Sister Carmen Olson

Kia Ora Whanau! Well this week I was special transferred to Christchurch. On Tuesday morning I was folding my laundry and the thought came to me that I was going to get moved to Christchurch to be companions with Sister Gudgeon and Su'a before the transfer ended. Then that afternoon the APs called and told me that I was indeed going to get moved to Christchurch to be with Sister Gudgeon and Su'a the very next day when we drove up to Christchurch for mission tour. It was crazy because I had already received revelation that that was going to happen!  Ten minutes after that phone call we had to go teach a lesson where we were going to invite Bernardo to be baptized so we had to pull ourselves together real fast. The lesson was so great though and the spirit was so strong testifying of everything that we were teaching. It was one of those moments where you could not deny that this is all true! Bernardo said yes to being baptized and will be getting baptized on February 23

Kia Ora Whanau This week went so fast and pretty miraculous! On Monday we taught an excommunicated member and I was bold as and said "when are you going to get rebaptized?" And he said he wants to get baptized right away!!!!! It was soooooo exciting! So now he's going to talk with the Stake so that we can get the ball rolling on that!!I  On Tuesday I cut a less active members hair as we taught her about the plan of salvation. She has had a hard life and really testified to us that knowing about the plan of salvation and living the gospel really does bless your life.  Wednesday was a big day. We had lots of lessons which was so nice because we dont normally teach heaps of lessons. We did a dinner for the single adults in the branch to help strengthen them and it was soooooo fun! One of their friends came and he doesn't have a Christen background but he agreed to pray to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ and ask God how He feels about him.

Kia Ora Whanau This week was interesting because I only spent 4 days in mg area with my companions. Some highlights of the week include: On Wednesday we spent the majority of the day gardening this massive secret garden style flower garden for an old lady named Tilly. She was so sweet and made us lunch and gave us each a beautiful bouquet of flowers to say thank you and then we re gifted them to different people.  Wednesday night  we drove 2 hours to Invercargil for ministering night and then spent the night at a members house.  Thursday we had district council and did weekly planning because we were doing exchanges with the Dunedin Sisters on Friday. Exchanges were good. I was with Sister Dunford (who was Madi Lee's roommate in uni) and we were in Queenstown. We started off in this little town in our area 2 hours away from Queenstown door knocking and trying to track down a family who used to meet with the missionaries. We found their house but the parents weren&

Kia Ora Whanau Happy New Year everyone!  So this week we had big plans but typical mission life, none of them happened lol.  On Tuesday we planned to go to our golden investigator Bernardo's house and invite him to be baptized. We all felt really giod about it and when we got there he aas still sleeping because he works night shifts. We talked to the members that he lives with for a little but and then Bernardo's dad rocked up and the rooom got tense. Bernardo came out to the living room and was pretending to be all goods but you could tell something was up. Then he and his dad went back to his room and nek minit all you hear is Bernardo's dad yelling in Portuguese at Bernardo. We were like oiaue we should go! So we left and were like "well that was not ideal". We went back the next day for dinner and switched plans to just share a short message and set a return appointment where we could then invite him to be baptized. It went really well! He's

Kia Ora Whanau  Mere Kirihimete!  So this week was miraculous. On Christmas day I received the best gift I've ever gotten... it was a Christmas miracle. But before that I'll tell you about Monday and Tuesday.  On Monday we went to Oamaru (one of my old areas) for pday and then we were invited to participate in a Family Home Evening with a member there. While we were in Oamaru we were able to visit some people that both Sister Alves and I taughtwhile serving there.  We visited a lady who I met a couple of times but who Sister Alves worked alot with and the crazy thing is that she remembered me. I was very touched and it really just showed me that on your mission you never know whose life you touch and how big of an impact you have on people. That's why it's important to always serve with all your might because you have no idea how much you can help someone. Tuesday we spent in Dunedin. We had a combined district council which is just a crazy thing to ha