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
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
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
elder Olsen
Sunday, August 23, 2009
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
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
Elder Michal Olsen
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
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
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
Monday, July 20, 2009
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
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
Thursday, July 16, 2009
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
Hurrah For Israel!!
Elder Michael Olsen
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