So This is Christmas...

Ok so just so that you all know, Im going to skype you at 5:00 my time and so i think thats 1:00 your time, I have a nice family that is going to let me use their computer and so im lucky. If Skype isnt working Im going to find a pay phone and call you collect from it so be prepared.

So this week...I think im going to tell you a wonderful story of why you should carry two umbrellas (guardar chuvas)

So me and Elder Adhans were walking and looking for a house and thought that the alley it was in had two entrances. And so we were walking down this canal and a dog came out and started barking at us. Ive gotten used to having dogs bark at me and so this wasnt new and my companion kept walking. (He taught me to just ignore them). However i dont like strange dogs very close to me and I had my umbrella in my hand (closed of course) and so i flicked it at him (it didnt hit him), as a warning of back off. So it got back and went back underneath the house it was near. Well the path we were walking ended and so we went and turned around to go back. Once again the dog was there barking under the house, so i had my umbrella in hand ready to flick it him again if he was going to come close to me but since i was leading this time he didnt. However when my companion walked by the dog it ran out from under the house and kept barking at him and scratched his leg since it had its mouth open and put some small holes in my companions pants. Dont worry it was only a superficial scratch and i dont think that it bled at all, if it did but it was still enough for us to have to get it checked out. Me flicking my umbrella at the dog it might have made it feel threatened but I dont think so (just a possiblilty). So the moral of the story is: always make sure you and your companion have umbrellas in your hand to ward off weird dogs.

Tuesday:
I was on divisions with elder shepherd in his area and so I spent the night there. We tried contacting past investigators but most didnt live there any more and so we planted seeds in the peoples hearts and got a bunch of new investigators.

Wenesday:
The dog incident occured.

Thursday:
The highlight of the day was that i found a new part of my area that is pretty cool, and also a fun sushi restaurant, the only bad part was that there werent that many people in this new part out in the streets but i want to teach at least one person from there sometime. Oh and me and elder adhans had Brazilian hamburgers at a bakery that we like and so that was good. Theyre different, because they dont use ground beef and they put a fried egg in the burger. Overall it wasnt bad but it is very different than the burgers in the US

Friday:
We practiced as a district for our musical number that we are singing tomorrow at the Christmas Conference and taught people, it was good.

Saturday:
So I started the very painful process of correcting my poor grammar during my language study. I had another division with elder shepherd in the morning while elder adhans and elder nunes went to go interview an investigator in our area since there wasnt time for an interview friday. The baptism of our investigator was supposed to be that night but got moved to the Sunday after church and is now on hold for a while because his father wants to make it a big occasion and didnt give us a date and so currently its in limbo. Oh and today was my four-month-on-the-mission-aversary

Sunday:
We had the primary program and so that was great and i found out that next week we are meeting with the other ward and are only having sacrament meeting at 9:00 next week on Christmas. We had the opportunity to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional however because most of it was in portuguese i wasnt able to understand very much. I understood the words but the sentances didnt quite fit together. I never thought of how much i would miss hearing the prophet and the apostles until now.

I know that its Christmas time but honestly it hasnt really felt like Christmas because i havent been with you all but dont worry we will all have many Christmases together in two years when im back. I hope taht you~.re all doing well and i promise that ill get some letters out to you today since i didnt send any last week.

I love you all very much, and Merry Christmas!!!!

Elder Eric Alan Olsen

Second Week of the Second Transfer

So to start off before i forget, I talked with the president and I am allowed to skype with you for Christmas.

That being said, let~s recap a rather wonderful week.

I apologize that I wont say everything because once again i forgot my ´planner. But Im going to tell you about some of the more eventful things that have occured.

Ribamar
Tuesday night me and Elder Adhans were going to an appointment and I felt like i should talk to a man that we were passing, and I ignored it. Luckly for me the lord wasnt going to let the opportunity to learn and grow pass, and the man talked to us. He said that his name was Ribamar and that he was a recent convert who had gone less active and that he had a desire to come back to church. After I listened to his story it was in some ways comparable to Job for me because he didnt see his daughter any more because she lived with her mom, and his work hadnt been paying him, leaving him without income. He expressed a sincere desire to come back and so we set an appointment for the next day. We passed by his house and he wasnt there so we passed by again thursday. He was excited to have us there and we talked for a while and read the scriptures with him. He told us that he didnt have any food and hadnt eaten since the day before and so we bought him some food at the store and dropped it off. When we passed by again later that night i noticed that he had been eating the food because all the apples were gone and the bread was opened and some slices missing. It was rather humbling for me to have this experience. He didnt make it to church this week and will next week.

Suzete and Tereza
Suzete is a young women who lives at the same house as the bishop and has been going to church for a while and has been reading the book of mormon for a while as well. She prayed to know whether it was true or not and then went to sleep. She had an angel appear to her in a dream and tell her to continue reading the book and that it would help her to learn and grow more. It was amazing, however i hadnt understood this when she said it and had become distracted, it was frustrating to know that i missed out on hearing this from her mouth because elder adhans explained it to me later, and it makes me want to have a stronger conviction to focus more in our lessons.

Tereza is a 60-70 year old woman who came and sat down on our first lesson with suzete and started listening. When we had our second lesson with suzete we talked about the plan of salvation and she had expressed that she was sad that her son had died in the past but she had a dream where an angel told her that he was in a better place.

Both have agreed to be baptized.

This week was interesting, it started out slow and i was frustrated because we had cut most of our investigators but by the end of it it started picking up and we are expecting several baptisms this next week. The lord really does bless us in our endeavors as we work for him.

Please continue to pray for me and send me letters, you have no idea the impact that they have on me. Im getting more out slowly but surely so dont worry its all coming. Im expecting 11 in tomorrow because my district leader has them and is giving them to me then.

I feel like there is more that i was going to say but honestly i forgot,

I love you all and pray for your well being,

Love,
Elder Eric Alan Olsen

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

Happy Halloween!

So your halloween party sounds like it was super awesome and i would have loved to  be there, i hope that you took lots of pictures so that i can see it. Speaking of pictures i want to send you some of mine but the computer is being not the best so i ´ll try again later.

Oh and IM SO HAPPY FOR YOU JAMES THAT YOU DECIDED TO SERVE A MISSION!

I was suprised to hear of our new bishopric but i know that they´ll all excellent men and leaders and they   will do great . Also i didnt know you wer ethe  2nd counselor in the young mens presidency aaron, congrats! I just got to say im really grateful for all of the long emails that i got this week because they definitely helped me.

So for the lack of success of last week we had major successes this week. We have gone from having 2 investigators with baptismal dates to having 9 which has been amazing and i know that its only going to get better. But now for a run down of the week.

Monday: 

So it was pday and awesome. I went to go and send your letters off but when we got to the mail service we found out that it closes at 5 and so that wasn~t really cool. And we had an appointment in 20 minutes were really far from it and my blisters were hurting really bad (i]ve had several blisters btw and theyrve been healing but still hurt. The way that we were told to fix them in the mtc is by sticking a needle and thread through them and leaving a 1/4 inch of thread on either side of the blister and it works really well just so that you know) but we had family night with a family in the ward and none of our investigators were able to come and so it was just us and the family and for treat we had these little pastry rolls with jaixara in them which is caiman. They were really good and i throughly enjoyed them.

Tuesday:

We had our first district meeting today and i was introduced to a drink that a bunch of the missionaries like here called térere. Its mate (grass and herbs) with lime juice and it is ok but tastes alot like grass to me. I guess that i]ll like it more over time because aparently all of the americans do.We contacted 20 people again had a fairly productive day. 

 Wenesday:

Worked hard again and then when night came we tried having family night again and some more people came but still none of our investigators but it was ok. We ate the caiman rolls again and me and elder adhans bought açaí ice cream for people to eat but it wasn~t brought out and so now we have ice cream in our freezer which is rather nice to eat.

Thursday:

We had zone interviews today and so we took a bus to our zone leaders area and waited at their house for them to eat before going to the chapel because we werent sure where it was. While we were there one of the leaders from vegas showed me some of his mission pictures including ones where he got to baptize in the river. I hope that i get to do something like that. He explained to me that they have to splash the water as they walk to scare off the stingrays that are on the bottom of it so they dont get stung. I had a good interview with the president and he talked about being like laman and lemuel who had ups and downs in times of righteousness or being like nephi who was continually righteous and improving. I told him that i wanted to be like nephi and he said good. Also i got 8 letters which definitely amazing (btw andrew i dont think that was a lightbulb) I recieve packages about once a month when we have zone conference and interviews and im not sure when they arrive and the same goes for letters . But i got letters dating back to september and  conference and i think that the most recent was the one that you wrote me in the airport mom. But please do write me at least once a month and i promise you that i will get back to you. I am just a little backlogged right now but i will be writing for quite a while today

Friday:

We did lots of hard work today but the greatest experience i think was when we tracted into a family with many little children and were able to teach them. They were very humble and we taught them at they plywood table and on plywood benches. Their bed room was the same room and was a bunch of mattresses all put together. After teaching them and answering questions they said that they would call us once they read the book of mormon and that they werent interested in setting up a return appointment. I want them to call. I dont even know their names but more than anything else right now i want them to call us.  The parents are trying to raise their kids right and i know what a blessing the gospel will be in their lives. 

Saturday:

We worked hard all day. What more can i say?

Sunday:

We had five investigators come to church and it was good. Im learning more each day how dependent i am on the spirit and how much i need it my daily activities.  It started to sprinkle right after one of our lessons and so we went back to our apartment because elder adhans didnt have his umbrella and then it started pouring so it was a blessing to make it in.

im still homesick but not as bad because of an experience i had this week that ill write you about in a letter.

I love you all and please continue praying for me and i pray for you too daily,

love

Elder Eric Alan Olsen                                 

First Week in The Campo

So i~m out of the mtc finally and it feels rather weird to be out here in the field. I´m glad in someways that i~m  gone but i to be honest i miss it a little because its much harder in the field.

Last tuesday i flew into manaus with all the other missionaries and honestly it wasn~t that bad when i got off the plane, rather nice to be honest weather wise. it was humid but still... so i met the mission president and he~s really cool and i~m excited to work with him. we went to his house for lunch which is on the 10th floor of a building and i think it is the whole floor or at least half of it, and it was really shieky (as we say here in brasil for cool). Then we had interviews with him and he had a board with all the areas zones and missionaries faces on it and he told me to find my face, and so i did. My companions name is elder adhans and i would be serving in manauas in the east zone and in the acariquara ward, (which is in the ouro verde neighborhood if you want to see on google maps). Elder adhans has been out for five months and is from sao paulo.  I went into my apartment and then it hit me, i]m here in brasil for the next two years...

wednesday
woke up and took a cold shower because we dont have hot water and got to work.  Throughout the whole day we walked, and walked and walked. Most of our appointments fell through but we were able to give a message to one of our investigators and teach the plan of salvation to another. It really isnt that hot here right now and when i say that i mean its not about 40 degrees celcius since i had it confirmed to me that it does get that high. Apparently i came in at the begining of the colder rainy season so you wont hear me complaining about the heat for a while. It drizzled a little today but not too much. when i woke up and looked out of our balcony i saw the forest and its a really cool thing to see everymorning because even though i]m in the middle of a city of 2 + million people they still have bits of the rain forest in here.

thursday
Our lessons fell through again today but we were able to teach four boys that we found eating mangos and committed them to read the book of mormon. We visited a less active family before we came in and the father was telling us about how he saw a 3 meter long snake on the road by his house (he lives near the forest) and also a caiman. We had a nice rm give us 20 reais as we were walking and we used it to buy açaí which is different than i expected when its not cold. We also recieved 20 more from a lunch appointment that fell through which we used another day to buy a pizza.

friday
I had my first real storm here today. I was studying the book of mormon in portuguese underneath a tree when i felt a couple drops and so i pulled out my umbrella and elder adhans went back to studying under the tree then it started picking up and within 15 minutes me and elder adhans were stranded under a phone booth with my umbrella because he forgot his and there were rivers in the streets and most of it had at least 1/4 inch of water. we stayed there for 15 more minutes and then went and fought our way through the rain to our lunch appointment and then changed into dry clothes after lunch. We worked really hard today because our lessons kept falling through and did 20 contacts and set up appointments for us to go and teach. Near the end of the day we were walking and i felt guided by the spirit to go a certain way and that there was someone that we were supposed to meet. We kept walking and then visisted with a less active family and when we went out from the house a young man stopped us and said that he had had all of the missionary lessons and that we had a baptismal date but lost it because he relapsed with smoking and drinking and wanted to meet with us again. His name was jones and so we wrote down his address and will teach him tomorrow. It was amazing to be able to be guided to finding him and having a chance to talk with him. Also a man who is going to resole my companions shoes asked for a book of mormon and we will teach him soon

saturday
taught with a member for most of the day and got alot accomplished. Jones was home when we went to visit him but he didn~t want to talk with us and told the little kids who were at his house to say he was gone. It was very sad.

sunday: went to church with saulo and leilani two of our investigators who are awesome and then worked for the rest of the day.

monday: played futebol with the brasilians in our stake and they were all really good and i wasnt. Its rather intimidating especially since everyone plays. teenagers to old men and they~re all good too. We ate lunch with ayeton and his wife and saulo and leilani (all of which are investigators) ayeton and his wife jsut got married and will be baptized the 20th of november and saulo and leilani are going to get married and will be baptized the same day (they just commited) saulo and ayeton are brothers.

I could say that this week has been easy but i don~t want to lie. It has been tough, like really really tough, many appointments fell through i~m in a different culture and for the first time since i entered into the mtc i~m really homesick, and the only way that i combat this is through work. The language doesnt bother me since i know that itll all come through time and even though i dont always understand people i know that i will and this doesnt really worry me. For the first time two years really dawned on me for how long i]ll be gone for and i miss you all. letters would be nice and i~m not sure how often i recieve them i know at least once every three months but i really dont know. But i know that the lord has been helping me and that through him i]ll be able to do this. As it says in matthew the lord purges those branches that bear fruit so that they can bring forth more.

I love you all and your prayers really do help me.

love
Elder Eric Alan Olsen