This week we harvested
and plowed more! It sure is a treasure being a missionary. You get front row
seats of the purposes of God bringing brought forth (ha....wow. I am 78%
positive that ''bringing brought forth'' is not a grammatically existing group
of words. But maybe you'll get the idea of what my Castellano influenced brain
is sending English signals to say?) OH *BEING brought to pass!!! (There does
that have more reason?) So yes. As a missionary you get the front row seats of
God's purposes being brought to pass. And well, naturally, there is opposition
in ALL things because, if not, ''wherefore, all things must have vanished
away.'' And what is the opposition of the purposes of God? The purposes of the
devil. God plans to bring about liberty and eternal life of man. The devil
seeks to bring about captivity and DEATH. ''for he seeketh that all men might
be miserable like unto himself.'' Hence, the front row seats of the battle is a
little better explained as the front line of defense. And as a missionary, you
are called to be a defender of righteousness! And frankly, it’s a bittersweet
experience-- super bitter, overtriumphingly sweet. And I'll tell you why. It's
simple: Jesus Christ has overcome the world.
We have a family we
are teaching that have been investigating the church for 9 years. They lack the
marriage part (just like basically everyone else in Chile). Out of these 9
years they have tried getting married twice. And it seems like they have
experienced perfectly well the opposition part in the marriage thing. The first
time they tried getting married, they chose 2 of their best friends to witness
and the day before both of their friends died. Then a few years later they got
up the courage to try to get married again with a couple they knew as the
witnesses, but due to certain complications, this couple ended up divorcing a
week before! And well after that, they figured it wasn't worth it to get
married and continued investigating and pushing back the date to get married.
Okay well I don't want to go into too much detail here, basically last Sunday,
a miracle happened! We taught them a normal lesson, decided we wouldn't talk to
them about marriage and after the prayer they just looked at each other and
said, ''We need to get married.'' With a pause. They looked at us and one of
them said, '' This week.''
WHAAAT??!!!
They had put a
''definitive'' date in December, but WOW now they just decided to do it NOW!
And they felt so relieved! So she went into the Registro Civil a few days later
to set the appointment only to find out that Registro Civil went on strike THAT
DAY. And it's a nation-wide strike. So now they are just....waiting.
And of course...the
devil squeezed his way into the situation a little more.
On Wednesday we went
by to teach Sonia (she's getting baptized the 24th) in the house of this family
because she is the mother of the wife. She doesn't live there, but she was
there. Anyway, we taught the lesson everything was great and we went on with
our day. A little later, it started to rain, and we realized we forgot our
umbrellas in their house.
We didn´t have to go
back because we were on the other side of the sector, so we just went on with
the day and returned back right before heading home. When we knocked on the
door, it was opened to a very chaotic situation going on between Sonia and the
family. I won't explain all of it, but they were arguing for a long time until
my companion and I finally asked them to take a break. We talked to them about
the importance of the Spirit in the home and the necessity of love and unity
inside a family. They were very hotheaded and the only thing that came to my
mind was one of Mom's old tricks.
I asked them to all
sit down and said, ''We are all going to sing I am a Child of God until we love
each other again.''
They were reluctant,
but their little 3 and 6 year old helped it move along. And just like little
Annamarie used to, with my grumpy hot head face, they all mumbled the first
verse.. and then warmed up (or a guess you could say cooled down) a bit on the
2nd verse and by the 3rd, we were all laughing pretty hard. Afterwards, we
knelt in a circle and had a family prayer, then my companion and I grabbed
the umbrella and left.
Yesterday we met with
that family again and they were all cheerful! They told us they can feel the
Spirit in their home and it has been the best few days that they have been in
the same house together!
Heavenly Father knows
his children and wants us to be happy especially in our
families. Satan on the other hand delights in the contention in the home. And,
obviously, Heavenly Father knows that and sees it fit to allow two missionaries
get soaked in the rain because they ''inconveniently'' forgot their umbrella in
order to help a family come together and stay together.
''Now ye may suppose
that this is foolishness in me, but behold I say unto you, that by small and
simple things are great things brought to pass; and by small means in many
instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by means to bring
about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth
confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.'' Alma 37 6 y
7
The strike hasn't
ended, but it will. Heavenly Father knows what is happening. They plan to be
baptized the 31st. I'm so excited for them and for the difference the gospel is
making in their family.
Other things:
We went into centro
this morning to find a woman named Yolanda we had contacted last P-day in her
shop. But her shop was closed, so we decided to get a little bit of shopping
done and come back. When we returned the shop was still closed. So we decided
to just get on a bus and go back home. As I was stepping on the bus with my 350
pesos in hand ready to pass to the driver, out of the bus crowd and right
towards us walks Yolanda! She recognized us so we just followed her off and
walked with her up to her shop. All the while thinking, ''Wow! How neat that we
found her just in time!'' We got to the shop and talked to her more only to be
kindly rejected to share more of our message. So we walked back to the bus stop
wondering why she was put in our path seemingly just in the nick of time only
to not have any interest...
We got on another bus
and started our way back home. About 5 minutes down the road we hit a bunch of
random traffic. Little by little we inched forward until we saw the cause of
the backup. A collection of ambulances were blocking half of the road because
they were surrounding a bus that had driven off the road and run right into a
giant tree, dividing the bus right down the middle! As we got closer my
companion and I realized it was the exact bus we nearly boarded, the one
Yolanda came off of. The one I STEPPED on! There were many people injured and I
have never seen such an accident in person. We're both still in shock and all I
can feel is true gratitude with the mysterious ways of God.
And other things:
I stubbed my pinky toe
a few days ago and when I got home at the end of the day my whole shoe was full
of crusty dried blood! Apparently my eensy teensy toenail came off. FOR ONCE A
STUBBED TOE DEMONSTRATES THE PAIN ONE FEELS INSIDE!
Also I have officially
forgotten how to pronounce my last name. I didn't realize until I noticed my
companion correcting everyone including myself on the pronunciation of my last
name. I just say yes to whatever pronunciation that people make because I don't
know. BUT IT'S NOT EVEN A HARD NAME!
So this is where it is
right now ''OHLSONE'' But sometimes I wonder if it is ''ALLSUN'' or ''OHLSEN''
???? To be frank, I can only solidly remember Dad's pronunciations of OLTZEN
with a ''t'' ...but I don't think the rest of us said it that way, right? And I
get embarrassed inside when people ask me how I say it and then I say it and
then my companion says, ...but you said it was this way...
FOR GOODNESS SAKE SOMEONE
SEND ME A RECORDING OR SOMETHING! THIS ISN'T RIGHT.
Last night Hermana
Laguna got really scared all of a sudden, basically to the point of tears and
asked if we could sing a hymn. ...and said of course, but asked her why? She
was very hesitant but finally confessed that I look like an older version of
the girl from ''the Exorcist'' and sometimes it freaks her out. And welp, she
woke up this morning and said she had nightmares.
GREAT.
The other day Hermana
Laguna asked me if I knew how to speak alien and I said NO. Why? She said I'm
always singing a strange alien sounding song. And she imitated what she could
remember from it and I almost died laughing.
Apparently I sing that
Finnish Gibberish song that you using in your nose and it's like Hainahnomehenunuooojainumanumanmahnainai
that we sang in Carnegie Hall my senior year. I had no idea! But she brought it
to my attention hahaha. After I told her what it was she laughed and now we
both do it :) hahah
....maybe this didn’t
help too well with the whole I'm a scary person to live with because of my
face. hahaha
Last week I got a call
from the office saying that my suitcase that traveled by land arrived! I was
rather surprised that it arrived on time and thought it was too good to be
true. And well.. it was! haha The purple suitcase that arrived wasn’t my purple
suitcase. So we had fun calling around the mission to see where it could be. It
had gone north. So I think maybe some point soon I should be getting it. The
office told me they never have problems with suitcases and every
problem of the matter
just seems to magnetize to me. hahaha I told them not to worry, I probably just
should plan on coming home with a carry on. ;) Wouldn't that be nice!
Ooh! What DID work out
though was the package!!!! I got the birthday package mom!!! Okay well it
didn't get her on time, but it go here! And on Tuesday the 13th (here in Chile
it's basically the same thing as Friday the 13th) and JUST in time for my
9monthiversarry! And WOW! Honestly, getting just letters was the greatest thing
I could get in my package! Thank you so much family. Reading your silly and
heartfelt letters really was special experience for this faraway missionary. I
really felt like you were all here with me for a brief moment. I sure love you.
AND MOM THANK YOU FOR THE SLIPPERS! hahah Normal Annamarie would have thought
how random! But they were exactly what I was needing! I actually had plans to
buy some today, because it is freezing to walk in bare feet! And whoosh just in
time, I get them from my amazing mom. Thank you!
Oh yeah so I completed
9 months in the mission on the 14th. How odd. Half of my mission is in the
yesterday and the other half on its way. Sometimes I get scared for the end of
things or the stress of being more than what you are now... I really imagined
the half point of my missionary self...different. But I guess it is how it is
and the is keeps going. That's so dreary sounding and probably has no sense to
anyone outside the Annamarie mind, but life is in the present tense because
this life is a gift ...a present. So yep. Here's to a marvelous 9 months
MORE!
And UM! WOW! Happy
Wedding Jacob and Sara!!!!!!
Ooh how I wish I could
be there! I sure am excited for you two! I hope everything goes fantastic! And
Sara, welcome to the family.
Nichole and I are
thrilled to have another sister. You have no idea how long I have waited for
sisters! .....okay well maybe like 20 years, but I look forward to the rest of
eternity with you!!! I hope your special day is super!
AMMON! I can't believe
you are coming so close to THE TIME! Enjoy your family time. Obviously you’ll
have plenty of it in a nice road trip to the wedding. I seriously cannot wait
to be in the field with you. Too bad we won't be companions like we used to
hope :) But we got the next best thing. 8 months of missionary life at the same
time. I can't wait!
OH HEY: So in the craziness
that this week might be for all of you, I was thinking it would be fun to all
have one scripture to ''meditizar'' (I don't know what the made up word was in English)
for the next week to do together! Next week let me know what scripture you
decide!
And well... I am going
to go. ... So much for more organized thoughts to make for a shorter
email....
I love you all. And I
love this Osorno world!
Good luck with all the
events and love each other because I love you all!
Your trusty
too-long-letter missionary,
Hermana Olson
So I was going to send
pictures, but next week. The time has come to work.
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