Christmas soon.

This week has been so busy, we are preparing for our skills and interviews meeting- its amazing how hard it is to do somthing as simple as make a good slideshow when you have to go to the library and when you don't really have access to any books or pictures or anything very easily....

We did have a baptism on sunday- our investigator Monica was baptized and it was amazing- her life has changed so much since we met her a month ago. Before that she was depressed daily now she is happy and cheerful and has had alot of questions that shes had for a very long time answered. Thank you for your prayers. Now we have a few more people we are working with and hopefully we will have some more coming up soon! Lets see we just had our mision's yearly planning meeting with all the district and zone leaders- it was pretty interesting and we have just set the new mission mission plan for the new year- I know pretty exciting right! (Only to the missionaries)... We are taking our preparation day on friday next week i believe( boxing day) so this is the last time that I will e-mail before christmas- the last word is that I did recieve a package! At least one so I should have them both by friday! If not the next time that I'll be speaking to you it will be over the phone! I think 1:00 on christmas day will work so I'll try to pop in sometime this week to the library and just check to see if thats ok! But as always I will give the house phone a call and you can call me back on whatever number that is best! Exciting! Thanks for everything and I love and miss you all. I am sending some letters and pictures at least that should get there by christmas and a few other things hopefully will be coming around that time as well... sorry I haven't yet been able to get everyone something and make a package... I always have the same excuse- lack of time! what can you do. Anyway Looking forward to talking to everybody!

Love Elder Olson

This will be real quick...

Ok, so today my companion hurt his back and so we had to do e-mail a little later in the day than normal becuase we were going to see some physical therapists.

Anyway- we are having a baptism on sunday, our Investigator Monica Nolan is getting baptized she will be the first in her family to be baptized and hopefully her kids will follow later they are having alot of problems right now. However Monica is so excited to be baptized, last week after church I asked her how it went and she said, "Everything that I've been looking for in my life is in this church"- It definitely has been a miracle. Her baptism will be less than a month from the day we first met her. Everything in the zone is going well we discovered a few things that were going on in the zone that we have had to make some special focus on. Its amazing how much being a leader can be like babysitting or problem solving. We had to sit down with a companionship this week and just talk about all the things that were causing them to get frustrated with each other and leave them committments to change and to call us every day to follow up that they were keeping the committments. Almost every day it is something completely new that I've never had to deal with before- as a leader or ever it gets pretty crazy.

But thank you for the e-mails sorry if I can't write more right now but I will for sure will be sending the pictures for this christmas and a few presents, if i can't get all the presents actually by christmas you'lll have to forgive me but trust me I haven't forgotten about everybody.... Love you and I will hopefully talk to you soon! - oh and the only guidline we were given was what the white handbook says and then to be guided by the spirit of the law and to live by the principle and not the letter- so it is up to our own discretion.

Oh and the mission office address is 24 Ferrand Dr. - Don Mills, On m3c 3v4 -- the best place for packages we have frequent travels to there - its only 20 - 30 minutes away no traffic.

Love Elder Olson...

Flat tire...

This is going to have to be really quick... crazy day today again... no transfers but we had an apointment in the morning and on the way we got a flat tire... we put on the spare and went to go teach our apointment afterward we had to take in the tire to get a plug and that took over an hour with an oil change that we needed then we rushed around to get everything done and to take care of a few other necessary chores. The apointment went well we moved our investigator Monica's baptismal date forward a week because she is ready. So hopefully that will be on the fourteenth. Lets see... other questions last year I got a yo-yo-ma cd and a chopin cd- tire colors... I like orange - blue - green - anything really- the color isn't as important as the style...c ool ties are always cool. Hmmm... My companionship is still the same, E. smith is my companion hes been out for about 14 months- the zone got changed around alot... I think the missionaries in our mission kind of had a problem with idleness this last transfer so every single companionship in the mission got changed (one or both companions were transferred) except for 5 companionships. The changes in our zone were all good. We quite a few problem companionships last transfer but the changes will help alot. We for the third transfer in a row have a companionship whitewashing in our zone- not a new on this time but both companions got moved. We are really excited for the coming transfer it is going to be really fun and we have alot of baptismal dates in the zone and alot of missionaries are really performing well. Anything else- I bought some boots today- I'm still on search for a watch though... nothing seems to fit in the price range.

We have seen so many blessings in our own area. Monica and the nolan family is doing well. We have found alot of new investigators in the past few days including two sisters that have already committed to baptism and a few people from GHANA! The work is great and I really love it out here... honestly I get the chills when I realize I only have 7 months left- I wish there were more time. Anyway I miss you all and I am going to be sending a package with some stuff in it this year, hopefully it will get there by christmas... If i get it sent off in time.

Love Elder Olson

re:shoes and boots

Thanks for the Email, I could do better with my shirts... Its hard to find time to do ironing (we are always wearing our jackets and coats) ... but I just asked my companion and he says that I smell ok! My shoes are mostly worn out on the bottom I keep the tops looking good. Thanks for the money to go out and buy some more boots and shoes If I don't use it though because of the other money in my account then I guess don't worry about it. I will hopefully have some time today to grab some stuff if not next week I'll be able to get it done Its transfer week And I don't think my companion or I are going anywhere. Thank you for everything- Its all going really well up here we are teaching an amazing new family named The Nolan family, mostly Monica and her Daughter Christina- but also her 22 year old son Chris and a few of his friends- The mother and daughter are getting baptized for sure on the 21st of Dec. Love you and can't wait to talk to you at Christmas!

Christmas List

Hey I've got to be really quick but just a few items of business...

Christmas list... (more details later)...

some stain removing stick
Nice fur-lined Boots that are black and shineable(This is a Hard one i know) Nice shineable black shoes (another hard one I might have to check these two out and then get back to You)
----------------------My last pair a shoes has just about gone kaput and without boots in the winter any pair of shoes no matter how new will get trashed- it happened last winter.---------------- Snicker Doodles!!!
Ties!
Long Johns!
Anything else cool!
It might be a little rough with the christmas package at the apartment- but it might work- I've never recieved anything big there- office will probably be better they are pretty good at getting them out to this area.
(to be continued)-- (Chello Music cds!!!)

Everything is going well out here its snowing hard for the first time today- its was negative 6 this morning and is pretty much not going over zero any more-- It was good to hear from everybody that no one's work is being threatened by the economy. I have heard a little about proposition eight- nothing big going on up here yet- although toronto is the gay capital of canada- all that I've heard is that the catholic and evangelicals came out on our side after the protests.

I liked the story about the missionaries in zone conference- any analogies or stories like that you hear or could find can be really helpful in brainstorming and planning our meetings.

Not too much else to report but one thing is we found an amazing new investigator- who is totally prepared. We met her yesterday and she already has a firm baptismal date for Dec. 21st.

Love Elder Olson...

emailing early...

Hey everybody! So far this transfer I've been emailing a little early sorry about the inconsistency it just really depends on if we have apointments and when they are and what else we have to take care of- its pretty unpredictable- for example next week could either be really early or really late- because we have to drive in to the mission office to get flew shots with all the missionaries in toronto. The doctor that gives them to us is doctor Dalgliesh he is this really old guy who doesn't move very well. He gives the shot by sitting in a chair close to you side by side and then just kind of flinging his arm to the left and sticking it in your arm. I didn't have the pleasure of getting them there last winter but i saw the pictures...

(oh and before I go on there is something really funny going on right in front of me there are these two guys on computers and judging by the time of day and the fact that they are using the library computers they must be out of work. One of them keeps scrolling through the stock pages pointing out random facts in different companies and the one next to him is yelling every time in shock- "oh no way, what is going on! they must be dieing out there, I can't believe the price of camry right now- or ford is selling for 1.95 and their third quarter earnings have dropped like rocks... and then one guys is calling the other guy a dummy. They could make a movie out of this its so funny - toronto libraries... just a taste of life in the city)

The zone right now has just been hit with alot of sickness- we had one missionary get hemeroids two with the flu- one went into the hospital two nights ago with pnuemonia and we went to visit him and sit with him for awhile- hes only been on the mission for about 3 weeks. Everyone is getting better though- but it was kind of scary there for awhile it seemed like someone was calling us every day with a new sick report. My companion even got a little sick but so far I've been good and healthy- a huge blessing. Alot of the missionaries are doing really well though and are just excited about missionary work. Our investigators are doing well also we have a new guy named moses from liberia in west africa and we are still teaching Christine who has been to church twice and reads everything we give her in the book of mormon and we've even had two F.H.E.s with her at the bishops home

Amazing new family

Alright! Everything is going well up here- still busy as always. We found an amazing new family that we've been teaching. It is a single mother and four daughters. The Mother Christine is so prepared the first few times we taught her she was reading the scriptures and she told us she felt like she had learned the things we had been teaching her in a previous life and even met one of the members that we brought to the apointments before as well. They came to church and we had a family home evening at our Bishops home and she already feels that the church is true and has had so many prayers answered. We also have a few more people that we are teaching that are coming to church and progressing well.

We our preping our zone skills and interviews meeting for tuesday trying to make it a little new and different- hopefully it goes well. Everything seems different when it feels like it all rests on you. Everything has been really fun though we are incrediblly busy still and my companion and I get along really well so we have alot of fun. Hmm what else is new... I bought a new coat- one that is a little more official missionary looking and I am now looking for either a new pair of shoes or a pair of boots for the winter. Christmas season is just swinging in here because thanksgiving is before halloween so there is nothing but Christmas to look forward too. The other day I was thinking about this really funny story that i was going to share but I forgot it... so nothing exciting yet- really funny things happen almost too often to remember them all because they don't ever stick out. Heres one. I was tracting with my new companion in the dark on thanksgiving weekend in east indian town on one of the Indian festival nights. We came up to this really dark house and we knocked on the door. We didn't think anybody was home so we weren't paying too much attention to the door when from one of the windows we heard this really deep throaty noise... It shocked me so much that I yelled pretty loud and started running away and my companion was speechless and frozen in place. Then we saw this huge nigerian guy open the door with the lowest and deepest laugh I've ever heard- just uncontrollably laughing, Ha ha ha ha. His arms were about as big as my chest. Then he talked for a few minutes about how no matter what he saw he would command it to leave in the name of jesus. We set up an apointment with him the next day and we came back to teach him. We asked him his name and he called his little daughter and asked her , "whats my african name!"- she cutely said she didn't remember and he asked her again, "whats my african name!" and she didn't answer again. Eventually she got sent away to watch t.v. and to make a long story short we never learned his african name. Then right in the middle of the apointment he just interrupted and said, "are you scared?" we casually responded, "no" and we were thinking- (well not until you just said that) then he started going off on how we could get shot at any time or a plane could crash into his house and we could all be dead, by this time we were just really confused so we tried to go back to teaching about families when he asked my companion how soon he wanted to get married- then lectured him for about 10 minutes because he said in 6 months. Before we left we asked him what he did for a living and he kind of avoided the question and just said, " I do my own stuff man" - then judging by a few of that tattoos on his arms we felt that that question would probably be better left unanswered. This kind of thing happens alot... and its always hilarious.

Hope everyone is doing well and I'll hear from you guys next week...

Love Elder Olson.

absolutely nutzo...

This week has been absolutely nutzo...! If that is a word. It was alot more stressfull than my first week as a zone leader because now I had to show someone else what to do and make sure it was all done right. Pheww. We had a district leader training meeting on thursday, and zone introductions meeting, then we attended some of the district meetings in the district. Then I showed my companion around the area as we worked all weekend, showed him all the extra things we do as zone leaders at night and throughout the day, went on travels on Monday- attended zone leader council on tuesday. Ran a zone companionship study meeting this morning then had a zone kill ball activity and are now preparing for zone conference on friday! I am definitely going to welcome the week and a half break before we run our zone skills meeting. Its all been going very well though I was very pleased with everything- we recieved a ton of blessings that just helped everything to work out right. But I pretty much had to stop eating to be able to get everything done- I haven't eaten yet today and I think i've been going on one meal a day for a week- sometimes that takes place at 9:30 at night. However we've set a goal to make sure that we are always eating consistnetly so that we can keep up our energy level. And though its been crazy its been a really fun week! Thanks for everything, to answer any questions its super cold 3 degrees celsius and windy - becca's things was awesome and I hope everything goes well this week!


Love Elder Olson

New Transfer

Well, I'm e-mailing a little earlier today so I may send this before I read some emails. This week was transfer week so we didn't have our zone activity today so we had a little more time in the morning. My companion went home as expected but my new companion was a surprise, I am training a new zone leader this transfer - named Elder Smith. He is from orem utah, but is a convert to the church. I knew him a little bit because he served near me when I was in Whitby. He is a really good missionary and I am excited for the coming transfer. To be honest though I am kind of nervous about the responsibility. I am definitely going to be praying more. Especially since this is my companions first transfer as a zone leader I am in charge of making sure all the calls, meetings, and travels are going to work out as they should. Its a good thing as a zone leader that your companion is always a solid missionary otherwise the burden would be alot to bear. Oh and they also added another companionship in our zone, they opened one of the areas that have been closed since even before I was here and they put a threesome companionship in it. And the area that they oppened last transfer now has a threesome hermanas companionship. So in 2 transfers our zone increased by 6 missionaries and just this last transfer it increased by 4! So there is going to be alot of new things going on. So thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray for me. It ill all work out very well though its going to be a big learning experience.
The Baptism that we were planning on last week didn't go through because our Investigator Naveen, was experiencing opposition from his wife who told him he could not be baptized, however we have talked to him about it and we will hopefully going to be able to sit down with both of them and talk to her about it. Other than that issue he has already passed his interview and is comletely ready for baptism.
Oh! And I got the package, thank you so much. It was awesome. I love getting all the halloween stuff I already sprayed my companion with the silly string. The backpack was really good as well. It is very nice thanks for that too. I'm still keeping my old one but I like this one alot. You know how its hard for me to like new things sometimes... but I liked this one immediately and its perfect for what I need. It's a lifesaver. The candle holders were awesome as well as everything else and all the other supplies, especially the cookies! But if I don't hear from anyone else before my time is out I hope everything is going well and that I'll be able to talk to you soon.

Love Elder Olson.

0 time to write...

Hey! Ireally have about 0 time to write this so i'll just be really quick. The baptism went well on Sunday and Sapna was baptized. We have another one coming up this sunday, the 50 yr old man named Naveen. He is telling his family of his decision right now and so if you could keep him in your prayers that would be fantastic. Transfers are this week on monday its going to be another crazy transfer where I have absoloutely no clue what will happen. Its exciting to hear that dads home, zach got a job, becca's gonna be on t.v. and of course mom is already planning all of next summers trips. (!!) The next transfer starts on monday and the mission usually lasts about 2 years and one week from mtc arrival date, to answer your question. Other than that everything is going really well and I'll be writing much more next week.

Love Elder Olson!

Good News!

Good news! We have a baptism coming up on Sunday. One of our investigators from India Sapna is getting baptized! Its gonna be great her family is pretty much running the whole service and her cousin is going to baptize her. The only thing my companion and I are doing is the musical number, can you imagine me doing a musical number, SHOCKING! I'm not really sure what they were thinking when they asked me to do that but...
Our other Indian investigator, Naveen, finally quit drinking tea and hopefully he will be baptized next sunday- its going to be really good for him. He just recently lost his job because of all the economic troubles that are going on there were alot of job cuts in the auto industry this month. He really needs some prayers because he has 1 or two kids in university right now and one applying to go. He is such a good man, its amazing to see what a difference the gospel has made in his life even in the time that I've been teaching him.
Other than that the transfer is coming to an end- it will be interesting to see what happens this coming transfer- they are probably going to put another companionship in our zone, giving us a total of 9 companionships and a few senior couples, which would make us one of the larger zones in the mission. I will also be getting a new companion because mine is going home/dieing (in the missionary sense). For the last 6 months or so I've gone from killing a companion to training a new one to killing another one. I kind of just want to be put with someone right in the middle of their mission or at least with 6 months left, but in the end it doesn't really matter the work will be the same.
The new transfer is going to be really exciting- its the transfer that we get together with all the zone leaders and district leaders in the mission and make the yearly Mission Mission plan- where we set our yearly goals and make new standards of excellence for the mission.
So far I've just kind of gotten used to being in all of my areas for a long time so I don't want to get moved out before I'm here for six months. Especially this time with Christmas coming up. So i'll probably be here for another 2 transfers and then get sent to another zone. Unless something crazy happens.
This week we got invited to one of our Members birthday parties. It was a member from Ghana that after we found her 2 months ago she just started coming back to church the last 3 weeks. Her family and friends are all from Ghana and so one are way back from one of the church buildings in the zone this morning we stopped off and bought some Ghanian shirts, really bright and authentic Ghanian style. The african ladies in the store were so excited to see us buying the shirts it was great. Were still not sure how we are going to wear them with our suits but we'll think of something...
Its exciting to hear that Dad is coming home, I just remembered one of my favorite traditions last week because of general conference. Going out to eat before priesthood session! Anyway- this weekend is Canadian thanksgiving and we already have 3 dinner invitations for the weekend. Its also getting cold up here, this winter I am definitely going to buy a new coat and some boots. Last year I don't think my feet were ever warm from january to april. This winter I'll be more prepared, hopefully...! Oh and today I am going to be sending some picture cards! because both my cards have been full for months... there will be alot of pictures.

Love Elder Olson...

Busiest week of my life...

This has been the busiest week of my life... we've planned and gone on a temple trip, a multi-zone activity, done a zone skills meeting ( a miny zone conference with just our zone and the mission president that we completely plan and execute) we've been going on more travels this week and we've been planning 2-3 baptisms, to hellp ward members and for our own investigators, and moved an Hermanas companionship into their new apartment. The phone never stops ringing and inbetween all of that there is still the missionary work that we are always doing. Last night the phone rang constantly throught the day and then I got home after doing a baptismal interview for our investigator Sapna- and I quickly planned the day and spent 9:30 - 10:30 just talking to missionaries on the phone to organize everything that was going on. And we've been waking up early almost every day to give us more time to get everything done. We are definitely going to try to find time for a nap today even if its just 10 minutes. But its also been a great week, we've seen so many good things happen and our zone skills meeting went really well. It basically consists of my companion and I running roleplays and speaking for an hour and a half. It actually turned out pretty well- but now we get a break from meetings until next transfer when we start again.

Our investigator Sapna is doing really well she is ready to be baptized but we had to move her date back from this sunday to the next just because her family wasn't going to be able to come. (it just makes it so much more effective when the members of the church help us at every stage in the teaching, they have helped us so much.) She has definitely been a blessing to teach her.

Thanks for the package and for all the e-mails from everyone I can't wait to get all that halloween stuff that zach told me about=. I love and miss you all.

Love Elder Olson.

Attended Temple

Hey thanks for all the mail we just got back from the temple- basically my first time in 15 months thats well over a year! I just realized today when a young missionary in my zone asked me how long I'd been out that its been a year and 3 months I almost died from shock when I looked down at my watch. I remember writing a letter home a year ago (yah back in the good old days when I still had the time to send letters) and saying can you believe I've been out for 3 months already- well can you believe that its been a year since then! NOnsense. But anyways that is pretty much the longest amount of time that I've heard of in the mission of not being close enough to go to the temple, I was out in the country areas for a long time.

Other than that the baptism of our investigator Naveen got postponed another two weeks or so because he wasn't able to quit tea, more because of social reasons than because he doesn't want to- they drink alot of tea in hindu culture. But our other Hindu investigator Sapna is doing amazing and is definitely going to be baptized on the 5th, which is a huge blessing- her family pretty much teaches her everything and then we review. Last night we went to go teach the ten commandments and we asked her if she had ever heard of them. She said," I've heard of three- the word of wisdom, law of chastity, and law of tithing..." and thats not exactly what we meant but seeing as we hadn't taught her any of those things yet and those are usually commandments people have the most difficulty with, we were pleasantly surprised.
Its nice to hear that everything is going well with you guys at home zach's test went well, becca is cashing in, Byu is winning so of course lindsey is loving life and dad might get time to golf!
Love elder olson...

First week of the new transfers.

Hey everythings going well up here- both of our hindu investigators are doing amazingly well one a man named naveen should be baptized on the 28th and another a 23 yr old who just moved from india should be baptized on the 5th of october. They are both amazing people and have really been prepared for the gospel. We see them alot and they are always very excited to see us and to come to church. We just had our zone leader council yesterday when the zone leaders and assistants meet with the president and we have a meeting- we set two new standards for the mission ( consistent goals ) one for baptismal dates per companionsip and one for teaching in members homes- the new biggest push in the mission. So that was pretty exciting we have zone conference on friday so we will be doing a workshop there on those two things. The zone is doing good- we had a young zone last transfer and this transfer it is even younger but alot of our youngest missionaries are leading the way- i don't remember if I wrote about this last time but we also got another sisters companionship so we have more sisters in our zone than any other- we have 3 sisters companionships and 4 elders companionships not including us- they are some of the best missionaries in the mission but its a little bit of a compromise for us because it always means alot more work... This transfer is looking really good- we are going to see alot of succes we do really good teaching and finding new people and now we are just working on teaching our missionaries the road to bapism. Other than that things are pretty normal we are pretty much back to suit coats almost every day! And next week I am going to be e-mailing on thursday because our zone is going to the temple that day, my first time since I've been in Canada- its one of those perks of being in the city! Oh, and here is my zip code- or really postal code up here.

M9A 2T3

I am still working on finding time to buy a backpack( shes still broken as usual) and now a watch( mine seems to have a problem keeping good time)- not to mention a few minutes to write a letter- but if you could send me another container of amoxicillin that would be great thanks!
I hope everyone is still doing well. I love and miss you all.

Love Elder Olson.

Real quick! (again)

Family,
Sorry I don't have alot of time to write. It was transfer day today, and neither I nor my companion was moved so we will both stay for another transfer, a few companionships in our zone moved though so we were busy today helping them get moved around and meeting some of the new ones- the beginning of the transfer is where most of the work is we give some new focuses to the zone set goals and get to know new companionships and make sure we start things off on the right foot. So we are really busy but its going to be a good transfer. One thing we are focusing on this transfer is helping our missionary to always be bold. Sorry I don't have a postal code yet i'll get it next week... I still haven't had time to buy a new back pack and winter is coming so its getting a little chilly around... uhmmm thats just about it good luck with school and business trips and the cats!!!

Love Elder Olson.

Transfers again...

Transfers are next wendsday again- hopefully I'll be able to get you the postal code by next week- I think that my companion and I will probably stay together this transfer because he will be going home next transfer- and there is almost 0 chance of me moving so... I like that consistency is good. We are busy as anything right now and we have been blessed so much- this last week our companionship lead the mission in almost every category and our zone is continuing to lead as well. We had to move some of our baptisms back but they are all with very solid people they just had a few things that temporarily got in the way. It is crazy to think that Ryan is already getting home from his mission on december-!? He wasn't gone that long before I left! I'm going to try not to think about that. Hmmm... I can't believe everyone is going on a cruise to the mexican riviera in march thats awesome- I'll be shoveling snow every single day and my face will be freezing off... but that will also be fun. Just think of me in -30 degree weather when your on the beach(!) It just started to reduce in heat but its still about 26 degrees regularly so its pretty hot. Its only cool in the mornings when we go out and play tennis. We played with our lebanese investigator the other day- he was number 2 in lebanon about 15 years ago, I learned alot. Ohh I just rememberd another investigator that we just started teaching its a 23 yr old girl from Dehli, India she is the niece of our ward mission leader who also grew up hindu in india. She started coming to church and now we are teaching her she is doing amazing although her english is still alittle week. She knows the language really well but the accents make communication a little difficult. Oh and another family we are teaching are refugees from thailand they also speak little english. At the beginning of my mission I really wanted to be a language speaking missionary- and although I still want to learn a language i've realized that the best thing in the world is to be an english speaking missionary in toronto because we teach everybody- all religions and all parts of the world. For example right now we are teaching people from Ghana, Jamaica, 3 different places in India, Thailand, Lebanon, and a few other places that I can't remember right now- and every once in a while someone who was actually born in Canada, but only every once in a while they are kind of hard to find.
Well I hope that everyone does well in school except for lindsey. Because shes not in school! And I love you all and miss everyone and happy birthday grandpa. I love and miss all of you.

Love Elder Olson.

Pheww.....

This one is going to be a little quicker, we went to a new library this week and for some reason it gave me a really short time to do my e-mail, so after I e-mailed my weekly letter to the president I looked up and had about 10 minutes left to read and to write! This week went really well we had miracle after miracles. I taught more lessons this past week than any week of my mission so far and we have more solid investigators. We are still teaching the muslim man from lebanon who is completely ready from baptism but is just worried about what his wife will think. We are also teaching another really great woman named pauline who had a vision that she was in a deep river and she was trying to get to a green place on the other side but couldn't make it. After we taught her the first time she told us she thought that she had found that place. Our zone as well is doing amazing- we lead the mission in every area except for one and all of our missionaries are fired up and excited. Sorry about the lack of a postal code, I keep forgettting it at the apartment and there is no was to find out once i'm here because postal codes in canada are really, really, really, specific- even to the side of the street apparently(!?) Other than that everything is going really well- I am still trying to find time at all to write some handwritten letters but since I got my new calling I've had even less time than before Love Elder Olson.

Busy Week

This week has been so busy, it started of pretty slow but the weekend was completely full, we were really blessed and spent pretty much the entire day saturday and sunday teaching. We found two more people that are going to be baptized. Right now we are working with a lady named Tracey- who has a strong testimony of the gospel but is trying to work out her living arrangments, hopefully tonight. We are also working with an Indian guy named Naveen who is a strong hindu but hes been to church about 20 times. The new people we have been working with this week is a muslim guy from Lebanon who before we met him had almost become a christian and he is now very excited about his baptism. He is about 50 yrs old and he speaks lebanese, arabic, english(slowly), french, and german. I think we gave him copies of the book of mormon in almost all of those languages just to see which one he knew best. Then we are now teaching a Indian lady in her late twenties early thirtes who was a Christian in india and came up to canada for her postgraduate degree. We just had a great apointment with her last night- when we asked her how she felt when we prayed about what we shared she said she felt a great peace come over her, so we bore our testimonys and set a baptismal date with her- the only problem is that between school and work she only sleeps for about 4 hours and doesn't really have a whole lot of time to meet with us. Other than that our zone is doing really well- weston zone is leading the mission in its yearly baptismal goal and we really feel like we'll be able to exceed that- I'll probably be in this area for quite along time so that was a blessing.
In our mission there are two zone leaders in a companionship together in each zone, there are 8 zones 5 of which have english zone leaders, one has spanish, one has mandarin, and the last has cantonese. But every once in a while when the missionaries in the language areas change they switch to and from english. So far the biggest diferrence in being a zone leader is that I don't get nearly as much sleep because we are always on the phone. We also just had my first interviews and skills meeting as a zone leader, which we are in charge of it went pretty well- hopefully. I talked on the 10 minute active member drop by! Hope everything is going well, I can't believe school is going to start again soon! How did everyone's trips go? Keep me posted!

Love Elder Olson.

Here is another letter

Here is my new address:

49 Bemersyde Dr.
Etobicoke, ON
CANADA

No Postal code yet... I always forget those

This week we had zone conference and my first travel as a zone leader. The week went really well. We also made alot of progress with one of our investigators here, a lady named Tracey, she is the daughter of a member and she will be baptized as soon as she changes her living arrangements- because right now she is living common law (not married). I think that she will be baptized this week or in the next few weeks. Zone conference was great- we had a big focus on setting up cottage meetings and teaching our investigators in our members homes - its the next big change in the mission to always be trying to teach in members homes and have them invite their friends there to be taught. So far we have seen alot of success with it throughout our zone and in our area as well. My first travel as a zone leader was with a former companion who is now one of the district leaders in the zone- elder Earhnhardt. It was a really good time I went to the roughest part in all of Toronto- some apartment buildings on the corner of Jane and Finch. As we were leaving two of the sisters we were with (who's area it is actually in) pointed to a pane of bullet proof glass on one of the exits and said- they just replaced this wo days ago because it had been shot to pieces- then they pointed to another bullet mark in the glass- this one just happend last night. Its the kind of area you only go to during the day. Then we found an amazing family from Haiti and were able to committ them to come to church and to be baptized in a month- they were very excited. I also rode the bus for the first time it was great- one of the bus drivers was yelling at us and then he almost crashed the bus- we couldn't help but laugh pretty loud.
This week we have a general authority visiting the mission- elder packer, president packer's son who was recently called to one of the quorom's of the seventy. Then this tuesday we have our zone skills meeting which is the other big zone meeting that we have to prepare. So we are going to be very busy again.
I hope everything goes well with grandpa's birthday and with the vacation- Zach if you didn't get my letter last week then- Happy Birthday! Lindsey congratgulations on the apartment! Becca- very good! Well there are the shout outs.

Love Elder Olson.

Pheww! Quick week.

This week flew by- we have been so busy that I haven't had time even to think. I've been trying to learn the new area and all the companionships in the zone and all the new things I have to do- its been a little crazy, but its been great. The last two areas that I was in were country zones so I didn't see too many members of the zone very often- we were just too far away. Out here we see them all the time. I'm am still in an area with a car- but every single other area in the zone is a bussing area- so When I go on travels next week it will be my first experience contacting and riding on the bus- which is notorious in the mission. My zone is called weston zone and it is notorious because it covers the roughest part of Toronto. The most infamous intersection in toronto is in the sisters area- a place called Jane and Finch- thats the most famous but apparently a few of the appartment buildings in our area are as rough or more... but really its a pretty safe place.

Our zone has a bunch of good missionaries in it we have 3 spanish speaking companionships and 4 english companionships including ourselves. We have seen alot of success already- we have about 13 baptismal dates in the zone with a goal of 16 by the end of the week that we will achieve. We had zone leaders council yesterday and our zone conference on friday- so its been a hectic week. As for the baptism it went really well thank you for all your prayers- the family was confirmed this week and they are doing really well. It was my first time actually doing the baptizing so it was pretty exciting. They are a really good family and the parents are progressing well they just need a little more time.

The city work is alot different- we live in a basement apartment and we aren't downtown so there are alot of houses mixed in with the high rises- our are covers the airport but we don't go there. Especially in one part of our area the work is pretty different- we cover a place called malton which is just north of Toronto's big airport its a little more poor and the west side only has indian people and the east side only has jamaican people. The indian people are also mostly Sikhs which is a newer religion that is kind of like a mix between hinduism and islam. You can always recognize them because they always wear 5 things... a braclet on the left wrist, a turban, a ceremonial dagger, hindu looking pants and long hair with beard. And if you go to a Sikh temple they will always give you a free meal.

I hope everything goes well with all the vacations and the relazing - today was the first time i played golf since my mission began that was really exciting we also had a zone sports activity so I'm pretty exhausted. Hopefully i answered most of your questions I'll have to write more next week! Keep me up to date and it was great to hear from you!

Love Elder Olson.

Ho! I moved...

Transfer calls came I got moved, and guess what I'm going to the city, a placed called Etobicko. Its on the west end of Toronto near the rough areas but in them... I think. Its going to be a completely different feel out here, I am really excited I haven't even had a chance to get to my area yet I'm just in the office writing quickly before we head out to my new area. My new companion is an Elder named Elder Litchfield from alberta. And he will be training in my new calling as a zone leader. Its a really humbling call. The zone that they are sending me to - the weston zone- had 18 baptisms last transfer i think that might be a mission record, and it is a smaller zone. So I'll be working extra hard to try and help it to keep on going. We have some amazing missionaries there - i think there are about 16 in the zone- and one of the district leaders I am working with is one of my favorite former companions - Elder Earnhardt. Its going to be an amazing transfer. We have a set of sister missionaries that are leading the mission each week in almost every area. So i'll be needing your prayers for sure.

Its sounds like everythings is going well, good luck on all of your trips and keep me posted ! I liked hearing all the news . Keep in touch and hopefully I answered a few questions - yes grandma I'm probably still liberal(!) - and my favorite scripture master game is the one where you throw the balls! monster ball.

Love Elder Olson

Real quick!

Sorry this one will have to be really quick because my first one got erased!

Its going really well in Whitby! the Chen family is still doing well and the 17 yr old and 12 yr old just had there interviews and are still excited for their baptism this saturday. Which there mother will be able to come to- the first time that either of the parents have been able to make it to the church because of their work schedules.

I read the letters from zach and they were really good, it made me really happy to see how well he is doing! I'm excited to see him come home even though I won't be there, oh well I'll make it eventually.

Next week I'll know wether I'm staying or going so thats exciting- and I'll just go buy another backpack. Also remind me to tell you about an egg I ate the other day called balut ( or baloot) not sure of the spelling. Anyways I'll give you two clues(fetal duck).

Love Elder Olson.

A little longer this week...

We are still going strong up here. I don't really need anything at the moment except for maybe one thing- the zipper has finally completely given out on my backpack it only holds together at the place where the zipper actually is. I know its very sad, its been completely broken for probably about a month but I've been in denial so I haven't written yet to ask you to send me a replacement. I've just been using it kind of hoping that one morning I'd just wake up and it would be fixed. I don't remember what my north face backpack looks like but I'm pretty sure its missionary appropriate. So if its not too difficult maybe you could mail that one too me and if not I'll just look around for one up here. Transfers are coming up on the 27th so it probably be better to send it to the mission office. This was my favorite backpack so it was kind of heartwrenching- I think i've been using it for about 6 years. So if I can't get it fixed I'll probably have it cremated.

Other than that everything is amazing. Our chinese investigators the Chen family is still going strong, the whole family is still doing really well. The two kids are excited for their baptisms on the 26th of July, and there parents have already told us that they will be baptized as soon as they can get work off on sundays. The 17 year old daughter is actually going to girls camp this week and gets along really well with all the youth. So if you could pray that they will make it to their baptisms that would really help. There names are Tanya (17) and Wai Shu(12), its pronounced "way shoe" and the parents are Tony and Jennifer. All the people in the family picked english names except for Wai Shu- he just didn't want one.

We also had alot of progress with our investigator Susan- we had an amazing miracle with her. We hadn't seen her for about two weeks and we came by just to see what was going on- she just told us about how busy she had been and how it had been hard because she was the only one in her family that was really interested in the gospel, her husband and kids are really friendly and her daughter will come to church but they just aren't interested yet. We talked about it for a while and we started teaching her again. A few days later we were in a completely different part of town and saw some people way down the street. We ran to talk to them and they weren't interested but when we turned around we saw this really old african lady walking on the sidewalk. Old people are not usually the most receptive people in the world, often times they are grumpy and they are always old. We found out she was actually from the west indies, she was 98 and had had 16 children. We invited her to church she wanted to come, she said that her grandaughter had been there. We weren't sure if she really new what she was talking about but then she told us about all the missionaries she had seen in Barabados. We set up an apointment to come over on thursday. Yesterday we had an apointment with susan and when we got there she was there as well. It turned out that Susan was been her grandaughter. So they are both coming to church this week along with susans thirteen year old daughter- a 4 generation spread of the vanderpool family.

Are investigators are doing well and we have a bunch of other new people who are kind of hanging around waiting to show their potential.

Sounds like everyone had a good week- the pictures were great everyone looks the same except for Becca she looks a little older than I remember! Ah, Scary! I love you all.

Love Elder Olson.

Still Moving....

This week we had our first Zone Conference with the new Mission President, president Eyre. He and his wife were really charitable humble people, so excited to be there and ready to work. They are both really tall, about 6' 4" and 6' 2". He used to be a venture capitalist and infact he had to find someone to take over his buisness in a rush when he was called to be a mission president.

So far things have been really good out here. My new companion is already becoming a really good missionary, always working hard and not afraid to talk to everyone. And the best part is that he really enjoys cooking, so I get some good meals cooked.

Our family that we are working with the Chen family, is still doing really well- although the parents still cannot come to church because of work- the children have come for the past two weeks and are really enjoying it and both have baptismal dates for the 23rd of July.

For some reason this week I have started to feel like this might be my last transfer in Whitby, they closed down the north apartment so I don't think that they will be splitting the areas within the next few transfers. Its kind of interesting because I am becoming and older missionary but I have still only served in two areas.

We've been biking it alot this transfer, we kind of ran out of kilometers a little bit last month so we were just biking it everywhere. The first time i took E. Purnell out on the bikes we were cruising down a hill and I came up onto the sidewalk at one of the exits to a gas station. When I looked back to see if my companion was following me i saw him cruise down and when he pulled up onto the sidewalk his back tire slid out and he went down on the edge of the street. I was thinking, " Oh no, they gave me a greeny and I killed him on the first day!" He turned out to be alright though he scraped a hole in one of his suits, good thing it was an older one. Now he avoids the sidewalk like the plague.


Thats pretty much all the news from Toronto, things are going forward at a rapid pace- hope everyone has fun at the wedding soon and with all the other summer activities, beach trips and golfing...

Love Elder Josh Olson.

Real quick! (again)

I don't have alot of time so I'll just write really quick... it was good to hear from everybody sounds like everything is going really well down in the VA> and in UTah! The last few weeks have been crazy we've been teaching this really cooll chinese family, they are from guan dung province in south china (not sure on the spelling there, or the pronunciation either) Although the parents can't make it to church yet the kids were able to come and they had a great time. Oh yah and I'm a little over the hill in the mission so- thats kind of strange - now I can think, hmmm... what was I doing in Canada last year?

Anyway gotta go everythings going great keep giving me all the updates

Love Elder Josh Olson

Real quick !!!

I don't have alot of time this week, but everything is going really well up here. We are seeing so many miracles on a daily basis. We found this chinese family last week, we have been teaching them for almost a week. The parents don't speak english so we teach them through the translation of the daughter or of cantonese speaking members that we bring over. They are so nice they give us these huge chinese bottled waters every time we come over called, Ganten or something. They are shaped like a tube. It was good to hear from everybody, sounds like everyone is doing well- and to answer your question a am still district leader and training at the same time. We are still teaching Susan, she is reads and will be coming to church consistently she just need to feel a spiritual confirmation. My new companion is from a town called kelowna and he loves to cook, so thats the best kind of companion to have really , one that likes to cook! We get a new mission president this week so were pretty excited to see how things work.

love Elder Josh Olson

I'm Alive...

It seems like forever since I've done e-mail even though its only been a week, but I wasn't able to read two weeks worth of e-mail. Last week I had to do it early because of the baseball game and this week I had to do it a day late because I was called to be a trainer in the mission and had to go pick up my boy in toronto. I was excited to get the call, I had felt it coming for the last few transfers. So I went directly from killing a missionary to training a new one. A really strange contrast. My new companion is named Elder Purnell and hes from british columbia, Canada. Hes got alot of fire and he isn't shy to talk to people at all so were going to get of too a running start, its going to be a really good transfer. His first night in the mission we did everything we had a dinner apointment, had someone try to bash us, we tracted, daily contacted our investigators, and had to give an impromptu blessing. Good times.

I hope everythings going well back in the states, I talked to someone from North Carolina the other day and they said it was really hot. I love you guys. I love the gospel and I know that its true. Thanks for your letters and support.

Love Elder Olson.

Baseball Game!

I'm writing early today because all the missionaries serving in and around

toronto can go to the afternoon blue jays game. So we had to get up early so we

could catch the go-train (kind of like the metro). This week has been pretty

crazy, it coming down to the last week or two of my companions mission and this

transfer is almost over. It will be interesting to see who they give me and what

will happen to the area. We are getting 19 new missionaries this transfer but

another really large group is leaving so its completely up in the air... its

kind of wierd right now, the last group of people who I thought of as old

missionaries is going home so now its just full of young guys like me. Oh, and I

got the infinite atonement signed by president Callister!

I had a funny experience on sunday, we had one of the members of the toronto

temple presidency speak in our ward on sunday and after church I said hello to

him and he came over and said, "Elder Olson, are you a scriptorian?" and then

when i told him I wasn't he jokingly said, "thats alright you can repent and

change!" Then he gave me some of his favorite scriptures that talked about

missionary work. Later that day we saw him at a members home and when we were

leaving he told me that when I got married if it was in toronto or new zealand

[where hes from] he would seal my wife and I. That was the first time anyone had

ever offered that and it kind of scared me. Especially when it seems like I get

a wedding announcement every week- I actually have gotten more wedding

anouncements in the last few months than letters. But, anyways thats quite a few

years away yet.

We had a really good week this week, we found an awesome new lady who really wants

to come to church and was talking all about how she had always wanted to be

baptized, so she said she would be baptized in a month.

Sorry i can't respond to your e-mails this week because I got in so early! Sorry

I haven't sent pictures in awhile- I am still taking pictures. I was going to

send a letter and my camera cards- but I needed the cards back quickly. I tried

to send everything express but it turned out to be pretty expensive, so I just

ended up sending the letter, but I'll send the cards this week sometime they are

getting pretty full.

Hope your all well,

Love Elder Olson.