Week 9!

Monday, July 8, 2013
Week 9

Mi familia! Como esta!

This was a good week. Well.. to answer some questions we definitely didn't do anything special for the fourth of July. In fact it was probably one of the most boring days of the mission thus far. Nobody wanted to set an appointment with us, understandable it IS the fourth of July. So it was a lot of just tracting and tracting, but nobody was home. Not a successful day as we had hoped. But that is okay!

We met the new mission president and oh my gosh, I love him. I really really feel like I was meant to come to this mission not just the Seattle one but the Federal Way mission. He worked at BYU-Idaho before he came and the way he teaches reminds me so much BYUI and I just love it! He is great and pretty much the opposite of our old mission president who I really liked but to be honest was a little scary. (granted I only knew him for 2 weeks so I can't say anything) But anyways I really like President Eaton. His dad is actually in the ward I am serving in right now and came to church at our ward on Sunday. He came into the gospel principles class with us and after class he came up to me specifically, even though there were 5 other missionaries in the room and asked me how I was doing and of course I say, Great! And he says, "great? or great great great?" And then he asked me how I was reeeaaally doing and then gave me this advice that I really really needed to hear. It was really incredible. I love him!

Funny story and then I get to the part that I've been waiting all day to tell you about! So we were tracting a couple days ago and ran into this lady named Cat..who actually has like 5 cats. I thought that was funny. My companion didn't. But anyways, She opens her door and just straight up says, "I am Roman Catholic...." long pause.."So I just want you to know...that I have faith!" So we just said ya know, "Oh that's great that you have faith...etc." And then as my companion is talking, Cat interrupts her and says, "WHERE ARE YOU FROM!?! You have an accent.." and starts talking about my companion's accent. (She has a Utah accent if you know what I am talking about). THen cat says, "have you ever recorded your voice and listened to it?" And my companion says no and she says, "well you're going to do it right now!" And she lets us in and Cat starts talking about her family and showing us pictures of her family and how they immigrated from Germany. And then she's staring at my companion and says, "I believe in reincarnation, and that's it! You were reincarnated. And the accent is because you are constantly changing realms." And then she went into how She is postive that my companion was reincarnated and how in her previous life she must have lived in South america. ANd then the whole time she keeps saying how she thinks that Hermana huchendor is a spitting image of herself (very old lady) and kind of comes to the conclusion that my companion and is the reincarnated version of herself and then talking about how she talks to dead people and whenever she can't find something she goes to hypnotists... it was funnier in person but it was great. You meet so many interesting people every day it is so fun. Anyways, we told her all about the family history center and she's super excited to try that out even though she says she'll never change religions. but it was good!

Then there is Edwin. We had a lesson scheduled with him Saturday at 7. But then we found out there was a baptism scheduled for that exact time and decided to invite him to the baptism instead, even though it's in English and he speaks very little English. Turns out after the baptism, he told us that that morning he thought, before I get more involved with all this I have to see a baptism. So it was just crazy! He loved that we did baptism by immersion, just as Christ was baptized and he loved that we did it in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. SO that was really neat, we brought a member that also only spoke spanish so that was good and then afterwards the member invited him to church and offered a ride. It was perfect!! So anyways, that was great, but then something came up and he couldn't come to church...ah sad. We don't know what happened but we're stopping by his house tonight so try and get in contact with him.

And lastly Saul! Sauls been reading and prayer every night for almost 3 weeks now, and came to church twice and still....nothing. He says he feels absolutely nothing. It was really sad!! He just says he's never felt the spirit in our lessons or at church or anything. He doesn't feel anything when he prays or when he reads either. But then last night we taught him a lesson about the atonement and the gospel of Jesus Christ and it went well! But still we thought...ahh same old, it went well but he didn't feel anything. We asked him to read Alma 36. Then about 30 minutes later he texts us ...already done with the reading and says, "I just want to let you know that for the first time I actually really related to the reading and really liked it and I really just want to thank you guys." WE WERE SCREAMING. We were just in our aparmtnet freaking out. Power of fasting! Let me tell you! Anyways I have to go! Love you all!!!

Here's my new address: 23175 224th PL SE suite E

Maple Valley, WA 98038

Love you all! Thanks for the letters! I didn't ahve a lot of time to reply to them but I read them! And thank yoU!

Love Hermana Olson

Week 8 in the Washington Federal Way Mission

Monday, July 1, 2013
Week 8

hello family! 

This week was good. I'm finally starting to come out of my shell during lessons instead of just sitting there very uncomfortably haha. Last week we had a training with all the new missionaries and I got to see Hermana Pingree. We were practice teaching together which I am really used to with her since I was her companion for 6 weeks and that's all you do in the MTC. And it was the most terrible experience ever. My spanish has drastically gotten worse since the MTC. I was so angry and I pretty much haven't spoken english since. My companion and I are thinking about finding a really big rock and who ever speaks english has to carry the rock in their bag until the other person slips up and speaks english because seriously, my spanish should be improving here not getting worse. 

Saul came to church! But it was so funny because afterwards we went to a class for new converts or investigators, gospel principles. So I'm thinking, this will be good. Super basic and Saul can asks questions and it will all be good!  And the teacher starts off by saying, today we are going to talk about the organization of the priesthood. So I was like, "okay saul might be super interested in this, this is good." Then the teacher starts throwing out all these words, quorum, stakes, wards, the 70, priests and so forth. Then he starts talking about temple work and how we baptize for the dead, and have to "do our ancestors work." then he starts talking about patriarchal blessings, and details about the spirit world and all this just super heavy doctrine. And he asked my investigator kind of intimidating questions and shoving baptism down his throat...at first I was sitting there just sweating bullets because I've taught Saul like 4 lessons, just basic lessons. But by the end I was just cracking up, like, this can't be happening! Afterwards Saul said he was just super confused and was like, "it's okay, I'll just google everything." And my companion and I were like, "nooo!" and gave him a mormon.org card and told him to go there. Oh it was not good. haha But the Lord knows what he is doing so I just laughed about it. 

I'm pretty much just teaching the same people I talked about last week. I'm starting to realize that a conversion takes awhile. In the MTC it sounds so easy, teach, they keep their commitments, then they get baptized...but I'm realizing it takes a lot of time and it's never smooth sailing. But God knows what he is doing. 

Today is officially the first day of the Washington Federal Way mission existing! I'm excited to meet the new mission president! It's so exciting, so many missionaries coming out! Well I love you all! Write me!

Hermana Olson

Week 7

Monday, June 24, 2013
Week 7

Hello Familia!

The mission is sooooo easy! NOT! But I guess everyone told me that before I left. I thought I was prepared for it, but no, man it's hard. But I am trying to have a postive attitude and have faith! Ayways, I loved that picture of Holly that you sent, that's hilarious and looks so fun. I loved the emails from everybody! Thanks! Oh first of all, I am in the WhiteRIVER ward not the Whitewater ward. All week I was embarrassed that I wrote that in the email. But yeah, it reminds me A LOT of San Jose. And the ward, is just like that ward we went to in San Jose. It's the most interesting ward I have ever been to. A little shocking actually. But the people are great! Yesterday we had dinner at a members house. It was hilarious, she's this lady in her 60s probably and she's like, "Oh I hope you don't mind, I invted one of the single men in our ward over." And then the whole time she was just flirting with him. My companion and I were laughing pretty hard about it afterwards. Remember that movie Baptist at our Barbeque...this place reminds me a lot of that place. The city is called Auburn if you want to google it or something. It's really pretty and yes...it does rain everyday. Even if it's sunny, don't let that fool you, it WILL rain.

So we are working with a lot of people right now, most people here are so nice, at least the latinos. They never say no. They always say, "yeah come back anytime." Which we have learned that, that is not a good thing. Usaully we come back and they aren't home, or they are busy, or they just like to talk to us instead of listen to our lesson. It's a little frustrating. There's one lady we are teaching named Veronica and she's so sweet but we kind of get the idea she just invites us over just so she'll have some company. It's discouraging. But that's the mission I guess! We do have one person that I REALLY excited about. His name Saul. He's around my age, he speaks English which is nice! Our first lesson we put him on date! Then the 2nd lesson he talked about how he really wants to know what his purpose is and everything so we are teaching him the plan of Salvation today. Then we met this girl whose pprobably around Holly's age. And when we came to teach her again we met her Dad, Ernesto. And turns out Ernesto took the lessons from the missonaries years ago. But he didn't have time back then to meet with them or go to church because he had 3 jobs, slept 5 hours every night and barely had time for his family. But now! He's totally ready! That first day when we taught his daught, marisol, he saw us walking out of his house and said that he thought, "oh, it's the missionaries. I wish they would come back so I could talk to them." Little did he know, we did come back! So that was cool. Then there is this guy named Edwin, and he's super interested in the gospel and we are taking him on a church tour tomorrow. There's a recent convert in our ward named Ricardo and we brought him to the lesson with us and those two really hit it off, so he already has fellowship!

Right now we are in the Whiteriver area. So most companionships cover a ward area. But since we are spanish we cover an entire stake. Then all the spanish people meet in an english ward but they have headsets to listen to during sacrament and then class is in spanish afterwards. BUT! We have the paperwork in to make a new spanish branch! So it's really exciting. It's crazy because it looks like it would only be like a 10 person branch, but that's why were here! To build the kingdom! There are plenty of latinos here to teach. Are lessons are usually in spanish but if thee person is young they usually know English so we kind of teach in Spanglish a lot. So I'm pretty worried I'll never learn spanish. My companion has only been out for 11 weeks and she isn't a native speaker either. We try and practice a lot, but when I ask her a question about spanish a lot of the time she doesn't know the answer. But she can at least communicate with people. I just kind of feel useless just sitting there smiling and nodding to people. But I am trying to talk because I know you will never learn if you just sit there. So I am just maknig a fool of myself 24/7. Sometimes during lessons I just want to cry because it's such a struggle just to say one sentence and then after they don't even konw what I said. But I try not to let it get me down...sigh. I'm just worried I'll never learn. I know it's only been a week but how am I suppose to learn spanish in the United states!! Anyways, that's that! Love you all!! Thanks for the emails!!

Love, Hermana Olson!

Oh. P.s. we were being all productive today and decided to clean the apartment super fast, go grocery shopping and then email and then do laundry and then spend the rest of the day writing letters or what not. And then when we left to go to the car to go grocery shopping we realized we locked ourselves out, of the car and the apartment. So we walked here to this building to email. And now we are stranded. Hopefully the manager will call us back.... If not, I'll be on the streets of Auburn. I don't even have my scriptures! All I have is my walet and some passalong cards!! Oh well! Hasta luego!!

Going into Seattle!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Week 6

Hey!

Surprise surprise I get to email today! So my companion's name is Hermana Huchendorf and she is from Rexburg! She's exactly who I was praying for. She's so kind and humble and genuine and sweet and cute and such a good missionary! I can tell she is going to be a hard worker and she's extremely obedient. I'll just tell you what happened since the plane.

So as we are flying into Seattle you can already see the space needle and the skyline, it was so cool! Seattle by the way is 10x prettier than what everybody has been telling me. It's incredible. Anyways, the president picked us up from the airport and we drove through seattle to Mercer Island where the mission home is. We had interviews, ate lunch, and had some training. Then we went to a church building and we got matched with our companions. Then we drove off. Straight from our meeting we went to English Class. It was so cool! Two people showed up which was exciting because it's very likely that nobody shows up. It was kind of funny teaching somebody fluent in spanish, english and I'm fluent and English and am trying to learn Spanish. But my companion, she's only been out 10 weeks, and is not a native, speaks incredible spanish! She could understand everything and was just talking and talking. She said she took 5 years of spanish in High school, then got assigned to advanced spanish at the MTC, was at the MTC for 12 days, and then has been here for 10 weeks. At first I was nervous. I was thinking, oh no, we both can't speak spanish. But then I heard her talking and she sounds fluent to me! 

After spanish class we drove over to some apartment complexes were to meet with some inactive girls. But we got lost and ended up going to the wrong place and then happened to see a father and son get out of the car, so my companion was like, "hey let's go talk to them." Turns out the man an inactive for like...20 years or something. And he kept saying over and over, "it's incredible that you two came just now because I just have been having the hardest time." We shared a little thought and gave him a card and it was great! 

Then we went to go visit this lady who is comitted to Baptism but then kind of got busy and the previous missioanries kind of just lost contact. But right when we pulled up to her apartment, we got a call from a complete stranger asking about our English class! We told him all about it, then told him about church. He was excited for both class and church and wants to come! It was so cool that this random guy neither one of us had met just called us out of the blue! 

Then we got home and planned and went to bed. My apartment is so cute! It feels like a little log cabin. The area I am in is called Whitewater (I think) and I just feel like I am up in Big Bear...but its way prettier than Big Bear, but that same feeling. Just small town, cute little old homes, and trees everywhere! There are so many trees in this state!!! It's so beautiful! Oh! By the way I am in the Federal Way mission, not Seattle. So yeah! Good thing I didn't put that on the plaque yet. And my scripture that I wanted was Alma 26:12. Anyways... Then we woke up this morning, went running around, it was beautiful, and then got ready, personal study, companionship study, and now I am here writing you all. We did a lot of role playing, in spanish, it was fun. 

Man, missions are hard. It's weird because it's so hard but really if you take one thing at a time then it's better. That's how I feel at least, and thank goodness I have such a kind, patient companion! Anyways, thanks for everything!! Love you all!!! 

Hermana Olson