Reverend Lady Drug Dealer?

hello from the east side of America

Well all I can say is that this week was pretty interesting. lol  I don't think I have been called so many names in my life. or I guess been thought of so many things or identities in one day. This week was pretty frustrating we didn't have the opportunity to teach a lot; it is very hot here and so we don't really get to see a lot of people. they won't answer their door. but its okay. we do our best. the other crazy thing is that people magically forget that they have set up appointments even when we set it up ... 3 hours before. it is really hard to keep a pushing forth attitude. but I will tell you one thing, even though I have tacos everyday it is worth it! I have learned so much by relying on my Savior while tracting, contacting and sweating every ounce of water that I posses. we have been in some pretty scary places this week. we were sitting in our car saying a prayer before we went out to contact a lady named Diane, when we opened our eyes and a man walked up to our car all slow like.. he prompted us to role down our window.. and my companion did... and he asked if we 'had the stuff' so we said .. "we have the gospel" and he said ..."oh  you don't have the smokes?" so that was really scary. but for some reason in the moment I wasn't scared at all, it is just scary thinking about it now. (1nephi22:17) This scripture was definitely applicable in that situation! we also went tracting in another scary area. and a man informed us not to go up to his porch because his friend was smoking marijuana. so we didn't even hesitate. we just left a card and spoke with him from afar off of where he was.  Also.... the last thing that I want to focus on before I get to the spiritual side.. is that we were contacting in one other place and we passed by a house that was full of men who were clearly intoxicated by a lot of substances. so we quickly walked by (probably not the most Christ-like thing to do) but we walked by and one guy staggered in front of us from behind his car and said... "hey... reverend ladies.. have a blessed day".... so that was actually really sweet of him. we were just really frightened. so the moral of the story is to 'pray always that you may come off conquerer'. (D&C 10:5)  

But after all of that the thing that I learned most was to rely on my Heavenly Father. We had no idea where we were going, we didn't have set appointments, and the appointments we did have all fell through except for maybe one. I have learned so much about the atonement and the saving grace that it has! not only saving grace, but the enabling power as well. We are called many things in our life.. and told many things. We go through so much,, but why? why do we all have these experiences and hard ships? I know that these things are hard especially when you don't know what direction you are headed in . but I do  know that if you strive to do your best, and pray for the strength to endure your trials you will come off and conquer. that may seem cliché. but I know it to be true. there is a great talk by elder Bednar called "the atonement and the journey of mortality" it explains what I am trying to explain much more eloquently. Also a song by Hilary Weeks 'better promises'.

 Marian is still planning on getting baptized on July 18 and she is doing really well with the word of wisdom, and Ann is planning on getting baptized on September 12. they are doing really well. Marian has attended church enough times to be baptized so all that is left are final lessons and an interview. 

You guys are great! thank you for all of your support. sorry this email is kinda choppy but just know that I love this work and even when there may not be a lot of 'success' just look up and know that God is proud of you! 

-SISTER OLESEN

Highlights:

mon:---

tues---Dinner at the Whittiers

Wed---marajuanna

thurs---lesson with kinata (like piñata but with a 'K')

fri---reverend ladies

sat--Drug dealer Missionaries?

Sun--talk in Sacrament meeting by Brother Edwards (Enos 1:4-8)

How to catch a frog

hey good afternoon

Well this week has been really interesting!  but the biggest moments I think that really strike me to write about is Mirium (whose name is Marian.. whoops) is still on for getting baptized. we were worried for a little while because we weren't able to get an appointment with her. we kept trying but everything kept falling through. we needed to teach the word of wisdom but we weren't sure how we were going to do that after not seeing her for awhile, and just popping in and saying "oh hey you need to quit smoking in less than a month to be baptized" so we weren't sure how smooth that was going to go over but we proceeded and had faith that we would be given the correct words to say. Words that would be full of love and encouragement. So we went in, luckily a member was able to come, and we taught. can i just say it was very powerful. she apparently had already been trying quit smoking for the past two months just because she didn't want to buy them anymore, so she said that this wouldn't be too big of a deal. i can say that because the spirit was right and we focused on having the faith to quit she was touched by the spirit of love. (gal. 5:22) we ended up going over there three times that day to 1. teach 2. get a priesthood holder to give her a blessing 3. to give her some food. but that's another story for a different time. 

the other thing that is major is i need to mention Cottie Oliver. i know in one of my first emails since i have been out here i mentioned her and we talked about the Restoration, and the next time she told us she didn't want to be apart of a religion that was different from hers. so she gave us back the Book of Mormon and left us in the dust... well story 2 with Cottie is that we felt impressed to go back to see her and ask if there was anything that we could do for her.. just so she knows that we are still thinking of her, and her facial expression when from bright and happy to straight disgust as she slammed the door in our face.... so i know that isn't quite exactly what you were thinking i was going to say.. but hey its life not all moments are wonderful. but the main point i want to share is that yea she didn't automatically say she wants the gospel, baptize me, but we followed the spirit. maybe nothing came from it now, but we did what we were asked. our purpose in our life is to just do what our hevenly father asks us to do. we can either follow or not. but the choice is certainly ours. i still love Cottie and i will never forget our first lesson we had with her and the spirit that was felt. but i will most definitely never forget the peace i felt after acting on the impression to go and see her. it took awhile to feel that peace of course. there was of course a little tears here and there. (because i wanted to know why God would impress me to go back if it was for 'nothing'? or how could she just slam the door in our face after being so nice?) but the important thing is to; after a trial or a test of faith, is to take  a minute afterward and evaluate why? and What? we were supposed to learn that thing in that way. This may be scrambled and not make a whole lot of sense but this week was hard and I learned a lot! nothing is easy when you are bearing the name of God, battling the battles against satan. Ex. Christ, Joseph Smith, every prophet that had to guide the people towards 'all' righteousness! 

Highlights:

mon: we tried to catch a frog and ended up seeing a wild turtle and had a very random day in Farmville which consisted of an old 1800's Victorian house tours

tues: Marian's (aka Mirium)  lesson was phenomenal. also we cleaned our car in 105 degrees and who knows how much humidity.... lets just say my back was very wet... nasty

wed: Zone Conference, we won and received a certificate for third cleanest car in the zone (special thanks to my sister Joanna and my dad for teaching me to clean cars the RIGHT way ;D)

thurs: very slow day.. not too eventful... oh we finshed weekly planning on time!!

Friday: Had dinner with Sister Quasbarth and it was so nice she reminds me a lot of Tatiana Touhy, very kind and so full of joy.

Saturday: we caught Stanley our frog on stantonsburg Rd. on our way home from our last appointment. 

Sun: Ann who has been investigating for a year. has committed to a baptisimal date!! (read 'how to leave the harbor' it is in June's ensign)

-sister Olesen

So Pray

hey ya'll

so i think i am on official missionary. at the end of this week i will have been out for one whole transfer.. 6 weeks in the actual mission field i haven't finished training completely i have one more transfer worth. but for the most part it is coming along. i have a hard core farmer's tan line. it isn't the cutest, i also have a watch and ring tan line. i have been trying my whole life to get a ring tan line, and i guess North Carolina is the only way! ;D 

This week has been pretty low key. Sister Glaser was sick again so we stayed inside, but we had exchanges this week and let me tell you it was a miracle! I went with sister Boatright! she is so kind and i truly hope i can be like her someday. she has mastered the Christlike attribute of charity! i know we are not supposed to be covetess, but she is so wonderful i look up to her a lot!!

We were in Farmville for our day out and after going to a gas station to change our clothes from teaching an investigator with bedbugs. We got a call from our zone leaders telling us they had a potential investigator for us. And guess what? they happened to live in farmville (farmville is about 20 minutes west of greenville, so it eats up miles) So sister Boatright pulled off the side of the road while we punched the address into the gps, and it was literally across the street!! so we went over there and we ended up knocking on the 'wrong' house number and met the black family, who just so happens to be black... so cooL! then she invited us in and we had a short lesson and they were very interested! so who knows maybe we will have the opportunity to baptise the black family! ;) after we were in their house we went to the 'right' house that the elders gave us and she wasn't home, so coincidence? i think NOT!! we actually have our second  lesson with them tonight!! so PRAY. 

love you all!!

sister olesen

-----HIGHLIGHTS-----

mon-painted pottery

tues-sis glaser was sick

wed- EXCHANGES

thurs- we were 'traveling salesmen' in a poor development. all of the cute kids came up to us asking for pamphlets!! we told them to have their parents call us as well ;)

fri-we taught Shamika, paradise,charity,nay,and summer and they are all new investigators, they were really confused about the God head

sat-witnessed a baptisim in smithfield (one of sister Glaser's converts)

Sun- had to teach gospel DOCTERINE on the whim. it actually went okay. even though adults are kind of scary...;)

p.s. the sister with the curly hair is Sister boatright. and piggly wiggly is a grocery store!! so funny

The deep blue ocean

well folks this week has got be the memory of it all. i think this week has and will change everything for me...

Everything this week went horribly not according to plan. all of our appointments were cancelled the rain was crazy. i am pretty sure we had a tropical storm. and all of our finding efforts seemed pointless. i am not going to be shy about it; i was discouraged. i was asking myself if i am doing everything that the Lord wants me to do; why is everything going wrong? why isn't anybody remembering that they scheduled us in for an appointment. or why would one lesson go so perfectly and the next time we went over, they wanted nothing to do with the church? i was really discouraged and i wanted to figure out what else i could do. and 'I' couldn't do anything. But i listened to a song that came on, on our C.D. called "ocean" by 'united' and in the very first line it says "i have been called to walk upon the Water" and boom it hit me. and i realized that all of those questions were the wrong questions, that i had been asking before; the question that was really at hand was, am allowing the Holy ghost to lead and guide us? am i allowing the atonement to heal me? am i letting Him in? and the answer was no

I was trying to do everything myself, (because i am used to that... thats what i did at home) but i have been called to walk upon the water; we all have. We have so many storms that we go through each day!! but are we allowing our faith to be in Christ and his atonement, or in ourselves? 

I learned a lot this week and there isn't really a whole lot to tell except what i have shared. this week has been really hard, but rewarding. with out all of these trials and fall throughs i wouldn't have been able to see the miracle of god's hand, and learned to fully lean on him. 

Highlights:   (p.s. i saw my first lightning bug last Sunday)

monday: we went to a metal animal zoo on dickenson in Greenville

Tuesday:I did 250 sit ups.. because i am trying to have more dignified language so everytime i say "awesome" or "sick" or words like that i have 10 sit ups or push ups... (abs of steal)  and the tropical storm happened and we played in the rain!!

Wednesday: Felicia commited to baptisim

Thursday: sister Glaser was sick, so we stayed inside

Friday:taught the restoration in 15 minutes... it is the new curriculum

sat: i broke down.... :/

Sunday: i bore my testimony in our ward and i felt peace again after solidifying what i learned this week

Oh my SCARY!!

well this week has been amazing!! i have learned a whole lot! ...well about mother earth! in the humidity everything is bigger and better.. well maybe not better but scarier. well this is how the story goes. Sis. Glaser and I went to go get the mail and we, not thinking left our door open and we rushed back in because we both got letters and as i stepped my foot down i felt something hard, so i hurried and lifted my foot and something moved so fast and toward the wall... so my natural response is a blood curdling scream.. because well it was a HUGE spider!! i normally am not that afraid of spiders because see in Utah where i live they are not that big, but this guy was probably about 2.5" big! so big! and hard! ew. i freaked so i grabbed a Tupperware container and slammed it on the spider after a few tries of mustering up my courage and trapped it. our next problem was what were we going to do with it. so naturally we called the elders to see if they would come and kill it, but it was too late so we put three cans of green beans on top of the container just in case the spider got any ideas... it was disgusting! some may say that North Carolina is not foreign, but let me tell you it is! everything is bigger and hairier here! ;D 

this week has been very faith building. we did a lot of tracting we probable knocked on 100 doors or more and nobody was interested. it was very frustrating. i think it is so frustrating because they are already so faithful here in the south. they strengthen my faith everyday in the bible, and about Jesus Christ, however they just don't see that there is more, they don't see that once we die it is nowhere near the end, it is just the beginning towards the new step in Heavenly Fathers plan. but at the same time our purpose is not to push the gospel on others; rather it is to invite others. and just the wording of our purpose  which we will now read everyday is so powerful. My purpose as a missionary is to "invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." i just reading that or thinking about that from door to door is so powerful. we are not here to be hearers of the word but doers of the word. to love and to be an example. so i hope this new discovery will help as we go out this week. i love this gospel. i have been in this gospel for 19 years and i still am in awe to all the knowledge we can learn day to day. there is NEVER a plateau. 

highlights:

mon: ate at bo-jangles

tues: taught Mirium Dudly; she is wonderful and has commited to baptisim! she is so cute, and knows she wants a church family :D

wed: discovery of Romans 8 (very beautiful everyone if they have a desire should read it! it talks about God's love for each of us)

thurs: we taught our investigator Beverly to pray. and after she was done her apearence immediately changed and she said "when are  you sisters coming back? i really like this" before she prayed she was very out of it and kind of hinting that she wanted us to leave, so we changed our approach and taught her not the lesson, "teach people not lessons" it was a great expierence the spirit was so strong. 

Fri: found a 16 yr old named Jashira ( Ja-shy-ru) she is darling. she was talking about how she was just talking about how she wanted to come to church. her dad died 2 mos. ago and her mom is diagosed with cancer. her faith strengthened me so much!! i 

Sat: ... SPIDER

Sun: the SPIDER died, it had a ton of eggs in it when the elders got it out of our apartment to kill it. so thankfully i found it with my foot, even though it spent the night in our house the whole night with 3 cans. and Mirum came to church~!!! it was beautiful