week 12: First Transfer Complete

Week 12, 6th week of first transfer

October 27, 2019

It's crazy to think about how my first transfer is already finished. I remember my first week here, I didn't understand anything anybody said and I couldn't speak well or teach lessons or do anything really. In just 6 weeks I've learned soooo much about the language and about being a missionary.

This week was good. The weather was much better, it was like in the 80's all week which was soooo nice to have a break from the burning hot sun every day. We did a lot of door knocking this week because lots of our appointments fell through but that led to finding some interesting people. We knocked on one door and this old man came to the door and we tried to teach him but it ended up that he just talked about the bible and his life for an hour and we would try to cut in and we'd say like two lines and then he would speak for more time. It was kind of funny. I almost fell asleep because I couldn't understand everything and he was talking fast and just blabbing on and on and saying the same thing about the bible and how great it was. So that wasn't really the best lesson but we tried. At another house we knocked on the door and then the door opened and a dog ran out and it peed on my companion's leg, which for me was really funny but for him wasn't. And then the police pulled up and knocked on the door next to us and one of them had his hand on his gun and he's like, "have you guys knocked on this door?" and we hadn't so we were like, "no." Luckily nothing happened because the people there weren't home but it was kind of scary because we could've knocked on that door and had something go wrong.

This Sunday was kind of sad because we only had one friend come to church this week, which stinks because the week before we had 5 people so to go from 5 to 1 is kind of lame. But the one who came has been coming for like 6 times now so that's good! three times with us and before she was being taught by other elders. But she has lots of doubts. Her name is Jaqueline. She has lots of doubts about prophets so we've been trying to help her with that. 

Also, for lunch we usually eat with members but when we can't they give us money so we can go buy lunch instead, so we've been going to restaurants and buying lunch and we were sick of having the same thing every day. So on saturday we decided to make burgers but also Elder Roderiguez made this mess with bacon and cheese (see photo) so we but that on the burgers and covered it with BBQ sauce. It was pretty great. Probably not going to eat it again because it's not very healthy but it was a good change from the same rice and beans and steak we've been eating every day. 

A cool experience we had, was last Pday, after Pday ended we had family home evening at a members house with a bunch of the youth and a few of the youth leaders and we shared a video of a Jeffrey R Holland talk about the atonement of Jesus Christ and it was a really good video...it talks about how at some point in our life we are all going to feel a little of the pain that Jesus Christ felt but we can find comfort in knowing that He's felt ALL of it. It was just a really spiritual experience. 

So this is the end of transfer 1. We get 2 more missionaries in our house this week so next week that'll be interesting to share about.

Let me end with Things that I hate and things that I like:

Things that I hate: Stray dogs at night. They are always laying in the shadows waiting to jump out and scare me. They don't usually do anything except bark (usually, I had one try to bite me) but they always make me jump.

Things that I like: There's this family of recent converts, and whenever we visit them they have snacks for us. The other day they had this thing called Romeo and Juliet, which is cheese with this thick jam stuff called goiabada. I had tried it before the mission and I didn't like it, but now I love it. It's delicious, highly recommended it.

Spiritual thought: This week I listened to a devotional by Elder Holland about lot's wife and looking back at the past. If you don't know the story of lot's wife, she was turned into a pillar of salt because she looked back as they were fleeing the city that God was destroying. He talked about how her sin wasn't looking back, but wanting to go back. We can learn from the past, but keep working hard in the present. Sometimes when things are hard, we wish we could go back, but we need to find hope in Christ and continue pressing forward.

--Elder Olson

Elder Rodriguez making the cheesy bacon burger topping

week 11: I saw a monkey!

Week 11, 5th week of first transfer

October 20, 2019

This week was good but it was SOOOOOOO hot this week. Today was probably 102 degrees (plus humidity) so that's not fun. But other than that, the week was really good. Tuesday we had lunch at a members house that was really far away, kind of out in the countryside a bit more. So that was a really long walk. But I saw a monkey which was pretty cool, because you don't see much wildlife here except insects so I was kind of surprised to see a monkey. For lunch at the member's house, they said "Do you like pepper?" And I said, "yeah." So they put this chicken down in front of me and it's just black, and I was like, ok, it's probably just burnt because they like to cook things really thoroughly here. So I go and bite the chicken and it's just....all you could taste was pepper. And it was already super hot outside and my eyes started tearing up and there was sweat running down my face. I almost coughed it up. They were laughing at me the whole time. I don't know why they put so much pepper on everything. And they're like, "You don't like pepper?" I'm like, "I like pepper but not when you cover the entire chicken in it." So that was kind of a funny experience.

This week was also good because we brought 5 people to church today which was really good because the past 4 weeks we've had 1 or 0 people. So that's awesome. One of them we taught his parents, a couple of weeks ago, and then Saturday this week we went to invite them to come to church and the parents couldn't because they were going to Goiania Sunday morning but the son who'd we'd actually never taught before, he goes,"um, I think I'll go." So he came with us Sunday morning to church which was kind of surprising because we've really been struggling with getting people to church. Then, after church, we went and taught him a lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon. He wants to be baptized so that's pretty cool. So we have another baptism date set for the 2nd of November. He looks like he'll be going through with it. His name is Carlos Enrique. He's 14 and we want to help teach his whole family. It's a really good family. They are really nice and really accepting of what we have to teach. So that's cool.

Also, this week, I had a pretty interesting experience. We knocked on a door and a guy answered and he didn't live there but he was a friend of the person there. We came in and they started asking us all sorts of questions about our work. They were super interested in missionaries and stuff. And then the one of them said, "How can I be a missionary?" I thought that was pretty funny. So we taught a whole lesson and explained that the first step was to be baptized. Then he said, "Yeah! I think I want to be baptized." So we'll see where that goes. But that was a pretty crazy experience. 

We've had a lot more people open up this week. The past few weeks people have been pretty closed to us, but this week was good. Also, another interesting experience, today we had church and then a member drove us to their house because it was probably a 30 minute drive out into the middle of the savannah here, the middle of nowhere on this dirt road. Pretty crazy. We were just driving down this dirt road and there was nothing...just cows and fields. Then we got to a spot with like 4 houses. Apparently ALL their family lives there...cousins, and uncles and grandmas and such. They had a HUGE barbecue with tons of food and it was pretty awesome. It was pretty cool to see a different part of the country too, because we've mostly just been in the city. So it was kind of cool to see the countryside. It's really pretty. It kind of reminds me of an African savannah. It has lots of trees but lots of tall brown grass. I wish I would've had my camera with me because it was really pretty. Next time we have lunch with them I'll make sure I bring my camera.

So that's it for this week. It was good. Next week is the end of the first transfer and we will be getting 2 more missionaries in the house so that'll be interesting.

Spiritual thought: This week I listened to Elder Bednar's talk from this last conference in English, so I was able to get a bit more out of it. I really like his analogy with the cheetahs and topis. I have found this analogy to be very accurate. We need to always be watchful of the things that can distract us from what's important. During my mission, when I am not focused, the work doesn't go as well, and I don't feel the spirit guiding me. Be weary of how much time you spend on your phone and other things like that. Be focused on what's important, eternal life.

-- Elder Olson

Note: Elder Olson can't take his camera out with him during the week so I thought I'd explore google maps and get a feel for his area. 

Here's a link if you want to do the same https://goo.gl/maps/E6tUS9tkVpwtjrs18

These are all google maps screen shots below

just an idea of what the dirt roads he talks about may look like. This is in his area.  

another view from another dirt road just outside the city

The Church of Jesus Christ of LatterDay Saints building in Hidrolandia where he has church each week.

the chapel pews in the church

the pulpit area

the street the church is on

the street just in front of the church

He tells us about this big dip of a road they have to go down and back up to get to the other side of the city. Here it is.

week 10: Zone Conference, Splits, & Spiritual Experiences

Week 10, 4th week of first transfer

October 14, 2019

It was a good week. We started off with Zone conference which was really awesome. We learned a lot about teaching people not just lessons. So adapting lessons to fit peoples' needs and we did a lot of practicing. The only bad thing about it was that we had wake up at 3:30 in the morning to catch the bus to the stake center in Goiania. So that wasn't fun but other than that it was good. Oh another great thing about zone conference was that we had Big Macs for lunch and they had 3 for every person so that was pretty awesome!

We had splits this week with the zone leaders Elder Gregory and Elder DeSantos. I was with Elder Gregory and I learned a lot. He's got almost 2 years. He leaves this next transfer so he's got a lot of experience. I learned a lot about how to contact people and stuff like that. And I was able to ask him questions about the language because he speaks English. haha.

So after splits, me and Elder Rodriguez had a pretty cool experience. So in the Zone conference we talked about praying for your companion and yourself while your companion is speaking during the lesson. So I decided to try it out. The lesson after we finished splits, we taught a man and his wife about the restoration and as Elder Rodriguez taught, I prayed for him to be able to teach better and I prayed for me for the gift of tongues. I shared the first vision with them and it was a REALLY spiritual experience! I could tell that they felt something and it wasn't just me and Elder Rodriguez feeling the spirit. We all felt the spirit really strong. So that was pretty cool. 

Alright so I am going to finish off the email with things that I hate and things that I like, to follow the example of Ben Shapiro, haha. So things that I hate: I got stung by a wasp in the middle of a lesson and there wasn't really anything I could do about it so I just had to hold in my pain. So that was fun. haha. But it's really no big deal. On to things that I like: So this week was fast sunday and after we finished fasting (they fast from lunch to lunch here, because lunch is the big meal), so Sunday afternoon for lunch we went to a members house and we had Churrasco, which is the Brazilian BBQ, which was basically a TON of meat and oh it was so good. Basically Tucano's. Sausage and steak and chicken and all sorts of stuff and then dessert afterward. So that was pretty great.

So that's this week. It was pretty awesome. Hopefully this next week we can get people to come to church because still this week we've had zero out of like 10 people we've invited to church actually come. So that's kind of discouraging but all we can do is invite.

I'd like to share a scripture about scriptures.

2 Nephi 2: 3

 ^aAngels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, ^bfeast upon the ^cwords of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will ^dtell you all things what ye should do.  

These past weeks I have found answers to so many of my questions in the scriptures. The Book of Mormon is really the word of God. I want to invite you all, if you arent already, to study the Book of Mormon daily, for at least 15 minutes with a question in your mind as you do so. I know that you can learn so much from it.

-Elder Olson

Zone Conference: Elder Olson is smiling so big

Big Macs from McDonalds=Happiness

Dinner on Splits

Elder Olson on splits. He enjoyed the communication and association with some other elders for a bit. Elder Gregory loved that Elder Olson had a BYU sweatshirt and wore it around the apartment.

week 9: First Baptism

Week 9, 3rd week of first transfer

October 6, 2019

I never thought I'd say this, but I found something worse than spiders and that's cockroaches. I hate them so much. Anyways...

I hope you all enjoyed conference. I tried. It was all in Portuguese so I just got bits and pieces but it was good. 

The other day at lunch, we were at a members house and the grandpa lived there and he asked our names and then asked where we were from and all that stuff and then we proceeded to have the same conversation about 30 times.He asked my name, where I was from, what the capitol of the United States was...hahaha. Then he told us this story about missionaries and then he bore his testimony and showed us a picture of his parents. And then he'd go into the other room and do something then come back and restart the conversation. It was pretty funny. There was also this man on the street and we were walking along the street at like 8 o'clock, we were finishing up for the night, and this guy would always follow us and he would be like "ELDERS! ELDERS!" so we'd stop and he'd  ask for a pamphlet because we hand out pamphlets sometimes and he was like, "I want a pamphlet about the word of god" (he sounded a little out of it) so we'd just give him a  pamphlet, haha. But it was pretty funny.

Last week I said the baptism of Juan wasn't til next week but I guess I was lost in translation because it WAS this week. The confirmation isn't until next week because of general conference. So I baptized him on Saturday. It was good. The baptismal meeting was supposed to be between sessions at 4pm in the afternoon but we went and opened up the font and the ward mission leader had forgotten to clean it (that's his job when we tell him there's a baptism) and it was full of centipedes which, oh, they're so gross. There was one the size of my forearm. It was pretty nasty. Luckily, other ward members came and cleaned it out because, oh, there was no way I could've done that. It was GROSS! But they cleaned it out and after the second session we did the baptism. It was good. The first baptism. Exciting.

We are also teaching a man named Uemerson and his girlfriend Ilani and his brother and wife (not really teaching the brother, he doesn't want anything to do with us) but they all live in the same house. We're trying to help Uemerson and Ilani get to baptism, so first off they have to get married. So we will see how that goes. They are in their mid twenties and they are struggling with money issues so he has been having questions about how he's supposed to provide for his family and stuff like that. So hopefully that can lead somewhere good. Uemerson really likes the lessons we share and we've shared a couple of videos with him and he's gone and watched a couple videos on his own, but they have a problem with keeping commitments. We've invited them to church quite a few times and they haven't come so hopefully they can progress or we will have to drop them because they aren't keeping commitments. 

Back to conference, I thought it was really cool that all the talks were focused on Jesus Christ and how He needs to be a central part of our lives and how we can only find joy in Christ. They talked about disconnecting from our phones and connecting to the spirit more and how the devil tries to deceive us with the things of the world but we just need to focus on Christ because He is the only way we can have joy. He atoned for our sins and all of our pains and afflictions. So when we have hard struggles, we can turn to Christ and he can help us. I also heard there were some changes to the organization of the church but I didn't really understand it because it was in Portuguese so I'll have to have that explained to me today when I call home. 

That's all for this week!

--Elder Olson

Pictures of the house where Elder Olson lives. Right now there are only 2 elders there but 2 more will join them in a few weeks at the next transfer.

Elder Olson's bed on the left

other end of bedroom

study area

bathroom

kitchen

back porch (the laundry area)

Elder Olson and Elder Rodriguez

First Baptism. Elder Rodriguez, Juan, Elder Olson