30 Dec 2009

Hey everyone !
Well it was really cool talking to everyone on Christmas! It sounds like everyone is doing great. I am so happy to be here on a mission. The work right now is going so great! Yesterday we committed a few more people for baptism on January 17th. We should have 7 baptisms on that day! I am really excited. It is going to be stressful getting all of them ready, but I have learned that stress is a gift from god. At least that is how I look at it. When I am stressed I am always on edge. I am always thinking about what I can do to help my investigators progress, my brain never stops thinking, constantly looking for opportunities to share the gospel and bare testimony. It is very tiring but the lord gives me the strength that I need. We have a few other people that are eligible to be baptized on the 17th, one is the Richards family! They are really awesome and they need all the prayers that they can get... So please everyone pray for them. Also the Jimenez family. They have been to church many times. The kids all want to be baptized but the dad will not let them. He is the boyfriend of a member in the ward, and the missionaries have been teaching him and his 3 kids on and off for the last year. But he has read a lot of anti Mormon stuff and he has seen a lot of bad fruits from the church directly in his life. Example… the bishop in his home country Ecuador disappeared with everyone’s tithing money. Just a lot of stuff like that. He says that he really does want to know if it is all true and that he prays but doesn’t get an answer. I committed him to live the law of chastity and than pray to know if it is true. He said that he would do so. Please pray that he will be able to recognize his answer, and that he will have the strength to live the law of chastity. Really the kids would be baptized next Sunday if he would just give them permission. Pray that his heart will be softened and that he will see the truth. Everything is going great! I hope that I will be able to stay here in Jamaica for another transfer… but you never know what the lord has in store. This is my 11th transfer in the mission!! I am getting old… I am going to set a goal to quadruple the number of baptisms that I have had so far before I go home. Please pray that I will continue to be able to find those that are prepared and that they will be led to me and my companion. And please pray for the people to be baptized on the 17th. I love you all and I know that this church is true. I know that families can be together forever! How amazing is that! We are really going to be together as a family forever. That is my favorite thing to teach. Hurrah For Israel!!!
Elder Olsen(michael)

21 Dec 2009

well we had a pretty good week. we got dumped on here with the snow! there is seriously tons.. but it looks like alot of it is going to melt today. my back hurts pretty bad today, we did alot of shoveling yesterday. All of the snow made it really hard for people to come to church(or it just gave them a descent excuse not to come) haha ... we only had 26 people at church yesterday. but we were able to have 8 investigators there! I was calling all of our investigators at around 8 am in the morning to see if they were coming to church. Marcia richards one of our gators told me that she would come but she cant get her car out of the driveway.. so i told her that we were going to be there in 20 minutes to shovel the driveway and get the car out so they could come to church. well i went into the other room to inform my comp and well he was still asleep :( so i had to wait for his slow butt to get ready and it took forever! but oh well.. really though its kind of rediculous what kind of zone leader sleeps in till 8 o clock. so when we finally made it out to our car we realized that we didnt have a shovel and our car was buried with snow. so we ran down the street looking for some one with a shovel, we found one and ran back and dug out our car as fast as we could. when we got to the richards it was about 8:55.. church starts at 9 am. luckily there driveway was not that bad and i was able to shovel it in about 5 minutes but the family was not ready to go yet. so we waited for everyone to get ready which took about 30 minutes and than they followed us to church, marcia drives extremely slow in the snow. she is from jamaica(the island) and probably hasnt experienced much snow driving. so they missed sacrament meeting but made it to the sunday school classes. they liked church alot. after church i was taking marcia around the church and showing her the different pictures and explaining it. when we got to the one portraying the second coming she flipped out. she said that she had seen that before, she was really in shock. she explained to me that 5 or 6 years earlier she had a vision and saw the second coming and she said that is exactly what it looked like. ha it was really awesome! she is really prepared to recieve the gospel. their family is going through some really rough times right now tough. satan is trying everything he can to keep them from the truth. the husband/Dad is in jail on what marcia believes to be false charges, and their house just got forclosed on last friday cause marcia got scammed somehow. big long story but anyways just pray for them. . right now we have 5 baptismal commits for this transfer. and i think that marcia and her kids will accept a date for this transfer this week. we set a goal at the begining of the transfer for 6 baptisms. i think that we will be able to do it. Well we had a zone leader council this week and we talked about the finding missionaires again. it looks like if I do do it i will not be finding all of the time. rather i would be a full time finding trainer, basicly go on one day exchanges with everyone in the mission and train them on how to find more effectively. we are planning on doing a trial transfer next transfer. i guess i can tell you more about it on friday. well please pray for our baptismal commits and those that are really close. i love all of you and i pray for you often. i know this church is true and i love sharing this gospel. pray for these people. (richards fam, Nijiyah edwards and mom, david watson, felicia and saquan bethea, antoinette finley and fam, penny, miranda, JimeneZ family. . thank you i love you
Hurrah For Israel!!
Elder Michael Olsen

Elder Michael Olsen Address

For those of you that would like to send Mikie something for Christmas here is his address..



88-20 parsons blvd, # 4A...

Jamaica,Ny 11432

15 Dec 2009

well we had a good week. it is good to be back here in jamaica, its a little weird being back in a car. i am not able to talk to as many people everyday :( it kinda sucks.. i went from talking to hundreds of people everyday on trains and buses and on the streets to talking to well alot less. but its okay. we just have to set time apart everyday that we can go finding. we were able to commit 3 people for baptism this week. they are all pretty solid. please pray for them, their names are Jijiyah haighs edwards, felicia bethea and antoinette finley. they all need alot of help. so please pray. i know that it will help. my comp is elder good man. i was with him before for 1 transfer when i was here before. I am excited for this transfer. there is alot of potential in this area. and alot of people that i think are prepared to be baptized this transfer. we will just need to work really hard to help them and do everything that we can to keep their commits. Being on a mission has been an interesting thing for me, i just never feel satisfied. i always want more. as i study and apply the atonement in my life everyday i get a stronger desire to do this work better and harder. I feel more and more determined. our zone did okay last transfer, about the average of what this zone usually does. I am hoping to be able to help change that this tranfer. please pray for me and my companion. that we can set the example for the zone. i love you all and hope that you have a great week! Hurrah For Israel.!!!
Elder Olsen

7 Dec 2009

well i am getting transfered after just six weeks here in midwood brooklyn :( its kinda sad, well its really sad. i really love this area and the ward and the people that we are working with. but i guess the good news is that i am going back to jamaica. yup i guess i just took a six week break from jamaica and now im back. there is alot of work that still needs to be done there and so im ready to work hard. I will be with elder goodman whom i was with last transfer. the zone did good last transfer, pretty much the whole zone is changing from what is was when i was there before everyone is getting a new companion. there will only be a few of the same people that were there before. And i will be back in a car :( which means less talking to people and me getting fatter. haha i'll be okay. Mom dont worry about the package that nannie sent, the sign language missionaires can take it to the office for me and ill be able to get it next monday if it arrives by that time. ummm i dont know what other questions that you asked. oh yeah my camera broke!! i know it totally stinks,

30 Nov 2009

Well I had a good week. It was a very busy week with a lot of meetings and planning type stuff. We had a street sweep last Saturday that went well. We went to the Atlantic Center with the whole zone. Its a big shopping center in the downtown part of Brooklyn, so we had to plan that out so that it would be effective. But it went well, everyone was really motivated and talking to everyone. I was able to commit two people for baptism on December 27th. They are in park slopes area. One of them is a couple, the wife is actually a member of the church all ready, she was baptized 2 years ago and moved here a year ago and never came to church. But her husband is way cool. He is a really big Spanish guy. The other man that I committed is really cool too. he totally agreed with the apostasy and said that he had been researching religions and looking for the true church. We had 4 investigators at church yesterday. After church I taught a lesson with some of the Creole speaking members to Mary Elie, she doesn’t speak any English at all. She is one of the people that came to the ward thanksgiving party last week. Her husband couldn’t come because he had to work. And were not sure why her nease was not able to come because we cant call her(we don’t speak Creole)_ ha-ha its been really hard helping these investigators progress. I committed her for baptism on December 20th and she accepted but she said that she and her husband were not actually married. Apparently her husband died and his wife died some time ago. And so they are living together and not married. At least she knew that it was a sin and that it would have to be fixed before she could get baptized. So we are going to get them married and than baptized! Yeah another wedding!! Elder Pape met with a man named Moses after church; he met him on the bus. He is a 23 year old Dominican kid. He is really cool and he committed him to be baptized on dec 27th. he is really excited about it. We had our musical concert in the English and Spanish ward last night. It was really good! I mean really good, the only thing that stinks is that not all of the members came.  but we are going to do it again in about a month and hopefully we will be able to get more members to come and bring their friends. It was basicly every principle in the restoration with a explanation and than a testimony and than a musical number. Everyone that came really loved it! I gave a talk in church yesterday about happiness, I thought that it went well. Well this is day 1 of week 6 of the transfer! I am certain that I will be staying here. We had zone leader council last Wednesday, elder Williamson and I talked to president about the “finding missionaries” he really liked the idea and we will be doing it not this transfer but the next. He wants us to plan it out a little better and everything. I think that it will be really fun. It will be hard but really fun and rewarding. Well please pray for me and my investigators. We need more Creole speaking members to help us teach all of these people that we have. This next transfer is going to be sweet! We have a lot of people that are ready to be baptized. Please specifically pray for Mary and family, Moses, Annie, Monique and peter. Thanks for everything I love you all so much!

21 Nov 2009

Things are getting really busy as we get closer to the end of the transfer. We have so many things to do this week and not enough time. we have a fireside that we have been planning this next sunday, it will be in 3 different wards in our zone. it is a musical fireside. its called sounds of the restoration. ha kinda cheesy name huh. but its gonna be sweet! we made tickets and fliers and everything! so hopefuly we will have a good turn out. We had a ward thanksgiving party/dinner on saturday night. it was a great turn out! I love this ward its kinda crazy, when it was over and everyone was cleaning up they had really loud music playing and everyone was dancing as they were cleaning, haha it was pretty cool i got it on camera. we had a really cool miracle happen that night. so you know how we have only french kreole speaking investigators right?? well this week we just found more. A lady i fearlessed on the bus her name is mary, she is from haiti and doesnt speak any english at all. seriously none.. but we had an appointment with her a few days after i talked to her and her nease was there with her. so we taught them both, as much as we could. haha and than commited them to come to the thanks giving dinner. well because of communication problems due to the huge language barrier there was some confusion on getting to the church. we went to mary's nease's apt to pick her up(her name is annie) and than we walked to mary's apt and picked up mary her husband and son in law. so 4 of them all together. so apparently they thought that we were pcking them up in a car so none of them had metro cards, so we thought that we could walk. as we started walking up flatbush ave we ran into one of mary's sisters and she decided to come with us. so now there are 5 of them. and as we started walking i realized that it was going to take a very long time to get to the church at their walking speed and it was going to be hard on them. so i called the bishop to see if there was anything that he could do, he asked where we were and i told him, he said i'm right there i will just pull over and you guys can hop in. he pulled over and i looked across the street and his SUV was literally right there. he was with 2 other members picking up a turkey, and he had exactly 5 extra seats in the car! so they all piled in and headed to the church. my comp and i walked.. They all had a great time and liked it alot! the dad said to the bishop I like it alot here, I feel at home! so that was awesome! they are all really awesome! We have another lady named monique also from haiti, she is 80 years old and has hearing problems and doesnt speak any english either. so this makes communicating even more difficult. yesterday was her second week at church. and we gave her a french Book Of Mormon, it was so awesome she was so excited and started reading it right there. I hope that she will be able to be baptized this sunday. it has been hard finding members who speak Kreole to go teaching with us alot. thus making it hard to help these people progress as fast as they could. so its a little frustrating. i am seriously considering learning french, like asking my president to change my call so that the rest of my mission i am only here in midwood or jamaica where the haitians are. i think that i could learn it pretty fast. we are still trying to get french missionaires here. i hope that it happens soon, they would have so much too do! I am talking to president this wednesday about an idea that elder williamson had( and elder that i lived with in south shore for 2 transfers) he wants to pitch an idea to president called "finding missionaires" Basickly williamson and i would pick 6 different areas in the mission and spend 1 week in each area just finding new investigators. we would do it in different parts of the mission that are struggling to find new people. and give all of the people that we find to the missionaries working that area. i think that it is a good idea. if we were finding all the time i would feel confident that we could find over 70 of 80 new investigators each week. it would be hard but we could do it. So this wednesday i will probably find out what i will be doing for the next few transfers. . If president does want to do the finding missionaires i know that i will be one of them. because it would have to be elders that want to do it, know how to find, are fearless, and who really get along with each other. so if it does happen i will probably be with elder williamson. we get along great and he is a great elder, he is now a zone leader in south brooklyn. well please pray for me and my comp! We need miracles! to make this a succesfull transfer. . I love you all and thank you for everything!!
Hurrah For Israel!!!
Elder MIchael Olsen

18 Nov 2009

well we had a good week. stake conference was yesterday it was good. but we only had 2 investigators there. One is franshaw, he is from barbados. i think that i told you about him last week. he is awesome. I found out yesterday that he is 2nd oldest of 17 children and he himself has 8 children. there are well over a hundred members of his family back in barbados. so we told him that he has to go back and convert and baptize them all. he says that he wants to come back here to get baptized. haha but im sure that will change once he actually sees the church there. he is was solid. tyler sounds like he is doing amazing!! i wish that i could be companions with him! we would tear it up! He has such a great vision of what he can do with the lords help. he has the why not? attitude.. which is awesome! why not? why cant we find a family that is ready to be baptized every day? surely the lord has prepared them. he is doing great. not many missionaries have this kind of attitude. please pray for the jagna family that they will be able to get baptized this transfer. i love you all. sorry i dont have alot of time today. Hope that all is well at home. please pray for me!
Elder michael Olsen
HUrrah For Israel!!

19 Oct 2009

well i had a great week! yesterday we had a baptism! Naomie Was able to be baptized by her father. the service went really well. nehoum bore his testimony after she was baptized it was really sweet! it has been fun teaching them cause they dont speak any english. and we have to use members in the ward to translate for us. it has been a great experience. transfers are next week! i am almost certain that i will be staying here for another but who really knows. everything is going fantastic! i love my mission and i love the lord! sounds like everything is going great! I miss you all. Hurrah For Israel!!
Elder MIchael Olsen

21 Sept 2009

Hello Family!!
well i dont have alot of time to write today. but we had a fantastic week! we spent alot of time organizing and planning for this transfer. which made our numbers suffer a little but i think that it will pay off in the near future. we have such a gigantic area book with tons of people in it but it wasnt organized at all. so we went and got a huge map and divided our very large area into different zones and than make tabs for our area book for each zone, and we mapped out all of the former investigators and put them in their respected tabs. along with all of the members in the zones. it will be nice to have it organized because now when we work we will be able to just concentrate our efforts on one zone and will save alot on travel time. so i think that it will be really productive in the future. we now have 5 companionships working this jamaica english ward! right now we only have about 65 or so active members. we are in the process of making a plan with the bishop to bring back 25 less actives per transfer. it is going to take alot of work and help from the ward but i know that we will be able to do it. Well i am all out of time. sorry there were alot of really amazing things that happened this week but you will just have to wait and hear about them some other time. the work is going amazing! our zone has 5 baptisms in our zone scheduled for next sunday. and we had one yesterday as well. and we had a family of 8 people come to church yesterday! it was awesome!! please continue to pray for me and for this work. I love you all!
Elder Olsen

14 Sept 2009

Hello family!
well I had a great week! irt was really busy. Yesterday was an amazing day. First of all Cynthia(the lady that i baptized in south shore about a month ago) her 2 kids were baptized. And karen and alvin were also baptized( i worked with them for about 4 months in south shore as well). And i talked to craig(the man that i baptized in south shore about 4 months ago, and he was just made the new ward mission leader!!) how cool is that. i was way excited! he is so awesome. Shantel was also baptized yesterday! it went really well. she is so ready! her mom came to church and than to the baptism and she really liked it. and we willl start teaching her soon. the baptism went really well! alot of the ward came, but not everyone. which kinda bugs me.. we dont have a font at our church so we have to go to the neighboring town for all baptisms. so alot of the members say that they dont want to go all the way there. even though it only takes about 15 minutes to get there by train. but there was alot of people there and it was great! she is so amazing. she was telling us that she thinks it would be cool to go on a mission! she would be such a good missionary. she is 22, and she knows japaneese so she would probably go to a japaneese speaking mission. Okay well hows about some updates. well i will be staying here in jamaica as expected. my new comp is elder goodman. i have never met him, but i have heard that he is good. he is like 25 yrs old. so that will be kinda interesting. this will be his first transfer as zone leader as well. I am way excited for this next transfer!! this last transfer we set a goal to get 8 baptisms in our zone, and we got it. and i think for this next one i want to double it and go for 16. i know it is possible. our zone is doing very well. it has been way cool seeing how fast things can change in an area if just the attitude changes of the missionaires in that area. my last area south shore the district is on fire! my last transfer there we had 7 baptisms and this transfer they have been tearing it up i think they had 8 or 9.. and than our zone here is doing great! especially compared to last transfer when we only had 2 baptisms. welli love you all please pray for miranda and shantel and her mom. and please pray for me and my companion. i wil be setting some really high goals for this next transfer. so im gonna need all the help that i can get. I love you all Hurrah for Israel!!

this is how i had to get into my pad in south shore for about a month

24 Aug 2009

24 Aug 2009

24 Aug 2009

Hello family!! Well I had a pretty good week. It was probably the
worst week of the transfer but it was still a good week. I have a few
miracle stories but I only have time to tell one. So last week when we
were on splits with steve and shaun. Steve and my comp found this
lady, her name is chanelle they committed her to be baptized on the
13th of September, well we haven’t been able to get a hold of her. But
we had an apt with her this last week and we stopped by and she wasn’t
home so we were just walking around the neighborhood and knocking on
some doors and talking to people outside. Well about 5 houses down
from chanelles home there were two ladies sitting on the porch, and
well they were reading the bible. They were a few kids running around.
So we pretty much had an amazing 1st lesson with them, we committed
one of them for baptism on the 13th.. her name is Miranda, she is so
amazing! The spirit was just beaming off of her face the whole lesson.
The other lady is nice but really doesn’t seem that interested. so
Miranda is awesome. So the same day that steve and elder wiggins found
chanelle they also found a lady name uzo. And we had an appointment
with her yesterday. So after that one appointment with Miranda we
haven’t been able to meet with her again. But we have been able to
talk to her on the phone everyday she has just been too busy too meet
with us. So we went to meet with uzo yesterday whom lives about 3
houses down from Miranda. Well Uzo is not home, so we go and see if
channelle is home, nope.. so we start walking down to mirandas house
and just as we do she pulls up in her car. So looked exhausted, she
had just come from working overtime at work, she is a nurse. So she
tells us that she really wants to meet with us but she is just too
tired right now and she had company. There were like 3 of her friends
there. So we made an appointment for Wednesday but than we just
started talking and I asked if I could share a scripture and than next
thing you know we are all sitting on lawn chairs in the front yard.
The cool thing was that all of her friends came as well. There were
people just coming our of the woodwork to hear our lesson. Neighbors,
people walking by etc.. so we taught the plan of salvation. It was
really cool. Miranda is so prepared. She is still committed for the
13th . she has to wake up at 5 in the morning every day to go out to
long island for work and we talked about sacrifice and she is getting
up every morning at 430 so that she can read for 30 minutes from the
book of mormon. She is so amazing! We have a lot of potentials
committed right now for the 13th but only 2 of them are really
progressing towards that day. Hopefully we will be able to get the
rest of them moving. This is the make it or break it week for
everyone. At least for this transfer. Well everything is going great!
This has been a tough week but we are doing good and will keep moving
forward. The church is true! What else really matters? Hurrah For
Israel!!
Elder Olsen

31 Aug 2009

WOW well another week has gone by. this is the begining of week 5 for us. elder wiggins goes home in 2 weeks. today we have a pretty busy day. we are having a zone activity, were doing a big barbecue and watching a church movie, not sure which one yet. we set a goal at the begining of the transfer for every companionship to get at least 1 baptism. and right now most everyone has had a baptism or they have 1 scheduled before the transfer is over. except 1 companionship(the sisters) so today we are going to get everyone pumped up for the last two weeks of the transfer! our zone is doing good, yesterday we had 3 baptisms. elder wiggins and I went to all of them, it was a cool experience. I had a really cool experience last night, elder cascardi who is in my zone has had a really rough transfer. he was blinded into this area training. the area that he is in was dead, they only had 10 former investigators and no progressing. the missionaires before did absolutely nothing all transfer. but he has been working his butt off!
and they have been doing really well but they havent been able to get any baptismal commmits. so last night we were over at a members home in the spanish branch, and they brought a lady who is investigating the church, she also came to church yesterday. and i was sitting next to cascardi and i asked them how there week went, and he said good except that they didnt get any new committs. and i said well lets get one right now! he looked at me kinda funny and said okay. so after dinner we sat down with the lady. the lady doesnt speak any english so elder cascardi translated for me, but the spirit was really strong and she accepted to be baptized in two weeks! it was so awesome and it made cascardi really happy. it was way cool. well miranda is still doing amazing, unfortunately she didnt come to church brcause her mom who has cancer came into town unexpectedly and she wanted to spend time with her. so she will not be able to be baptized this transfer. but shantel is doing amazing! she is way solid for the 13th now. everything is going great! wish that i had more time to tell you all about my week, there were alot of miracles!! i love you all,
Hurrah For Israel
Elder Olsen
Doctrine + Covenants 82:8-10

7 Sept 2009

well i dont have alot of time toaday. but it was a really great week. i loved reading tylers e mail today because i had something really similar happen this week, that just helped me realize e ven more that this work is completely out of our hands. and the lord will get it done one way or another. its just a matter of whether we are going to be blessed to be a part of it or not. we were going to look up a media referral that we had and the address was some thing like 3329 55th dr. so were just driving along and i pull up to the house and we had planned on knoking both doors next to where the media was. and we got there a few minutes before the apt so we could do so . so we go and knock and the first door that we knock this guy answers and he had just moved in like 2 weeks earlier but he has been to church several times when he lived in another part of queens. he seemed very ready to recieve the gospel and he wants to start going to church here. and here comes the other part of the miracle. so we go and knock on the door that our appointment is at and apparently we were on the wrong street. we were on ave. when we needed to be on dr. ha it was amazing! so than we walked over to the right street and committed the lady that ordered a bible from our church. she is great and will be baptized in 4 weeks. well i love you all i am all out of time for today. Hurrah for israel!@!!!
elder Olsen

hello Family!!
well i had a great week! i have just been trying to settle down here in jamaica. things are going awesome. my companion is elder wiggins, whom i was all ready comps with in park slope 6 months ago. he is a cool guy and a good missionary. we get along really well and work really well together. this is his last transfer so he goes home in 5 weeks. well we are definitely going to be working hard here. we have alot of good people to work with right now. one lady named shantel who is amazing! she has been to church like 3 times all ready and has allready read through 1st nephi and is working on 2 nephi. she knows that it is true, she is just a little nervous and wants to make sure that it is something that she wants to do. she is only 24, and is worried that she is the only one in her family joining the church. she really wants to get her mom involved. so hopefully we wil be able to make that happen. please pray for her. well i found out at transfer meeting that we are working 2 teaching pools. we are working both the jamaica english ward and the jamaica spanish branch. yep thats right i am working a spanish branch! pretty crazy huh, so this last week i have really been studying spanish, i want to learn it as soon as possible. yesterday at church i hardly understood anything that they said. elder wiggins was called english as well but for the last 3 transfers he has been working the spanish branch as well. so he has picked up on alot but still doesnt speak it perfect. so yeah yesterday we went to 6 hours of church, it was a pretty long day. our area is gigantic! we cover all of south jamaica clear down to JFk airport. our area is about as big as all of the other areas in the zone combined. so there is alot of work to do. we get alot of media referralls, right now we have 15 media referralls that we havent even been able to contact yet. we are the only companionship in the mission that has a car in the city because our area is so large. driving in the city is pretty crazy haha. so jamaica queens is where 50 cent the rapper is from if anyone was wondering. our pad is on the same block that he got shot 9 times ha, pretty cool huh. well i am way excited to be here in jamaica. the english ward is awesome! i am pretty sure that there is not one white person in the ward. ha it is crazy. this is one of those wards that you will never forget because it is so different than your average ward. i know that we will have a ton of success here! the ward has been waiting and praying for this new building for years now. the church has all ready made the plans, bought the land, everything. there just is not enough attendance and not enough people are paying their tithing. so i think all these people need is a good push! and i think that we could double the attendance in just a few months. there is a ton of work to be done. the spanish branch is awesome! but i think that it wil be hard for me to really take the lead in the branch cause i literally cant talk to people. but there are 6 of us missionaires working that branch and the District leader elder martinez is awesome! he is really motivated. and is really good at working with the members. We have an awesome zone! we set a goal to double the number of baptisms in the zone from last transfer. and everyone seems really excited. there were a few missionaires in the zone that were pretty disobedient last transfer, but they got blinded out of the area. and new missionaires came in. One of which is elder Cascardi from brazil. tyler met his dad at the CTM in brazil. he is only on his 4th transfer and he got blinded into this area training a new missionary. with a dead pool(zero investigators) but he is such a champ! he is working really hard. well everything is going amazing! we are seeing miracles e veryday! please continue to pray for me and the people that i am working with. i love you all. i am glad that you were able to make it home okay and that you had a fun trip! Hurrah For Israel!!!
Elder Michal Olsen

well i had a great week! i have just been trying to settle down here in jamaica. things are going awesome. my companion is elder wiggins, whom i was all ready comps with in park slope 6 months ago. he is a cool guy and a good missionary. we get along really well and work really well together. this is his last transfer so he goes home in 5 weeks. well we are definitely going to be working hard here. we have alot of good people to work with right now. one lady named shantel who is amazing! she has been to church like 3 times all ready and has allready read through 1st nephi and is working on 2 nephi. she knows that it is true, she is just a little nervous and wants to make sure that it is something that she wants to do. she is only 24, and is worried that she is the only one in her family joining the church. she really wants to get her mom involved. so hopefully we wil be able to make that happen. please pray for her. well i found out at transfer meeting that we are working 2 teaching pools. we are working both the jamaica english ward and the jamaica spanish branch. yep thats right i am working a spanish branch! pretty crazy huh, so this last week i have really been studying spanish, i want to learn it as soon as possible. yesterday at church i hardly understood anything that they said. elder wiggins was called english as well but for the last 3 transfers he has been working the spanish branch as well. so he has picked up on alot but still doesnt speak it perfect. so yeah yesterday we went to 6 hours of church, it was a pretty long day. our area is gigantic! we cover all of south jamaica clear down to JFk airport. our area is about as big as all of the other areas in the zone combined. so there is alot of work to do. we get alot of media referralls, right now we have 15 media referralls that we havent even been able to contact yet. we are the only companionship in the mission that has a car in the city because our area is so large. driving in the city is pretty crazy haha. so jamaica queens is where 50 cent the rapper is from if anyone was wondering. our pad is on the same block that he got shot 9 times ha, pretty cool huh. well i am way excited to be here in jamaica. the english ward is awesome! i am pretty sure that there is not one white person in the ward. ha it is crazy. this is one of those wards that you will never forget because it is so different than your average ward. i know that we will have a ton of success here! the ward has been waiting and praying for this new building for years now. the church has all ready made the plans, bought the land, everything. there just is not enough attendance and not enough people are paying their tithing. so i think all these people need is a good push! and i think that we could double the attendance in just a few months. there is a ton of work to be done. the spanish branch is awesome! but i think that it wil be hard for me to really take the lead in the branch cause i literally cant talk to people. but there are 6 of us missionaires working that branch and the District leader elder martinez is awesome! he is really motivated. and is really good at working with the members. We have an awesome zone! we set a goal to double the number of baptisms in the zone from last transfer. and everyone seems really excited. there were a few missionaires in the zone that were pretty disobedient last transfer, but they got blinded out of the area. and new missionaires came in. One of which is elder Cascardi from brazil. tyler met his dad at the CTM in brazil. he is only on his 4th transfer and he got blinded into this area training a new missionary. with a dead pool(zero investigators) but he is such a champ! he is working really hard. well everything is going amazing! we are seeing miracles e veryday! please continue to pray for me and the people that i am working with. i love you all. i am glad that you were able to make it home okay and that you had a fun trip! Hurrah For Israel!!!
Elder Michal Olsen

27 July 2009

Wow what an amazing week that i have had! we are being blessed so immensely it is increddible! So many miracles have happened this week it has been awesome! If you remember i told you about 5 weeks ago that my zone set a goal to get 12 baptisms this transfer. which is 1 baptism per companionship for the whole zone. well i decided that our district could set that same goal. and we set the goal to get 12 baptisms as a district. and well so far we have only had 3 :( But this week has been a week of miracles! and we now have 6 people committed to get baptized next week. so that would put us at 9 for the transfer. this is week 6 of the transfer, and i have 5 more investigators that could get baptized next sunday as well, because they have been to church 3 times now. They have just not accepted a baptismal date. they all have different problems that they need to work through that are keeping them from getting baptized, but it definitely could happen if they have the faith, so please pray that we will be able to help them as much as we can. and also that they will have the faith to change whatever is necessary to get baptized. These people are; Keith, Alvin, Daniel, Gloria, George.. yesterday was a great day. cynthia had to work and didnt get off until 2 o clock, but she arranged for a lady in our ward to pick up her kids and bring them to church and than cynthia came late. the kids loved church again. after church we sat down in the chapel with cynthia and her family and another family in our ward. and we taught a lsn on Temples and eternal families. it was amazing! they loved it and the spirit was really strong! We committed shauna and jaleesa to get baptized next week with their mom and they accepted! it was a really cool experience. their family is so amazing! this is the family that i have been praying that i would be able to teach. cynthia has made great progress in her faith and knowledge of the gospel. I have no doubt that i will be attending the temple with this family in about 1 year! tonight we are doing a FHE with that same family that we did the lsn with after church. and cynthias family is coming too. Karen and alvin came to church yesterday as well and loved it again! we met with them a few hours before church and they both expressed concern about the book of mormon and our belief in the bible. cause she said that when we study with her we rarely read out of the bible. well god is a god of miracles, and everything is done according to gods timetable. so we get to church and the first speaker gets up and talks about the book of mormon, what it is? where it came from? why we need it? etc... it was a great talk from a lady in the ward. and than the next speaker gets up and talks about the Bible, we believe in the bible(as far as it is translated correctly), we love the bible, Doctrines from the bible, missing links of the bible(creeds, translations, councils etc..) so basickly it was exactly what karen and alvin needed that day. it was incredible they were both crying, karen is going into a job interview today and she is worried that they are going to ask her to work sundays. i told her to stand up for what she knows is right and to tell them that she will not work during the hours of church. the only problem is they really need the money from the job and in this economy it is really hard for people to find reliable jobs, as i am sure you all know. so please pray for her, that she will have the strength and the faith to decline the job if she has to work durring church. and that she will be able to get another job or source of employment. we taught the word of wisdom yesterday and she accepted to live it, she has addictions to smoking and coffee, with just about every other single person that lives in new york does:( ha but its all good. i know that she can overcome it! alvin is doing great. he is reading alot about joseph smith because he is facinated with the whole history. he said yesterday that when he read he was visited by john the Baptist that chills went down his spine and he knew that it was true. he is doing great and i th ink it is a great possibility that we wil be able to baptize him this next sunday as well. he has smoking problems and coffee as well. wow so many other amazing things happened but i just done have to time to tell about all of them. just please pray for the people that i have talked about. they need all of the prayers that they can get. i have been in this area now for a long time. 6 months! transfers are next week so dont send anything to my address, rather send everything to the mission office addresss.. 85-69 60th dr. elmhurst, NY, 11373.
I have truly loved serving in this area and who knows maybe i will be here for a little while longer, who knows. well i guess god and my mission president do. but if i do stay here than i know that there is still much for me to accomplish here. it will be very sad leaving all of the people that i have come to love in this area. My comp elder judd is doing better, he is still having alot of fears about talking to people and he is worrying to much about what he is going to say exactly. so he gets nervous and doesnt say anything. so please pray for him as well. wow i have done some pretty fast typing today i am proud of myself.
Hurrah for Israel!!
love Elder Olsen

20 July 2009

Hello Family!!
well i had an amazing week! alot of great things happened. yesterday we had 6 investigators at church, karen and alvin came and they are doing amazing! Karen is scheduled to get baptized on august 2nd now, and alvin is not committed yet, but yesterday at church when he was introducing himself in prissthood he told everyone that he is thinking about joining, and than after church we had a lesson with our correlator and alvin told us that he knows that the book of mormon is true. so i think that he will be ready to be baptized on the 2nd as well. he just needs to overcome smoking. they both loved church! karen was taking notes the entire time! cynthia came and brought her 2 kids. jaleesa is 9 and she loved primary! shaun is 16 and loved young mens, he got a list of all of the activities that they are doing in the next few months and after church there was a fireside for the young men and shaun wanted to stay for that as well. so he got a ride home from one of the members. cynthia is scheduled to get baptized this next sunday. and than we will get her kids baptized either one or two weeks after that. i am hoping that they will be able to get baptized in two weeks cause we have transfers on the 4th of august, so it would be amazing to get them all baptized before i left. please pray for all of them. well keith did not get baptized on saturday. he is just not ready. he hasnt had that change of heart yet. but i think it is coming for him soon. I dont think that i am going to stay here for another transfer, it is going to be sad leaving this area :( but at the same time i have been here for a long time and am ready for some change. Elder judd is doing okay. the last few weeks he has been kind of had an attitude problem. but i think he is just home sick and stuff. he is still really nervous when teaching and finding, but he is getting better. it has been interesting training him because i was the exact opposite when i was a greeny, i wasnt nervous at all. but he is doing well and i think that we will be able to finish off the transfer strong. well i love all of you and hope that all is well thanks for everything that you do for me.
Hurrah for Israel
Elder micheal Olsen

12 July 2009

well i had a great week! it was full of miracles.. Well i guess i will start with last night. so all of you should remember cynthia, i have been teaching her for almost 6 months now. she is amazing! she has 2 kids shaun who is 16 and jalessa who is 8 yrs old. she was divorced a few years ago. well we have tried to committ her for baptism before but she has always felt like she is not ready and that she doesnt know enough. but she has been coming to church every week lately and reading and praying about the book of mormon every day. yesterday i made a bunch of cookies to deliver to some of our investigators, and we went over to the marichal home(a family in our ward) yesterday and got them to go with us to deliver the cookies. sister marichal is a single mom as well and her son joe goes to the same high school as shaun and they are on the track team together and everything. so we went over to cynthias and she let us in and we asked if we could just share a 5 minute lsn. I love being a missionary! there is no other feeling that is better than being a tool for the lord to use. we had prepared a little lsn but during the opening prayer something came to me, 2 nephi 25:26- basickly we do everything in christ so that our children may know where they can turn for forgiveness of sins. so after the prayer i read that scripture and than bore my testimony about how i was raised in the gospel and that i will be forever gratefull for my parents and the values that they taught me when i was young. and than i asked everyone that was there 1 by 1 to share their testimony with cynthia, the spirit was really strong! and we commmitted her to be baptized in two weeks! she gladly accepted and is excited to be baptized. it is so cool when the the spirit takes over and tells you exactly what you need to say to people. she explained that one of the fears that she has been having is bringing her kids to church because she has been dissappointed in churchs in the past and didnt want to get her kids involved unless it was something that she was sure that she wanted to do. but she told us that she has not been dissappointed in our church. and said that she is going to bring her kids next week! so i have no doubt that they will have a baptismal date soon. when we first started teaching them shaun accepted a baptismal date so we allready know that he wants to be baptized. it was an amazing lesson! it was really strong in the spirit. she is getting baptized the 26th of this month. and i hope that her kids will be able to the same day or the next week. she is a solid convert and her and the kids will be a great addition to the ward, i think it will really get some of the members excited about doing missionary work. I have been here for almost 6 months now, at the end of this transfer it will be six month. it is possible that i could stay or leave, its kind of a toss up right now. but i wouldnt mind either way. when i read tylers e mail last week aboout his story of standing up on the bus and started teaching everyone on the bus and than asked everyone to write down their info, haha well that made me kinda trunky to go back to the city! i love it out here on the island but there are tons of people in the city and you just talk to alot more people. but i will be happy if i stay here for one more transfer. Keith is supposed to get baptized this next saturday. but i dont think that he is going to be ready, he seems to be a little off lately. he has been talking to this man that lives in our apt complex that is no good. sadly i have bible bashed with him a little. but i know that he is putting doubts into keiths head. Everyone please pray for him he needs to open up his heart and let the spirit in. well everything is going great! tell sammy that i love him and happy birthday for me!! when are you guys going to be home from your road trip?? well i love all of you and thank you again for the package it was so nice! i hope that you all drive safe. i love you!
Hurrah For Israel!!
Elder Michael Olsen

6 July 2009

wow well i gotta say that is a little weird seeing a picture of you guys on the brooklyn bridge. downtown brooklyn was my last area. so the bridge was in my area, we would go there all the time to do finding. and the york stop on the F train! i used that stop at least once or twice every day. so weird. . you guys could have taken the C train to High Street and that would have saved you a few blocks of walking. The Blocks surrounding the York stop is where the Watchtower buildings are, the jehovas witness' headquarters. there are probably 8 or 9 large buildings that they have right there. And Ebony lives right around the corner from the york stop in the project buildings. Ebony was the golden lady that was going to get baptized and than a whole bunch of drama happened. Ah that was a sad day. did you guys go to church yesterday? what ward did you attend? so you guys are camping at jones beach tonight huh? that is only about 30 to 45 minutes from where i live. pretty weird huh. haha its all good. long beach is a really cool town that you will probably drive through to get to jones beach. well i dont know what all there is too see on long island. but montauk point is really pretty and there is that big duck that is a convenience store inside, that is in riverhead, which is pretty much at the end of the island. I dont know if you guys are planning on going back to the city but if you do coney island is pretty cool. Well i had a great week! keith is going to be getting baptized on the 18th of this month, karen is going to be getting baptized on the 26th of this month, and a new lady that we found this week is getting baptized the 26th as well. her name is samantha torres. she saw a tv commercial and ordered a book of mormon. we went over there and taught her a lesson the day after she ordered it. she has a 1 year old little girl. and is looking for a firm foundation in her faith and beliefs, she is catholic but doesnt really like it. and the missionary who talked to her on the phone at the MTC told her about the restoration and the book of mormon, so we re taught that and she was really receptive, the spirit was there and she accepted a baptismal date on the 26th. we are going over there tonight with a member in our ward i am really excited. Cynthia is doing great. she came to church again yesterday and really loved it. she has been several times now and still doesnt have a baptismal date!! we have talked about it multiple times but she just doesnt feel ready,. we are going over there today to help her do some yard work and things and i am hoping that we will be able to set a date. she told us that she is just scared that she doesnt know everything that we believe and doesnt want to join and than find out something that we believe that she doesnt agree with. we read over the 13 articles of faith with her. please pray for her! she needs all the prayers possible. she is so close! she would be an amazing addittion to the ward, and her kids are awesome! Elder judd is doing well, he is still having trouble figuring out what he wants to say, i am trying to teach him not to think about what you are going to say, but just to study hard and live worthy and pray for the spirit and than study the people that we are teaching or talking to and he will know what to say. he is getting better. it has kinda hit me recently that i have been in this area for a long time, 5 months now! My comp is really worried that i am going to get transfered this transfer and than the missionary work is just going to go downhill., because all of the members and investigators know me so well. i could stay here for 1 more transfer alot of times they keep trainers with there kids for 2 transfers, but who knows with this new president. Oh yeah we have a new mission President now. Last tuesday we drove into queens for a mission meeting to meet him and his wife. He is awesome! and really pumped up. he is really focusing on obedience and baptizing!! whoo!! i am excited, it was sad to see president bennion go but i am excited for president Nelson as well. Sounds like tyler is doing great! i hope that you all have fun while you are staying here! drive safe. i love you all thank you for your support! Hurrah For Israel!!
Elder MIchael Olsen

Elder Olsen 21 June 2009

Hello Everyone!. . well i had a good week. Allright so i am pretty excited, I got a call from president 2 nights ago. And i am staying here!! i will be training a new missionary. i am really excited that i will be able to be here for at least 6 more weeks. and the other elder that I am living with is training this transfer as well, so we are going to have the most obedient hard working pad in the misssion! Elder Brough, one of the elders that i live with is going home this wednesday, his 2 years are up. he is a really cool kid. i am not sure if i have ever talked about him before. but he says that he is going to come and visit you guys when you get home. he likes our family he took one of my family pics and hung it up over his desk haha. President also assigned me to be the district leader this transfer. So steve or anyone if you have any advice for me on how to run a good district please let me know. Church was good yesterday. we had 4 investigators there. both keith and cynthia have been to church 3 times now. and baptism is definitely very close for both of them,. they both are a little scared of committment so please pray for them. this last week pastor yousuf and his wife seraphim moved to brooklyn. we helped them move. they found a really cheap apartment next to a friend. it is really small and in kind of a bad neighborhood. not bad though. it is amazing how much that family has given up to join the church! they were living in a 4 bedroom giant house, everything paid for! car, gas, food, insurance, and they were sponsoring them and their kids. the lutheran church was doing ALOT for them. and they gave it all up. he pretty much has no money. the elders in the area that they live in now are okay. one of them is really kind of a peice of work. but the other one is a good missionary. they will be working with them now. but they should be getting baptized really soon. I hope that the new president will let me attend the baptism. especially because javed wants me to baptize him. I love you all thanks for your support and love and prayers. i couldnt be doing this without you all
Hurrah For Israel!!
Elder Michael Olsen

Elder Olsen pic 15 June 2009

Elder Olsen letter 15 June 2009

Well this week went okay. this is week 6 of this transfer, and i have been here for 3 transfers now. so it is possible that i will be leaving this area. but who knows. we had president interviews last week and they went really good. it was my last interview with president bennion the next one will be with president nelson. that will be weird. president gave me alot of good advice, it was nice talking to him. he asked me if i wanted to stay in this area and i said yes. but that doesnt mean that i will be,. but i think i will. i will let you know next week. lazaros kids were able to come to church yesterday, it was really cool. and lazaro bought craig a Quad scriptures set, it was so nice. craig was so thankfull. no one else made it too church :( i seem to be having the same problem that tyler is having at the moment. getting these amazing people to church every week! but the work is definitely moving along. i really hope that i get to stay here for another transfer. Tomorrow we are going to help pastor yousuf and his wife move to queens, they finally found a place there. so he will be getting baptized there. it is amazing how much that man has sacrificed just to join the church, i am just amazed. all of our other investigators are kind of on hold until they come to church. cynthia is still doing good. we are meeting with her tomorrow and are going to re committ her. we have a missionary fireside coming up on the 28th of this month. to present the ward mission plan. i hope that i dont get transfered. If nyone has any good ideas for a powerfull fireside.. please let me know. it sounds like everything is going great back home! i am glad that everyone is alive after what sounds like a pretty crazy camping trip!! sammy is a tuff kid. So you guys are going to be gone for 2 months.. where are you going? what are you going to do? i didnt even know that christina and Ligi were in korea! haha that is crazy, but really cool too. sounds like tyler is doing great! i will definitely write justin! i love you all! sorry i dont have more time to write more. thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. i love you all
Hurrah For Israel
Love Elder Olsen

Hey everyone!!
well we had a really busy week!actually this whole transfer has been really busy. Craig was confirmed yesterday and was baptized the sunday before that. he is way solid. he was ordained a priest yesterday as well. he is doing great. we have alot alot of investigators right now. so we have been really busy teaching alot. We set a goal at the begining of the transfer to hit mission goals every week this transfer(reaching mission goals is pretty rare, not very many missionaires do it often). As well as to get 7 Baptisms.

Elder Mikie Olsen Letter 20 May 2009

Hello Family!!

well everything is going great! we had a great week. we worked really hard, we set some really high goals for this transfer. this last week we were one member present lesson short of hitting our goals :( but we had everything else. yesterday was stake conference, it was really good. it was broadcasting from slc conference center. and was shown to like most of the north east united states. president Eyring talked as well as elder Hales. it was really a treat. not very many people in our ward came, that was a little disappointing. but craig came and really liked it, he is getting baptized next Sunday. he is way solid and is good to go. I don't remember if i told you but gloria and george will not be able to get baptized for a little while. Gloria has a husband that she hasn't seen in over ten years. she and george want to get married and than get married and than baptized. so they are still good to go, it might just take a while cause she has no idea where her husband is. so please pray for them. Pastor --------- is still good, He found a place to live. he has a friend in Queens who has an apt that he is going to let him use for a while. They are going to be moving soon. so most likely i will not get to see their baptism. but that's okay. he still has not found a job, please pray for him and his wife-------. We have a man that we are teaching who name is Keith . he lives in our apartment complex. he is a cool guy he is committed for the 6th of June. please pray for him as well he is really scared of commitment and needs help to quit smoking. And please pray for elder alder and I. We are really working hard and want to have allot of success this transfer. Well i love all of you!. thank you for everything that you do for me! that is good that the DC house is going to sell. I love you all
take care.

Hurrah for israel!!

Elder Olsen

Elder Mikie Olsen Letter 4 May 2009

Hey Family!

Well we had kind of a slow week numbers wise, but it was still a good week.
We set some pretty sweet goals this week! we want to end off this transfer
with a bang! This transfer has been quite humbling actually. I just can’t
believe that Heavenly Father has been blessing me with these amazing experiences. I am realizing more and more every day how much he influences everyday life, especially as a missionary. it is humbling that he trusts us enough to send or guide us to people who are so Elect. Craig came to church again yesterday, he loved it. It was fast and testimony meeting and
the microphone was broken, it was pretty funny. Cause of summer sales the size of our ward pretty much doubled so you had to talk pretty loud
so that the people in the back could hear you. So there was this man there who is Pentecostal and he was talking to craig after priesthood and the man was asking him how long he has been coming to church and why and if he is a part of the church. craig told him that he is a part of the
church and than pretty much bore his testimony to him of the church and
why he comes. it was amazing! we are meeting with him tonight. he is going
g to get baptized on the 24th.. the same day as gloria and george, they are doing good as well. and should be able to get baptized on the 24th. So
remember how I told you that pastor --------- said that he was going to have the whole Book of mormon read in a week. well he has read the whole book of mormon twice in the last two weeks!!! he loves it! i honestly can’t believe it its crazy! i was talking to him the other day and he was telling me about different stories in the book of Mormon that he likes, he
really likes Moroni. In pakistan he started his own church, and i guess that he has quite a lot of members. he told me that he wants to go back to
pakistan and tell them all about the Book Of Mormon and convert them to
our church. and he says that he is their leader, they love and trust him
and they will believe what he tells them! How amazing is that! He is solid but he is a little worried about being able to provide for his family.
right now he lives in a house that is owned by the lutheran church and he
recieves a salary from them. he told me that he is willing to do anything but cook food for people. And he also said that he knows that god will
provide a way for him. were going over there with the bishop this week and we are going to try and come up with a plan for everything. cause he said that the second that he gets baptized he is going to be kicked out of
his house. so it will take alot of preparation and help from the ward. but i know that we can do it and that the lord will provide a way for us to
get this man baptized soon! i am so excited for him! And his daughter and wife are really interested too and will most likely get baptized as well. Everything is going great! i really hope that i will stay here for another transfer at least but you never know. transfers are next tuesday. I actually hope that i will be able to stay with elder alder another transfer, he hasnt had a baptism yet and we have 3 scheduled for the 1st week of next transfer. and i think that it would really help motivate him for the rest of his mission. well i love you all i have the best family in the
world! Hurrah for Israel!!
Elder Olsen (michael)

Elder Olsen Letter 27 April 2009

Hey Everyone.

well i had a great week! everything is going great for me here in newyork! alot of really cool things happened this week but i dont have time to talk about all of them. So there is this girl named Krystal in our ward she is like 23 and a recent convert of a little over a year. She is awesome so anyways last week she brought a friend (craig) to church he reall liked it. so we set up a meeting with him. we met atthe ostler home, they are an awesome family. they remind me alot of our family, they have 5 kids all boys and the youngest is in 5th grade. the dad is a general contractor but trades stocks as well. and the mom is just super nice to everyone. so yeah alot like our family.So anyways this was like a legit Prach My Gospel lesson. we met at the ------ home with krystal there as well. we had dinner and talked about random things and than we taught a lesson around the dinner table. The ------- family testified as well. and krystal talked about how she found out that the BOM was true. it was amazing! the spirit was really strong and craig was really soaking it all up. he just had this look on his face like wow i cant believe what i am feeling right now. it was really cool. My comp elder ------- is a good kid. but he gets nervous alot, he was sweating in the lesson with craig when he was teaching. but he is getting alot better at teaching. So craig came to church again yesterday and really liked it, it was ward conference so we got to hear from a member of the stake presidency. We are going to FHE with craig tonight for the singles in the ward. and we are going to have a little lesson either before or after and we will probably commit him to be baptized soon! so please pray for him, that he will accept. Cynthia came to church yesterday! it was unexpected,we commited her to come last week but ever since than we havent been able to get a hold of her but she just showed up yesterday at church. That was really cool! The ward here is doing well, we got a bunch of new people here last week that are here for summer sales, one of themi went to high school with. weird huh. but the ward is reallly starting to pick up and i think that we will be having alot of sucess soon. We set a companionship goal this week that we are going to extend a baptismal commit every day. So that should be fun. I want and think that i can get 5 more baptisms in this area so i have set a personal goal to do so. I think that I will be here for a few more transfers. welll i love you all so much! mom and dad you are the greatest! thank you for everything that you do for me! i will be praying for you all.


Hurrah For Israel!!!Elder Michael Olsen.

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Elder Olsen Letter 20 March 2009

Hello Family!!
well I had a really cool week. We had an appointment with Pastor
------------- this morning and it went really well. We got him a Book Of
Mormon in URDU his native language. He told me that he would have the
Whole thing read by next week! ha he is so awesome. He told us today
about all of the small miracles that led up to us finding and
teaching him. So first of all back when he was in Pakistan he met a
Mormon and got a very bad idea of the church, he thought that we were
Preaching anti-Christ things. Two days before we knocked on his door
he was outside of the court house on main street here in patchogue
preaching and passing out cards and pamphlets and stuff. He said
that someone asked him if he was part of Joseph Smiths church! He had
never heard the name Joseph smith. Than two days later we knock
on his door, it is pouring rain and we probably looked miserable. He
didn’t know that we were Mormons, he wasn’t sure what we were. He has
Lived here since 2000 and never once has allowed anyone into his home.
Than that first night that we were over there his brother in law
just happens to stop by unexpected who happens to be a member of our
church. His daughter is going to Columbia University in manhattan and
she is vary interested in the church as well. she was showing Pastor
-------------- allot of things on MOrmon.org. we didn’t even tell them about the
web site. His wife seems very interested as well. He told us again
today that he wants to join us, and he is getting serious; he is
already thinking of all the things that will have to change in his
life to become a member. There are allot of huge things that will
change in his life. He works for the Methodist church, he lives in a
house owned by the church and that is where he gets his income. But he
told us today that after he finishes the book of mormon he is going to
fast and pray about what he should do. He says that he knows that
if god wants him to join than he knows that god will provide a way for
him to do it. It was such an amazing experience! he is going to be an
amazing missionary. back in pakistan he has his own church that he
started. He said that he is going to go back and get them all to
Convert to our church! I am so humbled that the lord has trusted me
With such a great opportunity to help this man find the truth. please
pray that he will have the courage and the faith to do what he must do
when he finds out that the book of Mormon is true. please pray for
my companion and I that we will be able to teach him with the spirit,
and recognize his needs. Gloria and george are still on track to get
Baptized, and we got allot of other exciting people too, but you will
have to wait till next week to hear more. Jesus Christ is at the head
Of the church! I know it! I love you all! Thank you for your prayers
and support!
Hurrah For Israel!!
Elder Olsen

well we had a pretty good week. we still dont have our car back! it has been about 3 weeks now. it is getting kind of annoying, cause there is alot of things that we could be doing to help the work out here but we cant cause it is too far away. but is has been good nothaving a car at the same time too. we have been doing alot of finding. Here is a cool story. so friday night when we were planning we didnt have any appointments all morning. and we couldnt thi nk of anything to do. so we decided that we were going to knock doors all morning till 3. well we woke up the next morning and it was just pouring rain! seriously it was raining hard. so we got ready prepared our message for the day and went out to tract. my comp had an umbrella but i dont like umbrellas. i actually like walking out in the rain. so we were soaking wet in a matter of minutes! we probably looked so rediculous. but we had alot of success tracting that day. alot of people were letting us in their homes to teach lessons and we got alot of new investigators! it was amazing. .i think that we had so much success that day because of our attitude. it was terrible weather and people thought we were crazy for even being outside. but elder alder and i decided that we were going to have fun working! so we did, we were having a good time and people could see that . it was really neat. church was realy good yesterday. lazaro got the calling to be the new gospel principles teacher! he is amazing. dad steve you would love this man! he had an amazing lesson prepared. it was on faith in jesus christ. He still needs to learn to tone it down sometimes, but that is just cause he is not used to our culture yet and he is a very loud and emotional person. he told everyone is gospel principles yesterday that he was a navy seal for a long time and lead a team and everything. served in Iraq and alot of other places too. he still works for the goverment. he is just a great guy but i think that he scares alot of people. haha He got ordained a priest yesterday and kind of spoke in tounges. it was interesting. i really dont think i could explain it via e mail so you can ask me about it on mothers day, which is approaching very soon! he gave george one of our investigators at church who is commited for the 24th his QUAD(Book of mormon, Bible, Pearl of great price and D C) he is a very good man. we had 8 Investigators at church yesterday. it was a pretty good day. this morning we went over to the zone leaders pad cause that is where we do laundry and they made me breakfast and cinnamon rolls with the candles and everything. it was really nice. well i love you all so much you are amazing! thanks so much for the packages! i will be praying that the deer crest house will go through! and just be praying for all of you!


Hurrah For Israel!!


Elder MIkey Olsen