Tuesday, November 30, 2010
29 Nov 2010
Well bolivia is crazy that is about all their is to it is is crazy i cant get over how insane it is every morning i wake up and i am just like dying of sweat and thinking where am i... oh yeah i am in bolivia.. anyway sorry mom but there is no way i could send an email like jaron. i am way upset i totally forgot to do something so important. i was in the airport picking up my comp and i saw three white people!!! it was crazy so i ran over to talk to them and they were from germany!! they knew english but not spanish and were here for some logging company we talked a little bit about why i was in bolivia and what i was doing, i invited him to find elder thorley or elder tanner in germany haha i just told him i had two friends in his city. and when you got there to look up the church of jesus christ of latter day saints and i gave him a restoration pamphlet... in spanish, i did not have anything else... anyway i look back now i should have gotten his address and sent it to jaron.. anyway it sounds like he is doing really good. how is everyone else doing??
I almost forgot i found jeff in bolivia his name is franky i love that kid i sent a picture of me and him, he is 15 and look at the way he is standing in the picture, just like jeff everything is the same, we were tracting with him and he ran up to talk to some girls, and everything was the same the girl was like franky!! he ran up but by the end of the conversation the girls was slapping his arms and getting kinda mad at him.... i was laughing so hard i could not help but remember hanging out with jeff and how many times i have seen that with different girls ha.
Anyway more important matters i have decided i dont want to baptize, i want to convert there is so many inactive members here we spend half of the day visiting with them, going house to house, they all say the same thing i love the missionary that baptized me.. i dont want that i want to baptize someone that is going to strengthen the kingdom of God not slow it down. we spend alot of time with the young men in my rama they are all sweet hearted but have a hard time there is alot of problems around here and it is hard for them to stay strong.. But i love tracting with them, when they bear testimony it is really powerful they really have a testimony of this gospel, and more importantly jesus christ.. I try to teach that in every lesson every contact, how important it is for us to have faith in Jesus Christ, and what is faith? no one here really knows what faith is, they all say there prayers and that is about it,every time i start talking about jesus christ they cut in.. oh i love jesus he is my savior he is my light he is my life. but they do not really know Who Jesus Christ is. this is so important. Do we know who our saviour is in our lives? once we know who our saviour is that is when we start to change, that is when we start to really become children of god, i want everyone today to think about who is Jesus Christ in your life?
anyway i love being a missionary last night we tracted in the rain for 3 hours like crazy my comp wanted to go back to the house, no one was home, my book of mormon is soacked. but i loved every second of it, that is what being a missionary is for me, when everyone else goes in because of the rain.. the heat... the bugs... that is when we push forward and with a steadfastness in Christ declare repentance unto the people that is why i am here. and nothing is ever wasted. we spent 2 1/2 hours getting rejected or no one was home but the last house a new member that is not very strong in the church, we talked with her for probably fourty five minutes just about the atonement she shared what the atonement was in her life it was very spiritual and it made the whole night just great.
i am doing good, i love being here we have 2 dates, and lots of new investigators Eric is great he is only there two days a week and every two weeks he leaves for two weeks to work, he works alot, and has a big problem with drinking. we talked with him yesterday and he said he was going to stop drinking and he wanted to change his life.
anyway gotta go love ya.
Elder Olsen
I almost forgot i found jeff in bolivia his name is franky i love that kid i sent a picture of me and him, he is 15 and look at the way he is standing in the picture, just like jeff everything is the same, we were tracting with him and he ran up to talk to some girls, and everything was the same the girl was like franky!! he ran up but by the end of the conversation the girls was slapping his arms and getting kinda mad at him.... i was laughing so hard i could not help but remember hanging out with jeff and how many times i have seen that with different girls ha.
Anyway more important matters i have decided i dont want to baptize, i want to convert there is so many inactive members here we spend half of the day visiting with them, going house to house, they all say the same thing i love the missionary that baptized me.. i dont want that i want to baptize someone that is going to strengthen the kingdom of God not slow it down. we spend alot of time with the young men in my rama they are all sweet hearted but have a hard time there is alot of problems around here and it is hard for them to stay strong.. But i love tracting with them, when they bear testimony it is really powerful they really have a testimony of this gospel, and more importantly jesus christ.. I try to teach that in every lesson every contact, how important it is for us to have faith in Jesus Christ, and what is faith? no one here really knows what faith is, they all say there prayers and that is about it,every time i start talking about jesus christ they cut in.. oh i love jesus he is my savior he is my light he is my life. but they do not really know Who Jesus Christ is. this is so important. Do we know who our saviour is in our lives? once we know who our saviour is that is when we start to change, that is when we start to really become children of god, i want everyone today to think about who is Jesus Christ in your life?
anyway i love being a missionary last night we tracted in the rain for 3 hours like crazy my comp wanted to go back to the house, no one was home, my book of mormon is soacked. but i loved every second of it, that is what being a missionary is for me, when everyone else goes in because of the rain.. the heat... the bugs... that is when we push forward and with a steadfastness in Christ declare repentance unto the people that is why i am here. and nothing is ever wasted. we spent 2 1/2 hours getting rejected or no one was home but the last house a new member that is not very strong in the church, we talked with her for probably fourty five minutes just about the atonement she shared what the atonement was in her life it was very spiritual and it made the whole night just great.
i am doing good, i love being here we have 2 dates, and lots of new investigators Eric is great he is only there two days a week and every two weeks he leaves for two weeks to work, he works alot, and has a big problem with drinking. we talked with him yesterday and he said he was going to stop drinking and he wanted to change his life.
anyway gotta go love ya.
Elder Olsen
Monday, November 15, 2010
15 Nov 2010
Hola familia
Wow time is flying by like no ones buissness.. i do not like when investigators do not keep commitments marcello and cosma both did not come to church it is so frustrating because now we have to postpone their baptism dates and it is just so frustrating because i know that they know it is true and that they love to talk to us but they just wont come to church i dont know why, and even worse we have two families who want to be baptized the first alle and anabel are both 18 and have two kids!! they are not marrried is the problem and we know that they arent so we have not invited them to be baptized but then during our last lesson she said so when can we be baptized and we told them they had to get married to be baptized and to get married here is like 2 mil bs which is alot of money it was so sad because they want it so bad they come to church and read every day, i dont know what to do, we taught them about patience and stuff but then yesterday they did not come to church because the kid was working and the mom did not want to go by herself.
anyway it is pretty sad to see stuff like like i just want everyone to accept the gospel.. i got into a fight with a drunk guy it was pretty hilarious well not a fight an argument and i did not know a thing he was saying so it was pretty funny he was saying something about me having the power of god and my comp just kinda backed away while i started grabbing a chair and just saying please sit down so i can teach you and it was pretty funny because we both could not understand eachother... well even worse we were knocking doors which we do alot and my comp said this next one is yours ok so i do it we get in then i start saying so our message is about..... then my mind went blank...... i just kinda stood there and smiled... then looked at my comp.... then back to her and finally said yo no recuerdo nuestro mensaje.. then just said compenero the woment laughed at me but it is all good i kinda like it it makes me laugh when i am just so lost in translation i just smile any way i love this so much it is really difficult when i want to share how i feel and stuff but i just cant say it in spanish that is the only time i get depressed but i love it her i love the people they are hilarious..
anyway i used to feel bad for tyler and when he would tell us stories about braizil but i have been there it is the best everthing is cement and all is way nice. bolivia is completely different but i love it spanish is way better than portugese it sounds like drunken spanish with alot of bue sounds haha anyway i love it here i would like an email sometime but if not thats ok.
i do want to know about mike and steve, and janessa how are they doing
anyway not alot of time gotta go anyway i will write more next week love ya. Elder Olsen
please give me advice with how to get those people to attend church how to give them the desire to change their lives.
Wow time is flying by like no ones buissness.. i do not like when investigators do not keep commitments marcello and cosma both did not come to church it is so frustrating because now we have to postpone their baptism dates and it is just so frustrating because i know that they know it is true and that they love to talk to us but they just wont come to church i dont know why, and even worse we have two families who want to be baptized the first alle and anabel are both 18 and have two kids!! they are not marrried is the problem and we know that they arent so we have not invited them to be baptized but then during our last lesson she said so when can we be baptized and we told them they had to get married to be baptized and to get married here is like 2 mil bs which is alot of money it was so sad because they want it so bad they come to church and read every day, i dont know what to do, we taught them about patience and stuff but then yesterday they did not come to church because the kid was working and the mom did not want to go by herself.
anyway it is pretty sad to see stuff like like i just want everyone to accept the gospel.. i got into a fight with a drunk guy it was pretty hilarious well not a fight an argument and i did not know a thing he was saying so it was pretty funny he was saying something about me having the power of god and my comp just kinda backed away while i started grabbing a chair and just saying please sit down so i can teach you and it was pretty funny because we both could not understand eachother... well even worse we were knocking doors which we do alot and my comp said this next one is yours ok so i do it we get in then i start saying so our message is about..... then my mind went blank...... i just kinda stood there and smiled... then looked at my comp.... then back to her and finally said yo no recuerdo nuestro mensaje.. then just said compenero the woment laughed at me but it is all good i kinda like it it makes me laugh when i am just so lost in translation i just smile any way i love this so much it is really difficult when i want to share how i feel and stuff but i just cant say it in spanish that is the only time i get depressed but i love it her i love the people they are hilarious..
anyway i used to feel bad for tyler and when he would tell us stories about braizil but i have been there it is the best everthing is cement and all is way nice. bolivia is completely different but i love it spanish is way better than portugese it sounds like drunken spanish with alot of bue sounds haha anyway i love it here i would like an email sometime but if not thats ok.
i do want to know about mike and steve, and janessa how are they doing
anyway not alot of time gotta go anyway i will write more next week love ya. Elder Olsen
please give me advice with how to get those people to attend church how to give them the desire to change their lives.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Nov 8 2010
Well i got to santa cruz and my flight was crazy when we were in floridda our planes right engine blew up and started spitting out fire. but since there was twenty missionaries on board we landed safely and then had a three hour lay over until they got a new plane. when i got to santa cruz they lost my big bag. so haha that was no fun i stayed in a sweet hotel in santa cruz with my district then we went to meet our comps and the president changed his mind well actually Heavenly father decided that he did not want me to learn spanish so he changed my area to puerto suarez literally right on the border of brazil i am going over into brazil today so i am way stoked to go into two countries. but wow oh wow spanish is crazy they dont speak they just ramble on and on. my area is way sweet the church is pretty small here but we do have a chapel so that is good, and we have like a million investigators but that is just because they love the missionaries and everyone just wants to listen to me talk and make fun of me. we go to this one members house everyday for luch because it is like the only decent place to eat. and they have two little girls who just laugh at me the whole time it is pretty funny i am glad that i have a high self esteem, maybe that is what this summer was for? my apartment is ghettttto i love it, while i am taking a number two it is always really scary because that is when the giant cocroaches come out and try to get me, i´m talking giant like not normal, so that is probably the worst thing about this place so far. the first two days were really tough because i cant talk to anyone not even my comp he is from bolivia la paz and i am his last comp before he goes home so we are working realy hard we walk ridiculous amounts in the heat like it is so hot here i am constantly sweating constantly. the worst is at night i feel like a dying horse because i am to scared to sleep on top of my covers because of the ginormous insects so i wrap myself in my blanket and go crazy with the deet around my bed.... i think i have broken just about every rule they told me not to do. my first day we were at a members house and they offer me milk and rice called lechea or something and i am not suppose to take it but i did i dont know how to say no then they told me dont drink the water but it is a million degrees so i definltley been pounding the water.. i love this place it is really tough and the people are so nice but they are not good at keeping commitments like you tell them to read and they just say ok ok then you come back and you ask them and they say yes i read then you say how was it.. oh yo no recuerdo.. they always say that. so we read alot during are lessons my comp is a bomb teacher he is was good. i really want to get spanish fast so i can learn portugesse because pretty much everyone here speaks both and they all say portugese is really easy. so pretty much it has been crazy since i got here the people drive crazy and i am the only gringo in the whole city so they all no me and know i can talk so it is pretty funny. i think the only way i could stick out more is if i was a foot taller i am just pure gringo. when we go to peoples houses which are not houses at all. as soon as they see me they get a big smile and say hello in engliish it is pretty funnny then they start talking how white i am and all sorts of stuff... my first night we went by marcell casa to meet him and we were talking to him and he had been drinking and so it was even harder to understand what he was saying but all the sudden i was talking to him he was cryin then i stood up and said quiro braso and we hugged i dont know why he was just crying it was really cool so i know the gift of tongues is real and i know god guides us in all we do i love this gospel, i know it is true or i would not be here because the insects are nasty. anyway i lvoe ya family chow.
ELder Olsen 4
ELder Olsen 4
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