week 18: Eating all the animal parts

Week 18, 6th week of 2nd transfer

December 9, 2019

This week started out with interviews with the President so we had to go to city nearby, so we had to ride the bus again...so that's great. But it wasn't super far on the bus but we did have to walk like an hour after we got off the bus to make it to the chapel where the interviews were. That was only one morning so that was pretty fast.

This week we had some really cool experiences. We taught a guy (I think I talked about him last week, his name is Val and his family. I found him with Elder Burt on our splits). We had a really good lesson with them. We read the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi Chapter 11 and it was really cool because the kids were really engaged in reading and stuff and they were really interested in the Book of Mormon. But sadly they didn't come to church this week because they had some problems with other family stuff. 

Then another friend we have that was a reference from a member named Cassia. We still haven't been able to actually teach her. We've only talked to her 2 times in the door because she doesn't live with any male adults so we can't enter their house to teach a lesson (a rule that exists for the safety of the women and for the reputations of the elders) but we talked about the Book of Mormon at the door. She read and prayed about it and told us that she has a testimony of the Book of Mormon, that God showed her that it's true. So that was kind of a surprise because we haven't even been able to teach her. But it just shows that people who actually go and pray can receive answers.

Another cool experience with the Book of Mormon we had was with an investigator/friend named Veronica. We haven't been able to teach her either because their are no male adults in her home. She has a kid but she lives with her mom. But she has been reading the Book of Mormon and we just have been following up over the phone and stuff. We talked to her the other day and asked her how her Book of Mormon experience was. And she said she was half way through the book! And that she is feeling like God has showed that it's true also! So that's two people who've received answers about the Book of Mormon, which is awesome because we haven't been having any luck with getting people to pray about the Book of Mormon and actually read. And so we are pretty excited about that. But we are going to need to figure out how we can teach them, because we can't go into their house.

The hard thing is nobody comes to church. Those two didn't come to church also. So we've been having difficulty with that. Church is at 9 in the morning here and that's hard for people here. Everybody likes to sleep in or has work or things like that, so it's been hard to get people to go to church.

Today is the start of my 3rd transfer. I don't know right now where I'm going but I think I'm going to stay in Hidrolandia. I'll probably know and type it in another email. Elder Rodriguez has been transferred to the Goiania North Zone. He's the new Zone Leader there. So I will have a new companion, I know that. 

Some things that I hate: The BUS...still. And also we have this funeral home next to our house that always plays announcements for funerals and it is really annoying. They are really loud and it's always during our study time.

Things that I like: This week I tried some interesting foods. I tried this soup called Mocotó. It's basically cow foot soup. And this other one I don't remember the name of but it's cow stomach soup (maybe Dobradinha). And I actually liked them both. They kind of taste the same. It's actually pretty good surprisingly. The other thing I tried is cuscuz, which is basically cornbread but kind of more in a more mushy form, not really a bread form. Kind of like mushed up cornbread basically. That was good too with, cebada, which is this barley drink that's like a substitute coffee basically. But it's not coffee. It doesn't have caffeine or anything. But that was pretty good surprisingly, the cow foot and cow stomach soup. Kind of an interesting experience. Also I had feijoada yesterday which is black beans with a bunch of meat thrown in it and I was eating this one thing and they were like, "Oh do you like that part?" And I was like, "yeah." And they said, "That's pig ears." So apparently I've eaten pig ears also. Haha. So I'm just eating all sorts of animal parts that I've never thought I'd eat. 

But yeah, it was a good week. This week will be interesting with transfers seeing who my new companion is. 

Spiritual thought:
Mosiah 13:  28 And moreover, I say unto you, that ^asalvation doth not come by the ^blaw alone; and were it not for the ^catonement, which God himself shall make for the sins and iniquities of his people, that they must unavoidably perish, notwithstanding the law of Moses.  

Remember the importance of Christ this Christmas season. Make him your focus. Without Christ we could not be saved. Try to follow his example better this christmas and #lighttheworld! Love you all and have a great week!

Elder Olson

UPDATE: I received more information about the transfer. I will be training a new missionary, Elder Bezerra, here in Hidrolandia. I'm pretty nervous because I am just leaving my own training now and I'm not completely fluent, but I trust the mission president and the revelation he receives.

Elder Rodriguez's mom shared these two photos of the missionaries

Dobradinha, cow stomach soup

Mocotó, cow hoof soup

typical feijoada

week 13: Miracles and deathly fruit

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

pequi fruit

New Elders in our house

it rained a lot so everything turned very green and beautiful

after the long ride in the little car into the country for lunch

coquito fruit/nut

Elder Burt and Elder Rodriguez

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