"I am called of God. My authority is above that of kings of the earth. By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my master and He has chosen me to represent Him--to stand in His place, to say and do what He Himself would say and do if He personally were ministering to the very people to whom He has sent me. My voice is His voice, and my acts are His acts; my doctrine is His doctrine.My Commission is to do what He wants done; To say what He wants said; to be a living modern witness in word and in deed of the divinity of his great and marvelous Latter-day work. How great is my calling!"
-Bruce R. McConkie

Monday, April 26, 2010

le printemps est deja la!

le printemps est deja la=the spring is already here!

it was such a great week! here are some of the highlights:

Sister Seube and I prayed for African French speakers and few minutes later we met a dad and his five daughters who recently moved here as refugees from the Congo. The dad spoke french but the little girls only know Swahili so we just played around and laughed trying to understand each other while Seube spoke to the dad. I LOVED it. They were so amazing and I am really happy that they get to start a new life with the gospel. They've seen pretty scary/sad things that I can't even imagine. I shared my testimony in English, Seube translated it to French, and the Dad translated to Swahili for the girls. It was a nice moment being able to be from totally different places but still have our love for God in common.

I really like to make phone calls in Spanish but I'm too scared to speak to people face-to-face, but Sister Seube speaks Spanish so we have been practicing together. In order to take Spanish tours you have to 'pass off' with the language coordinator which I've always been to afraid to do but Seube convinced me to do it =) And we both PASSED! haha ya i know I'm such a chicken to do it with only two weeks left in my mission =) Yesterday we took our first Spanish tour with a family from Ecuador. The grandma was just exclaiming the whole time,"estoy feliz feliz feliz" and "estoy llena del espiritu!!" I don't know why I was ever scared to speak to people in spanish; their hearts are so kind and receptive to the Spirit. It was awesome. They all accpeted to have the missionaries come teach them more.

On Sunday we were standing outside of the Tabernacle waiting for Music and the Spoken Word to get out and we said a little prayer to know who we should speak to when the people came flooding out. We said hi to a few people, then we were drawn to a 'young, cute mom in jeans' standing by herself. We went and said hi to her and asked how the choir was. She said she left her family at the hotel and came by herself, got a little lost, and ran into a 'really nice family' who showed her where to go. She said,"It turns out their Grandpa was one of your..uhhhh....what do you call it? Twelve Apostles?" haha, Elder Oaks was there so she got a really great seat with the family, front and center. We got into a wonderful conversation and she told us she had been to lots of different churches and couldn't find anything that she connected with, but she was jealous of people who had that spiritual connection. She said she wanted to believe something that she could pass onto her children who are 10 and 12. We bore our testimonies and when we invited her to meat with the missionaries she said she a had a good friend who was LDS she would just talk to. I was so sad but we talked a bit longer and resolved some of her concerns. Then I just said,"You are obviously searching for something, what do you have to lose by meeting with missionaries? Maybe this is it." and she just said,"Nothing I guess, but don't send me those young guys with ties k? I want girls like you." haha. She had to leave because they were flying home, but it was just a special experience for me to find one really searching soul standing in the crowd of so many people. I love her and I was only with her a few moments. Oh Temple Square.

You have two weeks to all write me one last hand written letter, make it good. =) jk, love you, Sister Olsen

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