Gotta love a Saturday Pday

Hi Family!

Well. It's really only been a few days since I last emailed you... Nothing too exciting to talk about. 

Transfers are on Wednesday and I have absolutely nooooo idea what is going to happen. I have been here for three transfers now and Sister Shin and I have been together for two transfers.... So people keep telling me I am probably going to be leaving, but I feel like I will be staying for some reason. If that does happen I will send Sister Shin home and I will have spent 1/3 of my mission here at the end of next transfer. That is so crazy to me! I feel like I have been here forever. Banning seems like a dream. So weird. If I do get transferred I will be really nervous because I have only been transferred once and it was a while ago. And I just really love it here a lot. I love this ward so much. I still love it even though we aren't teaching very many people because I absolutely love the people that I am teaching. Sometimes I get homesick, but most of the time Sister Shin and I are just having fun together.

We had another lesson with our investigator this week and we are having another one tonight. She is doing so well! Well, she is doing well spiritually, but not physically. She is reading the Book of Mormon and doing her best to live the Word of Wisdom. She is having her surgery on Thursday so if you all could pray for her that would be amazing! 

Today was really fun! Ryan and Dearly Carrasco (a newly wed couple in our ward that we love) drove us up to the Mountains in Crestline where Julia Huff (our two week missionary) lives. We had a blast! If you ever come tour the mission with me I would love to take you there. We went up to this watch tower on the mountain and you can see my entire mission! It's amazing! It was pretty smogy today..... San Bernadino is one of the most polluted counties in the country..... But it was still really cool! And we went on a hike in the mountain up to this rock that is in the perfect shape of a heart. 

Sister Huff brought one of her friends who is struggling to go on a mission and two non member friends so we got to do some missionary work as well :) Speaking of missionary work, I hope mom has a great lesson tomorrow! I can't wait to here all about it!

Sister Shin took some pictures (I didn't take my camera....) but she forgot her cord so you will get them next week. Sorry! I have been so bad at taking pictures lately.....

Now I have a question for all of you. How do the missionaries do work with the members in Collierville? I feel like our ward has some really nice areas like the ward I am in now. So they probably have to work a lot through referrals as well. Tracting here really does nothing because there are sooooooo many salesman. We see them all the time and people here get really annoyed when we do knock on doors. So do any of the members in our ward have tips for how I can best work with the members? We are just kind of stuck right now. Hopefully Elder Gay will talk about member missionary work on Monday because we need help.    

Talk to you in 10 days! Love you family!

Love,

Sister Olsen

Member Missionary Work!!!!!

Alright Family! Here we are again!

A couple of things before I get into what I want to talk about this week:

1. We are having a mission tour this weekend and Elder Robert C. Gay of the 70 is visiting us! My zone is meeting with him on Monday, so we are having a Saturday pday. So instead of emailing on Monday next week, I will be emailing on Saturday the 29th. I can't wait to tell you all about my weekend in two weeks!

2. I will tell you about my week really quick. Sister Huff was so awesome! She went home last night and Sister Shin and I both feel like we lost a limb! She is seriously so awesome. She is not afraid to talk to anybody! This week we were walking and saw a few guys playing basketball. So she walked right up to them and asked them, "If I make a basket, can I share a message about Jesus Christ with you?" She totally missed, but two out of five took Books of Mormon! It rocked!

Our investigator didn't come to church this week. Her fellowshipper rocks, though!  They are her next next door neighbors and they are helping her a lot. She is having a lot of trouble with her knee. The doctors think it could be blood clots now. Please pray for her! She really wants to come to church and be baptized, but she is in a TON of pain! She is really amazing. Whenever we teach her I can really feel the Spirit. She loves the Book of Mormon. Shes calls it her "shield". She already has a testimony and she is a total power house!

Sister Shin is such an awesome companion. I really love her a lot. She has become my best friend the past few months and she has helped me a lot. I feel like I haven't really expressed that enough in my emails, but she is a really good companion.

That reminds me, transfers are coming up. I will know if I am getting transferred or not on Sunday night, but since Pday is Saturday, you all won't know for two weeks. So I could have a new companion or be in a new area.

I don't know how I feel about that because I really love this area. Missionary work here is so so so SOOOO hard, but Sister Shin and I are both trying. I think we are so happy right now because we are being obedient and we have a really good relationship with the ward. 

Every single Sunday is such a Spiritual experience. I am always reminded how much Heavenly Father loves his children. This week our Relief Society lesson was on Christ. I think being a missionary you are so focused on how much Christ loves your investigators that you don't really think about how much he loves you. It's not like I forget or anything, I just don't think about myself as much. But yesterday I was really reminded that He loves me, too. And I'm really grateful for that.

On a more humorous note, something really weird happened on Saturday. We were walking to an appointment and we randomly ran into Elsa and Ana! They were going into a bday party. It was pretty random. Then a few hours later, we were walking to a different appointment and saw Woody and Buzz going to a different party! Weird, right??

Alright now I really REALLY want to talk about member missionary work for just a few minutes! I am so excited that mom is teaching a lesson on this!!! Sister Shin and I are working really hard on helping our members with missionary work. Member missionary work is SO IMPORTANT! The most lasting converts are those that already have friends in the church. They already have someone who knows them and will love and support them through their conversion process which is SO IMPORTANT because it's really hard! They totally have to change their lifestyle and make all new friends with the ward and adjust and everything. It's just so much better when they already have a good support system.

In Teachings of the Prophets, President Ezra Taft Benson, it says "The Lord will sustain members in their missionary responsibility if they just have the faith to try. It is time to raise our sights, to get a vision of the magnitude of this great work. The Lord expects it of us. It is not enough just to be members in the Church and go to sacrament meeting, pay our tithing, support the welfare program. That is all good-but that is not enough. The Lord expects us to be missionaries, to live the gospel- yes, wholly, and to help build up His kingdom." (Chapter 22) So 'nough said.

Anyway, I have to go. But the last thing I will say is please feed the missionaries at least once a month. It's not because they need to eat. The Lord takes care of our physical needs. But let them feel the Spirit in your home. I can't tell you how much it means to me to be in a home where the spirit and priesthood are present. I NEED IT!

Love you all! I am so glad everyone is happy and loving school! You are great!

Love, 

Ashlee

Sister Huff, Sister Shin and I. We had a great time together and were sad to loose Sister Huff! She was awesome!

Lucky Day, Dusty Bottoms, and Ned Nederlander

I LOVE MY TRIO! 

One day we were walking and Sister Shin said we were the three amigos, so I tried telling them that Sister Shin was like Lucky Day and Sister Huff was like Ned Nederlander and I was Dusty Bottoms, but they didn't know anything about that......Don't worry. I'm making Sister Shin watch it when she gets home.

Speaking of the three amigos... we had dinner with the Bourgeous family last night. We talked about the Bronsons and I told them that I really like Kelly. So that was a nice conversation. But Brother Bourgeous said we were the three amigos too, and then started doing impressions of El Guapo talking about sweaters. I laughed so hard I about wet my pants. They are such an awesome family!

Wow I just jumped right into this haha. Hi family! How are you!

The two week missionary we got is awesome! Her name is Sister Huff and she looks like a cute little American Girl Doll. OH SHOOT I FORGOT TO TAKE PICTURES THIS WEEK. I JUST REALIZED THAT! I'm so sorry! But she is literally the nicest girl I have ever met in my whole life. She's like Lark Sine nice. And she just talks to every single person about the Book of Mormon and it's adorable. She has instilled some more greenie fire into my soul. I need that.

I am learning a lot from her. But I also see how much I have grown. I used to get so nervous to talk to people or teach lessons because I was worried that I was going to say something stupid or mess up. But I realized that it's really not my job to convince people or to convert them. When I talk to someone, all I can do is share my testimony of what I know to be true. Everyone has their own agency. If they don't want to choose to believe or do things to help them come closer to Christ, there is really nothing I can do for them. All I can do is bear testimony of what I know to be true. And you know what? It makes teaching people who actually are teachable and ready for the gospel so much sweeter.

For example, Juan. We are teaching him the new member discussions. This week we talked about tithing and the word of wisdom. He loves tithing. He lives it 100% and can see the blessings from it. You know what he said to me? Yesterday he said, "I am so grateful that you taught me how I can experience the kind of joy and happiness that I am experiencing now." I said, "No Juan. I didn't do that. The Spirit did. All I did was decide to go on a mission." He said, "But you did come on a mission. That wasn't any easy decision. You are here and I am grateful that you are."

Yup. I cried. He is so awesome and doing so many good things! He always prays for missionary experiences and I have never seen him happier.

Well everyday is going by faster and faster. Everyday I feel like the second I wake up the second it's time for dinner and then it's bed time and then I go to sleep and the second I do that I wake up again. That sentence was not structured well at all, but you get the idea. The days are flying by. 

I love this ward. Transfers are coming up in a few weeks and I think I will probably leave because this is my third transfer here. I'm really going to miss it a lot. I have grown to love my ward so much! I love all the people here and I really just love being a missionary.

Love you all! Hope you have a good week!

Love, 

Ashlee  

The Fastest Week of My Life!!!!!

Hello my lovely family!

This week has gone by super fast and I really don't remember much..... Good thing I write in my journal! But really though my lack of memory skills is really kind of scaring me a little bit....

This week one of our investigators got a beautiful blessing from two recent converts. The one who gave the blessing got baptized last September and just recently got the priesthood. He gave a blessing for the first time and it was really awesome! We all cried and you could really feel the spirit.

Sacrament meeting rocked this week. We heard from our very own Sister Shin! She did a really good job. Then Diane Carrasco talked. She just got back from a mission from Argentina. Then bishop called up a sister who's son just left for his mission today to bear her testimony at the end. I cried. She was talking about her own missionaries and how they influenced her whole family. Now her son is going on a mission. That was something I really needed to hear. I will never know everything that I did and all the people I helped until after this life is over. Sometimes I get discouraged because not a lot is happening in our area. But we are getting new investigators and the Ward members are really being strengthened. 

Remember when I used to say I hated people in general? Not anymore! I REALLY LOVE people. Especially these awesome peeps in my Ward. (Well I'm distracted yet again because I'm getting a pedicure from Sister McEwan again.....) But please know how happy I am. I have a wonderful companion and a wonderful Ward. I'm learning so much from the experiences I'm having. I'm learning how to fulfill callings and be a good mom and all these other wonderful things. I really love my mission.

In other news, we are getting a two week missionary tomorrow. So we are going to be a trio for two weeks. Also we had MLC (missionary leadership conference) this week. All the STLs and ZLs go to it once a month. (Side note- we saw a USU license plate on the freeway on the way there and it made me really really happy.) But I made a comment about goal setting and President and Sister Van Cott were both very impressed. Usually I feel really awkward at MLC because I'm the youngest one there...but this time it was really good! So that also made me really happy. Yay for happiness! Well that's about it this week. I love all of you! Enjoy the first

week of school:) 

You're all going to rock it!

Love,

Ashlee

These ladies are like my moms in the ward. They take very good care of me and I love them very much. Sister Stoddard is in the red and Sister McEwan is in the black. Sister McEwan is the one who always gives us pedicures. They are both awesome!

Here are some pictures of the RS activity we had on Saturday. We made 450 pillowcases for kids with cancer. It was a lot of fun!

Sewing with Sister McEwan

When you sent me this postcard of route 66
I laughed because we drive
past Route 66 every single day. It is right by our apartment complex.

HOW IS IT AUGUST?!?!

Seriously though! Time is going by so fast! 

This morning on our way to the library, I was really trying to think about what I was going to email you all about and I really couldn't remember the week! I feel like it just flew by!

Sister Shin and I had a great week! We realized this week that we have 4 potential baptisms this month!

We found a part-member family which is always super exciting. They fed us dinner! Chicken street tacos. Delicious. But we had a lesson, too and it was so good! The mom is a member. Her mom is a convert and she lives in Arizona. We taught them the Restoration and the two middle kids really want to be baptized! (The youngest is 2). They have come to church two weeks in a row. If you could all pray for them that would rock. They are such an awesome family.

Every week in RS the person who is conducting asks who has had a missionary moment. It used to be really awkward and quiet, but now more people have experiences and it's really cool. Usually they have to do with us and when they saw us.... but that's okay! I really love this ward so much. Seriously SO much! The people here are really awesome and they are all trying to be good member missionaries. We are developing good relationships with them and I just love every minute of it.

Something that Sister Shin and I have been studying a lot is humility and judgement. This is something I have been struggling with my whole life. Today in comp study we talked to each other about how people who feel like they are being judged are usually judging others. We also talked about how pride is very worldly. It's prideful to think of yourself as diminished when something good happens to someone else. AKA jealousy. And then I said, "well Sister. That's my life." Every single person should just have confidence that God loves them. That's always something that I thought I had, but I guess I didn't, because when we truly know that, nothing else that anyone does or says really matters. I really just don't understand why trying to be like Jesus is so dog-on hard!

So that's really been what I have been working on this week, and really what I am going to be working on for the rest of my life. Heavenly Father is blessing us everyday. It's so important to just notice the little things and be so grateful for them. Everyone is trying hard and doing their best so I just need to love them for that and build them up.

I love you all very much and hope you had a good week! Thank you so much for sending me all those pictures! AND THANKS FOR THE PACKAGE! Those skirts are AWESOME!!!!! They are very light weight and breezy. Also I love the socks. I can just wear the dream team on my feet everyday. Hooray! I am so grateful that I have such an awesome family that loves me even though I struggle and I am very far from perfect. Thanks for loving me so much! You guys are the best!

Love, 

Sister Olsen 

Finally! Someone spelled my name right!

Love my companion Sister Shin!

Keeping busy!

Thanks for the awesome package!!

Blueberries for Sal

Hi family!

I had some pretty rockin' experiences this week!

First off, I don't know if I told you this, but every Wednesday and Friday Sister Shin and I volunteer at the library. The library isn't actually in our area, so it's not ideal for finding, but I'm just trying to do some sort of service so I can be helpful to someone in someway. 

On Wednesday we were shelving books and I saw our favorite- Blueberries for Sal. It made my heart happy to see that wonderful book. I kept shelving and out of the corner of my eye I saw this cute little girl, her little brother, and her grandma. Her grandma was telling her to hurry up and pick out a book already. So I went back and grabbed Blueberries for Sal and asked her if she was looking for a book. When she said yes I handed her the book and said something like, "this is one of my absolute favorite books. Would you like to read it?" She replied, "yes please!" in this cute little voice. Then she ran right over to the nearest chair and started reading it out loud! It was seriously so cute! So I listened to her while I kept putting away some books. It seriously made me so happy to share that book with this sweet little girl. So happy!!!! 

After she finished I asked her how she liked it. I started talking to her family. I started talking to the grandma and I asked her if she liked to read, too. I ended up giving her a Book of Mormon and talking to her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was awesome! She said she lived in San Bernadino and sees "the boys on bikes all the time." She said the next time she saw them she was going to flag them down. 

Will she ever talk to missionaries and be baptized? I have no clue. But I learned a very valuable lesson from this. Sharing things that we love and that are important to us brings us happiness. It made me happy to share that silly book and it made me happy to share the gospel. Being a missionary is the BEST because I am constantly sharing something that I love with someone else! And whats so awesome about it is that you don't have to be a full time missionary to do that. Anyone can in their own small way. Yay for missionary work!

I had another cool experience on Sunday. There are two YSA in our ward getting ready to serve missions. One of them just got her mission call so she bore her testimony at sacrament meeting. She's going to the Independence MI mission at the visitors center. The other guy gave his farewell talk and he is going to Boise ID next week. I was listening to these two people and thinking to myself, they are going to learn so much and grow a ton on their missions! I must have been thinking out loud because the Holy Ghost (a.k.a. Sister Shin) leaned over and whispered, "so are you."

My mind immediately went to the girl with snot dripping down her face in front of the whole ward. Six months really isn't that long to be a missionary. In fact, I actually started freaking out a little bit because I feel like 18 months isn't a long enough refining process. I need more time to develop Christ-like attributes! I have been thinking a lot about who I used to be before I came out. Every time I think I've grown a little bit, I realize how much farther I have to go! I seriously feel like when I learn more about the Savior and I try harder to develop Christ-like attributes, the more I realize how far away I am from being like Jesus Christ. Luckily I have my whole life to become like Him, but I don't think that's even enough time! 

Also in that sacrament meeting, the bishop got up and talked about missionary work. Hmm. Missionary work. What an interesting concept. Every one that serves a mission serves where Heavenly Father knows they need to be. So I started thinking to myself, I am serving a mission in Fontana, California.....

WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING IN FONTANA, CALIFORNIA! 

These people don't need me. Pretty much no one wants to hear the gospel anyways.

The response to that was almost immediate. "You are here in Fontana, California. You are here for these people. They need you and you need them. You need to learn a lot of things, but right now you need to learn humility and patience."

There's nothing like a punch in the gut from the Spirit to keep you on track. I am here for these people and I need to serve them more. Sometimes I get a little discouraged because I have only had 1 baptism on my mission. All my friends are in some cool foreign place and I'm just here in America. Yup. Here I am.

But that is not only dumb, that's selfish. I have been selfish my whole life and for once I can just focus on other people. So that's what I am working on this transfer. Serving my ward and helping them do their missionary work.

The Book of Mormon is true. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. The Priesthood is restored for the last time on this earth. Jesus Christ will come again. When he does I'm going to fall at his feet and probably just cry because I love him so much.

I love you all! Thanks for all of the pictures, mom! I can tell that everyone is happy and that's making me happy. You are all the best and I'm so lucky I get to be with the greatest people forever!

Love, 

Ashlee

These are all of the wonderful sisters in the Fontana Zone. (accept for Rivera and Peterson. They had lessons so they couldn't make it) Sister Stalder is training this transfer!

The lady with the glasses is Wanda. She got baptized right before I got here. She is so cute I love her to death!!!! 

Yay for service! We had a stake pioneer day activity and all of the missionaries in the stake served the food.

Yes. There is a street in my area called Knox. So I  attempted to take a cool shot of it and the cool sunset and the really gorgeous park that we weekly plan at.

Me and my distant cousin Sister Wright :)

These are my roommies aka my bffs! Hermana Wright is the one that's a descendant from Ernasnus Bingham that I told you about a few weeks ago and her companion last transfer is Hermana Ipson. Ipson is still my roommate. I love them! We all go home together! Well Sister Shin goes home in October.... but myself and the Hma's all go home together :)

Week of July 20, 2015 "CONGRATULATIONS!"

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Did I spell that right?

Congrats family! You have made it SIX WHOLE MONTHS! Isn't that crazy insane?!?! I still feel like a little baby.

Well it's about that time. TRANSFERS. I am going to the desert!!!!!!!!!! It's going to be so flippin' hot! I'm really, really nervous! We told our ward mission leader that he is getting Elders... he's not excited about it.

Bahaha. Just kidding. Sister Shin and I are both staying here. Sister Shin only has two more transfers left. She thinks I'm going to kill her, but I think I am going to be transferred in September and she is going to train her last transfer. She hasn't trained yet. But she has been a STL pretty much her whole mission. Man, my companion rocks. I'm seriously so blessed.

My cute roommate Hermana Wright really is going to the desert though. She's been my roommate for 3 months now! I'm really going to miss her. (She is the one who is also related to Ernasnus Bingham. I know I didn't spell that correctly... you know. The dude with the cabin at Lagoon.)

Guess what? We had a good week! Hooray! Wow it took me a really long time to spell that for some reason and now Sister Shin is laughing at me.

Okay so two really cool experiences we had this week:

I went on exchanges in Spanish land! It was so cool! THE GIFT OF TONGUES IS SO REAL! We went with our roommates! Hermana Wright and I switched beds for the night. Her mattress sucks. So I went with Hermana Ipson to the Rialto 4th ward! I ACTUALLY GOT TO TEACH LESSONS! It was awesome! We taught like 5 lessons that day! 

My favorite lesson was with a hermana who has been investigating for a really long time. I'm not sure how long but I know it's over a year. She finally accepted a baptismal date about a month ago, but still hasn't come to church. Her fellowshipper came to the lesson. Side note: This Hermana speaks ZERO English. Nada. I was seriously soooooooo nervous and I prayed for the gift of tongues (which I never thought I would have to do on my mission. (Actually I take that back because I can barely speak English)). We started the lesson and I could understand what was going on! I know it was partially high school Spanish, but mostly the Spirit. I couldn't understand word for word what was being said, but I was able to follow the lesson okay. I used a tad bit of Spanish and luckily Hermana Ipson is pretty fluent (even though she came out a transfer after I did) and the member also speaks English. But I seriously felt the Spirit SO STRONG! It was so cool because I was able to experience for myself that the Holy Ghost speaks all languages. Of course I always knew that, but I actually got to witness it! Heavenly Father loves ALL of his children and he will provide a way for ALL of them to hear the gospel, no matter what language they speak.

That day also rocked because the Bishop's wife took us to Chipotle for dinner. I hadn't had Chipotle in many moons. YESTERDAY WAS SO AMAZING! It was like Heavenly Father would see how hard we would work all transfer and then at the very end he was like, "okay you did pretty good. Enjoy a ton of blessings now." We had EIGHT non members at church! That is unheard of in this area! This man that we met two weeks ago came and brought all 5 of his kids that are Young Woman and Primary age. A member brought her friend. And a random dude just showed up! 

It has been raining all week. I keep thinking of Stella from Rear Window when she says, "You think the rain would cool things off. All it did was make the heat wet." Yup. That's my life. It is seriously hotter than heck here. So Sister Shin and I decided that we were going to at least enjoy being wet from something other than sweat and walk for a while in the rain.

We planned on seeing this potential investigator. We showed up at the house after we had been walking in the rain for a while. This house has a cute little side garage that the owner has turned into a cute little sitting area with a TV. The garage door was open and there was a woman in there. She said, "I have been praying and praying for you to come! Please come in!" We totally taught her the Plan of Salvation because her son died and she totally agreed to be baptized! And don't worry because she also lives two doors down from an awesome member! 

Sister Shin and I walked away from that and I just really don't even know how to describe to you what was happening in my brain.

BUT I GOT TO TEACH SOMEONE ABOUT THE GOSPEL AND IT MADE ME SO HAPPY!

Well. This email is very, very long so I'm going to stop now. (Also sorry I randomly put a bunch of stuff in parenthesis. That was weird).

Love you all! Thank you so much for praying for me! Enjoy Utah and summer vacation :) You all look very happy which makes me very happy!

Love, 

Hermana Olsen

 I finally made that recipe that Dannon sent me for the microwave cookie. It was yummy!

Check out that outside temperature!!!!!

Hermana Ipson (my roommate and I in Spanish land.) I WAS SO HOT MAN. SO SO SO HOT.