Week 54

Hi Family and friends,

Where did August go?! This past week I taught hula to a few activity day girls. It was fun, I really miss dancing. We also sang in a ward choir this past week. While Sister Swain and I were together we ALWAYS sang in a sacrament meeting. It was always a spiritual experience. Mom, tell Grandma O that I'm definitely using and sharing those talents that Heavenly Father has blessed me with.

We did quite a bit of service this week too. I fed 22 goats and 30 chickens! I didn't get a picture of it, but there were a lot of animals. One goat even tried to eat my pants! This woman wasn't a member of the church, but gladly accepted our offer to help. We helped another member pack her belongings, she's moving next week. Let me just say she had A LOT of things! We also helped set up for a neighborhood BBQ and met a lot of people there.

We're still trying to find more people to teach. When are we not finding more people to teach?! haha! I have faith that something will happen. There are a few potentials on the horizon. I'll keep you posted on that.

Transfers are on Tuesday. A lot of new missionaries are coming in so we'll see what happens. I love and appreciate the stake I serve in.

Here's my gospel quote of the week:

Let us live by faith. We all need to have more faith. More faith in our Savior. Faith that things will work out. Pray for more faith. Build your faith. Faith and fear CANNOT exist at the same time.

Have a blessed week!

Sister Olszowka

Week 53

Hi family and friends!

It's just crazy how we're already half way through August! eek! This week was pretty great! Elder Don Clarke came to the mission and WOW! It was an awesome experience to receive guidance from him. He definitely tells it how it is. He helped me refocus on my purpose as a missionary and as a disciple of Jesus Christ. I took what I learned and am applying it.

Here's an experience that I'd like to share. There's a recent convert that moved into one of our apartment complexes. She was baptized a year and a half ago in Vegas. The missionaries knocked on her door and taught her. She's been transferred to Utah for work and she recently lost her dad and her brother within the last year. She hasn't been to church since May. So I felt impressed to drive by her place Saturday, it was 8:30pm, we were wrapping up for the night. I thought let's call her. We did, she was having a tough day so we stopped in. We invited her to come to church. She has a crazy work schedule and this was the only sunday she'd have off. She sounded a little hesitant when we left about coming to church. Sunday morning rolled around, I felt that we needed to go knock on her door and wake her up. Knocked once, waited, no answer. Sister Prenatt was looking at me like I was crazy. But I knocked again and she opened. She said she was not feeling well and couldn't make it to church. I insisted that she come, this was her only Sunday off and church is where she needed to be. She wasn't going to make it to her assigned ward, but  she came to 11am church. She later expressed that she felt relaxed and was thankful that we helped her get to church.

I look at this experience and I think I'm fulfilling my purpose as a missionary, which 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 am so grateful and blessed to be a small part of Heavenly Father's glorious plan. This is truly Christ church and we are all brothers and sisters of a loving Heavenly Father. May we follow the prompting of the Holy Ghost and continue to help those that are seeking strength and guidance.

That's all the time I have for today. I love you all.

Sister Olszowka

P.S. The pictures below are some the animals I see daily. It's somewhat strange to see them and then right across the street are HUGE homes. haha! Then the sunrise this morning as we went out to run and my new running shoes.

Week 52

Hey!

Glad to hear that everyone weathered the storm. I'm especially grateful that our tin roof made it! Mom, I was laughing when I read that dad put a cinder block on the roof and said to have faith. Definitely counting our blessings.

Another week has come and gone in the mission. Nothing new to report. We cover two apartment complexes so we've been walking around talking to EVERYONE. Yes, we talk to everyone, even if I've already met them. We've run into a lot of less active members. We've invited them to church and one woman said we could come back and have a family night with her family so we're looking forward to that this week. We continue to pray for an opportunity to find and teach an investigator. We did provide some service this past week for a few people. We loaded a dishwasher, cleaned some walls, mopped a floor and of course pulled weeds!

This week will be busy. Elder Don Clarke from the Seventy is coming to the mission on Thursday so we'll be in a conference all day. And then I have a leadership meeting on Friday and exchanges with a set of Sisters too.

Funny story. So Saturday morning I was eating my cereal and Sister Jensen was awake and bringing in the newspaper. Side note, as missionaries we don't read the newspaper because it's too worldly and we're focused on the gospel. So I never see it...Anyways...for some reason I looked over as she was flipping through the paper and I said "wait!!!" I saw a familiar face on the sports section. Lo and behold, it was one of my childhood friends, Michael Alisa! It was an article talking about how he's finishing his senior year as one of  BYU-Provo's linebacker. Small world huh? I thought it was cool:)

Lastly, here is my gospel message for the week. I read an article in this month's Ensign, entitled, Be Strong and of Good Courage. I invite you to read it.  President Harold B. Lee gave this advice to President Boyd K. Packer. He said, "the trouble with you is you want to see the end from the beginning....you must learn to walk to the edge of the light, and then a few steps into the darkness; then the light will appear and show the way before you." I love this, it's so true. How often do we want to see the end from the beginning?! We must move forward in faith. Sometimes we want to understand in detail the things that Heavenly Father has planned for us, but that's not walking by faith. We don't need to understand all things. We just need to step forward as the Lord has asked us to do and he will help lead and guide us.

I love you all, have a blessed week!

Sister Olszowka

P.s. That's the Boelter's pet bunny. He's huge!

Week 51

Happy August!

Well I made my year mark this past Wednesday. CHEE HOO!! :) I had a leadership meeting at the mission office all day, but it was great! I saw Sister Swain and she's doing really well in her new area. Crazy how this time last year I was sitting in the MTC learning more about the gospel and how to be an effective missionary. Now it's the final push, 6 months left. My time to completely serve the Lord is so short, 18 months. I then have the rest of my life to reflect on what I've done. Did I do my best? I know that what I've learned and what I'm continuing to learn will influence the rest of my life. My testimony in the Savior and my Heavenly Father has grown so much. I know He is mindful of me and being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-days Saints is the only true church. This is Jesus Christ's church restored on the earth today.  

In other news, we had zone conference. President Chambers talked about what the Savior has asked of us, "COME FOLLOW ME." What does that mean? "Come" meaning, sacrifice and obedient. "Follow" meaning, consecration and "me", the Savior. If we truly want to be effective missionaries and disciples of the Lord we NEED to sacrifice temporally things and live the higher law. Think about it, how many times do we say/hear, "oh I'm so busy, I can't...go to church, fulfill my church calling, read my scriptures, pray...etc. The Savior as invited us to come follow him. Eternal life is only granted to those that work for it. I invite all of us to consecrate ourselves to become more like the Savior. He's the perfect example and it's only with His help through the Atonement that we can be cleansed from our imperfections.

Sister Prenatt and I are doing well. Every day we continue to grow in unity.

Enjoy the rest of week! I love you all!

Sister Olszowka

P.S. look at this baby gnome! It's sooo small! haha! And here’s another puzzle that I helped Sister Jensen finish.