Faith or Fear? (week 5, one week left in the CCM!!)

HEEEYO,

Now before you guys get mad at me, my SD Card needs to be formatted or something soooooo I can´t send pictures.....I had a whole bunch this week too!!!

Buuuuut yeah....thanks for all your letters, I got a whole bunch this week which makes me veeeeeeeeeeeeery happy.....I try to write everybody that writes me but because I never have any time they are always suppppper short sooooo sorry...I appreciate all the letters that I get though and everybody that writes me :)

Thanksgiving was good......super weird and really different but good!!! Because it is a South American thing to have a bigger lunch than dinner....we had a Thanksgiving lunch! We had turkey, mashed potatoes, veggies, and some rice with bacon cooked into it........but the best part was the APPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPLE PIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE :O hahahaha we aren´t lucky enough to have pumpkin soooooo it´s whatever!! While we ate President DuVall was giving his own devotional and teaching all the Latinos why we celebrate Thanksgiving (they don´t have it here.....they just start celebrating Christmas at the end of October) After that he invited everyone to stand up and share what we were grateful for......only two Nortes got up, (I asked Garrett what Nortes was because that is a very strange word...it means North Americans!)because Spanish is hard that´s why....but the Latinos and Maestros were all really into....it was different but it was super cool to celebrate with people that have never celebrated it before!!! We also had a Thanksgiving devotional broadcast live from Provo by Neil L. Anderson....it was soooooooo good, the quote that I think about most from that devotional is "sometimes you can´t see the blessings until they are behind you." There has never been a more accurate statement than that.

The big district is good....I prefer my old district...but it is whatever!!! More people to get to know better I guess!!! The other day we were practicing baptizing and confirming and I was bapatizing Elder Guiterrrez and I went down to far and we both ended up on the ground (okay he ended up on the ground and I ended up on my hands hahahahahaaha). Which waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas lots of "fun" hahahaha! (This is actually pretty hilarious because Garrett was worried about this very thing while baptizing people! It's because he has shrimpy arms the poor dear. Maybe baptizing all those people will give him more arm muscle hahaha) And Elder Peña And Elder Garcia.....hahahahaha I can´t even with them! Last night me and Elder Eldredge were walking back to our room and we walked in and there was just 15 Latinos staring at us with a deer in the highlight look because Elder Garcia just decided to have a hair cutting party in the middle of our room (SOOOOOOOOOOOO against the rules). Sooooo yeah I grabbed my journal and some cheez-its and we went and wrote and ate because we didn´t wanna be involved with that hahahaha!!

Speaking of cheez-its....Thanks Mommy and Danine for my package!!! On Saturday me and Elder Eldredge left the classroom real quick to go check on the talk topics for Sunday, and when we came back the security guard (AKA the chillest dude ever) was just sitting there and was like "Elder Olsen" and I was like "hmmmmmm what have I done lately that could make the security guard need to talk to me?" Then he handed me my package and everyone there was just like "WHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAT YYYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOU GOOOOOOOOOT A PAAAAAAAAAAAAAACKAAAAAAAAAGE!!" Hahahahahaha packages really aren´t a thing that happens here....unless somebody delivers it person soooo thank you thank you thank you Danine!!! And thanks mom for thinking about me...I was able to share a whole bag of swedish fish with all the Nortes and some of my teachers (so fun watching them eat american candy!)

I have been thinking a lot about faith lately.....it seems like in the church we are always taught that faith and fear can´t exist in the same place.....I have personally learned for myself that THAT IS NOT TRUE!!! Faith and fear always exist in the same place....ALWAYS!!! It´s just up to us to decide which we are actually going to pay attention to. It seems like the first week of the field is always the hardest for foreign missionaries.....you are in a strange place...eating weird food in a weird living condition...doing things all day that you aren´t used to in a language that you don´t speak....it´s hard but I don´t want to have a bad attitude about it. Things are either really hard or really rad depending on your attitude.....and faith!!! I hope that this next week I will be able to pick faith over fear.....this week´s challenge is easy PICK FAITH!!!!! If you have faith before your trials actually happen you will be ready and have more strength to get through them.......I promise you that!!

"Have faith.....have hope....live like His son........help other´s on their way"

I love you guys,

Élder Olsen

P.S I am not sure when i will be able to write next.....I will be on a plane next week sooooooo we´ll see :)

(One more week in the CCM for our Elder!! I'm so excited for him to get out into the field and start teaching! His time in the CCM has flown by for our family, it has probably been a lot slower for him!)

(Update from week 8!! Garrett was able to send us these pictures now that his camera is being normal so I'm adding them now!)