Weeks 28-29: Mi Cumpleaños

I am so sorry I wrote my email and then it turned 6 and I couldn't send it. Transfers happened! I'm staying with my bestie Hermana Burgoyne. I'm so excited to stay here in Monte Vista and learn more from her. I am no longer a teenager. I turned 20 years old on January 14!!! There have been days that have been really hard and we have felt like we aren’t doing anything yet we are so busy and so tired, but with those days miracles have come. I feel like whenever we get to our breaking point is when God shows that his hand is in everything. That's how life goes. God knows our real breaking point and he provides miracles for us. Along with that it was a very busy week. I'll do my highlights from the last two weeks. 

HIGHLIGHTS 💡

-A couple p days ago We decided that we would have a nerf gun war, so our district bought small nerf Guns and used cardboard boxes and tables in a church gym to hit each other with nerf ballets and fling rubber chickens at each other all while capturing a finger puppet. It was so much fun haha! 

-We had a miracle happen. Me and my companion were trying to think of somewhere to study and I had this image of this certain staircase pop into my head from a park we go to sometimes so we decided to go there. There we found a girl with her dog which of course I had to talk to. We got to know her a little bit more and we asked her if she believed in God. She said believing in God is what gives her hope in this world and we taught her about her divine nature we asked if she would like to meet again and she said she'd love to. Next time we met with her she brought her friend and they were both teary eyed at the end of our lesson.

- Peter Vidmar an olympic gold medalist came and talked to us as a mission. We did a mini zone conference and I sang in it. Also he came and talked in a devotional called why i believe and he shared his story and I sang the same song in that too. Something I loved was that he said to have faith and put forth the effort. You can't just believe in something you have to work for it. And when you fail that is totally fine because you can learn from it and get better. My companion (the skateboarder) said to me you are going to fall the first time and the second time and again you just have to get up and you will get better. It's OK to make mistakes God provided a savior so that we wouldn't be tied down to our mistakes. Through his atonement we can be washed clean from every mistake when we repent.

- It was my birthday on Sunday so we celeberated on Monday by going to the zoo again a member gave our district free ticket so that was so fun and then we went to the skate park cause my companion finally got permission to skateboard. She does everything on a ripstick which is SO COOL. I also got a bundt cake for myself.

- for the district council we said goodbye to Elder Bello because he was going home and had a funeral for him. It was pretty funny we prepared small talks and he layed in a cardboard confín.

- we were stressed about achieving our goals. We prayed about it and at the last minute met most of them. We are having a little bit of trouble getting people to church so pray for our friends to choose to come to church.

- We had one day where I felt like there was a grim reaper over my head. One of the craziest things happened. Me and my companion were walking talking to people and across the street we heard gun shots and a bunch of teenage boy ran at us away from it. We of coursed turned around got right in our car and called the police. Not sure what happened there. Then I almost got hit by a boy on a bike going down a hill like 50 mph!!! Then a dog almost jumped the fence to eat me! So this shows that we all have bad days.

- with our hard times God has really showed Me and my companion miracles. And after we put in all or our efforts he helps us find success. One of the miracles was that we found this sister of a girl we went back to teach and she was in a wheelchair cause of a super bad soccer accident. We taught her about how Jesus Christ when he atoned for our sins he felt all of our pains so he could know how to run to us Alma 7: 11-12. Her and her mom were in tears. Also one of our friends husband who hasn't opened up to us is finally opening up to us and actually sat down for a full lesson which was a miracle.

- a fun service we did was on Sunday It was raining so much so we put on our raincoats and umbrellas and helped people from the car to the church building with the umbrellas to keep them dry it was fun to run and put and umbrella over someone's head the moment you saw them. 

I hope you saw that I tried to add a spiritual message in some of the highlights I invite you to read the scriptures I put in there and pray to God that you can see his hand in your life. 

Love

Hermana Olson