Week 50: A week of miracles!

Elder Olson sent another Audio Letter this week so I put it to the pics he sent as well. Enjoy!


August 6, 2017

Hey guys,

Well this is my second try at this because in the middle of the last one we got a call and I'm recording this on my cell phone and it cut everything I had. But that's cool. It's alright.

So I wanted to start off by saying thank you to all of you who sent me birthday wishes this last week...to the family especially for the package they sent, that was awesome. Thank you for that. I have a little video I'm planning on sending to show what was in the package.

This week's been a pretty good week. It's been kind of crazy but we've had a lot of miracles and a lot of little things that have worked out just too perfectly. It's been amazing. At the same time, we've had some trials. It's been a tough week, but it's been worth it. We've been seeing a lot of progress in our sector and in the zone.

To start off at the beginning of the week, after Pday we were going out to work and we had an appointment with an older lady that we had contacted out in a town called Sarmiento outside of Curico. So out there in Sarmiento, about two hours before the appointment she calls us and says, "Hey, I've got some family situations out here and I'm not going to be able to have the appointment here today." We were luckily able to get ahold of a family, literally the only family in that town that is active, and they got home at exactly the hour we were going to have the appointment and they were able to, the son was able to take us over and pick her up from her house and take her back to their house where we were able to have the visit. And she was super receptive. Her daughter and her daughter's family are all super active...they're endowed. They're from Santiago. But she also lives with one of her sons who is atheist and makes fun of religions a lot. So we were able to have that visit with her and as I said, she was super receptive and now she has a baptismal date for the 3rd of September. So we're going to be working with her a lot to try to help her with that.

Then later in the week was my birthday, so that was fun. That was something special this week. On that day we had interviews with the mission president, President Harris. He came to Curico at our chapel, the stake center. While he was doing the interviews, my companion and I gave a training to the zone about quite a few things. Sister Harris talked about the schedule and the importance of the schedule and a couple of small changes that we're making. The Hermana, or sister leaders, I think they're called sister leaders, I'm not 100% sure in English but that's the translation...They talked a little about positivity and kicking out that culture of people saying, "In this mission we don't baptize that much, You'll probably baptize SOMEONE in your mission, but we really don't baptize." That's a culture we really want kicked out of the mission. We talked a lot about the goals and plans we've set, which we've been working on as a zone, which have been going great. They're killing it out there. It's been awesome. Then we talked about some principles from Preach my gospel. So that all went really well. My interview with President was GREAT...it's always a good little renewal to have that talk with him. He's really a great guy, I look up to him a lot.

After the interviews, we got back to the house and we saw that...OUR BIKES HAD BEEN STOLEN. When we left the house, we hadn't noticed but we think in the night someone had clipped the lock on our bikes and had taken them from the apartment complex. So not from inside our apartment, but they were on a bike rack inside the complex which is all fenced in with a guard post to get in and out. But somebody had cut it and somehow taken the bikes out. What I think happened was that they just jumped the fence over on our side of the complex, cut the locks and passed the bikes out. So, that was a nice little birthday present. We get to walk for the next couple of weeks until they get us some new ones. Hopefully they don't make us pay for the bikes, but we'll see what happens there.

But then after that we went down to Centro, downtown, ...we stopped by a member who works as a barber down there, some converts actually...she was a "hair cutter?" I don't know what you call that (in English). And they said, "Hey, we need you guys to come by our house, like right now." And we were like, "Okay." So her son took us to their house. We got there and their family was all waiting there and another family, the family of our ward mission leader, and they were waiting with a cake and everything. They had a little surprise party planned so that was cool. That was REALLY nice of them. So that was what ended up happening on my birthday.

Oh but that morning, it was really funny, because...well at midnight...I was already asleep, but my companion had put my phone on the shelf right next to my head. And then at midnight he calls and I'm kind of half awake and I look over and see my phone and I'm like, "who's calling me right now? I don't even remember putting my phone right here. I don't know what's going on." I roll over and look at the phone and he had changed his contact information in the phone so that it said, "MOMMY." And I read that and I was so confused. I just thought I was having the weirdest dream of my life. I answer it and I was like, "Hallo?! Como.." I was super confused about what was going on, and then I just hear from the bottom bunk, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU...." shouting the song in english. Haha. I was super confused ...it took me a minute to figure out what was even going on. I thought it was all a dream. But that was pretty funny, something a little different.

Also this week we've had a lot of little miracles. We've been starting to set goals, like in the morning we have to achieve this goal before going to lunch, as a motivation to get out of the house, right on time and get working, and really take advantage of the mornings...because mornings are TOUGH down here. Everybody is always prepping lunch, because that's their big meal, and most of them just sleep until like 2 in the afternoon, like they don't do a whole lot. So we had a bunch of stuff that we were supposed to do that morning as far as planning, pass the keys to some other people, and we weren't on bikes so we had to walk downtown. We made it down there and in the end, we had about 15 minutes to get to our lunch with a member family which was only minutes away walking. But we thought, "we have to make our pre-lunch goal or we can't go to lunch." So we said a prayer. Our goal was to give a Book of Mormon and get an appointment. So we start contacting houses on our way to lunch. We were actually in the sister's sector because all the members live in the sister's sector. We only have 3 or 4 families that live in our sector. But on our way to lunch, knocking doors, and the first person we actually talked to...because nobody came out of the first few houses and people who we had tried to stop on the sidewalk weren't feelin' it. But we were contacting this house and the lady came up to her porch at the same time as we were contacting her house. We got talking to her and she had a ton of questions and was super receptive. She accepted the Book of Mormon and we set an appointment like right away. I honestly was super surprised that God helped us and that we were able to meet that goal so quickly, because there are times where you can contact in the morning for an hour and a half and nobody will give you an appointment. The mornings are tough. But she was super super super receptive and it was immediately after that prayer. And we were able to get to lunch on time AND still make our goal. So that was awesome.

I guess I'm getting kind of long here on the recording. But also we've had a lot of miracles in the last few days. A lot of situations have just worked out perfectly. We're meeting our goals, we've set 5 new baptismal dates this week, we've been working a TON...we've been working really hard. And it's been good.

I wanted to share a spiritual thought because I think I kind of missed that last week. Right now in the mission we've been talking about using the "Eye of Faith," which is seeing what you WANT to happen before it actually happens and really believing it. And then you go out and actually ACT as if it's going to happen. For example, with that goal of placing one Book of Mormon and an appointment before lunch, ...so we had to see it in our minds' eye, which we did by planning and praying and asking for revelation and saying, "please help us know HOW we can do it and we promise we are going to do everything we can to meet that goal." By doing that, the heavens are able to be opened and we are able to receive miracles. I'm sure everybody has heard before...FAITH MOVES MOUNTAINS. Faith is how we get miracles. I want to share this scripture of where the eye of faith comes from. Since we as a mission have started using this eye of faith theme, we've gone up in baptisms, in new investigators, in investigators in sacrament meeting by like 50% and it's really been crazy. In Ether 12, it talks about faith. It gives examples of miracles in stories and the miracles that come by faith. And in verse 18-19 it says, "And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God. And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even  Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad." And that eye of faith is our minds and our hearts. The way we do it in the mission is we make a plan. That's the way we show we are seeing with the eye of faith, if that makes sense. We put down on paper what our goal is and what we are going to do to receive it...showing that we SEE this goal, that we see that it can happen. Then we go out and do it. And through that faith, anything is possible. In moroni 7:33 it says, "And Christ hath said:  ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." I know that that's true. I know that through faith we can see miracles and we can work miracles ourselves. And that's what I wanted to share with you guys.

Thanks again for the birthday wishes, and to all of you who keep contact with me out here. And I want you to know that I love you tons and I hope everything's all good out there back home. Talk to you later.

Love,
Elder Olson

The scripture cover Elder Olson bought himself for his birthday

Elder Olson with the members who threw him a surprise bday party (see the video below)

Elder Guariglia and Elder Olson bummed that their bikes were stolen

Making Oreo Empanadas

Videos Elder Olson sent this week...

Elder Olson opening his birthday package from home...


Elder Olson's story of stolen bike...



Elder Olson's surprise birthday party from ward members...



A ward member shows off his drumming skills...

Week 49: audio letter

(Transcription: may not be 100% accurate)

Hello Hello Friends and Family,

Well, This week I thought I'd try something a little different. Alot of the missionaries here send audio recordings instead of letters to their families...saves a little bit of time in the internet place, the cyber, and it's also something a little different and I thought it might be cool make one to send you guys.

This week is gonna be my 19th birthday so that's kind of weird...I'm not really a kid anymore, but still young at heart so that's cool.

So this week's been pretty good. It's the first week of the training so it's always a little different. So you've gotta get used to the new companion, sometimes the new sector, but for me I stayed here, in Curico in the Alameda ward. My old companion Elder Heap went home to Arizona and I got my new companion Tuesday, which was Elder Guariglia from Uraguay. So he got here on Tuesday in the morning and I was in the bus terminal all day to make sure all the missionaries got to their zones where they need to be, because that's one of the Zone Leader's responsibilities down here. So he got here on Tuesday and we finally got back to the house and got settled in here and did a lot of cleaning...it wasn't SUPER messy but it could've probably been a little tidier, the house, but that was good. We got everything all organized. We got some old bunk beds nobody was using taken down and got a lot of space opened up so that was kind of cool.

On Wednesday we had a meeting with the zone, something a little different we are starting with this change...to set goals and plans for the transfer. We decided, "What are achievable goals we can set for the zone for this change?" and we had them do the same thing in districts. Then on Thursday we took those goals and plans we had made to leadership council in Rancagua...which was really REALLY good this transfer! The last time I went to the leadership council...I mean it wasn't bad but... I was having a little trouble keeping my eyes open, I'll be honest. But this one was fantastic. The spirit was incredible and it was really more efficient than last time. So we were there all day in Rancagua on Thursday and when we got back we had time to do our studies and that was it.

On Friday, everything was...let's see, did anything even happen on Friday?...oh yeah...on Friday we went to a little pueblo, a little town, outside of Curico called Serviento (sp?) which is a part of our sector. We have two little towns outside of Curico that are a part of our sector..sorry for my English...I don't get a lot of practice. So while we were out there we found a small family of 3, it was an old grandpa, his daughter and his granddaughter and they were SUPER SUPER receptive, really nice, they had a couple questions, they participated a little bit but really the cool part about that lesson apart from finding a family, was the spirit that came in when we shared the first vision. You know, I just ...you go to recite the actual words from the first vision, which we don't always do, but I felt like we should do it. And the spirit just filled the room so quick and so strong, it was really awesome. So that was a cool experience.

On Saturday morning I gave my first baptismal interview. One of the sectors in our zone, one of the district leaders, had a baptism on Saturday night so I got to do the interview on Saturday morning...which was cool, which was different, something I hadn't done before. So kind of an older lady named Margarita. She's kind of an old catholic lady, one of the ones that always tells us to get out, she doesn't want to hear anything, she'll never change. And so I don't know that I ever thought I'd ever see one of those get baptized, but to be able to give her a baptismal interview was kind of cool for me.

And then, yesterday was kind of a rougher day. None of our investigators made it out to sacrament meeting even though we had about 6 who were committed to go, and 5 of which we had committed to go the day before, so we thought we were set, we thought we were going to have a lot of people come in...but they all bailed on us. But that's all right. It's kind of the stuff that happens. You can't force the people to accept the gospel it's something that comes bit by bit. It was ok.

Also this week we found a bunch of Columbians who were visiting, who were here for work, who actually got tricked into coming down here and now they're getting paid less than they were promised. It's actually something that happens a lot with the Columbians, with the Hatians here. But we started teaching them and they're pretty receptive as well. They started coming to church about twice...to our ward...but they sometimes go to another ward because they sometimes send a member with a van to steal them. I don't know what's up with that because they live in the boundaries of our ward, but that's just more interesting stuff that happens.

So it's kind of weird to be doing this whole talking/recording thing. But I thought it'd be something different, kind of cool. I'm kind of running out of time here, but I just wanna let you guys all know that I love you, that I'm happy out here, that I enjoy spreading the gospel. It's all about getting lost in the work. I want to let you all know that I know this church is true and that Christ knows us.

I hope you all have a great week!

Take care,
Elder Olson

Week 48: Referrals are great

7/23/17

Friends and Fam,

Changes this week! I said goodbye to Elder Heap on Friday Morning, and I’ve been with Elder Neves from Rio, Brasil. I’ve been practicing my Portuguese, and I think I’m getting better. Now I at least know more than crude words, because that’s what they usually end up teaching me.

We spent a lot of the week saying goodbye to members and investigators. On Thursday, some converts made us chunchules, or Pig intestines, which was definitely different. Definitely better than I expected though! They also made us Prietas (Blood Sausage) which are awesome.

A less-active archeology student let me shoot his crossbow, which was fun.

Oh, as for the changes, I’m staying here in Alameda. My new companion is going to be Elder Guariglia from Uruguay, who’ll be coming from Talca where he was a Zone Leader. There may only be 2 gringos in my zone this change, but we’ll have to see when the trainees get here.

I’m grateful to be here in Alameda.This change 100% of our new investigators were references which was awesome.Crazy, but awesome.

This week I’ve read a lot in 3 Nephi, studying the words of Christ to the Nephites. It’s made me think of President Nelson’s promise in General Conference that by studying Christ’s life we will come to know him and draw His power into our lives.

Much love,Elder Olson

Curico Zone before Changes

Pig intestines and potatoes

Crazy walk signal light

Shooting a crossbow

Trump in Chile

Week 47: SNOW!!!

July 17, 2017

Dear Friends and Family,

Sorry but not much of a letter this week. I'm uploading extra fotos and stuff. Had to get up early this morning to see the snow. I'm over my cold. Also in the interesting experience department, when I was talking to some other missionaries when doing exchanges an old homeless lady dumped a styrofoam cup of water on me and ran away stumbling and dancing and yelling that she had baptized me. So that's pretty neat. 

Love you all, pray and read your scriptures and go to church,

Elder Olson

Note on the Pictures: Elder Olson finally got to go up to the mountains and see and play in the snow. He was so happy. 

The car ride up to the beautiful mountains

Once there was a Snowman, Snowman, Snowman

Chilean Cowboys

The car ride up (turn the sound off on this one...just wind)

More of the car ride scenery (turn the sound off)

The beautiful Mountain stream and snow

Week 46: Blessings through FAITH

July 10, 2017

Hey Everyone,

I hope that you're all enjoying the warm July weather up there. We're still getting plenty of cold and rain (Luckily the cold isn't much compared to a Utah winter). The cold means that everybody starts their wood burning stoves, and the air is always full of a think layer of smoke. A lot of the zone (and the mission) has gotten sick. Luckily I've avoided most of it, I've just got a bit of a cold and cough. Elder Heap is starting to get pretty sick though, so I hope we'll be able to fight it off and keep working.

A member from another sector had promised to take us up to the mountains to see snow today, but he cancelled on us late last night.

This week I've had the chance to attend a few meetings. President Harris called us Wednesday to have us come to a meeting with the stake president. On Thursday, we also presented in a stake wide bishopric/branch presidency training. It was kind of cool to see a different side of things.

On  Thursday, we also had a zone conference, where we talked about "opening the heavens" to receive Divine help through our faith.

Moroni 7 promises many blessings that come through our faith (remembering that faith is a principle of action). Among these we can see that through faith we: "lay hold upon every good thing" (v.25), we become saved and become sons or children of God (v.26), we shall receive what we righteously ask for (v.26), we are claimed by Christ (v.28), "Cleave unto every good thing (v.28), we are shown angels (v.30), we five the Holy Ghost place in our hearts (v.32), and obtain "power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in [God]" (v.33). I know that when I have exercised faith I have seen miracles.

Love,
Elder Olson

Elder Olson told his little brother that though he didn't get to swim in a pool this week (like Archer did), he did get to play pool (on Pday).

Elder Olson and Elder Heap

New Curico Zone Hats

Elder Heap and Elder Olson sporting their hats

week 45: Happy American Independence Day!

July 3, 2017 

Friends and Family,

Hey everyone, sorry if this one`s a bit short, my Sunday Nights and monday mornings have gotten pretty busy lately so I don't have time to prewrite my letters as often.

This week flew by. I can`t believe that this transfer is halfway over.

We had a baptism this week! Well, the ward had a baptism. An 8 year old girl named Valentina who was baptized and confirmed Sunday. The ordinance and ceremony were short and sweet.

We started working with a man named Cristian, who the other Elders met at a funeral. He accepted a baptismal date this week. He's looking for work and really questioning his faith in whether or not God hears his prayers. He is a wonderful example of real intent, and I am excited to continue working with him. 

Yesterday Chile was in the Confederation Cup (kind of a pre world cup I think) soccer finals against Germany. It was the first time they'd made it to the final (or even qualified for the cup) so it was a pretty big deal, especially after beating Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo. Sadly however they lost, and now we get a little bit more hate because everybody thinks my companion and I are Germans.

I was repassing 1 Nefi 13 and DyC 100 and I love to see how inspired the foundation of the United States was. Happy Independence Day to all those who live in the greatest country in the world! Meanwhile I'm enjoying it here in the second greatest country, where my companion and I made about a million American style burgers complete with potato salad and apple pie. God Bless the USA!!!

With love,

Elder Olson

Exchanges in Lontue with Elder Bitar

Making Burgers for Zone Pday Activity - Celebrating American Independence Day

week 44: Lots of Rain!

Hello, (I learned out to say hello in dutch this week but I forgot)

It's been a rainy week down here in Curico. It's rained more than half of this week, and it's still going strong today. The not-so-fun part of that is taking the 15 minute walk to get to our sector. I'm definitely grateful for my rain boots.

The canal systems aren't too fantastic down here. A lot of the roads are in such deep water that cars can't use them. I'm grateful to be in a 5th story apartment to avoid flooding. My Filipino friend (former housemate) Elder Belayro wasn't so lucky though. We saw their sector on the news in a member's house. I called them, and it sounds like their house is filled with water and they're looking for a new one. This week we were also in a house teaching when suddenly we heard a band and water began to drip down the walls and fall through the ceiling. We were there another hour helping fix their roof and dry their things.

On top of the rain, we've had trainings to give, interviews with President, exchanges to do and lots of service. We've had almost no time to go out to the sector which is a bit of a bummer.

On Saturday, we did 3 services. We hauled a lot of huge, soaked logs. The wheelbarrow broke under the weight, so we would load them up on our shoulders and carry them the 2 blocks to the less-active member's house. My shoulders are still super bruised.

Luckily we actually have weights here in our apartment so my exercise has leveled up a little bit.

I had a weird experience in the ghetto on exchanges this past Thursday. We ran into a drunk girl and her boyfriend fighting. She ran over to us asking for help. We were worried that he was going to hit her, so we talked them down. I was basically running in circles the whole time trying to get away from the girl who kept trying to hold my arm or hand and was too drunk to understand the word "no." Eventually, we got the two of them in their houses without calling the cops.

It's been a crazy week. I'm a bit stressed but I feel good and I'm sure things will calm down soon.

Pray and read your scriptures!

Love,
Elder Olson

Wall Mural along the street

Mate (the drink) in an apple

Elder Heap and Elder Olson...Companions

Week 43: Curico

Hey Friends and Fam,

Hey all, sorry I forgot to write out a group letter by hand, so this one might not be quite so detailed :)

This week has been my first here in the Alameda Ward in Curico. I haven't been able to spend as much time in the sector as I would've liked thanks to our meetings. On Thursday we went up to Rancagua for leadership council with the other mission leaders. It was very long, and while I love trainings with President I've certainly had better. Then on Saturday, we trained our district leaders on everything we'd talked about in leadership council.

My new companion, Elder Heap, is awesome. He "dies" (finishes the mission) this change. He's from the country in Arizona. Really chill.

The sector seems pretty good. I LOVED Buin, so it'll be quite the adjustment. I also feel a lot of pressure to baptize here, especially seeing how I'm a Zone Leader and should be setting the example.. There are a lot of great converts here, and all of our new investigators this week were references from members, so that's cool.

The city is pretty down here. Much larger than Buin.

Also Elder Villegas called me from Buin yesterday, and it looks like one of my investigators, Berny, there in church this week told them "Hey so, I wanna be baptized". He'll be baptized July 9. He wanted me to be there, we'll have to see if we can maybe work out some kind of skype call. But we as missionaries were only able to visit him twice, which goes to show that God does the work, and luckily He loves us missionaries enough to let us participate.

Mucho amor,
Elder Olson

Some photos from Buin and then from my new area, Curico

Goodbye Familia Rodriguez

Jaime (Brother James) second from the left. He liked to feed us missionaries in Buin

Investigator Carolina and her family. She's 10 days smoke free. Pray for her to keep it up. (and those aren't gang signs BTW)

 Photos from Curico...

From Chile to Alaska

Pano from apartment balcolny

Selfie on the balcony looking over part of Curico

Week 42: Leaving Buin & God Forgives

June 12, 2017

Hola Familia!

This weekend we received the changes (transfers), and...

I'm leaving Buin!

I'm going down South again, to the STake Center in Curico`. It'll be interesting; I've been assigned to be a Zone Leader there. I was really, really surprised. I'll be the Zone Leader with the least time in the mission, along with 1 other Elder from my group. My new companion's name is Elder Heap, from Arizona. He's another ex-mission secretary, who goes home this change. They say that my ward (the Alameda Ward) is really strong, and their ward mission leader is a machine. This will be my first ward in the mission (up until now I've had only branches), so I'm really excited.

The sad part is that they're closing my sector here in Buin. It'll be part of the sector of the other Elders.The good news is that my companion will be staying here with one of the Elders from the other sector, so they won't be in a "whitewash," where neither Elder knows the sector.

Carolina Soto and her family are progressing! Carolina is now 10 days smoke free, and her whole family came to church yesterday. We set a baptismal date with her husband Jose`, who opened up to us and told us about his drug addiction. I'm bummed that I'll have to leave them.

In my study, I recently came across Helaman 11. It amazes me how quick God is to forgive, and how quick we often are to forget. He wants to bless us. I hope we can all take advantage of repentance and God's quick and joyful forgiveness. I also hope that we can all be slow to forget all that He's done for us.

Love,
Elder Olson

Elder Olson's District in Buin

Monday June 5, 2017 , Barbeque the Elders (Mom note: Not sure what this really means or what it is a picture of) 

A Member (in the blue sweater) likes to feed the missionaries. Final time together.

Week 41:Planning and Scripture Study

June 5, 2017

Friends and Fam,

Wow, this transfer has really flown by. It's been easy to enjoy; I have a great companion, a great district, and a great branch. I've been here 3 transfers now, and this Saturday we'll find out if I stay or if I go. I love Buin, but I wouldn't mind a change either.

The last 2 weeks an old investigator I'd set a baptismal date with in my 2nd week in Buin started coming to church again. His name is Berny, a 23 year old with a mormon ex-girlfriend and Dragonball Z tatoos. He's almost golden, but he works a LOT and it's tough for him to find time to receive the discussions.

We had to move the baptismal date for a family (Carolina and her son Jose Andres) out to the 8th of July. She's progressing, but has a hard time getting work off to come to church.They're reading (they're at about 1 Nephi 7), praying, and Carolina has gone from a pack of cigarettes a day to 2 days without smoking. Keep them in your prayers. :-)

We had Zone Conference this week, where we talked about how we study the scriptures. President Harris's knowledge of the scriptures is incredible. I enjoy comparing my english scriptures with my mission scriptures. The difference in my study before vs. during the mission is very clear.

I like this analogy to illustrate the importance of planning an scriptures study: A war isn't won on the battlefield, a war is won in the general's tent. Success in life relies on our personal planning and preparation.

I also gave my class this week on planning and goal setting. I have my district doing a daily review/goal setting session every night in addition to their daily planning session each morning. My companion and I at least are feeling a difference, and another Elder also thanked me and told me he likes the 2nd planning session. M. Russell Ballard gave a talk, "Do things that make a difference," on worthy goals which I really like.

Love you guys, the Church is true,
Elder Olson

Extra note of interest from Mom Olson: In emailing Sister Harris and the Mission Medical about a prescription Jacob needed, Sister Harris said, "We love Elder Olson! Just this past week when President Harris was ready letters from the missionaries, he said to me "Elder Olson is a great missionary! I'd take 20 more just like him!" 
We are so proud of him working hard to do his best.
As an extra treat, while he was in the city (Rancagua) getting blood work done to get his prescription updated and refilled, he and his comp got to get pizza at Papa Johns. He was super excited about that.

Elder Olson has fully immersed himself in the work and the mission. He's been out 9 1/2 months and is truly happy serving the Lord and mentioned that he just hopes to meet the Lord's expectations of him.

Elder Olson also noted that it's getting quite cold there now. He's making use of his long underwear and their little space heaters are always on full blast. The mission provides them with electric blankets too as there is no central heating or air where the missionaries live.

Notes on the pictures and video are below:
This week the video Elder Olson mentioned last week came through. It is a video of him and his housemates playing a song he wrote for the Buin Zone.

Goodbye Elder Richards

"Strange People Prohibited"

Reunited with some of my MTC Elders: Elder Haar, Elder ?, Elder Mussleman (MTC Comp), Elder Olson

Farewell "Face to Face" for Elder Richards