Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Elder Olsen letter 24 February 2009
Wow I have alot to talk about. And I barely have any time at all. so iam going to try and fit it all in. Well I got here in Brasil safely,and I all I can say is that it is amazing! The city of Sao Paulo is sobeautiful, and HUGE! there are a ton of people I can´t belive it. Wellthe CTM here is way different than the MTC in Prvoo, there are about160 missionaries or so, compared to 2000 in Provo, so it is a lot morepersonable. The CTM president woodward is an awesome man, and he andhis wife try to get to know everyone personal, so it actually is alotmore personal here. I am just barely getting back from the temple inCampinas, and it is so beautiful there, off the back side you can seethe city of Campinas, which is just huge, it is probably about 2 timesbigger than Salt Lake, and there is a ton of people there, it was agood feeling to overlook the city that I will be serving in, and toget a feel of how big it really is. I have a 5th floor bedroom thatoverlooks the city of Sao Paulo, which is incredible. Have you gottenmy letter yet? It has my memory card on it with about 20 pictures orso of my mission so far. Well I will just work backwards so far totell all the stories I wanna share.
My new companion´s name is Elder "sorry I have to take out names because anyine on the internet can access this" . Heis a brilliant Eler. He is so smart, he is learning porteguese reallyfast, it makes me a little jealous but not to much, We work extremelywell together, and get along great. So far my progess on myporteguese, is well it is coming along... I have decided that I amgoing to learn the gospel really well first, and not concrentrate somuch on the language. I learned that from David and Andrew when they said that they when they were here worked hard on the gospel and not so much on the languuage. The food, is well different. It is kindastrange, for breakfast they have lunch meat and rolls, and all the weird stuff, so you eat all your meals within like 8 hours of eachother, breakfast at 8, lunch at 12, and dinner at 4... so I go to bed about every night straving. But it is all good, because today on my p-day we are going to pick up snacks so I don´t die.
On Sunday I was choosen to give a talk, on Charity, and it went pretty well I guess, I wish I could´ve had more time to prepare, I was called on the spot to talk for 5 minutes. But my branch presidency is amazing. They are all on mission´s here, serving for the Perpeual (spelled wrong) education fund missions. They overlook all of Brasil,and choose people to use the fund. They are all retired bankers and businessmen. But they work in Sao Paulo so they only come to this side of the City on Sunday´s. The CTM has a werid time wrap thing that goes on. The days seem to go by so so slow, not like a bad slow, just a okI have been studying in the same classroom for 14 hours today, but then at the same time, the weeks fly by, but at the same time the weeks haven´t gone by fast at all. I can´t believe it has only been 3weeks. I feel like I have changed so much, and that I have learned so much! I love it, this will defintely help me with school, because classes won´t seem that long once you have sat through CTM classes allday. My teacher´s are Iramo Ientz and Qurinio. They are from Brasil and served here in Brasil. They are just aweome. Iramo Q is halirous,he is so funny, Brasilian´s like to make fun of Argentinie´s and so he has some funny jokes about them.
This Friday we go proselyting in downtown Sao Paulo... and I am pretty nervous. I am so exited and ready to go, but nervous that my porteguese won´t be good enough. I have been trying to memorize 5 different street contact apporaches, which are about 5 minutes long apiece. And also just trying to learn as much church saying as i can;like the church is true, Jesus Christ´s died for us, saying´s like that. I gave a practice one to my teacher yesterday and he said that my accent is coming along really well, and that when I speak fast I almost sound local. Which is encouraging news.
Well I had an amazing flight over here, Mom it was pretty awesome to see you, all my district was way jealous about it. They all really are mad at me, because I get more packages and letters than pretty much all of them combined. So everyone in my district thinks my mom is the greatest. I had a pretty awesome experience happen after I came backfrom talking to you Mom. So when I went back we had about 50 minutes till boarding so we were just talking with our whole district when this local Brasilian started talking to us, he was a member of the church and spoke perfect english as well. So my district was all crowded around him, talking and stuff to him in Porteguese, but since I had been consentrating on the gospel rather than the language Ireally didn´t have that much to say. Well right next to the big crowd was the Lady who had a tiny little baby in her arms, and a little boy running around playing with his cars. I just leaning over and started talking to her. I first thought that maybe she was with the other guy that everyone was talking with, but she turned out to not be. Anyway I just talked to her for about 20 minutes about her family, Her name was Liz, she had a 4 month year old daughter named mila, or milee, and a 4 year old boy named Lucas. We talked about her family, and my family,she was really interested on how I had such a big family. Then I made a good transition from that to lesson 1, and how the gospel blesses families. I ended up giving her the whole first lesson by myself for like 25 minutes or so. I was nervous as I approached talking about the first vision and Jospeh Smith, because the airport was so loud, there were tv´s on and people talking, I didn´t think that I would be able to bring the right spirit with so much comotion. But as I started talking about Jospeh Smith the spirit was just booming, and as I recited the first vision it was almost like we were in a bubble, and it was just us there, and the sprirt. After I finised she said wow...and was really interested. I started talking of the BOM and everything. Well after I finised she asked a couple of questions, I answered them and everything.. I told her I had a BOM that she could have. I ran and grabbed it, gave it to her. Showed her Moronis challenge, showed her 3 Nephi 11, challenged her to read and pray and she said she would. It went really really good. I am not sure what happened, I saw her after the flight to Sao Paulo, helped her carryout her luagge and everything. And she said it was nice to meet and that was it.
I had been praying that I would have a missionary experience on my flight, and the Lord gave me that opportunity. I had many flaws in my lessons, I wish I wouldve testifyed more strongly, and brought up more about families, but it went okay.. I have alot more to learnabout missionary work. Good thing that I had like super missionarybrothers, so I can turn to them for my example.
I love this gospel so much. It has blessed me so much since being here in the CTM. It is an amazing experience. I love this missionary work so much. I love our Savior Jesus Christ so much, I am so indedted to him for his atonening sacrafice. Family, Pray for missionaries. I can feel your prayers, I know that you are all praying for me so hard. And I can feel it, thank you so much. I will try to live up to this impossible mantle of missionary. I don´t feel like I can ever be aneffective enough on my mission. There is always things I can improvein. Pray for me this Friday, pray that I will be able to proselyte well in porteguese.
Read Alma 5:26-29. This scripture is amazing. Personalize it, changethe names to I in the verse. I have tried to ask myself these questions daily.
I love you so much! I have the greatest family in the entire world,you support me so well, I love it. Thanks for everything. I hear that it takes 8-10 days for a letter from me to get to Utah, but I sent letters today, so expect them in 10 days or so. It´s a buck a letter,so it is pretty pricey, they stole all my money too, haha, they don´t want you to have money while in the CTM. Well my 45 minutes is up, Ilove you all.
Love,
Elder Olsen
My new companion´s name is Elder "sorry I have to take out names because anyine on the internet can access this" . Heis a brilliant Eler. He is so smart, he is learning porteguese reallyfast, it makes me a little jealous but not to much, We work extremelywell together, and get along great. So far my progess on myporteguese, is well it is coming along... I have decided that I amgoing to learn the gospel really well first, and not concrentrate somuch on the language. I learned that from David and Andrew when they said that they when they were here worked hard on the gospel and not so much on the languuage. The food, is well different. It is kindastrange, for breakfast they have lunch meat and rolls, and all the weird stuff, so you eat all your meals within like 8 hours of eachother, breakfast at 8, lunch at 12, and dinner at 4... so I go to bed about every night straving. But it is all good, because today on my p-day we are going to pick up snacks so I don´t die.
On Sunday I was choosen to give a talk, on Charity, and it went pretty well I guess, I wish I could´ve had more time to prepare, I was called on the spot to talk for 5 minutes. But my branch presidency is amazing. They are all on mission´s here, serving for the Perpeual (spelled wrong) education fund missions. They overlook all of Brasil,and choose people to use the fund. They are all retired bankers and businessmen. But they work in Sao Paulo so they only come to this side of the City on Sunday´s. The CTM has a werid time wrap thing that goes on. The days seem to go by so so slow, not like a bad slow, just a okI have been studying in the same classroom for 14 hours today, but then at the same time, the weeks fly by, but at the same time the weeks haven´t gone by fast at all. I can´t believe it has only been 3weeks. I feel like I have changed so much, and that I have learned so much! I love it, this will defintely help me with school, because classes won´t seem that long once you have sat through CTM classes allday. My teacher´s are Iramo Ientz and Qurinio. They are from Brasil and served here in Brasil. They are just aweome. Iramo Q is halirous,he is so funny, Brasilian´s like to make fun of Argentinie´s and so he has some funny jokes about them.
This Friday we go proselyting in downtown Sao Paulo... and I am pretty nervous. I am so exited and ready to go, but nervous that my porteguese won´t be good enough. I have been trying to memorize 5 different street contact apporaches, which are about 5 minutes long apiece. And also just trying to learn as much church saying as i can;like the church is true, Jesus Christ´s died for us, saying´s like that. I gave a practice one to my teacher yesterday and he said that my accent is coming along really well, and that when I speak fast I almost sound local. Which is encouraging news.
Well I had an amazing flight over here, Mom it was pretty awesome to see you, all my district was way jealous about it. They all really are mad at me, because I get more packages and letters than pretty much all of them combined. So everyone in my district thinks my mom is the greatest. I had a pretty awesome experience happen after I came backfrom talking to you Mom. So when I went back we had about 50 minutes till boarding so we were just talking with our whole district when this local Brasilian started talking to us, he was a member of the church and spoke perfect english as well. So my district was all crowded around him, talking and stuff to him in Porteguese, but since I had been consentrating on the gospel rather than the language Ireally didn´t have that much to say. Well right next to the big crowd was the Lady who had a tiny little baby in her arms, and a little boy running around playing with his cars. I just leaning over and started talking to her. I first thought that maybe she was with the other guy that everyone was talking with, but she turned out to not be. Anyway I just talked to her for about 20 minutes about her family, Her name was Liz, she had a 4 month year old daughter named mila, or milee, and a 4 year old boy named Lucas. We talked about her family, and my family,she was really interested on how I had such a big family. Then I made a good transition from that to lesson 1, and how the gospel blesses families. I ended up giving her the whole first lesson by myself for like 25 minutes or so. I was nervous as I approached talking about the first vision and Jospeh Smith, because the airport was so loud, there were tv´s on and people talking, I didn´t think that I would be able to bring the right spirit with so much comotion. But as I started talking about Jospeh Smith the spirit was just booming, and as I recited the first vision it was almost like we were in a bubble, and it was just us there, and the sprirt. After I finised she said wow...and was really interested. I started talking of the BOM and everything. Well after I finised she asked a couple of questions, I answered them and everything.. I told her I had a BOM that she could have. I ran and grabbed it, gave it to her. Showed her Moronis challenge, showed her 3 Nephi 11, challenged her to read and pray and she said she would. It went really really good. I am not sure what happened, I saw her after the flight to Sao Paulo, helped her carryout her luagge and everything. And she said it was nice to meet and that was it.
I had been praying that I would have a missionary experience on my flight, and the Lord gave me that opportunity. I had many flaws in my lessons, I wish I wouldve testifyed more strongly, and brought up more about families, but it went okay.. I have alot more to learnabout missionary work. Good thing that I had like super missionarybrothers, so I can turn to them for my example.
I love this gospel so much. It has blessed me so much since being here in the CTM. It is an amazing experience. I love this missionary work so much. I love our Savior Jesus Christ so much, I am so indedted to him for his atonening sacrafice. Family, Pray for missionaries. I can feel your prayers, I know that you are all praying for me so hard. And I can feel it, thank you so much. I will try to live up to this impossible mantle of missionary. I don´t feel like I can ever be aneffective enough on my mission. There is always things I can improvein. Pray for me this Friday, pray that I will be able to proselyte well in porteguese.
Read Alma 5:26-29. This scripture is amazing. Personalize it, changethe names to I in the verse. I have tried to ask myself these questions daily.
I love you so much! I have the greatest family in the entire world,you support me so well, I love it. Thanks for everything. I hear that it takes 8-10 days for a letter from me to get to Utah, but I sent letters today, so expect them in 10 days or so. It´s a buck a letter,so it is pretty pricey, they stole all my money too, haha, they don´t want you to have money while in the CTM. Well my 45 minutes is up, Ilove you all.
Love,
Elder Olsen
Wow I have alot to talk about. And I barely have any time at all. so iam going to try and fit it all in. Well I got here in Brasil safely,and I all I can say is that it is amazing! The city of Sao Paulo is sobeautiful, and HUGE! there are a ton of people I can´t belive it. Wellthe CTM here is way different than the MTC in Prvoo, there are about160 missionaries or so, compared to 2000 in Provo, so it is a lot morepersonable. The CTM president woodward is an awesome man, and he andhis wife try to get to know everyone personal, so it actually is alotmore personal here. I am just barely getting back from the temple inCampinas, and it is so beautiful there, off the back side you can seethe city of Campinas, which is just huge, it is probably about 2 timesbigger than Salt Lake, and there is a ton of people there, it was agood feeling to overlook the city that I will be serving in, and toget a feel of how big it really is. I have a 5th floor bedroom thatoverlooks the city of Sao Paulo, which is incredible. Have you gottenmy letter yet? It has my memory card on it with about 20 pictures orso of my mission so far. Well I will just work backwards so far totell all the stories I wanna share.
My new companion´s name is Elder Curtis and he is from Ceder Hills. Heis a brilliant Eler. He is so smart, he is learning porteguese reallyfast, it makes me a little jealous but not to much, We work extremelywell together, and get along great. So far my progess on myporteguese, is well it is coming along... I have decided that I amgoing to learn the gospel really well first, and not concrentrate somuch on the language. I learned that from David and Andrew when theysaid that they when they were here worked hard on the gospel and notso much on the languuage. The food, is well different. It is kindastrange, for breakfast they have lunch meat and rolls, and all theweird stuff, so you eat all your meals within like 8 hours ofeachother, breakfast at 8, lunch at 12, and dinner at 4... so I go tobed about every night straving. But it is all good, because today onmy p-day we are going to pick up snacks so I don´t die.
On Sunday I was choosen to give a talk, on Charity, and it went prettywell I guess, I wish I could´ve had more time to prepare, I was calledon the spot to talk for 5 minutes. But my branch presidency isamazing. They are all on mission´s here, serving for the Perpeual (spelled wrong) education fund missions. They overlook all of Brasil,and choose people to use the fund. They are all retired bankers andbusinessmen. But they work in Sao Paulo so they only come to this sideof the City on Sunday´s. The CTM has a werid time wrap thing that goeson. The days seem to go by so so slow, not like a bad slow, just a okI have been studying in the same classroom for 14 hours today, butthen at the same time, the weeks fly by, but at the same time theweeks haven´t gone by fast at all. I can´t believe it has only been 3weeks. I feel like I have changed so much, and that I have learned somuch! I love it, this will defintely help me with school, becauseclasses won´t seem that long once you have sat through CTM classes allday. My teacher´s are Iramo Ientz and Qurinio. They are from Brasiland served here in Brasil. They are just aweome. Iramo Q is halirous,he is so funny, Brasilian´s like to make fun of Argentinie´s and so hehas some funny jokes about them.
This Friday we go proselyting in downtown Sao Paulo... and I am prettynervous. I am so exited and ready to go, but nervous that myporteguese won´t be good enough. I have been trying to memorize 5different street contact apporaches, which are about 5 minutes long apiece. And also just trying to learn as much church saying as i can;like the church is true, Jesus Christ´s died for us, saying´s likethat. I gave a practice one to my teacher yesterday and he said thatmy accent is coming along really well, and that when I speak fast Ialmost sound local. Which is encouraging news.
Well I had an amazing flight over here, Mom it was pretty awesome tosee you, all my district was way jealous about it. They all really aremad at me, because I get more packages and letters than pretty muchall of them combined. So everyone in my district thinks my mom is thegreatest. I had a pretty awesome experience happen after I came backfrom talking to you Mom. So when I went back we had about 50 minutestill boarding so we were just talking with our whole district whenthis local Brasilian started talking to us, he was a member of thechurch and spoke perfect english as well. So my district was allcrowded around him, talking and stuff to him in Porteguese, but sinceI had been consentrating on the gospel rather than the language Ireally didn´t have that much to say. Well right next to the big crowdwas the Lady who had a tiny little baby in her arms, and a little boyrunning around playing with his cars. I just leaning over and startedtalking to her. I first thought that maybe she was with the other guythat everyone was talking with, but she turned out to not be. Anyway Ijust talked to her for about 20 minutes about her family, Her name wasLiz, she had a 4 month year old daughter named mila, or milee, and a 4year old boy named Lucas. We talked about her family, and my family,she was really interested on how I had such a big family. Then I madea good transition from that to lesson 1, and how the gospel blessesfamilies. I ended up giving her the whole first lesson by myself forlike 25 minutes or so. I was nervous as I approached talking about thefirst vision and Jospeh Smith, because the airport was so loud, therewere tv´s on and people talking, I didn´t think that I would be ableto bring the right spirit with so much comotion. But as I startedtalking about Jospeh Smith the spirit was just booming, and as Irecited the first vision it was almost like we were in a bubble, andit was just us there, and the sprirt. After I finised she said wow...and was really interested. I started talking of the BOM andeverything. Well after I finised she asked a couple of questions, Ianswered them and everything.. I told her I had a BOM that she couldhave. I ran and grabbed it, gave it to her. Showed her Moroni´schallenge, showed her 3 Nephi 11, challenged her to read and pray andshe said she would. It went really really good. I am not sure whathappened, I saw her after the flight to Sao Paulo, helped her carryout her luagge and everything. And she said it was nice to meet andthat was it.
I had been praying that I would have a missionary experience on myflight, and the Lord gave me that opportunity. I had many flaws in mylessons, I wish I would´ve testifyed more strongly, and brought upmore about families, but it went okay.. I have alot more to learnabout missionary work. Good thing that I had like super missionarybrothers, so I can turn to them for my example.
I love this gospel so much. It has blessed me so much since being herein the CTM. It is an amazing experience. I love this missionary workso much. I love our Savior Jesus Christ so much, I am so indedted tohim for his atonening sacrafice. Family, Pray for missionaries. I canfeel your prayers, I know that you are all praying for me so hard. AndI can feel it, thank you so much. I will try to live up to thisimpossible mantle of missionary. I don´t feel like I can ever be aneffective enough on my mission. There is always things I can improvein. Pray for me this Friday, pray that I will be able to proselytewell in porteguese.
Read Alma 5:26-29. This scripture is amazing. Personalize it, changethe names to I in the verse. I have tried to ask myself thesequestions daily.
I love you so much! I have the greatest family in the entire world,you support me so well, I love it. Thanks for everything. I hear thatit takes 8-10 days for a letter from me to get to Utah, but I sentletters today, so expect them in 10 days or so. It´s a buck a letter,so it is pretty pricey, they stole all my money too, haha, they don´twant you to have money while in the CTM. Well my 45 minutes is up, Ilove you all.
Love,
Elder Olsen
My new companion´s name is Elder Curtis and he is from Ceder Hills. Heis a brilliant Eler. He is so smart, he is learning porteguese reallyfast, it makes me a little jealous but not to much, We work extremelywell together, and get along great. So far my progess on myporteguese, is well it is coming along... I have decided that I amgoing to learn the gospel really well first, and not concrentrate somuch on the language. I learned that from David and Andrew when theysaid that they when they were here worked hard on the gospel and notso much on the languuage. The food, is well different. It is kindastrange, for breakfast they have lunch meat and rolls, and all theweird stuff, so you eat all your meals within like 8 hours ofeachother, breakfast at 8, lunch at 12, and dinner at 4... so I go tobed about every night straving. But it is all good, because today onmy p-day we are going to pick up snacks so I don´t die.
On Sunday I was choosen to give a talk, on Charity, and it went prettywell I guess, I wish I could´ve had more time to prepare, I was calledon the spot to talk for 5 minutes. But my branch presidency isamazing. They are all on mission´s here, serving for the Perpeual (spelled wrong) education fund missions. They overlook all of Brasil,and choose people to use the fund. They are all retired bankers andbusinessmen. But they work in Sao Paulo so they only come to this sideof the City on Sunday´s. The CTM has a werid time wrap thing that goeson. The days seem to go by so so slow, not like a bad slow, just a okI have been studying in the same classroom for 14 hours today, butthen at the same time, the weeks fly by, but at the same time theweeks haven´t gone by fast at all. I can´t believe it has only been 3weeks. I feel like I have changed so much, and that I have learned somuch! I love it, this will defintely help me with school, becauseclasses won´t seem that long once you have sat through CTM classes allday. My teacher´s are Iramo Ientz and Qurinio. They are from Brasiland served here in Brasil. They are just aweome. Iramo Q is halirous,he is so funny, Brasilian´s like to make fun of Argentinie´s and so hehas some funny jokes about them.
This Friday we go proselyting in downtown Sao Paulo... and I am prettynervous. I am so exited and ready to go, but nervous that myporteguese won´t be good enough. I have been trying to memorize 5different street contact apporaches, which are about 5 minutes long apiece. And also just trying to learn as much church saying as i can;like the church is true, Jesus Christ´s died for us, saying´s likethat. I gave a practice one to my teacher yesterday and he said thatmy accent is coming along really well, and that when I speak fast Ialmost sound local. Which is encouraging news.
Well I had an amazing flight over here, Mom it was pretty awesome tosee you, all my district was way jealous about it. They all really aremad at me, because I get more packages and letters than pretty muchall of them combined. So everyone in my district thinks my mom is thegreatest. I had a pretty awesome experience happen after I came backfrom talking to you Mom. So when I went back we had about 50 minutestill boarding so we were just talking with our whole district whenthis local Brasilian started talking to us, he was a member of thechurch and spoke perfect english as well. So my district was allcrowded around him, talking and stuff to him in Porteguese, but sinceI had been consentrating on the gospel rather than the language Ireally didn´t have that much to say. Well right next to the big crowdwas the Lady who had a tiny little baby in her arms, and a little boyrunning around playing with his cars. I just leaning over and startedtalking to her. I first thought that maybe she was with the other guythat everyone was talking with, but she turned out to not be. Anyway Ijust talked to her for about 20 minutes about her family, Her name wasLiz, she had a 4 month year old daughter named mila, or milee, and a 4year old boy named Lucas. We talked about her family, and my family,she was really interested on how I had such a big family. Then I madea good transition from that to lesson 1, and how the gospel blessesfamilies. I ended up giving her the whole first lesson by myself forlike 25 minutes or so. I was nervous as I approached talking about thefirst vision and Jospeh Smith, because the airport was so loud, therewere tv´s on and people talking, I didn´t think that I would be ableto bring the right spirit with so much comotion. But as I startedtalking about Jospeh Smith the spirit was just booming, and as Irecited the first vision it was almost like we were in a bubble, andit was just us there, and the sprirt. After I finised she said wow...and was really interested. I started talking of the BOM andeverything. Well after I finised she asked a couple of questions, Ianswered them and everything.. I told her I had a BOM that she couldhave. I ran and grabbed it, gave it to her. Showed her Moroni´schallenge, showed her 3 Nephi 11, challenged her to read and pray andshe said she would. It went really really good. I am not sure whathappened, I saw her after the flight to Sao Paulo, helped her carryout her luagge and everything. And she said it was nice to meet andthat was it.
I had been praying that I would have a missionary experience on myflight, and the Lord gave me that opportunity. I had many flaws in mylessons, I wish I would´ve testifyed more strongly, and brought upmore about families, but it went okay.. I have alot more to learnabout missionary work. Good thing that I had like super missionarybrothers, so I can turn to them for my example.
I love this gospel so much. It has blessed me so much since being herein the CTM. It is an amazing experience. I love this missionary workso much. I love our Savior Jesus Christ so much, I am so indedted tohim for his atonening sacrafice. Family, Pray for missionaries. I canfeel your prayers, I know that you are all praying for me so hard. AndI can feel it, thank you so much. I will try to live up to thisimpossible mantle of missionary. I don´t feel like I can ever be aneffective enough on my mission. There is always things I can improvein. Pray for me this Friday, pray that I will be able to proselytewell in porteguese.
Read Alma 5:26-29. This scripture is amazing. Personalize it, changethe names to I in the verse. I have tried to ask myself thesequestions daily.
I love you so much! I have the greatest family in the entire world,you support me so well, I love it. Thanks for everything. I hear thatit takes 8-10 days for a letter from me to get to Utah, but I sentletters today, so expect them in 10 days or so. It´s a buck a letter,so it is pretty pricey, they stole all my money too, haha, they don´twant you to have money while in the CTM. Well my 45 minutes is up, Ilove you all.
Love,
Elder Olsen
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Tyler's first letter 13 january 2009
Hi Family,
It's me Elder Olsen. And the Lord answers prayers. I have had such a great time at the MTC in Provo, I have never felt closer to my Lord than in here. Well I will start from the time that it began. I got here on Tuesday afternoon and the first day is extremely stressful!! you have meetings all night and you have to walk a bunch. Everyone is really nervous, and excited at the same time. My companion . He is an awesome missionary. From the benginng though I could tell that something just wasn't quite right, well it turned out I was right he went home on Monday. But I will get more to that in a minute. The second day you have a bunch of motiovational meetings and things and you are introduced to your teachers. My district consists of 26 Elder's all headed to Brazil. None of us got our visa's on time, so we were all thrown together, and we call ourselves the "forgotten district" because they don't have teachers for us, and they don't even have a real place for us to live. It is quite funny, and from the beginning we all knew that if we wanted to learn anything that we would have to motivate ourselves, and that it would take alot of district unity to learn together. Our district was spilt in 2, and my district has 14 elder's now. The first 4 days are extremely stressful afer that, you seem in way over you head, and you can't quite comphrehend actually learning the langauge. But all the Elder's say if you can make it past Sunday, that you will be ok. Sunday was amazing! it was pretty awesome to just go to sacrament at 8 and priesthood at 11 and the rest of the day is yours, to study the gospel and bond as a companionship. Unfortunally for me I spent all day Sunday in the District President's office while my companion talked to him. Well I have there for 4 hours! and I was fasting, which made it extremely hard, because I was straving by the time we got to go eat. That is when my companion told me that he was going home, that he didn't take care of some personal stuff, and that he needed to go home to fix it. He told me that in our companionship he had felt the spirit so strong, especially when we practiced giving the lessons, and that was the motiviation for him going home. It was a real bitter-sweet moment for me as senior companion. It was an amazing complement to me, and it really humbled me that together we were able to be such strong spirit that it made him realize that he needed to take care of stuff. But at the same time, it was going to be a hard transition, not having a companion. On Monday morning he left, and they told me that the Branch President would be in contact with me that afternoon to reassign me to a companionship. Well the afternoon went by, and then night, and as I arrived at the RH (resident's hall) I realized that we were the forgotten district, and I was probably going to be a Solo missionary for awhile.
That night I plead with the Lord for help during this trial. I had lost my companion, and I didn't feel I was making the strides in the language like a wanted to. I told him, to please give me help.
The Next morning my prayers were answered. By only a miracle the Lord could make, a new missionary came into the MTC on tuesday, his name is Elder LeBaron. He is from Roosevelt, Utah. He is an awesome missionary. He carries the spirit with him so well, and he is extremely smart. His parents were going to Florida, and Elder Lebaron was supposed to fly to the CTM in Brazil this tuesday, well his visa didnt come so they delayed him a week and told him to come to Provo. Well since his family was going out of Town, I guess some way by the Lord's hand I know, his Dad called the MTC and they figured out a way he could report to the Provo MTC on tuesday.
On Thursay we found out that we got our visa's and on tuesday Morning I will be flying to Dallas and then to Sao Paulo Brazil. My whole district has been praying for visa's like crazy, and our prayers we're answered. It is such a testimony builder to see the Lord's hand in the missionary work. He provides so many blessings for the missionaries, it is truly a humbling thought to think that the Lord is blessing me to do this.
Also on Thursday we gave our first practice lesson, and me and Elder LeBaron did amazing. We were able to bring the Spirit into our lesson, and we were able to flow really well. I personally still have A TON of progress to make in the lessons, I need to testify more and more and more!! yesterday we watched a talk by Elder Holland that was given here in the MTC in the 90's. and IT WAS SO POWERFUL! I am trying to figure out a way to get my hands on a copy, because it truly was the greatest talk I think I have ever heard. I challanges the missionaries to be BIGGER, BETTER, OLDER, AND BOLDER in their missionary work. That talk has really made me reflect on my goals for my mission. I am going to try my hardest to be the best missionary I can. He said "Don't expect heroic results, but you can pleadge a heroic efforts." It is what I am going to do in my misison. I will try my hardest every single day. I will send you a copy of my notes from the talk.
Well I am all but out of time, I love you all so much. I love this gospel with my whole heart. I love my personal Savior Jesus Christ, I am indebted to him with all my time and talents that I have. I know that Joseph Smith saw God and his son Jesus Christ in the spring of 1820. I love being a missionary. I am so excited to learn the language better so I can soon teach the people of Campinas, Brazil. I love you all. God is with us all. Read this scripture. D&C 82:10.
Love,
Elder Olsen
It's me Elder Olsen. And the Lord answers prayers. I have had such a great time at the MTC in Provo, I have never felt closer to my Lord than in here. Well I will start from the time that it began. I got here on Tuesday afternoon and the first day is extremely stressful!! you have meetings all night and you have to walk a bunch. Everyone is really nervous, and excited at the same time. My companion . He is an awesome missionary. From the benginng though I could tell that something just wasn't quite right, well it turned out I was right he went home on Monday. But I will get more to that in a minute. The second day you have a bunch of motiovational meetings and things and you are introduced to your teachers. My district consists of 26 Elder's all headed to Brazil. None of us got our visa's on time, so we were all thrown together, and we call ourselves the "forgotten district" because they don't have teachers for us, and they don't even have a real place for us to live. It is quite funny, and from the beginning we all knew that if we wanted to learn anything that we would have to motivate ourselves, and that it would take alot of district unity to learn together. Our district was spilt in 2, and my district has 14 elder's now. The first 4 days are extremely stressful afer that, you seem in way over you head, and you can't quite comphrehend actually learning the langauge. But all the Elder's say if you can make it past Sunday, that you will be ok. Sunday was amazing! it was pretty awesome to just go to sacrament at 8 and priesthood at 11 and the rest of the day is yours, to study the gospel and bond as a companionship. Unfortunally for me I spent all day Sunday in the District President's office while my companion talked to him. Well I have there for 4 hours! and I was fasting, which made it extremely hard, because I was straving by the time we got to go eat. That is when my companion told me that he was going home, that he didn't take care of some personal stuff, and that he needed to go home to fix it. He told me that in our companionship he had felt the spirit so strong, especially when we practiced giving the lessons, and that was the motiviation for him going home. It was a real bitter-sweet moment for me as senior companion. It was an amazing complement to me, and it really humbled me that together we were able to be such strong spirit that it made him realize that he needed to take care of stuff. But at the same time, it was going to be a hard transition, not having a companion. On Monday morning he left, and they told me that the Branch President would be in contact with me that afternoon to reassign me to a companionship. Well the afternoon went by, and then night, and as I arrived at the RH (resident's hall) I realized that we were the forgotten district, and I was probably going to be a Solo missionary for awhile.
That night I plead with the Lord for help during this trial. I had lost my companion, and I didn't feel I was making the strides in the language like a wanted to. I told him, to please give me help.
The Next morning my prayers were answered. By only a miracle the Lord could make, a new missionary came into the MTC on tuesday, his name is Elder LeBaron. He is from Roosevelt, Utah. He is an awesome missionary. He carries the spirit with him so well, and he is extremely smart. His parents were going to Florida, and Elder Lebaron was supposed to fly to the CTM in Brazil this tuesday, well his visa didnt come so they delayed him a week and told him to come to Provo. Well since his family was going out of Town, I guess some way by the Lord's hand I know, his Dad called the MTC and they figured out a way he could report to the Provo MTC on tuesday.
On Thursay we found out that we got our visa's and on tuesday Morning I will be flying to Dallas and then to Sao Paulo Brazil. My whole district has been praying for visa's like crazy, and our prayers we're answered. It is such a testimony builder to see the Lord's hand in the missionary work. He provides so many blessings for the missionaries, it is truly a humbling thought to think that the Lord is blessing me to do this.
Also on Thursday we gave our first practice lesson, and me and Elder LeBaron did amazing. We were able to bring the Spirit into our lesson, and we were able to flow really well. I personally still have A TON of progress to make in the lessons, I need to testify more and more and more!! yesterday we watched a talk by Elder Holland that was given here in the MTC in the 90's. and IT WAS SO POWERFUL! I am trying to figure out a way to get my hands on a copy, because it truly was the greatest talk I think I have ever heard. I challanges the missionaries to be BIGGER, BETTER, OLDER, AND BOLDER in their missionary work. That talk has really made me reflect on my goals for my mission. I am going to try my hardest to be the best missionary I can. He said "Don't expect heroic results, but you can pleadge a heroic efforts." It is what I am going to do in my misison. I will try my hardest every single day. I will send you a copy of my notes from the talk.
Well I am all but out of time, I love you all so much. I love this gospel with my whole heart. I love my personal Savior Jesus Christ, I am indebted to him with all my time and talents that I have. I know that Joseph Smith saw God and his son Jesus Christ in the spring of 1820. I love being a missionary. I am so excited to learn the language better so I can soon teach the people of Campinas, Brazil. I love you all. God is with us all. Read this scripture. D&C 82:10.
Love,
Elder Olsen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)