helllooooo family!!!!
its good to hear from you, today is a great and shining day!!! we had cambios, i am no longer training but i´m zone leader now!! i´m with an elder from ecuador his name is elder fuentes!! its super sweet, zone leader is fresh sauce!! we are here in bajio santa cruz, another area full of sand but its nice being zone leader, we have to take care of all the missionaries in the zone! sometimes we have to babysit because they dont want to be obedient!! well i´m not sure if teo got baptised or not but its cool, faith comes in and he´ll be baptised!! when i got here there was´nt a single person with a baptisimal date and now at the end of the week we have 2 people!! on of them named carlos came to church and that very night we went to his house and put a date down and he accepted so you could say that the lord really helps us out!!!!
so mom i have some homework for you..... you are a mother and you need to be friends with all of my comps mothers from the states!!!! and get cool with them!!!
first of all, elder alex haws from sierra vista arizona
elder tyler hansen from pocatello idaho
elder burchill from la california
elder sainsburys mom is already your friend
i´ll get more info about their moms so you can find them on facebook and be thier friends!!!!!!
so guess what happens in 3 days!!!!!!!!!! i will officially complete one year in the mission field!! how crazy is that, i cant believe how fast time flies. i still feel like i am a newbeee but i guess not!!! not much happened this week because of transfers and all but i finished the book of mormon in spanish and now i´m starting it in portugues and then in quechua. quechua is an indian dialect that the bolivians speek here, itscrazy and i´m trying to learn in, ive already got a few words down!!! i love the mission and i´m so proud of all my fam!!! ty better be learning german cause its possible he goes there, and you know what its really really possible that he gets called to the bolivia santa cruz mission!!!!!!!!!!!! ojalá!! well take care and thanks for everything!! i love you very very much!
ELDER OLSEN
LA IGLESIA DE
JESUCRISTO
DE LOS SANTOS
DE LOS ULTIMOS DIAS
Monday, August 29, 2011
August 21, 2011
hello family!!!
thanks for the letter i know how life can be sometimes!! so fabiola got baptised all went well!!! and we passed for a little miracle yesterday!! i dont know if i ever told you about teo! well anyways about the first week into the transfer he came to church, but went to another ward and they told him that our ward was the ward he lives in! so we talked to him and he came to church with us the following week!! we were so excited, my comp and i, just thinking about baptism and how he was going to accept a date!! we casually and directly talked to him about baptism and when we put the date down he said no!! we were so confused, but he had told us that he needed more time and knowledge before getting baptised, we were so bummed, so we said ok,and had been teaching him a few more lessons, put down another date and said no!! WHATTTTT we didn´t know what to do with this guy, because he comes to church every sunday and its almost as if he were a member, he knows more than some of the members in our ward even!!! thats why we were so confused!!
we continued to teach him and pray for him but he kept saying he needed more time and he wanted to be sure and wanted to know more!!! so after a mountain of lessons and time with him, yesterday after church we taught him!!! in the morning my companion and i were thinking about what we should teach him, and the thought of temples came to my head so we decided to plan temples to teach him. when we got to church, the speakers, all three of them talked about temples and temple marriage, in sunday school they talked about the law of chastity and mariage in the tiemple and in priesthood we talked about temples and temple recommends!!! wow did we get insight from the spirit that morning!!! and so when we taught him westarted reading a book about temples and asking questions and the spirit was so strong!! testifying of the truthfulness of the temples, at the end of the lesson we invited him to get baptised on the 3rd of september!! he sat silent for a while and looked at us and said "do you think that i´m ready?" i looked at him and with a cracked voice i said " yes, i know your ready" and after a minute of silence he looked at us and said " ok.... i know its true" !!!!! YES it was so awesome the spirit was strong and it had testified to him the truth!!! i´m so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! were working hard with him so the 3rd can be a unforgettable day!
mother i know life can be hard sometimes and it always seems like a the weekest point and when were just about ready to give up, the lord gives us the help we need!! i have some scriptures for you, read DC 24:8, the lord is always with you no matter what, and on of my favorites is found in 1 corinthians 10:13 (i dont have my bible with me but i´m pretty sure its verse 13) but remeber that life is nothing without goals, and remember that dreams are only to become true, so now i dont sleep to rest i sleep to dream!!! but one quote i absolutely love that helps me become the person i want to be is "DARE TO BE DIFFERENT" - elder l. tom perry! like my patriarchal blessing says, "never compare your life to the life of others" i know that sometimes we want to give up and find the harder things come more than the easier things like as joseph smith says in joseph smith history! that when he was about to give in to the temptations of the devil and could barely hold him self up straight, his body week and ready to fall there appeared to him a pillar of light whose brightness and glory defy all description and standing above him in the air he saw two personages and one of them spake unto him, pointing to the other and said, this is my beloved son, hear him!! the lord always alway always give us the way out. because there is always always always right and wrong, good and bad, there are always opposites, if not the world wouldnt run!! therefore take some words of advice, and let me tell you mom, if theres a way in, theres a way out!! the lord loves his children and as it says in moses 1 39 his work and glory is to bring to pass the imortality and eternal life of man!! he gets his joy through us and nobody else, he never lets us suffer because thats not his work and glory, its satans, satan gives you the way in and our heavenly father gives us the way out!!! i just really want to let you know how greatful i am for the prophet joseph smith in giving us the truth and bringing back the church of jesus christ! read mormon 8:26-34 and notice that it talks about the time when a prophet (joseph smith) would bring to light the book of morman and in which time frame it would come to pass!!! i love that man to death and when i see him i am going to give him a big hug and say " thank you" and when you read that scripture, you know that all of it has come to pass!! on the side of the scipture i put " and it will come to pass in the year 1820" i love you mom, money is just a bunch of paper that goes from one place to another!!! it has no worth, only the things of heaven have worth.....the family!!!
i love you very much and keep on praying
love elder olsen
thanks for the letter i know how life can be sometimes!! so fabiola got baptised all went well!!! and we passed for a little miracle yesterday!! i dont know if i ever told you about teo! well anyways about the first week into the transfer he came to church, but went to another ward and they told him that our ward was the ward he lives in! so we talked to him and he came to church with us the following week!! we were so excited, my comp and i, just thinking about baptism and how he was going to accept a date!! we casually and directly talked to him about baptism and when we put the date down he said no!! we were so confused, but he had told us that he needed more time and knowledge before getting baptised, we were so bummed, so we said ok,and had been teaching him a few more lessons, put down another date and said no!! WHATTTTT we didn´t know what to do with this guy, because he comes to church every sunday and its almost as if he were a member, he knows more than some of the members in our ward even!!! thats why we were so confused!!
we continued to teach him and pray for him but he kept saying he needed more time and he wanted to be sure and wanted to know more!!! so after a mountain of lessons and time with him, yesterday after church we taught him!!! in the morning my companion and i were thinking about what we should teach him, and the thought of temples came to my head so we decided to plan temples to teach him. when we got to church, the speakers, all three of them talked about temples and temple marriage, in sunday school they talked about the law of chastity and mariage in the tiemple and in priesthood we talked about temples and temple recommends!!! wow did we get insight from the spirit that morning!!! and so when we taught him westarted reading a book about temples and asking questions and the spirit was so strong!! testifying of the truthfulness of the temples, at the end of the lesson we invited him to get baptised on the 3rd of september!! he sat silent for a while and looked at us and said "do you think that i´m ready?" i looked at him and with a cracked voice i said " yes, i know your ready" and after a minute of silence he looked at us and said " ok.... i know its true" !!!!! YES it was so awesome the spirit was strong and it had testified to him the truth!!! i´m so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! were working hard with him so the 3rd can be a unforgettable day!
mother i know life can be hard sometimes and it always seems like a the weekest point and when were just about ready to give up, the lord gives us the help we need!! i have some scriptures for you, read DC 24:8, the lord is always with you no matter what, and on of my favorites is found in 1 corinthians 10:13 (i dont have my bible with me but i´m pretty sure its verse 13) but remeber that life is nothing without goals, and remember that dreams are only to become true, so now i dont sleep to rest i sleep to dream!!! but one quote i absolutely love that helps me become the person i want to be is "DARE TO BE DIFFERENT" - elder l. tom perry! like my patriarchal blessing says, "never compare your life to the life of others" i know that sometimes we want to give up and find the harder things come more than the easier things like as joseph smith says in joseph smith history! that when he was about to give in to the temptations of the devil and could barely hold him self up straight, his body week and ready to fall there appeared to him a pillar of light whose brightness and glory defy all description and standing above him in the air he saw two personages and one of them spake unto him, pointing to the other and said, this is my beloved son, hear him!! the lord always alway always give us the way out. because there is always always always right and wrong, good and bad, there are always opposites, if not the world wouldnt run!! therefore take some words of advice, and let me tell you mom, if theres a way in, theres a way out!! the lord loves his children and as it says in moses 1 39 his work and glory is to bring to pass the imortality and eternal life of man!! he gets his joy through us and nobody else, he never lets us suffer because thats not his work and glory, its satans, satan gives you the way in and our heavenly father gives us the way out!!! i just really want to let you know how greatful i am for the prophet joseph smith in giving us the truth and bringing back the church of jesus christ! read mormon 8:26-34 and notice that it talks about the time when a prophet (joseph smith) would bring to light the book of morman and in which time frame it would come to pass!!! i love that man to death and when i see him i am going to give him a big hug and say " thank you" and when you read that scripture, you know that all of it has come to pass!! on the side of the scipture i put " and it will come to pass in the year 1820" i love you mom, money is just a bunch of paper that goes from one place to another!!! it has no worth, only the things of heaven have worth.....the family!!!
i love you very much and keep on praying
love elder olsen
August 14, 2011
hey guys
whats up, hows it going, thanks for the letters and packages, i absolutly love sour patch kids!! i´m happy!!! this week was alright, we haven´t found anyone new lately that wants to progress, however we continue to find crazy pastors and members of other churchs that think that only faith is important and not the church!!! its super old, but were trying to find these people, sometimes it can be hard and sometimes it can be easy, but it all depends on the choices that we make!!! we just gotta stay positive and keep working because its not my fault if they dont want to listen!!! we have a baptism this saturday, her name is fabiola and she is 16, really shy but ready to get baptised its going to be a good day!!! the lord really has blessed me and my companion, we opened up this are with nothing and the lord has given us alot of success, this transfer i have almost had the most baptisms in one transfer!! the lord is real!!! and blesses us if we are obedient!! not much really happened this week, just a mesh week and havent had anything new really happen, i did learn however that if somebody wants to bible bash or argue, you just gotta take sides with them and leave asap!! because in the future other elders are going to pass by and the people know us for our actions so if were yelling all the time and fighting, the people aren´t going to want to listen to the on coming elders!!!
well i am trying to find a journal all over bolivia and i cant find one, so i´ll keep you posted!!!! thanks for everything, twas a great birthday package!!! i love you very much, tell ty that i´m going to write a letter to mr. hamilton, my spanish teacher so he can give it to him when school starts!!! love you so much, keep reading the book of mormon
love elder olsen
August 7, 2011
y hey!!!!! i got your package about ten minutes ago but i still havent opened it yet!!!!! when i get home i will!!! so zulmas baptism was great we also had another one saturday, a kid of members!!! and we finally went and taught zulmas sisters and they are progressing but they couldnt go to church yesterday, and they still have to pray so see if joseph smith was a prophet and so today we are actually going to their house to verify their prayer!!! so i haaaattttttteeee catholics they are so gay°!!!!! the pastors are the worst and all they want to do is argue!!! i could say that wednesday was one of the hardest days in my mission!!!!! every single person that we talked to just wanted to argue, it was horrible, and just think, even the little kids of families were trying to argue with us!! we started out with a guy telling us that we praise joseph smith and we make people pay and they have to drink and smoke and that we idol images because of capitan moroni on the temples!! i got super mad and layed it down on him and told him that he doesnt know anything and he has no authority and he said that we are the false church and we just layed it hard and he finally sayed goodbye!!! i hate catholics, then we went to a family and they all say that any church is the true church then their 10 year old daughter starts to say the same thing and that jesus is in our hearts and it was super duper hard!!! its deffinalety a humbling and patience lession, its like the hymn be thou humble!!! wow it was super stressful!!! but we do have two more baptisms this 20th and their two teenage girls, carla and fabiola, super timid and shy but they are great!! we also have alot more but they didnt come to church so we have to wait another week!!! and friday, almost time to be in the house my comp and i hurring to find new people, found a family of 3 and taught them five minutes or so about the families thinking nothing of it, inviting them to church, not thinking that they would go,.....WENT all three of them and stayed all three hours, it was wonderful, now theyre going to have a baptisimal date too, the next time we go to their house!!! the lord blesses us!!!! i love the work and remember that excuses and failure go hand in hand"""}!!!!
love you}
love elder olsen
love you}
love elder olsen
July 31, 2011
hola familia!!!! dude today is the 11 month mark i cant believe it!!! the mission is slowley starting to go down hill and i´m not excited!!!!!! we had a baptism yesterday her name is zulma and she is the person that we found the second day here and she got baptized, and the best part is is that her family went to her baptism and then to church and now were teaching them so they can get baptised toooooo!!!! gotta love it man!!! the mission is the best thing in the world!! things are going great here in montero, my comp and i are working hard and being obedient and the lord loves to give us blessings and put prepared people in our path!!!! right now its so cold, i can barely type, my fingers are frozen!!!!!!! stillnothing on the packages yet but they should be here shortly!!! alec looks super old, by the time i get home i wont even recognize him!!! well austin and jake are doing really good on their missions and they come home the end of this year, how crazy is that!!!!!! well it kinda sucks because i never want to go home and they already have to!!! you already know that we do the same thing everyday but sometimes days are really good and sometimes they aren´t so good but all i can say is that if your obedient and diligent and seek after the things you want, the lord gives it to you!!! no doubts, you just gotta show him, and mother since you like quotes heres a good one for you..... justice overrules mercy, the lord is always fair, no matter what, we get what we disserve!!!
love you muchisimo mother and fam
love elder olsen
love you muchisimo mother and fam
love elder olsen
July 25, 2011
hey familia!!!!
thanks for everything and for the happy birthday wishes!!! things are going absolutely great and i never want to leave bolivia!! i love it here and the mission is the best thing in the entire world!! never would change it for the anything!!! this week was crazy hard work!! my comp and i have beeen talking to absolutely everyone and did alotttt of contacts and lessions and we have found some great people!!! so when we both got here, like the next day we found zulma medrano and she was already pre prepared and has been going to church and now she is getting baptised this saturday!! when she was younger she had gone to seminary and church a little but never got baptised and now she is 25 and my comp and i have been praying alot so the lord can help us find these people in this new area and weve been obedient and it looks like the spirit has been with us and thanks to some obedience and prayers we were able to listen to the spirit which told us to contact her and so we did and now look, she{s getting baptised this saturday!!! i love the lord and hey i found a scripture for the mission its in alma 26:26-31, its the best in the west!!!!! i am super happy and i love all of you, thanks for everything, oakley is getting giant and i cant wait to see her!!!!!!! love you
love elder olsen
thanks for everything and for the happy birthday wishes!!! things are going absolutely great and i never want to leave bolivia!! i love it here and the mission is the best thing in the entire world!! never would change it for the anything!!! this week was crazy hard work!! my comp and i have beeen talking to absolutely everyone and did alotttt of contacts and lessions and we have found some great people!!! so when we both got here, like the next day we found zulma medrano and she was already pre prepared and has been going to church and now she is getting baptised this saturday!! when she was younger she had gone to seminary and church a little but never got baptised and now she is 25 and my comp and i have been praying alot so the lord can help us find these people in this new area and weve been obedient and it looks like the spirit has been with us and thanks to some obedience and prayers we were able to listen to the spirit which told us to contact her and so we did and now look, she{s getting baptised this saturday!!! i love the lord and hey i found a scripture for the mission its in alma 26:26-31, its the best in the west!!!!! i am super happy and i love all of you, thanks for everything, oakley is getting giant and i cant wait to see her!!!!!!! love you
love elder olsen
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