Send me a letter!

Elder Jared Mark Olson
New York Utica Mission
PO Box 149
Whitesboro, NY 13492-0149
United States

Testimony

I know that this Church has blessed my life. It gives me such comfort to know the Gospel, and even more comfort when I live it. I know missionary work is important and essential, and I have so much more respect for missionaries now. It is so obvious to me that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know Joseph Smith was a good man and a prophet. I don't know where I would be without the Church, but I know I'm glad I'm a part of it.

Tuesday Letter!

Well, things this week went alright. We had a baptism like I said! It was really exciting, but since I wasn't there from the beginning to see Mike progress, I wasn't too invested in it. But still! It's another Brother! Also this week, we met Dre. Dre is such a stud. We met him when we stopped to chat with the Belchers (a crazy awesome family I have to tell you about). He was just stopping by and Elder Done and I just shared a few thoughts and asked for his phone and address. Standard procedure. Unfortunately, his phone doesn't have minutes right now (which happens a LOT out here), and he just moved so he didn't know his address (a likely story). So we just asked where we could meet and he said he'd be at the library at such-and-such time. I, being the greenie that I am, was super excited to see him. But Elder Done has had too much experience with people not showing up to meetings, so he had like no faith that he was gonna show. So we were walking up to the library, and we see somebody standing at the entrance. I squinted. "That's not Dre." I see a huge smile appear on his face. "That's definitely Dre." So we sat down and taught him the first three lessons. No big deal. And then we asked him if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by one holding the Priesthood authority. He was hesitant at first, but then he just got this convicted look on his face, "You know what? Yeah. When do we do this? Can we pick a date now?" I can tell he's really trying to make a change in his life. He's been through some tough stuff, being from Harlem.

Picture from the field!

From a nice FB missionary mom!! No letter today, probably because of Memorial Day. Should get one tomorrow!

Monday Letter!

Short story. My allergies have been really bad so I've been taking Benadryl, but it knocks me out, so I really struggle to get up in the morning. And i've always struggled with that in the first place so... But I was having some rough days, but then I decided to be exactly obedient and now I have more energy. Who knew? Obedience brings blessings? What? Weird. You get told this stuff over and over again, but experience really changes it for me.

 

Love you so much,

feel free to use this letter on the blog, pitiful though it may be,
Elder Olson

Monday Letter!

We had a great talk with Jared yesterday on the phone. He is doing really well and getting used to the area and working hard. Here's his letter for you!

Dear Everybody,

 

So the most important thing I've noticed about being a missionary is seriously just follow the rules. There's no reason not to. Wake up on time. And take planning time seriously, and fill your schedule. There's nothing worse than having nothing good planned so you just spend your time tracting. It feels like a waste of time.

I haven't had a lot of experience teaching actual lessons so far because we don't have a lot of investigators. Most of my time is spent contacting referrals and talking to people on the street. We can actually fill our schedule pretty well with just referrals and people from the Area Book, especially because it takes us so long to get places without a car. Johnson City is pretty big and we're responsible for all of it. We have bikes, but we like to walk and ride the buses because it lets us talk to a lot more people. And it usually goes really well! I haven't talked to any legit rude people. There are a lot of people that will sit and listen for a while. I have gotten a few fake addresses though... But yeah. Just gotta open your mouth. You've got to start somewhere.

Like my first day. We were unpacking the car to move into our apartment and we were almost done when we saw this lady coming down the street. I could tell my companion really wanted to talk to her and I was saying to myself "no no no...". I was way nervous. But my companion was awesome and took over. We found out she was having a bad day and it was totally a miracle that we were there to talk. She said we made her feel better and wanted to hear more of our message. We could have easily not talked to her, but my companion is a stud. This was the first day. We've been knocking her door every few days since then, but never seem to catch her, but two nights ago we were almost home when Elder Done said, "Should we go back and see Danielle?" It was 8:45pm and we had to be inside by 9, and it's been dark for a while, and Johnson City is hood so I was sceptical about bugging her so late. But we had just had a really great experience with opening our mouths right before that, so I was feeling very in tune with the spirit. I said a little prayer and the answer was yes, so we went to Danielle's. We knocked and waited but there was no answer. So I was like, "Well we're here for a reason, what is it?" Then we noticed there was someone behind the house listening to music, and we decided to go talk to her. Turns out it was Danielle's roommate and we got to talk to her for a little bit, and then Danielle showed up! We finally got to see her! Spiritual promptings man. They happen all the time. You just have to listen.

Pictures!

Elder Olson and Elder Done

President and Sister Worthlin and Elders Olson & Done

First week in the field! Johnson City, NY

Great letter from Jared this week. Here's an excerpt:

We knocked on a door. An old man answered us warmly. He came out on the porch and began thusly, "There's only one thing wrong with you folks." I was nervous for the answer. "There's not enough of you."

Pic of Jared at MTC

Jared was in the MTC with another guy from our Alpine ward, Morgan Talbot! This picture showed up in the ward newsletter! Fun to see!

Saturday's News

We got our first emails from Jared on Saturday, short and sweet. Here's an excerpt:

"I really don't have time to tell you a whole lot, but the MTC is great. Companions are hard. Following the rules and the spirit is easy. I'm having a great time. I'm super excited to get into the field."

And this morning I got a 20 second call from the Detroit airport, as he was getting ready to board! Nice surprise for me. He just said he's doing great, no time to talk, excited and he'll write when he gets there! Less than 13 days in the MTC!

Off to the MTC!

We took a few pictures as we headed to the MTC. Jared had to be there at 1:15, and we left far too early. We went to Roxberry to get a smoothie and then drove SLOWLY to University Mall, where we stopped at Mr. Mac to get some gloves for Jared. There was construction near the MTC, so it was kind of crazy. Also, there seem to be a lot of missionaries leaving right now....

Goodbye! It may be the last time I see you!

This one is for us to photoshop into a Christmas photo. We'll see.

First pass by the MTC

There was no way we were going to get close enough to the MTC to get pictures, so we stopped at the Provo Temple to take some instead. We had to wait our turn, since another family was taking photos of their missionary. I think they were Hawaiian and he was going to Anchorage, AK!

This doesn't do it justice. TONS of people!!

MTC Address

Jared will only be at the MTC for two weeks. Here is his mailing address:

Elder Jared Mark Olson
MTC Mailbox # 278
NY-UTI 0430
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

The Call