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 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 

No comments:

Post a Comment