October 10, 2015 And thus Passed Away the Nineteenth Year

Thus passed away the nineteenth year. And Hermana Olson did cry unto the people of Francke in the commencement of the twentieth year; and she did preach unto them repentance and remission of sins. 

That's a verse I found in 3 Nefi 7 yesterday in my personal studies. Thought I'd share BECAUSE there it is! How the age 19 went and the age 20 commenced! 

This week was fantastic and it came to pass, oddly enough, that yesterday was the first day of my 20th year of this great life! I woke up to my companion singing very loudly ''ESTAS SON LAS MAÑANITAS'' And it was actually one of my favorite ways I've woken up ever on my birthday because this is a song that you are supposed to wake someone up with! And I didn't realize until she sang it in the context! There were even lots of birds chirping outside just like the song says. haha. 

And well, that's basically the sum up of the typical-things-you-do-on-a-birthday things I did. 

Yesterday was not a day of candles and wishes or songs and presents or cake and confetti, or (dare I say?) birthday pancakes! (sorry mom...) Nope. I woke up and thought, Hmmm I guess this is what 20 feels like, and we went running and studied and then the Zone Leaders called us to give us late notice about a zone conference we were going to have. So we went and it was a great meeting!!! 

The theme was DESIRES. And the difference between to want and to desire. 

I tried thinking of a time in my own experience when I truly desired something. And I kept thinking of my 3-year-old self when we were living in Idaho. ... I don't remember much besides hanging out with my big brothers and our neighbor and friends including Kaleb and his brother, and one day after school playing dead and being taught by them that you are dead when your tongue is sticking out of your mouth and you are laying on the ground in the formation of a jumping jack... and wow... that has nothing really do do with anything, but I just remembered about Idaho .. hmmm. 

ANYWAY, one of the things I really can remember is my desire for a pet dog. I remember sitting on the daper table and asking Mom about when we are going to have a dog, and I remember kneeling on the side of my bed with Mom and praying specifically for a dog and more than one time! I can't remember very much of it, but I remember it enough to remember that little girl of me had a BIG desire to have a dog. And after lots of prayer I think I convinced Heavenly Father (and well I guess Mom and Dad too) and He granted my desire a road trip later in the station wagon and white truck that we ate sandwiches on the back bumper in a supermarket parking lot (I just apparently opened a dusty memory box in my brain full of details). 

I walked out on the patio of our new California house to find A DOG in our backyard! OUR DOG!!! Already grown up and big with a name KAYLA and I remember I kept calling her Kaleb like our neighbor...haha 

Anyway, long story....told, here's the point of it. I know that Heavenly Father grants our desires if they are sincere desires. 

....And well, there's a whole novel you could probably omit from this whole email.. I just really am fond of that memory of getting our sweet German shepherd-collie dog, Kayla. 

Well, so we all know that if you really desire something, you have the necessary motivation to meet your goal. And if not, if the goal isn't a sincere desire, you won't be willing to pay the price to accomplish that goal. We can learn that from almost everyone in the scriptures. Yesterday I thought about Ammon (in the Book of Mormon, not my brother). And how he had to really convince Heavenly Father that his desire was to teach Lamoni, but he had to wait and even just serve the king for so long! But his desire was granted! 

Okay, well something we talked about in this meeting yesterday morning was how our desires are a result of what we think--our thoughts govern our real sincere desires. So we have to learn how to control our thoughts to produce our desires. 

Earlier this week, Presidente Obeso made aware to us that our mission hasn't been truly desirous to baptize. We set goals and then...they kind of don't happen. 

And it's because we didn't have that real desire. We just wanted to accomplish the goal, not desire to do it. And baptizing isn't for the numbers, it's really to help people be able to enter into the Kingdom of God and we can't just settle that we helped someone hear about God, we have to desire to help them enter!  SO, then I realized that it's true (obviously)! And there needs to be change! 

Hermana Laguna and I have set high goals and we realized that we really need to cultivate this desire so that we can convince Heavenly Father that we really desire it so that he can grant the desires. So yesterday we left that meeting, and ,determined to convince Heavenly Father, we worked. And, in the last 9 months, or I guess I could say, in the first half of my mission I have not been wasting my time here on my mission, no. Not at all, it's been full of real true work that I thank my Heavenly Father every day for, BUT with a conscious mind filled with desires and controlled thoughts focused on the desires, there is so much MORE to work! And there's so much MORE to real intent! 

I have never been filled with such ZEAL to go preach repentance and help others come unto Jesus Christ as I was yesterday! We walked with a desirous pace to find the people that Heavenly Father has prepared. We ate lunch as fast as we could and left. We met Inez, Carmen, Gloria, Samuel, Carol, Carina, Fabiola, Pamela, Vicente, Armin, Jose, Monica, María and Alberto who are all significantly interested in the gospel! We taught 17 lessons, chopped wood for an elderly couple we met (and have a cita), and one of our investigators we already had accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 31st! And we taught the Chaura-Catalan Family to finish the day. And it was very special to be with this family. I would tell you so many details about it all, but I already wasted my time telling you about Idaho details... LAME. But the point is, it was the greatest day of my entire mission! There was purpose in everything we did! We were truly cultivating our desires, and we were desirous to teach these people here in Francke. I didn't count how many people we met yesterday (we also met a lot that said no), but the Lord was more than gracious with the people that we found that are truly interested. There really is no joy more ''exquisite'' than how I feel when I am working as a missionary and to discover that there is even more is even better! 

We finished our last lesson of the day at 9:45 and were running home to make in before 10. We were so happy! We were almost in and our District Leader called and asked how our day was, and I said, ''Super bien!'' And then a dog came out of nowhere and started chasing us and tried to bite my leg and I screamed and dropped the phone. When I picked it up (the dog ran off and didn't end up biting me), our district leader was saying, ''Wow! I love your enthusiasm!!'' ...and then my companion explained that it was a dog. We got home and started our planning for Saturday and realized oops... it's P-day tomorrow! And in order to meet our goals for this week and also for the month we needed to get people to church and Sunday is tomorrow! So we decided to write earlier and cut our Pday short. So sorry family that I wrote so early, but it'll prove worth it! We have an appointment in half an hour with someone we met yesterday and

Ohps. that's fun. This computer just died and it took forever to get it back on... Thank goodness for autosave on gmail haha 

ANYWAY, my time is out, but really family, yesterday was the greatest way I've ever spent my birthday. I truly love this gospel and I cannot explain no matter how long or short my emailed words are how much I love spreading this gospel. After almost half of my mission, it is a grand desire of mine that I am just beginning to understand. 

Keep studying the scriptures and keep cultivating righteous desires! I love you all very much! Thank you for the happy birthday wishes and  thank you for being my family (and friends if there are other people reading this). 

I sure hope this week is fantastic for you all! My zeal is still burning so I gotta go!

With lots of love and lots of patience to read my long flabberdetailed emails sent your way, 

Hermana Olson

Oct 5, 2015 By the Power of Grayskull!

So many things can happen in a week! And so many things did happen, but today I want to be a little more simple. 

Last Sunday we had a ''Union Conference'' with Elder Ferreira from the Seventy because The Stake of Osorno and the District of La Union are going to unite as one stake!  It was really cool to arrive just in time to be a part of the expanding church in Chile. All the members are really excited. The work is coming forth among the children of (Chilean) men!  

Anyway, after the conference, Elder Romero from Nicaragua (one of the 4 elders I started the mission with) came up to greet me super excitedly and the first thing he said,

 ''Hermana!!! Es más gordita!'' 

Which is basically like the equivalent of, ''Hey! you're fat!'' 

Hahaha it was our first time seeing each other since the first day we got to Chile so apparently he hadn't seen my ''más gordita face'' for the whole mission haha. We both laughed and talked about the great experiences we've had so far in our separate parts of the mission. Then he showed me the pics of our first day in the plane and then I really did realize that I've gained weight so woopdeedoo! 

But it's alright. Hermana Laguna and I are trying to combat this hard thing called food. We have a mamita here, which means we eat with her every day except P day and Sunday. (Sundays we eat with the members.) And well, this ward just recently, 2 months ago, got sister missionaries for the first time in about 20 years and the mamita isn't used to the less amount of food sister missionaries eat (I never thought I would be one of those sister missionaries because I used to eat SO much before the mission, but now I just can't *teardrop) and she loads the food! And we've tried to talk to her about it, but that didn't work out very well because now she purposefully feeds us more... haha 

Hermana Laguna is taking a perscripted medicine every day that gives her nausea and so guess where half of her food ends up...

ON MY PLATE. 

But it's alright. We will figure something out so I don't feel like an about to errupt volcano after lunch. We've been running every single morning and boy do I love running! It makes you feel so good! Also we are exercising self-control when we can with things like Peanut butter and....peanut butter....and peanut butter. I just don't buy it because I can literally eat that stuff by the spoon. You all know that. And actually I had resisted from buying it my entire mission, but there was a whole jar of it here in this house when I showed up. 

Anyway, so that's a fun project that we are working on... Next week I'll be hitting my half mission mark of the mission. 9 months! ...and it looks like I won't have to fake a baby bump. haha

Well enough about the unmission part of my missionary email. 

This week we were waiting for the busy street to clear up so that we could cross, and Hermana Laguna just got fed up and said, ''This is what we have to do.'' And she just walked out in the middle and put out her hand for all the cars to stop. And they stopped and we walked across. ... We usually use this analogy of the difference between a normal person and a policeman stopping and directing traffic to help the investigators understand Authority. And so I, laughing, called out to her, ''And with what authority?'' and she turned around with a smirk on her face and said, ''Por el poder de Grayskull.'' 

And I stopped in my tracks. ...and then skidaddled until I got out of the middle of the stopped cars. And then said, ''DID YOU JUST SAY BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL?!'' and I freaked out because my Peruvian mission companion had just quoted HE-MAN in the most opportune moment of ever in my life. And in Spanish! So that has been our new motivational ''You can do it.'' phrase. It's awesome. Hermana Laguna is so funny. 

Hermana Laguna and I have set some very good goals for this excellent month of October. We have some great investigators and decided that we want to set our goals high and really put in our all. Por el poder de Grayskull! 

We decided to be the best that we possibly can in every aspect of the missionary work and put the test to Heavenly Father and just say Come what may!.

Earlier this week, we went to an appointment of a new investigator named Sonia. When she opened her door she called out to us to enter, but called out from the crack of her door. I didn't understand why until we opened the fence to walk across the yard to the door and two dogs came running out of nowhere and bit my leg. But we had planned very well for this appointment because we saw a lot of potential with her so we got in the door and sat down, taught the lesson, and she's getting baptized on the 24th! And as far as my leg.. #PerksOfBeingTheNurse'sCompanion. Everything is alright now. 

This conference was just absolutely amazing. Sonia came with us! Each talk was like pulling out another present from under the Christmas tree. This time I really did go with set questions to be answered and I received ALL of the answers in the very first session! So I had to figure out what more I could ask. Heavenly Father is so loving and wise. I love the revelation that these servants received from him so that I could receive my own personal revelation. Oh General Conference was so special!!! It was also pretty neat to think that we were all doing the same thing in the same moment. I sure love you, family of mine! I love hearing that you have the Olson tradition continuing strong! :)

We watched it in the stake center too. Presidente Obeso is in my stake! haha he came up to me after and seeing that I had watched it in Spanish, and gave me a big thumbs up. I seriously love my mission president.

Alrighty. I have to go. I know there are a lot of things that I was going to tell you, but I can't remember in the last moments. It's pouring POURING right now. I love the rain and the sun. 

I love you all! Happy Birthday Jacob! 

Hermana Olson

Here's a picture Elder Romero took at the beginning of our mission

Here's a picture of Hermana Laguna and I on a bus today.

This is the garden in my front yard.  Look!  I have Calla lilies! Just like at home.