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.