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Jon is doing well. He is so happy and seems to be thriving in the work. There were a few things I thought about editing, but I guess we also see that Jon is still Jon is some ways. And yes, for those that don't know, Jon does call us Jimmy and Suzi instead of mom and dad. He always does things his way. Thanks for your love and support.
This week has been POWERFUL to say the least. Some amazing miracles happened and I have definitely felt the hand of the Lord in the work that is going on here. I haven't been as tired and I think that it is because of my attitude! I can't stress how attitude makes or breaks missionary work. I have made some hard decisions about dropping or temporary stop visiting some because they aren't keeping commitments which stinks.... But sometimes in order for them to know how great this gospel is you have take them away from it. I just really hope they will call and say we miss you please start visiting us again. But who knows?? Also we had an investigator miss sacrament and it was her 3rd week in a row so we had to tell her that we had to push back her baptismal date. It wasn't easy but sometimes you have to be the bad cop. I tried to do it as loving as possible. It was definitely an Elder Holland moment. Elder Smith-Holley tried to sugar coat it and I told him after that giving false promises just makes it worse. He hates being bold and confronting so I had to talk to him after and help him understand we can't do that. That was something that I also had trouble doing at the beginning. The husband and wife that are getting baptized this month are doing amazing!! I am a little worried about the wife understanding everything but I think they will be fine!! The husband says that he will be done with smoking by friday. At church they said that they heard about baptisms for the dead and loved it. I have never seen an investigator so excited about it.
High: this week there was truly a miracle. There is this this less active and recent convert and he has only been to church once since I have been here. We were visiting with him every week till he called us 3 weeks ago saying he is done with the church and that he doesn't want us to visit him anymore. I was devastated I even fasted for him. Finally we were with this amazing member and we were just doing missionary work and he said we need to visit him so we called him, stopped by, and called him again! and nothing so finally we just said we were done. Then later in the day we decided that we would visit him again just see if he was home. He was and it was so awkward at first. He was wondering why we were there and he really didn't want us to be there... So we sat down and talked and then he finally opened up to us about things that he was going through. I never thought that was why he was missing church and didn't want to be there! He didn't feel worthy! So we continued and we helped him understand if you don't feel worthy then church is exactly where you need to be! The church is not a country club for the righteous but a hospital for sinners! He never understood that. In missionary work we are only suppose to visit for 45 minutes and an hour at the most. However the spirit confirmed to me that we were suppose to be there.... We sat and helped him get through his problems for 2 and a half hours.... He needed us and I truly thought of the savior and when he was walking in the streets and the women said if I can just touch his garment then I can be made whole. Jesus was probably in a hurry but he stopped and comforted her and made her whole. I truly felt the weight and the responsibility of my calling as I sat there and helped this young man understand that withholding himself from the blessings of the church is the wrong decision but to use the atonement and BE MADE WHOLE. It was amazing an experience I will remember for the rest of my life.
low of my week: well I had two. The first was that I was picked in zone conference in front of 70 missionaries how to use the BoM in sharing the gospel.... haha I thought president Dunn liked me. However it went well! the next one was that I was given to talk about charity 5 minutes before sacrament and it needed to be 20 minutes long. Again it went well but eish I was nervous. I talked about Jimmy and Suzi and how they are the perfect example of charity! Several people said it was inspiring which was cool. so I guess really no lows... just things that aren't fun hahaha
Elder Olson.
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