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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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