August 18

Well, Florida is great! It is absolutely beautiful! I am still working on getting use to it all, and I will be for a little while longer. Every once in a while I think to myself "Wow, I am actually in Florida, and I am actually on my mission." Both things that I have looked forward to for a long time but it is taking me a while to get use to the idea that it has actually happened. So crazy! and so great! 

My companion is Elder Smith, he is from Brigham City and he was a mechanic before his mission and payed for his mission by buying crappy cars fixing them up and then selling them. He is pretty cool. We are in the Lake Crescent area (Elder Smith opened this area last transfer and it is a brand new ward, so that is exciting). For Peter, it is close to the Lake Reams area and Windermere, and I was wondering what all the areas that you served in were and did you serve with an Elder Collins, because one was going home the day I got here and I heard that he had a comp that was an Elder Olsen. Also you might know Elder Patten (He is like 6'6") if you do know him he is one of the APs now. 

Anyways it is all so great! We have already done a lot of tracting and our area is a really rich area, so that is kinda fun. The first picture is one of the cool houses that we knocked on the other day, and the funny thing was is this house was on a dirt road (sand road). I didn't think that there would be any of those in Florida, especially with so many nice houses on it. Also the second third and forth pictures are pictures of where our ward party was yesterday (one of the member's houses). They had a pool party and in the pool in their back yard and did some wake boarding and tubing in the lake in the back yard from their own private dock. So that was totally awesome! Even though I couldn't do any of it. The ward is great and we eat several times a week at a members house. 

That is so awesome Isaac! That is so cool that you rode a steer! And great job Debbi! Way to ride that calf. And Simeon, that is all good, I don't want you to mess up you knee or get kicked in the face. ;) I'm sure you will get another chance to ride sometime! :) Good luck on the next ride Isaac! That will be great!

We have been able to find a few people that are at least potential investigators and we taught a family yesterday for the first time, I really hope that they keep taking the lessons. They already know so many great things from their religion, but I know we can add to their understanding and it will do so much good for them! I really hope they keep going, they are just awesome!
So one of the typical stories we get when we go tracting "Oh I already know Christ and I know I'm saved, but I appreciate what you are doing. I hope you find those that don't know Christ so you can bring them to him. Good luck!" Oy! They are all great people but don't understand that our message still applies to them. I just don't know how to get to them, and I don't have any other ideas for a door approach or angle that would help them understand better. Anyone have any ideas? I would love to hear them!

Thanks for keeping me updated on how things are going mom! I really appreciate it, and thank you dad for the insight, I am going to study some more on those ideas. It is really cool. It makes me sad that the stake presidency are about done, they have been so great! But it will be good to see how it goes with the new ones. :) 

Love you all so much! The Church is true and it blesses lives!
Elder Dane Olsen