We had a sweet week at church this week (that sentence sounds a little funny).
President Monson came to Toronto with Elder Ballard, because they both served as
mission president here. They spoke at a canadian wide broadcast of the Brampton
stake conference (its in the west mission where the temple is just outside of
toronto city). Although we didn't see them personally we got to see them speak
over the broadcast. We also had a bunch of investigators come to church that
week. Including Susan and her daughter- Shalaya for the first time. They are
doing amazing her first time at church she got to see the prophet speak and next
sunday is going to be testimony meeting! (Whitby always has good testimony
meetings and hardly anything crazy happens.) I really think she is going to make
it to her baptism on the fifteenth, she has made some really good friends in the
ward from us bringing them to apointments- last night she went out running with
the bishops wife. We also had an old investigator from when Elder Brennan, my
fist companion, was in whitby (he was actually trained there). He is kind of
married to a member though they are getting a divorce- he has a strong testimony
of the church and used to come almost every week but hadn't come in over a year
because he has a few issues that he hasn't been able to overcome.
The work is going really well up here. I'm glad to here that everyone at home
had an awesome camping trip- i'm jealous I remember how fun it was climbing up
those waterfalls! I can't believe it was a year since we were there last time.
I hope your planning one for next year, maybe just a month later next time...
Gas prices up here are just under $1.30 a liter so thats almost 5 dollars a
gallon. We get to drive about 1800 kilometers a month which isn't too bad- if
plan we can stay under that pretty easily- being in the car is annoying anyways
you get sleepy and I have gotten pretty bored of driving everywhere for the last
6 months.
I'm sending pictues down this week- there are a bunch of good ones- and i haven't
yet recieved the shirts or the book but I think they'll probably come in the next
few days.
Love Elder Olson (josh).
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Whoo Hoo!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Good Morning ...
Hmm... i didn't get any e-mail from you guys for two weeks so I hope everyone is doing well. Maybe after mothers day everyone just kind of thought, "well thats enough of josh for this month..." - well you haven't got rid of me yet.
Yesterday, we had zone conference, it was strange because it was in the same place as my first zone conference- so my first and last with president Callister where in the same church. Next transfer is going to be crazy, we will have a brand new mission president and they will be sending in 19 new missionaries.
We are still teaching Susan, she is doing really well and we have a good relationship with her family. She didn't make it out to church this week so she still hasn't been but we'll get her out this week, she is reading the book of mormon almost daily and is starting to makes friends with all the members we bring over we have alot of hope that she will make it to her baptism on june 15th. We also had amazing progress with the wolf family, they asked me to baptize their son Dillan on June 8th. Whenever we went over there he would always hide on the staircase and listen while we talked to luke + sylvia, until he finally got the courage to come out and sit with us a few times. They knew they wanted him to be baptized eventually but the plan was to kind of wait for his dad to have enough time to actually come to church and be baptized as well. But when he got up on his own to bear his testimony last fast sunday they talked about it and he didn't want to wait to be baptized.
Its kind of funny about kids (<--what a ridiculous sentence). As soon as they decide they want to be baptized they start asking everyone around if they've been baptized before or when they are going to be baptized. We were at their house one day and one of their friends walked in and dillain said, "hey jason, have you been baptized before?" We were shocked when his mom told him that he had been baptized before, we looked at each other and thought, "why hadn't we just asked that question?".
Its may up here but its only about 6 degrees i hope its a little more comfortable down there.
Love Elder Josh Olson.
Yesterday, we had zone conference, it was strange because it was in the same place as my first zone conference- so my first and last with president Callister where in the same church. Next transfer is going to be crazy, we will have a brand new mission president and they will be sending in 19 new missionaries.
We are still teaching Susan, she is doing really well and we have a good relationship with her family. She didn't make it out to church this week so she still hasn't been but we'll get her out this week, she is reading the book of mormon almost daily and is starting to makes friends with all the members we bring over we have alot of hope that she will make it to her baptism on june 15th. We also had amazing progress with the wolf family, they asked me to baptize their son Dillan on June 8th. Whenever we went over there he would always hide on the staircase and listen while we talked to luke + sylvia, until he finally got the courage to come out and sit with us a few times. They knew they wanted him to be baptized eventually but the plan was to kind of wait for his dad to have enough time to actually come to church and be baptized as well. But when he got up on his own to bear his testimony last fast sunday they talked about it and he didn't want to wait to be baptized.
Its kind of funny about kids (<--what a ridiculous sentence). As soon as they decide they want to be baptized they start asking everyone around if they've been baptized before or when they are going to be baptized. We were at their house one day and one of their friends walked in and dillain said, "hey jason, have you been baptized before?" We were shocked when his mom told him that he had been baptized before, we looked at each other and thought, "why hadn't we just asked that question?".
Its may up here but its only about 6 degrees i hope its a little more comfortable down there.
Love Elder Josh Olson.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Sorry, I'm a little late. (which is the story of my life...)
I didn't miss because of transfers but we just ran out of time. One of the members who we became good friends with took us to toronto on wednesday because transfers are next week and one of us will probably be leaving.
This next transfer will be interesting to see what happens- I think I have a really good possibility of getting transfered we will see what happens. I am creeping up on the year mark and still miss you guys like always, it seems like every time I sit down to write a letter by hand I just get it started and then the next week comes by and everything I wrote is a little outdated so you'll have to forgive me.
We've been working incredibly hard but have hit a little dry spell. We keep finding alot of people but everyone is either too busy or has too much opposition in their lives at the moment to meet with us for any period of time. However I've learned alot and we are really hopefull for the next transfer. Even though its been hard work with alot of ups and downs I've really come to realize recently how much I've come to love missionary work, when six o'clock rolls around on wednesday we are always tired but we just can't wait to put our suits on and go back to work.
We've been working with a really great member in the ward who was really struggling to gain a testimony after about 15 years away from the church. We've been meeting with her for the past three months and the difference has been amazing. She began to read over a chapter of the book of mormon every night and came to church consistently. Just a few days ago she told us that she started to really recognize answers to her prayers, and that although she had thought she was done with marriage for the rest of her life she now looking forward to being married in the temple for her and for her children.
One thing that really stuck out to me was how much what she learned in her childhood had mattered to her. She had stopped going to church at around 17 and she had never really enjoyed it, even though she was the stake presidents daughter she was more concerned with her friends and going to parties. Yet after she gained alot of life experience she realized that something really was missing in her life. She struggled to gain a spiritual testimony of the gospel for a long time, yet recently as she has really worked for her answers she began to tell us that she was feeling good about it, and that she remembered how she had felt as a youth, going to the temple and to the sacred grove. Even though she had never really wanted to go and they didn't seem to have an effect on her, many years later she could still recognize those feelings. We had been struggling and praying about how to help her to find her answers. This was the miracle that we had been praying for. Sometimes, you expect to see success in one area but the Lord gives it to you in another.
I hope everything is going well with everyone. If there is one thing I miss its just hanging around with the family- it feels like just yesterday that I left and I'm sure it will be even sooner until I'm home(which is really scary) but until then, thank you for all your prayers and support and I'll try to return the favor. Missionaries sometimes forget where their strength comes from until they remember all the people that are praying for them at home.
Love Elder Olson.
This next transfer will be interesting to see what happens- I think I have a really good possibility of getting transfered we will see what happens. I am creeping up on the year mark and still miss you guys like always, it seems like every time I sit down to write a letter by hand I just get it started and then the next week comes by and everything I wrote is a little outdated so you'll have to forgive me.
We've been working incredibly hard but have hit a little dry spell. We keep finding alot of people but everyone is either too busy or has too much opposition in their lives at the moment to meet with us for any period of time. However I've learned alot and we are really hopefull for the next transfer. Even though its been hard work with alot of ups and downs I've really come to realize recently how much I've come to love missionary work, when six o'clock rolls around on wednesday we are always tired but we just can't wait to put our suits on and go back to work.
We've been working with a really great member in the ward who was really struggling to gain a testimony after about 15 years away from the church. We've been meeting with her for the past three months and the difference has been amazing. She began to read over a chapter of the book of mormon every night and came to church consistently. Just a few days ago she told us that she started to really recognize answers to her prayers, and that although she had thought she was done with marriage for the rest of her life she now looking forward to being married in the temple for her and for her children.
One thing that really stuck out to me was how much what she learned in her childhood had mattered to her. She had stopped going to church at around 17 and she had never really enjoyed it, even though she was the stake presidents daughter she was more concerned with her friends and going to parties. Yet after she gained alot of life experience she realized that something really was missing in her life. She struggled to gain a spiritual testimony of the gospel for a long time, yet recently as she has really worked for her answers she began to tell us that she was feeling good about it, and that she remembered how she had felt as a youth, going to the temple and to the sacred grove. Even though she had never really wanted to go and they didn't seem to have an effect on her, many years later she could still recognize those feelings. We had been struggling and praying about how to help her to find her answers. This was the miracle that we had been praying for. Sometimes, you expect to see success in one area but the Lord gives it to you in another.
I hope everything is going well with everyone. If there is one thing I miss its just hanging around with the family- it feels like just yesterday that I left and I'm sure it will be even sooner until I'm home(which is really scary) but until then, thank you for all your prayers and support and I'll try to return the favor. Missionaries sometimes forget where their strength comes from until they remember all the people that are praying for them at home.
Love Elder Olson.
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