blessing your food, its always
important to bless the food and thank God for giving it to you. I said
ya, it isª haha and then he started quoting and singing scriptures
from teh bible... haha interesting, but we seized the moment and
taught him about the restoration of the gospel. He doesn÷t live in our
area, but we sent his reference to the elders. Hopefully they can
contact him and sing some more scriptures with him or somethin... hehe

 Tuesday we had a good day, worked hard. We were knocking a gate when
behind us a car stopped in the middle of the road. The man rolled down
his window and yelled "hey, what church are you from? I wanna talk
about religionª" and then the person came to teh gate. Hermana Patzi
talked to the home owner, and I went to talk to the man in the car.
Its not everyday that someone stops us and says he wants to talk. He
asked when our meetings hard and said he wanted to study the bible
with us. He of course, doesn÷t live in our area, but we took his
information and sent the reference. But its really cool to see that
people see us, watch us, and even with just our example we can teach
them.

Tuesday afternoon i felt a little sick, all of my body was aching and
my throat and head and I had a slight fever. I called hermana Calderon
and we ended up going to the doctor. He said it was probably that I
had dangue and he sent us to have an analysis taken. Told us to rest
in the house, and come back wednesday. We went back and he said yep,
its dangue, and sentenced us to the house until Saturday. I officially
had dangue this week :? but it was super light. I think I had the
worst part of it all weekend, I slept almost all day on Monday. But
Hermana Patzi and I had some good bonding time three days in the house
together. I studied a lot, we made cookies, and fixed a bunch of
things that I have been putting off, like my earings, my pants, and a
bunch more. It was a good time to catch up. The elders gave me a
blessing on Thursday, and I am feeling pretty good now. A little weak,
but I think i÷m almost back to my self.

Saturday we worked for half a day, we also had our first English
classª and NOBODY came... haha deficil la vida... but they announced
it all day at church yesterday, and we÷re going to make some more
invitations and hopefully this saturday we÷ll have a better turn out.

Transfers were this week, and Hermana Patzi and I are together for one
more transfer here in Braniff. This is her last transfer, and she
feels even more this need to work work work. Shes awesome and I have a
feeling we÷re gonna do a lot of good this transfer, ojalaª

I don÷t remember what else I was going to tell you from last week. We
had intercambios and they were amazing. I learned a mountain of things
from Hermana Portillo. She is an awesome missionary stuffed full of
faith. She taught me to trust in the Lord, and to meet goals, but I
think one of the best lessons I learned was to use every single
moment. During lunch we talked about the area, the investigators, how
we could better it, if there was someone in the street, we went to
them to introduce ourselves and invite them to church, every single
minute we need to use to do this marvelous work, because we have
dedicated ALL of our time ot the Lord.

Right now we are working with a family where they are all members,
except teh dad. We challenged him to baptism last week, and didn÷t
want to accept. He says he still has his doubts, but I know that he
has felt the spirit and that he knows. We are praying like crazy for
him. I think President Calderon is going to visit him with us,
hopefully it will be really powerful. The hard part is that his family
is super active, but they go to the other ward, and he has to be
baptized in ours, because thats where they lives. We are working with
them and praying for them.

Well, times up. I÷m really sorry about last week. Hopefully this makes
up for itª I love you all, and pray for you everday. The church is
true, living the gospel is the only way that we can have eternal life,
and never ending happiness. The scriptures have all the secrets, and
if we just read them and put everything we learn in practice then we
can live "the good life."  I love you allª Se cuidanª

all my love,

Hermana Olsen


Mom note:
It is a real challenge to think that she has been sick and I can't do anything to help but I am very grateful for the many prayers of people for the missionaries, the healing power of the priesthood, and our amazing bodies that can  become well again.