Week 70: Merry Christmas!

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

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!

Elder Lee and I and our pork tacos

week 68: Throw out the Tea and Coffee

December 11, 2017 (transcription of audio letter)

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!

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 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!

This sandwich is called El Misionero

Christmas in Summer in Chile...Nativity viewing in shorts

Elder Lee is 6'5" ...tall guy