7/5/10 - A Great Baptism Day!

Picture is of Sister Anderson, Me, Susan and the Bishop who baptized her. Neat day!

Email 07/05/10 - Waited for 7 years...Finally got baptized!!

HI!
How is everyone doing? This week has been just wonderful! We worked so hard and we were able to see so many things come from our efforts. First of all Susan got baptized. She has been waiting for 7 year and had had a STRONG testimony about the Book of Mormon for 4 years. The Spirit was so strong when she got baptized and you knew that she had gone through so much to get there. Her husband has been the set-back but finally agreed to be there for support. He is pretty against the church, but the service went very well and he started to open up to everyone after time went on. She bore her testimony at the baptism and it was so beautiful and powerful She invited all her non member friends and she has already give them all a Book of Mormon. She is a great missionary already.
Also this week we were able to receive 7 new investigators and one of the new ones came to church. Daren is his name and he has researched about us on the Internet but does not believe or take any notice of the anti-literature. He is great! And his daughter is 15 and likes to listen in the lessons. She didn't want to wake up for church so she didn't end up coming. We also have Nick who is supposed to be baptized on the 7th of Aug. He has stopping smoking and we gave him some lollies (Popsicles) to help him stop. So hopefully that will help. He is so good! The spirit is always so strong in our lessons with him. We also met a man last week and we found out that his flat mate was baptized in our church in Ghana is 2006 and he has not been to church since he has lived in the UK. So we are going to activate one and baptize the other. We are being so blessed to find these people.
We have been asked by the mission president to focus on the hours of finding and to get people to church. We also have been given "SOS" S-Spirit O-Obedience S-Skills. We need the spirit to guide us and to have the best navigational system and we need obedience to be able to get all the blessing we stand in need of and we need to have the best skills for when we find the elect to help them understand the gospel. So that is what we have been working on.
And this week we have Zone Conference which will sadly be my last one but I will make it the BEST! Sister Anderson is so funny, we have good times together and she just loves old cars and every time we see an old car she wants to knock on that persons door and convert them. I know that we will convert someone just because they have a nice old car. She is also talking about Physics all the time and I am always trying to learn so I can be smarter.
Well time is up and I don't have much more to talk about.
I love you all!
Take care!
Sister Olsen

Email 06/28/10 - Being a missionary is wonderful!

Hello all...
I don't have time to write much but this week has been full of sun and it makes me so happy! I have been getting a good farmer's tan and burn. Don't worry Mom, I am not putting any sunscreen on :) I'M FINE! But really its been beautiful and the work has been so busy and wonderful. We are preparing for a BAPTISM this Saturday and we are so excited! We have been finding more people to teach and we are been so blessed. So much has happened but I have no time. Just know that I am staying happy and Sister Anderson and I get a long great and we are seeing miracles happen. We also did a service project all day on Saturday for the community and painted a fence. It's fun! Well got to go! I love you all and keep in touch!

Love,
Sister Olsen

06/21/10 - Pictures from Watford

Picture 1: Sister Niji and Sister Nyman who has left me but we had good times :)










Picture 2: Sister Shattuck and I when we just received our greenies. Sister Anderson has the blonde hair and Sister Shattuck's companion is from New Zealand. Her name is Sister Campbell.

Email 06/21/10 - What a wonder week with my new greenie!

HiYa!

Oh it has been such a great week! Now too much exciting things happening but I got a new companion. Her name is Sister Anderson and she is from Provo, Utah and she went to BYU and took one class at UVU. She was going to school before the mission and majoring in Mechanical Engineering. She is a smart one and so I am learning a lot and she like to work on cars. She is teaching me a lot about it all. Ha! She is such a wonderful person. She just turned 21 and has one sister and 2 step brothers and 1 step sister. She has a strong testimony and is willing to work hard. We get along really well and are having fun together.

We found out this week that we have to have 17 hours of finding in the week instead of 15. And president urged all of us trainers to get the hours starting this week. Sister Anderson was such a trooper and endured it all for her first week. She works hard and she is better then I was at being a greenie and talking to people. We have found a few potential investigators this week and its exciting to teach them. We also had Nick come to church and he stayed for all the meetings. He is great and we are excited to see him progress, He has stopped smoking and is willing to keep the commandments. the spirit is so strong when we teach him. Also, Susan, she passed her Baptism interview yesterday and she is absolutely amazing! She will be baptized on July 3. We have been so blessed even though the weather has been cold this week we are loving the weather today with blue skies and it should be nice the rest of the week.

We also have been able to see some former investigators that were solid before but just stopped coming to church all of a sudden. We were are to teach them and we found out that they had been reading Anti Mormon and talking to their old priest. It was hard to hear that was the reason why they were not coming but we were able to answer a lot of their concerns and invite them to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet and its amazing that even though we are thrown with a lot of negativity as missionaries. We have the opportunity to TESTIFY boldly and the spirit is always so strong in those lessons. I am so grateful for the knowledge and testimony that I have.

Watford is a great area and it has been a lot of fun getting to know Sister Anderson. We are having another Zone P-day today and so I have been way behind on writing. I promise I will write soon. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for all your prayers and love.

Take Care!

Love, Sister Olsen

Email 06/15/10 - I'm Training Again!!!

Hello Everyone!

Oh my goodness! This week has been full of excitement and surprises. It has been so busy from getting bikes so that we go get places faster when the buses are not efficient and also being able to watch the World Cup for football here. USA played England and its the biggest thing of the year for them so we couldn't do missionary work that night and we were able to actually watch it. It wasn't that exciting but it was fun. Also we have been blessed to have the Women who has been investigating for 4 years, set her baptism date for July 3rd. We are so excited for her and I will be able to see it! I am staying in Watford and Sister Nyman is moving to Stevenage. I will be getting a brand new missionary! I was shocked when I heard that I was training for my last transfers. Its time to set the bar a little higher. I am actually super excited about it, but I also have to remember all that I'm supposed to do when I train. It has been so long. But I don't know where she is from. Sister Shattuck is also training. Only 2 sisters are coming out and we both have the privilege to train them. I know that the new missionaries are from New Zealand and the other from Utah, I think Salt Lake area, but that's all that I know. Tomorrow we will pick them up and have a training and then come back to Watford and get to work. It will be a lot of fun. Plus we have been able to see so many wonderful things happen lately.

We have an Investigator who is great and has been prepared. He has a girlfriend and she has a daughter who is 12. They ended up coming to a lesson we had and they asked the best questions and the spirit was so strong. The 12 year old wants to become christen and her mom said she would support her. It has been so wonderful to see people that are interested in learning about the TRUTH. I love teaching it and I'm excited to see them more.

But that's about all I have time for this week. I am so excited to train again. I ask for your prayers. I love you all and thanks for your support and love. Missionary work is the best! Love you!

Sister Olsen

Email 06/07/10 - Busy Busy Week

Hello!
How are you all doing? This week has been so busy and we have been working really, really hard and finding a lot. The days have been beautiful. It has warmed up this week again but it looks like next week will be England weather. RAIN! so pray for us! ha, the work still goes on. But really we have been able to find people and teach them on the spot because they are interested in learning more. This week I have come to realize how much I love teaching the gospel and helping people understand how they can come to know for themselves of the truthfulness. I love testifying and being a tool in Heavenly Father's hands. I don't have much time this week. We are going down to London for a zone P-day.
I love you all and I am so grateful for all your prayers and love.
I love you all!
Sister Olsen