week 93: Locals need bus money to get to church

Transcription from Audio Letter June 4, 2018

Hey guys, this is week 4 of transfer number 15.

It's been a pretty normal week. We're here in the cyber. I forgot to, well I didn't make an audio recording before now so trying to make one real quick.

This week I was talking with my comp trying to think of something interesting to tell you guys about. During the week we worked a lot in Hualane,a little town near Licanten. Which went pretty well. We talked with A LOT of people this week. Trying to up our game to find new people. But we feel like since we've been doing that, we've been having the opposite effect. Well, we have this goal as a mission of contacting 200 people every week of the change, and in Licanten there aren't a lot of people there. So we're putting in extra effort, contacting the buses. We stand up and talk to everyone on the bus. Actually on exchanges with another missionary, with Elder Christensen, we stood up at the front of the bus and sang hymn and then went around and contacted everybody on the bus. And yeah, so...we've been trying. We've been trying really hard to find new people.

The new family that I told you guys about, that we found last week, didn't come to church. They said it was because they didn't have money for the bus. So we'll see what ends up happening with them. It really was because they didn't have money, because here that's not such an uncommon thing...that they don't have the four dollars for the round trip. So yeah, we're going to have to see. We haven't been able to have another lesson with them since church yesterday. 

Yesterday we had the devotional. The mission president had asked us to watch that. So that was good. It was cool to see President Nelson's energy again. It always surprises me a little bit...just how much energy he has. And I loved how direct and how specific he was in his challenges for the youth. I think that's great! Especially as a missionary I've seen when we make specific invitations, that's when we're going to act. So I think it's great that he made such specific invitations such as the 7 day social media fast and the weekly sacrifice of time for 3 weeks. I think those are really realistic invitations and I know that we will be blessed for doing them. And I think that they are great ideas. So if any of you didn't see the youth devotional, President Nelson invited the youth to go for 7 days without using any form of social media and for 3 weeks to make a sacrifice of time in doing something they like to do, to use it to serve the Lord or serve others in some way...well to serve others and by doing that we serve the Lord. That can be temple work, that can be actual service, which will be great. So for any of you who didn't see that, I think it's still a really great idea for any of us to try that. I would be doing the 7 day social media fast and the sacrifice of time but I'm doing both already, so there's not all that much I can change to do more than that right now but the other things he said, I'm looking for ways to apply those in my life. He also really called my attention to what his wife said about (ministering?) really impressed me. 

Then this morning we had a little zone activity. We just put on EFY songs and had to interpretive dance to the EFY songs so that was pretty good. Ha. Something a little different. That's about it. We are here in Curico after the activity. I'm probably going to go get a haircut because somebody this week told me my hair was too long, so that means it's time to cut it. 

Alright. Well, love you all. Hope you're all having a good week. Take care! Bye!

Elder Olson

week 92: Stuck without a bus

Transcription from Audio Letter. Sorry. No pictures. 

May 28, 2018

Hey Everyone, this is week 3 of transfer number 15. Another chilly, rainy day here in Licanten. Today we just had a really relaxed day. We got up (well we can't sleep in) but we didn't get up EARLY today. We just went to the gym a little later. We went to this little burger place that was really good. Cleaned the house super well. And that's about it. It's been really relaxed so far.

It's been a pretty good week. On Wednesday, I had a medical check up in Curico to get some blood work done. It's something, just some tests I have to get done every few months. But that meant we had to stay down in Curico all of Wednesday. So we arranged with the Zone Leaders to be working with them and it turned out that that day, out in another little town called Teno, there was a Book of Mormon Activity, which we did a couple months ago here in licanten. I don't know if you'll remember but I mentioned it. But basically we put up a table with these big old posters and talk about the Book of Mormon with people. Teno is a little, small town, a little more country, not nearly as much as Licanten, but kind of smaller place. There were a lot more people than in Licanten, but they weren't quite as...well they were pretty direct about not wanting anything. My favorite was that there was this line of people that were waiting for bread, because everybody buys their bread every day in Chile. So they're waiting outside the bakery and one of the missionaries went over and started talking to them and they were literally right in front of the table but they would say, "Nope. I don't want to talk to you." They'd say that they were busy, but they were literally just standing there in line. Or the other people waiting for the bus. But there were some good people...pretty receptive people. And the Zone leader surprised us there with...well they bailed in the middle of the activity and we were planning on going back to Curico to work with them in the night. But...so they just left one of them sent me a text and said, "Hey just so you guys know, you guys are going to stay here in Teno and accompany them to a lesson, so they can enter with this investigator." So we were like "Alright?" So the Teno Elders got ahold of some extra bikes and we rode out clear in the middle of nowhere...it was pretty far out...into the middle of nowhere. And we rode out there and it was pretty late, a little past 8:30. And it gets dark here around 6 o'clock now and so it was pretty dark. It was pretty cold. But we were all good. We got out there, had the lesson, and then came back. By the time we left the lesson it was 9:30 and we were pretty worried about being able to get back to Curico. We went and we were looking for a bus and nothing was passing by and nothing was passing by. I saw a guy waiting at a bus stop and we stopped a bus and asked the driver if there was a bus coming from Curico to Teno, and he said there were no more buses going from Teno to Curico. We were like, "Shoot. We're going to have to sleep on the ceramic tile floor of the house in Teno without any of our stuff...just in our proselyting clothes." So I was a little bummed about that. But we started riding back to their house, and coming the opposite direction, we see a bus. It had to have been the LAST bus. Well, supposedly there weren't buses passing by that hour, but it was going for Teno. So my companion and I basically jumped off our bikes, threw them to the side, waved goodbye to the other Elders and left them to take our bikes back to their house. But we got the bus. So we made it back to Curico and we took a taxi to the Zone Leader's House. So it worked out great. And it was good that we were able to have the lesson.

On Friday we had interviews with president Harris.  The training that the Zone Leaders gave during interviews was pretty good. I really liked it. It's been a little while since we've had one that I really enjoyed, so that was cool. And I had a really good interview with the President. Talked about some of the goals I have for ending the mission and he expressed a lot of faith that we were gonna be able to achieve those things. So I was pretty excited about that. It was one of my longer interviews that I've had in a little while, since I've had a really good interview like that.

So apart from that, this week's been pretty relaxed...well, actually, after the interviews we were working harder than ever. Relaxed isn't the word. But pretty normal. Nothing too exciting happening besides going out to Teno there.

We did find a family this week. Well last week, to backtrack, we passed by the local courthouse and they had brought (I think I mentioned this a couple months ago) there was a guy who had kidnapped a little girl and had her in the forest around Licanten for a little over a week. And they have the guy and they were doing his trial that day. They had like SWAT buses there and it was a big deal because it turns out the family of the little girl was trafficking drugs... a lot of really complicated stuff. Anyway, there were a ton of people there all gathered around the courthouse. So we went over to talk to some people and also see what was going on. And there was this lady who waves us over and I was holding a Book of Mormon and she was like, "Hey, can I have a copy of that book?" And I was like, "Of course," obviously. And so we gave her the book, got her address and the other day we taught their family. And they're really good. She's SUPER SUPER receptive and seems to understand pretty well as well, and we had another visit with them last night with the ward mission leader and they accepted a baptismal date for the 7th of July. I would love to see them baptized before I leave. But it looks like I'm probably going to be leaving June 26th, if everything I talked about with President and with what's happening, I'll probably be going to another sector for the last change of the mission. But they're really great. I'm really hopeful. If they really progress and they come to church, then we could move their baptismal date to a little closer. But they would have to attend every Sunday starting now. 

So I hope you guys are all doing well. I had a really good week. Ha, sorry for being so scatterbrained during the recording. But love you all.

As far as a spiritual thought goes, I read an article on Ministering that had some great references to listening. And that's a big thing with Preach My Gospel as well...there's a great section in there on Listening. And I really liked, I think it was James 1:19, which talks a little bit about that. So for my spiritual thought, go ahead and look that up. 

Well have a good week, guys. Take care! Bye!

Elder Olson

PS - Interesting add on to the story... Graciela who contacted us and asked for the book of mormon, has later told us that she can't read. The Spirit testifies of  the Book of Mormon to God's children in every circumstance.

week 79: Lost in the country

February 26, 2018 (transcription from audio file)

Hey everyone, Elder Olson here, this week 2 of transfer 13. 

Alright. So this week has been super good. At the beginning of the week nothing super crazy happened. We had changes here, and everything stays the same for us here in Licantén. Our district, the only person that changed was Elder Crompton left and Elder Rogers followed me down from Rancagua. So it's really cool to see him again. Really cool guy. Love that guy. 

Let's see.

So on Wednesday we had a meeting to set goals and plans as a zone. It's starting to get pretty old...the meeting...after having done it for quite a few changes now. They started it 5 or 6 changes ago. It's super important, but man, I had a hard time staying awake in that one. But it was really good and we as a district set some goals that I think are going to challenge us a lot. But we are already, judging from the first week this transfer, it looks like we are on track to smash our goals this change so I'm pretty excited about that. And then on Friday morning we had to go down to Curico to do stuff for my second Carnet. A Carnet is like the identity you have down here, like the personal id. So I had to get that stuff done because I need a second one so when I go home, they let me on the plane. So yeah, that was good. 

And then that night I had to do a baptismal interview for a couple of Elders in my district. And then the next morning, I had a leadership meeting, so we just stayed there in Curico all that day. We went and got lunch. We went and visited one of my converts, well not my convert, a recent convert from Curico who is a good friend of mine. It was good to see them. So that was cool. And then in the afternoon, we went back over to the house of the Elders down there in Curico to do splits with them. I went in a Trio with Elders Bundy and Moira, the other elders in the district, and we send my companion Elder Hiatt with the Zone leaders for some lessons that they had that day as well. So that was really fun. It was lame to lose a couple days in our sector. I guess it was a day and a half, but still. But it was still really good to be able to do splits with them. And then the baptismal interview, the investigator who was getting baptized, he wasn't able to make it down for the interview at the time that they'd planned, so we had to do it in the morning on the day of his baptism. But that was good. I love being able to participate in baptismal interviews. I think it's really cool to be able to have some one on one time with an investigator who is about to get baptized and hear a little bit more about their conversion and what they, I don't know, what they're going through as they're preparing to be baptized. So that went really well. He was baptized later that night after we left.

After that, we came back up to Hualañé, the other town that's up here by Licantén. In Hualañé, we had a lesson with a really cool Atheist who speaks English. A really good guy. I feel like I've met a lot of people in the mission, just like him. Like everybody who speaks English that I've met is either a Mormon or an Atheist. But it was cool to talk to him, get to know him a little better. He has some pretty different views. 

On Sunday, we had church, and in the third hour of church...so I normally give our class in the second hour, for gospel principles, and then in the third hour we had a combined meeting with the youth, the priesthood and the relief society, talking about an open chapel...kind of chapel tour we do here in the area that we are going to be doing this next month on March 10th. So my companion and I had the chance to present that to the branch. And so that was really good. It's gonna be kind of a different kind of open chapel because we don't have an actual chapel, we have a house, but we are still going to do a little tour, talk about the different organizations, and we're going to have some help from our district. Some missionaries are going to come up to help us out. So it should be fun. It'll be really cool. They responded to it really well. The training went great.

THEN...

We got home from church to find our house flooded. It was full of...well the main room and the kitchen were all just covered with water...the floors and anything that was on the floor. Luckily that wasn't too much stuff. And it had entered into our bedroom and a little bit into our office and it had filled the bathroom as well with water. So we cut the water. Luckily the neighbor wasn't in working that day. They are a dental clinic but they sometimes they take appointments on Sundays as well, but I was really glad they weren't there because the only way to cut our water is to cut their water as well. So we were able to cut the water and dry out all of the house. A flexible tube under the sink had torn while we were at church. I don't know how. I called our Elder's quorum president, who's Pamela's dad (she's the girl who just got baptized). Her dad knows a lot about that kind of stuff. He built his own house and so he was able to help us out with that. That night the owner brought us a replacement part and we put it on. So we got our stuff kind of cleaned out and dried out. Because of all that, we weren't able to make it to our lunch on time, so the Elder's quorum president gave us lunch as well which was nice of him. It was really great.

Then we went out to an appointment with a girl we had named Nurila(sp?). She was somebody that we contacted in the town square here in Licantén a couple days ago, and we set an appointment for Sunday afternoon. She lives about an hour by bus from Licantén. So it was pretty far. But she seemed really receptive. She told us that she was going to invite her family and the people that lived with them to listen as well and we were able to confirm it by phone, so we figured it was worth the effort to make it out there. But we waited for a while to find a bus. The first one passed by and was full. So we got on the second one we found, but that one went to Talca and didn't pass by exactly where we needed to go. Well when we got on, we asked the bus driver and he said it did, but it left us about 6km from where we needed to go. But we weren't sure exactly how far it was. So we started walking. We walked about a mile and decided that we were still pretty far so we'd wait for the bus. So we waited for a while, tried to hitchhike, because it had been a long time. But finally a bus passed and we were able to take it the last 5 minutes on bus to where we needed to go. Then we got there and had a GREAT lesson. She invited her neighbors. Her neighbors had been waiting there, because we got there late (because of the bus), but her neighbors had come over specifically to listen to us and were waiting there for that as well. And she also had some Haitians who lived in her house working for her and her husband. So we had a lesson with her, her neighbors, her daughter, and one of the Haitians. So that was really cool and they received it really well. That whole experience was kind of what I thought the mission would be like...walking for forever in the middle of nowhere to somebody who really wanted to hear the gospel and who was really receptive. And so it was kind of neat to have that experience. So that was really good. The lesson went really well. So we got out and we had a little bit over an hour left before the time we needed to be in the house so we figured we had some time to wait for the bus and then the hour bus ride. Then we waited for the bus for at least an hour that we were standing there. Luckily our Haitian friend who had listened to us...his name is Walter...he came out and stood with us the whole time waiting for the bus. Super nice guy. I got to practice my Creole for a little bit with him because he didn't speak much spanish. Finally, after an hour, at the time we should've been getting in the house, the bus passed by and we took the hour bus ride back to the house, standing up. And then on the ride back, the bus door broke and they had to pull over and the bus door was just stuck open and we were stuck for like ten minutes trying to fix the bus door. But finally they got it kind of fixed. They still had to kind of like lift it and pull it every time they wanted to shut it. But they got it mostly fixed, so we were able to get home, safe and sound. So that was, I don't know, a really cool experience. It was fun ;-)

That's about it for what happened this week. But to give you guys kind of a spiritual thought...I was listening to an old BYU talk by Mark Peterson, I think was his name, about the restoration. And it was really cool to listen to that and think about it and I thought a lot about how we are still IN the restoration, how the restoration is STILL going on. So we have a lot of work to do to get the world ready for the second coming of Christ. It's been cool this week, I've listened to a lot of missionary work themed talks, and a lot have talked about other countries, like China, India, Russia, places where it's been hard to establish the gospel. So it was cool to be able to hear about the miracles that have happened to prepare those places to receive the gospel. And I know that the Lord is guiding this work and he's preparing the whole world to receive the message that we are sharing with the people. 

So, I hope everybody is doing good. Love you guys, take care. Have a nice week. Bye!

Elder Olson

PAMELA's BAPTISM last week.

Pamela, Elder Olson, Elder Hiatt, Elder Bundy, Elder Moira

Waiting for the bus

Mopping up the house

Walking forever and ever