week 82: working the rural areas

March 19, 2018

Hey everyone this is week 5 of transfer 13.

It's been a good week.

We had exchanges with the Zone leaders this week. It went really well. I was with Elder Rogers who I've known since he started his mission back when I was in Buin. So that was really cool. We also have been in a zone together in Rancagua for a few changes. So we know each other pretty well. He's an awesome missionary. And it was really fun because he speaks really good Creole. The Haitian language. He speaks pretty fluently I would say. Although my Creole isn't perfect. They seem to understand him super well. So it was cool because I was able to practice and I was able to learn a couple things. We had two or three, no at least three lessons that were entirely in Creole which was cool and I was actually able to participate a little more in these. I've had them before all in Creole on exchanges with Elder Rogers. And I've been able to understand what was going on but not been able to express myself super well. But this time I was able to explain some stuff, I was able to give my testimony. That's what I've been studying a bit here in Chile. So yeah that was fun. And then we ended up, because of a thing they had, we extended the exchange for the next day. That night Elder Hiatt and Elder Tyce came down from Licantén and they brought my suit and stuff to stay in the Zone Leader's house there. And we also took advantage that night, we saw there was a deal at this place called Pela Pizza, which is like basically the only pizza chain here in Chile, and they had some large pizzas for only 4000 pesos which is like 6-7 dollars, which is...it's not the BEST pizza...but it's the best price for a decent pizza that you can get around here. So we were pretty excited about that so we all bought a ton of pizza. Which was awesome! And there were also some other Elders, Elder Crompton and Elder Musselman, both from my MTC group, Elder Musselman was my companion. They  were staying there that night to do some things for Elder Cromptons Passport and Visa. So that was a lot of fun to be able to catch up with them too. 

On Saturday, we had a lesson in this little town called ?. It's  just one road and it's super super country, very rural. And so the cool part with that was that we, well she was a member reference, the cousin of the Elder's quorum president, she's less active, but she has a daughter (the Mom's name is Karen, the daughter's name is Darling) and Darling isn't a member. She was listening to the members before. She had a baptismal date that she was pretty excited about. But she didn't get baptized because I think she was studying and had to leave to go to school. Now she's back and she's just barely finishing her degree this week. So we had the visit and her and her mom were super excited that we were there. They received us really well. The mom's husband did NOT receive us that well. He went and hid. But it was good to be able to have the lesson with the other two. Darling is like 21 or I think she might be 23 but she's just finishing her nursing degree. So we are excited to be working with them. One of the coolest parts of that lesson was at the very end, the mom, Karen, gave a prayer to finish the lesson and in her prayer, she basically said that she was grateful that we had been there to their house and she was grateful that we had arrived in what she said was the perfect moment. She was thankful that her daughter was ready to be baptized, and she basically said, at the very end, thank you for rescuing me and please don't let me go. It was just very sincere and really incredible to hear that prayer. So that went really well.

This week we've also set baptismal dates with some other investigators. One named Max and one named Juan. And Max is a Haitian, he speaks English. He went to church on Sunday. He's awesome. OH, we also had in church on Sunday, this family from Hualañe where we've been working a lot. But it's been hard to get people to come to church from out there. So that was awesome. They're really cool. His name is William, he's a less active, and then his family are not members. So we've been working with them. The Branch President is very psyched to be working with them.

Oh, Yesterday night, we had a bunch of plans for stuff to do and we had plans to go out and work with the Branch President. We had plans to go up to this other pueblo called Vichuchen, and we were super psyched, all ready to go, we had a couple cita's and then we had another one back in Licantén in the late evening. And we called all our cita's to confirm all our appointments and every single one of them fell through and we were like, shoot, what do we do? And it came to our mind to call this investigator who I mentioned a couple of weeks ago who lives WAY out in the middle of nowhere about an hour away. So we called her and she said yeah I'm here. Come on out to visit. So we told the Branch President, and he was NOT excited about it because it was so far and he was worried that it would not be a good use of time. I think that's a very valid concern. But we felt that there was a reason we were going there. So on the way there, I told him a little bit about the family, about how they had invited their neighbors to the last lesson, how she had read and how receptive she was and he started getting a little more excited. And then we got there and her son was there for just that, well he comes down on the weekends every once in a while. We hadn't met him before. But our Branch President had given the son a Book of Mormon before, but we had no idea. And so it was quite  a big coincidence. The Branch President was REALLY excited to be there teaching them. So it kind of turned that situation from something that could've been uncomfortable to something awesome. 

So that's about it. I hope you guys are all having a good week. Sorry that this recording has been a little scattered. We were walking to the library and we got in here. Love you, Bye!

Elder Olson

P.S. - In other not mentioned news, it rained a bunch this week.

The entire Rancagua Mission at the time of Elder Christofferson's visit. Elder Olson is on the right half. About the 5th row back, three male heads in.

This spider was crawling on Elder Hiatt's foot

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