Possum 1 Elders 0

Elder Olmstead, Elder Crapo, Elder Evans, and Elder Barker

Momma bear!
I am so happy to hear about how great everyone is doing back home! I have worn out my knees praying for y'all, so I am thrilled to hear that the Lord is taking such good care of my family. 

This week has been hard for a missionary. We are constantly working to help others, and we are being pushed back by the adversary in so many different ways. We are still trying though!

Tuesday, we woke up at 6:30 ready to go for a run, but I was sick, so we didn't end up doing that. Whenever we get sick or hurt or anything medical, we are supposed to call one of the sister nurses in the mission and let them know. I called Sister Ramano, and she told us to stay in and take it easy. I remember when getting to stay home was so much fun back home, and there were so many fun things that you can do when you didn't have to go to school or work or anything, but out here, it is terrible. You are so used to working and being productive, that it seems like you are wasting so much time. There are also exactly 0 things to do for fun in a missionary apartment, so you have to make up fun things. We were thinking about trying to play “Duck Duck Goose”, but with only two of us, it probably wouldn't be that fun. Haha

This week has been really good, but really hard as well. We have a baptism this week; she has been so prepared and is already so strong in the Gospel. We have also had a lot of trials that have been testing our faith, namely with one particular investigator. We keep getting so close to baptism with him, and as soon as we get there, Satan beats him as hard as he can, and discourages him to the point of talking himself out of it. He is finally back on date! This time he is solid though. We have been working with him for quite a long time and it has kind of been like a roller coaster...So when Elder Holland gave him a call just to see how he was doing and see if there was any way that he could answer any of his questions, things got so much better. :) One of the best things about being a missionary is that we get to develop sincere love for the people that we are working with, and we really get to feel close to them. The bad part of that is when they have trials and struggles, you do too. My heart has broken for this man so many times, and it has been wearing on me. I have prayed so hard for him, and I want to see him have success so bad, but when he doesn't, I feel the pain too. It has really been a testimony builder though. I have really learned what it is to work, and I have been able to see that Satan will work hardest on the strongest. I have been knocked down so much, that I have gotten a lot stronger when getting back up. 

 God is so cool. I love the crazy blessings that come while serving The Lord. We are looking forward to 2 baptisms on the 12th of September, and we are praying that everything goes well and without problems.

We had our Zone training meeting on Friday up in Boiling Springs, which is about an hour’s drive for us. We pass by the Spartanburg Elders on our way, so we gave them a ride to the meeting. I love the drive up there, everything is so green, and the sky goes on forever. It is full of rolling hills. The meeting was really good, but there were some new rules we get to follow that will be an adjustment, but I know that by just giving up my own wants and being exactly obedient, blessings will come.  

We finally got the Area book Planner app for our iPads, finally, so it will be a very busy month. We aren't really using our planners anymore, so we have to start getting used to planning on the iPad, and then we have to take and upload all the information in our area book, by hand into our iPads, and we have to be finished by the end of September. It'll take us a while, but having a keyboard will be so nice for that! Thanks again, it is helping a lot! 

Love y'all!

For Elder O's hump day (Year mark), we went and got Sushi :)

After dinner we went home & it was time to go in,
we pull up to our house and......  

Possum!

I bolt out of the car and chase after it, it climbs a tree. I climb a tree. Long story short, possums are WAY better at climbing trees than we are, and I couldn't catch up to it, or get it out. Haha we had fun climbing the tree though! That gray Hollister shirt that I inherited from Alec, I ruined it..it is finally dead with a huge hole in the back. Haha 

Love y'all!

....after we spent about an hour climbing a really, really tall tree chasing a possum....haha

Love this girl!