Elder Tyler 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