6.15.15

Hello!

This week has been a great one! We have been able to meet with L several times and at this point he should still be ready to be baptized on the 27th. He will have his baptismal interview this week, so that will be really good. I am a little worried that he is still struggling with the word of wisdom. So we will make sure he is good there and prepared for the interview. We'll be meeting with him tonight and I am excited for that.

We also started teaching a man named K this week, and he is awesome! We had already made contact with him before but just hadn't caught him at a time when he wasn't busy. In our first meeting with him on Tuesday we had a young man from the ward with us. It was a great lesson and the young man did great in adding to the lesson. We were able to set a return appointment for Thursday. While we were talking with him on Thursday I asked him. "K, What are you hoping to get out of this? What are your expectations?" He then said "I just want to know which gospel is true." My jaw about dropped in surprise. I was a little blown away. So I followed up that question with another. "How committed are you to getting that answer?" He said "Oh I am willing to do anything!" There is not two better responses then the ones he gave. He truly has been prepared. We then set up an appointment with him for Sunday night because he had a prior commitment during church time so he didn't make it to church. When we got there Sunday the first thing he told us once we sat down is "I got my answer. I was reading the Book of Mormon and I prayed and then two words jumped out of the page at me. IT'S TRUE! and then just a little after that I heard the same two words. IT'S TRUE!" It was so awesome! He is such a high energy funny guy. The best part being that he really does want to know the truth. I am so excited for him. We set a baptismal date with him last night and he is already on his way to being ready for it. 

I also had the opportunity to give a talk in church yesterday. They even let me know the week before so it wasn't a last minute thing. (Which was good by me.) For any of you keeping track that makes the fourth year in a row of me giving a talk somewhere from May-July. I Think it is pretty cool, though this is the first one in these last 4 that Mark hasn't been my companion in giving talks. Though trend of going a little over does continue with the help of the others that I spoke with. I was asked to speak on Preaching the Gospel. It was a good topic. I wanted to take it a bit of a different way then I felt most people would expect me to take it as a missionary. It started with the parable of the Talents. (One of my favorites.) If you define Talent and go to the origin it tells you that it is a measure of money but is now defined as a natural skill or aptitude because of the parable of the talents. For me that opens up the parable of the talents to all kinds of new levels. Basically it applies to everything. God gives us stewardship over so many things here as part of this earthly experience. It is one of the biggest things that aids our growth and development. What is a steward though? Well again if you got to the origin it literally means "house guard". So if we are given stewardship over something we have the privilege of guarding it for our Lord. Taking care of it while he is gone. There are so many parables that are all about stewardship. For that matter from what I remember most of them are about stewardship. 

So if I am talking about preaching the gospel why am i talking about stewardship? We have all been given this stewardship to take care of the church and the truth and really the gospel. We all have it, and it is ours to share. When we share the gospel a neat thing happens. To best illustrate this principle take a look at The Vision of the Tree of Life. As Lehi starts out he himself is lost. He doesn't know what to do. As time passes he begins to pray. Each of our own testimonies begin with prayer. As he prays he starts to learn. He learns that he is in a field, and that in this field there is a tree. He goes to the tree and partakes of the fruit on it. He discovers that it is most desirable above all other fruit. Now that is a statement. If you want take it this way. About the only thing they had in their day that was sweet was fruit. He said that this fruit was most sweet above anything he had ever tasted. Basically he said this fruit is the very best tasting dessert I've ever had. Better then ice cream, better then brownies, better then cookies, even better then home made pie. Now that sounds pretty good to me. What did he want to do as soon as he tasted of this wonderful fruit? He wanted to share it with his family. As he was looking around for his family he notices a river. He gets Nephi, Sam, and Sariah to come and partake of the fruit, but he doesn't stop there. He wants all of his family. As he searches for Laman and Lemuel he learns that there is a Rod of Iron, and beside it a strait and narrow path. Even after all that he has done two of his sons still don't come and have some of the best food ever. Though the interesting thing is even as Lehi was seeking to share the gospel and got rejected he was still blessed with a better understanding because of the experience. He continues to seek more people to come to the tree and as he does so he learns that there is a mist of darkness, he also learns that there is a great and spacious building. God will always bless us as we seek to share his gospel with others. He will bless us in more ways then we can count or even come close to keeping track of. He must love us a whole lot. That is for sure. 

I know the this is the true gospel, I know we have been commanded to share it, and I know that God will always bless us for sharing his gospel. He will bless us with joy as we do the work. He will bless us with more joy as we see people change through the work. He also blesses us with more knowledge of his gospel, whether we succeed or not. No effort is lost.

The gospel is true.

Elder Dane Olsen