Monday, February 1, 2010

1 Feb 2010

well we had a great week! We hit the new mission standards of excellence or mission goals. they are the goals that we set that each companionship needs to shoot for if we are going to get the 800 baptisms before november. They are pretty tough to acheive and i think we are the first companionship to reach them( they were made official just 2 weeks ago) We are working really hard! We never take a break from working and we are being blessed for it. Every night we come home just exhausted, we actually go to bed early most nights because we are too tired. Every night i just feel weary and spiritually drained, but every morning its like a renewal of my body and spirit. about a week and a half ago we got a media referral for a lady named yolanda jones. she ordered a dvd from a tv ad. we went and delivered it and just shared a quick message and set up a return apt. we went back just this last saturday afternoon. and met some of her family, she has 6 kids(all girls) but only 3 still live at home, the others are all older. well we taught her about the book of mormon and joseph smith. At the end after we commited her to read and pray, she told us that she had a dream last night, and that in her dream someone came to her and said that 2 young men were going to come and teach her and that she should recieve them and accept what they teach, she had this dream friday night and we came on saturday! how awesome is that! and the cool thing is that i have been praying that heavenly father would give people visions and dreams to prepare them to recieve the gospel. God truly does answer prayers. She came to church yesterday as well. total we had 6 people at church yesterday. Anthony is doing awesome! and he is going to be baptized next sunday. our zone is on fire right now, total there are 11 solid commits for the next few weeks. so it is going to be awesome. Well we still need alot of prayers! i really want to just blow it up this transfer. we have 4 weeks left, and alot of people that we have that need to be baptized plus plenty others that the lord has prepared that we just need to find. I really think that we could get 10 baptisms this transfer, but its gonna take alot of faith and miracles. My comp is awesome! i can tell that working this hard is taking a toll on him, but he is trucking right along. he is really excited to be "tearing it up" as he says haha. . well i love you all and i love sharing this gospel. Have a great week!
Hurrah For Israel!!
Elder Olsen(michael)

18 Jan 2010

I want to really focus on this transfer is just finding a ton of people. Especially cause I am now officially the mission “finding trainer” I will be starting with the Aps and training them and than the other zone leaders. So that will be really fun. I have been studying ch. 9 of pmg a lot lately. I am really excited for this next transfer, I think this is the companion that I have been waiting for my whole mission. We are literally going to exhaust ourselves in the work. He is a really hard worker! He is a bull rider from spanish fork, grew up on a farm and everything im pretty sure. But he is good and really obedient. And this is his 1st as a Zl so he will do whatever I say. I will give you some reports on how I am doing on finding those 30 new gators a week. I think we can definitely do it. I wanted to know if you ever faced this problem on your mission….
So there is just this attitude in the mission that has really been driving me crazy lately. I seriously have been thinking about it a lot. Last week I went on AP exchanges and even the AP had this attitude, I was shocked. This is the attitude: it doesn’t matter if you are obedient or not; it doesn’t effect how many baptisms you have.. The P-Dub(piece of work or disobedient) missionaires baptize more than the obedient ones. AHHHHH it is driving me crazy and its frankly a bunch of crap! I am seriously so sick of this attitude. Missionaires think that if they don’t baptize its okay, or its not their fault. There is nothing that they could have done to change the outcome. It just goes against everything that pmg and the scriptures say. “open your mouths and you shall be laden with many sheaves!” sheaves are convert baptisms. It doesn’t say open your mouths and maybe you will be laden with sheaves. It says you will! I just wish everyone could see how much of their success they control. Well after the exchange with the Ap I had finally convinced him that he was wrong. And his attitude is now changed. He says that this next transfer is going to be a blow out one for him. Its his last transfer. So did you see this in your mission at all? How did you deal with it? Its all whats in our minds. “Whatever the mind of man can conceive it can achieve” If we think we are going to baptize than we will, and if we think that oh I cant baptize,… well you probably wont. It is true that there are some disobedient missionaires that baptize a lot but that’s because they know that they can. They have faith in the converting power of the spirit and they have faith in themselves being able to teach and committ by that spirit. Thus they baptize. And than there are some obedient missionaires who have exactly the opposite mind set. They love the lord and they want to keep his commandments and the misison rules but they do not have real faith! We have all heard you cant convert someone past your own conversion. I believe that is directly related to our own faith in the power of the holy ghost. If we approach every single person that we talk to with the right attitude and optimism and confidence in the spirit, like every person that we talk to we know that the holy ghost is going to be there testifying to them, its just a matter if they are able to recognize the promptings. But if we approach every one like this than I think that we are allowing the spirit to work through us. At full capacity! But if we approach someone and we think oh they will probably not accept the gospel, than they wont! We personally are restricting the spirit to work through us. We don’t have faith that it will really touch someones heart and they will have the desire to change and to repent. This is so plain and simple to me. I just wish that everyone would understand this. Well please let me know if you have any thoughts on this or remarks. Or maybe you want to do some study on this. But I just believe that the power and capacity of the spirit is directly connected to our own faith and confidence in the spirit and ourselves to deliver the message it will put into our minds and hearts.

well sorry that was kind of long. but i am just really frustrated about it. i think that best way to fix this problem is to do 2 things. baptize alot of people and i mean alot. like shatter all mission culture or generalizations of how many baptisms the average missionary or even the great missionaries have. I seriously want to just have an explosive transfer. everytime i think about it my chest just starts pumping, I love this work! and 2nd i am going to be exactly obedient. i have been praying over this alot, and telling god all about this and my idea to fix this missions culture. I fully believe that he is backing me on this one. And that he will provide us with specific miracles that we are in need of to accomplish what we need to make a big change in everyones attitude in the mission. but i am going to need alot of prayers and so is my companion. and the people that we are working with. so please pray for us! specifically pray that people in our proselyting area will recieve visions and dreams that will prepare them to recieve the gospel. all right i have time for 1 cool story from this last week. so we have been teaching this man named david watson. he is 42 years old and had a stroke and a heart attack 3 years ago. he is not doing too great health wise. but he is a great guy. so last week we found him a ride to church but we couldnt get a hold of him sunday moring. . so we met with him this last week, we were with a member named bro. craig. we knocked on his door and he said that he didnt have time because he was going to bible study. well i convinced him to let us in until his ride came to pick him up. i asked him why he didnt come to church and he said that he wanted to go to the church that is right by his house cause it is easier and that is where he was last week. well i felt that i probably had about 5 minutes to teach this man. I taught the apostasy, if i have learned anything here in jamaica it is the apostasy . my testimony has grown so much of the great apostasy. I am right in the middle of it everyday here it is really crazy. so i feel that i have gotten really good at teaching it. so i taught the apostsy for a few minutes and just tore up any faith or belief that he had in any other church and than i built him back up with the restoration. It was really powerfull and at the end i said so david you cant go to any other church! you need to come to gods church and be baptized. He accepted to be baptized on the 31st and came to church yesterday. he really liked it. I love the spirit and the power that it has. I know that with god all things are possible. I love you all and i am gratefull for your support and prayers. Vive Israel!!!
Elder Olsen

Thursday, January 14, 2010

11 Jan 2010

This is a “homework assignment” that I gave to Shantel Smart last week. Elder Wiggins and I baptized her about 3 months ago. “homework” is something that I am doing with all of my investigators now. I have found that it works really well, it holds people accountable for their commits and we as missionaries are really able to help people keep their reading commits. In stead of just shoving a book mark into 3 Nephi 11 and asking them to read and pray… I am giving them homework assignments with questions and steps to follow. It really helps people learn how to study and have spiritual experiences on their own. It helps them develop a deep love and understanding of the scriptures. Thus making a lifelong conversion more likely! I’m sure that you are impressed with Shantel’s answers to these questions and she has only been a member for 3 months! It has been working really well with all of our investigators and we have a lot of people that are progressing towards baptism. Each homework assignment is different (tailored to the person) some are really deep like this one and others are much more simple. The steps for this assignment were;
1) Pray out loud, tell god what you’re going to do, ask for the spirit…
2) Read the questions and than read Alma 42…
3) Write your answers to the questions…
4) Pray out loud again (ask god if your questions are correct)
5) Ponder for a few minutes and than read Alma 42 again…
6) Re-write or revise or add to your answers…
7)Pray out loud, Ask god if your answers are right, thank him for helping you learn…

Shantel was so excited when she finished the assignment. She actually did it twice. It was a really spiritual experience for her. And her testimony has grown a lot. I just thought that I would share this with you all. Elder Tyler Olsen I will send you a lot more information on this method of committing. I have a few case studies on it.
Elder Michael Olsen

11 Jan 2010

Hey everyone
Well I had a pretty good week. This is week 6 of the transfer so don’t send anything to my apartment. Send everything to the mission office address (8569 60 Dr. Elmhurst, NY, 11373) I think that I am going to be staying here but you never know. I really do hope that I will be able to stay here for at least one more transfer. So everyone please pray for me that I can stay! We have a lot of really good things happening right now. Yesterday we only had 3 investigators at church. But all 3 of them are moving well and should be ready to be baptized in the next few weeks. The Frazier family was sick yesterday or else they would have come. So pray for them that they will be feeling better soon. They are really awesome. I don’t remember if I told you guys about them last week. But basically troy got baptized over 10 years ago and was never really active. Now he has a wife and 4 kids. We stopped by last Sunday night and found him. We have taught them 3 times this last week and they are doing awesome. Tuesday night was the first time that we met the wife. They have a 2 year old daughter that is a little crazy most of the time. And she was going crazy while we were teaching the lesson. We watched the Restoration movie, and the whole time that the movie was going the mom had to tend for the little girl. She was really sidetracked; she even had to leave the room a couple of times. We had all ready met with the dad and the kids before this night and we knew that they were all good and that they would accept the gospel, the mom was the only one that we were not sure about because we had not met her yet. So basically the mom is the make it or break it one. Eternal family sealed in the temple or not! So we were really hoping that she would be receptive. Especially because troy and the kids were so awesome. So right at the start of the movie I just started praying, I prayed all through out the movie. I was seriously pleading with the lord. That she would feel the spirit and know that these things are true, that despite all of the distractions that she would be able to feel the spirit and be touched by it. I remember actually saying those words. Well the movie finished and we testified and committed them all to pray and ask god if what they saw in the movie really happened. The next day we came by again, opened with a prayer and than asked if they had all prayed. They all had prayed, the mom said that she had a question but that she was embarrassed to ask it. She told us that she didn’t know if it was normal or why she felt the way she did… but that yesterday when she was watching the movie she just felt like crying. Ha-ha it was awesome… so we taught about the fruits of the spirit. God truly answers our prayers and hears our cries. When we are sincere and have faith and our will is aligned with his it will be done. I love this work. Please continue to pray for me and our investigators. I love you all
Hurrah for Israel!!!
Elder Michael Olsen

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

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)

Friday, December 25, 2009

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

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

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