May 30, 2016 Contamination and Contageation

HELLO! What a strange word. 

Today I struggled singing Happy Birthday in English. That is the easiest song known to English man, and I could not remember the words nor the nonsequencical sequence. Wo is me. 

My companion taught me how to make an Argentinan plate today. It's called Polenta. While it was cooking I secretly threw in a few blocks of cow cheese to make it interesting. While it is hot, the texture is like unto what I would imagine eating caterpillar eggs in goo. And then when it cools down a bit, it hardens into a texture that is equivalent to Malt-o-meal. The cheese was a good surprise for my companion, and a happy addition to the yums. Needless to say, I am writing you all with a very satisfied guatita (that's how you say stomach here in Chile). 

This week we ended up not running everywhere because apparently it is now apparently banned to do any physical activity in the little city of Osorno between 7 pm and 7 am. And it makes sense because as much as you would be living the Word of Wisdom you would be breaking it simultaneously by inhaling smoke. There is now, every day without fail, a dense fog of smoke that sets in around 6 or 7. On the less moistureful days you can't see more than 10 feet in front! We've been walking around looking like bandits trying to breath haha. The cold is setting in, so the smoke is from the little toasty evening fires everyone makes in their homes and also because Volcán Osorno is going to blow. Thus after being halted in mid run by city officials and informed of the interesting climate, we have eased into a gentle determined walk from place to place. :) 

A little less than a month ago, we put on a ward activity that had a grand total attendance of 3 people... It was a hit! But over these last 3 weeks we combined forces more united with the Elders in our ward to animate all the members to come to a super duper awesome activity that ended up not coming together very well up until the very last hour beforehand....because sometimes that's just how the cookie crumbles in mission time. BUT THE ACTIVITY WAS INDEED AWESOME. The propaganda was easy because we only had to let them know that they were invited to a free plane ticket to New York!!!!! And it called the attention of a lot of people. We created a false airplane and it was actually really really airplaney. The elders were the pilots and we even had a projected front window of footage of taking off and the aerial view of a New York evening. Hermana Serrano and I were the flight attendants and we served food on a little roller table while they watched Meet the Momons. Haha a lot of the members thought it was just a unique way to do a movie night, but lo and behold little did they expect, for WE HIT TURBULANCE. It was awesome. Everyone screamed and had a good time and then we told them they all died. Then we went to the spirit world and told them to watch how they spent their life, we had games for them to play it was a blast. While they played they got tickets and after a little while, our papito Jorge started selling sopaipillas and other goods for the price of a few tickets. Everyone had fun playing and eating. And then all of a sudden the movie (of their life) ended and we had a judgement to see how many tickets they still had. And those that ''gave into the temptations'' or spent it all on food didn't have a lot left over. We divided them all up in the reinos de gloria. And it ended up as a fun shocker and rather espiritual experience for everyone. 

I don't really need to get into as much detail as I already have... but Esteban came to the activity and the elders had an investigator too and the ward did a fantastic job fellowshipping and having fun with them all! In total about 35 people came!!! It was amazing. 

Yesterday we were setting baptism and church attendance of investigators goals for the month of June with the Bishop. He asked us not to set such high goals because he wanted to focus on healing the ward first. My companion and I were able to testify of the healing purpose of missionary work and that the ward will only heal itself through losing itself in the service of God and fellow brethren! He lit up as the spirit confirmed this ever truthful....truth! He told us that all day throughout the church meetings he overheard the members talking with each other of how special the activity was the night before and sharing their experiences as they explained things to the investigators and so on. It was neat because the bishop wasn't able to go because of his studies, but he was able to feel enthusiasm for the work by seeing the little difference it had already made in the ward! We set good goals and we are all excited for the month to roll on over. 

MISSIONARY WORK IS CONTAGIOUS. I know you are all fantastic missionaries :) Keep on the look out for not only ways to share the gospel, but also ways to help others to share the gospel! 

Hermana Olson

P.S. I love you. 

Pictures: Fishing rods we made for some of the games. We had no supplies, so I made like a pioneer lass and collected discarded branches off the street while my companion unraveled one of her knitted beanies... haha there are many similar shenanigans in the last minute making of this activity hahaha

Our flight attendant costumes consisted of tissue paper...and tissue paper :) Also the ramitas are in the picture because right before the plane hit turbulence I was a little out of the loop and started serving ramitas...and so while my companion was screaming, ''PUT YOUR MASKS ON!'' I just played the part and screamed, ''EAT YOUR LAST PUÑAZO OF RAMITAS BEFORE YOU DIE!'' Everyone supposedly died with a happy guatita. 

There is a strange alien landing flat hill we have in our area that has a sun dial the size of a spaceship. It's how the aliens know the time of earth... 

Anyway it's a look out point for Volcan Osorno, but you can't see the volcano because the camera doesn't pick up the white against the white sky.... 

That's a my perch rock :)

And, my polenta

Here's my district

May 23, 2016 Now

Yesterday we taught about families eternals in our Gospel Principles class. We put everyone in an imaginary airplane then made imaginary turbulence and then imaginary imminent death probability. Then we all imaginarily died. Oh. But I forgot. We all gave them real papelitos and pens to write their last words to their families. They all thought really hard, some of them were tearing up as they wrote a few words. 

Then we crashed. And those little papers....well they were papers. They didn't make it to the families. What a bummer of all bummers!

Then we introduced the principle of eternal families. Have you ever put yourself in that imaginary process of a plane crash? It might seem like a harsh thought process or perhaps a very real brainstorm with turbulences of unreal or maybe just mysterious consequences. 

But have hope. Because life goes on, and what's more? If we follow Jesus Christ, WE go on. There are no last words to the family. Thanks for following Jesus. We are an eternal family. 

Lots of times people count on ''the last words'' to be remarkable and unforgettable. And it's alright if it's like that. But yesterday I learned something as I really thought what would me ''my last words'' to my family if this imaginary case really were the case? And let me tell ya...I was quite surprised to find that it was something so simple that you all already know:

I left the iron on when I left. 

haha no. That just came into my mind. I don't even use the iron! 

To be honest I don't remember the exact 15 words or so I wrote, but it was my simple testimony that I know that Jesus Christ lives. And an obvious ''I love you.'' I encouraged you all to keep on. I'm tellin you! It was so simple! And everything I wrote, you already knew. I was rather surprised. But I realized a very comforting something; I haven't delayed to express my love to you and neither have I hesitated to share my testimony with you. We are in the eternities now, and that's why it's important to live the gospel now, love each other now, enjoy now. So that when the now turns into the after-''the-last-words'' part of our life, we will all calmly realize that we are still in the now and we´ll keep living this happy life that we created together. 

If there is anything I treasure more in this life, it is you, my eternal family. My corny dad, my spunky mom, my stud big slave master brother Jarom, my other loving example big brother Jacob, my big bud long armed brother Seth, Mepo, my little big brother to lean on Ammon, my happy thoughts John, my tender hearted beastly brother Daniel, and my baby brother to laugh with in the hallway Samuel. All the amazing ancestors that came before this family unit and all the amazing posterity to follow después. 

This family is our treasure we have for heaven. You are who I take with me from this life. I love you all! Keep enjoying the life. I guess the reality of the now is that pretty soon I'll be there to enjoy it with you. 

Here in the mission, when someone is finishing, everyone says that the companion of that someone is there to kill them...or basically they are their companion when they ''die.'' Well, last Monday I finally admitted to my companion my inner desire to kill her as I started running to our appointment that we were late to. (Well, not from hatred or frustration no no no!) I want her to be so wiped ready to go home after this last stretch with me. She got so pumped up and excited and said passing me up in the run, ''Nope, I'm going to kill you!'' And Well...to put it shortly..er because I'm basically out of time, we started running to our appointment and this entire week we have literally been running from house to house (obviously with a few pauses to digest lunch and also contact a few more people). We are dying, but it's so fun!!!! Hermana Serrano is the greatest. I'm so happy to die with her :) 

This is probably the trunkiest email I have ever written . . . dot dot dot. 

I have decided to forget about the after. I am giving my all right now and the after will be the after when it is the now so for now the after will just stay as the after :) Woo! Gotta go! Catch yáll next week!                                                           
                                                                     Hermana Olson

P.S. I already hafta go so I won't be able to respond to your emails until next week. But I'm excited to read them! Thanks for the love! I love you all! 

P.S.S. Nichole and Sara! I love you too! WOOOO seesters. 

May 2, 2016 And God Saw that it was Good, and it was So.

Hey there family. 

This week was great. The progress here is slow but steady. According to my tortoise calculations, it´s a good pace. Our endurance is patient and full of hope. 

Yesterday, I went adventuring in the creation of the world. I read the well-known thirty verses or so of the first chapter of Genesis, where God creates the skies and the waters, the fish and the birds, the flowers and the mountains, the universe and the man. It's not a very detailed account, though I know it had to have been a marvelous and complex occurrence of everything coming together the way God made it to be. Many times the series of events began with God commanding tal acción, and ended with two repeated phrases : one being,''and it was so,'' and the other saying, ''and God saw that it was good.''  I realized the beauty of life and all that we have is the alignment of obedience and love. I imagined the earth combining in perfect subjection to his hand and a masterful nod of the head as he approved each piece. I thought of all the creations, whether great and magnificent or simple and sweet, that are or have been a part of my experience here on earth. What better way to feel God's love than to appreciate all that is good and savor all that was made by Him, the Creator of our world? What better motivation could there be to obey His will and keep His commandments? He loves us so purely. He wants us to enjoy our time here. He also expects us to do our part in his creation just as all the elements have. He knows we aren't perfect, so he has even created a way for each one of us to overcome and become. He has the whole world in his hands. Think about that. Smile. Be better. Pick some dandelions and give someone a hug. Now I'll take off my tie-dye bell bottoms and daisy crown and give you a update-ito of the week. :)

Hermana Serrano and I are still loving our time together. We had a very busy week as always, but this time it included loading, chopping, and stacking winter....or wood. :) It's a good cultural adventure. The truck comes by, dumps it all on your front lawn, you pay the people, then realize you can't leave your front door or the back...hahaha so you go super power team work with your chileno papito to stack it all before lunch! We made some wood angel's while we were at it! Hahaha. It was fun. I'll have to send some pictures of it next week. Lots of wood = lots of warmth = happy winter. 

We had two intercambios this week. One with an hermana from Brazil and another with an hermana from Chile. They were fun as always. It's always a cool experience for me to see how the mission really is an individual experience and the Lord gives us all individual gifts to develop and put to use to bring about everything he needs. 

On Friday, we passed by the office to pick up something for an hermana. Presidente called us in and told us there was a woman named Jaqueline in a nearby hotel reception desk that was anxiously waiting for the Book of Mormon. So we went on over. We walked in the hotel, up to the desk to find Jaqueline, and very excitedly introduced ourselves and placed the book of Mormon in front of her saying, ''Here´s the book you were waiting for!'' She looked at us a little confused, yet pleasantly overcome with curiosity. Turns out she wasn't waiting for a Book of Mormon at all! Or so she thought... After she said, ''I have no idea what you are talking about....but what is it?'' we simply explained it was another testament of Jesus Christ that helps us come closer to Him. We shared Moroni´s promise. She was so excited! She gave us her number. She asked us if she could meet up at the church so we could teach her more. We called the elders from Centro and put a cita. Pretty nifty tactic President had there :) 

He didn't lie though. She was in fact waiting for that book, just as all are. 

All in all. The mission keeps being awesome just as it was made to be. It's nice to know that before everything was made, God saw that it was good. I trust in that and I trust in Him.

Pues, I love you. I'll see you on Sunday. 

Su hermanita misionerita chilenita, 

Hermana Olson

April 25, 2016 Torres de Paine pictures--Finally!

An hermana that served in Punta Arenas with me and went home sent me a few pictures that she had taken a long time ago in that farther off land :)   (My camera battery died that day.)

Enjoy! 

Hermana Olson

April 18, 2016 Carpool Tunnel and Spiders

Hi family! 

This will probably be the shortest email I write. When I was in Punta Arenas, the cold caused an arthritic carpool tunnel (I know that's not how it is spelled, I just like saying it that way :)) in my right wrist, and so any time it gets ''cold to the bone'' outside, my hand locks up and the most functioning dedo is my pointer. Writing in my journal was pretty tough, so I started writing in left hand, thus, thanks to the mission, I'm practically ambidextrous.

Anyway, it's pretty chilly here in Chile and I didn't wear a coat to centro.... and my left hand and pointer finger are doing all the work. Therefore, short(er) email.

This week was a blast, as always with Hermana Segura. She'll be going home on Wednesday. That's odd! I'll miss her. Up until now I still don't know who my new companion will be. We had two more intercambios this week. One of them was with Hermana Hull, from Santa María California. She's been in Chile for a month and is the granddaughter of Hermana Segura (her daughter's daughter, or the missionary that she trained is training.) It was really fun and we ran into two very peculiar men in separate instances haha I'll try to connect videos instead of trying to type out an explication. 

Then on Saturday we went to Purranque, a town an hour away from Osorno because an hermana had been sick all week and they had stayed in the house, so we went after lunch so one of us could stay home with the sicky (I say that with all the love of my heart) and the other companion could go out and get some work done in her neglected sector. It was neat to see how the Lord takes care of the work in the mean time because the few appointments we went to the investigators finally decided to be baptized and with lots of animo! 

Rahue has a ton of spiders! We were showing our mamita a picture of some of the spiders the other day and our papito freaked out and said, ''THOSE ARE THE SPIDERS YOU KILL EVERYDAY??!!'' We said, ''Pues...yes.'' And well, we found out that all those spiders that live in our house are called Rincón. 

(Mom's note: the most dangerous brown recluse, according to Wikipedia).  They hide in clothes, shoes, corners, couches, blankets, pillows. And if they bite you, their venom goes straight to your kidneys, they shut down, and you die in 8 hours. In the month I carry being here in Rahue, I've seen 3 deaths on the news from these spiders. Little did I know we were LIVING IN A NEST OF THEM. So these past few days, we've raided our adorable little house to the maxcore (as 14yearold Ammon would say). So that's fun. 

Hermana Segura goes home this week! That's so weird. ...I think I already wrote about this part. Yeah I did. 

I'm drawing blanks. Too much happens in a week. haha 

I love you all! 

Oh! Last night we called Francke and Hermana Gardner told me that yesterday Victor got set apart as the Young Men's President and Juan Carlos as his first counselor!!!!! QUE FELICIDAD!!! 

What's even greater is that yeeeeaaarrs ago, Victor and Juan Carlos were devout Catholic priest buddies. And now they are working together in the Francke ward. AH! 

That's all I got for now. I'll try to send some pics. They are just going to be really random. If you want an explication ask me and I'll respond next week. :) 

Glad to hear everything is so great! Happy April 17th yesterday! :)

Love,

Hermana Olson

P.S. I love snail mail. If any of you would like to write me, hit me:

Casilla 7-0 

Region X

Osorno 

Chile

April 11 2016 It's All Just a Wave of Motion

Hey family! 

Well, there are a bazillion things I could tell you as always. This morning I was looking through my journal to make a few bullet points of the happenings of the week for to tell you. And well, I was pleasantly surprised to read a short entry that I apparently wrote very exhausted because I don't even remember writing it! It captures the week pretty well, so I just opted out of the bullet points and decided to send you this instead:

''Jueves, 7 abril 2016

Okay so today passed by very fast and also very slow. I feel like we did nothing, but we did more than I can fit in this tired brain of mine. This day seems like it started a year ago, but I can't believe it's already over! We were so tired and exhausted, but we had so much ánimo!! 

And well it all ended watching a caterpillar crawl. 

It's like a wave of motion. 

Then he threw up on me. It was like acid. So I threw him at the nearby sapling. 

And now I'm still tired and want to sleep so I'm not tempted to eat peanuts.''

And there you have it: a day in the work, or a week in the work, or a year and 3 months in the work. 

The time passes so slowly but it is passing faster than ever. We are so calm though. We feel great and we are absolutely loving the work! We worked harder than ever and it was such a satisfying exhaustion. On Saturday night we realized that we hadn't accomplished very much as far as the numbers, and that none of the people we had found this week nor the others we had visited would be able to go to church. We stopped by an investigator in the morning, and she didn't answer, so we got to church just in time for the reunion to start. As we walked in we noticed some 'unfamiliar'-familiar faces and counted 14 investigadores, conversos recientes, and menos activos that had come to church, and the majority of them we hadn't even been able to visit this week! I don't know if this was said in General Conference or anything, but what kept hitting my mind was this statement; ''The beauty of the gospel is that Heavenly Father still blesses us even when we don't achieve all that we would've wanted.'' I feel like that was said in General Conference. I don't remember. I didn't watch it in English. But either way, it's the Spirit because it's true! It's not profound or anything, but it's true. 

We just have to do our best and then a little more and Heavenly Father blesses us. This week we got the lowest numbers I've ever had in my entire mission. But I feel great! Because I know we are doing what needs to be done and there is so much visible success yet on its way!

My companion is already on her last week! Her whole body aches and sometimes we walk with our eyes only a slit open so we can take conscious naps on the streets. She's putting in her all and we literally enjoy every single moment. It's been a pretty cool experience. Much is going to happen this week. Woop woop. 

And I'll end here because my brain has clicked into the ''lets-tell-the-world-every-detailed-thought-of-everything'' state. So I think it's a good time to sign off before all that hubbub is unloosed :) 

I love you all. I absolutely love being a missionary.

Hermana Olson

April 4, 2016 Calmate y Tomate un Mate (Be calm and drink mate)

First things first! Shout out to Paul, Randy, and Anthony Inckley! That was pretty cool to see some famous friends singing in conference. #itsasmallworldafteryouarebaptizedandgotocollegeandgoonamission

Rahue has so many spiders. They are pretty freaky looking and everywhere. My companion buys a can of raid almost every Monday and when we leave to work, she usually spots about 3 new spiders every day on our porch. It's an entertaining way to walk out of the house after your companion spots a spider and it happens every day! 

Something Hermana Segura realized this week is how simply pathetic my life is in my chances of the ''what are the chances'' type of happenings happen. For example, yesterday. I was sitting in the chapel of the stake center watching conference right next to a curtain. After a little while, I turned my head a slight .5 degree angle to see a big giant black spider .5 centimeters from my eyelash. (Yes that close) And it didn't startle that bad just thought it was interesting so I tapped my companion and pointed to the spider, and as I turn my head back to look at it, IT LEAPED ONTO ME!!!! 

Then I was startled. 

And I flailed (tal como Eskeleto de Nacho Libre when Nacho launches an stick to his back) and I flew to the floor in between the pews... I didn't exactly anticipate to react that way, but I did and I was thoroughly embarrassed. Thoroughly because my companion couldn't stop laughing for a whole 15 minutes and if there is anything I don't like is calling the attention of faithful Chilean saints listening to an apostle speak! It was a funny though. I don't know where the spider went...I wouldn't be surprised if I swallowed it in my silent gasp of fright. 

Whatever. 

I had intercambios with Hermana Rojas from Argentina on Tuesday. She just started her mission and lives in a tiny little house that gets very cold so she wanted to learn to chop wood and make a fire. It was so fun. She got the hang of it pretty fast. Hermana Segura has been wanting to learn for the last 3 weeks so she got friendlily frustrated that I didn't take the time to show her before. The next two nights we got back late and didn't have time to chop more so we just used what we had ya chopped. I came down with a malicious cold so I after planning I laid down and my companion brought up a nice toasty fire! It was the first one she made and she just made it! That was pretty cool. A few days later, we were on intercambios and she wanted to make a fire so she just went outside and tried it out. I came back and later that night she just pulled out the ax and said, watch this. And she is a beast a chopping wood. I was pretty impressed. Mostly because her entire motive of hacking it so hard and powerfully is because she's afraid of the spiders that are looming over her and in the wood. While she chops the wood, she doesn't pick it up off the ground with her hands because she doesn't want to touch the spiders, so she literally hacks the ax into it to pick it up. It's hilarious and quite impressive. Then she walks in the house with her pile of chopped wood and makes a fire in a jiffy. She always says, ''They call me the fire God.'' haha when really she's the only person that has said that. But if we weren't Mormons, I would in fact consider her a fire God. She has a gift. I’m a proud companion :) 

Well despite I was overcome with the most tedious colds of all colds, this week was indeed a BLAST. I wish you could all see Hermana Segura and me walking down the street. We pass all the days laughing and laughing and laughing. That's something I really like about Hermana Segura she knows how to laugh. She and I have got a similar sense of humor and unique wittiness-es that complement the humor of the other, and if they don't, well we just laugh at the nonsense of the thought. We just have fun hanging out 24/7. It's a good thing. 

On Saturday, Claudia got baptized! The service was so simple. She was so happy. It was a special conclusion to the first half of conference. I wonder what her experience was of not being a member for half of conference and a member for the second. Would she receive different revelations? That's neat.

I also had the greatest privilege of going on an intercambio with the one and only Hermana Gardner in Francke nuevamente!!!

We were so excited when we started our way from Francke on over to our little area. We stepped off that bus and I was overcome with an incredible feeling of gratitude for Heavenly Father giving me the opportunity to step foot in my old area once again with my same companion and work one more day there. We both felt so normal being back together. Three weeks difference has made us different, but we had both progressed in our knowledge and experience as missionaries so we had the same sociability between us. We got there later than most intercambios start, at 5, so I really only had 4 hours of work in that sector. We just walked the streets, contacted people, and kept the work going just like we used to. I was surprised by the lack of anxiety to go see everyone I loved. It was just another day in the missionary field of Francke. I realized the greatest part of Francke really was Hermana Gardner. We passed by Claudio's salchipapa stand, he's engaged!!

Then we taught a new investigator she and her companion found. Victor came and taught with us. He testified of Joseph Smith and the importance of a prophet. That was a very special experience seeing how the spirit really is the teacher. Victor is an excellent missionary. He was more than thrilled for general conference. Going to Francke was one of the greatest blessings of my mission. There would be much to say, but my experience there gives me such peace for the future to come. The way I worked my 6 months there, the way I left feeling I had done what I needed, the people I knew, the person I became, the opportunity to come back was just another cherry on the top. I saw how my little compañera nuevita was now a fully independent servant of the Lord`s vineyard and was taking care of that place very well with her new companion. Now she is the nurse’s companion just as I had been right before. Pretty neat the circle of life. The way things go. It's all just an eternal round of perfection if we try to live God's plan and do his will. 

We stopped by the fruteria to say hello to Jaqueline and Maria, who we used to visit almost every other day.  They are still teaching them.

As far as general conference goes.....just don't forget it. We set up a lot of chairs hoping for great attendance.

I love you family. Abound in good works and let me know how life gets to treating ya. 

Hermana Olson