Wow,
well i am a little bit embarrased to write, after the whole phone conversation i am a little bit worried about my english. It was by far the weridest thing that I have done in a long time was talk english. It was like really hard!!
But it was great to hear from everyone, it sounds like everyone is doing awesome! I cant believe how grown up everyone got, I thought sammy was andrew and andrew was adam. It was way weird.
Well this was by far one of the greatest weeks of my mission, it was extremely amazing to see the miracles of Christmas in my area! We found 32 new investagators, and 26 accepted to be baptized!!! Most likely not all of them are going to be baptized, but we planted ALOT of seeds this week, and we had 11 people in church on Sunday, so it was an amazing week for me. I am so thankful for all the blessings the Lord gives us when we are obedient.
That is way awesome that the Pradera family is in our ward. I actually knew a while ago that they were moving there. HAHA how weird right? Literally one the other side of the world, and they moved to Canberra Utah haha. SMALL WORLD!! He called here on Sunday at the members house where we were eating lunch and said do you live in the Lindon 17th ward??? haha what a small world. Tell them hello, and that they are going to miss the best month in the history of Nova Vinhedo!! We are teaching alot of amazing families right now. I have never seen anything like this before. I am so excited, but I know that it is a huge responsibility, I have alot of work to do!!!
Well I love you all, please pray for me!!! I am going to work hard this next month than I have ever worked in my LIFE!! We are going to go crazy!!!!
LOVE YA ALL!!!
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!
ELDER OLSEN
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Friday, December 25, 2009
23 Dec 2009
Hello family!!! How is everything going? I hope that everyone is AMAZING!! Things in Brasil are HOT!! ha, it is really hot here right now, but I am loving it!
This week was really awesome, we are having alot of success in our area, and I know that the Lord will continue to bless us.
Yesterday, was one of the most spiritual days of my mission. We had a mission conference, and our President was on fire, he was really amazing, he talked about the price to pay to baptize. And how our mission needs to step it up.
I am really excited about our zone, we are going to have alot of success in January. I am using my birthday (the 3rd) as a way to motivate all the missionaries. They all were asking what I want, and I told them that I want every area to bapitze haha!! So everyone is going to work really hard this week and next to baptize alot of people. I have a huge goal to baptize alot of people on my birthday. we are working with alot of people to be baptized.
I am so grateful to be here in Brasil, it is amazing how many people are looking for the gospel.
This has by far been the greatest year of my entire life. Looking back it is incredible that it is already December. Time is flying by. I am So grateful to be a missionary. I am receiving alot of blessings in my life.
FELIZ NATAL!!!
The tradisions here are way way different, but christmas is going great here. We are working with alot of ideas to meet new people just this week, using the MUNDO FELIZ movie of the church and alot of hymns on buses and singing in hospitals. It is going awesome.
Love this work. Love this country.
Personal challenge for everyone at home...
Look for 2 ways on 24 and 25 to serve someone how Christ would serve if he was in our places.
Love you all!!!! Pray for me ALOT, I am really needing the prayers.
Hurrah for Israel!!!
Elder OLSEN!!!!
This week was really awesome, we are having alot of success in our area, and I know that the Lord will continue to bless us.
Yesterday, was one of the most spiritual days of my mission. We had a mission conference, and our President was on fire, he was really amazing, he talked about the price to pay to baptize. And how our mission needs to step it up.
I am really excited about our zone, we are going to have alot of success in January. I am using my birthday (the 3rd) as a way to motivate all the missionaries. They all were asking what I want, and I told them that I want every area to bapitze haha!! So everyone is going to work really hard this week and next to baptize alot of people. I have a huge goal to baptize alot of people on my birthday. we are working with alot of people to be baptized.
I am so grateful to be here in Brasil, it is amazing how many people are looking for the gospel.
This has by far been the greatest year of my entire life. Looking back it is incredible that it is already December. Time is flying by. I am So grateful to be a missionary. I am receiving alot of blessings in my life.
FELIZ NATAL!!!
The tradisions here are way way different, but christmas is going great here. We are working with alot of ideas to meet new people just this week, using the MUNDO FELIZ movie of the church and alot of hymns on buses and singing in hospitals. It is going awesome.
Love this work. Love this country.
Personal challenge for everyone at home...
Look for 2 ways on 24 and 25 to serve someone how Christ would serve if he was in our places.
Love you all!!!! Pray for me ALOT, I am really needing the prayers.
Hurrah for Israel!!!
Elder OLSEN!!!!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
16 Dec 2009
Wow, this week was awesome. Things are really going awesome. It was really rough to send Elder Nunes home, but it was awesome all the things that I learned with him. He was a great example too me, of the blessings of the mission. I know that he was one of the best missionaries on the mission, and I really learned alot from him!
This week was really awesome for our zone and for me. 7 of our 8 areas had baptisms!! It was really awesome, to see all the missionaries see the blessings of working hard. The zone is great ready to explode! I know that here in a little bit, were are going to baptize alot of people!!!
Elder Silveira is awesome. He is really short. haha. I really have missed americans. haha. something that everyone jokes with me is that americans dont like me, that is why I dont work with them. I know have had 5 straight brasilian companions... so I am sorry that I am probably going to not know how to speak english anymore.
We had the great blessing of seeing Alcino baptized this week! It was a true miracle! He is a great man, and this week we are working with his wife and 4 children. It is awesome to see the dad of the family be baptized first, now all the family is going to follow..
It was quite the funny experience.. it took 5 times for him to be baptized!!! somebody in our ward named John, who is an older man, who had never baptized somebody before, baptized Alcino, but they are both bigger than dad, or in plainer words fat!! haha, so in the end I ended up having to get in the water too. wow, it is a funny story that I will tell you on christmas.
I am really excited to be here, in Brasil. It is really a country really blessed to hear the gospel. They are a people that accept so easily the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I love being on a mission, i am loving life.
I dont know how everything will work out with christmas mom, I will know next week.. but i think that you guys will have to call me.
Well I love you all, i am SOOOOO glad to be here in Brasil in CAMPINAS!!!
I love you all so much!! Pray for me,
Elder Olsen!!!!!
This week was really awesome for our zone and for me. 7 of our 8 areas had baptisms!! It was really awesome, to see all the missionaries see the blessings of working hard. The zone is great ready to explode! I know that here in a little bit, were are going to baptize alot of people!!!
Elder Silveira is awesome. He is really short. haha. I really have missed americans. haha. something that everyone jokes with me is that americans dont like me, that is why I dont work with them. I know have had 5 straight brasilian companions... so I am sorry that I am probably going to not know how to speak english anymore.
We had the great blessing of seeing Alcino baptized this week! It was a true miracle! He is a great man, and this week we are working with his wife and 4 children. It is awesome to see the dad of the family be baptized first, now all the family is going to follow..
It was quite the funny experience.. it took 5 times for him to be baptized!!! somebody in our ward named John, who is an older man, who had never baptized somebody before, baptized Alcino, but they are both bigger than dad, or in plainer words fat!! haha, so in the end I ended up having to get in the water too. wow, it is a funny story that I will tell you on christmas.
I am really excited to be here, in Brasil. It is really a country really blessed to hear the gospel. They are a people that accept so easily the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I love being on a mission, i am loving life.
I dont know how everything will work out with christmas mom, I will know next week.. but i think that you guys will have to call me.
Well I love you all, i am SOOOOO glad to be here in Brasil in CAMPINAS!!!
I love you all so much!! Pray for me,
Elder Olsen!!!!!
Monday, December 7, 2009
2 December 2009
Wow,
everything is great here, I am loving the mission. The area is great. Elder Nunes and I are working really well together. I have proabaly never worked harder on my mission than right now, and I am defintely feeling the blessing of the Lord because of it.
This week was really awesome. We had one baptism. Murilo was baptized. It was a true miracle to see him get baptized. To see the miracles that the Lord prepared for us to find him. The craziest part about him, is how we meet him. We meet him, because he talked to us! We were walking, and he said to us, I wanna stop smoking!! haha, so we turned around and asked him how much he smoked and everything, and he was baptized yesterday. haha. Truly a miracle from the Lord.
This week I think I went through something that not very many missionaries go through on there mission...
I dont know if you remember Sister Fatima... she is a lady that I baptized her and her two daugthers.... Well last week Elder Garcia, my old companion, who is financal sec. now, he called me and said Elder... Fatima passed away today...
It looks like she had a heartattack or a stroke, and she died.. she was only 50 or something.. way young, and she left behind a daugther that is only 12... Well that same night I called President Castro Deus, and he told me that we could go to the funeral.
So Elder Garcia and I went to her funeral... It was really rough... To see her in a cofin is something that I never thought I would see on my mission... It was really good to see all the members from the ward there... and everything was crying ALOT. It was really hard.. I just couldnt believe that somebody that I baptized, I was at her funeral.
Well, after it was really good to see her two daughters, Gisele and Rita, they were less sad than the rest of the family. Rita is 12, and she was really sad, she couldnt even watch. It was really difficult. Gisele is 23. She was crying alot too, but she was lot better than everyone else. I cant help but think that she died for a purpose... so that her family can come into the church. She was a really popular lady, so her funeral was way packed. And there was only us and like 10 members.. so we made alot of contacts and were talking with alot of people... But it was really rough.. It is so great that we know the plan of happiness, that she entered into the church at the perfect time in her life!!! That she was baptized so that she could enter into paridise. Pray for her family everyone, they are needing alot of prayers.
I hope that all is well at home, and that everyone is trying to be like Jesus.
Love,
Hurrah for Israel!!!!
Elder Olsen!!!!
everything is great here, I am loving the mission. The area is great. Elder Nunes and I are working really well together. I have proabaly never worked harder on my mission than right now, and I am defintely feeling the blessing of the Lord because of it.
This week was really awesome. We had one baptism. Murilo was baptized. It was a true miracle to see him get baptized. To see the miracles that the Lord prepared for us to find him. The craziest part about him, is how we meet him. We meet him, because he talked to us! We were walking, and he said to us, I wanna stop smoking!! haha, so we turned around and asked him how much he smoked and everything, and he was baptized yesterday. haha. Truly a miracle from the Lord.
This week I think I went through something that not very many missionaries go through on there mission...
I dont know if you remember Sister Fatima... she is a lady that I baptized her and her two daugthers.... Well last week Elder Garcia, my old companion, who is financal sec. now, he called me and said Elder... Fatima passed away today...
It looks like she had a heartattack or a stroke, and she died.. she was only 50 or something.. way young, and she left behind a daugther that is only 12... Well that same night I called President Castro Deus, and he told me that we could go to the funeral.
So Elder Garcia and I went to her funeral... It was really rough... To see her in a cofin is something that I never thought I would see on my mission... It was really good to see all the members from the ward there... and everything was crying ALOT. It was really hard.. I just couldnt believe that somebody that I baptized, I was at her funeral.
Well, after it was really good to see her two daughters, Gisele and Rita, they were less sad than the rest of the family. Rita is 12, and she was really sad, she couldnt even watch. It was really difficult. Gisele is 23. She was crying alot too, but she was lot better than everyone else. I cant help but think that she died for a purpose... so that her family can come into the church. She was a really popular lady, so her funeral was way packed. And there was only us and like 10 members.. so we made alot of contacts and were talking with alot of people... But it was really rough.. It is so great that we know the plan of happiness, that she entered into the church at the perfect time in her life!!! That she was baptized so that she could enter into paridise. Pray for her family everyone, they are needing alot of prayers.
I hope that all is well at home, and that everyone is trying to be like Jesus.
Love,
Hurrah for Israel!!!!
Elder Olsen!!!!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
25 Nov 2009
Wow, this week was really awesome. I am really loving my new area, and really loving being a missionary. I am learning alot being a zone leader, and at times it can be a little rough emotional, but it is alot of fun. Our zone is progressing really well, but we are having some problems with one of our areas... they are REALLY trunkie. So we are working on this.. Our zone is huge, it has 8 areas, so it is really big.
Well our baptism didnt go right, he backed out on the last minute, and wanted to wait 1 more week... so I have now been without a baptism for 4 weeks and I am DYING!!!! but this week it will all stop, we are going to baptize 4 people!
We had A LOT of miracles on Sunday, we have 14 investagators at church, and it was extremely spiritual, all the members LOVED it, they all had to do there part to make the investagators feel at home. So we were really blessed with that.
The Bishop of our ward is new, he only has 2 months being bishop here in the ward, and he really doesnt like our Mission President, so we had some rough patches with him, but after serving ALOT and work REALLY hard we finally won him over, he was WAY excited Sunday. We had 238 people in sacrament meeting. It was amazing, normally there is only 130... so the ward is going to spilt here in 2 weeks!!!
It is amazing how much we are blessed by the Lord. Elder Nunes and I are loving working together... it is a shame that he is going home at the end of the transfer, because I know that I will get a new companion.
We are trying to break the record in our zone and our mission for most baptisms in one week, so please pray for us ALOT!!!! We are really needed alot of prayers and alot of help here... I am loving serving a mission. It seems like everyday I learn something new about our Savior because of my mission. I am Totally dedicated to this work. It sounds like everyone at home is way good.... it is weird that tomorrow is thanksgiving... haha here in Brasil thanksgiving doesnt exisit... so tomorrow will be a normal day for me... weird.. haha. But oh well.
PRAY FOR ME!!
Love you all,
Sempre firme na fé!
Elder Olsen
Well our baptism didnt go right, he backed out on the last minute, and wanted to wait 1 more week... so I have now been without a baptism for 4 weeks and I am DYING!!!! but this week it will all stop, we are going to baptize 4 people!
We had A LOT of miracles on Sunday, we have 14 investagators at church, and it was extremely spiritual, all the members LOVED it, they all had to do there part to make the investagators feel at home. So we were really blessed with that.
The Bishop of our ward is new, he only has 2 months being bishop here in the ward, and he really doesnt like our Mission President, so we had some rough patches with him, but after serving ALOT and work REALLY hard we finally won him over, he was WAY excited Sunday. We had 238 people in sacrament meeting. It was amazing, normally there is only 130... so the ward is going to spilt here in 2 weeks!!!
It is amazing how much we are blessed by the Lord. Elder Nunes and I are loving working together... it is a shame that he is going home at the end of the transfer, because I know that I will get a new companion.
We are trying to break the record in our zone and our mission for most baptisms in one week, so please pray for us ALOT!!!! We are really needed alot of prayers and alot of help here... I am loving serving a mission. It seems like everyday I learn something new about our Savior because of my mission. I am Totally dedicated to this work. It sounds like everyone at home is way good.... it is weird that tomorrow is thanksgiving... haha here in Brasil thanksgiving doesnt exisit... so tomorrow will be a normal day for me... weird.. haha. But oh well.
PRAY FOR ME!!
Love you all,
Sempre firme na fé!
Elder Olsen
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
18 November 2009
Well I dont have much time today, we have a meeting today with all the Zone Leaders. Ha it was amazing. Our mission President is truly an inspired man of God. It is amazing the things that he recieves that are exactly what the mission needs to do to have more success.. That is one thing that I am so grateful to know, is that we have the right to recieve revalation in our own lives.. or in our areas, or our zones, or wards, or stakes... when God calls us to do something, he provides the way for it to be done!
This week was awesome! We are truly seeing the Lords hand in our worK! We are continuing working really hard to find 1 family everysingle day. And it is getting complicated in the good way... haha. our teaching group is HUGE!!! we had over 20 new investagators each week in the past 2 weeks.... so we are teaching ALOT of people. The hardest thing is that we are depending alot on the members.. we are going on spilts everyday.. I hardly ever see my companion... our goal this week is we have 2 baptisms... I am going to do the interview of one of them hahaha.. I am going to baptize somebody that I have never taught!! It is really awesome. We are really starting to see the Lords hand in our work.... The thing we are realizing is how much we depend on the Lord in this work... If we arent worthly to recieve his help, we are going to baptize NOBODY... if we have the Lords help, and we are worthly to recieve it... EVERYONE can be baptized.. WOW, haha I am really excited to be a missionary.
Well I must say that being a Zone Leader has its perks... I have a washing machine. haha. every zone leader has a washing machine, because on pdays we have a meeting with President, so they gave all the Zone leaders washing machines, it is really nice. But, at the same time, it has a lot more responsibilities.. yesterday we had to go to a district meeting.. and our zone is huge.. not geographically, but because of the way the buses work here, we spent 6 hours on the bus yesterday, 2 hours in a meeting, and we didnt have time to do anything in our area.. so being a zone leader also has some sacrifices..
Elder Nunes and I are getting along great. He is a huge example to me. and I am learning alot with him. I am really thankful for the opportunity that I have to work with him...
This week was awesome! We are truly seeing the Lords hand in our worK! We are continuing working really hard to find 1 family everysingle day. And it is getting complicated in the good way... haha. our teaching group is HUGE!!! we had over 20 new investagators each week in the past 2 weeks.... so we are teaching ALOT of people. The hardest thing is that we are depending alot on the members.. we are going on spilts everyday.. I hardly ever see my companion... our goal this week is we have 2 baptisms... I am going to do the interview of one of them hahaha.. I am going to baptize somebody that I have never taught!! It is really awesome. We are really starting to see the Lords hand in our work.... The thing we are realizing is how much we depend on the Lord in this work... If we arent worthly to recieve his help, we are going to baptize NOBODY... if we have the Lords help, and we are worthly to recieve it... EVERYONE can be baptized.. WOW, haha I am really excited to be a missionary.
Well I must say that being a Zone Leader has its perks... I have a washing machine. haha. every zone leader has a washing machine, because on pdays we have a meeting with President, so they gave all the Zone leaders washing machines, it is really nice. But, at the same time, it has a lot more responsibilities.. yesterday we had to go to a district meeting.. and our zone is huge.. not geographically, but because of the way the buses work here, we spent 6 hours on the bus yesterday, 2 hours in a meeting, and we didnt have time to do anything in our area.. so being a zone leader also has some sacrifices..
Elder Nunes and I are getting along great. He is a huge example to me. and I am learning alot with him. I am really thankful for the opportunity that I have to work with him...
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
11 November 2009
I hope that all is going amazing for yall. Things here are amazing!!!
I am loving my new area, my new companion and my new calling, I LOVE
THIS WORK.
This week was extremely eventful, and we are working like crazy! Elder
Nunes and I are trying to work at every single moment with all we
have! We made a plan of action with the Lord, and we are really trying
our hardest to find the people that we know the Lord has already
prepared for us. We found a alot of new families this week, and it was
awesome to see the gospel in their lives. We have made a plan with the
Lord, that if we work our hardest that every single day we will find
at least 1 family that is ready to hear the gospel and be baptized!!
It was a really awesome goal, and for the first 3 days the Lord has
fulfilled his part, we found 3 new families, 9 people in total that
were already to hear the gospel when we found them, and were so ready
to hear the gospel and accept baptism. In the last 2 days we have
marked 9 baptisms!! I know that as we contintue to do our part the
Lord will too!
Well on Sunday was my first day in the ward, and the Bishop asked me
to speak.. I gave a talk on sacrifice and service. And it was really
good, I think that the members really like it.
This ward is amazing. It is basically like we have 2 teaching
groups... because every single night we have spilts with the members.
Ha, it is awesome. So we have the goal that I will interview Elder
Nunes's baptisms and he will interview my baptisms. Haha we have alot
of investagators that I dont even know, because Elder Nunes teaches
them every day, and I will interview. IT IS AMAZING!
So when I was transfered I went from a really poor area, to the
RICHEST area on the mission.... every body here is WAY rich. haha. It
was funny on Sunday in my talk, I said that I am from a city that
probably nobody knows Lindon, after the sacrament meeting like 4
people came upo too me.. "Lindon, what are you talking about???
everybody know lindon... next to orem, af, alpine..." haha. We have 3
ex mission presidents in our ward, and like everybody speaks english.
Alot of the members have already been to the US, and studyed at BYU,
or go skiing every winter in PC. So it is a home away from home....
The parking lot of the church on sunday was loaded with alot of nice
cars, that you would never see in Brasil on the streets everyday. So
it is a really blessed ward. I am excited to be working here. Elder
Nunes is awesome. I am learning alot from him.. He was AP for 10
months, and almost his whole mission he has been a leader... this is
his last transfer.... so he will be going home soon.. But he still
works hard than any other missionary.
Thanks for all that you do for me, and love you all so much!! I am so
grateful for all the blessings that I am seeing in my life because of
the mission... I am loving life!!!
Pray for me!!!
Hurrah for Israel!!!
Elder Olsen
I am loving my new area, my new companion and my new calling, I LOVE
THIS WORK.
This week was extremely eventful, and we are working like crazy! Elder
Nunes and I are trying to work at every single moment with all we
have! We made a plan of action with the Lord, and we are really trying
our hardest to find the people that we know the Lord has already
prepared for us. We found a alot of new families this week, and it was
awesome to see the gospel in their lives. We have made a plan with the
Lord, that if we work our hardest that every single day we will find
at least 1 family that is ready to hear the gospel and be baptized!!
It was a really awesome goal, and for the first 3 days the Lord has
fulfilled his part, we found 3 new families, 9 people in total that
were already to hear the gospel when we found them, and were so ready
to hear the gospel and accept baptism. In the last 2 days we have
marked 9 baptisms!! I know that as we contintue to do our part the
Lord will too!
Well on Sunday was my first day in the ward, and the Bishop asked me
to speak.. I gave a talk on sacrifice and service. And it was really
good, I think that the members really like it.
This ward is amazing. It is basically like we have 2 teaching
groups... because every single night we have spilts with the members.
Ha, it is awesome. So we have the goal that I will interview Elder
Nunes's baptisms and he will interview my baptisms. Haha we have alot
of investagators that I dont even know, because Elder Nunes teaches
them every day, and I will interview. IT IS AMAZING!
So when I was transfered I went from a really poor area, to the
RICHEST area on the mission.... every body here is WAY rich. haha. It
was funny on Sunday in my talk, I said that I am from a city that
probably nobody knows Lindon, after the sacrament meeting like 4
people came upo too me.. "Lindon, what are you talking about???
everybody know lindon... next to orem, af, alpine..." haha. We have 3
ex mission presidents in our ward, and like everybody speaks english.
Alot of the members have already been to the US, and studyed at BYU,
or go skiing every winter in PC. So it is a home away from home....
The parking lot of the church on sunday was loaded with alot of nice
cars, that you would never see in Brasil on the streets everyday. So
it is a really blessed ward. I am excited to be working here. Elder
Nunes is awesome. I am learning alot from him.. He was AP for 10
months, and almost his whole mission he has been a leader... this is
his last transfer.... so he will be going home soon.. But he still
works hard than any other missionary.
Thanks for all that you do for me, and love you all so much!! I am so
grateful for all the blessings that I am seeing in my life because of
the mission... I am loving life!!!
Pray for me!!!
Hurrah for Israel!!!
Elder Olsen
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
4 Nov 2009
Well this week was really exciting for me, and ALOT happened.
On thursday Elder Jensen came to our mission. We had a 3 hour meeting with him, and it was way awesome! I really learned alot about things that I need to change in my life and my mission. It was really awesome to see that he is just really calm and talks really slow and always thinks about what he will say before he says it.
This weekend was really busy for me, I had alot of interviews in my district and so I did alot of traveling.
Well Sunday I had a great present!!!!! On sunday Elisangela and Andreia.. two people that I baptized, were called to the presidency of the relief society!!!! WOW!! It was way cool. Elisangela 1st con. and Andreia 2nd. It was a huge going away present for me. I am so thankful that I got to stay in my first area for 8 months. Because I got to see the change that happens after baptism too! It was really cool.
Well too no surprise I was transfered...
I left Anhanguera. And I was called to Novo Vinheado. It is a great area.. I was called to be Zone Leader with Elder Nunes!!
Elder Nunes is brasilian from Sao Paulo city. He is an amazing missionary. I am going to learn ALOT from him. he was AP on the mission for 10 months, and he is probably the best missionary on the mission. Our President loves him, and he is defintely going to be a great companion for me.
I am really excited about this transfer! Our mission has the goal to break the record for baptisms in 1 month! So we are going to work really hard!
I hope that everything at home is going great! Halloween here is way lame! Nobody dresses up or anything, they dont even celebrate the holiday, I talked to alot of kids on the street and nobody even knows what halloween is.. So that was a little bit different.
Things are going great mom, I am not needing anything, everything is fine, I still havent bought new shoes, the only real place where there are shoes that are good is in Campinas city.. but I dont go there alot, so I am going to wait until I go there next until i buy new shoes.
I had a ingrown toenail which was pretty ugly, but I bought some pillers and ripped off my toe nail. haha, I made a video, it was pretty awesome. Well I love you all, and I hope that everyone is doing great.
Please pray for me ALOT!!!
Hurrah for Israel!!
Elder Olsen.
On thursday Elder Jensen came to our mission. We had a 3 hour meeting with him, and it was way awesome! I really learned alot about things that I need to change in my life and my mission. It was really awesome to see that he is just really calm and talks really slow and always thinks about what he will say before he says it.
This weekend was really busy for me, I had alot of interviews in my district and so I did alot of traveling.
Well Sunday I had a great present!!!!! On sunday Elisangela and Andreia.. two people that I baptized, were called to the presidency of the relief society!!!! WOW!! It was way cool. Elisangela 1st con. and Andreia 2nd. It was a huge going away present for me. I am so thankful that I got to stay in my first area for 8 months. Because I got to see the change that happens after baptism too! It was really cool.
Well too no surprise I was transfered...
I left Anhanguera. And I was called to Novo Vinheado. It is a great area.. I was called to be Zone Leader with Elder Nunes!!
Elder Nunes is brasilian from Sao Paulo city. He is an amazing missionary. I am going to learn ALOT from him. he was AP on the mission for 10 months, and he is probably the best missionary on the mission. Our President loves him, and he is defintely going to be a great companion for me.
I am really excited about this transfer! Our mission has the goal to break the record for baptisms in 1 month! So we are going to work really hard!
I hope that everything at home is going great! Halloween here is way lame! Nobody dresses up or anything, they dont even celebrate the holiday, I talked to alot of kids on the street and nobody even knows what halloween is.. So that was a little bit different.
Things are going great mom, I am not needing anything, everything is fine, I still havent bought new shoes, the only real place where there are shoes that are good is in Campinas city.. but I dont go there alot, so I am going to wait until I go there next until i buy new shoes.
I had a ingrown toenail which was pretty ugly, but I bought some pillers and ripped off my toe nail. haha, I made a video, it was pretty awesome. Well I love you all, and I hope that everyone is doing great.
Please pray for me ALOT!!!
Hurrah for Israel!!
Elder Olsen.
28 Oct 2009
Wow, this week was really great! We are really seeing alot of miracles here in the area! It is week 6, and well, I am starting to get really nervous that I might be transfered. After 7 and a half months, i think that I might be ready for a change.
Elder Aragao my son, is doing really great. He is starting to get into the hang of missionary work, and is starting to really like it. There are alot of teaching moments that I find with him, and alot of opportunties to learn.
He really doesnt talk that much about home with me, but I can tell he really misses his family. I found out that his mom isnt a member of the church, nor his dad. So that defintely must be really challenging. He has an older brother, that is going to start his mission at the end of this year too, so that is cool.
We are working with ALOT of people right now in our area. Our teaching pool is huge!! We have a ton of people that we are teaching and alot of them are progressing really well. We are meeting alot of special people this week, and I am nervous that I wont get to see alot of them get baptized because of the transfers. I am trying not to think about the transfers, because I dont want Elder Aragao to think that we dont need to work this last week. I told this that we are not allowed to talk about the transfers until Sunday night after planning.. haha, so we dont talk about the transfers. Tomorrow we have a huge blessing here in the mission, Elder Jensen of the seventy is coming to our mission!!!! It is going to be amazing! I am hoping that it is a full day event, but they aps arent really saying too much about it. Training has been a huge new experence for me, I really did like it, but I am not sure if I want to do it again. I know that I want to continue working my hardest and putting my trust in the Lord.
This week we are going to help Isabel and her daughters be baptized! It is going to be awesome! We have 3 baptisms this week, and they are people really special, the Lord is blessing this area so much! In 3 weeks the ward is going to move to a new location, where is it going to be amazing!!!! It is a new warehouse, but it is huge!! It is going to be about twice the size of the warehouse we use right now. There were 93 people at sacrament meeting this past week!! The ward only need 7 more people to recieve a new chapel!!! It will be amazing here in the area when they have a chapel, the work will explode!!! When I started here 7 months ago only the ward only had 60 people that were active, they ward was lost. It is so amazing to see the ward so happy and ready to recieve the blessings from the Lord. This past Sunday we had a ward council meeting, The Bishop asked me to give a talk about the importance of missionary work and establishing a ward missionary plan. After about an half hour talk, we all talked about the strengths and weakness of the ward, and the ward decided to set some really amazing goals for the ward! The goal is at the next stake conference, recieve a chapel!! So the missionary have to baptize at least 4 people every month, and re active 2 families!!! It will be AWESOME!! The work here is going awesome! I love Anhanguera, this ward defintely is my family!
Please continue to pray for me and my companion, that this week we can finish our transfer strong and be blessed from the Lord!
Hurrah for Israel!!
Elder Olsen
Elder Aragao my son, is doing really great. He is starting to get into the hang of missionary work, and is starting to really like it. There are alot of teaching moments that I find with him, and alot of opportunties to learn.
He really doesnt talk that much about home with me, but I can tell he really misses his family. I found out that his mom isnt a member of the church, nor his dad. So that defintely must be really challenging. He has an older brother, that is going to start his mission at the end of this year too, so that is cool.
We are working with ALOT of people right now in our area. Our teaching pool is huge!! We have a ton of people that we are teaching and alot of them are progressing really well. We are meeting alot of special people this week, and I am nervous that I wont get to see alot of them get baptized because of the transfers. I am trying not to think about the transfers, because I dont want Elder Aragao to think that we dont need to work this last week. I told this that we are not allowed to talk about the transfers until Sunday night after planning.. haha, so we dont talk about the transfers. Tomorrow we have a huge blessing here in the mission, Elder Jensen of the seventy is coming to our mission!!!! It is going to be amazing! I am hoping that it is a full day event, but they aps arent really saying too much about it. Training has been a huge new experence for me, I really did like it, but I am not sure if I want to do it again. I know that I want to continue working my hardest and putting my trust in the Lord.
This week we are going to help Isabel and her daughters be baptized! It is going to be awesome! We have 3 baptisms this week, and they are people really special, the Lord is blessing this area so much! In 3 weeks the ward is going to move to a new location, where is it going to be amazing!!!! It is a new warehouse, but it is huge!! It is going to be about twice the size of the warehouse we use right now. There were 93 people at sacrament meeting this past week!! The ward only need 7 more people to recieve a new chapel!!! It will be amazing here in the area when they have a chapel, the work will explode!!! When I started here 7 months ago only the ward only had 60 people that were active, they ward was lost. It is so amazing to see the ward so happy and ready to recieve the blessings from the Lord. This past Sunday we had a ward council meeting, The Bishop asked me to give a talk about the importance of missionary work and establishing a ward missionary plan. After about an half hour talk, we all talked about the strengths and weakness of the ward, and the ward decided to set some really amazing goals for the ward! The goal is at the next stake conference, recieve a chapel!! So the missionary have to baptize at least 4 people every month, and re active 2 families!!! It will be AWESOME!! The work here is going awesome! I love Anhanguera, this ward defintely is my family!
Please continue to pray for me and my companion, that this week we can finish our transfer strong and be blessed from the Lord!
Hurrah for Israel!!
Elder Olsen
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
17 Oct 2009
This week was a great week! I am loving being a missioanry! This week we had a baptism! Marcela was baptized! It was really awesome. After 20 years her Mom returned to the church, after ALOT of work, and now her daugther was baptized! It was a really special baptism for me. We also saw the greatest of the work unfolding before our eyes! We found 3 new families amazing!!! Peterson and his family are amazing, Maria and her children, and Simone, and her family. They will all go to the temple to see it, and make a visit there. It is going to be really special. I am so excited! My "son" Elder Aragão is doing awesome. He is finally getting in the hang of the mission, the rules and hours. It is awesome to see the progess that he is making. He is really excited about the work here! Well I have alot of stories that are really awesome that are happening in our area, but I dont have alot of time. Just know that things are amazing, and that Heavenly Father is pouring his blessing over our area. I am so excited to be a missioanry! Thanks for all the love and prayers, I know that it is the biggest difference in my area. So continue praying for me and my area, that we can continue to find the people who are praying for the blessings of the gospel. I hope that all is well in the USA. Here is Brasil, it is going great! Love you all.
Elder Olsen
Elder Olsen
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
5 Oct 2009
Hello Family,
Wow this week was really awesome! It is really fun to be a trainer! Things are really alot harder when you are training... Things are alot more emotional.. I am trying to be really a good trainer.. but sometimes I dont know what to do. We were practicing some lessons in our study one day, and I was just telling him what he can do better, and he just starting crying, and asked for some alone time.. It went over really smoothly.. After we talked and I just have to be more patiente with him. I just forgot that there is the physical and mental side to mission work.. Elder Aragão is a really good missionary.. he will defintely be a great leader on the mission. He just needs to overcome he shyness... It was really funnny. I told him that we have a rule that everytime we are on the bus, he has to talk in the front of the bus.. The first time, I will not lie it was funny.. he was sweating nervous, and couldnt talk really well, now, he is alot better, he talks. and he is willing to try and talk to everyone in the streets with me. He is defintely not going to stay shy with me. I am making all these really funny goals with him, that are way hard to do, things that he has to do every single day to overcome his shyness. He has to invite at least 3 people on the street to be baptized. talk with at least 12 people everyday. Shoot for joy at least a few times on the street. and we are doing things really funny. He is starting to really like it. At first he didnt like me very much.. he is alot more calm then me, and more shy.. but he is coming out of his shell, and he will be a great missionary. Mikey and Steve I must say that training is like the best thing on the mission. I basically can set the standard of this missionary for his whole mission. So it is way important that we baptize ALOT of people this transfer, to really help him set a high goal on his mission. Well we had one baptism this week, Arthur was baptized. It was really awesome to see him really happy. We have now baptized everyone in his family.. We are now starting to work with his uncles and neighbors. The great thing about the gospel is that everyone sees the difference, so the people always ask, what do they have that I dont.. after they ask this, the work is easy. We have really decicded to work on the families that we already have, and using the people that they know, families, friends, neighbors, and to really help everyone that we baptize have the chance to share the gospel. Milton and his family, gave us some awesome referals, of some uncles and aunts that live on the same street. They loved our message. and loved the church. We are going to baptize 4 of them this week. We are going to just start baptizing one street at a time. haha. Just kidding, well at least we are going to try too. The best moment in missionary work, is when you can leave one appointment in one house. walk next door and teach the next, then the next.. it is really awesome. We are really stressing referals of all our recent converts, and using their familes, friends etc. I am loving it here in Anhanguera. Everyone in the ward was really happy that I stayed one more transfer. I will have 7 and a half months in the same area.. it is crazy. It is crazy to think that I still havent left my first area. I have 8 months on my mission and I am in my first area haha. It is amazing. I love the mission. I am the happiest person in the world, I love this work, Christ leads and helps us when we need it or not, he is always there. Thanks for all the Love and Support. LOVE YOU ALL!!!
Elder Tyler James Olsen.
Hurrah for Israel!!
Wow this week was really awesome! It is really fun to be a trainer! Things are really alot harder when you are training... Things are alot more emotional.. I am trying to be really a good trainer.. but sometimes I dont know what to do. We were practicing some lessons in our study one day, and I was just telling him what he can do better, and he just starting crying, and asked for some alone time.. It went over really smoothly.. After we talked and I just have to be more patiente with him. I just forgot that there is the physical and mental side to mission work.. Elder Aragão is a really good missionary.. he will defintely be a great leader on the mission. He just needs to overcome he shyness... It was really funnny. I told him that we have a rule that everytime we are on the bus, he has to talk in the front of the bus.. The first time, I will not lie it was funny.. he was sweating nervous, and couldnt talk really well, now, he is alot better, he talks. and he is willing to try and talk to everyone in the streets with me. He is defintely not going to stay shy with me. I am making all these really funny goals with him, that are way hard to do, things that he has to do every single day to overcome his shyness. He has to invite at least 3 people on the street to be baptized. talk with at least 12 people everyday. Shoot for joy at least a few times on the street. and we are doing things really funny. He is starting to really like it. At first he didnt like me very much.. he is alot more calm then me, and more shy.. but he is coming out of his shell, and he will be a great missionary. Mikey and Steve I must say that training is like the best thing on the mission. I basically can set the standard of this missionary for his whole mission. So it is way important that we baptize ALOT of people this transfer, to really help him set a high goal on his mission. Well we had one baptism this week, Arthur was baptized. It was really awesome to see him really happy. We have now baptized everyone in his family.. We are now starting to work with his uncles and neighbors. The great thing about the gospel is that everyone sees the difference, so the people always ask, what do they have that I dont.. after they ask this, the work is easy. We have really decicded to work on the families that we already have, and using the people that they know, families, friends, neighbors, and to really help everyone that we baptize have the chance to share the gospel. Milton and his family, gave us some awesome referals, of some uncles and aunts that live on the same street. They loved our message. and loved the church. We are going to baptize 4 of them this week. We are going to just start baptizing one street at a time. haha. Just kidding, well at least we are going to try too. The best moment in missionary work, is when you can leave one appointment in one house. walk next door and teach the next, then the next.. it is really awesome. We are really stressing referals of all our recent converts, and using their familes, friends etc. I am loving it here in Anhanguera. Everyone in the ward was really happy that I stayed one more transfer. I will have 7 and a half months in the same area.. it is crazy. It is crazy to think that I still havent left my first area. I have 8 months on my mission and I am in my first area haha. It is amazing. I love the mission. I am the happiest person in the world, I love this work, Christ leads and helps us when we need it or not, he is always there. Thanks for all the Love and Support. LOVE YOU ALL!!!
Elder Tyler James Olsen.
Hurrah for Israel!!
Elder Olsen E mail 7 Oct 2009
Family,
Wow, this week was really interesting for me and my companion! I am loving traning but it is defintely alot harder than I thought it was going to be. I am seriously having a great time in Anhanguera. It has been 7 months that I am in the same area, ALOT of time. Conference was really amazing, for what I got to watch, I am learning to be a leader is alot more hard than I thought it would be. I have 8 different people, that any problem that they have, they call me. Wow, it is really hard. Saturday, we were watching conference when the sisters in my district told me, that I need to run to a house with them and interview somebody who would be baptized the next day. So I didnt get to watch conference on Saturday, and the worst part is that the person wasnt even baptized; so it was a little disappointing. And the same thing happened on Sunday, on the afternoon session, I had an interview during it, so I didnt get to watch Elder Hollands talk. But everyone told me it was amazing. I really loved conference, it was great to be spiritually uplifted. Well, conference works alot different here than in Utah. They only have one chapel that you can watch conference, and they ward doesnt rent a bus or anything to take people to the other chapel... so it was extremely hard to plan how our investagators would go to conference, we only have 5 people watch conference with us. It was an opportunity so golden to here the prophet for our investagators, but, sometimes, things dont work out how you want them too. We were unable to baptize Marcela... her Mom Dalva, who was already baptized got really nervous about her baptism, so she wouldnt let her. It was extremely sad, because Sister Dalva is awesome!! She just nervous at the last second to let her be baptized. Milton and his family werent able to go to conference, so they cousins werent able to be baptized too! It was really hard... They live about an hour away from the other chapel we had to go to, and in our entire ward we only had about 15 people watch conference, it was extremely sad. But the work will go on. We are going to mark all the baptisms again for this week, and work with everyone to go to church, and have an amazing week!!! Training is extremly hard!! It is such a difference for him and me, he never lived with an American, so we are completely different, but at the same time really similiar. He wants to be a judge when he grows up, so he is really like me, he wants alot of control, and he thinks he know ALOT about missionary work. We are both working on being more humble and work harder to help each other out. I love being a missionary. It is amazing, nothing could ever be better when you see someone for the first time pray, read the book of mormon, or recieve a testimony about Joseph Smith, these are the moments that help me want to be better, strong, more spiritual and to work harder. I love this work. I love all that happens everyday. I love being a member of the only true church on the face of the earth. Thanks for all the love and prayers. Everyone please pray for Marcela, Dalva, Luana, Maria, Milton, Davi, and Alexzandro. I love you all!!!
Hurrah for Israel!!!
Elder Olsen
Wow, this week was really interesting for me and my companion! I am loving traning but it is defintely alot harder than I thought it was going to be. I am seriously having a great time in Anhanguera. It has been 7 months that I am in the same area, ALOT of time. Conference was really amazing, for what I got to watch, I am learning to be a leader is alot more hard than I thought it would be. I have 8 different people, that any problem that they have, they call me. Wow, it is really hard. Saturday, we were watching conference when the sisters in my district told me, that I need to run to a house with them and interview somebody who would be baptized the next day. So I didnt get to watch conference on Saturday, and the worst part is that the person wasnt even baptized; so it was a little disappointing. And the same thing happened on Sunday, on the afternoon session, I had an interview during it, so I didnt get to watch Elder Hollands talk. But everyone told me it was amazing. I really loved conference, it was great to be spiritually uplifted. Well, conference works alot different here than in Utah. They only have one chapel that you can watch conference, and they ward doesnt rent a bus or anything to take people to the other chapel... so it was extremely hard to plan how our investagators would go to conference, we only have 5 people watch conference with us. It was an opportunity so golden to here the prophet for our investagators, but, sometimes, things dont work out how you want them too. We were unable to baptize Marcela... her Mom Dalva, who was already baptized got really nervous about her baptism, so she wouldnt let her. It was extremely sad, because Sister Dalva is awesome!! She just nervous at the last second to let her be baptized. Milton and his family werent able to go to conference, so they cousins werent able to be baptized too! It was really hard... They live about an hour away from the other chapel we had to go to, and in our entire ward we only had about 15 people watch conference, it was extremely sad. But the work will go on. We are going to mark all the baptisms again for this week, and work with everyone to go to church, and have an amazing week!!! Training is extremly hard!! It is such a difference for him and me, he never lived with an American, so we are completely different, but at the same time really similiar. He wants to be a judge when he grows up, so he is really like me, he wants alot of control, and he thinks he know ALOT about missionary work. We are both working on being more humble and work harder to help each other out. I love being a missionary. It is amazing, nothing could ever be better when you see someone for the first time pray, read the book of mormon, or recieve a testimony about Joseph Smith, these are the moments that help me want to be better, strong, more spiritual and to work harder. I love this work. I love all that happens everyday. I love being a member of the only true church on the face of the earth. Thanks for all the love and prayers. Everyone please pray for Marcela, Dalva, Luana, Maria, Milton, Davi, and Alexzandro. I love you all!!!
Hurrah for Israel!!!
Elder Olsen
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
23 Sept 2009
Wow this week has been amazing!! Saturady we saw the miracles of wallace and Paula be baptized!! It was extremely spiritual and an amazing addition to the family. I am really excited for her. She has gone through some tuff times in her life... but now she is finally happy and loving life. I have been teaching her for 6 months, so it was a great reward and espiritual experenence to see her baptized with her children. She has two more kids that need to be baptized, but they live with the dad, so we are going to work with her to be able to help them move in with her... she is the investagator that I talked about on mothers day that was straving to death.. and so we helped her out that one day with food and clothes for her kids.. and now she is working full time and is having an amazing blessings from the Lord. It was week 6 of the transfer and after 6 months I thought for sure that I would be transfered.. I was really nervous monday night.. But Elder de Araujo was transfered, I will stay for at least 6 more weeks!! I am way excited. I love my area and ward, and I am really excited to stay here and work hard. I was also called to TRAIN!! I have my first kid here on the mission. HIs name is Elder Aragão which is way awesome name. He is REALLY smart. Well I am not sure if he is really shy, but he is defintely shy... so as we were catching the bus with all the things he had, 2 suitcases and everything. I asked him, do you have a testimony about mssionary work.. haha he said YES.. so I called everyones atention on the bus and that Elder Aragão was new and had an amazing message for him.. haha it was awesome.. I am defintely going to work REALLY hard, hey its his first area, he needs to become an amazing missionary.
Things are going amazing with the work... we have 2 more baptisms this week, and we are really trying our hardest to find somebody EVERY SINGLE WEEK. Something that I have been thinking alot about it that to baptize every week I only have to find for the least 1 person every week that wants to be baptized.. Well if I talk with 100 people, probably 1 or so will be baptized.. well I thought if I talked with 200 and my compaion too. that is 400 people and that is 4 baptisms every week. Well, I am pretty sure it is that simple. I am really not sure, one thing that I learned with Steven is just work!!! Dont think about anything else, just work and work, and Heavenly Father will do the rest. I am really excited. Well I have to run my kid has lots of things to do. I am really excited to be here in Brasil. I love it here. Things are amazing. I am so grateful for all the blessings that we recieve when we work our hardest and do our part.
D&C 100: 8-9; it is amazing.
Love YA ALL!!!!
Elder Tyler Olsen!!!
Hurrah for Israel!!!!
Things are going amazing with the work... we have 2 more baptisms this week, and we are really trying our hardest to find somebody EVERY SINGLE WEEK. Something that I have been thinking alot about it that to baptize every week I only have to find for the least 1 person every week that wants to be baptized.. Well if I talk with 100 people, probably 1 or so will be baptized.. well I thought if I talked with 200 and my compaion too. that is 400 people and that is 4 baptisms every week. Well, I am pretty sure it is that simple. I am really not sure, one thing that I learned with Steven is just work!!! Dont think about anything else, just work and work, and Heavenly Father will do the rest. I am really excited. Well I have to run my kid has lots of things to do. I am really excited to be here in Brasil. I love it here. Things are amazing. I am so grateful for all the blessings that we recieve when we work our hardest and do our part.
D&C 100: 8-9; it is amazing.
Love YA ALL!!!!
Elder Tyler Olsen!!!
Hurrah for Israel!!!!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
16 Sept 2009
Wow family,
this week was amazing. I am loving my life here in Brasil!!! This week we saw alot of miracles, and we are really excited for this next week!! Well sunday was amazing!! Milton and 2 of his daughters were baptized!! It was an amazing spirit. Almost all the ward stayed for the baptism and was really happy with our work. It was a little funny, because the Mom Ceclia was baptized 16 years ago, and now she is so happy that her family and daugthers are now members of the true Church of Christ. It was a little sad at the same time, Luana, the oldest daughter, who is 14, when the bishop announced that after the meetings we would have baptisms, she got really nervous and started crying, and started saying that she wasnt going to be baptized. AH!! it was so annoying, I was trying to talk to her with my companion about the importance of being baptized with her family, and accepting the sacrifice of Christ, but all the members were saying, oh if you dont wanna be baptized just wait... tal tal tal, ah, so the members did not help. So Milton and Ceclia were a little bit sad because Luana wasnt baptized with her family... It was a little funny, i mean, it really was, because i just pictured Janessa or Amanda crying not listening to their parents and not wanted to leave the bathroom.. So only the 3 were baptized, but it really was a great story.. all the members of the ward are really happy with the work of the Lord in the area... we are really seeing miracles every single day. I am so happy to be here in Anhanguera.. I am a little nervous, it is week 6.. and i have been here for 6 months... so I am really praying to stay here in the area. I LOVE IT! I know it is my first area, but still i wanna stay here!! I love it here so much. All the members are going to pray that I stay here haha. I am like a child to all the members. They all love me, and it would be extremely hard for me to leave the area.. But it is in the hands of the Lord. We are working with alot of people right now that are ready to be baptized in the next couple of weeks. They are all really special people, and we are finding the best ways to help people accept the gospel in their lives. The members are trusting us with their friends, realitives, and neighbors. We are really starting a boom here. When I started here, the average sacrament meeting was about 55 or 60 people. They past two weeks we have had 94, and 98. WOW!!! The work of the Lord is real!!! we have seen so many miracles and so many people move their lives. In two weeks the ward will move to the new warehouse which is bigger, and move spacious, with a soccer field in the front. The members are excited and really helping us. For example, yesterday we had 4 lessons with members present, and tomorrow we have 5 different members that are going to go on spilts with us. During the week we have members calling us "Elder,how are your numbers.. how are your baptisms, investagators." It is awesome. So everyone please pray I can stay here in Anhanguera! Please pray that I can prepare for all the things we have to do! We have 4 more baptisms this week!! The work is amazing. I love it!! I have never been happier, never been more excited and motivated!! I love you all, thanks for all the support, love and prayers. This work cant be stop! It is like a rock rolling down a mountain!!
Elder Olsen
this week was amazing. I am loving my life here in Brasil!!! This week we saw alot of miracles, and we are really excited for this next week!! Well sunday was amazing!! Milton and 2 of his daughters were baptized!! It was an amazing spirit. Almost all the ward stayed for the baptism and was really happy with our work. It was a little funny, because the Mom Ceclia was baptized 16 years ago, and now she is so happy that her family and daugthers are now members of the true Church of Christ. It was a little sad at the same time, Luana, the oldest daughter, who is 14, when the bishop announced that after the meetings we would have baptisms, she got really nervous and started crying, and started saying that she wasnt going to be baptized. AH!! it was so annoying, I was trying to talk to her with my companion about the importance of being baptized with her family, and accepting the sacrifice of Christ, but all the members were saying, oh if you dont wanna be baptized just wait... tal tal tal, ah, so the members did not help. So Milton and Ceclia were a little bit sad because Luana wasnt baptized with her family... It was a little funny, i mean, it really was, because i just pictured Janessa or Amanda crying not listening to their parents and not wanted to leave the bathroom.. So only the 3 were baptized, but it really was a great story.. all the members of the ward are really happy with the work of the Lord in the area... we are really seeing miracles every single day. I am so happy to be here in Anhanguera.. I am a little nervous, it is week 6.. and i have been here for 6 months... so I am really praying to stay here in the area. I LOVE IT! I know it is my first area, but still i wanna stay here!! I love it here so much. All the members are going to pray that I stay here haha. I am like a child to all the members. They all love me, and it would be extremely hard for me to leave the area.. But it is in the hands of the Lord. We are working with alot of people right now that are ready to be baptized in the next couple of weeks. They are all really special people, and we are finding the best ways to help people accept the gospel in their lives. The members are trusting us with their friends, realitives, and neighbors. We are really starting a boom here. When I started here, the average sacrament meeting was about 55 or 60 people. They past two weeks we have had 94, and 98. WOW!!! The work of the Lord is real!!! we have seen so many miracles and so many people move their lives. In two weeks the ward will move to the new warehouse which is bigger, and move spacious, with a soccer field in the front. The members are excited and really helping us. For example, yesterday we had 4 lessons with members present, and tomorrow we have 5 different members that are going to go on spilts with us. During the week we have members calling us "Elder,how are your numbers.. how are your baptisms, investagators." It is awesome. So everyone please pray I can stay here in Anhanguera! Please pray that I can prepare for all the things we have to do! We have 4 more baptisms this week!! The work is amazing. I love it!! I have never been happier, never been more excited and motivated!! I love you all, thanks for all the support, love and prayers. This work cant be stop! It is like a rock rolling down a mountain!!
Elder Olsen
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
9 Sept 2009
Hello Family!!!
Wow, the church is true! I am so happy it is amazing. This week was amazing. We are seeing so so many miracles here. Some times I wanna ask why I am so blessed to see so many miracles, but I really dont have time to stop and think about it. Sunday, we saw Maria recieved the gift of the Holy Ghost and be confirmed. And we also saw Rita be baptized! It was really a miracle. She is really excited and happy, after alot of years of searching she found the true church. It was really amazing to see the miracle of Rita's baptism. It was really sad that Erismar wasnt baptized with his mom. After alot of searching we couldnt find a river that would be a good river to baptize somebody, so our Mission President told me that if they have a testimony they will be baptized. Well Rita has a testimony, and Erismar still needs a little bit more time. We are working with him and trying to establish goals so that he can be baptized before the end of the transfer. We also saw the miracles of Ceclia and her family! Ceclia was already batpized along time ago, and now she is wanting to come back to the church after alot of years. She has three daugthers, 11, 13,and 14. Yohana, Jeovana, and Luana and her husband Milton. Dad, you would LOVE Milton. He is exactly like Dad, he is a owner of a contruction business, he is a little bit bigger(ya know.. fat.) and he is extremely spiritual. During the first vision, he was crying like a baby, It was extremely spiritual, defintely the most spiritual first lesson I have had on my mission. They all are going to be baptized this next Sunday. They all were at church and loved it. They wanted to be baptized with Rita at the same time, ha but I told them that they need a little bit more time to prepare, so they asked how fast they could be baptized, I told them the next sunday. So they are already going to be baptized, but they are extremely prepared. They all read the book of mormon everyday, and this Saturday we are going to the temple with them and their family. They have an interesting story, and they are defintely a miracle of my mission. I dont have any doubts that in 1 year I will enter the temple with them.. It was extremely a blessing to meet this family. We are seeing alot of miracles right now, and alot of people interested in our message. We had 12 investagators at church. And 8 of them have a baptism marked for this month. We are truely being blessed with alot of miracles. Me and my companion are working on staying humble... Because we are both young on the mission, he only has 3 months, and this is only 7 for me, and my first transfer as senior, so we are working on being humble. I hope that we can continue being humble and working hard. Sounds like everything at home is going amazing, I wanna see photos of the basement! Keep me in your prayers, and keep up the faith!!!
Love,
Elder Olsen(Tyler)
Wow, the church is true! I am so happy it is amazing. This week was amazing. We are seeing so so many miracles here. Some times I wanna ask why I am so blessed to see so many miracles, but I really dont have time to stop and think about it. Sunday, we saw Maria recieved the gift of the Holy Ghost and be confirmed. And we also saw Rita be baptized! It was really a miracle. She is really excited and happy, after alot of years of searching she found the true church. It was really amazing to see the miracle of Rita's baptism. It was really sad that Erismar wasnt baptized with his mom. After alot of searching we couldnt find a river that would be a good river to baptize somebody, so our Mission President told me that if they have a testimony they will be baptized. Well Rita has a testimony, and Erismar still needs a little bit more time. We are working with him and trying to establish goals so that he can be baptized before the end of the transfer. We also saw the miracles of Ceclia and her family! Ceclia was already batpized along time ago, and now she is wanting to come back to the church after alot of years. She has three daugthers, 11, 13,and 14. Yohana, Jeovana, and Luana and her husband Milton. Dad, you would LOVE Milton. He is exactly like Dad, he is a owner of a contruction business, he is a little bit bigger(ya know.. fat.) and he is extremely spiritual. During the first vision, he was crying like a baby, It was extremely spiritual, defintely the most spiritual first lesson I have had on my mission. They all are going to be baptized this next Sunday. They all were at church and loved it. They wanted to be baptized with Rita at the same time, ha but I told them that they need a little bit more time to prepare, so they asked how fast they could be baptized, I told them the next sunday. So they are already going to be baptized, but they are extremely prepared. They all read the book of mormon everyday, and this Saturday we are going to the temple with them and their family. They have an interesting story, and they are defintely a miracle of my mission. I dont have any doubts that in 1 year I will enter the temple with them.. It was extremely a blessing to meet this family. We are seeing alot of miracles right now, and alot of people interested in our message. We had 12 investagators at church. And 8 of them have a baptism marked for this month. We are truely being blessed with alot of miracles. Me and my companion are working on staying humble... Because we are both young on the mission, he only has 3 months, and this is only 7 for me, and my first transfer as senior, so we are working on being humble. I hope that we can continue being humble and working hard. Sounds like everything at home is going amazing, I wanna see photos of the basement! Keep me in your prayers, and keep up the faith!!!
Love,
Elder Olsen(Tyler)
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
5 Aug 2009
Wow,
This last week was amazing! I am so excited!! This week we have 5 baptisms I am way Excited!! Jasmine, Arthur, Fatima, Gisele, and Rita, 2 different families I am way excited. Well Jasmine and Arthur are the kids of Hilda, and they are going to be baptized on Saturday, they are way excited, and everyone in the family is loving the church, the visits from the elderes and the Bishop, the only sad part of the story is that the Dad, Amilka, he ran away or something. We thought that things were finally starting to change, he didnt drink for 4 days, he worked for 4 days, and then just one day we recieved money from his work, and he just left. Without a doubt he is just way drunk in some bar in the middle of no where. We are trying to help Hilda realize that she and her family are better off without him, Edimilson their son that is 18, found work and is working to help the family. So they are working on moving on without Amilka.
Fatima, Gisele, and Rita are a family that is amazing!! They were difentely prepared before this life to be members of the church. 4 weeks ago we talked to them on the street, we marked a appointment to pass by their house, and now they will be baptized. It was like the easiest baptism in the world. They have no problems, no difficulities, the only thing was coffee, which they stopped after one day. They walked to church on their own without anyone, it is quite amazing. They serious are amazing. Fatima is the mom, and she is awesome. She has 2 other kids, but one lives in a different city, and the other is 19 and he is rebelling against his mom right now. So he isnt really interested. I hope that after he sees the difference the church has in their lives he will want to change too. Elder Garcia and I are way excited to work really hard this week. Without a doubt one of us will be transfered next week. (It is week 6 of the transfers ALREADY) I cant believe how fast time flies by, it is amazing. Yesterday was my 6 month anniversity here on the mission. Missionaries are way weird, so they have(had) this tradition where you burn a tie on 6 months, one year a shirt, and 1 1/2 pants. So I thought that was way stupid so I didnt do it. Elder Ficklin(an Elder that started with me.) was way disappointed that I didnt do it, but it sounded way lame too me. The mission is amazing!! I am way excited to work here in Brasil, it is defintely the 2nd best country in the world. I love this work, and love that everyone here loves Jesus Christ. Brasil has by far the most churches in the world. There are 10 on every street. Just one the street where our chapel is there is J.W, Quadrangular, Assembleia de Deus, Deus é Amor, Congregação, Igreja da Graça, Nasarath é Belem. So, it is quite funny. Everyone we talk to has a different opinion. But it is great. It is a great starting point for the church. I have only meet 1 person that didnt believe in God, so I think it is really awesome here. I am way excited for the ward here, they are starting to get really excited about missionary work. in my 3 transfers here I am been really blessed to help the ward here alot, this weekend with be 17 baptisms here in 4 and a half months. So the ward is really starting to love missionary work. This ward the first 4 months of this year baptized 2 people. There was some major slacker missionaries here, so the trust of the members was lost, but now finally the members love the missionaries again. Every single day we have the brothers of the ward wanting to go on spilts with us. It is awesome. I am way excited for the work here. Pray that I will stay here. I really wanna stay here in Anhanguera. I love it here. Well I have to run, Love you all!! Thanks for all the prayers, and support.
Matthew 16:24-26
Elder Olsen
This last week was amazing! I am so excited!! This week we have 5 baptisms I am way Excited!! Jasmine, Arthur, Fatima, Gisele, and Rita, 2 different families I am way excited. Well Jasmine and Arthur are the kids of Hilda, and they are going to be baptized on Saturday, they are way excited, and everyone in the family is loving the church, the visits from the elderes and the Bishop, the only sad part of the story is that the Dad, Amilka, he ran away or something. We thought that things were finally starting to change, he didnt drink for 4 days, he worked for 4 days, and then just one day we recieved money from his work, and he just left. Without a doubt he is just way drunk in some bar in the middle of no where. We are trying to help Hilda realize that she and her family are better off without him, Edimilson their son that is 18, found work and is working to help the family. So they are working on moving on without Amilka.
Fatima, Gisele, and Rita are a family that is amazing!! They were difentely prepared before this life to be members of the church. 4 weeks ago we talked to them on the street, we marked a appointment to pass by their house, and now they will be baptized. It was like the easiest baptism in the world. They have no problems, no difficulities, the only thing was coffee, which they stopped after one day. They walked to church on their own without anyone, it is quite amazing. They serious are amazing. Fatima is the mom, and she is awesome. She has 2 other kids, but one lives in a different city, and the other is 19 and he is rebelling against his mom right now. So he isnt really interested. I hope that after he sees the difference the church has in their lives he will want to change too. Elder Garcia and I are way excited to work really hard this week. Without a doubt one of us will be transfered next week. (It is week 6 of the transfers ALREADY) I cant believe how fast time flies by, it is amazing. Yesterday was my 6 month anniversity here on the mission. Missionaries are way weird, so they have(had) this tradition where you burn a tie on 6 months, one year a shirt, and 1 1/2 pants. So I thought that was way stupid so I didnt do it. Elder Ficklin(an Elder that started with me.) was way disappointed that I didnt do it, but it sounded way lame too me. The mission is amazing!! I am way excited to work here in Brasil, it is defintely the 2nd best country in the world. I love this work, and love that everyone here loves Jesus Christ. Brasil has by far the most churches in the world. There are 10 on every street. Just one the street where our chapel is there is J.W, Quadrangular, Assembleia de Deus, Deus é Amor, Congregação, Igreja da Graça, Nasarath é Belem. So, it is quite funny. Everyone we talk to has a different opinion. But it is great. It is a great starting point for the church. I have only meet 1 person that didnt believe in God, so I think it is really awesome here. I am way excited for the ward here, they are starting to get really excited about missionary work. in my 3 transfers here I am been really blessed to help the ward here alot, this weekend with be 17 baptisms here in 4 and a half months. So the ward is really starting to love missionary work. This ward the first 4 months of this year baptized 2 people. There was some major slacker missionaries here, so the trust of the members was lost, but now finally the members love the missionaries again. Every single day we have the brothers of the ward wanting to go on spilts with us. It is awesome. I am way excited for the work here. Pray that I will stay here. I really wanna stay here in Anhanguera. I love it here. Well I have to run, Love you all!! Thanks for all the prayers, and support.
Matthew 16:24-26
Elder Olsen
26 Aug 2009
This week has been amazing! I am so excited to be a missionary! I am loving my area, Anhanguera is amazing. This week we had stake conference, and they annoucned that our chapel will be moved.. This next month we will recieve a new warehouse that is like twice as big and has a parking lot and everything! So we are way excited, because it is on the main road of the city, so we will be able to do alot of work there, I am so excited. We had an awesome stake conference, and we had all 6 investagators that will be baptized this week there. Erismar, Rita, Agnaldo, Maria, Arthur and Bia are way excited for baptism this week. We had some rough patchs this past week with Maria, so we moved her baptism to this week, but she is really excited, and she choose the bishop to baptize her, so it will be really awesome. Well last night I went to teach Erismar and Rita and Agnaldo, and they were being really weird about their baptisms this week, so we asked if everything was ok, and turns out, that Erismar has this dream where he wants to be baptized in a river, like Christ was... So last night we made some phone calls, and this week we are going to go to a river, and baptize Erismar, Agnaldo, Rita, and probably Arthur and Bia at the same time. Haha, so that will be really awesome. Everyone please pray for us, for 2 things, that we can find a river, haha. and 2 that we will be able to do everything that we need too, to have a great baptism in the front of the river. Erismar, Agnaldo want me to baptize them, so I will baptize in a river! ha, I am way excited. We have a ton of work to do!! No one knows where a river is, or anything, but he said he wont be baptized without a river, so we are going to find a river. I dont know how, but we will find one! Things here are great, my companion Elder de Araújo, he is a really good missionary. He is really excited, and he wants to baptize alot like me!!! So we are going to get along great! I love this area, I know almost everything about it, after 5 months, I know everything, It is great, I hope that I can stay one more after this too, because I love it here. I am so grateful for the example I have in my life, Mikey and Steven really work hard, so I am trying my hardest to learn from their examples and be a GREAT missionary. Mikey sent me a letter in the mail... well he sent it a long time ago, but I got his letter this week and I am defintely motivated to work extremely hard. I am going to start running and trying my hardest to be the BEST missionary on the mission. We are really loving this work, and it is going great. I love this work, I love this country and I love this church! I am so thankful for all the blessings we have in our lives, and the opportunity we have to be members of the only true church on the earth! I know that everything is possible with the help of the Lord... Something that I have learned on the mission, is that if we want miracles, we need to ASK. Sometimes we just sit there waiting for the miracles to come our way, but if we want miracles, we need to ask for miracles, and he will give them. I dont have any doubts that miracles exisit in our days, i see them every single day! Justin, I hope that boot camp wasnt too hard, and I hope that you didnt kill anybody yet. I hope you know how to work a gun know, and at least dismantle it in 15.43223 seconds. Justin, write me an email about the marines.... I am really interested in joining...
Elder Olsen, thanks for all the advice you give me. Keep tearing up NYC!! I know that all NYC we change their lives because of you! Kids, I hope that all your studies are going great!!!
Mom, thanks for all that you do for me. I love you so much.
Dad, thanks for your letter. I got a letter from you, your words really are insipriring.
I love you all, keep praying for me.. Pray that we can find a river, and that we can make everything go smoothly..
Prover. 3:5-6
Elder Olsen
BRASIL!!
Elder Olsen, thanks for all the advice you give me. Keep tearing up NYC!! I know that all NYC we change their lives because of you! Kids, I hope that all your studies are going great!!!
Mom, thanks for all that you do for me. I love you so much.
Dad, thanks for your letter. I got a letter from you, your words really are insipriring.
I love you all, keep praying for me.. Pray that we can find a river, and that we can make everything go smoothly..
Prover. 3:5-6
Elder Olsen
BRASIL!!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
12 Aug 2009
Wow, this week was a week of miracles!! I am so excited! I will start at the beginning. This past week we had 4 baptisms! Fatima, Gisele, Rita, and Jasmine were all baptized! It was an amazingly spiritual! With the help of our members, we had something called "Minha oferta á Cristo" It is were you need to fulfill all the goals of the mission, it was awesome. We had an extremely succesful week! Arthur wasnt baptized, because he is only 8, and his mom is a member, so the bishop needs to do the interview, so we had plans with the bishop for him to be baptized on Saturday with Jasmine his sister, the only problem is Bishop wasnt there, he said that he forgot... So Arthur didnt want to be baptized Sunday either because he didnt want to be baptized alone.. So it was a little frustrating on our part. But we will see what happens with him. I hope that he will be baptized soon! Fatima, Gisele, and Rita were all baptized Sunday after church, and it was really amazing. All the members really love them, they are extremely elect!! They seriously love everything about the church and dont have any difficulities, or problems. Alot of members of the ward stayed and watched the baptism. So, I baptized first, and then Elder Garcia baptized Gisele, so as he was baptizing Gisele, he forget to spread his feet wide, so he slipped, and feel in the water too! So really he was baptized too!! After and he slipped his foot hit the ladder!! It was extremely funny, everyone was laughing really hard. So as he climbed out of the water, he looked at his foot, and he cut in on the ladder, and it was deep. So we had to go to the doctor and he got 3 stitches! It was extremely funny!!! So our week was really amazing. And Monday was worthless, because he said that he couldnt walk... I love Elder Garcia, but I must say that I am so glad that I am an Olsen, but people just dont know the meaning of pain.. He was crying Sunday night, and Monday he said he couldnt walk or work because of hit foot... it was only 3 stitches.. I tried explaining how much pain I have already seen my brothers, dad, uncles, myself and every Olsen deal with.. but he wouldnt hear it. So... Monday was the first day on my mission I didnt work. And wow it was terrible. I just read the scriputures; finally at like 4 I convinced him to at least walk a little, so he walked to an apartment were so members live and visited them.. but he wouldnt use a shoe, he kept his sandel on while we walked in the street, and he was walking with a gimpe like he broke his leg.. It was extremely embarrassing. I am so glad that I am an Olsen. Monday night we found out who was transfered and.. I stayed here! I will now stay here in Anhanguera for 6 months like Mikey just did in his area! I am way excited. I recieved a new companion, and I was called to be senior companion. I recieved Elder Araújo, this is his 2nd transfer, and he is way excited! So I am really excited to stay here and work another 6 weeks! I cant wait to get to work and stay here. It was funny yesterday 3 members called because they wanted to know if I stayed or not. So it is really awesome, everyone here in like family, and I am way excited to be here still. I am nervous about the teaching, because with Elder Garcia we both knew the lessons so well it was easy to bounce back and forth. I know that Elder Araújo wants to work really hard, so I will defintely help him and learn alot of portguês with him! I am excited to work here still! Mikey that is crazy that you are living in the same pad as 50 cent haha!!! I cant believe it! When you talk to ELder Carcasdi next say "ai cara, beleza" he will laugh alot! I cant believe he is in your zone that is way funny, I talked to his dad in the CTM, and he was a powerful man, so I am sure that his son is an exelent missionary too! Well everyone pray for me!! I really want to be the best senior companion i can be. I pray for you all every single day!!
Hurrah for Israel!
ELder Olsen #3
Falou!
Hurrah for Israel!
ELder Olsen #3
Falou!
19 Aug 2009
Dear Family,
Well things here are amazing! I am loving it here in Anhanguera! I am really excited that I will stay here one more transfer! Things with Elder de Araújo are great! He is a good missionary. This is only his 2nd transfer, and I think that he trainer was a bit of a lazy missionary because he study ethic is pretty bad, but he is really ready to work hard and learn things. Being senior is a lot different then junior. Well with Elder Garcia we both have the same amount of time on the mission, so we worked really well together.. Well we tried to work our hardest. With Elder araujo it is so different. If something in the lesson isnt going right, or they have a question, he just looks to me.. So it is a responsibility alot bigger. I cant believe how fast time flies. Every single day goes by so fast! This month we have some amazing goals in the area here. We have alot of people that we are working with to be baptized this month! This Saturday Maria will be baptized. Next week we have alot of people to baptized too! So we are really excited here in Anhanguera.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to listen to Elder Ellis, he is an area 70 here in Brasil. He is from Burley, Idaho. He is really awesome. We have a meeting with him for like 4 hours yesterday and it was awesome.
Well this last week we had alot of success meeting new people. We meet a new family of 15 people!!! Wow, it was amazing. Ha, it was funny we were walking and it was pretty late and our appointed wasnt home, so we made some contacts and knocked doors, we knocked on one door and it was a lady, and she has 5 brothers, they all are married, her mom, and grandpa.. it was never ending of people. It was my first lesson with Elder araujo, and we had never had the opportunity to practice yet, so it wasnt really organized how I would have liked. but It was really good at the end the spirit was really strong. So wow, if we can help this family be baptized.. 15 baptisms.
Something really strange happened here. We meet this old couple and we were teaching them with Elder Garcia, well I went back there with Elder araujo and well the man Flavio past away.. it was a shock.. The wife is really sad, and doesnt even wanna talk to us right now. I just hope we can help her understand the plan of happiness.
I am so happy. I cant believe that I am a missionary. Sometimes it hits me harder than others. When I have the opportunity to look someone in the eyes, and invite them to be baptized. It is a feeling of peace that I have never had. When you can look someone in the eyes and say to them. I know this is the only true church on the face of the earth. It is a statement really bold, and the spirit is testifying with us missionaries, and we know that we are right. It is something amazing. 7 billion people on this planet and only 13 million are members of the only true church.. WOW!! We need alot of missionaries!! I love this work, and I love you all!
Keep me in your prayers!
Elder Olsen
Well things here are amazing! I am loving it here in Anhanguera! I am really excited that I will stay here one more transfer! Things with Elder de Araújo are great! He is a good missionary. This is only his 2nd transfer, and I think that he trainer was a bit of a lazy missionary because he study ethic is pretty bad, but he is really ready to work hard and learn things. Being senior is a lot different then junior. Well with Elder Garcia we both have the same amount of time on the mission, so we worked really well together.. Well we tried to work our hardest. With Elder araujo it is so different. If something in the lesson isnt going right, or they have a question, he just looks to me.. So it is a responsibility alot bigger. I cant believe how fast time flies. Every single day goes by so fast! This month we have some amazing goals in the area here. We have alot of people that we are working with to be baptized this month! This Saturday Maria will be baptized. Next week we have alot of people to baptized too! So we are really excited here in Anhanguera.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to listen to Elder Ellis, he is an area 70 here in Brasil. He is from Burley, Idaho. He is really awesome. We have a meeting with him for like 4 hours yesterday and it was awesome.
Well this last week we had alot of success meeting new people. We meet a new family of 15 people!!! Wow, it was amazing. Ha, it was funny we were walking and it was pretty late and our appointed wasnt home, so we made some contacts and knocked doors, we knocked on one door and it was a lady, and she has 5 brothers, they all are married, her mom, and grandpa.. it was never ending of people. It was my first lesson with Elder araujo, and we had never had the opportunity to practice yet, so it wasnt really organized how I would have liked. but It was really good at the end the spirit was really strong. So wow, if we can help this family be baptized.. 15 baptisms.
Something really strange happened here. We meet this old couple and we were teaching them with Elder Garcia, well I went back there with Elder araujo and well the man Flavio past away.. it was a shock.. The wife is really sad, and doesnt even wanna talk to us right now. I just hope we can help her understand the plan of happiness.
I am so happy. I cant believe that I am a missionary. Sometimes it hits me harder than others. When I have the opportunity to look someone in the eyes, and invite them to be baptized. It is a feeling of peace that I have never had. When you can look someone in the eyes and say to them. I know this is the only true church on the face of the earth. It is a statement really bold, and the spirit is testifying with us missionaries, and we know that we are right. It is something amazing. 7 billion people on this planet and only 13 million are members of the only true church.. WOW!! We need alot of missionaries!! I love this work, and I love you all!
Keep me in your prayers!
Elder Olsen
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
29 July 2009
Wow, what a great thing it is to be a missionary! I love it here in Anhanguera, Campinas. Things here are really cold!! This past week was a record week for rain here in the city. EVER! It literally rained all day friday, saturday, and sunday. All day. It never stopped. It was crazy. Luckily for me a brought SO many sweathers and umberellas. (I really didnt bring a single one.) So I have been soaked head to toe for 4 days!! I love it. The work really goes better in the rain, people dont have anywhere to go, they just stay in the house the whole weekend. So this weekend we meet alot of new investagators here!! The only problem was that it was almost impossible to convince people it was worth it to walk to church in the rain.. So we only had 3 investagators in church on sunday. But it was good compared to the ward, there was only have 50 people in the ward in total.. But on Sunday something amazing happened here!! The Bishop announced that the Stake President sent in the papers for the ward to start building a chapel here!! Everyone is way excited, we really hope that Salt Lake approves it. Hey Mom, tuesday I recieved some letters that were really old, from uncle Dan, Mandy, and you.. it is because you guys sent them to the MTC in Sao Paulo!!!! So it is taking for ever for your letters to get here, I got a letter like a month and a half old haha. So you need to send them to Campinas, it is really funnny actually, but yeah my address is
R. 10 de Setembro, 38
Cambuí 13023-100
Campinas-SP
Brasil
You should defintely send them to this address, or else it will take forever for me to recieve letters. So the maple you sent me is amazing mom thank you!! I am loving it, and making french toast every day now, Elder Garcia loves it. It is pretty awesome.
So Hilda, and her kids are doing great. Elder Garcia went there yesterday to talk about baptism with them for this saturday.. well, the kids really want to.. but Hilda was being really shy and hiding something, so Elder Garcia used some great questions, and found out that about 2 months ago Hilda recieved some help from a local church with food and stuff too. Well one of the conditions for the help was that her kids needed to be baptized in the church. The church actually made Hilda give all her money she had to "pay for the salvation of her kids" So she feels obligated for her kids to baptize in that church, because she and her family didnt have any food, and that chruch helped her. Well, I wasnt there, so I dont know how it is or anything, but Elder Garcia said today that he isnt sure if they will be baptized. So we are going to go there today and talk to them about this and see what we can do. I hope that they we can help them through there struggles and see that they need to be baptized.
Next week we have 3 baptism! Fatima, Rita, and Gisele are a family that is amazing!! They already have been to church 2 times, and are loving it. They really enjoy the church. Fatima is the mom of the family, and she is amazing. She has two other kids, but they are kind of rebellious, so they dont go to church or anything. But we are really excited for them to be baptized. But we are really excited for them, and they are amazing, the best part is she loves being a missionary already! She wants everyone she knows to hear our messages, so the referencies are starting to fly in!! We are way excited! Well this is week 5 of the transfer, and i am really excited to finish this transfer with some baptisms!! I dont know if I will stay or not, I dont wanna think about it. I just wanna concertrate on the work for now, and whatever happens happens
R. 10 de Setembro, 38
Cambuí 13023-100
Campinas-SP
Brasil
You should defintely send them to this address, or else it will take forever for me to recieve letters. So the maple you sent me is amazing mom thank you!! I am loving it, and making french toast every day now, Elder Garcia loves it. It is pretty awesome.
So Hilda, and her kids are doing great. Elder Garcia went there yesterday to talk about baptism with them for this saturday.. well, the kids really want to.. but Hilda was being really shy and hiding something, so Elder Garcia used some great questions, and found out that about 2 months ago Hilda recieved some help from a local church with food and stuff too. Well one of the conditions for the help was that her kids needed to be baptized in the church. The church actually made Hilda give all her money she had to "pay for the salvation of her kids" So she feels obligated for her kids to baptize in that church, because she and her family didnt have any food, and that chruch helped her. Well, I wasnt there, so I dont know how it is or anything, but Elder Garcia said today that he isnt sure if they will be baptized. So we are going to go there today and talk to them about this and see what we can do. I hope that they we can help them through there struggles and see that they need to be baptized.
Next week we have 3 baptism! Fatima, Rita, and Gisele are a family that is amazing!! They already have been to church 2 times, and are loving it. They really enjoy the church. Fatima is the mom of the family, and she is amazing. She has two other kids, but they are kind of rebellious, so they dont go to church or anything. But we are really excited for them to be baptized. But we are really excited for them, and they are amazing, the best part is she loves being a missionary already! She wants everyone she knows to hear our messages, so the referencies are starting to fly in!! We are way excited! Well this is week 5 of the transfer, and i am really excited to finish this transfer with some baptisms!! I dont know if I will stay or not, I dont wanna think about it. I just wanna concertrate on the work for now, and whatever happens happens
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
22 July 2009
Wow, This week was a week of miracles!! I love the work of the Lord so much! Every single week I learn so many things it is amazing!! Well Hilda(the h is silent in portuguese, so i always thought that her name was Ilda, but it is Hilda.) She and her family are doing amazing!!! After a long talk I had with the bishop he agreed that the ward could help the family more than he had.. So on friday and saturday tons of colths, food, blankets, and toys were delivered to the family!! It was so amazing!! The best part about it was the whole family went to church on sunday and loved it!! They were all smiles and everything went great! I had a family night there last night, and it was the first time I had seen there house after all the help we had done, and wow, every changed so much!! They house is TINY! but, now that they have things, they are actually keeping care of the things the have. They hung up sheets to seprate rooms, and are using toys as decorations in the house. They are sweeping the dirt. The whole spirit of the house changed. Before it was dark and gloomy. Now everyone is smiling and laughing and loving life. Yesterday in our family night, I took popcorn and soda to watch a movie!! They loved it. They have a tiny tv, and a ghetto dvd player they borrowed from the neighbors, but the only problem was that it didnt have a remote, I was all bummed out, because the film was in english.. but they kept up the good spirits, and I translated "The Restraution" into portuguese for them, it is a totally different family. They still have a major problem.. Nobody in the house is working. So they really have no way to maintain living. On sunday, a member offered a job for Hilda, and she will start working this week. And the teenger "De" will start working this week too! So things are really getting better there! They have two children that werent baptized, that will baptize next week! So that is way exciting. I am really excited about this family. They were so lost and without purpose in life, they found the purpose of life again through the gospel! We still dont know what to do with the Dad... He is still drinking. Not alot.. but he drinks still.. It is such a hard habit to break. Any ideas on scriptures or lessons we can teach? It is a blessing of the Lord we found this family. They are going to be an amazing addition to the ward.. and they have alot of references for us too!! Hilda's brother and Mom accepted baptism for the 8th. Their neighbors are a really big possibilty for the 8th too! So, the Lord is really blessing Elder Garcia and I!! Missionaries are so blessed! The Lord blesses me every single day. It seems like every single day we find somebody new that is so ready for the gospel!! We meet a lady named Fatima. She is a single mom with 4 kids. She went to church of Sunday, and was crying the whole time, she felt the spirit so strongly!! She is going to be baptized next Saturday!! We are so excited. This area is so ready to just explode. They lack about 15 or 20 members in the ward for the Stake to sign off to build a chapel here. So after the succeses that we have had the past 3 months they are way excited. They members are starting to really help us, and the work is going to move forward like crazy here! It is week 4 in the transfer. So we have 2 more weeks to really work like crazy!! I love you all, I hope that every single one of you is blessed with opportunities to share the gospel. It is the best feeling in the world!! Keep praying for me and my companion!! We need more miracles and people ready to hear the gospel!! I love you all!! Thanks for all the Love and Support.
Elder Olsen #3
Jesus Cristo Vive!! Ele é Nosso Mestre!!
Elder Olsen #3
Jesus Cristo Vive!! Ele é Nosso Mestre!!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
8 July 2009
Wow, things are so great here! I love Brasil. Things are so amazing here in Anhanguera. Elder Garcia and I are having so much fun, and working really hard to find as many elect people as we can! This week has been extremely emotional for me and the area, it has been a extremely spiritual and difficult week. I don't know if you remember Sergio,Sema, Nicolle, and Kaique.. there were the family with a baptism date, but we found out they weren't married right.. well on monday night we had an extremely spiritual lesson with them. the lesson was extremely powerful, we were really trying to help them understand the importance of marriage, Well, at last I finally committed Sema to marriage with Sergio, and she started to cry... bawl really.. and she just went off, she was talking about how she is extremely unhappy with Sergio, and she really wants to leve him, but she can't because she doesnt have the money.. how she has never been happy with him, but she was just trying to fill in the gaps of her dead husband.. and she just went off, right in front of his face, it was really rough... so they will defintely not be marriage.. now we have to help them separate or something, the whole family is a mess... The church is the only thing keeping them from falling apart.. So we really need help them improve things there.. Any suggestions? It is extremely hard for us, because we have never been married, or passed with these types of difficulties, but the only things that keeps us knowing we can help them is because we are missionaries for our Savior Jesus Christ.
Yesterday, something crazy happened. We were on the bus, riding home from our district meeting, and I was standing next to this guy with sun glasses near the front of the bus.. Well, I really wanted to talk to him about the church, but for some reason I didn't(further explantion coming.) So I was standing next to him, and I "randomly" decided, to go the back of the bus, not 3 minutes later that man with sun glasses pulled out a gun, and robbed the driver of the bus!! He jumped the gate and the front of the bus, and robbed the man and the bus! It was so crazy! There was probably about 25 people on the bus at the time, but it was pretty crazy, I almost talked with the man that was robbing the bus. I know that it was no accident I didn't talk with him, God protects his missionaries!
This week Marcos and Elisangela went on vacation with their family to the interior of Brasil, where they have never heard of the church, to visit Marcos's family. So Marcos really wanted his family to know the church, so we made a video, of the first lesson. It was so awesome. ha, Elder Garcia and I will be famous in the interior of Brasil. We taught the first lesson of the video, and with the help of the bishop we gave him about 8 book of Mormon's and 300 pass-a-long cards. So he is going to convert the entire little city there in the middle of no where, so that was pretty cool. Our God is a God of miracles, It is really something awesome to see! Everyday we find new people that are searching for the truth in their lives. We really are trying to work our hardest every single day, because time is passing way fast! I can't believe it! How weird is it that I almost have 6 months on my mission! Time flies by. I love my mission, it is the best thing in the world. Look for opportunities to share the gospel.. there is no greater joy in the world than talking with someone about the gospel!! 1st Corthians 13:1-8. A message for all of us!! I love you all. Keep me in your prayers!! Elder Olsen#3
Yesterday, something crazy happened. We were on the bus, riding home from our district meeting, and I was standing next to this guy with sun glasses near the front of the bus.. Well, I really wanted to talk to him about the church, but for some reason I didn't(further explantion coming.) So I was standing next to him, and I "randomly" decided, to go the back of the bus, not 3 minutes later that man with sun glasses pulled out a gun, and robbed the driver of the bus!! He jumped the gate and the front of the bus, and robbed the man and the bus! It was so crazy! There was probably about 25 people on the bus at the time, but it was pretty crazy, I almost talked with the man that was robbing the bus. I know that it was no accident I didn't talk with him, God protects his missionaries!
This week Marcos and Elisangela went on vacation with their family to the interior of Brasil, where they have never heard of the church, to visit Marcos's family. So Marcos really wanted his family to know the church, so we made a video, of the first lesson. It was so awesome. ha, Elder Garcia and I will be famous in the interior of Brasil. We taught the first lesson of the video, and with the help of the bishop we gave him about 8 book of Mormon's and 300 pass-a-long cards. So he is going to convert the entire little city there in the middle of no where, so that was pretty cool. Our God is a God of miracles, It is really something awesome to see! Everyday we find new people that are searching for the truth in their lives. We really are trying to work our hardest every single day, because time is passing way fast! I can't believe it! How weird is it that I almost have 6 months on my mission! Time flies by. I love my mission, it is the best thing in the world. Look for opportunities to share the gospel.. there is no greater joy in the world than talking with someone about the gospel!! 1st Corthians 13:1-8. A message for all of us!! I love you all. Keep me in your prayers!! Elder Olsen#3
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
July 1 2009
I have no doubts that the Lord works miracles in our lives everyday! This week was so amazing! It was great to see the work of God in our lives. Saturday we have the baptism of 4 people! Andreia, Matheus, Adriana, and Cristiane. It was really awesome! The spirit was really strong! It was really funny, It was on Saturday night, and saturday afternoon it rained non stop! The worst storm I have seen here in Brasil. It was crazy, so we thought that no one would come to the baptisms. So it was like 645, and a herd of people showed up all wet and excited to watch the baptisms! It was really awesome! The water was extremely cold!! And because it was raining it was worse, but the spirit was really strong, and no one complained. It was really awesome! Sunday was really awesome too, I was almost positive i would be transfered, and so i was really sad, I love this ward and this area. But sunday all the members were really sad, and really were praying that I would stay. It was awesome!! Monday we received a phone call that Elder Garcia and I will continue our work here, and that we need to work really hard here! It was really a miracle, the members are way excited, and are way excited to help the work move forward. I think the members really trust Elder Garcia and I, so it really helps. We have alot of references, and alot of work! It is awesome! We are working non stop with about 10 people right now that should be baptized this month! Last night we made our goals for this transfer and we are really excited to work really hard together for one more transfer! I love this work so much! The spirtit is such an amazing tool. I have learned so much about the spirit on my mission! I can´t believe that I have 5 months on my mission already! My companion told me today, "Elder, how much time do you have on your mission," I realized i already have 5 months here in 2 days! I cant believe it! The work here in Anhanguera is going to start a fire here! We are so ready to work really hard together! I am so excited to be a missionary, It is a huge privillege. I learn things everyday! I can´t believe how blessed we are to have the gospel in our lives! I hope that everything is good, I hope that all of you have the best times of your lives! Remeber pray for the missionaries, trust me we can feel the prayers, I swear I have the most miracles in the mission, because I have the most people praying for me. Thanks to the hundreds of Olsen´s around the US! ha, It is a huge blessing! I read this scripture today and loved it! D&C 128:22-23!!
I love you all, I pray for you all to have missionary experiences everyday!
Love Elder Olsen!!!#3!
I love you all, I pray for you all to have missionary experiences everyday!
Love Elder Olsen!!!#3!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Elder Olsen 24 June 2009
Hello , it sounds like everyone is doing really great on the vacation. I wish I could say that I am jealous... but I am having the time of my life here in Anhanguera! My area is really great! This week we had something really sad happen. Sema, Sergio, Nicolle, and Kaikee will not be baptized this week. The day of their interview, we found out that they were not really married. They have a marriage contract, but it is not valid our President said, so we are not going to baptize them for awhile. The hardest part about it, is that they probably will never be baptized.. I have a lot of faith, but the problem is that Sema, she receives a pension for the death of her husband, if she gets married again, she won´t be able to receive it anymore. So, today we are going to talk to her about marriage.. so everyone please pray for her. They live off this pension, it is the only money that they receive, so it will be really tough, but I know the Lord will provide a way. Well, this is week 6 of the transfer, I am really nervous, I wanna stay here so bad, but I am not sure what will happen. This week we have 5 baptisms, So to end our transfer together will be really good, but at the same time, I am really sad, we had such potential to baptize the whole area, but I learned a lot this transfer with Elder Garcia. Elder Garcia is still sick... It is frustrating at times, but I am not mad at him, because he can´t help it.. but he is really sick, it is a huge testimony to me, he is still working hard and hard.. But something is wrong with his health, everyone continue to pray for him! Andreia, Mateus, Cristiane, Adrianna, and Maria are going to be baptized on Saturday, and we are really excited. Andreia and Mateus were really tough at the beginning, but now they are great. I love the opportunity to get to know all these wonderful people. I love it! Well yesterday I was in division with my Zone Leader. It was a blast! ha, I really had alot of fun. It was awesome, we tried alot of different ideas to meet people. During the spilts with him, I think that he was thinking that since | was a new missionary I wouldn't talk with many people, so I wanted to prove myself, ha. So we were on a Bus, and it was way way crowed. there was about 50 or 60 people on the Bus. Well, I decided to use my best gift I have, my loud voice and talk with everyone! So, I started talking really loud. "Good evening everyone, my name is Elder Olsen, I am a missionary for the chruch of Jesus Christ! We have a message that is changing the lives of millions of people around the world! We are here to move your lives too! We will be walking around, if you can have your address ready, we will share a message that will change your life." haha, it was way funny. We got about 20 addresses, and everyone loved it. So after that we started just talking with everyone we saw. I got about 50 addresses yesterday, so it was an awesome day. It was a good reminder for me that missionary work is fun, we were laughing all night about it. Well, I love the work here, I am praying that I will stay here one more transfer, but I am not sure, I really really wanna stay here, but I will let you know next week what happens. I love this gospel. I love it so much! I am on a spiritual high every single day! One thing that I have been studying a lot is about the book of life in the scriptures. EVERYONE, write in your journals everyday! It is sacred. It is a commandment, one thing that I have learned here is this. Also, it is important because it is scripture, we need to seek Sacred Spiritual Experiences every single day. Have you ever thought where we would be if Joseph Smith didn't keep a journal? or Nephi? Moroni? We need to seek for scared spiritual experiences everyday, that we can fill our journals with scripture. I love you all. I love this gospel. I feel I learn a million new things everyday. Pray for me, I love you all. Remember Luke 18:27-30
Love you all!
Elder Olsen #3
Love you all!
Elder Olsen #3
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Elder Olsen 17 June 2009
Hello Family!!
Wow this week was amazing!I really had a amazing week, the Lord is really working here in my area, we have the spirit with us at all times right now, I am probably on the most spiritual high I have ever been on in my life!! Sema, Sergio, Nicolle, and kaike are set to be baptized the 28th! And we are so excited, they went to church on Sunday, and LOVED it! Yesterday Sergio said that he is already missing it, and can´t wait till next Sunday, they are golden! We had an extremely spiritual lesson on Friday night, everyone was crying it was amazing! The Lord is really working miracles here in our area, Friday night, it was way late, and we had an appointment on a street in the ghetto I had never heard of, so I asked this lady if she knew where it was, and after talking for a little I asked if we could teach her a lesson on Saturday at 130... the only problem is that our English class starts at 2... so Saturday we were running to her house, and it was 135... I was not sure if it was possible to teach, and still go to the chapel... but time with the Lord is amazing... we taught the first lesson, marked her baptism for the 27th and made it in time to teach our english class! The Lord is amazing. He is preparing many many people to be baptized here on the 27th and 28th.. We had 7 marked baptisms for the 27th 4 for the 28th... we are really really trying to work hard to make sure all stay firm! It is a huge responsbility, we have to visit every single one every day, but, with the Lord everything is going great. Cristiane, Plautilditis, Andreia, Mateus, José, Sharlene are set to be baptized on the 27th. And Sema, Sergio, Nicolle, and Kaike are going to be baptized on the 28th. And we have about 4 other really really people that are really possible, so everyone please pray for us, our bodies are weak, my companion is going to a specialist today for his stomach, he has lost about 19 pounds in two weeks, and isnt eating very much.. things are really poor with his health, but yet we have never been more happy. God is preparing miracles for us here in our area! I am not sure how we will be able to do all that we need to do over the next 2 weeks, but I know that with the help of the Lord we will be able to baptize alot of people here! I love this work, I have a blast every single day, It is so much fun! I am loving my area, my companion, and the people that are serving me. Every day the Lord prepares hundreds of miracles for us here in our area, I know that without him we would be doing nothing here in our area. Transfers are in 12 days, and I really want to stay here with Elder Garcia, but we will see what happens! Wow, I hope everything back home is well, I love this work so much! I am having the time of my life! Thank for all for the prayers, they are WORKING! God is preparing people here to recieve the gospel! I am loving every minute of my time here! I just pray that my companion´s health is ok, everyone pray for Elder Garcia! I love you all, thank you for the love and support, Remember we are all enlisted in this battle against SATAN, everyone must prepare! 3 Nephi 6:20!!! I love you all!
Um Abraço!
Elder Olsen #3
Wow this week was amazing!I really had a amazing week, the Lord is really working here in my area, we have the spirit with us at all times right now, I am probably on the most spiritual high I have ever been on in my life!! Sema, Sergio, Nicolle, and kaike are set to be baptized the 28th! And we are so excited, they went to church on Sunday, and LOVED it! Yesterday Sergio said that he is already missing it, and can´t wait till next Sunday, they are golden! We had an extremely spiritual lesson on Friday night, everyone was crying it was amazing! The Lord is really working miracles here in our area, Friday night, it was way late, and we had an appointment on a street in the ghetto I had never heard of, so I asked this lady if she knew where it was, and after talking for a little I asked if we could teach her a lesson on Saturday at 130... the only problem is that our English class starts at 2... so Saturday we were running to her house, and it was 135... I was not sure if it was possible to teach, and still go to the chapel... but time with the Lord is amazing... we taught the first lesson, marked her baptism for the 27th and made it in time to teach our english class! The Lord is amazing. He is preparing many many people to be baptized here on the 27th and 28th.. We had 7 marked baptisms for the 27th 4 for the 28th... we are really really trying to work hard to make sure all stay firm! It is a huge responsbility, we have to visit every single one every day, but, with the Lord everything is going great. Cristiane, Plautilditis, Andreia, Mateus, José, Sharlene are set to be baptized on the 27th. And Sema, Sergio, Nicolle, and Kaike are going to be baptized on the 28th. And we have about 4 other really really people that are really possible, so everyone please pray for us, our bodies are weak, my companion is going to a specialist today for his stomach, he has lost about 19 pounds in two weeks, and isnt eating very much.. things are really poor with his health, but yet we have never been more happy. God is preparing miracles for us here in our area! I am not sure how we will be able to do all that we need to do over the next 2 weeks, but I know that with the help of the Lord we will be able to baptize alot of people here! I love this work, I have a blast every single day, It is so much fun! I am loving my area, my companion, and the people that are serving me. Every day the Lord prepares hundreds of miracles for us here in our area, I know that without him we would be doing nothing here in our area. Transfers are in 12 days, and I really want to stay here with Elder Garcia, but we will see what happens! Wow, I hope everything back home is well, I love this work so much! I am having the time of my life! Thank for all for the prayers, they are WORKING! God is preparing people here to recieve the gospel! I am loving every minute of my time here! I just pray that my companion´s health is ok, everyone pray for Elder Garcia! I love you all, thank you for the love and support, Remember we are all enlisted in this battle against SATAN, everyone must prepare! 3 Nephi 6:20!!! I love you all!
Um Abraço!
Elder Olsen #3
Friday, June 12, 2009
Elder Olsen 12 June 2009
Wow, missionary work is amazing! I am having the time of my life here in Brasil! I literally love Brasil, It is an amazing place. I love the people here so much, they are so much different than the people in the United States of America. But a good different, everyone is nice everyone is willing to talk to us, and everyone is willing to listen to our message! This past week has had it´s troubles... We have alot of people that love our message, and love us the missionaries, but do not want to act on the feelings that they feel. They are not willing to go to church or set a baptism date, it is really frustrating. When someone has a testimony, and you know they know the Book of Mormon is true, and that Joseph Smith saw God and Christ, It is frustrating when we pass by their house on Sunday morning and they are not willing to go to church, It is really difficult. We are teaching a new family that is really amazing! Sergio, Sema, Nicole, and Calique! They are really good family that is already married! The only problem is that Sema had a husband for 13 years... and 2 years ago he passed away in a car accident.. we thought that the plan of salavation would be perfect for them, and it was.. for Sema, but the problem is now she is talking alot about her husband who passed away... and giving little time to her current husband here Sergio, so Sergio is struggling now, because he thinks that she talks to much about her old husband, and yeah, it is troublism in the house. But, even with all this problems I know the gospel will bless their lives, I am about 98 percent sure they will be baptized 27th! Steve, or anyone, what can we do with this situation? The kids are really depressed I think. Nicole, she is 13 years old, she barely barely talks, Calique, he loved our first message, but after the 2nd lesson he really isnt interested anymore. Yesterday we had a family night with them, and I prepared some food and we had fanta, and all sorts of good things, but still the kids were liked depressed. During the lessons I really try to involve Nicole, he answer for everything is "Tudo Não é?" That is all.. so what can I do, obviously it is hard, their dad passed away, and there Mom is struggling, the New dad is awesome! But i think they are scared because he was hit by a car 7 months ago, and nearly died, so I mean, this family has bad luck with cars, so he can´t work, or leave the house, or anything, Sema, she has a disability with her feet, so she can´t walk either, but this family is amazing, they are so ELECT! I just need a little help, anyone have ideas? Other than that we have some other investagators that are doing really well too! Andreia and Mateus will be baptized the 27th, and have about 3 or 4 others we are trying to mark for that day too! We are trying to really baptize as many people as we can together, because we are almost certain I will be transfered from what President said too us... so we are trying to work hard together becasuse we work really really well together! I love Elder Garcia, he is so amazing! Well sounds like everyone is doing well, I love the fact that you are on a two month vacation, such an Olsen thing too do! Nobody takes a two month vacation! NOBODY! but I love it, When I tell people about my family and the things we have done they think we are crazy, in the good way, but crazy! I hope Justin is good, I can´t believe he is a MARINE! that is nuts! I hope you have a great time family! Thanks for all the letters, love and support, I really love the fact that I have a family that loves and supports me so well! I love you all, I love our Savior Jesus Christ! I am so glad to know the fact that the truth is with us! That we know where the true church of God is on this EARTH! I love you all, keep praying for me, I pray for you all, Remember the sacredness and holiness of our calling of members of the church in these LAST DAYS! Remember, the Savior is coming, we must do all we can to prepare us, and everyone around us! Thanks for all the Love, Eu enviou um grande abraço de Brasil. Eu amo vocês muito! Eu sei que esta Igreja de Cristo, com um Profeta, Doze Apostoles, e Autoridade de Deus...que Bênção! Remember Matthew 25:40! Search for opprtunites to serve others around us!
Love Elder Olsen #3
Love Elder Olsen #3
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Elder Olsen letter 3 June 2009
this week was really awesome! We are way excited about this transfer! Elder Garcia and I are going to work really hard to really push ourselves this transfer...try and baptize a lot of people. We have been praying ALOT for Heavenly Father to place families in our paths.. We are teaching a lot of people that are solos, you aren´t married, so this week we really prayed hard and fasted alot to ask for families already married, and ready to accept the gospel. The crazy thing about prayers... It really works. I can´t believe how much Heavenly Father blesses us when we ask for help. Friday night we were had an appointment in CDHU(basically the projects of Brasil, it is like the government housing here in Brasil.) And everything here is like way hard to get in and get out, you have to have a key and people here do not like missionaries, So we were teaching a lady named Antonia, she is probably 76 years old, but elect people do not have an age limit, she is great! She is preparing for baptism the 20th! So we were teaching her, and we needed to exit the compound, so I knocked on some bottom floor doors asking for a key, and of course Heavenly Father prepared one lady named Sema, normally we don´t try and make contacts with people that give us keys, just because we´ve already done that alot, and they usually don´t like it, and say that we can´t come back. But, I had to talk to her, so I did, and she loved our message! We came back the next day, and she has a husband and a 16 and 14 year old kids. They all accepted baptism and are doing great! Sema has a problem with walking, (I am not sure the name of it in English) but she can´t walk very far, and so it is going to be hard to get her to church. Not very many member in the ward have cars, and so we are going to have to work really closely with the ward to help this family. The father Sergio, during the first lesson stayed in the kitchen, but after the first vision, and committing them to baptism he came out, and he was really happy, he was sitting in there the whole time listening to the whole thing! So, they all accepted baptism, are we are working on a date right now, probably the 20th too! We have a lot of awesome investigators right now, that we are really excited about. We are literally trying to talk to everyone we see on the street. That is one thing that Steve taught me really well, that we need to talk to everyone on the street, and it is really working, we have about 120 addresses right now, so we are booked full!! It is crazy, we are literally trying to talk to anyone we see, and get there address. We are really excited about this transfer, we only have 4 weeks left, so we are trying really hard to work together hard. Well I have exciting news, starting this Saturday I won´t just be Elder Olsen, I will also be Professor Elder Olsen too! This Saturday we are starting our English Course in the Chapel. I am going to teach English for 2 hours every Saturday for free, we are thinking that it is a great way to meet people, and get people in the chapel on Saturday, and then talk about how we have our meetings the next day and they can return. We are way excited. I am really nervous, not really sure what I am going to teach, but I am going to have a lot of fun. Well I am really enjoying my mission, every single day is a new adventure, the best part is you never know what is going to happen.. anything can happen. I really am loving Elder Garcia, he is a great missionary! I really enjoy being his companion, he is the kind of missionary I wanna stay with, but we are basically positive I will be transferred, so we are trying to work how together. I cannot believe that Justin is a Marine, that is CRAZY! I cannot imagine what he is going through.. probably really hard stuff. But it will make a mission really easy for him. Mom, make sure to send him my emails, in a letter or something.. Janessa, I cannot believe that you are 16 awesome! Did you get my birthday letter yet? I hope all is well, I hope everyone is preparing for summer there, I never thought I would say this, but yesterday I was WAY cold here! It is really cold here, my comp is from the North, he literally almost died, it was really funny. Me or him didnt bring anything for the cold, literally I brought nothing, I have one long sleeve white shirt, and that is it. He has about 5 but only that, no sweater´s or anything. So he is really dying, I think that my body is way used to the hot, so the first sign of cold my body freaked out. Well I love you all, I miss you all! I hope all is well! Keep me in your prayers, but better yet keep the elect people waiting for me in your prayers, prays that I can find them and teach them with power and authority! Keep the missionaries in your prayers, but make sure too, as Elder Bednar said, pray for missionary opportunities yourself´s! Read Alma 13:24-30!! I love you ALL!!
Elder Olsen #3!!
Jesus Cristo é Nosso Mestre! Eu Amo Vocês!
Elder Olsen #3!!
Jesus Cristo é Nosso Mestre! Eu Amo Vocês!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Elder Olsen letter 27 May 2009
Wow, This week has been great! I am so excited to be serving a mission! Seriously I cannot believe how much the Lord blesses us. Sunday, well, was probably my roughest day as a missionary. My companion was sick, and we were supposed to have 10 investagators really interested in the gospel at church. Well, in the morning we started are"round up" of investagators, and all the sudden they all starting falling through, I am not sure if you remember Paula and her children walace and jenifer, Well they moved.... Like in the middle of the night without telling anyone, I think that I told a little about her on Mother´s day, but she was really interested in the gospel, but the man she lived with is really abusive and drinks ALOT! So, we went there, and he said that she had gone back to São Paulo, in the middle of the night and stuff, so I am thinking that he probably beat her and she had enough so got up and left, I am really happy for her, it is defintely for the better, they had barely any food, and lived in extremely humbling conditions, I just really hope that she looks up the church there in Sao Paulo, because that is the only way to happiness. And all our other investagator´s just feel through, we ended up having no one at church, which was really hard, and add on the fact that my companion was sick, so we had to return to the house early because he didnt feel good, it was by far the hardest day of my mission. But the Lord blesses us through our trials, because Monday night we were able to mark 4 baptisms for the 13th of June, and we have 4 others that are seriously going to be baptized the 13th too! So, we are really excited about the 13th! We really wanna try and break the record for most baptisms in one day on the mission! So we are going to work really hard this week to get ATON of people on church on Sunday so they can qualify for the 13th! My area is going awesome, I am really enjoying my Brasilian companion ELder Garcia, my portuguese is improving amazing with him, because I cannot speak english ever, It is really weird... Like I didn´t speak english for a week, that is really weird.. But it is awesome! We are going to start speaking english together so he can learn English, he can already speak a little, so I am going to help him learn, he is extremely smart, his goal is to study at MIT, so he is extremely smart. Yesterday at our Zone Meeting, President Castro Deus was there, and he talked about the Atonement, it was so amazing! I seriously loved it so much, he is a spiritual giant! Everyone pray for my area this week, we need miracles to happen to meet our goals! We are really excited about the work, and how it is going!
Justin, graduating? No way, I dont believe it! I got letters today! And Justin´s was in there with the invite for his graduation! Parabêns!
Janessa, wow 16! wow that is awesome, have you started Driver´s ed yet?
Mom, thanks for all the you do! I am so grateful for all that you do!!! Your the best that ever was.
Sammy awesome that you graduated from preschool you are so grown up now! Awesome! I am so happy for you!
I love you all! I am so grateful for your examples that you are too me, thanks for all the love and support that you give every week through letters and prayers!
Remember: Alma 5:14 the 3 questions that are in there. (sorry if they are not exactly word for word I am translating.)
1. Have you been spiritual born of God?
2. Have you recieved the image in your countance? (wow probably wrong, hard word to translate, semblante, mais facíl.)
3. Have you experienced the changed in your hearts?
We have to move first, to have the light of Christ with us, and we must have the desire to move, because the Atonement of Christ, He paid for our sins! Luke 22:39-44 where it talks about the atonement, he went through more than we can explain! Mosiah 5:2 how we can move our lives!
Love,
Elder Tyler James Olsen!!!#3
Eu sei que Cristo é Nosso Mestre!
Justin, graduating? No way, I dont believe it! I got letters today! And Justin´s was in there with the invite for his graduation! Parabêns!
Janessa, wow 16! wow that is awesome, have you started Driver´s ed yet?
Mom, thanks for all the you do! I am so grateful for all that you do!!! Your the best that ever was.
Sammy awesome that you graduated from preschool you are so grown up now! Awesome! I am so happy for you!
I love you all! I am so grateful for your examples that you are too me, thanks for all the love and support that you give every week through letters and prayers!
Remember: Alma 5:14 the 3 questions that are in there. (sorry if they are not exactly word for word I am translating.)
1. Have you been spiritual born of God?
2. Have you recieved the image in your countance? (wow probably wrong, hard word to translate, semblante, mais facíl.)
3. Have you experienced the changed in your hearts?
We have to move first, to have the light of Christ with us, and we must have the desire to move, because the Atonement of Christ, He paid for our sins! Luke 22:39-44 where it talks about the atonement, he went through more than we can explain! Mosiah 5:2 how we can move our lives!
Love,
Elder Tyler James Olsen!!!#3
Eu sei que Cristo é Nosso Mestre!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Elder Tyler Olsen Letter 20 May 2009
Hello!
Wow, this week was amazing! I am so excited to be on a mission!! Last Thursday was a wedding of Marcos and Elisângela we got to go and it was awesome! Their brother(or uncle or something) is a professional photographer so he was there filming it and everything it was awesome! They have a DVD and everything about the wedding and they gave us copies, it was awesome! Saturday we have the baptisms of Marcos Elisangela Igor Gaberiela and Renato! It was so so espiritual! It was amazing! It was by far the happiest day on my mission so far! It was awesome seeing the together as a family so happy and everything! Sunday we have the baptism of Marcelo, it was awesome! It was really good, he is a little slow in the head,(he is a professional fighter, he does fighting all day, so I think that he has been hit in the head ALOT! because he is really smart, just really funny... think Rocky Balboa.) But he is really excited to be a member of the church. Monday my companion was transfered! I spent the day in the Center of Campinas in a meeting with President Casto Deus, he is truly an inspired man, I am so excited to be working with Elder Gracia now, he is Brasilian, so say good bye to english, I probably will not speak alot of it for awhile.. it is good it will be really good for me, it will really help my portuguese. Elder Gracia is awesome! He is the type of companion i am going to get along with really good, he is way excited about missionary work, yesterday we probably talked to 50 people in the streets just practically running from place to place! It is awesome! We are setting some really high goals this transfer!! The other day I met a lady named Andreia, And she is really in touch with the spirit, it is awesome, we marked her and her child Mateus baptism for the 31!! so we have another 2 baptisms next week that I am really excited for! We are setting some really high baptism goals for baptisms this transfer! So we are ready to get to work! Sounds like everything at home is going really well. I haven´t recieved mail for 3 weeks... On fault of the Zone leaders. They always say they forget our letters.. So not sure on what is going on there, so sorry if I havent wrote anyone back, I am waiting for letters myself, I will proabably get them next tuesday.. I hope. Well everything is going great here, I love my missoin so much! I am so excited to be here! I love portuguese, it is the greatest language in the world, second to english that is. Everything is awesome! I love you all. Remember the attributes of Christ! Mosiah 3:19 I love you all, keep me in your prayers!
Elder Olsen #3
Wow, this week was amazing! I am so excited to be on a mission!! Last Thursday was a wedding of Marcos and Elisângela we got to go and it was awesome! Their brother(or uncle or something) is a professional photographer so he was there filming it and everything it was awesome! They have a DVD and everything about the wedding and they gave us copies, it was awesome! Saturday we have the baptisms of Marcos Elisangela Igor Gaberiela and Renato! It was so so espiritual! It was amazing! It was by far the happiest day on my mission so far! It was awesome seeing the together as a family so happy and everything! Sunday we have the baptism of Marcelo, it was awesome! It was really good, he is a little slow in the head,(he is a professional fighter, he does fighting all day, so I think that he has been hit in the head ALOT! because he is really smart, just really funny... think Rocky Balboa.) But he is really excited to be a member of the church. Monday my companion was transfered! I spent the day in the Center of Campinas in a meeting with President Casto Deus, he is truly an inspired man, I am so excited to be working with Elder Gracia now, he is Brasilian, so say good bye to english, I probably will not speak alot of it for awhile.. it is good it will be really good for me, it will really help my portuguese. Elder Gracia is awesome! He is the type of companion i am going to get along with really good, he is way excited about missionary work, yesterday we probably talked to 50 people in the streets just practically running from place to place! It is awesome! We are setting some really high goals this transfer!! The other day I met a lady named Andreia, And she is really in touch with the spirit, it is awesome, we marked her and her child Mateus baptism for the 31!! so we have another 2 baptisms next week that I am really excited for! We are setting some really high baptism goals for baptisms this transfer! So we are ready to get to work! Sounds like everything at home is going really well. I haven´t recieved mail for 3 weeks... On fault of the Zone leaders. They always say they forget our letters.. So not sure on what is going on there, so sorry if I havent wrote anyone back, I am waiting for letters myself, I will proabably get them next tuesday.. I hope. Well everything is going great here, I love my missoin so much! I am so excited to be here! I love portuguese, it is the greatest language in the world, second to english that is. Everything is awesome! I love you all. Remember the attributes of Christ! Mosiah 3:19 I love you all, keep me in your prayers!
Elder Olsen #3
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