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

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

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

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!

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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!).