Almost Heaven...

Hello everybody!

Title is a tribute to the John Denver song of course...

"Almost heaven, West Virginia

Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River"

This week was pretty good, we were actually able to teach a couple of lessons. We have been calling through our area book, and we found a woman named Corry who had spoken with missionaries before. She was very excited that we called her, so we set up an appointment to teach right away. We were able to teach her twice this week, once over the phone, and once through a zoom call. During the zoom call, our internet kept going down, but luckily we had an awesome member who kept the lesson going. The lesson ended up going super well, and Corry said she wants to go to church next week!

Other than Corry, we haven't had much of an opportunity to teach people. What usually happens is we set up an appointment, and then they never answer. It's much easier for people to blow us off over the phone haha. But, another place we have had a little success is facebook messenger. We message tons of people. Only a few respond, and we have only had a full conversation with one person. We have been able to befriend a guy named Jack. He used to live here, but now he lives in Texas. We haven't talked much about the Gospel with him yet, but he likes messaging with us, so we are going to try and set something up this week. The work is slow in quarantine, but it still moves forward!

Spiritual Thought: Mosiah 24:15 "And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord." 

I've probably shared this one before, but it's one of my favorites. I like the part that says "submit cheerfully and with patience". Life isn't easy, but as we submit to Gods will and have patience, we will be blessed.

Things that I like: We like to go ride our bikes to get some outside time during the day, and we found an awesome ride. There's a National Historic Park nearby that is completely closed. Normally, you can't ride bikes down the main road there, but since there is no cars, the Ranger said it was ok! It is so fun and really pretty!

Things that I hate: apparently we live outside of the T-mobile range, so we don't actually have unlimited roaming data. As soon as that runs out, we only get 2g speeds. Makes things pretty difficult. Luckily, we should be getting an at&t sim card here real soon.

--Elder Olson

Photos!

Bike ride to the river

Another ride to the river

Foggy river

A lil waterfall

Riding our bikes in the morning in the fog

2nd Mission

Hey everyone! 

It feels weird to be writing a group email again. But, I'm excited to be able to continue my mission and share stories with you all! I made it to Maryland Wednesday afternoon. We went to the mission office, got our assignments, and then the Presidents assistants took us to our areas. Our mission president is super nice and the mission office workers are very caring and helpful, so I'm super grateful for that. The Assistants dropped me off where my companion was (Elder Wilson) and the zone leaders of that area drove us to our area, which is Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. It is super pretty here, lots of hills and trees. Its really cool because this is a super historical part of the country. Harpers Ferry actually played a big role in the civil war. It is on a point where 2 rivers come together, so it is quite beautiful. It is very hot though. It has been about 90 degrees with 80 percent humidity everyday.

As far as the work goes, not much has happened in the short time I've been here. We are opening the area so it has been difficult to find people over the phone. But, the members here are amazing. They are all super excited to have us here and help us as much as they can. We spend most of our time at home, in our bedroom (it's the only room with ac) making phone calls or searching for people on Facebook. Sadly, we just have unlimited data instead of wifi and it drops all the time. Kinda hard to be a quarantine missionary without internet. But we have been able to have a short gospel conversations on the phone, and set up a couple teaching appointments so I'm grateful for that.

Spiritual Thought: I found this awesome verse during my studies, Alma 33: 11 "And thou didst hear me because of mine afflictions and my sincerity; and it is because of thy Son that thou hast been thus merciful unto me, therefore I will cry unto thee in all mine afflictions, for in thee is my joy; for thou hast turned thy judgments away from me, because of thy Son" I know that God hears our prayers, and that we can find joy in hard times when we pray to him

Anyways, in typical Ben Shapiro fashion,

Here are some things that I like: It is beautiful here. We got to go on a bike ride (but we underestimated the heat and the hills haha). We have a huge field in our backyard that we play frisbee in, and it has fire flies!

And things that I hate: Humidity. Heat. Our internet. Also, Somebody cooked a plastic dinosaur on our grill so we can't use it.

Pictures!

President and Sister Nye and Elder Olson after arrival in Baltimore, MD

Elder Olson with the Mission President and the other missionaries who arrived that day

Scenes from Harper's Ferry, WV .... The Potomac

Elder Olson and his companion Elder Wilson