27 Sept 2010

Hey everyone

Well yesterday was an amazing day! I was able to baptize Diane, it was seriously one of the best baptisms of my mission. Diane is a really special lady. Her 2 daughters came Denique and Shanell, and she also brought 2 of her friends to the baptism. It was a really spiritual baptism. Denique and Shanell will be baptized soon as well. Diane is going to be such a big help to the ward here, I really think that she will be the Relief Society president soon. ha ha . . It was the perfect last Sunday of my mission yesterday, I feel really lucky and blessed to have had such an amazing mission. I have been thinking about that allot lately and I really feel like I didn't deserve any of the amazing experiences that i have had. I have been so blessed with so many amazing people that i have been able to help come into the church and be baptized. This last week I was able to go to the temple in Manhattan, that was really cool. President and Sister Nelson came as well and it was really nice to be able to talk with President. Well i have really loved my mission, believe me when i say that i really don't deserve any of the blessings and miracles that i have seen and been a part of on my mission. They have all been tender mercies of the Lord. I am not perfect, and i make many mistakes every day, but i guess the most important thing that i have learned from my mission is that about the Atonement of Christ. That even though i make mistakes, i can be forgiven. I cant accomplish anything on my own, especially when doing the lords work, but through the atonement i can do anything that the Lord needs me too. There have been so many times on my mission that I will walk out of a lesson with someone that was just incredible, there was a great out pouring of the spirit and i truly felt like I was an instrument for God, And the first thing that i always think is why me? I make so many mistakes and am so in perfect, but yet God will still use me as an instrument. I know that it is only because of the Atonement of Christ. I love all of you and i am so grateful for all of your prayers and support, i have really felt their power through out my mission. I love this gospel and i love Jesus Christ and i hope that i can serve him the rest of my life faithfully. The church is true and the God of Israel leads our lives, if we will let him.
Hurrah For Israel!!
Elder Michael Olsen

30 Aug 2010

Well it was a good week. This morning was cool we ran down to Coney Island beach! it took us a while but it felt good. We are going to do it every P-Day the rest of the transfer. Diane came to church again yesterday but her daughters did not, we are meeting with them tonight and hopefully we will be able to baptize all of them soon. Diane is doing great! she reads from the book of mormon every day and is really gaining a strong testimony, and the best part is that she is not even focused on baptism. She has her eyes on the temple! that is where she wants to go! So i am stoked, she is a great lady, mom and dad you will definitely meet her when you come here. We had a cool guy named marlen come yesterday too towards the end of church. He is from trinidad and is the fiance of a less active that we have been doing service for every week. Just helping her clean out her garage and stuff like that. Well he came with her for a little bit and this week we are going to start teaching him. I have a good feeling about him for this month. He is Rastafarian, so the beliefs are a little different but he is open to the lessons. We have another lady named ann marie that looks good too, but she is really struggling letting jesus in her life. she has had a really rough childhood with abuse and stuff and doesn't want to let those feelings go. But she is really nice and knows that she needs to change, she is just scared. She has a 18 year old son that is pretty ghetto and a 4 year old daughter named Tori who is really cute. Yesterday she could not come to church because it was Tori's birthday and she had to take her to the prison to visit her father. But she should be coming next week, she has accepted to be baptized but she needs to make a lot of changes. We have 2 months left of this "year of miracles" that we started last november. We set a goal to baptize 800 people about double of what we have averaged the last 5 to 6 years. Well to be completely honest our misssion has not changed that much. and we are basically doing the same thing that we were doing a year ago. We have about 400 baptisms left. Our district set a goal for September to have 8 baptisms. I think that we could really do it, we have 6 people in our district. So pray for our goal! I love you guys and hope you have a great week.
Love Elder Olsen