Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
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
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
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
Saturday, December 10, 2016
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)