Transfer Day... 17 Nov 2016....I'll Never Forget Olathe....but New Memories are on the Way!

Olathe Zone...We designed these great shirts!!  :-D

So Last Sunday I knew that I was going to be transferred so I was able to say goodbye to a lot of the members at church. I also stopped by a few other families before Thursday to get a picture with them and talk with them one last time before I headed out. 

Mamma Lyons ...always helped the missionaries, played volleyball and took
such great care of us

Stake President Boyack...taught me so much and was a great example

And let me say....Elder Blake will be missed. He was so great to work with. I wish him well and hope to see him again in the near future and after our missions are over.


We had 2 sweet lessons with Claudia and Tammy before I left.

The first one we taught about the Restoration again and Claudia had done quite a bit of studying for the lesson. She had read the section about the Restoration in the Gospel Principles book and wrote down this huge outline! And when we were talking to her about her impressions and feelings, she holds up the Book of Mormon/D&C/Pearl of Great Price and says, "Do you know what we have here???" with tears in her eyes. She has gained such an amazing testimony of the Restoration. It is so amazing!! She also was telling us how she loves Joseph Smith because of everything that he did for us. She has grown so much these past few months and she has learned so much as well! So sad I'll have to leave, but at least I'll be able to come back for their baptism!

So we had transfers on Thursday!

Andddddd I got transferredddddd.... toooooooo.... Raytown, Missouri

and my new companion is Elder Kelly.

Raytown is about 10 minutes away from the mission office and I am in President and Sister Vests ward! That's pretty neat haha:)

I'm still serving as a Zone Leader in the Independence Zone with Elder Kelly!

He is a really cool and hard working elder so I'm sure we will have a wonderful time! And... if I thought I had a lot of missionaries in the Olathe Zone... I was wrong haha. There were about 28 missionaries in Olathe and there are 33 here in Independence. It's the biggest Zone in the mission:). It will be so fun to get to know all the missionaries! And we have the Visitor Center right around the block so we have lessons there all the time! It's going to be a sweet time serving here:).

The first day in Raytown was a little rough, just a bit tough leaving my great companion and old friends  :,(     but I'm adjusting and I look forward to my new area, new companion, and the work I have to do here. :-)

And do you know the person I taught a back in Lee's Summit named Mac Moananu?

I'm now serving in his actual ward ....the Raytown Ward....

so I'll be meeting with Mac again!! And we have been invited to have Thanksgiving with his family! It's going to be crazy HUGE... like 150 people! There are so many that we will be gathering at the church for a huge feast   haha  :D

So it will be a great Thanksgiving.

And there are also 2 other families that moved to Raytown from Lee's Summit!

So there are some sweet familiar faces! That makes the transition a lot easier!

We recently had a sweet lesson at the Visitor Center with James!

We taught him the Restoration and it was great to use the Visitor Center to help teach.

The awesome environment is so inspirational and it is super easy to teach there. James really felt the Spirit and will be praying about joining the church.

We always encourage investigators to pray to receive their own answer about joining.

This is their choice and never something we wish to push on them.
We are also teaching this guy named Charlie, he really enjoys church and learning about the scriptures. He has already read over 50 pages of the Book of Mormon and is loving it. He will definitely make the decision to be baptized soon. He really wants to be baptized, he just needs to pick a date! I'll keep you updated on his situation!

Church went awesome! Charlie came to church and he loved it! I'm getting to know the ward little by little, and I can definitely tell this will be a great area to serve!

Elder Kelly and his past companion always got up pretty early to work out and do some extra study. So Elder Kelly and I are keeping that schedule and have been waking up at 5am as well. We are then able to work out for 45 minutes at the Assistants to the Presidents apartment, because they have tonsssss of weights!

It will be super sweet to be able to really work out again!:)

So things out here in Raytown are going great!

I'll continue to get accustomed to everything and it will be a great transfer!

And here is my NEW ADDRESS:  4324 Northern Ave  apt 1034 Kansas City, MO 64133

I am doing great out here! And I hope you guys are doing well! I love and miss you bunches! Can't wait to Skype you in December! What are your plans for Thanksgiving? Make sure to take some sweet pics and email them:)

You guys are the best!! I love youuuuu!!

Love, your
- Elder Odland

Olathe Zone