week 66: Almost forgot it was Thanksgiving in the US

November 27, 2017 (transcription of audio letter)

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!

can you find two year old me in this family picture that was on my Aunt's Parent's wall in Chile?

Elder Olson and Aunt Marianela's parents, the Rojas

turkey sandwiches for Thanksgiving

"Mowing" the yard

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

Companionship Unity featuring my watch tan line

How we take care of bugs

week 64: New investigators & Long-suffering

November 13, 2017

¡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

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.

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.

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.

Elder Davis and I were each other for Halloween

Elder Davis nailed his impression of my smile