Sister Olds the II: Drip drip drop little April showers!

All of these April showers truly are bringing the most beautiful May flowers!! I love all the tulips, daffodils [that always remind me of Gran], and my most favorite are the huge gorgeous magnolia trees! I will try to get a picture for you all soon! [Or ya know....you're all allowed to use google...]

Oh Sammy Sam. He is just so GOOD! He has continued to live the Word of Wisdom so diligently. This week in one of our lessons he told us how he was really inspired by the Word of Wisdom and decided to start running every morning and eating healthier. He also told us how he is noticing how much happier he is still, even when things go wrong. For example he got a flat tire this week when coming home from work and he wasn't upset at all. He just fixed it and kept going. He said how normally he would have been upset about it for a few days. This gospel truly does bring joy! Even when we get flat tires! :) The wonderful Davis family had Sam and us over for dinner last night and to watch the"Prophet of the Restoration". It was so great!! I wish you could all [as well as him...] see how incredible he is!! He is so close!! Keep praying for him please.

Our area is all just tiny towns out in the middle of nowhere. [As I have explained before] However, each tiny town has a HUGE catholic church in the middle of them. Sister Hemenway and I decided to set a "goal" to go and tour all of them. [A while ago that was a big push in the mission as a finding idea]. We started with the one in Celina....Immaculate Conception. Yes, that is actually what it is called. I have always wanted to see the inside because it looks incredible from the outside! It reminds me of all the huge cathedrals we would visit in Europe. We finally had some time to do it and it was pretty interesting. We walked in and at first were really confused because no one was in there. We weren't sure if we were even allowed to be in there or not. After looking around for about 10 minutes we finally found the "Self Guided Tours" book which helped us to realize that we weren't breaking and entering!...[We just aren't used to churches be open all the time.] It was so intricate and ornate inside though!! It was so cool to see. The most interesting part though was how we felt. It was a nice church, but we could notice the lack of spirit that we felt. It helped us to better understand how our investigators feel when they come to our church for the first time. Comparing that feeling to how I felt taking the Sacrament on Sunday was like night and day. I LOVE the Spirit so much! We are so blessed to have him with us constantly.

This morning I was reading Samuel Wittwer's biography and there was one part that just really struck me. I mean, I loved reading all of it of course, ancestor biographies are my FAVORITE!! But there was this part at the beginning that was a good reminder for me.:

"We can imagine, too, that there was harmony and love in the home...love for each other and for their Father in Heaven, and great was the joy in their hearts when the Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came into their valley and to their home telling of the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

First of all I absolutely love learning about our family's conversion stories. All of their conversions are part of our own individual conversions. But what really hit me was those two Elders. I'm sure they had no idea what the later affects would be from teaching that small family of 3 in that small valley in the Swiss Alps. Generations of that young boy's posterity were members of the church as well as numerous missionaries over the years have resulted from that little family accepting and converting to the gospel. It reminded me how I, or any of us, truly have no idea what can come from the good we do in this life. One day I will get the chance to thank personally those two Elders, but for now I can thank them by paying it forwards. Who knows, maybe 25 years from now there will be a Marshallese branch here in St. Marys!

Thank you for the continued support and especially the prayers. I love you all and will see you all too soon. :)

Sister Amber Olds