November 22, 2010
Hello mother and family. How are you all doing? Let me know when you get this letter so I can know how long it took to send to the USA. OK? Sweet! So I'm here in Bolivia and yes it's super crazy poor! I'm here in Riberalta, which is ghetto poor, about 2 hour from Santa Cruz by plane. I'm in the jungle literally it's the Amazon here. Like monkey's, tigers, gorillas. All sorts of crazy animals. And right in front of the jungle is the Beni River. It's pretty huge. It flows from Peru and Brazil. There are crocodiles and pirannas in there too. Pretty gnarley! Well, I had my first baptism 2 days ago it was amazing. I baptized two little brothers named ENRIQUE LIMPIAS MUELLER and DANIEL LIMPIAS MUELLER ages 8 & 9 and my comp Elder Navarro baptized a 14-year-old girl names THEODORA MACHICADO CALLE. They all went really well! Bolivia is pretty crazy and it’s super hard to adjust to this culture/lifestyle because of me coming from such a rich country which has everything, literally everything you need. Trust me, we Americans are extremely blessed and lucky, people here are so, so poor. Some children don’t even have clothes and all the teenagers are either pregnant or have a baby and it’s crazy. They all breast feed no matter where their at. If their child is hungry they whip it out. Like in the middle of a bank or a big group of people, and even in church it’s definitely a lot different than the states. Nobody has teeth or if they do they’re all chipped and rotted. They don’t shower, they only wear sandals and their feet look like dead road kill and bugs crawl up and down them so yes it’s definitely not Utah! But I’m adjusting. The people are extremely humble and everyone loves talking about God. We teach so many lessons a day! Basically everyone we talk to lets us in! The juice here is so dang good. It’s all freshly squeezed and wow it’s good. As well as the ice cream. There’s no freezers so they make it all fresh. Mmmm mmm good. Every single lunch starts out with a bowl of soup. Then rice and some sort of meat. It’s usually pretty good. The milk comes in bags. It’s perfectly fine to sit out until you put it in the fridge. The language is slowly coming. It’s really hard and the first week or two I was struggling really bad!!! But it’s moving along pretty good. I’m finally getting more comfortable with the mission and it’s getting better and better each day. My comp helps me out so much. He’s a great trainer and keeps me motivated. So I wont lie, the mission is super, super, hard! But the blessings and watching the Lord change people’s lives is definitely worth it! I know it’s just cause I’m still new and it was a bit overwhelming at first but now it’s getting so much better, I’m getting a lot better and can finally speak some Spanish and teach! The Lord really has helped me a lot! Now the days just fly! Well how are all you doing? I’ve been praying for you all! How was the surgery mom? Well, I love you all and miss you all a lot!
Love,
Elder Olsen
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