Sister Ashlee Olsen: Training Round 2.5

Hi.

I'm training a new missionary. Sooooo that was a curveball. In the back of my mind right before transfers I had this thought that I would probably be training, but I disregarded it and just assumed I would be put with a more experienced sister. I think I will probably be senior companion for the rest of my mission. I have mixed feelings about that; mostly inadequacy.......but hey if the Lord wants me to then I can do it! Also I said round 2.5 because I started Sister Erickson's training and finished Sister Anderson's training, but then I was with her for two transfers.....So I don't know.

My new companion is Sister Ashcraft. She is from a tiny little place in Idaho called Ririe. She said Yucaipa is bigger than her home town sooooo there's that. She is probably the most enthused new missionary I have ever met. She is always wanting to role play or plan or something. So she is definitely keeping me on my toes! This week has flown by fast because we have been super busy and planning loads. I kind of feel like a new missionary again and it's pretty exciting.

None of you probably remember this, but one year ago almost exactly, I was in Banning and we did something called "Missionary for a Day." Banning is actually in the Yucaipa stake....I think I might have neglected to mention that..... Every year this stake does mission for a day. All of the priests and laurels have a special fireside on a Friday night. They hear talks from recently returned missionaries and President Miskin. Then they split up into groups and missionaries teach 15 minute presentations about teaching, testifying, commitments, etc. Saturday, they are assigned to a companionship either here, or San Bernadino, or Redlands. They do studies with the missionaries and go out and work with them until 4 pm. Then they have dinner and a testimony meeting to finish it all up. It's pretty cool. Last year, sister Magleby and I had two laurels. One of them is actually the bishop's daughter here. But I had only been out for a month and had no idea what was going on. Not only that, but Saturday mornings are usually the slowest day here. So Sister Magleby had to deal with three girls that had no idea what they were doing. Fast forward one year, and I knew missionary for a day was coming up and I was praying that I wouldn't get any laurels because my companion had only been out for 4 days and we have no appointments on Saturday mornings. Well I got a call from the zone leaders on Thursday night saying I had to do some of the training portion of mission for a day on Friday night. I assumed since I was doing that that president Miskin wouldn't send me any laurels. Don't worry because right in the middle of our presentation at like 8 pm he texted us and said we were getting two girls.

yup.

So basically after we did the training, I ran home and prayed/pleaded/begged that the spirit would help me plan so that these two girls would have a desire to serve a mission and that my new companion would be happy that she did decide to go. I really was praying for them, and as I did that our plans just fell into place. We were able to set 6 appointments for that day. One of which was with someone that hasn't been to church in probably 15 years. These two girls bore such a powerful testimony of Jesus Christ and at the end of lesson the spirit was really strong and the person we were teaching said that they wanted to go back to church. And then we had a lesson with another man who committed to be baptized. And then we had a lesson with a family in which the member told us how influential missionaries have been in his life. At the end of missionary for a day, these girls told us that they had really been praying that they would have a good day and that the spirit would help them feel adequate and they would know what to say. It was super awesome. Later that night we taught a lesson at President Miskin's house. Sister Ashcraft totally rocked it and committed the person we were teaching to be baptized on March 19th! It was so awesome! I was super proud of her. President Miskin gave us some advice on our teaching skills so that was really helpful. But the Van Cotts found out about it shortly after and Sister Van Cott sent us a very nice text. So I felt really good that day and I know it was because I completely relied on the Lord.

Our investigator came to church on Sunday. They were even a little early for sacrament meeting so that rocked. And we got a referral from a Ward missionary who called us and basically said they wanted to be baptized. That was awesome. Hopefully I will have more to tell you about next week.

Side note: we also had lunch in Oak Glen and it was super fun. The guy that worked there said he just got home from his mission in Billings, Montana and knew Ivy Peterson. So that was incredibly weird!

Umm this is the longest email ever so I'm just going to stop now.

I love you all!

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Olsen