Winter in Philly and working on the temple campus

Yes I'm Still Alive ;), Three New And Anti Included, First Timers FHE, Mission Reboot

So, sorry about the past two weeks. My emails didn't send for whatever reason last Monday, so I had to resend them all and I forgot to tell Ya of a small detail that Pday, was changed for today since we had a big meeting with some Seventies yesterday which I will get to in a moment so sorry about all that. I can tell that this week already is lookin to weird and wild since the change of Pdays so we will see next weeks report won't we now? Well I'll get to this past weeks events and won't hold Ya up any longer :). So in reports we picked up three new investigators last week which was really nice. The first guy is named Angel and he is probably in his mid to late twenties but I'm not to sure. We had originally found him through his sister who we haven't seen since when she asked us if we believed in the Holy Spirit. Well when we said yes that interested him since most people he talks to say that they don't believe in it. So it was a bit of an interesting lesson. We had both forgotten a Book of Mormon so when we got in there we really couldn't go with the restoration since we couldn't give it to him haha. Also he has a gift for the gab and just went on and on as we got to know him and his beliefs and as such, we just watched "The Will of God", Mormon Message, which he liked. Our other two new investigators are Desirae and Moses.... Moses kinda being on the iffy side... So Desirae originally ordered a bible and we asked if we could come back. That day every other appointment had fallen through including that one but being a bit stubborn we came back a little later to find her and Moses. Moses wasn't really apart of the discussion until the end but Desirae seems to have a lot of potential. We reached the part where Joseph Smith was in the grove and found out about which church to join when Moses had a few troubles with the fact that we believe that there is only one true church and that he needed to be baptized. Cornelius on pins and needles very lovingly and calmly did not allow him to get his wish for a complete bash >:3! We showed scripturally every point we made after that and with the finishing touch I used the scripture in John where Jesus states that we need to be baptized by water and the spirit hahahahaha! He backed down a moment and said maybe I do need to get baptized.... And then wouldn't accept a Book of Mormon after he agreed that people need to find out by the spirit whether or not things are true :P. He did take a pamphlet though so upon our next visit we will see if we drop or keep him depending on what he attempts to do. Anyways... On Friday we spent pretty much the whole day moving sister Wasco and her daughter Sharry. We started our adventure at eight in the morning and didn't get home till six since it was forever away from there original apartment, all the way down to the moving van, but we got it done and it felt good to do, Ya!! Saturday we had football as usual and that was a lot of fun. There was ice all over the turf so I cut my right calf up a bit but on the other hand I scored two touch downs in the first game so I Will take what I can get ;). I need to get better at catching long passes though. Just not very good at judging those and then Nabbing them :/. Later that evening we showed Jen and her family how to have family home evening which was a lot of fun but really crazy. We played monopoly, which I still don't know how to play, since no one ever explained it to me :/. The only thing that marred this experience was that we got a call from Mike saying his Mom was stuck down in North Carolina so the rest of the evening was taken up focusing on that. Jenn kept asking what is this for? (FHE) and by the end of it she loved it so hopefully we can make it a weekly thing ;). Our goal is, though Jenn won't be baptized mormon yet, we are going to get her at least living the lifestyle ;). Sunday was mostly uneventful and now for yesterday. We had Elder Evans from the first quorum of the seventy and Elder Allen who's a seventy of sorts. The whole mission was together for the first time in five plus years.... We got news about iPads. That facebook will be down for the next month and a half to two months, we received the draft books for the online missionary handbooks, and for the next four to five hours reiterating rules but that's ok, they had a good sense of humor so it wasn't terrible. And that about sums up the week.

Fallout, Catching Fire and Standstill Baptism, Last Straws

This past week unfortunately ended up in being one of those where we would have two to three lessons planned per day and all would cancel... Not to mention that time just slipped through our fingers like an laxative coated fish, if Ya know what I mean. But on the other hand the lessons that we did have were very good and were pretty well needed for future lessons. So first off Monday night we were finally able to go see Daisy for the first time in almost two weeks. We shared President Monsons talk "I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee". She loved it and was really able to connect to it. Since we haven't been seeing her we had to reschedule her date for the 14th of March... But we haven't heard from her since once again so it is really weird :/. Things will work out. Most of the rest of our lessons for the week were with Jenn Himes and we had some pretty cool experiences. Our first lesson with her, she was still pretty under the weather and easy to keep in focus so we watched the restoration movie. It went very well and it was really funny cause while teaching her, Elder Litton got on facebook up in white hall, so we taught her as a trio haha. It was really weird but in the end Jenn said that she new it was all true which caught us off guard a bit, though we were unable to figure out what she exactly meant, since we were already late on time and had to get home... Plus things just got distracting when we asked her how she knew it was true and then other vicarious topics came up. So next visit we tried to show her Uchtdorf's talk from this past conference but Rita was there and we got no where due to distractions.... And then finally on Saturday we had a really awesome lesson haha. So we went over the Gospel of Jesus Christ using the tea bag and fire to represent faith, if you remember that one. Well that really helped keep her in tune for the rest of the lesson when at the end we found out that she believed all that we have taught her!!!! But she's afraid that if she gets baptized that it will be the finishing move for her staunch catholic father, who is dying, if that makes any sense.... So we have a baptism on our hands that is completely on hold for reasons that are semi legit but yet also kinda not. We will have to figure something out or just wait until the old man dies which sounds really dark Ya know what I mean? Man it's hard cause I really wanna see her and her family baptized. Well the second to last thing in news that I had was that of interviews. It was good to see president but afterwards I just felt really confused since our conversation jumped everywhere from the needs of the area to my new companion and then told me that I would probably be training within the next few transfers so we kinda went everywhere within the interview. Once he asked me if I had any questions I don't know if I just forgot them or if I was to afraid to ask but I said no and have once again delayed some things that I wanna ask but I'm also just unsure where to go with those questions :/. Also due to so many missionaries we only get about 15 minutes per interview. It was good though and he told me that he feels he has a special relationship with me and the rest of the people in my group since we are the smallest group in the mission and our start is kinda rememberal, hahaha. Well last in news is the last straw. The members who are antis once again slandered the church and Ezra Taft Benson while we had investigators so we are taking it to both bishop and President Anderson since it's becoming to much of a problem.

Air brush art, Old District & Meeting up with Elder Leavitt

Stomach Bugs R' Us, Achievement Unlocked: The Bigger Missionary, RCLA's

Well this past week was pretty crazy and was gone in an instant so here I am waiting for the next PDay to arrive since I can't as much look up from the floor before the week has been pulled out from under me. So let's take a look at this past week shall we? Elder Litton and I spent our last Pday giving Mike (my reactivation who's gone less active again :P) a blessing for his health before he airbrushed Elder Litton a T-Shirt with Calvin and Hobbs on it which was pretty amazing. I'll have to send Ya some photos today since we aren't scrambling everywhere ;). We then went to Brandons for a warm goodbye before going to Danas and signing Elder Litton out with a Pizza Pretzel and a thing of cookie dough ice cream. Never again will I get Hershey's ice cream, I do believe XP. Mostly due to the fact that the next morning which was transfers I woke up at about three in the morning puking. It was just a stomach bug but Hershey's ice cream was just ok at the same time. Well after having probably the worst morning of the mission throwing up from three till about seven I finally allowed myself to receive a blessing. Which is exactly what I needed. Stomach warbley all day but after getting home with the new Comp I took a power doze of twenty minutes and I made sure we stayed as busy as we could while yet taking it easy. I think I had a piece of toast and one banana that entire day which was weird cause I thought I woulda starved haha. My new companion is Elder Cornelius from Monroe Utah. He's been out about 4 and a half months, is eighteen, and is probably the most quiet companion I've had yet lol. So for the first time I'm the senior companion (means nothing :P) and my goal is to crack this guy open lol. He's a good guy just quiet ;). So let's just say that his first night, for the first time Jenn invited us over to give her a blessing, which is really cool since she is the one who invited us over rather than us asking her :). She has Pneumonia so we went in and got out as soon as possible but she was super happy that we were able to come and do that for her. The rest of the week blew by so quick I'm not even sure how to describe it. We had two lessons with the Layton/Brown family which went so good these past two times that we were able to get them out to stake conference! Shared Christoffersons talk, "free to act for themselves", as well as the restoration where we got Pam sniffly since that's what got her into the church. With Mike we came back and helped him in his basement, cleaning. Sadly it wasn't or ever will be the grossest service I've done on the mission but we filled three contractor bags full of junk and dog poop it was just plain nasty XP.... He bought us lunch though and asked for a lesson so we went in and talked about missionary work. Mainly talking about what we can do for Dana since missionaries have really only ever read the B.o.M. With her. Learned some thing we needed to but I'm still a bit lost on what to do Ya know? Need some direction. Thursday night we had a really special lesson with Stephanie. She found out just a few days before that she will probably lose her eye sight within the coming years, due to the aneurism she had in 2009 :(. We had a really good lesson with her about faith and how she will more than likely be the reason for the rest of her family joining the gospel. Elder Cornelius gave her a blessing of comfort so she should be good :). Friday night we tried to go to brother Tabers to learn how to do family history work. It kinda ended up in a bust since he only wanted to teach us how to do the paper version ):/. So we asked Elder Bevans our new district leader if he could teach us the next day which he did. Saturday Cornelius woke up feeling sick but we still went to football. When we got home he told me to take first shower since he needed to lay down a minute. Well that minute was pretty long haha but I'm not going to complain cause afterwards he started throwing up so he needed the rest :P. We still went and did family history with Bevans but we didn't go to the adult session of Stake conference for obvious reasons. I made thank you cards in the mean time. Sunday we had Stake Conference which was good. Helped Brandon with some scriptural references before hand with his talk and then afterwards waited for an hour for a guy, the spanish elders found, who then never showed up :/. So we went home. Finished thank you cards and I made funfetti cookies to go with them. Went and delivered to Jen who is doing a lot better but I'm not to sure what was going on with her house but after we left I was starting to itch like none other. Had dinner at Mike and Danas which was good though most of the meat loaf didn't cook through so it was really pink XP. By the time we got home it was ridiculous so I took a shower which kinda helped. Not to sure what got me but I had hives :/. Never had that before and I'd like to stay away from it Ya know? It was weird.

Transfer Drum Roll, Blessing Central, Floppers, Nutty Less Active, Air Brush

DdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddDdDdDdDDDdDdDdDdDdDdDdDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD........ Ya I'm going to wait to give you the news on transfers until some other time within this letter ;). So stay tuned to this episode of the Psychedelic Mission Experiences with Elder Olsen, Special Guest Stars, the Other People :3. So begin our week Monday night we went and saw Brandon Stevenson our Recent Convert for the first time since November. Apparently he has been to Mississippi, Louisiana, and so forth this past time of vacancy. He's been going to church down there which is nice to know since he only answered one text during that month and a half period of time but moving on. He's doing great as usual though he has been going through a bit of a struggle with his goals. He wants to be apart in helping two people be baptized before he leaves this May and believes he is doing something wrong. So we discussed it with him and how, as long as we are doing our part in helping others, Christ will make up the difference in this situation. Just needs to be patient ;). So this week was full of cool miracles and blessing to see... Literally! Dana for the first time in three years of meeting with missionaries accepted her first blessing since she was extremely sick. She was so worried that we were going to have her drink the oil haha, and then continued to search her head for the oil, but alas we only used a small amount ;). We gave Mike a blessing too for his back since there was a pinched nerve. Let's just say that by the next day all symptoms for both were half gone and the next day completely gone. Also, it was Danas little Palmaranian that I gave the blessing to before his leg surgery. Well, he wasn't supposed to be able to walk on it for two weeks. Day after, he was using it. He wasn't supposed to be able to have stitches out until six to eight weeks later. Well they are out and besides having a quarter of his butt shaved the dog has full motion capabilities :D. At first Dana new that it was the blessing when it all happened and still does, in my opinion she's just put her skeptic view in the way again which is so frustrating when you know they know! lol. So later Tuesday night we receive a voicemail... Two actually from some lady named Melissa and we really couldn't figure out what was going cause in one she says she used to be a member and in the other she says she's an investigator. So Wednesday morning we made a call and she wanted to meet that day so we set up a last minute member present and had a lesson down at the temple since she didn't want to meet at her place. Interesting lady I must say. Elder Litton was pulled away before the lesson started so Brother Carr and I began as Elder Litton had a talk with the Sister missionaries. Half way through he rejoined, told me she was a member and that the sisters had some concerns about her which I learned later. The lesson was good. But I learned she's a DnC (do not contact) very quickly. After that lesson she gave us eight phone calls within an hour and half asking if everyone has to die sometime or another :/........ The sisters knew this yet they gave her our phone number.... Well with her calling us a lot most of our appointments fell through including Daisy which was weird! She always holds, but lately we will call her an hour before the appointment to see if we are still ok to come by and then she won't answer :/. We still saw her and she is doing good. Just having a hard time keeping in contact with this woman. I don't remember if it was Wednesday or Thursday but we went to Mikes again to find out what he would like us to do for Dana to help her her progress. Well we did so, as we air brushed Olaf onto a shirt haha. We talked about a few things and unfortunately he just kinda wanted to continue the course we were going which wasn't really anything :/. I'm not gonna have that lol. Later Thursday evening we went and gave Brandon a blessing since he was down with the flu. Our goal was to make sure that he was ready for the temple two days later and Ya know what, God had that set in order since he was perfectly fine the next day :D. He also took the names to the temple that we helped him with on family search which was really cool! Well I guess the last thing in news would be yesterday. We went on an hour exchange since I had to play the organ for the Spanish Ward while Elder Litton and Sutton went and contacted a golden referral that we found for their area. She turned out Golden, with only an hour of practice the organ sounded fine (thanks to the guy upstairs ;)), and we were behind schedule all day haha. I met a guy named Mike (gosh dang it philly) and had a really good discussion with him though he kept us late to our next appointment. Invited us back since he was impressed that we could talk about things civilly and the restoration is an interesting idea to him. We then went to a lady named Gloria and she's new. Her daughter is a member and she loves the missionaries so she had us over. Unfortunately we weren't able to stay long since our member present had to roll out but I am excited for her! Well that about does it for this time around. By the way I am staying and have yet to receive a phone call about training or being a district leader so we will find out come tonight I guess. Litton has been a great companion and I'm going to miss him :'( but I guess we shall see what the next adventure brings.