Week 88: Crazy Story & Service Sanctifies

April 30, 2018 (transcription from Audio letter)

Alright, This is week 5 of transfer 14. Elder Olson here. And this week I've got a story for you guys.

So this Tuesday we had quite the little adventure. It started actually with P-day and our trip down to Curico. The man I sat next to on the bus on the ride down I ended up talking with him a little bit about how we were missionaries and what we do and I got his phone number and a little bit about where he lived to be able to go and visit him. And we decided the next day in the afternoon we would pass by his house to give him a visit. We knew he lived kind of out in the country a little bit, about 10 minutes in bus from Licantén, but from what he told us, he lived pretty close to the bus stop and it'd be pretty easy to pass by him. So we called him and he was like, "yeah you just get off here and you follow a little dirt road and my house is at the end there." And we were like, "great." So we wait for a little while. We finally find the bus. The bus drops us off there. First we call him and we were like, "Alright, so what's the dirt road like?" We saw this one dirt road that had a sign from the city government there like talking about a construction project so we asked him if it was like that road and he was like, "yeah." And so we followed it and we got to the end and like asked some people if they knew him and nobody knew him there and we called him and he was like, "No no no. It's not that one. It's this other one at this other bus stop." So we walked about 5-10 minutes to this other bus stop and started walking down this dirt road and we called at one of the houses there and talked to one of his neighbors and we told him that we were looking for Guillermo and he was like, "Oh yeah, you guys are going to go walking though? He lives about an hour from here walking." And we were like "WHAT?" We did not sign up for that. So we started walking a little bit. We called him (Guillermo) and he said it was like 5 minutes walking. And so that's a pretty big contrast from an hour to 5 minutes so we thought maybe it was a mistake by the first guy. So we talked to another neighbor who was like, "Nah it's about 25 minutes from here walking." And so we really had NO idea how far his house was. 

And so we walked a little ways down this dirt road and it was super pretty out the middle of NOWHERE. And we get up there and my companion started getting a little bit worried, haha, that we were going to get robbed or something just cause there was NOBODY around and so he went and hid his bag in some bushes and we kept on walking there. We finally, well we made it a little ways and we saw this little house and I was like, "Alright, we should be getting pretty close here. Let's see if somebody here knows where he is. So we walk up to the house, this one little wood shack. And on a mattress on the ground outside of the house, there was a guy drinking a can of beer, this little man. He was not wearing shoes. His shirt was open. And he's got this nice little mustache. And we're like, "Hey, do you know where Guillermo lives?" And he come up to us and he's like, "NAh, I'm just drinking a little bit of beer." And we're like, "Yeah, we can see that. But do you know where Guillermo lives?" And he was like, "Yeah he lives close. You know what? I'll take you to his house." We're like..."Oooookay." So he goes and he puts on some sandals and he goes into his little wood shack and comes out holding a slingshot and with something tucked into the front of his shirt and a bulge in the front of his pants. And you could see just under his shirt, and he pats it and he was like, "I never leave my house unarmed." And so I assumed that he had a gun there, that he had a little pistol. 

So yeah, we've got this guy, super drunk, can barely walk straight. His name was Humberto and he's got a pistol in the front of his pants. So I'm ready to tackle at any moment because he seems pretty crazy. I was a little worried that he was gonna pull out the gun. And he's like, "Alright. I'll take you to his house." And he starts just walking through the forest up this side of the hill. There was KIND of a little path, but not really anything. And it got to the point where there was no path. And he stopped and tried to shoot a bird with his sling-shot and breaks his sling shot. And so we are going and walking about 5 minutes up there, just following this little drunk guy, talking to him. And we get up into this clearing and it's just this beautiful little spot on top of this hill. It's really pretty there. And we like jumped a barbed wire fence and there was a little like mud shack out in the middle of this clearing. And he was like, "Alright. This is where Guillermo lives." And he goes over and he hops another fence. We follow him and he's like "GUILLERMO!" He's like calling for him and he goes over and there's some boots like in a bucket of water just floating around and he just kind of like looks at them and he picks up one of the boots and just like throws it at the house. And we look for Guillermo and he's not in the house but there's like a fire going and we're not really sure what's going on. So we call him again because we finally had cell reception again because we were back up on the top of the hill. Surprisingly. I was really surprised we had reception there. So we get up on top and we call him and he answers and is like, "Ah yeah. I'll be right there." And he comes out from like behind the house and he's like putting on his belt. I'm pretty sure he was peeing just back behind the house because I don't think he has anywhere else to use the bathroom. 

And so, then we had a little lesson there. The drunk guy wanted to stay for the lesson. Which was kind of messy for us, kind of hard to have the spirit. I got after him actually during the lesson and told him to stop swearing because it was SOOOO much. He started talking about one of the old Dictators named Pirochet that took over the country back in the day and how he was so happy that Pirochet went to prison and well he said a lot of really awful things actually. So we got him to calm down a little bit after I got after him, he stopped swearing til the end of the lesson so that was good. He still talked about a lot of stuff that had nothing to do with anything but we were able to kind of go with the lesson a little bit. The other guy was really interested. Guillermo, the other guy. I don't know...He was really interested but doesn't seem super willing to act. For our next visit, he comes down to Licanten sometimes to work, so we are just going to meet up with him here in the chapel. Our chapel here is right next to a Liquor store. He works in the liquor store.

Oh. Hold on. (SMACK sound in the background). Spider on the wall.

And so hopefully we can organize it that right before he goes into work or right after he'll come over to the chapel and we'll teach him a little lesson. Because it's not worth the hour trip to get to his "house" to teach him up there. And so yeah, we finished the lesson and we started going back down the hill and Humberto, drunk friend, is talking to us. Invites us to go get a drink with him. And we cross a araña pollito, which means "A little chicken spider", which are the tarantulas around here. They're pretty common. I've seen quite a few. Like 4 or 5 in my mission. But my companion hadn't seen one before. And the guys up there, the ones who live out in the campo, the little drunk guy, and Guillermo, they started playing with it. So we got some pictures of that and some other pictures of the little clearing where Guillermo lives. And on the way back down, the little drunk guy was like, "Yeah, I'm gonna go run and grab"...he was going to a little shop down by the bus stop "and get some more wine." And he was like, "But oh, I can't have this down there." And he reaches under his shirt to pull out his weapon that he's had hiding there this whole time. And he pulls it out and it was just this huge knife. Like a normal kitchen knife, you know, one of the big ones. Haha. And it was just super random. I have no idea why he carried that the whole time. But he was like, "Yeah, I never leave home unarmed." So then he throws that off into the bushes and he just CHUCKS it as hard as he can off into the trees. Haha. And he's like "Yeah, I know where it fell." And then he walked us down to the bus stop. So that was quite the experience we had on Tuesday. Something a little different. I was glad to have a little change of routine. I thought it was pretty fun. Definitely NOT going to do it again because it was a LOT more time than we expected. But it was a really pretty place. 

Then on Wednesday, we had interviews with President (Harris). We went down a little early and ate lunch with the Zone Leaders and with a member. And then we went and had interviews, which went really well. I think it gave my companion a little bit of ...it encouraged him a little bit to work, I think. Got him kind of excited for his last couple of weeks. It didn't last super long but...  but it was good. 

We also had Stake conference on Saturday night and on Sunday. We had just a general session on Saturday night and then on Sunday morning we had a priesthood session with the priesthood and relief society presidencies. We talked about ministering and then new priesthood quorums. It was really good. Our mission president gave a little bit of training I guess like how he would do the interviews and the other meetings. And then in the afternoon session, he talked about how we are sanctified through our service. He shared an awesome experience about how, I think it was while he was stake president, he was assigned to home teach a man who had a lot of problems with alcohol and tobacco. He was a convert to the church but just came from a really tough lifestyle and fell back into that lifestyle. So he was abusive with his family, ended up getting divorced and President Harris just tried so hard. They'd go over and read the Book of Mormon with him. They'd invite him to Family Home Evening, just go over, pass by and see how he was and do all kinds of service. When they were having problems in the family, his family would take care of the other family's children and so those kids lived with President Harris's family for weeks at a time. And just really did everything he could to serve this man and his family. And while he was doing that, the man got remarried and for a while it was fine. And President Harris, since he was the stake president, he was a minister, he was the one who performed the marriage for them, you know a civil marriage. But then after a little while, it ended up in the same way. More problems with abuse. And the man ended up in prison. One of the kids as well. And president Harris would go by and visit him in prison. And he was still assigned to home teach him right up until President Harris was assigned to come serve in this mission. And this man, never changed. And President Harris talked about how even though that man never changed, how President Harris was sanctified through that experience and how it made President Harris a better person. That's probably, I think, the reason that God has us serve. He has us serve in part to be instruments in His hands, you know, to accomplish his work. But He could accomplish His work himself. But the rest of us, by being those instruments and by allowing God to work through us, we can obtain a remission of our sins by keeping our covenants. And also that service is a part of making restitution in the repentance process and it helps us to develop charity and hope and those Christlike attributes that we really need to become like our Heavenly Father. So that service sanctifies us.

Yeah, this recording has gone a little long. But I know that those things are true. And I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and He calls us to serve because it makes us better and I've seen that a lot as a missionary. 

I love you guys. Hope you're all having a good week. Take care!

Elder Olson

60 cm completo

I made a perfect pizza.

Aventuras en la selva (Adventures in the jungle)

One of the many dirt roads we walked

and we walked and walked and walked

The drunk guy, Humberto, and my comp, on our hike

view of the clearing

araña pollito

Guillermo playing with the spider

Look for Humberto's concealed weapon

week 86: Building a House & Changes of Heart

April 16, 2018 (transcription from Audio letter)

Hey everyone, Elder Olson here. This is week 3 of Transfer number 14. Here in Licantén this week, it's been a pretty good week. A lot of work.

Last Monday, sorry for not being able to have a recording ready for you, or for NOT having a recording ready, I probably could have if I had remembered. But we had to take a last minute trip to Talca. They let us know about it the night before. We had to get up at about 5 in the morning to catch a bus to Talca. But it was cool to go. I hadn't been there for a while. That was where I, or the zone where I started my mission. So it was pretty cool to be back down there. And my old companion, my trainee, Elder Hiatt is down there and Elder Haar as well...one of my good friends. So it was cool to be able to see them, and seeing how it was for my companion's visa, he went with the secretaries and I went with Elder Haar and Elder Hiatt and all of them to their zone activities which was fun. It was cool to see people down there. I also got to talk with Elder Lee a bit. So it was a fun little trip. Then we got to come back up to Licantén. The bus ride was different from the normal one. Both the bus rides from Curico to here and from Talca to the area of Licantén are super pretty. So that's something that I like about this sector. 

And then during the week, we helped doing a service, building a house with a younger guy, who's about 25. He's been investigating since the time he was about 14 years old and he really just hasn't progressed. I think a lot of it is the missionaries fault. So he knows the missionaries pretty well and he asked us to help him with some service building this house so we went over there and helped him. We cut styrofoam for the insulation, and then we helped nail in the, or put up the walls. 

And then on Wednesdays we have our district meeting in Curico. Normally what we have to do is we don't have lunch here with members, instead, the mission passes us money because there's no way we'll make it back on time after the district class because of the 2 hour bus ride to get home. So normally we pay and eat at a restaurant down in Curico. But this last Wednesday we came up and just had a later lunch with that investigator. We did a little BBQ there which was pretty fun. And we were going to finish the service but it was raining. And so he still wanted to do the BBQ but we weren't able to help him finish the house there that he was working on. 

Also this week, we had a cool lesson with Darling. We talked about the law of chastity with her, which was one of her only obstacles for her baptism. She has a pretty serious boyfriend. But she talked to him and she committed to live the law of chastity and she's excited to get baptized. 

So, Sunday was kind of a bummer. None of our investigators came to church. Darling was going to come and actually her and her mom, they left their house on time, but they live about 15 minutes by bus away from our church. They left and they were out waiting for the bus for over an hour. By the time they gave up waiting, it was already the end of sacrament meeting. And so they did not make it to the church this last week. Which was a bummer because it'll also mean Darling's baptismal date will need to be postponed because she won't have the church attendances in time. She was kind of worried about that when they called. They called us right after the meeting and apologized and said they'd tried to come but they couldn't. So I was very glad to hear to hear that at least they'd been trying to come. But we could've helped them. If we would've known sooner we could've sent somebody to pick them up. But it wasn't their fault at all either. But we are probably going end up baptizing Darling in May instead of April. But that's okay. She's awesome and it won't hurt to have a little bit more time to prepare. 

Today we were going to go the beach and go try one of the seafood restaurants that there are out there. We cleaned the house in the morning, we got all ready, we packed our Matés. My companion is from Uraguay and there Maté is pretty big. I bought a thermos this week to be able to take my Maté on the go. I was pretty excited about it. So we had our thermoses and our Matés all packed and all ready and we waited for almost an hour for the bus to go to the beach and none came by. It's super unreliable, the "bus system" out here. But it's okay. So we ended up instead, we made Milanesa, kind of a, I guess I would call it an Argentine Hamburger. I mean it's a little different. But it's good. Super tasty. Learned how to make it so I'll probably be making it again in the future. And then we took a nap and now we're getting ready to go "write."

Oh yesterday, we had a really cool experience. We have these investigators who, they just seem to have a lot of things and problems that would impede them from progressing. We taught them once in my first transfer with Elder Hiatt, so quite a while ago. And then we taught them again two weeks ago and then again yesterday. And they've been participating more and more in the lessons. And yesterday, it was really cool, the dad opened up a lot more to us and we found out the reason he hadn't really been participating very much in the lessons and wasn't very willing to go to church, he wouldn't pray at the end of the lessons. His oldest daughter who's 11, she participates and is super excited and she always reads what we leave, but the dad and the mom, are not so super into it. But anyway, the dad, yesterday kind of opened up to us and said that...we were asking him about his experiences with praying and asked him if he'd ever had prayers answered before...and he shared one experience where he felt like he had his prayers answered and he kind of teared up a little bit during that one. And then he was like, "but I've also had another experience where god didn't answer my prayers. My mom was really sick and I prayed and I prayed and I prayed and I asked God to save my mom but my mom died. And I promised that I would never go to another church again." And we were like, "Wow. Ok." We kind of figured out what his difficulty was, I guess. And we left him a scripture from the Book of Mormon that talks about the resurrection and we have a lesson planned for tonight about that. And he prayed at the end of the lesson, which was really cool too. And he got pretty emotional, which was a pretty drastic change from how he was in the beginning. So that was pretty cool and I'd love to see them be able to progress. I think it'll be a lot of work and it'll be tricky, but it would be awesome. I would love that.

I think that's all the big news for this week.

The primary president is about to go have a pretty major surgery and she's gonna be in the hospital for two weeks. She's the Elders Quorum President's wife. So they're going to be pretty busy. So she asked us to go by and help her kids study English because she won't be there to help them study. She asked us to go by a couple of times this week. So that should be interesting. But they've helped us a lot. Darling was a reference from her and also it was her daughter, Pamela, that was baptized the other transfer here. So we're more than happy to do what we can to pay her back. And serve a little bit there. 

So this next week, we're going to be out of town for a couple of days. We're going to be doing divisions in Curico and then we have zone conference, which we'll be together with Talca. Which I have a bunch of my mission friends down in Talca so I'm pretty stoked about that. But I hope you're all doing well. 

That's pretty much my whole week this week. Looking forward to hearing from you guys when you write. Take care. Ciao!

Elder Olson

Sunset

Uh...Creepy

My comp from Uruguay, Elder Figueroa

Licantén sign. You don't need much direction in this small town but here you go.

view from the top

Maté in the yard

Making Milanesa

week 75: Service Opportunity

January 29, 2018 (transcription from audio file)

Halo from Licantén. This is the fourth week  of change 12.1

Hi guys, that was Elder Hiatt helping me out. So we are on our way to the Library right now to write. Our Pday has been pretty relaxed so far we just made some pizza and went to the gym and that's about it...and a smoothie, we also made smoothies, which were super tasty. 

This has been a good week. It's been kind of crazy, a lot of stuff to do. On tuesday we did a service activity, well a service, for a part member family who were receiving the missionaries a while ago and they came to church a lot. They came to church for 2-3 months straight. That was in August of last year and then their missionary that they loved so much just left them so when the other missionaries came it just wasn't as good and they stopped coming to church. So we are trying to get some trust with them so we did like a six hour service project with them on Tuesday. We helped them lay cement. They moved out to a house in the country and it's a REALLY old like adobe brick house. They had destroyed half the house to rebuild it and we were laying cement with them...making the mix and putting it out. I don't know exactly how you make cement in the states but I'm pretty sure it's a little different here because we just got two mountains of dirt and rocks and cement mix and you just put it all in one of those things that spin around, haha, I don't know what they're called. And then you have to dump it out and it's like one wheelbarrow at a time. It takes probably over a hundred wheelbarrows to do the amount of cement that we had to do. So we worked for about 6 hours without stopping. But we got it all done. We got it all laid out. There were a bunch of us working as well, it wasn't just the two of us. the owner of the house and a couple of his friends were also working. So he is not a member, but his wife is and his kids are members, but they don't go to church. But one of the big obstacles for their progress has been that they weren't married, but they are getting married on the 14th of February now and we are going to try to get them to accept a baptismal date this week for probably the beginning of March. So we're excited about that.

Apart from that, we went and did exchanges with the Zone Leaders which was fun. I got to be with Elder Crompton from my MTC group. I haven't seen him very much at all in the mission honestly. He was one of the last people from my group that I saw a second time, like after the MTC and the meetings with the new missionaries. So it was cool to be able to catch up a little bit. Love the guy. It was super fun. While we were on intercambios, we found a little trail that took us to a little cemetery we had no idea existed so you'll get some cool pictures of that. 

A couple of days after that, on Saturday, we went down and were there in Curico all day, all afternoon, doing the Book of Mormon activity that I told you about that we did last week here in Licantén. We helped the other district out to do it down there. Found a lot of people. I got to practice my Creole a little bit. There are some Haitians down there. One of the people I contacted was a member from Haiti. He started singing How Firm a Foundation in Creole so that was pretty fun...I got to see something a little different.

Pamela is doing really well. She's progressing. She went to church again this week. She seems super excited for her baptism. And her family is really cool.

We just got here to the library to write so that's about as much as I'm going to be able to get to for my reporting this week. But I'm excited for this next week. We have zone conference. That'll be good. I'm excited about that. But yeah, we're working hard. We're seeing a little bit more progress in our sector this change than I think the missionaries have seen in a little while so I'm excited about that as well. Me and Elder Hiatt are still getting along great, having a good time. I hope you guys are all doing well.

A little thought: I was just the other day talking about General Conference talks and I realized how little I took advantage of the easy access I had to General Conference talks before the mission and now I listen to them quite a bit more often. But before the mission I never really took advantage of that opportunity we have so often to hear the prophet's voice and to listen to the Lord's message that he has for us in our day. So if you haven't listened to a General Conference talk recently, I invite you to do that. I think it'd be a good opportunity because we are so blessed to have such easy access.

I love you guys. Hope you're all doing well. Have a nice week. Bye Bye!

Elder Olson

Hanging around town

Little hidden Cemetery

Elder Hiatt and Elder Olson

cake in a cup

week 44: Lots of Rain!

Hello, (I learned out to say hello in dutch this week but I forgot)

It's been a rainy week down here in Curico. It's rained more than half of this week, and it's still going strong today. The not-so-fun part of that is taking the 15 minute walk to get to our sector. I'm definitely grateful for my rain boots.

The canal systems aren't too fantastic down here. A lot of the roads are in such deep water that cars can't use them. I'm grateful to be in a 5th story apartment to avoid flooding. My Filipino friend (former housemate) Elder Belayro wasn't so lucky though. We saw their sector on the news in a member's house. I called them, and it sounds like their house is filled with water and they're looking for a new one. This week we were also in a house teaching when suddenly we heard a band and water began to drip down the walls and fall through the ceiling. We were there another hour helping fix their roof and dry their things.

On top of the rain, we've had trainings to give, interviews with President, exchanges to do and lots of service. We've had almost no time to go out to the sector which is a bit of a bummer.

On Saturday, we did 3 services. We hauled a lot of huge, soaked logs. The wheelbarrow broke under the weight, so we would load them up on our shoulders and carry them the 2 blocks to the less-active member's house. My shoulders are still super bruised.

Luckily we actually have weights here in our apartment so my exercise has leveled up a little bit.

I had a weird experience in the ghetto on exchanges this past Thursday. We ran into a drunk girl and her boyfriend fighting. She ran over to us asking for help. We were worried that he was going to hit her, so we talked them down. I was basically running in circles the whole time trying to get away from the girl who kept trying to hold my arm or hand and was too drunk to understand the word "no." Eventually, we got the two of them in their houses without calling the cops.

It's been a crazy week. I'm a bit stressed but I feel good and I'm sure things will calm down soon.

Pray and read your scriptures!

Love,
Elder Olson

Wall Mural along the street

Mate (the drink) in an apple

Elder Heap and Elder Olson...Companions

Week 15: "100th day" & "Service"

December 6, 2016

Friends and Family,

Another good week done! This week we had the opportunity to do service for two sisters in the branch here. On Thursday we started off the month with the #lighttheworld day of service. We spent hours scraping paint and sanding the doors and window frames of an hermana, and we'll be finishing the job this week. We also spent a morning sorting a bin full of garbage and firewood. I saw more spiders doing that service than ever before in my life, and they were seriously all the size of a Quarter or larger, but I really enjoy the change of pace that comes with service projects like that.

This week I passed my 100th day in themission. It's crazy how fast the time's been going. A few of my inbestigators have told me that I look like I've lost weight, and I've lost about seven pounds. I guess I'd rather get skinny than fat, so that's pretty cool.

The spanish has been coming along really well. The Brazilians in our house have apparently heard me sleep talking about the mission in perfect Spanish. So far I've had to take their word for it, but they say it happens all the time and Elder Melo has started sleeping with his camera to record me.

Also, I bought myself an early Christmas present. I'll have to try to send a picture. Let's just say we play a lot of soccer here.

This week I was reading in Alma 31 where he's praying for the apostate Zoramites. He talks about how his heart is sorrowful, and asks for comfort. He then asks not to have his afflictions taken away, but for strength to suffer. He follows that request by turning outward and thinking of his fellow missionaries, praying for their comfort and success.

Even powerful Book of Mormon prophets faced apostasy and rejection; but we all have a purpose in God's plan, and we can never know what the long term effects of our actions will be.

I hope you can all have Christ in the center of your homes this Christmas season.

Amor,
Elder O

Elder Olson opened his first Christmas package we sent in his suitcases with him. I marked it "OPEN DECEMBER 1st". He said to me... "the tree and stockings are hanging in our house now. It's awesome to have a bit more Christmas spirit in the house. " I sent some other things for him to open on Christmas day and he's been super good about not opening them early. Fortunately, his Aunt (my sister-in-law) will be going down to a city in his area to visit her parents who live there in January and has offered to bring some other things down and drop them off at the mission home for him. I am very grateful for her willingness to do that.

he found a "hover board" to play on

He's enjoying the beauty of the country

Elder Olson's Christmas present to himself. Soccer Cleats. (he never thought he'd be owning a pair for himself before the mission.)

Week 4 - 1 month down - in the Mexico CCM

From: Jacob Olson <jacobbrianolson@myldsmail.net>

Subject: Re: Emailing so it gets there

Date: September 22, 2016 at 1:12:07 PM MDT

To: Julie Olson <rjolsonfamily@gmail.com>

Dear Friends and Family,

Sadly this letter is going to be wicked short because i put it off until the end of email time and I want to get a few pics on here. It's been a good week, we've really gotten into the routine and the time is starting to fly.

Speaking of time, I had a pretty clever (yet stupid) idea for a prank involving my comp´s alarm clock. He has one of those clocks with the bells on top that you only ever see in cartoons. We locked it in Elder Haar's closet set to go off at 1:30 in the morning. Super funny, BUT the next night I woke up  at 1:30 to, you guessed it, that same alarm clock. I opened my closet (Elder Musselman being the gentleman that he is pretended he was sleeping through it and I had no problem with taking care of it) and found behind my suitcase on the top shelf the clock, padlocked inside a toiletry bag. I just threw it out into the hall so Elders Haar and Jensen could deal with it, but guys, don't play pranks in the MTC.

This sunday we watched two recorded devotionals from Elder Bednar and Elder Holland. Absolutely fantastic. Bednar's was themed around mosiah 3:19, and focusing on turning outward rather than focusing on yourself. I invite you all to search for specific examples of the savior doing this in His own ministry. We will find the most success when we are absolutely selfless. Elder Holland also gave a quote I enjoyed: "You show me how your obedience is and I will show you how your mission will be.¨" 

I've been trying extra hard to apply these talks to my life. While my comp was practicing the piano (he accompanies the choir) I noticed a man cleaning the auditorium. I asked him using my limited spanish if I could help, and spent the next half hour helping him (his name was Javier) to clean. Also, this week I placed my first Book of Mormon. There is a construction project here at the CCM, for which they use private contractors who are not necessarily members of the church. We stopped to talk to one (named benjamin) and gave him a Book of Mormon. He didn't seem particularly interested, but he took the book. I've just been glad to have some opportunities for some kind of service while I'm still in the MTC.

We also got to participate in a celebration for Mexican Independence Day, which has been our only chance to get a little wild since we've gotten here. I've attached some pics below (I also want you all to notice how scary the way my companion is staring at me in the first picture is...hahaha)

I'm loving the emails/letters/packages im getting from everyone, as well as the updates on BYU football from my fam, so keep it coming.

Les amo mucho,

Elder Olson

Also, Enjoy how fantastically dorky we all are. Love you all <3

P.S. (friends and family) I love getting pictures from you guys so please send me more of those. Thanks <3