Elder Olson's Church Mission 2019-2021: elder burt

week 5 of transfer 2

Hey everyone, I forgot to do an audio recording so, sorry! I'm just gonna write this one.

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all had a great dinner. My companion and I had pizza for Thanksgiving dinner! I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission and for all of you that support me in my service.

Anyways, This week started out with splits. I was with Elder Burt, the other American. He's more green than me, so I was the senior companion for a day. That was interesting. I realized how much I rely on my fluent native Brazilian companion to help people understand what I am saying. Most people here have never talked with an American so my accent is hard for them to understand, even when what I am saying is technically correct. Sadly, all of our appointments fell through, and we spent an hour or so looking for a house that turned out to be an empty lot. We were pretty discouraged, and I didn't really know what to do. So, I pulled out the map and said a prayer. We started knocking doors, and ended up finding the house of a contact that Elder Rodrigues and I had been looking for.

Later this week, Elder Rodrigues taught the person Elder Burt and I found. His name is Dail, he lives with his wife and 16 year old daughter. We invited them to church, and felt really good about it, but they didn't come. To add to that, our friends that seemed to be progressing have suddenly stopped. But, I still have hope for them. Sometimes we just have to be more patient. People will find the truth in their own time. This Sunday, we also taught another Family Elder Burt and I found. We shared the Restoration and It was a very spiritual lesson. It was a blessing for me, because I was feeling a bit down due to the lack of success we have had this week.

Things I hate: It has started raining in our house too. We have to turn the lights off when It rains because the lightbulbs drip water. Also, there is only one Atm in this city that will read my card, and the line was a 40 minute wait this morning so that was fun

Things I Like: I received a package from my parents with peanut butter and maple extract, so I made pancakes with peanut butter and syrup for breakfast. My Brazilian companion loved it. I'm going to have to hide my peanut butter haha.

Spiritual Thought: This week, we had a devotional with the parents of President Piros. His dad was also a mission president, and they shared some really cool thoughts that helped me a lot this week. They talked a lot about being patient in your trials, humbling yourself before God, and having faith. I really needed that this week, there were many times this week when I felt like giving up. But, when I humbled myself and prayed, and searched for guidance, The Lord provided a way for me to complete my goals. When you have difficulties, stay patient and keep your faith in the Lord. He will help you.

Amo vocês!

Elder Olson

Elder Rodrigues and Elder Olson celebrating America's Thanksgiving with a pizza

chatting with Elder Olson today

Week 13, 1st week of 2nd transfer

November 4, 2019

This week the new elders came. Elder Burt and Elder Santiago. Elder Burt is from Colorado and this is his first area/transfer. And Elder Santiago is his trainer. He's from Columbia. He has 6 months in the mission. They are really awesome. Elder Santiago likes to have things clean which I like too. So we did a really deep clean this morning of all the house.

(Note: Elder Olson told us that to clean the house, they put soap and water in buckets and pretty much slosh it all over the floors and then scrub and then squeegee it out of the house through a door or into the drains in the bathroom. Also, Elder Santiago is apparently a really good cook. Elder Olson is excited to eat good food and to learn how to cook a few more things...when the mission home remembers to load their cards with enough food money that is. They are supposed to get a certain amount a week. Apparently last week it was half of what it was supposed to be)

This week we only had 3 of our people in Sacrament meeting which is better than usual, but still not great. But we had a member help us bring two of his friends which was good. We haven't really taught them yet. But the other was an older man who's like seventy something years old and I think I mentioned him in another email. His name is Bryce. I think I mentioned him, but when we taught him he spoke for like the whole lesson but we've been teaching him more and it's been going better.

I had two really good spiritual experiences this week. First was, I had a really bad headache one day, a migraine, and I wasn't feeling very good. So that night I asked for a blessing and as soon as the blessing was finished I felt soooooo much better and the next day I was completely better. And then the other was in a lesson. So we were teaching this girl named Laura. She's 18 and she has lots of questions about everything. We were teaching about baptism and about how you need to be baptized by a person with the proper authority and she asked "Well how can I know if someone has the proper authority? How can I know if these things are true?" So we taught her about prayer. She started to tear up and told us that she had already had an experience with prayer where she had prayed and received an answer in the way we had described through feelings and through the spirit. So that was cool.

I guess we are to the things that I hate:

Number one: This sunday for lunch, we had lunch way out in the middle of nowhere again and had to ride in a car to get there. So there are for of us Elders and they put two in one car and two in another but the car that I was in was a tiny Fiat and there were 5 people in it plus a small child and it was a bajillion degrees and the car didn't have AC. It was super cramped and I hate tight spaces. And it was a super bumpy dirt road. So that was the worst 20 minute drive of my life.

Number two: A Fruit called pequi that I finally tried. It's for some reason really popular here. So it's a tiny yellow ball like the size of a golf ball. They cook it in a pot til the outside skin is all mushy and then you eat the outside skin...the mushy part. Because inside, if you bite it, it will shoot tiny spines, tiny thorn spiny things into your tongue. It smells pretty bad. I wanted to try it because everybody eats it here and I discovered it also tastes pretty bad.

(Note: Elder Olson also tried these mini coconut things (picture below) where you break off the husk and eat the little nut inside. He said he liked it. It tasted more nutty than coconut)

So onto things that I like:

First: I probably mentioned this before, but I'll mention it again. Cashew juice. So if you didn't know, Cashews come from a fruit and it's really popular here and they use it for juice and it is REALLY good. I tried it before the mission and it wasn't really good. But when they make it fresh it's really good. And when it's really hot outside, it tastes great.

Second: This week it rained a lot! And the weather got down to like 75 degrees. It felt so great. But it was kind of funny because it was actually almost a bit chilly which is funny because it was 75 degrees but I was shivering a tiny bit. I guess I'm getting used to 90 and 100 all the time.

(Note: Elder Olson didn't say this, but he's glad we got him 3 sweaters before he left. His companion had none and no jacket or anything. So Elder Olson gave his companion one of his sweaters. I thought that was very kind.)

And here's a Spiritual thought: Moroni 7: 41 And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.

Life is hard, but we can have hope in Christ. Keep an eternal perspective, as God told Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail, Your afflictions will be but a small moment.
--

Elder Olson