Elder Olson's Church Mission 2019-2021: week 6: MTC final days and Moving On

Hi everyone,

We started off the week by going to the Sao Paulo Temple. It was super cool I was happy I could go there before I left the MTC. Then the next few days were basically just class, trying to get ready to go out in the field. We were all kind of just anxious to get out so I don't know if we worked as hard as we should've. Then Sunday came around and it ended up I had to talk on repentance in sacrament meeting in Portuguese. (It's easier when you can read it). Luckily I had a talk prepared because we are all supposed to prepare one just in case, so it went well, but then I also had to give a lesson in Elder's Quorum which they all forgot to tell me about so I just kind of winged it. It was about commandments and obedience and how obedience to commandments blesses us. But it didn't have to be taught in Portuguese so that was good.

So Monday was our last day so we did a lot of packing. Then we had a testimony meeting with our district which was really spiritual. After that, we had a devotional. For the devotional the presidency talked about being more Christlike and following Christ's example of patience and charity and how we can apply that to our missions as we go out into the field. After the devotional, we had a cool experience with Presidente Sidaje (sp?). We went up to say goodbye and he turned and bore his testimony to us. It was in Portuguese so I didn't understand it all but it was REALLy spiritual. You could just feel the spirit so strong from him. It was just really a testimony builder to me that the mission presidency is called of God. That night we took pictures with everybody (I'll send some) and then we went to sleep for just a few hours because we had to wake up at 2am to catch our flight to Goiania. Then once we made it to Goiania we went to the mission home where we talked about rules, met with the mission president. He met with each of us individually. Then we went to lunch with the AP's (assistants to the President). After that, we got in an uber to a hotel where we will stay tonight. On the uber ride, the AP was teaching the uber driver about the restoration and the AP asked me to share what I knew about Jospeh Smith. So that was pretty cool to start being an actual missionary...sharing my thoughts with real people in Portuguese. I was able to share that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he prayed to ask which church was true. So that was pretty cool.

So now we are just chilling in our hotel room waiting for dinner. Tomorrow we head out into the field. When we head out to the field, (they told me my area but I don't remember the name because it's super weird but I'll make sure to let you know next week) I was told it was farm town and was told my trainer is really good so I'm excited to get working.

I guess that's it for this week. Til next time!

-- Elder Olson