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

March 14, 2017

Hola,

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

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

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

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

Les quiero,
Elder Olson

Pot is legal here in Chile

"Camping out" again.

Family Home Evening with our District and Members and Investigators

Dinner with members.

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

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

Week 28: New Investigators, Old Friends

March 7, 2017

Howdy y’all,

Wow, this week flew by super fast.  It was really good though. We were working constantly. We found a lot of new investigators. Sadly, almost all of them are unmarried couples living together, which makes our job a bit harder. Luckily they’re all really smart and receptive though.

Another cool part of this week was making the 4-hour trip to Talca to fill out some papers for my visa. We had to be there at 8:30am, so we went down Sunday night to stay the night with my old friend Elder Haar! We got down there a little early, so we went and ate once (once (ohs-say) is like a small dinner they eat here late at night) with some old investigators of Elder Terrazas.  The next day was Pday so after taking care of my visa we went and had a barbecue wi some other less actives.  I ran into a lot of other missionaries I knew, and even some members from San Clemente which was awesome.  It was great to see everyone.

Also, my bike broke again on Friday and the mission still hasn’t been able to get me the replacement parts I need.  I’m getting pretty sick of the 45 minute walk to our area, but at least I have a lot of time to talk with my comp.

This week I read a talk called “The Fourth Missionary,” which was super awesome.  I've been focusing on having the changes of heart that I need in order to become a more consecrated missionary. I really have changed a lot in the last few weeks, and I’ve realized that changing our actions isn’t enough, we need to change everything down to our thoughts and beliefs.  I promise that by following the counsel of Omni 1:26 and offering our whole souls to Him, He will change us.  I love you guys and I love this work.

Que Dios les bendiga (God bless you),

Elder Olson

A couple of pictures:

The Buin Zone in their Buin TShirts. Jacob is kneeling on the bottom right

The Buin Countryside