week 96: Goodbye Licanten! Last Change

Just so everyone knows, starting this next week (beginning in July) the mission no longer permits chats/google hangouts.

Monday, June 25, 2018 (transcription from Audio letter)

Hey everyone, this is Elder Olson here. This is week 1 of transfer 16. We got the changes, the transfers this week but I'm gonna make you wait to hear. 

It's been a good week. We started off towards the beginning of the week in our zone meeting on wednesday, instead of doing a district class, we, as a zone, watched the devotional (I guess)...the celebration of the second official declaration of the announcement, the anniversary of the announcement, of the priesthood being extended to all worthy male members of the church. So it was celebrating a lot of African culture. And so that was pretty cool. I don't know how many of you saw it but it was fun...kind of something a little different, something that I don't normally see...a southern gospel type choir perform in the conference center. The music was pretty good. I really like that kind of music. It has a lot more energy...a lot more spirit...I mean more soul. So that was kind of fun. And after that, as a zone, we did exchanges. I went with Elder Perry in Curico in their ward there and his companion came to Licanten with my companion. Which was good to give my companion a chance to lead the sector before changes. 

Then on Thursday, we finished the exchange and we did divisions with a couple of members from our branch, to be able to do two lessons at the same time. Which also turned out super good. We have this investigator we found a little over a week ago. I may have mentioned her. Her name is Marcia. We contacted her in a kind of a town square where we always contact in the morning because in this place there are people. She was waiting for a bus and we talked to her and her 6 year old son. She was super nice and told us we could pass by. So we called her and set an appointment and passed by with the branch president and his wife. And it turns out the branch president knows her mom very well and so he knows her pretty well as well. She used to be living with her boyfriend and they used to live almost right next to the branch president and his wife. And the branch president's wife is a teacher and Marcia is also a teacher and so they know each other pretty well and they are pretty good friends. So that was pretty awesome to be able to teach her with them and the branch president and his wife are just thrilled that we are teaching her. And she accepted a baptismal date this week for the 28th of July and I think she has a pretty good chance of getting baptized that day. She's awesome. But she didn't come to church because she was on a trip to Santiago. But if she comes next week, that's kind of the determining factor there...how willing to actually attend church she is. That's kind of a common theme here. But it looks like, I don't know...I believe her...It looks like she'll come. But that was really cool. It went super well.

And then on Saturday, we found out the changes, and I was pretty surprised, to be honest. So my companion will be staying here in Licanten. And I am moving. I will be in my last change, I'll be going back to Buin...which was my second zone in the mission, but it looks like I'll be in a different sector. I'll be in the same church building but a different Branch and this Branch is called Los Jardines(?). Los Jardines is the zone leader's sector, so basically I'll be going back up as a zone leader. Which is interesting...not something that happens very often. It's not very common that a missionary is a zone leader and then goes back to being like a district leader or a co-companion, we call it. We don't have senior or junior companions in our mission, just co-companions, which is what I am right now. Normally you don't go "down" from being a zone leader and then go "back up." So it's kind of interesting that they've asked me to go "back up" for my last transfer of the mission. I was honestly really excited when I found out. I loved Buin and the branch. It was awesome. I am super excited to see some of the people who were there. It sounds like one of my investigators I had while I was there, I know he was baptized soon after I left, but from what I heard he's married and is listed to get sealed in the temple. So I'm excited for that. I had a lot of good friends there and had a really good experience in that zone. I don't know if any of you remember a video I sent in my time there where we made a song. I played the guitar, my companion played the piano and then we had a third  and another that was playing drums on a garbage bin. And that was in that zone. It was really just a great time there. And I'm with Elder Perry right now and He was in the sector where I'm going to. When I was in Rancagua, he was in Los Jardines(?) and he says it was his favorite sector. He says he loved it. So I'm pretty excited. My companion is going to be Elder Koche(?) and he's a Bolivian. I've met him a couple times. He seems like a really good missionary. He's really friendly, which is really cool. And I've heard only great things about him. My zone looks pretty good. There are going to be 5 of us who are...we say "dying" in the mission, who will be ending the mission this change. Which is kind of crazy. There are sooooooo many missionaries that are going home this change. There are 29 of us. And so, yeah, it should be fun. I'm really excited about these changes. 

It also was a little sad to leave Licanten. I know the branch president wasn't super excited to see me go. Talking with President Harris, I think he left me in Licanten for such a long time because I had a really good relationship with the Branch President...a lot of trust there...which frankly wasn't there before with the other missionaries...well I mean, the missionaries right before me, really didn't get along with the Branch President and basically the sector has been turned around a little bit. So I was really excited about that but I know that the Branch President was kind of bummed that I was leaving. It's kind of lame to say goodbye after such a long time to all of the people there. Last night we had a lesson scheduled with Darling and Karen. Darling is the girl who got baptized last transfer. That was also pretty sad. We went to the parents of, I don't know if you guys remember Camilla, the first girl who was baptized in my time here, but her family were the ones who...ok so, Camilla's step-dad's mom, is the cousin of Karen's mom and so the two girls that got baptized, Darling and Camilla, are like cousins twice removed, or like second or third cousins or something like that. I figured it out last night but I forgot exactly what they are. I think they're 3rd cousins. And so we did a lesson in the house of Camilla. The dad's name is Willy. And so we were in Camilla's house with Karen and Darling. We talked a little bit about missionary work and shared a really good message about enduring to the end...kind of trying to (motivate) them to keep doing what they know that they ought to be doing. And when we got there they were preparing soooooo much food. They were making guacamole (the audio get's garbled) and mexican and so we had celebrate that a little bit. And then we had Sopaipillas, which is basically piece of fried pumpkin bread and normally they have it with ketchup and mustard and maybe some hot sauce, but they also make it with this stuff called (?), which you basically melt some sugar and some Chancaca melted in a pot and then you take the sopapillas and you cook them in that sugar and they are sooooo good. I love it. I've only had them once before but they are really great. And then also they made a huge (?) pie...Which is kind of another difficult Chilean dessert. And they just made a ton of it, of all of it. There was so much stuff. So that was super tasty. And so we got there and they already were in the middle of preparing all of it and they were pretty determined to get it all done before we started having the lesson. 

Now we're on the bus to Curico. We also stopped by to some friends here in Curico from my time here. And also my companion wants to buy a few things and probably print a couple of pictures and buy a frame for a letter of congratulations from President and Hermana, Sister, Harris to Darling. I don't know exactly what we're going to do for the activity. I think they said we're going to play minute to win it games. I'm hoping they brought a soccer ball but I kind of doubt it. But I brought my soccer shoes just in case. 

So, yeah, I'm excited for changes. 

I wanted to prepare a better spiritual thought, but I realized that my scriptures I brought with me are my Spanish scriptures so I can't share a scripture with you. But as a small spiritual thought, I was studying leadership yesterday and there's a talk by Spencer W Kimball called "Jesus the perfect leader" which I really really like. I studied in depth the first section about "fixed principles," and about how a leader should be consistent and constant in their principles and always live what they say, have no hypocrisy, and that should be in every moment and that will give the people you serve a stable reference point to know what they need to be doing as well. It talks a little bit about the Savior's example in that and his consistency, really his perfection. But it talks a little bit about how the Savior has that famous line, "come follow me," basically saying do what I do not just do what I say. And so I studied that a little bit and I found about 20 different scriptures where Jesus Christ, in a variety of different ways, says "come follow me." And I know that following his example is something that will bless us in our lives and as we strive to be an example to the people who look up to us, that together we will be able to go to Christ. 

So I hope everyone is having a good week. We are getting pretty close into town here now so I'm gonna end. But I love you all. Have a good one. Ciao. 

Elder Olson

Farewell Licanten Zone

Last Lesson with Darling and Karen and family

Elder Olson plays Teach Me to Walk

Singing God Be With You Til We Meet Again

week 95: The Beach, The Sacrament, & Fathers

Monday, June 18, 2018 (transcription from Audio letter)

Hey everyone, this is transfer 15 week 6. Elder Olson here, coming to ya from the Playa, oh shoot, the beach, in La Pesca. We just got on the bus and are on the way back to the house in Licanten. So we're riding along the coastal highway that there is here. When I say highway, I use that pretty liberally, it's a tiny little two lane road but it goes right along the coast. So yeah, today is Pday, me and my comp went to the beach. My comp still hadn't been able to go out to the beach this whole transfer. My comp's already seen the beach because he was 3 transfers in a bigger beach sector called (?) but he hadn't had the chance to come out and see the beach of Licanten. So we came out and kind of hung out on the rocks by the beach for a little bit, took some pictures, walked the town here. We got to this fish market where they had a little empanada place right by the side of it where we had some empandas. I had a lobster and cheese empanada and well the other is called marisco, it means seafood, but normally it's like clams and oysters of some kind, so I'm pretty sure that's what it was. Not 100% sure but it definitely came from the ocean. So we took advantage of coming to the beach to eat some seafood. Now we're coming back to Licanten to write and after that probably get some real food. 

So yeah, this week's been a pretty good week. On wednesday, my comp was sick, poor guy. He woke up early in the morning and threw up a couple times but didn't mention anything to me, because I was asleep, but my alarm still went off at 6:30 in the morning so we could go to the gym. And he was like, "Hey, just so you know, I'm not feeling too good." So I was like, alright. So we slept til the normal wake up time which for us is 7. And then I was like hey, what happened? And he was like, I threw up twice and have this huge headache. So I called our district leader and told him we weren't going to be going to the class that day and we just kind of chilled in the house. I did some personal study, cleaned a bunch, kind of took it easy I guess. Not a whole lot to do when your companion is sick. But then, around noon, my companion got up and was feeling better and took some tylenol, and then he seemed super normal for the rest of the day. I don't know what happened there. So the rest of the day, we went out and worked and it turned out super good. So that was Wednesday.

Thursday was pretty normal. We worked in Hualane. On Friday, also pretty normal from what I remember. We had a good day, just contacted a bunch. And then on Saturday, we had set an appointment with an investigator (....gets garbled ...?...) for 4:00 on Saturday. But then on Friday we realized we had an activity in the stake center on Saturday for the whole Stake and they had asked all the missionaries to go, and so we kind of scrambled and changed the time for the appointment. We had a member set to come with us, and we changed it to 12 noon instead of four. We got it all figured out finally, but then got a call from the Zone leaders saying don't worry about coming to the Stake Center if we didn't need to go. So it turned out we didn't end up going to the activity anyway. But we ended up having an awesome lesson before lunch. So the investigator, it turns out, well her mom, is a good friend of the Branch President here, and also she's a teacher and the Branch President's wife is also a teacher, and so they also knew each other. So already have great friendships there. It went really well...the lesson. So that was cool. That was really good.

On Sunday, we had some people come to church. Most of the people who came are people we've been able to get out to church before, all of them actually. Two of them are Hatians and one of them is from Hualane and she (the one from Hualane) she has quite a few attendances, like 7 times she's come to church, but she's living with her boyfriend, and also she has some other more personal problems which are a road block for her getting baptized right now. So we're trying to figure that out. We're trying to help them understand the need to get married or to be separated, but they have kids, but their kids don't live with them, and so it's kind of a more complicated situation. Not just as easy as asking them to separate. But I think that they could get married. I don't think they have anything that's impeding them. They've been together for like 10 years or something like that. 

One of the Haitians, his name is Frisné(?),...I don't know if he's paying for it or if the branch is paying for it, but they got him a house rented. He was living in like a pasture for a while and then was living on the beach, but he really wanted to come back to Licanten. So, they found him a house to rent, and it sounds like he got moved in this week. They found him some blankets and bedding and stuff, so that's good. The Branch President and his wife have almost just adopted him, the Haitian. They invite him to their house. They meet multiple times a week to give him dinner and they take good care of him. He's got his family back it Haiti. He has, I think, 5 kids. The youngest one he doesn't know because he's been here in Chile trying to work. It's kind of a crazy situation. We'd love to get him baptized, but he doesn't seem to have a lot of interest in listening to us. We try to set appointments and he says, "yeah, I'll tell you when I have time." And so that's him. And whenever anybody tells us that, you can count on them not ever putting themselves in contact with us ever. And we still try to pass by once in a while, but he just really doesn't seem to have much interest, but he's come to church also like 5-6 times. But it's very much like, well a lot of the Haitians are generally very willing to come to church. I think for them, you can go to whatever church you want so if they come to our church they're still ok. So listening to the missionaries isn't necessary to them but they might come to church. 

And then that night we had a visit with Karen and Darling, which was great, and talked about the Plan of Salvation a little more in depth. Darling's been studying on Saturdays and has been getting home really late so she didn't come to church this week. So we kind of talked to her about that, about how important it is to come to church and she was like, "yeah, I know." And we talked about the importance of the sacrament, and that repentance, baptism and the sacrament are part of the plan of salvation and how the gospel of Christ teaches us to be clean so we can one day return to live with God and our families together. So we ended up talking about the sacrament, and I said, "Alright, Darling. I don't want to make it sound like we're gonna get after you but I'm gonna get after you a little bit. You've got to come to church." So she was like, "Yeah, I know. This next week I'm coming for sure." But she's great. Her and her mom are great. Her mom goes every single week without fail. But yeah, they understand really well and they're really great. Also, we've been talking a lot about family history with them. Darling has a Family Search account and has all the things there set up and so she printed off a name, tried to get some names for a female ancestor so she can actually do the baptism and got the branch to schedule a temple activity in July so she'll be able to go. And her mom was looking at her younger sister who died, when her younger sister was 8 days old she died as a baby in the hospital. But she has this crazy theory, well it's not that she's crazy, it's just crazy that this might be true, but she thinks that they didn't know that her mom was going to have twins when the younger sister was born. And the second baby was born with a lot of problems and had to go through some kind of surgery and the mom almost passed away also during childbirth. And so, she also kind of wasn't THERE during the whole process and her dad signed some paper giving permission for some surgery and the baby died during the surgery trying to save it's life. But then when they gave the body to their family, they gave it to them in an already sealed coffin. And recently, a lot of reports have come out of cases from about that same time when very similar situations have happened but it turns out 25-30 years later they find out that the baby wasn't actually dead but that it'd been basically shipped off to Europe or maybe even America or some other part of the world and adopted. And so, there's kind of this illegal baby trafficking which was apparently a big problem here in Chile and I imagine in other parts of South America at that time. And then there's also the day on the death certificate was two days earlier than the day that her mom said that they told her the baby had died and some other stuff like that. But basically, it's possible that her baby sister would still be alive somewhere. But I mean, they have a death certificate technically, nobody ever saw the body, but they have a death certificate. So we explained to her that you can just go on as if she's dead, you can't know for sure, as far as at least Temple Work is concerned. And I'm not sure, honestly, I'm going to have to look into what's up with Baptisms for the dead with infants who die. I don't exactly know actually what you have to do there. If they even need to be baptized or not. But yeah, so that was kind of a crazy situation if it were true that her sister survived. 

So, sorry, this is kind a long unorganized letter. But wanted to end with a quick spiritual thought, seeing as how yesterday was Father's day, I wanted to share something that had to do with that. I had a scripture come to mind in Enos 1: 1-3 . 

1 Behold, it came to pass that I, Enos, knowing my father that he was a just man—for he taught me in his language, and also in the nurture and admonition of the Lord—and blessed be the name of my God for it—

2 And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God, before I received a remission of my sins.
3 Behold, I went to hunt beasts in the forests; and the words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints, sunk deep into my heart.

I love the affect, Enos' father Jacob had on him. The example that he set, and also the great job of teaching his son that he did. And I'm really grateful for a father that has done that also. And I love my dad. He's a great example for me. So Happy Father's Day. And I echo the words of Enos, like when he says that he taught me in his language and also in the nurture and admonition of the  Lord and blessed be the name of my God for it. And I'm grateful to have been born in that situation where I have a father who is so present and is such a great example for me in my life. And I hope that everybody was able to have a good Father's Day this weekend. Hope you all had a great week. Love you all. Take Care! Bye.

Elder Olson

(Elder Olson didn't say but I think the fall in this video is how he rug burned his face in the pic he sent last week)

drawing practice while comp was sick (my mom and dad just in case you couldn't tell)

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

week 87: lots of meetings

April 23, 2018 (transcription from Audio letter)

Hey everyone, This is week 4 of transfer number 14. It's  been a pretty good week. We did not have a lot of time in the sector for work. We had meetings and meetings and some more meetings.

On Wednesday, we had district class and then after the district class we did divisions with the District leader here in Curico. So we were both in their sector working. So we stayed the night. And we had Zone conference the next day. Which was cool because it was together with Talca where Elder Haar and Elder Lee and Elder Hiatt, where my good friends are all at, so it was cool to be able to see them. And that was good. We talked a lot about the Gospel of Christ, the third Preach My Gospel Lesson, about working with members as well. They're really trying to crack down on the members taking dinner here (giving the missionaries dinner). They don't like the missionaries eating dinner (with the members) here. We just eat lunch and that's it. So yeah, we talked a lot about that. But that wasn't really a problem for us in our sector either.

Then afterwards we had the busride back to Licantén. We had a lesson with Darling. We talked a little bit about her baptismal date and she's pretty set for getting baptized on May 5th. We talked to her about how that is pretty quick. She's going to have to make sure she comes to church every week. She came on Sunday. She's gonna come to Stake Conference on the 29th and that should be good. I'm pretty excited about that.

And then on Sunday morning, the Zone Leaders called us and said "Hey we have a meeting with the mission president and all of the branch presidents and mission leaders and area 70 in the afternoon today." So that was kind of a surprise for us. We ended up driving down with the Branch President to the meeting in the afternoon and it was really good. Talked a lot about the quarter mission meetings and the Branch Council meeting. 

So that's about it. 

I'm doing good. I'm feeling a little better. I've been feeling a little under the weather the last couple of weeks. But I'm back to being able to exercise in the morning. My comp's not too big on the idea of going to the gym but that's okay. 

Today we had an activity in Curico. We just played football or soccer and that was pretty much it. It was solid. 

As far as a spiritual thought, I was listening to a BYU devotional, I think it was from 2012. It's called "Optimism and Joy (in the Gospel of Jesus Christ)" which was really good. It had some shout outs to Snowboarding there so I really enjoyed it and I enjoyed what it said about keeping a diary and about how that'll help us to be more optimistic in our lives. 

So I hope you guys are all having a good week. Love you all. Take care. Bye!

Elder Olson

(Elder Olson forgot his camera when he went to the Cyber Cafe today so he apologized for no pics. Elder Haar's mom posted this one of Jacob though. Looks like he stole Elder Haar's camera for a stealth selfie.)