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 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 

from a Chilean member, Hermano Torres

NOTE: this is not from Elder Olson. This is a letter sent to Elder Olson's parents concerning Elder Olson and the baptism of Jorge.

Hi! I'm Heraldo Torres . Im member of the church and I have been working with elder Olson and elder Lee of the Baquedano branch, Chile Rancagua stake. It has been a great blessing to work with these two missionaries. Recently I baptized Jorge Droguet . I visited Jorge with the elders and it has been awesome to see him progress. 

I attach some picts of these missionaries. 

Thank you for sharing with us those wonderful missionaries !!!

Heraldo Torres L.

Hermano Torres, Jorge and Elder Olson and Elder Lee

week 68: Throw out the Tea and Coffee

December 11, 2017 (transcription of audio letter)

Hey guys, hows it going? 

This is week 3 of transfer 11 and right now we are on the bus headed back to Rancagua from Rengo. 

We just finished a Pday activity. We went out to Rengo to try to climb a mountain. It did not go so hot, but we had a good time. We had the Elders from Rengo, which is about an hour away from Rancagua, we had them looking for a hill for us to climb as a zone because everybody in the zone wanted to do that for a Pday. So they found, well they kind of found one, they'd talked to some people and they had told them about this hill that we'd have to take a bus to get to and it was up kind of in the mountain range a little bit. So we got to Rengo at about 10:30 at about 11 we took a bus. We thought the bus was going to be a 15 minute ride, 10 minutes maybe, but it turned out to be like an hour long bus ride to the place where we were headed...maybe between a half an hour and an hour. So we got off and it was kind of just the middle of nowhere but we found a trail that was kind of by a campsite. Then we started hiking and first ran into some bee farms so we had to double back and find another trail. So we hiked along for a while and the trail just got smaller and smaller and less and less. I don't know, less hike-able. We, after about half an hour, it got to the point where we were just breaking branches and ducking through trees and trying not to get snagged by too many thorns. Kind of just bushwhacking to make our way through but we were really determined to try to get to the top of the hill. But by the time we got to somewhere which was probably the top, there were just trees everywhere and the trail kind of just disappeared and it was time to head back to make it to the bus. So in the end it was kind of a bummer that we didn't get any cool views or anything like that from the top of the hill, but it was still fun to get out and do something a little different. We got some good group pictures so it was a good time. 

This week has been good. It's been awesome. We've actually been working alot with one of our investigators, his name is Jorge. He is an investigator that Elder Davis and I found in probably the last week of the last change. And he's doing great. I really think he's going to get baptized. He's come to church twice now. Last time we talked to him about the importance of staying for all 3 hours and he actually stayed for the whole time. He also came to a special lesson we had with President Harris and the Stake President here in our stake center in Rancagua. So that was really cool. He's had a lot of questions get answered. He's thrown out his tea and started drinking herbal tea instead. Oh here in Chile, I don't think I've ever described this before but, everybody either drinks tea or coffee or if they're mormon they drink herbal tea or coffee substitute. The one they normally drink is called Ecco that comes from a grain actually rather than coffee but it tastes similar. But EVERYBODY drinks one of those two things. Normally in the night, with their last meal, their onceE~ they drink some of that. So Jorge, his only problem with the word of wisdom, was the tea and coffee, but he wasn't very stubborn about giving it up. After we taught it and asked him if he would do it, if he would keep the word of wisdom, he didn't sound super sure with his commitment but he said he'd do it. And then the next time we went back, he'd given out his tea and he'd switched to herbal tea and was looking for a good coffee substitute and we're going to have to confirm whether he actually left the coffee or not, but I think he did. So he's doing really well. Also in our last lesson with him, we were talking about his baptismal date, which WAS for the 13th of January and he asked if he could get baptized sooner. He wants to get baptized this month, in December, which is awesome. We're going to do everything we can to get him baptized as soon as possible. He's got a shot at getting baptized on the 23rd, right before Christmas, so keep him in your prayers. Hopefully he can make some progress and achieve his goal of being baptized and really being converted. 

Apart from that, on Wednesday we had zone conference with all of the northern zones here in the mission, so it was a little bigger than normal. There were 5 zones there instead of the normal 2. We talked a lot about companionship study and charity. It was good. There was a lot of things I learned I think. We did a part as zone leaders where we took our zones aside and talked about companionship study and did a little fun activity and I think it went well.

Also this week, on Sunday, the Branch President asked me to give a talk in Sacrament meeting which I haven't had to do so far in the mission actually because all of our branches so far and wards have been generally big so I haven't had to give a talk before in sacrament meeting...just get up and give my testimony. So it was fun to prepare the talk. I think it well as well. I talked about being the Light, to go along with the Light the World theme. And we as a mission right now are doing a thing with the members where we are inviting them to pray for missionary experiences and to have missionary opportunities to be able to share the gospel with others, even if it's something small. But every morning and every night we are asking them to pray and to ask for those experiences because really I think a lot of the members and a lot of members in the church in general, we just don't know how to look for those experiences, or we get so caught up in our other things, our other responsibilities, that it doesn't even cross our minds...at least for me it was that way. I was always so busy with my own things, that I never looked for opportunities to be a missionary with others. I still had a few opportunities but I was not very good at actively looking for them. So that's something that I would like to help members here, as well, be able to improve. That's something that I've seen in myself, something I've been able to improve being here on the mission and I hope it's going to be a lasting change. 

Other stuff that has happened in the week...

Yesterday the missionaries in our branch had to go sing in a Christmas devotional to support our branch choir, because the branch isn't too big. They had been saving up for several weeks to come help. So we went over to the stake center and added our voices to the choir. Also, my companion and I sang in a stake choir because they called us and asked us to help with that as well. And I think we're going to be singing at least once or twice more this week. We have another activity in Rengo in the community on Wednesday where we're going to sing and talk to the ...I don't know how many of us missionaries are going to sing and if they are going to have some missionaries contacting people while the rest of us sing...I'm not sure how their ward has this planned out but we'll see how it goes. 

I don't know if there's much more to add but I'm very glad everything is going good. I hope you guys are all having good times or remembering to light the world. So I think that's going to be it. Love you guys. Take care!