Temporary Problems (week 26)

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!

Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh!!!  Lots of letters today!!! I wrote a bunch of the other missionaries annnnnd I actually got replies (was not expecting that). 

Everything is good......I guess. I am struggling my companion, he is sooo disobedient!! Like today we went to our normal internet place but they only had one computer (we are supposed  to only use one) but he wanted to chat with his family for 2 hours so he made us go to another internet place.....there are so many obedience issues here and I am not aboooooout ittttttttttt!!! I just want a comp that wants to work and wants to be there for me....where can I get one of those?  I also really wanna stop being junior comp because there is nothing I can do about it. If anyone has advice I would love to hear it.

We had the opportunity to hear from D. Todd Christofferson which was fun!! The entire mission was there soooo I got to chat with just about everyone!! INCLUDING Elder Reinhold...he gave me the biggest hug hahaha and was like "it was good to finally meet you!!" We didn't get to talk much, he left to go hang out with all the nortes in his group. They seem a lot closer than my group is!! But it was good, we learned how we can be better missionaries!! I got the general idea but I did not really understand much....I did not know that D. Todd Christofferson spoke Spanish buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut he dooooooooes!!!!

Other than that nothing much else happened!! We have been working with the Nuñez family a lot lately....basically long story short the 16 year old daughter is always with her boyfriend and went and got her dimples pierced without permission, and wants nothing to do with the church. It's a hard situation and because of that Hermano and Hermana Nuñez have been fighting a toooooon, even in front of us. And the 9 year old always translates sentences and tries to say them in English but lately he has been translating stuff like "my father has fought with my mother" I just sit there like "ohhhhhhh......uhhhm okay." It's a hard situation but we have been reading the BOM with them as a family every single night.

We also have another great member named Cecelia....she is awesome!! She always makes us juice (the gooooooooood juice) and chats with us about everything. She gave me the recipe to make Papa Agua Rajadas, soooooo imma do that tonight and I ammmmm waaaaaay stoked about it.

As a zone we played soccer today...so there is something exciting!!! Haha compared to just about everyone else I am soooooooo awful at soccer....I scored a goal today though so I am proud of myself.

I was also able to go to my audiologist this week to pick up my mold for my hears.....THEY ARE SOOOOO MUCH BETTER THAN THE DOMES!! She also said that I only need to come back if I have issues with my hearing aid later on, which made me suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper happy as well.

I don't know, it just has not been my transfer..... I have been missing Ciudad Modelo A TONNNNNNN lately....I guess I was just used to it and I felt like I knew what I was doing. It's been a rough go here :/ I have faith that everything will work out the way that it needs to though....and that is this weeks challenge. In your challenge notebook write down a current problem. ...why are you worried about it, and basically all the details. Leave a space for you write down how well it worked out later on. I struggle with my companion, with my investigators, and a bunch of stuff but I know that they are temporary problems and that my Heavenly Father is always looking out for me.... that makes it better!!! 

I am sorry we are at a weird internet place and the computers are no bueno, sooo I cannot send my pictures :/ you will probs get ten trillion next week though so that is good!

love you all,

Elder Olsen

(Shout out to Angela (Elder Reinhold's mama) for the picture! So glad these boys could finally meet!!)


Edit from 05/01/2017: here are the pictures Garrett took last week and couldn't send!

Photos con Christofferson!

Elder Reinhold

Elder Mcdermott

My new mold

The Nuñezs family LDM tracker

New Experiences (week 25)

HEEEEEEEEEY GUYS!!! This week was soooo insane, I have had so many new experiences here in Valle Grande.....it is not very far away from Ciudad Modelo, but it is a totally different world!!

Elder Flores and I are good....I am just tired of having tired companions....I want a companion with less time in the mission. When you do not have a comp that is motivated and wants to be obedient, it is hard for you to be motivated and obedient.....he does not talk very much. I think it's because half the time he does talk I do not really understand, which is rough but we will get there....this area has been very hard for me with Spanish actually. By the End of my time in Ciudad Modelo I thought my Spanish was getting decent....but nobody can understand me here. Aubrey do me a favor and look up some ways to get an accent, I have tried to the pencil in the mouth thing anddddd I don't know hahaahah. (Oh Garrett and his odd requests!)

Our district is INSANE!!! I LOVE IT SOOOOOO MUCH!!! It's such a party with Elder Eldredge and Guiterrez, I missed them!!! It's weird though, we have to go to Morichal for our district meetings so we have to take jeeps all the time....we also have to take them to get to our church since we live kinda far away!!! You just hop on and give them $1300 and you are good to go....each jeep has numbers for routes that you have to memorize!!!

I do not know very much about the ward....we have met with one member named Carlos Nuñez a lot.....he's cool!!! I have met with lots of other members too but I am not very good with names. We always ALWAYS talk about Elder Chaiña...it's something that I have in common with the members here.....he was here for a looooong time (6 months) so all the members here know him very well!! We went with Carlos one day to visit another family of members and we ended up helping them build their house. They decided to add another house on top of their current house (a lot of Colombians have a flat roofs so this is easily doable).  Sooo yeah we helped them bring bricks up and watched them lay the cement.....it was the third floor though and they did not really have a fence so it was kinda sketchy....I was not about that.

We had a stake activity for Santa Semana....this is literally the only thing that I did for Easter...I actually did not even realize it was Easter xD gotta love holidays on the mission. But the activity was for the "Prince of Peace" campaign thing. We were divided into groups and each group went through a bunch of different rooms watching videos that demonstrated how we can feel peace through the gospel of Jesus Christ......the first video was in English and it was on a tiny laptop with Spanish subtitles, sooo some kid was up there to say the subtitles ANNNNND THEEEEN the video blurrrrred out me and Elder Eldredge just sat there laughing likkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkke only in Colombia!!! Elder Eldredge is doing good though!!! He learned how to talk hahahaha anddddd he has an accent (jerk!!) Buuut yeah we sat there exchanging stories about our first areas.....he had to go to the hospital a bunch for uhhhm "stomach problems" and his shoes that were BRRRRAAAND NEW in the CCM were destroyed and he had to get them glued hahahaah! Buuuuut yeah, it is good to talk to him.

Today we went to the Central as a district....everybody was there except Elder Eldredge and Chicaiza....if you guys remember the YouTube video that we watched when I first got my call it's that place.....I have been there!!! I didn't really love it though, there is soooooo many stores and soooooo many people. We also got hamburgers....it was the weirdest hamburger I have ever had though....it had a piece of lunch meat on it xD taaaan raro!! But yeah we took a random car on the way there and on the way back.....there was not really enough seats in the second one though so I was basically on Elder Ramirez's lap....hahaha!!! When we got out of the car I seriously could not feel my feet.....they were not asleep.....they were dead!!!

Elder Garner also told me that Ciudad Modelo has been getting calls from Salt Lake asking about me and elder Brizuela.....not sure what the deal is with that and I am only slightly freaked out hahahahah!

We are getting ready for our visit from D. Todd Christofferson tomorrow!!! I am really looking forward to that....it's gonna be a good time. And I have my audiologist appointment on Wednesday....also really looking forward to that!!!

I have had lots of opportunities this week to try new experiences, but as I think about it I could've always had fun and new experiences. This weeks challenge is try something new....a new food....skydiving...going bankrupt...sending your little brother a package....the possibilities are endless!!!! Part of our experience on this life is to have experiences....to learn!!! And the only way we can do that is through new experiences......I wanna hear about how it went!!!!! (Sending Garrett packages really is going to make my parents bankrupt...holy expensive!!)

Elder Chicaiza said that has long as we wrote president we can chat....but I don't know so imma ask Elder Garner about it!!!

LOOOOOVE YOU ALL TONZO,

Elder Olsen

Coming home from the Central......and yeah I was basically on Elder Ramirezs lap hahaha 

New key chains!!!! I have 3 from Colombia and 1 from Bolivia so far!!!!

(Garrett has a big cork board with the world map on it. He collects key chains and pins them to their spot on the map! It's getting pretty full.)

The Prince of Peace (week 24)

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FAMILY!!!!

Before I begin I just wanna say HAPPY BIIIIIRFDAY OLD MAN!!! Ty you are getting old, like give it another 3 seconds and you are gonna be 30!!! 

(As Garrett's sister, and someone who knows him very well I just have to let you all in on something about our dear Elder. When two people have even a tiny difference in opinion he says it is a "huge fight" so when he keeps saying he's fighting with his companions, we're not sure if they're real fights or just differing opinions hahaha! We love him, but he is a tender soul who does not like any confrontation, AT ALL. Keep that in mind as you read about all the fighting happening in his life!)

Buuuuut yeah, longest week evvvvver!!! Elder Brizuela and I WERE NOT getting along at all this week, and Elder Garner and Elder Miranda were obviously very worried about us!! Basically during our companionship inventory Elder Brizuela told me that he is tired but not trunky...(what?) and that he did not want to work in Ciudad Modelo anymore. Then on Sunday we got into a big fight about how you pass the sacrament (no I am not joking) and had to have another companionship inventory. But Elder Brizuela was able to baptize one of the investigators of the sisters so that was fun, we actually had another funny experience with that. Elder Brizuela was getting ready in the bathroom and some dude from the stake was there to teach mission preparation. Well the dude broke the door knob off the door of the bathroom and just stuck it back it and opened the door and left....but when it was our turn to leave it broke again and we could not put it back together! Soooooo yeah, it's not everyday that you have to bang on a door and yell out the vent thing so you can get on with your baptism xD Luckily a kind sister finally opened the door after a while hahahahaahha. We also had our last zone meeting which was good and the zone leaders were asking us what our problem was and why our numbers were sucking, which was not fun!!! We also said bye to Elder Evans!! You guys will be meeting him soon because he will be taking my old hearing aid back home! (Aubrey I hope that answers your question.) (I asked Garrett why he captioned the picture of him and Elder Evans with "tell my parents hi" because I was confused! You can see the picture at the end of this post.) Do me a favor and buy him a Mountain Dew, because he loves that stuff!! So that was fun!!  We had lots of challenges, but it is all good now because WE BOTH GOT TRANSFERRED!!!

Yesterday we got the call and had to pack so that was fun!! I had some spritual experiences telling me that I would be staying......Well I guess I did not understand, I was semi right. I am still here in the Villa Colombia Zone I just switched areas!! I am not sure how I feel about it because I am currently serving in Valle Grande.....the most dangerous area in the mission (isnt that GREEEEAAAAAT!!!!) Every missionary has stories about this area, and I know that they are true because I have already had members confirm them to be true!!! This is the area Elder Chaina had a gun pointed to him......I don't know!! My companions name is Elder Flores,  he was here with Elder Thomas before this transfer, and I don't know. He does not talk much and that scares me, I am also only his 2nd Norte comp....Elder Thomas was the first and that is no bueno because Elder Thomas speaks really good Spanish and I do not.....it's gonna be a struggle!! But I am a little excited for two reasons, when we were leaving the bus terminal Elder Guiterrez (the one that I was in the CCM with) told me he is serving in Morichal.....my district!! And Elder Chicaiza who is serving in Valle Grande 2 has been with us all day because he is waiting for his companion to come from pasto.....ELDER ELDREDGE!!!! Yup, I have two friends in my district and one in my ward, soooo I am very excited about that!! It should be a good time. My apartment is also a ton nicer and there are some streets here that really are not streets,  they are like sidewalks and only motorcycles can drive on them.....we live on one of those!!! In Ciudad Modelo I lived on the busiest street and I could heeeeeeear everything!!! Buuuut yeah, it's my first transfer so I am feeling very anxious....I don't know.

My audiologist appointment was good!!! She wanted to try a mold instead of using domes (which I am soooo down for) so yeah she literally shoved this blue plastic up my ear and it HUUUUUUUUURT SOOOOOOO BAAAAD!! But yeah I have to go back and see how that works out after Holy Week!!

For Easter we are sharing the "Prince of Peace" video and handing out Prince of Peace cards!!! So that is this weeks challenge, go watch the video and think deeply about it. Write down some ways in your challenge notebook about how you better celebrate Easter.....it's not about bunnies and eggs!!! Be sure to put these ideas into ACTION!!!!

Also something you guys should know is that a rule has been changed!!! We are no longer allowed to chat back and forth with our friends and family because some of the other missionaries were not writing President and sending him their numbers....soooo ask all the questions that you have :) But I am sure the big emails will be tons better so look forward to that!!!

I love you guys sooooo much and I hope everything is going good for you guys!!! I worry about you guys alooooooooooooot, alot, alot hahahhahahahah!

Your Fav,

Elder Olsen

Look who I found dead in Ciudad Modelo

Last time as a zone

"Elder Thomas lets give our moms something to talk about....take a picture with me"

"Ciao Elder Evans......tell my parents I say hi!"

Mariellas baptism!!!

Last time as a district!!!!

Rosa....my pensionista in Ciudad Modelo

CONFERENCE WAS RAD (week 23)

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYO FAMILY!!!!! ¿Como estan?

This week was good!! I am getting all ready for Sunday.....TRANSFERS!!! I really want a new area soooo bad.....but I have had some strong feelings that I will be staying here. I hope that I am wrong, the idea of staying in the same area for 6 months does not sound exciting to me buuuuut we will see.

Well this week waaaaaaaaaas good!!! Conference was soooooooooo gooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!! Everybody else watched it in the chapel of the stake center, but all the Nortes chilled in the secretaries office so we could all watch it in English. It was soooo good, my favorite talk was the one that Elder Bednar gave in the General Priesthood Session, it was all about how missionaries are called to serve....not called to serve in a particular place. It was directed to missionaries who have been reassigned but I don't know, it just hit home to me....Colombia has been a rocky transition for me, I am getting there but it has not been easy!! A lot of the talks were centered around the Holy Ghost.....AND I LOVED IT!!!! FUE TAN CHEVERE!!!! (That means it was so cool!!!!) That is easily something that I need to work on so that was good.

I had a funny experience!!! So we were leaving conference with the sisters and we decided to take the MIO (the city bus), we were waiting for the bus when one of the worker dudes told us that our bus was not in operation that day....so Hermana Monroy said that there was another bus that goes through our area. So we got on that bus but Hermana Monroy and ELder Brizuela decided to get off and ask if it for sure goes through our area.....but they decided to get off last minute, they were able to get off and I was able to make it halfway. The doors started to close right as I was getting off, I was able to hold them but there was noooooo way I was gonna be able to get off so I let them shut. Me and Hermana Dos Santos were looking at each other like "SHOOOOOOOOOOT SHOOOOOOOOOOT SHOOT" the bus was literally about to leave with both of us on it without our comps hahahaha luckily everybody else on the bus (all 8 trillion of them) watched the embarrassing situation happen and started yelling for the bus driver to stop and open the doors again hahaha luckily he did!!! We got off and all 4 of us just started laughing hahaha and we were able to get on the bus back to our area!!!

Today was good!!! We went to the zone activity and played some soccer and then we went to the hospital for Elder Brizuelas knee....I just chilled and waited!! But there is a Mcdonald's RIGHT BY THE HOSPITAL!!! So yeah I got a Big Mac and it was soooooooooooooooooo great!! It tastes exactly the same here soooo yeah that was great and then we came home and just chilled for a minute!!! And here we are!!

I am going to have divisions with Elder Garner on Friday (not sure if I told you guys that Elder Mcdermott was emergency transfered like 2 weeks ago). I think we are gonna work in MY area so I am pretty sure that is gonna be a disaster, but we will seee!! This area is so hard we have sooo many new investagators but nobody really wants to progress!!! And our less actives are not really progressing much either....IDK it is so hard!! Elder Brizuela and I have been doing good though...like we have not fought in such a long time so that is getting better fortunately.

My hearing aid is good!!! It's just like my last one, I dont notice it working for me unless I mute it with it still in my ear!!! But it's good....I love the remote its just soooo different and I feel soooo rad just pulling out a random remote hahah I have an appointment with my audiologist just to see if we need to change anything!!! But all is weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllll.

Okay so the challenge this week is a continuation of the last!!! Look at your notes and make some goals about the things you need to change to help your relationship with your Heavenly Father become better......it will work I promise!!!

LOVE YOU TONZO!!!!

ELDER OLSEN

(Garrett sent a hand-written letter all about his hospital experiences so I thought I would share it here for everyone to read!)

Unpacking My Adjectives: Hospital Aqui

Heeeeyo, haha hey guys! 

I figured with all our doctors appointments, (between the two of us we have had five now) I would write a little about how the doctor works in Colombia. I have been to two hospitals...a small one and a giant one. The small one was the first one we went to. We went there for Elder Brizuela...that place kinda creeped me out. There's only one entrance on the outside sooo naturally the Emergency Room waiting room is outside...But we had an appointment so we got to go inside without waiting. We had to go through a big metal gate and some security first (weird....so weird). The inside looked like a bus terminal...concrete everywhere and all these weird plastic benches...it seriously felt like I was waiting for the front runner. The waiting room was also next to a medical lab so there was a bunch of doctors carrying these boxes with organs and stuff all throughout the waiting room...IDK it was just weird. We also didn't have a nurse. The doctor himself fills out all of your information and takes your height and stuff so that was different. And the doctors kinda just wrote a prescription on a sticky note so that's weird. 

The big hospital I have been to lots of times, both for my ears and for Elder Brizuela's knee...it's huge. There is a giant 10 story building and a bunch of little buildings that surround it. The main building is actually really nice and has these giant courtyard things with giant pine trees growing in them. There is also really nice art everywhere and that hospital works more like an American hospital...except you have to go through metal detectors before you can even get in. It is really big too like 10 stories. One of my doctors works on the 8th floor and my audiologist works on the 3rd floor. There is some pretty sweet views. The process of getting a hearing aid is the same but different doctors do different parts of the process. One doctor looks at your ears, another tests you, and the last gives you the aid...it's a little different but it was good. They all spoke a little big of English too so that was not an issue. So yeah, hospitals here are either really easy and normal orrrrr a little weird. I guess it just depends...I hope this helped you guys get to know my experience a tad bit better.

LOVE YOU!

-Elder Olsen

You cannot tell me that that does not look BOOOOOOOOOMB!

My bus pass!!!

My gross skin colored hearing aid....and its remote!!!