31 March 2010

Hello family,

well this week was really good. I had an amazing week.. everything was going great in my area, we were able to take 8 people to sacrament meeting and we have 5 people that are going to be baptized this week. I was extremely excited and happy, when monday morning i got a phone call from President. he told me that everything was going really great in our zone, and that it was growing alot. so after alot of pray he decided that we are going to put together 2 different zones and work in one huge zone. ZONA HORTOLANDIA. it is going to be amazing. so i was transfered... to a area called Jd Amanda. My old area Portal Bordon is going to be re opened with 2 new elders, my companion Elder Philipp was transfered too... It was a really big shock because we have 10 marked baptisms in Portal Bordon but President said that he felt the spirit really strong that it had to be fast that we put the zones together. So i trust in my president and now it was the work of the Lord. Now i am in Jd amanda with Elder Standage.. yeah another american haha, i never thought i would work with americans again, but now all i have is american companions. He is from Mesa Arizona, and a really good Elder. He has 1 year and 4 months on the mission. and we are going to be ZLs together. It is going to be amazing. We now have the biggest zone in the mission. 10 areas. wow, alot of elders not one sister. So just 20 elders in our zone. It is going to e really good.
So after i was transfered my zone is still going to have PB in it, so i went on spilts and showed the new elder the area. It was really sad because i really loved PB alot, i only stayed there for 2.5 weeks, but in those 3 week i really felt good in the area. They are going to baptize a really beatiful family this week that I wont be able to be there to watch. Regiane is a lady that we found 2 weeks ago, and she is really excited about her baptism this week. The elders have alot of luck, i left 10 people ready to be baptized. but hey you dont always see the fruits.
This zone is going to be amazing, i am really excited to work here now. This area is really blessed, and really good. We are going to have alot of success here in this area. My companion is really good and really cool, we have already know each other for awhile, so now it is going to be really fun.
I am so thankful for my calling, I love my calling, it is amazing. Pray for me ALOT.
Hurrah for Israel!!
Elder Olsen

24 March 2010

Hey family, this week was a really great week. I am really loving being here in my new area. It is all really going amazing. My bishop is probably the best bishop in the mission, he is really excited to baptize the whole world, so we are defintely going to have alot of baptisms in the next month. This week we had 2 baptisms, Elen and Guilherme. The are all family of members, we are going to work alot with this family. Elen is 20, and she is really cool, i think she has a crush on my companion haha, so we had to really be careful when we were teaching her. This family Valnez and Rosana are really cool, they are recent converts, and they have alot of referals for us to teach. At the baptismal service we had more than 10 investagators there watching, so we are going to see alot of baptisms in the future. I am really excited to be here with Elder Philipp, he is a really good missionary. He has like 6 or 7 months on the mission, and is really excited to work. He had some troubles with the other ZL that were his companions, but i think he is liking me. It has been really tough for him because he entire mission his companions have always been ZL or DL, so he hasnt ever really know what normal missionary work is.. so we are going to work really hard so that next transfer he can be senior. He is from Alpine or close by... he went to Lone Peak.. that is about all i know... I dont really like talking with my companion about our pre lives.. ha i just like to work. We have a really amazing family of 5 that we are teaching, her name is Regiane.. she is really amazing. We marked her baptism for the 4th, and together with her 4 kids they are going to be baptized.. everytime we go to her house she is always talking about her baptism, when we take members with us she says, hey did you know that i am going to be a member of your church on the 4th haha she is really prepared, and all of her children love us too, so it is going to be a really special family. I really feel blessed to be here, i have a feeling that i am going to be able to help the kingdom of the Lord ALOT in this area, there is some much room for growth. there is going to be alot of baptisms in April.
I love this work, i love being a missionary!!! Pray for me!!!
Hurrah for Israel!!
Elder Olsen

3 March 2010

Wow,
this week was really awesome and really hard. We are having alot of trouble with our bishop, he really doesnt like the missionaries, he is passing alot of blame for the problems in the ward to the missionaries... so it is very hard, but i know I will be able to over this. I was able to go on spilts with the AP this week here in my area. It was good to talk openly about the problems here in the area that we are having. After alot of success that we are having using our own strength, I think that President has had enough... it looks like my area is going to close. We are able to baptize alot here, but the problem is that the bishop is driving alot of RC away.. so it looks like this will be the last week here in the area.. I was able to have alot of experencies this week with my zone. I stayed with every single area this week, helping the missionaries find more people to teach. We are really starting to look into finding people that WANT to be taught.. because sometimes we teach people that dont want to be taught, so i thought of a new plan to find the people that want to be found... and it is really working! This week we have a record of baptism set. We have 20 baptisms in our zone.. it would be the new record we can are able to help all these people be baptized. we have 3 baptisms here in my area. It is going to be really awesome week. Just on saturday we have 14 interviews!!! haha, we are going to travel alot this week.
I love being on a mission, it is amazing to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord.
Pray for me ALOT!!
Elder Olsen

11 March 2010

Wow this week was really good for me. I am loving my mission right now. This week we had a record week in our zone. We had 14 baptisms just this week!!! It is a new record for our zone. It was alot of work, but it was worth it. The missionaries are really excited about the work in this stake and zone. We all really fought hard to work our hardest to accomplish our goals. On sunday night at midnight I was transfered... for the 2nd time on my mission I was transfered. And as I guessed, my area shut down, but it was really a great time in my mission. I learned alot through the struggles that we had with our leadership in our ward. At least now I know what I need to do better to work with stake leaders and ward leaders.
So, I was transfered to be zone leader in the zone sumare, in a area called Portal Bordon.. it is a great area.. but the zone and area are going throught alot of hard times in the past 3 months. in the past 3 months the ZL only baptized 1 person!!! wow, that is pathetic.. this past month the whole zone only baptized 5 people... so there is alot of work to be done here in the zone. They were having alot of trouble with confidence, so when I got here I really went wild. They have alot of investagators that have already been to church more than 3 or 4 times.. but they were afaird to invite to be baptized. So the first night i got here, I invited a family of 3 to be baptized this saturday. All of them accepted! So it is going to be really fun to work here, we are going to baptized alot of people.
The zone is a smaller zone, only 5 areas, so I am the only zone leader. My companion is Elder Philipp, from Alpine utah. Ha, yeah my first american companion in 1 year!!!! He is a great young missionary, with alot of potential in the furture. It is going to be funy working with him here, and learning with him. Our zone is going to be awesome, because it is a smaller zone, we are going to be able to help all the missionaries at the same time. there is also a DL in the zone, so we will be able to plan alot of spilts and fun finding actvities. I am really excited to be a missionary. I am loving my mission.
Something really cool is that Anhanguera is in my zone. HAHA. so I will be able to return to my first area and really light a fire. The area has been really struggling since I left.. I found out from the Elder that is there that the ENTIRE relief society presidency is people that I baptized!!! Elisangela is the 1st cons. Andreia is 2nd and Gisele is Sectar. haha, wow it really was awesome to hear that. I love the gospel for this purpose. In 6 months these people completely changed their lives, they are now active members of the church of God. I am so happy to know the TRUTH.

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!
Elder Olsen

17 March 2010

wow this week was an amazing week. I read Mikeys email, and it sounds alot like my week. We had alot of miracles happen in our area here. I am really liking it here in Portal Bordon. I know that the Lord has called me to work here in the area. We were able to help Patrick be baptized this week, he was invetagator they had been teaching for ALONG time, so we were able to help him see the blessings of the gospel. I am really excited for this area. Were were able to find alot of new families, but we found one family, that was really special.. it is a family of 6!! We taught them on saturday night right before our baptism and quickly invited them to church. When we went there on sunday, they were all there waiting to go to church!! The whole family went and loved it. Last night we set there baptism date!! It is a really special family!! This week I was also able to go to Anhanguera, I went on spilts with the Elders there, and it was amazing. Elder Larsen (my trainer) he is here in brasil with his dad visiting... well we had a family night together with Marcos and Elisangela that we baptized. It was really cool to see everyone again in the area, but it was sad too because the area is really struggling, so I am going to have to really help the ELders there. My new companion is really cool, he is already speaking really well, watching him speak portuguese reminds me of when I was starting on my mission, wow portuguese can be a really big pain. This week we have 1 baptism. Ellen, she is going to be baptized. She is a cousin of a member family, she has been going to church for a month, but this week we are going to help her be baptized. It is going to be really cool, because this member family has alot of referals, but they are scared that nobody wants to recieve the message, so now they are way excited that their cousin is going to be baptized, so now they invited everyone to go to the baptism, we are expecting at least 15 investagators at the baptism. It is going to be way cool.
Well I love being a missionary, I have never been happier in my life. It really is the greatest blessing in the world to be a missionary. I really taught it was way cool that mikey is teaching a brasilian family!! I wanna send him my testimony in portuguese.
I love you all so much. I love this gospel with my whole heart!!!
Hurrah for Israel!!!
ELder Olsen!!!!