Well first off I want to throw a shout out to my sister for getting married this week! I am happy for her even if I was only present as a card board cut out. This week we saw some great things, even miracles, happen. We have really been working on finding lately. We haven't had too many people to teach but this week as we continued to work hard the Lord blessed us. We got a referral from a member for a family. Their names are Autumn and Chris. We went over for the first lesson and they said that they had been waiting all day for the lesson. They were super willing to listen and the spirit was definitely in the lesson and they even committed to be baptized. We taught them later in the week and they said they would be at church on Sunday. But he went to the hospital Saturday night so he wasn't able to make it. They are awesome though. We also we are able to find a lot of LA members to work with. We just stopped by and a lot were home and wanted to start meeting with us. Kay was one of the people we stopped by and when we invited her to church she said sure! She was there and even brought her niece who we will be teaching as well. It was a great week in Altoona.

Thanks to everyone and the support you give. Have a great week!

Caves we went to.

A member on P day took us to a Freemason temple and let us wear his stuff.

Well this was a great first week in Altoona. It is weird not being in Pittsburgh, but I know that this is where I need to be right now and I have loved Altoona so far. I have gotten to know a lot of the ward already and they are great people and have made me feel very welcome. My new companion is Elder Kap. He is from Syracuse Ut. and has been out for about a year now. We served in the city of York together about a year ago! We were in different areas but the same city. He is awesome and we get along great. 

                                          

This week we were able to have some great experiences. We were invited to do a presentation about the LDS faith in a Presbyterian care center. There were a lot of residents and workers who were there. It was such a cool experience. We went up there in front of a crowd of people and were able to testify of Joseph Smith and of the Restoration. Some people had questions and objected what we said. We just put it all on the Book of Mormon and it being the keystone of our religion. The spirit was really strong and some of the workers asked us afterwards if we had a Book of Mormon that we could give them. It was a pretty awesome experience.

We were able to teach a lot of great people in this area this week as well. I am excited to be here in Altoona and to work as hard as I can for the rest of my mission. I know this is the Lord's work and I love being a part of it. I love Pennsylvania and know this is where I need to be out of any other place in the whole world. Thank you for all of the support!

Well it happened... On Saturday I got the call that I am going to be transferred from the Green Tree ward. After 13 total months of serving here I am going to be leaving for my last transfer. It is pretty crazy. It was pretty hard saying goodbye to the ward. I almost felt like I was leaving on my mission again. For my new area I am going to be serving in the Altoona ward. It is a pretty small town so that will be a pretty interesting change up from Pittsburgh. My new companion is going to be Elder Kap. I already know him super well so I am really excited to serve with him. Well I don't have much time today but thanks for all of the support. I am excited to serve wherever I am called! Have a great week.

Our investigator Marlon who is going to be baptized in a couple of weeks.

Bro. Olson and Julia

The Smith Family

Hey Everyone! His was an awesome week! Heavenly Father has been blessing us this week so much. We have been able to find many new investigators who are so amazing. We have been working with Rachel and Annie a lot this week. We have been doing service for them and after one of the days of service, we got a text from Annie asking if we could bring her a Book of Mormon! She is going through a lot and she wants to find something to help her. I know the Book of Mormon will be able to provide that peace she needs. Rachel took a picture of us and put on face book saying that she has adopted Elder Halsey and I as her two Mormon sons. She put a little bit about what we do and how grateful she was. She is awesome and has such a big heart. I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father! We have been so blessed in this area. He has put into our path so many people who are ready for the gospel! It is so amazing to see how aware of each of his children he is. I am so grateful for the Savior and for repentance. I love the peace that can come as we humble ourselves and allow the savior to heal us, all because of His choice to atone for us. Being a missionary is such an amazing experience to teach people of that. Have a great week everybody!

This was an awesome week! We had the opportunity to do service with a lady named Barb! She is the coolest lady and so prepared for the gospel. We saw her outside trying to mow her lawn with a weed wacker. We asked her if we could help and she was so appreciative. Her shoulder is really injured and she had a really hard time doing yard work. She had gotten a citation from the city saying she had until a certain day to clean up her yard. She said she had been praying for help and then we came and asked if we could help her. As we were helping her on Tuesday she really opened up to us. She told us of her family troubles and physical health challenges as well. It broke my heart to hear of all the trials she was going through. We felt the most important thing we could do was to listen. Afterwards we felt we needed to show her a video and she started crying. She turned to us and said, "how did you know to show me that?" She told us how grateful she was for us and that we were like her sons. She was just grateful for someone to listen to her. It is moments like that that really humble you. To see how hard people have it really makes you grateful all you have been given. We taught her the restoration the next day and she agreed with everything. She is excited to read the Book of Mormon! The work is going great here and I love this ward. Life is going great! Thank you for all of the support!

               

Hey Everyone! So this was a pretty crazy week with a pretty big change that took place in our mission. We got an email on Thursday from our mission president saying that the Lancaster and Harrisburg stakes, and all of the missionaries serving there, are now part of the Maryland, Baltimore mission!! So we lost about 50 missionaries and some of my closest friends I have made out here are now in a completely different mission. My last area, York, is now part of that mission as well. So that was pretty crazy. I didn't know things like that happened. But all of the missionaries who are a part of it are taking it really well.

We had some great things happen this week! I told you a little bit about Rachel in my last email, well this week she called us and invited us to have dinner with her family. When we first met her we got to know her really well and she asked what were some of the things that we missed the most, and I told her my Mom's home cooked meals. She said that really touched her heart and that she wanted to cook us a homemade meal. She is so awesome!! She told us how her greatest desire really is to be a good mom. I thought that was so cool especially in the world today where a lot of things seem to take a higher priority than motherhood. We got to talk to her and her family for awhile and we talked about all sorts of things. We talked about the spiritual experiences we have had on our missions and how the best part of our missions is how our relationship with Jesus Christ has grown so much! She said she really wants to come to church so hopefully her and her family will be there this week. We will be going back to see her this week as well.

The rest of the week was pretty typical! We were able to see a lot of people and found some new Investigators to teach as well. Every week at church I get asked multiple times when I am going to be moving into the ward! I think they are going to be giving me a calling soon haha. I am grateful I have gotten to serve in this area for 13 months! Have a great week everyone!

Elder May

Hey everyone! This was another awesome week! 

This was transfer week and I will be staying here another one with Elder Halsey. I think this might be my last transfer here now, but we will see. Maybe I will finish my whole mission here haha.

We met with Julia this week and she is doing great! She will be getting her Patriarchal blessing In July and will be going to the temple as well that same week. We went to her house and did some Family History work with her so she could have some names to take to the temple. She has been doing a lot of work so she will have a lot of names to take.

Everything is going great out here. We hope to work more with Rachel and her family this week. She wants to have us over for dinner and that is definitely okay with us! Thank you for all of the support!