Note: Elder Olson didn't write any emails this week but we did have a great video call with him. Here are a few clips I thought you would enjoy.
DECEMBER 24, 2017
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Monday, December 18, 2017
week 69:Jorge is getting baptized this week
December 18, 2017
Hey everyone, how's it going?
This is week 4 of transfer 11. And we are just finishing up an activity in one of the play centers/parks here in Rancagua with 3 of the zones and the office. It was like a big combined thing, it was like an Olympics but without sports. Doing things that President's wife invented, like wheelbarrows and piggy back rides and like filling a bucket with water...you know, that kind of thing. So that was fun. And then we had Papa John's! They gave us a budget for it. I was sooooo excited about that because normally for our zone meetings we kind of pay for everything...we buy food if we're going to do a BBQ or something and then everybody pays us like 2 like dollars per person but a lot of the time it ends up being a little more expensive for us and we lose a bit of money almost every time. But this time they actually gave us extra money to be able to do it so we got some Papa Johns Pizza, which was awesome and had some medals for the winning team for the winning zone. We did NOT win although we kicked butt at the wheelbarrow race and some of the other races but there was a type of soccer baseball mix, almost like kickball, but it was still different from that, and that wasnt good for us because we're 9 gringos in our zone and almost no latinos so we were kind of in trouble for that game.
This week was a good week, we did exchanges/divisions, I don't know what it's called in English, with Do ñihue, I've mentioned it before...it's a country town. So that was good. I was with Elder (?) We're working a lot on talking with everybody. Kind of helping him get over the fear barrier and talking with people in the street. so that was fun, it was good. He's a really really good missionary...great future. He's kind of new in the mission. He only has about 6 months.
The next day, we didn't have lunch, so we just went and bought pork (sorry just had to run across a street) so we made pork tacos, something I'd never done before. Luckily it turned out super good. Elder Lee had had some mexican companions so he made some sweet salsa the other day and we put the salsa on the pork tacos and it was soooo good. We like grilled up the veggies and blended it all together it was good stuff.
Another thing that was really cool this week was working with Jorge. I'm pretty sure I mentioned him last week. But he is an investigator who we found at the very end of November. We contacted him in the street with Elder Davis. He was just super prepared, like God does all the work with him, we haven't done anything. I mean we've obviously tried to help him as much as we can but he was basically ready to be baptized right away. We moved his baptismal date now...this week we moved it from the 13th of January to the 23rd of December so we're really excited about that. So yeah, he's going to get baptized this week. I'll be able to tell my family about that in the skype this week. He asks questions when he has them, and nobody's gonna just have NO questions. Like he has some doubts every once in a while, but nothing that impedes him from being baptized and he's really excited. There are some members who are really excited to help out with him and actually a member that we've been working with, with him, who's going to baptize him. The story is actually kind of funny. We sent a text so that brother/member asking him to congratulate Jorge on accepting the baptism and that he was going to be baptized. So then we go to talk to that member and he speaks English, and he was like, "Hey guys, guess what?" and we were like, "What?" and he said, "I talked to Jorge." And we said, "Oh? yeah? that's good. And how'd it go?" And he's like, "yeah, it went good, bro. But I asked him if I could baptize him and he said yes. I'M going to baptize him." And haha, so he made an executive decision to kind of decided that HE'S going to be baptizing him which is great, it was just kind of a surprise for my companion and I because we'd planned him to ask him about it in the next lesson. So that was good.
We had a couple chances to go and help with school activities. We went and sang with the ward choir in Rengo on Tuesday and then yesterday we went and practiced with the Church's Choirs for this big activity in the plaza here in Rancagua that we are going to be doing. So it's actually tomorrow. It's this big Light the World activity, which is going to be cool.
I think that's about it. Nothing super interesting. I'm excited to talk to the family on Christmas. That'll be good. I don't have my scriptures out to give a good spiritual thought right now. But I hope everyone is doing well. I'm doing great. I love you guys. Take Care! Bye!
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| Elder Lee and I and our pork tacos |
Monday, December 11, 2017
week 68: Throw out the Tea and Coffee
December 11, 2017 (transcription of audio letter)
Hey guys, hows it going?
Hey guys, hows it going?
This is week 3 of transfer 11 and right now we are on the bus headed back to Rancagua from Rengo.
We just finished a Pday activity. We went out to Rengo to try to climb a mountain. It did not go so hot, but we had a good time. We had the Elders from Rengo, which is about an hour away from Rancagua, we had them looking for a hill for us to climb as a zone because everybody in the zone wanted to do that for a Pday. So they found, well they kind of found one, they'd talked to some people and they had told them about this hill that we'd have to take a bus to get to and it was up kind of in the mountain range a little bit. So we got to Rengo at about 10:30 at about 11 we took a bus. We thought the bus was going to be a 15 minute ride, 10 minutes maybe, but it turned out to be like an hour long bus ride to the place where we were headed...maybe between a half an hour and an hour. So we got off and it was kind of just the middle of nowhere but we found a trail that was kind of by a campsite. Then we started hiking and first ran into some bee farms so we had to double back and find another trail. So we hiked along for a while and the trail just got smaller and smaller and less and less. I don't know, less hike-able. We, after about half an hour, it got to the point where we were just breaking branches and ducking through trees and trying not to get snagged by too many thorns. Kind of just bushwhacking to make our way through but we were really determined to try to get to the top of the hill. But by the time we got to somewhere which was probably the top, there were just trees everywhere and the trail kind of just disappeared and it was time to head back to make it to the bus. So in the end it was kind of a bummer that we didn't get any cool views or anything like that from the top of the hill, but it was still fun to get out and do something a little different. We got some good group pictures so it was a good time.
This week has been good. It's been awesome. We've actually been working alot with one of our investigators, his name is Jorge. He is an investigator that Elder Davis and I found in probably the last week of the last change. And he's doing great. I really think he's going to get baptized. He's come to church twice now. Last time we talked to him about the importance of staying for all 3 hours and he actually stayed for the whole time. He also came to a special lesson we had with President Harris and the Stake President here in our stake center in Rancagua. So that was really cool. He's had a lot of questions get answered. He's thrown out his tea and started drinking herbal tea instead. Oh here in Chile, I don't think I've ever described this before but, everybody either drinks tea or coffee or if they're mormon they drink herbal tea or coffee substitute. The one they normally drink is called Ecco that comes from a grain actually rather than coffee but it tastes similar. But EVERYBODY drinks one of those two things. Normally in the night, with their last meal, their onceE~ they drink some of that. So Jorge, his only problem with the word of wisdom, was the tea and coffee, but he wasn't very stubborn about giving it up. After we taught it and asked him if he would do it, if he would keep the word of wisdom, he didn't sound super sure with his commitment but he said he'd do it. And then the next time we went back, he'd given out his tea and he'd switched to herbal tea and was looking for a good coffee substitute and we're going to have to confirm whether he actually left the coffee or not, but I think he did. So he's doing really well. Also in our last lesson with him, we were talking about his baptismal date, which WAS for the 13th of January and he asked if he could get baptized sooner. He wants to get baptized this month, in December, which is awesome. We're going to do everything we can to get him baptized as soon as possible. He's got a shot at getting baptized on the 23rd, right before Christmas, so keep him in your prayers. Hopefully he can make some progress and achieve his goal of being baptized and really being converted.
Apart from that, on Wednesday we had zone conference with all of the northern zones here in the mission, so it was a little bigger than normal. There were 5 zones there instead of the normal 2. We talked a lot about companionship study and charity. It was good. There was a lot of things I learned I think. We did a part as zone leaders where we took our zones aside and talked about companionship study and did a little fun activity and I think it went well.
Also this week, on Sunday, the Branch President asked me to give a talk in Sacrament meeting which I haven't had to do so far in the mission actually because all of our branches so far and wards have been generally big so I haven't had to give a talk before in sacrament meeting...just get up and give my testimony. So it was fun to prepare the talk. I think it well as well. I talked about being the Light, to go along with the Light the World theme. And we as a mission right now are doing a thing with the members where we are inviting them to pray for missionary experiences and to have missionary opportunities to be able to share the gospel with others, even if it's something small. But every morning and every night we are asking them to pray and to ask for those experiences because really I think a lot of the members and a lot of members in the church in general, we just don't know how to look for those experiences, or we get so caught up in our other things, our other responsibilities, that it doesn't even cross our minds...at least for me it was that way. I was always so busy with my own things, that I never looked for opportunities to be a missionary with others. I still had a few opportunities but I was not very good at actively looking for them. So that's something that I would like to help members here, as well, be able to improve. That's something that I've seen in myself, something I've been able to improve being here on the mission and I hope it's going to be a lasting change.
Other stuff that has happened in the week...
Yesterday the missionaries in our branch had to go sing in a Christmas devotional to support our branch choir, because the branch isn't too big. They had been saving up for several weeks to come help. So we went over to the stake center and added our voices to the choir. Also, my companion and I sang in a stake choir because they called us and asked us to help with that as well. And I think we're going to be singing at least once or twice more this week. We have another activity in Rengo in the community on Wednesday where we're going to sing and talk to the ...I don't know how many of us missionaries are going to sing and if they are going to have some missionaries contacting people while the rest of us sing...I'm not sure how their ward has this planned out but we'll see how it goes.
I don't know if there's much more to add but I'm very glad everything is going good. I hope you guys are all having good times or remembering to light the world. So I think that's going to be it. Love you guys. Take care!
Monday, December 4, 2017
week 67: Changes in the mission & Changes in others
December 4, 2017 (transcription of audio letter)
Hey guys, Elder Olson here. This is week 2 of transfer 11. We're just on our way to the computer terminal to send emails. So yeah, it's been a really good week. We had changes. My new companion is Elder Lee from Lindon, UT. So that's cool. He's a really cool guy. We get along really well. We've been having a crazy week. A lot of cool stuff has been happening. A lot of success in the sector just out of nowhere.
Changes happened so we took Elder Davis and most of the zone to the terminal. Every companionship in the zone had someone leave and somebody new come. So that was fun. We had like a big change this time which was good because last time nobody changed out of their sector. There was one companionship that had a change. This time it was a lot bigger change. I had a lot of people that I know come up here including Elder Christarious(sp?) who was from my group. And then on Thursday we had a leadership council for all the zone leaders which was really fun because almost everybody from my group who got here to the mission with me and was in the MTC with me are all zone leaders at this point. The ones that weren't just went up this change so I got to see a few of them which is always fun.
We had some cool experiences in the street finding people. We've been using a lot the new Light the world initiative which is awesome. It's great for us because it makes it way easier to share with people. Just like, "Hey can we just share a 2 minute video with you about Christmas?" And the people are a lot more receptive to that, so that's cool.
The other day we had a cool experience with that. We'd just got out of a visit, just come out of an investigators house, and we have a plan to talk with a minimum of 15 people. The whole zone, every companionship, has to talk with at least 15 people every day no matter what. So we were contacting people in the street and my companion goes and starts talking with this 15 year old girl and I came back around and started talking to her too. She's in school and we pass by her house and showed her the video and talked to her for a minute and asked her what time she CAN meet and she said basically any time like right now at this time. We were like "well can we pass by your house right now then" and she was like "yeah" so we walked with her to her house and we went in with her family of four. Which was awesome. They were all super super nice. So that was kind of a cool little miracle we were able to see. And then right after that we found another family that we contacted in the street a little while ago as well. So we found a lot of new investigators this week. So then we also found another family. The mom is from Brazil. We contacted her in the street and we were talking from here and I noticed her accent and I said "Ah you're not from here, you're from Brazil aren't you?" and she said, "Yeah, I am from Brazil." And I said in Portuguese, " I speak portuguese" and she was like Oh REALLY! and started talking to me in Portuguese. I don't actually speak Portuguese so I told her I was joking. So she was like really excited and super super receptive so we got to start teaching her and her family this week. Her husband is also a really really nice guy.
We've been working with a guy named Jorge this last week. We set a baptismal date. He seems to be really really really really receptive with a lot of potential to progress. He came to church on Sunday. He doesn't have any significant barriers that we can see for him being baptized. He's recently divorced and now he's just out of a job so he's kind of packed in to a rough time. We found him at the exact moment he needed it I think. So it's been really fun to work with him. We are going to continue to work with him.
We have an investigator named Lena. I think I may have mentioned her. She was in a car accident a couple of years ago and broke her femur and is stuck in a wheelchair. But she wants to come to church and we have a member who is going to fellowship her really well and he offered to take her to church but she said she woke up feeling really bad and had to take a lot of pain killers this Sunday so she didn't come. We're also trying to help her quit smoking so she can actually get better. Because she's actually not going to get better if she keeps smoking like this.
But other than that, I hope you're all participating in the Light the World program...that service calendar, the 25 ways we can serve in 25 days. Sometimes it's kind of hard to find HOW we can serve other people, even if we WANT to serve them. So it's a great way to start, to jumpstart, to get the ball rolling at least until Christmas to serve people. As a missionary, I obviously have a lot of service opportunities and can really can see the difference it makes in MY life.
I reminds me of a poem. I don't know who the original author was but I heard it shared in a Brad Wilcox talk, which goes something like this...
I hope everybody is doing well. I'm doing great. I'm excited for Christmas. Take CARE!
Hey guys, Elder Olson here. This is week 2 of transfer 11. We're just on our way to the computer terminal to send emails. So yeah, it's been a really good week. We had changes. My new companion is Elder Lee from Lindon, UT. So that's cool. He's a really cool guy. We get along really well. We've been having a crazy week. A lot of cool stuff has been happening. A lot of success in the sector just out of nowhere.
Changes happened so we took Elder Davis and most of the zone to the terminal. Every companionship in the zone had someone leave and somebody new come. So that was fun. We had like a big change this time which was good because last time nobody changed out of their sector. There was one companionship that had a change. This time it was a lot bigger change. I had a lot of people that I know come up here including Elder Christarious(sp?) who was from my group. And then on Thursday we had a leadership council for all the zone leaders which was really fun because almost everybody from my group who got here to the mission with me and was in the MTC with me are all zone leaders at this point. The ones that weren't just went up this change so I got to see a few of them which is always fun.
We had some cool experiences in the street finding people. We've been using a lot the new Light the world initiative which is awesome. It's great for us because it makes it way easier to share with people. Just like, "Hey can we just share a 2 minute video with you about Christmas?" And the people are a lot more receptive to that, so that's cool.
The other day we had a cool experience with that. We'd just got out of a visit, just come out of an investigators house, and we have a plan to talk with a minimum of 15 people. The whole zone, every companionship, has to talk with at least 15 people every day no matter what. So we were contacting people in the street and my companion goes and starts talking with this 15 year old girl and I came back around and started talking to her too. She's in school and we pass by her house and showed her the video and talked to her for a minute and asked her what time she CAN meet and she said basically any time like right now at this time. We were like "well can we pass by your house right now then" and she was like "yeah" so we walked with her to her house and we went in with her family of four. Which was awesome. They were all super super nice. So that was kind of a cool little miracle we were able to see. And then right after that we found another family that we contacted in the street a little while ago as well. So we found a lot of new investigators this week. So then we also found another family. The mom is from Brazil. We contacted her in the street and we were talking from here and I noticed her accent and I said "Ah you're not from here, you're from Brazil aren't you?" and she said, "Yeah, I am from Brazil." And I said in Portuguese, " I speak portuguese" and she was like Oh REALLY! and started talking to me in Portuguese. I don't actually speak Portuguese so I told her I was joking. So she was like really excited and super super receptive so we got to start teaching her and her family this week. Her husband is also a really really nice guy.
We've been working with a guy named Jorge this last week. We set a baptismal date. He seems to be really really really really receptive with a lot of potential to progress. He came to church on Sunday. He doesn't have any significant barriers that we can see for him being baptized. He's recently divorced and now he's just out of a job so he's kind of packed in to a rough time. We found him at the exact moment he needed it I think. So it's been really fun to work with him. We are going to continue to work with him.
We have an investigator named Lena. I think I may have mentioned her. She was in a car accident a couple of years ago and broke her femur and is stuck in a wheelchair. But she wants to come to church and we have a member who is going to fellowship her really well and he offered to take her to church but she said she woke up feeling really bad and had to take a lot of pain killers this Sunday so she didn't come. We're also trying to help her quit smoking so she can actually get better. Because she's actually not going to get better if she keeps smoking like this.
But other than that, I hope you're all participating in the Light the World program...that service calendar, the 25 ways we can serve in 25 days. Sometimes it's kind of hard to find HOW we can serve other people, even if we WANT to serve them. So it's a great way to start, to jumpstart, to get the ball rolling at least until Christmas to serve people. As a missionary, I obviously have a lot of service opportunities and can really can see the difference it makes in MY life.
I reminds me of a poem. I don't know who the original author was but I heard it shared in a Brad Wilcox talk, which goes something like this...
I tried to find myself, but myself I could not see.
I tried to find my God, but he eluded me.
I tried to find my brother, and then I found all three.I think that there's a lot that can be learned from that small little poem there.
I hope everybody is doing well. I'm doing great. I'm excited for Christmas. Take CARE!
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| This sandwich is called El Misionero |
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| Christmas in Summer in Chile...Nativity viewing in shorts |
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| Elder Lee is 6'5" ...tall guy |
Monday, November 27, 2017
week 66: Almost forgot it was Thanksgiving in the US
November 27, 2017 (transcription of audio letter)
Hello Everyone! Elder Olson Here.
Hello Everyone! Elder Olson Here.
It is now week one of transfer 11. We haven't actually had the transfers yet but I found them out on Saturday and it looks like I will be staying here in Baquedano. My new companion is named Elder Lee, from Utah (Lindon), he has a little bit more time in the mission than me, but he went up as zone leader... he replaced me in Curico. So he's coming from my old sector to here, so he's following me here. So that's cool. Basically the whole zone changed. Somebody left from every companionship. The new missionaries, there will be one from my group named Elder Pstorius(?), one Hermana Ibert who was in my zone in Curico, those are the ones that are coming that I actually kind of know. The other ones that are coming are all supposed to be really good missionaries though. One thing that is going to be interesting about our zone this change is going to be that we're almost all gringos...so many white people. There are going to be 9 of us from the US, 1 from the Philippines, the people from the Philippines speak English so we kind of count them as gringos, and then Elder Tyce from Brazil and Elder ? from Santiago. So 9 out of the 12 are from the US. So that's kind of weird but it'll be good though.
So Elder Lee, I believe, I don't know...I obviously haven't been his companion before...I think he's really good missionary. I think they kind of gave us a "stacked" zone. I think we're going to have a really good change this change. Looking at the changes, a lot of my group went up as zone leaders this change so now almost all of us are zone leaders at this point. The only one I can think of that's not is my MTC comp Elder Musselman, but he's a branch president in a small branch. So we've all got our lives pretty busy. But it'll be really fun in the leadership council on Thursday, to be able to get together with "the group" and see everybody there.
So this was also a pretty cool week because we did exchanges with the elders from Rengo, which for those of you who don't know, I have family in Rengo. I guess I met them when I was very very young, when I was 2 but I don't remember them. They are my Aunt's parents who live here in Chile. And it was really cool. We went there on exchanges. The address that we had for their house on google maps gave us a slightly different house but we contacted that house and we were like, "Hey we're looking for the Rojas family." And they were like, "Oh yeah, they live right over here. They're actually really good friends of ours." And I was like, "yeah, I'm related to Marianela." And they said, "Oh yeah, Mona changed my diapers." The mom's name was Anna and I think the girl's name was Anita. But I'm not 100% sure. but the Rengo elders have an appointment to go back and teach them. And then we visited with my family there for a minute. We shared a small thought and gave a blessing to my Aunt's mom. It was actually really fun. It was kind of crazy...on their wall they have a picture of a family reunion when I was 2 or 3 yrs old and they came up to Utah to visit and they have that picture on their wall. So there's actually a picture of me on the wall of their house. So it was really cool. It was fun to meet them. So it'll be good to have the missionaries passing by there to help them out as well. So that was a really good experience.
On exchanges, while I was there, Elder ? from the Philippines, we did exchanges together, that was actually the day of Thanksgiving. We had forgot until after lunch one of the sisters reminded us it was Thanksgiving and I was like, "oh yeah." I was glad she reminded us because the first Thanksgiving in the mission I had also forgot that it was Thanksgiving because they don't do anything here. So this time at the end of the night we went and bought a load of Turkey and made turkey sandwiches. So that's just the lunch meat Turkey but it was something, it was good.
While we were together we put a baptismal date for two of their investigators who are super receptive and those were actually the first baptismal dates that that sector has had this entire transfer so it's good they can have something to work with now. So while we were on intercambios Elder Davis here in our sector with the other Elder, they found a couple new people and they put a baptismal date also with one of our investigators who's been really really stubborn about committing so it was really cool that he committed to baptism. They've come to church twice, his name is Victor, his wife is like reactivating, she was less active, She's at the point where she's starting to do some things she needs to do. But she's reactivated and its really cool. But he's still more or less interested. But he's come to church a few times and he listens to us but he hasn't had any real hunger for the gospel. Typical Chilean person down here. But he's read a little bit, prayed a little bit and hopefully he'll keep progressing. He's better than some investigators and I'm really excited to work with him. I really would like to get him baptized. As I would about any investigator.
On Friday, we had a couple new investigators. One of them was a buddhist husband of a less active returned missionary. So that was kind of interesting. He has an alter and everything like that. There's a weird amount of Buddhists here. I didn't think there would be Buddhists at all in Chile. There's not like a ton but I've met quite a few. And it's kind of interesting. I didn't expect that when I was coming. We taught them. She really liked the church but her and her partner, they aren't married, well she doesn't feel comfortable going to church because she feels guilty about that. And they won't get married because Chile has some wonderful laws that make it a lot easier to be NOT married. As in, single moms get their own house given to them. So she's waiting for the government to give her this house even though she lives with her partner, boyfriend, she counts as a single mom because she's not married so she's waiting for the government to give her a house and the government gives like payments and stuff like that. So it really doesn't help motivate people to want to be married. It's obviously not great for a family based society. So that's a problem we run into a lot here, because there are more benefits to being single than for being married. So that can be kind of a pain.
Saturday we had some pretty cool new investigators as well. There's one that's a couple that's gone through some tough stuff. The wife is struggling with mental challenges, illness I suppose, depression and such. Especially the husband is really really receptive. He really wants us to help. he's looking for this chance to fix their life. He wants to do that with God and that's the best way to do it.
Yesterday we had a new investigator named Bob. We were writing home on PDay in the cyber the place where we write, this Haitian comes over and he sees us and I don't know but maybe a sister missionary told him to come talk to us but he comes over and starts talking to us through the open window which is right in front of our computers. He started talking to us in English and we find out he went to church up in Buin a few months ago and he's like, "Yeah we can meet up." So yesterday we met up and it was really cool.He's really really driven. He's like, "I didn't leave my country just to waste my time." He has a lot of plans, studying, trying to start his own business and stuff. So it's cool that he's doing all that.
Elder Davis is going to a tiny branch outside of Curico just outside of my old zone, so that'll be fun for him. Elder Lee my new companion also has a change more than me in the mission. So I still have not had a companion younger than me in the mission. Which is kind of weird. I don't know, different. I guess I've been a zone leader for quite some time so I guess it makes sense. It's interesting.
This morning we got up early to study so we'd have time to clean up the yard. We mowed the yard with a weed whacker. It looks way better now. There were a TON of large spiders and Earwigs. They are EVERYWHERE EVERYWHERE EVERYWHERE. They come into the house, like my bathroom for example, I found one on the toilet paper the other day, find them on the walls the ceiling, sometimes they get into the kitchen quite a bit. It's fun. We've already gone through a whole can of RAID the past couple days in like the last week. But yeah I cleaned it up.
But I really wanted to thank you guys. I don't know...maybe more of you listen to my letters than I thought, or maybe those of you who did pray, prayed with a lot of faith, because I really felt like you guys were praying for me this week. Two weeks ago was really hard but this week was a GOOD week. I'm really really grateful for that because it wasn't for anything that WE did differently. But it came out way better and it showed in our spirits, our excitement, it showed in the numbers, the people and the type of people we found this week. So thank you for your prayers so keep on praying for me and our investigators. I appreciate it. I love you guys and hope you are all doing well.
Take care. Adios!
Monday, November 20, 2017
week 65: tough week as far as investigators
November 20, 2017 (transcription of audio letter)
Hey everyone, Elder Olson here, this week 6 of transfer 10.
This week's been a tougher week to be honest. We had a lot of appointments planned out with a lot of investigators. We had some high goals and a lot of plans. We expected to have a pretty full week. But in the end, all of our appointments fell, the whole week, every day, every single appointment fell except for I think 3 appointments in the whole week didn't fall. It was tough. It was kind of a tough time in the companionship for both of us I'd say not because we didn't get along but because the sector was just tough this week.
But it really hasn't been too bad.
On Wednesday we did exchanges with Elder Tyce and Elder {?} in Requinoa. So my first exchange in the mission I went on, I had like 3 days in the mission, and Elder Haar and Elder Tyce and I were in a trio and we were both super new. Elder Haar didn't speak any Spanish and I spoke hardly any Spanish and Elder Tyce still spoke Portuguese and Spanish mixed together so we could hardly understand each other. But we had a blast anyway. And I had Elder Tyce in my last zone in Curico as well but we never had a chance to do an exchange together. So We finally were able to an exchange together on Wednesday of this week. So that was fun. We found a ton of new people. We set a baptismal date with one of their investigators. Their investigator has a problem smoking. His name's Felipe. He's come to church a lot of times. They have a really well Fellowship I think the word is in English. they're really good. We also practiced some Spanish Freestyle rapping. Elder Tyce is a Thug, hahaha. He's a good guy. Really into Rap and that kind of stuff though.
In the week, the most interesting thing was that we had an open chapel, a tour, at a church in Doñihue one of the little country towns in our zone. Really pretty spot. But that was really tough as well. Mostly for the other Elders of Doñihue. They'd been prepping it all week. They had everything set up. They'd invited a bunch of people and all that. And then only 2 people came to the tour. One of them was an investigator they already had and the other was an investigator we contacted in the street who it was actually kind of a miracle almost because she was coming by on a bike right in front of the church and I stop her and start talking to her and I'm like, "Yeah, we're having a tour of the chapel here. I would love to show you a little bit about what we believe and how the building is and all that." So she's thinking about it and then gets a phone call and she's on it for like 5 minutes and I'm waiting there patiently and then she finally gets off the phone and before I say anything she's like, "Yeah, ok. I'll take a look." So she went through and we were able to get her information so the elders can teach her later. But she was the only one who went through off of the contacts which was crazy because we contacted quite a few people around a little less than 40 people in the street in front of the chapel. But Doñihue is a tougher place. It's really small. They're all old catholic people who live there. It's tough. And also the street where the chapel is doesn't have a lot of traffic. We sent other people to other parts of the city trying to get people there but it didn't result into much in the end. But that is alright because that night we all got a baptism in the zone. The Elders of Requinoa had a baptism of a Hatian. So that was pretty cool.
That was pretty much our week. I'm just kind of hanging in there. We took a good look at what we haven't been doing that we ought to do so we can step it up in the sector this week cause it's been a tough week. But we've just gotta keep on keeping on.
Church yesterday was really good. The branch presidency spoke. One of the talks that called my attention was really good. It was talking about, well all three meetings yesterday were focused on home teaching, visiting teaching and caring for each other as members of the church. It reminds me of Mosiah 18 how as part of the baptismal covenant we promise to mourn with those that mourn and comfort those who stand in need of comfort and how we've all promised to do that when we were baptized. So that's something that I continually want to improve on...looking for those service opportunities for other people and I hope you guys can all look for those service opportunities as well.
As far as our contact goal, we've been doing pretty well. We had a few days where we contacted 20 or more and a few days where we contacted between 10-15. In general we've gotten more than 10 contacts every day even when the schedules have been very busy running back and forth from place to place. We've been talking to people on the way.
I really appreciate your prayers for us this week especially because we're coming to the end of the change. We're going to find out transfers this Saturday so that'll be interesting. It's pretty unlikely that Elder Davis and I would stay together another change. You never know, but it's pretty likely that one of us will go. Probably him because he has more time in the sector. But we'll see what happens.
So if you guys could just pray for us that we will be able to find new people to teach and also be able to get investigators into the sacrament meeting because it's been a couple weeks since we've gotten anyone there.
Love you guys. Really appreciate you and hope you're all doing well. Take care!
Elder Olson
Hey everyone, Elder Olson here, this week 6 of transfer 10.
This week's been a tougher week to be honest. We had a lot of appointments planned out with a lot of investigators. We had some high goals and a lot of plans. We expected to have a pretty full week. But in the end, all of our appointments fell, the whole week, every day, every single appointment fell except for I think 3 appointments in the whole week didn't fall. It was tough. It was kind of a tough time in the companionship for both of us I'd say not because we didn't get along but because the sector was just tough this week.
But it really hasn't been too bad.
On Wednesday we did exchanges with Elder Tyce and Elder {?} in Requinoa. So my first exchange in the mission I went on, I had like 3 days in the mission, and Elder Haar and Elder Tyce and I were in a trio and we were both super new. Elder Haar didn't speak any Spanish and I spoke hardly any Spanish and Elder Tyce still spoke Portuguese and Spanish mixed together so we could hardly understand each other. But we had a blast anyway. And I had Elder Tyce in my last zone in Curico as well but we never had a chance to do an exchange together. So We finally were able to an exchange together on Wednesday of this week. So that was fun. We found a ton of new people. We set a baptismal date with one of their investigators. Their investigator has a problem smoking. His name's Felipe. He's come to church a lot of times. They have a really well Fellowship I think the word is in English. they're really good. We also practiced some Spanish Freestyle rapping. Elder Tyce is a Thug, hahaha. He's a good guy. Really into Rap and that kind of stuff though.
In the week, the most interesting thing was that we had an open chapel, a tour, at a church in Doñihue one of the little country towns in our zone. Really pretty spot. But that was really tough as well. Mostly for the other Elders of Doñihue. They'd been prepping it all week. They had everything set up. They'd invited a bunch of people and all that. And then only 2 people came to the tour. One of them was an investigator they already had and the other was an investigator we contacted in the street who it was actually kind of a miracle almost because she was coming by on a bike right in front of the church and I stop her and start talking to her and I'm like, "Yeah, we're having a tour of the chapel here. I would love to show you a little bit about what we believe and how the building is and all that." So she's thinking about it and then gets a phone call and she's on it for like 5 minutes and I'm waiting there patiently and then she finally gets off the phone and before I say anything she's like, "Yeah, ok. I'll take a look." So she went through and we were able to get her information so the elders can teach her later. But she was the only one who went through off of the contacts which was crazy because we contacted quite a few people around a little less than 40 people in the street in front of the chapel. But Doñihue is a tougher place. It's really small. They're all old catholic people who live there. It's tough. And also the street where the chapel is doesn't have a lot of traffic. We sent other people to other parts of the city trying to get people there but it didn't result into much in the end. But that is alright because that night we all got a baptism in the zone. The Elders of Requinoa had a baptism of a Hatian. So that was pretty cool.
That was pretty much our week. I'm just kind of hanging in there. We took a good look at what we haven't been doing that we ought to do so we can step it up in the sector this week cause it's been a tough week. But we've just gotta keep on keeping on.
Church yesterday was really good. The branch presidency spoke. One of the talks that called my attention was really good. It was talking about, well all three meetings yesterday were focused on home teaching, visiting teaching and caring for each other as members of the church. It reminds me of Mosiah 18 how as part of the baptismal covenant we promise to mourn with those that mourn and comfort those who stand in need of comfort and how we've all promised to do that when we were baptized. So that's something that I continually want to improve on...looking for those service opportunities for other people and I hope you guys can all look for those service opportunities as well.
As far as our contact goal, we've been doing pretty well. We had a few days where we contacted 20 or more and a few days where we contacted between 10-15. In general we've gotten more than 10 contacts every day even when the schedules have been very busy running back and forth from place to place. We've been talking to people on the way.
I really appreciate your prayers for us this week especially because we're coming to the end of the change. We're going to find out transfers this Saturday so that'll be interesting. It's pretty unlikely that Elder Davis and I would stay together another change. You never know, but it's pretty likely that one of us will go. Probably him because he has more time in the sector. But we'll see what happens.
So if you guys could just pray for us that we will be able to find new people to teach and also be able to get investigators into the sacrament meeting because it's been a couple weeks since we've gotten anyone there.
Love you guys. Really appreciate you and hope you're all doing well. Take care!
Elder Olson
Companionship Unity featuring my watch tan line
How we take care of bugs
Monday, November 13, 2017
week 64: New investigators & Long-suffering
November 13, 2017
¡Hola Todos!
¡Ejalé!
¡Hola Todos!
¡Ejalé!
Hope you're all doing well. I didn't do an audio because we've been moving at a million miles an hour so sorry about that.
Haha I think this week God has been helping me develop my long-suffering. That's not to say that it was too bad, but we had A LOT of appointments fall through. 2 out of our 7 baptismal dates fell as well, Felipe and Felipe, more on them in a minute.
Mwen vle kapab pale creole! While on intercambios I took E Rogers from Fresno to see our Haitian investigators. He speaks almost fluent creole, because when we were in the same zone in buin almost all of their investigators were Haitians. I understood about 40% of the lesson, which is actually not bad! I need to practice more though.
As a mission we've implemented a new referral system that I dont know if I mentioned. Basically whenever anybody in our zone receives a reference it becomes the responsibility of my companion and I to track and verify the teaching of those referrals. It's a lot of extra homework for Elder Davis and I.
All of our appointmebnts falling this week was in a way a blessing. My companion and I found 8 new investigators this week, which ties for our record from last change here.
Felipe and Felipe jr are two of our long time investigators who were supposed to get baptized on the 25th of November. Felipe has a slight difficulty with leaving wine. He won't get serious about it. He says he's received his answer about the BoM and wants to get baptized with his son. BUT they won't keep commitments. They could use your prayers as we decide this week whether or not we have to leave them.
Well that's gonna have to be all for today, but I'll have an audio for you next week!
With love,
Elder Olson
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
Week 63: Halloween as Missionaries
Transcribed from audio recording November 6, 2017
Hey everybody, this is Monday November 6, 2017, the beginning of week 4 of this transfer. So this week was pretty normal, until today.
Hey everybody, this is Monday November 6, 2017, the beginning of week 4 of this transfer. So this week was pretty normal, until today.
The beginning of the week we had Halloween. But for Halloween we didn't really do anything different. So here they celebrate Halloween, but they've only been celebrating it for the last 15 years? And they celebrate it because it's a holiday in the US and they wanted to get in on that. So it's not HUGE. A lot of people don't like it but a lot do, mostly for the kids. I don't know if I've seen any adults who dress up, mostly just kids who go around trick or treating. So for Halloween my companion and I dressed up as each other. We switched plaques, not plaques, nametags. We switched jackets, watches, I gelled my hair and did it differently so it would look kind of like his and we switched bags and took a picture. So you'll be able to see our halloween costumes there. I thought it was pretty good, pretty clever. A lot of people confuse us for each other anyway because we're both white...and about the same size and hair color more or less. So that was pretty fun.
After that, in the week, we're finally done with all of our meetings. We're back to just normal missionary life. We did have district meetings on Tuesday, we went out to Requinoa(?) which is a little...well all of the sectors in our zone are out in the country more or less. They're like outside of Rancagua. Our sector is the only sector, well our branch is the only branch that is actually in Rancagua and all of our sectors are actually outside of Rancagua. There's another zone in our stake here in Rancagua that has all the wards and branches that are actually IN Rancagua. We get all the outsiders. So we went out to Requinoa for a district class. It was good. It was kind of funny...We saw Elder Tyce and Elder Inuwe(?), the Elders from there in Requinoa, they brought their Matés, which we thought was kind of funny, they kind of followed our example there. We're getting the new guy kind of addicted to Maté as well. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. But it was a good class.
On Wednesday, we went to the district class in Do ñihue which is actually our district. We went there. And Doñihue is really pretty. I like going there. It's really close to the mountains, it has a really big reputation for being the center of a lot of country culture I guess you'd say. Out here the cowboys are called Huasos. They have kind of a different style. I'm actually going to try to by a Huaso poncho today, it's called a Manta. Doñihue is really famous for that. It's a really really pretty little town.
And then after that on Thursday, the Hermana's called us late at night and asked us if we could help them with an investigator who has a drinking problem and was going to set an appointment with a psychologist in the morning. And they had told him that they were going to help him to go to the psychologist but they realized that they can't because they're two sister missionaries and them leaving at 6:30 in the morning with a drunk guy is not at all a great idea and so we had to help them out there. So we accompanied their investigator to the Psychologist, well to the clinic to make sure he could get an appointment with the psychologist. So it was kind of weird but it was really good for him I think. He came to church this week. So that was the investigator. Well he's actually a less active member. He was actually baptized when he was 13 or 12 and he's been drinking for about just as long. He's been drinking since he was 12 or 13. But it's his mom who's the investigator. But he came to church with his mom, yesterday, so that was really good. It was cool they could see some progress with him because they've been working with him for quite some time.
We had to do a few favors for the Hermanas. And then we got a call from the assistants, last night and the Hermanas are having special changes. So that means one of the Hermanas is going to be leaving our sector here in Baquedano and they are going to be going to Buin. And the Hermana from Buin is going to be coming down here. And it's special because it's the middle of the change the middle of the transfer so they are going to be the only ones who will be changing. I think it's going to be good for our zone. The Hermana that's coming is supposed to be really good. I think it's going to help the companion of the Hermana who's leaving a lot. So I think it's going to be a good change. But that does mean that today we are going to help them. Well, whether or not they really NEED our help...I don't know...but supposedly the Hermana that's leaving has so much stuff that her and her companion and the two missionaries in Buin won't be able to handle all of her luggage. So I don't know WHAT she's carrying but Apparently she needs our help. So we will almost for sure be leaving for the terminal in about 20 minutes. Not sure though. So yeah, that'll be interesting. But it's gonna be good to have this other missionary in the zone. She's been an Hermana leader for the last few changes, but it should be really good.
Apart from that, this week's been pretty normal, pretty chill. We've had a few really good new investigators. We actually contacted one of them trying to find the other one. So the first one, Rodrigo, he contacted us when he was kind of drunk during the dies de ocho festival in September. He came up to us and was like, "I need to talk to you guys. You guys are awesome. I live right here." And we were like, OK. And we went back and he was still super receptive, but the area where we contacted him was a bunch of apartments and they all look EXACTLY the same so we went back and contacted all of the apartments that had his apartment number and while doing that we found another super super receptive lady and her three daughters. So we are now teaching them and also Rodrigo. I think Rodrigo has a good shot at being baptized. Well I think they all have a good shot at being baptized. We've got a lot of good investigators here. The trick for this sector tends to be getting them to come to church. We have one investigator, I think I mentioned him before, named Alejandro, he was super prepared. He'd been to church like twice before. He says he wants to be a member of the church. He basically considers himself a member already. He was waiting for us...when we knocked on his door he was like, "yeah Ive been waiting for you guys. I just didn't want to go to church by myself." He said he was basically a little shy to go on his own. So he's really great. It's been a trick getting him to stay for all three hours of church but we're working on it. A little bit at a time. Nobody can be perfectly ready for baptism.
So today we were going to deep clean the house but that looks like it's not going to happen because of the whole transfer thing, so we'll have to just give it a little light clean.
So I do really like this scripture because I think there's a lot that goes into something so simple. But I can let each one of you pull your own meaning out of it. I hope you guys are all doing well, hope you have a good week. Take care. Ciao.
And then after that on Thursday, the Hermana's called us late at night and asked us if we could help them with an investigator who has a drinking problem and was going to set an appointment with a psychologist in the morning. And they had told him that they were going to help him to go to the psychologist but they realized that they can't because they're two sister missionaries and them leaving at 6:30 in the morning with a drunk guy is not at all a great idea and so we had to help them out there. So we accompanied their investigator to the Psychologist, well to the clinic to make sure he could get an appointment with the psychologist. So it was kind of weird but it was really good for him I think. He came to church this week. So that was the investigator. Well he's actually a less active member. He was actually baptized when he was 13 or 12 and he's been drinking for about just as long. He's been drinking since he was 12 or 13. But it's his mom who's the investigator. But he came to church with his mom, yesterday, so that was really good. It was cool they could see some progress with him because they've been working with him for quite some time.
We had to do a few favors for the Hermanas. And then we got a call from the assistants, last night and the Hermanas are having special changes. So that means one of the Hermanas is going to be leaving our sector here in Baquedano and they are going to be going to Buin. And the Hermana from Buin is going to be coming down here. And it's special because it's the middle of the change the middle of the transfer so they are going to be the only ones who will be changing. I think it's going to be good for our zone. The Hermana that's coming is supposed to be really good. I think it's going to help the companion of the Hermana who's leaving a lot. So I think it's going to be a good change. But that does mean that today we are going to help them. Well, whether or not they really NEED our help...I don't know...but supposedly the Hermana that's leaving has so much stuff that her and her companion and the two missionaries in Buin won't be able to handle all of her luggage. So I don't know WHAT she's carrying but Apparently she needs our help. So we will almost for sure be leaving for the terminal in about 20 minutes. Not sure though. So yeah, that'll be interesting. But it's gonna be good to have this other missionary in the zone. She's been an Hermana leader for the last few changes, but it should be really good.
Apart from that, this week's been pretty normal, pretty chill. We've had a few really good new investigators. We actually contacted one of them trying to find the other one. So the first one, Rodrigo, he contacted us when he was kind of drunk during the dies de ocho festival in September. He came up to us and was like, "I need to talk to you guys. You guys are awesome. I live right here." And we were like, OK. And we went back and he was still super receptive, but the area where we contacted him was a bunch of apartments and they all look EXACTLY the same so we went back and contacted all of the apartments that had his apartment number and while doing that we found another super super receptive lady and her three daughters. So we are now teaching them and also Rodrigo. I think Rodrigo has a good shot at being baptized. Well I think they all have a good shot at being baptized. We've got a lot of good investigators here. The trick for this sector tends to be getting them to come to church. We have one investigator, I think I mentioned him before, named Alejandro, he was super prepared. He'd been to church like twice before. He says he wants to be a member of the church. He basically considers himself a member already. He was waiting for us...when we knocked on his door he was like, "yeah Ive been waiting for you guys. I just didn't want to go to church by myself." He said he was basically a little shy to go on his own. So he's really great. It's been a trick getting him to stay for all three hours of church but we're working on it. A little bit at a time. Nobody can be perfectly ready for baptism.
So today we were going to deep clean the house but that looks like it's not going to happen because of the whole transfer thing, so we'll have to just give it a little light clean.
To leave you guys with a spiritual thought. Today's spiritual thought comes from Luke 21:19. "In your patience possess ye your souls." I'm working a lot on my patience and so I've been making a wall of patience quotes right in front of my desk so every time I look up I see my wall of patience quotes.
So I do really like this scripture because I think there's a lot that goes into something so simple. But I can let each one of you pull your own meaning out of it. I hope you guys are all doing well, hope you have a good week. Take care. Ciao.
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| Elder Davis and I were each other for Halloween |
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| Elder Davis nailed his impression of my smile |
Monday, October 30, 2017
week 62:Food Poisoning & Elder Bragg of the Seventy
TRANSCRIPTION FROM AUDIO LETTER:
Alright, Hi everyone, THIS is Elder Olson.
That was Elder Davis talking to you. He's not doing too well. He's stuck in bed. So we're here at the house. Elder Davis is sick. Actually the other missionaries in our Branch are also sick. And Basically half of the mission is sick. I talked with Elder Robinson last night and he said there are over 70 missionaries who are sick and there are still more calling in. We had a conference with a Seventy, Elder Bragg, on Friday (and Saturday) and people have been getting food poisoning from the food we ate afterward. They thought it was just the south half of the mission because they had their conference first. But it looks like it's gonna be everybody, well not everybody, but a lot of people on both halves of the mission...not just people in the south half. One of those people is my comp, Elder Davis, who's got the double headed dragon, poor guy. I'm praying I don't get sick. I haven't gotten sick up to this point. I felt a little weird, but I think I'm not going to get sick as in stuck in bed or the bathroom sick.
But this week has been a pretty good week. It's been a loooong week. It feels like we've done so much stuff but it's only been a week.
We started off, on P-day, we had to go and do a choir practice because my companion and I sang in/we did a little musical number during the visit for Elder Bragg. After that we did normal P-day: write home, buy things, get home as quick as we could.
And then during the week, on Tuesday we had a lesson with a family we've been teaching for a while. They've been receiving the missionaries for quite some time. We decided to leave them. It's kind of sad. It's sad to leave, to stop teaching a family, but they just weren't progressing or keeping their commitments. Then we had to go stay at the assistant's/secretary's house again because last week, I think I mentioned it in my last letter, we had to go do the same thing... stay in their house the night before, get up at 6 in the morning and go do stuff for Elder Davis's Visa, but last week it totally failed and we weren't able to do it. So this week we had to do it again and this week it worked. We still had to get up at 6 in the morning and I had to go save a spot with one of the other companions of one of the other missionaries in the Chilean FBI and we were waiting there about 4-5 hours, no it was 3 hours there and then another 3 after that before we got all the stuff done there. Then we had to go to another place and do some other stuff there...basically we were waiting around for a long time. I got to practice my Portuguese a little bit though because I was waiting with Elder Alcara? from Brazil. Everything was alright. (he says a phrase in Portuguese on the recording) Learning a little bit.
Wednesday was pretty normal. We had a lesson with the assistants that afternoon. We asked them to come with us because One of them, Elder Covey, had contacted this girl, and we started teaching her. And so invited him to come because their sector is pretty close to ours, to accompany us to a lesson so he could have the opportunity to teach her as well and also we needed somebody to come with us to the lesson. It's hard to get members to come with us a lot of the time here. But the lesson went awesome. It was great. She would've accepted a baptismal date but she lives with her boyfriend on the weekends. So can't accept the baptismal date yet. We have to talk about how that's not allowed before she's allowed to actually get baptized. But she's really good. And she understands REALLY well and I really hope she progresses.
We also this week, on Thursday I believe, we had a lesson with the kid, Jose Ignacio, the soccer player who was a self reference to the church. I can't remember exactly how much I told you about him. But we're teaching him and his family. He's 17. So him and his parents and his younger siblings. But they're also really awesome. They have a lot of desire to learn more. They had promised us last night that they were going to go to church today, and they didn't. I guess I should know better at this point to believe people when they tell me they are going to go to church the next day but that's what happened. So that was kind of a bummer. We were really excited to see them. We actually dragged Elder Davis out there to sacrament meeting even though he's very sick...he wanted to come too...because we wanted to accompany the investigators. But then they didn't get there, and none of our investigators who had committed to come to church came to church. I think it was because it was kind of cold this morning so I think they all got up, looked outside and decided to stay in bed. And we also had a lesson this week with Alejandro, who we found contacting. He's super super receptive. He had a friend who was a doctor who invited him to come to church one time. He came to church and he thought, hey this is really awesome, and then the doctor moved to Argentina so he was too embarrassed to keep coming to church by himself so he didn't. But we contacted him one day and he was like, "ah yeah, I went to your church. I loved it. I've been waiting for you guys because I wanted to come back but I was too nervous to do it myself." So he came to church two weeks ago now, but he didn't come last week because he had to work and this week I don't know what happened and he also did not come today, which was a bummer.
On Friday we had the meeting with Elder Mark A Bragg of the quorum of the 70. He spoke in April conference of this year and his talk was called, "Brighter and brighter, until the perfect day." It was cool to be able to talk with him. In the morning he came and we actually had a special meeting with him first, a small meeting with all the zone leaders, district leaders and the Hermana leaders, so basically mission leadership and Elder Bragg. So that was pretty good. It was kind of short. More like a testimony meeting than anything. He talked to us a little bit about the importance of being an example as leaders. And then after that we had the actual conference. I felt like I was kind of off to a slow start. I wasn't really...I'm sure it was me...I was having a hard time finding anything I felt applicable to myself. Obviously I'm not perfect but there was a lot of things I felt like I had already heard a million times. But as it progressed and went on I learned A LOT. It was awesome. It was a really good experience. One of the things he promised us, that was very similar to something President promised us a little while ago, ....and he said this as in, "I'm gonna make you guys a promise and here's the promise...if you guys begin to talk with everybody, like everybody in the street, you will triple the number of investigators you have and double the baptisms." So that was cool, because it was a very firm promise. It wasn't like "you will have maybe some more baptisms if you talk with everybody." It was "you will DOUBLE your baptisms and TRIPLE your investigators." So that was cool. That went along with my goal personally and the goal of our companionship to contact 20 people a day. We only actually had one normal day where we were able to go out and do things like we should be able to do and on that day we met the goal, we contacted like 24. Then yesterday we had an almost normal day, we had to do weekly planning and Elder Davis got sick at the end of the day, but we still contacted about 15 people. I want to keep it above 10 when we have other stuff and 20 or more when we don't have anything to do. On those days we did pretty well. We tried to talk to the taxi drivers when they took us places and tried to talk to everybody. It can be tough to find the opportunity but it's really just about opening your mouth.
We had a lesson with a person we contacted in the street just a couple of days ago. We had walked by him and he said, "Hello, Elder." And we're like, oh he knows we're elders. So we ran over to him and were like, stop stop. And we made hims stop and talked to him for a minute. He actually spoke English. He learned English playing video games and listening to music. There are actually quite a few people who learn that way. But he speaks really well. Couple days later, we were actually able to have a lesson with him. So that was cool. He's very..., well he's smart, so that makes him not quite as teachable. He 's not argumentative but he still is pretty fixed in his views. I would like to see him progress as well. He reminds me of the atheist investigator that we had in Curico.
So that is my week. But also today we are going to have interviews with President in the evening. It should be interesting. It doesn't sound like anyone else in our zone is sick except for the ones in our branch, and I'm fine, I'm not sick at all. But we're going to have to do a training there. I don't know how we're going to do that while President is doing interviews because my companion is very sick. I may have to do it myself while my companion hides in the bathroom, I'm not a 100% sure. I think he'll probably be able to compose himself long enough to do the training part. So that's what we're going to be doing today.
But to end, I want to leave you with a small spiritual thought from Elder Bragg's talk in that general conference. It was a pretty good talk. I liked it. He speaks about light and hope more than anything. Light as in Hope. There are a lot of ways we can define Light in our lives. One of the most common gospel definitions is knowledge and truth. But he talks about the hope that comes with light the church, the gospel, the light of Christ.
Hi gang,
This is Elder Olson. So this week was pretty interesting. We met a dragon. His name is Phil. But he's not that nice. But we're also finding many new leprechaun investigators. But I think the red one is going to progress. Also, I saw a dog today. It was pretty interesting.
Alright, Hi everyone, THIS is Elder Olson.
That was Elder Davis talking to you. He's not doing too well. He's stuck in bed. So we're here at the house. Elder Davis is sick. Actually the other missionaries in our Branch are also sick. And Basically half of the mission is sick. I talked with Elder Robinson last night and he said there are over 70 missionaries who are sick and there are still more calling in. We had a conference with a Seventy, Elder Bragg, on Friday (and Saturday) and people have been getting food poisoning from the food we ate afterward. They thought it was just the south half of the mission because they had their conference first. But it looks like it's gonna be everybody, well not everybody, but a lot of people on both halves of the mission...not just people in the south half. One of those people is my comp, Elder Davis, who's got the double headed dragon, poor guy. I'm praying I don't get sick. I haven't gotten sick up to this point. I felt a little weird, but I think I'm not going to get sick as in stuck in bed or the bathroom sick.
But this week has been a pretty good week. It's been a loooong week. It feels like we've done so much stuff but it's only been a week.
We started off, on P-day, we had to go and do a choir practice because my companion and I sang in/we did a little musical number during the visit for Elder Bragg. After that we did normal P-day: write home, buy things, get home as quick as we could.
And then during the week, on Tuesday we had a lesson with a family we've been teaching for a while. They've been receiving the missionaries for quite some time. We decided to leave them. It's kind of sad. It's sad to leave, to stop teaching a family, but they just weren't progressing or keeping their commitments. Then we had to go stay at the assistant's/secretary's house again because last week, I think I mentioned it in my last letter, we had to go do the same thing... stay in their house the night before, get up at 6 in the morning and go do stuff for Elder Davis's Visa, but last week it totally failed and we weren't able to do it. So this week we had to do it again and this week it worked. We still had to get up at 6 in the morning and I had to go save a spot with one of the other companions of one of the other missionaries in the Chilean FBI and we were waiting there about 4-5 hours, no it was 3 hours there and then another 3 after that before we got all the stuff done there. Then we had to go to another place and do some other stuff there...basically we were waiting around for a long time. I got to practice my Portuguese a little bit though because I was waiting with Elder Alcara? from Brazil. Everything was alright. (he says a phrase in Portuguese on the recording) Learning a little bit.
Wednesday was pretty normal. We had a lesson with the assistants that afternoon. We asked them to come with us because One of them, Elder Covey, had contacted this girl, and we started teaching her. And so invited him to come because their sector is pretty close to ours, to accompany us to a lesson so he could have the opportunity to teach her as well and also we needed somebody to come with us to the lesson. It's hard to get members to come with us a lot of the time here. But the lesson went awesome. It was great. She would've accepted a baptismal date but she lives with her boyfriend on the weekends. So can't accept the baptismal date yet. We have to talk about how that's not allowed before she's allowed to actually get baptized. But she's really good. And she understands REALLY well and I really hope she progresses.
We also this week, on Thursday I believe, we had a lesson with the kid, Jose Ignacio, the soccer player who was a self reference to the church. I can't remember exactly how much I told you about him. But we're teaching him and his family. He's 17. So him and his parents and his younger siblings. But they're also really awesome. They have a lot of desire to learn more. They had promised us last night that they were going to go to church today, and they didn't. I guess I should know better at this point to believe people when they tell me they are going to go to church the next day but that's what happened. So that was kind of a bummer. We were really excited to see them. We actually dragged Elder Davis out there to sacrament meeting even though he's very sick...he wanted to come too...because we wanted to accompany the investigators. But then they didn't get there, and none of our investigators who had committed to come to church came to church. I think it was because it was kind of cold this morning so I think they all got up, looked outside and decided to stay in bed. And we also had a lesson this week with Alejandro, who we found contacting. He's super super receptive. He had a friend who was a doctor who invited him to come to church one time. He came to church and he thought, hey this is really awesome, and then the doctor moved to Argentina so he was too embarrassed to keep coming to church by himself so he didn't. But we contacted him one day and he was like, "ah yeah, I went to your church. I loved it. I've been waiting for you guys because I wanted to come back but I was too nervous to do it myself." So he came to church two weeks ago now, but he didn't come last week because he had to work and this week I don't know what happened and he also did not come today, which was a bummer.
On Friday we had the meeting with Elder Mark A Bragg of the quorum of the 70. He spoke in April conference of this year and his talk was called, "Brighter and brighter, until the perfect day." It was cool to be able to talk with him. In the morning he came and we actually had a special meeting with him first, a small meeting with all the zone leaders, district leaders and the Hermana leaders, so basically mission leadership and Elder Bragg. So that was pretty good. It was kind of short. More like a testimony meeting than anything. He talked to us a little bit about the importance of being an example as leaders. And then after that we had the actual conference. I felt like I was kind of off to a slow start. I wasn't really...I'm sure it was me...I was having a hard time finding anything I felt applicable to myself. Obviously I'm not perfect but there was a lot of things I felt like I had already heard a million times. But as it progressed and went on I learned A LOT. It was awesome. It was a really good experience. One of the things he promised us, that was very similar to something President promised us a little while ago, ....and he said this as in, "I'm gonna make you guys a promise and here's the promise...if you guys begin to talk with everybody, like everybody in the street, you will triple the number of investigators you have and double the baptisms." So that was cool, because it was a very firm promise. It wasn't like "you will have maybe some more baptisms if you talk with everybody." It was "you will DOUBLE your baptisms and TRIPLE your investigators." So that was cool. That went along with my goal personally and the goal of our companionship to contact 20 people a day. We only actually had one normal day where we were able to go out and do things like we should be able to do and on that day we met the goal, we contacted like 24. Then yesterday we had an almost normal day, we had to do weekly planning and Elder Davis got sick at the end of the day, but we still contacted about 15 people. I want to keep it above 10 when we have other stuff and 20 or more when we don't have anything to do. On those days we did pretty well. We tried to talk to the taxi drivers when they took us places and tried to talk to everybody. It can be tough to find the opportunity but it's really just about opening your mouth.
We had a lesson with a person we contacted in the street just a couple of days ago. We had walked by him and he said, "Hello, Elder." And we're like, oh he knows we're elders. So we ran over to him and were like, stop stop. And we made hims stop and talked to him for a minute. He actually spoke English. He learned English playing video games and listening to music. There are actually quite a few people who learn that way. But he speaks really well. Couple days later, we were actually able to have a lesson with him. So that was cool. He's very..., well he's smart, so that makes him not quite as teachable. He 's not argumentative but he still is pretty fixed in his views. I would like to see him progress as well. He reminds me of the atheist investigator that we had in Curico.
So that is my week. But also today we are going to have interviews with President in the evening. It should be interesting. It doesn't sound like anyone else in our zone is sick except for the ones in our branch, and I'm fine, I'm not sick at all. But we're going to have to do a training there. I don't know how we're going to do that while President is doing interviews because my companion is very sick. I may have to do it myself while my companion hides in the bathroom, I'm not a 100% sure. I think he'll probably be able to compose himself long enough to do the training part. So that's what we're going to be doing today.
But to end, I want to leave you with a small spiritual thought from Elder Bragg's talk in that general conference. It was a pretty good talk. I liked it. He speaks about light and hope more than anything. Light as in Hope. There are a lot of ways we can define Light in our lives. One of the most common gospel definitions is knowledge and truth. But he talks about the hope that comes with light the church, the gospel, the light of Christ.
Now, with all the happiness that will come to us as we more fully understand the Light of Christ, it will not match the joy that we feel when we see the Light of Christ working in others: family, friends, and even complete strangers....May we see the Light of Christ in others constantly and help them see it in themselves. ---Elder Bragg
I know that Elder Bragg is a representative of God. And I know that President Harris here in our mission is also a representative of God. And they are called to the positions they are in and they are guided by the Holy Ghost to be able to address our needs and to lead us. I also know that sharing the light we have with other people will help our light to grow. And when our light grows, we will be able to give more light to others, and increase their happiness and our own.
Thank you guys, love you tons, take care,
Elder Olson
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| The gang is back together. My MTC/CCM missionaries |
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| my buddy Elder Haar and Me |
Monday, October 23, 2017
week 61: Sick Comp & Tender Mercies
Hey all,
Sorry for not doing a voice thing.
So, after transfers this has still been a pretty busy week. My bike pedal arm broke while I was riding so we are temporarily stuck to missionary work the old old fashioned way (walking). I am starting to lose weight here though (about 10 pounds, 50% because of the gym and 50% because of the size of our lunches).
On Wed. we had to go stay with my man E' Robinson in the office house bc E Davis had to do stuff for his Visa. In the end it didn't work out and we're doing it again tomorrow. After that E Davis got sick and we were stuck in the house all day. I took advantage of the time to write a spanish version of "Be Still My Soul" and clean the house again. I think my overall cleanliness as a human being has gone up about 100 points during the mission.
A lot of you guys asked me about Camilo (the wal mart water bottle flower guy). We've passed by but he hasn't been home.
The other day we had a lunch appointment fall and some members gave us last minute lunch. Tender mercies.
We had Leadership Council on Saturday. We set a goal for 35 baptisms in November, and 70 before new years. We also saw the new Christmas iniciative video which is exciting...
I am currently working on my meekness, which I am defining as humility + patience, two Christlike atributes which I wouldn't consider personal strong points. I'm loving what I'm learning.
Also in our meeting President told us that if we contact 10-20 people a day we will baptize 1-3 people a month. I am going to contact 20 people every day of this change that we don't have meetings. Help me with this! Please ask me how I'm doing with my contacting goal every once in a while.
We have a conference with Elder Bragg of the 70 this Friday (see genconf april 2017). We'll have a special leadership meeting beforehand, and I'll be singing in a small choir for a musical number. Should be fun!
Love you all!
Elder Olson
Neighbor likes to rock out...makes for interesting study time
Monday, October 16, 2017
Week 60: Normal but good
Alright everyone, this is going to be a quick recording because I had no time to do a recording again. I guess that was because today we had transfers. We did it a little different this change. We did it on our Pday instead of on Tuesday I think just because of the day that all the new missionaries were getting here to the mission.
So right now we are in the cyber, writing, and seeing as how I had forgotten to send a recording last week I'm gonna get a short one in this week.
We got the changes this last weekend and I am staying in Baquedano with Elder Davis, which is awesome because he's a good comp. I can definitely be alright here another change. It'll be good. Which probably means, well you never know, but I could be here another two changes because he could leave and I could stay but you never know in the end I guess.
Almost our whole zone stayed basically the same. Only one elder left, an Argentinian, Elder Ginardo?. And one of my buds from my zone at the beginning of my mission, Elder Tias, from Brazil, is coming up, well he got here this morning. But other than that, all the other missionaries in the zone remained exactly the same. So that'll be good. It'll be more of the same thing this exchange.
This was a good week. There was this reference that we got this last Sunday that I mentioned last week. We had the visit with him...it was great. We had one visit with him and then another visit during the week with his whole family. He accepted a baptismal date right away and is super receptive..ready to change. But he didn't come to church. His whole family had promised to come to church, they seemed really really excited about it but then they didn't answer the phone and didn't come to church. Not exactly sure what happened there. We're going to have to keep calling them and seeing what's up. But it's the first week. And it's not a super common thing for people here to attend church in their first week as an investigator.
Although, we did have another one, his name is Alejandro, who came to church just the first hour but he loved it and he said he was going to bring his family next week. So we're excited about that.
Apart from that...
The week's been pretty normal but a good week. We cleaned the house a bit more, that was good and actually got things straightened out. We changed the furniture from where it was so everything's a little more open. We got things swept out from underneath so that was all good.
Also, we were supposed to have a branch council meeting on Sunday so we got up early and we get there and (the recording went really muffled here but he may have said..."found out it was cancelled so that was nice.")
Apart from that, it's been a good week but the last week of changes is always kind of a weird week (muffled recording again) as missionaries we try not to talk about it and keep our minds focused but for me I always end up thinking about it.
(he asks himself, did anything else interesting happen this week?) We got all our goals as a zone which was good. It's the first week of the change that we made all our goals as a zone, so that was awesome.
Also today we're making our zone souvenir which is kind of a common thing but it's usually a t-shirt or something. I've done a hat I got a picture of a couple changes ago. But this time we got slippers, which I'll try to get a picture of, I'll try not to forget. We just picked them up this morning. The slippers are AWESOME! They turned out really good. They're not the best quality, but they turned out to be 2800 pesos which is super cheap, which is like $4...like max $4. So they're awesome. They turned out really pretty. That's kind of cool. I've always wanted to do the slippers. We were going to put President's face on the slippers, but I didn't want President watching me from inside the house always, that's kind of a little creepy, so we didn't put the President's face on them. We were going to put our own faces on them but didn't know how stoked the zone would be about that so we didn't do it. But yeah. It's been a fun week.
(he turns to his comp and asks, did anything else happen, comp?)
So, my companion and I drink an interesting amount of Mate' and so this week we bought a HUGE thermos which we fill with hot water and sugar, which is great for us, and then today for the changes we had to be in the terminal, we had to Wait in the terminal for like 4 hours. So we brought the thermos and the Mate' to the terminal and we got to sit there just drinking Mate' for the 4 hours. So that was kind of fun, it was different.
Apart from that it's all been pretty normal. Hopefully I have some more interesting stuff to tell you next week.
Oh, also something else that's pretty cool, this change a Seventy is coming to the mission. His name is Mark Bragg if I'm not mistaken. He spoke in general conference, not this past session but in October, not October, April. He spoke on (I think it was on) "Brighter and Brighter until the perfect day." I have it and I've listened to it but I don't remember it very well. So that'll be exciting to finally have a general authority down here. I saw my cousin in London shaking D. Todd Christofferson's hand and Elder Holland's hand and the rest of us down here are like, oh that's kind of nice. And when President Nelson came down to Chile he went Santiago and the Santiago missions and then he jumped our mission and went to the mission right below us. He went on both sides of us but didn't come to our mission so that was kind of... nice.... haha. But we're getting somebody so that will be kind of fun, something different.
So I hope you guys are all doing well. I'm here in the cyber and I saw the family just got a puppy. I bet you're excited about that. But I love you guys, take care! Bye!
So right now we are in the cyber, writing, and seeing as how I had forgotten to send a recording last week I'm gonna get a short one in this week.
We got the changes this last weekend and I am staying in Baquedano with Elder Davis, which is awesome because he's a good comp. I can definitely be alright here another change. It'll be good. Which probably means, well you never know, but I could be here another two changes because he could leave and I could stay but you never know in the end I guess.
Almost our whole zone stayed basically the same. Only one elder left, an Argentinian, Elder Ginardo?. And one of my buds from my zone at the beginning of my mission, Elder Tias, from Brazil, is coming up, well he got here this morning. But other than that, all the other missionaries in the zone remained exactly the same. So that'll be good. It'll be more of the same thing this exchange.
This was a good week. There was this reference that we got this last Sunday that I mentioned last week. We had the visit with him...it was great. We had one visit with him and then another visit during the week with his whole family. He accepted a baptismal date right away and is super receptive..ready to change. But he didn't come to church. His whole family had promised to come to church, they seemed really really excited about it but then they didn't answer the phone and didn't come to church. Not exactly sure what happened there. We're going to have to keep calling them and seeing what's up. But it's the first week. And it's not a super common thing for people here to attend church in their first week as an investigator.
Although, we did have another one, his name is Alejandro, who came to church just the first hour but he loved it and he said he was going to bring his family next week. So we're excited about that.
Apart from that...
The week's been pretty normal but a good week. We cleaned the house a bit more, that was good and actually got things straightened out. We changed the furniture from where it was so everything's a little more open. We got things swept out from underneath so that was all good.
Also, we were supposed to have a branch council meeting on Sunday so we got up early and we get there and (the recording went really muffled here but he may have said..."found out it was cancelled so that was nice.")
Apart from that, it's been a good week but the last week of changes is always kind of a weird week (muffled recording again) as missionaries we try not to talk about it and keep our minds focused but for me I always end up thinking about it.
(he asks himself, did anything else interesting happen this week?) We got all our goals as a zone which was good. It's the first week of the change that we made all our goals as a zone, so that was awesome.
Also today we're making our zone souvenir which is kind of a common thing but it's usually a t-shirt or something. I've done a hat I got a picture of a couple changes ago. But this time we got slippers, which I'll try to get a picture of, I'll try not to forget. We just picked them up this morning. The slippers are AWESOME! They turned out really good. They're not the best quality, but they turned out to be 2800 pesos which is super cheap, which is like $4...like max $4. So they're awesome. They turned out really pretty. That's kind of cool. I've always wanted to do the slippers. We were going to put President's face on the slippers, but I didn't want President watching me from inside the house always, that's kind of a little creepy, so we didn't put the President's face on them. We were going to put our own faces on them but didn't know how stoked the zone would be about that so we didn't do it. But yeah. It's been a fun week.
(he turns to his comp and asks, did anything else happen, comp?)
So, my companion and I drink an interesting amount of Mate' and so this week we bought a HUGE thermos which we fill with hot water and sugar, which is great for us, and then today for the changes we had to be in the terminal, we had to Wait in the terminal for like 4 hours. So we brought the thermos and the Mate' to the terminal and we got to sit there just drinking Mate' for the 4 hours. So that was kind of fun, it was different.
Apart from that it's all been pretty normal. Hopefully I have some more interesting stuff to tell you next week.
Oh, also something else that's pretty cool, this change a Seventy is coming to the mission. His name is Mark Bragg if I'm not mistaken. He spoke in general conference, not this past session but in October, not October, April. He spoke on (I think it was on) "Brighter and Brighter until the perfect day." I have it and I've listened to it but I don't remember it very well. So that'll be exciting to finally have a general authority down here. I saw my cousin in London shaking D. Todd Christofferson's hand and Elder Holland's hand and the rest of us down here are like, oh that's kind of nice. And when President Nelson came down to Chile he went Santiago and the Santiago missions and then he jumped our mission and went to the mission right below us. He went on both sides of us but didn't come to our mission so that was kind of... nice.... haha. But we're getting somebody so that will be kind of fun, something different.
So I hope you guys are all doing well. I'm here in the cyber and I saw the family just got a puppy. I bet you're excited about that. But I love you guys, take care! Bye!
rickety fan...it's so hot here!
singing a hymn with Elder Davis...We're no David Archuleta
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