DECEMBER-WEEKS 40-44

CHRISTMAS PICTURES

DECEMBER 29
Well today we only have a pday to write, buy food and eat lunch... So that's why I'm on early!

I'm doing great! I had a great Christmas with the family Valverde! We had a nice dinner and gave us some gifts! The pics are in dropbox. As a mission we had a big party! In the morning we did a session in the temple, later we did a service project cleaning the churches in this area and later we had a dinner(american style) and a talent show! It was awesome! 

Richard got baptized!! He defiantly is one of my more... interesting invest but it was amazing to watch him change and come unto the Lord and make covenants! I love being a missionary! I dont ever want to come home!

How was christmas for you guys? what did you guys do? I realized after i got off that I didnt even ask about your christmas.... Sorry!

DECEMBER 22
Hey mom I'm doing great!

SO i'm training a gringa! She called Hna Whisenant, hahaha its fun watching people say her name!she is from Utah. She is awesome and we get along really good! Its kinda hard training a gringa because well we dont understand spanish when we are new.. I only talk to her in spanish to help her learn.

I'll talk with you guys some more on christmas! 

Love hna Olsen

DECEMBER 15
Hello!!!

This week has been absolutely crazy and nothing really went has planned.... We didn't have our baptisms.... But we are going to continue working with them because they do want to get baptized but something is holding them back... freaking hate Satan... Continue praying for them, Richard, Paul, Luis, and Ramon.

But want to hear something crazier!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?! Im going to train!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hna Orihuela finished her mission. Wednesday im going to pick up my "daughter" and we are going to get to work!! I'm really excited to train! Its going to be hard but ive wanted to train for awhile now! pray for me!

I'm excited to get my new shoes I REALLY need them! Thank you for sending me those packages! Ill buy an Ecuadorian shirt i really want! Tell them thank you and that i love them!  

We went to the temple again! Ive got half of the veil memorized in spanish now! We are so very blessed to have temples! And even more blessed in Arizona where we have like 5. We cant take them for granted. We receive more guidance and strength to endure the more we attend. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the true church of God in the Earth. I'm so grateful for my Savior and the atonement. I pray all is well at home and everyone is healthy! 

Love,

Hna Olsen

DECEMBER 8
Buenas tardes!!

I'm doing great! We are hoping to have two baptisms this saturday... we have been working with these two investigatores for a while, Richard and Paul. Please pray like crazy for them. We also have another, Luis, for the 26 and Ramon, we are hoping for the 26 too. We are working so hard to get them al to baptism! 

December here is like the states... well its really but REALLY hot here! 

I'll send a pic next week of my shoes. You can tell I have sometime in my mission because of them! I have holes in them and the sole is woren down and the padding inside is missing in parts.... Got to love walking all day everyday!

Thank you for all your love and support! I so very grateful to have you as my mom! Send my love to all! 

Hna Olsen! 

 

DECEMBER 1
Mi querida Familia!!

Im doing great! Yesterday I had a experience that really boosted my faith. One of my Investigators, who has his own way of thinking, went on a rant after gospel principles about why we are called "The church of Jesus Christ of latter day Saints." In Ecuador the catholic church is huge here and they hae a strong beliefs in "Saints." Saints are suppose to be "perfect or holy" We the teacher explained that we, the members of the church, are the saints he was not happy at all. He said that its not right that we call ourselves saints. The next hour, relief society, I studied why we are called "saints."

In D and C in 115 the Lord named the Church; it doesn't come from men. In Psalms 50:5 it says: Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. The covenants we make are baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost and other saving covenants in the temple. In D and C 97:8 it says:Verily I say unto you, all among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice—yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command—they are accepted of me.  As part of the covenants we sacrifice a lot of things, sometimes worldly, and maybe it may come down to loosing everything. All the covenants we make are based upon the Greatest Sacrifice- The Atonement. If we live worthy of our covenants and apply the Atonement in our lives we are purified through the blood of our savior. Moroni 10: 32-33: 32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

 33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot. We are not saints but we can become saints. That is the purpose of the gospel and the Atonement of Christ. 

Later that night we watch the Joseph Smith movie. As I watched it and was reminded of how the gospel was restored and all of the sacrifice of the early saints, the Holy Spirit testified to me once again that "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" IS the church of Christ, His kingdom, in the world today. I feel truly blessed and humbled to be a representative of His church.  

And another noted, I had a Thanksgiving in Ecuador with my Latinas! We eat sloppy Joes with cranberry juice! I also had crab for the first time and it was DELICIOSO!!!!!

Con mucho amor y besos! 

Hna Olsen