Elder Olsen Letter 29 April 2009

Minha Família,
Tudo Bom!? Eu Amo Vocês! I am loving my mission! This week has been great! I had alot of great stories, and it is going to be hard to tell them all so I am going to type as fast as I can. I have had a week of experimenting! I ate lots of weird foods this week! It was awesome. I ate a chicken heart. It is a speciality here, and it was good, just really chewy. But not at all as chewey as the cow stomach that I ate. Ok, this was by far the hardest, grossiest thing that I have ever eaten. It was so NASTY! Marcos and Elizâgela prepared it for us, and it was tough to eat. I nearly threw up like 2 times! It was really rough. I have some video of my first bite, because the family thought it was so great, so they wanted to watch us, so it is just me and my companion, sitting at the table, and everyone watching us, AH!! so hard, fake smile, "oh, só normal carne!" ya right! ha, but it was a good experience.. we laughed forever about it! We also made american pancakes with Marcos Family, they loved them! We didnt have maple syrup but we used the amazing Brasil fruit here, it was awesome. Dad, you would not like Brasil, But Mikey would love it! They use every holiday on the calander, every single week they find a reason to close all the shops and have the day off I swear every week there is a new "feriado" and everyone takes work off. The work is going great! We are having alot of success with the investagators we have, but they all need marriage! Which is a big ordeal for everyone, so it is rough because they cant get baptized until they do that. Marcos Family is so ready! There wedding is next Thursday! We are having a party at the Chapel, and they are gettting baptized on Saturday, I am way excited. Basically me and Elder Larson are wedding planners, so it is pretty tight, we get to get everyone involved. We met a family that is already married, and have baby twins, we havent taught them yet, but our street contact went really well, we teach them tomorrow, we are really excited, because she has 2 friends that are member and she was like asking questions, we basically gave her the first lesson on the street, so we are really excited about this family, We had 10 investagators at church on sunday, it was a bitter sweet day, because Paula/Walace gave us back our BOM, and said they arent at all interested, I thought they were going to get baptized for sure! So that was rough. The work is amazing, I love the language, (I still dont speak at all good) Everyone can tell I am an American, And alot of times I dont have the vocab I need... But everyday I learn alot, One trick that I have learned is never tell anyone that I am from the United States, because once I do, they are convinced that I cannot speak português and they stop listening to me, so the trick is trying to make them think your from Brasil, Ha, I have a long way to go on that one, plus I have blonde hair. Always on the street little kids yell "Fala Alemão, Fala Alemão!!" Which is speak German, they all think I am German, so I turn around to the kids and start talking to them in English, it is so funny! They kids are like 5 and 6 and go running away "ahhH!!" haha, it is so funny! They all carry around yo-yo´s, that is a huge fad is Brasil right now, so it is fun to mess around with the kids, and teach the english, they really help my português, they just straight up say, " Não Entende." when I speak wrong, so it forces me to check my conjugation, and my pronucation.. It is really alot of help. I am excited to be here on my mission! I love it! I learn so much everyday! Everyday is like a new chapter in my life, I never know what is going to happen, who we are going to talk to, what their questions will be, it is amazing! It makes me realize how little I know, people ask some hard questions!! We need faith, that is for sure, only a musturd seed, Matthew 17:20! I love this scrpiture! Everything is possible with faith.I recieved 9 letters yesterday at my district meeting, everyone was so jealous! My companion made me take a photo, with all the letters that he has recieved this transfer and how many I recieved yesterday, thanks for the support, I love reading about how everyone is doing, how life back home is going. I love you all! Sam I miss you like crazy!!! Steve, Hurrah for Israel!! ha, I love the mission, it is amazing! Keep praying for me, I know it helps, I can feel how many prayers are coming in for me. I love you all.
Eu sento saudades de vocês! (i miss you)
Elder Olsen #3.

Pictures from Elder Olsen

yeah that is my view....

this is cow stomach

this is the best seat on the bus!.

thanks for all the love

dont let my smile fool you.. this is gross!

Elder Olsen letter 22 April 2009

Wow, This was a great week! I love being a missionary. It is so much fun! I had the great opportunity this week to have alot of cool experiences! Me and my companion are gettting along great! I really like my area, I have a feeling it is about to take off! The number one problem in Brasil is this: NO ONE IS MARRIED!! This is extremely difficult, We had 8 investagators in church on sunday, and every single one of them needs marriage, and unfortunely in Brasil, marriage is not a quick thing that you do in a day, You have to drive to the center of Campinas, which is about an hour away, you have to bring all your documents, visas, and 2 witnesses with you, then you have to apply, and wait for awhile, and you have to pay anywhere from 50 reals to 90 reals, depending on how much you earn every month. Then you have to wait 30 days+ for your papers to come back, then you can get married. So it is a big process! But, we have a wedding in our chapel for Marcos and Elizâgela on the 16th of May. They are such an amazing family! They are so converted. Yesterday I went there on spilts with the AP, (Elder Hillam) and they had just finished 1st Nephi, and they are loving the BOM. They accept all the commandments and everything. They love it, and it is amazing. So the wedding will be in the morning, and the baptisms of the family in the afternoon, or maybe the next day after church. So are really excited about that! We also met a lady Paula and taught her the first lesson, and kept going back this week to teach her more, but every time we went back her husband wasnt there, or things just didnt work out... So it was frustrating, we didnt have a chance to talk to her on Saturday either, but on Tuesday on the day of our first visit she had said she would come to church, but we werent sure if she would remember or anything, so at 830 we ran over to her house on Sunday morning, and she was asleep, but her son Wallace, (9 yrs) went and woke her up, she said she would come, and so bam she came! It was awesome! Her husband didnt come, But her kids did, and she really liked it, she was crying the whole time, and really liked it. We have a lesson with her tonight, and hopefully her and her husband will accept to get married.. Well yesterday I went on Spilts with the AP Elder Hillam, and turns out I totally knew him before the mission, he went to BYUI and played football the same year as me, so that was pretty cool. We did spilts and it went really well, he teaches really well, and so I learned alot. The language is coming along really well.. Still cant speak as much as I would like to be able too.. But I can get along.. Oh yeah on Sunday too, Sao Paulo soccer team played the other sao paulo team, and it was crazy!!!! the whole night the city was blank, no one was in sight. Everyone was watching the game. It was rough to teach, find, do anything.. because we were kinda nervous to ruin the game for people, because they seriously might kill you... But we met one family Davino, and he is really interested, but of course marriage to his wife... So we will have to wait.I love missionary work, It is so powerful. The Lord is literally with the missionaries everywhere we go. Thank you so much for the prayers and support! I love you and miss you all so much. Mom your the greatest ever, Everyone thinks your a superhero when I tell them how many children you have raised. I will pray for all of you, and keep me in your prayers. Remember we need to sacrifice ourselves for the Lord. 3 Nephi 9:19-22

Hurrah For Israel!!!


Elder Olsen #3

Elder Olsen Pictures

Jo^^o Vitor.. My first baptism

the amazing perfect family we found

Elder Olsen Pictures

recent converts. way cool
our church.. the shed

my kitchen how i found it when I got to my area

my new comp

my kitchen how i found it when I got to my area

Elder Olsen Pictures

map of brazl our church buliding was vandalized

how i clean my clothes... by hand

elder alred from our stake

Elder Olsen Pictures

Elder Olsen letter 16 April 2009

Wow, this week has been crazy!! Missionary work is amazing! and really hard!! Ha, I think that I have walked more in the past week, than I usually did in two months back home, we walk alot! Now that I know a little bit more about my area, let me tell you more about it. Anhagüera is the name of my area, and it is really really big! To walk from one side to the other it would probably take about 3 or 4 hours, but alot of it would be in city walking. We have one ward for our whole area, and we meet in a really small shed thing. Well I guess the shed itself isn´t small, it is like the size of a warehouse or so, I smaller one, But it is no chapel like I am used too. We have about 65 people at church, that come every week, and about 300-400 people within the ward boundries that are baptized. So, as you can tell, the activity rate is really low. The average for Brasil from what I hear is about 20% active rate... so it is really really low. I can tell that it is something that I will be working on my entire mission! We have a really poor area, we have a couple of favelas, (which is really really poor city.) in our area, which means there are no roads, just dirt, and really humbling conditions. It is really humbling to see. We also have some apartment buildings, which are set up in rows.. and as you move north to south, it gets nicer by each way, when I mean nicer, I mean a little bit bigger. So it has been really really humbling. There are some really strong members in the poorer areas though, so they are ready to hear the gospel. My companion is Elder , from Vernal. He is a year and a half out of his mission. So he is very experienced. I have been told by many missionaries and people that we meet that he is the best american missionary to ever speak portugues, haha, they are exgeratting, but my point is, that he is fluent, and sounds like a local, when we teach people and they find out that he is from the US, they usually dont believe him, so that is really cool, because I will get to learn from the best. He teaches really well. He teaches with the spirit, so we teach really good. As far as the language is concered, it is coming along really slowly, ha, I have learned to understand mostly at this point, it is really hard to understand when everyone in the room is talking, and there are like 2 or 3 conversations going on at the same time. It is really difficult, but when we are just teaching, contacting, or chatting, and can understand alot at this point.. As far as talking, I still need some work on that one, so keep me in your prayers.Well on Sunday we have a Baptism, of João . He is 18 years old. His sister is a member, and he had the lessons before, but never wanted to be baptized. But last week the day before I got here, he just accepted baptism the first visit the old missionaries had been too, and everything that we taught him, he accepted really easily. He is even talking about serving a mission, so it is awesome too see! A baptismal service is awesome! The spirit is there so strong, his mother( who is not a member, she drinks alot of coffee!) was bawling the whole time! So on monday night, we challenged her to be baptized by João when he recieves the priesthood in 2 weeks! She accepted! and hasnt drank coffee since, so she wants to be baptized on mothers day as a special present so that is awesome! we are really excited about that!Well we have the golden family on our hands as well, Marcos, Elizâgela, Igor 14, Gabrilla 11, and a baby girl I can never remember her name. But they are amazing, my companion had taught them 2 times before I got here, and everything went really well, they gave us all the achool in there house, and are keeping all the commandments, they are reading in the scriptures everyday, as a family and indiviuals, the mom, she is already to Mosiah 3! So they are so faithful, they talk about when Igor will serve a mission, and how everything is and stuff, they feed us everytime, and love us coming over. We call from a little telephone outside there apartment building, because every apartment building has a gated thing where you need a key to enter. And every time we call the kids stick out there heads out the window, and come running down to open the gate, It is so great, I love teaching them. They are sucha great family. The only problem is that they are not married... Which is like the number one problem in Brasil. No one is married. So it cost money here to get married, and you have to wait usually 30 or so days before you can get the paper work. So on Saturday we committed them to marriage, and on Monday they ran down to the Centro,(center of Campinas.) We were really praying for a miracle. Because we were doing the math, and 30 days was the 21st of May, 2 days after transfers, so we were worried we wouldnt be able to baptise them. So we had an appointment with them on Monday night, and we heard from the members that went with them to be the witnesses for a marriage license, that it was going to be the 21st that there paper work was going to be done. SO we were so bummed! because my comp has 2 transfers here, so we were way sad, so we went to there house, and were happy but sad, but as it turns out... because that we might leaving the 21st, the paid extra money to get it moved to the 14th! So we are going to be able to baptize them!! we set the date for the 15th wedding, and 16th baptism! We are really excited!! God does make miracles! We are really happy about it!! I love preaching the gospel, even in portuguese! I love the Savior Jesus Christ!! He suffered for each of us. I love you all so much! I miss you all so much!!! Thank you for all the things that you do for me, I can feel your prayers! Keep the faith strong! Keep loving Christ, and his gospel! 2 Nephi 32:3-4. ASK! God will give it too us! I love you all. Hurrah for Isreal.Elder Olsen #3

Elder Olsen 31 March 2009

Minha Família,

Hello from Brasil!! How is everything at home!? Thank you for all the
E-mails, this past week I have received allot of letters in the mail
thank you so much! Mom, I got your baptism thing for Andrew, I got
Dad´s letter, Justin´s, and lots from friends! Thanks so much for letters! I have a big bunch of letters going out today! So expect themin 2 weeks?So this week was pretty exciting, I was bite by a spider, on my leg, I am going to send apicture of it, it is pretty intense.

So Brasil is amazing on my
health, ha, more rice and beans this week, haha, but I am starting to
accept that I am going to eat that every single day on my mission, It
isn´t that bad of a realization. So this past week I have been trying
to talk to as many Brasilian missionaries I can, And It is so
motivational, most of them were baptized within the past 4 years, and
they are already willing to give up 2 years for the church! It is
truly inspiration. This past friday we went proselyting for the last
time here in the CTM, and It was really great! There are no more pass
a long cards like I said last week, so it gave us the opportunity to
really get personal with people, because we only had 10 book of
mormon´s so we tried to really talk to people allot and see if they
were really interested! It went really good, no crazy stories, we had
just my district (6 elders 2 sisters) on one bridge!! This bridge is
huge, and like everyone just sets up stuff to sell on the ground and
it is crazy! There were thousands of people in just a 100 foot bridge.
So we went around talking to people, and it went really good, I am
really getting a hang of the portuguese. I still need allot of work,
especially talking, but at least I can understand kinda good, and I
Can talk about the gospel really well. I just wish I could talk about
People´s life more, but that is the vocab I am working on right now.
So I only have 6 days left... And I couldn´t be more excited.. And
really it is only like 3 days, because Saturday and Sunday we spend all day at
general conference. and Monday we have meetings about departing and
stuff, so just 3 days left of class and studying! crazy!! I really
hope that I am ready, I am ready to leave, and just get to work, I am
just nervous about the language... I hope my companion is Brasilian.
That will really help, If I am able to have him as I companion, so I
can speak it all the time! Well I love being a missionary!! This is
the best decision of my life!! I love you all!! thanks for you letters
and support!! Helaman 5:12

Love, Elder Olsen