Spiritual Hot Pockets

Elder Odland and Elder Blake

My new companion, Elder Blake, is from St. George, Utah! 

We were in the Mexico MTC together, so I already knew him and he was already a great friend. 

He will be going to Dixie college when he gets home from his mission. It’s great that he will live relatively close so we will be able to visit with one another from time to time.

Heavenly Father is definitely taking care of us out here.

We have been blessed so much each and every day. Some days it may take a little more effort to see the blessings, but they are always there.

I feel like my Spanish has been improving since I've been here in Olathe!

In fact, when we had dinner with the Salazar family on Saturday, she told me, "When you first got here, you only said words like 'okay' and 'Si' and now you are talking in Spanish all the time!" Speaking a new language is a bit intimidating, but now with Elder Blake as my companion, and his knowledge and proficiency of the Spanish language is about equal to mine, I'm not holding back any more! I shouldn't have held back anything before, but sometimes my inhabitations got the best of me. But not anymore :D

We had a pretty sweet week even though our appointments fell through on Monday 

we were still able to see some other people.

Tuesday was a cool day! We had stake reports, which means Elder Blake and I call each companionship 

in the zone and collect information on the situation of the investigators being taught and the 

recent converts being taught and then we compile a document of all the information. 

Then Tuesday evening we went to go see Paul. He opened the door and said he had company over and 

asked if we could schedule another time. 

So as we were scheduling another time this girl pops her head around the corner and said, 

"Hey, are you guys the missionaries from my mom's church?" 

We asked her what her mom's name was and it just so happens that her mom is in our ward and 

she said that she would love us to come visit her and teach her about her mom's church. 

She's super interested and I'm excited to begin teaching her more this week!

Another responsibility that we have as a Zone Leader is to distribute the cars to the missionaries and to also figure out their mile allotments for the month. So Wednesday we drove up to Independence to pick up a new car for the zone. We ended up getting a brand new Nissan Rogue! 

I loveeee SUVs or cars that are like my Jeep. 

I've been driving in little cars my whole mission and it felt so good to get into a bigger car again! 

It kind of made me miss my Jeep. But I don't regret, not even for a second, my decision to sell my Jeep to help pay for my mission. I know I did the right thing and I know it's what Heavenly Father wanted me to do. But it sure has been cool to drive this new Rogue around!  :D

Now we won't have it after today, we are giving it to some missionaries out in the boonies. 

They need it more than we do.

Then later that night we met a new guy that is quite interested in learning about what we believe 

and we will be going back to see him again very soon!

Then we also ran into a family that had moved here, not to long ago, from Mexico. 

They are members but have not yet made it to church. It was cool to be able to run into them and help them get situated on where the church is and help them feel more at home. 

They were happy to have met us and we look forward to visiting with them again another day!

We also had interviews with President Vest this week.

He talked to me on how I am doing and how my companion is doing. 

I also had a few questions for him :)  one of them being... if I could go to the temple with a member 

I taught in Lee's Summit. Remember Mac the Samoan, super cool guy who sure knows how to feed the missionaries!  :D    We taught him while I was serving in Lee's Summit. He was an inactive member who wanted to come back to church. Well he is now happily active and was just recently 

ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood and will be going to the temple soon!

I've kept in contact with Mac and he has asked me to go to the temple with him. Well, now I got the green light from Pres. Vest and will be able to go with him! 

It will be awesome. I'm so excited. 

I'm not sure yet what the date will be, but I'll let you know!

Ha Ha....this is funny.... So we had a lesson with Logan this week, and we were talking about the importance of prayer. (He's just ten years old by the way) The theme of "Daily Bread" comes up and we talked about how we need to eat and partake of spiritual nutrition each day. 

He didn't understand the whole "daily bread" thing, so to make the connection I asked him, "What do you like to eat?", He said, "Hot Pockets." I replied, "Alright how do you feel after you've eaten a few hot pockets." He said, "Really Good" I answered, "Perfect! See, as you eat your body has the fuel it needs to keep going and you feel good. It's just like that with spiritual things. You can think of it like a Spiritual Hot Pocket! And Heavenly Father has stocked that freezer full of Spiritual Hot Pockets and all you need to do is grab one, heat it up and eat away. He wants us to partake of spiritual things daily."  :-D    

He got a kick out of it and so did his mom.  hahaha   

It was pretty funny.  It's fun teaching kids about the gospel!   :D

Sunday was great! Paul was able to make it to church and it was an awesome sacrament meeting. 

It was fast and testimony meeting and there were so many awesome people that bore their testimonies! 

The Spirit was so strong.

It was just what I needed and Paul also really enjoyed it!

We are seeing some great things happen here in Olathe and I'm excited to see more!

I love all of the pictures you send me throughout the week. They always brighten my day  :D.

I got the calendar you made me! It is so sweet! I have it hanging right in front of my desk. 

Thanks for filling in birthdays and holidays.

I hope all is well there in Utah.

I love and miss you guys bunches!! And I hope you have a wonderful week  :D.

Love, Your Elder Odland:)