Week 31: Bonjou (French Creoit) and fixed sink

March 29, 2017

Bonjou, (Haitian Creole for "Greetings")

Hey everyone, it's been a pretty long week to start off the transfer, but also a pretty good one. We've been finding a lot of new investigators in the last few weeks. Now the trick is just getting them to progress.

Every Saturday we've been teaching English classes in the chapel. This week wee had some Haitians come in at the end looking to learn Spanish, so we taught them Spanish and now Elder Strong and I are learning French Creoit, the language of Haiti. So far we've had a 5 minute crash course and we've compared Spanish and Creoit pamphlets of the Plan of Salvation, so we're basically pros. :-)

Also, we fixed our kitchen sink!
I just dumped a load of what I think is called Hydrochloric Acid in English. Supposedly the stuff eats cement, and luckily it worked.

The Ramirez Family, the less active member that wants to receive the priesthood, came to church this week. They also had an interview with the branch president and a family home evening with the family of one of the counselors. The father, Jonathan, still hasn't quit smoking 100%, but we're seeing big improvements.

This week I read a talk by Ezra Taft Benson about pride. The majority of our sins and weaknesses come from our pride, and I know that pride can be a big problem for me. I've enjoyed seeing this week, as I've worked on my pride and my perspective of other people, that I've been able to learn a lot more, which has been awesome.

Mwen Renmen ou, (Haitian Creole for "I love you")

Elder Olson

Looks like Elder Olson at least wore a little protection while he used the Hydrochloric Acid

Roads of the sector

Elder Terrazas 

a car from the states

Week 30: Transfers, Broken Sink, & Reactivation

3/20/2017

Transfers!

A lot's changing for me this transfer...

I'm staying in Buin with Elder Terrazas!

It's not a big surprise that they kept us together. We work well together, we get along, and I've been pushing him to help him study English. He wants to come study at BYU, and he's actually learned quite a bit. Actually, out of the six missionaries in our branch, only one is leaving. My Peruvian housemate, Elder Caman, went down to Rengo with my old pal from San Clemente, Elder Borges! Our new housemate, Elder Belagro, is a Filipino anime fanatic, so that's pretty neat. A good kid though.

In other news, our kitchen sink is super broken, doesn't drain and it leaks everywhere. We told the senior missionaries, who told us to find a member to fix it, and they tried but couldn't, so nobody can fix it. Soooo that's cool too.

We had a cool experience on Sunday. An inactive member we've been trying to visit called us and invited us over. He told us he wants to come back to church and he wants to set a goal to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. He smokes so that'll be an obstacle, but I'm really hopeful for him.

This week we've shared Ether 12:4 a couple of times. I recommend reading it.

Love you guys,
Elder Olson

The Buin Zone. Elder Olson is 5th one in on the right with the red tie.

A Catholic church in the city of Buin.