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...............