Hermana Olsen in Minnesota

Hola hola!! We had transfers this week! 

The past 6 weeks Hermana Pister and I have been training Hermana Taylor. It has been so fun! Trio life can be tricky but also it’s just so much fun! Hermana Pister left so it’s just Hermana Taylor and I and I’m finishing off her training! We are still in Lakeville and it’s my 3rd transfer here. I am SO happy I stayed in Lakeville, especially for the fall because rumor has it, Lakeville is the best place to be during the fall. There is also a lot of work in Lakeville and I have grown to know and LOVE the people here so MUCH. I love Lakeville!

This past week was a party week. We went to a fun little birthday party for one of the members in our branch and celebrated. We had exchanges this week and Hermana Taylor and I went with Sister Johnson in her area. We taught her friend Steven who just got baptized and oh my goodness he is just amazing! He loves doing hand hearts where you make hearts with your hands so we made sure to get a picture of us doing it with him haha. 

There was some sort of bug going around because we all got sick! Hermana Pister had the gripa (flu) and was super sick this week and Hermana Taylor and I had sore throats and stuffy noses. It drained us a couple days and one night we all wanted to get to bed early. Hermana Pister went to bed and Hermana Taylor and I were sitting in our living room talking and then Hermana Pister sprints out of our room and says someone just knocked on our window. We were all freaked out because it was like 10pm and we live on the first floor. We all kept hearing knocking on our windows and our service had been down all day too so we couldn’t call or text anything or recieve texts. Then we heard knocking on our back sliding door and we were like what the heck, so we all huddled together and said a prayer haha. After that we quickly turned off all our fans so we could hear and we heard the Elders whispering outside the window that it was them. We were like oh my gosh haha! We went out and  they had broughten us a basket with treats and cough drops and medicine because we were all sick. We told them how scared we were and they said they couldn’t get a hold of us so they had to try that haha but it was super nice of them!

We had lots of lessons and passed off a couple of our friends to the Elders and had pass off lessons. It’s fun having pass off lessons because you are able to see how other missionaries teach! We had lots of food this week as always. We went to $1 Friday tacos as always and our members took us out to pho and after church on Sunday we all ate with the members at the church. After every fast Sunday we break our fast together and we always eat at the church together. Its my favorite because we just line up tables and we all sit together and just talk! I love love love it!

We have started teaching English connect! We used to only join the end and share a spiritual message but now we stay for the whole class and help teach. It’s been really fun! It’s the same class every time so we get to know each of them and build connections with them. I love it! 

We have been doing service for this organization called Sleep in Heavenly Peace ever since I got to Lakeville, and missionaries who have been in Lakeville in the past have also done it but we have been doing it consistently and have really built some awesome relationships with the people who run this chapter in Lakeville. We have become really close friends with them and have been able to help a lot and it is a blessing! What we do is they have build days where anyone can come and volunteer to help build beds. This organization builds beds and gives beds to kids who don’t have one. It’s so amazing and we have been able to help with all the builds and also have been able to deliver the beds to kids! There are a lot of applications that they recieve where they speak Spanish, so us and the Elders have been able to help set up appointments and also have been able to deliver to these families who speak Spanish and make the experience better for them! The head guy Nate is awesome and always goes with us to do deliveries and he tells us that he can see the difference in the experience because we are able to communicate with them and get them excited. We have had so many amazing experiences doing this and are just so grateful that we get to be a part of helping with this amazing organization! Nate invited us and the Elders over to his house to have dinner with his family as a thank you for all we have done to help. It was fun to meet his family and we got to share a message with them after too. They aren’t members and it’s actually funny because everytime we see him we are in sweats and a tshirt since we are always doing service around him but this time we were in our dresses and the Elders were in their suites and he got to see what we actually wear and do everyday. We had explained it to him of course but it was fun to be able to share a message and invite the spirit into their home.

We had transfers and we got 4 new spanish missionaries! 2 new Hermanas and 2 new Elders! They’re all cuties, we are excited to have them! It was weird leaving transfers and not having Hermana Pister with us. But Hermana Taylor and I were excited to only have 2. Hermana Taylor only knew what it was like to live trio life and I have been living it the past 10 weeks so I was excited to be a duo again. It was fun to meet up with all the missionaries at transfers and talk with all of them and see all the other spanish missionaries!

We started teaching this one kid named Gabriel, he’s in high school and he had seen a tiktok haha talking about different churches and the Bible and he said he wanted to learn more about the bible and about Jesus Christ so he went online and referred himself to hear a message!! We met up with him and he said he had bought a Bible and wanted to learn more so we read in the Bible with him and taught him and it was seriously such a powerful lesson. He had so many good questions and was just so interested. After our lesson, when we got home, I was looking through my messages on messenger and saw that there was a message I hadn’t responded to in over a month from this kid and it was literally the kid Gabriel that we had just taught! He had found my Facebook and saw that I was a missionary over a month ago and had told me he was interested in hearing a message but I had never responded!!! It actually is so crazy because after that I guess he had referred himself on the church website and we were the missionaries that were in his area and taught him. It’s crazy that I was the missionary he had reached out to and then when he had referred himself, he got sent to us! He’s so cool and we are sooo excited to be teaching him! 

For pday today we just went on a hike and food prepped for our week. It was a good week and I’m excited for next week! I love you all seriously so so much! I love this gospel, and I love my Savior! I know that things don’t just happen for a reason! God has a perfect plan for His children. He loves us and He does all He can to help guide us! Have an amazing week! 

(One day when we were delivering beds with Nate the door to the apartment complex wouldn’t open and we told Nate that sometimes when we are trying to get into apartment buildings and they’re locked we will grab the handle and say bendiciones. He grabbed the handle and closed his eyes and said benedicios and we were like.. close.)

Hermana Olsen ❤ 

Hola hola hola!!!

 OH my goodness it’s been a sec, but here’s my AMAZING week! This week was actually so awesome, and full of so many little miracles!

First off here’s a quick little update! I’m still in Lakeville and I am trio training! Hermana Pister and I are training Hermana Taylor! She’s a cutie and I love her so much! My heart is full of love and gratitude! I couldn’t be more happy! 

For pday we went to Northfield, this cute little town in the middle of nowhere. It’s feels like we were in Italy. It’s right up against a river with all these little shops and there are so many old buildings and antique shops. We just walked around and got ice cream and went to all the antique shops. It was super fun! We go up there about once a week because we have some friends that live there and it’s my favorite. We just spend the day there since it’s far away from where we live and we just hang out at the library or sit by the river and do our studies. I LOVE IT! 

This week started off so good. We have been teaching this family for a little while and we go over every Monday to teach them and we always leave with seriously smiles plastered on our faces. They just don’t go away. I love them so much! They are a cute family from Honduras and we are teaching Adriana and her 10 year old daughter and her mother in law and this past Monday her father in law was there too and it was such a POWERFUL lesson. We taught them the Restoration and first off the Restoration already has so much power but idk it was seriously just such a spirit filled lesson and we just connected so much more with them. They are so fun and full of energy and just have those big fun laughs that gets everybody laughing. Seriously always a highlight of my week when we get to go over and teach them. Adrianas 10 year old daughter is SO CUTE and is just so excited to read in the Book of Mormon or say the prayer. She always runs and grabs the Bible and the Book of Mormon when we come over haha. The only thing is we are having a hard time getting them to church so pray pray pray that they will have a desire to come to church!! 

We teach this one girl Daphne LeBaron, and for anyone who knows the last name LeBaron it’s pretty crazy. She grew up in Mexico in a polygamist family. She believes pretty much everything we do and has read the Book of Mormon, she just doesn’t believe that we have a living prophet. We have been going over to teach her and she really is so sweet and loves having us come over! 

We had our first zone conference with our new mission Presidents! We had Elder Gimenez from the seventy and his wife come and speak! It was awesome. They are from Chile and so afterwards I went and had a conversation with them in spanish! They are so cute and they are just so fun and loved being around all the missionaries. I also just love zone conference because we get to see other missionaries! We FINALLY had zone conference with the other spanish missionaries! Our last mission Presidents always split the Spanish missionaries up so we never got to see them but this zone conference we finally got to be together! At zone conference we learned a lot about immitating good things and good habits while on our missions and judt throughout our lives. I loved that so much! They also talked about having a desire and how no one can teach someone how to have a desire for something, that is all up to them and all up to us to decide. We need to figure out what fuels our desire. Something that has helped me a lot when I have a desire for something is I think “I am doing this because I love my Heavenly Father and I love Jesus Christ”. That has helped me a LOT! Sometimes it’s not always easy to keep up the desire to do something but when you are doing it for the right purpose and for the right people it’s always worth it. One last thing that they said that I really liked was “Your success does not depend on how others react.” Oh my goodness that one just hit me. 

Ok so miracle!! When I first got to Lakeville Hermana Pister and Hermana Flores had been teaching someone named Fran and he was SO cool! Like the absolute coolest and then all of a sudden he just never answered or texted back or anything so we were like what the heck? Anyways we were doing stop bys at an apartment complex and we got off the elevator and there was a guy chillin by the window and we looked over at him and it was FRAN!!!! We were like Fran!!!! Oh my goodness he just smiled so big and started laughing. We were like what happened? He said that he had dropped his phone off a roof while working so he had to get a whole new phone and new number and he didn’t know how to contact us again. We got his new number and oh my goodness it was such a miracle that he was there and we finally found him again! It had been 3 months! He is THE best!

Ok ANOTHER miracle! This was oh my goodness, this makes me so happy. A different day this week we were doing stop bys in a different apartment complex and we stopped by this one ladies house and we were talking with her for a little while and we kept saying like ok we gotta go. So we eventually left and while we were walking down the hall we heard what we thought was spanish music oops and knocked on the guys door and it definitely wasn’t haha but he gave us the name of the song and we left to go out to our car and as we were walking down the stairs this one guy was walking up them and so we said hi and we started talking. We told him we were missionaries and he immediately said I want to learn and we were like yeah!?? Ok!! He was so cool and he just started giving us all his information and we set up a time to go over to his apartment for a lesson! As we were walking to our car we all were like oh my goodness all the things that happened before led us to run into him! He was so cool and we were so excited! 

We went over a couple days later to have a lesson and when we knocked on the door and a different guy answered and we were like is Noé here and they were like he’s out in the parking lot, he should be here soon and then we heard all these voices coming from the stairs and group of like 5 guys start walking and Noé was with them. He lives in an apartment with 10 guys. He invited us in and it was one of the guys birthdays and he was like come celebrate with us and we were like uhhh ok. We went in and it was funny because we were obviously there for a lesson so we just had all of them sitting around us and we were teaching the 2 great commandments. They had expected this party but instead we taught them a lesson haha. They were all pretty interested but would get loud and cut us off and talk over us a lot. We were trying to read some verses and none of them were really listening and then Noé yelled yo chicos listen and all of them immediately went quiet and listened. It was like the craziest thing haha. We talked about how no matter where we are in life and how far from God we may think we are, there is always a way back to Him. It was honestly a really good lesson and something I think they all needed ro hear. After the lesson they pulled out their guitar and asked us if we knew how to play and we didn’t but they still had us try haha. We did terrible. Noé was super eager for the next time we would come over for a lesson. PRAY that things keep progressing! 

We are trying to grow our Facebook spanish page so we made a cute post of all the Spanish missionaries in Minnesota so if you want, go follow Venir a Cristo en Minnesota and like and share our post haha!

I got these white slip on shoes from Walmart so that I can have missionaries write or draw on them for fun and one morning I was eating one of my favorite Mexican candies and decided I wanted to draw it on my shoe, so I did and it actually turned out better than I thought! I was hecka impressed haha. I got the idea from one of the Elders to have shoes that people draw on as little memories and I love it! 

Saturday we did service for Sleep in Heavenly Peace and we went to the warehouse and helped make beds again! As always it was amazing and by the end of it we were covered in saw dust from head to toe. It was everywhere. It is seriously the most rewarding feeling afterwards knowing that because of our hard work, all these kids get their own beds to sleep on! 

We have had a hecka ton of lessons this past week and it makes the day go by so fast! We also have been streeting absolutely everyone. We have met so many cool new people because of it! We were driving one day through a trailer park and saw all these people picking up branches from a tree they had cut down so we quickly parked and went to help them clean up! We got to talk with all of them and tell them we are the missionaries and they were all so so grateful. It just feels so good to serve and we met some cool people and got their numbers! 

Sunday we got a text from a referral that we had gotten, but had never taught, and he asked us what the address was to the church and that he wanted to come! We sent it over and he came! His name is Fredy and he’s so cool. The members in our branch fellowshipped him so so well and after church when we went to go find him, tons of the Hermanos in our ward were just talking with him and getting to know him. It made my heart so happy! I love our members. 

We went over to Lupitas house to have dinner with her and her family on Sunday, like we do every Sunday and seriously every time we go over I just feel at home. They are one of the most amazing families I have ever met. They open the front door to greet us and immediately give us hugs and a fat old kiss on our cheeks and call us their princesas, hermosas, preciosas, bonitas, niñas haha literally every time. They are just so loving and just give give give. They are so so thoughtful and selfless. I love them with my whole heart! 

I am so grateful for the gospel and for the opportunities it has given me to meet such amazing people that will stay close to my heart forever. I love you all so much! I know our Savior lives and that He loves you! 

Hermana Olsen<3

I’m back! I hope you all had the chance to see the Lord’s hand in your lives today and if you didn’t think back on your day. Everything good that happened came from the Lord. He is in every detail 

I finally went to the mall of America! Wow it is crazy haha. I didn’t actually believe that there was pretty much a whole amusement park, well at least as huge, until I walked in and saw it. It was crazy. We just walked around and checked everything out. Lots of people were giving us looks and squinting at our tags haha. We just said hello to everyone and smiled at everyone, it was fun! Anyways it was fun and I’m happy I finally got to go!

On the 4th of July we got to meet our new mission Presidents! They went on a little mission tour and came to our church building and theytalked with us and showed us a video of their family and we got to get to know them and talk with them after and we had a fun little BBQ with them for the 4th. They are so cute! I love them! They are the Gochnours and they are from Utah, and oh my goodness I am just so excited they are here! 

For the 4th of July we got to go see the fireworks and we hung out as a district for the night. We played some pickleball and were just enjoying our time together! I missed being home with my family for the 4th but I was surrounded by some pretty amazing people that made it feel like I was home! 

We made a trip to Fairboult and Northfield this week which is about 40 minutes from us because we went to visit some of our members down there and teach some of our friends. It is BEAUTIFUL! It is kind of in the middle of nowhere and there are rolling hills and green everywhere and rice fields and corn fields and fields with horses and barns everywhere! Oh my goodness I loved it! It was the cutest thing. We got to walk around the cute little town and we went to this cute little ice cream place. It was a whole different world! We usually stay closer to the city so it was fun to make that little trip.

We got to visit the sweetest little lady in an assisted living home. We shared a message with her and got to help her. She was so cute haha. She spoke in a whisper so we really had to listen to understand her and she would just giggle and smile. She was just the cutest! It felt so good just to visit and be with her. She doesn’t get visited a lot so we were so so happy we got to visit her and share a message and give her all our love! 

The members in Lakeville are just the best! I love them and they are all just so fun and loving and so so welcoming. They hug us and treat us like they’ve known us their whole lives. They are incredible and I am so grateful for them. We started up a volleyball night every Saturday to help get more people together and to invite our friends to come and meet people and it’s a rough start haha but all the members have been so supportive and amazing and getting the word out. Ahhh I love them! 

A friend that Hermana Erickson and I were teaching when we were in Minne got baptized on Sunday so Hermana Pister and I got to go to Minne! When we got to the church building in Minne, as we were walking up to the church, Hermana Erickson walked out the door and immediately we sprinted for eachother and we gave eachother the biggest hug!!! We literally fell to the ground we were jumping up and down so much haha! I was so excited to see her! I have missed her so much! Oh my goodness the bapstim was amazing, I love baptisms. The spirit just fills the room every time. I was so happy for Julio and am so excited for the joy he is going to continue to feel because of this decision! I got to see the members again in the minne ward and I was so excited! I also got to catch up with Hermana Erickson. Oh my gosh I love her, I’ll never stop saying it. I also got to see some other missionaries in my district feom last transfer. It was a fun little reunion! 

We ran some more this week and we have been trying to find new places to run so that we can see more places. We have recently been running on these trails in the woods and it’s so beautiful because we are just surround by trees and it just smells like pine. We were running one morning and this one lady was just riding her horse so we stopped and pet it and gave it treats haha. We ran at this one trail that the church owns and it was so gorgeous. We were running in a grove of trees and oh my gosh, so beautiful. Sometimes after we run we will go reward ourselves with a slurpee from speedway even though it literally defeats the purpose… but MEMORIES! 

Our teaching pool hasn’t been the best lately. It’s been hard to get solid lessons since everyone’s work schedules have been everywhere since no one has a solid work schedule. But we have had some really powerful lessons this week where the spirit has just testified through us. We have been able to really help our members who aren’t as active re-light that flame and remember the feeling of the spirit. It’s just so powerful when you can see the spirit hit them and see the comfort and joy in their eyes. This gospel truly is powerful. 

I hope you all have an amazing week! I love you! I invite you all to share your testimony with someone this week, even if it’s small and simple. There may be someone that needs to hear it. Be safe I love you all! Also the Elders always say “dare to be a mormon” from President Monsons talk dare to stand alone so I thought it was a fitting title. 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2011/10/dare-to-stand-alone?lang=eng

Hermana Olsen<3

Pics

– Adopted park from the church

– Ice cream sign 

– Girls really do do everything better

– Our friend Pablo

– District on 4th of July 

– Beef patties at MOA

– Slurpees

– Hermana Pister y yo

I take it back! THIS week was the best week! It was a week FULL of emotions but the absolute best memories!

I don’t even know where to begin. It was our last pday as a district so of course we played pickleball and we played for like 5 hours. Yeison, one of our members, had work off so he came and played pickleball with all of us and destroyed us. Like absolutely destroyed us. He was so freaking good. We got hecka burnt because we were outside for so long so we all decided to go to the church and just chill the rest of pday. When we got there we all waxed our noses because I had this nose waxing kit, almost everyone had never done it before so the reactions were the best. We ended the day with Noche de Hogar. Our friend came too which we were super excited about and we all just had a good time and we got to know her a lot better. It was a super good day! 

Tuesday I had exchanges with Hermana McDermott and it was so amazing! She is such an AMAZING missionary and I have been so excited to go on an exchange with her and see how she does missionary work. We stayed in my area, North Minne, and had quite a few lessons. Hermana McDermott really focuses on baptism in every lesson and just the way she teaches is so focused on the importance baptism. We had a lesson with one of our friends that we had never taught before but had been taught in the past, and we put him on date! We just focused on our purpose as missionaries to help others come unto Christ and how important bapstim is and he was so excited and wanted to be baptized! It was such a happy experience. It was my first person I have put on date! After the call ended we just started freaking out and screaming and were so excited! That set the mood for the day and it was such a good day. We had our last district council and we all shared our testimonies, and dang I am surrounded by some pretty strong missionaries. We had dinner at a family in our wards house, Elder and Patricia. They always are playing music and they set up tables in their front yard and we just all had dinner and listened to music and talked. We hadn’t been over to their house in a while so we were all so excited. I also ate SO MUCH watermelon! I have been obsessed with it oh and with tajin! (Idk how to spell that) 

Since it was Elder Funks last week, all these members wanted to take him out to breakfast or dinner, so being the North Hermanas we got to go with the Elders for all the meals. Our last North dinner was with the family Argueta. It was honestly so sad because it was Elder Funks last member meal and it just made me realize time is moving so fast! I never want to be in that seat! I seriously don’t ever want to leave my mission! 

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings one last time as a whole district and afterwards we said goodbye to Elder Funk. We went to Hermana Laras house again to help mount her TV with the South Elders and help her get settled into her apartment a little more. After that we had dinner with a family in our ward and they had called us earlier and asked if we were allergic to seafood so we were preparing ourselves for what it could be. When we got there they gave us these massive bowls full of shrimp and octopus and all these different kinds of fish all in like this red sauce. All of our eyes popped out of our heads. We were definitely not prepared for that. John Paul, the members house we were at, told us stories about his life and it was the best haha. He is such a funny guy. 

Afterwards we went to the church and got to see a ton of our members. They were there helping with English Connect or because of the youth activities and it was perfect because we got to take tons of pictures with them and talk with them since we were going to have transfers Saturday and weren’t sure if we were going to stay or go and be able to see them Sunday. Also we had a lesson with one of our friends that had been coming to church on his own and we put him on date too!! It was awesome!! 

Friday was just a sad day. Hermana Erickson and I both started packing since we weren’t sure what was going to happen with transfers. We didn’t even want to think about the idea of leaving each other. Waiting for transfer boards is the worst because you just have so much anticipation building up. My mission President and his wife leave in 3 weeks so this was their last transfer boards so none of us knew how it would go or even had an idea of what could happen. They always send them super late, last time they sent transfer boards the morning of transfers. Hermana Erickson and I just sat and waited. We went out on our porch and layed on the ground and just looked at pictures from the last two transfers. We can’t be on our phones past 10:30 and it was 10:29 and we still hadn’t got anything so we were like what the heck is happening. We thought he was gonna send them in the morning again and then 5 minutes later we got the notification that he sent them!! I wasn’t worrying too much because I was almost positive I was staying in North Minne and then we looked and I GOT TRANSFERED! I couldn’t even believe it. Also another thing is Minneapolis has always been a Spanish district. So everyone there is a Spanish missionary but they completely split all of the Spanish missionaries up and put us all in different districts. These transfer boards were crazy. But I got transfered to Lakeville! I was super excited because I have heard so many amazing things about Lakeville and it was Hermana Ericksons first area. Hermana Erickson stayed in Minne! Hermana Erickson thought for sure it was her getting transferred but it was ME! I was so so sad to leave Minne because I absolutely love it with all my heart but I was excited to go to a new area and experience something different. 

Saturday was a day of packing and tears haha. I was so so sad to leave Hermana Erickson. MY MOM! I was so sad to leave all our friends we were teaching and our ward and our district! It was just a lot of change but thats what happens. I am in a trio with Hermana Pister and Hermana Flores! They had been in Lakeville together the last transfer so they were already familiar with everything. Hermana Flores’s original assignment is in Temple Square but she has been here for 3 months experiencing a proselyte mission and will be leaving during this transfer. She is from Honduras too which is so so cool! 

With saying goodbye and leaving North Minne that meant I had to say goodbye to all my pickleball friends that we had been playing with every morning. It honestly was so sad leaving them haha but we got pictures and played one last time with everyone. But I’ll be back one day so I’m not too worried. 

Minne will always have my heart and I will never forget all the memories I have made and the people I have met. I am forever grateful but I’ll literally probably be back in a couple transfers so I’m chillin but I’m so excited for Lakeville! I know I got transfered here for a reason and I can’t wait! 

I hope you all have the best week ever and remember that you can’t grow without change! That’s what I have realized. Through change is where I have grown the most! I love you all! 

Hermana Olsen<3 

Wow wow wow, this week was CRAZY! It definitely was one of the funnest weeks I have had! Also an elder in my district always says “que the freak pasoed” like what the freak happened so that’s the title… 

For pday we got all our shopping and things done earlier so that we could meet at the pickleball courts sooner with our district. It was memorial day so the courts were packed but we got lucky and grabbed one. Two of our members Jailene and Jerald came and all of Jeralds brothers, we had been teaching them before but had to drop them and we hadn’t seen them in a while, so i was super awesome to see them again! We played pickleball with them for a little bit and they were all so good like it was crazy. Afterwards we went to The Original Pancake House because we had all these giftcards that members in our ward had given us. It was a good bonding experience haha we all just talked and ate our pancakes. After that of course we found another pickleball court and played more pickleball. We’re all hecka good now because of how much we play. 

I got asked to give a training at district council and the morning of, during personal study, I was thinking what I wanted to focus on and talk about in the training. I had been given the topic streeting which is talking to people on the street or people out and about. Usually we are given a topic or a chapter in preach my gospel to talk about and give a training on it and have a discussion on how we can improve and share ideas on what works well, what doesn’t work well. Anyways I was looking through preach my gospel to see if there was a certain chapter that I wanted to use or talk about and I kept getting the strongest prompting to use chapter 1 which is What is my purpose as a missionary. I felt that prompting so so strong throughout my whole personal study. I had all these ideas that flooded my head and I wrote them all down but I had no idea how I wanted to structure them. I ran out of time and when I gave my training I just followed the spirit. Oh my goodness. It was such a powerful meeting and the spirit was SO STRONG. I know I was led and prompted to share what I did for a reason. Whether it was for me or for someone else. We all have a purpose and role in missionary work. Each and every one of us. You don’t have to wear a tag or serve a mission to be a missionary. There are so many things you can do to move along this great and glorious work and share this amazing gospel. 

We have a pool at our apartment and Hermana Erickson and I went out and put our feet in the pool while we did calls and did our studies. It has been so so nice out and so hot so it was perfect to be able to just put our feet in the pool. We would have phone call lessons by the pool and just sit on the chairs. We just enjoyed being outside. During any breaks we had we would just throw a frisbee and talk or walk around our building. I love it!

We went to Hildas for dinner! I LOVE Hilda. She is the best ever! She is the sweetest little old lady in our ward and everytime she feeds us it’s all the missionaries. She’s literally 91 and you would never even guess that! She is so funny and is probably one of the happiest people you will ever meet. We hadn’t been over in a while so we were all excited. She showed us her Bible and Book of Mormon that the missionaries that taught her had given her and they had written their names and testimony in it and it was beautiful, one of the most precious things I have ever seen. She told us her story and shared little memories she had when she was little. It was so fun to just talk and hear stories about her. She has been a member for a long long time and she was baptized in 1983!

Hermana Rendon had us over for a little brunch AGAIN and of course it was so fun and delicious and afterwards we went and helped this lady in our ward move. The Elders told us that in the past year they had helped her move like 5 other times haha. We went and helped move all her stuff into her new apartment and showed off our hecka muscles. It’s so fun to serve and just help others. One of my all time favorite things to do! 

This week we had a ton of in person lessons which are my favorite. A lot of the time we have to do video calls because we will be teaching a man and we need a rule of three or the person will be busy and can do a quick video call so when we have in person lessons it’s the best. We have a couple solid families that we visit in person every week so that’s always fun when we get to visit them. 

We had volleyball and played with the members and some of our friends. That’s always so fun. One of our members Yeison, he’s from Colombia, everytime he talks to me I never understand him because he talks so fast. He always gives me a hard time too haha because he knows I can’t understand him and he’ll say something so fast and be like do you understand me and I’m like what do you think. Anyways after volleyball I sat down and was like talk to me and I’m going to force myself to actually try and understand what you are saying to me so we sat and talked and we had a pretty good conversation. Who knows if I was responding correctly to what he was saying but I think it went well haha. 

Sunday. OH MY HECK! Sunday was probably one of the most spirit filled days for me that I have had on my mission. I don’t even know how to describe it. The start of the day was pretty sad because it was the last Sunday we had with our district and the last Sunday we had with Elder Funk who is going home next week. This next week we have transfers and we obviously don’t know who’s leaving and who’s staying so I was pretty emotional. We had our last ward correlation meeting which is always the best and what was awesome was we had 4 of our friends come to church! It was testimony meeting where anyone who wanted could go share their testimony and I was doing pretty good until Hermana Erickson went up and shared her testimony. Oh my goodness I love Hermana Erickson so so much. I look up to her in every way and couldn’t be more grateful for the missionary she has helped me become. I owe everything to her and when she was sharing her testimony I couldn’t keep myself together. Our poor friends were probably like what is happening haha but I was filled with so much love and the spirit was just testifying to me that this church is true. This is the church where we will find pure joy and pure happiness. I know that we will because in this gospel I have found and felt pure joy. Her testimony and example and love for this gospel has helped me in so many ways that I will forever be grateful for. I love this gospel so much and I want everyone to feel the joy that I have felt because of it. That is why I am here serving a mission. To share this joy and happiness and love with others so that they too can experience the joy I have felt and know for themselves that they have a profound purpose!

After church the Richfield Hermanas friend, Licho, got baptized!! It was so fun because other hermanas that had taught him previously came and we all got to see eachother and experience this beautiful baptism all together. It was a day filled with the spirit and there was just so much love you could feel it everywhere you went. I am so grateful for the the people I am surrounded by and I thank God everyday for the experiences that I have had and the love that I feel. After his baptism all the missionaries and some members got together and we had a little goodbye for Elder Funk. We sang hymns and some people shared a few things and it was a precious little moment. 

I hope you know how important each and every one of you are, to me, to your family, your friends, but most importantly to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. They are with you every step of the way, through the hard times and through the good times. They are there to bring you joy. They put people in your lives to bring you joy. I am so grateful that all of you were put in my path! I love you all SO MUCH!

Hermana Olsen<3

Hola!! This week was another great week! I love where I am and I never want to leave! 

We played pickleball for like 4 hours today for pday and it was so fun! I seriously love pickleball and I don’t understand how it’s so addicting. We found these courts close to the church so we all met up there and I brought the little munchkin donuts from Dunkin for everyone to have. It’s tradition at this point, I get them every pday. I love being with my district, and pdays with them are literally the best!

We didn’t have noche de hogar after pday so we just grinded finding. We did so many calls and streeted so many people, it was so amazing. We went to go teach one of our friends at her house and when we were leaving, her neighbors came up to us and asked us who we were and what we do and we just explained everything. They were from India, their names were Prince and Heer, literally so cool. They were so curious and they told us they used to live in seattle and missionaries would come to their door and speak fluent Indian and they told us they were so shocked. We explained we get called to speak and learn a new language sometimes and they thought that was so amazing. 

We made a goal as a zone to get our members more involved in our lessons and it has been amazing! Our ward has been so amazing helping our friends feel fellowshipped and welcomed and especially helping in lessons and sharing their conversion stories since tons of our members are converts. We had a lesson with our friend Alfredo and one of our members came and helped teach him at a park. It was such a good lesson and we sat right up on the lake. Seriously so beautiful but then Alfredo lost his keys!!! But anyways I love our members and just how freaking loving they are! 

Hermana Erickson and I cover North Minneapolis and we also have Elders that cover North Minneapolis so anytime we have meals we always eat together! We’re just a squad that does literally everything together and it’s so fun. One day we had a breakfast and dinner planned with members and then we all went out to lunch as a district after district council so we had three meals together and seriously it was the best food. I literally just love food. We had dinner at the Matus’s house and we ate pupusas! They make the most amazing pupusas like it’s not even funny. I ate like 6. I ALWAYS leave their house with a hecka food baby.

The South Minneapolis Elders asked us to come to a member’s house with them to share a message and I felt so confident with my spanish. I was able to just talk and have conversation without thinking and it was such a confidence boost. This member has always wanted us to come over to her house but we never could because we live in the North and so we were so happy that we were able to go. She is so funny hahah! Her name is Hermana Lara and she is just always smiling and taking pictures or recording a video.

The North Elders friend got baptized on Thursday and oh my goodness it was AMAZING! The spirit was SO strong during his baptism and I just couldn’t stop smiling. I am so so happy for him. His name is Luis and he is the friend of one of our members… Hermana Morales but we all just call her mama and it was seriously the most special day. It was also his birthday! Literally so presh that he wanted to be baptized on his birthday! Afterwards we all just had a huge party and ate food and celebrated.

One day when Hermana Erickson and I were driving to a member’s house we went to take a picture and I saw that I wasn’t wearing my tag! Seriously I felt so weird once I realized because I never leave without my tag and I didn’t have an extra one! So Hermana Erickson gave me her extra and I was Hermana Erickson for the day. 

Hermana Rendon, my absolute favorite invited all the missionaries to her house for a brunch and she set it up so cute. We had it outside and she had flowers and the prettiest plates and glasses. It looked like a a scene from a movie. She made the yummiest crepes oh my goodness and after we all sat together and shared a message together. There were other members over too and it was a memory I will never forget. We sang hymns and shared scriptures and it was just such a special moment! Ugh I love the people in our ward! 

This cute family from the English ward invited us to their house for dinner! We went over before a while ago and they told us that their kids have been asking when we could come over again ever since. They are all so stinking cute, I absolutely love them. They are all so full of energy and just THE happiest kids. Every time we ask any of them how their day is they always reply “It’s GREAT” and they all have this cute little Minnesota accent and oh my goodness I just love it! 

I love you all so so much! More than you know! I am so grateful for each and every one of you! Remember that God loves you so much and He is there for you ALWAYS! Have an amazing week! Mwah! 

Oh yeah haha Hermana Erickson and I were at pickleball one morning and we were playing with this one guy name Chip and he was on a team with Hermana Erickson and anytime she did anything he would be like “bend your knees” it was so hilarious. Anyways I love you all! 

Hermana Olsen<3 

Another great week as a missionary!!! Oh my goodness I love being a missionary. There is absolutely no better feeling! 

This week was a party. I’m not even kidding. So much happened and it went by in the blink of an eye. For pday we went to the other Hermanas apartment and hung out in the lounge area. We played games and then we all went outside, talked and roasted marshmallows and made smores. Everyone was fighting me for burning my marshmallow completely on fire. It literally tastes amazing and no one will ever stop me from doing it haha! It was a good pday. I got to talk with family and be with some of my favorite people and then we ended it with my other favorite people – our ward! We had noche de hogar at the same members house that we had the barbecue at for mother’s day. We talked about the two great commandments. Loving God and loving thy neighbor. It was nice to be outside and enjoy the weather while also having a great discussion. How amazing to be outside surrounded by Gods creations while talking about Gods blessings and love for us! Afterwards some of us threw a football and kicked a soccer ball around. We all just enjoyed each other’s company and of course had some great food. 

Tuesday I went on an exchange with Hermana Mecham! She is a brand new Hermana and she is so sweet. She is in my district so I already see her all the time so it really was no different since we see our district almost every day haha but it was a fun day! We both are new so it was fun to see eachother grow and work together! I also got to drive and I haven’t driven in almost 5 months! But thats my fault because I still haven’t gotten my stuff to get my tiwi card. Each transfer there is a designated driver and we have a card that we use to log in as the driver. It records everything we do like if we speed or don’t have our seat belts on, stuff like that. If you speed the tiwi will say “check your speed” so that’s our sign to slow down. Anyways I still have to get that done. That’s what the tiwi is.

Wednesday we had Zone Conference and it was so much fun! We talked a lot about faith and it was such an answer to my prayers because that’s exactly what I needed. My mission President and his wife love movies! They love them so much and so for this zone conference they used the movie Karate kid as our theme. They showed 12 different scenes of the movie which were 12 different lessons and he related each clip or lesson to missionary work. It was so amazing. At the very end our President asked us if we recognized one thing that was said in every clip. He said “come back tomorrow”. He talked to us about how sometimes in missionary work we don’t know why we do the things we do or why we have to follow the rules or standards we follow but if we keep coming back tomorrow and keep doing the things that we are asked we will realize why they were so important. We will realize in the end that they have been preparing us the whole time. It was such a powerful zone conference. But in reality it’s true, a lot of the time we do wonder why we have to do the things we do or follow certain rules but if we trust in the Lord, we will realize He knows the bigger picture and He has a plan for each and every one of us. He is helping us prepare and be better through everything. He will never give us something that we can’t overcome because we can do all things through Him.

After zone conference our district went to Canes and we saw the polaroid that they had asked to take of us a month earlier on their community board. It was so cute! There was a security guard in the Canes that came up to us and asked us why we were looking at it and I showed him the picture of us and was like this is us, aren’t we all so cute and he started laughing so hard. He thought it was so funny that that made me so happy. 

Of course we are playing pickleball every morning especially since we have tons of people to play with! People don’t start showing up until around 8 and Hermana Erickson and I will usually get there around 7:30-7:45 to warm up and this guy David that runs it is always there early. He is the best because he’s been giving us like one on one training haha. He has us do all sorts of drills to better our game and better our shot. It literally is the best and I look forward to it every morning! It’s a good boost of serotonin to start my day. 

We went to la casa de la familia Rendon and we helped them more with their trees that they cut down. We have been helping them for the past 3 weeks and we almost have everything done! Hermana Rendon asked me to help her make dinner. We made watermelon juice out of only watermelon and it was so cool. Hermana Rendon is so amazing at cooking. She knows absolutely everything about it and she will just throw random stuff together and it’s so good haha. While we were all eating the Elders were talking about asmr and asked the Rendons if they have ever heard of it and then Hermana Rendon went and got a microphone and everyone made asmr sounds with their food in the microphone. It was so gross haha. Everytime we go to their house you never know what’s gonna happen. I love them so so much and Hermana Rendon is seriously the cutest. I’ll put a cute photo with her at the end. 

One of our friends that we are teaching told us he was moving to Michigan for work so he wanted to take us out to dinner. His name is Alfredo and he is THE BEST! We were so so sad when he told us he was moving. He is progressing so so much and has such a huge desire to learn! He took us to this little Mexican place and he asked us if we have had pupusas and we said duh of course. We all got pupusas and while we were waiting we just talked. He had so many questions and we just sat and answered all of them. We taught about all sorts of stuff and he was just taking it all in. We got to know him a lot better AND the best news ever he said he’s staying another month!! We were so excited that we could keep teaching him and hopefully the next time I write about him it will be that he’s getting baptized

Saturday night there was a dinner for all the ladies in our ward and all the men in the ward served the women their dinner. It was so precious. Some of the men shared stories of their mom and how grateful they are for them. Then afterwards they started playing music and Hermana Erickson and I thought it would be fun to sing karaoke as a table  haha. We finally convinced some of the people at our table to do it. Mostly the guys didn’t want to. So it was Hermana Rendon, of course, and her friend and also our friend Karina that we are teaching and Hermana Erickson and I. It was so fun haha! It was also so hard because we were trying to sing these spanish words so fast and it honestly sounded awful but we still had a good time. We were trying to convince our friend Brayan to come up with us and Hermana Erickson and I said at the same time será divertido, which means it will be fun. We always say the same exact things at the same time. We don’t even know how we do it but it was just funny we happened to say it at the same time to him.

There is a member in our ward, Milka that got her mission call and after church we had a pot luck and she opened her call! She is going to the Santa Rosa California Mission, spanish speaking! So to my friends in that mission, look out for her. Her name is Hermana Perez! Before she opened it everyone in our ward that served a mission went up and shared experiences and people asked them questions about their missions and how to prepare and it was so cute. Afterwards we went to a birthday party of someone in our ward. Anything that is happening in our ward the missionaries are always invited. I love how much they involve us. I just love our ward so much.

I love you all so so much! More than you know and God loves you more!! I invite you all to look for the Lord’s hand in your life this week! You will find out He’s there a lot more than you realize! 

Favorite scripture of the week: 

2 Nephi 25:17

17 And the Lord will set his hand

again the second time to a restore

his people from their lost and

fallen state. Wherefore, he will

proceed to do a marvelous work

and a wonder among the children

of men.

Hermana Olsen ❤

Hola a todos!! SUMMER IS FINALLY HERE AND I LOVE IT!! The weather has been absolutely amazing and we just try and be outside every moment we can!! 

There is a park right next to the church with a huge field and baseball fields and basketball courts, you name it, so for pday we and played kickball at the baseball fields. It was SO FUN! Seriously so fun. Then after a while we threw a frisbee around outside and then went back to the church and played basketball. We started on a puzzle one of the Elders moms sent but of course we didn’t have time to finish it. Usually for pday we wake up, plan for our day, do personal study all before 8 and then after 8 we clean our house, get all the chores done and then go shopping! We usually go to Walmart or Target. We talk to our family and send our emails of course. Then after we go to the church with our district (other missionaries in our area) and think of something to do together. Our pday ends at 6 and then it’s back to missionary work. That’s a typical pday. 

After district council we usually all go somewhere to eat and we went to this taco place close to the church called Tacos el Kevin. We have always driven past it and I always wanted to go and we finally did! When we walked in, it was kind of like a little market with tables and all sorts of Mexican treats and drinks and flags and other things. I was so excited because all the treats and drinks I would buy at the Mexico CCM were there! I was so happy! It was a little bit of nostalgia seeing all the boings and other drinks in the fridge and the aisle of treats and snacks I would get and snack on in the CCM. It was magical. I also of course got tacos and fries and they were delish! 

Oh my goodness you won’t believe this! So Hermana Erickson and I found these pickleball courts 10 minutes from our house and we were like yes perfect! Not super close but not super far but then one day we were on a little walk and we found pickleball courts so close to our house!! They are only 3 minutes! We were so so excited! So this week we went to go play around 7 in the morning and we got to the courts and there was this guy there practicing by himself. Hermana Erickson and I were just dinking around and the guy came over to talk to us. We got to talking and explained who we are and kinda what we do and where we are from, all of that. He told us he used to live in Arizona and he was familiar with missionaries coming and knocking on his door haha. Anyways THEN he told us that every morning from 8-12, Monday-Friday it is open play and anyone can come and just play and we were like what!! We were so excited so the next day we went at 8 and there were so many people! When we got there we were just saying hi to everyone and all of them were like what is that tag on you? We got to tell them who we are and that we are here serving voluntarily for 18 months serving and sharing the gospel with others. Some people had tons of questions about what we do and why we were here and it was just fun to tell them. One lady even asked us if we were studying to be nuns. We were like nope we’re just normal people here serving haha. A lot of people thought we had the same names since on our tags it says Hermana and then our last name. We had to explain that we go by our last name and also that we are the spanish missionaries haha. What’s the best part is that we get to play with them! It was the best because about 2 or 3 points into our games they would be like “you’re not beginners” haha and we had some pretty good games. We earned the respect of the people, so much that they told us they want to keep seeing us! We told them don’t you worry we’ll be here every day for the next 4 weeks! Now everyday that we go everyone says “the missionaries are back!” or “It’s Olsen and Erickson!” It’s a fun community and every time we go we meet more and more people! It’s such a great way to get ourselves out there. We’re all just friends and having fun and I look forward to it every morning! 

There is a lady in our ward that everybody calls mama. She is the best! She’s got that sarcastic, firey personality and haha everyone just loves her. Its lowkey so hard to tell if shes being sarcastic because one its in spanish and its so hard to read people and two sometimes shes not sarcastic about stuff. You kind of have to just sit there and smile. Anyways every Wednesday she feeds the two sets of Elders and it’s very rare that the Elders ever pass up an opportunity to go but they one of them couldn’t one night so Hermana Erickson and I got to go over for dinner with the other Elders. When we got to her house she had this magnet board that had all these missionaries tags. Everyone that goes over leaves a tag and she just has it set up in her dining room haha. She also gives everyone nicknames and she told me I look like Elsa so I am now Hermana Elsa.

Hermana Erickson and I went to the park to study and we went right as all these people were having a barbecue. We were just sitting at the tables by them and the rest of the day we smelt like smoke. Our hair, our clothes, our bags and blankets. Everything. But it was nice to be outside and enjoy the weather and just watch everyone so happy as they were gathered together. Also literally on almost every patch of grass or field of grass it is just filled with Dandelions. I think I already said this but they are just everywhere. It’s so cute 

There is a lady in our ward that is the manager at McDonalds and so she will randomly call all the missionaries and be like hey come to McDonald’s and I’ll get you all food to eat. So we just go and she gets us McDonald’s haha. The Elders everywhere we go, they always take the craziest pictures of us while we’re eating or just the craziest pictures in general wherever we are and leave a review at that place. So if you ever visit Minnesota and are looking at reviews keep that in mind. 

Sunday was Mother’s day!! I got to call my beautiful mom and talk with her and I got some surprising news! She told me some events that had happened during the week and that my dad was in the hospital. Everything is good now but it definitely was a scare. I got to call her again later and she was in the hospital with my dad and some family. So I got to talk with all of them for a bit. At church for mother’s day our ward was so cute. They passed out roses to all the women and chocolate strawberries and cookies. Then we got even more treats in relief society as well. The mothers definitely got spoiled, as they should! Later that day Hermana Ericksons mom told her that they were close to the hospital that my dad was at. Hermana Ericksons family is from Hurricane and they happened to be visiting close to the area I live that weekend. They went and visited my dad and family at the hospital and it was just the nicest thing ever. It was so fun that Hermana Ericksons and my parents got to meet! That was definitely an answer to my prayers and brought me so much comfort. We ended the day going to a barbecue at one of the members houses. It was a little ward barbecue and we all got to just talk and eat some pretty amazing food. 

My mom has got to be one of the strongest, charitable, christlike people I know. Oh my goodness I love her to death! I would do absolutely anything for her. She has been by my side every step of the way and been one of my biggest supporters in life. I want to be the apitamy of her! She is so beautiful inside and out and I couldn’t be more grateful to have her in my life! Happy Mother’s day mom!

It was a fun week!! It’s going by way too fast! I know with all my heart that this gospel is the true gospel. I don’t doubt it one bit and I never will. I see how this gospel blesses families and i see the miracles it brings. I know our Savior Jesus Christ lives! I am grateful everyday for my family that raised me so strong in this gospel and taught me to follow our ultimate example, Jesus Christ! 

There has not been one day here in Minnesota where I have not seen or heard an ambulance. I like actually can’t believe it.

I LOVE YOU ALL WITH ALL MY HEART AND PRAY FOR ALL OF YOU!! Remember God loves you and He knows you! Have a great week!

Favorite scripture of the week:

Alma 26: 16

16 Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.

Hermana Olsen<3

This week not a ton happened but we found so many lakes and parks and they were beautiful! There are lakes EVERYWHERE here! We are almost always driving along a lake. You just see all these docks from people’s backyards going to the lake and I think that is just so fun! We went to all these different lakes around our house and would walk in the morning and we would go to parks and do our calls and sit up by the lake. It’s so beautiful! There are benches on all the docks so you can just sit right up on the water. We found this one lake that has sand up on it and it was like a cute little beach.

I haven’t had dunkin donuts in forever and they are kinda all over the place so Hermana Erickson and I finally went and I was so happy!! I got the munchkins and they are so good! HAHA

There is this cute Mexican market down the street from the church called la casa market and Hermana Erickson and I walked to it and again I am so in love with these little markets!! I need to find them when I get back home! We went to go get little treats and drinks for a 5 de mayo party we were having as a district. Everyone in our district each brought something for the 5 de mayo party. We made tacos and had pingüinos and the jarritos drinks. We got little decorations and all just all celebrated together.

We visited a lot of members in our ward this week and it was so fun to just get to know them better and talk with them! Every family is just so different and I just absolutely love the members in our ward with all my heart. They are the best! A lot of their sons play on a soccer team together and they invited us to come watch one Saturday. We went to the game and everyone there was Latino. It was seriously so fun haha. They’re kids were like 10 and they were good. It was fun to just be there. Also there are the cutest little houses in Minnesota. They just look like these little cottages with vines all over. They are soo cute! 

The sunsets are so beautiful and the clouds always look like the toy story clouds. Hermana Erickson loves it and she is always taking pictures of the sunsets and the clouds. Minnesota really is just so pretty. There definitely are some places that are a little rough haha but mostly it’s so beautiful. ALSO everyone has a dog. EVERYONE! Anyone walking outside has a dog, it’s nuts! 

We have a missionary correlation meeting every sunday at the church where we talk to the mission leader about the needs of our friends and just things we need help with and this last meeting he just randomly goes I got 1, 2, 3, 4 girlfriends hahah. It was so random but the best. I love you all so much and I hope you all are doing AMAZING!! You are all in my prayers!!

Favorite scripture of the week:

Alma 5:48

48 I say unto you, that I know of myself that whatsoever I shall say unto you, concerning that which is to come, is true; and I say unto you, that I know that Jesus Christ shall come, yea, the Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace, and mercy, and truth. And behold, it is he that cometh to take away the sins of the world, yea, the sins of every man who steadfastly believeth on his name.

Hermana Olsen<3

I have been out for 3 months! Yayyy 🥳 It’s so crazy how fast time flies! This week has been stressful! It was transfer week so everyone was waiting for calls and trying to guess if they were staying or if they were leaving. We spent as much time as we could with our district before transfers. One of the Hermanas in my district, Hermana Tupper, was getting ready to going home so it was her last everything but we made it fun!

After our last district council together we went to Canes, we all just talked and ate our food and then one of the workers came up to all of us and asked if he could get a Polaroid of us and put it on the Canes community board. We were all like yes of course!! So we all made sure our tags were showing haha and he got a picture of us. It was actually so cute and now I need to go back to that Canes and see our picture up there!

This week I gave a training in our district council and it was so fun! We were all just having a good time and I taught about what we can do better to help our friends that we are teaching and what we can do to make them feel welcome and loved. I love hearing different perspectives and ideas of other missionaries and their missionary work! It’s so fun to learn from how other missionaries work and what they do that really helps them and apply it in my work. It was a good little meeting. 

We had dinner at a member Jeralds house with his brothers that we are teaching and they are all so fun and always laughing. Jailene another member was also there and Hermana Erickson and I just love her!! She is so fun!

Usually transfer boards telling you who your new companion is and where your new area is comes out the day before transfer day BUT it came out Thursday at 9:45am! Transfers were at 3. Everyone was like what the! This had never happened and everyone was on the edge of their seats. Hermana Erickson and I were checking our phones every 5 minutes refreshing our email all Wednesday night and Thursday morning to see if it had come out yet. During our personal study we saw that President Richardson sent out the email and we opened it so fast! Hermana Erickson and I saw that we were still together and we jumped out of our chairs and just tackled each other to the ground we were so happy. We wanted to stay with each other so bad and WE DID!! And we are staying in our area North Minne! 

We all went out to lunch as a district one last time and of course we went to Bdubs. When we got there the guy that works there told us that he looks forward to seeing us when we come and he went and put together our tables so we all have somewhere to sit. It was the best. About half of our original district stayed the same and we lost 5! One of the Hermanas went home, another Hermana got transferred to another area and then we had 3 elders that got transferred to other areas as well. We got a new Hermana that just got here from the Mexico MTC! She is so cute and I just feel for her so much being a new missionary out in the field! But I’m so glad she’s with me and Hermana Erickson because we are just gonna drown her with love!! 

By one of the members houses in our ward there is an indoor ice rink where they have hockey practices and games and so one day Hermana Erickson and I went there while we did some work. It was so fun because when we got there, there was a game so we just watched the game while we called and texted people and did our work. I’ve realized that I love hockey. It’s seriously the coolest sport and like so fascinating to watch. Hockey is so big out here too! 

We went and helped a lady in our ward pick up branches from these huge trees she cut down and chop wood and get it all cleaned up. It was fun because we all did it as a new district and so we got to know the new missionaries that came to our area better and then afterwards she served us dinner. The lady in our ward is so cute haha, after we have dinner one of the missionary companionships share a short spiritual message and it was me and Hermana Erickson sharing it and while we were sharing it Hermana Rendon, the lady in our ward, just starts braiding my hair and she just says the funniest comments. She’s a ball of fire and we love her!

Hermana Erickson has got me so into journaling!! Her journals are so freaking cute and she just collects everything that she gets and writes about everything and I’m hooked. I love it so much and I get so stressed that I don’t write every little memory down!! Anyways I’m SO grateful I’m doing it so I can always remember these moments and stories that happen on my mission! 

We went to go visit a member this week and she told us to come back in a bit because she was finishing stuff up so we decided we were just gonna walk around for a bit and then this guy called out to us and he came over and started talking to us. He asked us if we were Christians and then he went off bashing us about our beliefs and all we could do was smile and thank him for sharing his beliefs with us. It was definitely scary and it’s sad to know that there are people in the world that just want to put down what other people believe in. We need to all love each other and be respectful of others beliefs. That’s why we’re here!! To love everyone and share our love with others! Share the love of God and His son Jesus Christ! 

Hermana Erickson and I have really been into watching the Book of Mormon videos on the gospel library app and they’re pretty good. I learn so much about the Book of Mormon and actually feel like I understand the stories. They’re our source of entertainment during lunch or while we’re writing in our journals. 

We had stake conference this weekend and it was amazing! We got to meet people from the other wards and we heard some amazing talks from some members in our ward and other wards and a member of the area and general 70. Someone was giving a talk and she said the last name Hymas and I remember the mission Presidents of the Mexico CCM told me that their daughter lives in Minnesota! After the meeting I went and asked her if her parents were the Hymas’s and she said yes!! It was so crazy that she was at that stake conference! I got a picture with her and she sent it to her parents. It was definitely a little miracle. 

I love you all so so much and I am so grateful for each and every one of you! I am so grateful for this gospel in my life and I know that God loves each and every one of us! 

Favorite scripture this week: 

Helaman 5: 7-8

7 Therefore, my sons, I would that ye should do that which is good, that it may be said of you, and also written, even as it has been said and written of them.

8 And now my sons, behold I have somewhat more to desire of you, which desire is, that ye may not do these things that ye may boast, but that ye may do these things to lay up for yourselves a treasure in heaven, yea, which is eternal, and which fadeth not away; yea, that ye may have that precious gift of eternal life, which we have reason to suppose hath been given to our fathers.

Hermana Olsen ❤