week 73: Licantén

Elder Olson and Elder Hiatt in Licantén

January 15, 2018 (audio letter transcription)

Hey everyone, Elder Olson here,

So this is week 2 of transfer number 12. We are here in Curico right now for Pday. We just got something to eat. We're gonna make some sandwiches. We just had a zone activity down here with the zone. We played soccer and then we went to go get burgers at a place that was supposedly really good but it was closed. So we just went to a bakery and got some bread and meat and cheese...which is probably better us anyway just because of how much money we've spent on travel these past couple days. It's a two hour drive from Licantén to Curico then two hours back so it's quite the trip. So this week has been good. 

It's been cool to be here with Elder Hiatt, that's my trainee's name. He's from Orem Utah. So not too far from home. He's super cool. We're having a good time out there in Licantén. It's a SMALL town. It's so small. We went out running the other morning and we ran around the whole town and back to our house and it took us about 15-20 minutes and that was with some pretty big hills. So it's not a big town. Our chapel that we have isn't actually a chapel, it's a little house. I sent pictures before but it was about in the second or third month in my mission. Tiny little chapel, well house. They have it kind of modified to have a sacrament meeting room in the bottom floor and classes on the top floor and then there's a little pool in the back for a baptismal font. So that's cool. 

This week on Friday I had a District leader meeting for all the new district leaders because they've changed some things for the District Leaders since I was one. I went with the other DL from our zone who was also a zone leader. He came here from being a zone leader, along with me. We went up there. It was good. We watched the funeral of President Monson which was great. The thing I took out of that, there was a part in the closing hymn, after they'd talked so much about all of his lifelong service, and then the closing hymn was...I don't know if the title was "Weary Not" but I know it said "weary not" a lot and President Monson was good example of that. A good example of being perseverant and continuing on in Christlike service for a long long time. I imagine what it would be like to serve a mission for 60 more years and that would be a lot of work so I have a lot of respect and love for him for that. 

Our days working the sector have been a lot of contacting. We've tried to work with the members to figure out who we ought to visit. We've had some visits with members in their houses. We've had mission coordination with the ward mission leader or branch mission leader on Saturday night and he told us Saturday night that we were going to have to give a talk on Sunday. So we were kind of nervous about that seeing as how it was already 10:00 when he told us that we had to give these talks so we rushed and prepared talks and then on Sunday we kind of got saved...some people from the Stake came and were giving talks as back up...well not as back up I guess WE were the back up that day. And then we're going to have to give our talks next week instead. The branch is small. There were, counting us, 19 members who attended church on Sunday. We had some visitors, some people come out to the beach and so there were probably about 30-35 people in the branch but there were about 14 visitors. So it's small. But they are good. They have a REALLY good branch presidency. They are all really focused and really dedicated in the work. The mission leader is good. In all of our contacting we've found some people who are pretty promising. We also have found that there are a lot of part member families in the town so we are going to be working a lot with those. That's kind of the basic update. We don't have much time because we came down to Curico today and I forgot to record on the bus and now we have to leave time to write and then get the two hour ride back and we're sitting down eating lunch right now. So today's not going to be a very long recording.

But I'm doing good. I'm excited.

oh yeah...

Also something really cool that's happening is that Elder Christofferson is coming to the mission. I may have mentioned that I'd heard a rumor that he was coming, but now President made it official. Elder Christofferson will be coming down to visit our mission and Santiago South on Valentines Day. So on the 13th the WHOLE mission is going to get together in Rancagua. I have no idea HOW we're going to do that because there's like 200 of us and then we're going to sleep in Rancagua that night. So I don't know, I have no idea how we're going to do that...if we're going to all be in houses of missionaries in Rancagua or what the plan is. And then the next morning we will drive up to Santiago in a stake called San Bernado where we will have the conference for about 2 hours with Elder Christofferson. So I'm really excited about that. That's something that I ...well it's kind of rare to have a Seventy come and then a month and a half later have an Apostle come to visit the mission. So hopefully it's for a good reason, not because there are a lot of problems in our mission. But we have a good mission. We are seeing a lot of improvement. 

I think that's it. Love you guys. Hope everybody's doing good. Have a good week!

Elder Olson

The tiny apartment (and YUCKY mold)

Coming into Licatén

Licantén church (in a house)

The song sung at President Monson's funeral

week 56: Prepare for General Conference

9/20/17

Everyone,

Wow, I can't believe it's already conference season. I forgot to mention anything in my short recording, but I just want to say how grateful I am for the opportunity to listen to God's word for us in our time specifically. Few people know about this opportunity and even fewer take advantage of it.

Thomas S Monson is a prophet of God.

He knows the way.

Love you guys.

Elder Olson

(Audio Letter transcription...)

Hey everyone Elder Olson here, this is week 3 of my 9th transfer here in the Mision Chile Rancagua. Right now I'm on the bus going to intercambios, it's Wednesday morning right now. We're going to go to exchanges I think it's called. We're going to go do intercambios with the elders from Rengo, which is the city where my Aunt Marianela is from if I'm not mistaken. I forgot to mention that they were in my zone. I don't know how I forgot to mention that. But yeah, so...gonna maybe run into some family down here, you never know. We'll see if I can find em down here.

It's been a good week. We started off the week with interviews with President which went really well. We gave a training to the zone which also went really well...it was kind of a longer one because the interviews always go long. But it was good. I think everybody liked it and I think it kind of motivated everybody a little bit which is good.

Also this week the big deal was dios de ocho, the 18th of September, which is basically like the 4th of July for us, but here they celebrate it a little differently. Basically they just all get drunk and that's about all. No...the food kind of changes. A lot of seasonal foods for the 18th here. They make a lot of empanadas and BBQ, like Chilean BBQ, not American. And a couple types of drinks they make only at this time of year as well. So that was kind of cool to see the culture. They do a lot more dancing, the Cueca. Cueca is like the national dance here. It wasn't really a joke about the drinking. They all use it as kind of an excuse to drink. I'll see if I can send a video of the drunk people in the street. (it was too dark) We see a lot of drunk people just passed out in the road asleep. So that's kind of fun, kind of interesting and different. I don't see a whole of of that kind of thing in Utah. 

So we had some members invite us to eat lunch with them. We ate a lot of food. More than one member invited us to eat with them. And it was on Pday so we kind of took advantage there. We also cut the front lawn which was nice. But it was kind of a pain because you have to do it with a weed whacker instead of a lawn mower. It makes me feel more Chilean cutting it with a weed whacker. It's not much of a lawn but it was just waaaa-ay too long. We've been cleaning the house bit by bit. So we did that in the morning and then had to run to the chapel to pass the zone numbers and then after that we went and ate lunch with some members. I feel like we did something else too but I can't remember what we did. Then we ended up eating with some other members and then we went out to work like normal in the evening. We have to go in a little bit early this whole last weekend because it is a little bit more dangerous supposedly with all the inebriated people out in the streets. But for me all the drunk people just mean more people shouting "HEL-LO, Hel-lo!" in English so it was kind of fun.

So that's the majority of what's happened this week.

We have a couple of investigators that are progressing pretty well. One is named Francisco, he's a kid, he's about 11, he has a baptismal date for Nov. 11th, that's further out then it would need to be but that's because he's pretty much alone. His family is made up of less active members. But he reads the book of mormon and comes to church himself, and he loves it. But we've gotta make sure that's he's not just gonna get baptized and then stop coming... it's really difficult because he doesn't have that support system. It just makes me really grateful for the support I had from my family. And then we have some others...a father son named Filipe and Filipe, they both have the same name. They've also come to church a couple weeks now. And they also have a baptismal date for the middle of October. They've got a good chance of getting baptized. The dad just really needs to...well we haven't gone over the word of wisdom with him yet. We were focused on getting him to church and now he's started attending, we're going to teach him the word of wisdom and help him quit his smoking. It's an addiction I guess but it's not a huge problem for him either. It's one or two every couple of days. It really shouldn't be all that tough for him to just leave it.

So since I'm on the bus, I hadn't really prepared a spiritual thought to share with you guys so this is going to be a short one. We had a short time to write today. I don't know if you can hear all the country music in the background... 

But love you tons. Have a good week. Talk to you later!

Elder Davis trying Mate

Mate Adventures

Cueca Dance

Week 34: No Water & Easter

April 17, 2017

Hey guys! ( I learned to say hello in Arabic this week but I don't know how to spell it so sorry),

    This last week was a long one. We spent half of it without water in the house. The water company sent us the months notice bill more than a month late, and it happened to be on a holiday, so we went Thursday-Sunday without running water. Luckily I had bottled a lot of extra water and some members let us use their shower.

    Also Elder Strong's birthday was this week! I sent a video of my companion and I messing with him, but it's in Spanish so hopefully you can understand what's happening.

    On Pday my comp and I went and got Arabic food. It was super tasty. I was a little nervous about eating there, because everybody down here is freaking out about the situation with the US and Syria, and I stand out a bit as a gringo. Luckily they were super nice and I don't think they spit in my food or anything.

      Also we found a gringo that lives in our sector! I was really excited to talk to him. Sadly the only things he said back before slamming his door in her face were swear words about how crazy Mormons are. It was different getting cussed out in English then it is in Spanish. I feel bad for the guy. Must've had some kind of bad experience with Mormons before.

      Happy Easter guys! I forgot to say that at the start. They don't really celebrate Easter down here. They just take the weekend off and eat a lot of fish, because the traditional Catholics don't eat meat this week.

      We've enjoyed sharing the #PrinceofPeace videos these last few weeks. They are awesome, and if any of you still haven't watch them, I highly recommend it. During this Easter time I'd like to bare my testimony about the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ. During my time here in Chile, I've repeatedly experienced the transforming power of the atonement of Christ as I've noticed my own flaws and repented of them. I know that the atonement of Christ allows us not only to be forgiven but to be perfected. He lives and loves us.

I love you guys,
Elder Olson

Our sector

kind of like the fields and mountains of Spanish Fork right here

Elder Strong

Elder Terrazas

 

Elder Strong Getting the bday cake smash

Elder Strong 

After messing with Elder Strong. He thought the other Elders had done something nefarious with the cake

The Arabian Restaurant

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 27: My first Baptism!

Feburary 28, 2017

Hey all,

Wow, it's been a big week. A lot of big learning experiences that have helped me improve as a missionary and a person.

This week we had my first baptism! 10 year old Antonio was baptized by my companion, Elder Terrazas, on Saturday. It was a great service, and a lot of the branch was able to attend. The next day, Antonio was confirmed by the branch president in sacrament meeting.

We also had a cool experience teaching a reference from Santiago. His name is Fuslet, and he's from Haiti. He got here about the same time I did, 6 months ago, and he's here working. It was a pretty different experience because he speaks very little Spanish. He lives in a little shack behind another house with about 6 other Haitians (there are a lot of Haitians around here). As we taught Fuslet on the patio, the others were all rotating taking sponge and bucket showers on the side of the house. He was receptive and super humble. That lesson was the most similar so far to my pre-mission expectations. I thought that the people of Chile would be a bit more humble than the people back in the states, but that's not really how it is. I'm thinking about asking the mission to send me some french learning materials to read in the evenings so that I can better help.

This weekend I've been studying repentance pretty thoroughly. Preach My Gospel talks about repentance as a change of heart, consisting of a change of not only actions, but also of thoughts and beliefs. Leaving the sin isn't enough. We have to change our perspective, we have to hate the sin so much that we won't ever want to do it again. Through the atonement, we really can have this change of heart. We can be forgiven and be made new through Christ. Every day I'm more and more grateful for that.

Love ya,

Elder Olson

Here are the pictures from the baptism. Also, enjoy the pictures of our backyard campout on Monday night. 

Elder Olson, Antonio, Elder Terrazas

Antonio's family

 

Sleeping on top of the pergola (crazy boys)

Week 25: Welcome to Buin, Chile

2/14/17

Hey Everyone!

Sorry about last week, I forgot to send the pictures/letter when I got to the chapel. I've tried to take a ton of pictures to make up for it, so hopefully you can all forgive me.

As some of you know, this week I got transferred to Buin C in the north end of the mission. My new companion's name is Elder Terrazas. He's about 5'1", obedient but not "square," chill, quiet, and the #2 Clash of Clans player in Bolivia so that's pretty dope.

This sector is basically the best thing ever. We're in the Buin branch of the Buin district, and the mission work here with the members is great. The ward mission leader is a machine. He's a bodybuilder who isn't afraid to accompany us and talk to/organize the members. The ward has the most complete mission plan I've ever seen. The members support us and feed us more than we could ask for, and the house has a guitar. We have bikes here as well, which is a fun change of pace. I couldn't have asked for a better area.

This week we set a baptismal date for what I think will be my first baptism on the mission. His name is Antonio, he's 10 years old, his mom is less active and his sister is a recent convert. He reads, prays, and goes to church, and is on track to be baptized the 25th of this month.

During my study this week I came across a quote from President Lorenzo Snow that caught my attention. It says:

“There is no mortal man that is so much interested in the success of an elder when he is preaching the gospel as the Lord that sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord’s children”

The Lord really cares about each one of his lost sheep.

Amor,
Elder Olson

The street where they live

the Buin Area

Elder Olson's first area with a bike

Elder Olson in Buin

Pretty trellis and path leading up to the apartment/casa

Sleeping quarters in the house

coming in to the house

Kitchen and eating area

Making Empanadas with the members

Elder Terrazas and Elder Olson and little Chilean girl making Empanadas

Elder Terrazas and Elder Olson and 2 Chilean Ladies