Buckle Your Seatbelts......October 21st

 Oh boy!! Transfer meeting is tomorrow....and we will be there! We got called Saturday night that Sister Hoffmann is being transferred out of the YSA Ward. I really am going to miss her! We've had an interesting 6 weeks but overall we've had a lot of fun and seen a lot of cool things. I have learned a LOT to say the very least!

I guess I should have been more specific in my prayers last week that I was talking about because... I AM GOING TO BE TRAINING!!!! The assistants called Saturday (before the zone leaders) and said "Sister Olsen are you willing to train a new missionary?" I sat there shocked for a couple of seconds. I wanted to say "You know I'M a new missionary right?!" But all that managed to come out was "Yeah."

Saturday night was fairly nerve wracking. Go figure... I started questioning how much I really knew the area, the people, everything! I've only been out for one transfer!! Yesterday I felt much better about it. After ward council Bishop Rock came up to me and gave me a handshake with both of his hands and told me how grateful he is that I'll be staying. He said he loves how hard we've been working and the way the energy and enthusiasm in the ward has come up this last month. He said he's excited I can keep building on that. I wanted to hug the man!!!! I sat in Sacrament going over names in my head and trying to picture where they live and "where they're at in life" and I got this calm(or as calm as I could be) that things are gonna work out.

Me being on a mission in general is already a miracle! The Lord has blessed me beyond belief in these six weeks and helped me in ways I never imagined. I know he'll continue to do that. "Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies." Honestly, I'm a tiny bit terrified! I'll be driving again now too! But I sat down last night and thought about exactly the type of missionary I want to be, what I wanted to learn these last six weeks and what I want to help Sister Unknown learn/feel her first weeks out here. So it's scary and nerve wracking and I have no idea how we're gonna survive but I'm excited!! If nothing else, think of the cool stories that will be coming our way ;)

This work is amazing! It's crazy and I don't understand how it works but every single night I look back and still am SO thankful for being able to be out here! I'm thankful the Lord trusts me to be out here and to be helping the people of California and even more for his confidence in thinking I can help "shape" this new missionary coming out tomorrow.

There's a guy out here named Jason Beal who is a recent convert that we've been meeting with. He had us over for pizza Saturday night and out of nowhere, he asked a super personal question. I was definitely taken back for a second. My first thought was "Uhh how can I go around this?" But I had the strong feeling I needed to be open and tell him a certain painful story. After, he said he feels like he relates me to very well and that we're pretty similar. He opened up a TON right then on stuff he was struggling with and where he's at right now. We talked for a long time about how the Lord is always with us and helping us in life, even if we don't feel like we can see it at the time. I was grateful I followed the prompting.

Driving home that night, I imagined the Lord being like "come on Sister Olsen! DUH!" I know that we're called to our specific missions for a specific reason and that all of these "personal" "painful" experiences are rough to talk about BUT THAT'S WHY WE'RE HERE!

Elder Kopiske challenged us to think about our dreams and goals for our missions. Why are we REALLY here and what do we want to accomplish? My most prominent reason in being here is wanting to help at least one person to learn about the Atonement, USE IT, and make peace with stuff they never imagined they could make peace with. But I can only do that by not being dumb and opening up about my own experiences. So it was definitely a good reminder for me.

Life out here in California is goooood! When I think about getting a brand new missionary tomorrow I think of the first week in the MTC. Everybody tells you "just make it to Sunday! If you can make it to Sunday you're good!" So when I go pick up Sister Unknown tomorrow, we're just gonna make it to Sunday. After that we're good :)

With faith in every footstep,
Sister Olsen

This guy Dirk keeps asking if he can take us shooting! Which we aren't allowed to do. But he still had guns out the other day when we went over. I told him "My family will think this is a really good idea!" haha Look out Cali!