November 30, 2015 "Last Letter From Jon"

As I am heading into my last week of mission there are two words that describe my emotions.  Exquisite pain and exquisite joy...

Exquisite pain because I am leaving a land and people that I love beyond comprehension.  The people of South Africa, a choice people unto the Lord and I am so grateful for what I have learned from them.  I might have been trying to change them and help them come unto Christ,  but really it was a reverse effect and they held my hand and have guided me to Christ.  Pain also comes because I know that even though home life is great there really is nothing better than seeing someone look at your nametag and see their eyes brighten up as they realize you are a representative of Christ. They look to us for healing and they know it will come.  Home will be great but Africa will always be the home of my testimony.

Exquisite joy because I will see my family.  When I came on mission I realized right away that my family means the most to me.  Family is what makes heaven and I cannot wait to be by their side for eternity.  Joy because I am excited to live the gospel fully and to show others the happiness it can bring.  Joy because I came to Africa, learned what I needed to learn, and found who I needed to find.  Joy because I will get to Fly Fish the Provo again with my dad. 

My emotions are strange...It is weird mixed feelings for sure.

Well, I love you all and I love Africa!

November 23, 2015 "Africa Unite"

Well it finally rained here in the Gauteng so I bet the Boers (farmers) and their crops are feeling quite lekker!  The rain here and the hail storms that we have are one of a kind.  It dumps for like 15 minutes and then stops out of nowhere.  It's phenomenal and yet I am the biggest baby when it comes to lightning.... I like it when I am inside but if I am outside that is a different story!!

This week as far as missionary work goes was super refreshing...  I needed it.  We taught heaps and finished the week off with the baptisms of Mary and Olga! They are both amazing and the coolest part about these baptisms is that I taught them from the first lesson to the end.  That doesn't happen very often especially on my mission, I have either been a reaper or a sower.  

Anyways I don't have too much this week but I just want to express my love for africa and the people here.  I am just going to list everything that I love!

-How natural it is for people to believe in Christ.

-Their humility and receptiveness of the gospel

-How sincere and real their prayers are.  They understand they are talking to God.

-They may have no money but if you visit there will be food and cold drink

-They are always happy! 

-They don't need material goods... Look at all those fancy clothes these will keep us warm just like those… (Jack Johnson)

-Their smiles!

-The children calling me malungu (white man)

-showing magic tricks to the kids and hearing them say "ahhh IT'S MAGEEK"

-Their accent

-Kota, KFC, and all the food!

-The diverse cultures and languages 

-The taxi drivers... One of a kind

-The burning fields.  I guess cutting grass with a lawn mower is too main stream.

-Their nappy hair and how they don't wash it... Reminds me of my high schoo days KUNU ON

-They would rather have airtime than food.

-It truly takes a village to raise a child.

-Kids playing soccer in the streets or on a dirt field using a brick for their goal...

-Kids asking for 5 bob...(5 cents) to by sweets.

-Finally their pure love for christ

Hope you enjoyed! 

November 16, 2015 "Mission is Lekker"

Missionary work was very limited this week...  For me I love the ministering part of the work that I do but I really struggling with loving the administrative work that I do.  I sometimes forget that all the work that we do in the office and for other advents really is missionary work.  

My whole mission I loved finding, knocking on doors, talking with everyone, teaching, and testifying of Jesus Christ.  I thought that was how my whole mission would be and I was perfectly fine with that.  I loved focusing on an area and my investigators.  The whole switch to the duties I now have has been pretty hard for me to accept.  For example this week we had to run medicine to a missionary that lived 2 hours away, go pick up T shirts, enter in heaps of CDEs in the computer, and move to a new flat.  Which outside of exchanges left us no time in our area.  This responsibility has made me even more aware that Heavenly Father cares about me and my future.  Even though these experiences aren't fun I can see I am being molded and that He has provided these opportunities for me to grow and learn.  

We had a great gathering of the whole mission this week and it was called The SAJM Summit.  About 5 months ago I asked Sister Dunn if she thought it would be fun and plausable to get the whole mission together and go on a hike.  She said she would think about it and then came back with this amazing idea of centering a hike around a purpose and making it a learning opportuinity as well.  So what we did was we had our mission presidency speak and they all spoke about leadership and overcoming our fears.  Then we had this lady named Lin Den Hond who was the 3rd South African women to Summit Mount Everest.   Her story is truly motivational and in doing it raised money for a village in Gautang.  She meantioned that "when your purpose is bigger than your challenges you can accomplish anything."  As I was thinking about that I realized our purpose is the biggest purpose even in God's eyes....  I think we can overcome our challenges.  That statement made me realize that the small difference I am making here in SA really will eventually, maybe in generations to come, make a big difference.  After the talks we went on a beautiful hike all together.  It was an amazing day!

Well that is about it for the week... ASKIES(SORRY)  unless you want to hear more about office work... lol I love mission and really I don't want it to end.  Not that I am dreading going home and going to school and all that good stuff, but I am really going to miss the opportunity to wear Christ's name on my chest, it's Lekker.  Well, I guess I will just wear his name on my heart. 

Love you all and do something this week that will make you say "Kunu On" lol

Elder Olson