7.25.16

Hello!
Another great week in sunny, yet still rainy, Florida! Willie passed
his baptismal interview this week! So he is going to be getting
baptized this Saturday! We are pretty pumped for that! Also, I finally
remembered to get a picture with him so here it is!

Hours later we received this:

Super excited, it has just been so awesome to watch he him receive the gospel into his life and how he lets it change him. Definitely a neat thing.
 We had a great exchange this week. I stayed here in our area and we had several miracles. The day just worked together so well and we saw lots of people, two of which became new investigators. One of them was a really neat. We were explaining the restored church and the need for revelation, prophets, and the Book of Mormon. And she kept saying again and again "that makes so much sense!" It is true, it does make so much sense. And that, is wonderful thing.

Elder Dane Olsen

I am not sure if my email sent out everything it was supposed to so
here it is again and another story that I thought of. Also on our
exchange we had another neat experience. We drove down this road to
look for a less active. As we were going down the road we passed this
lady that was outside dosing some yard work bagging leaves and such. I
had the thought "we could stop by her on our way back out and we if
she needs Andy help." We didn't stop right then, we went to the less
actives place and knocked, nobody answered. So we go get back into the
car and I pull out my iPad to map out the other people, less actives
or former investigators, that we have in he area and I find this lady
that lives just down the street from where we are, so we head her way.
When we pull up to the house it is the same house that I saw the lady
doing yard work at before! So we got out and offered her help, so we
helped her a little bit and talked. We found out she came to church
last week for the first time in a little while and that she is
planning on coming back into the church. We had a neat little lesson
with her that was something she said that she really needed to hear.
It is neat how the spirit works, though I had forgotten, I already
knew who else was on that street that we needed to stop by, but the
Lord guided me again so hat we could go and meet her. The Lord
definitely does his work!

Elder Dane Olsen

7.18.16

Hello!

So this week has been another great one! We are working a lot with
Willie and he is doing great! He has been so much fun to teach. He is
just loving learning the gospel and it is great. During church while I
was helping another investigator Willie was talking to Elder Gentry
and told him. "I need a breath of fresh air, I just feel so
overwhelmed Right naw!! But in a good way!! I feel like I have been a
good person my whole life and now I get to see the wonderful people
around me and its like surreal! Naw what I mean? I feel the spirt when
I'm around you guys and when I come each week.......  IM READY TO TAKE
THAT BATH" Haha he is super legit and he will have his baptismal
interview this week and he will be baptized on the 30th! It has been a
lot of fun to teach him.
On the other hand we have Sarah and Danshel. We taught them a lot this
week, especially toward going to church. We talked about church with
them throughout the week about church and a lot on Friday and
Saturday. We even arranged to call them on Sunday morning an hour
before church. We called and talked to Danshel and she said they
should be coming, but they didn't show. We went to their house after
church and we heard them say not to answer the door. It was really
sad. We just have done so much for them and hey are such wonderful
people, I really do want them to be able to have his gospel. But they
just don't seem to want it enough to act. There is only so much you
can do.
Anyways overall it has been a great week and we have been experiencing
miracles and I love it.

Elder Dane Olsen

7.11.16

Hello!

So we had a cool thing happen yesterday! We went to go teach this less
active that was at church. The lesson was at her house and part way
through her daughter and granddaughter walk in. We started talking
with the daughter and granddaughter and found out that the daughter is
also a member and she wants to come back to church. Which is great
because we didn't have her records. We also found out that the
granddaughter is not a member and wants to work toward baptism! So we
will be meeting with them later this week. Pretty pumped about that!
Me and Elder Gentry have just been seeing lot of miracles this
transfer and it is wonderful. I am vary grateful to my Heavenly Father
that he would let me whiteness so many wonderful miracles. It is truly
a great experience!
Anyways, the work is great! But I don't know what else to say about
this week. Have a great one!

Elder Dane Olsen

7.4.16

Hello everyone! So to start off I am including some of my thoughts
from my studies this last week because I gotta share what I learned
with somebody.

President Monson in his last talk said "May we ever choose the harder
right instead of the easier wrong." I have wondered what exactly that
means. Today as I was reading from the Student Book of Mormon Manuel
in Moroni 10:22 I learned something more as the spirit was teaching
me.
The actual act of choosing is what president Monson was speaking of.
Choosing wrong is easier then choosing right. It takes proactive
discipline and diligence to choose the right, well choosing wrong
takes none of those. For that matter if we simply don't choose to do
anything we are in fact choosing wrong. So of course it is easier to
choose wrong.
Now, let us contrast this idea against another. "Wickedness never was
happiness" We learn from this that if we are making our choices
according to what will make us happy in life it is obvious that
choosing the right is the more beneficial choice, and is also the
harder choice. Even though the rewards for choosing right are much
greater then the rewards for choosing wrong it does not change the
fact that choosing right is harder.
Here is the neat part. Although the choice to choose right is harder
then the choice to choose wrong, the results of the right choice are
easier on us then the results of the wrong choice. In my own life as I
have strove to choose right my life has been significantly easier then
so many people's life's that I have talked to who have chosen wrong
and have received the results of it. The choice to choose right may be
harder, but it leads to an easier and happier life. The proactive
discipline and diligence that it takes to choose right is completely
worth the out come. We are not only blessed after we have made the
choice by rewards that come. We are blessed in he very act of choosing
right. It feels good and it feels accomplishing. Abraham Lincoln is
accredited with saying "when I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I
feel bad." Thus by living a harder life by choosing right, we are
living a happier life. Elder Bednar taught in a conference address
"Sometimes we mistakenly may believe that happiness is the absence of
a load. But bearing a load is a necessary and essential part of the
plan of happiness." Even though we are bearing a load by choosing the
harder right, it is this load that gives us the spiritual traction
needed to find joy and happiness in this wonderful plan of happiness.
Thus the easier choice is not the happiest choice. The harder right
choice, is the happier choice because those are the choices that lead
us back to live with our Heavenly Father and our eternal family in a
place of never ending happiness.

Anyways, work wise we had a really good week. We were able to meet
with a lot of people and that was fantastic!
Willie is still doing great! He was at church again today and he loved
it. From last Sunday to his he has been reading he Book of Mormon and
he is already half way through 2 Nephi! It is so awesome! We set a
baptismal date with him for July 30th and he is looking good for that
so we are pumped!
Sarah is also doing great. She didn't make it to church today which is
sad but when we went over to see why we found out that her right hip
has been giving her trouble for some reason and she didn't feel safe
driving so she couldn't come. We had a really powerful lesson with her
that focused on making getting her answer as to whether the church is
true or not a priority. Because when we make getting an answer from
God a priority he will make giving us an answer a priority. It was
great over all. To finish it off we gave her a blessing for her hip
and it was super powerful. She just couldn't stop smiling afterwards
and she shed a few tears. It was a great experience. We are excited to
be working toward her baptismal date for July 30th also!
As it is Independence I would like to share a quote that is about the
constitution of our great country from Ezra Taft Benson. (I wasn't
able to find a quote on the Declaration of Independence, but this is
still really good.)
"I reverence the Constitution of the United States as a sacred
document. To me its words are akin to the revelations of God, for God
has placed his stamp of approval on the Constitution of this land. I
testify that the God of heaven selected and sent some of his choicest
spirits to lay the foundation of this government as a prologue to the
restoration of the gospel and the second coming of our Savior.
"May God bless us to protect this sacred instrument. In the words of
the Prophet Joseph Smith, “May those principles, which were so
honorably and nobly defended, namely, the Constitution of our land, by
our fathers, be established forever.” (D&C 109:54.) For this I pray,
in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

God Bless America!
Elder Dane Olsen


So, I love the lightning and rain storms at we have here in Florida.
They are awesome! The other day during a lightning storm we drove into
our apartment complex and found this right next to the apartment club
house. We snapped a picture of it and then got out of the way and the
fire department got there in the next bit.

 Take a look at this truck we found. Which way is the front?

Also, here is a picture of my district from last transfer.