Trust in His Promise and Let the Blessings Flow

The work out here keeps on getting better and better!

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting about sacrifice. It was great

to ponder on the sacrifice of our Savior and what He did for us. 

I truly believe that as we come to know more about His sacrifice it is

easier for us to make the small sacrifices that He requires of us. He

only requires us to do things because He wants to bless us. 

Trust in his promise and let the blessings flow!

On Friday we had a sweet opportunity to be part of a youth conference

that came down from Iowa! Elder Reber, Sister Dawson, Sister Orton and I 

got to hold a mission prep class for the youth. We had 4

groups that we taught and it was great! 

    We got to share with them what helped us prepare for missions and answer any questions they

                             had about missions. There were some stellar youth in those groups! 

I wish I was half as good as some of those kids before my mission haha. 

But hey I'm living proof that you don't have to be

perfect or a scripture wizard to go on a mission! 

We got to eat lunch with the youth and the sisters afterwards and we were 

blessed with some delicious smoked meat  :).

This week I got to do probably my last Baptismal interview... it

was such an awesome one though! There is a man named Derek that some

Elders have been working with and he is so prepared to take the next

step with his relationship with God. We were able to go to his baptism

on Saturday and it was a great spiritual experience! We brought 2 of

our investigators with us to the baptism and we think they enjoyed it!

They both started talking about all their war stories together after

the baptism so it was a great time for them to bond! Then as we were

riding home with one of them and a member, 

he stopped at Culver's and bought us all ice cream!

This week for youth conference the stake went on a trek! And Natalie

and Dwane were able to go. They had such an awesome experience!

Before trek Dwane was a little unsure if he believed in God. But on

Sunday when we were talking to him about how he liked it, he said it

was so amazing! And that he is an 80 on his conversion scale of (1-100)

and he was only a 12 before he left. He is so pumped to keep learning

                        and be baptized in a few weeks! Natalie loved trek as well and is moving

smoothly towards her baptism!

Keep on loving life and I will talk to you again soon!

Have a sweet week!

With Love, Elder Odland

  

A Tribute to President and Sister Vest....Thank You so much.

My mission president, President Vest and his wife, Sister Vest 
have done so much for me on my mission 

and I am so glad I was able to serve with them

for almost my entire mission. 

President Vest has taught me so much about leadership

 and being submissive to Heavenly Father. He has helped me learn so many principles that I know will help me throughout my whole life. 

Both President and Sister Vest have helped me overcome some of my trials during my mission and I hope that I can help others 
in a similar way as they have helped me.

President and Sister Vest have sacrificed so much to serve here in 

The Missouri Independence Mission. 

I am grateful for all they have done.
 As they soon leave to return home and as I prepare to head home next month, I want to give them a big heartfelt THANK YOU. 
You have changed my life. 

with Love, Elder Odland

Farewell Elder Merrill and Elder Bagley. Hello Elder Reber

This last week with transfers some changes happened that I didn't expect! 

So Elder Merrill actually got transferred out and I will be staying in North
Kansas City until the end of my mission! I got that wish of mine to stay, but
it was hard to see Elder Merrill go. We learned so much together and
we were having a blast being goofy hard working missionaries. 

Now we are on to learning new things and having new experiences. 

(You're the bomb Elder Merrill!)

So my new companion is..... Drum Roll Please..... 

Elder Reber from Gilbert Arizona! He is a super fun guy and
we have been getting along great. He will be a great companion for me
to be with for my last transfer!

Just a few days ago at transfers my trainer, Elder Bagley, completed
his journey out here in Missouri. It was so weird to see him head
home. He has been in the mission during my whole time here and we had
been fortunate to see each other at MLC each month for the past year.
He is such a great example for me as someone who follows their sincere
desires to do what God wants. 

Thank you Elder Bagley for training me right and being a buddy until the end! 

(And yes that means your still
my buddy cuz there ain't no end #ETERNITIES)

So we have made some great progress with Dwane and Natalie! We had
challenged Dwane to have a question while he reads and he has been
doing it! His question was, Will I ever know that there is truly a God
out there? And when we had our lesson with him this week he was like,
"Elders, my question has been answered!" 

While he was on a campout with the young men he left his scriptures outside of his tent 

and a huge rain storm came. The only thing that wasn't soaked by the water
was his scriptures and he was so amazed! It was a little miracle that
he needed to know that there is a God out there. He also was saying
that he loves reading the Book of Mormon. He says he isn't sure why
but he just feels good when he does so. He is like halfway through 2nd
Nephi by the way! So Natalie and Dwane are doing awesome towards their
date of the 8th of July! I am so excited to see them continue to
progress and learn about their Savior.

Our other investigators are doing great and I am so happy I am able to
spend one more transfer here in NKC. The people and the members here
are amazing. And, Yeah I'm gonna keep on working on it right up until
the end! I'm excited to see the miracles that come.

I hope you all have an amazing week and keep blessing the lives of
those around you!

with Love, Elder Odland

It has been Fun to Grow and Learn True Joy! AND a Special Thank you and Farewell to President and Sister Vest

I hope you are all having a wonderful start to your week

because I know I am ...and as missionaries we have our pday!:) 

It's funny, after you have been on your mission for a considerable amount of time

you find more consistent joy in your normal days than you do pday... Don't get

me wrong I love emailing my friends and family and playing a good game of bball. 

BUT.....what can compare to simply helping others all day? 

Not much really.

It has been fun to grow and learn how to experience True Joy!

This was another banner week! We had some great lessons with some of

our investigators, had zone conference, did some service for some members... 

ahhhh it was GREAT!

Let's start with Zone Conference!

This Zone Conference was the last one with President Vest as my

mission president... That is a hard thing to grasp for me as he has

been my mission president since I started my mission. Envisioning the

mission without him is pretty hard... But I know that President Love

will come in with a burning desire and really give this mission what

it needs. President Vest and Sister Vest went through their experience

as they were called to lead this mission and it is amazing how they

are prepared to come lead a mission. And the craziest thing, President

Vest only got to sit down with the previous mission president for

about 2 hours before everything was turned over to President Vest...

Sounds a bit daunting huh!? I know I would be just a tad nervous! 

The Vests have such great testimonies

and it has been the best experience to rub shoulders with President Vest so much

during my mission and especially this past year. 

He truly does care about each missionary so much and is willing to do so much for each of us. 

I was tired after our 6 hour Zone Conference... but he has to do 4 of them back to back

across the mission!! 

He has led by such a great example for me and I

hope to model many things in my life after him. 

Thanks President and Sister Vest!  :D 

Ever felt like you were going through something that was very

difficult? Or that you are facing something difficult in the future? 

We will all face difficult trials in our lives. 

Always remember...

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us

a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2

 Corinthians 4:17

God has all intention to bless us. 

He works in His time, His way and by His power. 

Simply trust that God is there and is teaching you with every step of your life. 

Each step sheds new light on the staircase leading to eternal life. 

He wants us to have the blessings that He has, just as every father would. 

Always remember that He loves you!

I am blessed to be a missionary at this time and I'm soaking up every

minute of it. I hope you enjoy some of my little experiences and

things that I have learned. You all have a wonderful week and think;

Who are you going to bless this week?:)

Love, Elder Odland

God Never gives us feelings of Fear.....Fear comes from a different source.

There is so much to love in life.

Never let fears or trials overwhelm you.

God gives us so much to be thankful for each and every day.

As we see that... our joy keeps on growing and the light we see in our life
will rise until it is a perfect beautiful day.

Many times the spirit will guide us to do something but we are afraid to act. 
God never gives us feelings of fear. 
Fear comes from another source... Satan will implant any thought that will deter us
from blessing others. Always push out fear with your faith that
Heavenly Father will take care of you. 
He will guide you in any righteous action you are doing! 
Always remember that He loves you!

This week was so sweet!

I feel like the Lord is blessing us so much here in NKC.

I'm grateful I get to play a part in what God has in store for people.

The people we are working with are doing so well! Glen should be
baptized within a week or two, Al has read up to 2 Nephi 30, and the
Beckwiths are already planning to go on some campouts with the youth!

So much has unfolded this week that is just another sign that this is
God's work and he will bring his children in once they are ready!

And since little girls are always mesmerized by the missionaries hahaha...
I'll tell you another funny experience.
There is the cutest little girl named Ana-Leah and we were doing service for her Dad
and she kept coming up to us to try to give us hugs... and eventually just hugged our legs.
Her mom tried to explain that missionaries can't hug
children but she didn't really understand. Ana was like, "what?? Will
they be able to when they are older??" And we were all like, "Yeahhh we
need to grow up about two more years then we can hug you!"
She wasn't too satisfied with the answer and then she changed the subject.
She then came up to me and started asking me, "Are you married yet??" hahaha
Ana then spent the next good while talking about how she is only a
princess and will become Queen once she is married in the temple!  :)
I thought it was adorable.
She is definitely one of the cutest kids I've ever seen.

Saturday the ward had a BBQ and it was great! When we showed up it was
raining a tiny bit but we were hoping it would just pass by but it
ended up raining pretty good hahaha. We have been anticipating this BBQ
for a while and invited all of our investigators to it! ANDDDD we had
8 non-members come!! It was so awesome! Glen was able to come and had
a great time getting to know the members. Al came and talked to almost
everyone haha, he is quite the talker. The Beckwith family came and
had a blast! It was the most successful ward activity that I have ever
been to and the members were all over getting to know the people we
are working with. It was a great time overall and the food was
delicious of course!

Beautiful Storm clouds

So we thought Saturday was great and then Sunday came...
Toni and the Beckwith family all came to church and they had such a great time.
The Beckwiths are an awesome family! They have a young man and a young woman
aged kids and they are so excited to get involved with the youth!
It has been such a blessing to work with these awesome people and help
them take steps in their conversion. This ward is so awesome and I'm so
happy to be serving here. God puts us where we need to be, either to
help someone else or to teach us something.

Love you all and hope you have a sweet joyful week!

⁃ Elder Odland

Our NEW investigator!  :D

Skyping Home and Hearing the Lord thru 3 x 5 cards!!

It was SO GREAT to Skype home for Mother's Day....Love you Mom

Thanks to the McCalls for welcoming us into their home

so we could have access to the internet so

we could Skype our Moms.

There is a recent convert in our ward her name is Jillia and she is

super cool! She is Sister McCall's sister. 

She has been going through a hard time lately.

Well, as we were cleaning out our car we found a stack of 3x5 cards that were

addressed to Jillia, written by friends and family at her baptism! 

She was baptized 7 months ago! 

So we went and took them to her and she was so excited. 

She had no idea that they had been written and

she just had so much joy reading these little encouraging messages

from those people that she loves. 

It was a great little tender mercy to be a part of!:)

I'm so grateful for all of the blessings Heavenly Father has given me.

I am going to keep on counting them the best I can.... 

That's when the joy comes!

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Odland

Mother's NOTE....here is the rest of the 3x5 story from Sister McCall....

 These two are extremely fun together, in the door picture....

 they had just stopped by to drop off some index cards they found in their car. 

The cards were notes members and family wrote for my sister on her baptism day. She is older than me and just got baptized last November. She had been struggling and feeling discouraged. 

Finding these cards and notes of encouragement could not have come at a better time. 

Your son and Elder Merrill literally brought an almost tangible Spirit when they brought the cards. 

It was indeed a tender mercy moment that was felt by all in our household. 

Then of course we had to end it on a bit of a fun goofy note as they were leaving 😊.

  

Thank you for sending your son on a mission! 

Not too many missionaries attend to the recent converts as I've seen Elder Odland and Elder Merrill do for my sister (including myself when I was a missionary). 

Loraine McCall

We are All in this Together

Paul teaching Timothy said, 

"I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."

We not only endure trials for our own learning and experience

but as we do so we are to help others along their path. 

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have as a missionary to play a direct part in helping people find Christ and experience God's love. 

We are all in this together. 

Lift each other and experience the joy of the Gospel together. 

It is truly such a wonderful thing!

This week was full of awesome experiences. 

One evening last week we were leaving an investigator's home and her little girl loves the missionaries. And as we were leaving she ran out to us and wanted to give us a kiss on the cheek. We tried to tell her we can't. She then started crying and was devastated and ran back into her house. We basically destroyed this little girls dreams! But we did what we were supposed to do! 

Then, the next day, Elder Merrill and I were just exercising in the morning

when we got a text from a member. 

She said that her boyfriend, Glenn, wants to meet with us and become a member of the church! Of course we were super excited and couldn't wait to meet him. It was truly a blessing....Especially after making a little girl cry the night before. :-)  Well we had our first lesson with Glenn and he is awesome! 

He loved the first lesson and set June 3rd as his baptismal date! 

He wants to be ALL IN and not do this half way or only for a month. 

He then asked for a Book of Mormon so he could start reading. 

I'm so excited to see how his testimony grows in these next few weeks! 

We also had an awesome discussion with this guy named Brian. 

We knocked on his door a few weeks ago but finally touched bases again this week. We had a solid hour and a half conversation on his porch about these questions that he has had since he was a teenager. He has a hard time truly believing that there is a God and that one man, Jesus Christ, died for our sins. We talked a lot about spiritual experiences and why we are on missions. 

As we shared some scriptures from the Book of Mormon with him

his face just lit up and he seemed like a kid that just saw

his new bike on Christmas morning! 

He wants to believe that there is a God but is struggling to understand that. 

We assured him that even having only a desire is enough to get started

on the path back to Heavenly Father. 

It was probably the most heartfelt conversation I've had

with someone I have just met outside on their doorstep. 

I truly appreciate those that are searching for what is true. 

We cannot simply accept what we have always heard. 

We must search for ourselves and build our own beliefs. 

Without truly believing in something on our own we will eventually fall. 

My mission has given me the atmosphere that I have needed to develop my own testimony and has solidified my beliefs. 

The joy that has come from it is amazing and I am forever grateful for the people I have met during my mission. They have taught me so much! 

This Sunday was a great way to finish off the week! 

Toni and Hussein (he is being taught by other missionaries but came to our service) came to church! 

I had a great time skyping my family too. 

They are such a wonderful support for me and it is so crazy to think that was my last skype call home. 

Now as I approach the home stretch, I hope to keep pushing as hard as I can

to do what I know is right. 

Thank you all for your support! 

I won't be able to email a whole lot tomorrow because we will be going on a church history tour almost all day. I will send a bunch of pictures later in the day! 

Have a wonderful week and Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful mother's that help this world go round!:) 

I love you Mom!:) 

- Elder Odland

We designed these awesome Zone T-shirts

A picture from MLC (Merrill, Roberts, Bagley, Odland, Deurksen, Evans.)

We are Thankful

Open your arms, Look up, and Receive the Love and Blessings God has for You.

The Missouri Independence Mission is basically the best place ever!

We had a lot of cool things happen this week and we were able to meet
with a lot of our investigators.

Brian is doing awesome! We were able to meet with him and establish
some of his expectations. He is such a humble guy and willing to
learn. During one of the prayers he said, he is thankful for being
humble and that he is ready to learn. He really wants to start reading
the Book of Mormon and learn what we believe.

I'm excited to see where it goes with him!

We also met with Al again this week, and he is continuing to read the
Book of Mormon fairly quickly! He has now made it to 1 Nephi Chapter 13. 

He retains so much from his studies, it is awesome! 

We have been focusing on helping him see the spiritual side of things and

not necessarily just the historical side. 

He has some awesome questions and it gives us awesome things 

to focus our studies on!

We did some service for this Lady we are meeting with, her name is
Thu. We had a couple from the ward come and help us make

these cards for kids with special needs. 

It was a lot of fun to just sit down, chat and make the cards! 

And the members that joined us had a great
time getting to know Thu. Thu was very grateful for the service and we
are going to continue meeting with her to teach her more

about the church:).

One day this week we tried a potential and no one answered so we
were looking around outside and wondering where we should go. 

We felt like we should try this one house that was a little rundown but still
looked like someone lived in it. So we go up and knock on the door and
for a moment we saw someone inside but he didn't come to the door. 

We figured he wasn't going to answer... until we heard a door slam in the
back yard and he came walking around to where we were. 

We were able to talk with him for a little bit and when I asked him, 

"do you attend a church around here?" 

He responded, "Yeah, the Latter Day Saints church up in Liberty." 

Haha   So, come to find out, he had been taking
the discussions from the missionaries up in liberty until he moved
to our ward and the missionaries lost contact with them. 

And now, a year later, we were able to stumble across their path again! 

They both want to be baptized but have a few things they have to work through. I hope that they keep on pushing through and reach their goals!

I'm so grateful that the Lord is mindful of his children and leads us
to them. It's so exciting to hear stories about people in need of
the gospel and receive it just in the nick of time.

The gospel is such a wonderful thing, 

we just truly have to open our hearts to it. 

After many experiences, 

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and he truly did restore his church. 

He has so much love for us and all we have to do is accept it. 

Open your arms, look up and receive the
love and blessings God has in store for you!

Have a blessed week everyone!:)

With Love, Elder Odland

SERVICE:  Ripping out old carpet at the local Presbyterian Church

Always remember what Christ did for You and allow Him to Lift you Up

Happy Easter from

Elder Odland  and  Elder Merrill

Thank you McCall Family for the wonderful Easter dinner.

Hello Everyone!

This week was sweet! 

Early in the week we had a great lesson with Angela. 

Our ward mission leader, Bro Maxwell, came with us and he is such a great teacher. 

We were able to address some of her concerns and I think we were able to clear her path of progressing a little bit! Her daughter was pretty sick this week so it has made it hard for her to do things, but we are praying she gets well soon.

We have been trying our best to get to know the youth a little better and so we

went to this awesome service project with the youth this week! 

We all went to a place called Harvesters and we helped pack little snack bags for children in need. 

It was pretty fun work and we got to talk to the youth and help them see what missionaries are like!

This week we also had Zone Conference, were Elder Merrill and I trained on 

the importance of living the Doctrine of Christ as missionaries.

It went really well and we tried our best to have a good discussion about it with the elders and sisters. I always love having the opportunity to train or lead discussions

because I learn so much from the studying beforehand and the comments made during. 

I am so grateful for all the missionaries that are around me that lead by such great examples. 

And I am especially grateful for President Vest

and all the hard work and diligence he puts into the mission and each individual missionary. 

I hope I can be a fraction of who he is in his example of Christ.

Saturday was a sweet day. I was on exchanges with Elder Conley and he is a great missionary. 

We met this really neat guy, we were just getting done with service and we were heading back to our car and there was a man walking near our car so we went and talked to him. 

He is an older man who had recently lost his wife and was having a hard time coping. 

He said he had gone to the temple open house and that he and his wife, every day for 2 years, 

had gone and parked in front of the temple and would pray.

We taught him a little about the Plan of Salvation and invited him to join us for church.

I know we talked to him for a reason that day

and I'm excited to see what Heavenly Father has in store for him.

Also on Saturday we met a ton of other people that were willing to talk to us. 

It was great to be able to teach a few new people, and after a long day of service and proselyting, 

we had dinner with the McCalls! 

They are a super cool family and they have a ferret that is like a dog. 

He just roams the house and crawls all over you haha. 

He is super funny and surprisingly he doesn't smell that bad!

This week was pretty great! It was Elder Merrill's birthday on Friday 

and President Vest had the whole Zone sing to him at Zone Conference. It was great!

I hope he was able to have a wonderful birthday!

Happy Birthday Elder Merrill

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter week remembering our Savior's

sacrifice and resurrection.

Here is a scripture that I really enjoyed:

D&C 110:4,5

4. I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father.

5. Behold, your sins are forgiven you; you are clean before me; therefore, lift up your heads and rejoice.

Always remember what Christ did for you and allow him to lift you up.

Thank you for all of your support.

I really appreciate everything you all have done for me.

I hope you have a wonderful week and enjoy the spring time

as it keeps getting warmer!  :D

with Love, Elder Odland

Share the #PrinceOfPeace video with everyone!