Sister Ashlee Olsen: 8 Months in Paradise

Hello, hello my dear family!

It sounds like you are all doing well in Collierville and Utah. I'm very jealous that you all are experiencing fall. But I have a feeling that you all will be jealous of me when it's 75 where I am and 45 where you are :) I don't know, maybe some of you prefer the cold. But I got to tell ya, the heat is growing on me.

This week was pretty good. The more weeks that go by, the harder time I have remembering things. I have been really bad about writing in my journal this week.... I have noticed that the more I write in my journal, the more I remember. So I really need to get on that. I was doing so well for two transfers, but we have been so busy I am having a really hard time keeping up! We currently have 4 investigators on date to be baptized. Last week we had 5 which is awesome. But we cannot get a hold of one of them for the life of us.

One baptism is set for the last day that Sister Shin is here. So that's pretty exciting! I'm so grateful that I get to see some of the fruits of all the work my companions and I have been doing here. We really built it up from nothing. We are teaching all new people that I didn't even know my first transfer. We are doing most of our finding through part member families. And you know what? A lot of them are coming back because of their home and visiting teachers. I am seriously so excited to be a visiting teacher and help my lovely relief society sisters!

We went on exchanges this week. I went with Hermana Killpack. Her mission language is spanish, but she has been serving in an English ward for two transfers. Craziness! Her companion/my STL is Sister Peterson. I don't know if you remember her, but she was my STL when I was with Sister Hamblin and she really helped me a lot. She is super awesome. I don't know if I told you that I'm not a STL this transfer... Well now you know!

We went on a hike with President and Sister Van Cott this morning! It was 6.2 miles long. It was pretty strenuous (but then again I probably just thought it was hard because I'm out of shape) but the view at the top was so beautiful! It was so cool because we would go up a ways and take a break. Whenever we took a break the view was so beautiful! But the higher we got, the more beautiful the view was. You could totally relate that to the Gospel. Heavenly Father only wants to bless us. The harder we work and the longer we go, the more He can bless us with. We just have to go a little bit further, and turn around to see all of His blessings.

I don't know if that was dumb or cheesy, but hopefully you got what I meant. I know I owe you pictures from the other hike we went on...but Sister Shin forgot her camera again. So we did take pictures of both hikes, but they are all on her camera. I'm so sorry! I will remember next week I promise! But I know that President took some and they are up on Sister Van Cott's mission blog. I'm sure you can copy them and put them on my blog. For one of the pictures President was taking it and standing directly behind the sun...so I look like a goon. I'm sure I'm just sweaty and gross in all of them so it's fine.

I do have some pictures for you though so I will send them right now :) It rained this week for the first time in a long time so I took some pictures of that, too.

My new roommate Sister Erikson is very cute! We hardly ever see our roommates because we are so busy. We are never home during the day. And then at night we are just so exhausted that we go to bed. So I have had maybe 2 conversations with her. I'm looking forward to getting to know her! It's the four of us here. There is always four. I have gone through 5 different hermanas in this apartment so far. I've been here forever!

Anyway. My time is up. Love you all! Have a great week :)

Love,

Sister Olsen