week 78: Elder Christofferson's visit and Pamela's Baptism

February 19, 2018 (transcription from audio file)

Hey everyone, Elder Olson here, this week 1 of transfer 13. Wow!

So this week has been really good. It's been really cool. 

We started off on Tuesday going to Rancagua. We had a big meeting with the whole mission because it was one of the only opportunities we were going to have to get the whole mission together because of the Christofferson meeting. So we all went up to Rancagua and we had a big meeting with everybody in the mission which was really cool. It was fun to see a lot my friends there. It was good to talk with Elder Rogers, and well Elder Lee who was my last companion and his companion is Elder Rogers who was in our zone before. They have been in my other sector in Baquedano. And it's been crazy. 

They told me about a lot of the success they've been having there. And it looked like four of the investigators that we had, two I found with Elder Davis and two we found with Elder Lee, four of them were baptized in these last couple weeks which is incredible. I'm not quite sure which ones I've mentioned. I know I've mentioned Alejandro. He used to be doing really well at one point and then we left and so for a little while he didn't get anything but they started teaching him again. And they baptized Aileen who we found in a really cool way. Her cousin contacted us on the street and said "Oh look, I'm a member from this other town and my cousin lives right over here. Talk to her." And she ended up getting baptized. And then Victor, who I don't think I really ever mentioned, he was an investigator who was progressing really slowly, but I had a lot of hope for him and he finally did it. His wife was the first person we contacted with Elder Davis on that first day in that sector. We contacted his wife in the street and found out she was a less active member. And in our time there, she started going to church, started paying her tithing, she was there every week. He came 4 or 5 times to church but was progressing really slowly. But finally overcame some word of wisdom difficulties and was baptized. So I'm super excited for him. And then the last one is named Juan Diego. Who is a Columbian who moved to come down with his girlfriend here in Chile. So they were all baptized this last change, which I was super excited to hear about. It's really cool to see how much fruit came from all of our work there in that sector. I probably worked harder there than I had, well I worked pretty hard my whole mission, but I really tried to give it my all there and they saw results because of that. And we saw some while I was there with Jorge so that was really cool to hear about.

And then on Tuesday night we went and we slept in the house of some members in Rancagua which was different. That's not something that happens very often. That basically never happens. So we slept in the house of some members in the Tupahue Stake in the Los (?) Ward. A less active member offered his house for us to stay there so we would be ready to go to the training in the south of Santiago on the next day. So then the next day we got up there, we got to the church at seven in the morning and then we went up to Santiago and had the meeting with Elder Christofferson and Elder Bragg, the seventy who's in our area presidency who came a couple months ago. And it was cool to hear from them. My favorite part I think was hearing Elder Christofferson's testimony about president Nelson. It was just a very powerful testimony from someone who knows President Nelson very well. So it was a testimony builder for me to hear that. I know President Nelson is a prophet of God. And I know that Elder Christofferson is an apostle and that he has keys for his calling and he is called of God. He's no ordinary man. So I got to shake his hand and everything. We had a short meeting with him...about 2 hours. It wasn't really focused on any particular theme. I would say it was kind of on general missionary work. Maybe if I went back and listened to it again I'd find a theme for it. Talked also quite a bit about worthiness and having the spirit. That's something very important for all missionaries to understand. 

The day after that we went down to Rancagua and had the 5 weeks training for the trainers and trainees, which was really cool. It was short and sweet. I really liked it. I kind of just made a little list of things that I could improve. The big thing that I got out of all of the meetings we had this week is that we need to read the Book of Mormon more. That's something that the Church is stressing a lot and our mission had been stressing a lot for a long time. Teaching out of the Book of Mormon.

We had a good experience with that this week, reading through a chapter with an investigator and teaching the lesson out of the chapter. It's not the first time I've done that but it went VERY smoothly and the spirit was VERY strong. It was a really positive experience. So it's kind of a testimony that we should use the Book of Mormon as much as possible in all lessons. And we should help our investigators gain a personal testimony of the Book of Mormon. 

On Friday we had a baptismal interview with Pamela. She did great. She was very ready. The interview lasted in total about twenty minutes which was so short. Normally they last about an hour. So the fact that it was so short kind of surprised us. But yeah, she was excited. And then she actually asked ME to baptize her. I was a little surprised. I was assuming that her dad was going to baptize her, and I suggested that her dad should baptize her. But she wanted her dad to confirm her and she wanted me to baptize her. So that was a cool experience. That was something that until now on my mission I hadn't had that opportunity so it was really cool to be the one performing the ordinance. It was just a positive, it was a good, experience. She's very, I don't know, logical about things. She's not very sentimental. But when the baptismal service finished she got pretty emotional for one of the first times that I've seen. So it was pretty cool to see that she was touched in some way by the baptismal service. Then she was confirmed on Sunday without any problems. So we are super excited for her. She's great. 

This week we also set a baptismal date with a Haitian named Justin...well close to Justin, we'll call him Justin. He speaks SOME Spanish. The ward has been SUPER welcoming to him and this other Haitian, who are basically the only Haitians in Licantén. It's such a small town. They've been super welcoming. There had been a miscommunication. They thought he didn't have a bed to sleep on so some of the members, without us having talked to them or anything, they went and found a bed for him and had taken it to his house. In the end it was something to do with blankets that he had actually needed. But he had misunderstood them because his Spanish is not fantastic. But it's not bad either. It's pretty good as far as Haitians go. Especially because he only had a couple months here in Chile. I think he said he only had 2 or 3, but less than 6 months here so I was impressed with the Spanish he does know for having only a little time here. And he's already come to Self-Reliance classes, he's come to church twice, so his baptismal date is for the 24th of March. We put it a little further out to make sure he'll be able to understand the doctrine and really make sure he's able to understand what he's doing before he gets baptized. So it's not just something that we kind of push him into. And so if we or he feels like he's ready before that, he can get baptized earlier. So we're excited for him. It's been cool to practice my Creole. I'm pretty sure I've gotten better. I'm pretty happy with that. I've been practicing a bunch with him in our lessons.

Also this week they told us about transfers. So it looks like I'm going to be staying here in Licantén and Elder Hiatt will also be staying here with me. We'll be together another change, which will be super fun. We're pretty excited about that. He's a good guy.

Elder Crompton is being changed, he's one of my good friends from the MTC, but he's going to a sector that's out in another district in a small branch. And Elder Rogers, who had replaced me in our last sector, came down here with me, to be companions with our Zone Leader, Elder Tyce. Our Zone now, a lot of us, are the same ones that were in my zone in Rancagua. Which is cool. A lot of good missionaries. It's a lot of fun.

So yeah, I think that's about it. I hope you all are doing good. I hope you all are taking advantage of the gift that we have in the Book of Mormon and one thing that Elder Bragg said was to find a scripture about Christ and his sacrifice that helps us to feel even more love for Him. I can't remember the ONE that I had decided was MINE. The scripture that most made me feel that. But I really love 1 Nephi 19:9 (I believe) which says, "And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge Him to be a thing of naught. Wherefore, they scourge Him and He suffereth it. And they smite Him, and He suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon Him and He suffereth it because of his loving kindness and long suffering towards the children of men."  I really like that scripture and I think it shows Christ's love for us and his patience with us when we are imperfect. Elder Hiatt also wants me to tell you that it's his favorite scripture as well. He loves it so much :-). 

Well, Love you guys. Hope you're all having a good week. Ciao!

Elder Olson

Sleeping in a members house...Their dogs wiped themselves on E Hiatt`s bed :)

Most of our group that goes home together, minus sisters and some latinos. We're 29 in total.

Another angle of the same group.

Chicken Fight!

week 58: See Others As God Sees Them

Transcription of Audio Letter.

October 2, 2017

Hi guys, Elder Olson here. Trying to get my recording done nice and early here. Today is week 5? week 5 in transfer number 9. Wow! This transfer's really been flying by.

Well it's been a SUPER busy week...an incredibly busy week. We had meetings every day, except for...no Thursday we still had meetings. We've seriously had meetings every day this week...unless you count P-day. We started off last Tuesday, we had a meeting with the District to watch the General Women's Session of Conference. It was really good. I'll save all my sexist jokes, seeings as how I'm a representative of the church and all that, but... it was good. I learned a lot and I really enjoyed it.

Wednesday we had our zone conference. We talked A LOT about the Book of Mormon. It has really been a big focus in the mission recently, especially this transfer. We've been trying to find new ways to use the Book of Mormon, to use it more effectively, to use it better in our teaching, to use it to find people and really just take advantage of this tool that we have because more than once the prophets have told us that the most powerful tool, along with the Holy Ghost, that we have as missionaries, is to convert people through the Book of Mormon. That's true for a mountain of reasons...I guess that doesn't make sense anyway... but haha for a lot of reasons. But mainly because it's the key to our religion. It's a really powerful tool and we need to use it better. So that was good. We had that part of the zone conference...so that was with President and the Assistants.  Then (with the zone) my companion and I we did a practice and a demonstration and we talked about how we could get people to better read because a lot of times we give people the book to read and they say they're gonna read it, but then they don't. So the trick is really verifying and making sure that they read. That went well. We were up LATE the night before practicing. Luckily the practice and everything went really well. My companion and I were really coordinated. It just went well overall.

Then Thursday we had almost a normal day. Well, we had a normal day but we had our mission leader coordination meeting with the ward mission leader that night, which was really good. Our ward mission leader here is FANTASTIC. He's probably the best mission leader I've had in my mission. He's the only one that I've had that actually coordinates the visits so members will be with us. So we can call him and be like, "hey, on Thursday we have this appointment with this person and we need a member to accompany us at that time...preferably an Hermana from the Relief Society or something like that." And he helps us out there and he's normally able to get the person in that time which is a huge help for use to not have to be calling a million people searching for somebody to do that. And that's really the mission leader's responsibility so it's good to have somebody who's actually doing what he's supposed to do.

And then on Friday we had what's called a capital abierta, which is an open chapel in Rengo, where my family's from. It was cool. It's a big ward. It's probably one of the bigger ones in the stake...if not the biggest it's one of the biggest. It came out really well despite the fact that we had a couple miscommunications about timing and about the number of missionaries that were going to be able to attend. We got together as almost the whole zone. We got everything set up on time. Then basically what it is , is like a tour of the Chapel. But at the same time it's more of talking about what we believe. The sister missionaries go through doing rounds of this tour with people coming in off the street. And they talk about first, our belief in Jesus Christ, and then they give like a super basic version of the missionary lessons and then there are a couple missionaries dressed in white in the baptismal font teaching about baptism and then the groups go through to each organization individually. The organization presents like two minutes about what the organization does. And then at the end we wait with Books of Mormon and pamphlets and we get references...or referrals...I guess is what they call them. My friend didn't know what references were the other day and I didn't know how to explain them. Referrals. Anyway, so that went really well. We brought in quite a few people off the street.  I also thought it was a really good opportunity to show some of the newer missionaries how we should be talking with everybody. During the open chapel especially, if there was somebody riding their bike on the other side of the road, my companion or I would run over to the other side of the road and stop the guy on his bike and talk to him about the chapel and invite him in. I think that's something that's not super common to see in our mission culture and so it was really good for the newer people because we have a lot of trainees in our zone...to see that and see that example.

It was also kind of cool because I found out a couple things with my family. I met one of my Aunt Marianela's cousins, her name's Valeska. She was there working in the open chapel. I also found out one of my cousins had been on a date with the wife of our ward mission leader here in Baquedano. So that's kind of funny. Just the connection that my family has to this area is kind of cool.

Then Saturday and Sunday we had general conference, so we went to the stake center in the center of Rancagua to watch it. Which was cool. It was good to have the opportunity to get together with all the other gringo missionaries in Rancagua and talk about and watch the general conference together. A lot of themes really stood out to me. I had several questions that I went into the conference...well with three questions, looking specifically for those answers and I found probably more than ten answers for each one of those questions. Because they weren't just like yes or no questions, they were more in depth. But I found a lot of answers and a lot of things that will really help me.

So one of the themes from general conference that I noticed that I really liked was the importance of seeing the divine potential in ourselves and in others. In Women's conference that was especially a theme and I feel like it's always a theme in Women's Conference from what I've seen, but I felt like it was a theme in other sessions as well...that we need to recognize that we are children of God, that we have the potential to become like him, but I think at least as important is that we realize that others have that same potential. To think "how does God feel about the way I'm treating His children? Is he happy about the way I'm treating his children? And really loving them and seeing their potential even when they HAVE WEAKNESSES? It's okay because we all have weaknesses and they have just as much of a right to move on from those weaknesses as you or I do." So I really liked that theme. I also saw that more than once when talking about local leaders. Here in Chile in particular, a common problem that I notice is quite a few people that don't support their leaders. Who have a branch president or a bishop and say basically that they don't do anything or that they aren't fulfilling their calling. But even IF that is true, saying that about that person is not going to help. That's not sustaining your leaders, that's not really seeing them as children of God. And the only way that we're gonna help the situation is if we help sustain them, if we do what they ask, if we magnify our callings or our priesthood or family responsibilities to the max...as much as we can. So I really enjoyed that and I really hope that people, including myself, can take that to heart and be examples of that kind of charity...seeing other people as God sees them.

It's been a good week. It's been a busy week. With all these meetings, we had a total of probably a total of 8-10 hours to proselyte, which is basically one day of work. But it turned out well and it was definitely worth it to have all of these experiences this week.

I want to share a short testimony with you that I know that God leads this church through prophets, through Thomas S. Monson in our time, and through the apostles that are supporting him especially in this moment that he is passing through difficulties with his health. I know that they receive revelation and that they are called of God. If we apply what they teach us in our lives, then we will be happier and have more success in our lives, the kind of success that is lasting and a more eternal success.

Also with all the messages about the Book of Mormon, I would just like to share my testimony as well that the Book of Mormon is true and that if we read it every day and meditate and ponder its precepts, we WILL come closer to God. We will come closer to him by doing this than we could ever come by applying the principles in any other book. I know it's true. And it was a long process for me, even though it was quite a while ago before my mission, to find that out for myself that the Book of Mormon is true. But when I really put in my part, and was sincere, I got my answer. I know that that book is the word of God.

I want you guys to know that and that I love you guys. I hope everything is well back home. I hope nobody's died from Hurricanes or Korea because that's what everybody talks about down here. Take care, have a good week!

Bye, Bye!

Meeting Aunt Marianela's cousin, Valeska

"Food Tasty" food truck :-)

Elder Davis "mowing" the missionary's lawn