I have made it to the Field! My area is the city of Hidrolandia, Its a small town about 40 minutes south of Goiania city. Its Ironic because "Hidrolandia" means "water land", and this is one of the driest places ever. The houses and stuff are all one story, with a couple that have 2, and everything is really close together... so that's actually nice because we walk everywhere. The City is in a little valley with buildings on both sides.
My companions name is Elder Rodrigues and he is from Northern Brazil. For this first transfer, It will be just me and him, because the two other Elders we were living with got emergency transferred. He doesn't speak english so I have been learning quick so that I can survive.
This week was spent getting to know our area, and meeting people because we are both new here. We get lost a lot but eventually find where we need to go. We have been meeting a lot of members because they feed us lunch everyday. We picked up a few friends from the previous Elders, We have been teaching a young mother named Kaliane, she has lots of questions so we have lots of work to do. Its hard because the mission hasnt provided anymore Books of Mormon so we cant give them to investigators. My companion is a great teacher though. We have also been working with a couple young boys, Rian and Juan, they are 11 and 12. They are friends of a member boy, Antonio. Its cool to see Antonio teach his friends. He is a great example of a member missionary. I think sometimes we are embaressed or shy about sharing, but we shouldnt be.
Spiritual thought of the week is similar to something ive shared before, but it has been very important this past week. Elder Bednar said in a devotional to missionaries "just go, and be good" Like Nephi, we need to go, not knowing beforehand, but being lead by the spirit. There have been lots of times we didnt know what to do, but we just went and were able to be guided by the spirit in teaching. The spirit wont always tell you exactly what to do, so just go and be good. Try to always be worthy to have the spirit with you.
--Elder Olson
NOTES FROM ELDER OLSON'S MOM:
We got to chat with Spencer face to face for the first time today via Google Hangouts. It was great to see his face. He warned us/anyone not to send packages unless we use a courier service because for international packages received the government charges the receiver a HUGE tax (like hundreds of dollars).
He shared a story where some members in their car pulled up to them on the street and essentially fed them crepes with chocolate sauce right from their window and he loved it. They even had milk to give them with the crepes. Although like all milk there...it was warm. He did end up buying a carton of milk from the store this week and put it in his fridge. He can't wait to have cold milk again.
He said the people are really nice in general and even if they don't want to listen to the missionaries' message about Christ, they will still offer them water and kindly decline to listen. He is serving in a ward, not a branch but there are only about 6 people in Elder's Quorum so he's not sure how that works out. They do have a ward building to meet in which is nice but he was hoping that it would have air conditioning because he is supposed to wear a suit to church as a missionary supposedly (he's going to check on that rule). And when it's 95 plus degrees outside, it gets pretty hot inside, even with ceiling fans and windows open.
He said he's eaten a lot of chicken and rice and beans but he really likes the fruit he's been getting in his area. Someone gave him a whole bag of oranges that he said are delicious. They aren't exactly like the oranges here...tougher to peel...but taste way better. He said it's hard going grocery shopping or shopping at all and it's even hard using the computer at the internet cafe because he still knows so little Portuguese. But in having a conversation with someone on the street one day, they asked how long he'd been in Brazil (which is less than 2 months) and then actually complimented him on his Portuguese. That made him feel good.
He tried "Cebada" which is a barley drink many members drink instead of coffee down there. Apparently you can drink it warm or cold and it actually tastes a little like coffee. He also said they drink a ton of soda and want the bottles back when you're done drinking (the plastic or glass ones).
While they walk everywhere as missionaries, he did notice that the streets don't have many signs or laws regulating traffic. They seem to use large speed bumps instead. His little brother asked him if it's true that the showers down there have exposed wires for the water heating tank in the shower (causing some people slight electric shocks if they're not careful) and Spencer confirmed that. Also, there was another question regarding discarding of toilet paper in trash instead of toilet and that was confirmed as well. So beyond all that, and the food, and the big big bugs, Elder Olson is finding Brazil a bit different than the USA but said he knows he'll get used to it in time.
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| Elder Olson and his companion/trainer Elder Rodrigues |
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| Elder Olson, Elder Beezer (maybe? the american in the back), Elder Rodrigues in the pink tie and Elder Beezer's comp in the front. This was just before the other companionship got moved to another area. |
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