Hey Crew.... I've been fighting demons trying to get this email to send, so sorry about that. This is from last week. So here you go ⤵️
Let me tell you, Hood River has been on FIRE, figuratively and literally 🔥, so that's been awesome. We have had actually so many who are the most precious gems. Like some of the craziest (like actually people in Oregon are just different), but also we are getting blessed up.
Ok, some of our top Dawgs, as you might be aware, are starting off with
✨️EMILIANO ✨️ LITERALLY our best friend. He is doing so so good, has been pulling up to church; last week was his 3rd time. He came o a baptism on Saturday and we had him praying about being baptized these last few weeks and hes on date to be baptized on AUGUST 29TH. SO THIS IS BIG. We are so hyped for him. We have a lot to teach him still, but he literally is our favorite. He just trusts and is growing his faith and just knows he's gonna be blessed by baptism. Funny story: we didn't know where this John lived, but we knew the trailer park. So ummm we put in a few finding blocks titled "find Emiliano" and um on exchanges they found his house because they recognized his car. So on Sunday, when he didn't pull up to church because he slept in. I was like "Lord if its your will let us find him at his house so we can yapp and that way he knows we know where he lives" and we go to this trailor park do some knocking we got to help a lady shell some beans for a while then we walk around the corner to go down Emiliano street to debate if we should act like we knocked into his door or not. But the ✨️milagro✨️ he is literally standing outside washing his car 🫧🚘 and we yapped and chapped and then set up our next lesson and now if we ever show up at his house again he won't be weirded out. So God really heard my prayer.
But we have had the best lessons with him. Like all my highlights of the week are getting to teach him because he is just so receptive and open. So we are feeling very blessed to push him and help him towards baptism.
We have other amazing friends truly and we literally had 5 friends at church the other week like I dont know how its working but people keep on pulling up and i just feel blessed to be there to witness it.
One other super precious thing that I got blessed up with is no sé si you guys remember, pero my bestest friend Benjamin from my last area who is got to teach everything to and just couldn't be baptized because of work and church conflicts and I prayed every night he would be able to go and figure it out because he literally has the strongest testimony ever. And after literally 6 months of being taught consistently and progressing. He was baptized July 28th. It was literally the best day ever. The 28th was also my 1 year mark. And I can't think of anything better than my bestest friend being baptized and making a covenant with God. Just knowing I got to be a part of his story is a pure witness to why I'm here. Literalmente God's kingdom being built. Right before me. And to know I got to help him in a small way, literally no greater joy than that. So it was perfect. I got to call in watch it happen and then talk to him por un ratito after it WAS LO MEJOR.
We RAN some slay exchanges these last few weeks its been so so fun. Got to hang out with Sister Pannell for her birthday and tried to make it special. And Sister Parker and I got to eat it up in her area as well. And then I ran another exchange with sister Pannell and we got to meet the most perfect part memebe family. And I have never felt more invested in their story; they had me in tears as I heard of the things they have been through, but please, please pray for the Ferral family. I adore them and they are so close to coming back
Funny story: we were running out the door to a lesson that was like 15 minutes away. And we had quite a few things to take out to the car, and I was like We are gonna have to do 2 trips, huh. And my comp is like "no we got" and then literally we get everything in our arms, get out of the car, I'm trying to find my keys, and boom the car is locked and so is the door to our house..... so um we panic because we are now late to our lesson. And a member is literally already there waiting at our friend's house. So we are like, what do we do! And the other sisters are in a lesson like 15 minutes away, and our housing coordinator lives 45 minutes away, so we are, well, time to break in. So we climb up to our kitchen windows get it unlocked take to the AC which was actually huge! So ask my comp to hold this huge AC unit because we can't reach the cord to unplug it. And i have to boost myself into this widow above oit kitchen sink slide myself even the dishes and then un plug the AC unit grab keys and theb close window and run to our lesson 30 minutes later. But hey we did it. No sure if that a bad thing or a good one. Turns out our neighbor had a extra key and was home to it was all for nothing but we could say we are pretty scrapy.
Anypues enough yap
I've been reading in the New Testament and have been LOVING IT
Anyway, in 2 Corinthians
5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:5-6
And it just reminds me of this beautiful monologue from Mary in The Chosen. And I have had a few hard days and a few really good ones lately, and I truly just believe that Jesus was a man of many sorrows and acquainted with grief. But there is only true joy through him. So somehow both darkness and light exist, and because becoming something requires both, I've been trying to understand the roles of them both.
You don't have to read it, but I love this idea, and I think you'll like it.
"I was there once
Darkness is not the absence of light.
That would be too simple.
It is more uncontrollable and sinister.
Not a place, but a void.
I was there once.
More than once.
And although I could not see or hear you,
You were there.
Waiting.
Because the darkness is not dark to you.
At least, not always.
You wept…
Not because your friend was dead.
But because soon you would be.
And because we couldn’t understand it.
Or didn’t want to, or both.
The coming darkness was too deep for us to grasp.
But, then, so is the light.
One had to come before the other.
It was always that way with you.
It still is.
Tears fell from your eyes, and then ours,
Before every light in the world went out.
And time itself wanted to die with you.
I go back to that place sometimes,
Or rather, it comes back to me uninvited.
The night that was eternal,
Until it wasn’t.
Bitter, and then sweet.
But somehow the bitter remained in the sweet and has never gone away.
You told us it would be like that.
Not with your words, but with how you lived.
The man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
That grief wasn’t what we wanted to see.
So we tried to look away,
And in so doing fulfilled your very essence.
One from whom people hide their faces.
But soon we couldn’t hide from it any more,
Than we could stop the sun from setting.
Or rising.
I remember you wishing there could be another way.
And looking back, I do too.
I still don’t know why it has to be this way.
The bitter often mingled with the sweet.
Maybe I never will.
At least, not this side of…."
So, guys, there's a lot that's been going on, and I am truly living my best life. Only got 6 months left. Transfers happened, and I'm staying in my area. God bless. And getting a slay new comp, super hyped.
Love you all
♡/ Hermana Olsen
https://photos.app.goo.gl/enS6qVdNZ1tQC8b78
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