Sister Carmen Olson

Kia Ora Whanau!  This week was a series of ups and downs. It was filled with moments of feeling totally inadequate and other moments where I felt like I can do this. I feel like this is how the entire transfer is going to go. It was also filled with way to many trips into Wellington. So on Monday, Sister Jones was told that her bus up to her new area was leaving Wellington on Tuesday at 7:15am so we planned accordingly. We woke up on Tuessay to a text that said her bus was actually leaving at 7:00am so we had to rush to get her to the bus station on time and then we had to run to the airport to get Sister Tu'i'onetoa on her flight down south. Then we went to the mission office and waited for the new intake. I am training Sister Hutia from Bora Bora, Tahiti! She is so sweet and funny but her English is still pretty limited. She is also very nervous about making a mistake when talking that she doesn't like to talk very much. I have been on my knees praying so hard to...

Kia Ora Whanau!  This week was bumping!  Last Monday was so busy. We always seem to schedule teaching appointments during pday which is a struggle, but they're with Seiara so it's honestly all worth it. We asked her how her praying about Joseph Smith was going and she got the is little smile and nodded and said "ya I know it's true." Man it was so exciting. It is honestly the coolest thing to get to witness someone gaining a testimony and it strengthens your own testimony so much.  On Tuesday we drove 2 hours to Palmerston North for mission tour. We had to pack into the other sisters' flat. All the missionaries on the north island were in Palmy so we had 6 sisters stay in this one tiny flat. Mission tour was so powerful though. Elder Haleck, the Pacific area president, came and spoke to us. It was powerful. There was so much stuff that he said that answered so many prayers and questions that I had thought of and didn't even realize I had. One ...

Kia Ora Whanau! This week flew by. I literally blinked and it was over. So much stuff happened this week it does not feel like it's only been seven days since my last email.  Last week Monday we had a lesson with Seiara and we were planning to go over some basic commandments like keep the sabbath day holy, but when we got there she had heaps of questions about tithing, the law of chastity, and the word of wisdom. So instead of teaching easy commandments, we jumped right into the big 3. The lesson went really well. She didnt get caught up in the do's and don'ts, but instead she really focused on understanding the whys of the commandments. She really wanted to understand the doctrine, which was so great because it's the understanding of doctrine that motivates people to keep the commandments.  On Tuesday we did a ton of walking. I think in total we ended up walking about 11km. We met this one lady who is inactive and she told us she stopped coming to church b...

Kia Ora Whanau  Man this week so much stuff happened. This was a learning week for sure.  On Tuesday we had an appointment with Seiara's parents. We had planned to share a condensed version of the restoration but when we showed up, our plans had changed. Seiara seemed very nervous and all she said was "Are you ready? Good luck." I was like what the heck is going to happen, like why do we need luck. Then her parents came into the room with a fat stack of papers full of questions. The stack was at least 1.5 cm thick. I was like wow okay these people have done some research. We were planning to spend and hour there max and we ended up taking 3 hours to go through and answer all of their questions. It was actually a really positive experience because we were able to clear up some misconceptions and concerns that they had and build a good relationship with them. Seiara was so relieved when it was over haha. We had a good little chat with her after and she was so deter...

Kia Ora Whanau!  I can't believe it's already Monday again!  Last week was crazy, especially with Christmas. First of all I would like to request that you always feed the missionaries, especially on holidays, but that you do not over feed the missionaries because that is what happened to us on Christmas. On Christmas we were fed 4 times, and the other sisters that also serve in our ward got fed 5 times. We started out at a members home where they fed us breakfast. Included in this breakfast was toast, spaghetti, beans, poached eggs, bbq chicken, bacon, sausage, and island mayonnaise (basically fancy potato salad). Then they fed us dessert which consisted of trifle, pavlova, ice cream, and steamed pudding. It was delicious but honestly I would have been fine if that was our only meal that day. But it wasn't, from there we went to the Wilson's for brunch where there was pancakes, waffles, heaps of bbq meats, hashbrowns, and more dessert. From the Wilson's hom...

 Kia Ora Whanau and Merry Christmas Eve!!! This week was sooooooo long but also soooooooo fast. On Monday we went and contacted a couple potentials and we were able to get a new person to teach! His name is Martin and he is prepared. He is searching for the truth and says if something doesn't add up then he won't stick with it, which isn't an issue because we teach the fullness of the everlasting gospel. After we met Martin and shared with him the message of the restoration we went to contact another potential. This guy was not prepared and not looking for the truth. At first I thought if we could talk to him for a little while then the spirit would work on him and he'd be accepting of our message but it became obvious that he was just looking for a debate. It turned into a low key bible bash, which I tried to wrap up and end as quickly as possible but the guy just kept on talking and then Sister Jones got heated and started throwing bible facts at him. It was a sid...