11/3/14

Hello Everyone!
This week has been great! We have been able to get in with several
people that have been hard to get a hold of. That is always amazing.
We do something that most missions don't, we count the member lessons
we have. So if we meet with a member family and share a spiritual
thought it is counted as an active lesson. That is what we do most of
the time because we have basically tracted everywhere we are somewhat
aloud to. ;) We are always working for more people to teach, and we
kinda have a hard time getting people. At this point there isn't much
we can do but work more with members. (Though we are still trying to
find new ways to do our own finding.) it is so much fun to get to know
people. I am really enjoying getting to know the ward better. Though I
wish I was better at connecting with people. One thing that made this
week is we had three investigator lessons, with three different
investigators that we have met with before, R, K, and M. It
was so fantastic! K wasn't able to make it to church again, and she
is going on vacation for the month of November. But she loves the
church, and loves going to church. So we will hopefully be teaching
her through facebook while she is gone. It will be neat to see how
that works. R is still so awesome. We haven't caught him at home
since the last time I told you about him and how he read the
scriptures and felt the spirit. This time we didn't get to do much of
a lesson but towards the end we asked him if there was anything we
could do for him and he said "Nope, you came we talked and I feel
really good now." He is so amazing at recognizing the spirit. If we
can just meet with him more often he will progress. M is also
awesome. He has an interesting story and he just wants to find out
more about building his relationship with God and how he can recognize
the spirit more. We invited all of them to church and another man and
his wife, but they didn't make it. They were trying to come last week
too, but he said that he couldn't find the church, we described it and
he said that he drove past it three times. Sad day, and then he didn't
make it this week. The work is starting to go forward more here though
so that is super exciting!
So, you remember the mission leader that has a Scottish accent? Well
today he took us golfing. We played a full 18 holes and it was so much
fun! It was also really interesting to learn more about it, and I did
reasonable for my first time golfing. We also messed around quite a
bit it was great! We practiced skidding sideways to a stop and sling
shoting the person in the passenger out of the golf cart. It was best
when we rolled after jumping from the cart. The golf course we were in
is surrounded by a community (infact the course is part of a gated
community) so most of the course is surrounded by houses. I think
Elder Smith hit as many as twenty houses. Haha We are very grateful
that nothing broke (as far as we know).
So Elder Smith also did a lot with speakers and such back home so we
helped an inactive brother (who is about 22) install a subwoofer. It
was pretty great and it was cool to sit in the back seat of the car
and feel it kick.
So I am officially done being trained. Usually at the end of training
(the first twelve weeks) a trainer and his trainy will be split up.
Generally the trainy stays in the area and the trainer is transferred
somewhere else, we got transfer calls Saturday night and we are both
staying. It's pretty weird but it should help us get this area moving
more.
So the things that we share with members most of the time is some
scripture that relates to member missionary work. Lately we have been
using a scripture I found in my personal study. It is 1 Nephi 7:4-5 I
it Nephi and his brothers are going to get Ishmael and his family. It
says that the very first thing they did when they got to the house of
Ishmael. They first 'gained favor in the sight of Ishmael' and it says
that they gained so much favor in the sight of Ishmael that they
shared the word of the Lord. It is often so easy to forget that the
first part. We are to first become friends with them. Then once they
trust and respect us enough we can share the gospel.
Go make some friends!

Hurrah for Israel!
Elder Dane Olsen