Crowley, Olivia T

Alright real talk, there are definitely  days (In this case weeks) I want to run to the nearest swimsuit store, buy one, and then run away to the beach, BUT unfortunately that's now how it works, sad! Anywho, the work moves forward and I'm so blessed to be here in this specific area on Maui that I'm in now!      We were out knocking doors one day this week and a lady opened the door so excited and then quickly realized we weren't selling girl scout cookies. She let us know we would make more "sales" if we had girl scout cookies and then nicely shut the door on us.. Wish I could say this hasn't already happened with pest control sales.      We have been working with a few older relief society sisters this week and it's been so fun! They could talk for DAYS... but have some super interesting stories. One of the ladies has us get her groceries for her every week and I'm not kidding when I say EVERY WEEK she gets over a gallon of Häagen-Dazs ice cream ...

This is going to be super quick because nothing too crazy happened this but we had transfers and Sister Christiansen is officially gone. My new companion is Sister Sanders from Provo. Unfortunately, she doesn't know how to pronounce my last name, she says crawl -ie, but after trying to tell her multiple times I just started to accept it. On Thursday I got to fly over to Oahu for the day for MCL which was super fun!! It was awesome to be surrounded by such great missionaries and all learn from one another.  Our mission is doing something called "mission madness" which is similar to March madness in a way that there is a new challenge everyday and all of the zones compete against one another. We had a challenge the other day to call as many non-members as we could. We started calling tons of people and met someone named Niuafe. We set up an appointment to meet him last Sunday and he told us that he had been waiting for so long for the church to reach out to him. Turns out h...

These past 6 weeks have flown by. I found out Saturday that my companion is leaving me to serve on Oahu and I am a sad girl. I have loved every minute with her and learned so much from her. One thing she taught me is how fun missionary work can be! The gospel brings so much joy and knowing that we are helping individuals come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ is seriously the best!  Here's some of my favorite moments from this week: -met our new pal Kelvin at the park on Saturday and he said “Do you guys teach about God? I have been studying religion for the past 8 years and have never heard of you"  HE has finally found the truth. -Lonnie is the sweetest 79 year old man you will ever meet (he always emphasizes that he is 79 which is one year older than the average American lives) he goes to Ululanis Shaved Ice EVERYDAY and invited us to go with him. He converted to the church 10 years ago and is the best member missionary ever!  -got to go to the cutest 8 year old girl...

Such a happy week! Keala was baptized on Saturday and her story is one that changed my mission! I'll try to make it quick.     Keala & Lance are husband and wife, not religious at all. In 2018 Lance was diagnosed with cancer and was slowly getting worse. He was terrified to pass away because he didn't know what was next. They explained this to their friend the Madellas (family in our ward) and told them about these fears. Brother Madella asked if they could come over and give Lance a blessing. So they went over that night and talked for a little and then he gave him a blessing. While they were there they shared a little bit of The Living Christ with them as well as talked about Joseph Smith.     The next 4 hours after the blessing Lance didn't need oxygen once, which hadn't happened in years! He also couldn't stop talking about "bruhda joseph". To top it all off he was no longer afraid to die. He knew his time was coming but he was at peace.     The ne...