September 28, 2015 JoBURG

So some of the greatest news that has happened since I have been on my mission.  About 16 months ago when I was in my first area, Johannesburg Central was closed to missionaries because of crime related issues.  This was a massive hit to our mission.  It was the highest baptizing area by far.  It is interesting to see how satan targeted it and tried to stop the work from progressing there.  As Jospeh Smith said "No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing!"  That couldn't have been more true, even without missionaries the ward was still baptizing and getting many to the temple!  Well then about 4 months ago the APs received permission to teach in Joburg on Saturdays and Sundays for 3 hours only at the chapel.  Which was a great blessing but it still required us to have investigators come to church to get taught and made us as missionaries rely on the members to bring people for us to teach.  As you can probably imagine it isn't very effective.  Well Elder Cook the Area President saw all of this and prayed about it and felt it was time for it to be opened up again.  He had to have a guy come all the way from Salt Lake who was the head of security and do a whole sweep of Johannesburg!  He gave the approval and so now all there was left to do was to put missionaries there.

Ok now for the best part of this whole ordeal! President was given the rules and restrictions given and one of them was that at least one of the missionaries needed to be native and speak Zulu (Which Elder Masoka does).  Another is the missionaries had to leave by 4:00 PM for safety issues.  The problem is if he sent normal missionaries there they would just be sitting in their flat for hours after being in the area for a short time.  He realized that it works perfectly for us as we can come and do office work for the rest of the night! So we are now officially reopening JOBURG! I am both nervous and excited.  There are a lot of rules but I have realized on mission that as I have been obedient the Lord protects you and so I know I will be fine.  Yesterday after church we had the opportunity to teach in the middle of Joburg.  Leading up to it I was nervous, you just hear stories and stuff of what it is like and I had this preconceived idea.  As we drove into the city I just had a heavenly feeling of peace.  It was strange but I knew that the Lord had spoken to the leaders and that this was the time for missionary work to be moved forward in Joburg.  As we got out of the car we walked up to this ginormous flat complex. As we were walking up to the 15th floor I had another impression that we were in a very real sense modern day pioneers.  As missionaries we were opening new doorways so that others could receive the gospel.  We are now able to give light to a city that is in need of heaven’s help.  A light shined on Joburg yesterday and I am glad that I had the opportunity to be apart of it.

Other than that this week has been great! I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Dlamini and Elder Moloi in a township called Kwa-Thema.  I gained a lot of respect for Elder Dlamini.  Before he knew the church he was in a gang and did all sorts of horrible crimes.  He said that he was far from God.  That all changed when the missionaries knocked on his door.  He said that not knowing at the time what it was but that the spirit constrained him to agree to meet with them.  He loved it and he changed his lifestyle.  Through his conversion 13 other guys were baptized and brought to the gospel.  He said "I don't know how they all followed me I never taught them I was just an example."  I reassured him that is the way the Savior taught and that his humility will only bring more to the gospel when he gets home. He is living proof the Atonement is real!

Well this is my letter for today... Oh also the Dunns spoiled us last night with Steak and Salmon...  They are too good to us.

Much love, Elder Olson

 PS here is a pic of my new area