Sister Olsen's Missionary Blog: Temple visit and Everything in the Lord's Timing

Hi everyone!

I am sending this out a couple days late because we went to the Temple! We can go twice during our mission and Sister Humphries and I decided to go today. It was a wonderful experience. The temple truly is the House of the Lord. I enjoyed being able to pray and communicate with my Heavenly Father in a very special way. I went to the temple with specific questions in mind and was able to receive the answers I needed from my Heavenly Father.

The rest of our week was amazing as well! We were able able to see many miracles. One of them happened Thursday evening. Earlier that day we had a lesson planned with an investigator everything was planned. We had a member there with us, but our investigator wasn't home. I remembered this happening in my first area and the member that was with us promised to us that the Lord sees our efforts and would bless us later that day as we continued to work diligently. So even though I was sad that our lesson fell threw, I looked forward to the blessing that would happen later that day. Fast forward to the end of the night, we decide to find one more door in an apartment complex to knock. There we met Shirad. He wasn't the potential in the area Book, but was more than willing to watch the Because of Him Video. We were able to talk to him for a little bit and see that he wanted to follow God. He was really excited to read the Book of Mormon and meet with us again. This showed me that the Lord will lead us to people who want to hear our message if we continue to act in faith.

I love my mission so much! It has helped me grow so much as a person. Most importantly I love serving my Heavenly Father and Savior by serving the people here. I love meeting with people and being able to tell them how much their Heavenly Father Loves them. I know that our Savior is always there for us and that we can draw closer to him as we live the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Have a great week!

Sister Olsen

Hi y'all!

These last couple days have been so great. On Thursday afternoons, we normally stay a little longer in our apartment to plan for the upcoming week. However, we got a prompting to go and give one of our investigators a story that would help her understand the Atonement (Christ's sacrifice for us). We had a really good lesson with her the night before and at first it seemed a little weird to drive all they way back out there. However, I knew that it would help her and that you should always act on spiritual promptings. We also were given a loaf of bread when we went to Kneaders on Wednesday to give to someone to help soften their heart . We had a person in mind to give it to, but they lived far away (coincidentally near Meek) and they were only going to be home for a little bit. So, we drove all the way out there and started planning in the back of the minivan. Then when they got home, they texted us and were able to give them the the loaf of bread. It's not how I would have planned the day, but it worked out they way it was supposed to be.

On Friday we went on exchanges, so I had Sister Dearden with me. Driving has been a lot of fun. It also means that we make a lot of U-turns. Without Sister Humphries to direct me we made more u-turns then normal. One of them took us going the wrong way on the 1604. It would have made more logical sense to have changed our plans and worked in the area that I drove to. But, that morning we felt that we needed to go to the complete opposite side of town. So, we turned around and headed over to where we had planned. The whole night I was wondering why we had to go there. At the very end of the night, we knocked on a less active members door. The sisters had been trying that door for awhile and someone finally answered! Not the person we were looking for, but another man who was less active. He hasn't been to a church for awhile, but wants to. We were able to give him the information for church and hopefully he will be there next Sunday.

Saturday we got a call from a set of Elders and they told us that they have an investigator that is actually in our area and she has a baptismal date for February 18! We had a hand-off lesson yesterday and Sydney is so great. Her boyfriend has taught her a lot about the gospel and she is already recognizing the blessings of following the commandments. She hasn't had that many of the missionaries lessons, so we are going to be super busy the next couple of weeks! It is interesting how sometimes we spend weeks/ months trying to find people who are ready for the gospel and other times it seems like prepared people just come out of no where. However, I know that everything happens in the Lord's timing. I have learned to love every stage of missionary of missionary work. I love going out and trying to find new people. I also love teaching people and helping them prepare for baptism (no matter how close that baptism is). I love being able to serve my Savior in whatever way he needs me to serve. :)

Have a great week!

Sister Olsen