week 90: Happy Mother's Day

Monday, May 14, 2018 (from audio transcription)

Hey everyone, this is week 1 of change number 15. It's probably going to be a pretty short recording. Not a lot of super crazy stuff has happened this week. 

We're here getting haircuts right now. So I figured I'd take advantage to make a quick recording. 

So this week, Elder Figueroa, my companion, went home. Well he goes home technically tomorrow morning, but he went up to Rancagua and he went to the temple in Santiago and then spent the weekend in Rancagua. So I've been with Elder Perry from Draper, here in Curico for the last couple of days. We made the trip to Licantén once, to attend church and everything because they need our help there. Elder Perry actually had to give a talk. It's not even his ward, but they made him do a talk in Sacrament Meeting. So it was pretty good. 

On, I think Friday, when we ate lunch with Elder Perry and the Zone Leaders, we were all eating lunch together and one of the Zone Leaders, his name is Elder Halverson, he told a story about how he had gotten flipped off that day in the morning by some guy driving. So he was laughing about it and it turns out we were overheard by some old lady and she didn't understand. And she asked her granddaughter who was there, "What is that? What does that mean?" And he was like, "No, it's just you put your middle finger up and.." And the lady was like, "Oh, like this?" And she started to give us all the bird and for probably about 20 minutes she probably flipped us off 20-30 times...and it was this little old lady, who's been a member for a few years. It was pretty funny. So that was something different that happened this week I guess. Haha.

In Licantén, in church on Sunday, I also gave a talk on the Mother's day theme, but the second counselor was directing the meeting and he gets up and he was like, "We'd like to give a special welcome to all the mothers who are here today." And there was this OLD grandpa, who's an aetheist but he comes to church sometimes because of his family there. So the counselor says, "We want to extend a special welcome to all the mothers today. Happy Mothers Day." And the old guy was like, "THANKS" (really low voice). And so like the counselors in the bishopric were trying not to laugh, and my companion was just dying in the front row. He was laughing so hard but trying to cover his mouth up. And I'm up at the piano trying not to smile too much. It was pretty funny though.

And then yesterday we had the chance to talk with the family, so that was awesome. It was probably the best video call, on my end at least. I really enjoyed it.

We found out the changes this week...the transfers. I am going to be staying in Licantén for another month and a half at least. I am going to be with Elder Garcia, from Mexico. So that'll be cool. He's pretty young in the mission. He's got under a year. He, from what I hear, is pretty reserved, pretty quiet. But Elder Figueroa was also a pretty reserved guy, didn't talk a ton. So that won't be too different. Things'll be pretty calm out there in Licantén. But it should be good. I'm excited to have a comp who's probably a little more willing to work this change. So this is going to be really cool. So I stayed in Curico last night and then tonight I'm also going to be staying here in Curico because we pick up my companion from the bus terminal tomorrow morning.

Our Zone got changed a little bit. They switched out a couple of the sectors and also closed one of the areas in our district so now we are only 10 missionaries in our zone which is very very few. So it should be a pretty different change, I think, from our last one and I think probably in a good way. I think we'll be a little more productive this next change, be a little bit more of a team with my companion so I'm excited for that. I'm excited to work. Ready to finish it out strong. Going into these last couple of months. 

Love you all. Hope you're all doing good. Hope everybody had a happy mother's day. take care. Bye!

Elder Olson

PS- A fun little Mother`s Day study for you all... HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Alma 53:13-14, 18, 20-21; 56:44-48, 56; 57:57

no electricity Sunday morning

I hear that flute Memes and videos are kind of the rage right now so enjoy a small musical number from Elders Olson and Figueroa

Farewell BBQ for Elder Figueroa

Elder Figueroa and Elder Olson

Elder Perry, Elder Olson, Elder Theiss

Elder Olson, Elder Theiss, Elder ?, Elder Perry, P-Day Pals

week 86: Building a House & Changes of Heart

April 16, 2018 (transcription from Audio letter)

Hey everyone, Elder Olson here. This is week 3 of Transfer number 14. Here in Licantén this week, it's been a pretty good week. A lot of work.

Last Monday, sorry for not being able to have a recording ready for you, or for NOT having a recording ready, I probably could have if I had remembered. But we had to take a last minute trip to Talca. They let us know about it the night before. We had to get up at about 5 in the morning to catch a bus to Talca. But it was cool to go. I hadn't been there for a while. That was where I, or the zone where I started my mission. So it was pretty cool to be back down there. And my old companion, my trainee, Elder Hiatt is down there and Elder Haar as well...one of my good friends. So it was cool to be able to see them, and seeing how it was for my companion's visa, he went with the secretaries and I went with Elder Haar and Elder Hiatt and all of them to their zone activities which was fun. It was cool to see people down there. I also got to talk with Elder Lee a bit. So it was a fun little trip. Then we got to come back up to Licantén. The bus ride was different from the normal one. Both the bus rides from Curico to here and from Talca to the area of Licantén are super pretty. So that's something that I like about this sector. 

And then during the week, we helped doing a service, building a house with a younger guy, who's about 25. He's been investigating since the time he was about 14 years old and he really just hasn't progressed. I think a lot of it is the missionaries fault. So he knows the missionaries pretty well and he asked us to help him with some service building this house so we went over there and helped him. We cut styrofoam for the insulation, and then we helped nail in the, or put up the walls. 

And then on Wednesdays we have our district meeting in Curico. Normally what we have to do is we don't have lunch here with members, instead, the mission passes us money because there's no way we'll make it back on time after the district class because of the 2 hour bus ride to get home. So normally we pay and eat at a restaurant down in Curico. But this last Wednesday we came up and just had a later lunch with that investigator. We did a little BBQ there which was pretty fun. And we were going to finish the service but it was raining. And so he still wanted to do the BBQ but we weren't able to help him finish the house there that he was working on. 

Also this week, we had a cool lesson with Darling. We talked about the law of chastity with her, which was one of her only obstacles for her baptism. She has a pretty serious boyfriend. But she talked to him and she committed to live the law of chastity and she's excited to get baptized. 

So, Sunday was kind of a bummer. None of our investigators came to church. Darling was going to come and actually her and her mom, they left their house on time, but they live about 15 minutes by bus away from our church. They left and they were out waiting for the bus for over an hour. By the time they gave up waiting, it was already the end of sacrament meeting. And so they did not make it to the church this last week. Which was a bummer because it'll also mean Darling's baptismal date will need to be postponed because she won't have the church attendances in time. She was kind of worried about that when they called. They called us right after the meeting and apologized and said they'd tried to come but they couldn't. So I was very glad to hear to hear that at least they'd been trying to come. But we could've helped them. If we would've known sooner we could've sent somebody to pick them up. But it wasn't their fault at all either. But we are probably going end up baptizing Darling in May instead of April. But that's okay. She's awesome and it won't hurt to have a little bit more time to prepare. 

Today we were going to go the beach and go try one of the seafood restaurants that there are out there. We cleaned the house in the morning, we got all ready, we packed our Matés. My companion is from Uraguay and there Maté is pretty big. I bought a thermos this week to be able to take my Maté on the go. I was pretty excited about it. So we had our thermoses and our Matés all packed and all ready and we waited for almost an hour for the bus to go to the beach and none came by. It's super unreliable, the "bus system" out here. But it's okay. So we ended up instead, we made Milanesa, kind of a, I guess I would call it an Argentine Hamburger. I mean it's a little different. But it's good. Super tasty. Learned how to make it so I'll probably be making it again in the future. And then we took a nap and now we're getting ready to go "write."

Oh yesterday, we had a really cool experience. We have these investigators who, they just seem to have a lot of things and problems that would impede them from progressing. We taught them once in my first transfer with Elder Hiatt, so quite a while ago. And then we taught them again two weeks ago and then again yesterday. And they've been participating more and more in the lessons. And yesterday, it was really cool, the dad opened up a lot more to us and we found out the reason he hadn't really been participating very much in the lessons and wasn't very willing to go to church, he wouldn't pray at the end of the lessons. His oldest daughter who's 11, she participates and is super excited and she always reads what we leave, but the dad and the mom, are not so super into it. But anyway, the dad, yesterday kind of opened up to us and said that...we were asking him about his experiences with praying and asked him if he'd ever had prayers answered before...and he shared one experience where he felt like he had his prayers answered and he kind of teared up a little bit during that one. And then he was like, "but I've also had another experience where god didn't answer my prayers. My mom was really sick and I prayed and I prayed and I prayed and I asked God to save my mom but my mom died. And I promised that I would never go to another church again." And we were like, "Wow. Ok." We kind of figured out what his difficulty was, I guess. And we left him a scripture from the Book of Mormon that talks about the resurrection and we have a lesson planned for tonight about that. And he prayed at the end of the lesson, which was really cool too. And he got pretty emotional, which was a pretty drastic change from how he was in the beginning. So that was pretty cool and I'd love to see them be able to progress. I think it'll be a lot of work and it'll be tricky, but it would be awesome. I would love that.

I think that's all the big news for this week.

The primary president is about to go have a pretty major surgery and she's gonna be in the hospital for two weeks. She's the Elders Quorum President's wife. So they're going to be pretty busy. So she asked us to go by and help her kids study English because she won't be there to help them study. She asked us to go by a couple of times this week. So that should be interesting. But they've helped us a lot. Darling was a reference from her and also it was her daughter, Pamela, that was baptized the other transfer here. So we're more than happy to do what we can to pay her back. And serve a little bit there. 

So this next week, we're going to be out of town for a couple of days. We're going to be doing divisions in Curico and then we have zone conference, which we'll be together with Talca. Which I have a bunch of my mission friends down in Talca so I'm pretty stoked about that. But I hope you're all doing well. 

That's pretty much my whole week this week. Looking forward to hearing from you guys when you write. Take care. Ciao!

Elder Olson

Sunset

Uh...Creepy

My comp from Uruguay, Elder Figueroa

Licantén sign. You don't need much direction in this small town but here you go.

view from the top

Maté in the yard

Making Milanesa

week 85: Three Changes to go

April 9, 2018

Transfer 14 Week 2

Hey all,

Sorry for not having a recording for you, we had a surprise special trip to Talca today. More on that in a bit.

I'm doing well, I've been a little sick but I'm hanging on. It's been mostly a cough and congestion in my lungs (lame), and the other night I had a slight fever, but don't worry Mom I'm feeling a bit better :) I found some pills at a liquor store that have been helping (there's no pharmacy in Licantén). It hasn't been bad enough to keep me in bed, so we're still out and going 100%.

We've been working hard this week. I don't remember if I've mentioned our Haitian friend Max, but he's still coming to church but having trouble getting his answer and accepting a firm baptismal date. Darling is SUPER excited for her baptism. She and her mom Karen came to church on Sunday and are doing very well. On Tuesday we had changes. 

Elder Figueroa is very relaxed and easygoing, so we get along pretty well. He's not a big fan of the gym, but I got him to come with me once this week (I wasn't feeling great the other days). He's agreed on every other day for now.

Today we're in Talca for my companion's visa. We had to travel on Thursday of last week as well. The secretaries like to do this thing where they call us the night before and surprise us by telling us that we have to make 2 hour trips at 6am the next day. It's ok though, Elder Lee is also doing his visa so I've really liked being able to catch up with him. Great guy. Because today is Pday I went to the Talca Zone activity where E Haar is ZL and my trainee E Hiatt is in, so it was cool to catch up with them as well.

Well I hope I'm not forgetting anything, and I hope you're all doing well.

Les quiero,

Elder Olson

Me and Elder Haar.