Elder Olson's Church Mission 2019-2021: 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