Monday, December 26, 2016

No Limits (week 9)


We got to skype Elder Olsen on Christmas Eve, which was the highlight of our holiday season!! He sounded so good!! He is a little sad that he isn't fluent in Spanish yet but he has been in the field for like three weeks so I think he'll be okay. 
This one is a video so I hope you can get it to play! If you're friends with Garrett on Facebook or Instagram it is posted there. 



















FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMILY!!!!

How are you guys? Haha I hope that things are going good!! It was super weird to talk to you guys haha it was just different!! The computer I am using does not have USB ports (it is one of the giant 90s ones) so I cannot send my pictures right now :( will for sure next week though.

Buuuuut yeah this week has been crazy because we had a trillion different district meetings leading up to our christmas conference! We had to prepare a skit.....ours ended up about a girl that left on her mission and tracted into a gangster that got stabbed and then he woke up out of no where and started singing christmas music hahahahaha it was pretty dumb!!! (Not gonna lie...that does sound more scary than festive haha) The conference was really cool though we had it on the 15th floor of the Dann Carlton Hotel......it was waaay nice!! We started off by listening to President Pricoli and Hermana Pricoli and then they called two people to give a talk! Then we watched 17 Miracles!!! After that we had LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNCH.....we had a quiche type thing for an appetizer and then we had steak and mashed potatoes....they covered it in basil and olive oil sooooo I was all about it. Then we had a lemon cake for dessert with chocolate drizzle....after that we had to sit through an hour and a half long video of every single missionary talking about their favorite companion and what they learned from them.....Hermana Herrara let me go through her photos so I did that instead of paying attention! Then we all had to give our skits.....which was fun I guess.....and then we had scripture trivia and I kinda was just there for that.....It was all in Spanish and we only had 10 seconds to answer sooo I was just there hahahahhaha but after that we had a break and we got chocolate covered strawberries which was cool. Then we heard some more from President and Hermana Pricoli and got our letters from the first presidency, 2 bags of candy, a Liahonna (ENGLISH FTW) and our packages.....everybody was looking at me weird because I got two packages and most people did not even get one.....I kinda felt bad about that!! Then we went home.

Christmas Eve was like any other day except skype haha buuuuuuuut Christmas is another story.....I started with the packages which I appreciate mucho!! The N64 shirt is my favorite! (Tooting my own horn here because I give awesome gifts haha!) Mom did you make those pillowcases? (Yes she did! She sent a handmade pillowcase for both Garrett and his companion! Most of everything in his package there was some for both boys) .....Elder Chaiña is always disobedient and sleeps in so I had time to put all his stuff on his chair and lay it out.....he seemed to like everything okay....he was not as excited as I thought he would be...but oh well!! Then we had church which was an absolute disaster!! Not a ton of people showed up including the bishop so the members were scrambling to do everything.....so of course the missionaries had to give talks hahaha but they didn´t get anything figured out until 9:30 so we started way late. I just pulled out my talk I wrote for the Christmas conference and gave that.....I got lots of compliments on it so it worked out I guess!!! But after that Julieth was really wanting all the missionaries to eat lunch at her house so the sisters asked for permission AND WE GOT IT!!! (In Garrett's mission they aren't allowed to do anything member dinners without permission so this was the first one he has had) So yeah we went to her house for dinner. We had potato salad and lunch meat ham, and that´s about it but we had caramel pudding and popcorn and we watched conference talks hahaha we were there for a long time it was fun!!!

After that we visited another member....Nancy Escobar and we chatted with her....and then we went home and I had bread con queso (SOOOO GOOOD ITS BAKED INTO THE BREAD). But yeah that was my Christmas!!! We had a zone activity today which was fun everybody was playing sports but Elder Reeve and I just sat down and talked about life.....he has a South Korean hacker investigator which sounds RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!

Buuuuut yeah I have some pretty big goals for this next year and I want to share a few with you guys:
- Better group emails
- pictures with every email (unless I get a dumb computer)
- better Spanish skills
- better testimony
- really strive to help others around me
- be the bestest I can be
- have no limits for myself

We honestly should not waste our time....every minute of free time we have could be and should be used to develop a better relationship and testimony of our Heavenly Father!! I have come to really enjoy conference talks and writing in my journal....I am about halfway through my first one!!! Prayer is also another good one we need to constantly be doing.....are you guys praying or just saying a prayer? Sooo yeah that is this weeks Challenge....write down some goals AND DO NOT LIMIT YOURSELF!!! There are no limits unless you put limits on yourself!!! I love you guys mucho!!!

Also I just wanted to say real quick HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAIRBEAR! I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE YOU TONS!!! Hope you have a great day! (Our brother Jarin's birthday is on the 31st so feel free to send him presents and candy)






 Practicing our Christmas skit (I died so that's why I am on the floor)



Chocolate Strawberries in between skits.





A view of the mountains....I tried cropping this picture cause it looks better, but my camera was not about that.



The super nice hotel where we had our conference!!



 SPOILED.




 My Christmas ornament.




Another view in the night time!!



Okay I forgot to write about the zone activity we had on Christmas Eve, but we had an activity where we had to get a piece of chocolate out of a pile of flour, then we played mafia and drank hot chocolate and Elder Mcdermott passed out stockings.









Just opening presents... 


All of Chaiñas stuff I left on his chair.

Opening my mug from President


Fruit roll ups are life!!


Hanging with Julieth and her family.


Caramel pudding stuff Julieth made us.



These next few are from the sports activity I told you about...







Monday, December 19, 2016

More Christ (week 8)

THISSSSSSSSSSSS WEEK was sooooo slow!!! Hahaha Elder Chaiña is good, he's very different than Elder P!!!! We don´t have a ton of investigators, so we have been working with a lot of less actives. We have Alcides though, he´s one of our two investigators. He told me he really likes pb&j's and that he learned how to make them while in prison hahahahahaha! But yeah Ciudad Modelo is sooo sketchy, but there is a lot of good people here!!! It´s just really hard to do anything without any Spanish skills, but we will get there!!

At a zone activity I was talking with Elder Mcdermott (my rad zone leader who has a blog, I stalked it before I came) and he was telling us about how Christmas is gonna go and how we all should not be sad because Christmas is all about Christ. Mas in Spanish means more, and we talked about how we need more Christ in our lives!!! So that is this weeks challenge...seek Christ!!! Find Christ!! Really get to know your savior!!!

I am sorry this email sucked but I am trying to get all my pictures up and this computer blows. So just know I am trying and I love you all!!! I can´t wait to talk on Christmas Eve.
 Cristo Rey!

This is the view from Cristo Rey.








With the district on our way to a zone conference in the rain!!!



Monday, December 12, 2016

First Week in the Field!!! (week 7)

HEEEEEEEEEYO!!!!!!

Sooooo my first week is donzo!!!! It was super long but looking back it went by fast......kinda!!! I am in an area called Ciudad Modelo...it´s a neighborhood of Cali!!! It´s super sketchy (totally almost got robbed but I am not gonna go into too much detail about that) My companion is Elder Chaiña....but I had a companion before that named Elder P!! He always had a headache cause he was stressed out from being district leader and stuff.....I have a feeling that I am going to like Chaiña better though!!! Elder P spoke English and was weird about rules and stuff. Ohhhhhh and my "favorite" part was because I am new and have not gotten money from the mission yet....I only have my personal money......Elder P didn´t budget and we never had money.....guess who got to pay for his taxi rides so he could be transferred DING DING DING!!!! (Garrett is obviously not bitter hahaha)

Buuuut yeah I have only taught like 2 lessons because Elder P was sick!!! But after we are done emailing today Elder Chaiña and I are going go teach so that is exciting!! Its been a hard and long week but I am trying my best to have a positive attitude about it......It´s hard!!!

But yeah the members seem really cool.....they made me speak in sacrament. I have a hard time remembering and understanding their names so wish me luck!!!!

Do me a favor? Help out the missionaries around you!!! Make them dinner or something because I know they are having a hard time too!!! 

Love you all!!!
Elder Olsen
(I'm adding some more tid-bits from emailing Elder Olsen back and forth today because his email was so short! So here's just some random stuff he sent me!)
Yeah I don´t think pictures are gonna be easy here hahahahaah the computers here stink!!! Nope no rain!!! It's super hot all the time.....the food is the same stuff but better quality and yeah I have a pensionista (that is a ward member who cooks them lunch everyday except Sunday).....good thing too cause we could have starved! (He said he was going to write more about almost starving in his "big" email,but he didn't)Today we had a bean and bacon type soup with some rice and plaintains. We have that a lot and it's good!

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Sooo I Didn't Die Part 2 (week 6)

Soooooo I got here!! We left at like 3 in the morning....it was only a 40 minute flight so that was good!!! I hate having 3 bags though....it´s rough.

I had my first interview with president like 2 seconds ago....I was suprised at how much I could understand. I don´t find out anything important like my area or Comp until tomorrow!! It´s so green here.....and humid! I LOVE IT!!!!! It´s different than Bogota but I think I am going to like it muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch better!!!!

But yeah I only have 3 minutes.....soooo I didn´t die!!! I am alive and I love you all!!!! I hope everything is going good!

- Elder Olsen