Don't worry, we repented.

So much to tell about this week, but I am going to start with THE MOST exciting part!

We found out last week that Elder Halstrom from the Seventy is coming to visit our mission in May with an apostle, but they didn't know who the apostle would be yet. We found out this week....Guess who it is....

ELDER JEFFREY R. HOLLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I read the text from our district leader and screamed and told all the other sisters and then Sister Perrenoud and I did the biggest, most intense happy dance this world has ever seen! (But the missionary handbook says that missionaries aren't allowed to dance, so we had to repent afterwards) We are SO STOKED!!! Later Sister Perrenoud was like, "I really wish that we had that on film. I mean what other 20 year old girls would get this excited over an old man coming to talk to them? Mormons!" hahaha So true.

I'm training! It was so hard to say goodbye to Sister Stringham, but it has been fun to have a fresh start with Sister Ebersole. And she is from Arizona too! These two Arizona girls are taking on Avon. She is from Prescott Valley, AZ. In the first five minutes of meeting me she said, "I just want you to know that I am ready to work hard." Could a trainer hear any better phrase from their trainee?? I think not! She is definitely getting used to missionary life, but once she does she will be a stellar missionary. Along with being a trainer, that means that I get to drive! It was definitely super weird getting behind the wheel after 3 months of being a co-driver. 

Well I had some good growing pains this week. The biggest lesson I learned this week was that I truly do need to depend on the Lord's help through this work. I cannot do it alone. I have this bad habit of trying to be this super woman missionary and thinking that I can do everything and don't need any help. NOPE! Not how it is supposed to be done. We need to rely on our companions, other missionaries, and especially Heavenly Father for help. 

I am so grateful for this amazing gospel. I truly took it for granted before I came on my mission.

Sister Ebersole and I!

The Buchanans! I love them like they are my own grandparents! I miss living with them so much! 

"Use our weird vocabulary ALL the time! No one understands it!" -Elder Kopischke

Wednesday night Sister Perrenoud, Sister Stringham and I are sitting in our room reminiscing on the MTC (which feels like yesterday). Then at about 10:15 our phone rings. I ask, "Who in the world is calling us so late?!" Sister Stringham looks at the phone, looks at me with baby bush eyes, then says, "President Vellinga...." Immediately I felt all of my blood pulsing through my body and got butterflies like crazy! I already knew....I was training. I was trying to stay calm on the phone with President but I'm sure he could tell that internally I was freaking out! Thankfully since then I have calmed down. A lot. I feel much more prepared for it and know that it will be awesome. All that matters is that President Vellinga, as well as Heavenly Father, know that I can do this and trust me. I am so excited to get to train a new sister and set her on the right path for the rest of her mission. I cant wait to meet her tomorrow!

I will never, for as long as I live, be able to keep up with Ohio weather. One week we had snow one day, rain the next day, sun the next day, then hail the next day. Then this week it almost hit 60, then the next day we were stuck inside because of a huge blizzard! What?? Cleveland! Make up your mind! It is March for pete's sake!  I am ready for Spring!

We had Stake Conference this weekend and it was AMAZING!!!!!! Elder Kopischke from the Seventy came!! He is an incredible speaker! Saturday evening he had a few different people bear their testimonies and share experiences with missionary work, then opened it up for discussion about what we all learned. It was all centered on 'Hastening the work of Salvation'. So of course all of the full time missionaries were stoked! Then Sunday his wife spoke as well and she is the CUTEST little german lady ever!! You could just feel her enthusiasm for this gospel gushing out of here! Then yesterday we found out that in May Elder Hallstrom from the Seventy, as well as one of the twelve apostles are coming to Cleveland to speak to all of the missionaries! It's like Christmas for us!!

I feel like there was a lot more that happened this week but I just can't remember. Weeks start to feel like months, but other times they feel like days. Mission time has got to be the weirdest thing ever.

Yesterday we taught two of the best lessons we have ever taught together. The spirit was so strong. We honestly left not really even remembering what exactly we said. It is amazing when the spirit can completely lead the discussions. This work is so incredible and I feel so blessed to be a part of it. Miracles can happen every day!

I am so sad that our district will be changed tomorrow. I love all these missionaries so much!! Such incredible examples to me. I have learned so much from all of them! (And they are goofy which always keeps things fun:) )

I guess it's kind of pretty here sometimes

We celebrated their birthdays since Sister Stringham is leaving tomorrow. Their birthdays are one day apart in April!

How cute is she?! I love our weekly visits with the lovely Sister Kolenich :) She is 88 and there isn't anything she can't do!

Exchanges this week with Sister Gannon!

These honestly don't even do the storm any justice at all.

It was ridiculous. Broken telephone lines, branches falling out of trees. It was terrifying.

Apparently this is a French Canadian tradition. Sister Stringham made it for me this week. Pretty much it is just french fries with cheese curds and gravy over it. It was kind of weird, but not horrible. The cheese was squeaky...

We went to Kirtland this week!!!! We took Lynn on Tuesday because she really wanted to go and Sister Taylor came with us as well! It honestly could not have gone any better if we had planned it to! (Unless of course we broke the ice in Lake Erie and baptized her right there.) She absolutely loved it and said that the most amazing part was that she was actually walking and standing where Joseph Smith had once walked and stood!! (She loves Joseph Smith) It was so wonderful! Also it was the first time that Sister Stringham and I had got to do the full tour at Kirtland. Everyone needs to go to Kirtland!! Absolutely amazing. We are definitely coming back as a family.

Awesome story! This week during companion study we got a knock on the door and so I went to go answer it and guess who it was!! The Jehovah's Witnesses!! We had a nice little Bible Study right there at the door, then we taught them the Restoration. :) But then once the other sisters got home they quickly left because they were outnumbered. It was too funny though. They called us accursed because we believe the Book of Mormon. Good times, good times. 

Thank you so much for the package!!!! So wonderful!!!! It got here the morning of my appointment in Cleveland and so we were so excited that we had new music to listen to for our long drive!! You are all so good to me :) I really do appreciate it! And thank you so much for all the stamps!! I was almost out! That was so helpful!! 

Oh and lots of more words of wisdom from Sister Looney this week! (man i love that crazy woman) We were teaching about the Plan of Salvation and when we got to Adam and Eve she goes, "Oh! Well don't you know that they were much too busy to be having kids in the Garden of Eden!?" of course we were puzzled and upon further inquiry she told us "Well they were busy naming everything! You know....grass, trees, dirt, and so on!" Hahaha And then when we were talking about temples with her she told us that she won't go to the temple until she can walk there because that is what Jesus did and she is trying to be like Jesus..... When we explained that Heavenly Father has blessed us with modern transportation so that we can get to the temple she said that she would not drive there because Jesus could have rode in a golden chariot to the temple but he didn't, He walked. So that is what she is going to do. There was really no changing her mind. 

Well I am SO happy that Steph is home safe!! Weird to be the only missionary out from the Olds' family now!! I love you all so much and appreciate all of your love and support! It makes all the difference in the world out here!!!

I love and miss Sophie, but Bruiser is the next best thing I have out here!! I love this dog so much!! He is too cute! He is a chug (Half pug half chihuahua) and is so hilarious!! I about died laughing watching him chase his tail. TOO cute.

He was making it difficult to get a picture

Kirtland!!! 

Doing my breathing tests at the doctors! (Sister Stringham thinks it is so funny, so she took pictures)

There is sunshine in my soul today

Ohhhhhhhhhhh that's what people meant when they told me that missions were hard. Now I get it!

Well this past week has definitely been the hardest week of my mission thus far. Monday we found out that we had to be out of the Buchanans house and by Wednesday we were moved in with the other sisters in our district out in Lorain. (Which is a good half hour drive from our area) We are still apartment searching though for something closer. Then the rest of the week there were just lots of little things that kept happening that kept adding to my stress. I honestly haven't been that depressed in a long time. Usually I am a strong advocate of positive thinking, but this week was just plain hard. 

I came across this talk a couple days ago during personal study and I absolutely loved it!! It definitely helped me to turn things around a lot. It took a few days but I am back to my positive, happy self. 

The thing that brought me the most comfort this past week was knowing that Heavenly Father allows us to have trials and problems along our way because He knows that they will strengthen us and help us to grow. Apparently Heavenly Father thought it was time for me to do some growing! He knew that I would make it through the week and I know that it is only because of His help that I was able to. 

My new address is:

1310 Shaffer Drive

Apartment A

Lorain, Ohio 44052

Thank you so much for all of the love and support! It truly does help so much!! I love you!!!!

"My one goal on my mission is to turn all my companions into total weirdos. So far I am doing pretty good I'd say!"

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOO FROM OHIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

So first of all, the power of prayer is so incredible!!! Awesome story for y'all. So a few weeks ago I was saying my nightly prayers and praying for Steph as I always do. However I have been trying to be more specific in my prayers recently. Specific prayers bring specific blessings. I asked Heavenly Father to bless Stephanie with one more baptism here at the end of her mission. Then on Monday we got her email about Katya being baptized!!! (look up above and click on "Sister Olds the First" to read about that!) It didn't even hit me that it was an answered prayer until a few days later. I was kneeling down again to say my nightly prayers when all of a sudden it hit me!! I literally gasped in the middle of saying my prayers! (Sister Stringham thought it was so funnny!) It was such an incredible testimony builder!! Heavenly Father truly does hear and answer our prayers as we have righteous desires!!

 

We had to go to Cleveland this weekend to pick up some medicine for me. I felt really bad that we had to take a whole day to do it (we ended up in a HUGE traffic jam on the way there which made it take way longer than usual.) To repay Sister Stringham we went to Little Italy right next to the hospital and I bought her dinner. We went to Mia Bella (which the valets there recommended) and it was DELICIOUS!!! It also made me miss going out to dinner all the time with my family.

 

Not a ton happened this week. We had Zone Conference which was wonderful. President Vellinga is so incredible!!  I love him so much! Best quotes from him at zone conference: "We are trying to get people to heaven for pete's sakes!" And I also about died laughing when he started talking about baptizing penguins in Lake Erie. (Of course i was the only one. Then my whole district started laughing cause they knew that i was the one that busted up) Oh also Sister looney came to church again this week!!!! So exciting!!!

 

Sorry this week is so short. I am sending lots of pictures to make up for it :)

It is president Vellinga's birthday this week and we wanted to send him a fun card. Clearly we had way too much fun trying to take a picture for him! Self timer is hard....

Mia Bella's in Little Italy! So delicious!

Sister BoBo Olds' desk zoo!

The houses on Lake rd. are RIDICULOUSLY huge!!!

"That Heavenly Father is one good lookin dude!!" -Sister Looney

I love roller coasters. I do not love roller coaster weeks.

 

This week was all over the place! But wonderful nonetheless!

 

Sister Stringham and I had a "girl's night" with Sister Looney this week. Oh man....she is too great. She called us the night before letting us know that she was going to get a pizza for all of us because "that just seems fitting for a girls night" and that she was oober excited for our girls night. We had the pizza and then cookies and watermelon that we brought. We shared Proverbs 31:10 with her and then somehow ended up helping her organize her room. (she is a bit of a hoarder, my organizing skills have come in handy time and time again on my mission!) We found a witch's hat in her room that she said she had worn one year for Halloween. She put it on and had the biggest grin on her face and looked so thrilled with herself! As long as I live I will NEVER forget that image!!! I wish I had gotten a picture of her in that hat!! She is too cute!!! Then we helped her pick out an outfit for church this week. She was SO excited to come to church!! However, her ride ended up getting sick Sunday morning and we found out last minute. We were scrambling like crazy to find her a ride and NO ONE could do it! We were panicking!! We ended up having to call her and tell her that no one could come to get her. She was so upset and said that she was done and was never, ever coming back and that we shouldn't ever ask her again. Sister Stringham and I both immediately broke down in tears. We felt like all of our hard work and progress we had made with her was just flushed down the drain. However a few minutes later the wonderful Relief Society President came and said that she was leaving church to go pick her up (which is about 30 minutes both ways). We called Sister Looney back and she wouldn't even consider coming even if she went to get her. We were so sad and so discouraged. Sister Taylor SAVED the day though!!! That woman is honestly a miracle worker!! She was able to talk to SIster Looney and convince her into coming next week and that she personally would pick her up. Sister Looney agreed and gave us another chance!! Also Sister Taylor told her that she would bring her cookies tonight because we all felt so bad that she couldn't come, so that definitely sweetened the deal. Sister Taylor is SO AMAZING!!! We love her so much! It gets even better though. Bishop could see that we were really upset when we walked into Sacrament meeting late. We got a text from him later that day saying that Sister Looney was fine and that he visited with her for a while. Yes!! Sister Looney had been telling us all week how she really wanted to talk to Bishop. That night we went stopped by to see how she was doing real quick since we were right next door. She was in much higher spirits and I am pretty sure that she forgot about that morning completely. (hallelujiah!) Are you sitting down for this?? While we were standing there she said, "Oh I don't smoke anymore. It makes me deathly ill." ..................WHAT?!?!?!?!?! Sister Stringham and I were in SHOCK!!! We asked her what had made her realize this and she told us all about how Bishop had come over and they had a good long talk about it and prayed about it together. Right after he left she went to go have a cigarette and got horribly sick. Then the same thing happened a few hours later. She told us that she is done smoking and is getting rid of all her cigarettes!! Highlight of the week BY FAR!!!

 

(Second best highlight of the week: I saw a pug in a sweater)

 

Guess what!! I like waffles!! We went to the Hughes' home for dinner this week and they always have breakfast for dinner on Thursday. We were both a bit hesistant because I don't like practically any breakfast foods-especially waffles and pancakes- and Sister Stringham hates eggs. Guess what was for dinner! waffles and eggs! Haha but we were good sports and ate it of course. They were DELICIOUS!!! I don't know if I was just blessed with more accepting taste buds that night or what, but they were so good!! Oh also somehow we got on the subject of youtube videos and Brother Hughes brought up the Baby Monkey on a pig video and I just about fell out of my chair laughing!!! I had totally forgotten about that video!!! I laughed WAY too hard at that one. They thought it was hilarious. Yesterday I thanked him for getting that song stuck in my head all week!

 

We were able to help one of our investigators move this week. (thankfully still in our area!) We worked practically all day Saturday with them and a little on Sunday to finish up. Our bodies are exhausted!! But I made Poppa proud of his son. :) They were a bit shocked I think with us. We are stronger than we look!!

 

Sad news.... We have to move out of the Buchanan's house :( We found out this week that their daughter and granddaughter are moving in and so we are apartment shopping now. (Which is much harder without the use of the internet!) So let us know if you hear of any apartments for rent in Avon or Avon Lake! haha

 

Love you all and miss you so much. This work is the greatest thing I could be doing with my life right now. I love it so much!!!

 

Love from Avon,

Sister Olds II

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE VALENTINES FLOWERS!!!! They were such a nice surprise on a hard day :) You guys are so wonderful!!!

I got the CUTEST Valentines Package from my old roommate Elizabeth!!! She is too sweet!!! Of course my favorite thing was the pink hedgehog mug! She knows me so well :)

love + charity = MIRACLES

I love when I get to see miracles happen out here!!!! So I know that I have mentioned Sister Looney before, but I don't remember everything that I said so I will give a little back story this time too. She is a less active that the missionaries have been working with for a really long time. She lives with 5 cats and her name is fitting. When I first got to the area Sister Stringham said that she wasn't even going to take me there because she is so crazy, ridiculous, and frustrating. I was up for the challenge though. When I met her I could see what Sister Stringham was talking about. She believes that God has told her that it is okay to smoke, she is the epitome of a crazy cat lady, and some of her views on the gospel are a bit ....interesting. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE SISTER LOONEY!! She is hands down my favorite person I have met on my mission so far! After a couple visits  with her, I suggested to Sister Stringham that we should take a different approach with her than what all of the other missionaries have done so far. We don't need to focus on how we need to change her and what she is doing wrong, but simply focus on loving and serving her. It has been amazing to see the change!! Sister Looney loves our visits so much more now and miracles truly have come about because of it. Since I got here we have been trying everything we can think of to get her to read just one verse from the Book of  Mormon a day. Nothing has worked until this week. Last Monday I got an email from Richard Olds and in it he told me of an experience he had where he put the Lord first in his life and he was able to have time to accomplish the other things that he was worrying about finishing in time. He saw the blessings in his life come from putting the Lord FIRST. I shared that story with Sister Looney and promised her that if she put the Lord first in her life and read God's words that He would bless her with time to find everything else that she needs to do in her day and that her life would be less chaotic. (Her excuse was always that she didn't have time cause her life is so crazy) We told her that we would call her every night to check up on her reading. When we called her the next night we about fell out of our chairs when she told us that not only had she read one verse, but she wanted to read more! She is so cute. She said that she wanted to read more but remembered that we told her to read one verse and so "she was good and did what we said and only read one". She is so precious! We told her that she can always read more and that we just want her to read at least one verse. She has been reading every day since! Then Saturday night when we called her, we felt prompted to invite her to church. Sister Looney hasn't come to church in YEARS! She told us that she would have to see if she could and then call us back in the morning.

We had to pick our jaws up off the floor when she told us that she could come to church in the morning!!! I was doing the biggest happy dance ever!!!! We got the Taylors to give her a ride. Honestly that was one of the happiest moments of my mission so far seeing her walk into the chapel that day and sitting next to her for all three hours of church! They got there late and so they came in half way through sacrament meeting. It was ward conference and so the Bishop was giving a talk. He was talking about the ward goals for 2014. One of the goals he was talking on was our goal for 25 less actives to return to activity. Just then he looked up to see Sister Looney sitting in the back and immediately he started to cry. The ward was so incredibly welcoming and loving to her!! So many people came up to say hi and that they missed her and were happy to see her back at church. She was so surprised that so many people remembered her since it had been so very long since she had come. She felt so love and said that she had a wonderful experience! She even raised her hand and shared a few comments in Relief Society! She told us that she hopes that she can come next week because she enjoyed herself so much! I am so grateful that you have been such a wonderful example to me Momma on how to love and serve others. It truly is what helps people the most.

 

So I completely forgot to write about this last week! But I still want to share it with you. When we were on exchanges a couple weeks ago I went to a nursing home to visit a couple less actives with Sister Foust. We met with Sister Blackmor who is hard of hearing and just the sweetest old lady ever! As we were getting ready to leave I asked her if there was anything we could help her with. She sat there pondering deeply for a moment and then all excited goes, "Oh yes!! In that top drawer right behind you!" So I get up and open it and she says, "There are some chocolates in there to the right side. Can you please bring me a couple of them?" Immediately a huge smile spread across my face and tears came to my eyes. Of course my first thought was of my sweet dear Gran. Apparently she wasn't the only old lady that had a huge sweet tooth! It reminded me so much of when Gran used to always ask me to sneak her a couple chocolates so that Aunt Glenda wouldn't find out. (I'm pretty sure Aunt Glenda always knew though) It made me miss my Gran so much, but am so grateful that she is with Kent now and they are watching over me while I am out here.

 

I love you all so much and miss you tons!! There is no place that I would rather be than doing the Lord's work here in Ohio!!

 

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

 

Love,

Sister Olds