18 Aug 2010

My dearest family!

I am so thankful to be a missionary in the true church of GOD! I love this calling. i love being a missionary with all my heart.
This week was crazy busy. I have never done so much in little time. The office is COMPLETELY different. There is alot of stuff that we do in the office, and very little that we do in the field. This week was especially busy since we had transfer meetings with President every single day. This was the first transfer for President Tanner since he was called President here on the mission, so it was a really big transfer. President Castro our old president hadnt made alot of changes in the past transfers because he wanted to let President Tanner do all the changes. so what ended up happening is that we changed almost 100 percent of the areas. only 8 sets of missinoaries stayed the same on the whole mission. we change 76 areas out of 84, which was alot of work. we meet every single day this past week. it was pretty hard, i have had a non stop headache this week, but i am really love the revelation that the Lord gives me. On our first meeting, i was a little nervous to make any comments in the meeting. well there was a point where we didnt know what to do with a certain elder, they were talking about putting him in another area but the spirit whispered that he needed to go to a different one... i was nervous but i said my thoughts, and everyone agreed, and it was done by the spirit. It was really awesome, because ever since i have been called i have been able to feel the spirit really strongly. It is amazing the spirit is REAL he can literally guide our thoughts and help us know the will of the Lord in EVERYTHING that we do.
On monday was a sad day, the elders went home that ended their mission. It was a pretty "trunky" day, here in the office there were 7 elders going home, and all the wanted to talk about was girls and stuff, it was different.. i can say that the office life is defintely going to be way different. Elder Greener went home. he really was one of my best friends on the mission. he is going to call mom this week, he wants to go by and see you all.
on tueday was awesome. we recieved 11 missionaries in the field. it was crazy! we ate lunch at Presidents house, and then we gave training to them. it was pretty cool to give training... haha i gave a part about street contacts ( my favorite part on the mission!!) and so we practiced... i told everyone that it is a new rule on the mission to invite 5 people a day to be baptized on the street! all the greenies thought we were crazy, but after some practice they'll get it down.
we are doing alot of meetings with President, because tomorrow we have another!! training meeting with all the elders and sisters that got here in the last 2 transfers. and then next week we have this new 5 day training!!! which is going to be crazy, for 5 days every ZL, DL, and trainer will have a training meeting with us and President. we are going to put in to practice the new program of the mission field, and it takes 5 days to start. it is going to be over 60 missionaries on the mission in the same chapel for 5 days. and i have to teach them all!! haha i am a little nervous, but i know the spirit will help me.
There are 2 things that are going to be a challenge. first is that the area that i am in is completely dead. the elders havent worked in the area for 3 months!! because the mission president changes the past 2 APs were basically mission presidents, they had to do everything. so it is dead. they have been teaching only about 3 lessons a week; because they had to travel to interview evey zone, and do all the stuff with President Tanner.. so in the past 6 months the APs area has 2 baptisms.. haha.. well that just isnt enough for me. so i am going to work really hard to help build up this area. When i was interviewed by president that is one thing that he told me. is that he wants me to bring a work type of attitude to the office. I am going to do my best. the second thing is that it is going to be hard to not get fat. they only eat junk food here. because the meal that the members give here in brasil is lunch, and at lunch we are always doing something for president, during the week we dont have lunch with members, we have to buy something to eat.. well something usually is something fast and easy.. but not always healthy.. but i think maybe it will be a blessing, in my last 6 months i had lost 12 pounds!! i am stick and bone right now, i weigh about 125 or something. i am really skinny.. my 6 months in Amanda i ate well, but walked and worked alot.. so that is why i got so skinny.. now i am hoping to put on some weight.
I am going to love working with President Tanner. He is exactly the type of man that i want to be. He was a lawyer for over 20 years!! He is amazing. It is crazy, i know that working on his side will be a huge blessing for me. I know that I am going to learn ALOT. i am going to learn alot more than i teach.
i love being a missionary. i love this work, it is so amazing.
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!
ELDER OLSEN