3.28.16

This week has been a great week. We stayed busy and have had some great things happen. One cool thing is we were able to teach Terry. Terry is a roommate of a recent convert here in the ward and we had talked to him once before. When we sat down with him he was pretty set in what he believed and didn't think there was any way that we might be right. It was super neat to watch as we kept talking to him that he went from being closed and hostile to being open and receptive. It was such a dramatic change. As we started talking the spirit came in and he couldn't deny it. At the end of it he asked us to come back and said he would like to come to church sometime. It is awesome to see how the Lord works!
My Easter here was great! We were even able to go to an Easter egg hunt that one of the members in the ward held. It was fun to be there with a bunch of families that are just happy to be together. 
Ray, one of our investigators that will be getting baptized on April 23, had some struggles this last week. We hadn't been able to get a hold of him in almost a week and he hadn't shown up to church. We stopped by on Thursday and found him at home. One of the first things he said to us is "I don't think I am ready to get baptized." I was taken aback by that because every other time we have talked to him he is just pumped to get baptized. So we were really wondering what was going on. As we got talking we found that he had asked some of his coworkers if they thought he was ready to get baptized and other people he was talking to and they told him they didn't think so because he still lost his temper sometimes and such. He most have been hearing it from a lot of people because it was getting to him. He was really worried and didn't think that he could get baptized because of that. We talked a lot about how we can't be perfect in this life and especially before baptism. We sometimes get ourselves into thinking that we are the only ones in the church with problems. The only one that loses our temper or has impure thoughts. When we think this we we make ourselves lonely and we lose hope. When we told Ray that we still had impure thoughts and had to redirect our thoughts all the time he was so relieved. We all struggle, we all have temptations. The question is, what are we going to do when we are faced with those things? Are we going to lose hope because we make ourselves feel like we are the only one with this problem? Or are we going to look to Christ and find hope in him? It was so incredible as we sat next to Ray at church and heard a talk on over coming these kinds of things through the Atonement of Christ. It is so incredible how God will make special things happen for an individual when there are so many of us. 
Anyways, hope y'all are pumped for conference! It will be great! I know I am excited for it. Also, I found out that I am getting transferred! It is bitter sweet. It will be nice to have some change and such, but I am going to miss this area and these people so so much! I have had such a privilege of working with so many incredible people here and I am going to miss them all! 
So I am leaving up to Deland tomorrow. Crazy thing is I am going to be with Oxborrow again! I was companions with him last year starting at April 21st. It has been almost exactly a year since we got put together the first time. I am pretty pumped it will be a blast! 

Enjoy Conference!
Elder Dane Olsen