Sister Carmen Olson

Kia Ora Whanau!  This week my bike tire went flat every single day. I put so many patches on that tube, but it keeps getting new punctures. Time for a new tire. On Tuesday the real highlight was getting to see Lavell. She's not active and her 10 year old son isn't baptized but wants to be. A few weeks ago the Bishop of the ward told her that her son, James, can't be baptized until she starts coming to church and supporting him more, which is fair. So we talked to her about this and she told us that she really wants to come back and she told us her concerns as well. We just had a really open and honest conversation and it was really great. It was definitely orchestrated by heaven because her older kids came home right as we were wrapping up so the spirit was able to be there during our conversation with no distraction. Towards the end when I was bearing my testimony that I know Heavenly Father is aware of her and will help her achieve her righteous goals, she s...

Kia Ora Whanau!  Transfers were this week and so on Tuesday I flew from Dunedin to Wellington and then drove to Masterton with my new companion Sistrr Bailey. Shes from Melbourne Australia and is in my intake so we've been out the same amount of time. Flying into Wellington and then driving through the Lower Hutt area to get to Masterton made me feel like I had come home haha.  There has been a funeral on Tuesday so when we got into Masterson we went to the chapel to help clean up. We got Hangi to take home and a little bit of Maori bread which was soooooo yum! This area is predominantly Maori which I'm excited for because all of my other areas have been predominantly pacific islander.  Wednesday was Chloe's 18th birthday so Happy Birthday Chloe! To celebrate we visited a bunch of members so that I could get to know the ward better. We also had a baptisimal interview for two people that we are teaching. They are 9 and 10 and getting baptized next week. We als...

Kia Ora Whanau!  Alot happened this week so buckle up. Jokes, a decent amount happened but nothing too exciting. So on Tuesday we were teaching one of our new investigators and we were teaching him the plan of salvation. We shared with him the Sun, moon, star analogy to help him understand the difference of the glory of the celestial, terrestrial, and celestial kingdoms. We then asked him where he wants to go and he said the stars because they're the furthest away and so maybe when he got there it would be better than the sun. None of us knew how to respond, we were like man he didnt understand the metaphor lol.  Wednesday was honestly one of the hardest days I've had so far. It was hard from the second I woke up to the second I went to bed. The thing about hard days though, is you just have to be diligent and push through the hard times and keep working. Hard work is the only remedy to a difficult day. On Thursday we drove to Dunedin for a district findi...

Kia Ora Whanau  What up everyone! This week we found 3 new people to teach which was cool! Idk how far they'll progress but we will teach all who are willing to listen!  One of the families we found are from Samoa and they are string in another church. Sister Mamea taught them the restoration in samoan and then me and sister Tu'i'onetoa bore our testimonies. They flat out told us they didnt believe us, but the didnt bible bash or anything and then they asked when we can come back and share more with them so it'll be interesting working with them. We invited them to pray about it so hopefully they follow through on that.  The other person that we started teaching is the nephew of one of our members. He's super chill and nice and he used to be taught by the missionaries so he knows alot. Hopefully we will be able to help him progress towards baptism.  On Thursday we went and saw a family that we are kind of working with. We haven't seen them in li...