Emily 6.27.11 Congelar = to freeze!! (I think!)

Its super cold! I can hardly believe it. I thought it would never
happen! But its officially cold! Thanks for sending me my tights mom,
they arrived right in time - for San Juan, its this holiday that is
supposedly the coldest night of the year. Its funny cause they say its
the coldest night of the year, but everyone stays awake and outside
until midnight, eating hot dogs of all things, cheese empanadas, and
apí.  They say that on this, the coldest night of the year, you can
walk on coals of the fire, but only at midnight. interesting
traditions, but fun! Pretty sure you can use any reason you want and
make it a holiday here. por que no? :) It was super cold yesterday,
may have worn my thermal garments, a pair of footsies things, two
pairs of tights, a sweater, and my coat... it was... constricting...
haha but warm. But they say its gonna get colder. Today we´re going to
go to the ferria de invierno... where they sell winter clothes. I´m
gonna buy a scarf and a beanie, and maybe some gloves. Hopefully it´ll
help!

I  can´t believe pageant is over already! Thats so crazy. I thought
about you last night, sharing your testimonies and eating cookies and
punch. I can´t believe dad isn´t gonna be there for take down, I
didn´t know it could happen without him. crazy! How is dad, and his
old body :) I hope everything is healing well. Pageant is an awesome
experience, and definitely better with the family. I think anything
you do is better if you do it as a family... well if its righteous i
guess.. And its practically July already! CRAZY! Its hard to believe
its summer there. Thats so great that Nat and Elise came to visit and
hang out. Sounds like you had a full house. I´m sure Elise did awesome
talking to all those girls. I wish I could have been there. Please
tell me all about it ELise. Did you tell me that Sally had her baby?!
I´m glad that she did, and that everything is good. Sophie, I approve!
Julie is still... waiting?? I´m so excited to meet all these new
members of the family. We should probably have a big family reunion
when peter and I get home. Hey! Have any of my cousins received
mission calls?? Andrew, Jaiden, Adam? I´m so excited for you all to
join us in the mission field. Its amazing.

Yesterday was the Piraí stake conference. It was super great.
President and Hna Calderon came and talked, and i just think they´re
amazing. President Calderón has got to be one of my favorite people in
the whole world. He is so... close to the spirit, powerful, and he has
this personality where I could just sit and chat with him all
afternoon. We had interviews this week with him, and he´s just
awesome. He talked about how if you´re a young man, member, worthy,
and 19 years old, YOU NEED TO GO ON A MISSION! He said that young men
can leave when there 19 and until their 25, but they have this age
difference only for the converts. If a young man is baptized when he´s
23, he can still leave in the mission, but if you´re a member, and 19,
and you have the priesthood. You just gotta go. He also talked about
how hard the mission is. he said its hard, and there I was think ya,
its pretty hard, then he said actually. Its not hard... its SUPER
hard. durisimo! and I have to agree, harder then I ever thought was
possible. But he also told the members to ask any one of the
missionaries that were there about the joy they have. and I just
thought ya. I agree with him 100%. ITs hard, SUPER hard, but the joy
is amazing. To be in the work of the Lord is an awesome experience,
that I know I´m never going to have again. This morning I read
President Uchtdorf´s talk in the priesthood session, living up to your
priesthood privilege, or something like that. It hit home with me,
weird, since I don´t have the priesthood, but It applies to
missionaries really well. That we need to study, receive revelation,
and find joy in the service. I think thats how it is. We can just to
find the joy by finding the love for the people, or we can choose to
think about how cold it is to wash your clothes, by hand...

Last night we went to our pensionistas house and made pancakes and
butter syrup. I thought it was delicious! It made me really happy. She
is the relief society president, but a lot of her family is inactive
and we had a family home evening with them. We talked about making
pancakes and how the family is like making pancakes. EVery ingredient
is important, and our Savior is the cook. He puts us where we are for
a reason. If we all do our part we´re going to have the most delicious
pancakes ever! It was fun, and delicious!

We have a mission goal this month of July to baptize 200 people. Its
only 3 baptisms for every companionship. As of right now, we dont have
anyone with a baptismal date, but we´re praying and searching, and
trying to do our part. Hna Patzí is great. She really is a powerful
teacher, with a strong testimony. She comes from a very humble family,
and I am learning a lot from her.

We found this young man the other day. Rl. He works in a punto - a
place with a bunch of telephone booths. While Hna Patzí was calling
someone I talked to him. He was reading his bible, and he shared with
me a scripture that he had recently found. Awesome kid no?! We wrote
down his name, and made an appointment to go back and visit him. When
we went he wasn´t there, but we went to use the punto again, and he
was there. We talked, and he asked me "Don´t you have a bible or
something?" I grinned and said "Yes, let me tell you about it!" haha
He came to church yesterday, but he´s an evangalist and... hopefully
we can explain the restoration really good and he can gain a
testimony.

Wow, times up! Sorry its late. We played soccer again today! SUper
fun! Love you all. Take care. Thanks for your prayers and support.

Love

Hermana Olsen


Note from Mom:  the weather in Bolivia is listed on the side bar.  I think it is 60 today.  Not bad for here but apparently not what she is use to.  

Peter, 6.27.11

Hola

wow pageants done already! thats crazy! its weird not being there for all of it

I've never seen lightning like there is here. on saturday we were out biking and some thunder clouds rolled. and that was it, we were soaked in just a few minutes and found shelter under a pavilion in an apartment complex where we found W. B., one of our investigators, and we waited out the storm their, it only rained hard for about 25 minutes. with lightning and thounder very close. and in that short amount of time we got an 1.5 " of rain it was crazy!

we had 2 investigators at church yesterday, mich, and D. mich loves sacrament meeting but he hasn't been willing to stay for the whole 3 hour block. and danny also liked church, He is a refural from a member. we have only taught him twice and he didn't seem too interested but he is planning on coming next week, its so cool to have members envolved in missionary work because they have a friendship with nonmembers that we as missionaries can't have. the church is true and they both have felt the spirit when they are at church.  God is definatly blessing sanford.

i love you

Elder Olsen

Peter paragraph 6.20.11

hey

Dad, it was great to hear from you! thanks for sharing about Elder Bednar. that is so cool! now we both have been in meetings where he spoke. Their testimony is real. and the spirit is powerful. when he came to Florida he told us not to take notes on what he said but only to write down the things that the spirit told/taught us. we learned that the spirit is the true teacher.

 

so this week has been a rough one, we haven't been able to teach as much as we need to. so we have spent alot of time finding people to teach. and so we were out and about alot talking to lots of people. we found two pretty solid investigators this week. lee (a black ladie) that is way sweet. we taught her in her front yard and she said that she had been seeing missionaries all over the place and that she had been wondering what we do. because we are always riding bikes and thier is always two of us so it was a great opportunity for us to share the gospel with her. we taught the first lesson and have a return appointment for next week. sweet!

we also talked to a man we tracted into last week and gave him  a plan of salvation pamplet, and when we went back by and he actually actually read it! AND he marked it up  and had questions. we were able to answer them and left him to read about the Restoration. we will be going back over wednesday night, we are way excited.

 

Wow i have never seen so much lightning in my life. almost everynight when were going home their is lightning darting across the sky. it is so cool. hopefully i'll be able to get some pics soon and send them to you.

 

Love yall

Elder Olsen

Emily epistle 6.20.11

Wow, Elder Bednar came to pageant! That is AMAZING! It so great to
hear that the church is growing in all parts of the world. I read one
of the talks from general conference and I loved how it said that we
are 14,000,000 members strong, but this is only the beginning! So
awesome! ITs gonna fill the whole world. People are being prepared,
people are accepting the gospel, people are starting to taste the
happiness of our Father`s plan for us. Its so great!.

Haha thats to bad Joseph didn`t show up, to meet the angel Moroni. How
rude! :) I hope that never happens in our life. God sends us an angel
or is trying to give us more knowledge and help us out, but we don`t
show up. And where is that we can learn more, where are the angels of
God? In the temple (hill!), church, in your scripture studies in the
morning, in your family home evenings. It is so important that we are
always "there" when God wants to give us these blessings, this
knowledge, if not, who knows what we`re gonna miss? Hmmm... Maybe if I
can get enough vocabulary I`ll share Dane`s experience... we`ll see :)

Well I`m on a mission! Can you believe it. Sometimes I`m walking down
the streets, surrounded by a whole bunch of people that look a lot
different then me, and I think, WOW, i`m in BOlivia! I`m serving a
mission! What a blessing to be here! and sometimes I think, wow. I`m
tired. I kinda wanna take a nap. haha  Today I feel really grateful to
my Heavenly Father. ITs amazing how well He always takes care of me.

We had a really awesome district Meeting this Thursday. Our district
leader is Elder Guassardi, from argentina. He talks with a crazy
awesome argentenian accent, probably how Cami talks :) But hes a
really awesome elder, and he talked about the importance of receiving
personal revelation in our areas. That God has trusted us to move the
work along in our area, and He hasn`t left us to do it on our own. He
also asked people to share spiritual experience that they`ve had in
the mission. It was kind of discouraging because I couldn`t think of a
single really awesome spiritual experience that I`ve had in the
mission, and I`ve been on a mission for awhile. It was a really
powerful lesson, but it left me a little discouraged. I went to my
room and prayed, a bunch. Then we prayed before we left and it was
during thsi prayer that I had the strongest feeling, that I absolutely
must write in my journal, and I need to write down all of the little
miracles that happen every day. I really believe there are miracles
that happen every day, if we will just take the time to see them and
realize them. So, a list of miracles that I`ve seen in my life this
week...

- We have a bishop in our ward now! The bishop of braniff has been
traveling, or working in chile for about 4 or 5 months, and they`ve
been without a bishop all of this time. crazy! but yesterday they
called a new bishop, and he is great. I am excited to see the work
progress with this new bishopric.
- Thursday we jumped on the bus to go eat lunch at our pensionista`s,
and I ended up sitting by this lady. She was showing her little boy
how blue my eyes were, so I jumped in and started talking to them.
Super friendly. I asked how many kids she has and she said 5 sons, but
they killed one of them.... What?! She said they assaulted him, and
killed him... and thats basically all she told me. crazy. But I
whipped out a plan of Salvation pamphlet, bore a quick testimony of
the plan of salvation, that she`s gonna see her son again, but she
needs the gospel! told her where the church was, and she had to
run.... The truth is maybe she read it, maybe she didnt... but please
please bless that she did. She doesn`t live in our area, but hopefully
she went to church, and is gonna live the gospel, and have this hope!
- Thursday again. During lunch Hna Patzi gave me this awesome talk to
read about missionary work. It talked about how the field is white,
ready to harvest, and that we as missionaries just need to find the
fields! Or something like that. But I was feeling all pumped and ready
to go and excited about finding the elect. We headed out to knock some
doors.... and NOBODY wanted to listen. Figures. haha Slightly annoyed,
and slightly as a joke, I asked "where are the people who wanna
listen???!" I looked across the street, and thought. RIght there! We
went a knocked this door. It was a bigger house with an intercome -
pretty much a recipe for failure.. no thanks I`m busy, without even
seeing the face of the people we were talking to. But we rang the
intercom, and the door opened. What the world? I started introducing
us as representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of... and she
finished for me... Latter Day Saints? Exactly! haha she said oh ya, I
went to your church a few times when I was younger. I`m catholic, but
why don`t you come in... This was when I was pinching myself, thinking
maybe I was having a good dream. We sat down, she fed us lunch (we ate
lunch... again...where`s it say that missionaries have to eat,
EVERYTHING? Pretty sure its our curse to have to eat... and eat... and
eat...), but it was good, and we talked about the gospel. She didn`t
let us schedule another appoitment to come teach her, but we`re
definitely gonna keep going by her house, and hopefully we`ll find her
and be able to teach her.
- Wednesday morning we had an appointment with some members to get to
know them a little. Super nice and friendly, and they invited us to
eat lunch. A really big lunch. We can`t say no, so we ate it. Then we
left for the pensionista, to eat lunch again... We were talking on the
way, wondering if we could ask to only eat the second, and not the
soup, but didn`t know if that would offend her. We had pretty much
accepted that we`d have to eat, again. wowch. She always has soup,
pop, and a really big meat, rice, potatoes, tomatoes dish, but when we
came they had run out of soup, and we only ate second! Heavenly Father
takes such good care of us! ;) They`d had a lot of people come that
day and she thought it was because she blessed the food for everyone
(pre-blessed food, NAt!), but I think its because Heavenly Father knew
if we had to eat more, they`d have to roll us out of the restaurant
and to our next appointment.
- Another miracle. Yesterday. Its crazy how much Satan works on me to
make me feel like I^m not doing enough, like I stink at being a
missionary, and no one is ever going to progress. I was discouraged
again last night as we counted up our numbers... Like really
discouraged. But I prayed and its amazing, because I was praying and
the Hermana Merrells ipòd was playing "Count Your Many Blessings", I
stopped to listen at the line "Do not be discouraged, God is overall,
Count your many blessings, angels will attend, help and comfort give
you till you`re journeys end." I just felt like wow. God is over all.
All he asks is everything I can give, and then everything else is in
His hands.
Another miracle/blessing. Hermana Merrell. She is one of the most
amazing people I have ever met in my life. She write me notes,
encourages me, puts a bunch of colored papers in my refrigerator and
all my food, and always makes me life. I cant tell you how grateful i
am that we`re roommates. She also knows the perfect thing to say. I
love that girl lots and lots.

Well... One more thing! I found an awesome scripture today. Mormòn
9:11 - it says to doubt not, but be believing. Pretty much spoke to my
heart. Don`t doubt myself, the work, my companion, the spirit,
nothing. Believe in miracles. God is over all. This is the gospel.
Heavenly Fathers loves us so much! I love you all so much! Thanks for
being so awesome!

Love Hermana Olsen

PS Did Lisa Bishop receive her mission call?!

Emily's Epistle 6.13.11

Mom! and fam,

I`m doing great! So far I`m staying plenty warm. Everyone keeps saying
the cold is coming the cold is coming, but I`ve been fine so far. I
didn`t even use a blanket last night. My new area is great! Super
small. I`m just between the second and third rings of Santa Cruz and
super close the center still. Its weird because it feels like a whole
other world, but the truth is that I`m way close to my other area
still. Braniff is the neighborhood, I`m not sure why you can`t find it
on google map. My Spanish is... good. I feel pretty confident
actually. Yesterday in church it was amazing! I learned so much, and I
think it helps that I can understand what they`re saying. Its so much
fun to understand people, and be able to talk with them. My accent is
still really bad, and some people just can`t understand me. But
Hermana Patzi helps me a lot, shes super great. Six months?? Wow its
already gonna be six months, thats crazy. We still have a pensionista,
she actually has a pension... like a restaurant, and its all really
good. We eat soup, and then a second course, and by the time we finish
lunch I feel like I^m gonna burst. It doesn`t help that we drink soda
everyday either. We tried to tell her that water is great for
drinking, but I think she was a little bit offended. Cultures are sure
a weird thing.

My shoes! I actually haven`t taken my Danksos in yet. But my brown,
uphill shoes are great. now... haha the front toe of my left shoe was
a little... worn. :) The soul was falling off. It acted like a great
big mouth and everytime we walked through sandy, dusty places it just
ate it all up. It was pretty funny actually because after I`d have to
do a little kick step kick kick step walk to get all the dirt out. I
felt like the DUI video where the police women pulls over a drunk guy
and he has to dance.... It was probably quite the show, watching this
choca (thats what they call us gringas here) half walk half dance kick
down the street. But we went to a show maker and he sewed around the
whole soul of both of my shoes, and I think they`re good to go.
Hopefully they last another year! Maybe this week I`ll see what they
can do about my Danksos. Is there not a guarantee?

I forgot to tell you last week! I`m sending the pictures, but last
Sunday I bent down to get something in our kitchen and when I stood up
my eye scraped the corner of the table. It hurt a little and I checked
the mirror to see the damage and found my eyelashes smeared on my
cheek! There is now a big whole in my eyelashes where its just bald.
Its pretty awesome looking, all to add to my awesome sister missionary
look ;)

Before I forget! Happy birthday to WIlliam... I think its sometime
thsi month. and happy anniversary to my mom and dad, and nat and
william, and happy fathers day dad! I love you all and hope you
have/had an awesome day. Dad! Be careful with yourself! I wanna go
skiing when I get home with you! YOu are getting pretty old though,
half way to a hundred already!

I forgot to tell you, I did receive the package of the music and
pills, and the shirt. Thanks a bunch! I haven`t received the tights
yet. Hopefully pronto.

Well the work is great. We`re still looking for more investigators. we
want to find families! THe ward here is awesome. They have a ward
counsel and everything, and they`re super willing to help us with
whatever they can. Its so nice. One thing I wish I would`ve known
before I came is that the church is still young here, and they`re all
stil learning.

AAA!!! Kaitlyn AVerett is engaged! Thats so great! I was wondering
about her. She better send me a wedding invite! That is so exciting
Lisa`s call should come this week. I wonder where she`s going! and
Grandpa`s a temple worker. How lucky! I miss the temple so much. I
can`t wait tll I get to go again. Make sure you all go as much as
possible, its such a privilige to live close to a temple.

Today I was reading in 3 Nephi 23. Jesus is visiting the Nephites and
he asks about their record. I really liked versus 6-14. He asks about
the record that they`ve kept. Nephi had to bring it to Him and He
looked at it and told Nephi that he hadn`t filled it up like he should
have. It made me think about journals, and that maybe one day we`re
going to have to show our record that we`ve kept from our life, the
revelations we`ve received, and blessings that we have. I hope when
that day comes I`ll have filled it up my record all the way, with
everything that I should put in it. I definitely need to work on my
journal writing. I really want to remember everything. There is so
much to do in the mission!

Mom! I`m sure you lesson was amazing! I wish I could have been there.
Thanks for the quotes! I learn so much from you!

Well times up already. TOday we`re going bowling as a zone. SHould be
lots of fuN! I`ll take pictures. I love you all lots and lots. Thanks
for everything!

Oh! If you`re gonna send a package off.... It would be awesome to have
some pass along cards in spanish. That aren`t any just general ones
here, or in the distribution center... weird. And I would love some
little stickers of Christ. Its not an emergency or anything...

The church is true! Iove ya lots!

Love,

Hermana Olsen