week 53: Finding New Investigators - even if they are sneaky

(Elder Olson's Mom's transcription of his audio letter)

Alright, Elder Olson here. This is the 28th of August 2017, just so I can keep track of the dates here.

This week has been crazy. It's been really long. We've had a lot of stuff to do this week. A lot of really crazy stuff has happened.

Well we'll start at the beginning. Monday was awesome. Pday. We went and got a class at a Juijitsu gym, which was pretty sweet. We got special permission from President to be able to do it because normally they don't let us take the zone places to do activities. WE took the zone over there. We have a hookup over there with a guy named Cristobal. We contacted him and he came out in his "I like Weed" shirt and he's like, "Ah yeah, I like to do martial arts," and I was like, " Me too. Sweet!" And then there we go. We found out that their gym is right next door to the chapel. And they let us come and they opened the gym in the middle of the day especially for us to let us do a free class. The owner of the gym actually studied at the University of Utah. He spoke English and was really chill. So that was really fun. A great way to start off the week. Nobody got tooooooo hurt. My comp did end up asking for a blessing for his arm because we practiced arm bars. But I think he's doing alright now.

So this week we did exchanges twice. Once with another sector here in Curico, in the ghetto. It's called (?). Then the other day we did them in (Molina?) which is a little pueblo outside Curico. So nothing all that special happened during the exchanges. It was good I finally got to go to a different sector. Normally, I stay here in the sector during exchanges because I know our sector better, so my companion who doesn't know the sector goes. But this last week I got to go down to (?) and do exchanges there. I forgot my towel and a change of clothes and pajamas and a toothbrush all that because we had to go out to Molina(?) early in the morning and did the exchanges back to back and I forgot all that stuff. So I got to "sleep in my tie" type of thing on the exchanges. So that was neat.

This week we found a TON of new people. We found a lot. We found 13 new investigators this week. Which is not a common thing. It's not unheard of but it's not common either. We've already found a new investigator for every day in this change. And that was our goal. We made our goal a week early. So that's cool. But we're going to have keep working hard this week to not let it get to us that it's the end of change...that we've already met the goal...We want to keep that success going. We want to start of the next one strong.

The changes are going to be this week. We find out on...well we'll probably find out early, because my companion will ask one of his friends in the office...but we should be finding out Saturday. So we'll see when we actually know. But honestly I think that I'm gonna be staying here with Elder Guadiglia. Because it's gone really well for us and I think one of the only reasons they'd take me out of Alameda right now is to put me in as a secretary. And rumor has it that somebody else is going to be a secretary. So I should be safe from being a secretary. Don't know if I really WANT to stay another change. For me I like to go to different sectors. But it's okay. If I'm gonna be left in a place, it's a good ward, a really good ward so I won't be too bummed out about it if I stay.

Other interesting things that happened...

This week we talked the Bishop and he was like,"Yeah we've this member who's got a daughter who's 10 years old who's not a member, who's been coming to church for the last few weeks and she wants to get baptized." And we were like, "Oh that's cool." So we went and talked to them and we set a baptismal date right away and she's for sure going to get baptized and we thought we were going to get away with getting her baptized this sunday but some of her family won't be able to make it out that day so she's going to be baptized on the 17th of September. That was nice. A nice little baptism we don't have to work for. Not quite as satisfying but nice that we are able to help there.

On Saturday, late at night, just about time to get home, well 9:20 and we need to be in the house between 9:30-10:00, we were out contacting and not really having much success but at 9:20 we said a prayer, it's the end of the night, we've gotta find somebody. But then we weren't finding anyone and started heading home and I was like, "No. We've gotta find someone." So we started contacting again. Literally the last house we said we were going to contact, we contacted it and this guy came out, and he was super nice, super excited. He said, "Yeah come in. No worries." So we started talking to him. His name's Roberto, he's an atheist, and he's super smart.  He's a mechanic, well he works in part as a mechanic, he's an engineering student right now. That was 9:20 on Saturday night. He committed to come to church and the next day he came to church. Normally we visit with people 5 times and they have to commit, "YEAH! I'm for SURE coming to church this sunday. I'm for sure coming." Normally they have to say that about on 4-5 separate occasions for them to really mean it. But this guy said he'd come to church and he came to church. So that was really awesome! He's good. We've got high hopes for him. But he's hesitant to pray because he doesn't believe there's a god. He said, "yeah I'll come to church and I'll read the book," and he liked church but that step of humility that he's gonna have to take to admit that maybe there is a God, and pray and ask for an answer is gonna be kind of an obstacle for him. But it is ABSOLUTELY necessary for him to do to get an answer. You're never going to get an answer if you don't ask. So we're going to have to help him recognize the spiritual experiences he HAS had or is GOING to have as we work with him so that he can kind of open his mind to the fact that there is a god. We're excited to work with him.

We also found another investigator and her name is Pia. She had a baptismal date for the second week of this change and...we lost her. My companion still hadn't met her. We hadn't found her all this change. She hadn't been answering us and she actually moved houses and we got in contact with her again and she was excited and we taught her a lesson about the Sabbath, about keeping it holy and she came to church. Which until now had been one of her biggest difficulties the last time we were teaching her. So that was awesome that she was able to take that step right away as soon as we found her again.

Also this week we found a lady named Rose who seems kind of crazy and I think may be a pathological liar, but she accepted a baptismal date. She was actually baptized 10 years ago but never confirmed. I feel like she may have just never come to the sacrament meeting after being baptized. Not exactly sure what happened there. But we're going to try to work with her again. She was a reference so we'll see if we can help her. But she's told us she was going to be at her house or going to come to church like 10 times but she's not doing it sooooo....   Well one time, she told us she wasn't in her house and we went to her house and called her and she said she wasn't in her house so we were thinking about where else we were going to contact as our plan b and she just walks out onto her front porch and she didn't see us. Then she came out and walked almost right past us and we were like, "Oh hey, remember when you told us you weren't here like 20 seconds ago?" Ha. That's cool. But hopefully we'll be able to help her out.

This week i began ponderizing a scripture (I think that was a thing from general conference in 2015, memorizing and pondering a scripture) and I'm doing it in spanish but I'll send you a picture of my study journal and what I'm doing for that. I'm studying 2 Nephi 2:25-27 to kind of mix things up with my scripture study.

So yeah. I'm excited for changes this week. We'll see what happens. I'm really hoping somebody from my group, somebody I'm tight with, will come down to my zone. I'm kind of lonely a little bit. Not too bad. It'd be nice to have one of my friends from the beginning of the mission like Elder Haar, Elder Robinson or Elder Mussleman come down here to Curico, that'd be sweet. But if not, that's cool. I'll keep working like a boss Like I should be.

Love everyone. Take care.

From our apt... The world is beautiful right?

Intercambios con Elder Steenblik

you can take the people out of the flayte but you cant take the flayte out of the people

trying fidgit spinner tricks 

a pic for my little brother of my fidgit spinner

my comp asked for food when we were contacting

and then we made jam

A little bit of ponderizing yesterday.

week 52: Hump Day & the Eye of Faith

8/21/17
Basic Transcription of his audio letter:

Well Alright so this is my 3rd audio recording for transfer 8 week 5.

So this last week was a pretty good one, it was a great one actually, but really long. It was a Long week.

To start off the week: Tuesday was my hump-day, my half-way point in the mission. Because my mission is a little shorter than 2 years, because I'm speaking a foreign language and the way the transfers work out and all that, even though I finish 1 year, the day after tomorrow, this last week was my half-way mark.

So on Tuesday night the secretaries from the mission came over and slept in our house because they had to do some stuff for their visas here in Curico. It was kind of cool to talk to them. It's been a while. It's been kind of lonely here in a house with only two people instead of four...a little boring sometimes. But that's alright. I'll just stay focused. But it was nice to have somebody else in the house. And then Wednesday night we also had a visit from the Assistants who came and slept in our house as well because we had our zone conference on Thursday.

Zone conference was great. We talked about the atonement of Jesus Christ, what that means for us missionaries and what our investigators need to really understand about the atonement to become converted. And the things we need to do to access more power in our lives. President Russell M Nelson from the quorum of the twelve gave a great talk on that in this last general conference. He talked about what we can do to become not only more Christlike but what we can do to have more of His power in our lives. So that was cool. Then in the afternoon we talked about Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. And we brought less actives and investigators, well there were probably about 3 who made it because it was at 3 o'clock on a Thursday so there weren't a lot of people who could come so there were 3 from BOTH zones who were able to come out. But it was good. The zone conferences always give a little bit of a boost, a bit of energy.

Then on Friday, we had intercambios, uh exchanges, with a sector here in the zone which was fun. I was with Elder Christiansen, a gringo from Idaho Falls who's got about 5 weeks in the mission. The poor kid is still working hard at his Spanish, but he's a good guy. I had fun with him. It was great.

That day we had a pretty cool experience. I've talked in my other letters about the Eye of Faith and how the Eye of Faith works and we got to apply that. In our planning we had set the goal to find 3 new investigators and we needed to find those 3 new investigators in order to meet our weekly goal. We went out and we were working all day and about 9 at night, basically we needed to get into a house pretty quick there, and we had one street left to contact that we really had time for so we said a prayer and basically said, "Father in Heaven, we know that this goal is inspired and we need three new investigators to meet our goal. Please guide us and help us to find at least three news." Right after that, the second or third house we contacted, this family of three let us come in. We had actually contacted their son (we didn't know it was his house, he was actually upstairs at the time we contacted the mom) but the son we had contacted in the street one day but he hadn't given us his address because they are Seventh Day Adventists and they are pretty firm in that but we'll see if we can help them out there. But that was really cool because we had barely said that prayer asking specifically for 3 new investigators and right away we found exactly 3. And we were able to meet the goal for the day in the last minute. And that's not the first time that's happened recently. It's been really cool. We've had a lot of experiences like that with finding new people. We've set a goal, my companion and I, to find at least 1 new person every day in this change, and we are on our 4th week in a row of doing that. I've never been able to do that and honestly I've never seen anyone else be able to do that. And it's been cool to work with all these new people. The work now is getting them to progress and to come to church and to actually be baptized. But you've gotta start somewhere.

This week we had 3 baptisms as a zone. We had a crazy experience with that. The sisters from our ward had a baptism (well they had 2) and the Hermana that was going to be baptized, she had asked me to baptized her. But she had also talked with President and had asked permission to allow the missionaries who had found her to be able to come back and baptize her. That's normally a pretty big No, No, because we'd have missionaries traveling all over the zone to do baptisms. But two nights before the baptism, or Saturday morning, President called us first thing in the morning and said, "Listen. I've been up since like 2 or 3 in the morning. I've had an inspirational experience." And he said these other Elders who had found this Hermana needed to come down and baptize her today. So they came down for the baptism today. Which was kind of cool, kind of different. President was there as well. It was kind of a different experience. I don't know WHY that needed to happen, but I'm sure it was what needed to happen. It was kind of interesting to see that.

As a zone,  this change has been awesome. We've been having a lot of baptisms as a zone which is AWESOME. It's been great. As of now we've had 7 baptism in this change and we're almost guaranteed to have another 3 or 4. The average number of baptisms in a zone during a change is between 0-3 baptisms. So the fact that we have 7 already and we might have 10 before the change is incredible. Almost every sector is going to have a baptism this change which is pretty awesome.

Today we're gonna have a pretty fun activity, I'll see if I can grab some pictures. We found a JuiJitsu instructor. And I talked to him and told him that I had done some Martial Arts before the mission and we got him to accept to do a class for the Zone. (WOOOOO!) It's gonna be pretty sweet. Hopefully nobody breaks an arm. It should be pretty light, pretty...chill I guess would be the word...tranquillo. So that'll be fun. So we're doing that today.

I've been a little...not sick..., well I don't know how I could be even a little bit sick with all the vitamins that my family sent and that I've been taking every day. But I've got a bit of a sore throat and a plugged up nose. But it's alright. It's just because I've been talking a lot...I've been spreading the gospel. So it's worth the pain. Worth the trouble.

So to finish off I just wanted to share a scripture we'll be sharing with the zone. Because there are a few sisters and a few Elders in the zone who are a little bit discouraged. We're going to share with the zone today this scripture. I really liked it and the way my companion had phrased this. It's in 2 Timothy 4:7 and it says, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." I like to look at that and think of it as a question... Have I fought a good fight?  Have I finished my course? Have I kept the faith? It's just something all of us can be asking ourselves this week.

I love you all. Take care. Have a good week. Ciao!

Love,
Elder Olson

The Curico Zone with President and Sister Harris

One Mission Journal Complete

Our JuiJitsu Class (the instructor with 2 thumbs up actually attended University of Utah)

Week 51: Miracles

8/13/17

Kouman ou ye? (Haitian Creole for how are you?)

Hi guys,

I'm doing great down here in Curico.  it's been a solid week. 

We started off with Oreo empanadas and soccer for P day. We were smart enough to delegate the food part this time, so we actually got to play again. Good stuff. 

I've had quite a few chances to practice my creole this week. We have some new Haitian investigators, and I actually gave a baptismal interview to a Haitian. We had to get special permission from President Harris so that we could use our friend Fafu as a translator during the interview.

We had a lot of rain this week. It also happens to have been the week that we both forgot our umbrellas in an investigator's house. We've been practically swimming from lesson to lesson instead of walking (but I haven't gotten sick thanks to all of the vitamins the fam sent! Thanks mom!)

This change we’ve been seeing  big-time miracles as a zone. We’re baptizing (well when I say we I mean they but I like to think that I’m helping somehow) more than we have here in a LONG time. By the end of change possibly 4 times more. We still aren’t quite Brazil, but we’re seeing great improvements. 

On Friday, a convert asked us to give a blessing to his uncle who is currently in an induced coma. He (the convert, Lupo) expressed his faith and asked us to perform a miracle for him. We had to explain to him that we can’t change God’s will to him, but it was cool to see such firm faith in a new convert.

This week some members had family visiting from a city called Portomon (not sure how to spell that) in the south. I don’t know if all southern food is that good, but what they gave us (a kind of salad, fried bread, and salmon with cheese and southern sausage) was awesome. That was the first time I’ve eaten salmon in a year.

Spiritual Thought: Remember to pray always! 3 Nephi 18:15, 18,19,27; 3 Nephi 19:26, 30; 3 Nephi 20:7.

Much love,

Elder Olson

PS- We climbed a hill (and maybe some other stuff)

Note from Elder Olson's Mom: He sent these videos but didn't talk about them. He evidently experienced another earthquake this week but this time was in his 5th floor apartment. I don't think he's ever been in an upper level of a building during an earthquake.

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