BAPTISM YAAAAAY!!!! (week 70)

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey you guys!!!! Don't have a ton of time because I was busy loading photos soooo imma do a POWER TYPE hahaha!

Buuuuut yeah this week was kinda insane because we had DIEGOS BAPTISM!! Sooooo we were on errands one minute after the other. Elder Stucki came out of that interview and said that he felt really good about it.....so we are very happy for him!! We are happy for Sandra too. The baptism was interesting basically Elder Ancalle had to baptize him 3 times cause the font wasn't filled up all the way. Each time he got more and more frustrated and the very last time he was screaming the ordinance at the top of his lungs.....Elder Gardner was a witness and he gave me a look with the widest eyes hahahahahaahah

Elder Lopez got an ingrown toe nail and because of that we had some emergency divisions.....it's alright, I got to know Elder Pulver really well!!! He's from North Ogden (no he doesn't know the Piersons) but he's really cool. We just did favors allll dayyyy long hahahaha

Today was a pretty cool p-day because we went as a district to buy FABRIC!!! Basically there is a lady in Elder Gardners area that makes ties super cheap if you bring her fabric, so she's doing that for us!!! Imma have two super sick ties next week and they were only about 5 dollars each so that's fun!!! 

I am really excited about how the area is going!!! We had a baptism and our other investigator has a date!!! If we keep working hard and being obedient I KNOW THAT WE CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN DO IT!!!!!!!

Anyways, love you guys thank you for all you do!!

ELDER OLSEN

Popayan Views

When Hermana Whitesides leaves the saw in the chapel after zone conference hahahaahah

Lasagna that Hermana Katherine made, mmmmmmmmmmhhhh!

 With Elder Pulver

 Hijo mio

GROUPPPP HUGGGG!!!

YAAAAAAY DIEGO

 :)

 Looook who we found

 Yaaaay so our ceiling caved in today bahahahaha

Lunch with the gringo crew

With Elder Gardner 

Here is something new! Garrett decided to do voice recordings to put on the blog. He wanted me to type it up but I thought you all deserved to hear his voice. Am I good to my (I mean Garrett's...) blog followers or what?! (; So here it is...

A Spiritual Rant of Sorts

Book Club: Why did Heavenly Father want Lehi and his family to have the brass plates?
This question isn't really easy to answer but it's not complicated either...the plates of brass contained the five books of Moses which talked about the creation of the world, our first parents and had a record of the Jews, in other words this record was part of the Bible.
Another thing that is talked about in 1 Nephi 5 is that these records gave an account of Lehi's genealogy..he learned that he was a descendent of Joseph and after finding it all out he was "filled with the spirit and began to prophesy of his seed" (1 Nephi 5:17). One of these prophecies was that "these plates of brass should go forth unto all nations, kindred's, tongues and people who were of his seed" (1 Nephi 5:18). This verse interested me so I looked up one of the cross references (Alma 22:12) about when Aaron had used these brass plates to teach the king about the creation...and that verse interested me so I looked up one of its cross references (Alma 18:36) about when Ammon was teaching the king when the king thought that he was a "great spirit". Obviously the sons of Mosiah had a ton of knowledge from these plates and were able to help a lot of people. 
I believe that Heavenly Father wanted Lehi and his family to have the brass plates for the same reason that he wanted us to have the Book of Mormon and the Bible so that we could learn more about him...and then take this knowledge to be able to help other people learn about the gospel!
Challenge: But why do you think Heavenly Father wanted Lehi and his family to have the brass plates? Read 1 Nephi 3-5 and write about it in your challenge journals!

THE PLAN OF SALVATION (week 69)

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY YOOOOOOOU GUYS!!!!!

I am happy to report that this week went pretty swell actually! I mean it was hard buuuuuuuuut it went a lot better than the last week hahahahahahaha!!!

We actually had a multizone conference this week with PASTO!!!! It was sooo good, I got to see so many of my friends that I haven't seen in awhile annnnnnd Elder Alanoka had a letter for me from MAMITA LIDIA!!!! I just love her she's the bestest!!! But the conference was chill.....Hermana Whitesides literally passed the saw (yes she brought her saw!) and told us to stop using SLANGG!!!! (I asked Garrett if that meant he would finally stop using the word dank!! He said no and that dank is just part of his language...I tried guys, I tried.) We basically just went over how to retain fechas and new members so it was fun.....buuuuuut my favorite part of the whole thing was when president was like "LO BAJARON A PRESIDENTE UCHTDORF" (we say lo bajaran to see "lowered" for example I used to be district leader but now I am just senior companion ME BAJARON) (My mom read that and thought it meant Garrett is no longer a district leader haha! He is, he was just using that as an example. He didn't put it in his letter but he is getting the hang of being a district leader and is liking it a lot more!) It just made a point that dumb gossip like that in the mission really just IS NOT NECESSARY!!! Another point that I liked during the conference was when President said in a quiet spiritual way "you elders know if you're good missionaries......you know if you're fulfilling your purpose." It is just something that really makes you think.

Elder Ancalle and I are doing tons better!!! We are knocking on tons and tons and toooooons of doors!!! It's pretty exhausting but we are seeing some fruits!!!

D still has his date for this Saturday!!! It's complicated we have to teach him so much in such little time buuuuut we are doing it.....I told my LZ about how I feel about all that and they were like "well just do a really good pre-interview and we will do a really interview." Soooo yeah it's pretty good with him, but we will see!!!

We moved the date of our other investigator to March 10......we basically thought more about him and his needs and he is really more of a visual person, so we decided to teach him ALL THE LESSONS ALL OVER AGAIN....focusing more with videos, pictures, etc!!! I have been making a lot of copies out of my Book of Mormon, New testament, and Old Testament story books.....we have seen so much more progress so I am happy!

Sooooo yeah we are working really hard and we are doing suuuuper well because of it!!!! I am just hoping that all of our dates go through!!! And not just mine, but my district is doing super well too!!!

We had a super cool experience we were chilling with an new investigator.....well we wanted to but he was upstairs sick so we chilled with his wife and she taught us all about the catholic church. We talked to her a little about the plan of salvation and its importance!! She was in all kinds of agreement.....and at one point she was crying!! I love teaching the plan of salvation.....I love teaching that families can be together forever because it's soooo TRUE AND SOOOOO IMPORTANT!!!!

Anyways I am running outta time but I love you guys sooooo much......stay safe and stay rad!

ELDER OLSEN!!!

 My friend Elder Kelley from Spokane Washington

ELDER THOMAS!!!!!

ELDER GARDNER!!!!!!

 ELDER CHACON!!!!

ELDER CHACON AND ELDER ECHEVARRIA!!!!

 ELDER SMITH!!!!

 Cooking with Elder Echevarria and Elder Gardner

 Breakfast with all of the favs

 Found this on my camera xD

ASADO!!!!!

Learning Opportunities (week 68)

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY FAAAAAAAAAAM!!!! This week was super hard....but that is the usual I guess.

My comp is struggling a little bit. This week we were planning and out of nowhere he just started to cry....and I just sat there like"whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat happened?" Turns out his camera deleted all of his photos and he had the last pictures that he took with his mom on there and his mom has cancer...he really just got worried that THAT WOULD BE THE LAST PHOTO he had taken with his mom. I feel bad for the kid!! It's also hard on me because he lets everything get him down!!!

Not only that but he struggles because he doesn't know how the mission is....he gets upset because we don't have ten trillion new investigators every week, and he struggles because contacting doesn't always bring a lot of results. It's just hard because I feel like we aren't putting in our part and I am not teaching him everything that he needs to know......BUT WE ARE!!!! AND I AM TRYING MY BEST!!!!! But he will go and tell people that we really don't have a lot of investigators and stuff like that.

I don't know its been a real big challenge for me.....but I just need to go forward and help him by being a Christlike example, by helping our investigators and members as well and just doing our best. We just need to do our best and things will work out!!!

One of our investigators didn't come to church so PAILAS with his fecha :( he's such a good kid but he learns so slow. So i'm thinking we need to try a visual approach with like pictures and drawing, I don't know something like that.

BUUUUUT we were able to give our other investigator a fecha, which was difficult.....first we had to make sure those two were living the law of chastity and now we had to WORK HARD to teach him all of the lessons before his date (24th) because he has to get baptized before March because he wants to the perpetual education fund for education but that's the deadline. So yeah that should be fun hopefully it all works out!!!

Sooooooo yeah I have been working my butt off and it has been hard but these challenges are sooo good for me!!! and they are so good for Elder Ancalle. I never learned how to contact during my training and we never had a ton of investigators and yeeeeah that made things harder later on in my mission. Elder Ancalle will not have that problem once he gets things figured out!!! I am grateful for these hard opportunities, and for these chances to learn from being a leader. It's tough but it just passes the chainsaw right to you and helps you learn!!! And I am grateful for that. I hope that we can all take advantage of all the learning opportunities that our Heavenly Father gives us!!!!!

Anyways, love you all TONZO!!!! I hope that you all doing well......siempre estoy orando para ustedes!!! Les quiero mucho :)

Your fav,

ELDER OLSEN!!!!

 Only in Colombia

 Some of the drawings I have been doing in my PMG

Next is a handwritten letter Garrett sent so I thought I would type if up and post it here!

BOOK CLUB: in what way is the Book Of Mormon another testament of Jesus Christ?

Hey fam! So I was able to finish the 1st page of my coloring book (it looks way better in person) and while it was fun to color and de-stress, I actually enjoyed thinking and pondering about what I was coloring. Every page has a question and the question for this page was "in what way is the BOM another testament of Jesus Christ?" I thought about it a lot and I decided to write some thoughts. 

The Book of Mormon is ancient scripture similar to the Bible. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we believe both the Bible and the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. The Book of Mormon was written by ancient prophets here in the American continent and contains many stories and information that the Bible does not. We can learn more about the Book of Mormon when we read the Bible, and more about the Bible when we read the Book of Mormon. 

After the death of Jesus Christ and of his apostles, the people could no longer receive revelation from a prophet with the needed authority of God (or sacerdocio). The people had the Bible but without this special revelation it was easy to interpret the Bible in a bunch of different ways. As people started to interpret the Bible, the church of Jesus Christ was lost as people started to establish their own churches. It was also during this time that several different changes and translations were made to the Bible...taking away important truths and doctrine. The BOM was necessary to help us interpret truth and find even more information. 

Joseph Smith was truly a prophet of God, he was ordinary. He literally had a third grade education, buuut he was able to translate the gold plates written in a language that no one speaks anymore...how? Because he had the power of God. No ordinary person could translate the BOM. No ordinary person could even write the BOM, not without the power of God. As we read the BOM we can see it's from God because as we read, ponder, and pray the BOM can answer questions of "the soul". We can learn about the importance of being faithful from Nephi (1 Nephi 3:7). Enos teaches the importance of prayer (Enos 4-8), it even teaches harder questions (if we're willing to ponder), like how family can be stronger (Mosiah 2), how we can avoid sin (Helaman 5), and who specifically needs to be baptized (Moroni 8)). As we read with faith and real intent we will receive answers to the hard questions "line by line, precept by precept...here a little and there a little" until we know what we need to do!

The BOM is another testament of Jesus Christ because it testifies of him, his purpose, and of his mission. I KNOW that as we read it with real intent and with faith, prayerfully seeking his will, we will find it. 

The BOM is another testament of Jesus Christ because it proves that God sent prophets all over the world...why? Because we are his children and he loves us. 

I could go on and on an onnnn but I think I have made my point. The Book of Mormon is RAD! And it is proof that God loves us :D  

CHALLENGE! Write in your challenge notebooks why the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ in your own thoughts and words.  

Getting Back on the Path!!! (week 67)

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY FAAAAAAAAMBAAAAAAAAAAM!!!!! WHATTTTTT'S CRACKING!?!

This week was super chill buuuuut super difficult....always works out like that right? Hahaha my field trip was soooo good!! I have the DANKEST story from Cali!!! (It really bothers me that he used the word dank. I'm only leaving it in there so one day he will see it and be super embarrassed about it and it will be hilarious!) You guys are never gonna believe it!!! Anyways so I was in a sweet nice rich part of Cali where the offices are......like super far away from where I started my mission.....and I was walking just chilling. Elder Garner and Elder Aroca were up front and Elder Edwards and I were just chilling in the back when I start hearing "GRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNGO" and my first thought was "shoot I'm only here for 2 days and imma be robbed!!!" All of the sudden someone had their arms around me.....TURNS OUT IT WAS PASCUAL REYES!!!! ANNNNNNND I FREEEEEAKKKKED OUT!!! I was like "PASSSCUAL HOW ARE YOU?!" Hahahah it was so funny Elder Garner was so confused. I asked him how he has been and he is doing well!! He told me that he has been asking all of the members in Ciudad Modelo about Elder Chaiña and I asking where we were and stuff like that!!! So yeah I told him to go to church and to write me! So that was chill! 

I picked up my hijo!!! His name is Elder Ancalle and he is from La Paz Boliva!!! He seems pretty chill, he is very excited to learn and to get out there and do things right!!! He asks me lots and lots and lots of questions soooo it's good!!! It's hard having to explain everything....I thought this would be easy buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut nope!!! I am sure it will be rewarding though.

The zone has changed so much and I LOOOOOVE IT!!! Did I tell you guys that Elder Chacon came back to Popayan? And that he is my LZ!!!!! I AM SOOOO FREAKING STOKED IT IS GOING TO BE SOOO RAD!!!! Elder Smith left but I actually have a really chill gringo crew!!! Elder Pulver is from North Ogden and has 4 months in his mission, Elder Kelley is from Spokane Washington and has 4 months in his mission, Elder Chavez is from South Carolina and is just starting. Transfers are always fun because there is always so many new people to get to know....I am very excited it should be a really fun transfer!!

We are working really hard with our investigator!!! We were able to finally give him another baptism date for the 24th of febuary......WE ARE GONNA HAVE TO WORK OUR BUTTS OFF TO GET HIM READY THOUGH!!! He's learning and he has all the desires to learn buuuuuuuuuut he learns slowly. I know we got this....the last time we visited him he talked about how his cousin (who we also teach) has been taking some weird drug and had an vision that god visited him or something like that......he just always has weird questions and stories and I don't think that made a good "first day in the mission" impression on my companion. Its been hard for companion because Colombia is a whole different world and he's not used to it!!! But I know that our investigator will progress because he WANTS to progress. I think that has been my favorite part of the mission watching people with all these problems little by little make changes in their lives and come closer to Christ.......it's pretty dank (ugh that word!!) actually and I am lucky enough to watch it happen all the time!!!

We had another experience BIEN CHEVERE with a family we've been teaching!!! Basically Hermano has been acting so weird lately like not wanting to go to church telling us he got baptized just to get baptized juuuuuust weird!!! Buuuut i know him and he's not like that. It was hard cause we had a lesson that was a little uncomfortable and John totally wanted to stop visiting him buuuut I was like "nope......I have the faith!!!" So we went and visited them again and we totally FOUND HIS NEEDS!!! Basically they switched from Recuerdo Norte to Occidente and Recuerdo Norte is a branch that is a lot more enthusiastic and more excited, like somebody new could walk in and its just like "HI HI HI WHAT'S YOUR NAME HOW ARE YOU" and Occidente just isn't like that........so yeah I think that we are gonna work on getting him some good fellowship and helping them out.....I have the faith, IT WILL WORK OUT!!!!

I don't know..I just have had lots of experiences lately that just scream "TENGA FE AND DON'T GIVE UP ON ANYBODY!" That's the great thing about the gospel, we all have different paths but what really matters is the DESTINATION!!! I haven't had a trillion baptisms in the mission, but I do feel like i have helped a lot of less actives and that's always so rewarding....it makes me happy :)

Anyways fam!!! Hope all is well, I love you all so much and I am always praying for you!!!

LOOOOOOVE YOU TONZO

ELDER OLSEN

With My child, Elder Ancalle!

The New Popayan Zone....there were a TON of changes!