Oi Oi Oi Oi

This week. How can i descrive it? Good question? Hmm maybe in the following words...

So Tuesday we had our normal district meeting and it was rather a regular day.

Wenesday: So the mission president came to our house today for interviews with us. Our house is always clean but we made sure that it was extra clean today. The only thing was when President started walking to the back to enter our house I realized that we had forgotten to take out the garbage. So I did what any desperate missionary would do. Took the garbage bag tied it up and then hid it in my suitcase. On the brightside it didnt break and spill out. But my interview was amazing and helped me to understand better my purpose and why im really here. It was really nice to get a shock to get me remotivated.

 So English class had a bunch of new people this week! Still only members but we are having more people come is a good sign.

Thursday:We had a lovely morning where we went and worked out at a home gym in a members house and it felt really good to be on excercise machines again. But This was our lovely planning day where we plan for the week. We also taught a less active family where the father comes to sacrament meeting but the rest dont. They live in Tirar Dentes (translated ``to pull teeth´´). Its the rich part of our area where i have never taught anyone. We are going to start working there now and will start with references from this family.

If any of you are curious about what type of music, that isnt american, that they listen to here look up the song ´´Kurdo`` by Latino e Daddy Kall, or Velozes e Furious 5. The original was with a skinny white guy and fat black guy. A member told me the names so that you can know. Its from Angola in African and dont ask what theyre saying because i dont have any idea.

Friday:
We cut two people that have been investigators since i came. I feel like im closeing everything up here that I opened. It was weird. But i bought a really cool chair thursday that is imensely comfortable. Oh and i have to watch out when i drink Açaí because if i drink too much ill be addicted. I had some freshly made Açaí today and it was absolutely amazingzing. 

Saturday:Today we had an amazing amount of lessons. 6 appointments that didnt fall through and we marked two baptismal dates for upcoming weeks. I was definetly happy. I learned not to trust my ideas about cooking without recipes. We recieved money for our lunch and i tried cooking a macaroni with a white tuna sauce. Dont eat the canned tuna here. It looked like cat food and the taste wasnt amazing. But it was still food and still filled me up.

Sunday:
We had about a third of the ward bear their testimonies and it was amazing (26 people). All of the young women with the exception of 1 maybe 2 and one of the young men as well. As I was sitting up on the stand (Elder Almeida was playing the piano) I realized that I knew everyone in the ward (maybe not 2 or 3) but it was a good feeling. Im really starting to feel at home here. We had a family night with Valeria and Klinger and they made us lasanga and it was good. The lasanga here is definitely different and they use ketchup in it and catupiry which is like bolonge. 

I recieved a letter from the woman who called President Klein about me giving a book of mormon and her getting baptized and...it was me. I felt really really humbled to know that i made an impact on someone that i talked with for only 15-20 minutes. She is currently attending institute has strong friends in the church and is taking a mission prep class in preparation for a mission. God truly is looking out for me and helping me to help others.

I love you all and pray for you. Please keep me in your prayers,

Love,
Elder Eric Olsen

Dear Elder Olsen you have hereby been reassigned to...

Mission Brasil Acariquara. Yup another transfer is coming in and im still staying here in Acariquara. In was interesting, Sunday morning I felt like I was going to know the Lords will for me and that i needed to prepare myself for it. I felt the impression several other times but I was not prepared for the news that i would not be leaving after almost 6 months. The Lord has a little bit more for me to do here and the transfer is only 5 weeks this time but i plan on baptizing no less than 5 people in these five weeks. There are people that trust me and will listen to me because of this and i need to help them.

So we watched conference in the high council room and it was 68-70 degrees in there and i was freezing. Seriously, it was cold. Dont judge my sissiness to cold. I took at least 5 pages of notes for every session and loved it all dearly. I watched it with the other americans in my stake and it was really cool to be in a room with only english speakers. But this little kid came in distracting us during Elder Christoffersons talk during sunday morning and then he left and came back during president monson so we kicked him out and i put a table in front of the door. One of my favorite quotes from conference was by neil l anderson who said ´´to be a disciple during these times will be a badge of honor during the eternities´´. 

So many things happened this last week. First was I believe tuesday morning. I started my studies and we got a phone call from the president (I thought it was the district leader). He said that that morning he had recieved a call from São Paulo, I was expecting to hear that someone in our family had died and was about to brace myself for the worst. But he said that a woman called him from são paulo asking to speak with elder olsen because he had saved her life. The first thought that came to my mind is that they must have mistaken me for another elder olsen because i dont know any women in são paulo. He explained that I gave a book of mormon to a woman in são paulo when i was in the CTM and she read it and long story short, found the missionaries and has been baptized for 3 months. She remembered my name and was dating a person who works at the ctm and so she asked him to look through the records to find out who this elder was so that she could say thank you. They found me and said that i was the only elder olsen who passed through at that time so she called president klein asking to speak with me. She will write me a letter. Honestly when he told me about this i didnt remember any of it and so i was a bit perplexed and thought maybe they have the wrong elder olsen because there was an elder olsOn that passed through at the same time as me. as i read my journal i found where i had wrote about a woman on the bus that matched the description and how i said i thought she´d read the book of mormon. It is an amazing story and will only be complete when i recieve the letter.

So two people showed up to the english class and i learned that i dont speak english that well anymore and that im forgetting my pronounciations. Start learning portuguese to speak with me. But it was ok because the seminary class came and sat in after and I taught them how to pray in english.

So one of the couples that ive been working with since i came split this last week and it was really sad. I will share the whole expereince in a letter because its a complicated situation, but i cried for them and saw how the power of the adversary is real. They had been putting things of the world first in specific money before scriptures prayer and church. It was for this reason that they split up. But this week we encountered some elects and that was good. 

Im sorry that ive been bad about writing letters I havent sent one in weeks but ill start sending again soon. As a missionary we live very humble lives and i dont really have much money even though i recieved it again yesterday my necessary purchases have depleteted it again. 

I love you all and please pray for me and my companion that we will find the people god prepared for us.

Love 

Eric

Why yes, anything less than 80 degrees is cold for me...

So right now i have a cold. Again. I really dont like these Amazonian colds, they arent very fun...

So Monday was good day. Normal.

Tuesday:

Another fairly normal day, but a little slow it was a bit more trying...

Wenesday:

Another wonderful day.

(I promise not all the days are like this)

Thursday:

I met, during our lunch appointment, a guy who works on a Boat-Hotel and he told me and my companion about the different nationalities and how they act at the hotel. He said Americans are great but the ones from Washington are serious. Just another happy wonderful day.

Friday:

We were supposed to have a division this day but it didnt work because our district leader had one with the zone leaders. So it was a good day. We got Divinia´s mom to sign the baptismal form and so Divina would have been baptized on Sunday (see Sunday). Oh and we bought pizza today. It was really yummy and delicious.

Saturday:

So today we met up with Elder Jacinto and he interviewed Gustavo for baptism. We saw another swarm of vultures above us in the barrio and then they moved on...It was weird. So our lunch for sunday canceled and gave us money so we went and bought 2 pizzas to eat on sunday.

Sunday:

I woke up with a cold and so waking up sick isnt very fun. I was in a bit of a tired easily annoyed mood (yes missionaries arent always perfect). Our investigators who we went to pick up werent home but it was ok because we had investigatos come on their own or with members. After Sacrament meeting i complimented someone on their tie and he gave it to me. It was really nice of him. We got ready for the baptisms of Gustavo and Kevin because Divinas mom couldnt make it over to the church so Divina will be baptized in two weeks after she goes and travels. I was supposed to baptize Divina so i brought my clothes but i found out contrary so it was oh well. I thought that my companion was baptizing Gustavo and Kevin and then when we went to take pictures Kevins aunt said that he wanted me to baptize him so i went an changed and baptized him. (I´ll send pictures next week) Those two little boys are special to me. But the baptismal service had a bunch of people and a cake afterwards. it was by far the best service i participated in here in brasil. After the service we went home and ate pizza and  we went out and worked and worked :)

Today:

We went to centro so i could buy the boots that all of the people who work in factories have here. Well i found out in order to get those boots i have to work in a factory. But so that I could have a pair of boots and fulfill our purpose there I bought a pair of boots but they werent nearly as good as the factory worker boots. I also bought  some things from the indian market again, and some other things that i wanted/needed, including a map of manaus. 

transfers are this week and if i get transfered to somewhere far (which i dont want to because i want to be here for the temple dedication) you will be recieving a package from me with some suprises in it :D. Have a wonderful week.

Please continue to write me and pray for me, I could use the strength.

Love 

Elder Eric Olsen

Meu Querido Família (My Dear Family)

So we now have a monkey that has made its home in our balcony. He is small and furry and a ball of joy! Just kidding, i have yet to see a wild monkey here in manaus but i do hear that they are around. Heres my week:

Tuesday:

We had our wonderful district meeting and a splendiforus day with some good lessons. 

Wenesday:

Today was the birthday of Elder De Almeida. I bought him a cool purple tie and we got permission to go to our local mall that is close to our area to eat at the food court there because we recieved money for lunch. We bought two large pizzas for R$25 one for each of us. It was great to have pizza from a restaurant again because I havent had it from one since my first transfer here because the pizzerias dont open until 6. I bought soft serve ice cream for us after. When we got home for our language study in the afternoon there were a swarm of vultures in the air near our house. Like alot. I tried taking a video but it doesnt do it justice.  On the bright side we had wonderful numbers this day for lessons with members. 

We met a young mother and her two sons who moved here recently from another barrio. The mom is a less active member and her sons (Kevin 8 and Gustavo 9) havent been baptized. They´re awesome and im excited to see them progress. 

thursday

A little bit slower and also we had to go to the mission office to get some documents for the marriage of our investigator for them to sign.

Friday:

We picked up a new great investigator named Miguel. He moved to manaus from a city in the interior and is awesome. We left a book of mormon for him to read (which we dont always do for new investigators) and im excited to see if he read or not. We had our ward activities and played some fun games there. If anyone wants to suggest any fun group games that everyone can play please tell, im running out of games.

Saturday:

We had an Churrasco (barbecue) for our recent converts and also for our investigators at the house of bishop. It was to help them bond more. The wife of the bishop is the teacher of gospel principles and she wanted to do this so that they all could bond and get to know each other and know that they arent alone. It was a good event.

Sunday:

Church was good and our lunch fell through. We asked some people in our ward if we could eat with them but ended up canceling because we had a bunch of lessons to do and ended up eating at home. I finally ate the rest of the spaghetti that i bought my first or second week here. It was all good though (we didnt starve) because we had a dinner appointment with a the family of César and they gave us Picanha (google it, yummy meat). Its interesting because here the seasoning that they use the most for beef and sausage is rock salt. Its good but it has killed some of my tastebuds because I eat a lot of salt. 

Today

We will go to the mission office to return the documents we took to get signed and our wonderful district leader is going to Centro and im having him buy me two kilos of pasta de amendoin (peanut butter without salt or sugar). 

I really do love this ward and the area here. This week was a bit trying at times because our appointments fell through at times but it happens. I just learn more patience and humilty. It helps when you have an amazing Mozambiquean companion too.

Please continue to pray for me. And know that I love you all very much. 

Love your brother/son/brother-in-law/grandson/favorite person ;) 

Elder Eric Alan Olsen

Its a wonderful day in the neighborhood, a wonderful day for a neighbor, Will you be mine?

So this was the first week of the new transfer and has been wonderful. To give you a brief run down ill start from (drum roll) Monday!

Monday: I helped elder adhans pack and get ready to go to porto velho which is in another state on the other side of the rain forest. Then we went to a goodbye family night for him, and later I made americanish hamburgers for him to try.

Tuesday:
i recieved my new companion  Elder Almeida. Elder Almeida is a convert from Mozambique and is really cool. I have very much enjoyed working with him. On this wonderful day in our neighborhood of Ouro Verde we were able to teach an amazing young couple where the wife is a member and the husband isnt (yet). They are wonderful and later in the week on our second lesson there the wife asked right off if we can help them get married so they are pretty much golden. Also we have set a date for the wedding of Saulo and Lane and also a firm baptismal date. YES!

Wenesday:
I woke up (or rather stayed up since sleep wasnt that good) with a wonderful little fever and so I stayed in bed, slept and then my fever broke around 12:00 just something small. Then we went to lunch and then came home after because i still wasnt feeling that good and so I went back to sleeping and was able to work that night because I felt good enough which is very good. Its amazing how you learn to appreciate your health when you dont have it.

Thursday:
 The thing that I remember the most about this day is that we had a great lesson with Johnathan about the importance of reading and praying about the book of mormon to recieve an answer. 

its Friday, Friday, gotta go teach on Friday!
We did some reactivation and retention today and I had the oportunity to give two blessings (ill write about these in letters). We taught an elect family today of a single mother and her two daughters. We were able to find them through members and it was great. The name of the mom is edeth and the daughter who we are teaching with her is Amanda (17). You will hear more about them in the future.

Oh and the moon came back today very small in the west.

Saturday:
So pretty much all today was was preparation for the baptism of Elizete. She truly is an elect. She is 45ish years old and is so open. Before the baptism we went to the family history center which is in the chapel and introduced her to it. Now she is interested in indexing and will learn how to do it next saturday. Talking about family history has made me want to get more involved with it after my mission and so i think that i will. (also another thing for a letter)

Sunday:
So today we met our newest golden investigator. Her name is divina and was taking the discussions all last transfer with the missionaries in another area and is golden with a baptismal date and everything. We will begin to teach her brother this next week as well which is great.

So this was my very detailed week. Wanna know more? Write me a letter and ask!

Seriously this week was great, and always be sure to read your scriptures, they are important.

Love your brother/son,
Eric

My Tree

So this last week was rather exciting because...well ok it was just normal but there were some wonderfully exciting parts...i think

 

Monday-thursday

Normal working days where we worked. It was a bit slow actually, but oh well.

 

Friday:

We had a very exciting conferencia de zona! (zone conference) in the north zone so we boarded a bus and went there. I had something that was kind of like a donut when I was there and that was exciting. I also recieved my package for Valentines day which I was really happy about because, I like packages and also Crackle and Oat Bran cereal which is really delicious. We ended the day with a noite de integração.

 

Saturday:

We had divisions while our District Leader was off with Elder Adhans doing interviews for the district, I had the wonderful experience of having one last division with my good friend elder shepherd, and i met some interesting people for the first time on this division. One of which was an Indian chief. His name is Paulo and i have no idea what his last name was because it was from a tribe. He is a less active member and very funny. He has tatoos of lines down his arms that have arrows at the hands like aang from avatar the last airbender. This week he will go to tefé where he will do an evaluation on the indians there because they need preventative medicine. Elder shepherd told me some other cool things about him but i dont have time to write them now.

 

Sunday:

We were supposed to have the baptism of Elizete, however, the baptismal font wouldnt fill up with water and so it is postponed for this week. She chose me to baptize her and i feel very honored. She is the mother of Ayrton and Saulo two of our investigators waiting to get married to get baptized. Which reminds me. I was teaching them early this week and Saulo brought out a book of Brazilian sign language called libras and it was really cool because a bunch of them are the same as American sign language. He said that when I leave he´ll give me a copy of the book.

 

Back to focus now. Also sunday we found out about the transfer and....(drumroll)......I´m staying! No suprise there but there was one when i heard that Elder Adhans is going to Porto Velho which is in another state to be the companion of someone i knew from the CTM. Also  my wonderful friends Elder Walch and Elder Shepherd are leaving me as well. Elder Shepherd will train in the west zone and Elder Shepherd is switching areas with Elder Gable, (a cool elder I met a couple weeks back). Itll be wierd without them in my district. Especially since me and Elder Walch have been together since the begining. Oh and I hit my 6 month mark last friday. Yay! My new companion will be Elder De Almeda ( I think thats his name). He´s an elder from Mozambique (they speak portuguese there btw) so it should be good, Im hoping that he knows how to cook food from there because I want to learn. But yea...thats my week. This one should be good.

 

The longer that Im here in Acariquara the more significant the parable of the sower and the allegory of the olive tree become to me. Because really this is the tree that im working on right now. Im the one that the lord since to go and care for it so that it brings forth fruits. And as I continue to teach people and baptize them its like the parable of the sower read them for a refresher on why.

 

Thank you again for the package and for the letters!. Oh and btw Carnival started yesterday and they had a big stage with equipment for a band set up on it in the middle of one of our main streets last night and a bunch of people there, it looked pretty cool.

 

Until next week! I love you all and hope you´re all doing amazinging!

 

Love

Eric

Another smiley week in the happiest and humiditityist place on earth

So this last week was another wonderful one in manaus.

So something that I forgot to mention in previous letters is that one day when we went out underneath some trees there was a blanket of pink. It was rather cool and so I think Ill write a story book about it one dayd. There were these bendy pink needle thingys...anyways

So this last week we had a bunch of members leave with us throughout the week and so it was really good because we were able to get to know the members better and also they are able to get to know our investigators 

Last friday I had a division with our District leader which was really cool because Id never had a division with one before and i was able to see how they turn in the numbers and everything. It was exciting for me. Hes a brazilian from Rio de Janeiro and is legal (cool in portuguese). His name is elder Jacinto. 

On Saturday we had the baptism of guilherme, the little brother of Jennifer and I got to baptize him! It was the first one since november that i personally had baptized and so it was nice to have the opportunity. The only thing was that I had forgotten how to have the hands and so i was about to go in and had to have my companion show me again. (ill post the photos after I find my camera cord that I have misplaced in our house, the computers here dont like my card reader).

Sunday we didnt have the great amount of people show up at church like we did before and so we went out and looked for them. (we ended up with 6 total which is good ) And then came back empty handed. I had been having a little bit of a hard time that day and saturday and Saturday when I had started my fast I asked for more patience and charity and that I would love the people more. When it came time for me to go up and bear my testimony I was a little bit tired and not quite sure what I should bear it on. So I bore it on how god answers prayers and how at times we dont understand why things happen but its for our own good so that we can have more empathy and love for others and be able to give comfort when they need it. When i went and sat down and someone else started bearing their testimony, I felt the spirit and the impression came to my mind saying,´´ you asked me for this and im giving it to you `. (I think there may have been more but ill send it off in a letter.) I was humbled. I thought back on the trials taht I had been going through and everything, and then realized that truly I had been asking for this experience and the lord was giving it to me to test me. I was humbled and more grateful for it. The lord does answer prayers and he does love and know each and every one of us individually. 

Today we went and cleaned the house of someone in our district and I was able to get to know another really cool elder named elder gabled. hes from washington in the vancouver area and is really cool. After we cleaned their house we drank 7 bags of açaí between 6 of us and needless to say it was alot. Oh and then I carried a weight back to our house which is about 4 kilometers away because I wanted one to work out with.


Thats awesome about lorraine and I pray that her family will be a little more receptive. 

I pray for you all and invite you to always bear your testimony.

I love you all and continue to write me

Love 
Eric