Is it a problem? (week 11)

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Busy day of emailing I just want to thank everyone for the support and the 18 emails that I got today!! I have the bestest people supporting me!!

Well, first things first WE HAVE A BAPTISM DATE!!!!!!! Blanca committed to be baptized on the 28 of January....so lets hope that works out. This Sunday we also had Cynthia and her sister at church, they are some of our new investigators and their mom is a less active member so I think they will do well!! Alcides dropped us because he isn't running his business where we teach anymore. We found a new barber investigator named Victor. We have also started teaching another new less active named Santiago!!! Lots and lots of work to do!! Sandro is still easily my biggest challenge.....him and his mom always have a new rant. The other day she was asking me if all the cats in north america are white because they are gringo cats!!! Hahaha!

I also had my first interview with President, Hermana Pricoli, and the assistants this week in preparation for my first transfers next week! It was kinda a challenge, I accidentally told him that there was a problem with my recommend so we had to go back and restart the conversation xD but we just kinda talked about our goals. We really wanna see more baptisms and more references.....since I am being trained and I have already had two trainers, I am sure that I will still be here with elder Chaiña which is alright.....we struggle with some things but its nothing that I cant handle!!! 

Honestly, I have been noticing that my biggest challenges are really just myself.....I am too hard on myself ALWAYS!!! That is something that I am going to be working on this week, month and transfer!! I know that this is not a ME problem. We can all easily get rid of so many problems by going back, taking a deep breath and really thinking the problem through. Is it a problem or are you making it a problem? So that is the challenge this week...STOP BEING HARD ON YOURSELF AND EAT A BAG OF HOT CHEETOS AND EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY!!!!!!

Hahaha I love you guys!! Just know that I miss you all and I pray for you all everyday,

Elder Olsen

(This next part is a handwritten letter that Garrett wrote and then took pictures of. He asked me to type it up and put it on here! Garrett and our mom always sing the Unpacking My Adjectives song (they're weird if you haven't learned that yet) so that is why he named it that!)

Unpacking My Adjectives 

Sooo there's a lot of things that I really need to write about, my letters are not as descriptive as they should be. It's so hard only having an hour to write, so I decided I would write this letter with a few details during my very slim free time during the week. 

The Area:

Okay so I'm serving in an area called Ciudad Modelo, but the ward boundaries are split in the middle to make areas called "Ciudad Modelo 1" and "Ciudad Modelo 2". Our area consists of many different neighborhoods of Cali. San Carlos, El Jardin, Agua Blanca, Fortaleza, San Pedro...there's a lot more but we don't work in those areas as much! Most of our time is spent in Jardin because that's where a lot of members and recent converts live. It's nice though because no matter where you are there's always a convenience store and a Panaderia (bread store) nearby! There is also a trillion "cane services". I asked Elder Mcdermott about what they are and he said it's like the lottery. But seriously they are everywhere. There is also a bunch of food trucks. People run out of their house...but we can't buy from them. My area is really cool! There are some really cool people that live here.

Typical Cali streets.

Those flags are on every street and hang from house to house.

The Apartment:

My house is really small and like super gross...every P. day we sweep so much dirt out of it. We have our main room, our kitchen, our bathroom, our bedroom, our closet room. We also have another bathroom attached to the closet room, but the toilet is broken and gets gross water everywhere...so I never use that bathroom. Because Colombian houses are next to each other we can hear everything...we also live above a market and we can always hear them unloading fruit from trucks. Because the buildings have these weird courtyard things we have windows..but the rain is always so loud and I wake up (the roof is tin). We also have to rent a washing machine, but I always just wash my clothes by hand because it is cheaper and easier...and for any missionary mom's that may be reading, each apartment comes with a bottom of Permethrin :) I have also gotten really used to cold showers...it took me like two weeks but I can do it now with no issues haha! Another fun fact is that lizards crawl all over our walls sometimes, I have also found rats but not as often. 

Our closet room.

 Our bathroom.

 Our bedroom.

 Our kitchen...only rich people have ovens here.

Our main room. 

The ward:

I really like the ward here...there is a sense of community that I really like! There is a lot of older people and a lot of people between the ages of 14-20. So the younger programs seem to be strong for such a small ward. The chapel is tiny, it's about the size of my high school seminary building. It's nice though, it looks exactly like the CCM. But back to the ward, there is a lot of less active members but the ward is really good about helping us in anyway that they can! We always get Carlos and Favian (two priests in the ward) to come teach with us...we also have noche de lugar. It's basically ward family night and the missionary all have to teach a small class. It's a good time!

 Our tiny chapel. 

Our tiny chapel hallway.

Conclusion:

I hope this answered some of your questions! I hope with the holidays behind us I can write some good letters...it's just so hard with only one hour, but I'm trying and that is what counts! I hope that my blog as been interesting for everyone! I'm glad that I have the opportunity to share my experiences :)

-Elder Olsen