week 4: President Nelson's visit

Oi como vai!
  
President Nelson came to Brazil, but not the Ctm. On Friday, We got to watch a live broadcast to all the missionaries in Brazil from him. At the end, he gave a special blessing of healing and safety to all the missionaries and their families. On Sunday we watched him talk to to all of Brazil. He bore his testimony in perfect portuguese, which was a huge testimony builder of the gift of tongues.
  
This week we also went proselyting in the real world. It was the hardest thing. My companion and I got 3 contacts in an hour. Approaching people in english is hard enough, doing it in a language I dont know is so much harder. But, as one of the instructors told me "Só vou" (just do it), so I tried my best to talk to lots of people. We got rejected alot, but thats ok. You can do hard things!  Só vou! 

Elder Olson
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NOTES FROM PHONE CALL:

Elder Olson said he got the Dominoes Pizza and 2 liter of Cocoa Cola we sent him on Pday through a local delivery service. He loved it. He said it ended up being a great day but that very morning, he woke up (after being so sick he was on antibiotics for several days) still not feeling great and he wasn’t able to go to the Sao Paulo temple with the others because he’d been sick. But then, he decided to pray that his fever would break so he could at least enjoy a little of his PDay. 20 minutes later, his fever broke and his prayer was answered. God was listening.

He enjoys his PDays, especially getting out and going to the temple because the MTC has high cement walls with spikes on top and guards and a double gated entry. Like a posh prison. So he was bummed to not get out last Wednesday, but today (the 4th) he was excited to be going out to the Campinas Temple.

He said they have started a lot more “Preach My Gospel” lesson training now (which are all in Portuguese) which he enjoys more than just the language lessons alone. He also got to do his first street contacting. They were dropped off on a busy corner in Sao Paulo and stood there at the intersection. They were a little “shell shocked” and overwhelmed at first as they just watched people cross the street. But as some came toward them, he and his companion, Elder Neely, took turns contacting. The conversations mostly went something like “Hey what’s up? How are you? We are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Can we have your phone number?” He said, with their limited Portuguese that’s about all they could say. Haha. A few people responded positively and Spencer even got one guys phone number although he wonders if it was a real one. He said it’s hard because he can share a scripture or talk about Jesus in Portuguese but he definitely can’t carry on a natural conversation so it makes things a bit awkward. He said Elder Neely is doing better and can speak some Spanish too so once was able to talk to a guy in Spanish instead but the guy was a devout catholic and although he had heard about our church and even has a member friend, he wasn’t interested. When one German guy stopped, he said he didn’t speak Portuguese. Spencer and his companion were relieved and said, “Oh, do you speak English?” He said “Of course I speak English!” And went on his way, seemingly offended. 

Elder Olson only has 2 weeks left at the MTC and is nervous but excited to get out to Goiania. We were dismayed to find out his debit card we sent with him just expired (my bad…forgot to check the date on that) so we are trying to figure out a way to safely get him his new card. Any suggestions anyone? Anyone going to Brazil who wants to take it to him? We’ll figure something out. 

No pictures again this week bc still no cameras are allowed to be connected to the MTC computers. But maybe once he gets to the field! Fingers crossed.