The Power of the Nametag

Hi family!

I have ten minutes to write you this week. When I prayed about what to share with you, two experiences we had this week came to my mind.

The first one happened earlier in the week. The past two weeks we have had to slow down a little bit because of my companions health. Don't worry, all is well. We have just had to take a few walks here and there between important tasks and appointments.

There is a busy road (don't worry dad, it has a side walk) in our area called Mentone Blvd. It's where you can find all the awesome Mentone Regs :) We have spent a lot of time walking down the street and waving at everyone we see. 

Apparently, the other sisters in the neighboring area have been doing the same thing. A non member noticed all of these missionaries walking around, took a picture of the other sisters and posted it on facebook. There were several likes, views, shares, (whatever kids are calling it these days) and nonmembers and members were commenting. Everyone was talking about how much they love the Redlands missionaries and how helpful and loving we are to everyone. It was so cool! You never know the good you do! Even just a simple wave at someone you don't know can make such a difference!

The other thing I wanted to talk about was my departing temple trip. Yes. That happened. At the end of every transfer president and sister VanCott take all the departing missionaries to the temple and have a meeting and lunch after. We talked about going home and what's going to happen and other things such as dating. It was really weird. Not going to lie. Since this was the Van Cott's last departing temple trip, they invited all the missionaries going home from now until August to go.

When I walked into the main room of the temple with all the seats, it was FULL of missionaries. I can not even begin to describe to you the peace that I felt walking into the room. I just felt like there were angels everywhere. The Spirit was so THICK. My heart felt so full. When I walked into the next room, President and Sister Van Cott were in there waiting to greet all the missionaries. It was so... well it was weird... But I don't know. I can't describe to you how it felt to be in the temple with that many missionaries.

There is no place I would rather be then the temple. I know Heavenly Father wants all of us to make it there. We need to do everything we can to get to the temple- to get home. 

I hope you have a great week! I love you all so much!

Love your missionary,

Sister Olsen

Look who came back for Crystals baptism last week! The other Sister Ashley O!

Crystal's baptism photos

The sunset was really pretty.....too bad you can't see it...

We made friends with a baby goat. You never know what you will find in Mentone.

Redlands zone photo

Crystal's Baptism

What a weekend!!!! 

Crystal's baptism was so amazing!!!!! So I don't know if I explained this or not, but I will give you the whole big lay down of her adopted family. Brother and Sister Knapp are currently serving their mission in Guatemala and have 8 kids. 5 of their daughters live in my ward. One of them is Julia Knapp and she is dating Christopher Landry. Christopher is Crystal's brother. 

On Monday, Crystal got married! She is so so so happy! What they did is they had the wedding reception right after the baptism. The Knapp Sisters all sang "How Great Thou Art" without any instruments and they sounded like pitch perfect. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard in my entire life! Mese Ugapo baptized her and holy smokes the Spirit was really, really strong. Then yesterday was fast and testimony meeting and a bunch of them got up and talked about how amazing she is. 

There family is HUGE! We filled up the entire middle section and the right side section of the chapel!!! It was crazy!!!!!!! And get this, another portion of their family lives in Yucaipa 1st ward. So 3 out of the 4 wards I have been in have had Knapp clan family members. 

I have no idea why Heavenly Father let me be apart of this. It could have been any missionary. I'm pretty sure just whoever was here would have had the opportunity to teach Crystal. But I am so so so grateful that he let me be here for this. She has been such a light in my life and I love her so much.

Also- I don't know if any of you have heard of Lula Roe, but it's this really popular modest clothes line. You can be a consultant and have parties and sell it yourself. The lady that started it is Sister Knapp's (the mom on a mission in Guatemala) sister. She and her husband own the company. So they were there at the baptism amongst the other family members. They name all the clothes patterns after their daughters and grand kids. It was really funny because I was wearing a "Nicole" design and this darling lady came up to me and said "I'm Nicole. Your outfit is named after me." So that was pretty cool. I bet a lot of Mormon ladies reading my blog right now are star struck! But I had no idea what Lula Roe was until I came to this area so there's that.

Well that's all from me! Other stuff happened but I am slowly starting to loose my memory. Alas. Thus is the life of thee olde missionary. I love you all so so much and I hope you have an amazing week! I love hearing about your missionary experiences with your friends. Keep telling them to me! It gives me an idea of how to help my members! The Church is True! 

Love your missionary,

Sister Olsen

Some photos from our hike in Forest Falls this morning.

Brother Sorenson got us kfc

Crystal's wedding reception

A nighttime tour of the temple grounds with this sweet family.

My roommates decorated my door for my birthday and Crystal got me birthday cake leggings.

"NO!"

Hi family.

For some reason it is a real struggle to email today. I keep getting distracted and laughing with my roommates. We are emailing at the family history center today because it's memorial day and all the libraries are closed. Sister Jensen doesn't have her Ipad yet and I just hate emailing on the Ipad anyway because it takes a million years.

This week was pretty great. Sister Jensen is still adjusting to missionary life, but heck, aren't we all still adjusting to missionary life? Except for me. I am still trying to accept the fact that my mission is ending. This week I got all the information for my departing stuff in the mail. (That's the only letter I have received in a while. Shows how long I have been a missionary...) I didn't realize what it was until I opened it; after which I immediately screamed "NO!", threw it on the floor, and then proceeded to run and hide in the outside closet. So that is my life right now. The elders decided it was a good idea to tell everyone in the ward that I only have one transfer left... I was doing such a good job at keeping it a secret! Curses!

I have discovered what makes Sister Jensen happy- Mountain Dew. Man she slurped the mountain dew slurpee right up and was so excited to go out and work! I am now making her drink one everyday. She really is doing well though. I am impressed that I can tell she misses home a lot, but she still gets up and works hard. She is probably the most helpful new missionary I have had. She just wants to get everything done which is really awesome.

We have had to find a lot. We have been getting referrals which is really good. Our roommates investigator moved into our ward boundaries. Don't worry because I had no idea, but I felt prompted to go to this former investigator's house at 8:30 and she was there! She was telling us how much she loved Sister Fife and I said,"NO way! We totally live with her!!!!" So that was pretty cool.

Crystal is doing so so awesome! We have almost finished teaching her all of the lessons and she is definitely getting baptized on Saturday!!!!!!!! Our mission president interviewed her for baptism yesterday. Her husband, brother, and son have all been coming to church. I am pretty sure we are going to have about 50 baptisms this summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY! Also I don't really even remember most of the week at this moment because this week just flew by so fast. Okay I love you family! Have a great week!

OH wait! I wanted to write about the Hallens this week! That's the Ute family that I just love so much. We have been doing member missionary work with them and they have a family for us to teach about the gospel! I flipping love teaching people about the gospel! Holy cow I am such a weirdo. Sister Jensen actually did a dating role play with me because I am so awkward and need some serious help. Let's just say it didn't go so well....

Alright I am going to send y'all some pictures now! Love yoU!

With love from your missionary, 

Sister Olsen

Getting Sister Jensen a Mountain Dew :)

Cafe Rio from pday last week!

Everything in Redlands is fancy. Even the Circle K. Check out that water fall! All the customers are waiting under their tent for their cars to be done at the fancy car wash in the back.

The snails getting the last of the oranges :(

Cool painting from a member in our Ward.

New thank you notes, white board style

Pictures from transfers that I forgot to send

One word: Training

Hello Family! 

Transfers have come and gone and Sister Osborne got sent to the desert! I feel bad because most of my roommates and companions have gone to the desert after they have had me...

Sister Jensen is my companion and she is so stinking cute! She is from Oregon. She is just a little fire ball! I love her! It is such a blessing that she is my companion because she has a lot of input and know how which is so helpful. I am very impressed by her ability and desire to learn. Especially because she is so new. 

Here are some miracles of the week-

Last night, I really tried hard to teach my companion the importance of prayer when you plan. So we prayed about our goals, where we were going to go, and who we were going to see. We ended up being able to teach three people about the gospel that night and will be returning to teach them more lessons.

So many good things are happening in our area and I am so blessed to be here. I love serving by the temple and I know that Heavenly Father is preparing people! Have a great week!

Love, Your missionary,

Sister Olsen

My New Companion! Meet Sister Jensen from Oregon!

These are the Allreds! They work in the office and are finishing their mission next week! I will miss them!

This is the drive to Anglus Oaks and some cool houses up there

Here is a cute dog we saw at a potential investigators house that lives up in Anglus Oaks!

Cool Miracles

What a week!!! So much happened!!! So much!! We had six investigators at church today! So exciting!

Tina's baptism was awesome! Sister Buswell came back from it. If you go back far enough, you might see pictures of her from the July MLC. She's super funny. She was in Millcreek Ward for like 9 months or something crazy like that. She's was an awesome missionary. Went home the same time as Sister Shin.

Here's a cool miracle for the week- It was about 8 at night and starting to get dark. We work until 9 and didn't have any appointments scheduled for the night. Sister Osborne wanted to stop visiting people and do thank you cards, but something inside me told me to visit more people. It's kind of hard to find people to teach when you are just dropping off thank you notes. We were driving around trying to find this one house, but we couldn't. I felt like we should stop the car and figure out where we needed to be. This potential investigator we had on the back up plans that I had never actually met before, stuck out to me. So we went to their house. I pulled up right in front. She didn't answer the door. I felt that we needed to stay in the area so that we would be led to prepared people. We tried a media referral that lives across the street. No answer. So we tried their neighbor. He wasn't interested, but super nice and referred us to his neighbor who recently moved in. That neighbor didn't answer. At this point my companion was getting pretty impatient with me so we headed back for the car. Right when we were going to leave, a car pulled up behind us. Something told me to go talk to them. So I did and it was a former investigator! We set a return appointment and taught him and his friend about the gospel the next night! It was so exciting!

A lot of cool things happened this week, but I just can't remember. It's so hard to remember all these things! Crystal is still getting baptized soon and is progressing really well. Transfers are on Wednesday. We won't know what's happening until tomorrow, but I am assuming we are both staying another transfer.

Love you all! Hope you have a splendid week.

Love, 
Sister Olsen

A picture with our new friend Dawg. She's the cutest!

Serious tail wagging; she loves me :) 

This is he Hallen family. You can't see Brother Hallen's tie because his daughter is blocking it. But we get along pretty good 

Tina's baptism photos- our Ward mission leader baptized her (Brother Woodland). 

Sister Buswell is the sister with glasses. She went home with Sister Shin. She was an STL the same time as me. It was fun to see her again.

Basically that sweet potato right there changed my life. Tongan food is probably what we will all be eating in heaven.

Service picture with the stake president's daughters and their friend at the Redland's community day of service.