Week 81: Interesting Investigator & Bus Contacting

March 12, 2018 (transcription from audio file)

Hey everyone, this is week 4 of transfer 13. We're here in the Library writing you all right now but I forgot to make an audio for you so instead of writing it right now I'm going to make a quick audio.

So this week was cool. Started off pretty well. We went down to the other town in Hualañe and worked there. We found some new investigators who are pretty cool down there named Angelo and Carmen. They are really receptive and they were really excited when we went back by their house. We've had some really good visits with them, some really spiritual visits. Their big problem is that they're NOT married. So we are going to have to see how that goes. But they were a cool family we found this week. 

On Wednesday we had exchanges. I went down to Curico to the ? ward with Elder Moira from Brazil.  I got to practice my portuguese a little bit. We had a lesson with this investigator of theirs named Alex. So this guy...his name is Alex...they found him on the street after, like right before church on sunday. One of the Elders contacted him. He said he was an atheist, he didn't believe in God, he had been sleeping out on the street, he had all kinds of problems...

(Ok sorry side note, my companion just showed me in a letter that he got that our video of Language Ball is on the Mission Facebook page. Didn't know there was a mission facebook page, so I guess that's pretty cool)

So anyways, this guy, named Alex, he slept the night on a bench, he was having a really tough time. He walked by the church, the Elders contacted him and he was like, no, I'm an atheist and the Elder basically asked him if he was happy. He said he wasn't and that his life was really hard. And the Elder said if he wanted to change his life, he could enter the church right then. And the guy did it. And he started crying during testimony meeting and he said he had this super strong spiritual experience. And then afterwards there were a couple times where randomly on the street a pastor came up to him on the street and offered him like food, and invited him to come to his church, and that was like the fifth time a pastor had come up to him and he was like "No, sorry. I can't go to your church. I go to a different church. I go to the Mormon church." And this was from a guy who earlier that morning had claimed he didn't believe in God. So the lessons were received really good but they found out that he had a big problem. He had been to jail and he has about 7 or 8 years ago now, he owned a night club and was dealing drugs and they got him and sent him to jail now for some of the stuff he did back then. And he had just gotten out and the only way he was going to be able to stay out was if he paid a bail payment. And he didn't have the money for the bail payment. So we visited him, had some talks about real intent, trying to figure out if he was legit or not and in the end he seemed super sincere. I had a visit with him as well and he seemed honestly just super sincere. And the Elders, Elder Moira, the Brazilian was ready to give him personal money. He didn't about $100 maybe a little bit more than that in American money, to supposedly pay these two small bail payments called ?. So they talked to the ward leaders and a couple ward members volunteered and gave him the money. And then the day after... HE DISAPPEARED. He disappeared with the money and some of the member's stuff, didn't go back to church, didn't hear anything about him going to the cops, he was just GONE. They're pretty sure he went to Argentina, because he had mentioned that before. So that was pretty crazy. It was kind of a bummer for those Elders. But kind of just things that happen. It's hard to be able to tell who's sincere. Who really needs help and who doesn't need the help. But hopefully one day, he will have a great change of heart. 

Other big stuff that happened this week, on our way down to Hualañe, to the other town, on Friday, me and Elder Hiatt contacted on the bus. Which is something we've talked about doing. To try to make our new goal of 200 contacts in each week. And so we stood up at the front, and I gave a short introduction to what we believe, what we teach, and explained that we'd be going around handing out passalong cards and inviting them to hear a message in their home. Selling stuff on the busses is like really common here. A lot of times people will hand out cards to everybody and then go back around and pick up the cards that they handed out or pick up money/donations from the people. And so it's like not that weird of a thing to do here, but it was weird that we were giving out the cards instead of asking for money. So a lot of people were kind of confused there, but it gave us a chance to explain what we were really doing and I think they liked that, the fact that we were just giving them out without asking for money. I think a lot of the people liked that. So yeah, it went really well. We practiced before doing it with Elder Hiatt because I start at the front of the bus and he went to the back of the bus to talk to the people at the back of the bus and worked our way to the middle. And he did a super great job. It went super well. We got a couple people from that.

Then on Saturday we had an open chapel program which went super well. Well the first part went super well. We did one part in a park in Hualañe. Hualañe is that other town and there are not a lot of missionaries that have gone through there. It's bigger than Licantén but it doesn't have a branch of its own. It doesn't have its own stuff there. They have to come here to go to church. So a lot of the people there don't know much about the church, so there were a lot of really receptive people that we found there. So that was really cool and it went super well. I was worried that it wouldn't turn out, but we found a good set up, a way that we could do a small presentation to a group of people at a time. It worked super well. So we had some help from the Zone to be able to do that which was really nice. And then in the evening we had the open chapel here in Licantén. And that one we actually did in our "Chapel." We set up a tour. Elder Hiatt and I were in the Baptismal font talking about baptism all dressed in the white clothes. We had people out contacting in the streets. We'd talked about it for a couple weeks in the meetings in church to get them kind of prepared for it...to invite people and stuff. But it didn't sound like a lot of people invited people to come. There was a turnout of about Four people. But we got some contacts in the street there trying to get people to come in. Some people said we could pass by. They were just going to parties or were busy right at that time. And it was cool to see...the ward did come together really well and all made a station for their auxiliary organization to talk about what it was that they did. So that was really cool.

Then yesterday in church, we gave talks, Elder Hiatt and I and our Branch Mission Leader. So I gave a talk in the first hour and then taught the Gospel Principles class in the second hour and then the Elder's Quorum asked me to be the, I don't know if in English they call it the facilitator, but basically the teacher for the Elder's Quorum class. So I was busy ALL day. Then after that we had the branch council meeting. So I was definitely a little more, even more involved in church than normal. And We are starting to get to the second round on Hymns that I know how to play on the piano. I'm starting to do repeats because I don't know all that many. 

So yeah, it's been a really good week. I hope you guys are all doing well. This week we have Zone Conference. We are going to be talking about the summaries of the Plan of Salvation that D. Todd Christofferson asked us to write. So mine is in spanish, otherwise I'd send one for you guys to look at or I'd read it to you but I don't have it with me right now and it'd take up a little bit of time. But that was cool to be able to study a little more in depth the Plan of Salvation. Oh also, I LOVED, my seven year old brother sent me a picture of his version of the Plan of Salvation so I thought that was very appropriate for this week. 

Love you guys. Thanks for everything. Have a good week.

Elder Olson

Elder Olson was able to get himself a new suit since he wore out his others

Week 71: Happy New Year!

January 1, 2018 (Transcription from Audio Letter)

Hey everyone, Happy New Year!

This is week 6 of transfer 11 and the first day of 2018!

So it's been two weeks since I've been able to write or send anything so this is going to be kind of a recording to catch up on everything that I haven't been able to talk about all that much. 

Starting off with last week, (the week leading up to Christmas) we had a lot of activities and things like that for Christmas with the Branch and with the Stake. We sang in a couple of Stake Choirs. We helped out in a branch devotional as well. I think I may have mentioned they asked me to be the angel in the devotional. So that was...that was fun.

Then on the Tuesday before Christmas, we went to a central plaza and we sang songs for everybody. There were actually a lot of people there. I was really impressed. A lot of members and then people who weren't members stopped to watch and listen. So that was cool. We got there early to help blow up helium balloons and then they handed out balloons with a card for Light the World to everyone and then everybody let them go at the same time at the end. So that went pretty well.

So after that, that weekend, Jorge got baptized! Wahoo! I'm super super excited about that. He is great. He's still doing great. He was baptized on the 23rd right before Christmas. He was baptized by a member, Hermano Torres. It was a pretty small little service but it went well. There were probably about 3 families of members, maybe a total of 16 people there at his baptism and it was really spiritual, at least for me. I felt the spirit pretty strongly, so I enjoyed having that experience and it went well. The brother that was baptizing him, he... I think Jorge kind of went limp when he went under the water, he was kind of expecting the member to kind of pull him out. And Jorge's not THAT big but not a small guy either, and the member was recovering from a car accident and so his arm strength isn't all that good. We were actually kind of worried that he wasn't going to be able to do the baptizing. But with a loud grunt and a lot of visible effort, the member got him up out of the water. So that was good. It all went well. hahaha. And then the day after there was the confirmation on the 24th. And we just had a short little sacrament meeting with a primary program and my companion and I were able to participate in the confirmation with the Branch President. 

The primary program was great. I also felt the spirit watching that. I enjoyed it. And then that night (December 24th), we first talked with our families and then we had dinner with our Branch President and his wife and also with Jorge which we were really grateful for. We were trying to look for somebody to invite him and if not we were going to go eat with him because he is separated from his wife and he lives by himself so we were looking for a way to help him have a merrier Christmas. I think he had a good time.

Here in Chile, Christmas is a little different. Everybody opens their presents at midnight instead of waiting til the morning. So there's a bunch of parties and everybody's out until midnight on Christmas eve and then they open all their presents and they're like, "yeah cool" and then they're up until like 2 or 3 in the morning and then they go to  bed and then the 25th Christmas day is like nothing for them. They don't go to work but they don't really do anything else either. They maybe sit around in their house, maybe have another dinner, maybe they'll go out but it's just kind of like any other holiday, not all that special, from what I have seen, from what I understand.

So we were there, not until midnight, only til 10. All the members were surprised, especially the returned missionaries, because most of them had received permission from their mission presidents when they'd been serving but we did not have permission to stay out later for new years or for Christmas. 

So during the week, we had a good week, we found a lot of new people. We talked with a lot of people in the street and we just kept finding and finding and finding a lot of new investigators, so that was really cool. We found almost 2 new investigators every day. So that was pretty cool. 

We also did a couple...I don't know if they're called splits or divisions...in Spanish they're called exchanges basically...intercambios. Where one companion goes to another sector with another missionary and the other missionary comes to our sector, our area. So we did that twice. I left both times. I went to be able to accommodate for the schedule and for the missionaries that we had. So I went to Donihue on Wednesday. I was there with Elder Rogers who I've known for a long time. I saw him start his mission in Buin and now have been his zone leader for 3 changes here in Rancagua. So I've gotten to know him pretty well. So that was good. He's a great missionary. Oh also that day, we had some lessons with some Hatians. Elder Rogers speaks very very very well, Creole/Hatian. And so I got to practice my Creole a little bit. I was able to understand probably about half of everything that was going on. I was able to explain what the book of mormon is and some very basic stuff and introduce myself and ask them a couple basic questions about themselves. But I understood quite a bit actually of the Creole so I was very very excited about that. That's a talent that I haven't been able to develop all that much. Not a lot of missionaries do. Elder Rogers is definitely the best in the whole mission as far as I know, at speaking Creole. But that's a talent I would like to develop a little bit more.

On wednesday we went straight from Donihue, came back to the house and I grabbed some other clothes and then went straight back out to Rengo to do intercambios. I was with Elder Pistorius there, one of the people from my district in the MTC. So that was really cool. He's also a great guy. Him and his companion are great missionaries. We really enjoy having them in the zone. We tried passing by my Aunt's family's house to see how they're doing but they weren't home. But it was still cool to be able to go on intercambios there. I like Rengo in general and we were able to have some good lessons as well. We were in lessons basically the whole time and then we were in their ward council meeting so we were pretty busy that whole day.

Then this weekend we did some stuff for new years, new year's eve. But let me see, I don't want to skip anything here. Nah, everything's been pretty normal, just still working our hardest.

We have a kind of new investigator named Eileen. We found her in probably the third week of this change. She is the cousin of a member from a little town outside of Rancagua. Her cousin is a returned missionary. Her mom is a less active member. And she is not a member. She's 18. She has a son who's like a year and a half old and they live there, the 3 of them. She listened to the missionaries before and she really really really wants to get baptized. She's super excited about it. She almost got baptized with the other missionaries but her son got sick and she is worried about taking him to church and there were some other complications. So we still have been teaching her. We visited her twice and so we're still not 100% sure what happened the other time. The other missionaries didn't leave a very good record of why they stopped teaching her. But she seems to have a lot of potential. She came to church this week which was awesome. Also members brought 2 other investigators to church this week so that was awesome. It's not common to have members bring people to church so that was a nice change. So that was cool. Eileen now has a baptismal date for the 3rd of February so we're going to be working with her and praying for her. 

Last night for new year's eve, we worked for a while, had some lessons and then we had some appointments that a member was going to accompany us to, so we went and passed by a couple other investigators and then we went with that member to have dinner and share with his family. He has some...well his son is less active and his kids are all less active...most of them don't live with him but his youngest son lives with him. And his daughter drove down from Santiago with her boyfriend as well. So that was really fun. It was a good dinner. We had some BBQ and were back in the house by 10 as normal. 

Our zone had a great week as far as numbers were concerned. We were really excited for them to see a lot of the progress. There are a lot of investigators that I think have a lot of potential. We should be having, well I would say 1 baptism this week, we COULD have more, but we will have another baptism this week which will meet our...if we have that baptism...we will meet our goals for baptisms for the change. We already met our goals for the month of December, but if we're going to meet our goal for the change, we need 1 more this week. And then hopefully we can keep elevating the zone a little bit at a time. But it's been really good. The zone's been really stable. We haven't had any weeks that we were just like, "oh this week was a tough week" where the numbers just drop a lot. It was just a really good change.

I'm still enjoying being with my comp, Elder Lee. We'll find out changes this week. I have NO idea what's going to happen. I've been here for 3 changes already. So the most logical thing I think would be for me to leave but I could definitely stay with Elder Lee another change because we get along great and we are having success in the sector and in the zone. Elder Lee could also leave, you never know. But we'll find out probably Saturday. We also have exchanges/splits with the assistants tomorrow so that'll be fun. 

I want also, for a spiritual thought, I was thinking about a talk from Elder Holland he gave at BYU for New Year's, I don't know what year, but he talks about a scripture in Luke...I don't want to say the reference in case I'm wrong...I think it's either Luke 9 or 19 verse 32 which says "Remember Lot's wife." (it's actually Luke 17:32) That's like the whole scripture. But the idea is that Lot's wife, well Lot and his family were commanded to leave Soddom and Gommorah, that one is in Genesis 19 I believe, and they kind of dallied a little they kind of lagged behind, took their time, and then they kind of left running from the city and Lot's wife looked back and they had been commanded NOT to look back...to look not behind you. She was turned into a pillar of salt. So Elder Holland talks a lot about why she would be turned into a pillar of salt just from looking back. With the new year, we have an opportunity to look forward a lot more than looking back. The problem isn't the look back because we can learn a lot of things from the past, but he illustrates, or at least the point I get is that we should not look back longing to be in the past, like wishing we were in another time. Just enjoying where we are now and enjoying the hope of an even better future.

So I hope you guys all made it this far in the recording...I know this one was a little long. But I want to wish you a happy new year and I hope everybody is doing well. I love you. Take care!

Elder Olson

Elder Olson "helping" fill balloons at the plaza

Elder Lee, Jorge, Hermano Torres, Elder Olson

Elder Olson on Christmas Day 

Elder Olson and Elder Lee shared a "talent" at the Zone's Christmas Day gathering

Elder Shumway and Elder ? show their "Talent"...Elder Olson couldn't handle staying to record the end...sorry

 Elder Olson's reaction to Elder Shumway's talent

Huge moth under the glass, it was flying around the shower

Countryside

Elder Rogers and Elder Olson in Donihue

The District 

week 59: God directs us

Bonswa, kouman ou ye?

Sorry I forgot to do a recording again, whoops! Time management is a skill I'm still working on.

But hey this was a great week. We found a ton of news this week! Some of those were in a house full of haitians. My comp was inspired to start learning creole, so I've had some opportunities to practice! Fun stuff.

This week we went to get an emergency water supply from wal-mart on an odd prompting we had. As we were leaving the store with 40 liters of water a guy pulled up in a car and offered a ride if we could drop flowers off at his co-workers girlfriend's house for him (long story). The girlfriend was super excited and we got the guy's number and address and we have plans to teach him. I think God guided us into that situation.

In other news, changes are this week! I'll let you know how it goes. Maybe I'll go train in a whitewash. That'd be fun.

Yesterday we had a new investigator who had attended church with a friend years ago and really wants to attend again but feels nervous to go. He has some real potential. Also we got a referral from Mormon.org who had a dream that he needed to become a Mormon. I'll let you all know how the appointment goes! But the moral of the story is share the gospel with your friends and one day they could find their way to the missionaries.

Love you guys take care!

Elder Olson

Chile in one picture

The name of this pepper is a swear word

week 53: Finding New Investigators - even if they are sneaky

(Elder Olson's Mom's transcription of his audio letter)

Alright, Elder Olson here. This is the 28th of August 2017, just so I can keep track of the dates here.

This week has been crazy. It's been really long. We've had a lot of stuff to do this week. A lot of really crazy stuff has happened.

Well we'll start at the beginning. Monday was awesome. Pday. We went and got a class at a Juijitsu gym, which was pretty sweet. We got special permission from President to be able to do it because normally they don't let us take the zone places to do activities. WE took the zone over there. We have a hookup over there with a guy named Cristobal. We contacted him and he came out in his "I like Weed" shirt and he's like, "Ah yeah, I like to do martial arts," and I was like, " Me too. Sweet!" And then there we go. We found out that their gym is right next door to the chapel. And they let us come and they opened the gym in the middle of the day especially for us to let us do a free class. The owner of the gym actually studied at the University of Utah. He spoke English and was really chill. So that was really fun. A great way to start off the week. Nobody got tooooooo hurt. My comp did end up asking for a blessing for his arm because we practiced arm bars. But I think he's doing alright now.

So this week we did exchanges twice. Once with another sector here in Curico, in the ghetto. It's called (?). Then the other day we did them in (Molina?) which is a little pueblo outside Curico. So nothing all that special happened during the exchanges. It was good I finally got to go to a different sector. Normally, I stay here in the sector during exchanges because I know our sector better, so my companion who doesn't know the sector goes. But this last week I got to go down to (?) and do exchanges there. I forgot my towel and a change of clothes and pajamas and a toothbrush all that because we had to go out to Molina(?) early in the morning and did the exchanges back to back and I forgot all that stuff. So I got to "sleep in my tie" type of thing on the exchanges. So that was neat.

This week we found a TON of new people. We found a lot. We found 13 new investigators this week. Which is not a common thing. It's not unheard of but it's not common either. We've already found a new investigator for every day in this change. And that was our goal. We made our goal a week early. So that's cool. But we're going to have keep working hard this week to not let it get to us that it's the end of change...that we've already met the goal...We want to keep that success going. We want to start of the next one strong.

The changes are going to be this week. We find out on...well we'll probably find out early, because my companion will ask one of his friends in the office...but we should be finding out Saturday. So we'll see when we actually know. But honestly I think that I'm gonna be staying here with Elder Guadiglia. Because it's gone really well for us and I think one of the only reasons they'd take me out of Alameda right now is to put me in as a secretary. And rumor has it that somebody else is going to be a secretary. So I should be safe from being a secretary. Don't know if I really WANT to stay another change. For me I like to go to different sectors. But it's okay. If I'm gonna be left in a place, it's a good ward, a really good ward so I won't be too bummed out about it if I stay.

Other interesting things that happened...

This week we talked the Bishop and he was like,"Yeah we've this member who's got a daughter who's 10 years old who's not a member, who's been coming to church for the last few weeks and she wants to get baptized." And we were like, "Oh that's cool." So we went and talked to them and we set a baptismal date right away and she's for sure going to get baptized and we thought we were going to get away with getting her baptized this sunday but some of her family won't be able to make it out that day so she's going to be baptized on the 17th of September. That was nice. A nice little baptism we don't have to work for. Not quite as satisfying but nice that we are able to help there.

On Saturday, late at night, just about time to get home, well 9:20 and we need to be in the house between 9:30-10:00, we were out contacting and not really having much success but at 9:20 we said a prayer, it's the end of the night, we've gotta find somebody. But then we weren't finding anyone and started heading home and I was like, "No. We've gotta find someone." So we started contacting again. Literally the last house we said we were going to contact, we contacted it and this guy came out, and he was super nice, super excited. He said, "Yeah come in. No worries." So we started talking to him. His name's Roberto, he's an atheist, and he's super smart.  He's a mechanic, well he works in part as a mechanic, he's an engineering student right now. That was 9:20 on Saturday night. He committed to come to church and the next day he came to church. Normally we visit with people 5 times and they have to commit, "YEAH! I'm for SURE coming to church this sunday. I'm for sure coming." Normally they have to say that about on 4-5 separate occasions for them to really mean it. But this guy said he'd come to church and he came to church. So that was really awesome! He's good. We've got high hopes for him. But he's hesitant to pray because he doesn't believe there's a god. He said, "yeah I'll come to church and I'll read the book," and he liked church but that step of humility that he's gonna have to take to admit that maybe there is a God, and pray and ask for an answer is gonna be kind of an obstacle for him. But it is ABSOLUTELY necessary for him to do to get an answer. You're never going to get an answer if you don't ask. So we're going to have to help him recognize the spiritual experiences he HAS had or is GOING to have as we work with him so that he can kind of open his mind to the fact that there is a god. We're excited to work with him.

We also found another investigator and her name is Pia. She had a baptismal date for the second week of this change and...we lost her. My companion still hadn't met her. We hadn't found her all this change. She hadn't been answering us and she actually moved houses and we got in contact with her again and she was excited and we taught her a lesson about the Sabbath, about keeping it holy and she came to church. Which until now had been one of her biggest difficulties the last time we were teaching her. So that was awesome that she was able to take that step right away as soon as we found her again.

Also this week we found a lady named Rose who seems kind of crazy and I think may be a pathological liar, but she accepted a baptismal date. She was actually baptized 10 years ago but never confirmed. I feel like she may have just never come to the sacrament meeting after being baptized. Not exactly sure what happened there. But we're going to try to work with her again. She was a reference so we'll see if we can help her. But she's told us she was going to be at her house or going to come to church like 10 times but she's not doing it sooooo....   Well one time, she told us she wasn't in her house and we went to her house and called her and she said she wasn't in her house so we were thinking about where else we were going to contact as our plan b and she just walks out onto her front porch and she didn't see us. Then she came out and walked almost right past us and we were like, "Oh hey, remember when you told us you weren't here like 20 seconds ago?" Ha. That's cool. But hopefully we'll be able to help her out.

This week i began ponderizing a scripture (I think that was a thing from general conference in 2015, memorizing and pondering a scripture) and I'm doing it in spanish but I'll send you a picture of my study journal and what I'm doing for that. I'm studying 2 Nephi 2:25-27 to kind of mix things up with my scripture study.

So yeah. I'm excited for changes this week. We'll see what happens. I'm really hoping somebody from my group, somebody I'm tight with, will come down to my zone. I'm kind of lonely a little bit. Not too bad. It'd be nice to have one of my friends from the beginning of the mission like Elder Haar, Elder Robinson or Elder Mussleman come down here to Curico, that'd be sweet. But if not, that's cool. I'll keep working like a boss Like I should be.

Love everyone. Take care.

From our apt... The world is beautiful right?

Intercambios con Elder Steenblik

you can take the people out of the flayte but you cant take the flayte out of the people

trying fidgit spinner tricks 

a pic for my little brother of my fidgit spinner

my comp asked for food when we were contacting

and then we made jam

A little bit of ponderizing yesterday.

Week 41:Planning and Scripture Study

June 5, 2017

Friends and Fam,

Wow, this transfer has really flown by. It's been easy to enjoy; I have a great companion, a great district, and a great branch. I've been here 3 transfers now, and this Saturday we'll find out if I stay or if I go. I love Buin, but I wouldn't mind a change either.

The last 2 weeks an old investigator I'd set a baptismal date with in my 2nd week in Buin started coming to church again. His name is Berny, a 23 year old with a mormon ex-girlfriend and Dragonball Z tatoos. He's almost golden, but he works a LOT and it's tough for him to find time to receive the discussions.

We had to move the baptismal date for a family (Carolina and her son Jose Andres) out to the 8th of July. She's progressing, but has a hard time getting work off to come to church.They're reading (they're at about 1 Nephi 7), praying, and Carolina has gone from a pack of cigarettes a day to 2 days without smoking. Keep them in your prayers. :-)

We had Zone Conference this week, where we talked about how we study the scriptures. President Harris's knowledge of the scriptures is incredible. I enjoy comparing my english scriptures with my mission scriptures. The difference in my study before vs. during the mission is very clear.

I like this analogy to illustrate the importance of planning an scriptures study: A war isn't won on the battlefield, a war is won in the general's tent. Success in life relies on our personal planning and preparation.

I also gave my class this week on planning and goal setting. I have my district doing a daily review/goal setting session every night in addition to their daily planning session each morning. My companion and I at least are feeling a difference, and another Elder also thanked me and told me he likes the 2nd planning session. M. Russell Ballard gave a talk, "Do things that make a difference," on worthy goals which I really like.

Love you guys, the Church is true,
Elder Olson

Extra note of interest from Mom Olson: In emailing Sister Harris and the Mission Medical about a prescription Jacob needed, Sister Harris said, "We love Elder Olson! Just this past week when President Harris was ready letters from the missionaries, he said to me "Elder Olson is a great missionary! I'd take 20 more just like him!" 
We are so proud of him working hard to do his best.
As an extra treat, while he was in the city (Rancagua) getting blood work done to get his prescription updated and refilled, he and his comp got to get pizza at Papa Johns. He was super excited about that.

Elder Olson has fully immersed himself in the work and the mission. He's been out 9 1/2 months and is truly happy serving the Lord and mentioned that he just hopes to meet the Lord's expectations of him.

Elder Olson also noted that it's getting quite cold there now. He's making use of his long underwear and their little space heaters are always on full blast. The mission provides them with electric blankets too as there is no central heating or air where the missionaries live.

Notes on the pictures and video are below:
This week the video Elder Olson mentioned last week came through. It is a video of him and his housemates playing a song he wrote for the Buin Zone.

Goodbye Elder Richards

"Strange People Prohibited"

Reunited with some of my MTC Elders: Elder Haar, Elder ?, Elder Mussleman (MTC Comp), Elder Olson

Farewell "Face to Face" for Elder Richards

Week 37: Nasty Dog Bite but Great Investigators

May 8, 2017

Hey all,

I feel like we've been working on overdrive this last week. I spent the majority of Friday and Saturday this weekend in leadership trainings/meetings. I went down to the mission home in Rancagua friday. It was cool to see some other Elders from my group down there, and it's always great to have trainings with President (Harris). He has a big vision for elevating the mission, and works unlike anybody I've ever met. I have a lot of respect for him.

Another dog bit me this last Thursday. The funny part of that was that I was on my bike and the dog only had 3 good legs. I've just gotten too relaxed with the dogs, and in the middle of the night on a country road, I didn't see it coming. The bummer is that this time it broke skin, so I had to go to the hospital for shots (rabies shots). They sent us to the ER, where we waited for 5 hours. Eventually we made some calls and FINALLY Monday we got in to get treated.

We had a district (like a stake but smaller) conference this last Sunday. President Harris gave a great talk addressing one at a time each age group of members.

We have some investigators with baptismal dates who are progressing well. Jose Lara is a 43 year old shy single man who has a date for June 3rd. We're also teaching an awesome family; Cardina, Jose and their sone Jose Aladres. They have a baptismal date for June 17th and are currently working on church attendance and the Word of Wisdom.

I've recently taken Russell M. Nelson's challenge to read, mark, and study every scripture under Jesus Christ in the topical guide. I've enjoyed learning things about the life and ministry of the Savior. He lives. This is his church.

Love,
Elder Olson

Elder Olson's cousin Derek was down in the mission visiting his maternal grandparents (who live in the mission) and ran into Elder Olson in the attempt to deliver his package to the mission home. Elder Olson was there for a training. God must've had a hand in this crossing of paths because they haven't seen each other for nearly 3 years since Derek returned home from his mission to Chile a half hour after Elder Olson left on the plane for his mission to Chile.

Zone Pday group shot (Elder Olson front left)

The 3 legged dog's bite...not horrible...didn't tear his pants he said...but did break the skin.

Elder Villegas (his new Columbian companion) trying to stay warm studying. The temperatures have begun to drop. Cold Fall weather and wet rains have begun.

Elder Olson drinking Mate to stay warm. He said he's worn his rain boot/galoshes and isn't a fan of the rain because they have to walk about 45 minutes just to get to the start of their sector and can't get the to furthest parts of their sector without their bikes (which they can't ride when the rain is bad)

Week 29: Last week before transfers, Lost in the work

March 14, 2017

Hola,

Wow, this will be the last letter of the transfer. This one seriously flew by. I've been a lot more focused on keeping my mind and heart in the work, which has helped me a lot.

This week we took a trip to Rancagua for a training conference. It was great as usual, our mission president is seriously incredible. Super driven and full of energy. One of the themes we talked about was talking with everyone we see. After the conference we wanted to put it into practice. Among the people we talked to was the woman next to me on the bus. We talked for the entire hour ride, and she ended up asking me about how she could have eternal life, and I taught her an entire lesson. It was pretty cool.

Also, this week we taught a 12 year old kid named Ignacio. We have another appointment to teach the whole family, but the first lesson was just him. We passed by later in the week and asked him how his reading and praying went. He said, "yeah, and I got my answer. He told me that it was all true and that I need to keep listening to you guys and do what you say, and if I keep on a good path everything will turn out alright." It was the fastest and surest answer I've seen so far, and I'm hopeful that he'll keep progressing.

On Monday, we got out of a lesson a little late. The lesson was in the other town, Alto Jahuel, about 5 miles from Buin where we live. We came out to find my companion's front tire completely flat. As we walked, we ran into a guy drunk out of his mind named Sergio. After throwing every curse work in the book, he took us to his house and patched my companion's tire (which was really impressive given how drunk he was).  So, shoutout to my man Sergio. Really though, it was a tender mercy which I was really grateful for.

Les quiero,
Elder Olson

Pot is legal here in Chile

"Camping out" again.

Family Home Evening with our District and Members and Investigators

Dinner with members.

Family home evening game of modified "Hot Potato." If you got caught with the potato, someone got to draw something on your face.

Got caught with the potato a couple of times. here are the results

Week 20: BE DILIGENT! New Year, New Companion, New Investigator

January 11, 2017

Friends and Fam,

Wow, this week has seriously flown by. Crazy the way time moves in the mission. I feel like I've been in the field for a really long time, but it also feels like I was in the airport in Salt Lake just yesterday. Elder Haar checked our progress tracker on Monday and we're already through 20% of our missions! Wild how this stuff works.

One of the highlights of this past week has been working with Javiera, a new 22 year old investigator who we found this week. I don't want to jinx anything, but I have to say that this girl is GOLDEN. In our fist lesson she pulled out a notebook and started taking notes. She's read each time we leave her with something to read, and she writes the questions she has. We are able to stay on topic during the lessons and the spirit was super strong during our last visit. She actually reared up during the closing prayer. She probably won't get baptized until after I leave San Clemente, but I'm super excited to work with her.

Another highlight of this week has been hearing about all the crazy dreams of the Chileans. I don't know how I've forgotten to mention this earlier, but seriously the majority of the people here believe that they have had some kind of vision through dreams. For example, our Elders Quorum president legitimately believes that he's seen Jesus. Other investigators believe they've seen angels, or the spirit world or even the supposed 7 layers of Hell. We've also had to resolve some doubts of one of our investigators that came from a book she's been reading entitled, "Jesus is an Extraterrestial." Let's just say we have our fair share of work to do thanks to  dreams and somewhat crazy beliefs.

This week I've also been reminded a little bit of the importance of attitude. I've had trouble this week with my motivation to be diligent and really get out and work. I've been a little sick of the lack of progression in my 3 changes in San Clemente, despite my diligent efforts. A scripture that President Harris shared with me reminded me of the reason for diligent obedience. In Jacob 4:5-6, Jacob talks about how his people had to keep the law of Moses, which was scrict and specific and difficult to relate to spiritual progression (a little bit like the rules we follow as missionaries). The reason the Nephites followed this law according to this scripture was to orient their souls toward Christ. I was reminded that even if my diligence wasn't visibly bringing the souls of San Clemente to Christ, if was bringing me closer to Him and that's worth the effort.

I hope that all made sense. Love you guys. Have a good week!

Nos Vemos,
Elder O

Elder Olson and Elder Ramirez (his new comp from Argentina)

Noting the communist party sign in town

Barbeque

Top Dog (Completos)