From Sin City to Church Headquarters: 2016

"Hola, or should I say Ohla"-Elder Ohl // week 44

10:55 AM

Hola hola todos que reciban mis cartas cada semana. Como están? Como fue su semana? I hope you all had a good week and that you are enjoying your summer! And I cannot believe that Dal-pal is home! And so is Aaron Peterson. Goodness time is going bye too fast.

This week was CRAZY. So let's get to it... IMPORTANT NEWS BEFORE I FORGET, MY PDAY NEXT WEEK WILL BE ON TUESDAY BECAUSE OF PIONEER DAY. Only in Utah...

Monday was the craziest pday of my life. We were in our home for enough time to switch out our laundry and throw (still in bags) our groceries in our fridge. We had song practices, grocery shopping, driving to Layton, and more to do, and a pday bowling activity with our zone. It was insane, but hey that's missionary life for ya :)

Tuesday we had zone conference and it was amazing. I love being able to learn from President and Sister Spendlove directly. They are truly called of God to lead our mission and to help us become the missionaries we need to be. Something that president spendlove said that really wasn't a part of his training or anything but he said "don't let Satan deceive you or the members by letting you all think that our mission doesn't have work to do." AND I LOVE THAT. A lot of times Utah missions get a lot of bad rap about not having work to do because "everyone is a member." While yes there are so many members here that it's kind of crazy, that doesn't mean that there isn't work to do. I have seen so many people enter the waters of baptism after learning about the gospel it's incredible. Satan wants us to think that Utah has no missionary work. Well if that was the case there wouldn't be 11 mission in Utah with well over 150 missionaries in each mission now would there?

Wednesday we did more of the jungle of the backyard for our neighbor. Man oh man you should see the progress we are making. It's quite incredible. Then we went to meet with a stake president but once we got to the meeting we realized we were out of our area so we had to cancel the meeting and apologize and tell him that we don't cover his stake, it was a sad moment #spanishprobs Oh I have an Hermana Blanca moment. This hasn't happened in a while. So we were on the phone with the member who's yard we have been doing and she asked us if we would be able to come back one last time and I asked her if she wanted us to bring a couple of pairs of elders with us to help. But instead of pairs (parejas) I said parajos (which is birds). So I basically asked her if she wanted us to bring a couple of birds of elders to help us out. Haha it was funny...

Thursday we went WAY out of the mission. Like all the way to Ogden to get our tires rotated and our oil changed. It was a fun little adventure that we had. It's always fun when you get to be rebellious and do something other missionaries can't, but you have permission to do. Anyways... Then we did spontaneous service for an Hermana that was in our ward but moved to the English ward because her son got in an accident and she needed to move a bund of rooms around in her home. So we didd that for a good portion of the afternoon. Thankfully we called up some elders to help move the huge beds and they made it go a lot quicker.

Friday we had a lesson in the morning and we taught the restoration. She had a lot of really good questions that a lot of people normally don't ask. It was interesting in comp study we were actually talking about my experience on the church history trip and how I went to the sacred grove and I was able to share a little bit of that experience during the lesson. I loved that trip. It was the best! Then we had district meeting and it was good. Afterwards we finished that backyard for the members in our ward and had volleyball with our ward, but no one showed up. Summer....

Saturday we helped out with the relief society activity and we were basically relief society presidents setting everything up and getting everything together #lifeofamisisonary then we started and finished weekly planning in one session. That never happens for us. We always have to start and stop so that was a miracle. Then we had one lesson planned for the evening but by the time we went home we had taught 3 so that was pretty awesome as well!

Sunday man, Sunday never even feels like Sunday. I mean we are always in our church clothes every day and we are always running around visiting people. But today was good. We had a great time at church. We had some interesting lessons and we had a few missionary meetings as well.

This next week is going to be super crazy busy with lessons, and Family Home evenings and meetings and exchanges, but we are super excited! I love this gospel. I love serving here in Utah. I love speaking Spanish. I love being a missionary and having the privilege of sharing the gospel with everyone! But most importantly I love my Savior and HE loves YOU!!! have a great week!!

Zone pday bowling last week

Kaysville Zone Conference

When you buy elders food for helping you with service

Somewhere between the boundary of our mission and Ogden

Phone calls with our district leader

When you get paired to teach with an elder

Hermana Thetford's trainer came to visit

We don't even know anymore....

Con amor,

Hermana Olivas

Utah Salt Lake City Mission

called to SERVE // week 43

10:53 AM

Okay today is absolutely insane so this is going to be short. This week looked a little like this:

Monday-4th of July, already talked about that

Tuesday-had some lessons with less active members

Wednesday-we did service with the YSA elders and our district leader. We taped a few rooms of a house to prep for painting and we started painting. They had the cut at little kids! We dropped some more of our investigators that were not progressing, gotta do what you gotta do.

Thursday-hmmmm my companion practiced a song with her song group for zone conference and I went out with sister Nielsen and we partied in the Spanish program!

Friday-zone training meeting. It was pretty good. afterwards we decided to be nice and pick up food for people for lunch because we had to practice songs for zone conference. Yeah it was crazy. So the zone leaders were supposed to ask the millers (an MLS couple) if they would sing instead of having two young missionary groups sing. So we see the millers and we APs the, if they are singing and they look at and us are like "ummm nope...." So we were asked last minute to pull together a song. It's been crazy. In the even no we had a super powerful, pivotal lesson with a less active lady. She didn't want to say the closing prayer, but I did not want her to get away with saying to us that she will do it next time. So I gave her the whole "well if you don't want to pray that's when you need to pray the most" spcheel that my parents give me haha AND IT WORKED. She prayed and poured out her heart and soul and sobbed to her Heavenly Father. So it was great seeing that change.

Saturday-we woke up and instead of putting on skirts we put on service clothes, and we were in them ALL DAY. we had so many service projects to go to between all of the missionaries in our zone it was insane. But it was awesome. We helped people pack up a house, we watched people put together a garden be (we were late to that one), and we ended by doing some insane yard work for our members backyard. Goodness it was literally an atrocious mess. We didn't even get a third of the way done, but we are coming back on Wednesday. And our zone thought we were over exaggerating when we talked about their back yard, haha yeah everyone was shocked when they showed up.

Sunday-we went to temple square for a lesson with on of our investigators, she is having trouble accepting Thomas S Monson as a prophet (but she accepts all other latter day prophets) so we have been working on her.

Well that's my week. It's been crazy. We have zone conference tomorrow and I'm super excited to be uplifted and edified by President Spendlove. Umm, I love serving, not only by teaching others but by actually doing service! It's the best thing ever! Have a great week!! THis actually ended up being like the normal email size hehe

What I wanted to do after all of that service

A cute girl walked up to us and gave us flowers

Elder Fuhriman told sister whitehead her outfit looked like a picnic, so we decided to have a picnic

Blonde squad featuring sister whitehead

Best sign I saw on the 4th

Saying goodbye to sister fisher. We are going to miss that crazy little Asian sister!

Can't do service without getting injured. Mainly just because an elder decided to take my leg for me...

Con amor,

Hermana Olivas

Utah Salt Lake City Mission

The spirit of God, like a fire-work is burning 💥🎆🇺🇸 // week 42

10:52 AM

Happy 4th of July everyone! I am so grateful for the wonderful country that I get to not only live but serve in! America may not be perfect, but this is the promised land and we are so blessed to be able to have the freedoms that we have here! So enjoy today, be grateful for this country's independence, and go blow off some fireworks for us because we can't!

This week was crazy. Monday we went on splits in the evening and I went to teach the Dominguez family. They are very firm in their beliefs, but their beliefs literally line up with ours expect they don't believe there is a need for the Book of Mormon. But we were teaching the wife and having a really good lesson, and then the husband comes and in and you could feel the difference in the room when he walked in. He definitely brought the spirit of contention with him because he just wanted to argue. So we quickly ended the question and got out of there so the lesson wasn't completely ruined.

Tuesday we walked ALL day because my companion is tired of having a car since she has had one her entire mission. Yeah everything was cool. It was really hot though. We did talk to people on the street and we were able to have a spontaneous lesson with one of our less active members that we have been having troubles meeting with so it was a good evening.

Wednesday, was an interesting day... So I woke up and threw up. Got ready for the morning then threw up again. We thought I had the stomach flu because I was sick and my body was aching and I had a fever so I rested all day. But I had to go out in the evening because we had to do splits because we have 5 lessons set up. So we went out and luckily one of my lessons fell through so I was able to sleep in the car of the member I was with. And then I had a lesson with a less active lady and I really don't remember what happened but the lady seemed really happy at the end. So that's good. But in the evening we passed by our bishops house and we were talking to his daughter About how I was sick and she said that I had heat exhaustion. Well that makes a lot of sense since we did walk all day on Tuesday and it was really hot out...

Thursday we did service with our district and it was way fun. We went to this guy's house and we just cut branches off of his tree. It was hot out so I stayed in the shade since I still felt nauseous but it went really well!

Friday we had district meeting and it was good! We practiced teaching the Plan of Salvation and then as the commitment we invited the people we taught to live the law of chastity. We weren't sure how it was going to work out, but it did. We practiced in Spanish so poor Elder Magaoay just sat there, but he said that he was able to feel the spirit. Then we taught in English and it was rough, teaching in English is weird but the elders said we did well, we think they were just being nice.

Saturday was way fun. We have been giving the lessons to a cute little boy in our ward who just turned 8 and his mom wanted him to have the lessons before his baptism so we have been doing FHE's every week and teaching him. And he was baptized on Saturday. So we were able to go! It was cute! Josue is a super smart kid and knew a lot so teaching him was easy!

Sunday was a good day as well.... We didn't sing any patriotic hymns in sacrament meeting, so that was kind of sad, not gonna lie, but there are none in the Spanish hymn books.... But in primary the children were taught about the colors of the flag and the blessing that we have to live in America. So that made up for it. All of our lessons canceled for today but we had a great missionary meeting where we planned for our potluck that we want to do next week! So we are excited for that.

And then today for pday we were able to go to the Kaysville parade! It was so much fun! We went to a pancake breakfast for a ward in our stake with our district and that was fun. Then we went to the parade as sisters in the zone. It was so cool! So much patriotism and it was fun because people threw candy and when they saw us they would throw us a bunch of candy so all these little kids were standing by us to get the candy haha. It was a blast, so there are lots of pictures!

Hope you all have a great week. Cannot believe that it is July already. Take cool pictures of the fireworks and send them to me, be safe tonight! Love you all!!

We can tell when it's Elder Tomita (from Japan) texting

Service

Sariah is a cute girl that comes out with us and now she leaves for her mission on Wednesday!

We made patriotic cookies for the zone

Josue's baptism!

WE LOVE AMERICA, we just didn't know how to take a photo with a flag

Con amor,

Hermana Olivas

Utah Salt Lake City Mission

"The doctor and covenants? I'm a doctor!"-6 year old girl in our area // week 41

10:50 AM

Hhhhooollllllaaaaa everyone,

So I would just like to start out by saying that I am so sorry for the Taylor family and that they are in my prayers. When I read the email from my dad today about Mason passing away I was pretty much in shock. Two years working together at Frostbite were the best and I am going to miss Mason very much, and I know many of you will as well. So grateful for the plan of salvation and the knowledge that we will see our loved ones again one day.

Well let's see what happened this week... Oh, Tuesday, I went to counseling at the JSM building and my counselor showed me an awesome video that I would like to talk about with all of you at the end :) Later on Tuesday I went out with a cute couple in our ward that's engaged and we visited a few people without any luck then felt prompted to visit one of our investigators, Sandra. And she answered! We taught a short lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ and it went really well.

Wednesday was a crazy day. During the day we were just busy biking, biking, biking all afternoon. We had a lesson with a new investigator of ours and it was awesome! We are excited to start working with her. And at the end of the day after we biked 4 1/2 hours, we realized that all of our lessons fell through, but one. Haha that's missionary work for you. But it's okay because we were working hard and it was great!

Thursday morning we weeded for 3 1/2 hours for the family that we live with because they are going to have a wedding reception on Saturday so they needed some help. We thought it was going to be super quick, yeh that didn't happen. But that's okay. In the evening we met as missionaries in the stake with the High Councilman over missionary work and talked about the work that we were doing in the ward. We got to meet our new district leader, Elder Lindsey. He seems cool.

Friday we had district meeting. Our district is so small. It's only 3 companion ships, so there are only 6 people in our district, and we are the only sisters. Haha it was super fun though and we are excited for this next transfer to learn from our district. Oh and one of the cute laurels that comes out with us got her mission call so we went to her opening and she is going to the Adriatic south Mission (which covers like 3 countries in Europe) Albanian speaking! We are so excited for Natalie!

Saturday was crazy. So in the morning we helped the young men clean the chapel and then we helped the Daltons with last minute wedding reception food and such. Then we went around and tried to visit everyone we teach because we were having a capilla abierta in the evening and we wanted EVERYONE to be there. The capilla abierta went really well. So basically what happened was that temple square sisters came and set up some posters of gospel topics and people went on a tour of our chapel with them while they discussed the gospel topics and then they went around and toured the different auxiliaries that are in the church and what each church organization does. It was pretty successful. No investigators came but we had 4 less active members come and a ton of members. It was a really spiritual experience and we got over 23 referrals for all over the place!

We had a great day on Sunday as well. After sacrament meeting a member walks up to us with her friend and was like, "Hermanas this is my friend, she has been taught before but she wants to be taught the lessons in my home, she wants to come to church and be baptized!" We were super excited, but then she told us where she lives, and it happens to be outside of the mission, so we cannot teach her #exactobedience so we got her information and we sent it to the missionaries in the Ogden mission! We are excited for her. Then like 10 minutes later we go to gospel principles and there is this non member there that too wants to get baptized and was going to a long time ago as a kid but didn't because of his parents. But he too lives out of the mission. But he might move into our area, so we might get to teach him! So that was some crazy cool experiences! Sunday evening we had an awesome lesson with a less active family, the Ariza family. We talked about patriarchal blessings. And afterwards we played a fun game, called "pie face" or something like that. Haha it was way fun.

Okay so the video is a new Mormon message called "Like a Broken Vessel" from Elder Holland. It is based off of his 2013 general conference talk. And it talks about mental illnesses, specifically depression. I really like that it focuses on that we need to focus on our Savior and rely on Him. We are all still loved of our Heavenly Father. Everyone of us is worth feeling loved and worth being healed. There is HOPE. That hope is found in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. None of us are alone. REMEMBER THAT! So I really love that Mormon message and I want all of you to watch it because mental illnesses are real and while they may seem scary, they are, well i don't want to say normal, but they are common and more people should be aware of them :) so don't be ashamed if you have a mental illness. It is just another trial given to some of us so we can rely on our savior and our loving Heavenly Father more.

"Until that hour when Christ’s consummate gift is evident to us all, may we live by faith, hold fast to hope, and show 'compassion one of another.'" -Elder Holland

LOVE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

Link to the video:

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-06-2001-like-a-broken-vessel?lang=eng

Adriatic South mission is getting the best sister around

Look at all of these referrals...

The cute couple we live with

We were stuck in our bedroom all weekend because of the wedding reception, the rest of our living areas were taken over by grandchildren...

She wanted to take a serious photo haha

Our lovely zone leaders dropped off something at our house

Con amor,

Hermana Olivas

Utah Salt Lake City Mission

sick days = stress days // week 40

10:49 AM

Where to begin.... i have no idea what happened this week.... so last week we had a zone pday activity where we played kick ball and ultimate frisbee and had a water fight. Hermana Thetford had a really bad allergy attack, or at least we thought it was an allergy attack. it turns out she got sick, which made for an interesting day on tuesday for me. I some how managed to find 5 different people to come out with me and stay with hermana thetford all day on Tuesday because she was not doing well. so her sick day was one of the most stressful days of my mission. but with lots of prayers and help from our District leader, we were able to make it all work. but then i got sick... not as bad though

Wednesday we had a car meeting for all the missionaries and we learned about the importance of our TIWIs and where they came from and why we have them. It was a good meeting. our mission was the first mission to have TIWIs. (for those of you who dont know what a TIWI is, it is a little box that is in our car that yells at us if we speed, aggressively drive, or if we dont wear our seatbelt) basically its a pain in the butt haha but all is well.

Thursday we went to the temple because Hermana Thetford needed to recieve and answer for something and President gave us permission to go. So we went to the temple, then we drove down to Salt Lake so Hermana Thetford could talk to president. Then we had a few spontaneous lessons with some investigators! we were super excited about that!

Friday we had another awesome district meeting. It was the last one of the transfer so it was a little sad, crazy t think that another transfer has already gone by. We then took a legendary district picture (THANK YOU SISTER DAYTON FOR THE INSPIRATION). We had dinner with Hermana Spears and her family, she is the daughter of our bishop, and it was great. We love that family because they have really helped out my companion with her health and they have been great. And their daughter, Ellie, she is the cutest and now that she remembers my name she likes to say it as much as she can when I am around!

Saturday we cleaned our apartment because we had inspections, and we passed. Easiest apartment inspection of my mission. Then we went out and visited lots of people and rode bikes all afternoon. It was great! Then we went with our ward to go to the temple. And we did a session, IN ALL SPANISH. I was super nervous because it was my first time going through in Spanish, but it was great! I loved it!! I also got to see some Spanish elders from my past areas at the temple as well. So that was good. (And for those of you keeping track, that makes 5 temple trips in one transfer! That hasn't been done since I was in the MTC)

Sunday was Father's Day so we stayed up super late the night before baking cookies for the dads in our area. Church was great, as usual. We helped out in nursery for 2nd hour. And it was super funny because as missionaries we have a lot of rules with children and we were just very awkward with the kids because we didn't want to break any rules. Then an Hermana was like "Hermanas the spirit is here, Heavenly Father knows you are helping out, don't worry" haha all of our lessons canceled for the rest of the day, but that's because it's Father's Day. We had a great dinner at a members home. Mexican Tacos. They are the best. No more American tacos for me.

Speaking of dinner so the family that we ate with, they are always so great when we have a spiritual message at the end. The kids are always participating and answer questions and it's awesome to see. And it made me think that you can really tell a difference in the homes of families that teach their children the gospel and those that don't. Familias that teach their children the gospel is their home seem to have a different spirit that you can sense when you are in their home. It's peaceful and pleasant. The kids are more respectful and they actually pay attention during spiritual thoughts. I love seeing the difference with how families are when they have the gospel. It really goes back to the first few points we teach as missionaries. We have a loving Heavenly Father and the gospel He gives us blesses our families. IT IS SO TRUE. Our Heavenly Father has so much love for us, and because He has so much love, He wants to make us happy. So He gave us families, and to make it even better, He gave our families the gospel. This gospel truly blesses families. I have witnessed the change in my own family and I have witnessed the change in the families that I teach on the mission. I am so grateful for this gospel and that I can teach it to so many families here.

I hope you have a great week! Thanks for the love and support and emails. Keep 'em coming! Oh and transfers are this week but nothing is happening with us EXCEPT we are moving districts and that makes us really sad... But that's okay. The Lord has a plan! This is Hermana Thetfords last transfer, so prepare for some AWESOME emails because we are going to KICK BUTT! Haha LES AMO MUCHO!!!

One of our splits decided to take a nap with Hermana Thetford

The things we do to heal ourselves...

He thought she must be really sick if she wanted to run a marathon

I love this district so much.

Kaysville Zone!!

Con amor,

Hermana Olivas

Utah Salt Lake City Mission

"My way or the highway..."-Elder Fuhriman // week 39

10:47 AM

Hello everyone! Everything has been getting better!! How are all of you?!?!?!

I went on exchanges this week with sister Allen and it was a PARTAY!!! Oh my goodness we had too much fun. Okay so on Tuesday we were walking and she was like, sister Olivas left or right? So I picked right, and we determined that it was inspired because we were able to find a potential new investigator for them. There is this lady in their area and her granddaughter is living with her and her granddaughter is soul searching right now, so we were able to meet the granddaughter, Sierra and we helped her make these awesome cupcakes for her co-worker and we talked about the gospel and the Book of Mormon and it was awesome. Then we walked, no hiked, up these giant hills. Later in the day we had a Book of Mormon reading club with these cute old ladies in their area. I also realized that English people are a lot more rude than Spanish people, like they just close the door in your face where in the Spanish program they will let you in, offer you water, you have a lesson, then they will tell you they aren't interested. We then walked to dinner, and it was death. But it wasn't that bad haha. But the poor members at dinner thought I was going to die or something because my poor whiteface gets so darn red but I really wasn't that hot or anything. I just red really easily... After dinner we walked around a lot and we street contacted a ton. Then before exchanges ended Sister Allen took me to a really nice part of her area, her area is the 2nd richest area in the mission basically, and we saw some crazy HUGE houses and some amazing views. (Pictures below) it was a great exchange and I learned to much from sister Allen. Oh I learned that Lucas Gabriel, like Sharpay's brother from High School Musical, lives in my area, with his husband... But I saw his house!! So that's cool.

Wednesday Hermana Thetford and I biked in the afternoon and once angina I got a sunburn, but on my arms. I now have Aloe Vera gel and sunscreen. But we biked up huge hills, well I should really say that I walked my bike and Hermana Thetford rode her bike. She's a champ.

Thursday Hermana Thetford went on exchanges so sister Fisher came into our area. It was fun. We had a few spontaneous lessons so that was always great. And Sister Fisher is a crack up. She has so much energy. It was a good day.

I had what I thought was a headache but it lasted for 2 days until I went to the doctor and it turns out it was a migraine... So I got a shot in my hip and some mess. I also was able to drink some Dr Pepper, which is normally not allowed but I guess caffeine is good for migraines so I was able to do that haha. Still have some pain in my head but the work must go on.

we had an awesome training from our mission president on Thursday. We focused a lot about how we as missionaries need to be motivated by our missionary purpose, 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." so we all received a sticker of a scripture to put on the back of our name tags to help us remember to focus on our purpose. I am very excited to be able to focus on the missionary purpose more and not be so robotic And just going through the motions of missionary work. In the MTC my teachers talked to my companion and I about having a personality in our lessons and it was something I struggled with in the very beginning of my mission but I feel like I have improved a lot and I am ready to improve more. It all has to do with the love we feel for the people we meet and teach. We aren't just teaching numbers, we are teaching our brothers and sisters. Charity and love are really the motivating factors behind missionary work. I love this work and I am so grateful that I can be serving a mission right now here in Salt Lake City. I know that I am here for a reason and I couldn't be more happy than to serve here. I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father and I know that they love and know us individually. Missionary work is the work of Salvation. And I am honored to be able to preach it to everyone I meet. Have a great week! Send me pics of your lives! Love you all!