2 June 2010

hello,

hello family. This week was a really good week for us. We had alot of work that we needed to do with the transfers and stuff, so it was alot of work, but it wasnt too bad.. after awhile you get used to this type of work. something really weird happened this transfer.. i have offically been a zone leader for longer than i was a regular missionary. 6 transfers as zone leader and 5 as a normal missionary. wow, that is really weird. It really is no fun getting old on the mission. I am the oldest missionary in my zone.. wow that is terrible. but my zone is really young so that is my excuse. We have some exciting news that is going to happen in our zone this week. We are going to open 2 new areas in our zone. One ward is going to spilt this week, and the other our stake is going to recieve a branch that is really weak right now. So we are going to have 12 areas in our zone now haha. i am not sure what i am going to do. It is really hard to keep up with all the interviews and stuff. I hoped that our President will call another dl to help me. because i am basically having to do spilts and interviews like 3 days a week.. leaving hardly anytime for me to work in my own area. But, President said that for now i will have to continue working as we are, so pray for us alot that we can still find time to work in our area.
This week our zone had 8 baptism. in my area all of our baptisms feel through, we had to move them to other weeks. Elis and Tulho were all ready to be baptized, but on friday i had to go do an interview, and my companion went to their house and "felt" that they needed another week.. so he re-marked there baptism for this week... ahh.. it was a little frustrating. but, i know that it is all going to work out. My companion doesnt really know how to baptize alot of people.. so he is a little stressed out, he is not sure how to do it right. but, with time he will learn. Exciting news, we found 2 new families!!! Edson and his family of 3 and Marcelo and his family of 7!!!! It was amazing. Edson and his family went to church, and they loved it. They are legally married and really a special family. we left the book of mormon with them and when we went back they told us that they felt that they should read the book in family, so they all read together. I asked the 12 year old daugther what part so liked in the reading and she said "i really like ver. 29. because it said that we should not contend against others I know that this is true, and i know that when we are fighting heavenly father is not happy with us." yeah. really EXTREMELY specail family. I didnt even believe it. Marcelo isnt married, but he has 5 children and they always wanted to get married.. so i am sure that they will be married quickly. They are really excited about the church and want to change their lives.
I love my mission. I am so excited to be here. Brasil is amazing. I am loving every minute of my mission. I hope that everyone is doing good. Please pray for: Reginaldo, Luis, Elis, Tulho and Valeska.. we need to help them be baptized this week!!!! I love you all.

Hurrah for Israel
Elder Olsen