Monday, March 31, 2014

Weekly Report

So this past week as I may have told ya already Bill and Ricky have
baptismal dates for April 20 and we are working on seeing what we need
to do to help them get married. They are both really awesome and can't
wait to see how things go over the next couple of weeks. They had a
party for Bills Mom on Saturday and yesterday we went over and found
Bills siblings there and met with them. He has a really fun family to
be around and all had questions for us which was pretty fun.
Also this week we came back in contact with Michael Rozetti who was
supposedly gone to a methadone hospital for the next two years but we
actually learned this is a pending future plan and that he was
actually in the hospital for some artery check ups, so he says. But
anyways he's doing fine and we got him onto another baptismal date and
we are working with him on the word of wisdom with coffee and smoking
n such.
He even came to church for a little bit yesterday but wasn't there for
more than thirty minutes when he left cause he didn't think the
sacrament had anything to do with Jesus. So tonight we are going to be
talking with him about the sabbath day as well as church and church
meeting cause there ain't nothing in the sacrament that isn't about
Christ lol. Our guess is he was looking more for a service of that of
Catholics or baptists.
Michael Gabbet is doing really well and will hopefully come to church
in two weeks if not general conference this week. He's one of my
favorite people to meet with and can't wait to see him get back into
things, I'll send ya a picture of him as soon as I can. Yesterday I got a
picture with Bishnu and Roslynn. Those two are super awesome and we
hope that Bishnu's husbands mom (that's a mouthful :P) will have her
heart softened. Anyways Chatur Rai is
doing well to and we tried to get a baptismal date with him on
Thursday. He's under the impression though that he has to know the
whole bible as well as the Book of Mormon before thinking about
baptism which isn't a bad thing at all, we tried to explain to him
that learning is eternal and that he can be baptized before knowing
everything but he still wants to know as much as possible.
I went on exchange with one of the zone leaders on Wednesday an Elder
Watt who is super into the mission, in a very methodical way if ya
know what I mean. What I mean by that is he probably doesn't think
about anything but the mission out in da field, in da house, and other
such stuff. Real good kid though.
I also went on exchange with jones on Friday. He goes home in a week
and a half and actually got what we call trunky papers that we opened
later that night after basket ball along with elder Whitaker and elder
Nieman. Bit depressed since he's one of my favorite missionaries.
Shoot elder Whitaker goes home in ten weeks :P.
Anyways I had best send this one off, on the subway waving hello to a
guy on the trolley right next to us lol.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Spirit Punch

Hey guys! So Bill and Ricky both have baptismal dates which is really
awesome and they are both working towards it, even Ricky who was a
Ready baptized in her past church but was ok with the reasons why she
needs to be re baptized but she has a huge fear of water but is
comforted by the fact that both elder Whitaker and I have life guard
experience lol, even if the font water is only three to four feet deep
it helps I guess :). They are already talking about quitting coffee
which is a good sign the only thing we need to find out now is whether
or not they are legally married, common law married, or just
cohabitating. And if they are common law married we need to find out
if that counts or if they do need to have the performance done.
So they are doing well and we will be seeing them tonight which will
be awesome and I'll have to tell ya more about them and their
progress. Also this last week we were able to find Michael Gabbet a
suit so all he needs now is a white shirt and will be back on his way
to reactivation. He's a really awesome guys and wants to come back I
just think he needed that little push to get him back on his feet.
Hopefully we can reactivate the grandson who lives with him as well
:D.
Michael is now no longer on our radar since his landlord mostly kicked
him out. We came in contact with Chuck again so that's how we found
out but from what we know his social worker has him in a methadone
hospital which will be extremely good for him and his goal to get off
of his drug. We just need to find out which one so that missionaries
can get out to him and keep him progressing, I'm sad though that we
won't be able to meet with him anymore and Anthony we are still trying
to find out which jail he is at to see if we can see him.

We had stake conference this weekend and to be honest I don't remember
a lot, but what I do is what stuck out to me and answered one of those
questions I've had but didn't exactly know what it was bothering me. A
member of the seventy elder robins gave a talk during the adult
session on missionary work and to find the connection you can make
with people to progress the work. Now how this stuck out to me is that
I've been super worried about not being a robot and since the Richlyck
event I've been very timid in lessons lately.
Well he talked about find those things that you and the people you
meet have in common and to use them towards your advantage. He even
told a really cool story where one of the apostles on his mission
taught one of there investigators the word of wisdom and they threw
away his cigarettes and took his lighter and on their way home from
that they just so happened to come by a guy who's lighter just so
happened to not be working to light his cigarette at the time they
walked by so he offered that man a light. A month later that man was
baptized.
I'm working to become an individual missionary with my own style. And
I know ya hate it but I'm going to try and connect with sister Cruze's
son who is a less active. He plays League of Legends and and doesn't
talk very much while we are there but Ima gonna see if I can use that
as a starter and lead it back somehow towards the gospel and see if we
can get him back to church.
Also Saturday night we had a really cool experience. It was late and
we were about halfway down our street to go home when a guy called
out. At first we didn't know if it was us he wanted but when he said
it a second time and motioned for us to come to him we headed over. We
were both a bit worried that this guy was going to rob us but when we
got up to him we found him in a mental break down. If I remember
correctly he stated that someone had sent him to go kill another guy
but the closer he got the more he thought about what Christ and god
would think of him so he didn't go through with it. He hasn't ever
killed anyone before but he is worried that since he didn't do the job
his life might be on the line so he asked us to pray with and for him
so we did.
We got his info so that we can check up on him later on to make sure
he's ok, for now though he is going up north to stay with some family
members so that he can get away from it all and later on will come
back down so we can meet with him which will be awesome! He had a
handout card from jones a little later on, he got it from him about a
week ago. So first we will tell him we are Mormons rather than j-dubs
and then go into the gospel lol.

Elder Olsen in Philadelphia



Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Playing some ball on p-day 3-10-14




Yolo

Apparently yolo isn't a word or a form of hello so my IPad keeps
trying to change it lol. So this past week has been pretty good and a
bit sad as well. So all week we were unable to get a hold of Michael
or Anthony except for once while I was on exchange on the Spanish side
and it was only Anthony they got a hold of... Kinda he was high at the
time so they didn't talk to much there. But so what happened is that
it was either Friday or Saturday we were up in that area and saw a
police car but no one outside so we had hoped for the best. Last night
we finally got Michael and talked with him and found out that Anthony
was arrested. He hadn't been back to make his visits for parole and he
was high at the time so they took him in. We plan to go and visit him
if we can in a couple of days when he's not sick but we will see if
he's in our area or not.
Michael however is doing well and has supposedly been off of drugs for
nine days so that is pretty awesome and we remade a baptismal date
with him for May 18 and we are going to work with him the best we can.
We are going to try and make it a daily thing where we go over and
help hi with his addiction, read, learn how to read, and just give him
company since Anthony is no longer there and chuck is rarely there.
George is doing well and we got to go over for both his and Sister
Shoesters daughters birthday which was really nice of them. It seems
that George is getting more comfortable with us and is also receiving
the lessons better than when we first started with him which is really
good. He's a great guy he's just gonna take some time to just let it
all come and not resist it lol.
We also have two new investigators Bill and Ricky who are really
awesome and we are hopefully going to have baptismal dates for come
tonight. I found Bill with Jonesey on exchange and at first he didn't
want to talk with us and then he said alright to it. It took some time
to get back to him since I wrote the address down wrong lol. Well it
would seem a miracle happened on my exchange Spanish side since we
found out that after a prayer that was given by elder Whitaker and
elder Mask the sister of Ricky finally came out of a coma. And what I
mean by that is a minute after that prayer was said they received a
phone call that she came out of the coma ;).
On the exchange Spanish side I got to teach English for the first time
and let me tell ya that it was a fun but very troublesome experience.
One I don't speak Spanish so that makes things a bit hard and second
English is messed up if ya don't grow up learning why it is the way it
is lol. Why letters make certain sounds at one time and others to none
another time are really troublesome to teach lol.
Anyways that's what my week has looked like in a nut shell, things go
fricken fast here and it makes no sense. Like last week was week two
and now it's week three of the transfer ;). Crazy how that is cause in
terms of weeks I've been out almost two and a half months now........
Not sure how that happened lol. I feel like the quote Michael says on
monsters inc. where everything just kinda... Blew away lol.
But really just how my perspective has changed on time with the
mission is like this. Elder Evans had fourteen months under his belt
when I first got here. He mentioned yesterday he's sixteen in now...
At fourteen and when I first started I thought he had forever left.
Now it seems he's got no time left lol. Funny how that works, for me I
still have eternity and we will see how things go XD. I do like the
mission though and enjoy it, if I didn't like it I wouldn't be doing
it so I very much disagree with Evans and Richlyck that you shouldn't
enjoy your mission.
Oh and by the way guess what..... IT FRICKEN SNOWED AGAIN! Ridiculous
right? We've had such great weather and no need for coats but it came
back again >.<. It's only two inches but still lol, why won't winter
just leave it's overstayed it's welcome and we are all outta hot
chocolate lol.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Ollo

How y'all doing :D.  Now for the week lol. So your question about the third guy chuck is
correct. Chuck is in the middle right now and is no longer living with
Michael and Anthony full time but we do see him on the street from
time to time. We were unable to have a lesson with Anthony this week
which was unfortunate but we were able to get two in with Michael. The
first one we had a lesson we showed him a video on Christ healing a
man with Palsy and then talked about how through Christ he can be
cleansed spiritually and then physically. He really felt the spirit
strongly and even stated that he had cut down on the drugs that day so
hopefully he's working to do that every day :D. Our second lesson with
him we brought along Brother Argondiza (he totally looks like the guy
who steals DNA on Jurassic park lol) and the two hit off pretty well
in my opinion. Michael was supposed to come to church but probably slept
in, we are going to go see him later tonight hopefully.
Also last week I got my big dose of by the book missionary XP. However
on that day I also got to do something awesome which I will tell ya
about but I wanna save that for last. Elder Evans is a good guy and
he's usually up in center city but we were on exchange last Wednesday
and let's say this was a bigger dose of by the book than I had with
Burkholze, but I still like him more than Burkholze. Well I found a
potential who is now an investigator :D named Chartur Rai. Well let's
say there was no emotion in this lesson and that it was just blocks of
preach my gospel shoved down his throat since I let Evans lead the
discussion. Never happening again lol. But that's not what bugged me
and right after that is the good part. So I don't know if I've told
you about Bishnu and her daughter Roslynn who is three but I will tell
ya that they are recent converts of about 3/4 of a year and are super
awesome. Well we received a call that they were extremely sick and
wanted a blessing so we made our way over there.


Well we get there and are invited in and the only thing Evans can
think about or say is there has to be a male. There has to be a
male........ Let's just say he struck a nerve like none other and that
I was about to go in and leave him outside... Luckily there was a male
(like usual) who was at least there for Evans to see when Bishnu's
sister didn't understand that repeated bland statement he made. Well I
gave my first blessing ever to Bishnu's daughter Roslynn. Such an
awesome family and I'm glad that things worked out that Evans didn't
call pres on me lol. But I was going in with or without.


Today for Pday elder Whitaker has to do school stuff so we are
going to the church to do that and hang out with other missionaries
who we will more than likely have a ping pong tournament with ;).
I told elder Whitaker that I'll work on my temper with by the book
missionaries so we will see how I improve with that over time lol.



Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Namestey

Ha another way to say hello lol, that one is Nepali ;).  So it fricken snowed again here!
About a week and a half ago the weather was really nice and we could
leave the big puffy coats behind but since then it's just snowed,
warmed up, and snowed again. Really looking forward to spring here but
from what I've heard is that it's very short before it just becomes a
steam house outside lol. This week we didn't have to many lessons
unfortunately but the ones we did have counted.
Monday we had a lesson with George Callahan and it went extremely
well. We made him a bit angry the last time we talked with him about
doing the baptism for himself rather than his soon to be wife and it
ticked im' off a bit but this week his heart was softened and we had a
really good lesson. He was also amazed that Joseph Smith is actually
referenced in the bible and I think it put quite a few puzzle pieces
together for him.
We also had quite a few lessons with Michael and Anthony. Our first
lesson last week actually started off with Anthony in a melt down.
He's on drugs and hates it and wants to get off but was very sure how
to do that by himself. So we went right into how the gospel of Jesus
Christ can help us in are greatest struggles and then went right into
what we could do to help him. So far we've helped him get his id so
that he can get into a clinic to help him get off so hopefully he
follows all of the way through and doesn't get scared. Super great guy
and knock on wood here but I think he has the high chance of being
baptized. He is very greatful for how much we've helped grow in his
faith and has even mentioned that he needs to be baptized!
And then after that we saw them throughout the week helping with that
stuff but other than that not to much has happened. Transfers begin
today and almost my entire district, actually all but one are staying.
Elder Rockwood is leaving to Brazil which is super awesome since he's
waited almost a year for his visa but super sad because he's a fricken
stud. I got his info to stay in contact so all is good.
Being the district leaders companion I get moved around a lot through
the companionships. This past week I was with elder Richlyck who's
from center city.I was also on exchange with elder rich who is a Spanish elder and is also a stud.
Had a great time on the companionship with him but during lessons I
said about three words since everyone we talked to was Hispanic and
knew two words of English.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Howdy

So hey I finally got to go sight seeing here. its been pretty sweet and I've got a few pictures to send ya. We went to China town here which was a little disappointing do to not being anywhere near as good as the one in San Fran. we literally walked into China town and then two minutes later left it lol. But we then went to Redding Mon Tunnel which is one of the coolest things I've seen yet here. It used to be a train station I guess but now its like a food court mini mall with everything you can imagine in it. I've got pics and some video but you really gotta be there to experience it. Sorry I don't have as much to say for this week of email. I actually got a lot more on the Ipad at home but I didn't get to finish, so Ima try to send as much as I can now.
We then also came to the temple where its being built. All four corners are up and they are working on the steal part now. Supposedly the spires will be done within the next two to three months which will be awesome. We also have hung out with the sisters here along with Brother and Sister Carr who watch over the temple grounds here. Super awesome and we've had a really good time. We went to lunch at a place called the snack shack that has one of the best burgers I've ever had.

 I'm also experimenting more with food and having a fun time with that. One of those things I'd like to share with you about that is ya know those things called plantains? They look just like a banana but they aint? Well what ya do is buy a couple of those and then let em age till they is either almost black or completely black so that they are sweet enough. Slice em really thin and then fry them on a pan with some butter until they get crispy and then after that sprinkle some sugar or some cinnamon on em (you can eat em just fried too) and then eat em :). Really good. In the package ima send you a recipe for a really good burger to, however it won't have the amazing sauce that also helps but I'm not sure how to make that so it wont be the exact same.
Anyways today has been really awesome besides the snow :P. Ya we got fricken snow again lol. Hopefully the winter goes away here soon. Supposedly this winter has made it to almost top five winters ever here with snow and cold. Can't stand it lol.