Week 19: 1/4 Mark!!!

Hi everyone! I can't believe i'm already a quarter of the way through my mission. Its going by so fast. This week was a great week full of small tender mercies. My heart is so full of love for the work!

Monday

We carved pumpkins as a district. I attempted to carve the St George temple but it didn't look much like one haha. But it was fun to carve as a district and some people made pumpkin seeds and pumpkin cookies. Then we visited some friends.

Tuesday

HALLOWEEN! I dressed up like Dorothy and my companion dressed up as queen of hearts because that's what our dresses looked like. We got pizza together and then had exchanges with the sisters from the Mormon Batallion. We went to a member's house who made us chili and cute little hot dogs called Monster Fingers (pictures below). Then we tried to visit people but they thought we were trickery treaters. So trying to visit people and find people didn't work well for Halloween nights.

Wednesday 

In the afternoon we went to the Ocean Beach farmers market. My companion called it Babylon and it definitely felt like that. Many people were selling weed, weed-filled things, magic mushrooms, healing remedies, and healing crystals. It definitely was an interesting farmer's market. In the night we went finding in Sunset Cliffs. As I stared at the sunset I was so grateful for the chance to be in San Diego finding God's children and the beautiful creations he has created for us to see. We asked other people what they were grateful for and made a gratitude chain by asking people to write it down on a piece of paper. Many people said friends family and sunsets! We found a guy doing this named Ruben. Ruben lives in a van with his cat. He was walking his cat when we met him. He was interested and ended up loving church when he came on Sunday!

Thursday

I had my ¼ the way through the meeting which was crazy we talked about the importance of having a positive attitude about missionary work and practice and the importance of each in our work. Our purpose should be centered on Christ and we should follow his teachings because we love God and his children. Thursday was a very good day we started off sad because all of our lessons we were looking forward to were canceled. Which really stinks as a missionary. We visited members to assist them in their missionary efforts and then I ran into an old lady on the street. We started talking and she told me how much she loved Mormons because they were so charitable and willing to serve. She noticed the light they brought. She then said she had clothes for us and brought us into her house. Her house was so cute. She was a widowed cat lady so pictures of cats and animals were around her apartment. She loaded us up on clothes which was nice of her(I definitely don't fit in her clothes) but the thought was nice. Sadly she wasn't interested in being taught or us visiting her again so we left her our card and told her to call us. Then we visited an inactive member and talked to him about his mission. Before we left he gave us money to buy lunch because he said he barely had enough money for food on his mission so now whenever he sees missionaries he gives them money. It was so kind. God was really blessing us for our efforts. After we met with Catherine a new convert and her son. They fed us ice cream and we talked about the atonement not only being for sin but for our afflictions. The spirit was strong and the day was full of little tender mercies.

Friday 

I know we did work and it was a long day but probably just normal visits to members and inactive members and then talking to everyone we saw.

Saturday

We had exchanges with a companionship. We did our studies and then got Chick-fil-A. We did a service at a walk for Ms. We sat at the finish line and cheered those who had made the 40-mile walk. If we weren't there no one would have been there cheering so it was a good service to those walkers to feel loved and then we took down the finish line. After that, we visited with a member family who was so sweet and went to Sunset Cliffs to try and find more people. We found a guy who said he wanted to check out the church sometime so we sent him the address... so pray he decides to come.

Sunday

Fast Sunday is difficult when you are a missionary. Sunday we are always so exhausted from a week full of work and not having food is the icing on the cake. We all had headaches and did not feel very well but we kept pushing on we had meetings and then visits and then family dinner with a couple families in the ward. I think I was too eager for the tamales they made. 

My mom sent me a talk yesterday and I really loved reading it. The part I loved was when it talked about how we need grit and grace. Grit is perseverance and working hard even when we don't want to. In life to grow and become we need to work hard at it. You can't be a master piano player by practicing once. You can't become like Christ by standing still and not changing. You also need grace. Grace is how the atonement allows us to be forgiven and become better. God gives us grace when we put in the grit/desire to change and become. Love you all remember that God loves you and his arms are always open to you!

Love Sister Olson