Heavenly Father always tries our faith before we receive a miracle.

Dear Mom and Pops,

Another great week. Monday we had a fun p-day. Everyone came up to the stake center and we played various sports. It happened to be one of the missionaries birthdays so we had cake and ice cream too! That always makes for a great day!!  :-D

Then later that night we taught our investigator named Tammy! She is such a nice lady, and we had Brother and Sister Lyons come out with us on that lesson. Sister Lyons and Tammy were like instant friends and really enjoyed each others company. Tammy has such a strong faith in Christ and read 20 chapters of the Book of Mormon already! She loves learning more about Christ and is willing to search for it. We had a great lesson and she will go to church with sister Lyons this Sunday!

Tuesday we had a great lesson with Paul and we read through 3 Nephi 11 with him.

He really enjoyed it and could feel the Spirit witness to him the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and The Gospel of Jesus Christ and he was able to

pick a day to be baptized in October.

On Wednesday we received the transfer roster and Elder Hinrichsen will be going to Kansas City! We have had a great time here in Olathe and I have learned many things from him. It was great learning more Spanish with him here in Olathe and I'm looking forward to learning even more! I hope he enjoys his new area and I wish him the very best. After learning Elder Hinrichsen will be leaving Olathe, we visited a lot of members so he could say his goodbyes. He will be missed.

Thursday, at transfers, I was able to find out who my new companion is!!

My new companion who will be serving with me here in Olathe.... Isssssssssss.....

Elder Blake!! From my MTC district!  :-D   

I was so happy when I saw that he was my new companion! He is such a great elder and is an awesome friend too! It will be a great transfer serving with him! I will be training him as a new Zone Leader, so I pray I can teach him well :-)

We have had some sweet lessons since Elder Blake has arrived. We had two great Spanish lessons with Veronica and Claudio! They are super nice people and are interested in reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it, asking the Lord if it's true. We had a team up come out with us that was perfect.

It was amazing. When he was talking, he was teaching about the Book of Mormon and

I received a prompting that we needed to teach the apostasy more in depth and, less than 10 seconds later, our team up goes right into the apostasy!

I love how the spirit works and it never lies to anyone! :)

We also had a lesson with a part member family and taught the father, who's name is Justin! When we knocked on their door no one answered and as we were walking off their doorstep they pulled into the driveway! They invited us right in and we were able to get to know them a lot better. We taught them The Restoration and he had a bunch of great questions that we tried our best to answer. We invited him to be baptized

and he said yes!   :-D

I love all of these great lessons we have been having since Elder Blake got here!

He is a good luck charm!!   haha  :D.

We also had a good time at church on Sunday. William and his boys attended!

 It was super great to see them there.  :D

Things are going great out here in the mission field!

Heavenly Father always tries our faith before we receive a miracle.

I love and miss you guys soooo much!! I love all the lil updates you send and all the pictures! You guys are literally the best! I Love you soooo much!

Have a wonderful Monday!  :D

Love, your Elder Odland  :)

As a husband & wife get closer to God, they become closer to each other

Wednesday we had a great Zone Conference!

I taught about Miracles.

My training went well and I think people enjoyed it :).

I also spoke about changing our "reason for", or in other words...Our "explanation" for why things happen.... and to focus them on Heavenly Father and try to recognize

His hand in our lives.

Who would have ever guessed back when I was in high school when I was giving those little presentations in front of the class that, just a few years later,

I would be training 80 missionaries!

I was so shy back then it's crazy for me to even think about. I'm thankful the Lord has helped me overcome my shyness and that I am becoming more comfortable talking in front of large groups. It's also much easier to talk about something that I am emotionally invested  in compared to my school projects, where I wasn't very emotionally invested... ...other than getting a good grade  ;-p.

But I was definitely happy for the opportunity to train at Zone Conference and I learned so much through my study and preparation!

Then on Thursday we had a great lesson with Logan's mom and step Dad.

They are struggling and want to grow closer together and closer to Heavenly Father.

We shared the "Daily Bread Mormon message" with them.

Check it out...

http://www.ldsliving.com/Video-Series-from-Elder-Christofferson-Daily-Bread-Part-2-Experience/s/73609

And we had a discussion about the importance of studying daily and praying daily.

From a talk he heard, Elder Hinrichsen shared how the Gospel is all about developing relationships. ....whether they are with each other, Christ or Heavenly Father.

 He showed a diagram and taught a

principle that was very inspiring.

The diagram illustrated 3 people in the shape of a triangle.

The two people on the bottom are a husband and wife

and the person at the top is God.

And... as the husband and wife get closer to God, they become closer to each other.

And it is SO true!

Relationships are always better when the people in the relationship are closer to God.

I'm glad I was able to learn this powerful principle :).

GOD

/\

/      \

/            \

/                  \

/                       \

Husband  -----------  Wife  

Sunday was a good day! After church and went over to the Romans for dinner.

We made steak, mashed potatoes, corn and jello! It was really good!!

Then later that night we had a lesson with a new investigator named William! He is really nice and had talked to some Mormons in the past and is curious about the things we believe. So we will be going back there next Sunday to visit with him!

I hope you guys have a wonderful week!

With Love,  Elder Odland

It Just Makes Me Feel So Happy!

Elder Odland and Donna

This past week we were able to volunteer at an old folks home and help them play bingo! 

It is fun to see them get excited and have a great time!

I helped this lady named Donna. She was super nice and won 6 times!!!

She was on fire!  :-D

I got a few pictures with her and her winnings!

It was funny, as I asked her if I could take a picture of us, she was like,

"Oh sonny, I dunno... I used to look young and beautiful like you!"  

 ....and as she is saying this she is caressing my chin.  :-D  

We got a picture right after she rubbed my chin and you can see

we were both just having a great time!

I love serving people in retirement homes!

They are so nice and I really want to volunteer and help people like them when I go home! 

It just makes me feel so happy.

I love and miss you guys a bunch!!

Have an amazing week!  :)

Love, Your Elder Odland