the home stretch

This week was GREAT! I love being a missionary. It's really fun. We are getting more and more French people and Sister Seube is doing SO GREAT. At the beginning of the week we had two really classy couples from Paris come and take a tour. They asked SO many questions and Sister Seube whispered to me half way through,"They are so French, they will never say yes." My heart sunk. At the end they did say 'no' and I took Sister Seube into a room and I started crying. She looked really concerned hahaha. I told her that if she doesn't have faith in them they will NEVER say 'yes' and she will not be able to have the Spirit in her teaching strong enough to touch their cold-hard-french-hearts. She started to cry too and said that the minute she sees French people she decides they will not say yes and she didn't know how to change that. But honestly, if people make it to Temple Square, of all places, from France...no matter how stubborn they are, the Lord has obviously guided them here. So we decided to work on our faith in Jesus Christ and that anyone can change, and we saw MIRACLES. I think nearly every French person said yes this week. One French lady yesterday said that she was really searching for the truth and feeling drawn to the Mormon church but she needed to go home and listen to her feelings and think more. She is from Marseilles and has never seen missionaries before, but she said if they come to her door she knows its a sign she needs to read the Book of Mormon. I hope they find her!!! She had her husband (who was equally as interested) take a picture of us with her and said,"Who knows maybe I'll be Mormon some day!" haha, not a very French thing to say. As we said goodbye (aurevoir =) her eyes filled with tears and she said she could see in our faces that we were happy and knew it was true. It was a really special moment I can't quite describe. There was also a 20 yr old guy from Sister Seube's town who knows her little Sister! Small world. He doesn't believe in God and hasn't ever prayed before but he said he'd read the Book of Mormon and try praying. It was amazing.

Each transfer it seems like there is a certain group of people we need to teach and this transfer is French people and Navajo people from AZ. Its crazy. One of the families that came this week were from the 4 corners area and were extremely prepared. They left their phone number with one of the other missionaries and asked us to call them back. When I called her to see if everything was okay she said she had been trying to find us at the end of their trip but couldn't and wanted to say thanks. She said they left with more questions than they had when they came and were really excited to meet with the missionaries. It was fun to actually hear from someone after I met them!

This transfer President was talking about horse racing and the importance of the 'home stretch'. Of course I related to his analogy really well since I love horse racing. He said that in super close-photo finish type races it isn't the horse that speeds up that wins, its the one who doesn't slow down. That I can do =) I can't believe I come home in a week. One of the first transfers yesterday was talking to Sister Seube and she came to me and said,"Sister Olsen! You are going home in a week?! I had no idea...then she just went on and on." That was just the best compliment to me because I didn't want to slow down and for the new sisters to know I was leaving. Since my companion is a first transfer, I rarely talk about going home, but I secretly do have the strangest dreams/nightmares every night. Most recently I got to the airport and I didn't have my drivers license so I couldn't get on the plane...sounds like something that would happen to me. I hope I make it!

Well I guess I 'll talk to you on Mothers Day! Then I will still email you next Tuesday. See ya soooooon.

LOVE ALWAYS,

Sister Olsen

ps Just a little warning for when you see me at the airport. My roommate right now is from India and she is always cooking really strong smelling food. I smell so strange. No matter what I do our whole apartment and all of my clothes smell like Indian food. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

We went bowling last p-day, here are some pictures. And one of me dressing up in Sister Sunduram's Indian clothes =)