6.26.23

This week was good! But really crazy!  To start off the week we had a few lessons, and a service project! It has been raining a lot lately and one of our members houses was leaking and we brought them some new tin sheets to reroof a section of her house. 

Thursday we had some surprise transfers and I'm staying here in valpo but I got a new comp Elder Faúndez!! He is awesome and I am learning a lot from him!

Other random things that happened this week:

1. Game night in the church 

2. Curry for lunch

3. District council

Also as probably many of you know there is a new edition of Preach My Gospel it is awesome and I am so excited to start using it in my studies and applying its principles! I am so very grateful that our church is lead by Jesus Christ through our living prophet Russel M Nelson! It really is such a blessing that we can have divine revelation leading our church. I know the President Nelson is a prophet of God! God lives Jesus lives! And this is His Church! When he announced this new edition he said 

"The Lord declared two millennia ago, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19).

That commandment is still in force...As we press forward in this vital work, I am pleased to announce the release of the second edition of Preach My Gospel. It carries the subtitle "A Guide to Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ."...It contains some of the best instruction I have ever seen to help people accept the Lord’s invitation to come unto Him.

Each and every time we share the gospel with others, we are fulfilling our commission as disciples of the Lord. His light is needed now more than ever. In our spiritually darkening world, the need is even greater to “go … into all the world, and preach [His] gospel” (Doctrine and Covenants 112:28)."

I love that some much! It fills me with a sense of joy excitement and urgency! This is the Lord's work! And it's not only for the people that wear a little black tag on their chests, as the new title says "a guide to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ" it is a work that each one of us is in charge of and we each missionaries and members we all need to share the gospel of Jesus Christ! I invite you all to go to the Gospel library app and pull up this new book and study and practice it in your everyday life! It's not just a book to help missionaries its a book that every single person can use to come closer to Christ and help others do the same! I promise you that if you read it with real intent your testimony and love of the Saivor Jesus Christ will grow and your desire to share the blessings of the gospel with the people around you will greatly increase! Jesus loves you all, don't ever forget it! Have a great week!

-Elder Olsen

6.19.23

This week like many others was quick great! Some highlights from this week are:

1. Exchanges!!

We had w

Exchanges last week with the Zone Leaders! It was awesome I stayed in our area with Elder Perkes! And it was so fun we had some of the best contacts together! It was crazy I didn't hardly know the guy but we were still able to work really good together and had some awesome lessons! 

2. Stake conference 

We had our area seventy come to stake conference also the mission president came! They both gave very powerful talks and it was a really special meeting! Something i really liked from there talks was the reminder that we are all family not just the people that are members of the church but everyone we are all family and all important, and as a good family we should always be there and willing to help one another! Our neighbors the random people in the street they are all part of our family! And the greatest way that we can help them is the share the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with them! The gospel truly is a blessing that can and will help everyone that accepts it! 

3. Duval y maritza 

This week we found an awesome family! We went over to their house and got to know them and had a good lesson and then they came with us to a ward activity we had in the church that same day! They wanted to come to church but already had other plans so we will be helping them come next week! Duval knows a lot of English it is really impressive and Maritza is a really great artist here art work is so detailed it is incredible! It looks like a high quality picture but then she started explaining and showing us that she drew it with a pencil my mind was blow! They seem to be really interested and excited about the gospel and also have a 11 year daughter that is pretty interested too! I'm excited for this family! It was awesome getting to know them.

This week during my studies I was reading in the book of Mormón in Ether 12 and I really liked verse 41 which says "And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen." And I really like it, I think it's really cool the commandment Moroni gives us to seek, look for, study, and find Jesus! How cool is that, we should be putting our effort our energy into seeking Jesus, I love because we can find him everyday! And find his loving grace and blessings and if we do this the Holy Ghost can and will abibe or be with us forever! I know that this is true and that Jesus loves us and wants to bless us, and we just need to put in our effort and strive to do our best and seek and find Jesus! I invite each and everyone of you to seek Jesus today, there are many was to do it, here are a few examples of hom we might seek Jesus, studying the scriptures, prayer, serving others, enjoying nature and all of His creations, remembering Him and looking for the blessings he has given you! I invite you to pick one of these or the think of your own, and SEEK Jesus today! 

Hope you all have a good day! I'd love to here from you and your experiences you've had seeking Jesus! Take care yall! 

-Elder Olsen

6.5.23

Hello everyone from down here in Chile!! Hope you all are doing well!

I've have had a pretty excellent week! On Tuesday we had Zone conference which was great, a part that I liked alot was the importance of talking with everyone, we might be trying to find the address of a specific family but why not talk with everyone one the wag. I know this gospel is true and that it will help any and everyone that chooses to accept it and live by its principles. I'm am honored to be able to talk and share the gospel everyday! 

We had a cool lesson with our friend Domingo! He had some doubts about the priesthood we hold and miricals that still happened today he said that he didn't really believe that miricales still happen. So we started teaching the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and explained that Jesus had the power to preform miricales and gave it to his apostles, and his apostles gave it to Joseph Smith who later gave it to others and now we hold that same power(priesthood). Me and my comp were not very united but we tried and we tried to help this man understand and the Holy Ghost did the rest, the Holy Ghost is the best teacher, and the only way that faith and testimonies are built. We paused for a moment and Domingo just said "wow, I believe you, your words came to my head and I felt your message move down to my chest, Elderes I do believe in miricales!"

Other random stories from this week:

Some random guy in the street came up to us and asked "do you mormons eat meat?" And we said yes, and he said oh good and then pulled out a garbage bag and was like, ive got some meat and i want to sell it to you. We politely declined, not knowing if this was beef, dog, human. It was so funny a very strange interaction in the street and 9:30 at night🤣

2. Some really nice dudes in the street invited us to a barbecue the were having, we accepted(also not knowing if we were about to eat some dog off the street) we started talking to them explained we were missionaries got their phone number and thanked them for the food and then had to leave heading over to another lesson! I second the words of a country song "I believe most people are good"

This week I have been thinking a lot about the importance of LOVE in this life, the eternity and the gospel of Jesus Christ. The first principle we usually teach is the that God is our LOVING heavenly father, that's the beginning. God lOVES us! And we find in Moroni that this LOVE is called CHARITY later in Moroni we find that if we don't have CHARITY we won't be saved in the kingdom of God, according to the gospel of John if we LOVE Jesus we will keep his commandments. I am sure that LOVE or CHARITY is one of the most vital things we xan obtain in this life, if we LOVE Jesus we will keep his commandments, and receive blessing from that act. And if we LOVE Jesus we will LOVE our neighbors and we will share the gospel with them so that they can also learn to LOVE Jesus obey His commandments and receive divine blessings! I leave you with an invitation from the Book of Mormón in Moroni 7:48 "pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this LOVE"! I know that God loves each and everyone of you and I love you too, i hope that you can feel and know also of the great love that Christ has for you!

-Elder Olsen

5.29.23

Hello!!!! Everyone how yall doing? 

My week has been very good! An Elder that was about to finish his mission stayed with us for a day, which was awesome! This guy is so cool his name is Elder Schäffer from Brazil! And is such a powerful missionary and truly a great example to me! He helped Mr remember the importance of being obediente and understanding the missionary purpose for those of you who don't know it is to "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ, and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end", I know that this is the true and restored gospel of Jesus Christ and that he loves us and has given us this gospel for our benefit and so that we can have real joy in this life and in the world to come! 

Other random things that happened:

1. Ward activities(board game night and karaoke)

2. An awesome member let me use his sewing machine to fix all my pants😅

3. Trio for a day

-Elder Olsen