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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

My week was...

good. Our Mission President gave us a goal to baptize 12 people this transfer and so that we shall do.

Monday:
We ran around saying bye to people and ended the day sleeping. It was good.

Tuesday:
Went to the mission office and picked up my new companion Elder Matos. Hes from Rio Grande do Sul. Also Elder Nunes came back from Acre and so I was excited about that until he called me. He told me that the man who was making an alligator cover for my english seminary quad had taken our money and scriptures (elder nunes was putting a case on his bible) and had disappeared. I was furious to hear this since I used those scriptures for 4 years of seminary. Im going to try and think on the bright side that the man just couldnt find them before he left but still I lost 40 reais and priceless scriptures :P

I showed my companion our area and we did a service project bringing a big mirror about a mile to a new hair salon of a member. As we were walking up the hill the mirror broke. I wont go into details, but I felt horrible. The member was very understanding about it all.

Wenesday
It was a wonderfully normal day.We were able to teach many people today and so it was good.


Thursday
We planned today and visited some less actives.

Friday
We had 4 appointments who all gave us food which was cool. We had the baptismal interview of Ryan the grandson of Franscisca and he passed which was good. We just needed the signature of his mom which we went to get saturday.

Saturday:
We went to get the authoration of Frecy, Ryans mom. When we got there Ryan didnt want to be baptized anymore. He had been a bit reluctant all week and so I wasnt suprised. Frecy said that the decision was his and that she was completely willing to sign if he had been wanting to be baptized. So we continued on from there.

We had lunch and then a very full day ending with encountering a less active named Rosy who is returing to activity and wants her husband to get baptized and so we started teaching him.

Sunday
We went to church. I had been fasting for baptims and we had a miracle happen when a member brought a friend and asked that we teach him and then when some less actives who we were reactivating brought their cousin who we will teach. I felt that it was the answer to my fast. We went to antonias house that night and reviewed all of the commandments with Cassiano her son who will be baptized this friday. 

So as we were walking to lunch there was someone yelling from behind us, ``angels! angels! I need your help``. Assuming that it was a drunk man we didnt stop until one of the elders felt bad and so he stopped to see what the man wanted. We should have kept walking. So we stopped and the man looked a little familiar to me. We started talking and he put his arm around my shoulder and told me in english that I was beautiful. It was in that moment when I remembered the guy. It was the same guy that was on drugs and had tried taking my umbrella and then followed us around. And he was on drugs...again. So started spinning him around trying to get out of his grip and eventually did so. And promptly started walking away. The other missionaries started laughing because as I was wrestling myself out of his grip he had been trying to kiss my cheek. Luckly he didnt get the chance. If I see the crazy drug addict man again I will run in the opposite direction. Just another funny experience

Working with inactive and less active people really does work. They come back to church and bring others into the fold with them.

Also in our apartment now we have elder  Brown who is from San Ramon CA and its nice being able to talk about the Bay Area with him (I only speak portuguese with people now, i dont like speaking english really because it doesnt help me here).

I hope that you are all having a wonderful week. Pray for me and please write me emails too. This week only mom and andrew wrote me.

Love
Elder Eric Olsen

Why yes Sister, I would like some more cake, Happy birthday Charly and Billy and happy aniversay aaron and karalee

So I got fat recently. People here like me and they know that missionaries like cake . Unfortuanately my pants dont like cake, neither does my belt...

Monday

I was tricked into going to a sisters house where she made me a giant cake. The cake was eaten and then lived in our fridge for a couple days until thursday when our District leader came for interviews.

Tuesday:

It was an interesting day. We had a wonderful day set up but everything fell through. Normal

Wenesday:

We had zone conference and I had the opportunity to see Elder De Almeida again and talk with him about Acariquara and then see Elder Linefesty who is from my MTC group. It was my 1st time seeing him since september. We were lucky and won a microwave for our apartment in a game which I was really happy about.

Thursday:

Me and Elder Candido went to teach the grandsons of Francisca and encounterd Frank who had gone Awol. We had one of the most spiritual lessons in all of my mission with him including when he prayed and all three of us had the same confirmation about how the church was true. It was abosolutely amazing. Unfortuately he will wait a bit to be baptized because hes on probation. After probation ends I belive firmly that he will be baptized.

Friday

We spent the morning setting up for the ward activity. The activity was absolutely amazing. It was the fest Julina which is pretty much a rodeo party that they have every year in Brasil. I never saw so many people at the church. It was incredibly fun and amazing. 

Saturday: 

We had the baptism of Gabrielle the son of Frank and grandson of Fransisca. When we were picking him up all of the family (5) came, and we had already put the baptism of the other elders in the car. It was a ford ranger. Me and Elder Rainho sat in the back of the truck but first I thought we´d have to lay down because of the cover that I couldnt take off. So I layed down only to find out that it wasnt necessary. My shirt got dirty and everyone told me that for the rest of the night. But the baptism was at the stake center. It was a district baptism and it was super good. Afterwards we went to the stake talent show and it was by far the best talent show I ever attended. Our district even went up and sang a famous missionary song here in Brazil which I will send to you in the future.

Sunday:

We had the confirmation of Gabrielle and at 7 we had the call that elder candido will go to zona leste and I will stay with a new companion Elder Matos. He is from Rio Grande do Sul and I belive will help me achieve my goal of speaking like a gaucho. I have been told that I sing with an accent now and that my english accent is dimishing. Im excited for the next transfer and this one was my most baptizing so far with 4. If all goes well the next transfer will have no less than 6 baptisms from me and companion. Elder McGrath will go to Porto Velho so we will receive a new american named Elder Brown. Life is good.

Please pray for me, I love you all

Love 

Eric

The Missionary Work Week! & Happy Birthday Billy! And Happy Anniversary Aaron and Karalee!

So heres the week.

Tuesday:
We didnt have Reunião Distrito because our district leader was sick. We went out and taught people today and marked the interviews of baptism for Rainmundo and also Fransisca. That night we were going to have a training session with people in the ward to go and show them how to talk about the gospel, but it was canceled. I was invited by my ward mission leader to go fishing with him after my mission and also to go and live with an indian tribe for a week in the middle of the jungle. His nephew married an indian and lives there. The tribe is 1 day boats jorney on the river. So if anyone wants to come live in the jungle with me for a bit just let me know.

Wenesday:
Today was the birthday of Elder Rainho (another elder in the ward). I made him a cake and gave him a mirror. So today was intersting because we had 2 lunches. Seriously. The first was our normal lunch which was great and the second was at the house of the person giving him a party. They had asked us to do a service project and help them prepare for the party. So we did that and I was sick to my stomach because of all of the things that I had eaten. As we were going out to teach a man from Para stopped us and said that he had read the book of mormon and wanted to know more about out church. The city where he lives still doesnt have the church in it and hes leaving soon to return to there. It was amazing to me how the lord puts us in places where he wants us. We took the mans address and passed it on to our district leader because he wasnt in our area. Funny enough he lives in the area of my old companion Elder Almeida, so i know that he´ll be in good hands.

We went to the birthday party of the elder and I ate too much....again. 

Thursday:
We had the interviews of Rainmundo and Fransica today. Rainmundo will have a wait a bit more but Fransisca was set and passed the interview. That night we had a ward activity for the missionary work week and it was fun. A little disorganized but fun ( i can say that because we were putting it on). I rather like the members in the ward here. My favorite youth is a little 7 year old boy that I named Giggles, because hes always laughing. I think his real name is Junior but I dont know. Ill take a picture with him and send it to you. 

Friday: It was my birthday.

I woke up and opened the package that has been sitting by my bedside for the last 2 and a half weeks and was very happy to see the presents. The boots were a major blessing and im happy to know that ill have shoes that are going to last me the next year and not the next few months :) I am super grateful for everything inside and I didnt recieve the letters yet. (there must be a strike or something because i havent received letters for 2-3 weeks). So Elder Rainho and Elder McGrath sang me happy birthday in english which was nice to hear. We went to teach Rayane who is a inactive member and we were able to find her at home and it was her bday too which was cool.

At the end of lunch the sister made me chocolate pudim which i was excited for because im getting sick of eating cake. 
The day was rather normal and we ended with a movie night at the church for the missionary work week. They started by showing clips of different movies as we waited for the other elders who had the movies that we would watch. As we waited the ward mission leader and his wife showed a powerpoint presentation that they made for me. It has all of the missionary toons and is super funny. (they currently have my flashdrive and are putting it on it and ill send it to you.) at the end everyone there sang me Parabéns (the bday song in portuguese). The elders never showed up because they were in interviews for the baptims of theirs for the week and so we started watching 17 miracles. The only problem was that it was 8:30 the activity was supposed to end at 9 and 17 miracles only has the legends at the bottom in portuguese and a majority of the people there were children who live close to the church who have under 15 years of age. So a bunch of kids left to go and play outside. I didnt watch very much, just a few minutes because we were handing out popsicles and resolving problems. Ill wait til after the mission to watch it. 

We encountered Elder McGrath and Elder Gomes (District leader) at our apartment waiting to swap companions. When they were swapping I was locked outside with Elder Rainho, by Elder McGrath and Elder Candido. When they opened the door they had a 10 kilo bucket full of Açaí ice cream for my bday with a 20 candle on top. We sang happy birthday and then i ate at least 2 liters of ice cream because we didnt have room in our freezer. We swapped the rest to smaller containeers later and I took lots of pictures. The ice cream is all gone now with exception of a little for our ward mission leader.

Saturday:
We had the devocional with President Klein. As we were preparing to start some youth came and told us that the baptismal font was overflowing. Elder Rainho and McGrath had been filling up the font a little more since some water had drained and forgotten to turn it off. So we were cleaning up rapidly. The devosional was good and as I went to give my talk i felt impressed to change it. I had felt earlier that day that it needed to be on love and as I went there I changed it so that it was still on love but on a different aspect of love. I felt after that I had given the right talk which was good since I gave it on the spot. The baptism of Fransisca was amazing and I had the chance to baptize her. We will most likely baptize her nephews in the photo next week. Please pray for Frank her son since he went to work last week and hasnt come back since. He is still fighting his addictions and needs help.

Sunday:
We had the comfirmation of Fransisca and it was a good day. We ended by calling people who had gone to the temple.

I love you all and please email me pictures. I saw one of our family that Billy sent me and wow Ben looks much taller, Andrew much more mature and Caleb looks like my favorite little Stinky.

Have a wonderful week.

Love 
Eric

Pictures

Why I always walk with a book of mormon in my hand

Então (and so) this semana wasnt too eventful.

Terça feira

We had district meeting and went and taught people. Nothing too exciting happened.

Quarta feira

I woke up at 5:00 and took a bus at 6:00 to go to the temple. When we were at the bus station there were a bunch of people trying to get on the same bus as us. I got on and was standing next to the person taking the peoples money. As we rode the bus I stuck my book of mormon out for everyone to see. One man who was entering the bus was staring at it and so I asked him if he had read it. He said yes that he had friends in another state that were members and he moved to manuas and so he hadnt met with the missionaries. I took his address and continued standing. About 5-10 minutes later the young woman taking the bus fares asked to see my book of mormon. I then asked her if she had read it and she also responded no but would like to know more. So I explained about it and took down her address and gave her a book of mormon as well. It was interesting because that morning i hadnt been planning on bringing books of mormon with me or my book of mormon in my hand but because I did more people were brought to the point of learning more about the church. 

The temple is absolutely amazing and beautiful. I took pictures and theyre on picasa now. I had an amazing time there.

Quinta feira

It was normal work day and it even rained! Yay rain! But it was wonderful because we taught people. Also we had our correlation meeting and it was good.

Sexta feira

Today was interesting. So this week we had two couples that we were going to give dates for batism or cut them for not progressing. Each time we planned on doing it before we could talk they told us that they werent interested in hearing any more but invited us to pass by anytime we wanted. It was interesting that it happened two times the exact same way in one week. (the second time they gave us Mingau which is a porrige. It was really good)

Sabado

Today was the one year aniversary of my companion and also another elder in the mission. So after working for the day, we went to a members house and there they had a cake and a bunch of food for us. it was wonderful.

Domingo

We had excellent talks in sacrament meeting about missionary work. One returned sister gave a story about a young man giving his farewell address and he told a story about when he was waiting for his call and he had a dream where he was in the preexistance and he received his call to earth and it was to the us and he would have the gospel. His friend was there with him and he also recieved a call but his to costa rica and he wouldnt have the gospel. The friend who wasnt to have the gospel made his other friend promise to find him and share the gospel with him. The young man recieved his call to costa rica. One year later the bishop of the ward recieved a letter saying that hed found his friend. 

Look up the story its from the seventies and is real.

This was my week and I heard a quote from President Uchtdorf that i really liked. It was ``dont judge me because my sin is different than yours``. It was interesting for me to ponder about. 

Have a wonderful week and i love you all

love 

Eric

Its a bird, its a plane, no....its another hill! Yay hills!!!!

So yes my area has many hills ill be taking some pictures of it all this week.

Tuesday: District meeting in our chapel because the Zone Leaders were at the temple. It was good. I learned a bunch of slangs in portuguese like zeeka which is like ``super good/bad`` depending on how you use it. I have a favor to ask. Can someone find me in the ``work and the glory`` books (it was when they were in Navoo) where it makes reference to when Christ comes there wont be rainbows that year? Im rather curious because I found something about the rainbow being a promise to Enoch also...and so im curious 

Wenesday:

We taught some good lessons today. I dont remember anything too special today.

Thursday:

At lunch I saw a turtle shell that the family had and they told me that they had eated it. I gave them a suggestion on what they could do with the shell that a member in acre told me about (painting one side and putting a mirror on the other side) and in return they gave me the shell. They said that they had been waiting to paint the temple on it but they hadnt found a artist and they had had it for a while and so they gave it to me. So any suggestions for things to paint on the shell will be appreciated. Oh and the shell is over two and a half feet long and one and a half feet wide :) I put a picture of it on Picasa go and see it. I can take it out of Brazil only if it is a artesian craft so I need to find an artesian now

So I know that you all like bathroom stories so heres one. We were walking in the street and i had to go to the bathroom. Bad. So we showed up to our appointment and they were watching the soccer game of Italy and Portugual and so they didnt get the door and by the time we had gottent there I was dieing. I needed to use it bad. So we walked up the street and the first house where I saw people outside I asked and the people saw that I was desperate and so they let me use their bathroom. My companion said that another person there hadnt heard and asked where I went and a woman there told her and they started laughing a little. The end of the story

We had our first correlation meeting with our new ward mission leader and it was good. 

Friday:

The first part of today was good and the night part of today wasnt so good. That night we went on a wild goose chase searching for the father of a girl that was going to be baptized that elders in another zone were teaching. It took a while. Oh and he is a pastor. He was nice when we found him and said that he would talk to his daughter and then sign the baptismal form.

Saturday:

We spent the morning going to the dermatologist. We showed up at the hospital and they said that the dermotologist wasnt seeing patients there anymore and gave me the new address to go and find here. Luckily it was on the way home and so I went and saw the dermatologist and it was all good. The mark on my hand is a reaction from the acid in lime juice and the sun and I just need to use more sunscreen and a cream for my hand.

The girl who was going to be baptized said that she wanted to wait a little more so we will get the signature later.

That night we went to a BBQ for a returned missionary from Port Alegre. She said something interesting which was that she didnt remember how she was before the mission anymore. Only how she is now after the mission. When she said that I started thinking about it as well and realized that I dont quite remember completely how I was before the mission. I remember what I did but not how I think anymore. It be interesting to see how much I will change by the end of the mission.

Sunday:

CHURCH!

After church we went to ward counsel and then taught a lesson.

This was my week. :) I also wrote a ton of letters this morning so prepare!.

I love you all and please pray for me everyday,

Eric

Im here....in Manuas....and its starting to get really hot.....Im here... in MANUAS!!!

So as you can see Im here in manaus again. And before I forget I attatched my pictures of Acre and uploaded them.

Monday: I found out that i wasnt leaving until tuesday at 5:00 and so I spent the day packing and saying bye. I was really touched by Sister Ester who told me about the impact me and Elder Nunes had made on the life of her son since her husband (theyre separated) never did anything to help with him. Her son was enos the boy who we got to read all of the book of mormon by the end of the transfer. She was crying as she told us and I was really touched. I had given her a pair of pants to mend since the sewing job was beyond my ablilties (it needed a patch). She gave me back the pants along with two other pairs of pants which I was really touched by and really happy about because this week three of my four pants ripped and ill need to get them fixed and with this fifth pair (i left the 6th in Acre for elder nunes to send to me) I was able to have a pair of pants to use. I packed until 12:30 that night and got up at 2 to go to the airport at 3.

Tuesday: 

I arrived in Manaus and it was wonderful. I was able to see my old friend Elder Shepherd and some other people before arriving in our area. My house is huge and we live with another companship of missionaries. We even have a really nice barbecue on the second story of our house :) I got to know the area and some of our investigators there. It was wonderful truly it was.

Wenesday:

It was a normal day of work. My area has a bunch of hills. Like alot of hills. I cover Cidade de Deus and also Mount Sião (the city of god and mount zion). It was a good day.

Thursday:

We continued working. My companions name is elder candido and hes from Londrina Parana. He is super cool and super chill. I like him alot.

Friday:

Work (nothing too exciting happened this week). 

Saturday:

We went to our first appointment for the morning and it was raining and so I was using my umbrella and a man ran up and stood under my umbrella with me which i thought was normal. He then tried taking my umbrella and I thought that he was just trying to hold it so I just ignored it and kept walking. So the man continues to follow us around and after a while I realized that he was on drugs. We ditched him under the eaves of a building and i was glad to do so. 

This night we went to an investigators house and i was showing the wallet pictures that i walk with and a 14 year old girl saw the picture of andrew and didnt want to give it back to me. She was going to keep it. After a while i negociated with her and she finally gave it back. I am no longer going to let others hold pictures. 

Sunday:

We got to church and went to fill up the baptismal font because we had a baptism and it was dirty because the water didnt drain out and so we cleaned it :) Then we had the baptism of a 12 year old boy named Rogerio who is an awesome kid. I really do like him. 

Well that was my week, please continue praying for me

Love

Eric

The Spirit of the Lord has called me away to another place....

First of all Im super excited for my three new nieces and nephews and im still waiting for pictures of Aaron Jr. PS If you recently had a baby send me your address next week so that you can recieve a letter. 

So my week goes like this:

Tuesday:

We worked as usual. A member asked that we passed by their house so we did and he rewarded me with a Palmeiras hat which i was suprised that he was giving me and accepted it with pleasure.  I have another story about today but ill save it for a letter.

Wenesday:

At the english class we had a man walk in and i thought that he was a friend of a member only to find out later that he was new in the area and looking for a church. His name is daniel and he moved here from cruzeiro do sul two weeks ago. I marked a day with him then a member invited him to a dance in the stake center and then the first counselor in the bishopric gave him a tour of the chapel. It was really cool experience. Also a member brought her friend named jessica who we marked to visit sunday.

Thursday:

We went and taught daniel and met his twin sister daniella and he accepted to read about the book of mormon and pray. Other than that it was a normal day.

Friday:

So we were teaching a peruvian investigator and this fat spider ran across the floor. I tried squishing it but it was too fast and so I threw my bag at it which hit it. When i picked my bag up there were hundreds of little spiders on the floor and the big one was still alive. So i squished it again and even more spiders came out. I spent the next couple minutes trying to squish all the spiders of the floor that I had created there. It was the weirdest thing that I saw.

Saturday:

We had interviews for our baptismal candidates and sadly none of them were quite ready but we have a bunch ready for next week. Including Daniel who accpeted a baptismal date.

Sunday:

We went to church and daniel came by himself which I was really excited about. Jennifer, Sara and Mardson all were confirmed and it was an amazing moment. I had the oportunity to give a talk along with my companion. I had prepared to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ but as I sat up there I felt impressed to speak about Love and loving others. It was what the Lord wanted the people there to hear and the spirit was there in the room very strong. After Sacrament meeting we recieved 2 references from members and 1 from elders who called us. Then after lunch we recieved another reference. It was amazing. Then we had a division with the ward mission leader (who gave me peanut butter) and went to teach jessica and as we were starting to teach i recieved a call saying that i was transfered to jardim botanical 2 in manaus. It was a shock for me and this area will always be my favorite. I love this ward, area, and my investigators here but the lord needs me in manaus now. Maybe one day ill come back here and i pray i do. My plane will leave at 3 this afternoon. 

have a wonderful week 

Elder Olsen

ps I have a man who is making me a caiman skin scripture case that my companion will send me. will speak more of this in the future.

And it came to pass that on the 7th day he saw the work done throughout the week....and it was good.

So this week was amazing and maybe the very best in my mission up to this point.

Monday: We returned home at 10:30 at night. It was fun but very tiring.

Tuesday: Our bus got to the stop at 6:30 am and we had district meeting imediately because all of us were zombies. I think that I was the up there for one of the most tired. Then we came home cleaned and worked.

Wenesday:
Our dear friends the traveling assistants were back after teaching and baptizing in a outlying city. So we had divisions with them. I went with Elder Menezes and it was a very delightful division.

Thursday:
Our friends the assistants left for manauas. They also took all the heat in Rio Branco with them. We had the coldest weather in all of northren Brasil I think. It was 60 degrees fareinheit and 16 celcius. By far the very coldest it has been on my mission. From the reaction of the people here you would have thought it was in the 40s or 30s. Everyone had coats gloves and sweatshirts. Except for the two crazy people wearing short sleeve shirts and black pants. I was freezing. That night my thin sheet didnt help too much either. 

Friday:
Today it was warmer but still really cold for us with 73 degrees F and 23 C. Im going to die if I ever encounter snow again. We had a lesson with Jennifer and Sara going over the baptismal questions and at the end we gave them the option of being baptized this week or next week. They wanted to get baptized this Sunday. It has been very interesting for me to see how the Lord has worked with them for these last two weeks to bring them up to this point. 

Saturday:
We had the interviews of Jennifer and Sara and they went through without a problem. At lunch a member asked if i wanted any american food from bolivia because a friend of his was going there and they have a bunch of things like root beer and peanut butter. So I told him these two things. That night we had the temple celebrati0on which was very well put together. I think that President Uchtdorf got burned by the sun in manaus because he was looking rather dark.

Sunday:
We had the dedication of the temple. President Uchtdorf and Elder Cook were there. It was amazing and I had the oportunity to watch two sessions. It was interseresting for me to listen to the diferences in the translations in English and Portuguese. But the dedication was amazing. A member gave me an the first jersey of a soccer team that I like here and it was original too. I was touched by the generosity of such an amazing gift. This night we had the baptisms of Jennifer and Sara. I baptized Sara, but I was nervous since it was the first person that I personally baptized since march. I mixed up the word for bend your knees and instead said kneel down. So she was rigid as a board and since I was nervous I dunk her under the water. But her foot came up all of the members were looking at me a little suprised that I dunked her so rapidly adding to my nervousness. So I said the prayer again and then dunked her again. It was definetly a journal experience. 

Today: On my way here to the library we passed a pile of books in the street with some boys ṕicking thorugh it. It was rather funny because I found the churches old testament guide and some other church books in it. The boys werent members but they still wanted the books of the modern day prophets. 


This week are transfers and honestly I dont want to leave or a new companion so Iḿ hoping that nothing will change.

I pray that all of you are having great weeks and look for letters on the horizon. Oh and my watch broke this week So if you didnt send one in my birthday package I think im going to start looking for one.

Stay happy, keep smiling and pray always,

love

Eric

ps I want to hear about new nieces and nephews this week.

OPERATION AGUA

Tuesday:
District meeting. I woke up a little bit sick and tired. The day was normal overall i dont remember anything too special.

Wenesday:

I woke up sick today after having some bad sleep, but i took some medicine and began to feel better.

It rained today. Hard, with rivers in the streets. It wasnt too delightful because a car came and splashed me with water that was about waist high.

We taught a man Tiago who wants a change in his life and invited him to be baptized. He has much potential and accepted a date for June 9th. 

This night we taught the first English class and it was ok. Iḿ learning more about english grammar and phonetics teaching this class so its rather interesting. 

Thursday: 

So today we started operration agua. Ok so it doesnt really have a name, but it was when we started to do contacts in a different form. We have begun to work at ´´the end of the world`` which is at the end of the barrio cadeia velha. It is the end of a very long street which is about 20-25 minutes from our house walking and 30 minutes from the chapel walking rapidly. We went there and started to teach people and invite them to prepare for baptism on first contact and for next week or once they have recieved their answer about the church. We invited 3 people who accepted to be baptized. 

Friday: 

We continued this tactic of finding people at the end of the world and ran into a bumch of good people and also had the oportunity to teach thawany again who has a baptismal date for next week. Please pray for her that she will recieve an answer.

Saturday: 

We had a division today with members of the ward and I made the trek to the end of the world twice. It was good and we were able to encounter more people at home. 

Sunday:

We had lunch with a Peruvian family here in the ward and it went well. My companion challlenged the twelve year old son to finish the book of mormon before the 18th of June, hes currently in the begining of Alma. To make it fun I told him that he has to read it all before I do and Iḿ was in 1st nephi 13. It should be interesting.

We had another division this time with our ward mission leader, Irmão Enrique, who is from Peru. I had the oportunity to go with him and learn more about Peruvian culture. He told me that in Peru he used to play professional tennis and that he knows a world famous American Tennis player personally. (i dont remember the name). It was cool to have the oportunity to work with him.

We visited Manuel and his wife (an indian family waiting to get married so that they can be baptized), and also Manuels nephew Mardison. Mardison accepted to be baptized this week as well. After we visited Pedro and Lucena and taught them about the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy. Then we went to Fred, who is an investigator who also is from Peru. During the lesson Irmão Enrique spoke Spanish and it was interesting because I understood about 70-80% of what he was saying. I tried speaking a little spanish as well by switching the pronounciantions of the words and it worked out.

While we were waiting for Elder Nunes we sat on a bench in front of the chapel and a drunk couple came up and the wife said that she would wait with us while her husband went and bought something and then they began to start having a conversation. It was a little funny but dont worry we left and waited at Enriques house for a bit before we switched back.


I´m losing all fear on giving a baptismal invitation when we talk with people for the first time. If  they are ready and are willing to follow the will of the lord, they will accept. If not they wont. 

Please pray for me, my companion and the work here in Rio Branco. I really could use the prayers right now. 

Love