12.28.15

It's Dane's birthday today!  So grateful for him.

Hey Everybody!

Christmas is great aint it? I think it is fantastic! It was a great one here. We sure had so much fun. We had a great time eating two dinners with members and then playing games with a bunch of the senior missionaries that are here on the ranch. It was some good fun. 

So, it turns out that I am blessed to spend another transfer here in Ellsworth! Me and Elder Taylor will being staying together for the next 6 weeks and we will see what happens after that. It will be a lot of fun. 

Tonight we are meeting with the Bs (the family I mentioned last week that came to church because some members invited them) we are really excited about that. They are such a neat family and the gospel is so ready to bless their lives. 

I have been thinking a lot about the Savior this Christmas and all that he has done for me. It is really quite incredible. He has made it possible for me to be happy, to find hope and joy in life. We were talking with a member last night and they shared with us a quote, I think it might have been from President Monson. It was "The future is only as bright as your faith." Pretty simple pretty straightforward. If we have faith and hope in Christ that means that we have faith and hope in the future. We know that through Christ we can change. We can improve. We can become all that he would have us be! Now that is pretty cool. There is so much hope, but only through Christ. He is there to help us out in every way. 

Love you all!

Elder Olsen

12.21.15

Merry Christmas Y'all!

I can't believe that Christmas is here this Friday! Now that is really crazy. I feel like it is a ton harder to tell that Christmas is coming or that it is here for that matter when you are still having days where it is in the 80s. It has been quite warm every once in a while it will go down below 70 but that is about it. It has been a really warm winter so far, even for Florida. 

Miracle! We have some great people here in the ward. Yesterday we had a man and his wife come to church. Their name is Boswell. They came because they have been invited by a few different people here in the ward. He is an electrician and works with some of the ward members over in Melbourne. He knows pretty well three of the members that he works with, two of which are recent converts, and one of them invited him to come to church because he had been thinking to himself lately that there has to be something more to life, it feels like something is missing. So he was invited to come to church and he came! Not only that but he brought his wife with him! We are super pumped to start teaching this awesome family! It is incredible how the Lord will help those who are ready find the help that they need when they are ready. I have recently decided that Heavenly Father is by far the best planner I know. He has such incredibly detailed plans and timing. He works it all out so perfectly. People so often can look at their life and see some of the miraculous coincidences in their lives and say it happened by chance, or for that matter they may not notice it at all. Just the other day we met someone who knew that it was God that was behind such things, but because of the way God carries it out through all these small little acts he was telling us that it was chaos. Sorry to be blunt, but that is false. How in the world can anything that results in something good happening or something being built up have happened by chaos? There is no way. Chaos is the way things are destroyed and corroded. It doesn't happen in a planned way, it just happens in anyway. For that matter just take a look at buildings. It took a lot of planning and work to make them what they are. yet over the years through random chaotic things they fall apart. Though don't get me wrong, planned destruction is extremely efficient when planned out. Though whether it is planned out or not it will still happen. Things being built up, whether it be buildings, ideas, or people, it does not happen through chaos. It happens on purpose. If we go through life without planning where we want things to go or how we want them to end up we will never get the results we want. Did you know that when the scriptures say that someone "labored in the spirit" it generally means they were hard at work planning with the spirits help? It is pretty cool. The Lord will teach us all things that we need to know, as long as we listen to and follow him. 

Sorry, that was kind of a brainstorm session right there. But it has been on my mind and it is good to have on writing and I hope you enjoy it. I just hope I find a way to apply it more fully into my life.

I know that God loves us. I know He sent his son to earth one night in the humblest of beginnings. He came to save us, from everything that we would need saving from. He came to teach us, all that we would need to know to make it through this life. He also came to give us the power, strength, and even the ability to change. I am so very grateful for the gift of Jesus Christ, and the gift he gives to me. 

Merry Christmas!

Elder Dane Olsen

12.14.15

Ponderize Scripture 

Alma 34:31

"Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought unto you."

Lately it has been on my mind that I don't have a terribly long time to serve. It has added an urgency to most everything I do and look at. It has gone as far as helping me realize that we don't even have very long here in this life to do what we are supposed to do. It is pretty crazy. This life, in the span of eternity, is so incredibly minuscule and this life is such a huge determinant of how the rest of eternity will be. What we do here is crucial. Most of us know and realize this. But does it influence how I go about my day? That has been the question on my mind. as the scripture states "now is the time and the day of your salvation." Pretty simple. NOW is the time; Today is the day! Today is the day that effects the rest of eternity. (Kind of a heavy thought, eh?) Every day is a decisive day. Every day we chose to come closer to God or go farther away by the end of that day. It is completely up to us. Every day I can come closer to the goals I have set, or I can go farther away. Isn't that incredible? I sure think it is!

Yesterday we had a pretty cool experience. We were walking into church and I saw this guy I didn't recognize walking up. So of course I greeted him and asked him who he is. We found out that he is one of our recent convert's neighbor and just decided to come today even though he had never been to a Mormon service before in his life. He seemed to enjoy and appreciate it and we are going to be stopping by this week to see him! We are really hoping it goes well. 

Other then that it has been a great busy week. 

Merry Christmas Y'all!

Elder Dane Olsen

Here are some pictures of a double rainbow that we saw the other day which was sweet! 

and then we had our beach p day today which was awesome! Thoroughly enjoyed that. More pictures to come!

12.7.15

Hello!
I have been meaning to do this since conference. Today I am starting off with sharing my ponderize scripture. It is Moroni 7:13 "But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God." I have been thinking a lot about the concept. It is a pretty neat one! It is pretty straight forward, things that are good are of God. It has been a great reminder to me how simple the gospel really is. If we do good, which means keeping the commandments and loving God. Then we feel good! I received a pretty straight forward commitment the other day. I was challenged to act upon any good thought that I have. It has been pretty cool to notice how many good thoughts we all have each day! Sometimes it is a pretty small thought, sometimes it is a larger one. As we choose to act on these good thoughts we can be assured that they are from God. They are promptings from the spirit sent to us to enrich our lives and the lives of others. It is quite incredible. 

On Friday we were invited to go to the ranch christmas party for all of their employees. They served ribeye steak and it was delicious. Then they sent us home with 20lbs of oranges that they picked the day before. Let's just say that I am eating good and loving it!

This week we were able to teach a recent convert couple. They have been having a lot of stress in their lives and in the home in general. Tension was in the air. I was praying a lot as we were teaching them. I just wanted to know what would help them the most right now at this trying time in there life. I know that the gospel is there for everyone in every way. If we have a problem in our lives, a solution is in the gospel. For that matter the gospel is the solution. When we live the gospel there is almost no way that we won't make it through whatever life throws at us. It is that simple too. When we keep God's commandments we are doing good, when we are living Christ's teachings we are doing good, when we do good, good comes to us. The very blessings of heaven are promised to us. Our Heavenly Father's love for us is so very incredible. He wants to help us in our lives. He wants to bless us so much! It is really quite incredible. I am grateful for his amazing planning. I especially appreciate this chance to celebrate the birth of Christ. A Savior really was born. He really did come to save us. To save us from all our sins and all our sadness. He truly is our Savior. For that I am thoroughly grateful.

Elder Dane Olsen

Lovin the December weather!

It is a chilly 70 degrees today. haha Florida is a great place to be

11.30.15

Hello! I hope everyone had an amazing thanksgiving! Ours was
fantastic, though I am sad to say that I didn't eat as much pie as I
feel is appropriate for the season, for that matter I didn't even get
cherry pie. And it was still a fantastic thanksgiving! Pretty good
really.
For this past week I have been back in a trio, me and Elder Taylor
were joined by Elder VaiFanua (I think I forgot to mention this last
week, if it is a repeat I am very sorry). Anyways his companion ended
up going home early unexpectedly do to some health problems, he is
doing good, but that left Elder VaiFanua companion-less. So he was
here with us this week. He is getting a new companion tomorrow and so
we will be back to just me and Elder Taylor. It will be kinda weird
again.
We were also able to go on a tour of the ranch today and that was
really neat. It is an awesome place and there are a lot of great
people here. I am grateful to do Gods work among them.

Elder Dane Olsen

11.23.15

Yahoo!  We got pictures and lots of fun.


Howdy Y'all!

Another great week here in Ellsworth! I am still loving it and I am finally emailing from a computer instead of my ipad so I will be sending pictures and telling you what they are about. 

First off, LOOK! I found a pedal tractor like the one we have! I thought it was pretty great. 

The next two pictures are of these wonderful vehicles called Swamp Buggies. They are trucks that someone took the body off of and then welded there own on there so they could be up out of the water. Haha It is quite genius!

There are two pictures of the wonderfully kept roads that are in part of our area. People are always asking us how we made it down the road in a car! I love it, reminds me of going up the mountain. 

The other day we got stuck in some sand. The front tires sunk right in and then we were high centered. We got out took a look at it. I decided our best bet was to jack up the car with the jack it has in it and dig out as much sand from underneath as we could with our hands. As we were doing so I found a 2x4 so I dug under one of the tires (Even though it was jacked up as far as the jack would go) and I put the 2x4 in and then I drove it out while Elder Taylor pushed! It was great fun, and it reminded me of home. Haha

Also, I forgot to mention earlier that Elder Garcia did get transferred last Tuesday and he is now serving right next to my last area, so that is cool. Elder Taylor and I were just going to be back to a regular companionship, but then Saturday we got a call and one of the missionaries in my district went home for medical something or other, so now his companion is with us and we are back in a trio! Though now we are covering two areas. Ellsworth ward (of course) and now Viera 1st Ward. So that will be a whole new adventure. 

The last picture is just me, Elder Garcia and Elder Taylor taking pictures in the car because we drive a lot. It's good fun, I love driving. :)

So a few weeks ago this member invited us over to a barbecue at his house and he invited a bunch of his friends. One of which is a spray paint artist. These are two pictures that he painted. the palm tree one we watched him do it in under 5 minutes. It was incredible. The second one is Jesus walking on water and he gave us that one. :) It was really cool!

The first two pictures is of J and S, they are a wonderful couple and both have Scottish accents. I love it. Anyways, S got baptized during the summer but Jean just barely got baptized at the end of October, and S baptized her, so that was really neat. 

The last one is of F and J L (Jan Louise) and they are the other two that got baptized at the end of October.

They are all awesome and we will be taking two of them to the temple on Wednesday to do baptisms for the dead! I am pretty excited. 

This is what it looks like when we go looking for people in Ellsworth. It is great fun! There is a whole section of our area that is all like this and believe it or not there is a good number of people that live on these roads. We found three people that we started teaching that day so that was awesome! We also found this truck (do you see one or two trucks in the picture?) and we found this boat..... It was cool! haha

This is my last district, it was a great 6 weeks!

This is somebodies lawn mowing business..... Now that is what you call a utility van! haha

and this is a turtle that was crossing the road.

11.16.15

So I have officially been in Ellsworth for 6 weeks! One whole
transfer. It has been great. I didn't think anything was going to
change for two transfers but it turns out that Elder Garcia is leaving
and Elder Taylor and I are staying. We are gonna miss him! Though I am
quite excited to stay here for another transfer.
So the other day we met this awesome redneck and we started teaching
him his name is T. He never wears a shirt and hasn't shaved in 15
years. He is probably one of the funniest guys I've ever met. While I
was standing holding you bike one of his dogs walked up and was
sniffing around, next thin you know the dog lifted his leg and peed on
my tire. T quickly said "heh, that must be a Ford bike. He doesn't
pee on Chevys." Haha It was pretty great.
Anyways we had the primary program yesterday so we invited T, he
said he was 99% sure he was going to come. I guess the 1% kicked in.
We shall see what the next week brings! Sorry this is so short. Have a
great one!

Elder Dane Olsen

11.9.15

For all of you that didn't notice that I didn't write last week, good
job skip this first paragraph. ;) For those of you that did notice,
mostly mom. I am very sorry. I was running out of time and I threw
together a quick email and then we left the church and went to hurry
and shop then head to our dinner appointment. By the time that I
realized that the message didn't send for one reason or another we
weren't in wifi and wouldn't be till it was to late to send it. So
basically I meant to send a really short email, but it didn't send and
it was my bad.
Two weeks ago with the three baptisms was awesome! They are all doing
great. It was fantastic to see them take that step. Jean was baptized
and her husband was baptized a few months earlier. They are such an
awesome older couple. It is always a party when we go teach them. It
is also awesome to watch as hey are learning so much and gaining so
much from being members of the church. There is so much that they
don't know yet but they are so excited to learn as much as they can as
they go. That goes for the two brothers that got baptized also,
Francisco and Jean Louis. They are fantastic! They have both talked
about serving a mission! I really hope that they do, that would be
awesome!
This last Saturday was awesome! We had a huge stake activity. It was
called "Family Fun Festival" and basically there was tons of chili and
cornbread, and a ton of activities. Bounce houses, soccer, kick ball,
frisbee golf, obstical courses, a rock climbing wall, and horse back
rides. It was awesome! They had the missionaries come early to help
set up so we were putting up a bunch of chairs out on the grass next
to the stake center. We had to get them all moved over there from the
gym. We had a truck and I got them to use an assembly line and we had
that thing loaded and unloaded pretty quick. It was fun even if it
wasn't 15,000 chairs for pageant. Haha
Yesterday we had two of the members of the Presiding Bishopric come to
church and be the speakers for sacrament meeting. It was really neat
to be able to here from them. Thy came to tour the ranch and meet the
people. I loved some of their advice on making sure we fast in the
best way that we can. He said of course to start with a fast, but in
that prayer to ask God for specific help in feeling the spirit of
fasting. Then throughout the fast each time you feel hungry say a
prayer for the thing that you are fast I for. It is a pretty simple
thing that I know will improve how I fast a lot! I am excited for
December. :)
I am very grateful to be a missionary. It has gotten to the point that
when I honk of when I won't be a missionary anymore and it seems like
a foreign concept. To think that I am going to stop what I am doing
right now is weird. But the thing that gives me comfort is I get to
share the gospel at least for the rest of this life, and I am sure for
much longer then that. It is one of the greatest blessings that God
has given us.

Elder Dane Olsen

10.26.15

Hello! Another great week in Ellsworth! I am loving this area so much.
We keep tearing it up, it is great fun. On Saturday we had a recent
convert invite us to his house for a barbecue. He invited a few other
people from his neighborhood and a few from the church. It was
fantastic. He is an excellent cook. The food was great. I love
barbecues. He had some really cool people there. One of them is a
spray paint artist. And his work is amazing. I am going to try and
send some pictures. It was pretty cool.
The work is going well. It is pretty neat here in he ward how well
they know each other. Part of it is that most of the ward works on the
ranch. The members even know a lot of the investigators that the
missionaries have worked with before. Because of all of their great
work we are having three Baptisms this week. J is getting baptized
on Thursday and J L and F (brothers) are both getting
baptized on Friday. It should be a pretty busy week.
Other then that we have been working with some of the investigators
that have been investigating the church for about a year now. We are
hoping to help them progress and praying for hem lots. Two of them are
K and B. They both love coming to church and at this point
they probably know the ward better then we do. K is more or less
good with being baptized but B isn't, because of that K is
reluctant to get baptized with out her. She has some concerns with
Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. One thing that is for sure is
people need to understand Joseph Smith, and most importantly the Book
of Mormon. When they understand that everything else goes as it is
supposed to. The Book of Mormon is so important to what we teach in
every way. It is interesting to notice things that the Book of Mormon
teaches that the bible touches on but says almost nothing. One of
those is the doctrine of the fall of Adam and Eve. The story is in the
bible, but he doctrine simply isn't. If anything it is barely hinted
at. Most churches are good at emphasizing the atonement even if they
don't use that word exactly, they at least understand that we can't do
anything without Christ. Yet they don't understand why that is. The
reason that is is the fall. The fall is what made the atonement
necessary. And we can never understand the atonement until we
understand the fall. It is a much more important doctrine then I ever
thought it was. And the Book of Mormon teaches us so much about it. I
love coming to understand he fall better because of how it increases
my understanding of the atonement .

God loves us so much and he has provided The Way
Elder Dane Olsen

10.19.15

I guess I raised some questions with last week's email. So I am
opening an area though missionaries were in the area once a week
before that and we're having really good success. That is why we have
a few investigators with a baptismal date. Speaking of which Jean got
her baptismal interview and she is going to be baptized on the 29th!
It has been neat to work with her. Just in the two weeks that we have
been here it is neat to see the changes that she has made. When we got
here she thought it was the right way to go forward, wasn't really
sure though. She didn't have much confidence in the decision. She is
quite confident now and is getting more so.
I also realized that I forgot to tell you about my two new
missionaries. They are Elder Taylor and Elder Garcia. Elder Taylor is
from Denver and likes computers and such. He is pretty quiet and has
very dry humor. I love it! Haha Elder Garcia is from Anaheim
California he ran cross country and thinks he is cool ;) it's ok we
let him think that. Haha Just kidding he is great!
I am still loving it here in Ellsworth, though we have run out of
P-day so I need to go.

The work is great!
Elder Dane Olsen

10.12.2015

We'll just say that it has been an eventful week. Haha El is
awesome! I love the ward, I love the area, and the people are great!
The ward is fantastic! For that matter it is the first time in a long
time that I have seen flat beds at church and everyone wears cowboy
boots to church. I might have to ask president if he will let me wear
my boots just while I am here. A good part of my area that is not on
the ranch is trailer parks and it is great! Lots of interesting
people. One recent convert that we stopped by has been working on his
lawn mower. It now has old tires from his Suburban bolted to the
original rims on back and some other larger tires on front. It goes
faster now but it has no ability to cut lawn.

We went to visit this inactive lady, I am pretty sure she is crazy.
She told us about how much she loves facts and how we just don't have
very many because we only read "one book". She proceeded to tell us
how she had seen a flying saucer and how not long afterwards God
appeared to her and told her that UFOs are his chariots and she told
us how God uses a device in the ship to reverse polarity to make it
fly. She also told how God told her that she is the anti Christ and
how it's not a bad thing, it just means she is a girl. It was a pretty
weird conversation, but what've story.

Anyways, before we got to El their were some elders that worked
in the area and they had three investigators lined up to be baptized
at the end of the month. Two of them are brothers J L and
F. We have met J L and he is solid, we haven't caught
up with F yet. But they should both be good for baptism! The
other one is J she and her husband are from Scotland, they have
great accents. Her husband was just baptized a few months ago and she
should be set to be baptized at the end of the month.

Life is great!
Elder Dane Olsen

10.5.15

Conference was fantastic! I loved it. I am pretty sure that conference on the mission is pretty much the best thing ever. I love being able to here from our Heavenly Father's representatives here on earth! It is so fantastic. So many favorite talks and things to apply. I loved the talk about the question. "What lack I yet?" It is a fantastic question. No matter where we are in life it is so easy to get caught up in things that don't matter and eventually will bring our progression to a crawl, possibly even cause some digression. It is so important for us to constantly be asking the question 'What lack I yet?' I have been thinking a lot about this concept for a while now. Since the end of July I have been trying to ask myself every night "What did I do well today? What didn't I do well today? What will I improve on tomorrow?" It is hard. I have missed a ton of days. But it is a really neat thing to be able to do. With the further direction given by this talk I am really excited to keep doing this with a new excitement. 

Transfers are pretty crazy this go around. I have just finished training Elder Grigg, so I basically already knew I am being transferred. Because of the nature of the assignment President told me yesterday where I am going and what I am going to be doing. (We don't usually find out where we are going to or who we are going to be with till we are at a meeting with our packed bags.) So, as you can guess this next transfer is going to be quite the challenge. First of all I am going to be opening an area, which I am totally pumped for! It is an area we call E (sound familiar Peter?) It is on the ranch! It should be pretty crazy cool. The even crazier thing is that I will be opening the area with the help of two brand new missionaries! They got to Florida today. So pretty pumped to meet them tomorrow. I am also kinda blown away. Which brings me to my weekly scripture. 1 Nephi 4:6-7 

"6 And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.

 7 Nevertheless I went forth"

Basically, I have no idea what this next week is going to be like. It is gonna be crazy and I am going to NEED to be led by the Spirit. There really won't be a choice, which in a lot of ways is really nice. 

Well, definitely keep me in your prayers and you all are in mine. 

Elder Dane Olsen

9.28.15

Hello!

Another great week here in Bumby ward! I don't know if y'all remember when I came into this ward but I have been here for about 7 months. Which is pretty long for one area. I am fairly certain that I am going to be transferred next week which is exciting and sad at the same time. It is such a crazy little ward. So many crazy cool families and people. I will definitely miss the place and all the people. I was kinda bummed when I realized yesterday was my last day at church with this ward. On the other hand I am so excited to head somewhere new, with new adventures and lots to learn! It is sure exciting to have the opportunity to move around every once in a while.

Something pretty neat happened yesterday. We have been working with a less active family, the C's, and A turned 8 recently. She didn't get baptized right away because of crazyness with family and all. She also didn't have the best understanding of baptism. We have been working with them a bit here and there since I got here and yesterday A was baptised. Because of a few different things she ended up asking me to baptize her which was my pleasure. It is so neat to see people enter into a covenant with the Lord, whether it be someone who has had no past with the church or someone who was born in it. Everyone is precious to God. It was really great. 

The next picture is a beautiful view of downtown Orlando from a members apartment that is on the 19th floor. It was really cool. I will try and get you another picture of it at night. 

So there is this awesome guy that has this big old barbecue trailer that he pulls to where he sets up shop with a u-haul pick up. Last week a member gave us some cash to go find dinner because they signed up to feed us but ended up not being able to have us over. So we stopped by and picked up some barbecue. It's hard to tell in the picture but it was piled high and covered in barbecue sauce. Quite possibly my favorite meal that I have had here in Florida. Haha I loved it!

Here is a picture of a huge truck in a grocery store parking lot. As you can see the bed is higher then my head!

I have a few more pictures so I'll send them in another email.

So why pictures of bottles? That's a fair question. To start off there is this sister here in the ward that is a widow and lives by her self. So we went to go and do some service for her this past week. We spread some mulch for her and helped clean out her garage. I've always enjoyed some old quality tools and other random stuff you find when you clean out a garage. There were two good quality axes that I wish I had a use for because if I did she would have given them to me. The thing she did give to me was a "Bottle and Jug Cutter" It is pretty cool. Haha I may be more excited about it then I should be. Ever since I got it I have been cutting any glass bottle I can find. So it is a pretty cool jig that uses a standard glass cutter (I didn't even know you could get one) and a few other pieces of bent metal, screws, and wing nuts. This thing was made by some guy in Washington that liked to tinker in his garage. The best part is that the instructions for it are all written with a type writer and have things like "Now, if you insist on not reading instructions you may skip to VII, but I would really recommend reading this section." And when talking about the scratch that does the cut on the bottle he says "You want it to be a hair line, just barely there. Here we are talking about a red girl hair not the hair of a hippo!" Haha I thought it was pretty funny. Anyways here are some of the pictures of bottles I have cut and made into glasses. The smaller one is a Cholula hot sauce bottle and the other is a spaghetti sauce bottle. Kinda cool. Maybe you just think I am a geek now. Which is ok, Poeple have thought it before. It is a good thing I don't have any time to play with it!

Anyways the Gospel is true, I am still working on the analogy with bottle cutting and how that relates. Maybe next week.

God bless!

Elder Dane Olsen

Here are a few more pictures of us with the other Bumby missionaries.
Jut goofing off last p-day :)
Elder Dane Olsen

9.21.2015

Hello! 

Life is still great here in Orlando! And thank goodness it is fall now! I love that it has started cooling down again. 

This last week was pretty busy. We spent a lot of time going to appointments just to have them fall through. So goes missionary work. It's all good though! We were still able to meet with a few people. 

I have learned something neat to me here in this area. I love teaching. I love helping God's children come to a greater knowledge of His Gospel. It is such an amazing thing to be a part of. The Lord works in such amazing ways to help strengthen the teacher and the student. In his wonderful way we both learn, we both grow, we both come to a greater knowledge of him. "This is life eternal, that we might know the the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." John 17:3 It is the purpose of our eternal life to come to know God. That is why we are here. The best way for us to do that is to study his word, pray to him, live his gospel, and strive to help others do the same. That is why we are all down here together, to help each other out. Because as we help others come to a greater understanding of our Heavenly Father, we come to a better understanding also. 

Sorry I don't have much more time. Hope you all have an amazing week!

Elder Olsen

9.14.15

Hello y'all! 

Life is great down here in Florida, and I just have to say it because it made me super happy. This morning we went for a run, and for the first time in a long time it was colder outside the apartment then it was inside! I was very happy about that. Maybe one day it will cool down some.

I am very sorry about the pathetically short letter last week. I am trying to do better. 

We had zone conference this last week and it was great. An interesting thing that we talked about a little bit is that in meetings as a whole it isn't to often at all that we get some brand new, fresh out of the package, doctrine. That's just the thing. Christ's gospel is very simple. He asks us to do certain things and promises us immense blessings. The reason we have meetings so often is because it is our chance to be reminded of our potential. As children of God we all have great potential. We have great opportunities, and we have great things to give to the world. The problem is that we so often forget. We forget all that we are. We forget that we are children of God, the all powerful being. He who can do all things. He is our dad. How cool is that!? It is incredible. That is what it is. So me and my companion here are just seeking to be the missionaries that our Father would have us be. I am so very grateful for this chance of improvement. On this subject I was seeing what the dictionary had to say about Grace. It says that Grace's root is 'pleasing, thankful' related to grateful. Isn't that interesting. The very word Grace helps us to think of how very grateful we are for Christ, for that matter, that is what it means. We are grateful for His enabling power. 

Elder Olsen