ELDER STEPHEN OLSEN

2010-05-10T19:11:00.000-07:00

Homecoming!

2010-05-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

Elder Olsen will be giving his mission homecoming address on May 16th at 1:00pm

THIS IS IT!!!!!

2010-04-26T07:15:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to be home! I can't believe it is actually here! I never thought that this day would ever come. It didn't truly dawn on me until today that I'm going home. Today, a bunch of members from my Branch took my companion and me out to lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant for a farewell lunch. While we were there and everyone was talking about me being home and what I was going to do with my life, it hit me that this is really it! This could be the last time that I see these people. It made me way sad! I'm going to miss everything about this place, the food, the people, the sweet mode of transportation, speaking Thai, and just being a missionary! Its been an amazing 2 years and I wouldn't trade these 2 years for the world. I love you all and I'll see you on Friday!

Elder Stephen Olsen

2010-04-19T07:42:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
Songran, we had a blast! We went out and threw water on each other all day! Here are some pictures from all the chaos.

2010-04-12T18:26:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is day one of สงกรานต์ (Songran) or the Water Festival. It's the biggest holiday here in Thailand and is also the Thailand New Year. It's a 3 day holiday starting on April 13-15 and all it is is a big water fight! Because of how hot it is at this time of year, the Thai people decided the best way to celebrate their New Year is to cool each other down by getting everyone wet! People will fill up huge 30 gallon buckets with water and put them on the streets and use them to throw water on cars, people and missionaries on bikes. They also throw these huge 30 gallon buckets on their trucks and drive around soaking people walking on the streets. When you walk out of your house in the morning, you have to expect to get wet and be getting wet all day. There is no way to avoid it because there are people everywhere and they all have the same goal, get you wet! It is impossible to get any work done during these 3 days because everyone is playing สงกรานต์ (Songran) or visiting family so it's not very convenient for them to meet with us. Luckily we have a very loving and caring Mission President that is going to let us play สงกรานต์ (Songran) so we get to have a part in it all. We are playing tomorrow and I will take a bunch of pictures to send home next week. It's a way fun holiday and I think America needs to adopt it into our culture.
We watched the re-broadcast of Conference yesterday and Saturday and it was really awesome! I noticed there was a common focus in a lot of the talks about families and parenting. When Elder Anderson gave his talk and started out by talking about how each speaker chooses his own topic and nothing is assigned, it helped me realize that God is truly revealing through his representatives and apostles. There was a lot of good talks given and a lot of great quotes as well. Being on a mission has really helped me realize the greatness of General Conference. Before, I was never really attentive on watching it. But now, I really look forward to it!
Well I love you all and I'm looking forward to seeing all your faces in a couple of weeks!

Elder Olsen

Chest Interptretation

2010-04-05T06:24:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
At this time we are teaching a new investigator that we found a couple weeks ago and he is the most interesting person I have ever taught. His name is ดม (Dom) and he is actually an old investigator of the Elders from a year ago. The way we found him was miraculous! We were at church one Sunday and he came walking in looking for one of the missionaries that was teaching him back in the day. He found us and asked, with a concerned look on his face, is Elder Everton here? We told him no and he had gone home a long time ago. ดม (Dom) said that Elder Everton had invited him to come to church but he was never able to go and now that he is more available, he wants to come and learn with him again. When he found out that he wasn't here, he dropped his head and started walking out. We told him to cheer up! He can still learn, but with us! He didn't sound to thrilled though. So we asked for his number and told him we would call him later on. After giving him some time to recover from the blow of finding out that Elder Everton wasn't here anymore, we called him a couple days later and asked if we could meet with me. The first thing that he asked was, is Elder Everton coming?! We said no...and sounded a little disappointed. He still said, OK sure, you can come. We met with him the first time and mostly sat and talked with him, trying to get him to open up to us. I feel like we had success because the next time we went and taught him, he told us every concern that he has and he has almost every concern in the book. We have gone to see him about 4 times now and we uncover a new concern or sin that he has each time that we go over to see him. I wont tell you all of them because there wouldn't be enough memory in this computer to hold them all but I will tell you one of them because it kind of made me laugh. Last Saturday we met with him and watched the Restoration DVD to try and help him see that there is only one true church in all the world and he can't follow Buddhism and Christianity at the same time. He has to choose. But before we were able to begin the lesson he went off on some crazy theory about whether there is more then one world. He said he could understand if there was about 3 or 4 but 5 worlds is just way to many. Its impossible to have that many! I just sat there with a blank look on my face and thought, what in the world is he talking about? We didn't entertain his thought for too long because we were way confused. So we went on with the lesson. At the end of the lesson, he realized what he had to do and he told us he had to pray. As we were about to close the lesson, he stopped us and said, "Elder, I have something to show you. But you have to promise you won't get startled if I show you OK?" A little skeptical and suspicious, we said OK. He then stood up and all intense, he took off his shirt! Elder Westwood and I were a little shocked and very confused. He then said, "Do you see it?!" We looked for a second and all I could see that was out of the ordinary was a mark on his chest so I asked, "Are you talking about the birthmark?" and a little frustrated, he said "No! The red dots on my chest! What are they?! Is it a sign of how many worlds there are?" We sat there staring at him for a good 10 seconds trying to think of what to say...It was a little awkward because he was standing there waiting for us to interpret his chest and we had no idea! I then asked, "Are they zits?" I don't know if he like that answer because he hurried and put on his shirt and said, "No! I think they are signs of how many worlds there are in the universe." We then said "OK, well...let us know when they go away. But we've got to go..." We didn't have time to discuss his acne problem so we said a closing pray and left. I have never met someone that was so superstitious before! I have also never been asked to interpret someone's chest before...It was a new experience and I sure hope the Gospel is going to be able to help this guy. He is the most interesting investigator that I have ever taught and I'm excited to see what happens next time we go see him!

Steve

2010-03-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

2010-03-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

Last week I took my companion down to Bangkok to get on an airplane to head home. He has finished his mission and has left me and my MTC group as the oldest missionaries in the mission! I am now in my last transfer of my mission. The next time I go down to Bangkok will be the last time I go down to Bangkok. These 2 years have flown by! But I got a new companion as well and his name is Elder Westwood. He is from Spanish Fork and he finishes his mission 6 weeks after I do. I'm way excited to be companions with him! We have been hoping to be companions together ever since we've known each other but it would be impossible because we are so close in age in the mission. The only possible way for us to have been able to be companions was to be Zone Leaders together and here we are! Zone Leaders together! Its going to be a great last transfer here.
So Ive been run out of stuff to write about lately but if you guys would write me and ask some questions, I could have stuff to write about.

Steve

2010-03-02T08:16:00.000-08:00

Hey,
So this week marks the start of Hot Season here in Thailand. It starts in March and goes until around July. Once in July, the Rainy Season starts but the temperature stays the same, super super hot! The temperature is so hot here in Thailand at this time of year that our Mission President changed our working schedule. He is now having us wake up at 6 a.m., exersize, shower, eat breakfast, and then leave the house to go work at 7:30 in the morning until 1:30 in the afternoon. At that time, we come home and have our personal study, companion study and language study until 4:00. We then go back out and work until 8:30 when we come home and plan for the day. 10:00 p.m. we are in bed. Our schedule before was we would wake up at 6:30 in the morning and have our studies in the morning as well. Leave the house at 10:30 a.m. and work until 9:00 p.m. Now it's just too hot to do that and we had to change our schedule because people just won't leave their house in the middle of the day when the sun is beating so hot! So today was our first day of the new schedule change and it was really different! I'm not use to being outside so early in the morning. Surprisingly, there was a lot of people outside! Apparently everyone wakes up at like 5 a.m. and they get moving out here! We were able to talk to a lot of people but the hard part is that it's not very convenient to sit down and teach someone in the wee hours of the morning. Usually people are busy going off to work. But I'm not complaining because once 10 o'clock hit this morning, it was hot!! It was probably over 100 degrees and it was just getting hotter and hotter. Going home to to study was great except that our AC in our study room didn't go cold enough! We turned it up all the way but the world is just too hot! Nothing can truly stop the heat here in Thailand. We just have to hide from it the best we can.
Well, I love you guys and I hope you're all enjoying your nice spring weather there in Utah. Talk to you next week.

Steve

2010-02-15T18:05:00.000-08:00

So Lately we have been working with this less active member here in Udon and he is one tough cookie. His name is กล้า (Glaa) and he has a lot of concerns and reasons that he isn't coming to church. He has lost his testimony of Joseph Smith and doesn't feel like he himself truly is a son of God. With these 2 main concerns, he has a lot of other little ones inside of them. My companion and I have been working with him ever since I moved in and he is definitely the hardest less active member that I have worked with. The reason that we do it is because for some reason we still have hope and faith that he will come back. He has been a member his whole life, he's an RM, has a family that are all members but his wife and kids are less active as well, and he is a former CES Seminary teacher. He knows his stuff and had to have had an amazing testimony and Elder Brown and I see that and are trying to bring it back. The hard part is, is that he is very hard headed and he isn't afraid to say what's on his mind. His concerns are so in-depth that he is afraid to tell them to people because he is afraid that they will make other people's faith weaker. He told us when we went to visit him last Saturday that he has told me and my companion more of his concern that he has told anyone else before. He said he is willing to tell us because he thinks that even if he tells us his concerns, it won't shake our faith. He hasn't let too many missionaries meet with him in fear that they will fall away. He has put a lot of trust in us to be the ones that will be able to bring him back and so with that trust we have been going over to see him once a week to try and talk over his concerns and bring his testimony back. It has definitely been a hard journey but we finally saw results from our continuous efforts. Saturday we committed him to come to church with us on Sunday and he committed to come. We weren't to sure how strong he was on his word but we believed him and yesterday we saw a miracle. As we were standing outside of the church greeting people, we there saw Brother กล้า (Glaa) ride in on his motorcycle with his sin, wearing a tie and a white shirt. Elder Brown and I just looked at each other in awe as we saw him walking up to the doors of the church. He actually came! It bore witness to me that caring enough to stick with him and teach him even though he has hard concerns is exactly what he needed. Maybe it wasn't so much of his doctrinal questions that he had but more of having someone to care enough to come and try and help him. I honestly don't think we have helped him too much on answering his questions on why things are the way they are but more of showing him that we care for him and we want him to come back. Seeing him come to church yesterday was a miracle and a huge answer to our prayers.
Well I'm out of time for the week but I just want you all to know that I love you and pray for you all daily! Talk to you next week!
Hey,
I have a question for you all. Here in Thailand, they have shops that make sports jerseys for way cheap and my companion gave me the idea to get matching family jerseys. What do you think if I got some of those for us? Would that be something cool? They would look like soccer jerseys and we could put whatever we want on them. If you decide you want to do it, let me know of colors and sizes. For measuring purposes, I wear a size large on the jerseys. Well just let me know what you think. I think it could be a cool souvenir to bring back but it all depends on if you would all wear them.

Steve

2010-02-08T19:17:00.000-08:00

We recieved Steve's arrival time: 1:23pm on Delta.

2010-02-08T09:48:00.000-08:00

Hey Thanks everyone for the emails that you sent for my birthday! Getting emails and hearing from you all is better then getting presents! Last Wednesday for my birthday, everyone in our District went out to Sizzler for lunch and yes, they do have Sizzlers here, and they payed for me! I was way surprised that they did that! Then after English Class that night, they all surprised me with a cake! It was really cool because I had no idea about it. I was just cleaning up from the class when a member asked me to go take a picture for him outside. As I walked out, there were the Sisters walking up with a cake! When they saw me come out, everyone just started singing happy birthday! I was way surprised! Its was kind of fun because as a missionary, you don't really expect much for your birthday out here. But it was definitely a fun birthday.
Well right now I don't really have too much time to write a bunch because my companion and I have to head down to Bangkok tonight for a Zone Leader Council that we have tomorrow morning. We have to do a lot of traveling as Zone Leaders. Its pretty fun but sometimes we just want to have some time to work in our area. Well, I love you guys and I'll talk to you next week!

Steve

2010-02-01T06:44:00.000-08:00

Hey,
Well sadly to say, this past week has been a very miserable week. We had our Moves Meeting down in Bangkok on Thursday and the way to get down there is to travel over night by train. all around its a 12 hour ride but you don't feel it because for the most part, your sleeping. Well...your trying to sleep but sleeping on a train isn't the easiest thing. You get about 5 hours of sleep total. For some reason, this time going down to Bangkok, I caught a cold on the train. I'm not exactly sure if it was from the train but that's what I'm blaming it on. Luckily while I was down in Bangkok, the effects of the cold hadn't come at full force yet so I didn't have to suffer through the day there. But when I got back to Udon, I sure felt it. I was completely drained from the lack of sleep and all the traveling we had done but I couldn't rest because right as we got back to Udon, we had to go to Sakonakhon to interview a couple of Elder's investigators for baptism. So we jumped right back on a bus for another 3 hour ride to Sakonakhon. I tried sleeping on the bus but I couldn't do it. Once in Sakonakhon, I was even more tired then before and my cold had fully taken over me. There was 2 investigators that needed to be interviewed for baptism and I made my companion do them both because I was just a mess. I couldn't speak very clearly and I was coughing all the time. There was no way we were going to make it back that night either so we slept at the Elders house that night. I woke up a lot in the middle of the night coughing and not being able to breath. It was rough and I hated not being in my own bed. In the morning, we woke up and headed out the door right away to come back to Udon. Once we were back in Udon, I tried to keep working but it just wasn't happening. I completely zonked out on my desk as Elder Brown and I were trying to plan for the day. My companion then told me to just stop trying to push it and just go get some rest. I then went to bed and didn't wake up until about 7 o'clock that night. I woke up still feeling terrible but it was good because I was able to get some rest. Right now I'm still not 100% but I'm doing a lot better. P-Day today was definitely needed. Hopefully I will start feeling better because tomorrow we have to go on switch-offs in Kumpawapi and I don't want to be miserable for that as well.
Well I hope everything is going good at home! I love you all and I will talk to you next week.

Steve

2010-01-26T09:19:00.000-08:00

Hey!
Last week, the Bishop of our Ward came up to me and asked me if I could give a talk in Sacrament Meeting on any topic that I wanted. With this invitation to be a speaker, as many of you may have guessed, I was not too thrilled about it but as a missionary, there is no way I could have rejected. So I smiled and graciously accepted his request. It wasn't anything new having to be up at the pulpit. Every time a missionary moves to an area, they have to stand up in sacrament meeting and bear their testimony, which is easy. But this was different because I had to prepare a 15 minute talk and be the main speaker. I wasn't to excited about it needless to say. But I wanted to make sure everyone enjoyed it and it was about something that everyone could use that also wasn't about missionary work (they get tired of that). So I chose to talk about patience because that is something that everyone can work on. Preparing it was no big deal but thinking about it was. I'm not the biggest fan of giving talks in Sacrament Meeting. Teaching at Zone Conference the week before was not to big of a deal because I was able to include everyone and ask questions. Talks are just you standing up in front of everyone and speaking by yourself for 15 minutes straight. Well Sunday came and they announce that I'm going to be the last speaker which is never any good because being the last speaker, you have to adjust your talk to make sure the meeting ends on time without going over or under time. For me the problem was not going under time because the last speaker before me ended her talk really quick and there was 30 minutes left in Sacrament Meeting! I now had to make my 15 minute talk take double the time! Luckily for me I took this into account while preparing my talk so I made sure I had enough stuff to talk about to last the whole time if I needed to. I'm very glad I did as well because it would have made me look bad if it all gone under time. Surprising myself, I was very calm and not nervous at all as I was up giving the talk. I was even able to take up that extra 15 minutes left on the clock! It was actually kind of fun giving the talk. Now for all you Ward Leaders that may be reading this, don't take any of this into account for when I get home, because I still don't really like doing it!
Well another Moves has come and gone and my companion and I are both staying here in Udon. I'll be his last companion of his mission because at the end of this Moves period, he goes home and then I follow. Its coming close! It's kind of scary but not that scary because I still feel like I have forever. Well I love you all and hope all is going well at home in that cold climate. Talk to you next week!

Steve

2010-01-18T08:18:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone!
Sorry about last week and not sending anything. I didn't have to much time to write anything. Life has been crazy lately. Especially in this last passing week. We were in our area here in Udon for only 1 day! Other then that, we have been having to deal with a lot of stuff. Last Tuesday we went back to one of my old areas, Khonkaen, for Zone Conference. Going to Zone Conference as a Zone Leader isn't as easy as it used to be. Our Mission President now has the Zone Leaders teach a lot of Zone Conference where in the past, he had the Assistants do most of the teaching and the Zone Leaders had no part in anything. Elder Brown and I didn't have a moment of rest the entire time. When we weren't teaching, we were having to translate for all the Thai missionaries. Translating was fun though. Elder Brown and I sat in the back of the room with a microphone that sent everything that we said into headphones that all the Thai missionaries were wearing. At first I was a little nervous to be translating because it was my first time doing it for real when it really matters but as I started doing it, I saw that it wasn't that hard! I was able to translate everything pretty naturally. Then closer to the end of the Conference, President Smith called me to give a special lesson about the Book of Mormon that he had asked all the Zone Leaders to prepare. He didn't tell us who was going to give it until the minute of. Luckily I was prepared and I think it went pretty well! I was surprised that I wasn't nervous because I usually get way nervous when I have to give talks and stand in front of big crowds. The Lord definitely helped me on that one!
Once Zone Conference was over, for the next couple of days, Elder Brown and I went of switch-offs with a bunch of companionships in our Zone. One of which was an emergency switch-offs that we had to go on because of problems between a companionship. It put a big damper on getting work done in our own area but it was something we had to take care of so there was nothing we could do. Out of the 7 days, we slept in our own beds only once. Our week was all over the place! I enjoyed it though. It makes the work exciting and more fun! I'm loving being a Zone Leader.
About this picture that I sent, your probably wondering why it's so special. Other then the fact that we are all wearing BYU shirts, the meat that we are eating is not your average meat. For dinner last night we ate dog! When we were in Sakonakhon on switch-offs, we went to a restaurant that sells dog meat and decided that we had to buy some and eat it! I have to say, it wasn't the best meat but it was cool to be saying I was eating dog!
So that was about how our week went. It was really fun and way busy! We have been dead tired lately and this P-Day today has been much needed. Well I love you all! Thanks for all your support and prayers! Talk to you next week.

Steve

2010-01-04T06:37:00.000-08:00

2010-01-04T06:29:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,
This past week hasn't been the easiest week of getting work done with New Years in the middle of it. New Years is the big holiday here in Thailand. Thailand's New Years is like America's Christmas. Everyone goes home for New Years and celebrates together. We weren't able to really teach anyone last week. Everyone was gone or just not free! We did a lot of inviting with not much success. But on New Years Eve, the Branch threw a New Years Eve Count Down party that we went to. We only stayed until about 9 because we had to be home but it was really fun! The big thing that every Thai party has to have is Karaoke. Thai people love it! They love to sing, even if they aren't good. They aren't shy about their voices, they just think it's fun. So throughout the night, there was always somebody on the stage singing. In the end, they even got my companion and I to go up there and sing a song! We were kind of forced to do it and taken by surprise. The member that was the emcee (MC) of the party was an RM that had just barely returned home. We knew him pretty well and he wasn't afraid to make us do anything embarrassing. About 10 minutes before we were about to leave, the member got on the stage and said, "Before the Elders go home tonight, they have agreed to sing a special song for all of us and we would like to invite them to come up here and sing that song for us now!" We were completely thrown off guard and we weren't really in the place to back down because everyone started clapping and cheering. I thought, "Shoot!" I looked at Elder Brown and we decided that we had no choice...we had to do it. So we ran over to the DJ and asked to look at his songs. We had to think of a song that we both new pretty well and the only thing that was coming to my mind was Backstreet Boys! I didn't want to have to sing a Backstreet Boys song but it was the only band that we both new well enough to sing. I quickly picked a song and we jumped on stage and started singing "I Want It That Way". I was truly surprised at how well I remember the song! I had to carry us because Elder Brown kind of forgot the tune of it so he was just kind of following my lead. I don't blame him for having forgotten. I can't say that I'm proud that I didn't...but everyone loved it so it was good. Once we finished with the song, we hurried and said goodbye to everyone and headed home. It was truly a memorable New Year's Eve!
Well I've got to go but hey, Happy New Year! I love you all and hope to hear from you guys soon!

Steve

2009-12-23T06:30:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!
Christmas is coming up really quick! A lot quicker then I had anticipated. I can't believe its already that time to be able to call you guys again. This will be the last time I get to talk to you all before I'm home! How crazy is that?! I'm really excited to talk to you guys again. The number you have to call is 6681-557-5719. I think that should be all you have to dial after putting in the calling card number. Also that time you gave me to call is good. Whenever works so I will be planning to talk to you then! I have yet to open all the presents you guys sent. I wanted to wait until Christmas to have something to open on Christmas Day. So I have not yet opened anything. I'm sure I will love everything you guys sent though! Again thank you for the packages you sent!
So being a Zone Leader has been really fun so far! My companion and I are both Zone Leaders, his name is Elder Brown and he is from Michigan. He goes home 6 weeks before I do. The Zone I have to look over is called the Udon Zone. Its in the north east part of Thailand. We have 4 areas that we look over with about 14 missionaries in it. We go on switch offs a lot and yesterday was our first one this Moves and we went to an area called Sakonakhon. It was fun to be able to work with the missionaries there and help out in finding new investigators and teaching. The Sakonakhon area is pretty far out in the middle of nowhere and we had to take a 3 hour bus ride to get there. As Zone Leaders, we don't get our own cars, we just take buses everywhere. Transportation is readily available everywhere you go so there is no need for us to buy our own car. It makes things a lot easier too. We don't have to worry about getting lost on the way. We just jump on a bus that says "Sakonakhon" or wherever we are going and it gets us there! More responsibilities that I have to take on are just going on Switch off often and helping the Mission President teach at Zone Conference. At night we have to call all the District Leaders in our Zone and check up on them and try and help them with any concerns that they might have. We Also have to give an accountability with the Mission President on what's going on in our Zone and what our goals are to make it better.
Well I'm not going to write to much this week because I want to have stuff to talk about when you call in 2 days so I'm just going to end now. I'm really looking forward to being able to hear all your voices again and talk to you! I love you guys and hope your having a Merry Christmas! Talk to you soon!

Steve

P.S. My Preparation Day is being changed to Monday so from now on, you need to send your emails to me before Monday or else I will get them late. Thanks everyone!

2009-12-15T20:53:00.000-08:00

2009-12-15T18:52:00.000-08:00

Hey!
So Tomorrow we have another Moves Meeting and I'm finally moving out of Bangna after being here for 6 months. I feel like I've been here for a long time and I'm ready to move. Its been a real growing experience here so I'm glad I was able to serve here. Along with moving this week, I got a special calling from the Mission President. Yesterday, President Smith called me and asked if he could change my assignment, he asked if I would be a Zone Leader! I was kind of surprised by this but I said yeah I would be happy too! I think it will be fun to be a Zone Leader. I will get to go around to all the areas in my Zone and go on switch-offs with the missionaries and help in their areas. There is other stuff that I will have to do but that's what I'm most excited about. It will be fun to be able to see the different areas in the mission and serve with a bunch of different missionaries.
Last Saturday we had our Stake Christmas Party at the Stake Center and it really made me miss Christmas! I love the Christmas Season. At our house, Elder Mitchell and I went out and bought Christmas decorations and put them up everywhere. I have a couple Christmas CDs on my ipod that we have been listening to. Unfortunately I don't have to much stuff and we are getting kind of sick of what I got...but we have to keep listening to it because its Christmas! It's the only way we can get our Christmas Season fix because they don't really celebrate it here. At the major malls they do so sometimes we will go eat dinner there just so we can hear Christmas music and see all the decorations. We are very deprived...but its OK. I'll be home next year!
Well this week I don't have to much to write. I'll let you know where I'm moving next week. I love you all and hope you're all loving the Christmas Season. Don't take it for granted because its truly the best time of the year! Talk to you all next week!

Elder Olsen

2009-12-10T09:01:00.000-08:00

Hey,
We had a great week this week and Sunday we ended it all with an amazing baptism! Pop was baptized by my Greenie companion!! He was able to have the same experience that I had when I was a greenie. At first we were planning on having a member baptize him because it's always better to have a member do it but a problem had occurred the day before the baptism. As we were teaching Pop, we used a member to help teach that had just moved down here to Bangna about a month ago. He didn't know anyone so we introduced him to Pop to try and start a friendship and as we taught, they became friends! We saw it help both of them come to church and come to activities because they knew they had a friend there. At the end when we asked Pop who he wanted to baptize him, he said Mike! (that's the member's name that helped) We gave Mike a call to ask him if he would do it and he was more then happy to! Everything was all good to go until Saturday night...As we were at the church, cleaning the font, the Bishop came and asked us if we could talk to him for a little bit. We said of coarse and we stepped into his office. He went over the baptism to make sure everything was good to go and then he told us that Mike wasn't able to baptize Pop. I said OK and didn't ask to much about it because I just figured he might have worthiness issues but then the Bishop said, because he's not a member here and our Ward doesn't have his membership records, he would have to interview him, call the Branch President at his home Branch and have to do a lot of stuff before he was going to be able to baptize him and there just wasn't enough time to do everything. He asked if we could just go ahead and be the ones to do the baptism instead. We tried to work around it but we just didn't have enough time so we agreed to do it. Now I have personally baptized 3 people already on my mission and I don't feel to big of a need to be the one to baptize anybody else but my companion, Elder Mitchell, just got into the country about a month ago and has never baptized someone. I remember when I was a Greenie. My trainer got me to baptize one of our investigators in my first area and I thought it was really cool to be able to do it in my first area so I figured I'd give my Greenie that same experience. So I asked him if he would feel OK doing it and he said yeah! I told him the baptismal pray that he had to memorize in Thai and he went at it, working on memorizing it! Throughout all of church the next day, he said he just went over it in his head, making sure he had it down. I remember when I was getting ready for my first baptism. I studied that pray for about a week before I felt ready to give it and Elder Mitchell only have 1 day! When the time came to give the baptism, he said the prayer like a pro and made no mistakes! I was pretty impressed. Our investigator was so excited to be baptized and didn't really mind that Mike wasn't able to baptize him. He was just grateful to finally be baptized!
Also these other pictures are from yesterday when we went to some waterfalls and a floating market just outside of Bangkok. It was way fun and way pretty so I thought I would share some of the pictures with you guys!
I love you guys and I hope you are having an awesome holiday season!!

Love,
Elder Stephen Olsen

(Sorry, no pictures came with this e-mail, Lori)

2009-12-02T07:08:00.000-08:00

Hey,
So you know how people always say that your mission is a roller coaster of emotion? I have seen that to be true this week. Our investigator ติ๊ก (Tig), the guy that has been a completely golden investigator for us here in Bangna, met with us the other day and told us he has finished reading the Book of Mormon! He has been learning for only 5 months and has read the whole book in that short of time! We then talked about him being baptized here on the 13th of December and he was all ready to go he said. He said he was excited for it! We were way excited for it! He was finally going to be baptized after the last 2 months of going over his concerns and trying to fix them. On Monday, he was scheduled to be interviewed but that morning we got a phone call from him. I answered the phone and he didn't sound too happy. It sounded like he had bad news and he did...he said he wasn't ready to be interviewed today and he wasn't ready to be baptism. I thought shoot...I thought we had fixed all of his concerns. So we canceled the interview and yesterday we met with him to try and see what the deal was and it didn't end well. He just said that he was happy to have been able to come here and learn with us and he will never forget the things that we taught him. He is going to keep praying and coming to church and living the commandments but he just doesn't want to be baptized. He just truly doesn't see the importance of it and he thinks if he is baptized he will no longer be free to do what he wants. He is more worried about having fun...It was way hard to hear this from him because I have seen him come so far and he was so close to being baptized. He helped give me hope for progression in an area that had nothing going for it when I first got here. Its going to be weird to not teach him anymore. Yesterday was a hard day having to think about that.
Having that lesson with Tig yesterday was definitely the trough of the missionary roller coaster. Luckily when your on a roller coaster, when you go down, you also come up. I didn't have to think about Tig for to long because ป๊อป (Pop), another one of our investigators is going to be baptized this Sunday and we had to go and prepare for his baptism right after we taught Tig! He had his interview on Monday and he was totally prepared for it! He passed with flying colors. The Zone Leader that interviewed him said he had never interview someone that had such a strong testimony and a great understanding of the gospel. He will be an amazing member! He is way excited to be baptized.
So this week has kind of been bitter sweet. Hopefully the sweetness will overpower the bitterness by the end of the week.

Elder Olsen

2009-11-27T12:35:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!
Happy Thanksgiving! We changed our Preparation Day to today because yesterday we had Zone Conference and luckily it just so happened that the day we changed our P-Day to is Thanksgiving! To Celebrate, our Zone did the American thing and had a Turkey Bowl. We all went to a park and tossed the pig skin around. Unfortunately it wasn't a pig skin that we tossed around though...Thai people don't believe in Real Football. They play everything with there feet. We tried to get a real football but they don't sell them here so we had to play with a dagraa ball which is just a round hollow woven ball. It worked well for not actually having a real ball. So we spent some time at the park playing around and then we came home to get ready for tonight which I am really excited for. There is an American Branch in Pakkret and some of the members invited the missionaries in Bangkok to go and have Thanksgiving Dinner with them at there house. So tonight, we get a real American Thanksgiving meal with Pies, Turkey, real mashed potatoes, and rolls! I'm so excited for it. I remember last year when I was in Rangsit, we got to go eat dinner at a members house and it was amazing. This is one reason why I'm glad I'm still in Bangkok right now. Up country they don't get this.
Yesterday we had Zone Conference where we were visited by one of the members of the Quorum of the 70. Elder Pratt who is the South Asia Area President came and talked with us and it was way good! He talked about true repentance and how it is much more then just stopping sinning. He talked about how it is a change of heart and attitude. Trying to become more Christlike is also a form of repentance. Trying to have more love, faith, patience, charity and all those qualities is repenting. It helped open up my mind to repentance and what it really means. It was really good!
Well I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I got the package you send with all the letters you wrote me. I think that will be my favorite part of the whole package! I haven't opened any of the presents yet but the think the thing I was most interested in was the cards. Last night as I was reading them, I just couldn't stop smiling! Thank you so much for writing them for me! I miss you all and love you so much! Ill talk to you next week!

Elder Olsen

2009-11-18T08:18:00.001-08:00

2009-11-18T06:48:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!
So Its been my first week with my Greenie. His name is Elder Mitchell. He is from Washington State and he is a way good missionary! Its been fun being a trainer because he is experiencing everything for the first time. Sometimes I forget that he is a New Missionary and he still doesn't know whats going on and I just go on doing everything as normal. He says Thai food is very spicy but I don't see it. Thai food is Thai food, its just delicious! Not spicy. The first couple of day's he has been pretty tired trying to adjust to the new schedule of working but he is doing really good. Today for his first Preparation Day, we took him to the Crocodile Farm and Zoo to kind of set the tone for all the sweet things that he is going to see on his mission. The zoos here in Thailand are a lot different then the zoos in America. There are no standards and rules for doing things. You can go right into the cages with a lot of the animals. We took some pictures with some crocodiles, tigers, monkeys, and elephants and it was all acceptable! It was a fun day.
Our area has been doing pretty good lately. we are planing on having 2 investigators baptized next month. Pop and Tig are planning to being baptized on the same day. They have been a blessing for us in this area. When I first got here to this area, it was hard! Not much was going on. we had 0 investigators, but with a lot of hard work and prayer, we have been able to see a lot of progression and change here. Now our days are full of lessons with investigators. We have truly seen miracles here and I'm way grateful for the chance I've had to serve here. Ive been here for 5 months and haven't seen any baptisms of our own, only from the Sisters, but in a couple of weeks, seeing Tig and Pop getting baptized, will make all the time Ive spent here worth it!

Steve

2009-11-18T06:29:00.000-08:00

2009-11-11T17:22:00.004-08:00

Hey everyone!
So another Moves period has come and gone. I can't believe it’s already been 6 weeks! I thought I was going to move this week at Moves Meeting because I have been in Bangna for 4 and half months now and that’s about average for an area. I thought Elder Kongla would stay here and get a new companion but I prophesied wrong! I got a call from the Mission President that I wasn't really expecting. He called me and asked me to be a trainer. That means Elder Kongla is moving after being here for only 6 weeks and I will be here for another 6 weeks. I'm excited though. It will be fun to get a Greenie missionary. It will feel like being a greenie all over again! It will be sad to see my Thai District broken up though. We even went out and made a District shirt together! What we did is we went to a shirt screening place and drew out a pattern for them to put on our shirts and what we did was we drew a picture of 4 sheep, 3 black and 1 white and put our names above the sheep. I was the white one and everyone else was a black sheep. Thai missionaries are rare here and usually there will be only 1 Thai missionary in a district and they usually can’t speak English all that well so it kind of makes them the black sheep. But in my case, I am in a white sheep in a district of black so we had to make a shirt of it! It’s a way cool shirt. I feel like my Thai ability has sky rocketed being in this district. It has helped me be more confident with everything I say. I feel if there is anything I want to say I can say it. Also, my accent has gotten a lot clearer. It’s been a big blessing being in this district. Unfortunately, it’s at an end but it’s OK. It will be fun being a trainer.

Last week we went to Ayuthaya and went sightseeing to the ancient Temples of Thailand. The Temple that is in the pictures is the Temple that Mortal Combat was filmed at. It was really fun!

Things are going well here. We are having fun! I'm excited to get my Greenie tomorrow! It will be fun training him! I love you all and thank you for all your emails and comments and everything! Talk to you next week!

Steve

2009-11-11T17:22:00.003-08:00

2009-11-11T17:22:00.001-08:00

2009-11-11T17:14:00.000-08:00

2009-11-05T16:37:00.000-08:00

2009-11-04T08:22:00.000-08:00

Today, we have a zone activity-we're going ice skating! Ice skating is a special treat here in Thailand - I'm excited, it's going to be a lot of fun.
Monday was a lot of fun-it was a Thai holiday called ลอยกระทง Loy Krathong. This is a special holiday where they have little (or big) items shaped like a lotus flower that have a candle in the middle and they set them in the rivers and let them float away. A lot are made out of banana leaves and have thick candles so they burn for a long time. They also have lanterns called โคม that they release in the sky (see pictures) that slowly float away. We set off 2 lanterns at the church with some members-Brother Noy and Sister May (recent converts-also recently married), Brother Ronny (translates conference and is Branch Mission Leader), and Brother Dawm (who is entering the mission December 23 Yay!).

2009-11-01T11:08:00.001-08:00

2009-11-01T10:51:00.000-08:00

2009-11-01T10:49:00.000-08:00

2009-11-01T10:47:00.000-08:00

2009-11-01T10:43:00.000-08:00

2009-10-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

2009-10-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

2009-10-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

2009-10-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

2009-10-28T10:15:00.000-07:00

2009-10-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

2009-10-28T06:42:00.000-07:00

Hey,
We have a new investigator that I want to tell you guys about. His name is Pop and we found him through our English Program and he has truly been prepared! After our English program for about the last 20 minutes, we talk about our church and invite people to come and learn with us if they're interested. Last week, we talked about the love of God and how we are all children of Him. After we had closed the lesson and were putting away the chairs, this 19 year old kid came up to us and said, "Elder, I want to know about God's Love. I want to know more about what you teach. I'm free tomorrow if you can meet." I was blown away! I've never had anyone come up to me and say that they want to learn more like that! I told him for sure! So we set up a time and the next day we went and met him at the church and he started telling us about himself and he has a hard history! His parents are separated and pretty much abandoned him and he has been living on his own since he was 15. He has been totally lacking love in his life so when we talked about the love of God, he got excited and wanted to know more! After we taught him more about God, he told us that he felt really good and warm coming here to church and meeting with us. It makes him want to come back! We invited him to church on Sunday and he said for sure he would be there! He came on Sunday and it was an awesome experience for him because there was also a baptism we had on Sunday so he was able to see how it was. He asked us how long he had to learn until he could be baptized as well! We said not long! We then set a date for him to be baptized in 6 weeks and he was been way excited about it. We have only been teaching him for a week and he has been amazing! I have a feeling that he will for sure be baptized and be an awesome member. Having God in his life will have an amazing influence in his life! I'm way excited to see how it end up!

Steve

2009-10-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

FLOODING IN BANGKOK

2009-10-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

2009-10-21T06:10:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
So I just got to say thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the letters you guys send. They probably help me more then you think! I love getting them. Also Baylee! Thank you so much for the 2 letters you sent! I got both of them by the way. I was way surprised when I got a letter from you! Thank you so much! I was so happy to get them! I will write you back for sure, don't worry.
So there has been major storms coming and going here in Thailand. The streets in my area have been completely flooded. Apparently there was a huge storm that hit Laos and we are getting some of the affects from it. The other day it started raining at about 7 o'clock at night and it didn't stop raining until about 10 o'clock in the morning the next day. There were parts of the city that we couldn't go because the water from the flooding was up to our waist! I have never seen it so bad! We took a taxi to try and go find an investigator and that didn't work so well...Every way we went was flooded and the only way out was to go through the water. It was like our taxi turned into a boat and our boat had a leak. As we were going through the water, water started coming into the taxi! I couldn't put my feet down because it would have come up past my ankles. I think we ruined his car by going on this adventure. I felt kind of bad. We didn't even get to our investigator's house because the roads were flooded too bad. We spent most of the day on our bikes riding from canceled appointment to canceled appointment, trying to keep our legs out of the water. We did pretty good for a while but then we came to a road were it was just not possible. The water was way too deep and we had to go through it! Once into it my bike soon disappeared under the water and all that was seen were my handle bars. It was quite the ride. I was disappointed because for most of the day I had stayed dry! After that road it didn't matter anymore. We just rode wild! It was a lot more fun that way anyway. At the day's end, we looked back on the day's accomplishments and say that we were able to achieve absolutely nothing! We weren't able to get any work done because of the "Mother Storm". That's what I call it because following that storm, many other little ones came as well. It's rained everyday for the past week. It's even raining right now! It makes working hard but we are still getting it done. Our golden investigator Tig was suppose to be getting baptized this weekend but he said he just isn't ready. I don't know how to help him because he says he doesn't have any concerns but if that was the case he would be getting baptized! He knows it's true and has an amazing testimony. This Sunday, there is another investigator getting baptized and Tig should be going to it so hopefully it will help him see that there's nothing to worry about. I'm not to worried though. He will be baptized in the end.
Well I love you guys but I got to go!
Steve

2009-10-20T21:22:00.001-07:00

Dear Elder Olsen
You Mom said that you never get any mail. I told her you probably mean just your immediate family (parents and sibs) who aren't sending mail because I've sent you nearly 40 (forty) letters to date. Baylee has mailed you two recently. Hope you have been getting them.
We had a great time in Disney-World, with Ron, Karlene and kids. We all signed a post card and mailed it to you.
We LOVE reading your blog and hearing about your mission, and looking at your pictures, etc. Also we continue to enjoying your singing on the CD your parents gave us. LOVE listening to it - it is my favorite music to listen to. Makes me miss you more though.
Winter is approaching - snow in the mountains.
Love - Grandma & Grandpa

October14, 2009

2009-10-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

Hey,
So Halloween is coming around right? There is no sign of it here. They don't celebrate it here. There are maybe a couple places at the major malls that will have a Halloween display or two but nothing other then that. They will put it up to embrace our American culture because there will be a lot of Americans that go to those places. But they don't celebrate it here.
So concerning that lesson that you will have to teach about goals and not retiring from the church. I've given a District Meeting on setting goals and how important it is to our everyday lives but for me it was being based on the lives of being a missionary so I don't really have much that would be good. In Preach My Gospel there is a really good quote on setting goals from one of the General Authorities that I really like. Its in Chapter 8 under Setting Goals. If you have a Preach My Gospel at home, you might want to check it out. Preach My Gospel is the ultimate resource manual for teaching! So things are going well with my new companion. He is a way hard working missionary. Sometimes it gets tiring speaking Thai 24/7 but its helping me grow. English Class is a lot harder now because I teach a class of 30-40 people completely by myself. It's ok though. It helps find investigators.
Well I love you Dad! Thanks for all the emails and all your support!

Steve

2009-10-14T08:03:00.000-07:00

2009-10-07T08:32:00.000-07:00

Hey!
So Moves Meeting was last Thursday and I have a new companion. He's Thai! His name is Elder Kongla. (He says hi by the way) He has been a missionary for 6 months now and is way good. I also have 2 new Sisters in my District who are also Thai. It makes me the only White guy in my District and I'm the only one that can speak English so that means I have to speak nothing but Thai for the next 6-12 weeks. This will sure give me the chance to get better at the language! Elder McCoy moved over to an area in Bangkok called Dindaeng and he is companions with an Elder that's in my group from the MTC! He was a little bummed that he didn't get out of Bangkok.
This Friday I will have hit my 1 year and 6 month mark as a missionary! I'm 3/4 the way done with this adventure! Its gone by pretty fast. Well I don't have to much this week because we have just had a lot of meeting the past week with Moves Meeting. But I love you guys and I thank you for all your support and everything you do! You guys are always in my prays!

Love,
Steve

2009-09-30T06:22:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,
So tomorrow is Moves Meeting and Elder McCoy is moving. Actually out of my whole district, I am the only one staying! They are whitewashing the Sisters area. It’s going to be weird to get an entirely new district! But it will be cool. It’s been a fun ride here with Elder McCoy. I'm glad we were able to be companions! I learned a lot from him.
So this past week we have been pretty busy! Last week on Wednesday we had to go to the mission office because there was an Elder that comes down from the north that had to have surgery on Saturday and we were chosen to be the ones that watched over him until that day. So all of last weekend we were at the hospital for consultations and appointments for the surgery. After that was over, we then had to help the Sisters in our area move houses. They live in a house that was a lot like the house I lived in, in my first area. So we helped them clean their new place and move everything over there! It’s been really busy and we haven't been able to get much work done and having Moves Meeting tomorrow makes it so even more work gets lost! But all is well. I love you guys and I hope to hear from some of you! Maybe...talk to you later!

Steve

September 23, 2009

2009-09-23T06:26:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,
today I had to go and renew my visa in downtown Bangkok and everyone from my MTC group had to go as well. It was the first time since we left the MTC that we were all back together and it might be the last time before we go home so we had to celebrate this special occasion by eating at the tallest building in Thailand: Baiyoke Tower. We got some pretty good pictures from it so that’s what those are. (There’s a picture of Elder McCoy and I with a tower made out of straws. It has nothing to do with what I'm talking about but it was cool because we had a competition at a Zone Meeting to see who could make the Highest, most durable tower out of straws and our District won! So that’s why I sent it...ha-ha) but it was fun to see each other today and it was weird to think how far we have come since our MTC days. It didn't seem like it was that long ago that we were sucking Jello shots off of our trays in the MTC cafeteria and throwing hacky sacks down the halls of our dorm at each other! Thinking back on those memories helped me realize how much fun we had at the MTC. I have nothing but good memories from it! Jason you don't know what you're talking about when you said the MTC was terrible! It was a blast for us!
Well I don't have too much for this week. It was just another average week. Our investigator Tig is doing awesome! He has read up till Helaman in the Book of Mormon now and is just waiting for us to finish teaching all the lessons so he can get baptized! He has been awesome to teach because he has just been ready for this!
Elder McCoy and I are doing well. We have Moves Meeting next Thursday and one of us might move so I'm not sure how much longer we will be together. If I move, I hope I get the chance to go back up country. This is my 3rd area in Bangkok and usually people aren't in Bangkok for this long. So hopefully I get to go up north if I move!
Well I love you guys! I hope all is well and thank you all for the emails you have been sending! I love it!

Steve

September 16, 2009

2009-09-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

Hey,
Thanks for the email Mom. Tell everyone that says my mission is going by slow that before they know it I will be home! I only have a little over 7 months left. But sometimes I feel the same. Sometimes I feel like my mission has been going by slow and I feel like I have been a missionary forever! But then when I look back on certain days of when I was a Greenie, it feels like it was just yesterday but it was really over a year ago! So I guess sometimes it depends. But its been good. I definitely don't regret any second of it!
Yeah that is sad to hear about Oreo having to be put down. I was wondering when I left if Oreo was still going to be around when I get back. I guess not. Its OK though, she was old! Well Mom, I love getting your emails and updates on stuff that's going on back at home. Though, Spencer gets a lot more updates on whats going on then I do. He tells me stuff that I have had no idea was going on! Like Margret updates him very well on things going on in the ward and just random stuff. That information is valuable for a missionary! Just to let you know...Well I love you Mom!
Steve

9-9-9

2009-09-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

Hey Dad,
Oh my heck! I cant believe that BYU pulled the upset!! That is awesome! Ahhh! Why cant I be there for it! This is probably what kills me the most. I miss football...You have to do what you did last year by sending me the BYU news feed from the Games. Also if there is any ESPN stuff about it, you can send that as well. The news of the BYU game is the talk of the mission right now. Yesterday we went to the office for interviews with the Mission President and that's all everyone was talking about! We were all dying. So do they look good? Do you think they are finally good enough to go far this year? I know its probably early to say but still...what are your thoughts?

Steve

9-9-9

2009-09-09T08:05:00.000-07:00

Hey!
We have a golden investigator right now. It’s the guy that I told you about, Big. I came to find out that his name isn't really Big...It's Tig. I have been saying it wrong! We took a member to help us teach him and she asked him what his name was and he said very clearly that his name was Tig. I felt kind of dumb when I found out it wasn’t Big...But anyways, the reason why he is so golden is because we have only been teaching him for 2 weeks and he has already read all the way till Alma chapter 5! He says he takes the Book of Mormon with him everywhere he goes and whenever he has free time, he opens it and reads it. It's amazing! I have never met anyone who was so determined to read! It makes teaching him way easy because the stuff we teach, he already kind of knows about it! The other day we taught him about repentance and how we can be forgiven of our sins and at first he was a little worried. He was excited about the idea of being able to be forgiven of the things that he has done but he is worried that he might sin again and on his own, he won’t have enough strength. So we shared Alma 26:12 with him and told him if he places his trust in God, he won’t have anything to worry about! So I asked him if he could do it and with a smile on his face he said, "Yeah, I can do it." We left the appointment and left the commitment to start repenting of his sins and to continue that pattern of repentance throughout all of his life. He was excited to start!
Yesterday, we had a dinner appointment at the Bishop's house and after it was over and we were walking home, we got a call from Tig. He said he had a concern that he wanted to talk about. I said ok, let’s talk! He said he sinned and he felt bad. He went on and told me what he did and what it was was he had lied to someone at work and felt guilty. So I asked him what he felt he should do and he said, "Well I prayed to God and told him I felt bad and I asked for forgiveness." I said, "ok good, what else do you think you should do?" "Well, I was thinking I need to go and apologized to the person and try and fix what I did." He said. I told him that was exactly right! He then thanked me for helping him and then hung up. I was way impressed with him! He had done something as little as a lie and felt terrible about it and knew he had to repent of it so he called us to make sure he was going to do it right. I couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the night! He has definitely been prepared to receive the Gospel and he was just waiting for us to walk up and talk to him. He came to church last Sunday and he said he felt really good when he came. He loved that everyone seemed to be best friends with each other and just a big family. He said he is excited to get to know everyone and be a part of it! These are the type of people that make every second of the hours we spend inviting and getting rejected worth it. These are the type of people that make any thoughts of wanting to be anywhere else disappears!
Well I got to go. I love you guys!

Steve

September 1, 2009

2009-09-02T08:18:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
Yesterday we went to a hospital to go and do some service and it was way fun! It was about 11 a.m. and during the day there is nothing to really do. Everyone is at work! So we decided to head over to the nearest hospital and do volunteer work. We got there and it was more like the employees were serving us then us serving them. They took us on a tour of the hospital and they showed us everything! We even got to go into room that I don't think normal people are allowed to go in. I learned something interesting when we went into the birth room, yeah...they took us there too, I felt weird...But apparently its bad luck to call a baby cute. If you think a baby is cute you have to say it’s ugly! We have a Thai missionary in our district and when we went to the birth room she stopped to look at some of the babies and she told the mother that her baby was so ugly! I thought whoa whoa! Well yeah it’s not the best looking kid but you don't have to let the mother know! Later I asked her why she said such harsh things! and she started laughing...She said if you say a baby is cute then it will curse them in the future and when they are older, they won’t be good looking. So you have to say they are ugly and by saying that, it's a compliment to the mother. I thought how bizarre that is! That doesn't make sense at all...But hey, its Thai culture. So continuing the tour of the hospital, they took us to the Surgery Room and showed us how things worked. Then they said that at 1 o'clock, there was going to be a surgery taking place and they asked if we wanted to watch it! I thought...can we do that?! Everyone was like yeah! Let’s do it! But I was a little unsure...I don't like watching surgeries...I remember when I was little; Mike and I would always find them on TV and watch them. I don't know why we did this because we both hated it and it grossed us out! Now I was put with the same situation where I was offered to watch again. I kept saying no but everyone else kept saying yes! I didn't want to look like a weenie so I had to give in and say ok. They got us all dressed up in these nurses’ closes and sent us in. The whole time I was thinking how stupid this was that we were watching! Why would anyone want to watch a surgery! Its torture to your eyes! What had happened was this kid ran into a tree somehow and broke his arm and they had to get in there and put it back into place. The X-ray looked pretty cool, the surgery didn’t though...I was holding my mouth the entire time thinking why am I watching! Turn away! But I couldn't...I was intrigued. They were shoving clamps, scissors and all sorts of tools in there. At one point they even took a power drill to his arm! I'm not sure what that was for. But I was cringing the entire time. I didn't like it! In the end I was pretty proud of myself for being able to watch the whole thing. I wouldn't choose to watch it again though. This experience helped me to realize that I could never be a Surgeon. I wouldn't be able to handle it.
Once the surgery was over, it was time to go home and we ended up not getting to do too much. We sent like 3 people up the Delivery Room and that was about it. It was fun though! Good experience.
Well I got to go now, I love you all!

Steve

Bangnaa Ward House

2009-08-28T22:34:00.000-07:00

Aug 28, 2009

2009-08-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

Aug 28, 2009

2009-08-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

Hey!
I'm really getting excited about our area right now because its starting to pick up! We have had to go through a lot of bad investigators to finally find some good ones. But the ones we have I feel good about. Yesterday we taught 2 new investigators that are way determined to learn about our church. The first one we taught, his name is Big. He was a referral for the Zone Leaders and they invited him on the Book of Mormon and actually gave him one. Today when we asked him if he had been reading he said yeah, all the way up till 2 Nephi 26! I thought that was amazing! He has only had the book for a couple days! We started asking him about himself and he said he has a lot of siblings but only 1 is still alive. The rest of them, including his Dad, died from HIV and he has just been completely devastated from it. He misses them a lot! With finding this out, we changed our lesson plan from the Restoration to the Plan of Salvation and told him that he was going to be able to see his family again. When we told him this, he smiled and you could see in his eyes that he was thinking: What?! Really?! We taught him how the Plan of Salvation works and what he needed to do to be able to see his family again. We taught about baptism and how it's an ordinance that we have to do to be able to be cleansed from sin and live with our families forever. We asked him if it would be something that he wanted to do and he said yeah! So we set a date with him to be baptized in a little over a month! This guy is amazing and it shows that he has definitely been prepared. Later on in the evening we taught another new investigator named เดือน, which means month, and we taught him a quick Restoration lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon and it went well! In the end we asked if he would pray for us and he said of coarse! and he gave an amazing pray. Afterward he said he felt really good and peaceful which is always a good sign. When we asked to see him again he said he had a lot of stuff he had to do and he was going to be pretty busy. I thought, dang...there is goes...but then he said, so because I'm going to be kind of busy, could we only meet like twice a week? I was very thrown off! We said of coarse! That would be perfect!
Yesterday was an amazing day! It was definitely an answer to our prays that we have been holding on to for the past month or so. I have been waiting for these 2 guys to come along and God has now sent them to us! Things are starting to turn around here in Bangna and I am so grateful for that!! It's been hard but it's been good. I love you guys and I hope all is going well.

Steve

P.S. Here are some pictures. The one of us as pirates was an activity we had for English Class. We had a treasure hunt to find true Happiness. Then the other picture is just of me walking down the streets of Bangna.

ELders Olsen and McCoy

2009-08-21T10:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, at 7:30, we had a Family Home Evening with Sister ต๋อย (Doy) and Brother ต้อม (Dawm) and their two daughters, ลูกหมี and พิน. Plus, they brought their neighbor, จ๋ม (Joom), who isn't a member, and her two kids. It was really fun-Elder Olsen and I prepared the lesson. Before we got into the activity, we explained the Godhead along with prayer to help Joom understand why we said an opening prayer and who it is we worship. Once the activity got started, it was out of control. Haha, just kidding, but it was really fun. We bought three sleeves of double stuffed Oreos and three packs of little square wafers and a jar of peanut butter. We split into 3 groups, one group had just wafers and Oreos, the next group had wafers, Oreos and a spoonful of peanut butter, and the next group got to use as much peanut butter as they wanted with their wafers and Oreos. With these ingredients, each group built houses. Once the groups were done, we read Helaman 5:12 and asked, "How do we build our foundation upon Christ?" The three specific answers we were looking for this activity were: 1. Pray 2. Read the Book of Mormon 3. Go to Church. We compared the three trays with houses on them to the lives of three different people. All 3 people pray every day but one day, as they are taking a test, their friend who didn't study asks to copy their paper. At this point, we shook all three trays just a little bit-nothing happened. Prayer helped all three overcome this temptation to cheat.
Only the people that have peanut butter on their house read every day. One day, their friends ask them to go drinking and party with them. We shake all three trays, this time a little harder, and the first house falls to pieces. He didn't read every day so he fell into temptation.
Only the home that got to use as much peanut butter as they wanted goes to church every week. The other home goes about once a month-but that's still good, right? One Sunday morning, their friend calls around 8 a.m. (right before church) and asks if he wants to go to the beach. We shake the remaining two trays and the one that used a spoonful of peanut butter falls apart.
Thus we see from this analogy-if we want to have a SOLID foundation (lots and lots of peanut butter) we must pray every day, study in the Book of Mormon regularly, and go to church every week. We committed Joom to give prayer a try and to start reading in the Book of Mormon.
Elder Spencer McCoy

Aug18, 2009

2009-08-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

Hey,
We had moves meeting last Thursday and I found out my last companion got sent home along with another Elder. It's sad to see Elders ruining their missions and being sent home because they were breaking rules. That would be the worst thing ever to be sent home off of your mission early because you were breaking rules. It would be way embarrassing! Now, unfortunately I'm still having to do damage control in the Ward and in the area. President Smith, our Mission President, said I'll probably be here in Bangna for a while to fix all that happened. Whenever something like this happens to an area it always takes a while to fix it and we are kind of feeling that right now. Hopefully it picks up. The good news is that I'm still with Elder McCoy!
To answer Whitney's question from a couple weeks ago, if we have an American companion that can speak English, do we speak English or Thai? For the most part, we speak English together. Its a lot easier and more natural. We do 2 days out of the week that we have to speak Thai though, Sundays and Tuesdays. Other than that, we usually speak English to each other. If we are with Thai people, we will speak Thai just so they don't think we are talking about them.
Well I love you all and I'm always thinking about you! Talk to you next week!
Steve

2009-08-12T07:33:00.000-07:00

Hey!
Our area has picked up a bit this week. We were able to find 7 new investigators through our efforts. One of which was a little like the story last week! Sunday came a long again and we were sitting at church waiting for it to start and a 20 year old kid came in wearing a blue t-shirt. I thought to myself...he can't be a member, he looks confused. Maybe he is a friend of the sister's investigator. Of coarse I had to go talk to him to make sure and to my great pleasure and surprised, he wasn't! His name is Day and he had just moved down to Bangkok from up north about a month ago and he is Christian. When he saw our church on the street, he decided to come and see how it was. So we sat with him through church and talked to him a little bit about our church and at the end of church he said he has a lot of questions and wants to talk about them. With those great pleading words, we made an appointment to see him another day and Elder McCoy and I jumped for joy! The Sisters were way jealous. They teased us saying we don't even have to go out and work, all we have to do is sit at the church and people will come to us! Ha ha if only that was true...So right now our investigator pool is picking back up. We still got a lot of crazies but hopefully we can sieve them out. I love you guys and I hope to hear from some of you soon!

Steve

2009-08-05T09:23:00.000-07:00

Hey!
We have been really struggling to find investigators here in Bangna. Building an area from nothing isn't very easy! Any investigators we find from inviting aren't quality investigators. They're flaky, not very interested and a lot of the times they are crazy. So everyone one new that we have been finding, doesn't last very long. But I feel like we have been diligently working hard and trying to find people to teach and I feel we have been blessed for it. On Sunday after church as we were about to leave, a security guard from an apartment complex came riding in on his bike and told us he wanted to know about our church! I thought, great! lets sit down and talk. But he said he had no time that day and he would be back on Monday to talk to us again. With saying only those few words he turned his bike around and started peddling off. I hurried and tried to get his name and information before he left but he just said he would be back tomorrow and talk. Without getting any information from this man, we just stood there no better off then 5 minutes before he came. We had no name, no number, and no appointment to meet him again. I was very confused with this guy and in the end, Elder McCoy and I just agreed that he was crazy...so we just shrugged it off and forgot about it going on with our day. Then Monday came around and we had District Meeting at the church with the Sisters and once that was done, Elder McCoy and I sat and contemplated on what we wanted to do for the next 5 hours because we were completely free! We had planned to invite but we were getting a little tired of it. So we decided to go drop our stuff off at home and then do some more thinking. On the way home, as we were biking, I saw a sign making shop and instantly pulled over! We had been planning on making a sign to advertise our English Class and stick it on the church to try and get more English students so I had the thought, lets do that right now. We already had to pattern, we just needed to print it. So we went into the shop and ordered the sign but we weren't sure of the dimensions of the sign so we borrowed the guys measuring tape and headed back to the church to get the measurements. While we were measuring the wall and talking about how big we wanted to sign, a man came riding up to us on his bike and said, "I'm back, now how do I sign up to be a member at your church?" I was a little thrown off guard and I thought, who is this guy? After talking to him for a little bit I realized it was that security guard from they day before! He really did come back! I thought, if we weren't here right now we would have missed him and who knows if we would have been able to find him again! So we made an appointment to meet him again after talking to him for a little while and we got his name and number. His name is Sampaw and he seems really solid! We were able to meet with him again yesterday and we told him how he could sign up to be a member, by being baptized! and he said ok, so we set a date with him to be baptized and he said he would come to church on Sunday as well! It has been an answer to our prayers and it has been another witness to me that Christ is really leading this work. He lead us to that sign shop so we would go back to the church and meet this guy. Its been amazing and I'm he is there next to us because we would be know where if he wasn't here!
Well I love you guys! I hope all is going good at home! I love you!

Steve

2009-07-30T19:57:00.000-07:00

Elder Olsen:

Hey everyone,How are you all this week? For myself, I have had a very interesting week so far. On Monday we went to the Mission Office for interviews and unfortunately I have been sitting in the dark for the past 2 weeks. My new companion wasn't doing the best of things and was breaking some rules behind my back and somehow President Smith found out and let me know of what had been going on. We had to have an emergency transfer that day. We headed back home and my companion packed and we took him to a different area where I went to pick up my new compaion and brought him back and you will never guess who my new companion is?! ELDER MCCOY!! We went to the area where my companion was being dropped off and I was shocked to see who my new companion was!! What are the chances that 2 people from the same Ward would get the same mission call at the same time and then for those 2 people to be companions while out there!! I'm so excited to be his companion. Once we got put together President Smith interviewed us and told us what was up and has entrusted us to fix the problem that has just occured here in Bangna. Its going to be a blast working here with him! I still cant believe we are companions! I somehow knew one day we would be companions though. I guess that feeling was real! So that the big news for the week, I got to go but I love you all!
Steve

Elder McCoy:

Well, this is going to be quite a surprise, but no need to panic, run around screaming, or throwing any parties, okay?This past week (Monday), we received a phone call right after district meeting at the Ayutthaya house. The phone call happened to be from President Smith. He said there was an urgent situation and he needed my help to solve it. I asked, "How can I help solve the problem?" He said, "Pack your bags right now." Well, that was quite a shock. But, no questions asked, I packed my bags in 45 minutes and shortly after, none other than yours truly, Elder Olsen, was at our doorstep dropping off his companion and picking me up. I don't know the whole story, all I know is that I am now in Bangnaa, serving as companions with my next door neighbor! Who would have thought, in all the world, two people from the same ward get called to the same mission and end up being companions? My head is still spinning at the thought. The only thing I know is that there is no bar here in Bangnaa. So President Smith has entrusted us with the responsibility to raise the bar once again.
Elder Spencer McCoy

2009-07-23T20:47:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
Last Friday I had an adventure and the adventure last until the end of the month. On Friday we went out inviting to try and find some investigators and we went down this little road and I had a run down with a species that hates missionaries more then anything else, Dogs... usually we will go down a street and every dog on the street will come running out to bark at us and run after us. This has become a usually thing and I don't think to much of it anymore when it happens but on Friday a dog crossed the line. There is a mutual understanding between us missionaries and dogs, we don't kick, they don't bite. But on Friday, our understanding was broken! I was just casually riding my bike and a dog come walking beside me and thought hey, I want some white meat! and it decided to take a taste and it bit me on the leg! I was so shocked that this happened that I jerked my leg away and when I did, my knee flew up and slammed against my handle bar and made my bike go all screwy almost sending me to the ground. Once I regained my composure I looked back to see the dog casually walking back to its house being fully satisfied with what it had just done. I was not to happy with that dog...I looked down to see the damage of my bit and my pants had a huge hole in them. I rolled up my pant leg to see the bit and I was bleeding out of the bit and around it was bruised over in the size of a baseball. There wasn't a ton of blood but it was enough that I didn't like it. I called Sister Smith and asked her what to do and she said needed to go to the hospital so we canceled all other appointments we had for the day and headed downtown to Bangkok General to have them check out my bite. Once we got down there they said yeah...your going to have to get rabbie shots. I was fine with that because I would rather not die and I hear there has never been a case where somebody had survived from getting rabbies. So gladly I took them. In that one day I got 5 shots but I'm still not done. Its a series of 5 shots so throughout the month I have to go back and get them all. Its been a blast! Tomorrow I go in for my third shot of the series. I'm not too upset because well every missionary needs to get bit at least once while on hims mission. Its part of the fun and the experience! But I'm doing good, I haven't been excessively drueling and I haven't grown a tail so I think the medicine is working. Well I love you all and I hope all is well at home. I love you guys!

Steve

2009-07-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

Hey!
So Im in my new area now, I moved back to Bangkok ...:( I'm in a city called Bangna. Its right next to the downtown part of Bangkok . I was really hoping I wasnt going to come back to Bangkok but at the same time I had a feeling that I was coming back down. The North was so much better. I could actually breath! Haha but Bangkok is good, the work is a lot easier here because of all the people. But my new companions name is Elder Correa. He is a surfer from Florida and he has also lived in Hawaii . He is pretty sweet, we are having fun so far. Also his Dad is a retired NFL football player. His Dad played for Miami ! That was pretty cool to find out.
So I'm now living in a 5 stories, 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms house. We don't even use half of the house! There is only 2 people living in it and its pretty big! Unfortunatelly there is only 1 air conditioning in the whole house, we have to have fans everywhere. It makes it hard for studying because our papers are always flying around. haha, But its a good house. The area I'm in is a little dry and doesnt have to much going on so I'm going to have my work cut out for me here. It will be great though. I'm still the District Leader and in Bangna there are 2 sisters aswell so now Ill finally have more then 2 people at my District Meetings! But I'm excited to be here in Bangna, it has good potential to be a good area, we just have to get it going!
Well I got to go, I love you all!
Steve

2009-07-11T22:08:00.001-07:00

Sorry I didn't get an email sent off last week. Myldsmail.net is the worst email user ever! It deleted my email that took about 30 minutes to write. So I was a little frustrated and didn't have time to write a new one. So Ill tell you about the picture in this email.
> The other week had 2 more of our investigators baptized. Their names are Gan and Big. Gan is the Girl and Big is the guy. It was a really good baptism. Big has been preparing for this day for the last 6 months. He has had a problem with work and not being able to go to church on Sunday because of it. But we finally got him to talk to his boss and get Sunday off and he has gone ever sense! We had trouble finding him someone to baptize him though because he didn't just want anyone to do it. It had to be someone who he thought was spiritually close to God. So he picked the District President to just so happened to be in our Branch. But unfortunately he was going to be out of town the week of his baptism. So he had to pick someone else but could make up his mind. He asked if we could do it but we told him we wanted a member to do it instead. It was a huge dramatic event picking someone! So we told him that the 1st counselor in the Mission Presidency is also in our Branch and he could do it and he said OK! I think he didn't want anyone that didn't have the position of President to baptize him. Luckily Gan didn't care who baptized her so we just said hey President Samad is baptizing Big, do you want him to baptize you to? She said sure, why not! So that all worked out and the baptisms went well up until Gan had to bear her testimony in front of everyone. Usually after a person gets baptized, they will go up and share their testimony or something quick and Gan was terrified out of her mind! Her testimony reminded me of when I was back in Primary and how little 7 or 8 year old would give a talk. When it was Gan's turn to go up, she stood up and stared straight at her Mom and waited for her to come up to the stand with her. Once up there, they both stood at the pulpit and Gaw, Gan's Mom, told her everything to say. I felt a little embarrassed because there was our 14 year old investigator sharing her testimony like a Primary kid. Haha it was kind of funny because she was SO scared when it wasn't even a big. But she got through it and it ending really good. Elder Young shared an amazing arrangement on the piano of If You Could Hie To Kolob and Praise to the Man. Everyone was mesmerized at how good it was! Its nice having him around ha ha.
Well I got to go. I love you all!

Steve

2009-07-10T08:00:00.001-07:00

Hey,
Tomorrow we have Moves Meeting and yesterday we found out that I am moving out of KhonKaen. It feels like I just got here but Ive been here for 4 and a half months! Ive been here just as long as any of my other areas but this area seemed like it went by a lot faster. But it will be fun to move to a different area. Ill miss this place though. I saw a lot of miracles and had a blast here!
Yesterday we had an activity where we went up a hiking trail called "Elephant Colored Rock" and it was so much fun! We haven't really seen mountains in a long time so being able to go up there was amazing! Ill send some pictures from the activity.
Well Today I don't have to much time to write much because I have to go home and pack for tomorrow. Next week Ill let you know where my new area is and all that good stuff but at least I hope you guys like the pictures this week! I love you all and Thanks for all your support!

Steve

2009-06-27T13:19:00.001-07:00

Hey Mom,
Yesterday, I got the CDs you sent. I still haven't had the chance to listen to them because I don't have a CD player but hopefully I’ll find a member that has a laptop that I can use to put it on my iPod. I'm way excited to listen to the CDs though! Thank you so much for sending those to me!
So you asked me if I like the fruit here in Thailand. Well yes I do! There is a lot of fruit here that they don't have in America. Soooo much! Like Jackfruit, that’s way good, rose apples, Sakia, there is a lot! The pineapple here is really good too. Also Guavas are amazing. I like it all.
For the service project last week we worked on building a Cemetery that President Dodge is funding. At least I think he is funding it. It’s the only Cemetery in Thailand. Usually when somebody dies, they just cremate the body, they don't bury them. So we worked on putting up a fence around the cemetery and that took pretty much the whole time. That was all we had time to do.
I love you Mom, Thanks for the email! I still haven't gotten the shirts. I should be getting those in 2 weeks when we have Moves Meeting.

Steve

2009-06-17T07:25:00.000-07:00

Hey,
So the other day the Zone Leaders come down to Khonkaen for switch offs and to interview 2 of our investigators for baptism and both Big and Gan passed their baptismal interviews so everything is up and running for two more baptisms this Sunday! We're way excited for them, and are so grateful to the Lord for his help also. Having four baptisms within one month is something very rare in Thailand and we know it couldn't have happened without His help. Also as we were on switch offs, Elder Spencer and I went and invited at a park near our house and as we were walking around we passed by this huge Buddhist temple and decided to stop by and see how it was and we had a run down with some Burmese Buddhist Monks. It was the battle of the religions! we didn't make any swift movements because we were out numbered and we were on there turf. So we decided to make friends with them instead! We said hi to them and then 2 of them came and stood right next to us as the other ones started taking pictures. I thought, wait a second! We are getting taken advantage of! They don't even talk to us but just come and start taking pictures of us...I felt like a tourist attraction! So we started talking to them and they were way suprised that we could speak Thai! They said they don't see white people a lot so they wanted to take pictures of us, so we said ok, but we want pictures too. Its not ever day you see a monk. Actually in Thailand you do...but I still wanted pictures! So we talked to a little and then parted ways. They were very nice people! I want one of their robs, they look way sweet and comfortable! Ha ha
So other news this week is zone conference. Usually, we have zone conference the first week of moves, but ths moves is different as we are doing a massive service project in Yasothon, so the date had to be moved to week three. Also, this is President Dodge's last zone conference as he and Sister Dodge are going home in three weeks so there is a lot of anticipation as to what this conference will be about. We leave tonight for Mahasarakham (a city about an hour away) where we will stay the night, then travel to Yasothon in the morning, give service, then go back to Roi Et where we'll have the actually meeting, spend the night again in Mahasarakham, then return to Khonkaen on Friday morning. It's going to be sweet.
So that's about it for the week. It was a good week and hopefully the rest of the week will be good as well! I love you guys!

Elder Olsen

ELDER OLSEN EATING A BUG

2009-06-11T21:09:00.001-07:00

2009-06-03T18:16:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

So last Thursday we went down to Bangkok for Moves Meeting and I went down because I had to renew my visa and that was a headache. Well not really, we just wasted time in a Taxi trying to drive around all of Bangkok trying to find the visa renewal place. We jumped in a taxi and told him were to go and he said he knew where it was but actually had no idea. So we drove around for about 2 hours trying to find it and we wasted good quality Bangkok time because after we renewed our visa we wanted to go to a market and buy 30 cent ties but because it took so long to find the place we didn't have enough time to go buy them and be back at the train station in time. So we missed out on it. It was ok though, only 6 more weeks until we get to go again...ha-ha. So when we were down in Bangkok, President Dodge asked everyone in the mission to fast last Sunday to try and up the ante of number of Baptisms around the mission for the next 6 weeks. We are getting a new mission President in a month and President Dodge doesn’t want us to get distracted. He wants us to still focus hard on getting baptisms so he called for a fast. So to start our fast, Saturday night we went to T-Bones Steak House. It’s an all you can eat Steak House Buffet and it only cost 109 Baht which is equal to 3 dollars! It would have been a sin for us not to have gone! So we got there and ate 2 plates of meat and potatoes, 1 plate of fruit and then a big bowl of ice cream. It was an excellent way to start a fast because after we were done, we didn't want to eat for another week we were so full! So we got home and started our fast and had no problem with the feeling of starvation then next day, it was great! Easiest fast I've ever had. So we had fasted that within the next 6 weeks we would be able to baptize 2 new people and as I was closing my fast on Sunday night, the phone rang in the middle of my prayer. I waited until I was done praying and then I called the person back and it was one of our investigators named Big. He has been an investigator ever sense I’ve been in Khon Kaen and he really wants to get baptized but can’t get off work on Sundays. We have had a lot of lessons with him to try and motivate him to talk to his boss about his situation but he just kept telling us he can’t do it and it won’t help. So we were about to give up and kind of let him go because he wasn't progressing but Sunday night when he called us changed all of that. He said that he had talked to his boss and he told us he wants to be baptized in 2 weeks because he can now come to church every Sunday! It was a complete answer to our prays and showed that God was responding to our fast. There was 1 of the baptisms. Then on Monday we went and taught Gan, the daughter of Gaw, one of our recent converts. She didn't get baptized with her mom because she felt she wasn't ready. So we have been working with her to help her feel ready and she has not wanted to accept a date but on Monday night we taught her about the Plan of Salvation and talked about Baptism and she said she was finally ready to be baptized. So we set a date to be baptized the same day as Big. There was number 2! It’s amazing how much power fasting and prayer has. Christ definitely leads this work and I have seen numerous times when you rely on the Lord, you WILL see miracles. This work is so wonderful and Christ is at the helm. I'm so grateful to be able to be a part of it! It has definitely changed my life! Well I got to go; I love you guys and want to thank you for all your amazing support! Steve

2009-05-27T15:53:00.000-07:00

2009-05-27T15:51:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
So Sunday we had an amazing baptism of a husband and wife here in Khon Kaen. Their names are A and Oo, easy to say right?! Ha-ha, they also have a son named Bank but he is 3 so he wasn't able to be baptized. They are the sweetest people! I was way happy to see them baptized and so was the Branch because the Khon Kaen Branch only has 2 families and everyone else is single. There are no strong foundations here so to see a strong family come in will help a lot! Their baptisms were really good, too. We had 2 members that helped us teach them and baptize them and Elder Young and I sang a musical number. We sang an arrangement to Nearer My God to Thee and it sounded pretty good. Not saying that I had anything to do with how it sounded because I didn't, Elder Young is an amazing singer and he made the song what is was. Luckily I have a companion that can sing really well!
So a little about the people we baptized...Oo works at the Post Office and is an amazing artist! A works with her parents at a restaurant and watches after their son Bank. Bank is a little boy that loves to run around and cause havoc! Luckily he a cute enough that nobody minds. But this family is great! They call me there second Dad. They say that parents are people that give you advice and teach you to be a good person and all that stuff. So because I taught them about the Gospel, they call me there second Dad! Ha-ha, I thought it was a little weird because they are like 10 years older than me but at the same time it was a pretty cool compliment! I have a feeling they will be great members!
So today Elder Young and I went and played with monkeys! It is the last week of the Transfer period and neither of us is moving so we decided to go do something fun. We hopped on a bus and went to the Monkey village! It was way fun. There were monkeys everywhere! They were pretty vicious as well! I almost got bit a couple times trying to feed them. Monkeys really do like Bananas! They can smell them when you have them and they will swing from every branch and every tree to get to you! When you pull out the bananas, you better start giving them out or your life could be in danger. You don't mess with monkeys when it comes to bananas! It was a lot of fun! We got some great pictures from it. I made a bargain with one of the monkeys to trade one of his bananas for a Book of Mormon...he accepted and we are going back to teach him next week! Ha-ha, Thailand is great! How many places can you go on your mission and play with monkeys, ride elephants, visit ancient Buddhist temples, or see some of the world’s most amazing waterfalls! I definitely lucked out by getting to come here.
Well I’ve got to go, I love you all and hope to hear from you all soon!

Steve

2009-05-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

2009-04-30T16:32:00.001-07:00

So the other day we had an awesome opportunity to do service at a members vineyard. We had called a couple members to go with us out to help this older member harvest rice. So we woke up early to go and help him and when we got there, he told us that there wasn't anymore rice to gather, he had done in all already. When I found out I was sad because I had never done it before and apparently harvesting rice is something that you have to do as a missionary! So I asked him if there was any left that I could do just so I could have the experience and he said yeah there is a little. So he took me and got me suited up for the job! First he brought out a pair of boots so I could go trudging in the mud but there was a problem. He is a Thai person, which means he has small feet and I have big feet...and so I looked at it and thought well, I got to try. So I squeezed me feet inside and you know I got them in but it was very tight and a little uncomfortable. But it was the only pair he had and I was determined to harvest some rice! So I dealt with it. Then he brought me out a hat, some gloves and a scythe to cut the rice. So now I was ready to go! So he took me to the field and showed me the rice he wanted me to cut and there were only 2 little bundles for me to gather...I felt jipped! But I went down and did it anyways and it took me all of 30 seconds to finish but that was enough because by this time my feet were dying! So I hurried and put down the rice, jumped out of the mud, ran back to my shoes and took off the boots. I didn't do it for very long but now I can say I have harvested rice! It was really fun! All the members that came were laughing and making fun of me while I was doing this because I had no idea what I was doing. They were mean to me...ha-ha but it was funny! But it was really fun helping him out in his vineyard.
But yeah that was the highlight of our week! But I got to go, I love you guys! Talk to you all later!

Steve

2009-04-22T15:04:00.000-07:00

Hey,
So this past week we have been working hard to get 4 of our investigators baptized and trying to work out there concerns. Some of there concerns are pretty big and some are really small and make me laugh a little bit. We have a 13 year old investigators, named Gan, she is the daughter of Gaw, abd she said she doesn't want to get baptized anymore because she doesn't want to get the Holy Ghost. I was very confused by this because I would suspect people would think the opposite! So I asked her why she didn't want to get the Holy Ghost and she told us that she didn't want it to be with her always because she is afraid of ghosts...lol, it showed us that she really didn't understand what the Holy Ghost is and what it means to have Him with us always. So we went on explaining what the Holy Ghost was for a little while but she still didn't want to get it...So we are still trying to work with her.
But we have a family that we are teaching right now and the husband is way funny. Whenever we give them homework to read or to pray or do whatever, he always calls me and tells me that he finished reading the chapter or that he prayed and then that's the end of the conversation and he said that's all he wanted to say. But then yesterday when he called to tell me he read, he asked me if I thought he was ready for Baptism and I said "I definitely think you are ready" and he said "really? good because I feel ready and I want to be baptized as soon as possible!" It was amazing to see the desire he had to be baptized and how willing he was to keep our commitments we give them so he could be baptized. He is going to be a sweet member and I'm way excited for him to be baptized!
But I've been having a lot of fun out here! Elder Young is an awesome companion and its been really fun out here! Well I hope all is going well at home and I miss you guys! Don't be afraid to write me! Ha ha Love you!

Steve

2009-04-17T09:31:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone! Sorry for the lateness of this e-mail. None of the Internet Cafes were open. Starting from Monday to Wednesday was the biggest Thai holiday of the year. Its called Songran or the Water Festival. What they do is for 3 days during the hotest time of the year, they have a huge water fight! People come out of their houses and fill the streets with squirt guns and buckets and just get eachother completely soaked! During this Festival, everything is pretty much closed and we weren't able to send email. We couldn't even work because nobody was free, inviting didn't work because people would just soak us with water or they were drunk...so we decided not to resist in trying to fight against the festival but to just embrace it and join them in playing! lol, So we had an activity on Monday with all the young single adults at the church and played games with water and then we went to the street and threw water at trucks driving by. People would get into the back of their trucks and fill barrels with water and throw it on people on the side of the road so then people on the side of the road would throw it back! so we did that for a while and that was fun and then we went to a street called Sticky Rice and thats where everyone in Khonkaen goes to celebrate Songran and there were people all over the steet and what they do is take baby powder and rub it all over your face. I'm not sure why they do it but everyone does it to everyone and so we got covered with baby powder and because we are white, we got it a lot worst then all the Thai people. Thais love White people so we got hit a lot with this powder! But you have to accept it or else they will get affended. But it was way fun! My legs and feet got pretty sunburned. I was able to wear shorts and flip flops for the first time in a year and wow my legs and feet were white! But its ok because there not white anymore, there now red!So Yesterday we had moves meeting and I got a new companion and I was called to the District Leader in KhonKaen. Its going to be fun! I'm excited for this moves because my new companion seems pretty fun! His name is Elder Young. He is from Colorado and has been out in Thailand for 6 months.Well I got to go. I love you all and thank you for all your prays and all your support! if you have any questions, fell free to ask! Talk to you later!
Elder Olsen

2009-04-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

Hey,
So last Sunday we had another baptism. We baptized this lady named Gaw. She has been amazing to teach. Whenever we ask her to do anything she would always say yes I will, I have too if I want to get baptized! It was awesome! Her daughter is also learning and getting ready to get baptized but is still afraid to do it. She is only 14 and is still unsure. But I feel she will get baptized soon as well. Right now we are working really hard with a couple other investigators to get them baptized. We have about 5 other people that are really close and should be getting baptized within the next month. Well that's our hope!
So tomorrow I hit my year mark as a missionary. Its weird to think Ive been a missionary for a year now! It goes by fast. I'm half way done! well the work is going good here. The work can be the same as it is in Bangkok if you let it be. There is definitely less people here but that should determine how hard to work and determine your success. If you work hard you can have the same success anywhere you are. People say that there are dead areas but there really is not. Its all on you and your willingness to work. But I'm having fun out here! This weekend is Conference for us, we watch it a week later because they have to translate it and send it to us. so that should be fun! Well i love you all!

Steve

2009-03-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

Hey!
So I've had some sweet encounters with some of the wild life here in the Eason. I'm no longer in the big city so there are a lot more animals and bugs everywhere. But last week at English class, we found a lizard in the bathroom, I don't know what its called in English but in Thai its called a Dookgae and every Thai person in Thailand are terrified of them! I think they are sweet looking! But apparently they're pretty vicious and if you get bit by it, its impossible to get its jaw open and I guess it hurts really bad. So we had to get this lizard out of the bathroom and we couldn't really chase it out and the only real way to get it out was by grabbing it. Everyone was to afraid to grab it with there bare hands so this 20 year old kid grabbed a pipe and tied a rope to it and made a noose at the end and after a while finally got it around its neck and we were able to take it outside. It looks like it may be dead hanging there but don't worry, we didn't kill it. Then this morning I had an encounter with a huge spider in the bathroom as I was showering. It scared me pretty good! It was pretty cool looking though. I'm just glad I didn't get bit! ha ha, maybe I could have turned into spiderman though...hmm...maybe I should have let it bite me...Well I guess its to late now! Its probably better that way anyways. Well its been fun so far up here! If anyone has any questions for me or anything, you are very welcome to write me!! ;) I love you all!

Steve

2009-03-11T15:39:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone,So I'm in my new area now. I'm in a city called KhonKaen. Its in the Eason which is in the Eastern part of thailand. I finally got out of Bangkok! I get to see what the rest of the country is like. But to get to Khonkaen we had to take a train up here and it took about 9 hours to get here! It was a long ride but it was sweet. I'm way excited to be serving up here. In this area of the country they speak Eason which is really really close to Laotion, sometimes I don't understand what people say but most of the time I can get the message. But Khonkaen is a big college town and it seems like its going to be fun here. The church is pretty nice except only 40 people go everyweek! How crazy is that! My first area had 100, then my second area had 60-70 and now there are only 40 going. There is a lot of work to do here. We don't have very many investigators which is to bad but we can get that up! But my new companions name is Elder Hunsaker. He seems really good! He is from Missouri. So in Khonkaen we ride our bikes everywhere. There are no taxis here like there are in Bangkok so we have to ride everywhere but its sweet! Its good to be outside and ride around, you get to talk to a lot more people that way! Well I don't have to much time right now I'll have to write more next week, I love you all! Steve

2009-03-06T14:36:00.000-08:00

Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 05:12:55 +0000

So This past Sunday we had 2 more of our investigators baptized! Its the 2 women in the middle. The younger one is a sister of a member and the other one is the mother of a member! The older woman was a golden investigator! We like didn't even have to teacher her much, she already knew it all! She told us before she started learning with us she would always read her daughter's Liahonas and learned pretty much everything from those! It was really easy teaching her. Then we got her soon to be son-in-law to baptized her (he isn't in the picture). Then the other woman was learning with us but started falling away and wouldn't ever meet with us about 3 months ago so we dropped her. Then one day we went to go teach Brother Rud and Sister Tik's house (sister Tik is this woman's sister) and Sister Ma'am (the woman that just got baptized) was there and was sitting in the background listening as we talked about the Plan of Salvation. but it was sweet to seem them both get baptized! We invited her to sit with us but she said no and then started walking around. Then when we got more into the lesson she came over and sat down with us just listening. It was really good because we hadn't seen her in like 2 months. But after we left that day, Sister Tik called us and told us that Sister Ma'am wanted to start learning again! So she then came to church that Sunday and we taught her afterward and talked about baptism and she said she wanted to be baptized still! so we set a date for the day after her birthday and finished teaching her everything and she pulled through and got baptized! It was amazing to see her finally go through with it!
> So tomorrow we have a transfer period and I'm moving areas and getting a new companion. Hopefully I will be going to a cool area and getting out of Bangkok! Ive been in Bangkok for half of my mission and breathing this pollution all day long can't be good for me health...its time to move up country! lol. Well I got to go, I love you all!

Steve