Sunday, December 15, 2013

"I do NOT have a crush on Leonardo Davinci!!" -Elder Crabb

Oh me oh my. What a week. We'll start where I left off though.

So last Sunday Sister Tuioti and I got called to be Sister Training Leaders! We were so stoked!! And then that Sunday was literally the busiest day of our life. We were running from building to building trying to make it to all of our meetings and such on time. It was pretty chaotic, but I am so happy for this opportunity to be able to serve the sisters in my district.

In Sacrament Meeting on Sunday Brother Hall ( a member of our branch presidency ) gave the most amazing talk on faith in Christ. He said, "If you have not read Jesus the Christ, then you do not know Christ." Then he shared his experience with reading it on his mission and it was so powerful!!!! Then as our closing song we sang God Be With You Til We Meet Again. That song has never hit me so hard. I remember just sitting in the back of the room, king around at all of these amazing people I have grown to know and love and realizing that I would have to say goodbye to more than half of them in just one week. I just started bawling. Our zone is seriously like a little family here. I am convinced that we have the greatest zone in the MTC, and that I have the BEST district ever. I love them so much. Our Elders are all like big, protective older brothers to us sisters. They always take our trays for us in the cafeteria, open doors for us, and get super protective when they see any other elder talking to us. It cracks us up, but they are so precious.  We always kneel in prayer together and have started a new tradition called "compliment circle" where we just go around in a circle taking turns giving each other sincere compliments. We decided that we are going to continue the tradition throughout our missions through our letters. I am going to be so sad to have to say goodbye to them in 3 days.. :( (So one night as we were kneeling down to say our closing prayer before we went back to the residences, I almost continued our family tradition after our nightly prayers and tackled Sister Tuioti to the ground. Thankfully I remembered that I was in fact in the MTC and not in my living room before the prayer was over. I told them about it after we said amen, and now they never let me live it down. "Oh Sister Olds, this isn't really family prayer! Don't go tackeling Elder Adamson or anything." haha)

Sad sad sad news. The Provo temple has been closed the whole time we have been here, so we wont get the chance to go at all while we are here :( We were all so upset!! I miss the temple so much!!! Go as much as you can for me!! Never taking the opportunity to go to the temple for granted. However, Sunday afternoon we did get to all walk to the temple!! When we got over there we song the Efy  medley as a zone and it was so great!!! That song is so amazing, especially when you are missionaries. 

So I had my first break down this week. That was no fun. I was just feeling overwhelmed because I felt like I didn't have the spirit with me when I was teaching and wasn't receiving revelation on what I should be teaching. I felt like all the other missionaries in the room had no problem with this and so I felt like something was wrong with me. I don't know. So I broke down in class and started tearing up and so Sister Tuioti and I went out into the hallway to talk. She is so wonderful!! She is the most loving and caring person I have ever met. She totally comforted me and just let me cry on her shoulder for a little bit. We cleaned myself up and then went back into class. Our teacher Brother Heath walked up to us and started explaining what we were doing, and then all of a sudden I just burst into tears again! Right in the middle of class. I was so embarrassed. So he was just like, "Sister Olds, come with me." He took me out in the hall and I just spilled everything that I was feeling and what was going on. He said EXACTLY what I  needed to hear. Our teachers care SO MUCH about us and love us so much. I am so grateful to have such amazing teachers. Then later Sister Lyon was talking to Sister Tuioti and I about how our lesson went with Kristine that morning (Kristine is one of our investigators, who is actually Sister Lyon) and she said how the spirit was so strong and how we taught amazingly and how we had answered Kristine's prayer from the night before. Then I started crying again!! Who am I?!?! I don't cry!! So then she just gave me a big hug and we talked for a little bit as well. Our teachers are seriously some of the most amazing people I've ever met. 

Elder Quentin L. Cook was the speaker at Tuesday Devotional this week!! It was so awesome and such a wonderful surprise! Also our whole zone joined the choir which made it even better. It was an amazing arrangement of The First Noel that was absolutely beautiful!!

Thank  you so so so so much to those that have sent me letters!! I got 7 in one day and felt so loved!!! And special thanks to Toree Day for sending me a letter on the exact day I needed it. I love you all so much!!

Well 4 more days and I will be in Cleveland!!! I am so excited!! We had In-Field Training ALL DAY yesterday and it just got me so stoked to get out there and start using all these things that I have been learning. Oh also Elder Christensen from the District was in this little play they did for us yesterday. Only missionaries will understand that, but he is pretty much a huge celebrity around here haha.

With lots of Love,
        Sister Olds the II

P.S. Regarding the subject line....We were giving Elder Crabb a hard time about having man crushes on celebrities and all of a sudden he goes, "I do NOT have a crush on Leonardo Davinci!!" And I just go, "....The painter?!" hahaha we all busted up laughing. He meant Leonardo Dicaprio. Then to make it even better, we were talking about how Michelangelo's paintings and Elder Adamson goes, "And he painted that with ONE EAR!!" "Nope....that was Van Gogh buddy...but you were so close." hahaha. I love them all so much.

Our whole zone!! (minus a few)
Of course we had to do the cliche MTC picture! All my cleveland sisters!!!



Awkward family photo!

Our district goals.

All the Elders in our Zone 

and all the Sisters in our Zone!!

We have a very wide range of heights in our district... (Elder Watters is 6'10"!! So Erin you can stop complaining about your height) 
I LOVE MY COMPANION!!

Studyin in class (Elder Crabb, Elder Adamson, Sister Tuioti, Sister Jackson, Sister Urso, Elder Makaiwi, and Elder Thieme)









1 comment:

  1. Hi Sister Olds. I was with your mom on her mission. I am the one who tracked into my husband and helped teach him. I also am the one who crushed a man's cigarettes and he ended up giving up smoking after a very long time and got baptized. I am not saying to do this though. It was totally the spirit or something that made me do it. I would never have done something like that or do what I did when we found my husband so long ago. Listen to the spirit and do as it says.

    I love your letters. You are gifted like your mother. What a great family you have! Your mother was such a great companion. I just was there to visit her. Your family spoiled me. Especially your mom. I love her sooo much! She read from her mission journal and we cried. We watched your mom's mission slides and that was so very fun. You are so blessed to have a great mom and dad and sisters. I look forward to meeting you some day.

    We had the missionaries living with us for a year. The Elder. They just were transferred out. I am a ward missionary and my husband is has been the Ward Mission Leader. We have Sisters and Elders in our ward, so we are lucky. We have MANY missionary experiences. I am going out with the Sisters a lot. I also teach new member discussions and do a lot to help my husband with his calling. We home teach 5 families and I visit teach 5 sisters. I am a visiting teacher supervisor over 6 sisters. I don't work outside of the home, but I WORK! : ) I do a lot of volunteer work for our community and for the ward. My husband and I are volunteer Police. That is a big job.

    I love this gospel and I am so proud of all you are doing. You are going to look back on this with great memories as you are obedient and put your trust in Him. I love our Savior Jesus Christ and am so thankful for the gospel in my life. I am so grateful I was able to serve a mission. You are keeping a good journal by the wonderful letters you are writing. Please copy them or have your mom copy them, because they are easily lost on the internet. I am glad I copied my son's letter/emails, because the computer crashed and we lost everything. Even our pictures. It was so very sad. I need to copy them down onto a 'stick' so we don't lose them too.

    Well you keep up the good work! You have the greatest letters and I love the way you do it.

    Love,

    Karen LeBaron Lawler

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