August & September 2016

September 26, 2016


SO do you remember my friend Cody Simonsen? he is getting married on the 12th of October I am really excited for him. this week was great I have officially take over the area in only 4 weeks I literally am the one planning the days and Elder Rantyo is asking me who we should go see haha. so yeah we had a great week we taught a lot of people this week will be great as well because we will be having general conference, and two baptisms. one is a convert baptism and one is a child of record but we taught both of them. also I started the Book of Mormon for the 6th time 2 weeks ago an now I am pretty much in Alma! its been fun reading it and understanding it. I never have enough time to read. Yeah so another great week! hey I am going to ask dad as well but Can you remind him to send me his cookie recipe I have been craving them. I haven't asked yet but I will today. Also can you give me some money to buy the ingredients for the cookies? Thanks!



September 19, 2016

So we didn't get much done , my companion was sick all week so I just sat around reading my scriptures and every ensign that was ever printed. but I really like the ward and the the area Kauai I just beautiful! you can see the last island in the chain from our street and the sun set behind it every night and its super sunny. I'm on the dry side that's why.every Island has a green side and a dry side Kekaha reminds me of home cause its dry .

Sept 12, 2016

Ok, one of these videos is of a part of my area the other is really sad Its called my dying testimony at your last zone conference you share you final testimony to the missionary's watch only if you want to watch me cry haha

(sorry video was too large)

This week was good. I'm super stressed because nobody understands my companion not even me so they all turn to me and ask me questions about people. I don't know anyone! haha so I cant help so I am just Praying a lot. I think I will get it though.

 Oh I LOVE THIS WARD!!! they have had like 3 ward potlucks in the last 2 weeks. My companion is dirty but he is trying. I actually really like him but its hard to talk to him and teach with him and basically everything with him haha. if I ended my mission easy it wouldn't be like the rest of my mission so heavenly father is just letting me know he loves me.

That's cool Ryan is working at Walmart now, I thought you had to be 18 though.



September 5, 2016

Hi! so yeah there was a hurricane just a few miles away from the big island when I got on the plane but actually I didn't have any problems with the storm. I was supposed to have a travel buddy his name is 

Elder Giron so we get there at 7am to check in for our 8:49am flight to Honolulu. I check my bags then he tries to check in and they spelled his name wrong which means he cant check in. This put us in a really big bind because when you transfer you leave the phone with the elder that is staying so now we are with out a phone in an airport and our plane leaves in an hour. yeah it was a little stressful eventually I used a pay phone to call and we missed our first flight, but all that matters is we got here. Kekaha Ward is AWESOME! its just like the Waialua ward really laid back our pad is awesome we have a washer and dryer, we live next to the church and right down the street is the beach , when you look out in the distance you can see the last Hawaiian Island Ni'ihau now I have set my eyes on every single Island of Hawaii!!!! my companion is good he has no idea what is going on ever so its making it pretty hard to figure out everyone's names  we teach & what they have been taught but that's not his fault English is hard for him. Here's a video of our area.

August 29, 2016

Guess what is happening?? I'm getting transferred! To Kawaii! ( he's so lucky serving on all 4 islands now!)

I will be in Kekaha. My new companion is  a FOB he is from the Philippines his name is Elder Rantyo I hear great things about him

Oh FOB means Fresh Off the Boat. It basically means he doesn't understand slang only knows straight up English and that not so well  .

Can you believe how close I am to coming home? I think when I get home I want to live at home for a year or so and do the Pathways program through BYU and work to save money.

August 22, 2016

Ok so,here's a little about my area and some people we teach . The ward i'm in is literally the ghetto everyone lives in tents which I'm cool with haha, In Keaau ward we teach Choke less actives one Is a single mom who has to work two jobs to support 3 teenagers. another in a husband and wife who are having a hard time in their marriage but have 4 of the cutest kids ever. Another is a single mom who supports 4 teenage boys. For me my whole mission has been less active work and I love it I really feel for all of them. Every single one is my favorite family! As of right now we have one investigator only one but she is solid is is planning to be baptized on October 1st I will transferred by then like I always do but I don't mind it anymore. I got to do the fun part anyways teaching them and watching them grow. yeah so those are my peeps they are all wonderful people.

Ok so most of the pictures are from today at south point one is a funny story because some one in the ward asked me if i could make tripods out of sicks and rope hahaha 

August 15, 2016
( I asked him if he was still allowed to drive since he got his speeding ticket)

I'm still driving haha. Probably only because were in the biggest area and Elder Schmidt doesn't have a licence. but I asked president if I can train a new Missionary next transfer and he said yes for the most part- he also told me that would mean I am getting transferred , since Elder Schmidt is pau next transfer so he is going to die in Keaau I'm ready to leave Keaau its a pretty tough ward and place to work .Sorry i'm so bad at writing you, but you'll hear all my stories when I get home, you will probably get sick of me telling them. ( I doubt that)

(I asked him what food he wanted for his homecoming and he said anything but RICE, he's so sick of it!!)

( apparently they say missionaries are dying when its their time to go home)

August 8, 2016
I'm pretty good all my emails today are all from my friends who are going home this week. and I', missing one from Dustin because he is home. My friend Cody from camp just got engaged. Josh Mortensen is finishing this week, but something cool just happened ,while I was In Maui we taught a less active every week for like 2 months and now him and his whole family just got sealed!!! so good things are going missionary work wise, sometimes I get really homesick and  I am tired also I feel like I am just going through the motions. At the same time I love being here so that's what I am dealing with. Don't worry about me though I made it this far I just need to unload every once in a while. Ok I have to go LOVE YOU! also I'm down 13 pounds! and thanks for taking care of the speeding ticket I owe you guys

June , July , August 2016

August 2, 2016

Sorry I didn't email yesterday, we went to the Temple for P day, it was great.
So yeah for the sake of not jinxing it I held back about a guy we have been teaching his name is Ka'ai and we just baptized him !!!! Its about time! anyways his story is quite simple actually. One day he was having a really hard time so he asked God for help and guess what god answered his prayer. (wait... what god answers prayers? no... cant be haha) but whats cool about Ka'ai is that he did something about it as soon as god answered his prayer he called our bishop and said I need to get Baptized. So that's how we meet him he came to church one and bishop introduced us to him. He was so easy he said yes to everything we asked of him he read the book of Mormon and get this he is only 19 so he is still mission age I really really want that to happen. The baptism was awesome! The spirit was so strong I was literally crying the whole time. The lord made me wait for this one for a really long time and it felt so good to see the fruit of my hard work.

so yeah that was Saturday. Today was great to there is nothing better then praying your heart out as a stressed out almost home missionary in the celestial room, I was comforted. Hows everything at home? man Porter looks just like Andrew especially because he is bald. Things are great here just always find my self saying stuff like man I can't wait to Watch Netflix or have Utah food or hug my mom or dad. Its harder now that at the beginning of my mission. 

July 25, 2016

 I'm great I'm just working really Hard I'm running out of time and its stressing me out. haha but its official I am having a baptism this Saturday His name is Ka'ai Raffipy And I am stoked! its been over a year. Bishop was the one who found him for us. and everything we taught him he loved and now its going to happen! Also when you get this email back as soon as possible. this week was crazy we got hit by a tropical storm (its was a lame one) so we had to stay inside all day on Saturday. I was so bored. it was really a adventure though.  So remember how 2 years ago how I got a speeding ticket on the 24th of July? Well it happened again. Yep I was speeding and a cop gave me a ticket, it's $162 , I don't have any money to pay it, can you pay it and when I get home and get a job, I will pay you back I promise. Sorry!!     

July 18, 2016

Not much to say this week, just went out everyday and taught the gospel, pretty great! We have been teaching less actives, we have a baptism coming up but I don't want to Jinx it by talking about it. Also I got attacked by another dog, but I'm ok.

July 4, 2016

I am great we are going to go watch a parade then playing Frisbee then at 5 we are going to a less active members house to watch fire works and BBQ we have the whole day off which is awesome. I am only emailing real quick then I will be gone cause we have to use junk computers today. it should be a great day also still am super excited I didn't have to wake up with guys that early haha.

Pictures from Parade

June 27, 2016

SO this week was a little insane 

MONDAY: played volleyball at the church and left my wallet on the stage. when I came back for it it was gone. freaked out the rest of the day looking for it. then realized someone stole it and freaked out because there was no way i was going to get it back.

TUESDAY: Fasted all day that someone would return my wallet to me. Then after district meeting. Elder Jenson found it in a random room in the church with my 9 whole dollars missing.

Prayer works! then after coming home from getting my wallet we went to go visit some people when we got in the truck the battery was shorted out so then we had to get it towed about 8 miles down the road. then we had to let it sit overnight. so we started walking home on the way home a hippy asked if we wanted a ride home so we said yes he was really funny.

WEDNESDAY: we went to the shop picked up the truck after waiting around most the day because of some complications.Oh and I got to be a marriage councilor 

THURSDAY: was pretty normal 

FRIDAY: Was also Normal except it was fasting finding Friday which means basically please go out and tract all day.

SATURDAY: I went on exchanges with Elder Jensen so that was fun

SUNDAY: normal kea'au Sunday

TODAY: We went to the most southern point in america. A Green sand beach (dont worry I didn't touch the sand or the water) which I had to go off roading to get to- but that was ok with me. Then got home and the zone leaders found beg bug on their mattresses so that sucks were clean though. and the highlight​​ of the day I got milk for 3$ !!!​

June 13, 2016
This week was great but also really interesting. So my new companion struggles with depression which I wasn't aware of until like yesterday which explains how quiet he has been also he has been sick for 3 days (depressed for 3 days) so we couldn't do any work which was driving me crazy. So yesterday I found out he has depression issues. in my head I was thinking why did president Warner send you to the most gloomy and depressing place in the whole mission. He said he didn't know he then told me that he had talked to president about it and president said if he wasn't feeling better that he would emergency transfer him. So that leads us today president called and said that he felt like he should bring Elder Putman back to Oahu where its sunny and where he can be watched. So as for me i am getting a new companion again haha. His name is elder Schmit and I will be picking him up at 4 today. The cool thing is that he is coming from Kalihi which means we will have a lot to talk about. Oh another cool thing that happened was that the stake had a special Stake conference because Elder Dale G Renlund of the 12 came to speak to the stake!!!! Here is the really cool part he did a little question and answer for the youth on Saturday. So Elder Putman and I wanted to get there early Because I really wanted to shake his hand. so we did we got really good seats right in the front. but when it came to the question and answer part there was no one assigned to be the microphone runners. So some one from the stake asked us to do it! this means for a whole hour I was literally a arms length away from an apostle. then this was the REALLY REALLY COOL part I got to shake his hand and talk to him just for a sec. when I came to shake his hand he asked me where I was from I replied Utah then he asked what part I told him Eagle Mountain then he said something really funny "Eagle Mountain "Isn't that where the framer grows houses?" haha I laughed and that was it. that was the first time I had ever been that close to an apostle or shook one of their hands.  THE CHURCH IS TRUE AND GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS. Oh here are your pictures of our house 

June 12, 2016

Aloooha! Olson Family!

Yes I know it's been a really long time. From the last time I actually wrote a real letter to you and chances are this is my last one. Ha Ha. Well life on the Big Island is way different from any of the other places I have served. It's bigger, greener and wetter. I still love it though. I feel super blessed to have been to 3 islands of Hawaii. Well in 7 days, I only have 5 months left, it's starting to be a very real thing. My whole mission, the end of my mission just seemed like a myth then anything. Now it's close to to its end.

Lets see here in the kea'au ward we mainly teach less actives. I love all the the less actives in this ward, we see most of them every week, so far we brought one couple back and he is preparing to re-enter the temple! We have gotten a few others, to church, but not on a regular basis. It seem like a lot is happening at home, Adam turned nine today, we have a new member of the family, Ryan will be starting his last year of high school and be mission age in October (hint, hint) Dad will be turning 65 this year (ha ha) . Also not to mention the new gas station! ha ha. I am doing great. This week we said goodbye to President and Sister Warner and Zone Conference-it was really sad. I cried like a small child. Also 2 weeks ago I got attacked by a great dane, it was pretty scary, he jumped on me like 3 times but I was able to get him off without him getting a hold of me with his teeth, he did get his mouth on my shoulder just long enough to get slobber all over my white shirt. Luckily the owner came out and called him off, before he ate me. Needless to say it took me awhile to fall asleep that night. On the plus side the less active man that normally would have ignored us had to come out and save me, which means we got to teach him! ( you know you have been a missionary for a long time when getting attacked by a dog is a good thing) So there's a story for you, I have plenty. I'm sure you will get sick of them a week after I get home. Well this is the end of my letter I can tell you that I know that Jesus died for us, and that no matter what you have done, and no matter how many times we mess up , his atonement is enough. I know this first hand, it has changed my life forever, don't carry anything in your bag that will only bring you down, get rid of it and you will be so amazed what God can do. Amen.

Love Elder Olson. 

(here's a little picture Jason drew of his mission)