Lets Start Transfer 2

So this last week wasnt too bad and it was also the end of my first transfer. Here~s a quick recap, i apologize that I dont have everything written down in order i didnt bring my planner.

 

tuesday

We had a wonderful district meeting and said goodbye to one of our zone leaders who is going home this week. I also recieved all the letters from them that i didnt have in the past. So looks like i just needed to wait a little bit longer. Thank you all so much for writing me and please continue to do so I really do need the lift that your letters give me.

 

Friday we had divisions and i was with elder shepherd and the zone leaders doing interviews in their area because elder adhans was with our district leader doing interviews in our area and another area, and me and elder shepherd went and found some more people to teach in our area by chance because we were trying to find an investigator to set up an appointment with him and a lady said that he wasnt home but that there were 3 men that we could teach that lived a couple doors down and so we went and set up an appointment for sunday with them and it was good.

 

saturday

We switched back companions and prepared for the baptism that we were going to have that night with Filipe a nine year old boy whose family had been less-active and also rayner a 16 year old who accepted the gospel very freely and knew that it was true. So we got ready and went to speak with Rayners parents to get their permission to baptize and Rayner came out and said that he didnt want to be baptized anymore because his mom had talked with him yesterday and didnt approve. It was sad and a little frustrating because he knows that its true but doesnt want to accept but everyone has their free-agency to choose. The good thing was that Filipe was baptized and i was the one who had the opportunity to perform the ordenance for him. We took a bunch of pictures but my computer is currently not letting me upload them so ill have to send them another time

 

oh and our lunch fell through and they gave us money and when we were walking to the restaurant we got a ride from a member of the stake presidency who offered to make us lunch and it was good! You should try grilling pineapple with cinnamon on it!

 

sunday

highlight of the day is when i got to sing Angels we have heard on high in portuguese with Filipe the 9 year old boy during sacrament meeting, it was really cool to be able to do this with him and i hope he remembers it. We also had 5-6 investigators come to church and also our investigator who was baptized last week receive the priesthood. Also we found out that no one in our district was being transfered except the zl who went home so we are getting a new ZL. 

 

Oh and i had a miracle with fast offerings, I didnt have money for them at the begining of teh month but wanted to pay them in november so i payed it $10 this sunday even though it meant i would have to use money from my reserve for buying water and then when i got home i found $15 that i had lost and i was able to have money to buy more fresh water! It was a miracle and god does bless us

 

But this was my week pretty much. I love you all and hope you had a great thanksgiving. In reality i didnt do anything for it because we didnt get the day as a Pday, but i thought of you all and hope that you had a great Thanksgiving, you only have to have one more without me and then im back,

 

I love you all so very much and i need and appreciate your prayers,

love your son/brother

Elder Eric Olsen

We Have Trials Before Miracles

So this last week has been a bit slow but it was still good, heres a quick recap

Monday:
We were tracting and we were invited to a family night where I ate too many of the hot dogs that they had for treat, but it was ok.

Tuesday:
District meeting was good and we had a rather slow day but the three lessons that we did teach were awesome. One of which we tried a new things where I asked for water because we were out and then gave a prayer with the man and found out that the sisters had taught him in the past which was interesting to know. We gave him a restoration pamphlet and challenged him to read it and then call us after he had.

Wenesday:
We had a zone conference all day which was awesome. I saw some of the elders from my district in provo and also sang with members of my zone. I dont remember what it was now but it was good. The president gave great talks, we got candy and got home late. But while we were there i shared my experience that I had had with silviano (the man who showed us the video on inferno for 40 minutes and said that gave us the articles on why we werent cristian) with the president and shared my feelings that i had had for it, and the president told me to go back and bear my testimony. At first I thought thats crazy because the man had just shown us those things but the next moment i realized the reason why and thought to myself (do i have the faith to do that which my president has asked me? ) but i realized it was the lord asking me through my president as I felt the spirit testify to me that i needed to do this. Im going tomorrow to go and speak with him and after we set up the appointment with him i was a little more stressed because he said that we just had differing opinions and was very polite.This whole time hes been really polite but it still has me a little scared. Im just thinking of it as alma when he was told to go back to the city of amalikiah or samuel when he was told to go back to zarahelma or abinadi when he was told to go back to king noahs people. If they could do it so can i. And im doing it with elder shepherd who is awesome. Hes the district leaders companion and has been out for one transfer longer than me. I know theres going to be a miracle in this situation, i can already feel it but i ask for you to pray for me as i go and do this tomorrow that the lord will put in my mouth the words that i am to say. My faith is increasing as i prepare to do this, and the president klein said for me to testify of the book of mormon and i might testify also about the plan of salvation, but i know that the spirit will put the words i need in my mouth and the reason why ive been able to learn portuguese a little bit quicker is for this moment.

Thursday:
I saw a cat that looked like diamond today and it was weird. It had two different colored eyes too but not the racoon tail. TOday wasnt as productive as i would like but it was still good.

Friday:
We taught a brother and sister this morning and i know that they were prepared for us and also that the lord is giving people now that he has prepared. We also watched together forever with some of our investigators who are preparing for marriage.

Saturday:
So we taught some good lessons today and the lord defineitly prepared people for us to teach. We taught a man named liver the restoration again because he took the discussions a year ago and then when we finished he asked about the resurrection and so we taught the plan of salvation as well. since the zone conference we have been challenging all of our investigators to baptism because if they wont commit then we shouldnt waste our time. But we now have 15 people with dates and the only hard part is getting them to keep the dates. We also taught a 10 year old boy who im singing in sacrament meeting with next week and i told him half of the story of nephi getting the brass plates and i thought back to the liken the scriptures movie that we watched coming home from idaho. It was funny.

Sunday:
We had a good number of investigators at church, 4 and 1 future investigator who someone had brought. We didnt do a ton because i found out that we are supposed to still have our study time after church that we regularly have, but we did teach a new investigator which was good.

Monday:
We cleaned our district leaders apartment because they talked about doing that at the zone confrence and i made pão de queijo which didnt turn out that good. But it was cool being all together. I saw a cool blowgun that the district leader bought from an indian market here and i think ill get one too if i ever go there.

oh and theyre already putting up christmas decorations here which i love and ive heard some portuguese christmas carols which have been really cool. Dont worry mom im not starving here we have plenty of food. Me and elder adhans have lots of cookies and dolce de leite that we eat. We share and so we dont have problems with that. And for the light bill i get reimbursed for this and i did end up sending one letter. There will definitely be more to come in the future.

Pray for me please and write lots and lots of letters and i promise that ill get back to you

love
Elder Olsen

Brazil 3 or 4 depending how you count

Ola! So i am now on week 3 or 4 depending on how you count because this is my 3rd p day but the begining of my fourth week. So im going to recap really quickly for you because a lot happened.

Monday: I sent off letters and then we deceided to visit a less active member who lives in the ward. His name is ariel and him and his wife and son live in a neighborhood in the forest. Their house reminded me of the us because it had a yard and wasnt attatched to anything other houses. But his son is studying to be a biologist and so their house is cool. They have a adolecent capybara which was cool to see. Its mother had been killed by poachers and so they brought it up and it lives in their yard. He told me some other cool stuff that youll have to wait for a letter from me to hear about so be on the watch.

Tuesday:
The trainers of me and elder walch and elder shepherd (another new american who has been out for one transfer more than me) all left for a leadership meeting that they had together and so that left the trainees (aka us) together for the day. So we went back to Elder Shepherds house and ate lunch and did some contacting which i wasnt performing my best in but its ok because im still learning. But we ended our night by visiting some members who had a cousin die the week before who i believe had down syndrome. I was able to share the story of one of my friends from school who had a sister die who had cerebral palsy and i think that it made them feel better. But we met up with our companions again at like 8 something because their bus was slow and then went home.

Wenesday:
Today wasnt the most productive that it could have been but it did have some cool parts. We went and talked to rafael the pastor who asked for a book of mormon, and i was able to speak with him about doctrines of the church and invite him to read 3rd nephi 11. It was awesome because im only on my third week in the field and was able to do that. But we also stopped by Ariels house again to talk with his son diego (the one studying to be a biologist). He had some cool kaydids that he had caught to study and i saw his collection of beetles and butterflys and it was way cool. He also brought out some pictures that he had taken in the forest and they were amazing, like something you would see in a book, but he doesnt want to sell them because its just a hobby. picture taking that is. When we went home he walked us by a pond to see if the caiman that lives there was there, and it wasnt. I dont think that i mentioned this but we get to their house by walking on a small path through the jungle and all the times that ive taken this path its been dark and i wont lie its pretty scary because we only have a cell phone flashlight to guide us but the last time we took it diego showed us the way and it was better because before i thought that there were jaguars and lots of snakes that lived in the area but he explained that there werent very many so i felt better. We started back for home when we recieved a call from a family in the ward and they asked for us to come and give blessings to them and so we did and we gave 5. I gave my first blessing in portuguese and it wasnt the best because i dont have the best grasp of the language still but it was still a good experience.

thursday
just a regular day we worked, but it wasnt very productive, but we did stop by at a ward activity and brought one of our investigators dennis, there.

friday
So today we kicked it into gear and contacted like crazy on our way to appointments and ended the day with 52 contacts which i felt was really good.

Saturday
So remember that family that we taught that i wanted for them to join the church? We went there again today and (we had gone there once before this week and just answered questions that the father had) were planning to teach an awesome lesson on the plan of salvation, and instead the father gave us papers saying that mormons werent christians and then played a video about inferno. It made me really sad to know that people chose not to believe and i just felt bad for the kids that were there. I prayed that the children would accept the gospel later in life and i got the impression that they would remember us for a long time and that they would accept. When the video ended we bore our testimonies and left. We would have left in the middle but we thought the video would be short and didnt want to be rude, looking back on it now we should have just left during the middle of it. But the lord blessed us because right after this we went to a less active family and talked with them and the father said that he wanted to have us baptize his son and then one of our investigators recognized that there was something different about us and he liked being around us because he could sense this and so it was really good.

sunday
We went to church and had to leave halfway through because we found out that we had a baptism for a member right after church and so we ran home grabbed my baptismal clothes then ran back. Right after church i got to baptize julho caesar da costa brito, and it was really cool. I thought that i would not remember the prayer or say something wrong because i started memorizing it during church but it was good. We had a great lunch at a members house and we recieve lunch from members everyday but pday and dont usually eat dinner since lunch is the biggest meal of the day here. In our priesthood lesson we were challenged to write a letter to our family using 15 words or less before we left them for 2 years and so youll be recieving mine soon.

im not sending letters this week because i have no money because we had to pay a huge electricity bill this month but expect letters next week. Im still homesick but its getting better and i have found much strength in the letter that you sent me dad,

I love you all and please pray for me because i need the help,

love
Elder Olsen