Peter 11.24.12

The last email from the field.  

MOTHER Dear, i love you!

this week has been great! we have seen lots of miracles. we taught 2 people for the first time yesterday. we had both of them pray at the end of the lesson, it was great! we had exchanges this week. elder jensen came to merritt island with me. we found an awesome guy that we prayed with and set up to come back sat. which we did and he was there but working on his car. hopefully he'll be taught soon! 

Thanksgiving we were given lunch from our investigator S, calick greens and all. then we had dinner at the clarks. it was a great day. we also tracted without much success but we did talk to lots of nice people. i'm excited to share more when i see you wednesday. i'm glad to hear the pie tradition was held to without me. ;)  well i love you.

See you soon!

Elder Olsen

 

ps How is natalie doing? i hope well. if she goes into labor on wednesday. don't feel obligated to be at the air port. I love you! 

Peter 11.19.12

Mother dear!

good and bad news on the camera... at the beach it fell into the sand and quit working because the lens won't go back in. good news i got some sweet pictures before it broke... I've had my companion take some pictures with my memory card so I'll still get some more.

this week has been great! we met a cool family again! it was while we were going to see a potential investigator i met a few about a week before and we just hadn't been able to contact them. after mistakenly knocking on his neighbors door, we met his neighbor. fancy that! B is 19 and lives with her dad and said we could come over so we set up an appointment and went over and taught her family. Her dad actually had been to an lds church before and informed us that it was an answer to prayer that we were at his home. we have had lots of miracles this week. especially as we have been tracting more. President Hall has emphasised that we needed to tract and offer to bless people's homes. that was definitely inspired. we ran into lots of people that were ready and needed help and a prayer was the ticket. it brings the spirit strongly and helps them know that we are here to help.

we had 5 non members at church yesterday! they mostly liked it and it made it exciting for us to help them have a good experience. but it seems like the spirit always says the most! we're very grateful for that. well I've got to go!

i love you!

Elder Olsen

PS i got your package on my birthday and enjoyed the cookies. thank you all! 

Peter 11.12.12

 Just 16 more days until Peter comes home!

Hello!

I WENT TO THE BEACH! we got there at 6:00 this morning and watched the sunrise with the district. I have some sweet pics. then we played soccer on the beach. it was great!

this week has been a great one! we taught D's kids part of the plan of salvation and they enjoyed it. It was a little crazy D has a big family 3 girls and 2 boys.  The boys are both under 8 and are crazy. we had them start drawing and they somewhat behaved but it went well and we're going over again tonight. wish us luck!

we had a training from president he is really excited about the increase in missionaries. he said that we'll start to see the increase of missionaries in January and really pushing to have the mission prepared for it. he said almost every ward will be split into two areas. its exciting to be a part of.

i talked to the mission about sending my bike home, they said it costs anywhere from $30-90 to ship it  and my bike is in rough condition it'll take close to $100 to get it running good again. should i send it Home? let me know.

well we're doing great out here on the Island. Christ has restored his church and he is leading it today through a living prophet. The restored gospel is the only way we can return to live with our Father.

love y'all

Elder Olsen

Peter 11.5.1

Mother,yes work is definitely moving forward in our area! this week has been full of great things happening!the ward put on a Fall festival that was great! we had 14 non-members there and there ended up being about 30 out of the 60 people that showed up that were non-members it was awesome N and R came with their family, a recent convert and her family came. and another family came that i had never met that a member invited. it was a miracle that they all came. 14 of the non members didn't have rides and it was up to us to get them there. nothing was working out. elder hibbard was making a few last calls and somehow rides just came together. it was a miracle and it was great to have them come to the church so they would be familiar with the church building.  Saturday elder beach came to my area on exchange and had a great day! with lots of biking. we had planned the night before to not come back  for lunch, as we were out we road past a missionary baptist church. that was having a community  BBQ. we stopped in and spoke to the pastor for a while and then joined them. forget "baptists at our BBQ" we went to theirs! 
 I love you Mom!
Elder Olsen 
 Dad, 
hurricane sandy was pretty bad from what we've heard. one less active member's husband assesses damage and she showed us pictures of some of the effects of the storm. we only got a little rain from sandy the storm passed by.their is a lot of excitement here as well about the announcement on missionary work. who is all going on missions from our ward? we are receiving a special training this week that will also cover some of the things that we will be changing due to the age change. it truly is exciting! many of the wards here will be split up into two areas so they will have places to put the new missionaries. the Lord is hastening His work! IT will go forth in an amazing way.
Love you Dad!
Elder Olsen
ps have you looked at Mormon messages for youth? their is a lot missionary preparation videos on there. "staying within the lines" is one of them.

Peter 10.29.12

hello,

i'm so glad that hey area everything worked out. elise mentioned that the baby was in a weird position and he's a big boy! wow 9.1! 

this week was great! i love this area! my companion and the ward! i feel so blessed to be serving here. this week we found and taught J. We contacted him while he was in his garage and he at first was hesitant but he came around and now seems like he has been prepared. we are going to see him again tomorrow. He was asking during the first lesson if we maybe had time we could come teach him or something... it was awesome! we assured him that we could. we also began teaching a members friend this week! N and her boyfriend. they have also been really prepared. N came to church yesterday and enjoyed it. it was so stress free with her friend bringing her and sitting by her. so we didn't have to play match maker to find a friend to show her around and she had attended an LDS service before in the cocoa ward. she is great and seems very ready for the gospel. she has 5 kids 2 boys are old enough to be baptized and her we feel very blessed especially because this week we started praying for a family to teach. we have received so many referrals here its been crazy! we also have a lot of part member families that we are hoping to start teaching.

i hope all is well and that jens is doing well. you'll be in my prayers.

i love you!

Elder Olsen

mom note.  Elise was thinking about Jens as her baby's name but settled on Josh.

Peter 10.22.12

wow i didn't know Micheal Lutes was going on a mission already!?! where is he going? when does he leave? I'm glad you were able to hear thomas report. i was thinking  about him recently. i'm glad he's doing well.

 i'm in a brand new area. the title is R east. but we really cover merritt island, cocoa beach and cape canaveral. the nasa space center is just outside our area so we'll hopefully get to see a launch :)  i didn't realize that we were opening a new area when i emailed last week. it wasn't until later that i called my new companion. so i went to the mission office and picked up the keys to our new apartment, supplies to proselyte with and an empty area book. it was pretty exciting! i am out of central florida for the first time. i'm now in the Cocoa stake. our area is basically two peninsulas with bridges that connect them. it is great! we on merritt island. and the church is over on the main land. the ward was covered by one set of missionaries before and they rarely made it out to the coast. so we came in and split the ward. How do you open an area? well we are trying to figure that out. we figure out were we are at, what our area is and then start talking to people. members, non members and work to find people to teach. we have 1 investigator that was being taught when we got here and we have i person that was baptized about a week ago. other than that we are looking for people everywhere. we have been going to members homes, principles get to know them and ask for referrals. we have recieved 5 this week. we will be contacting them soon.

it has been really fun because most of the people we talk to haven't seen missionaries very much before so most people we meet don't have much of an opinion about us yet. really this has been a huge blessing and opportunity. i'm grateful for it. this week has seemed kind of like a blur so much has happened but we are now pretty well settled in and are ready to focus 100% on proselyting  Elder Hibbard is from merridian idaho. he has been out for about 16 months and is great! he is a great missionary! he loves fly fishing and hunting.

well i've gotta go!

I love you!

Elder Olsen

ps my address is

200 spring dr. unit 8

Merritt Island, Fl 32953

Peter 10.15.12

hello

mom that's amazing that you all had bikes in working order to ride to church! i had a saddle bag thing on my bike for a while it worked really well! but i recently gave it away. and yes it has been cooling down here. i think its been down into the low 70s. its been great!  i'm getting transferred today... I'll be going to the Rocklage east area! its in a zone I've never been in and i may be able to see the ocean from there for the first time. i'll give you more information next week. i'll be going there tomorrow! i feel that this ward has moved a long way in the last 6 months.

Elder Zwick finally made it! He's been trying to for months. we had a mission conference when he came. he taught us a lot about teaching and using principles  examples, backing up doctrine scripturally and testifying frequently  it was simple but it has been powerful as we have began using it.

Dad

i can only imagine how much Isaac has changed. its crazy that bryant and steven could be going on missions so soon but it will be great! Elder Zwick said that the church has projected that the missionary force will jump to 90,000 missionaries in the next 6 months. the number amazed me but the Lord is now hastening his work!

Dane

Great job! you really pushed it to cut off 40 sec. in just a week. we'll have to go running when i come back. i've been running at least 5 days a week since march. but i'm not sure how much faster i'm getting... i also liked your analogy about the race. thanks and i will be pushing it! and i'm excited for the opportunity to really push it! i will have only 6 weeks to do so in my next area so we are going to have to work like crazy! and i'm glad the trucks still goin' good for you! i really look up to you! thanks for the great Example

your brother

Elder Olsen

ps i just finished using the 12 week program with Elder Kunzler. it is an inspired program. i think it helped me more than elder kunzler.

Peter is front and center.

He's coming home!

Peter will be coming home on November 28!  That is just 7 weeks away.  He will be speaking in church on December 9.  For details leave a comment or give me a call.  I'm very excited.

Peter 10.8.12

Mother dear!

I received Dane's letter with your note.

Conference was amazing! i really enjoyed it! especially with the minimum age requirement adjustment. i know one missionary from Portugal that came when he was 18. he is a great missionary. my testimony was truly strengthened that God has called a prophet again. God speaks! His work is going forward!

Conference seemed to fly by. i was shocked that Sunday afternoon came so fast. its strange here being that the sessions are from 12-2 4-6 and then priesthood from 8-10 it was a late night but well worth it. I'm currently not sure about a favorite... there were so many great ones! one that i really enjoyed was by a seventy it was about raising vision. seeing people as they can become. it really has raised my vision and i am excited to study it again. Elder Christofferson's talks were great! they seemed to really hit home. i have come to love learning from him. other favorites were Elder Uchdorfs talk in priesthood and Elder Holland's from Sunday. I've learned one way to take notes that is really been neat. i take notes on what was said and the general messages but in addition when i find myself thinking or pondering something else unrelated to the topic i make a star and record the impression. it was neat it was usually  a specific thing i needed to do or change. God will bring his messages to us whether we are told specifically by the speaker or by the spirit. the talk sat morning by the seventy that lost his child at 8 months by choking on a piece of chalk is exactly what M needs to hear. L would have benefited greatly to listen to some of the saturday sessions. i guess thats why they record it. i believe he was able to catch the last of the late afternoon session sunday.

 

Saturday while we were working to figure out how to get L to priesthood session. i was on the phone with him he informed us he wouldn't be making it and the conversation was about to end when i felt he had something to say. as he spoke up he said " i think that i'm going to get my whole family into the religion" Hallelujah! it actually took a little by surprise  we are taking a Book of Mormon in Spanish over tonight! we're excited for him to read. it's be great!

 

this week we will have a zone/mission conference with Elder and Sister Zwick. its been a long time they have been planning on coming and now they're going to actually be here this week. we are really excited! it will be held at the chapel and we are really excited to receive further instruction.

 

 

Dad,

its great to here from you! i'm glad the mining show went well! it sounds like the dump truck was really the trick! to get attention and also sounded like you have some awsome equipment!

 your letter almost made me cry. its so strange that my time to serve full-time is almost over. i will magnify the opportunities! are many and i am greatful for them and i know i can magnify them due to the help that is available! The Atonement is real!  thank you for your example you are to me. you really have given me the example of what elder Christofferson said a "Man" should be.

thank you! 

           I Love You!

              Elder Olsen

Peter, 10.1.12

'ello

I'm glad to here your still getting produce! that sounds so goood!  i have really started to like veggies. i can tell how much better i feel when i eat healthy. Dane looks like he is doing great!  i love how they both had to take their own trucks! Dane is supper tan. How did dad show do? did the dump truck work properly? is their any work that he'll get from getting it?

this week was really good!  We actually met with S 3 times. he is really doing very well. His baptismal date had to be moved till Oct 20. we had an awesome lesson with him and his member friends and Brother I came with. we taught about revelation and used 1 kings 19:12-13 about how the spirit works and it really helped him. we then prayed with him on the spot. and he received a confirmation.  prayer is real and answers can come really fast. i feel like we think God answers in his own time and that His time is not right now. but he does answer fast! revelation isn't something that is going to happen in the future. Revelation is real! God loves all his children! Jesus Christ has restored His Gospel! and HE SPEAKS!

we're super excited for conference as well

have fun at elise and Johns

love you

Elder Olsen

ps when is elise due? is everything ok

Peter 9.17.12

Hello!

thanks for the updates of everyone. Thats weird danes going to homecomming... he's getting so old. and still driving the truck around. i don't blame him  i love driving. especially Chevys. i'm afraid i'm going to be a crazy driver when i come home. their is a heavy Puerto Rican influence here and so the driving is pretty tense. 

Debbi and simeon are on the same team!?! thats exciting! Have you been recording them? i'd love to see them.

this week has been great but like usual its hard to remember everything that has happend.

on thursday we had exchanges. i went to st cloud with elder Y and left elder K to take over the area. it was great! i learned a lot! especially about teaching what people need to know not just what we have - everything and hope they get it. we taught B and all we taught about was church, what to expect and how to recieve revelation. it was exactly what he needed.

we are working on teaching more using less time and words to teach to allow the spirit to do the real teaching.

saturday we taught Kn with Brother Mills and it went very well! we reviewed the restoration and then read in the book of Mormon. it was great! and just what he needed. yesterday ben came to church. (the guy in the white van that stopped us) he only made it to the last 2 hours. he was partially intoxicated... he enjoyed gospel principles and then in elders quorum he really unloaded. he had alot on his mind. he spilled out a lot about his relationship that he's in and his alcohlism and it was awsome because 3 or 4 of the members of the quorm have had simliar experiences and we're able to give him support. i was really happy that they stepped up and encouraged him.

well i've got to go.

i love you!

Elder Olsen

Peter, 9.10.12

Hello! familia!

S came to church! its been a while since we've had an investigator come. We taught him a while ago but his schedual is super busy. he is 14 and playing football, bball, and just informed us he made the soccer team. He wants to play in the NFL and with his dedication and love of sports he'll probably make it. He also accepted a date for sept 29. he is doing great and was very well fellowshipped at church with a little cordination. we also taught E for the first time. he is a referral from the st cloud Elders from back in may and we have stuggled to meet with him but we had the ward mission leader come out with us friday evening and we stopped by and he was there! we taught him some of the restoration, Importance of family and the temple. we also are planning on having a fhe with E in a members home next monday.

the olsen dinner sounds like it was great! i miss peaches and peach cobbler. you'll have to make another one and think of me when you eat it.

sorry i don't have much time today.

got to go

I love you

Elder Olsen

Peter 9.2.12

Hello! 

this week has been pretty crazy we had an experince i've never had before. it started monday night as we were biking home. we stopped to talk to two older ladies that were out walking. pam informed us that she was missing a cat and had been for over 24 hours. she then described the cat and then we told her we'd let her know if we saw it. then on friday night we were biking down O Dr. and there was a cat that met the description. on the side of the sidewalk, only thing was that it was dead... we decided P needed to know so we left her a note at her house and informing he that her cat was "no longer among the living".  we also gave her our phone number like we give nearly everyone that will take it. and she called. and asked that we go with her to see the cat with her... so we did.  we buried it in her yard.

she was a very southern baptist lady and we were hoping it would help her open up but nope, but at least we gave the church a nice name. and she'll remember that 2 mormon missionaries helped her. 

anyways we taught M again and he told us that he was struggling to recognize the spirit. so we taught him from galations 5:22-23 and taught him how to pray. we committed him to pray-specifically to know that this was true. he said he would. and we left. when we called him friday to follow up he said that he had felt and recognized the spirit! it was a miracle for him. we are excited to teach him again this tuesday 

I'm glad that everything is going well back home 

have a great labor day!

love ya  

Elder Olsen

Note from mom:  We received Peter's travel plans and he will be home the afternoon of November 28 - YEAH!

Peter 8.27.23

thanks for the pics.

hurricane isaac has mostly taken a turn for the west so we don't have to worry to much about it. we are just going to get alot of rain. and yes we'll try dry... not probable.

this week we have begun teaching kn a potential from the area book. and just last night we started teaching ron.

i met kn about 3 months ago and wasn't really sure how positive he was but we were near his home so we stopped by and got back in contact and then returned for a lesson about a week later. we brought Brother Mills with us to teach and it was perfect. we were nervous that Kn would want to preach at us being that he is a minister at his chuch, so we thought brother mills would definatly help us be able to teach.  and it was perfect! brother mills has a presance that almost demands respect so we were able to teach. and as i recieted the First vision from memory looking Kn in the Eyes i felt the spirit testify deeply it confirmed my testimony once again of the Restoration. it was powerfull! Kn felt it as well and he said he knew it was that he felt the spirit testify as well. i realized that it has been a while since we've had a really powerful lesson. kn was in a place to recieve spiritual knowledge.

R was is amazing as well we had a lesson last night that was an answer to prayers. he was referred by his member friend who filled out a referral at cove fort in ut. we are excited to meet with him on wed.

I love you!

Elder Olsen

Peter, 8.20.12

hey yal'

sounds like i'm gonna come home to a ranchin' family! mom i'm glad your rist is feeling better. and that you both are ok. i just finished a letter from emily while waiting for the computer to become available. She is so amazing! i'm so glad, im  grateful to have such a great sister. she gave me an update on all of the kids. it was great to here her perspective on the family. is emily heading up to Logan for school? When does it start? most of the schools here started today. so we're hoping we will still find families home and available. thank you for praying that we'll find people that will make and keep convenants. debbi was inspired to pray for help to learn the language. My companion really wants to learn spanish. so he has got a hold of some spanish books from the spanish elders, we have been learning some. and frankly i needed that prayer because i haven't really been working on my spanish. i have felt that i have so many other things to study and work on before spanish. but really i need to learn so we can more productively talk with everyone we meet. communicating... well i hope its getting better! it really seems like there are an enormous amount of people that can't communicate very well. i have been working to simplify how i speak, so that others can understand. without any room for misinterpretation. their is a quote in PMG that says "we aren't to teach the gospel so simply as to be understood but that we are to teach it so that it cannot be misunderstood" that is my goal. when we are able to do it the spirit testify s powerfully of what we have taught. Elder Kunzler has really helped me in this area. he is supper smart he told me his mind is an "iron trap" and that he remembers everything. He really does. He has taught me a lot about everything. if anything comes up he has a well studied out answer that is correct and logical. sometimes he just starts teaching me about random stuff that comes up. yesterday between our correlation meeting and sacrament meeting. we were sitting in the kitchen at the church with the other elders in our ward and Elder kunzler taught us about the 3 catigories of evidences that the book of mormon is a true record. it was really cool, He also knows that no matter the evidence that it is the spirit that teaches.

my mormon.org profile? well its really simple go onto mormon.org click "our people"  then "meet mormons" then it has a place to enter a name, city, or key word. type in "peter" "kissimmee" or "Orlando". you can also put in age group and gender then all you need to do is look through the pictures till you see my "smilin'" face. i need to get a new pic on their but haven't. i should have a new one this week.

when we use the church websites we usually just use their computer or i bought a mormon messages dvd if they don't have the internet. it has been supper powerful.

what videos did you use for your lesson? one we have used for teaching about service is one under the youth section onmormonchannel.org titled "datons legs" its an awsome one.

this week we started teaching 4 senior citizens in an assisted living center. the owner of the center actually asked us to come teach them so we did for the first time on friday morning. there are two that are more promising E who has read some in the book of mormon before and lived in utah for 2 years at the air force base, and B who said she had attended  an lds church before. we have an appointent with them tomorrow. but i'll be on exchanges in st cloud with elder buckmiller.

the chuch is true! the Book is blue!

i love you!

Elder Olsen
ps the reason the last 2 emails have been longer is because sister Hall is sick and President hasn't had us write him for the last to weeks. Please keep sister Hall in your Prayers.

Peter, 8.13.12

hola!

today we got together as a district with a senior couple in the pleasant hill ward, and had a BBQ games and ultimate football. it was a blast. it was pretty fun and thats why i'm emailing so late. i'm glad you made it home from maryland safe and sound. what is it that walters doing for work out thier and where is it exactly that the gunters live. ive told people i have family up there but don't really know where they're at. is it near baltimore? this week seemed to go by pretty fast. i know there is a lot that happened but i'm forgetting the details right now. wednesday we had exchanges. Elder L came to kissimmee east with me and elder K went to canoe creek with elder B. i learned a ton about making lesson plans using Mormon messages as part of the lessons. we had a lesson with mike an investigator that has been taught for a while by missionaries but seems to be missing something. so we made a lesson plan to teach part of the restoration (Christs ministry-apostasy-restoration) and then used the Mormon message "are we really Christians?" it was a great lesson accept at the first the member that came to the lesson with us got into a little bit of an argument on politics but they soon realized what they were doing and left it. the lesson then went surprisingly well. and the member and mike became pretty good friends by the end. as we were almost done with the lesson mikes wife came out with some brats, crackers, and what we thought was a dark soda or juice and we almost took some but soon we found out it was Ice tea... it was a close one :/ but we let mike know and he quickly replaced it with juice. it was close one. 

Sunday we had a dinner with the Mills sister Mills is the Relief society president and Brother Mills is the stake executive secretary. they are an older couple that are so amazing. they are down to earth, and really area huge help to the ward. they served a mission in shrilanka (not sure on spelling) the place the thomas's served. they served there right after the Thomas's left. there son is also apart of the music group "Jericho Road" anyways we had a great lesson with them and shared a Mormon message "lifting burdens" and then shared 2 nephi 26:23-28 about how Christ invites all to come unto Him, and turns nobody away. we then committed them to set a date by which they would have somebody the missionaries to teach.The Lord really blesses us when we us all the wonderful resources he as given us. the videos are super powerful and really bring the Spirit.

 oh and friday we had a trainer/trainee follow up meeting at the stake center across the street from the temple. it was very insightful they split up the trainers and trainees and we were able to bring up concerns we had and were able to resolve and receive some help on what we could do better. it was definitely a great time to learn.

one of the things i am learning is how to correct in a positive and loving way. it is hard because i want to be able to lift and inspire and not be a nagger. D&C 121 gave me alot of insight in that it said that we are to "reprove with sharpness but then show an increase of love so that he esteem thee not to be his enemy" or something like that. 

we were informed also that Elder Zwick will not be coming due to so back problems and the doctor won't approve him to fly. so we will still have zone conference. i'm sure it will still be a revelatory experience. the spirit can answer our questions no matter who give the instruction.

the Great apostasy did take place. the authority to administer the Ordinances of the Gospel was lost and would be till God saw fit to call another Prophet. Joseph Smith was that Prophet. the authority to administer the ordinances of the Gospel has been restored. the fullnes of the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored!

I Love you,

Elder Olsen

Peter, 8.6.12

Have fun in maryland!  when did Amber have her baby? is he healthy? I hope he is doing well! Your  getting close to florida! we meet a lot of people that have moved here from Maryland.  we have a lot of people that move here from everywhere, especially from the north to get out of the cold. How long are you going to be there? I hope its fun! 

So Friday we were biking down florida parkway, and this white van drove passed and then it stopped and reversed back up to us and pulled off the road. as we got stopped and figured out he wanted to talk to us, we went to the window and he said that he has been super stressed and that he just needed help. he said he was sick of money, cigaretts, and drinking. He went on to ask us for literature. we gave him a Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet. which he gratefully accepted. overall it was a neat experience knowing that he was prompted to talk to us and recognized that we could help him. we taught him last night at his home. He told us of his life which has been really hard. being in a foster home, doing drugs, and being fully engulfed in the world for so long. we promised him that the gospel will help him. taught about the atonement from Alma 7:11-12.

in a week and a half we have a zone conferance with Elder Zwick from the 1st quorum of the seventy. we are excited as we are preparing to recieve revelation by coming up with questions that we have to help us more effectively do this work. we are expecting to be taught by the Holy Ghost the answers that we need.

I know that the Church was restored throught the Prophet Joseph Smith by a Loving Heavenly Father.

I love you and pray that you will travel safely.

Elder Olsen 

Peter, 7.30.12

Hello,

i'm so glad emily made it home safely. I'm sure she gave and amazing talk. i'd love to see pics. she was an amazing missionary.

this week has been great! Elder K is my companion. he is from Park Valley. He grew up on a 35000 acre ranch. and is awsome! He served in the Utah Ogdon mission for a 2 transfers before coming here so he is very familiar with missionary work and he loves it already. He is very good at working with leaders. I have been learning tons from him. He is my favorite companion yet. we have been working with T for a few weeks we haven't been able to teach him to much but he lives super close to us so we stop by and talk to him when we have a few minutes. He had hit bottom and wasn't sure if he even wanted to get up again. he is in his 50's and has seen this cycle in his life and he doesn't like it. He basically realized the pride cycle in his own life. we would teach him breifly about the atonement we'd mostly just listen to him. but saturday when we stopped by he had seen huge changes in his life. he now had a job. a drivers licence and a vehicle. all serious blessings. he thanked us very sincerly for the little we had done. it really helped me realize that every little thing matters. and that by small and simple things great things are brought to pass. that is how God works.

well i'm excited for the van ormans and their new life down by ceder city. i'm sure John will love it.

got to go,

I love you

Elder Olsen

Peter 7.23.12

Mother Dear!

 sorry i don't have much time today! this week has been great! we decided to go through all of the potentials in the area book. it has been great! we had 1 potential from earlier this transfer and had been struggling to meet with him but as we were persistant we met his dad Joseph who moved here from Jamaica 6 or so years ago. at first He started telling us we had a different Bible... but as we talked to him he eventually told us that he had met with missionaries in Jamaica and actually remembered their names. he also remembered parts of the Hymn I stand all amazed' the spirit came and he agreed to have us back. we are super excited to begin meeting with him. 

Tomorrow is transfer day and i will be picking up the New missionary at the mission office at 9. I am excited but i will definitely need all the prayers and help i can get as we begin our companionship. well i've got to go. 

 I love you 

Elder Olsen

ps did you figure out anything about the absentee ballots I think they have started accepting them.

also give Sister Olsen a HUGE HUG for me! 

Peter 7.16.12

Wow thanks for the updates! i recieved both moms and danes letters, Thank you! i'm glad you got the package! the t shirt is tight on me so i figured you could save it for me till i get home. good luck with everything this weekend! sounds like fun! 

I will be training a new missionary next transfer! it should be pretty fun. we had a Trainers meeting last week and i'm super exctited. its weird to know so far in advance what i'll be doing next transfer (i won't be picking him up till next July 24) but i'm super excited!

this past week went very fast! we recieved a referral from the spanish elders this week. S H 14 and has been attending the spanish branch with a friend only thing is he doesn't speak a lick of Spanish. He has a baptismal date for aug 11. and we are hoping to begin teaching his family too.

I've learned a lot about setting goals this week. we had a district meeting about setting goals first and then making plans to achieve them. so we decided to try it out being that we usually make plans and then set goals. we did it and plans came and we were blessed to achieve our goals as we trusted that God would provide a way to accomplish them. This is Gods Church today. It is directed by Jesus Christ. and the Church was restored by the Prophet Joseph Smith.

I love you

Elder Olsen