Eh!!!

I heard BYU won! (someone gave us the news the day of the game and then Lindsey gave me the game report today-THANKS!-). We had another missionary with us for the day of the game and he sported his BYU scarf all day in solidarity and made sure that no one was wearing a red tie. I think I recognized only one name in the game report, Collie, did he play last season?

Anyways things are going really well up here in Canada. Our investigator Laura is progressing really well though she will have to be baptized in the other branch that attends our building because she technically lives in our are (I'm still gonna count her as mine). We also have a few other people that are doing really. In other news they are going to split the area that I am in into two areas. So we are looking for an apartment for 2 new missionaries to live in. So it is possible that I will get another companion by dec. 6 if they decide to split my companion and I up because we both know the area. It is possible that they will keep us together and just whitewash half of the area but its not very likely.

In other news as of yesterday I have been a missionary for 5 months. On my birthday I will have been out for a quarter of my mission already, the time really flies - funny how I went into the mtc on my half birthday.

Lindsey- it sounds like your suffering from an extreme and prolonged case of senioritis. Its not as if you don't have enough distractions as it is (football season). Just push through it. And thanks for the letters from fhe with the warners. They always pretty fun I'll. I'll have to write back soon. I got one a long time ago and then I just got the last two in one week.

Hows it going back home in Virginia? Can't wait to here from you and I'm writing more about what I'm doing in my letter. Nice to hear that things have quited down. Thanks for sending my hat!

Love Josh.

Still Here...

Transfers came this week but I'm still here. It turned out to be probably a 50/50 chance fo me leaving. President asked me if I wanted to leave and I told him I didn't care either way but would like to stay one more just to be able to see one of the people I have been teaching baptized. He also said he thought that I was ready to be senior companion but that it just might not work out. So its pretty much the same as last transfer except now my companion is the district leader. The next transfer should be the end of december. The only other change is that the Zone leaders that also work in Kingston are now in a threesome companionship so one of them is going to be with us in our area about every week and sometimes for about three days at a time. I'm looking forward to that because he is really easy to get along with and has been a zone leader for over a year, so I will be able to learn alot.

We set a really solid baptismal date with our investigator Laura, the 20 yr old. We've been teaching her the entire time that I've been here and she is finally decided to be baptized, although she has been ready for about 2 months. That should be around the 23rd of december.

Its getting pretty cold up here, I can't believe its only 60 in virginia. I can't remember really how cold it gets in january and february back home. Out here it apparentlly the daytime temperature bottoms at around negative 30 celsius which is really close to - 30 farenheit. They also say that occasionally with windchill it will get to -40 (which is the same as -40 degress farenheit). So I'm looking for some warm socks, which reminds me if its not too much trouble to look for my gray beanie (they call them tukes up here - or tooks- either way it rhymes with pukes) and send that up in the next package. I'm using a black one I found but I look alot like a burglar.

It sounds like everyone is doing well down there and in Utah. I will be writing again this week, which is my new goal - to remember to write. I may actually get 2 american thanksgiving dinners this week, which is funny because we didn't get any canadian dinners. Oh by the way did you know that generally words like "center" are written "centre" up here? It took me about 5 months to figure that out. Sometimes I forget I'm in a different country.

Love Josh (Elder Olson)

Real quick...

It was good to hear from you again this week. Transfer day will be next wednesday, I believe it is the 21st. I'll find out on that monday whats happening. By the way is there any more news on Zach's head I wasn't sure after last week if he was fully recovered yet or not. Well trust me I have already wrote a letter this week but I've been saving it because I am also sending pictures so this won't be all you get this week, I hope your all doing well. Sounds like it was an interesting trip to Virginia Beach, its really tought to be sick and work at the same time. I started taking a multi-vitamin and a vitamin c pill every morning because for a couple months I had this head cold flu thing that wouldn't go away and I really don't want it to come back. It must have been nice to see Brody, he was always a really fun guy. Manassas is on mandatory water restrictions? Does that mean just watering grass or everything showers included? How warm is it in manassas right now? Its kind of fluctuating up here I thought it was going to hang around 0 degress, and it did for a week but its already up to 14 today so its pretty nice out. I'm not really sure since I don't watch the weather but someone told me we were supposed to have a pretty cold winter up here, I guess I'll find out eventually. Hope you guys have a good week, keep keeping me updated its surprisingly interesting to read about all the stuff that you guys are doing.

Love Josh.

pheww!!!!

I get the most stressfull emails. Its a really good thing that i can only check e-mail once a week. If I had read the e-mail about zach's crash and then didn't get to find out all that happened for about another week I might have keeled over. So for future reference, if something crazy happens on tuesday night that could possibly resolved, use your judgement but maybe don't send it to me. Its really comforting to get the problem email and the resoloution email all in one go. (I might start reading my email backwards.) But I do appreciate the emergency emails, just be carefull.

When I read the first one Zach hitting his head the first thought that came into my head was "Oh no! I killed Zach!" Its good to find out hes still alive and that his head was only messed up a little bit (what does it mean his short term memory is almost back?). Anyway thats a pretty good story especiallly the part about asking the same questions over again. I especially like this one... "Is my bike ok?" "probably not" "Is my bike ok?" "maybe" Is my bike ok?" "its fine" "good as long as my bike is ok" hmmm... "Is my brain ok?" "Probably not the only thing you keep asking me about is your stinkin bike!" ... that made me laugh so hard the lady sitting at the computer next to me got up and left. Good story, the pictures were awesome... but zach man be careful you need to stay alive until I get back.

I did get my winter coat in the mail, thanks!, and it is getting kind of cold up here. Its hitting 0 celsius every morning so only about 32 degrees f. I did buy myself a pair of gloves today because its been pretty cold tracting ( I got some mitten ones that pull off into fingerless gloves so that you can still write- they're perfect for missionaries).

This has been an interesting transfer my companion is a different guy, he spent alot of his mission in around toronto and he likes to tell me about it every day. This is probably one of those stories I really shouldn't write home about but it was pretty funny. Yesterday we were knocking on a door and he said something about how different "the city" was from "the country" and so I promptly turned around and gave him a little punch in the chest and he fell off the front step. It wasn't hard or anything just a little reminder. I felt alot better after that I had never really thought about punching your companion before, I probably won't do it again. We get along fine though- I just heard yesterday that if you stay with a companion for 3 transfers (4 1/2 months) you will actually be physically with them for the same amount of time as a couple in their first year of marriage. Sorry again about not writing letters last week but I just bought stamps today and I got the letter from Mom and zach this week so I'll be writing everyone and lindsey I'm still getting the package together, sorry belated birthday face, dad have fun in virginia beach, and Miss Becca...ladybugs.