January 27, 2014 {Cara}

Eagles sore in big sky countries 

Ohana-

FIRST THINGS FIRST.........................HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY!!! Hip Hip Horray for Abby! 15, what in the stinkin world. When I get back your going to almost be 16..... weird. Hope you have a marvelous day young woman. I sent a lil birthday box to you, I dont know when it will be there- but something to look forward to:)

Alright well I just want to thank everyone for the emails for encouragement. I needed them and I loved them so much!!!! I'm glad to know everything is going good in Oklahoma:) Um.... well.... I'm just going to tell you guys some stories today.

Tuesday we dropped off our car to get fixed, and I had to go to the bathroom sooo bad! So we see a gas station wayy far down the road, and we start heading over. As I frantically pushed the button to cross the super busy street, someone from behind us says, "You are sent from God, Amen?" Haha we turned around and its two guys advertising 'windows' doing like psycho dances to get peoples attention. So sister Grow goes over to talk to them and I'm like still pressing the cross walk button- about to die- and then all a sudden I hear one of the guys ask us to teach them something they haven't heard. I was like.... Yesss Heavenly Father please help me be ok for the next 15 minutes..... So right there on the curb we taught Stephen the Restoration and got a return appointment!!! He was so amazed by it! His friend was still going CRAZY dancing on the curb advertising his sign- He would shout a random, "AMEN SISTER AMEN!" during the lesson but it was cool, I think he got a lot of peoples attention while we were teaching on the curb of the freeway.... Haha theres always time for the Restoration!:)

So the next story- The Tongan ward sister and us were doing service alllll day long for Annette from South Carolina (helping her move in and let me just say Aaron you lucky dog- I LOVE South Carolina accents!!) well me and Sister Gleason decided to go talk to people outside of the store while the other sisters helped her shop. So we are wondering around the parking lot, and then we see this guy walking his dog up this pathway. Me and Sister Gleason start "casually walking" behind him to catch up to him and talk, and then we realize, "Oh- this guy is bookin it up the hill!!" So we're like sprinting/walking and panting and FINALLY we catch up and start talking..... ya he doesn't slow down at all...... anyways we gave him our number- who knows if he'll call us- but me and sister Gleason stopped and turned around and realized we just like sprinted up a mountain while talking to someone. We were sweating up a storm, but not really because it was storming on us. But we got an awesome work out...........................................

THEN on our way back, all a sudden out of NO WHERE sister Gleason steps in this huge mud pit. Hahaha I was laughing histerically for a good ten minutes in the parking lot- her skirt was covered in mud, and her whole foot. It was so random! But we knew that it was tooo random- Heavenly Father had a reason for this............. we just had to find out. We go and ask the workers if they have a hose we could use- everyones looking at us soo strange, Gleason is just walking around with this big glob of mud on her foot. Lol. Well we see a hose. It was broke. Then I asked another guy if there was another one...... he lead us in the Garden place and she hosed off..... This guys name is Chris Tanner. Well Chris looks at us and says, Hey my best friends brother is on a mormon mission too. Then walks off. Me and Sister Gleason both look at each other and go, "Yep!! Thats why this happened!!!" Well we 'took our sweet time' and waited for him to come back... and well he did and we introduced ourselves an asked if we could come by and share a message about Christ. He said, "of course! Gave us his address and number, and we are meeting with him this week!! Haha theres a reason for everything you guys. Soo so funny:)

Well last story is about Christie. Since we taught her the word of wisdom, she sent all her coffee to her friend in South Carolina!! Awesome. Except one morning she was super- super sick and just needed something warm on her throat. Her son- Juan made her coffee and Christie told herself- Ok just this once- just for my throat. And she stirred in her cream and RIGHT before she was about to take a sip, someone honked their horn and her sons said, "Mom time for church, the church guys are here!!" So she put the cup of coffee down and came to church. Well GUESS WHAT one of the recent converts talk was on??? Her talk was allllll about her conversion and how hard it was for her to stop drinking coffee, and the importance of keeping the commandments 100% no matter what. Well Christie was tearing up the whole sacrament meeting, the spirit was strong. Christie said, "the first thing I did when I go home was pour out my coffee sista!" AHHH!!! It was the coolest story ever. Built my faith. Heavenly Father watches out for his children:)

Well, speaking of the Villegas------ I wanna CRY because I am soooo happy right now. For the first time EVER since October- there was not ONE beer can in the Villegas yard, garage, or house. None. They were all empty water bottles. Ahhh!!! Liki hasn't been drinking or Juan.

Reno's lesson on word of wisdom was amazing. We had it at a members home and the spirit was strong. Well Reno's face literally dropped to the floor when we said no Alcohol. We then agreed to do a challenge with him..... Me and Sister Grow aren't eating sugar for three weeks with him!! Reno has been doing awesome so far though...... he calls us everyday to tell us about how many times he's said no to his friends, and workers. They make fun- but then he just leaves. Ahhh!! We gave him Alma 32 to read and he listened to it in his car on way to work, man. The Villegas are doing awesome. Keep praying for them. MIRACLES are happening every single time we go into their home.

For example, yesterday we taught Mark - the brother in prison, the Restoration. We invited him to baptism and he was like takin back. He pondered and was saying to himself, "woah, I can do that...." Pretty much- He couldn't believe that there was no restrictions on his spiritual growth. He's been in prison for so many years- He's read the Book of Mormon even- and knows its true already. Ah. Its amazing. It really made me appreciate the fact that our spiritual growth is free. There's absolutley nothing that restricts us to growing closer to our heavenly Father. Reminds me of one of my favorite verses 2 nephi 26: 23-28. Read it! We ALL have the priviledge to partake of the gift that Christ gave his life for. It's free for us! I mean all it takes is keeping the commandments:) But we can have a stronger relationship with our father in Heaven where ever we may be and whatever circumstance we might be in. Love it. Love y'all. Loved this week.

Pray for my companion... and my patience...  it's so hard... but worth it.

Aloha

Sister Cara Ann Olsen

P.s.- You can pray for our mission to be obedient so we can have texting finally...............

Pics on Pics on Pics

Kaitlyn in Argentina,

January 27, 2014 {Kaitlyn}

Experiences of a Lifetime
ANother week come and gone. I can´t believe that we´re already in the end of January!! AHHH! Ok I have so much to share this week but so little time. I´m going to share just a little bit of everything. 

Before I start, I have a new obsession. Monkey´s. I think they´ve made it to 2nd behind Dolphin´s. Haha we´re teaching somebody that has a monkey. It´s the cutest thing ever! We were trying to teach English and the whole time the Monkey was reaching out of his cage to pull my hair and hold my hand.   Aww they´re the cutest!

Anyway, no for the crazy things that happened this week. Thursday it rained SOO much. We made it to an appointment just before the it started crashing down. We thought that that was the end of it, but right when we left it started pouring again. We got drenched.  We started running to catch the bus and Hermana Diaz lost her shoe. Quite the experience. Then these guys on the bus asked me if I wanted to go drink at the train station. Haha too bad I didn´t have the word of wisdom pamphlet. Anyway, we got out of our last appointment of the day and the roads were flooded!! The Elders have a picture literally swimming in the streets because they got soaked trying to pedal there bikes through it.  Lucky enough we were at bishop´s house and he gave us a ride home... but it was insane!

I had a neat experience with one of our investigator´s (Gaston). One of my weeknesses that I feel I have is my knowledge of the Book of Mormon. Well, thrusday we had a lesson to try and help our investigator have more of a desire and it was amazing. We taught completely with the Book of Mormon. I don´t even know where the scriptures came from, but they ended up being perfect. It was the most amazing feeling ever. We taught with so much unity and he was asking so many amazing questions. He actually had the desire. Even better, he ended up coming to church yesterday!! The Book of Mormon answers all the questions of the soul!!

Wow, so yesterday was absolutely CRAZY!!! Bishop texted us an hour before church started to see if we could teach gospel principles class. It was the Elders week, but we quickly put together a fun little object lesson to teach the war in the premortal life. (The class ended up being excellent!) About 2 minutes before Sacrament meeting started I asked to give a talk because they were short a speaker. Ayy ayy ayy... a talk with no notice whatsoever?! Luckily I still had my outline of quotes from President Monson´s talk, so I used that and gave a talk about the obstacles we face in this life. I stuttered a thousand times, but it didn´t go over too terribly.  You know me and talks. I´m getting better... but I´m not the best speaker.

That was a lowsy explanation of this week, but I wanted to get a little email off to a few others this week. It ended up being an excellent week. We had investigators come!!! Yipee :) That´s the best part ever! We taught the most amazing lesson last night to a 15 year old girl that has sooo many obstacles in her life. She lost her sister and a few others in her family, and her family really needs this message right now. We didn´t have a lesson lesson, but we were able to introduce our purpose as missionaries. I kid you not, every single word came directly from the spirit. I´m so so so excited to teach their family and let them know about this message of hope. It´s going to change their lives! I´ll keep you posted on how it goes.  

Love you all so very much! Have an amazing week. Don´t ever forget the very must important things in life. ALWAYS put them first. LOVE YOU!!!

COn MUCHO AMOR,

Hermana Wright

January 27, 2014 {Kim}

HOlA!

Holaaaa! Well lets just say this last week or so was one of the craziest weeks ever. I think i already told you about a lot of it. But wow i have been so exhausted! I went on the english exchange, I had to do a role play at zone conference and teach president Jeppson for an hour (WHAT) (Probably the most nervous i have ever been about anything... ever. haha seriously. I was shaking. But it turned out good! President Jeppson is one of the greatest men in the world), we went on a zone exchange where everyone in the zone exchanged and i was left to run our area, and I gave a talk and a training. It has been CRAZY! But i am learning lots. And I love the people more and more everyday. Seriously some of the families here are the greatest and they make me so happy. We are also trying reallllly really hard to find some new investigators. we have had to drop a few so we dont have very many at all...so we have a lot of finding to do. We just arent recieving any referrals and we ask everyone! So we have been knocking soo many doors this week. We have found a few people that we get hopeful for and then they juke us. lammmme. But I know we will find some this week as we keep pushing and trying our best. Welll....Martin didnt get Baptized this week :( He is the worst at making decisions. But i have faith that he will be baptized by the end of February. Pray for him. Por favor. Well we are starting to do a district language study every tuesday and friday. the elders in our district our great...we have 3 mexicans. So i am excited to start doing this. We did it the other day and it was very helpful. The other day it snowed a ton! So we decided to shovel as much snow as we could in the hour we had. And man we did a lot. haha i was so sore for a couple days. We shoveled our driveway, and shoveled out like 15 cars, and we shoveled the whole parking lot of the restaurant across the street from us. haha. It was so awesome. All the workers in the restaurant were shocked and one woman was so grateful....She was so shocked that we would just do that without anyone even asking us. So she gave us her phone number and address and everything and said we could go over anytime we wanted. It was way cool. I love service. Too bad she isnt in our area :( We gave her over to the Paterson sisters though! So that should be awesome! Well I dont have too much time but I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!! I hope all is well!

 

Love, Hermana Josse

Jan 23, 2014 {Cara}

I got a hair cut. Sister Gleason cut it for me over the trash can last night. One of the members (who is this total glamor woman/famous singer in Japan) couldn't believe it and called us total red-necks. Lol she made us stay at her home so she could curl our hair. Hahahaha sooo funny. We taught her the Restoration while she pampered us. It was great.

 

 Oh and these oreos and chips are mine and Sister Ahokovis addiction. Love all three of them!:)

Ohana-

 

One BIG Mahalo for the package, thankyou so much! Lord of the rings, what? hahaha oh mom your such a crack up:) Sounds like things are going great at home! Thanks for all the letters! Thankyou family!

 

Well, I am emailing you today, because its our P-day today... because... We got to go to the LAIE, TEMPLE today!! Wow, it was a very.. very.. much needed experience. Thus- it was a very, very uplifting and spiritual experience for me. I fasted yesterday so that I may learn something new from this temple trip. Let me just tell you this- the temple truly is the house of the Lord. It is the most Holy place we have on this earth and its where we gain a whooole lot more knowledge and understanding then we ever can outside of the temple. It was really cool, when we were in the room before the last room, I remember thinking- wow, I like this room, its bright and pretty and nice.... and once I entered into the last room- The second I opened that door, it was like blinding light. Something like hit me, it was like 'boom'... and for some reason it just really took me back this time. It then hit me hard as I related that to our life here on earth. Think about when we feel the spirit really strongly.... or a time where you have felt truly happy/content. Maybe at church, or even at the temple. Well just think- that happiness is only happiness on earth.... think about HOW much happier you are going to feel when we enter into that door and we are in heaven with our Heavenly Father and our Savior, in the Celestial Kingdom:) Sorry, I hope you can understand what I am trying to say. I dont know how much I can say about the temple that would be appropriate. I recieved a great answer to my prayers today in the temple. I am truly grateful and so blessed to have such a place here on earth.

Alright. Well I just want y'all to know, this was a kick bum week. I also want you to know that no one knows what the word bum means in Hawaii. Hahaha it's been the joke of the week... Anyways- It's been tough. But I am so so so glad that its been tough. 1- I know it's going to get better 2- There's ALWAYS a reason we go through tough times. I figured theres two ways I could face this transfer... one- give up. or two- try harder. Well- I figured #2 would be a lot more fun to do then #1. I'm going to tell you the benefits of when you choose #2:)

If you continue to have faith, a miracle will come. So on this one particular day- we didn't have any appointments until really late that night. So we spent the day tracting because my companion hasn't been able to do that. Well many people say and think that tracting may be a waste of time. The entire Villegas family is being taught because of tracting so I very much disagree with that, sooooo... we went tracting. Haha... well.... let me just tell y'all about our tracting experience... So we start out and no one is home... and then- it just starts (literally out of no where) pouring rain. Hours go by and not one person was interesting in talking to us.... So my companion was wanting to just leave... a long time ago... but I knew that there HAD to be some one that Heavenly Father has placed in our path of tracting. So we said a prayer... and then I said, "Alright. Last one." and I point to an apartment building.... We end up knocking all of the doors... I was praying soo so so hard that there was someone in this building we could see, because if not, my companion may get really angry with me ....... We knock on the last door..... and it was the sweetest Lady- Analu. Ohhh my goodness. Long story short- We prayed with her, gave her the Book of Mormon, and shared testimonies. She was just crying and crying. She stopped and told us how she's been praying for someone like us to show up and to help her and her family. It was SOOOOOOO incredible. My faith grew. So did my companions, it was a miracle.

Next I want to talk about............. the VILLEGAS!! Well GUESS WHAT!!!! HUGE DRUM ROLE PLEASE!!! CHASE passed the sacrament on Sunday!!! Ahhhhhh it was so incredible!!!!! He's so cute oh my heck. Are missionaries allowed to adopt their converts? Just kidding. Christie- still trying and praying to get off work. Hey wanna hear a cool miracle...

 

Remember Liki? He's one the the villegas son. He's 20. And he's mentioned interest in the lessons but never actually went through with scheduling.... Well get this- all a sudden he walks in the room, during a lesson with Christie and he says, "I'm ready, I want to know and hear what you guys have to say." and he sat down. Haha pretty much we had 3 lessons in a ROW with LIki!! He's SOOOOO eager and thirsty for more and more. Its incredible and seems lil bit too good to be true. But he has a girlfriend, who is mad at him, because when she saw us teaching him and saw us calling him, yeah for some reason she gets the wrong idea... So pray for her heart to be softened...

 

 This is how solid of an investigator he is- He says, "Can you come over in one hour for a lesson?" We were like- "... YES!!" So one hour later, we show up at his house and guess what Liki, his older brother, uncle, dad, and christie were all watching? The Joseph Smith Dvd AND right after they watched The Lamb of God. One of the greatest blessings from Heavenly Father- to have an investigator prepared so well for a lesson. By golly I'm so grateful! The lesson was the Restoration and after the lesson we asked, "What questions do you have?" He just stares at us for a couple seconds and goes, "woah. You guys answered all my questions. Just like that. All of them are answered..." It was soooo cool. It was an unforgettable lesson, because now- his older brother who disagreed with our church- admitted to his mom that, everything we said makes sense. Man. The villegas family is a gold mine. Haha but really.... every single time we go, theres always unexpected opportunities and investigators to teach. The cousins and more uncles. AHHHH!!! It makes me want to stay here until they're all baptized. Just kidding, as long as I can 'plant the seed' I'll be ok.

 

 

 

Ok last super cool story....  I'll be short because we have to leave for our lesson with Zack! Who so far is still set for his baptism date on Feb. 8!!:)  Anywho- So we were on exchanges and we had in our planner to go tracting. We park our car. We knock on the first door, and the little lady says no thankyou. We ask if theres anyone else in the area who'd be interested in a prayer. She points around the corner. We go around the corner. It was a very strange hillbilly man. He said no. We ask if there anyone else in the area who'd be interested in a prayer. He says, "the house around with the red and white van." We leave and go walking down the street, turning left, turning right, left right, turn, looking for a red and white van........... Well we FINALLY found the house, but....lets just say the spirit was not there, and it just didn't feel right to knock. So then out of the RANDOM I saw a house down the road and decided to knock on it before we headed back. You would never guess................................... The people just moved into the home from South Carolina. The mom said the family is looking for a religion that is family centered and to attend. Ummmm.................... I straight up told her, "Oh my goodness God lead us to you for a reason." Haha she laughed, and told us to come backtomorrow.

 

I can't wait!! I have hope. and faith for this family. Isn't it cool to see how we were lead to this home?? After we were walking back, me and sister Ahokovi looked around us and were like, "Where the heck are we?!?" Hahaha nooo idea if we would have ever knocked or found that house without the help of the hillbilly and the little lady.

 

I have a testimony and I know that missionaries and instruments in the Lords hands and we are lead to those who are ready and prepared for the Gospel. I know that through my obedience and worthiness, He can trust me. I know that prayer works. I can't deny that. Sometimes my pride sets in, but it doesn't take very much time to realize that I truly can not do this work alone. I am very well learning that this transfer you guys.... I'm grateful for the tough times. I know that if we choose #2, to try harder when faced with trials, we will get so much more out of what Heavenly Father is trying to teach us.

 

I read a cool little story about a man who wanted his business to be better, and stronger, and grow. He would pray a lot and noticed how Heavenly Father never seemed to help his business be better and stronger and grow.................. He later had a dream, and his brother told him, "We dont care about your business up here, we care about you." I know that Heavenly Father wants US to be better and stronger and grow while here on earth. Choose #2!! Dont ever give up when faced with something hard. Dig deeper, find answers to your questions through diligent studies AND prayer. Ahhh I'm totally like preaching and rambling on to you guys right now hahaha sorry. I am just sooo so grateful for the answers and experience and knowledge I have recieved by choosing #2.

 

I love you all:)

 

Once again I hope my letter makes sense to y'all. I'm soooo tired. We woke up at 4:00 to go to the temple. So worth it though!!

 

Anywho-

 

Love you:)

 

Sister Olsen

 

Ofa Atu

 

P.s.- Uncle Randy!! I know Sister Munoa!! She is an incredible missionary!!

P.s.- I saw Kenz again as I pulled into temple. Insane, It was absolute perfect timing!

Jan 21, 2014 {Kim}

Hola!

Hola! So this week has been crazy. I gave my first talk at church! Ahhh....Our branch president called me on saturday night and told me i would be giving a talk on how to maintain our worthiness that had to be at least 10 minutes. Yaaa. i went into panic mode. You know me....it takes me HOURS to write talks and stuff. Haha. And i only had that night (1 hour) and personal study in the morning to write it. Ha seriously so stressful for me. haha plus we got a call on saturday that we had to teach the gospel principles class that all the investigators and recent converts go to. So we had to prepare for that too. ahhh. Well i was literally writing sentence by sentence while sister Garn translated sentence by sentence. Ha well i did it! I wasnt even able to go through it all the way before i had to give it though. But it went well. and i talked for 13-14 minutes so that was good! And our gospel principles class went well. and i also got asked to give another training this week...it was suppose to be today but it got changed to tomorrow because it is snowing super bad today so we cant drive. Also i had an exchange this week and i went to the english area for this one. It was weird. But good! I learned a lot. But i also learned that i have soooo much to work on. But i kind of already knew that. haha. But one of our lessons was crazy. We had it in a popeyes because the investigator is homeless. Hes way cool! His 2 friends were there as well! It was crazy. One of them was SO stoned. It made it kind of hard to teach. crazy experience. And we also found another investigator for them! whoo! We found a new investigator as well! Whoo! We contacted her on Sunday night! She was actually a "referral" from the union city sisters and she just moved into our area! sHe is fantastic! sHes sooo happy it makes us so happy. ha. But she already wants to be baptized and we just barely taught her the restoration yesterday! Shes awesome! We havent met her husband yet but he is a super strong member! So we are really excited about her! We have a lesson with Martin tonight (our investigator that we have set to get baptized this next sunday) PRAY FOR HIM! He still hasnt given us a 100% yes but we think it is going to happen! We are going over the baptismal questions tonight! PRAY! We went to Ellis island yesterday for training to help with some family history. Thats why i didnt email. SHout out to MOM & JED! The Newly weds!!! whooooo whooo!! and  Shout out to DAD for the GPS (THANKS SO MUCH) & And shout out to DANA & EVERYONE who helped with the quilt! I LOVE IT!!!! I love you all so much!!!! Have a fantastic week!

 

love, Hermana Josse

Jan 20, 2014 {Kaitlyn}

Hola Hola Familia,  Hope you all have had an excellent week!! I´m going to write a shorter email today so that I can try and figure out how to send these photos. I borrowed Hermana Hansen´s usb because mine is broken. I´m going to look for one here though, so hopefully eventually you´ll get more pictures.

We had an excellent week up until Saturday. Haha nah it was still good after that but Saturday we found out that our investigator on date and our other that we were planning to set on date need to be married first. That wouldn´t be a huge problem, but first they need to be divorced. BUMMER. Then on Sunday we were excited to finally have investigators at church but nobody showed up. We have investigators, but I guess we´re going to have to look for investigators that are actually going to commit. This week we´ll be focusing on that.

We had exchanges with the Sister Training leader this week. She is EXCELLENT! I learned so so much from her. She did things differently than I have ever seen anybody do. She is amazing. We witnessed so so many miracles in just the short time we had together. The best part is that she is like my twin. She LOVES soccer, so we had a fun time getting to know each other. She told me that she didn´t like to talk at the beginning of her mission, but she literally was talking with every single person we passed. LOVED it. I learned so much about how important it is to teach with the spirit. We were able to teach very well together because we had the spirit with us, because without that I would have never been able to follow her in the lesson. It was AMAZING. That is something that I have been studying in my morning studies, because it is vital that you start off the day well. The way you start the day determines the rest of your day. 

WOW I almost forgot. We went to the temple on Wednesday!! It is beautiful. We didn´t do a session, but just being there was amazing. The family of Hermana Diaz says hello. They sure are a great family. Her dad gave her a blessing and boy was the spirit strong. I as well was able to receive a blessing. What a special experience. I forgot how amazing the temple is. I was seriously just tearing up the whole time because I could just feel the spirit so strong. I definitely took advantage of having so many temples near us. LOTS of people don´t have that blessing. We are SOOO BLESSED. I cannot hardly wait to enter the temple in 2 weeks. :) It´s been far too long. 

The Elders had a baptism yesterday. It sure is marvelous to be able to witness a baptism. It is at that moment that I know without a doubt that these things are true. Whether I know the person or not you can literally see the change that the person experiences. I am so so grateful to be able to be a part of a work that witnesses this miracle every single day. I love this gospel so so much!! 

I´m going to take some time to send some pictures. Sorry, I was going to write a lot more but I´m running out of time. Oh by the way, how is Nana doing? Does she get my emails cuz I need to write her an email. I haven´t written her in ages. Ha there is a grandma here that reminds me so much of nana! Ha she is so funny. She just kisses my check for a minute before letting me go. Haha the people are so loving here! 

LOVE YOU ALL. Paz y Bendiciones a todos :) Les quiero!

COn mucho amor,

Hermana Wright

Attention Attention!

There was a confirmed sighting of Sister Olsen today, January 14, 2014, in the Laie Temple parking lot ! I was running late to school in the morning (promise it was early in the morning) and she was pulling into the parking lot right as I was crossing the street! We only talked for a couple seconds because we we're both late, but it made my day! No pictures to document it this time, but I am sure there will be other sightings to come that will have photo proof. Until the next sighting, 

ALOOOOOOHA!

A.M.E 

January 13, 2014 {Kaitlyn}

LES QUIERO FAMILIA :)

Hello hello dearest family!  Hope all is going well for you all! Thanks for all the wonderful emails. I always love love love to hear how everybody is doing. I don´t know how I managed to do it again because I alwaysss have my planner with me, but I forgot it when we went back to the house. I was planning on using that to help me remember everything that happened, but ohhh well. I´ll do the best I can with my terrible memory. 

We started the week of well with 3 referrals from somebody that we knocked into last week. We showed up for our next appointment and she had her brother there who wanted to listen, as well as her husband. We ended up postponing the appointment until the next day, and when we showed up there was a new person. Sooo, to sum that all up we are now teaching Feliza and her husband Ramon, and Nadia and her husband Jose. Nadia is now on date for February 8 and Feliza is still thinking about a date. Yipee!!! The lesson with them was UNBELIEVABLE. When we were asking her about how she felt about the things we had taught she told us that she loved it all and believed all of it. BEST response EVER! Unfortunately they didn´t come to church, but hopefully they´ll come next week. 

On Thursday we had another miracle lesson with a referral that we had tried contacting like 6 times before that. She was never ever home. Well, she invited us in and we were able to get to know her and teach the 1st lesson. The lesson went sooo smoothly. It was one of the best Restoration lessons that I have ever had. After the closing prayer she stopped and said ¨I just need to tell you... I don´t know what it is about your prayers, but I just felt something different with both of your prayers.¨ Awww it was amazing, we were able to explain how it was the spirit that she had been feeling and that it was because of the truthfulness of this message. Literally through the whole lesson I felt like tears were just going to come rolling down my face. The spirit was SO SO strong!! The only problem with her is that she´s not at home much, but I´m thinking she´s going to be a golden investigator. Her names Elsa, so keep her in your prayers!  

Pobre cita, Hermana Hansen received her hija this week. She was so so nervous to be training, and the second her companion arrived she got the news that her grandma (who was like a mother to her) had passed away. She started yelling hysterically and Hna. Hansen had no idea what to do. Long story short Hna. Hansen ended up staying with us for the weekend because her companion went home Saturday morning. Poor girl  It was so fun to have Hna. Hansen with us though. I learned so much from her! She´s an excellent missionary. Funny side story... her mom today in her email said that she had run into somebody that went to Lone Peak. It was Diane Ridge, and she was telling her that I was in this mission. Haha so her mom was asking if she had run into an Hermana Wright. Haha sorry that probably made no sense... but Oh well. Anyway, we had lots of fun and did some amazing work this weekend! We made a nice little video for miss Sara Burns . Haha I still don´t have the cord to send it, but I might borrow Hna Hansens. 

Yesterday was a crazyyy sunday. We went to pick up a 93 year old menos activo. Well, when we got there she was still sleeping. Long story short, she´s 93 years old and we wheeled her to the church and ended up being late. We missed the confirmation of Oscar and the sacrament. I felt soooo terrible. You know me, I was stressing about that one all meeting long. Beside the point, our cute little grandma LOVED it! She was telling us on the way home how all 3 of us could live with her and we can share her bed for the Ciesta and everything. Haha aww she´s too cute. She reminded me of grandma and Nana.  She was so so excited to be able to go to the church. It was far worth all the stress. Por el fin, we ended up getting the sacrament after church. I wasn´t sure what I was going to do without that little boost for the week! Haha Pretty terrible that that´s what we go around teaching, and then we don´t even show up for that part. Haha ayy ayy ayy.

Anyway, all is going well here in Argentina. We had a zone activity in Glew today that we ended up missing because the Remiz who had Hna. Hansens comp was lost for... well all morning long. Haha oh well. Hope you all have an amazing week! Love you all so much. Don´t forget to do your member missionary work! :) Go out on splits with them... it´s better than Christmas! 

January 13, 2014 {Kim}

HOLA!

Hola! Well this week has been super good but also super devastating. We Had 2 of our investigators at church yesterday and they both stayed for 4 HOURS! ya. 4. The 4th meaning they stayed for a baptism that the elders had!! Edwin (one of our investigators) asked us like 3 times when he can be baptized. He wants to be baptized but he just cant seem to get work off on sundays. He is goood with everything else. I think we can get him to quit soon though! pray for him! He is having a harddddd time with that! But he is great! And our other investigator (Martin) and his family - wife (milagros) and 5 year old daughter (Sabrina) Stayed for everything. 1st time EVER! And they loved it! Martins excuse for not staying for all 3 hours every week is because he gets super hungry. haha. But we had a lesson with him last night after church and he was telling us how  weird it was because he wasnt hungry once he decided to stay for all 3 hours. Spiritually fed. haha. But for real! It was awesome to hear him talking about that! And We also had an awesome (!!!!!!) lesson with him and his familyon friday. We talked about prayer and during the lesson we asked both him and his wife to go into separate rooms and pray out loud to know if the book of mormon was true. they of course thought this was a bit weird haha ( i would too) but they did it! When they returned to the room they said they felt good but they still just didnt know for sure. They have a hard time recognizing the spirit. ha. Cuz we definitely know they both recieved an answer. and yesterdays lesson with them reassured us of that for sure! At our lesson last night Martin told us what actually happened after he came back into the room after praying on Friday. He said he walked back in and the room was just SUPER bright. and our faces were literally glowing and we were just lit up. and looked like angels. And they were both telling us that everytime we come over their house just feels so much peaceful! Awesome right? Well we have him set with a baptismal date for the 26th! and we really think it is going to happen! He just has a hard time with coffe! pray for him! And as for why this week was sad....Well yesterday we found out some INSANE stuff about one of our most active families. they were not at church last week and we knew they were having problems. But they werent there yesterday as well. But we had an appointment with them after church. I cant really say all that much about it. But she told us everything that was going on. Even though i didnt understand everything i could just see her (The moms) pain. I couldnt hold back my tears so ya i was crying. I HATE THAT THESE THINGS HAPPEN. Its insane what this woman has gone through. people people people. ugh. Well i dont have much time! but i love you alllll! Pray for this family as well. They need it lotttts!

Love, Hermana Josse

January 6, 2014 {Cara}

Tired..

Well this week was an awesome week... My new companion... is helping me become a better person. I'm pretty sure that's what Heavenly Fathers plan is... Man... its so hard sometimes, but I just have to bite my lip and smile. On the funny note, she's quite entertaining. She does inturprative dancing/kung fu in the middle of the apartment complex, while I do sprints..... anndd the first thing sister grow does in the mornings, since I dont ''seem to look too happy'' is attack me with a huge bear hug.. I'm pretty much like half awake, and dont really know whats going on. She also speaks 3 other languages.. Video games language, t.v. language, and Lord of the Rings language. Might come in handy when we go tracting though.

Nah, but I love her, I do! This week has just been long... but good.

Here's some miracles that happened.....

We were at the Villegas house for 3 hours.......... and we taught 4 lessons.

1-the boys 2- christie 3- her brother mark, the one in prison 4- Reno.

Mark was at church! And bore his testimony. It was so unexpected, and awesome. Can't wait for his lessons. Reno, is still taking lessons. Christie is now trying to get work off Sundays.Chad gave the opening prayer in primary and wanted us to see. My heart melted. Proud missionary moment:) And chance is teaching Reno how to pray!

Mikey (the one baptized December 10) bore his testimony too!! Man, he's so awesome. My testimony grows from hearing his. And he's been a member for not even a month!!!

Then we got a missed call from a number, and the voicemail says, "Hello. My name is Zack, and I'll be at church for my first time this Sunday, and I want to be baptized on Feb. 8. Let me know if that's all ok." uhhh............ You could say that the phone call made my night!

Well sure enough- He came to church! And we have lesson with him tomorrow night!

Alika- Not sure if I told ya'll this or not... but our goal is for alika to go to the temple. So he's been given the Aaronic Priesthood, and has been doing programs. Soon he'll be passing the sacrament!! Also- he didn't think he was worthy for the temple. I then remembered the talk that Dad- you gave me at Grandmas house. I gave the same one to Alika. Haha he later says, "you have a wise dad." Mom he said that same about you, when I shared how awesome of an everyday missionary you are. Haha:) ANYWAY- So I explained to him that Satan is who makes him think he's unworthy. Then I decided to do a baptism interview with him:) And guess what! He passed:) So I let him know he was worthy to enter the temple. He was so excited!!!!! Ahhh I love it! Haha I know its bishops job to do that...... and not mine... but...... I felt like it was appropriate for that one time and I assumed that two interviews are the same thing, and turns out- they are.

Haha it was a really cool experience. Bishop interviewed him Sunday and he now has his recommend to do baptisms for the dead Jan. 23. And he's getting the Melchezidek priesthood in the summer:) He's a LA, but one the the strongest converts.

I love the Holy Ghost. I'm so grateful to have such a gift. I know that without the Holy Ghost, I would not be able to have such an amount of faith and love for someone who was born 2,014 years ago. I'm grateful to have the knowledge I do about our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that as we do our part of the everyday things such as scripture study, and prayer, our faith will increase, and the Holy Ghost will confirm what we are learning is true. I know that as we share with others what we know, the Holy Ghost will help us out. Every. Single. Time....... The Holy Ghost has never meant so much to be before. I'm so grateful for it, and I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and His church He, Himself established. I am so grateful that it has been restored, and we now have the FULLNESS of the Gospel today. What a blessing. It sometimes blows my mind to think about how blessed we, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, really are. I hope you all take small kine time to truely think about it, and continue to recognize how the Holy Ghost speaks to y'all.

Well.....

I'm not going to lie... its been a really tough week..

Miss you guys.

Sister Cara Olsen

P.s.- Mom, what in the world- the attic is being renovated?!

P.s.s.- Congrats to Dallin Parker for getting engaged! Crrrazy.

P.s.s.s.- Mom whenever you send another package, can you send deoderant and mascara and C.D's? Thanks... Just whenever. By the way, the dress and shirts you sent me- I've already worn a lot. Thanks so much:)

January 6, 2014 {Kim}

J~E~R~S~E~Y

Hola! Happy New Year! Wellll i literally cant remember much of what happened this week. haha. the weeks kind of blend together. But we have been struggling with finding new investigators. We have knocked so many doors. Its hard to find hispanics in our area. Haha we've had some good experiences knocking though. And it has been FREEZING. My toes almost fell off the other day. We're working hard though so i know we will find some people soon! Well tomorrow is transfer conference. Im sad that some of my favorite people are leaving our district :( and it is so weird to think that i have already been here a whole transfer but then again it feels like i have been here for a long time. But the weird thing is is that next transfer i am literally going to be the only one left in our district. That'll be weird! well i really cant remember much of what happened this week haha but all is well. I love you alll so much! I hope all is well! Have a fantastic week!! oh and random fact...parking in New Jersey is the worst. Especially when it snows. haha so difficult. Well...Hasta Luego. Peace, Love, And Blessings.

 

Con amor, Hermana Josse

December 30, 2013 {Kaitlyn}

Grandma and Grandpa here we come!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I can´t believe we are already entering into 2014. CRAZY! Do you have any big plans for New Year´s Eve? How did the rest of Christmas go? Did you not have a family dinner with all the cousins this year? 

It was so great getting to talk to you! Definitely the highlight of the week. You guys are EXCELLENT! My good old weird family. Time really does go by pretty quick, cuz believe it or not I´ve been out for 6 months almost 7. I wasn´t awkward was I? Cuz I felt like I just saw you all a few months ago. I still feel guilty that we talked so much past. I´ll confess to President.  I can´t have any guilt on me! Anyway, it was so great to see you all. Brandon took a picture and I look like fatty McGee on there. How embarrassing. Ohhh dear. Imagine that in a year from now. The food is so bad for you here. You eat all carbs and meat. I´m not the biggest fann.... at all. Ha the good news is that we don´t eat as much. But I think the fact that it´s all bad for me is going to leave me hanging just the same. On top of that we drink like a million glasses of pop everyday. Bleh! Haha, sorry enough of my complaining! 

Apart from that, this week has been great! I´m getting more and more used to it everyday! It is hard considering that I don´t understand much again. I still understand when people talk normal, but when they start speaking about random things I get lost. They speak with so much slang, and a million miles a minute. Ha but that´s alright. It´ll come :) 

We ran into somebody the other night. It was really neat cuz she told us that she didn´t have time but then we ended up talking outside her house for a good hour. Her daughter passed away and she was devastated. Well, I read a scripture Alma 13:22 I believe? I thought that it had been an amazing scripture for me the night before... but turns out that the Lord had a better purpose in mind. I was able to explain that her daughter is one of those angels. She had sent us to her, because she now knows of the truthfulness. In the end we didn´t get too far, but we are going to be able to visit her again. I love the small simple miracles like that. :)

We had an activity for Christmas on Saturday. We did a live nativity and it was so great. Out of all of our traditions that´s the one I missed most. I LOVE doing that. Love it love it love it. Papa Noel also came to visit, in a paper costume. Haha everything here is a little bit behind the united states but ya it was super fun. 

I am now playing the piano in sacrament. Right hand for lots of them. I should have practiced hymns!!! Bishop saw me playing one night and the rest was history. It´ll be good for me though. 

Well, sorry for the short email. We better get going though because we have an appointment at 6. Love you all so so much! Argentina is amazing! We experienced sooooo many miracles yesterday. It´s amazing how much the Lord directs us. We somehow end up places that we had no intentions of. That´s when you know that this really is all in the Lord´s hands. 

I´ll be anxious to hear next week about the baby. Give my love to brandon and Whitney. I about screamed when I saw something about her water breaking! Hahahaha How exciting :) Can´t wait to see pictures. PS. THanks for the pictures brandon! LOVE YOU!!!

December 30, 2013 {Cara}

A white Christmas:)

It sure was AMAZING to see you guys on Christmas!! I love you so much! I love that you are all so happy:) Abby- It was SO awesome hearing about your missionary experience with Dre! Will you invite her to take the missionary lessons? I know that it might seem scary to do, but I promise you that there is a reason why you are in Oklahoma, and you two are friends. Pray about it:) You two can grow your testimonies together! How awesome to think about?:) 

OK FAMILY GUESS WHAT!?!?!??!?! The Villegas boys are ALL BAPTIZED!!! It was the BEST day of my life. Reno came, Christie came, the whole ward came!! It was a very spritual baptism. Lots of tears.... The best picture/ visual was when the oldest (Kody) was baptized. While the prayer was being said and Kody was in the water, I had the biggest smile on my face because behind Kody was  Chase, Chad, and Chance in a line, all dressed in white, with big wide eyes and smiling. A scene in my mind, I wont forget! Christie has a baptism date for January 18! Hopefully she can keep getting work off!! She loves church! She tells everyone she meets to start calling her, "Sister Villegas, because that's my new name"  Haha love her:)

After the baptism, Reno came up to us and said, "You know what- I think I'm ready to take those lessons from you." AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We've been waiting and praying for him to want to take the lessons. 

Well we had a lesson at Bro. Kimos house (who is a local surfer kine guy- the PERFECT fellowship for Reno) The lesson went great. I've never- ever- never- ever- have seen the HOly Ghost work so clearly with an investigator. It was like lightbulbs going off with every sentence we said. It was like a concert. Just kidding. Haha. Ok but really!! He was asking questions- relating things- connecting- man it was so awesome. At the end of the lesson we invited him to pray about being baptized January 25................................

Sunday-  Christie came to church for the first time!!! She has been praying and trying to get off work since we've met her! In October! And the ONE day she was able to was the day all her boys were getting confirmed. It was a miracle. She even brought her brother, Mark who is about to end his time in prison.......... Reno, Christie, and Mark all came to Gospel Principles class. The Elders were teaching and taught about Baptism. Haha ohh it was the best class of my life. Just picture this- Christie was to my right and her head was nodding the whole time in agreement with everything being said, going "mmmhmmm.. yep." Reno was to my left-  His nose was dug into the book reading everything ahead!! He was loving it!! And Mark was in front of me- ANSWERING questions and bearing testimony and tearing up. It was so cool. But wait it gets better..........

After the lesson, we were walking out the door and Reno says, "Sister Olsen!!" I turn around and He's still in the room in the corner. He points to the picture in the book and said, "You know what you asked me the other night? I will do it. I feel and I know it's what I need and what I want. I need a new beginning." Wow. I just wanted to attack him with the biggest bear hug ever. But I didn't.He's so solid. He listens to the Book of Mormon for an hour everyday in his truck on his way to surf:)

Well that night we had a lesson with Reno at Bro. Kimo's house again on the Plan of Salvation. It went amazing. We used little cut outs and after the lesson we paused and asked Reno to ask any questions he had, or thoughts. Haha Reno said, ".............Well its kind of like my whole world has been shaken and turned upside down." Isn't that cool!? He accepted it, and is understanding it! It all makes sense to him. What we have, our knowledge Heavenly Fathers Plan for us, is incredible! How blessed am I, to be able to share that knowledge with Reno. He is phenomenal you guys. He just wants a new life, a fresh start, and wants to have a foundation with Christ and family. He's such a good, good, guy. It's awesome. Hopefully when the brother gets out of prison He'll be baptized! In the mean time, He'll be at church each week with Christie and Reno!!

Well.....................its the end of Transfers. My companion is leaving. Instead of the Zone Leaders calling us to tell us our new companion, I had to get a special phone call from the A.P.'s about my new companion.... All they said was, "Sister Olsen, with your new companion.............................................................um.......................................just love her." Yep that's all they said. And the only thing other people tell me about her is that I'm going to learn the Christlike attribute of patience. I knew a humbling experience was coming up, I was way too blessed with Teuscher! But it will be good. I'll love Sister Grow!! 

We have Reno and Christie with Baptism dates. And a lot of Members from the Branch setting up lessons with their friends for us to teach. It's going really good right now! I'm very blessed, thankyou for the prayer you guys! They're helping. Miracles are happening every single day! It bring tears to my allergic eyes from the vogue- to think about the VILLEGAS!!! Just like the Kanemitsu family, right after they are baptized, they start cleaning the house, the sprit is stronger, the love is deeper for one another. We have our lessons in the living room, we teach them primary songs, and they LOVE it!! They love praying now, they love singing, they lovvvvve reading the book of Mormon. I love making it exciting for them and bringing it to life!! They are just becoming the best Mormon family ever! I love bringing all of it to them. They're happier, and more calm. Reno thanked us for the change that is happening in the Home. More miracles to come....:)

Sister Pratt. Your right. Reno is getting baptized. haha! Thanks for praying:) Ok I am going to write all y'all back, my dearest siblings. Handwritten letters- tonight! 

I'm sooo nervous for transfers!

Love you!

Aloha 

Sister Cara Ann Olsen