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
Monday, April 26, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
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
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
Monday, April 5, 2010
Chest Interptretation
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
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
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