January 8, 2018 (transcription from audio letter)
Hey guys,
So this is week 1 of transfer number 12. We are about to have some changes. We found out the transfers on Saturday in the evening. And it looks like I'm leaving Baquedano. I'm going to be going down to Curico again, but kind of far outside Curico to a little sector called Licantén. It's right by the beach so that's pretty cool. It's about two hours from the city of Curico. It's in the other zone in Curico, the one I was NOT the zone leader in. And I'm going to be there as district leader and training, in a whitewash. For any of you who don't know what a whitewash is, a whitewash is a missionary term for two new missionaries getting to the same sector at the same time.
So the last two missionaries who were both in that sector, one of them went home from the mission, he just finished. And then the other one was Elder Villegas, and they took him out of the sector. He was one of my old companions. Now it will be me and a new missionary who hasn't gotten here to the mission yet. So that will be super fun. I've never trained before so I am excited for the opportunity. It'll be something very different from being a zone leader I'm sure. There are only 3 Elders coming into the mission this change so there will be two other trainers with me. I know all the elders in the office and I was talking to them and they have the records for the missionaries who are coming. So it looks like there's one from Orem, Utah Valley, there's one from Argentina and one from Brazil who are coming into the mission. So it's going to be one of the three that I'll be with. So I'm excited to see which one. We won't find out until president Harris has interviews with them and all that. That will be on Tuesday and that will be the day that I'll be there in the morning doing a training, receiving a training for the new trainers and then we'll have a meeting with all the trainees and the trainers together, I would assume....that's how it was when I got the mission at least and then we'll head down to our sector. It's about a total of 4 or 5 hours from here in bus but it looks like the assistants are actually going to help us out. I was talking to them and they're going to drive us down in their car all the way to our sector and one of the assistants, Elder Pollard, he was in Licantén before.
I've mentioned Licantén because in my second change in the mission I went there on intercambios, on splits. When my companion went home and the companion of Elder Pollard, the now assistant, also went home, we went there together for two days and so I got to know the sector a little bit. I feel like the Lord might've been preparing me, I'm not sure. But I remember it quite a bit. Actually that day we had kind of a special situation because there are 3 towns that are part of the sector. One called Licantén, one called Hualañe, and one called Iloca and I got to know all three during that two day intercambio. Which is something different. Also it sounds like they'll be giving me quite a bit of money working down there. It won't be on bike. All the towns are too far apart to bike. About half and hour on bus each on from each other. But they want us to work more in one of the towns, the one that's NOT on the beach, the one called Hualañe. They want us to work there because that town is starting to grow it sounds like and that town has a lot of potential. But the missionaries haven't been able to go there because it's too expensive and they end up without money at the end of the change. So now they've given us a little bit of extra money and are asking us to work there as well. So I'm excited for that. So that's what's going on with the changes. I'm super excited.
I don't know really what to expect. I've been asking around though, because a lot of my friends, people with the same time in the mission as me, they've all trained already but seeing how I've been a zone leader for a while now, I haven't had the chance to train. So I'm super excited about that.
This week on Tuesday we had exchanges, intercambios, splits with the assistants so that was fun. I went with Elder Montano from Mexico. It was a good time. We kind of contacted a lot. All four of us were working in the sector of the assistants. I don't know, it wasn't anything too special. It was kind of like just trying to help them out in their sector because they don't get a lot of time there.
And then on Wednesday we had to go to the hospital. Don't worry, it was just to help the nurse translate. There's a new nurse who just got here so we had to go help her with translate for a companionship that didn't have an Elder who spoke english so we had to kind of go in the middle there. So that was a lot of our day wednesday.
Thursday and Friday we had some time to actually work. We taught a lesson to a reference from a member family. He's from Columbia. He's the boyfriend of a member...they met on the internet and he came down and is now living at their house and I think they have plans to get married at some point. But he really likes the church. They'd sent the missionaries to his house there in columbia and he was liking it and he had a baptismal date. The only reason he didn't get baptized there was because he ended up working a lot in order to save money to be able to come here to Chile. So he's got a lot of potential.
We've got a lot of new investigators who have a good chance of getting baptized in this next couple of changes so I'm excited for them. Replacing me here, Elder Lee is going to be with Elder Stevenson from Idaho, who I was in the same zone with in Buin. He's a good guy. They'll do a good job here.
Jorge got the priesthood this Sunday, which we were really glad about! We were talking to him and he told us that the Branch president had interviewed him and we were like "awesome! yes! So did he tell you you were going to get your priesthood?" And he's like, "yeah he told me in March I'm gonna get it." And we were like, "what's up with that?" because he should be able to get the Aaronic priesthood in a week after his baptism. So he should've received it LAST Sunday. So we were pretty confused there. We weren't sure what was going on. But then on Sunday we found out that Jorge had just misunderstood. They called his name in Sacrament meeting, they had him stand up and they sustained him also to be, they called him as a ward missionary, which is interesting because the branch missionaries should be helping us to give the discussions to Jorge a second time...normally the branch missionaries do that with us after baptism. But now Jorge is the Branch missionary so it'll be all on my companion now. He did get the priesthood that day. He was kind of surprised himself. He didn't quite understand. I don't know if it's just because the branch president didn't explain it very well. We talked to him about it and I think he understands everything now.
Today we're going to go pass by the mall and eat some lunch. There are some places like Pizza Hut and KFC that you can only find here in Rancagua so we're going to go enjoy one last lunch over there and probably buy some new pants as well. Then I'll be packing all evening...getting ready to go.
One thing that happened this week, that I'm sure most of you heard about before I did, was that President Monson passed away. I think it was his time. He's been sick for a little while and I think it'll be good for him and his family that he can go on to his work in the next life. I think it was Elder McKonkie quoting another prophet saying that it was graduating. Graduating to the next life where he'll be able to contribute even more to the work. I'm excited to see the change. It's gonna be super weird having a new first presidency as well because basically for my whole life it's been, well for as long as I can remember, for half my life, it's been President Monson, President Eyring and president Uchtdorf really. So it'll be interesting to see what the new first presidency looks like and what happens with all of that. I'm more than confident that those who will be called have been prepared before their call and will serve very well in their callings. I'm excited to see the changes.
Also, other news, this isn't official, they haven't announced it but it sounds like we might be getting a visit from an Apostle in February. I'm not a hundred percent sure but in talking with the office, it sounds like Elder Christofferson might be coming by and giving us a visit with our mission and Santiago South together. So that's really cool. I'm excited about that. That's not something that's very common either. We just barely had a conference with Elder Bragg of the seventy and so it'll be really cool now to be able to hear Elder Christofferson speak to us.
I know that the prophets we have today, that the quorum of the twelve apostles, are called of God and I know that our church is led by inspired leaders. Whether they be your bishops, your stake presidents, or the president of the church. I know that they are called of God and they are there for a reason. I know that especially the prophets and apostles communicate directly with God. I hope you all can feel that, the importance of modern prophets as we see these changes coming in the next few weeks, the next few months.
I love you guys. I hope everything is going well.
Take Care! Bye!
Elder Olson
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| Rancagua, Baquedano zone |
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| Brother and Sister Carrasco, members who help us a ton |
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