Week 15

It's the last week of November! Crazy how the year has flown by!

We should express our thanks and gratitude daily, but since Thanksgiving is coming up I thought I'd take a minute to give thanks to my Father in Heaven for the many blessings in my life.

I'm thankful for the love from my Heavenly Father. He has blessed me with loving parents, friends and family. Dad, thank you for your optimism, hard work ethic and positive attitude. Mom thank you for being so patience, caring and giving. Ace, thank you for your support and help. To my friends and family, thank you for your continuous love, prayers, encouragement and friendship.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to be here in South Salt Lake to help others build their faith, their testimony in Jesus Christ. As a missionary, my purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the Restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. I'm thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ and His Atonement. I'm thankful for the scriptures and prayer. There are so many things to be thankful! I could go on, but know that I appreciate and love you all.

Have a blessed week family and friends!
Sister Olszowka

P.S. A picture of the other Sisters in our district. We share the car with them.

Week 14

What a week!

On Tuesday, Sister Allan and I took Nola to the Temple Square musical fireside put on by the Temple Square Sisters. It was amazing! The Polynesian Sisters sang their own number. We took Trax from Sandy to downtown. We all really enjoyed the music. While I was sitting there someone tapped me on the shoulder and it was MICAH SWAIN! Yeah of one my high school classmates! We didn't have time to chat since he came in late, but it was so nice seeing a familiar face! After the program we took pictures of the Salt Lake City Temple.

We've also had some service opportunities this week! We racked leaves for an elderly couple down the street and oh gosh! They had sooooo many leaves. We packed 9 bags! See the photos below.

Wednesday we had Zone Conference! We went to the Mission Office and receive counsel and training from President Chambers. As part of the training we watched a clip called, the "Butterfly Circus" which I encourage all of you to see. Think about how it relates to us as individuals and how it relates to missionary work. It was eye opening. :)

So I don't know if I ever explained our housing situation. We live in the basement, the landlord (elderly couple) live on one side of the home and their grandson and his family live on the main floor. Sadly our landlord passed away on Wednesday. Brother Poulsen was 89 years old. He was a cute old guy. He was diagnosed with dementia at the beginning of the year. He had fallen out of his chair and then fell again later in the night and hit his head and passed away peaceful in his sleep. We visited with Sister Poulsen and she's doing good. We did some yard work for them and will be helping out at the funeral this Saturday.

Sister Petersen is 91 and lives down the street. Did I mention there are a lot of elderly in the area I serve?! We've been having lessons at her home with her neighbor who's less active. We love her so much she baked us an apple pie!

We've met quite frequently with Angel this past week. He wasn't able to make it to church, but Nola came! On a side note, as missionaries we have a phone to contact the people we teach and so forth, we text them too. You know setting up appointments and reminding them. The junior companion is in charge of the phone. I'm senior companion right now so Sister Allan has the phone. Also if we're teaching a male there needs to be another female in the home or we bring a female with us to our lesson. Well Angel texted us and offered us JAZZ tickets!! But as missionaries we're focused on missionary work 24/7. So we told him thank you but we couldn't go and told him why. He said "you can preach the gospel to me at the game." yeah no, it doesn't work like that.  Anyways, he continued to say well one of us could just go with him or he could take us out in Sandy. oka! yeah missionaries travel in pairs and don't go out on dates! haha!

I hope all is well with everyone. The weather is so cold. I don't know what's gonna happen when the snow really starts to stick. We have the car this week so we won't freeze.

Love you!

Sister Olszowka

Week 13

Aloha Friends and Family!

Transfer calls come in on Tuesday and then all missionaries move Wednesday morning. Well we got the call that Sister Dazey and I were both staying in our area. Which we were okay with since we're started teaching a new investigator, Nola. However on Wednesday morning we got a call that Sister Dazey was being transferred to Draper and Sister Allen was coming to Sandy! So yup, I have ANOTHER companion...my fourth companion in 3 months. I'm actually training this transfer. It's really common sense; I don't know why so many missionaries murmur about it.

Sister Allan is my new companion; she's been out a month and a half. She's from Layton, Utah. She's actually a trial missionary. What is a trial missionary?! I didn't know what that was until I got out here. Sister Allan has narcolepsy, she falls asleep at random times during the day, and she doesn't have a lot of energy. She's been doing pretty well so far. So a trial missionary serves for 3 months and at the end of that period they can decide to serve or not. If they are capable and are willing to serve then they'll get a call letter and serve the remaining months. So with that said, I'll probably stay in Sandy after this transfer because Sister Allan will be done with her trial mission. I really enjoy the Members and people I've met in Sandy. Especially Wendell, he told me I was his favorite. haha! Love that 88 year old!

We have a CAR to drive now! It's the newest of the fleet! A 2014 Chevrolet Cruze! It's alright, got nothing on my Honda CRV. haha! I was so excited to hear the news that we'd have a car and I would be the designated driver! I've missed driving soooo much! We share with the other sisters in our district.

We have two progressing investigators. Remember the one I told you about that dropped us? Yeah, we knocked on his door again and he agreed to let us come back and have another lesson with him! Pray that his heart will be softened. We also are teaching an older woman, Nola. There's a special fireside put on by the Temple Square Sisters in downtown Salt Lake and she agreed to go with us! I'll let you know how that goes, it's on Tuesday.

We came home on Tuesday evening to a nice surprise outside our door. The Young Women had left us with a huge stack of Book of Mormon with their testimonies inside and a huge care package. It was so thoughtful. We really appreciate and are thankful for the love and support we feel. We love them!

The mission office gave us a new microwave for our tiny basement apartment too! Thank goodness because the old one was 23 years old and not safe!
Well my time is up, but I love you all and remember to choose the right. Heavenly Father will bless you.

Love,
Sister Olszowka

Week 12

Happy November!! I hope you all had a wonderful week. This past week was really nice! On Halloween we went to the Jordan River Temple in South Jordan. It was a wonderful place to be. I love the temple and feel so fortunate that I can go while I'm on my mission. Halloween was my 3 month mark, but no one's counting right?! haha!

We had our baptism for our 88 year old man, Wendell. It went really well! There were so many people, we held it in the chapel and then moved over to the font to perform the ordinance. It was such a neat experience to be a part of his special day. Four other Sister Missionaries and I sang "Come Thou Fount," it's a really beautiful song. President Chamber's wife was able to stop by the baptism too. On a side note, Wendell personally knows Elder Holland and President Monson through business back in the day. Anyways, Elder Holland sent him a letter and our names were included!! I've attached photos. I felt pretty honored, an Apostle mentioned me. We love Wendell so much and can't wait to go to the temple with him and his family in a year.

Sister Lopez (pictured below) is Sister Crandell's companion, but she's awesome! We get along really well.

It was snowing yesterday morning! But it didn't stick.