Week 1

Week 1 is done! (SORRY I DONT HAVE VERY MUCH TIME ON THE COMP!) It has been quite a crazy week! I am so tired, it is nice to finally have a p-day so I can unpack, write some letters, and chill a little bit. It was so great to have Whit take me to lunch and go with me to the new missionary orientation. So life in the MTC. Pretty much it is non stop learning from 6:30am to 10:30pm. I have learned so much but I still feel a little inadequate and like I have soooo much more to learn. My comp is Sister Dunn who just graduate from BYU and is from Washington state. She is really sweet and we work well together. My other two roommmates who are also going to Temple Square are Sister Pua from Maui (so loud and hilarious) and Sister Rogers from England (its perfect because she is so fun but she keeps our crazy polynesian sister in line =) My district, who I am pretty much studying with all day long consists of us four Sisters and 4 Elders who are going to Cleveland, Ohio and 4 elders who are going to Independence, Missouri. We think we are pretty special since we are all going to places that are pretty significant in church history =) Seriously our distric is AMAZING. We are usually either studying really hard together or crying as we bare testimony but when we aren't doing that we are laughing hysterically and having such a good time. The Spirit is so strong here at the MTC. Not exaggerating I think we say at least 12 prayers a day...not to mention the 1000 I say on my own to help me personally. One thing my teacher said I need to work on is trying to not use teenage slang. haha. Right now I'm working on eliminating cool, crap, like, and awesome (awesome is okay in some cases...i just generally say it like a valley girl =) I don't use those in my lessons or anything, it's just general advice hahah. so hard. So there are 5 lessons and my comp and I have Lesson 1 down pretty well. It is basically Christ's ministry, The Great Apostasy, Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon in that lesson. So much information to share on the first visit! So we practiced with other companionships a few time then we went to this place where there are fake living rooms and volunteers that pretend to be investigators. We were told that our first time they would be really easy on us and pretty much just let us practice teaching since we were so nervous. Sister Dunn and I had this guy that was about our age that was SO mean to us. He just badgered us with questions and made us repeat everything we said. He also would never look us in the eye when we were sharing our testimonies. He told us he wouldn't read the Book of Mormon or go to church with us. You can imagine how difficult it would be to bring the spirit into a room like that and I felt so discouraged! When we came out our teacher asked if we were okay and I just started bawling! My teacher said he was so sorry and that they guy was such a jerk and he went and talked to the guy about doing that to us. Turns out our investigator was actually an MTC teacher that must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed. Honestly I think that Sis. Dunn and I have had by far the most positive feedback on our teaching from our teachers and others we've taught so I think that experience was to really challenge us to keep working harder and I have now seen it as a blessing. I know that there are people out there waiting for me to share the gospel with them and I am working as hard as I can to learn and have the Spirit with me so that when the time comes, I can be the servant the Lord needs me to be. I am so grateful for the blessings the gospel has brought to my life and I can't wait to bring others unto Christ! I love you all so very much! Sister Olsen Okay I'm going to write letters to those that sent me letters right after this and I get to write on Thanksgiving too! Thank you so much for the letters. They really are such a bright spot in my day! Mommy- will you send this to my sisters and to Dantyelle88@yahoo.com and allihey@gmail.com and lhansen5@gmail.com ??? You don't need to send it to anyone else...my letters will be more interesting for others to read once I'm out in the field I'm sure! Can whit please deliver me after Thanksgiving: Yellow cardigan Green short sleeve turtle neck curling iron blow dryer (mine broke) and my iPod stopped working but you don't have to worry about that at all. HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!