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

22 July 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!!

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

Pics from the baptisms, it was amazing! Also, a picture of me and isabelly, the daugther of Marcos and Elisangela. She is so funny! Love Elder Olsen

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!