Come to Erik's Homecoming!

Time	Sunday, May 29 · 11:00am - 2:00pm
Location	1875 North 280 West Street Orem, UT 84057

Carta de Elder Olson 16-5-2011

       It is a pleasure to serve 24 months in the greatest work that exists
in this world.
       I´m so use to living the missionary life that it just seems so awkward finishing. When I first came on the mission, my greatest hope was to be what my Heavenly Father wants me to be. I was able to learn what He wanted me to learn and becoming what He wanted me to become by doing this work, and my greatest desires have been fulfilled. I am certain that one who loses their life for the sake of the Lord, finds it.
       We are truly blessed in the mission field. All the miracles, all the times where the spirit guided us, and just living this missionary life is a privileged. My testimony burns with me, that the Lord lives, and our Heavenly Father lives. No one can ever say that there is no evidence of His love, no one can deny the fact that he sent his son Jesucrist for us out of love. God is love, I know this is true, and I leave my testimony with you. My last words in the mission field to you... Never think that you are limited, you are children of God, and your capacity is limitless.

Love,
Elder Olson

Carta de Elder Olson 5-9-2011

I´m going to give it all I got these last 2 weeks! Thank you for all
your prayers, I can´t express my gratitude of how much I love you all.
I guess reality is coming, and we will be seeing eachother soon. I
love you all, take care.

Elder Olson

        I don´t know why, but I don´t realize that this is my last month. I´m
really sad about it because the mission has done so much good to my
life. We are teaching so many people, and one of the which is really
wanting to get sealed to her family in the temple already. She already
has an amazing testimony, her name is Mariela Perez.
        Written deep within my heart, engraved permanently is the knowledge
that God lives, and his Son, our redeemer lives. He has rescued us
from the punishments of sin through his own blood. I was really
pondering about the scriptures in Mosiah 2:21-24 and it penetrated me.
It made me realize how much more in debt I am in with the Lord, and
even if we do everything we can to serve Him, we are still
unprofitable servants. We are always going to be in debt with Him.


Even though I served this mission, I´m still an unprofitable servant.
So great is His mercy, to allow us to live again through Him, and have
place in the kingdom of God.



Mosiah 2:21 "I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has
created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day,
by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to
your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I
say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be
unprofitable servants."

Mosiah 2:23 "And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and
granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him."

Mosiah 2:24 "And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he
hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you;
and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him,
and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to
boast?"

Moisah 2:25 "And now I ask, can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer
you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the
earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it
belongeth to him who created you."

I love you,
Elder Olson

We had an interesting experience with a drunk person.

We saw from far away walking towards an appointment, a drunk guy in a ditch. Lots of people passed by him in bikes, and cars as well. We came up to him and he said "Me duele loco!", which means, I´m in pain, or it´s hurting me. They like to call everyone loco in a friendly manner. We helped him get out of the ditch, he was supported by his bike, and it appeared that his ribs were destroyed. So we carried him and layed him down, and looked for help. It supprises me how many people just passed by him when he was in so much pain. We had someone call an ambulance, and we layed him down and he used my scripture case as a pillow, (He was laying down on a rough surface, there is no sidewalks). This experience reminded me of the good samaritan, (Lucas 10:25-37).
I´m with my old companion!! It´s incredible. I´m with Elder Leany, I was with him for 2 transfers before (3 Months). We are great friends and this will be a very enjoyable transfer. I consider him one of my best friends.
I love you, take care

Elder Olson

I´ve learned something interesting this week. It compares with the story of Nephi, when he had to go back and get the plates, 2 times from the first original attempt in order to finally get the plates. It applies because in this week, we had a choice to lose our courage and desire to work because of some of our experiences.
        Nephi could have lost that desire to go find the plates from their first attempt like his brothers did, but he didn´t stop. He was obedient and knew because of his testimony that the Lord always fufills and provides a way to fufill with his commandments. By having that certainy and trust he did not give up. And I did not give up either, we had experiences that could have easily provoked us into getting angry but like Nephi, we have our testimonies and we chose not to because of the certainy we have that the Lord will be directing us even though before hand we don´t know what to do. I had walked into someone´s property to greet a man, and he was super upset when I stepped in his property, and he yelled at us. We left but we were fine with it. I recall this scripture when we have to suffer experiences such as that. Mathew 5 11 "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake". We ended up finding a family that was interested in hearing us, and they stated that they never had let missionaries in until now... There is only one explination, The Lord prepares people and works miracles among us according to our faith.
        We have been struggling in this area, but we hadn´t lost our faith. Because of that, we were able to find people. Yesterday, an old investigator felt the desire to come to church. She had stopped because her husband didn´t support her and didn´t let us come visit. Then she shows up and says she is seperated from her husband, and feels the desire to get baptized.

Today are transfers... sadly this is going to be my last transfer. I will enjoy this time to the fullest, and it is an honor to serve here.

Elder Olson

What Nephi did  1 Nephi 2:16 "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the mysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart
that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father; wherefore, I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers."

Because he had the desire to know for himself, he gained a testimony, and he did not rebel.

Laman and Lemuel rebelled because....1 Nephi 2:12 "And thus Laman and Lemuel, being the eldest, did murmur against their father. And they did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them."

They rebelled because they did not have the desire to know and
understand for themselves. I believe this applies to us when we don´t
understand, we usually rebel.

Carta de Elder Olson 4-4-2011

I was busy responding a lot of e-mails so I am cut short on time. I´m
enjoying my time here, and as everyone knows, we had the privileged to
hear our beloved prophet, the 12 apostles, and many of the 70´s. I
really enjoyed the quote... The gospel comforts the afflicted, and the
comfortable is afflicted by it. It´s true, because there is no
stopping point in this life of perfecting ourselves. There is no
comfort zone.

I love you all, take care!!

Elder Olson