Labor in the Vineyard: week 53: Finding New Investigators

(Elder Olson's Mom's transcription of his audio letter)

Alright, Elder Olson here. This is the 28th of August 2017, just so I can keep track of the dates here.

This week has been crazy. It's been really long. We've had a lot of stuff to do this week. A lot of really crazy stuff has happened.

Well we'll start at the beginning. Monday was awesome. Pday. We went and got a class at a Juijitsu gym, which was pretty sweet. We got special permission from President to be able to do it because normally they don't let us take the zone places to do activities. WE took the zone over there. We have a hookup over there with a guy named Cristobal. We contacted him and he came out in his "I like Weed" shirt and he's like, "Ah yeah, I like to do martial arts," and I was like, " Me too. Sweet!" And then there we go. We found out that their gym is right next door to the chapel. And they let us come and they opened the gym in the middle of the day especially for us to let us do a free class. The owner of the gym actually studied at the University of Utah. He spoke English and was really chill. So that was really fun. A great way to start off the week. Nobody got tooooooo hurt. My comp did end up asking for a blessing for his arm because we practiced arm bars. But I think he's doing alright now.

So this week we did exchanges twice. Once with another sector here in Curico, in the ghetto. It's called (?). Then the other day we did them in (Molina?) which is a little pueblo outside Curico. So nothing all that special happened during the exchanges. It was good I finally got to go to a different sector. Normally, I stay here in the sector during exchanges because I know our sector better, so my companion who doesn't know the sector goes. But this last week I got to go down to (?) and do exchanges there. I forgot my towel and a change of clothes and pajamas and a toothbrush all that because we had to go out to Molina(?) early in the morning and did the exchanges back to back and I forgot all that stuff. So I got to "sleep in my tie" type of thing on the exchanges. So that was neat.

This week we found a TON of new people. We found a lot. We found 13 new investigators this week. Which is not a common thing. It's not unheard of but it's not common either. We've already found a new investigator for every day in this change. And that was our goal. We made our goal a week early. So that's cool. But we're going to have keep working hard this week to not let it get to us that it's the end of change...that we've already met the goal...We want to keep that success going. We want to start of the next one strong.

The changes are going to be this week. We find out on...well we'll probably find out early, because my companion will ask one of his friends in the office...but we should be finding out Saturday. So we'll see when we actually know. But honestly I think that I'm gonna be staying here with Elder Guadiglia. Because it's gone really well for us and I think one of the only reasons they'd take me out of Alameda right now is to put me in as a secretary. And rumor has it that somebody else is going to be a secretary. So I should be safe from being a secretary. Don't know if I really WANT to stay another change. For me I like to go to different sectors. But it's okay. If I'm gonna be left in a place, it's a good ward, a really good ward so I won't be too bummed out about it if I stay.

Other interesting things that happened...

This week we talked the Bishop and he was like,"Yeah we've this member who's got a daughter who's 10 years old who's not a member, who's been coming to church for the last few weeks and she wants to get baptized." And we were like, "Oh that's cool." So we went and talked to them and we set a baptismal date right away and she's for sure going to get baptized and we thought we were going to get away with getting her baptized this sunday but some of her family won't be able to make it out that day so she's going to be baptized on the 17th of September. That was nice. A nice little baptism we don't have to work for. Not quite as satisfying but nice that we are able to help there.

On Saturday, late at night, just about time to get home, well 9:20 and we need to be in the house between 9:30-10:00, we were out contacting and not really having much success but at 9:20 we said a prayer, it's the end of the night, we've gotta find somebody. But then we weren't finding anyone and started heading home and I was like, "No. We've gotta find someone." So we started contacting again. Literally the last house we said we were going to contact, we contacted it and this guy came out, and he was super nice, super excited. He said, "Yeah come in. No worries." So we started talking to him. His name's Roberto, he's an atheist, and he's super smart. He's a mechanic, well he works in part as a mechanic, he's an engineering student right now. That was 9:20 on Saturday night. He committed to come to church and the next day he came to church. Normally we visit with people 5 times and they have to commit, "YEAH! I'm for SURE coming to church this sunday. I'm for sure coming." Normally they have to say that about on 4-5 separate occasions for them to really mean it. But this guy said he'd come to church and he came to church. So that was really awesome! He's good. We've got high hopes for him. But he's hesitant to pray because he doesn't believe there's a god. He said, "yeah I'll come to church and I'll read the book," and he liked church but that step of humility that he's gonna have to take to admit that maybe there is a God, and pray and ask for an answer is gonna be kind of an obstacle for him. But it is ABSOLUTELY necessary for him to do to get an answer. You're never going to get an answer if you don't ask. So we're going to have to help him recognize the spiritual experiences he HAS had or is GOING to have as we work with him so that he can kind of open his mind to the fact that there is a god. We're excited to work with him.

We also found another investigator and her name is Pia. She had a baptismal date for the second week of this change and...we lost her. My companion still hadn't met her. We hadn't found her all this change. She hadn't been answering us and she actually moved houses and we got in contact with her again and she was excited and we taught her a lesson about the Sabbath, about keeping it holy and she came to church. Which until now had been one of her biggest difficulties the last time we were teaching her. So that was awesome that she was able to take that step right away as soon as we found her again.

Also this week we found a lady named Rose who seems kind of crazy and I think may be a pathological liar, but she accepted a baptismal date. She was actually baptized 10 years ago but never confirmed. I feel like she may have just never come to the sacrament meeting after being baptized. Not exactly sure what happened there. But we're going to try to work with her again. She was a reference so we'll see if we can help her. But she's told us she was going to be at her house or going to come to church like 10 times but she's not doing it sooooo.... Well one time, she told us she wasn't in her house and we went to her house and called her and she said she wasn't in her house so we were thinking about where else we were going to contact as our plan b and she just walks out onto her front porch and she didn't see us. Then she came out and walked almost right past us and we were like, "Oh hey, remember when you told us you weren't here like 20 seconds ago?" Ha. That's cool. But hopefully we'll be able to help her out.

This week i began ponderizing a scripture (I think that was a thing from general conference in 2015, memorizing and pondering a scripture) and I'm doing it in spanish but I'll send you a picture of my study journal and what I'm doing for that. I'm studying 2 Nephi 2:25-27 to kind of mix things up with my scripture study.

So yeah. I'm excited for changes this week. We'll see what happens. I'm really hoping somebody from my group, somebody I'm tight with, will come down to my zone. I'm kind of lonely a little bit. Not too bad. It'd be nice to have one of my friends from the beginning of the mission like Elder Haar, Elder Robinson or Elder Mussleman come down here to Curico, that'd be sweet. But if not, that's cool. I'll keep working like a boss Like I should be.

Love everyone. Take care.