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!!!!

24 Feb 2010

Well this week was a very interesting week, we are facing alot of challenges with our Bishop.... soo.. the work is really interesting. Our ward is stopped.. Because we will have a new branch that will open, and so our ward doesnt want to work at all until this branh opens, because most of the missionaries in the past worked where the branch will be. So the members not really want to help us at all. Well this past week we had a great family at church, a family of 7 people, at the end of the meeting i showed them around and talked with to them with the bishop. The bishop talked to them and liked them alot, the mom of the family said.. can we always come back? haha a family beautiful. but, after the bishop said to me, Elder we really dont need to baptize this family yet, lets wait until the branch opens, and then they can be baptized. HAHA. wow, so I about lost it with the bishop. Nobody in the ward really is doing anything, they are all waiting until the branch opens.. so we are really having some problems.. We are meeting alot of people with our own forces, alot of people, but it is like President Hinckley said the best way is for the members to invite the investa. to go to their houses, well this isnt happening. So we are really looking for ways to build the trust of our bishop and the members. I really want to make a DIFFERNCE in this ward, in this area. I dont want to just be another Elder that past through the ward and baptized some people. I want to leave a mark, so that when the next missionaries come here, the members say hey why arent you baptizing families, thats what Elder Olsen did... I really want to leave the kind of differnce in the area that will leave a last affect. So I am really praying alot to know how to do this better.
We are really seeing alot of miracles, like a said we have a family of 7, we are teaching them, they love the church. The dad smokes alot, so that is one problem. Last night we had a mini family night, and it went really well, they love the BOM and love the gospel. I really hope that I can see them be baptized.
This week we have Rodrigo, he is going to be baptized. I am thankful that the Lord is always blessing me with opportunties to be an example.. it is really fun to help other people. I love doing things I would never do if i was somebody normal and love talking with everybody. Ha, I decided that this whole next year I am going to walk everyday with a BOM in my hands. haha, the missionaries in my zone think I am crazy, but it is really going well, I am able to always talk about this amazing book.
I love this work. It doesnt matter what happens, it will never be stopped. I love being a missionary.
Elder Olsen
Hurrah for Israel!

10 Feb 2010

This week was awesome. It was really an amazing week. Last wendesday I had surgery on my toenail.. so I had to stay at home all day wendesday, it was really lame. but my toe is already getting better. I am able to walk already and do everything, I am just working with sandles for now.. I will probably work in sandles for the next week or 2.. but it was painless.. but part of my toenail is never going to grow again. blessings from the mission.

This week we saw the miracle of FERRARI. he was baptized! After working ALOT with him, he was baptized.. he felt the spirit so strong he knew that he needed to be baptized. He knows alot of people in the ward, so we had a baptismal service really awesome. It was really awesome to see him be baptized.

I had an interview with my mission president, and I was really needed for a long time.. I was never able to have an interview with him, so it was really good to talk with him one on one, and open up my heart. It is amazing how emotional missionary work is. It can really take alot out of you. My President gave me some good words of advice, and is going to help me be a better missionary.

This week we really need some miracles. Denilda, who has been going to church for almost 2 months still hasnt been baptized!! So we really need alot of prayers so that she can overcome her fears and doubts and be baptized, she is facing alot of opisition from her family, but i know that she will be able to overcome all of it and be baptized this week.

I am loving Brasil, it is an amazing place, the people are open and they are so willing to hear the gospel.. We found an AMAZING family!!! If they are as good as we think, there is going to be ALOT of baptism in the next month. I talked with a lady named Beth on the bus, and still was been taught by the missionaries 6 years ago, but then she moved. Will she has NEVER found another church that she liked. When I talked with her on the bus, she was crying, we set up an appointment with her she said she is going to invite everyone in her family. she has 4 kids that are all married, and 4 grandchildren above the age of 8. I am going there tonight to teach her, I have never been more excited!!! PLEASE pray that tonight I can teach the best 1st lesson ever!!! And they can all be baptized!!
I love this week, I have never been happier, or closer to the Savior, I love him.
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!
ELDER OLSEN!!!

27 Jan 2010

Hello Brother Olsen.

You probably will not remember who I am, but, I am the young man who
lived at the Gaetner's house on the winter of 2002, I even went on the
Lake Powell trip with you and, the young man from your ward.

As you know, your son Elder Olsen, is serving in one of the wards of
my Stake. He is serving on a city close to the one I live, so
yesterday I drove to the Chapel he attends Church meetings and,spent
some time with him during Church services.

I can tell you he is doing great, the ward loves him.

The members care for him and, I only heard good things about his
service as a missionary. You can be sure your son is a great
missionary, it is very clear that he knows what he is here for, he is
always smiling , he is very polite, and, he brings light to everyone
he talks to and every place he goes to.

I must say, he is speaking Portuguese very well, he speaks a lot
better than many other foreign missionaries that are about to return
home. He also cares a lot for the people he teaches.

I own your family a lot, specially your brother Andrew, for all the
support given me at the moment I lived in your neighborhood.

Because of that, you can be sure that Elder Olsen has all my support.
He has all my phone numbers, and, I told him he ought to call me at
any time if he needs anything. Since I know a lot of people on the
mission area ,I told him that if I myself can not make at that moment
he calls me, I will find someone who can make it and help him.

I attached to this email a picture I took yesterday with Elder Olsen,
I hope you will enjoy it.

Please send my remarks to your brother Andrew, and, also my
congratulations on the born of his second daughter.

Best Regards

Yuri Ribeiro

27 Jan 2010

Wow this week was way better than the last week. I really feel like there are some things that the Lord can teach me throughout the difficulties on the mission. This week we saw the miracle of Raul, who was baptized. It was really great to see at least one baptism this transfer. I thought maybe I wasnt going to baptize somebody in a trasnfer for the first time on the mission, but the Lord gave us a miracle. Raul is great. He is defintely going to go on a mission here in a little bit.
Well, I stayed in Nova Vinhedo, I wasnt transfered. And my companion wasnt too... so we are going to stay together one more transfer. The first thing I did when I found out was I told him we needed to talk seriously... so we had a giant talk, and we decided to work more closely this transfer. Our zone recieved some awesome missionaries. So we are really going to work hard now, we dont have any more excuses, now we are going to start baptizing ALOT!!
I dont have alot of time, today I have to go to the doctors office, they are going to cut off my toe nail... its been giving some real trouble, so i decided to just cut it off so I can continue working.
I love the mission. This week we have 2 baptisms!! A man named Ferrrari. haha. yeah how cool is that. And another man named Alex. The Lord is really blessing us. We need to stop being so prideful is what I told my companion, and when we accepted that, we started to see the miracles.
Well please pray for me, alot. So that my toe doesnt get in the way too much. So that I can work hard.
I love you all. Thanks for all the love and support.
Love,
Hurrah for Israel!!!
Elder Olsen