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.
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