Hey! I realized after I said goodbye yesterday that I never said happy Mothers Day! I was too caught up in the fact that I was talking to you guys haha. so… Happy Mothers Day Mom!!

This week flew by! Every day, besides Monday, we clapped at 80 doors. I got plenty of practice talking to people. Some of the people had intercoms that you have to use to call them out. I usually tell them we want to leave them and their family with a prayer so they will come out and talk. A few times, instead of just saying no thanks, they said “just leave it in the mailbox” hahaha. Lots of people here have prayer cards that they use to say prayers. They thought this is what we wanted to leave haha. It´s sad how lots of people here just say repetitive prayers even when the Bible specifically says not to. A prayer is more than a conversation with Heavenly Father; it’s like a friend talking to a friend.

We found several people who are potential investigators that we still need to go back to visit. On Saturday, the very first door we clapped at, we found a lady who was ready for the Gospel. She invited us right in to talk. She said her aunt was just baptized recently in another city. She lives with her husband and two kids. We talked about the temple and eternal families. She accepted a baptism date without hesitancy and will be coming with us to church next week.

Yesterday we had District Conference in the next town at a brand new big chapel. The meeting started off with a few lady speakers because it was Mothers Day. Here´s a good scripture that talks about the importance of our mothers.

Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.

And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it.  Alma 56:47-48

President was the last speaker. He told an incredible life story. A few months after he married his wife, they went on vacation to Hawaii. They went to a very nice beach, which had very dangerous waters. There were signs posted everywhere that said not to go into the water. President, thinking he was invincible, decided to go play in the waves anyway, to show his new wife that he was strong enough haha. He had to walk past many warning signs to enter the water. After he got in the water, a wave picked him up and slammed him onto the bottom. He said the pain was horrible and he could barely breathe, but he continued swimming to show his wife he was fine. Another wave picked him up. He said the next thing he remembered was waking up on the beach with heads looking down on him and blood everywhere. His chest was all swollen and he could hardly breathe. He thought he could tough it out but his wife insisted on going to the hospital. He didn´t have insurance, though, so he told them to only bring him to the doctor haha. They put him in the bed of a truck and took him to the doctor. After he got there, he passed away, but they resuscitated him. The injury was a lot more serious than he thought, so they brought him to the hospital. After getting to the hospital, he died again, was resuscitated, and shortly later died again, and yet was resuscitated a third time. In all, he had lost 3 liters of blood due to his injuries. (Most people die after losing 2 liters of blood.) After he was in stable condition, his entire chest and stomach were cut open to operate on him and he had tubes and metal rods sticking out everywhere.

The lesson we learn from his life story is simple, don´t disobey the rules and cross the line! This doesn´t only apply to temporal rules, but also spiritual rules, the commandments. There are only two jerseys in life President always says, that of God and that of Satan. We must stay as far away from the line as we can because as soon as we cross it, Satan has control over us. Medically speaking, President should have died because of this mistake he made, but he is sure Heavenly Father kept him alive for a reason. We can certainly see the reason today. He is an amazing mission president and blessing so many lives!

I love you all!

Elder Olsen

New Church Building