week 94: Rain and Zone Conference

Monday, June 11, 2018 (transcription from Audio letter)

What's up, Guys? Here's Elder Olson  (Elder Olson's companion says this)

Hey everybody, this is Elder Olson here. We're on week 5 of transfer 15 and it's been a good week. A lot of stuff has happened at least so I've got a lot to talk about,  so that's good.

So, last wednesday, we went down to Curico for the district class and we ended up staying there that night. We did splits with the Zone Leaders because the next day on Thursday we had a Zone Conference. So I was with Elder Halverson from Texas and we had a pretty good day. We got to have a couple lessons, one with a recent convert who's like 80 yrs old, so that was neat. And then another one with some Hatians. So I got to practice my Creole a little bit so that was fun. I think I impressed Elder Halverson with my Creole abilities. So that night, we went and got 60 cm completos (which is about 24 inches) it's really long. So we got these giant completos and we had a little group dinner there in the house. And the next day was zone conference and it was AWESOME! It was probably my favorite zone conference we've had in a while. It was all focused on the Holy Ghost and having the spirit in our teaching and with us throughout the day, things we can do to avoid offending the spirit, things we can do to invite the spirit. We talked a lot about prayers of faith, which I've kind of been thinking about quite a bit this change. I've been thinking that I need to find a way to improve my prayers a little bit and the idea came during the Zone Conference to keep a small notebook with me, especially while I'm praying. So I have a little notebook by my bed for when I'm saying my prayers at night and first thing in the morning. Also, I started turning on the lights in the morning before saying my morning prayers to avoid falling asleep. And yeah, so the little notebook is to write down impressions and things I need to do that day or the next day according to what I feel during my prayers. So that's been great. I feel like my prayers are a lot more productive. I feel like they are more genuine and sincere, Also because I'm more genuinely looking for answers and it feels a lot more like a conversation. Maybe that's not something for everybody but it's something that I've found is working for me. And we got to hear the final testimonies of a couple Elders who are from the missionary group right before me. So that was pretty cool. One of them, Elder Christensen, I really admire, he's a really good missionary. And well, they're both great missionaries, Elder Christensen and Elder Pollard are their names. Really great guys, really good missionaries. I admire them a lot. 

So we left the Zone Conference with a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm to work. The next day we went crazy contacting. The week as a whole was kind of tough as far as visits are concerned. We did not get into a lot of houses this week. But we really pushed ourselves with talking to people in the street. On friday, the day after zone conference, we talked with exactly 50 people in the street which was a lot more than I've done before, than either of us have done before. We kind of took advantage of not having a lot of time in houses to talk to as many people as we could. 

And then on Saturday it started raining, just POURING. All of Saturday and Sunday and then most of today, Monday, it's been raining pretty hard. Now it's about 4 oclock in the afternoon and it's finally cleared up. But on Saturday, it was just coming down. With all that rain, the zone leaders sent us a text and challenged us to contact a certain number of people in the morning and I'm not one to back down from a challenge so in the rain, we worked really hard to try to talk to as many people as we could. And we ended up beating the challenge that they'd given us and we had a funny contact there. We needed 5 more people to get to our goal, and it was almost time to go to lunch, and waiting for the bus, there was this group of seven 18 year old girls, all together, all talking, and I talked to my comp and was like hey let's go contact that group of girls. And he was kind of a little nervous I think. He's kind of more of a chiller guy, and so it was kind of funny because we went over and started talking to them and they were like, "Oh wow, you're from other countries..." But in the middle of the contact, I went to pass the contact (I guess) I kind of stopped talking and looked to my comp and he was pretty nervous, he just looked at me like, "I don't really know what to say." It was kind of funny. He's such a good guy. But yeah, he was just really nervous to talk to all these girls all together in this big group. So then we finished the contact and gave them all cards and they kind of ran away to get on the bus. But yeah, we got our goal.

So we went to lunch, and the member we had lunch with had us change into other clothes he lent us...some pants, another shirt to my comp,...because we were just soaking wet. We were walking with umbrellas and stuff but it was really really windy. (hold on I've got these kids talking in English right behind me...distracting me). Like I've got rain gear and everything is great. The only thing that's funny is, I've got these boots, which I'm super glad I brought, but I end up with this super soaked area from the bottom of my coat, from my mid thigh level to the middle of my shin. So that whole knee area is just soaking wet. But we left our pants and jackets and stuff by the stove and I was able to dry off without any problem. (But it is just really kind of funny how we got here just in time because there are like 15 kids who just got in the library trying to use the computers) But the member was just so concerned that we needed to be dry and warm. It was just really nice. He's a really good guy.

Then that night, we had some visits in Hualane. We had one with an investigator who we visited a while ago when I was with Elder Hiatt, and honestly, well she was living with her boyfriend so it was a really difficult situation for her to be able to progress. So we hadn't visited her for a long time because it really just didn't seem possible for her to be able to progress. She didn't have a way to get to church and the fact that she was living with her boyfriend and all that and some other difficulties. But we passed by and we found out that now she's NOT living with her boyfriend and there's a lot more opportunity for her to progress and she actually opened up to us about some problems that she has including a gambling addiction. So it turned out to be a great lesson. And I think a lot of that had to do with us asking and actually listening to her and doing our best to listen the best we could. 

Last night, we were having another kind of tough day, all of our sitas fell through, it was pouring rain, walking around trying to find everybody we can in the street, contacting houses, passing by potential investigators and at the end of the night we said a prayer and felt basically that we should go to this dirt road on the opposite side of the sector. I was worried that it was a waste of time and that it was kind of just my natural man trying to kill time, I guess. So I was worried that it wasn't inspiration but basically we followed the prompting. We got over there, talked to everybody on the way, and there was this kid coming out of his house, he's like 21,  but we talked to him and he's actually the cousin of the only missionary serving right now from Licanten. And he was just soooo so interested. He had two weeks here in Licanten. He's from Santiago. And he was asking us about what it takes to be a missionary and all that. But I've never seen anyone so excited to be given a Book of Mormon, so it was cool!

And that's about it. I want to share more with you guys but we're here in the library now and there's all these kids. So it looks like we're going to have a little less time to write today because we're going to get kicked off. 

But I hope you all have a good week. Love you all. Bye!

Elder Olson

Made Tacos with my comp

My face after last Pday #hottestmissionary
(he ran out of time this week to explain this pic further...have to wait for the next letter)

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 91: Talent Show

Monday, May 21, 2018 (from audio transcription)

Hey everyone, this is week 2 of change number 15. 

It's been a pretty good week. We had the transfers this week. My new comp, Elder Garcia from Mexico came down to Licantén. And it's been good. He's a really good guy, really willing to work, which I really appreciate. He's obedient. We're getting along well. Seems like it's going to be a pretty good change. I'm pretty optimistic about it.

On Wednesday of this week we had a goals and plans meeting in Curico which was pretty normal I guess...we set goals for the change and plans to meet those goals.

 And then on Friday night we had one of the new convert lessons with Darling. It was with her mom and the Branch Mission leader too. It went really well. It was kind of funny. They were coming straight from work. They own a little shop of school supplies and they were really hungry and they got there and they had brought these big bags of stuff to make sandwiches so then they put together the food in the chapel while we were waiting for the member to get there. And we had a little bit of food there. :-) 

And then on Saturday, we had a Branch Talent Show. It started off with a little bit of drama between some of the members there. They fought a little bit because one member didn't let another member hold their baby and it just escalated a lot and they ended up shouting at each other and a bunch of people left. Kind of a mess. But then the actual activity was pretty good. It was really well put together. They had kind of transformed the sacrament meeting room into like a little stage and stuff and that turned out really cool. They asked us to present a little thing in the talent show, so I'll send a video of what we did. It turned out pretty well I think. Everybody liked it. And there were some good talents there. The Branch President and his wife and the first counselor and his wife did a little lip sync thing which was fun. And then the rest of them were kids performing. 

(sorry I'm in the cyber right now, the place where we write so this is going to be a short one. There's like music playing and people here.)

So it went really well. They had a couple of the youth hosting it. They did a great job. It was all really well put together. Right afterward, we went straight to one of the people who was offended. The discussion beforehand (before the drama) was with the daughter of the Relief Society president who is about 30 years old...but is not a member and she has a daughter who's of baptismal age and her husband's not a member either...so we went over to try to smooth things over. So that went pretty well. Our relationship as missionaries with them is already great. But they say they have problems with the other members that are there. So that was kind of a difficulty which is actually pretty common here in Chile. We have a lot of people who get offended over little things and end up distancing themselves from the church...which is sad. But everybody has different, I don't know, trials or struggles they've gotta overcome.

That was pretty much our week.

We went to Hualane a couple times with members which went pretty well. We did a really good job at bringing members to lessons this week, which was awesome and can be kind of tricky to do sometimes, especially in a branch where you have about 20 active members. So that was really good. We were able to bring members to lessons almost every day. 

Some of our investigators that are kind of progressing really well right now, there names are Carmen and Gaspar and they're really cool. They have some really significant difficulties which are stopping them from getting baptized, but apart from that, they've come to church twice. The mom really wants to get baptized, but she's the one more than anything that has the problems which are stopping her from getting baptized. 

But yeah, it's been a good week. Hope everything is going well over there. I want to also wish a special Feliz Cupleanos to my little brother. He turns 17 today I think, on the 21st. Yeah, Happy Birthday, Bud! 

Sorry for having kind of a short, distracted recording today, but I'll try to get you a better one next week. Hope you're all doing well. Take care. Bye!

Elder Olson

Elder Garcia and Elder Olson

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

Mother's Day Chat

We recorded our family chat with Elder Olson but of course won't include the whole thing here. But here is a small clip from the video call. He is better than ever and happy doing the Lord's work.

We can't believe he'll be home in less than 3 months! 85 days to go!

week 89: Darling's Baptism and a Visit to the Ocean

Monday, May 7, 2018

Hey everyone, this is week 6 of change number 14.

So yeah, this week was good, well this week was AWESOME actually. At the beginning of the week we had a service project with a member. It was really just chill,I guess. Just pulled out some grass. I have a little video of me attacking a cactus with a super long spear knife thing. I thought that was pretty cool. And then nothing really happened during the week. 

But on Friday, we had the baptismal interview for Darling. And we have... our district leader right now is in a trio with the Zone Leaders because one of the Elders in our district went home this last week. So we had to go down to Curico to pick him up and take him back up to Licantén. We tried to get them to just send him out by himself, but the mission didn't give us permission. So we went down to pick him up and we got to the Zone Leader's house a little early. They were on their way from an appointment and so since there was nobody there, we were waiting outside for a little while. And we ended up hopping their fence. All of the houses here in Chile have big like metal fences in the front. But the Zone Leader's house doesn't have spikes on one of the parts of the fence. So we jumped the fence right there and we got around back and tried to get in the house but none of the windows or doors were unlocked. So we looked up and on the second story, there was an unlocked window. So I had my companion help boost me up to get into that second story window. So we got into the house and we started hiding their stuff. They have this little like back room in the back yard where they never go. So we went and got their microwave, their iron, their blender, some of their like personal stuff. We grabbed their bikes and we hid it all in the back room. And then we stayed on the side of the house and waited for them to come home and then we heard them come in through the front gate and in through the front door. And they were waiting for us there inside the house. So then we snuck back around the side and opened the front gate and closed it again, like we'd just come in the front gate and we went in the front door. And they didn't notice at first that all these things were gone. Like we'd left cupboards open, like it was super obvious. But their house was pretty messy so they had no idea. And then after about 15 minutes of just talking, one of them notices and says, "Hey, where's the microwave?!" And then they looked and one said, "Oh no, the bikes are gone!" And they started looking everywhere and they can't find stuff and one of them started looking for his camera, which we didn't even hide, but he had just lost it. He's looking all over the house. And he's like, "AW! Where's my Go Pro? Where's my Go Pro?" And one of them had the phone to call the housing coordinators and we go over to open up the back door, and we were like, "Oh, hey, we found the stuff!" And they were like, "What?" And they ran to the back and were getting all their stuff. And it was pretty funny. They totally bought it. And then they still didn't get that it was US that had hidden the stuff. And we were like, "We got here early. We had to sneak in through the side and all that." And they were like, "oh my gosh!" So that was pretty fun. 

So we went up and had the interview with Darling. She was awesome. She had brought her tithing money to the interview. We had specifically told her that she didn't have to start paying tithing until AFTER she was baptized. But she understood the opposite of that. So she was like, "Oh I brought my tithing so that I can be baptized because they told me that I had to pay my tithing before getting baptized." The fact that she was that WILLING to do it was super awesome. She was able to pay it the next day anyway. So that was super cool. The baptism went really well. She asked me to baptize her so that was really cool. We got there early and left the font filling up. And then got to the time of the baptismal service and it was still not quite where it needed to be, so we left it. But then the baptismal service took a little bit longer than we thought, so the font got PRETTY full. It got VERY full. Not quite to the point where it was in danger of overflowing. But when I got in, a little bit splashed out one of the back sides, and we were like "Oh no." Because our font there is very different from any other font. It's like one of the only fonts that can overflow like that. But also, the water heater, well it works, so it was kind of heated, but the water was pretty cold as well. But we did it. It worked out. And she was tough about the cold water. You could hardly even tell. I warned her right before she got in. I was like, "hey, it's pretty cold." 

Oh also, when she was baptized, one of the other Elders from Curico was one of the witnesses, and a bunch of the water splashed out of the font. I tried to let her down extra gently because I knew it was gonna overflow. So just to minimize it, but it still splashed out onto the front onto the carpet a little bit and over the sides. All over the place. But when that happened, a lizard came out of the font. A small one about 4" long. And hahaha, we didn't see it, Darling or I. But the other Elder saw it. He tried to catch it but it ran back into the font and they closed the doors. So that was pretty interesting. Makes me feel like a South American Missionary to say we had a lizard in our baptismal font during the baptism. Then the confirmation went really smoothly as well. The Branch President confirmed her. And it was a really pretty confirmation actually. I really liked it, his blessing that he left her. And then that night we went to their house and we had a lesson planned to teach about temples. And we got there and they had this big BBQ going and they had made a ton of sushi for us. They made a bunch of food. And it was actually a really good opportunity to get Darling's Dad to open up because he's not a member and he hasn't participated in any of the discussions. And he's actually not willing to let Darling's little brother to get baptized. Eventually he's trying to baptize him Catholic. So we are kind of like in a tough spot there. But he really kind of warmed up to us that day so that was really good. 

And then on Monday, on Pday, (I sent you some pictures already), but we went up to the Beach, we explored a little bit and then we played beach soccer for a few hours which was awesome. It was super fun.

So yeah, it's been a pretty good week. We are just here, back home. My companion is getting his stuff all ready. He's going home this next week. On friday we drop him off at the bus terminal and I'll be with Elder Perry. We'll be going back and forth from Curico to Licatén this weekend. And it should be good.

So I just want to express a little bit of my gratitude at being able to participate in that baptism for Darling. Her and her mom really are awesome and I'm grateful to have met them. It makes it worth being out in  Licantén so much time, being able to meet so many, quite a few good people here. And Darling and Pamela, the other girl who was baptized, were really prepared by God. And we didn't have to do hardly anything with them, so I'm really grateful for that. I'm grateful that God guides his work, and I know that he does.

Love you guys. Hope you guys are having a good week. Take care!

Elder Olson

Bushwhacking Service

Darling's Baptism

 So the Zone Leaders played a prank on us when they were in town for the baptism. They went to our apartment at one point and ended up leaving us a little present in our beds. Yes, we knew it was them that left the door open and that they had done something, but we thought it was funny so re-recorded our discovery of it.

Loved seeing the ocean