emily's epistle 9.12.11

Family! Hello from Bolivia. Guess what?! For the first time in my mission I`m in a internet cafe with air conditioning - awesome! Sounds like your still keeping busy. Corn on the cob, how delicious! They
have corn on the cob here but it is insanely huge, and a little... weird... they eat corn a lot here, but this great big overgrown corn that everyone here loves, i`m learning to love it :) I love your jumping pictures, those are always my favorite. Thats so great you got to go the Nashville tribute concert, I would LOVE to see that. I can`t wait to listen to their new cd, i`m sure its awesome! Its my birthday next week! I think I`m gonna go wild in the grocery store and buy the ingredients for peanut butter rice crispy treats... rice crispies are pretty expensive here, but I figure my birthday is worth it! This month is Santa Cruz month, and I may just buy a Santa Cruz shirt for me too.. haha

Elise, thanks for your quick note, I love ya lots too. In my email it says that John wrote me, so I began reading your letter thinking it was from John... and found it a little... different... when John was telling me that he loved me so much! haha but its all good, i love you all too! haha

Ya, this week has been crazy awesome, combining our two wards and working like crazy. This is Hermana Castro and Hermana Patzi`s last transfer, and they are definitely not trunky, they are in the we have to work like locitas before the mission ends, I like it. :) This week in the San Pedro Ward we had a talent show, it was awesome. Everyone danced. I love the culture here, everyone has their own dance, every city, and town, and its so neat. I wish we had more of a dancing culture. I loved seeing it all. Hermanas Patzi, Castro, and I put words to a songs and sang about missionary work, knockin doors, asking for referencias, and everything, it was awesome. This Saturday was also an awesome experience. President Calderon organized an open house in ALL of the churches in Santa Cruz, all in the same night, and it was cool. We had ours here in Braniff and San Pedro., and my cute companeras decided we needed a really big bible and a really big book of mormon to show and talk about. We whipped out two really big scriptures, a really big missionary nametag, and some really big, lightweight gold plates. It all turned out awesome. The open house was supposed to start at 5pm, but we`re in Bolivia, and Bolivia Mormon standard time is was worse then Mormon standard time. ;) by 6:30 everything was ready to go, but no one had come yet. My companions and I decided we were going to find someone to come and get to know the church, so we went out in front and began inviting EVERYONE in sight! When the members saw us working hard soon enough they joined us. Stopping everyone in the street and telling them to come and see what "the mormons" believe and do. I think my favorite part was when I looked at our Bishop, I saw this determined look on his face as he looked at two people walking past the church. He went over them and started walking with them, and invited them to come and join us. It was so neat. Pretty soon all the Young adults were out there inviting everyone. We went to our classroom to present "missionary work" and from then on we had a constant stream of people coming. It was so neat. We have about 30 references that we`re going to be contacting this week. Its so great when the members support us and help us. President and Hermana Calderon also surprised us by coming to our open house - aaaa! Luckily it was all beautiful. We were talking with one lady and she said the missonaries were visiting her before, and president calderon  very directly asked her, and when are you going to be baptized?! She said I don`t know, but said that she wants to learn more. It was awesome to see how direct he was. Its true, this is our purpose, to baptized, and we should tell everyone. and when people say "you mean your out to convert everyone?" we`re gonna say EXACTLY!

One awesome thing I have seen this week is a single adult, named Dimar. He is single, a little older, and has a mountain of things to change before he can be baptized. Drinking being one of them. He promised us he wasn`t gonna drink anymore, and we have prayed a lot for him. The other night we were teaching him in the church. I was explaining the apostasy and how the bible changed from its original form, and before I could finish he said "oh, thats why there are so many churches!" Exactly I said, I have never seen anyone understand it as well as he did. Later Hna Castro was explaining the desire that Joseph smith had to ask God about which of all the churches was true, and Dimar was finishing her sentences. It was so awesome. He just understood the restoration SO good! As we were leaving a member asked him "when are you gonna be baptized?!" He loooked at us and said "I don``t know, its up to the Hermanas." We said how bout Sept 24?! he said sounds good to me! haha So great! He came to church yesterday and he went out with his friends again last night, the ones that like to drink. He said he drunk 4 cups of beer, but for some reason, he doesn`t know why, he just wanted to leave, he got up and left and didn`t drink anymore! He explained a whole bunch of changes that he has seen in his life. He says I`m changing! I`m coming better and I don`t know why, but I love it! It is SO SO SO neat to see. Absolutely amazing. The gospel really does change lives.

We also found an older couple yesterday, that received us, understood everything, accepted baptismal dates, and are super excited for our next visit. Missionary work is awesome. I`m happy, working here in this corner of the vineyard. I am learning a mountain of things, and I hope little by little, I`am progressing with my investigators,together coming closer to Christ.

I love you all lots and lots. Have an awesome week!

Love,

Hermana Olsen