Thursday, October 9, 2014
Day 16!
Hello again friends and family,
Loved hearing from you all throughout the week. Thank you so much for the dear Elders, that was very nice of you all. Details again, I'm really not good at the whole detail thing. I have no idea what to write. If anyone is still wondering if I would like picture of grand kids that would be awesome. I would really love them all. Details, details. This is hard without any questions. Things are still going good. The days are starting to blur and time is flying by, which is more scary than anything else because I don't know this language and pretty soon I am going to be out in the field and not know what anyone is saying. We had one of the missionaries from Bulgaria that knew Angus sub for us when one of our teachers was gone. That was pretty cool. He shared a really amazing experience he had on his mission about following the spirit and sometimes the people you would never expect are the people that decide to accept the gospel and change their entire life to comply with what they know to be true. I think that generalization is made pretty often but each story is unique and special and they each continue to invite the spirit.Thank you mom for reminding me to eat veggies and stuff last week. I have been trying to eat better with varying degrees of success. The food doesn't necessarily taste bad but I can just feel how bad it is for me with every bite so, it amount to about the same thing. Oh how I crave for somewhat normal food. we have a pretty huge stockpile of junk food from packages and stuff in our room. It's pretty terrible too. Most of our zone is going to leave next week so we'll be the big guys, which is weird because we still don't know what is going on and there is no way we will figure it out by this time next week but we have to act our part and try to be the oldies and teach them a thing or two.I'll try and send some pictures later, I hear the thing is pretty iffy from just about everyone so hopefully it will work this week again.Oh, goodness, I have no idea what to write about. Ummm, we play a lot of basketball recently and I am doing as much spike ball as i can. I really do have a lot of fun playing that game. Though I think I get a little too competitive and I don't love everyone as much as i should when I do. My goal during much of this last week was to try and think and feel the spirit before i say things so I can get rid of even all the little offenses that i say because i know that they are not nice and that I can't have the spirit when I say them. So that has been my goal, and as with the eating I have had varying degrees of success with that. But I am working at it.What else, again Elder Porters celebrity has come through. On Tuesday we got a call through the intercom that Elder Porter was supposed to call the front desk and they told him to go to the lobby at 5:30 to meet with the speaker for the night. i was tagging along because of course I am his companion. We got to meet the speaker and it turns out it was a 70 who had been in New Zealand when he lived there because his dad was the mission president. I didn't know this until recently but his dad is actually the head of HR for the church. That is pretty crazy. I really hit the jackpot with companions.I really don't know what to say. Going to the temple is really cool. This is day 16 which doesn't sound like a big enough number because I feel like I have been here for a really long time. Really long but really short. It just feels normal I guess. I like always having something to do. I keep hearing the speakers and wishing for the time I had back home to make the choices for myself to study more and more intently and to do more service and to love others more. When i was doing that more of my own choice at home than any other time in my life I could feel joy and peace and happiness more than any other time in my life. I realized that even though I don't have the same amount of time I had at home I do have free time where I can choose to study and work hard or i can chose to goof off. Not a lot but I have that time. As I choose to make the most out of that time I know that the Lord will bless me just as much as he did when I had all the time in the world.The speaker last Tuesday said something that hit me pretty hard. He said the Lord will raise you up to be equal to your calling. That means we aren't equal in our calling. We could always be doing more. Especially as a missionary I am feeling that I am not equal to the calling. Learning a language and trying to teach in it when I don't even know half the words I am saying and don't know the grammar to even put a sentence together correctly is frustrating and scary. It sounds impossible and I would probably think it was if I hadn't seen so many examples of it working out. All I can do is trust in the Lord and put in all of my effort, 100%. I am trying and I know he will bless me for it. I will do my best and put my trust in the Lord for the rest and I know he will make up the difference.I don't what else to write. This letter thing is real hard. Thanks again to everyone that wrote dear elders. I love getting them during the week and hearing about everything that happened. Thank you so much. Stories are great. I think the best part of letter is really the end though. It helps so much to see the love, so-and-so at the end. That is the best feeling, knowing people love you, I know it always but seeing it is special to me. So thank you.What else did I do this week. Hmmmmm, I don't know. I think, oh, well a sickness is going around, I think I mentioned it last week. One of my teachers was sick which is unfortunate, a different Croatian subbed last night, and one of the Elders in my room got sick too. He wasn't feeling too good for a couple of days but he is staring to get better I think. I hope.I need to start talking more in Croatian because that is a really difficult thing for me. Tonight we have a TRC, we are supposed to talk all in our language to a guy being himself and we didn't really have any time to prepare because today is P-day. If I had my choice I would have spend most of the day preparing but companions mean we have to let go of everything that we want, it is really frustrating to not be able to say what I want to to get my message of love across. To anyone who thinks that an English mission is dumb... I think that would be so amazing now, sure you don't learn a language but you can connect to people your whole mission and really speak to them. I think that experience is amazing. I know I'll get it at some point but for the moment I can get pretty lost.Okay, I think I am done, thanks again for all the letters,Love you soooo much,Elder Enoch Benjamin Hogan Olmstead.
Sunday, October 5, 2014
MTC Experiences
Okay,
So for my dad and I guess for all of you, I'll try to be more detailed since I'm not very good at this.
I don't have any of my former email contact so forward this to whoever you link and think - and whoever asks because I am not getting it sent to anyone. Thank you all for writing me. Getting the Dear Elders is super awesome. It's super nice to hear from you every day and know what's going on.
Tell the Bodily's I'm sorry I didn't see them before they left, but it's cool that they had a great time and it's amazing that the church is growing so much there. I hope I can help my area as much as that and that I can see growth there.
Learning the language is proving more difficult than I thought. I think I wen tint the MTC without a full understanding of what learning the actual language would be like. I am picking it up piece by piece but I think I could work harder. They dive you in pretty deep in the first week. The first Friday they have you teach an investigator in the language. I pretty much just read from a script I wrote out. I didn't know what I was saying. The "investigator" is actually one of our teachers, or will be in a week or two, but we don't know him yet.
Elder Porter and I are scarily alike. Not in looks, he is pretty tall and really skinny, but we do like a lot of the same things. Amazingly, he beat boxes. I think he is better than me and he thinks I am better than him. We do different things I guess, but we can get into little sessions and we get distracted pretty easily because we both do it without thinking and then join in with each other. It can be a pretty big problem when we are trying to get things done.
Ummm, I have gotten kinda an obsession with Orange Guava Passion fruit juice. I am trying to get off of it though because I think it may be giving me indigestion or something, not pleasant..... so just water for me.
I forgot my camera so I am going to have to send pictures next week unless we decide to come back and send just them, if we have some more time.
I really do love it here. I am never really bored to be honest. We have stuff every hour of every day and I just need to keep reminding myself to work hard and never stop working.
I am really bad at typing on this computer. It is bothering me.
Oh, yeah. They did a little thing asking about the General Conference choir, but most of the spots were already filled by missionaries that had been here longer. One of the people in my district did make it (he was a first tenor) and he is actually gone a lot of time. His companion just ends up being with me and Elder Porter a lot of the time so I have gotten to know him pretty well. His name is Elder Davis. I think it was a blessing that I didn't get in because he misses a lot of planning time in the morning and missing that when we first got in is super hard.
Details, details, details.
Oh yes. I get a chance to roll a lot every day in gym time. They have a field as a lot of you probably know, and also I roll pretty much anywhere on any surface when I have my workout clothes on. It cracks my back when I have no Ben Mortensen to stand on it and massage me. Aaaah, how I miss massages. It's all good though. I am doing a lot of pull up though I miss the tree a lot. I can't do my whole routine anymore. It makes me really sad.
I miss real food, too. My stomach just does not agree with the food here. And none of it tastes real. I don't mind it. It just isn't... good.
Oooooh, I have a lot of time left. Tell me how everyone is doing. Step by step of every day.
Oh, I have something. So they have a devotional every Tuesday and Sunday night which i just amazing. I always feel the spirit really strong there. On the Sunday night devotional we had... an Elder Allen, I think. But the song/musical number before he spoke was the Joseph Smith's first vision one which is really good anyway, but the teachers sang it and it was amazing. Then he based his devotional off of it and we got to hear it like 4 times and hum and sing along. Then that night we saw the Character of Christ talk by Elder Bednar. You should all ooh it up and watch it. I think it is so amazing and inspiring. It was an MTC Christmas devotional. I really, really like that one.
[Click on this link to read the talk Elder Olmstead referenced: Character of Christ, by Elder Bednar ]
I gave my first blessing to a sister in our district who got sick with cold and a sinus infection and we found out is highly contagious, so hopefully I don't get sick, too. But that was a really cool experience and I was a little scared before but it isn't so scary now.
Sorry. I realized that was all one big mess. Have fun reading it. I'll try and do more spaces from now on. Oh, the Tuesday night devotional was the Russian Mission president that president Thomas and Angus both met and talked to. I am not going to try and write his name. I talk about Angus a lot because his mission is close to ours and the Bulgarian missionaries are in our zone. I think everyone in my district is skid of it and Angus wouldn't like it so sorry to all. It's just relevant. I said hi to some of his former companions/people he was in the mission field with. They were all pretty nice.
Um. OH! They have Spikeball here. Sorry for our Spikeball ball. Hopefully you are planning on getting a new one. It's awesome. I love the game. It is one of my passions. I will get SO good at it. Oh gosh, writing letters is so hard. We laugh way too easy. I think I have no sense of humor. Some of the older missionaries said that the further along you get the less sense of humor you have, or just the easier it is to laugh at anything, regardless of whether or not it's actually funny.
A problem I am trying to figure out is how to balance time learning the language, working on lessons, and reading my scriptures, and also knowing what scriptures I should read. I think it'll come to me but right now it is stressing me out because I always feel like I could be doing something better. So we'll see. Frisbee, kickball, spikeball, soccer, devotionals... OH. Sunday walk.
So every Sunday we go on a walk around the temple and we stay there for a bit and take pictures. It's really nice and relaxing and stress free. But one of our branch presidency actually came with us and a mixture of being tired, a little sick, taking medication, and not eating (because they do fast Sunday a week early instead of after, on General Conference weeks) he fainted. I saw him looking kind of weak and I think the spirit was telling me to watch him, but I looked away. Thankfully someone else was watching and paying attention to the spirit and caught him as he fell. He is okay now, it was just a pretty crazy experience to have a few days in. Sundays are awesome, I love them, Tuesdays too. I think the days are going to start blending together really fast now. They already are.
Umm, again with the details. I'm no good at um. What else, what else? I don't know. Just keep sending Dear Elders, that would be awesome. They are a great way to end my day. I always read them right before I go to sleep. And then I write in my journal. I'll try and start keeping up with the little things. Oh, I have one more thing to say,
THANK YOU MOM FOR THE GUMMY BEARS!!!!!!!!!
I don't know how you knew but that was a really big blessing. I was actually reminiscing the night before about the six pound bag I didn't take with me, (not that Solomon and Angus would have let me, maybe, i don't know) to the other elders and then when I got the package you told me I would get. It was heavy and BAM gummy bears. Thank you. That was really awesome. I am enjoying, um and sharing, with the other elders. We all kinda share all the food.
You were right about the comforter mom. I should have brought it. At the MTC at least. I haven't needed it yet but I think it's going to get preeeeettty cold around here. There is snow on the mountains. It is so pretty.
Well thank you all. I love you, miss you. Say hi to everyone a Church for me.
This gospel really is true. I know this and I know I am in the right place. I can't imagine begin anywhere else right now. LOVE YOU ALL AGAIN.
Love,
Elder Olmstead
So for my dad and I guess for all of you, I'll try to be more detailed since I'm not very good at this.
I don't have any of my former email contact so forward this to whoever you link and think - and whoever asks because I am not getting it sent to anyone. Thank you all for writing me. Getting the Dear Elders is super awesome. It's super nice to hear from you every day and know what's going on.
Tell the Bodily's I'm sorry I didn't see them before they left, but it's cool that they had a great time and it's amazing that the church is growing so much there. I hope I can help my area as much as that and that I can see growth there.
Learning the language is proving more difficult than I thought. I think I wen tint the MTC without a full understanding of what learning the actual language would be like. I am picking it up piece by piece but I think I could work harder. They dive you in pretty deep in the first week. The first Friday they have you teach an investigator in the language. I pretty much just read from a script I wrote out. I didn't know what I was saying. The "investigator" is actually one of our teachers, or will be in a week or two, but we don't know him yet.
Elder Porter and I are scarily alike. Not in looks, he is pretty tall and really skinny, but we do like a lot of the same things. Amazingly, he beat boxes. I think he is better than me and he thinks I am better than him. We do different things I guess, but we can get into little sessions and we get distracted pretty easily because we both do it without thinking and then join in with each other. It can be a pretty big problem when we are trying to get things done.
Ummm, I have gotten kinda an obsession with Orange Guava Passion fruit juice. I am trying to get off of it though because I think it may be giving me indigestion or something, not pleasant..... so just water for me.
I forgot my camera so I am going to have to send pictures next week unless we decide to come back and send just them, if we have some more time.
I really do love it here. I am never really bored to be honest. We have stuff every hour of every day and I just need to keep reminding myself to work hard and never stop working.
I am really bad at typing on this computer. It is bothering me.
Oh, yeah. They did a little thing asking about the General Conference choir, but most of the spots were already filled by missionaries that had been here longer. One of the people in my district did make it (he was a first tenor) and he is actually gone a lot of time. His companion just ends up being with me and Elder Porter a lot of the time so I have gotten to know him pretty well. His name is Elder Davis. I think it was a blessing that I didn't get in because he misses a lot of planning time in the morning and missing that when we first got in is super hard.
Details, details, details.
Oh yes. I get a chance to roll a lot every day in gym time. They have a field as a lot of you probably know, and also I roll pretty much anywhere on any surface when I have my workout clothes on. It cracks my back when I have no Ben Mortensen to stand on it and massage me. Aaaah, how I miss massages. It's all good though. I am doing a lot of pull up though I miss the tree a lot. I can't do my whole routine anymore. It makes me really sad.
I miss real food, too. My stomach just does not agree with the food here. And none of it tastes real. I don't mind it. It just isn't... good.
Oooooh, I have a lot of time left. Tell me how everyone is doing. Step by step of every day.
Oh, I have something. So they have a devotional every Tuesday and Sunday night which i just amazing. I always feel the spirit really strong there. On the Sunday night devotional we had... an Elder Allen, I think. But the song/musical number before he spoke was the Joseph Smith's first vision one which is really good anyway, but the teachers sang it and it was amazing. Then he based his devotional off of it and we got to hear it like 4 times and hum and sing along. Then that night we saw the Character of Christ talk by Elder Bednar. You should all ooh it up and watch it. I think it is so amazing and inspiring. It was an MTC Christmas devotional. I really, really like that one.
[Click on this link to read the talk Elder Olmstead referenced: Character of Christ, by Elder Bednar ]
I gave my first blessing to a sister in our district who got sick with cold and a sinus infection and we found out is highly contagious, so hopefully I don't get sick, too. But that was a really cool experience and I was a little scared before but it isn't so scary now.
Sorry. I realized that was all one big mess. Have fun reading it. I'll try and do more spaces from now on. Oh, the Tuesday night devotional was the Russian Mission president that president Thomas and Angus both met and talked to. I am not going to try and write his name. I talk about Angus a lot because his mission is close to ours and the Bulgarian missionaries are in our zone. I think everyone in my district is skid of it and Angus wouldn't like it so sorry to all. It's just relevant. I said hi to some of his former companions/people he was in the mission field with. They were all pretty nice.
Um. OH! They have Spikeball here. Sorry for our Spikeball ball. Hopefully you are planning on getting a new one. It's awesome. I love the game. It is one of my passions. I will get SO good at it. Oh gosh, writing letters is so hard. We laugh way too easy. I think I have no sense of humor. Some of the older missionaries said that the further along you get the less sense of humor you have, or just the easier it is to laugh at anything, regardless of whether or not it's actually funny.
A problem I am trying to figure out is how to balance time learning the language, working on lessons, and reading my scriptures, and also knowing what scriptures I should read. I think it'll come to me but right now it is stressing me out because I always feel like I could be doing something better. So we'll see. Frisbee, kickball, spikeball, soccer, devotionals... OH. Sunday walk.
So every Sunday we go on a walk around the temple and we stay there for a bit and take pictures. It's really nice and relaxing and stress free. But one of our branch presidency actually came with us and a mixture of being tired, a little sick, taking medication, and not eating (because they do fast Sunday a week early instead of after, on General Conference weeks) he fainted. I saw him looking kind of weak and I think the spirit was telling me to watch him, but I looked away. Thankfully someone else was watching and paying attention to the spirit and caught him as he fell. He is okay now, it was just a pretty crazy experience to have a few days in. Sundays are awesome, I love them, Tuesdays too. I think the days are going to start blending together really fast now. They already are.
Umm, again with the details. I'm no good at um. What else, what else? I don't know. Just keep sending Dear Elders, that would be awesome. They are a great way to end my day. I always read them right before I go to sleep. And then I write in my journal. I'll try and start keeping up with the little things. Oh, I have one more thing to say,
THANK YOU MOM FOR THE GUMMY BEARS!!!!!!!!!
I don't know how you knew but that was a really big blessing. I was actually reminiscing the night before about the six pound bag I didn't take with me, (not that Solomon and Angus would have let me, maybe, i don't know) to the other elders and then when I got the package you told me I would get. It was heavy and BAM gummy bears. Thank you. That was really awesome. I am enjoying, um and sharing, with the other elders. We all kinda share all the food.
You were right about the comforter mom. I should have brought it. At the MTC at least. I haven't needed it yet but I think it's going to get preeeeettty cold around here. There is snow on the mountains. It is so pretty.
Well thank you all. I love you, miss you. Say hi to everyone a Church for me.
This gospel really is true. I know this and I know I am in the right place. I can't imagine begin anywhere else right now. LOVE YOU ALL AGAIN.
Love,
Elder Olmstead
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
A quick email confirming he's "Alive"!
Dear Mom, Pops, and Family,
I am alive. This really messed up keyboard is hard to type on. Love you all. I am having a wonderful time here.
I have everything but flip flops I think. I could use more pens and paper. Though I can get paper here.
I love the MTC. I love learning the language though it can be confusing at times I am going to get it. I have already felt the spirit very strongly. I don't really know what to say.
My companions is Elder Porter. He is amazing and very spiritual. He was asked to bare his testimony by the MTC president cause he knew his dad. He's kinda a celebrity.
Tell Angus Croatian has 5, kinda 7 cases and Bulgarian must be the best cause it doesn't have them. There are a few people in my zone learning Bulgarian to go to Macedonia including a sister from Oregon that know Grandma and Grandpa Hogan. I love you all so much.
Love you,
Elder Olmstead
Friday, September 26, 2014
One Last Goodbye
After being chauffeured to Utah by Angus and Solomon - Elder Olmstead was able to get a few last squeezes in with Emma and her girls at the Ogden Temple.
Let the adventure begin!
Monday, September 22, 2014
Preparing to Embark...
Spending lots of time in the temple, often with friends in the baptismal font:
#GilbertAZTemple
#GilbertAZTemple
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