7 July 2010

so this week was really great, and i have alot of good news. the first is that i am going to stay here in Jd Amanda. it is going to be awesome. I am so excited. I stayed with my companion, Elder Feitosa, so we are going to work really hard together. I got to meet my new presdient, President Tanner, wow he is really awesome. he is a great leader in the church. he was in a stake presidency for 18 years in california, so he knows his stuff. when he got here he brought alot of change from the first presdiency, all about the new mission. alot of stuff is going to change on the mission, there is a new method of teaching and alot of stuff. I think Mikey has already been working with this stuff for a while, but this week it is all new in brasil, so it is going to bring alot of change here on the mission. it is going to really focus on preparing the missionaries to teach and testify, so alot of missionaries are going to get better. also, some exciting things happening with the zone... it is now even bigger!! i am not sure what is going on, but we received 2 new areas, so we now have 12 areas in our zone haha, it is huge!!! 24 elders just in our zone, with only 3 dls. so it is alot of work. i am working alot in spilts and with the dls. and i know the Lord will help me. I recieved a big help Elder Greener who was the assisant, is ending his mission this transfer, he is going to train in my zone, and so i will really learn alot from him. we know have 6 elders that live in our house. our area is having alot of success, so there is going to be 3 (sets?) of missionaries working in the 2 wards here in Amanda. it is going to be alot of work. This week is going to be really special, Marcelo is going to get married, and he has chose me to be the best man. he is going to use my suit for his wedding, i bought him a great tie to go with it. on thurday they are going to get married, and on saturday they will be baptized, it is going to be awesome!! The 2 children will be baptized, and the oldest is going to have to wait another few weeks, she is having problems with the law of chasity. but i have faith that she will stop. My companion took them all to the temple to visit, and they loved it. i was sad i couldnt go, i had to open up a new area, which is alot of work. new beds, desks, phones, and zero investagators. so i went there to open up the area and it was awesome, in 1 day we recieved 20 referals and marced alot of baptisms. so the Lord is really going to bless this area. I recently found out that this stake, the Hortolandia stake is the 4th fastest growing stake in the world. WOW! what a blessing that i have to be here. the stake presdient is awesome and all the bishops too. I have been working in this stake for a long time!! (my whole mission exvcept 3 transfers..) so i know alot of the members and basically everyone in the stake, and it is really awesome to see the work move foward. In august it is going to spilt, so it will be really cool too see!!

my presdident is awesome, he is a lawyer, so that will really help me. i am already going to start talking to him about how to get into the business and everything. his wife doesnt speak any portuguese, it must be really hard for her, but she is really smart, so i am sure in not time she will speak. Well i love being a missionary, it is the best time in my whole life. i love this work so much!!!

Hurrah for israel!!!!
Elder Olsen