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
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
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
Anyway gotta go everythings going great keep giving me all the updates
Love Elder Josh Olson
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