12.26.2022

 Vina Del Mar on fire.

12.20.22

 Hello everyone i hope you are all having a great week! 

My week has been so great! This week we have been able to help a lot of people! There were transferes last week and me and my companion are both staying here in Forestal Viña del Mar! Im very grateful to stay here their are so many people we are working with about I want to keep helping them! 

Christmas time is such a great time to be a missionary their are so many people that are so excited to hear a message about Jesus and learn more about him! Although here it doesn't feel like Christmas is soon at all, because it's like 90 degrees everyday and I'm dieing of sweet!😂 

This week the Matus family had us over for a FHE and it was really good but I really just realized the great goodness of there hearts! They truly don't have anything but went out of their way to make us a dessert. I know they really don't have anything and still shared with us. And I know this really happens so much and it saddens my heart to know and see they way these people have to live. eEveryone has an "American Dream" a hope for a better life I am so grateful for the USA and the great opportunity I had, to grow up there, it truly is a land of freedom, God, and opportunities! And like it says on so many coins, dollar bills, and buildings, "in God we trust" this 4 words are so important we truly need to put our trust in God and follow his inspired promptings like it says in 1 Nephi 3:7 "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."

I know that when we put our trust in the lord and "go and do" the things he asks of us we will recive blessings.

PROS DOG

Something a little bit funnier that happened this week is we were visiting a few different people and and this dog just started following us so we named it Bruce, and then it just kept following us😂 we went into a lesson had a good lesson and when we left, and there was Bruce waiting for us! It was so funny he just followed us for like 3 hours that day waiting for us outside of lessons and appointments! 

sorry my brain has been very scattered during this email, it's probably really hard to understand my scatterbrain. I'm sorry. But know that this church is true! Jesus Christ came to the earth, and was killed for all of our sins, this is His church the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. And His work is going forward everyday!! Jesus loves y'all! And have a good week!

-Elder Olsen

12.5.22

 This week truly has been a crazy one! And made for some interesting stories🤦‍♂️ but I'd first like to start with a bit of a spiritual thought! I was reading in Moroni 7 and part of it says:

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased because Christ hath ascended into heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men? have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men. And now, my beloved brethren, if this be the case that these things are true which I have spoken unto you, and God will show unto you, with power and great glory at the last day, that they are true, and if they are true has the day of miracles ceased?

    Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved?

    Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men."

With this I testify that NO miracles have not stopped! This week has been really hard there have been a lot of doors slammed in our faces a lot of canceled lessons. And it has all been really hard but through it all I have still seen so many miracles we found a new family from Venasuela and the are incredible! We have so many people that have been prepared for us! Another miracle I saw this week is the great power that exists through the priesthood me and my companion were asked to give 3 different blessing for people with bad health it was such a great experience I could truly feel the great power of the priesthood working through me and I am so very grateful that each one of them are doing better! In ending I just want you all to know that God truly does love you! You are his special child! God has a plan for you and is with you every step of the way. This is the true church of Christ and it truly is moving forward!

*Living as a district!*

So my district is made up of six elders and four of us live in a quad which has been really fun but this week the companion to my district leader got emergency transferred which was really sad, but now my district leader has joined our quad and so our entire District is living together in our apartment it has been awesome I have laughed a lot and learned so much more they're all such great missionaries and great examples to me. 

*Sorry Presidente I didn't go to the beach the beach came to me*

So a couple days ago it was past 9:30 and we were relaxing after a long day with lots of walking Elder Meiers was doing some laundry and Elder Humphries started making Arroz con Leche when we heard elder Humphries yell from the kitchen I come running in and ask "what happened?" And the laundry machine draines into a big laundry sink and somehow it got plugged and was overflowing onto the floor I walked in and start unplugged the drain when the huge laundry sink completely full of water just falls and shatters at my feet, it was so funny, and now there is like 3 inches of water on the floor of our laundry room and kitchen elder tello grabs a broom and violently starts sweeping the water back into the kitchen to keep it from going into our bedrooms we all start frantically running around our apartment grabbing all the towels we can find and start mopping up and ringing out the towels into the kitchen sink it was all so funny we were all laughing so hard, the way that everything happen was just so funny it took us about an hour to get everything cleaned up but we did and it was hilarious.

*5 days sober*

okay to explain this a little bit more last week we were eating lunch with a member family and we finished all the food, and then we had dessert and then they offered us some "juice" and they told us it was just "juice" but they only poured us a little bit so we could try it we tried the "juice" so I took a sip and the flavor was weird and tasted a little bit carbonated so I asked if it was carbonated and they said no it's just "juice". did you like it? and that is when I saw the bottle that the "juice" came from it said "wild berry and vodka" my heart sank I felt horrible i had never drank alcohol in my entire life and now as a missionary i just broke a comandment, and then they offered to give it to us as a gift and we accepted their gift *just so we could throw it away for them* they did not realize it had alcohol so we gladly took the bottle and threw it away right after we left their house, that day I felt horrible I felt bad for drinking alcohol. and also I just felt weird with the alcohol in my system. It was a weird day and not something I ever want to do again. But looking back it's so funny.

*Service*

This week we had some awesome service projects with a family Macarena and Mario who is a family that we are teaching that is so great! Service is so awesome! We got to help dig and haul dirt from behind their house! I am so very excited for this family that are literally making so many changes in their lives to follow the gospel Mario has stopped smoking and drinking and they have all realized the importance of family and have worked so hard to have more family time together! The have changed so much for the better and are all just so awesome! 

- Elder Olsen 

PS here are some random pictures from the week