April 13 Thar She Blows

Awkward Moment that JUST happened! We took a colectivo, which is basically like a taxi, but it functions like a public bus as in it has its own root and you call it over from the street like you would a taxi, and then you get out whenever you want and just pay 500 pesos which is about a dollar. Well anyway, so you ride with strangers a lot and sometimes the strangers come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes and smells and stuff like that. Well today I had the fun of sitting in the back with too large old women and things were kind of tight... haha anyway I started talking to them, but then the one next to me said, 'ah ya, es mormona?' And I said yes and then she just did a snuff and said, 'ah ya ni imporrrta' and didn't look at me. So I just started to stare and the window and also breathe (because I'm a human) and she was breathing too, because she was a beautiful daughter of God. And then our breathing rhythm started to be the same..... and so I started to hold my breath just so that I could stop breathing the same as her just because we were so tight and it was just weird. And when I held my breath SHE held her breath too!!! And then we just kept breathing but it was this weird relay of just breathing the same and then trying to be different.... and all this happened just so awkwardly with weird silence and then I just kind of looked at her without trying to turn my head like Jackie Chan in Shang-hi-noon when he was drinking tequila in that saloon... and then SHE WAS LOOKING OUT OF THE CORNER OF HER EYE TOO!!! hahahahaha and I just couldn't help it! It was so awkward and I just laughed and laughed and she started laughing and said a bunch of stuff in Spanish super fast that I didn't understand because she was talking through her laughs like dad does. But we were both laughing a lot and everyone else in the colectivo was really confused what was so funny because the majority of the ride was silent and then we had to get out a few seconds later and they drove off. It was an interesting experience to say the least haha. And now I’m here writing you guys in the little cyber in centro :)

This week was a slow mover. So slow that if we hired some Viking to yell out 'Thar she blows' to describe my week, it wouldn't make any sense... Mostly because that is the most random occupation I've ever heard of and really the only thing that was blowing this week was my stomach. . . 

OH AND MY MISSION! 

I have officially completed my first cambio in Chile! (And as of Friday, the 9th of Abril, I am now officially 19 and a half). It's way too crazy how fast the time flies when you are on a mission! I still sometimes have silly moments when I realize, 'hey WOW. I'm on a mission!'

Elder Holt, our district leader, left our mission 3 cambios early because a few weeks ago, he had the pleasure of finding out he has epillepsis and it wasn't safe for him to be around here anymore... It was a bummer for him because he got a surprise jip of his mission, but he had an awesome attitude about it all. He'll be missed. We have a new district leader now. Elder Luna from Mexico and he is really awesome and just a great missionary. 

Tuesday I threw up. It was weird because I haven't been sick like that in quite some time. But all was okidoki, I still went to the district meeting and then afterwards we stopped by Washington's negocio and bought some 'espri' or sprite haha, and soda crackers. That was nice. And for some random reason the sister that was supposed to feed us that day couldn't so I had a yummy simple few crackers and sips of 7 up instead of a huge load of food and tomatoes. And then we went back to being missionaries. 

And the rest of the week THERE WAS SO MUCH FOOD. But we had a good week nonetheless, just secret stomach problems. Actually I think a large part of being sick is the part in your head that tells you you are 'too sick' to do this or that. so just saquelo out of your head and then all you have is the sick part which is just the physical problem of feeling icky and then feeling better when you .....throw up. haha Well yeah, it was an interesting week with lots of food and other things. 

General Conference works miracles! 

Our investigator, Sandra went to just the Sunday morning session and then told us this week while we were teaching her parents, because they are recent converts, about her favorite talk that was about the  prodigal daughter and how everyone kept supporting her and inviting her to church even though she left. And then her mom invited her to be a part of their lesson!!!! Which is BIG!!! Oh it was just so great! 

Claudia is the menos activo that rents her cabaña to us. We visited her and she told us about how  Elder Packer's eternal family talk really got her and that she finally wants to start working on having that family. None of her family are members. So we have a family home evening planned with her family next week! 

Bertolio, one of the recent converts,  is preparing to reecive the Melquisedec priesthood soon and we are supposed to help him understand that a little more and so on Friday I studied a lot about the priesthood, including Hebrews 7. Later that day we were walking down the street and this man approached us with an open Bible in hand and said IN ENGLISH,  'I have ONE question: Have you read Hebrews 7?' BAM. WHAT? YEAH!

I said yes. And he said all of you missionaries say that, but then you don't even know what it talks about. So I told him what it talks about. And then we was quiet and said, 'oh.' And then he started saying that he has so many questions about the mystery of Melquesidec and who he was and what happened to that priesthood and that he trusted us now to tell him because we knew what Hebrews 7 said. haha And my companion and I taught him  about the restoration and apostasy and what priesthood is and that that is what distinguishes our church. And he was so excited that things made sense, but then he started trying to Bible bash.....and we kept trying to just let him be and leave BECAUSE HE WOULD PLUG HIS EARS if we would try to read from the Book of Mormon when it clarified something more or if we were just showing him how the Bible and the Book of Mormon work together. haha It was weird because before, he completely agreed with everything we taught him about the restoration and things like that. haha But we didn't want to spend too much time with him because he was at a point that he just wanted to convert us or something. It was silly and I think we talked for way too much time, for probably at least 45 minutes or more. He wasn't rude, just ....interesting. The whole thing was just interesting. 

Almuerzo on Saturday was mashed potatoes with carne mixed around in it with a sunny side up egg on top. I liked it a lot actually. And I told the sister and she and her whole family laughed because apparently it was a quick throw together meal that no one really likes. But, it was good. Really yummy. Maybe it was because my stomach was finally happy again.... I don't know. But I liked it!

Oh and at almuerzo yesterday the sister had some guests from Chiloe, an island a little more south. And we had pleasant conversation with them about the church and our missions. Then we shared a scripture and talked to them more and they said that they don't have time for God and then didn't really want to talk more, but if you come to Chiloe we were welcome to come have lunch with them and they gave us their address. So we put on our coats and then said a prayer to leave. After the prayer the wife said, 'If you come to Chiloe, come to me and I'll go to church!' and then she held up her hand and said, 'I promise!.' And it was just kind of confusing but good! hahaha And then we laughed and she said, 'en serio, you can convert me when you come.' So....we have her address and we'll have to refer her to the missionaries that are there I guess! haha and maybe I'll go to Chiloe one day and see her. How funny. 

We still haven't been able to teach Marden yet! But we will keep going! 

I'm out of time, but I love you all and I love this work. 

Love, 

Hermana Olson

April 6 Vino Como la Manana de la Navidad, y asi fue (General Conference)

Well this week was a kind of slumpy week... But I've found the best thing to do for a week like this is HAVE GENERAL CONFERENCE! 

I have never been more excited for this day as I was on Saturday and Sunday. It really came like Christmas Morning, and then IT WAS GONE! I definitely had an Olson-family-sitcom episode of going to Home Town Buffet in between sessions on Sat and having our amazing traditional picnic on the Stake Center lawn on Sunday. How fun it was to be sitting there in my stake center knowing you all were doing the same thing at the same time as me!

I think one thang that is just so remarkable about Gen Conf is that it is a live broadcast entonces EVERYONE watches it at THE SAME TIME! There being now 15 million members of the church world-wide and being 2 semi-annual conferences of the church, por medio de watching conference, we are taking part in a WORLD-WIDE GATHERING OF 15 MILLION Latter-day Saints  (give or take a few million for those that did not watch (but if we think like Nelson Mendela, Saints are sinners that just keep trying :)) 

How I would just love to write my thoughts about each talk, but maybe I will weave them into other letters in the future. I think one of the greatest things I loved about Conference was how much of it focused on families. I am so grateful for you guys. Last night I just lay in my bed in absolute pure gratitude for the family I was blessed to be raised in, develop friendships, and just have a place for me. I don't think I will ever be able to really express the deepness of my love for every single member of this family, but I am thankful for this privilege to take some time away from you all so that I can help others find that happiness too. Families are the center piece of eternity, and I can only imagine complete happiness when I look at eternity that way. 

There is a family that we are working with right now. The grandparents are great great GREAT recent converts. One of their daughters lives with them and she has three daughters that live there too. One of those daughters is married and even has a little 4 month old baby Isadora. I LOVE THIS FAMILY. This is the family that we had the AMAZING Noche de Hogar last week! This week was pretty slumpy because everyone has been telling us to drop them and stop teaching them. That they are a perder de tiempo. A waste of time. My companion and I feel like we are standing alone. Our ward mission leader told us to, the ward members don't want to come with us to lessons, even Sandra's own parents, the recent converts, told us that she is just a waste of time. It was actually really challenging for the both of us because we felt alone and if there isn't any support, Sandra won't feel comfortable. She has come to sacrament meeting twice and her parents wouldn't sit with her. I love her parents too! and I don't want to be complaining about anyone, but it was just very crushing to feel so pushed against with Sandra and her family. So it's just been a challenge because I don't want to give up on her because Hna Oross and I really have felt differently about her! But we also don't know why we are the only ones feeling this way. We have been praying a lot about it and just haven't felt like we should stop. I really think that Satan is working hard on this situation. I feel like there is something special about Sandra that maybe Satan knows and doesn't want her to be able to use that. I just really hope the strange relation going on between her mom and her can begin to loosen up a bit so that she can progress! Oh, I just hope that something can happen. I know that Heavenly Father loves everyone, so I have faith that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are rooting for Sandra, even if she is taking a lot of time.   

Well, I really got to go. 

I love you and I love the work. 

Love, 

Hermana Olson

P.S.-- I learned how to say Parallelogram this week. 

Paralelepipedo. New favorite Spanish word :)

March 30, 2015 My Attempt to Describe an Indescribable Week

Well first of all this week started off with a SQUEAK because we cleaned our cabaña hardcore ALL morning last Monday. We were convinced this place hadn't been cleaned for a year por lo menos. 

So we started this week in ORDER. I can testify that a house of order is a house of God. 

We also ran into a man from Gringolandia (Chileno word for the U.S.) in McDonald's when we were buying our P-day lunch. He was thrilled to see us! He paid for our lunch too! He's living here with his wife and 3 kids for the next year. His wife is Chilena so they wanted the kids to get immersed in the culture and language more. He doesn't really know Spanish though so we just talked to him in English....which was so weird to talk to a person in English in public! He and his wife are converts of only 10 years and so he said he just LOVES the missionaries. It was really neat to talk to him. He also reminded me a lot of Uncle Studly...(er...I mean Uncle Jeff :) haha 

But really! He talks just like him, so that was kind of cool for me. 

Well anyway so in this week's planamiento my companion and I decided that we wanted to work on Obedencia with EXACTIDUD. We are obedient, but this week I found that there is a stark difference between Obedience and EXACT obedience. And the difference is pretty amazing. 

One of our zone goals for this cambio is to fast once every week. So this time Hna Oross and I decided to fast with specificity( if that is a word). We fasted not just to find families, but families that really are ready to receive this gospel. We also fasted for our investigator Lucrecia who we visited earlier in the week for us to know if we should spend more time with her or not because we couldn't really understand if she really is progressing or not and she's very amable and sweet, but she isn't progressing much. It's hard to drop people. It really is. So we fasted that we could have a clear understanding of what we should do. And we also fasted that we would be able to be in tune to the whisperings of the spirit as we teach and meet people so as to know what we should do. 

....that day that we fasted was HOT and literally all of our citas (appointments) fell through. And then all the plans AND plan B's brought about nothing. ´But we went forth not knowing beforehand what we should do.´ 

At one point in the day we just decided that we would stop by one of our contacts from last week that owns a negocio (a little convenience shop sort of thing). His name is Washington and we bought ice cream from him and talked to him about family history because when he told us his name, he talked about how all of his antepasados have the name of Washington. He thought the family history program was pretty cool so we said we'd stop by another day. And that day we did. We planned on buying a few candies or something so that we could talk to him at the counter, and not have to eat because we were fasting. But right when we walked in, he said, 'Oh hermanas!!!! What would you like to eat?!' Neither of us said anything right away and so he just said, 'AH! How about I make you some pancito ham sandwiches?' And we just laughed and let him because he basically already started. We talked to him more about us and the gospel and our day while he made them. Then when he finished we brought out our wallets and he said NO NO NO NO NO GRATIS! And then added in two HUGE juicy Chilean apples and two chocolate milks! We couldn't believe it. So we kind of just stood there and he was laughing and then we said thank you as best we could and then he said, “Yeah I am more than happy to serve such good people! I know you have things you need to do. Come teach me on Monday!” 

So we left with bigger smiles on our faces and FOOD. 

En camino to a house with a family we met last week, we had three different contacts with some ladies, Blanca, Fernanda, and Lisalot, all of whom, after talking breifly with us about Jesus on the pass along card we gave them, asked us, if we could talk to them again later. That doesn't happen. Fernanda had her little girl with her and Lisalot had two little girls with her age 6 and 10. How neat!!! 

Then when we got to Lorena's house, (a previous contact) no one was home. So we decided to pass by our 10 yr old friend Danahe so we could see if her Mom was home so we could FINALLY teach them. We stopped by but Danahe was home alone. So we just conversed a bit at the door way and then GUESS WHO SHOWED UP TO THE DOOR NEXT TO HERS?! 

Well, you wouldn't really know because I don't think I mentioned him yet, but it was MATIAS!! 

He's a 14 year old boy that we've run into 3 different times on the street while I've been here. And he seriously just has a special light about him. Each time we talked with him, it was kind of casual and we didn't teach anything, but he just is a different kid. He's so cool! And now we know where he lives! And he was excited to see us. He said hi and we met his aunt and they invited us to come talk to them another day. Matias was on his way to play futbol with his friends that were waiting. Anyway that was cool. 

We started to walk again and my companion had a bunch of piedras in her shoe so she sat on a post really fast to fix it. While we were sitting there, a lot of people were walking by. One of these people was a man with a little 4 year old or so son. As he passed us he said ‘oh you look so weary.' and then we laughed and said, 'un poco no màs!' and he smiled and walked on. But as he walked away I just felt a pull towards him. I felt like we HAD to talk to him. It was weird, but he stopped a distance up to hand his boy a water bottle. So I told my companion to hurry so we could go catch up with him. And when she got up he was kind of awkwardly far for us to go all the way back, but his boy wasn't with him. Then TADA! That little kid was right next to us holding out his sticker-covered normal water bottle out to us. We looked up to the man and said Thank you! ...we were fasting so we really didn't want to take their water bottle, but I realized we looked sweaty and probably 'weary' and I didn't want to reject their precious act of service. So we ran up to them and said, would it be okay if we give you something too? We gave him and his little boy a picture of Jesus Christ and talked a little bit about it. Then we thanked him so much for his Christlike act. We asked if we could pasar en otro momento to talk with him and his family. And he said he would LOVE that. He then he said, ‘my wife would love to listen to your message too.’  THEN he said, if you need cualquier cosa, (anything) to come to their house. It is open to us. No one does that! He said he had never met Mormon missionaries either! 

The best part of it all, not really but it was awesome, was his little boy had huge pieces of white tape as eyebrows and a beard coming off his face. I LOVED IT! It will be one of my precious mental pictures from my mission yo creo. I commented on that to the man and he said, 'Yeah, he's pretty creative' The man's name is Marden. We had a cita to teach him on Sunday, but his wife wasn't home yet, so we couldn't go into the house, but we gave him a folleto of the restuaracion and he was very excited to read it. We'll teach him. 

Well we continued on our even merrier way and received more and MORE food from three other people! While fasting. . . haha 

But on our way to visit Lucrecia, I saw a homeless guy sitting on the side of the street and we just gave all of the food to him with a few pictures of Jesus Christ. He was so excited. He told us it had been four days that he had something to eat. How special it is to be working with the Lord. 

When Lucrecia opened the door, she had tears all down her face and she said, 'I've been crying.' I was just thinking THERE IS NO WAY. And then we looked at her and she pointed to her kitchen which had a feast of food and she said, 'Cebollas.' (onions) And then we all laughed super hard. She also gave us a lot of food to take home... haha ...and we had a good lesson with her...but she just wasn't completing with her commitments and things and she was so confusing.... and we talked with her and asked her about (the letter got kind of jarbled at this point. Hopefully we’ll find out the rest of it later)