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Elder Olsen's mission president has asked the missionaries to not have a blog that is updated weekly. Therefore I will no longer be updating Eric's blog :(

First comes the Trials and then come the Blessings

So heres my week

Monday:

So we went and taught Natalia the girl that was baptized Saturday. Then we went and taught a less active family and got to know them better. Its a mom and her 3 daughters, 2 of the daughters have the age to be baptized and we will be holding their baptismal service this week.

Tuesday:

We had district meeting and today i had a division with Elder Housely in our area. We were able to encounter another less active member and his family and they were really nice and polite. I dont remember too much about today. But we ended with the English Class that we are teaching here  in Manacapuru. It was good but unfortunately our investigators didnt go :(

Wenesday:

We went to Manaus and had a meeting there with Elder Aidukatis who is a member of the quorum of the seventy. It was good but infortunately I didnt prepare as well spiritually as I had Elder Costa, but I was able to learn many things still. He gave me some interesting principles to think about. Read his ``because my father read the book of mormon`` talk that he gave in 2008 Because My Father Read the Book of Mormon

So I didnt sleep well on the bus returning home and so I read letters (ps the dear elder package came thanks!). When the bus arrived in Manacapuru me and Elder Anderson went directly to an interview with Antonia. If you dont remember her shes the investigator who has a smoking addiction. Well 2 weeks ago she was smoking 70 cigarettes in 3 days. Tuesday when we visited her she smoked half of a cigarette in 3 days. Today shes not smoking! She passed the interview but she will have to wait until the end of the month to be baptized because theres a man living in her house and hes moving out at the end of the month and so it will be good. 

We taught the less active family again (Rosenalda, mom, Gabrielle, daughter, Nariyelli, daughter, and little 4 year old daughter). They gave us dinner which isnt a common thing to do, and was a blessing because me and Elder Neves missed our lunch and were fasting earlier that day. It was a blessing from the lord.

We were passing in the street and a little boy asked me for a book of mormon. We marked to teach him and his family the next day :)

Thursday:

Today we planned and we went and taught some good lessons. We taught the boy who wanted a book of mormon, his name is Eliel. He accepted to be baptized on the first of december but will probably be baptized this week.

Friday:

Today was a very difficult day for me. We went this morning to dedicate the house of an investigator and they had forgotten and had left to go out. During the day we had our appointments fall through which is normal but i was really stressed. We ended the day with not very many lessons. 

Saturday:

We went out and worked today and so it was good. Today was the opposite of Friday. We had members go out and teach with us and we were able to have many lessons. We went to the baptism of the other elders (our baptisms had fallen through), and we had a member there. After we went out looking for a reference and i had mixed up the streets and ran into a man that we had contacted the day before which was good.

Sunday:

We woke up at 5:30 to prepare so that we could go out and bring many people to church. We gave our all. We  went to every house, called every phone, contacted in the street and ended up only bringing Eliel. We showed up to church with only 1 investigator and then the Lord began to bless us. Members began bringing in their friends, less actives showed up with non-member family members, investigators came by themselves. We ended Sacrament Meeting with 14 investigators at church which really was a miracle.

It was literally a miracle that I got through the day becasue I was super tired from having had woken up at 5:30 two days during the week and we got home at 9:30 almost all of the nights. 

Gabrielle and Nariyelli recieved answers about the book of mormon, and we were able to encounter Kevin again and he had recieved an answer as well and so we will hopefully have 3 baptisms this week. 

As we were walking to a devotional at the church me and Elder Neves were feeling that we needed to bring someone so we went and tried to bring some investigators and less actives but no one could go. A drunk man stopped me in the street asking for a book of mormon. He had previously asked me several times and I had always told him only if he went to church. So we invited him to the devotional and he accepted, which was different than the other 5-6 drunks that we had invited to church that day. I had to walk by his side going to the church because if not I think a car would have hit him. I began trying to look at him as my brother and how god would look at him. I was praying for him to become more sober by the time that we got to the church. When we got to the church some members thought it a bit amusing that we brought a drunk to the devotional. As we sat down in the back, he told me ´´thank you for bringing me here``. I sat looking at him and thinking about his life. He was dirty, smelly, and with a bag full of cans. I then began to think of him as the Savior would see him. As a soul that was needing the gospel in his life. When the devotional ended i gave him a book of mormon like we promised. He promised he would read and asked to come back the next week to church. He was still drunk by the time the meeting ended but he was able to give me his address and so we will visit him. Some members know him, and so they can show us where he lives. Who knows maybe he will be our new ward mission leader because we dont have one, but I want to teach him.

This week Elder Neves will go to Manaus and our Zone leader will do divisions with me and Elder Anderson for the entire week.

I hope that your week was full of miracles as mine was. Please continue to pray for me. Elder Aidukatis said this last week that he wants our missions to be so hard that we need a miracle to make it through to the next day so that one day when we are eating with the pioneers, Joseph Smith and Christ we will have a sacrifice that is worthy to talk about at the dinner table (if it makes sense without me needing to explain more of the story). I know that I personally this week was one of those weeks. I only made it through each day because of a miracle. Because I believe, preach and love God, who is a living God and a God of miracles.

Elder Eric Alan Olsen

Welcome from beautiful Manacapuru (mahn-nuh-cap-oo-roo)

So I have much to say and not much time to say it. Ill go fast

Monday:

took a bus for an hour and a half to manacapuru where the elders from here met us. Elder Anderson (is from conneticut but lives about 20 seconds from the New York border) is my district leader and his companion is Elder Costa (from San Paulo). My new companion is Elder Neves who is from Fortaleza and he is amazingzing (I think that he is going to become my new favorite companion)

Tuesday:

We woke up 4:00am to go to a zone conference in Manaus. We took the bus for about 2 hours and then got to the conference and went back arriving back here at about 2:00. I had a division for Elder Anderson to show me the area and present me to the Bishop here, Bishop Silva. The ward was formed the previous sunday and everyone is super excited about baptizing and dividing the ward again.

I got back with Elder Neves and we started going out and talking with everyone and knocking doors. We made a lot of contacts and were able to run into Raylan who is a 16 year old boy. We taught him, his sister and her grandma. The grandma wasnt interested and the sister was a little but Raylan was really interested and we marked a baptismal date for him this saturday.

As we were walking back home after working, a man on a motor came up and stopped. It was Saulo, an ex-investigator from when I was in Acariquara. It was a complete miracle that he found me there and on my first day too. I almost cried from happiness to see him again. He said he would go to church.

Wenesday:

We went out and worked again! Alot, like we did a bunch of contacts and marked two more baptismal dates with Elizangela and Guilherme. Guilherme is a 9 year old boy who has gone to church varios times with his neighbor, and Elizangela is his mother. We marked for them to be baptized this sunday.

We had a young man from the ward go out with us and show us where some members live this night.

Thursday:

We went to lunch at a members house and they had a monkey! They had boughten it from a neighbor who had moved there recently. It was cool monkey and highly domesticated. After lunch the monkey clung to my back and was just staying there as I fed it watermelon. Unfortunately, the monkey decided to pee on me while it was on my back :P Luckily it didnt smell but I changed my shirts all the same. the next time that we go there Im bringing my camera.

Today we didnt do as many contacts because we had a bunch of appointments marked so we mainly went to them.

Friday:

I had a division with Elder Anderson in our area for him to show me where more members live. Anteriorly there were elders working in it but they were taken out because of lack of missionaries in other areas. So Elder Anderson had worked there a little bit but not much. Today was a good day and we walked a bunch.

Saturday:

The first day of blisters. So I hadnt been using the boots that you sent me for my birthday very often because I had another that I had gained, however I left the other boots in my last area and started working only my birthday boots. The combination of me not walking in them much with the vast size of my area left me with only a bunch of blisters which I treated. The páin slowly faded away throughout the day.

We taught Guilherme this morning and his mom wasn't home. He was interviewd that night and passed but his mother wasnt there and she didnt sign the baptismal form so he wont be baptized until next week. 

Thorought the day we were able to work with member references and had a few other members present me to their friends and relatives. The race of member missionary work is more like a oven than a microwave. It takes a bit of time to heat up and get good investigators progressing.

This night while guilherme was being interviewed by elder anderson i went with Elder costa to find elizete ( a woman that I baptized in february) and some of Saulos brothers. So they werent home but as we went to 

meet elder anderson I ran into Irmã Elizete and she was very excited to see me again. She had been inactive for a while. I had ran into one of here other sons who I know earlier that day and I as able to see him again then. All of them said they´d go to church.

Sunday:

We went to get investigators to church and only one came but it turns out that she has members of her family who are members. We are currently meeting in a rented space above a bank because they are reforming the chapel to fit two wards now. 

I taught gospel principles which was fun. After church and some meetings that we had I visitied Aryton (I dont know if you remember the story of him and his ex-wife separating). So he has a new wife now and wants to get married and has all the documents. So now im going to be marrying three couples who I taught one year ago (since it is now one year since I arrived in Manaus) and we are going to baptize them. Im eccstatic.

I truly felt the Lords hand over my life this last week and I know that he is watching over me and helping with with this new responsibility.

Love,

Elder Eric Olsen. 

Aló meu nome é Elder Olsen, e meu trabalho é para ajudar você aproximar-se mais a Cristo. Quer ser batizado?

So monday we went and taught Jose Peixoto again and we were able to read the book of mormon with him and his wife. We will start on their marriage documents soon.

Tuesday:
We had district meeting and now we have another elder in our district who is from Stockton California. Super cool yes? Afterwards we went and visited Jonas, who isnt showing much of a desire to be baptized and continue meeting with us. He sees us more of friends than missionaries. We are going to stop visting him for a time and maybe go back and visit him again in the future.

We also visited Mery and Ismael this night and reviewed the baptismal questions with them in preparation for their baptism.

Wenesday:
We went to the temple today and didnt end up getting to our lunch appointment until 2:00. When we got home it was about 3:30ish. My district leader told me to rest my knee for the day and not work so that it could better heal. So I spent the day reading Jesus the Christ.

Thursday:
We went and spent the day going out to contact references that we had recieved. The day ended with the last work and the glory film of our 3 part film series at the church.

Friday:
I spent the day on a division with Elder S. Matos because he had to go for an exam at the hospital and I had to get the results of my MRI. We got home and started to work in his area and then a little in mine. We ended the day with a visit to a less active family in his area which I was very much grateful for because they gave us dinner which we dont usually eat. 

Saturday: 
It was a normal day. We ate lunch and went out to work. No one showed up to the english class which was sad but we did teach Camila who is a reference from a member in our ward. She will be baptized this Sunday. Afterwards we passed by the party of Paulo a young man in the ward who is always going out and visiting people with us

The best part of the whole day was the baptism of Mery and Ismael. It was absolutely beautiful. Sergio Ismael´s brother was the one to baptized them and the spirit was very strong. I could feel how God loves that family. Afterwards we had cake and soda (I have given up on drinking soda because its very sugary.) 

Sunday: 
We had church and went and visited Joana an oldery woman who was baptized in march. As we were walking to her house a man who was sitting down tried grabbing my book of mormon. At first I thought that he was drunk but I sat down to talk with him all the same. Turns out that he wasnt drunk. He was intereseted in the book of mormon and so I taught him a little about it and will return to his house this week to teach him more.

That was my week.
Smile!
Elder Olsen

So My Week

My week 

Tuesday:

We had distict meeting and it was good because I was able to do a self evauation and it was a good thing for me to do. Later we went and picked up the marriage documents for mery and ismael and it was a relief and the end of a giant headache for me :)

Wenesday: We went out and taught the whole world and it was good. There isnt very much about this day that I can say.

Thursday:

We had another ward movie night put on by the missionaries where they watched the second work and the glory movie. I spent about an hour going around with another elder bringing people who were on the church grounds to the film or kicking them out, because the bishop said that they only had these options. It wasnt my favorite thing to do and I was rather stressed out after trying to sort out who wanted to watch and who didnt from a group of about 40 children and teens that were running around like crazy.

Friday: 

We had lunch at Irmã Antônias house and it was churrasco! (barbecue) It was the first time in a while that i recieved churrasco and I was very much grateful.

We had an amazing lesson today with Francisca. The grandmother of Jonas. She had a son who used drugs and was a thief die a couple years ago and shes still mourning him, until the point where she said that she would rather have him recieve salvation than her. It was true mothers love. We taught her the plan of salvation and the spirit entered into the lesson very very strongly. I could feel that her son had accepted the gospel in the spirit world or at least he was hearing it there and wanted her to hear it as well. I also told her this. It was the first time in a while that the spirit had been there so strong during a lesson. 

Afterwards we stopped by our house to drink maracuja (passionfruit) fanta, its a new fanta that they have here and it was ok. We then went to our meeting with out Ward mission leader and it was good.

Saturday:

We set up for the wedding of Mery and Ismael, and it was amazing. Really it was amazing. Wow. Ill send pictures to you when my camera card gets the virus taken off. But the spirit was there as they got married. They will be baptized this Saturday and they will be the first complete family that I will have baptized in during my mission.

Sunday:

We had church and the church didnt have water anymore. Which was a bit of a problem and so we went to the stake center for the baptism of Jackson. Before the baptism we went to Irmã Antônias house and ate hamburgers there because I thought that I was going to be transfered. We got to the baptism and the Zone Leaders said that I wasnt going to be transfered and so Ill be staying here for the next little bit. 

I had the wondeful priveledge of baptizing Jackson. He truly is an amazing teen. 

Monday: We went to Irmã Maria do Fatmas house where she taught me and Elder Matos how to make Salgados (salty snacks, like pigs in a blanket but with meat and chicken). Then Elder Nunes called me and i had the chance to speak with him briefly. He goes home tomorrow at 3:00am because his time has arrived. He is by far my favorite companion and said that he will leave for me an Indian headress that he recieved here which I will be immediately sending home to you. 

I hope that you all are having an amazing week, I love you all

Love 

1 year, 1 ano....estou no metade de minha missão agora (im at the halfway mark with my mission now)

So this week I hit my one year mark. I was looking back at all the pictures that I left with and that I have with you all this week and was suprised to realzie that they arent updated theyre all a year ago even though it feels like I left yesterday.

Monday:

So we were able to teach Luana today who is an 11 year old girl who lives by the church and has been going alone for a couple weeks now. We had tried teaching her before but it never worked out. So we taught her and at the end invited her to give the closing prayer. Before she had always been to shy to pray but after some coaxing she gave it. As she prayed I felt the spirit of the lord there strongly confirming to me that he was hearing the prayers of that little girl. It was amazing.

Tuesday:

We had a mini zone conference which really was more like a giant district meeting. It had the oportunity to talk with Elder Nunes about everything that had happened in Rio Branco after I left and it was wonderful to catch up with him. We taught good lessons and were able to help an investigator from another area receive authoriation to be baptized from her father.

Wenesday: We were able to drop off some more of my pants that i needed mended as well as my bag because they all had holes. Ill send you a picture of my pants some day. 

So we were doing a wedding for a family here and we needed another birth certificate for the man in the family, and we had the couple missionaries working on it. So they called us and told us that the second birth certificate would be 230 reais and that it would take 10 days to get there. Weddings here take 15 days to process and thats after you have all the documents. So I flipped because the wedding was on September 8th and the family had been spending lots of money on it. So me and my companion broke the news to them, and luckily they had relatives that live in the state where the birth certificate is so it wasnt too bad but i was stressing alot about this this week. 

Oh and I spoke english in a conversation with a doctor in São Paulo because I have a fungus... again. It was really weird speaking English because since having Elder Nunes as a companion I dont speak English with anyone. Including Americans. Ive said a few phrases and conversed maybe one other time but the only time youll hear me in English is when Im singing. Sorry tangent. But i have medicine so dont worry about the fungus.

Thursday:

I dont remember a ton about this day infact I remember little. But we went to the church that night looking for an Luana so that her mom could sign the baptismal release form and ended up helping out with the mormon helping hands project here which is food storage that they are doing in two liter bottles. 

Friday:

We went to the mission office to pick up the papers from the wedding because we will do it with the couple when the birth certificate arrives. I had the wonderful opporutunity to chat with Elder Shepherd there and also I got a letter from Ben and Caleb which I was most grateful for (ps caleb what was that picture you sent me?). We had the baptismal interview with Luana that morning and she passed with flying colors. When asked why she wanted to be baptized she responded ´´because i want to be a part of Crists church.´´ 

Saturday:

We had a very crazy day today and we ended with the baptism of luana and a wedding of the other elders. I think that Luanas baptism was one of my favorites becasue I felt that she was truly converted. I was granted the honor of baptizing her.

Sunday: 

I got a cold from another elder. Since mom asked (and i was planning on telling anyways) Ill tell you about lunch today. Lunch was rice, black beans, spaghetti, farinha (ground root that is dried) and lots and lots of linguiça. sausauge. It was so much taht it looked like a snake. Something about the culture here in manaus is that a greater part of the shops all close at 11 until 2-3 for lunch and then everyone sleeps which makes it harder to work in these times. This was my week.

Please send me an update picture of the family all together. I would be most appreciative since it has been one year since Ive seen you.

Love Eric

I am extremely blessed...

I feel extremely blessed recently, actually this week was only blessings.

Monday:

So we needed to get my suitcase in Acariquara, marriage documents from Elder Candido and then bring the documents to the Mission Office. So as we were preparing to do so our ride got stuck in traffic and couldnt take us anymore. I started getting stressed and called our ward mission leader and offered to pay R$40 for gas (its 5.60 a gallon here).  We were lucky that he could and also  that he knows all of the back streets in Manaus (because he used to do deliveries). We got everything done in record time (it was super heavy traffice as well) and when we got to the mission office there were people there! Better there were the Zone leaders from Porto Velho and Acre, and the ones from Acre brought my package taht I left there with my running shoes in it! Then I recieved a birthday package from Tabitha Kirk that I wasnt expecting that was very nice. Then I was able to give money to the Elder Jacinto to buy more Terere for me in Porto Velho (he was my olde district leader). Then we talked with Elder Shepherd and he gave us an air condicioner for our house because its hot. We decided to give it to Elder Rainho and Elder Brown (same house different rooms) because their room is always really hot and they needed it more than us. I was really blessed.

Tuesday:

We were able to teach a bunch of wonderful lessons today. It was a killer day!

Wenesday:

We were able to encounter a teenage girl Valeria who went to Sacrament meeting sunday. Her cousins are members but she wasnt. So we taught he and marked a date for her to be baptized this saturday. 

Thursday:

We had a division so that Elder Rainho could interview Cassiano our baptism for friday and so I was working with Elder Brown in their area which was really cool. We ran into a drunk guy that wanted us to do a miracle for him. I kept offereing the word of wisdeom pamphlet to him but he wanted a miracle. So we left. Cassiano passed his baptismal interview and Eldr Rainho and Elder Matos marked another baptismal date with the mom of a less active. 

Friday:

We prepared for the baptism of Cassiano and it was amazing. Afterwards we had dinner at the house of Irmã Antônia (his mom) with some people from another ward where they used to live it was great. 

Saturday:

We were able to teach Jose Maria who is a man who helps out a member whose in a wheel chair. He accepted to be baptized this next week. We planned on having the baptism of Valeria as well today but the water cut off in the church. It was a bit sad because I had felt earlier that day that we should fill the font up but ignored the impression because we had appointments. So she wasnt baptized and we replanned the baptism for sunday.

Also as we were walking to an appointment a man stopped us and told us that his friend wanted us to pass by and teach him. The friend was there and so we marked an appointment and went on from there. It was literally a moment when the lord was clearly placing someone in front of us that he wanted to hear the gospel. The mans name is Eliton and we will teach him Tuesday.

Sunday:

A bunch of people came to church without us having to bring them including some new faces that we will begin to teach this week. Including Valdiney the boyfriend of a member who is coming back to church. As we went to have the baptism the water still hadnt come back. We called the fire department to come and fill up the font and they said no. We tried the fire house in the church and turns out that its not hooked up to any water system so that didnt work. We saw our cistern of water (reserve well) and one didnt have very much water and the other I didnt want to carry buckets for 3 hours and so we ruled out the idea. As we started draining the font the bishop came and announced that he would find a find to fill the font with the water from the cistern. He took a pump out of the other cistern and jimmy rigged it with a hose and the water started coming but very slowly. They tried switching power sources and it didnt work so after some phone calls we went to go and do the baptism at the stake center. It was great, and their font was full by the time we arrived. We had the baptism and everyone went perfectly. We were extremely blessed.

This week I saw clearly and plentifully the hand of the lord in his work. He literally guided us and showed us what to do. We were able to have 2 baptisms and the most lessons with members that Ive ever had in my mission (17). This week was absolutely amazing. And I am very grateful that we were granted these wonderful blessings from God.

With a heart of Gratitude

Elder Eric Alan Olsen