Hey everyone! I don't have a whole lot to share this week. It's been kind of a rough week but it turned out pretty good. We had seven people come to church and there's a lot of potential in them.

We moved up Olga's baptismal date to this Thursday because we have stake conference this weekend! She had her interview yesterday and she is solid and ready to go. We tried to get her to have a member baptize her but she asked me to so I'm excited for that. It's really been neat to see that change come into her life. She's seeing a lot of blessings too. It's been amazing for me to see the past couple of months how quickly the gospel can change lives.

We have also started focusing a lot on the Valenzuela family (I think I mentioned them about a month ago maybe). They have been investigating the church for a really long time but it seems like a lot of the previous missionaries have just been waiting around for them to get baptized. We set up daily contact with them and we are reading from the Book of Mormon together every day. We decided to start it from the beginning and now they are getting really into it. Things are going really well with them and I'm excited!

I'm sorry I don't have a whole lot to share this week. Hopefully next week will be more interesting. I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Elder Olsen

Hey everyone! This week has been a bit crazy. It began last Monday when we got transfer calls. We weren't really expecting anything to happen but Elder Farnsworth got a call to serve in El Paso. My new companion's name is Elder Moore from Minnesota. He's only been out two transfers and he's been in the Gila Valley for his whole mission so far and it's almost all white over there. They did over 90% of their teaching in English so he's struggling with Spanish a bit but he'll get there. He's very dedicated and hard-working so hopefully we have an awesome transfer!

Also on Monday night, we had an incredible lesson with Olga. She told us that she liked the Book of Mormon and all of the things that she was learning but she wasn't sure if it was true yet. We read a bit with her and then watched Elder Holland's Book of Mormon talk from last conference. Then we all knelt down and prayed and promised her that she could receive an answer. She offered an incredible prayer! It was so simple but she asked directly if the Book of Mormon was true and if this church was true. Then we waited for about five minutes. The spirit was incredible! It may have been the strongest that I've felt it so far on my mission. After about five minutes she looked up with tears in her eyes and told us that she knew it was true! She told us that she felt an overwhelming burning sensation in her chest and that now she knew! It was one of the coolest experiences of my mission so far and she is preparing to be baptized on May 1st.

However, we all know that there is opposition in all things. It came last night and it came hard. We were eating dinner when we got a phone call from her telling us that she was getting kicked out of her trailer. Until a couple of weeks ago, she had been out of work since December, and consequently had fallen behind on her rent. She came home from church and they told her that she had to be out by that night. We left dinner and went over to see what we could do. We helped her pack everything up and made a bazillion phone calls and finally we found a member that is going to let her borrow a trailer for a couple weeks. We're not quite sure what she's going to do long-term, but we're grateful that we were able to work something out for now. When we went over to unlock the trailer, the member that is letting her borrow it told her his conversion story and bore a powerful testimony. Hopefully what could have been a faith breaking experience has turned into a faith making one.

While all this was happening last night something else kind of crazy happened. We went to the dumpsters behind the Family Dollar to get some boxes for Olga to put her stuff in. While we were looking, we found a box that was full of stuff. Elder Moore opened it up and found a soft cooler filled with all sorts of merchandise from the store. Somebody from the store had apparently been putting it there to steal when they took the trash out. We took the cooler into the store and the cashier saw us and looked away really quickly. She seemed really frantic so we went to the only other employee in the store, but she looked just as shocked when we talked to her. They ended up telling us some story about some guy robbing them but it was obvious when we left and thought about it a little more that they were the ones who had been in on it. Unfortunately since it was about 8:00 on Sunday night, they were the only ones working but oh well. We did what we could.

Well, that's just a little piece of this crazy week. You never know what you're going to get on a mission! That's what's so fun about it. There's also nothing I've experienced as rewarding as seeing someone change their life and enter onto a path of happiness and blessings that will last forever. This really is the work of the Lord and there's nowhere I'd rather be. I love you all!

Elder Olsen

Hey everyone! I don't think I have a whole lot to say from this last week but I'm finally sending more pictures! Frank and Juan were finally confirmed yesterday which was really exciting. We had a really good fast and testimony meeting and we got Juan to go up and give his testimony. It was so rewarding to see him up there in front of everyone and testify of the truth! Elder Farnsworth and I also gave our testimonies and it was a very spiritual meeting to say the least.

We have been finding some awesome new people to teach and we have several baptismal dates for the beginning of May! One of them, who we've actually been teaching for a couple weeks now, is named Olga. She is passing through some incredibly difficult trials in her life right now but she is showing some great faith. She has a hunger to learn and hear the word of God and she's been progressing really well. On Tuesday we watched The Testaments with her and she was speechless afterward. She tried to express what she was feeling but she couldn't quite get it out. She had this look on her face when it was done that I'll never forget. It was a look of amazement and happiness and peace all at the same time! There was an incredible spirit there! She is working towards being baptized on May 1st and is well on her way. I think she is already finished with 1 Nephi!

She also saw a really cool miracle this last week. She has been out of a job since December and doesn't really even have food in the fridge right now. One day she went to do her laundry at the laundromat and she decided to take the Book of Mormon to read while she waited. After a few minutes of reading, a complete stranger walked up to her and offered her a job cleaning houses! She is so sincere and we're really excited. She also has two sons who we are working with, Angel (18) and Isaias (13).

We get transfer calls tonight again but I bet we'll both be staying in this area. There will probably be some surprises though so we'll see. President Walker is going to be making a lot of changes before the mission splits at the beginning of July so anything could happen. Until next week...

Love,

Elder Olsen

front left to right (Elder Kasat, Elder Jenne, Me, Elder Cuevas) with the branch president's family in the Valencia branch

Julia's baptism

Frank's baptism

Juan's baptism

There are A LOT of members of the "cool church" in Tucson.

district meeting

conference+baptisms=great week

Ok, I have absolutely no time this week, even though there is a lot to tell. Most importantly, Frank and Juan both got baptized this last Friday! It was an incredible baptismal service and a ton of people came. They are not confirmed yet because of conference but that will happen this next Sunday! Juan is so solid! He has such a strong testimony and is finding every way possible to get involved. He loved conference and came out teaching with us right after. He's going to be a valuable asset for us and help bring many more people to the truth.

So as missionaries we have this rule that the passenger has to back up the driver whenever we back up in the car. On Thursday, Elder Farnsworth was driving and I was backing him up. When he had backed up far enough, I went up to the side of the car to start to get in like I usually do. This time though, he wasn't watching me and kept going back, and for some reason my foot was behind the front wheel of the car. My ankle got ran over and twisted up pretty good. It was pretty black and blue but I managed to limp around. It's actually getting a lot better now. The reason I tell this story is because Juan had asked me to baptize him the day before. I was already kind of stressing out about it because he's about 300 lbs. Not being able to put any pressure on my foot really worried me that I would drop him. So I called him up on Friday morning and told him I might not be able to do it. He was insistent that I do it regardless of the risk. I was stressing out about it pretty bad but then we called him back and asked if Elder Farnsworth could be in the water with me to help just in case. He loved the idea because originally he wanted us both to baptize him anyway! So it all worked out just fine. We both baptized him and everything went smoothly. Frank is doing awesome as well. Elder Farnsworth baptized him.

It was an awesome week overall, capped off by an awesome conference! It was so relaxing and rejuvenating at the same time. I have to go now but I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Olsen

Hey everyone! I have to split time with my companion this week so I only have a few minutes. We have seen a bunch more miracles this week but I probably won't have time to share them all. Everything is going very well in our area though!

Our lessons with Juan this week have been incredible! He is seeing so much opposition from co-workers and family members but nothing is stopping him. I won't go into much detail but let's just say that he commits to live all of the commandments before we can even finish teaching them! The other day, we watched Elder Holland's talk from last conference about the Book of Mormon. When it was done, he told us he didn't feel like he was "running fast enough." His baptism was scheduled for April 10th but because he's been to church enough, we were able to move it up. He will now be getting baptized on April 2nd, which I believe is the 3 week mark from when we met him! What an incredible experience! He's already been helping to fellowship the other people we are teaching.

Frank Robles (Julia's son) will also be getting baptized on the 2nd! We had some pretty cool experiences with him this last week as well, and both of them had their interviews yesterday. They are ready to go and excited!

After the cool experience that we had with Raymond last week, we couldn't find him until Thursday. When we finally found him, he was so happy to see us! Since that lesson when we brought Juan, everything in his life has taken a turn for the better. He and his girlfriend both got new jobs and their relationship is solid once again. In fact, it's so solid that they've been planning their wedding! We went to the church with them and had a very spiritual lesson on the Atonement and then we set a marriage/baptismal date with them. They are going to be married in the church on May 1st and right after he's going to be baptized!

I'm so happy to be a missionary. All of the difficult times and struggles are all worth it when you see people embrace the gospel. I love the church and I know it's true! Thanks for all of the support you all give me!

Elder Olsen

P.S. See you next week Mom!

Awesome Week #2!

Hola todos! We've had another incredible week here in the Sonora Branch, maybe the most successful week of my mission so far! We set records for lessons taught in a day and in a week, but most importantly, we are seeing tons of progress with our investigators! I don't even know where to start but this week has been filled with miracles!

First off, Juan is progressing incredibly fast! We had some of the most incredible lessons with him this last week. We usually end up spending at least an hour with him every night and he doesn't want us to leave. On Monday, we had planned something to teach him but then we felt prompted to teach him the word of wisdom. He is now 32 but he has been an alcoholic since he was 7. He was addicted to alcohol, coffee, and cigarettes. He had tried to quit many times before but he always fell back into his bad habits. We had an incredible lesson with him and he got really excited. To make a long story short, we dumped out all of his beer, crumpled up his cigarettes, and flushed his coffee down the toilet. Then we all knelt down and he committed to his Heavenly Father that he would never touch them again. He stopped them all cold turkey and his been clean for a week! Tell me that's not the power of God! We have seen an incredible transformation come over him since.

On Wednesday, he became a missionary. We had been really struggling with Raymond (who also has some word of wisdom problems) so we decided to take Juan with us to share his experience (they live in the same apartment complex). We then had another incredible experience. Juan took charge and basically taught the lesson! At this time we had known him for less than a week. For about 20 minutes he told Raymond the blessings he had seen and gave him encouragement! Then we all knelt down with Raymond and he offered a very heartfelt prayer, committing to keep the word of wisdom as well! We were all so filled with the spirit afterwards. Juan practically skipped back to his house because he was so happy!

That same night we had another sweet lesson with Frank (Julia's 14-year-old son). He has had a lot of negative peer pressure and he's kind of stubborn and very sensitive. He really wants to know if it's true though. We went back and shared the first vision with him, and then knelt down to pray. When we finished the prayer he didn't move. He stayed kneeling down for about 10 minutes and he was sobbing the whole time. The spirit was so strong! He now has a baptismal date for April 3rd!

Things are going pretty well with the other families we are teaching, the Valenzuelas and the Lopez. They are both still kind of at a standstill but they are making progress slowly but surely. We have awesome lessons planned with both of them tomorrow so we'll see how that goes.

I also got to go on exchanges with Elder Muniz (my trainer) this week so that was pretty cool. He is my zone leader now and we had a lot of fun. He also said that my Spanish has gotten a lot better so I was pretty happy about that. All six of the companions that I have had so far (including the MTC) are very close to me. Three of them are in my district and the other three are in the district that I just left. It's been really cool to get to work around all of them still! Just another tender mercy I guess.

I could go on and on about the other awesome experiences we had this last week but this is getting pretty long so I'll wrap up. I hope you all are doing amazing! Thanks for all of your support!

Elder Olsen

Awesome Week!

Hey everyone! We have had a great week full of miracles! First and foremost, Julia got baptized on Saturday and it was a great experience for all of us! We had some really good lessons with her leading up to her baptism. The other day we shared the prophecy of the gospel going for the the Lamanite people in the last days (2 Nephi 30:5-6). As she read it, she choked up and didn't talk for a few minutes. It is SO awesome to see that prophecy being fulfilled.

She also became the answer to one of our prayers the other day. We were eating with the Banuelos family and Hna. Banuelos was really stressed out because their car had just broken down and she couldn't find a ride to the relief society activity that night. We left them with a prayer that she would be able to find a ride somehow. For some reason, Julia felt like she should swing by on her way to the activity to see if Hna. Banuelos wanted to go with her. How cool is that?

After church yesterday we went over to see the Lopez family and what do you know? There's Julia and another member already there, fellowshipping the other people we are teaching! She's excited to come out teaching with us sometime and share her testimony with others. Speaking of the Lopez family, they are doing really well. They have been going to all of the activities and even volunteered to help clean the church one night! Reina (the wife) has become really friendly with us too! She has given us food multiple times and signed up to feed us next week. She's also making some really good friends in the church so we are definitely seeing some progress there. They'll get baptized as soon as we can get them married.

The Valensuela Family was out of town this last weekend but we had a really awesome family home evening with them and the Banuelos family last week. We watched the Joseph Smith movie and it was really powerful. They learned a lot of things and the members were awesome! They have been praying for the faith to get baptized soon!

As far as Raymond, he's been super busy with work lately and hasn't been able to make it to church yet. We haven't even been able to see him much lately but hopefully we can soon. Even without him, we had six people come to church! We will likely have even more next week!

One of they people that came is named Juan. We found him a few days ago just out in a parking lot. He invited us to come back the next night so we did and we had an awesome lesson with him for about an hour and a half! He asked the perfect questions and the whole time he was really excited! The spirit was very strong and we set a baptismal date with him for April 10th! As we began to sing the opening hymn in sacrament meeting, I looked over and he was crying. He couldn't sing at all because he was so emotional. He had a great experience and is excited to learn more!

Well, I could go on and on about all the other awesome people we found this week and how they're doing but I think I'll wrap up now. We are definitely being so blessed right now! We've seen so many miracles this week! The church is true! I love you all!

Elder Olsen

P.S. Today is my 8 month mark. I'm 1/3 of the way done now. CRAZY!