week 92: Stuck without a bus

Transcription from Audio Letter. Sorry. No pictures. 

May 28, 2018

Hey Everyone, this is week 3 of transfer number 15. Another chilly, rainy day here in Licanten. Today we just had a really relaxed day. We got up (well we can't sleep in) but we didn't get up EARLY today. We just went to the gym a little later. We went to this little burger place that was really good. Cleaned the house super well. And that's about it. It's been really relaxed so far.

It's been a pretty good week. On Wednesday, I had a medical check up in Curico to get some blood work done. It's something, just some tests I have to get done every few months. But that meant we had to stay down in Curico all of Wednesday. So we arranged with the Zone Leaders to be working with them and it turned out that that day, out in another little town called Teno, there was a Book of Mormon Activity, which we did a couple months ago here in licanten. I don't know if you'll remember but I mentioned it. But basically we put up a table with these big old posters and talk about the Book of Mormon with people. Teno is a little, small town, a little more country, not nearly as much as Licanten, but kind of smaller place. There were a lot more people than in Licanten, but they weren't quite as...well they were pretty direct about not wanting anything. My favorite was that there was this line of people that were waiting for bread, because everybody buys their bread every day in Chile. So they're waiting outside the bakery and one of the missionaries went over and started talking to them and they were literally right in front of the table but they would say, "Nope. I don't want to talk to you." They'd say that they were busy, but they were literally just standing there in line. Or the other people waiting for the bus. But there were some good people...pretty receptive people. And the Zone leader surprised us there with...well they bailed in the middle of the activity and we were planning on going back to Curico to work with them in the night. But...so they just left one of them sent me a text and said, "Hey just so you guys know, you guys are going to stay here in Teno and accompany them to a lesson, so they can enter with this investigator." So we were like "Alright?" So the Teno Elders got ahold of some extra bikes and we rode out clear in the middle of nowhere...it was pretty far out...into the middle of nowhere. And we rode out there and it was pretty late, a little past 8:30. And it gets dark here around 6 o'clock now and so it was pretty dark. It was pretty cold. But we were all good. We got out there, had the lesson, and then came back. By the time we left the lesson it was 9:30 and we were pretty worried about being able to get back to Curico. We went and we were looking for a bus and nothing was passing by and nothing was passing by. I saw a guy waiting at a bus stop and we stopped a bus and asked the driver if there was a bus coming from Curico to Teno, and he said there were no more buses going from Teno to Curico. We were like, "Shoot. We're going to have to sleep on the ceramic tile floor of the house in Teno without any of our stuff...just in our proselyting clothes." So I was a little bummed about that. But we started riding back to their house, and coming the opposite direction, we see a bus. It had to have been the LAST bus. Well, supposedly there weren't buses passing by that hour, but it was going for Teno. So my companion and I basically jumped off our bikes, threw them to the side, waved goodbye to the other Elders and left them to take our bikes back to their house. But we got the bus. So we made it back to Curico and we took a taxi to the Zone Leader's House. So it worked out great. And it was good that we were able to have the lesson.

On Friday we had interviews with president Harris.  The training that the Zone Leaders gave during interviews was pretty good. I really liked it. It's been a little while since we've had one that I really enjoyed, so that was cool. And I had a really good interview with the President. Talked about some of the goals I have for ending the mission and he expressed a lot of faith that we were gonna be able to achieve those things. So I was pretty excited about that. It was one of my longer interviews that I've had in a little while, since I've had a really good interview like that.

So apart from that, this week's been pretty relaxed...well, actually, after the interviews we were working harder than ever. Relaxed isn't the word. But pretty normal. Nothing too exciting happening besides going out to Teno there.

We did find a family this week. Well last week, to backtrack, we passed by the local courthouse and they had brought (I think I mentioned this a couple months ago) there was a guy who had kidnapped a little girl and had her in the forest around Licanten for a little over a week. And they have the guy and they were doing his trial that day. They had like SWAT buses there and it was a big deal because it turns out the family of the little girl was trafficking drugs... a lot of really complicated stuff. Anyway, there were a ton of people there all gathered around the courthouse. So we went over to talk to some people and also see what was going on. And there was this lady who waves us over and I was holding a Book of Mormon and she was like, "Hey, can I have a copy of that book?" And I was like, "Of course," obviously. And so we gave her the book, got her address and the other day we taught their family. And they're really good. She's SUPER SUPER receptive and seems to understand pretty well as well, and we had another visit with them last night with the ward mission leader and they accepted a baptismal date for the 7th of July. I would love to see them baptized before I leave. But it looks like I'm probably going to be leaving June 26th, if everything I talked about with President and with what's happening, I'll probably be going to another sector for the last change of the mission. But they're really great. I'm really hopeful. If they really progress and they come to church, then we could move their baptismal date to a little closer. But they would have to attend every Sunday starting now. 

So I hope you guys are all doing well. I had a really good week. Ha, sorry for being so scatterbrained during the recording. But love you all.

As far as a spiritual thought goes, I read an article on Ministering that had some great references to listening. And that's a big thing with Preach My Gospel as well...there's a great section in there on Listening. And I really liked, I think it was James 1:19, which talks a little bit about that. So for my spiritual thought, go ahead and look that up. 

Well have a good week, guys. Take care! Bye!

Elder Olson

PS - Interesting add on to the story... Graciela who contacted us and asked for the book of mormon, has later told us that she can't read. The Spirit testifies of  the Book of Mormon to God's children in every circumstance.

week 91: Talent Show

Monday, May 21, 2018 (from audio transcription)

Hey everyone, this is week 2 of change number 15. 

It's been a pretty good week. We had the transfers this week. My new comp, Elder Garcia from Mexico came down to Licantén. And it's been good. He's a really good guy, really willing to work, which I really appreciate. He's obedient. We're getting along well. Seems like it's going to be a pretty good change. I'm pretty optimistic about it.

On Wednesday of this week we had a goals and plans meeting in Curico which was pretty normal I guess...we set goals for the change and plans to meet those goals.

 And then on Friday night we had one of the new convert lessons with Darling. It was with her mom and the Branch Mission leader too. It went really well. It was kind of funny. They were coming straight from work. They own a little shop of school supplies and they were really hungry and they got there and they had brought these big bags of stuff to make sandwiches so then they put together the food in the chapel while we were waiting for the member to get there. And we had a little bit of food there. :-) 

And then on Saturday, we had a Branch Talent Show. It started off with a little bit of drama between some of the members there. They fought a little bit because one member didn't let another member hold their baby and it just escalated a lot and they ended up shouting at each other and a bunch of people left. Kind of a mess. But then the actual activity was pretty good. It was really well put together. They had kind of transformed the sacrament meeting room into like a little stage and stuff and that turned out really cool. They asked us to present a little thing in the talent show, so I'll send a video of what we did. It turned out pretty well I think. Everybody liked it. And there were some good talents there. The Branch President and his wife and the first counselor and his wife did a little lip sync thing which was fun. And then the rest of them were kids performing. 

(sorry I'm in the cyber right now, the place where we write so this is going to be a short one. There's like music playing and people here.)

So it went really well. They had a couple of the youth hosting it. They did a great job. It was all really well put together. Right afterward, we went straight to one of the people who was offended. The discussion beforehand (before the drama) was with the daughter of the Relief Society president who is about 30 years old...but is not a member and she has a daughter who's of baptismal age and her husband's not a member either...so we went over to try to smooth things over. So that went pretty well. Our relationship as missionaries with them is already great. But they say they have problems with the other members that are there. So that was kind of a difficulty which is actually pretty common here in Chile. We have a lot of people who get offended over little things and end up distancing themselves from the church...which is sad. But everybody has different, I don't know, trials or struggles they've gotta overcome.

That was pretty much our week.

We went to Hualane a couple times with members which went pretty well. We did a really good job at bringing members to lessons this week, which was awesome and can be kind of tricky to do sometimes, especially in a branch where you have about 20 active members. So that was really good. We were able to bring members to lessons almost every day. 

Some of our investigators that are kind of progressing really well right now, there names are Carmen and Gaspar and they're really cool. They have some really significant difficulties which are stopping them from getting baptized, but apart from that, they've come to church twice. The mom really wants to get baptized, but she's the one more than anything that has the problems which are stopping her from getting baptized. 

But yeah, it's been a good week. Hope everything is going well over there. I want to also wish a special Feliz Cupleanos to my little brother. He turns 17 today I think, on the 21st. Yeah, Happy Birthday, Bud! 

Sorry for having kind of a short, distracted recording today, but I'll try to get you a better one next week. Hope you're all doing well. Take care. Bye!

Elder Olson

Elder Garcia and Elder Olson

week 90: Happy Mother's Day

Monday, May 14, 2018 (from audio transcription)

Hey everyone, this is week 1 of change number 15. It's probably going to be a pretty short recording. Not a lot of super crazy stuff has happened this week. 

We're here getting haircuts right now. So I figured I'd take advantage to make a quick recording. 

So this week, Elder Figueroa, my companion, went home. Well he goes home technically tomorrow morning, but he went up to Rancagua and he went to the temple in Santiago and then spent the weekend in Rancagua. So I've been with Elder Perry from Draper, here in Curico for the last couple of days. We made the trip to Licantén once, to attend church and everything because they need our help there. Elder Perry actually had to give a talk. It's not even his ward, but they made him do a talk in Sacrament Meeting. So it was pretty good. 

On, I think Friday, when we ate lunch with Elder Perry and the Zone Leaders, we were all eating lunch together and one of the Zone Leaders, his name is Elder Halverson, he told a story about how he had gotten flipped off that day in the morning by some guy driving. So he was laughing about it and it turns out we were overheard by some old lady and she didn't understand. And she asked her granddaughter who was there, "What is that? What does that mean?" And he was like, "No, it's just you put your middle finger up and.." And the lady was like, "Oh, like this?" And she started to give us all the bird and for probably about 20 minutes she probably flipped us off 20-30 times...and it was this little old lady, who's been a member for a few years. It was pretty funny. So that was something different that happened this week I guess. Haha.

In Licantén, in church on Sunday, I also gave a talk on the Mother's day theme, but the second counselor was directing the meeting and he gets up and he was like, "We'd like to give a special welcome to all the mothers who are here today." And there was this OLD grandpa, who's an aetheist but he comes to church sometimes because of his family there. So the counselor says, "We want to extend a special welcome to all the mothers today. Happy Mothers Day." And the old guy was like, "THANKS" (really low voice). And so like the counselors in the bishopric were trying not to laugh, and my companion was just dying in the front row. He was laughing so hard but trying to cover his mouth up. And I'm up at the piano trying not to smile too much. It was pretty funny though.

And then yesterday we had the chance to talk with the family, so that was awesome. It was probably the best video call, on my end at least. I really enjoyed it.

We found out the changes this week...the transfers. I am going to be staying in Licantén for another month and a half at least. I am going to be with Elder Garcia, from Mexico. So that'll be cool. He's pretty young in the mission. He's got under a year. He, from what I hear, is pretty reserved, pretty quiet. But Elder Figueroa was also a pretty reserved guy, didn't talk a ton. So that won't be too different. Things'll be pretty calm out there in Licantén. But it should be good. I'm excited to have a comp who's probably a little more willing to work this change. So this is going to be really cool. So I stayed in Curico last night and then tonight I'm also going to be staying here in Curico because we pick up my companion from the bus terminal tomorrow morning.

Our Zone got changed a little bit. They switched out a couple of the sectors and also closed one of the areas in our district so now we are only 10 missionaries in our zone which is very very few. So it should be a pretty different change, I think, from our last one and I think probably in a good way. I think we'll be a little more productive this next change, be a little bit more of a team with my companion so I'm excited for that. I'm excited to work. Ready to finish it out strong. Going into these last couple of months. 

Love you all. Hope you're all doing good. Hope everybody had a happy mother's day. take care. Bye!

Elder Olson

PS- A fun little Mother`s Day study for you all... HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Alma 53:13-14, 18, 20-21; 56:44-48, 56; 57:57

no electricity Sunday morning

I hear that flute Memes and videos are kind of the rage right now so enjoy a small musical number from Elders Olson and Figueroa

Farewell BBQ for Elder Figueroa

Elder Figueroa and Elder Olson

Elder Perry, Elder Olson, Elder Theiss

Elder Olson, Elder Theiss, Elder ?, Elder Perry, P-Day Pals

Mother's Day Chat

We recorded our family chat with Elder Olson but of course won't include the whole thing here. But here is a small clip from the video call. He is better than ever and happy doing the Lord's work.

We can't believe he'll be home in less than 3 months! 85 days to go!

week 89: Darling's Baptism and a Visit to the Ocean

Monday, May 7, 2018

Hey everyone, this is week 6 of change number 14.

So yeah, this week was good, well this week was AWESOME actually. At the beginning of the week we had a service project with a member. It was really just chill,I guess. Just pulled out some grass. I have a little video of me attacking a cactus with a super long spear knife thing. I thought that was pretty cool. And then nothing really happened during the week. 

But on Friday, we had the baptismal interview for Darling. And we have... our district leader right now is in a trio with the Zone Leaders because one of the Elders in our district went home this last week. So we had to go down to Curico to pick him up and take him back up to Licantén. We tried to get them to just send him out by himself, but the mission didn't give us permission. So we went down to pick him up and we got to the Zone Leader's house a little early. They were on their way from an appointment and so since there was nobody there, we were waiting outside for a little while. And we ended up hopping their fence. All of the houses here in Chile have big like metal fences in the front. But the Zone Leader's house doesn't have spikes on one of the parts of the fence. So we jumped the fence right there and we got around back and tried to get in the house but none of the windows or doors were unlocked. So we looked up and on the second story, there was an unlocked window. So I had my companion help boost me up to get into that second story window. So we got into the house and we started hiding their stuff. They have this little like back room in the back yard where they never go. So we went and got their microwave, their iron, their blender, some of their like personal stuff. We grabbed their bikes and we hid it all in the back room. And then we stayed on the side of the house and waited for them to come home and then we heard them come in through the front gate and in through the front door. And they were waiting for us there inside the house. So then we snuck back around the side and opened the front gate and closed it again, like we'd just come in the front gate and we went in the front door. And they didn't notice at first that all these things were gone. Like we'd left cupboards open, like it was super obvious. But their house was pretty messy so they had no idea. And then after about 15 minutes of just talking, one of them notices and says, "Hey, where's the microwave?!" And then they looked and one said, "Oh no, the bikes are gone!" And they started looking everywhere and they can't find stuff and one of them started looking for his camera, which we didn't even hide, but he had just lost it. He's looking all over the house. And he's like, "AW! Where's my Go Pro? Where's my Go Pro?" And one of them had the phone to call the housing coordinators and we go over to open up the back door, and we were like, "Oh, hey, we found the stuff!" And they were like, "What?" And they ran to the back and were getting all their stuff. And it was pretty funny. They totally bought it. And then they still didn't get that it was US that had hidden the stuff. And we were like, "We got here early. We had to sneak in through the side and all that." And they were like, "oh my gosh!" So that was pretty fun. 

So we went up and had the interview with Darling. She was awesome. She had brought her tithing money to the interview. We had specifically told her that she didn't have to start paying tithing until AFTER she was baptized. But she understood the opposite of that. So she was like, "Oh I brought my tithing so that I can be baptized because they told me that I had to pay my tithing before getting baptized." The fact that she was that WILLING to do it was super awesome. She was able to pay it the next day anyway. So that was super cool. The baptism went really well. She asked me to baptize her so that was really cool. We got there early and left the font filling up. And then got to the time of the baptismal service and it was still not quite where it needed to be, so we left it. But then the baptismal service took a little bit longer than we thought, so the font got PRETTY full. It got VERY full. Not quite to the point where it was in danger of overflowing. But when I got in, a little bit splashed out one of the back sides, and we were like "Oh no." Because our font there is very different from any other font. It's like one of the only fonts that can overflow like that. But also, the water heater, well it works, so it was kind of heated, but the water was pretty cold as well. But we did it. It worked out. And she was tough about the cold water. You could hardly even tell. I warned her right before she got in. I was like, "hey, it's pretty cold." 

Oh also, when she was baptized, one of the other Elders from Curico was one of the witnesses, and a bunch of the water splashed out of the font. I tried to let her down extra gently because I knew it was gonna overflow. So just to minimize it, but it still splashed out onto the front onto the carpet a little bit and over the sides. All over the place. But when that happened, a lizard came out of the font. A small one about 4" long. And hahaha, we didn't see it, Darling or I. But the other Elder saw it. He tried to catch it but it ran back into the font and they closed the doors. So that was pretty interesting. Makes me feel like a South American Missionary to say we had a lizard in our baptismal font during the baptism. Then the confirmation went really smoothly as well. The Branch President confirmed her. And it was a really pretty confirmation actually. I really liked it, his blessing that he left her. And then that night we went to their house and we had a lesson planned to teach about temples. And we got there and they had this big BBQ going and they had made a ton of sushi for us. They made a bunch of food. And it was actually a really good opportunity to get Darling's Dad to open up because he's not a member and he hasn't participated in any of the discussions. And he's actually not willing to let Darling's little brother to get baptized. Eventually he's trying to baptize him Catholic. So we are kind of like in a tough spot there. But he really kind of warmed up to us that day so that was really good. 

And then on Monday, on Pday, (I sent you some pictures already), but we went up to the Beach, we explored a little bit and then we played beach soccer for a few hours which was awesome. It was super fun.

So yeah, it's been a pretty good week. We are just here, back home. My companion is getting his stuff all ready. He's going home this next week. On friday we drop him off at the bus terminal and I'll be with Elder Perry. We'll be going back and forth from Curico to Licatén this weekend. And it should be good.

So I just want to express a little bit of my gratitude at being able to participate in that baptism for Darling. Her and her mom really are awesome and I'm grateful to have met them. It makes it worth being out in  Licantén so much time, being able to meet so many, quite a few good people here. And Darling and Pamela, the other girl who was baptized, were really prepared by God. And we didn't have to do hardly anything with them, so I'm really grateful for that. I'm grateful that God guides his work, and I know that he does.

Love you guys. Hope you guys are having a good week. Take care!

Elder Olson

Bushwhacking Service

Darling's Baptism

 So the Zone Leaders played a prank on us when they were in town for the baptism. They went to our apartment at one point and ended up leaving us a little present in our beds. Yes, we knew it was them that left the door open and that they had done something, but we thought it was funny so re-recorded our discovery of it.

Loved seeing the ocean