SERVE (week 35)

HHHEEEEEEEY FAM!!!! (omg it's just like sophomore year of high school)

What is cracking? I have had a raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad week, so many crazy and interesting things happened this week and I am stoked to finally be able to talk about it.

For starters we had part of our district meeting in English again....yeah, I cannot speak English. I can but suuuuper sloooooooow, ughhh. But it's good we were able to set some goals which I will talk about a tad bit later. Tuesday we went over to Hermana Lidia's house to eat lunch....nothing unusual but she stopped us before we went in and said "boys I have some youth that in special classes to become "padres" here.....do you want to eat with them?" Me, being ignorant me, literally thought she invited some kids with pregnant girlfriends to eat with us BUUUUUUUUUT NOOOOOOPE. This whole week we ate with the Catholic missionaries...that was fun. I guess a padre is a like an LDS bishop...but like with more rules...these kids are only 20 and have committed to not get married and stuff like that..it was pretty cool learning experience. (I am dying of laughter over this story. Seriously...that is hilarious. I love funny ignorant Elder Olsen!!)

WE HAD A MULTI-ZONE CONFERENCE.....in Popayan. I didn't tell you guys about it last week because I knew mom would have freaked out!! We slept with some of the other elders which was good. It was good...Elder Florez was there which was less than ideal, we didn't even look at each other the whole time. The whole conference was about how to begin teaching, how we are all seeds and need to develop our talents. Hermana Pricoli gave us these lamented seeds from Uruguay which was cool. And Hermana also had a giant rant to the Latinos all about how they need to keep studying English.....only the sisters do though. Speaking about the sisters there were only TWO in the whole conference...they are getting rid of them fast. We also had to take these safety reports this last week which was fuuuuuuuuun....pretty sure the First Presidency is worried about this mission, they have reason though. During this conference we learned that there will be another conference with President Whitesides in 2 weeks!! STTOOOOOKEED. It was also the last time that we will ever see President Pricoli so each missionary got 30 seconds in private to say bye. Hermana Pricoli made a note to Hermana Whitesides about my ears. I don't know it was just a little sad and little weird...but change is good. SPEAKING OF MY EARS.....my hearing aid got clogged BAAAD in Popayan. Ugggh it was so hot...everyone says that it's perfect weather there but that's a bunch of crap. (We can always count on Garrett to tell us how he really feels, huh? Haha!)

On the way home from Popayan there were no buses back to Pasto...sooooo we were stranded in the terminal from 4 to 10!! Ugghhhh it was horrible!! I just read my Liahona and chilled with Elder Corbett and Elder bishop and had tons of good conversations and practiced Spanish...it was good. We finally got on the bus and at about 4 in the morning our bus and another car scraped xD We almost died but it's all good!!

Yesterday, Elder Corbett told us that we had to get 7 new investigators to meet our goal....I was pumped because at the end of his text he wrote "SI O SI VAMOS HYPE SQUAD" (YES OR YES LET'S GO HYPE SQUAD....according to google translate.) Soooo fudge yeah! We worked our butt off yesterday and we got 6 new investigators....we didn't reach the goal but we have so busy with our progressing investigators that new ones aren't our main focus...so I was happy.

Today for P-day we played soccer and kickball....I OWNED soccer. I suck with a lot of Latinos but in the district I am pretty decent, I scored 6 goals. During kickball Elder Flores kicked the ball over the fence into someones tiny yard. Elder Corbett climbed the fence and the lady opened her window and started screaming at us and threatened to call the cops.....she didn't though...it was a chill P-day.

I wanted to write a little bit about what happened at the terminal....Elder Bishop left for a minute and me and Elder Corbett had a minute to talk. He asked "Elder Olsen, how is the mission?" And I just kinda shrugged my shoulders, and then he was like "noooo Elder Olsen, HOW IS THE MISSION?" I really don't like it when people I like and trust ask me those questions because I went into INSTANT RAAAAAANT MODE. He was able to share some experiences and pep talk me a little bit, BUT WHAT WENT DOWN NEXT WAS THE BEST PART. Elder Corbett was like "Elder Olsen look at Elder Carrion....he's had a little bit of hard time in the mission but he is trying to do better. We have had like 5 hours here and he's the only one that tried contacting anybody...and I feel bad he is sitting all alone." Then he turned to me and said "vamos practicar nuestro español y hablar con el." (Let's practice our Spanish and talk to him.) Sooo yeah we went and talked with this Elder...and yeah know what...I felt a trillion times better. I had never met this Elder before and he was way chill. I learned a good lesson from that....I can complain about whatever I want but it really doesn't matter. I came here to serve and make others happy.....service makes me happy!! That being said CHALLENGE....here's your writing prompt "what can I do to forget about myself and make others happy?" It's a legit thing I promise. Whatever we are going through it can easily become so much better if we try to help other people and forget ourselves....I promise.

"I will share my saviors love by serving others freely.....in serving I am blessed....in giving I receive."

LOVE YOU TONZZZ,

ELDER OLSEN