City of Churches

Hi everyone!

We started this week off with a good ol' exchange. We traveled about an hour and a half by bus to a city called Annapolis to do exchanges with the district leader there. Fun fact: Annapolis  is the city with the most churches in the world. I worked with Elder Pedroso. We spent most of the day walking, because he had marked some lessons super far away. But, it was a good time. I had never been there before so it was cool to see something new. Also, the bus station on the way home has Burger King, so we definitely took advantage of that.

We also had to walk to Erik's house and back this week, on the eternal dirt road. This time, we took a bit of a different route, and got chased by a huge dog so that was fun Haha. Sadly, the appointment fell through, so the Journey was not a huge success. Also, we are going to have to remark his baptism due to some minor problems. But, we had 5 people at church this week! We were happy about that.

Spiritual thought: Doctrine and Covenants 62:1 "Behold, and hearken, O ye elders of my church, saith the Lord your God, even Jesus Christ, your advocate, who knoweth the weakness of man and how to succor them who are tempted."  God knows our weaknesses. He understands us completely and wants to help us overcome our temptations!

Photos!!

1. Burger King

2. Chimarrão (also known as maté, I used to hate it, but I have been converted)

3. Exchange with Elder Pedroso

A Bird Pooped on my Head

Opa meus amigos, tudo bem?

We had an awesome week! It was supposed to start out with an exchange, but the other Elders got sick, and we couldn't risk it. But, we still had to go almost all the way to their area to drop off a Book of Mormon for one of our new friends. We had to walk about an hour and twenty minutes to get there, and most of that we were just on the same dirt road that went on for eternity. But it was all worth it. 

Our friend, Erik, read some of the Book of Mormon and received an answer to his prayer that it is true! He is preparing to be baptized on August 1st! We also started teaching his stepdad and younger brother. All three of them came to Church on Sunday, which was awesome! His stepdad, Wilson, had actually been to church with other missionaries years ago and said that he was so happy to visit again. Please keep them in your prayers so that they can progress towards baptism.

We have been working super hard to find people in the neighboring city, Goiania, to start a branch there. Sadly, not all of our ideas have worked out. We tried doing an online event on Sunday night and invited a bunch of people on Facebook and stuff beforehand, but nobody showed up. But, it happens. We are still working hard and finding success in other ways.

Spiritual thought: In Alma 15, Alma and Amulek receive a message from Zeezrom (Who in the previous chapter had debated against them) asking them to come to him. It says that Alma and Amulek "went immediately." I think this is a great example of what we should do when someone is in need of help. True servants of the Lord are always willing to go and help immediately.

 Photos

1-2. The eternal dirt road. We walked on this road for like 40 minutes... but it's cool because you can see downtown Goiania in the distance.

3. We had to walk for 1 hour and 20 minutes to get to Erick's house, and we passed this small airport on the way

4. I had to carry a bunch of groceries home, and as I was walking,  a bird pooped on my head. This photo was captured shortly after Haha.

40 in 6?

Hello everyone!

I am now writing to you from my new area in Goiânia! I am loving this area. There is a TON of work to do. Since we are whitewashing this area, there are a bunch of uncontacted referrals, so we find all of the people we teach from referrals. The members here are also really awesome. We introduced ourselves to most of them on WhatsApp, and a bunch of them passed referrals of people who may be interested. We found a bunch of new people this week and had some very spiritual lessons. 

Our second morning here, the mission president called us. He challenged us to baptize 40 people by the end of the transfer because they are trying to open a branch here. That's quite a few... But we happily accepted the challenge! Please keep us in your prayers so that we can reach this goal! 

On Saturday night, the bishop here called to ask us both to give talks in church the next morning. I was nervous I wouldn't have enough time to prepare my talk, but it went super well. It was probably one of the best talks I've ever given.

Today, (p-day) we are deep cleaning the apartment because it was absolutely disgusting when we got here. I don't think anyone has ever cleaned it.

Anyways, I hope you are doing well and that you enjoyed this longer than normal update!

Spiritual thought: I've probably shared this scripture before, but I wanted to share it again Alma 29:9 "I know that which the Lord has commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself,  but I glory in that which the Lord has commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy" I would like to testify that there is no greater joy than doing that which God commands and helping others repent.

-Elder Olson

Photos!

1. Our first day here (on the balcony of our apartment 

2. Church after our talks

3. Sushi

Father and Son Reunited

Oi pessoal!

Happy Independence day! Living outside of the country has helped me realize how blessed we are to be Americans. Today, I start my final transfer. Surprisingly, I am not staying here in Rio Verde. I will be finishing my mission in Goiânia, and my companion will be Elder Bezerra, my son (I trained him)! It's always so sad to leave an area, but I'm so excited to be companions with Elder Bezerra again! Its going to be a blast.

The work this week was pretty slow, lots of appointments fell through. But, it was still good. Nothing too crazy. I'd like to thank everyone for your prayers for Onaldo, he is recovering well, and his doctor said it's a miracle that he lived through it! 

Spiritual thought: This week we watched a missionary devotional with Elder and Sister Christopherson. Sister Christopherson talked about the principle of "unpacking our bags". For example, whenever the saints had to reestablish, the Lord commanded them to basically act like they were going to stay for a long time, and that made it so they always prospered wherever they went. They put their all into it and labored diligently every time. When we never stop to labor diligently in the service of the Lord (or in any worthy cause) we will prosper.

Thanks to everyone who supports me and writes me! I love hearing from you.

-Elder Olson

Photos:

1. Happy Independence day! (We didn't have a flag, so I drew one.

2-3. Cereal. You all know I love cereal. My companion does too. During the past 2 transfers, we bought basically all the different types of cereal that exist here and rated them from best to worst

Zone Conference

Hi everybody,

Happy Fathers day to all the dads out there! This week we had zone conference! My companion and I were supposed to give a training, but it went a bit differently than we thought it would. We kept asking how they wanted us to do the training, and the assistants kept putting it off, so we ended up just winging it. Luckily, our training was last and there wasn't much time left, so when we got up to talk, our mission President was like "you have 5 minutes." 

But, I learned a lot this zone conference. We focused on the importance of setting goals and planning. Goals are the desire of our heart, and planning is how we reach those goals. If we don't set goals and make plans, we won't progress in this life. 

Teaching lessons and bringing people to church this week was pretty rough. The majority of our lessons fell through, making it difficult to invite people to church. But, we are praying that people will soften their hearts so that we can help them. 

Spiritual thought: At zone conference, President Piros talked a lot about how to become a better missionary, we have to act, and not receive action. It is the same in everyday life. I invite you all to act! You can become the person you want to be as you choose to act.

-Elder Olson

Photos!

1. There's a food called stroganoff, that's like chicken in creamy red sauce, and we had the genius idea to make a pizza out of it.

2. The finished product

3. Lunch at zone conference

4-5 the zone

6. Running in the morning with a recent convert

Take me to church

 Hello hello!

I hope you are all doing great. The weeks are flying by. This week the other Elders in our apartment had to travel to Goiania for a few days, so it was pretty quiet in our apartment. But, it was good. We had 2 friends at church this week! Fernanda came again, and she is really liking it. Also, a friend of a member decided to go to church with us as well!

Something fun we got to do this week was make pizza at a member's house for them for lunch (we didn't eat there, of course). But it was good to serve them and share the greatness of Hawaiian pizza with them. Hawaiian pizza doesn't exist down here, but my Brazilian friends love it.

Please include Onaldo in your prayers. He is on oxygen now and has been in extreme pain.

Spiritual thought:

I got to give a talk in church again this Sunday. It was basically about how we have to let God prevail in our lives by hearing his voice and acting on it. There are so many distractions in this world, but we need to put all of them aside and listen to the still, small voice of the spirit. I know that as we let God prevail in our lives and listen to the spirit, we will stay on the path that leads to eternal life!

-Elder Olson

Photos!

1. Making pizza with a member family

2. Burger King (again, but probably for the last time because I gotta lose some weight)

Let the Holy Spirit Guide

 Opa tudo bem?

I hope you have all had a great week! Mine was pretty good, although we were rejected a lot. We had a pretty cool experience though. One morning we had planned on visiting a less active member, but when we got there, no one answered the door. But for some reason, we didn't leave right away. On the way home, we ran into an investigator that we had lost contact with for some time, and we were able to get her new phone number. If we hadn't waited around at the person's house, we probably wouldn't have run into her on the way home. The spirit was guiding us without us knowing.

Later that day, we went with a member to teach a lesson. On the way back, he wanted to pass by the store. We didn't want to waste time, but we felt we should go anyway. In the store, we ran into the mom of a missionary serving in the ward, who is not a member. We hadn't met her before, so it was a great opportunity. 

It felt good to know that we were being led by the spirit to do God's work. Other than that, our week was pretty uneventful. Please pray for Onaldo, he recently got covid and is suffering badly. Also pray for Fernanda, Ana, and Talita so that they can progress towards baptism. 

Thanks!

Elder Olson

Spiritual thought: 

"Let the Holy Spirit guard 

let his whisper govern choice he will lead us safely home

If we listen to his voice."

This hymn reminds us that we must let the spirit be our guide, and as we listen, everything will work out.

Photos:

 I'll try to send some videos of a guy making calda de cana (sugar cane juice) I drank it for he first time the other day and it is so good. 

1. I also drank redbull açai, but just like normal redbull, it is disgusting 

2. My new hat

3. Sugar Cane Juice - it was really good (lime juice added)