Peter, 12.27.11

Hello!

it was so good to talk to you all on sunday, elder mangelson and i were talking after we made our calls home and we figured that main reason we call home is to hear everyones voices and that its not really enough to really talk about anything.

mom thats so neat you read The Christmas Carol and The Mansion. i haven't heard much about the mansion whats it about? is it the one President Monson spoke of in his talk?  i definantly want to read both of those.

thanks for sending the pictures they look like so much fun! you defifnaly had a full house.

This week was full of blessings. first off patrick was baptized saturday (the service wasn't as well planned as it could have been but the saving ordinance was performed) and he was confirmed on Christmas. Pat has been so excited about baptism he has also recieved so much help from the ward, He asked Bishop Amos if he had the book of Mormon on tape. bishop didn't but he came up with an ipod and loaded the standard works on it for him. another blessing we recieved was that Dorothy came to pat's baptism as well as to church for the first time. she has felt the spirit and has a testimony of the church. She has been such a tender mercy.

today we taught Dorothy the word of wisdom at first she had many objections and was wondering if she could be exempt from it because she 'had' to have wine and coffee for some problem she had. but as we told we didn't back down from the comandment she was taught by the spirit and told us of some alternitives that she could use instead. she then committed to live the word of wisdom. it was amazing! she is elect!  

Happy birthday Dane! Have fun! i love you!

Elder Olsen

ps are any of my cousins planning on missions? Jaiden, Drew, or Adam?  is Fale still out? is he doing well? 

Emily, 12.26.11

Wow, I can`t believe I talked to you all last night! It was so fun to
hear all your voices, to laugh and enjoy, and it was definitely the
shortest hour of my entire life. It was super fun to hear Jack, its so
crazy to hear him talking, I feel like hes a little stranger thta I
don`t know at all, but I am excited to get to know him, and Nelly and
THomas, it will be fun. WHen Elise said "I just want to tell you
something", I thought she was gonna say she was pregnant again or
something - haha Maybe for the next phone call. I didn`t know grandma
and grandpa peterson were gonna be there, that was really fun, and
grandpa olsen, and Kristen and everyone. But I did feel bad I didn`t
get to talk to my brothers-in-law, but hi john and william! I hope
you`re both doing awesome, and loving the ranchin life, with all your
cows your buyin. what an adventure.

This week has been.... good. We had a Christmas dinner with Presidente
y hna Calderòn, and a few other zones, it was fun. We went to a
restaurant called Puerto madero, and it was delicious. It was a
buffet, and I enjoyed a little of eerything. It was the 23, just like
you and your buffet, so maybe we celebrated together :) Saturday we
went to the elders baptism. We always see the investigatros in church
and talk to them, and they`re are good friends. They actually invited
us to their wedding, but we couldn`t go ;(, but we went to the
baptism, and it was super special. Two families, and five people were
baptized. The elders are awesome examples for us.

It actually poured rain on us Saturday. I have lost my umbrella, I
have no idea where its at. It had rained during study, but stopped
when we were leaving. I thought about grabbing my rain coat but its
just so hot... so i decided I^m just gonna get wet if it rains, and
well.... I did. SOAKED! I love the rain, i just laughed and laughed.
The drainage here.... well its not that great and the streets were all
fillled with water, it was like crossing a river. Super fun adventure.
We went to an appointment and they weren`t there, so we just turned
around and kept walking in the pouring rain, you laughing the whole
itme, hna Iquise... well she didn`t like it that much. Actually wanted
to ask a favor, think you could send me the talk "come what may and
love it"  by Elder wirthlin? in Spanish... I`ve been wanting to share
it with her. ;) Speaking of come what may and love it, today we had to
go to the Doctor, in the early morning, hna Iquise has a cough that
doesn`t let her sleep at night (I on the other hand sleep like a rock.
For Christmas they light off a bunch of fireworks at midnight for a
few hours, hna Iquise said it was super loud - and i didn`t hear a
thing! great talent for hte mission... but when I`m a mom? my poor
children!). We went in taxi and got there alright she talked to the
doctor, we found a pharmacy after and then we had to figure out how to
get to internet. Hna Iquise didn`t want to pay for another taxi so we
decided to brave the bus system. We asked a few peole and they told us
what buses we could take. I asked the bus driver as we got on and he
said that the bus went where we wanted to go. We sat down and got
comfortable, but about 20 mins later we entered my old area,
equipetrol, and I just happened to know that it is on the complete
other side of the city, i asked the driver again, and he said t would
be another hour before we got close, and well we didn`t have an hour.
haha so we had to jump off and find another. It was a great big long
adventure of looking for bus, getting on the right one, and the
wondering where in the world it was taking us. But we made it! and we
fit in an great tour of santa cruz. haha it was pretty funny. I think
i`m gonna miss the buses here. There aren`t bus stops here, ya just
stick your hand out as the bus goes by and hope it stops, and when you
get off you just ask them to stop and you jump off, quickly! Its
always an adventure ridin the buses..

We are teaching Reuben, hes the one that asked which church is true.
We taught him the Wof W and he said he would drink. We went the other
day and he said that he left with his friends, and they drank a
little. He said he felt terrible. It was Christmas eve and he said his
family was probably going to invite him to drink. But we told him no!
don`t do it! Hes the one that came to church yesterday. I asked him
how his Christmas eve was. He said that his aunt started getting out
all the wines and he told them hed be right back. He went to his house
for a little while, and when he went back they had finished it all
off. and he dind`t drink! yaya! He`s gotta get married, but hes
reading the book of mormon. He just needs to pray, and he`ll know its
al true.

Well times up again. I love you all! have an awesome new year! are
ya`ll going to Kristen´s again? I want tknow if I got anything right
with my predictions this year! I can`t remember what I said. Love ya
all!

Happy New year!

Hermana Olsen!

Peter, 12.19.11

wow Dane has defined mucles! i forget its wrestling season. i'm happy to hear he is doing good. 3 out of five is not bad, i would love to see more pictures of him wrestling. and he's at 145 he has definatly been growing! hes gonna be bigger than me pretty quick. and yes everything is wrestling hurts its just which one of you is in pain or inflicting it.

this truly is a wonderful time to be a missionary. Christmas is comming so fast its only 6 days away. its weird to see Christmas trees up and lights and be in short sleeve shirts but they have a Christmas celebration area  down near my first area and from what people were saying they have snow and everything. and then they said "well its not really snow its just bubbles" but i guess they think bubbles makes it look like its snowing. whatever floats their boat.

President said he sent out a letter going over the christmas call guidlines. did you get it? i can definatly talk at 5 your time but i only have 40 minutes on the phone so i'm not sure what you want to do if you will want to call emily during my pnone call or not with time being so limited. i just read that emily had to call on the 22 or 23.  i will plan on you calling me at 5 and if you don't come through by 15 after i'll call the home phone. i'm excited to talk to you all have a merry Christmas!

 Christmas eve Patrick is getting baptised so we are very excited for. we also started teaching 2 ladies this week that we set baptismal dates with for january. L and D, i'll try and get a letter off today telling you how we met them but in  the mean time i love you and hope all is well and that you have a great week with the Van O's in town

Elder OIsen

Emily, 12.19.11

Wow! I only have 14 mins, but this week has been awesome. Elise and
JOhn are already there? HOw fun! I have been thinking a lot about how
we celebrated Christmas last year, i loved it. Its something that was
super special for me. Savior of the World, the live nativity, the
bethlehem dinner, it was awesome and I hope the traditions keep going.
Enjoy being together in family, thats super important.

Thanks for hte pictures, I gues dane decided to wrestle, I can`t
believe my little brother has all those muscles! haha

This week has been good. THe main thing is that we had a fund raiser
for hna Car- She`s an investigator that wants to get married and
baptized with her husband but they didn`t have the money to be able to
do it. She made some food, and all the members came and bought it. It
was awesome. She sold ALL of her food, and should be able to progress
now. Hna Iquise and I made posters so the members could find her
house, and we helped cooked. Cooking here in BOlivia is a lot like
cooking when you camping, an adventure :) I`m gonnna try to send
somepictures. but its not working so we`ll see. They should be able
to get married and baptized in January.

This week we also found another brother to share the gospel with,
Reu! We stopped him in the street and he seemed really interested.
We went back to visit him hoping his wife would be able to join us and
we could teach him, but she wasn`t feeling good. So we asked him to
wait while we ran to find a sister to come with us. Sister melissa
came and the Lord blessed us for our obedience. We started with a
prayer and before we could say anything he said ¨"I just have one
question, what church is the true church?"  I jsut had to smile and
thank my Heavenly Father for preparing people to teach. We taught him
the restoration and  gave him a book of mormon. He commited to read
from it and pray to know if it was true. We went back again Saturday
and taught him in a members house (something president calderòn has
been pushing), and itwas awesome. We taught the plan of salvation, he
is full of questions, and its so much fun to teachhim.But its
interesting how satan works, he told us as we got there, that the
Jehovah witnesses had just left and he had a lot of questions for us.-
He committed to come to church iwth us yesterday, and the stake
president said he would go by to pick him up - they`re neighbors, but
he got sick and did pick him up. We called yesterday when he didn`t
come to church and they said the number was wrong, but we`re gonna
pass by to find him. We  also met his wife, she`s a little more....
duro. Not looking for the true church like her husband, but we`re
praying to be able teach her too. They also have to get married, but
poco a poco.

As we were knocking a door a man stopped in his truck and asked us if
we were Jehovah witnesses (people always think that we are), we told
him know, we`re from the true church! He asked where people go when
they die, and we told him, the spirit world! haha we explained a
little about the plan of salvation, and gave him a pamphlet. We wanted
to write his nfo to send the elders, but he siad he`d got o church
there. Espero que si!

We are also visiting a family that are menos activo, but they want to
go to church again, pay their tithing be obedient. Its awesome how God
never forgets his Children and his constantly looking for ways to
bring them back home.

Well the church is true. I love you all so much and  can`t wait to
talk to you. MerryCHristmas!

Hermana Olsen

Emily, 12.12.11

Ummm... I´m not sure what to do about efy. I need to apply myself?
Maybel I´ll ask presidente if I can. I´m scheduled to come home the
end of July, but I am thinking maybe a transfer early, because I´m
yeska (poor) and need to earn money before I can study again. NEIL HAS
A GIRLFRIEND???! No wonder he hasn´t written me anythng, thtas crazy!
But tell him he can´t get married till I get home, ya falta poco! Evan
wrote me and said that shandi was already married, but not till the
end of December. WAIT! Shandi is marrying colter lund? I just read
that again, I thought it was her old boyfriend, Colten, but colter
LUnd?? Thats crazy! Thanks for the news! and Kent, thats great. I´m
happy for them all. Its so weird to think people are growing up,
Kaitlyn wrote me too and she´s all married. Blows my mind. But asi es
la vida :)

Our new dress code is great, Before we were limited a little in the
colors, styles, but really everything goes now, basically :) The
biggest thing that I´m excited for is that we can now use colored
shoes! haha And necklaces, earings, bracelets - but we have to be
careful so that they don´t rob us :) Before they said we should only
use dark colored bags, coats, everything, and now its the more color
the better. They gave us a cd with pictures of everything thats ok and
it reminded me of downeast everything super fun, but still
professional. We walk A TON, pretty much all day.  My new shoes are
holding up super good, I wear them almost every day, sometimes I wear
my older shoes too, they are still super comfortable, just a little
ugly :) Its true, we tend to forget about ourselves, I hadn´t cut my
hair since a week before I left, and it defintely needed it. The hair
dresser was super good, she loooked at my hair, and said ya, we´re
gonna do this and this and maintain the length and everything... and I
jst sad, ya esta bien. Turned out good, and I bet it could be super
cute if I had time to actually do it, or a straightner, but there
sjust not time. I sport the  poneytail everyday, but I have discovered
a variety of poneytails to do :) its also just to hot to leave it
down. We don´t have air conditioning, almost no one does. The stake
center has air conditioning n the chapel, but no where else. And the
mission office. But thats about it. BUt everyone has a fan. :) Im glad
you got the pictures, I havne´t erased any so thanks for telling me.
How are mark and Jen doing?  And everyone else? Natalie and william
are gonna be there for Christmas again? I´m glad you went to hte
messiah, I was thinking about a year ago when i got to participate. It
was a super great experience. I enjoyed it.

Gabriel is doing great. We went for the FHE the other night and it was
awesome. We talked about the wise men, what they did to come to
Christ, and the gifts they brought, . She shared her experience with
her aunt, and said, I jsut want to get baptized. I know its true. It
was super special for me. She didn´t want to accept a date, I don´t
know why its so hgard. She didn´t come to church yesterday either, but
we talked to her aunt again lsat night and she said she s gonna be ok.
She went home for a few days, but shes gonna come back this week. In
January she should be baptized.

We are also preparing Daniel for his baptism. He is a joven that lives
in front of the church. Super easy to attend, but he just can´t wake
up in the morning! haha but wei´re gonna keep helping and praying for
him. Should be baptized on Christmas Eve. The zone is gonna have a
Noche blanca, so we should have  a white christmas, en 90 degree
weather. I really can´t believe its almost Christmas.It really doesn´t
feel like it. But ni modo, I´m happy for the time to think a little
more inthe Savior.

Well I love you all lots and lots. THanks mom for the reminder of
Grace, little by little I am learning, and hopefully gettign better.
I am grateful for my Savior, and all that He has done, and does for
me. The church is true.

Hermana olsen

Peter, 12.12.11

mom,

it sounds like you do a wonderful job teaching. I'm very impressed they you are doing it so frequently. judgement and making judgements are very critical, i like how moroni teaches us to judge in moroni 7 :15-17 (i think?) it teaches us the "way to Judge" and it can be taken into any aspect of our lives. it goes on to teach that the way to judge is that if it inviteth to do good and to believe in Christ it is sent forth by the gift and power of Christ. anything beyond that we have been given a mind with reasoning powers and also we have been given prayer so that we can receive revelation.

Its crazy! Christmas is only 2 weeks away. it is hard to feel like Christmas. with people having there Christmas decorations up in their yards along side their palm trees and fresh cut grass. but it has cooled off. it dropped down into the forties last week but it quickly rebounded and jumped up to the high 70s. but to help it feel like Christmas we got a pine bow (?) branch and put it in one of the corners of our apartment.

this last week we had to reset P's baptismal date so that it will give more time for him to get permission from his parents. so if all goes well he will be baptised on Christmas eve. and confirmed on Christmas, we are hoping and praying that he will get the permission. 

Elder Olsen

Its a hot December, Emily 12.5.11

It is so weird to think that its december, I feel more like we`re in the middle of summer. Looks like the snow is awesome, and the kids are enjoying it.

I was thinking about the Savior of the World performance, I really loved it last year. It taught me a lot. I`m so glad that you`re enjoying all the Christmas festivities, only three more weeks till Christmas, I can`t believe it. THe  home call, I asked presidente calderòn how it works, and he said its the same as mothers day. I`ll call you saturday, and then you`ll call me Sunday. I don`t know what time it is there, if its one hour or two, or three hours difference, with daylight savings at all. We have church in the morning, at 8am - super early, no? And basically anytime after that. We were going to have a baptism that day, but they haven`t gone to church, and we can`t
seem to find them in their house - so whatever time works for you. I think I would like to talk to you at night again, like before. I^m not sure what Hermana Iquise is gonna do. How was the first presidency devotional? What did they say? what did you learn?what videos are they making? Peter saw an alligator? Que crazy!

Well this week, has been another learning and growing experience. Tuesday we had an awesome training with presidente Calderòn. That night we went to visit gabriela - the relief society president`s niece - and she told us she didn`t want to keep listening to us. Well she told us that we could come by, that she likes it, but that she doesn`t want to get baptized - yet. It was a complete turn around of everything. She was reading, praying, going to church, everything, then all of the sudden she didn`t want to. I tell you what, it hurt, a lot. But she was talking, and she said that before her aunt and cousin always talked to her about the gospel and she never understood, but when I started visiting her, everything was clearer, and she understood better. As she was telling us, I got an  overwhelming feeling that I knew her, That i had known her before this life. We were good friends in the pre-existance, and I just began to cry. She is my friend that I came to find, and bring her the gospel. It was a super spiritual neat experience for me. I really knew her, and it just hit me - she needs the gospel so much! I promised I would find her, and here I am teaching her. It was really hard. I just asked her to keep trying, keep praying, studying, going to church. THen we left. I truly felt like we couldn`t drop her, not yet. But maybe let her on her own for a little. We kept praying for her, asking that her heart would be softened. Then Friday morning we got a phone call. The relief society president (her aunt) called and said sorry for calling so early but this couldn`t wait. She said she had been praying for gabriela, and early that morning she felt like she needed to show gabriela moroni 8. She went to her room at like 5:30am and woke her up so she could read it. She read it, then hna Millan (RS president), felt like she should have her read Moroni 10:4-5, she read it. And she kneeled down right then and asked Heavenly Father if it was all true. Then Hna Millan felt to have her read one more scripture - Alma 30:41-42 - read it, its amazing how much it applies to her. She read it, and Gabriela just began to cry. She apologized to her aunt because she had been treating her bad, and said that she wanted to keep learning, keep going to church, keep listening to us. We fasted for her yesterday, and today we are going to have a family home evening with them.I hope and pray that we will be ablet o teach with power and authority, and that she will be able to have the faith in Jesus Christ and except His great atoning sacrifice in her life. She is a very special person for me.

Last week we had a meeting with hna calderon and we have new dress standards as sisters. Its pretty muchy FREEDOM! and I am excited. Today all of the hnas in the mission are getting togetehr, and we`re gonna head to a salon to get our hair done, and go out to lunch. Should be super great. The hnas here are some of my best  friends.

The other day I sucked on a chicken neck that they gave me in my soup - it was weird. haha I have also been enjoying a cup of banana juice with milk every morning - its delicious. Hno Nikolas  told me that he has awesome teeth because when he was little his mom cooked the shell of eggs in the oven and then crushed them up into flour and put it in all of his food.He said you have to take out the inner skin - but its a good source of calcium, and I should do it for my kids someday - and I was thinking maybe my neices and nhephews could aprovacahr de eso. I can`t think how you say that in English.

Well, I sure love you all lots and lots. I still haven`t received that package you mentioned mom - but hopefully this Thursday. My Heavenly Father is teaching me, and I am grateful to be here. I am also super grateful for a new week to start witha flesh slate, with no mistakes in it, yet. With the grace of Jesus Christ I know I can be better this week. This is the Lords work, and He did not send me here to fail. He will help me. Thanks again for  everything - especially your prayers and your letters and your insights.

Merry Christmas!

Hermana Olsen

Peter 12.5.1

Mom,

this week has really been a learning experience.  We have been meeting many new people and teaching them but struggling to actually help them progress in the gospel. Elder Mangelson and i have been working on having faith, we are also working on having a prayer always in our heart. it amazes me how many things i have learned that i seem to be re-learning since i have been is God service. i have a strengthened testimony of prayer.

we taught a lesson to De, she is a friend of a member that has came to church twice but lives in another ward. we decided that we would teach her at the church and then refer her to the elders in the ward where she lived. as we taught her we quickly found that she has been prepared to receive the gospel. she told us that when she came to church she felt at home and that everything was making sense. she told us she had attended Jehovah witness, Muslim, baptist non-denominational christian and a variety of other churches and never has felt how she did when she came here. they readily accepted the Restoration and we set a baptismal date for the Christmas eve. she was super excited to be baptized on that date. we then went on to explain wards and boundaries so that she would know that there was another church closer to her and that their were different missionaries that could teach her at her home. she sounded like she would be willing to go to a different ward. we then left and told her we would call her later about what we felt she should do and when we called she said that she had already prayed about it and had received a confirmation that she needed to attend the ward where she lived. we were blown away and realized that she really understands revelation and Prayer. i learned a lot from her example.

your question about thanksgiving was if we got invited to someones home. yes we did the elders quorum president had invited us over but it didn't end up working out and another member we talked to had already had dinner but had left overs so he brought some over and that's how we had thanksgiving dinner.

 

i like the porter family! that's so cool! i miss the snow it is definitely going to be weird being here in the sunshine state for Christmas again.

do you have a preference as to when i call? anytime would work for me at this point. we have sacrament at 9 here so i could call anytime from 10 or into the evening.

love you

Elder Olsen