Peter, 4.25.11

 

Last Monday we got to attend a passover meal with the Huffs, a part member family in our ward, sister huff is a member and her husband is Jewish. anyways it was really neat, it reminded me of when we had a passover at home. we had Seder books we all could read in. and it had what everything symbolized and the prayers in it. almost everything in we did was symbolic. i learned a lot from it. their is so much we can learn about other religions. (and their are plenty of religions here in Florida, i remember one day i counted 8 different sects)  they have so much truth in them they are just missing parts of it. it really has been a learning experience. my testimony has grown so much. we do have the fullness of the Gospel. it was restored by Jesus Christ to the Prophet Joseph smith. and the fullness is contained in this church. i am so grateful for this knowledge.

 

the church is without a doubt true!

Love

 

Elder Olsen 

Emily, 4.25.11

Wow! It sounds like you had such an awesome Easter! 4 dozen eggs, thats a lot! Did the park have the Easter egg hunt too? I`m so glad to hear that you finished the Living Christ. Thats so neat. I haven`t. I haven`t figured out when I can work on it, we`re also memorizin the scripture masterys as a mission in Spanish... hopefully i`ll be able to figure out a good time to do it. I can`t believe Lindsay already had her farewell and everything! If you see her again tell her I love her lots, and she`s amazing, and I would really love to have her address of her mission. Dinner sounded like it was amazing! We ate rice and meat.. like always :) But Hna Arminda, la pensionista, gave us chocolate eggs for Easter, i`m sending a picture. I woke up wondering about all  the things you were going to do for Easter, how was the dinner, as awesome as Christmas eve? I have a feeling i`m going to like all this great traditions. My camera just died, hopefully next week i can send pics...

Natalie, you`re gonna have a baby!!! haha Congrats, I`m so excited, and constantly wondering if blueberry has graced you with his/her presence yet. I`m praying for you and your family. Be safe mom, in your travels. I wrote down nat`s number, and your cell and i have the house phone, and dads. and I would really love to talk to you all. I can`t wait! What will happen is I`ll call the day before and give you a number and then you`ll call me. You could probably do a practice the night before. Like at 9:30 my time. We have church at 9:00 my time, so the afternoon will work better for me. You guys have church at 10, right? Oh, Where is Ben going? I only read that letter to peter that said he`d received his call and no more.

Dad, thank you so  much for writing. I would love to see how the cups work. We`re always looking for ways to make our teaching more clear, and more simple.

BUeno, I have a new companion! Her name is Hermana Thorpe and she is from Cottonwood heights Ut! She`s been here in Bolivia for 6 months and is so great. She went to snow College, and loves Manti, almost as much as me :) She`s teaching me lots, and its great. Its pretty funny the two of us together, and our awesome Spanish... haha the first morning we were together we contacted this girl in the street and we were trying to invite her to church, but she thought that we were wondering where the church was. As we are trying to explain how she can find the church she was trying to explain to us where it was... haha
it was pretty funny.
We are teaching this great lady, Maria Louis. She is 73 years old and evangelico. Hna Ortìz and I found her last week, and she fixed my shirt but told us she didn`t want to hear anymore about the gospel. We
smiled and shared only a little bit. Hna THorpe and I stopped by later that week and we taught her a little. She thought that we worshipped Joseph Smith, so we had to clear that up, she still has a lot of negative thoughts about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, but I think she is coming around. I think she has fear of change, but knows that its true.

We also have been teaching this guy named Erick. He has a lot of questions, and thinks a lot. We left him with the pamphlet of the restoration and he read it ALL (which they never read it all) and said it answered his questions and feels better about things. We gave him the book of mormon and we were going to have him read the first paragraph and discuss it but as soon as he opened it he wouldn`t stop reading and read the entire introduction. He asked if he could have and was super excited to read it. He is awesome and Im excited for him. The only problem is that he studies medicine and doesnt have much time.

Thanks for sending more garlic mom, I upped my garlic intake, and hopefully its helping. I also take one cranberry a day, and ultimate flora every other day. I haven`t read what the other pills are for yet, hopefully i`ll have time today. Hmm what can i tell you about my laundry? ITs almost all clean already! Hopefully i`ll be able to finish it quickly. Its really not bad, the worst part is that it takes forever. But its great! :) I also thought you should know that we don`t have hot water, but we have fairly warm water, so life is great!
I didn`t get Peter`s email with a story about Karmen? or someone, I would love to hear his stories!

Hna Thorpe is helping me talk more and participate in the lessons, and its good. I`m learning lots, and its a lot more fun to teach when you participate. I think its the same for our investigators to. I want to work on making our lessons more of a discussion, by asking inspired questions, but its super hard! I know the spirit will guide me.

Thats so great that you have had so many awesome missionary opportunities. Keep it up. Like you said mom, the members are so important. I am determined to be a good member when  I return. But like peter said, i need to focus on being a great missionary now. I love you all lots and lots. Thanks for your support and love and prayers.

Love,
Hna Olsen

Emily, 4.18.11

OH my family!

 I love you all so much! How are you? What are you doing to stay busy? How are you going to celebrate Easter? I think that Semana Santa or Holy week is pretty big here. My pensionista told me that we won`t be eating dark meat this week because of it, more fish--- :( haha but my pensionista is awesome, and knows I don`t like fish, and fried me up an egg the other day when we had it. I realy do love her. This week is transfers... I really really don`t want to leave this area. We are beginning to see more success, we have lots of awesome investigators that have so much potential and I just am feeling comfortable here, and FINALLY am starting to know my way around. This terrible sense of direction I have is.... difficult. Haha not to mention that their streets don`t really make sense here. Brigham Young is awesome to have set up Utah like he did, with blocks. It makes life so much easier for those of us who are directionally...
challenged. haha

M P was baptized this Saturday!!! She is awesome, She`s 34 years old, lives alone, works and teaches, and is so super sweet. It was very tender for me because I could see how happy she was. She has taken this amazing step of baptism and now her life is going to be different, she has the Holy Ghost to help her, she is happy. Its amazing how awesome the gospel is. She bore her testimony at her baptism and said that before she met the missionaries she felt very alone, but now she feels like the ward is her family. I am so grateful for the ward members here. Yes it is a ward. I think we had almost 100 in attendance yesterday! Its definitely an adjustment for me. Its hard to remember that they are still learning how the church is and its organization, but they are wonderful, very willing to support us, and help us.

Wow, Jay is a stake president. Thats gotta be... crazy. Its really cool to see that we can receive revelation when we need it. Ten minutes to choose your counselors, and ya. We`re ready to go. I am so glad our family is so great. haha I was telling my companion how we`ve always had scripture study in the morning, always say prayers morning and night as a family, and always have FHE, and told her that I really think its because we`ve always done this that I have a testimony. I know it helped me so much. She was amazed, and said that she`d never heard of a family that did ALL of the things that the prophets have
counseled. Its sad to think that, but I have such a testimony of following the prophet. I know we are blessed when we do what Heavenly Father asks us too, as little or unimportant we make think it is, if
we just do it we are blessed. I hope those college students listen! They`re only gonna be blessed if they do.

We went to visit the family that’s like Elise’s again this week. R is awesome. When we went she was washing her clothes, so we offered to help her. We did, but bueno... I think i`m still learning. haha but it was fun, and a good chance to get to know her better.

We taught a recent convert and It was so fun. I jumped in and shared my insights and we had an awesome discussion, and he honored me by saying that my Spanish is really good! and that I speak better then the Brazilians! THere are a bunch of brazilians that come here for school. SO I was feeling all good about my Spanish and thinking, wow, maybe I am speaking better, and then we went to visit R. I read her a scripture about prophets and asked her what a prophet is. She started laughing and laughing and my companion looked at each other and kinda giggled, not really knowing what to do, and she just kept laughing. Slightly awkward.. Finally she said, Hna Olsen, I did not understanding ANYTHING you just said... haha man, maybe I`ll have to keep practicing. :)

I`m glad you got my letter mom, in time for your birthday tomorrow! Know that I`ll be thinking of you and praying taht you`ll have a good day. My companion asked what your going to do for your birthday and
told her you`d probably have a sisters in law luncheon, and dad might cook for you... let me know how it goes :)

Oh! I`ve been meaning to tell you! Birthdays here are HUGE. LIke a really big deal. There is a family in our ward that has a birthday store, the sister always goes with us to our appointments so we see them a lot. But by this birthday store there is a whole street, like an area, of stores just for birthdays. They have all kinds of decorations and its crazy. Every time we go there I think of Trent and Julie, weren`t they going to start a birthday business? Its pretty awesome, I think we should celebrate birthdays like they do here, lots of decorations, lots of craziness, and I don`t know what else they do. But it looks fun. haha

Bueno, the mission is good. I am super grateful to be here. I am learning a lot. When I look over my day every night I am amazing at who we have met, what people we find, and how the Lord puts people in our way. I  can`t even explain what a blessing it is. I know that the Lord is here, helping us to find others and invite them come unto Christ. Ya mom, its pretty hard sometimes, I miss you all like crazy, but it is so good. And my Savior always helps me. Thanks for the idea of a washing machine... rent for lessons on the gospel. I`ll have to talk to Hna Ortìz about it!

I love you all! The church is true. Thank you for your support and prayers.

Love,
Hna Olsen

Peter, 4.18.11

hola!

wow! conference sounded amazing! its so fun to be close to the spirit and to be able to learn and grow through our inspired leaders and also by the spirit. we had stake conference yesterday also. it was AMAZING! all i can say is that the spirit is the true teacher and that as we have it with us we will truly be able to learn and grow. People have always said they felt the speaker was talking directly to them. i don't think I've every really felt that. but now when the spirit has been more in my life, through scripture study and always striving to become better. one of the speakers titled his talk "today is the first day of the rest of the rest of your life". it is a topic that really hit me. its reminded me of the scripture that says 'today is the day'  one thing that i have been working on is living in the now and that we must change today. we cannot say tomorrow we'll try but  we must begin by changing now. this talk really helped me realize that it is now that we must choose to follow the Savior 100%. I've gained a testimony that we must continually take small steps and eventually we will be what the Lord wants us to be. the church is true. Jesus Christ is at the head of it. there is a prophet, seer, and revelator on the earth today and we can receive the strengthening power of Christ's atonement in our everyday lives.  

love ya

Elder Olsen

Emily, 4.11.11

OH my family!! I love you! Its crazy to think that you woke up to inches of snow while I am sitting here sweating, and especially grateful for the fans. Yes, the mosquitos are out, i have bites all over my legs. I am taking one garlic a day, is that enough? I also use repellent every day. SO far its been ok. Theres been quite the epidemic of dengue, but I am feeling very blessed. I feel healthy and ready to go. That picture is awesome! Are those flowers from the garden already? I may be slightly jealous... ITs so fun to think about you Olsens hanging out together. I really like food to. Sounds delicious. Thanks mom for taking such a good care of me. I got your package of talks and quote today, and the letter from Isaac! Isaac that is so so awesome that you`ve been helping the missionaries! Was you friend baptized last Saturday? I hope so!

I had my first baptism last Saturday! K. C. was baptized on April 9. Wow, it was seriously a miracle. Basically she was going to be baptized in my first weeks here, and it didn`t happen. She is 14 years old, and i don`t understand her, the only thing I can think is that she is a teenager... and well.. ya she`s a teenager. She had her interview and was super happy and excited... and then a few days later she wouldnt talk to us. We kept trying to talk to her, but what can you do when she doesnt want to listen? I had pretty much given up on her. There is a sister in our ward that is awesome, hna T. K. is now living with Hna T. They`re a good strong family, that does family home evenings ever monday and go to church every week and they had a really good influence on her. All the sudden she wanted to be baptized again and so we taught her a few times and scheduled her baptism date! The night before her baptism we were at their house and she was asking questions and getting all excited about it all. It is seriously a miracle, and I feel very humbled. I think that the Lord must have a great work for her to do, He has blessed her so much to be able to have the gospel in her life. She was confirmed in church yesterday, and I didn`t understand all of it, but one thing he blessed her with is health that she might one day be able to serve a mission. How cool is that.

Hna Ortìz and I have been working on being even more exactly obedient. There are things that we are supposed to do everyday and we are trying to find a way to do everything we’re supposed to, and the Lord is blessing us. Yesterday we had high hopes of lots of investigators attending sacrement meeting. We had arranged for members to pick them up, and we were going to pick up two others. When we went for ours, one wasn`t there, and the other was eating breakfast and couldn`t leave... :( bummer. We ended up having to take a taxi back to the church to get there in time. As we were running into the church we were met by two young men dressed in the white shirts and ties. One of them a return missionary, and the other his friend who was interested in learning about the church. Wow! Later in the Sunday School class for investigators we found another sister who had brought her friend to church. M. came to church all by herself, and C. made it too! I truly believe that when we do are best, and are obedient
Heavenly Father takes good care of us. I am leaning so much! 

I`m sure grateful for my family. We`ve been praying to have families to teach, because the gospel is for families and we found two young families to teach! The other day we were teaching R. and her kids. She`s 24, and has a little boy and a little girl. They live in a big plot, with a cabin type thing and an outhouse. Their running water is a spiggot, like you might see in a campground. When we visit them we sit on buckets turned upside down. Its very humbling. While were saying the opening prayer I thought about Elise`s young family. Same age, same amount of children, and during the lesson I pulled out a picture of them that she sent me and told them about my awesome sister, who has two kids, is 24 years olds and her and her husband are living the gospel, and are being blessed. It was good, I think it gave her hope, that she isnt the only 24 year old out there with two kids and a husband who has to work a lot. I am so grateful that my family is amazing, and I can use them as an example of how living the gospel
blesses their lives. Thanks Elise and John!

So I don`t know why, but I keep having dreams about all of my clothes. One is that I hang them all up on the line, and they line breaks and they fall and get al dirty again. Last night I drempt that we had a washing machine, it was amazing. A washing machine would be super nice, but after teaching R, I am just super grateful to have running water.

I love you all lots! I got a letter from Neil today! Our family rocks. Thanks to everyone for living the gospel!

Love Hna Olsen

PS I`m trying to send some pictures from the zoo. the picture of the baptism just failed. I`ll try again next week.

Dengue fever can be read about here .  Emily was promised that she would be healthy and able to continue her missionary work.  We will continue to pray for her and probably increase her garlic intake.

Peter, 4.11.11

hey!

thats awsome that the Roundys were down here. were were they at?  its so crazy you are still getting snow their. we've been up in the 80s for the almost a month. the humidity very different from utah but i am begining to like it. we always are sweating and are constantly wet. i think the only time i've ever sweated this much is during wrestling practice.

It amazes me how fast the time is going. It seems like elder thorpe (the one going to brazil) just got here. and now he has been here for almst 6 weeks. Transfers are this weekend i think i might be getting assigned to a new area but we'll have to wait and see. i'm not sure what to say about this week. first off it flew by. second we taught an amazing family this week. their is four of them living at home now R. and K. and their 2 daughters A and L.  A is about 8 and just recovered from terminal cancer. it was a miracle and they all give thanks to God for it. we taught them the message of the restoration. it didn't go as well as we had hoped but we're going back over to thier house this week. the church is true. Joseph smith was the prophet to restore Jesus Christs church to the earth in this dispensation. I feel so blessed to have this knowledge and pray that others will be able to understand and feel the spirit that comes from this message.

Love

Elder Olsen

ps i got your letter mom thanks for sending me your thoughts and the other olsen missionaries letters it really does help me learn to be able to hear about what others are doing thanks and i love you.

Peter, 4.4.11

hey

CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING! i loved it so much we watched it at the church building in kissemme. we spent almost the whole weekend at the church. i remember always hearing that they broadcast it to the church buildings but have never been their to watch them. it was great to be in the chapel for all of conference. it definitely helped me focus on the messages being shared, and really take it to heart. i don't think i have ever realized how great conference really is. one talk that i really want to apply is the on about doing and being. sometimes we get so caught up in the 'doing' and we lose the vision of 'being'. the doing can be hard but as we put forth the effort of becoming, that is were God steps in and helps. and i also really liked the talk about the gold nuggets and the Flakes lots of times we get our sights so set on getting the big nuggets that we pass by the small and simple things. i know that true joy comes from the simple things and that it is the simple things that make the big difference. we really do have prophets on the earth today and they do speak the words of God. the church has been restored and god does speak to us through prophets.

love

Elder Olsen

 

PS Isaac it is so cool that you are helping your friend learn about the gospel keep up the good work. i love you!

Emily, 4.4.11

 She didn't get to explain what these pictures were but I am guessing that this is the lunch that her cook makes each day.  The next picture might be from the Peru MTC because her current companion is from Peru and I don't think this girl is.  They do have the exact same shirt.  I'll hope that we get some more info sometime.  

Wow! Thanks for the picture! It looks beautiful! I love the idea of making conference a holiday. It felt like a holiday for me. It was so so so absolutely amazing. I don`t think I have ever enjoyed conference as much as I did this weekend. When they announced the last speakers, I almost wanted to cry because I knew it was going to end. But man, it was so so so so good. I loved all your insights and reviews. I got to watch 3 out of the 4 sessions in English, allelujah! It was like a taste of home for me. English is amazing and I seriously am so grateful to know English. Listening to a translator is super different. It is so good to hear the prophet`s and quorum of the twelve`s voices. IT means so much more to me. I feel bad for everyone else that has to listen to a translator. Really, the whole world should learn English, its beautiful :). When Elder Cook spoke about the women of the church I couldn't`t help but think how true it is. They are all so amazing. I am so so so grateful for the amazing sisters of the church that I have known and have helped me as I am growing and learning in the gospel. My mom, my grandmas, my aunts, my sisters, my Young Women leaders, all of them. They have all had such an influence on me. I am so grateful for their examples of being willing to give all that they do for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you all you amazing women that have helped me. 

I received the package, stuffed full of pills and things to keep me healthy. Thanks! They aren`t all garlic pills, right? What are the others. The grapefruit stuff should be good for cleaning my fruit, and maybe my face too. We have a bunch of regulations on what to eat. We can`t eat strawberries, pork, or lettuce. I have no idea why. They gave us a water bottle with a filter in the MTC, and i use that to t drink out of. We also have great big water bottle things of clean water that we can drink. I also brush my teeth with the clean water, and do my best to be smart about it all. We`re not aloud to eat food in the street. I`m still learning what that means. But I think its pretty easy to tell what is safely edible, and what I should stay away from. We have a blender and I would really like to make some smoothies in the morning, but I haven`t yet figured out what I could put in them. Today we`re going to go to the zoo as a Zone and I`m super excited! I`ll definitely send some pictures. My cord is working! Hopefully the pictures will upload fast enough to send you a few. 

Before I forget, I was wondering if my Danskos have a guarantee? The strap that goes over my foot to keep them on is pretty loose, which tends to cause blisters... My other brown shoes - the walking up hill ones, are awesome. I love them! I was also wondering about my taxes, and my tithing?? Thanks so much for taking care of everything for me back home. I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have to be a missionary. 

Yesterday morning Hna Ortìz and I went to pick up an investigator named W. Shes 28 years old and told us that she wants to find a way to have more time for God in her life, she wants to be closer to Him. We`re excited to continue teaching her. Anyhow, we told her we`d pick her up for one of the conference sessions and when we went she wasn´t there. bummer. We called her and she didn't answer and waited for awhile. We were going to call her one more time when we came across a woman trying to wake up her husband who was laying flat on the ground. We offered to help but didn`t really know how. She said he was drunk - and he was out cold. Hna Ortìz and i told her we could get a taxi for her and maybe the driver could help lift him into the car. We talked to three taxi drivers and all of them refused to help. Rude! Another taxi stopped and Hna Ortìz explained the situation, the wife was crying by then, i`m praying with all the faith that I can muster that this driver will be nice and help us, and the man is still lying there, out cold. The driver said he`d help and parked his car. Basically we didn't really know what to do. Finally decided we`d just have to pick him up, one person on each limb. Ha ha just picture me and hna ortìz, the wife, and this.... we`ll just say very nice taxi driver with not very many muscles.... trying to carry this fairly muscular build man to the taxi. It was hilarious. I never would`ve guessed I`d have that experience in the mission. We half carried half dragged him to the car, but we had no idea how we were going to get him into it. This whole time i`m imagining how it is in the movies, they always dump water on them right? Its gotta work. So we grab the water bottle and dump it all on him. Haha... Eventually we got him into the car. Then just as their pulling away we toss a pamphlet in the window of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hopefully she reads it, and wants to be baptized. Maybe we should thrown in a word of wisdom pamphlet too. hahah it was pretty interesting way to spend my morning before conference. 

Wow. I don`t have much time. I would love the talk on desires. And president MOnson and Elder Bednar´s talks from Sunday morning. I was super excited to hear them, but then it was in Spanish and it was super hard to understand. Also I would love some piano music, like the JOn Schmidt Hymns book that we have? It would be way fun. ç

Thanks for everything. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for you. I am so grateful for your prayers and your support. I pray for you everyday, and think about you often. I know that the church is true with all of my heart.ç

Love

Hermana Olsen 

PS Tell Lindsay about Jc Penney. Hermana Maxwell got a ton from there on a good sell. and tell that girl she should write me before she leaves! Thanks!