HAPPY to BE a MISSIONARY

Christmas Skyping with the Family

This week has been really fun! 

We were able to meet with some members this week and they 

are always so awesome to us! 

We had some delicious desert at the Moananu's house on Christmas Eve :D. They are a super nice family that we visit each week.
A lot of our lessons that we had scheduled this week fell through but 

I feel like we were still able to have an enjoyable week:). 

I went on two exchanges this week and had an awesome time with 

Elder Haderlie and Elder Fowlks. 

Elder Haderlie and I spent a lot of time contacting some
potential people to teach that they had in their area book, and we
ended up looking all through downtown Kansas City. 

It was pretty fun!
I got along really well with Elder Haderlie making it a nice relaxing
exchange. :)  Elder Fowlks and I had a great time in our area as well. 

We tried to see a bunch of people with a member named Josh. 

No one was home that day... or at least they weren't answering.  :-D 

But near the end of the day we had an awesome dinner 

with the Andrade Family!! 

They came up to Raytown bearing gifts and took us to Applebees! 

It was so nice of them and I had such a great time! 

It was the best to see them again!  :) 

They are one of those families that I will never forget! 

Andrade Family

That day we also went and visited someone in the hospital 

that was having some problems and thought she would be 

in the hospital for Christmas.

But we went over and shared a message with her and gave her a blessing 

and she was actually able to make it home on Christmas Eve! 

She was so happy to be home for Christmas!  :)

Johnston Family

Christmas morning we had an awesome breakfast at the Johnston's home!
The sister missionaries came too and we all had a great time! 

They gave us all gifts that we opened there. 

I got some sweet batman socks and a neat tie! Haha. 

The ward here has treated us so well, especially during the holidays. :D  

After breakfast we went up to church and had probably one
of the best Sunday services that I have been to! 

There was a lot of musical performances and the spirit was very strong. :) 

And then we got a few more assorted gifts from other members!

I don’t know where I would be
without all of the kind people out here. It definitely makes the time
away from home a lot easier.  :)
I am definitely happy to be a missionary! 

Being able to help people and put a smile on someone's face 

is honestly the best.

And I was able to Skype my parents yesterday and 

that was the cherry on top of my week! 

I love and appreciate my family so much. 

They give me strength and motivation, I love and care for them so much! 

And next Christmas we will have a blast celebrating together.  :D

I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas and are 

looking forward to this new year! 

Great things are to come! 

Cuídense!

With Love, Elder Odland

An Amazing Day at the Temple *** Feliz Navidad

We had zone conference this week, which was awesome! 

And we all got to go to the Temple as a zone!

It was so cool and such a great spiritual experience :) 

It was so amazing to have so many missionaries there all at the same time

along with President and Sister Vest. Elder Blake was there too so we took some

sweet pictures and we had a great time! 

I love meeting back up with good friends! 

Saturday there was a lot of snow/rain/ice so President Vest grounded all of our cars. 

So, we walked to Brother Murphy's house to help him out for a little while. 

He has MS and takes his medicine on Fridays which makes him very weak on Saturday. 

We enjoyed making him breakfast, we give him his

shot, and then kept him company for a while. 

Murphy is one of the funniest guys you will meet. 

He is also so loving and kind. What a joy it is to visit him. :D

This week we met two new investigators. 

They are a super cool family that really want change in their life. 

They have been struggling in their marriage and with their kids for the past little while and they

want it to be better….and when we came to their door they were so excited. 

They are so dedicated to changing and they were saying, 

"We know that God sent you here and wants this for us and we are willing to take this path!" 

I’m excited to see where this family goes! :)

We had a few lessons with James this week. 

He really wants to know if he is where God wants him to be. He is torn with leaving his old

church, but he knows what we teach is true. 

He is always so happy when we come by and he says it lifts his spirits. 

He is so sincere about learning more about the gospel and he just wants to

provide for his family.

We met with Charlie again and had a great lesson about faith and reading the scriptures. 

We also took him through one of the presentations at the visitor center 

that talks about the saints pushing through trails. 

He really enjoyed it and I hope he will

continue to act on the things we teach him. :)

We also began teaching a Spanish family! 

I didn’t think I would be able to continue using my Spanish here in Raytown, but

Heavenly Father knows what's up! :) 

The family is super cool and they are really nice. They have met with missionaries in the past and  love the message we bring. They have a few hard situations to get over but

they really want to be baptized. :).

We met with this member that has been going through a really hard

time lately and had moved out of his wife's house about a month ago, but he just recently moved back in! So we went over to talk with him

and he is doing so much better! 

He has committed with his family to make some much needed changes and they are so excited 

to work towards going to the temple to be sealed.

It was funny! During the message we were sharing the Dad stopped us and

was like, "Sorry to take this away from the spiritual side of things, but 

your eyebrows are on fleek!"

Ha-ha ...Apparently he really liked my eyebrows ;p 

It was super funny because of how random it was and I totally didn't expect it! :D 

I love the funny random stuff that happens on my mission! :).

Sunday morning was -4 degrees!!! 

That’s the coldest I have seen it here in Missouri! 

We didn't freeze our toes off or anything so that is good!  Ha-ha :D 

Things are great up here in Raytown! 

I’m lovin it and enduring the cold haha:) 

I hope you all have a wonderful week leading

up to Christmas! 

Feliz Navidad!!

With Love,

Elder Odland

You always know it's a success when all the sisters are crying by the end of it!

This past week has gone by so fast and was probably one of the busiest

weeks of my mission. Not with proselyting sadly... but we had meetings

and events most of the week!

Zone Training went really well! We had two this time because we split the zone into two groups. It was different than Olathe but it was sweet! You always know it's a success when all the sisters are crying by the end of it!  haha .... kidding, but not really... the spirit was really strong:) 

It was probably the best zone training that I have had so far! 

It was great! The lord was definitely helping us out!:)

We were able to have a great lesson with Brother Freeman this week. He

is still going through a hard time but he is looking forward to a

brighter future! We also visited with Karinda. She is doing well also!

One of her friends had his apartment robbed and it is all torn up now.

So we are going to go over there and help clean it all up for him.

Elder Kelly has some good cleaning skills, so it will work great!

We had an awesome MLC (Mission Leadership Council) on Wednesday and then afterwards the stake president, President Cato, put on a dinner for all of the

missionaries! And Elder Kelly and I were in charge of some of the

entertainment! So we did a game with

President Vest and President Cato where they had to compete against

each other in different missionary themed activities. 

It was sooo funny! We all had a ton of fun! 

The leaders in this mission are the

best:)

Something amazing happened on Thursday! Claudia was baptized!:) She

was an investigator that Elder Blake and I found in Olathe. She is

literally the funniest lady you could ever meet. I don't think I

have smiled more during a one hour period in my life. The

comments she makes are so funny, and at one point she turned around to

me and just started saying very firmly, 

"The church is true, it is true! Do you hear me! Its true!" 

She has such a strong testimony, its

so awesome! The church had no hot water for some reason so the water

was superrrr cold. She was a good sport though and it all went well:).

We had a great lesson with a new person named Kat, we went through one

of the presentations at the visitor center. The visitor center is such

a great tool and I'm so glad that we have it! After the presentation

we taught her the Plan of Salvation and she was really curious and

receptive. I hope things continue to progress!

Things here have been going awesome out here in Raytown! 

Lots of cool stuff in the works:)

I hope you are all having a wonderful week and are enjoying the

#LightTheWorld Christmas video and advent calendar!

Love, Elder Odland

Our Bishop dressed up as Elvis and sang at the Christmas Party

Light the World

Hello!! Be sure to continue checking my blog, but this week I wanted

to send out an email to everyone!:D

This week has been a little hectic haha:p I only spent about 4 days in

my area this week! We had a lot of exchanges to do!

Earlier this week we where able to visit with a woman named Karinda,

she is currently disabled and cannot walk. So we visited her and

shared the new Christmas #LightTheWorld video and she really liked it!

Karinda used to be able to walk and she had a really successful hair

cutting shop, but she got sick and ended up paralyzed. It's hard to

see what it has put her through but she is a trooper and we try to

help her out as much as we can!

That same evening we went to a members house that is going through a

rough time right now. He is in the process of getting a divorce and he

is battling ptsd because of things his wife did. His life is literally

like something out of a movie where everything goes bad. I feel so bad

for him and feel so much love for him. We were able to give him a

blessing and he seems to be doing a lot better now! He bore his

testimony on sunday and it was really powerful! No matter how hard our

situations get, always stay focused on the savior and we can find

joy:).

On Tuesday we had last minute exchange with the Assistants. I went to

their area and it was great! We had lunch with this really wealthy

member and he brought his non member friend! It was sweet! I got fish

and chips at this nice restaurant! It reminded me a lot of Maine

haha:D I could barely finish all of the food! We then had a lesson

with some boys that they were teaching and helped one of the boys pick

a date to be baptized! So that was awesome! Overall the exchange went

really well and Elder Katoa is an awesome missionary! I learn so much

when I am with him!

So we exchanged back Thursday evening and then immediately exchanged

with another companionship haha. I went with Elder Moorehouse. He is a

great elder and we had a great time working together. We had an

awesome lesson with a family and put the 3 boys of the family on date!

The boys were so excited to begin working towards baptism:). I love

seeing families get pumped about the gospel!

After that exchange I had a day in my normal area and then the next

day we went on another exchange haha. And all of these exchanges I

went to the other elders area. So it was super sweet to see how other

elders work and I learned a lot from them!

We had a great lesson with Michael this week, we took him to the

visitor center and had him watch God's Plan for His Family. It is a

great presentation that they have there that helps us realize the love

heavenly father has for us and our families. He really enjoyed it and

really felt the spirit! The Visitor Center is like the Best place to

take people!:D

So I had a pretty sweet week! Things are going great out here in

Raytown! And I got a new address since my last area, so here it is!

4324 Northern Ave. Apt 1034 Kansas City, MO 64133. I hope you are all

having a wonderful December! I’m super excited about Christmas and I

hope you all are as well! 

#LightTheWorld

Love you all and Merry Christmas!

- Elder Odland