Racin' Outta Sebring!!

Happy Monday Everyone!! I hope you all had an awesome week, and a Happy Easter weekend too! We had a overall pretty crazy week this week. It was also the final week of the transfer so we had a lot to pack into our schedule.

We went and did some service for a older couple who are somewhat less active. He openly admits he's lazy and that's why they don't always come to church! But we love them, and actually their son is a member of the Ocoee Ward that I got to know, so that's a funny connection we often talk about! But anyways, we did service for them and also met their daughter, Tina. She has been battling some major health challenges recently, so we gave her a blessing... Later on this week she contacted us saying the doctors were amazed that she was improving quite rapidly!! But she still has a lot going on so pray for her if you will.

Also we gave a blessing last week to our Investigator Steven (Jay's daughter's boyfriend) because he had an infection on his arm.  He didn't really know what a blessing was so we briefly explained how it goes, and how it works through the recipients Faith. If they have the faith to be healed, and it's in God's will, He will do His part! So we met with him this week, and he showed us the spot where the infection WAS! He was so surprised because the redness and all the swelling had completely vanished! He said the pain stopped that night and by the next day it was almost completely gone! So it was very humbling to see how by me exercising my Priesthood Authority and giving that blessing it has/can bless the lives of others and helped them gain a witness that the Priesthood, which was once lost, has again been restored! THEN after that he went around sharing his testimony of how the blessing helped him to all his non-member friends!

What else?... We had a crazy storm on Friday. It was raining so hard that you couldn't see out your windshield. But not only that, the rain started to become hail, so that was so awesome! That's the first time I've seen hail in probably 2 years! And the closest thing to snow in Florida I suppose. haha!

The end of this week got really confusing. Saturday we received transfer calls. Everyone assumed I was leaving..and..well... The initial call was for Elder Davis and I to both stay AGAIN in Sebring for a third transfer together. But at about ten o'clock that night we received a call from our mission assistants saying they messed up on a companionship, so I will be leaving this transfer:( BUT oddly enough I'm only going down to Lake Placid, which is in our district, and meets in the same chapel we do! Haha! So that is going to be weird serving full time there, but still seeing a lot of the same people at church in the halls. I'll be serving with Elder Rowley. I've talked about him before with exchanges, so that will be pretty sweet! I was so sad though because I love the people here in Sebring, the members, and investigators we have. I didn't want to stop teaching them! But I'll still see them every couple weeks or so I'm sure!

And being that I am leaving, I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting on the
Atonement for the Easter holiday, which ended up REALLY well. I didn't have much time to prepare, but so many member came up to me after in tears, and such saying that talk was great and it really brought the purpose of Easter to life..etc. so yeah! Also, in Sacrament Meeting, right after the second speaker we had one of our investigators pass out. She has blood sugar problems and also has COPD apparently. She forgot to eat breakfast and went unconscious. Luckily we have a lot of medical professionals in the ward so they checked her blood sugar and called for an ambulance. It was freaky but she is alright!

That's about it though. I don't have a spiritual thought because I'm going go attach 3 pictures of part of my talk. It's a story our mission president's wife gave us. It helps you picture the Atonement in a very unique way! So I'll be sure to send that. I Love and miss you all! Thanks for everything! Have an awesome week!

-Elder A. Olson

GATORAMA!!

Hello!! Hope y'all had a great week! We sure did, although nothing too wild went down. We just had another week full of lessons, and some unexpected exchanges! We did service again this week for Jim, a part member family in the area. We cut down a few of his large trees, so that was definitely a blast!

Wednesday we had another exchange. I stayed in Sebring with Elder Amos. We had a pretty good time and I definitely saw a ton of miracles that day. We received 2 media referrals, so I checked who they were and decided to go pay them a visit! One was a member media referral. A member from Utah sent his biological sisters information to us and asked if we could visit! So we decided to give it a try and see how things end up. She came to the door and was pretty excited to see us! She said she would be perfectly fine with us coming again and talking about the Restoration of the church! But sadly, at that time, she was busy... So we hope we will be able to see her this week! Also, out of nowhere, we received a text that said "hey missionaries, while moving to my new apartment I misplaced my Book of Mormon. Could you bring me a new one...etc." So we got his name, and address. I looked him up on our old teaching records and found out he was a previous investigator with a baptismal date, and that missionaries had taught him basically everything. But unfortunately, he wouldn't quit smoking, so they stopped visiting him. So he's a super cool guy and we will be working with him a little more.

After that exchange, we had an "emergency exchange" because Elder Davis
and Elder Rowley had to go to a meeting in Orlando, but it was a unexpected unannounced meeting. So Elder Goff and I spent the day together. We started out in his area for an appointment, then came up to Sebring and spent the remainder of it here. It was a pretty fun time and we had just some more solid lessons that day!

This week we also went over to a members who has one of our current
investigators living with them. So we went to teach her and the member, Sister Davis walks out and hands us two coconuts!! Both still in the hard shell that surrounds the normal looking brown hairy coconut. We spent like 20 minutes busting one open so we could reach the actual coconut inside! If was awesome! Those things are tough! I have a few pictures of that here.

COCONUTS!!

Me and Elder Davis with before and after coconut

Also, we just got back from a placed called Gatorama!! It's a super cool alligator and crocodile habitat where you can play with the gators, feed them, etc. It was super fun and we definitely had a good time. I've attached lots of pictures of that so you can see what it's like! We gotta catch some 3 year old gators!

Look Ma!  A Gator!!

Just some Elders and their Gators!!

Close Call!

Other than that, nothing overly exciting or crazy happened! Thanks for the emails! I have a quick spiritual thought I found as I studied and taught from the Life of Howard W. Hunter: "And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities” (Alma 7:11–12). Think of it! When his body was taken from the cross and hastily placed in a borrowed tomb, He, the sinless Son of God, had already taken upon Him not only the sins and temptations of every human soul who will repent, but all of our sickness and grief and pain of every kind. He suffered these afflictions as we suffer them, according to the flesh. He suffered them all. He did this to perfect his mercy and his ability to lift us above every earthly trial.

Thanks for all you guys do! Have a GREAT Easter this week. Thanks for the love and support! Y'all are the best! Love and miss you! Also.. We have transfer calls the end of this week, Saturday... So we will see what goes down!

-Elder A. Olson 

More Exciting Times in Florida and Hallelujah Easter Initiative.

Me and Elder Davis at Androcles and the Lion 

Happy Monday everyone! Hope y'all had a great week!! We had a pretty good week again and we started out our week on exchanges!! So I went with Elder Rowley to Lake Placid. We had a heck of a good time. He's just a cool kid and a good overall missionary! We had some solid lessons and also went and contacted a potential investigator. We initially went for their father (who was now not living there due to his situation) but were able to talk to and teach his son and daughter. They are both in their 30's (Teila and CJ). They have had a lot of burdens placed upon them in that home because they were being foreclosed on. Their father wasn't there and his overall mental health was not stable. So it was super interesting to see the Gospel of Jesus Christ take effect in their lives! And to see how their feelings went from "life sucks" (basically) to knowing they are not alone and as they rely on their Savior he will bring the peace and comfort they are desperately searching for! So that was nice to be able to help bring that as we taught them!

Me and Elder Rowley!!

Thursday we literally spent ALL day in Vero Beach for Zone Conference. Seriously.. It was a meeting that went from 6:30 a.m. to about 5:00 p.m. Plus, not to mention, that's a little over a two hour drive from Sebring. So we had to get up at 3:30 a.m.!! It was a long, rather tiring day haha!   

We also have given a lot more blessings to people this week. Seriously..
Everyone is getting sick! One of which was a lady we call Nana, because she is Amy's mother! Amy was baptized in December and her mom isn't a member but she absolutely loves us! She ended up going to the hospital for respiratory problems, so we decided to just pay her a visit! She asked for a blessing, which was awesome and that really helped her like the church more. We had a fun time there and Amy came to the hospital to hang out too and deliver some things! The scriptures say multiple times to "Become as Children" and Elder Davis and I succeeded in that one! We were just goofing off and put the rubber
gloves over our heads and we're just messing around! Good times! 

Hospital visits with the Elders

Also, Friday night we went to a play for a member in our ward who is actually coming out to Provo for BYU in August. So we are super excited that she gets to come live in Utah! So yeah, we went with her awesome family to support her and see her in Androcles and the Lion, Which was stinkin' HILARIOUS!! The character who played the lion at one point came into the audience and was running up and down the rows. Well...when she got to Elder Davis and I she stopped, make a sniffing motion and said out loud, "I smell missionaries!" HAHAHA! That was a pretty fun night too!

Other than that, nothing new! We had a hog roast, since some members slaughtered a hog they trapped and raised. We had a big Ward roast and so that was pretty fun! Nothing else really though.. I'll just leave you all with a quote. "There is no choice, sin, or mistake that you or anyone else can make that will change His love for you or for them" -Ronald A. Rasband .  ALSO, starting yesterday, the church released a new Easter Initiative. It has an awesome new video about Following Christ to Find New Life. It's called Hallelujah. So if you haven't seen it you should definitely go watch it at FollowHim.mormon.org I recommend it!! It's a sweet new video!!  I Love and miss you all!!

-Elder A. Olson 

HAPPY MARCH!!

Hello everyone!! We had a pretty good week this week, I mean, like usual. We just taught a TON of lessons this week, and definitely saw some more blessings! With some of our investigators dropping, we were needing new people to teach, and well... The Lord definitely provided us with some! I'll tell y'all about them in a second!

We did some service for a non-member friend of our here in Sebring. His health is very poor, so we like going over weekly to help him out! This week's adventure was scraping all the dead leaves, pine needles, and other garbage out of his gutters and off of his tin roof! So that was pretty cool! While doing service, we received a phone call from a member, who said that another lady, Susie, who we helped move stuff about a month a go, was having a hard time and she wanted to meet with us! The first time we met, she wasn't interested. But because we helped her and more crazy things happened, she was now open to the Gospel! We had an awesome lesson with her. Seriously, our lesson focused on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. She has been raised Christian but no one has ever told her much about the Atonement. In her situation, she has been feeling really down on herself and lonely. As we taught her she said, "I never knew, no one ever told me that I'm not alone. That Christ has felt what I'm feeling. It's reassuring to know I'm not going through this trial alone!"  We also took another member to that lesson that really connected and helped out a lot! So we picked her up as a new investigator and we will see what happens there! She is super awesome though, so we hope it all works out!

We had another member call us and say that she had a few people for us to teach! One is named Katie and she is actually living with the member because she was going to be homeless, so we started teaching her! Then that same member also gave us her friend Levi's information, who is super awesome! We've been working with him all week. He expressed he wants to be baptized so he can clean up his life and better his kids situations. He just wants to learn some more before hand!! He's going through a pretty rough time right now, and so we have focused a lot on the Atonement and the restoration of the gospel. He really enjoys our visits and we are happy to see his progress!

This week we also had the blessing of going to the Orlando Temple!!! It's such a long drive for us, and we had to be there by 6:30, so our mission president allowed us to drive up the night before and stay with the mission president's assistants! They are both super awesome missionaries, and so we had a pretty good time there. Then that morning, we got up and got to go to the temple and do a session! It always amazes me the Spirit that can be felt there, and how while at the temple all feelings of inadequacy and imperfection begin to fade away! It was such a great experience and I always love going and attending the temple! Also funny temple story.. Saturday we went out and visited our friends at the Flea Market, just to check in on em! And while there we were looking at Deb&Anns stuff (the ladies we helped move a few times) we saw SLC Temple Coasters! (Picture below) We asked them if they knew what it was and they had no clue, but they just thought it was pretty! HAHA! So we got to explain and teach a little about that! Then they gave us one each!

SLC Temple Coasters!!

I think as we get closer to Easter we should definitely focus on the ministry, crucifixion, death, and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. And that it is only by and through Him that we too can be resurrected one day. We have been blessed with that opportunity of eternal life and we should focus on the love that our Savior must of had for us individually to go through the burdens of the world. He experienced the pain, the loneliness, and all so that eventually, we can make it to a Father in Heaven once more! So here is a link to a pretty good talk about it if you wanna watch! If not, no worries! Thanks for all y'all do. I love and miss you guys! https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/the-resurrection-of-jesus-christ?lang=eng

-Elder A. Olson