Elder Garrett McKay Olsen - Cali, Colombia : September 2018

Heeeeey famiiiiilia!!!!

This week was super chill!!! We are doing the same old, same old!!!! We are working SUUUUUUPER hard but this is Tulua and Tulua likes to be difficult, but I'm not losing any excitement.....I'm working hard because my time to work is coming close!!!!

We had interviews this week and eveeeerybody was giving me all kinds of crap "OMG ELDER OLSENS LAST INTERVIEW......ANYBODY ELSE SMELL TRUNKY OVER HERE?!" And I just sat there like "te odio" "te odio a ti tambien" "y usted" "y usted tambien"

My interview was literally 2 seconds long......Presidente asked me about my companion and then told me that Elder Whiting would be calling me to tell me when I would have my final interview with him.........and he did!!!! I have my final interview the fourth of October!!!!

My interview with Hermana was weird cause she was like "I have things that I only tell Presidente.......one day you too will find someone special that you can tell all your spiritual stuff too......and I just sat there like "uhhhhhhm uhhhhhhhm uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhm this is weirrrrd"

Soooo like I said, everybody hopes that I get trunky but it's not working!!!!! Uhhhhm the only other interesting thing that happened is that my house flooded!!! So that's cool!!!!

Buuuut yeah, love you all tons!! Hope everyone is doing good!!!!

ELDER OLSEN

Hermana Luz Delli made fish this week

Elder Alvarado thinks he is guapo..........its debatable

There's just something about my Pasto jersey......

Helping Johnny during our P-day activity today

We had another activity where we were given a drawing prompt and we had to draw it with the pen in our mouth......this is my 1st vision......not only am I right handed but I can draw amazingly with my mouth tambien!

Chillin' with the hermana's!

Look at this chill bird that we found crapping on the church fence!

DOMINOS FTTTTW!!!!!

Llololololololololololololololololollo solo en Sudamérica jajajaja

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY FAMILIA!!! Como estan? Espero que esten SUUUUUPER bien!!

This week was good!!! We have been working really hard......buuuut I don't know, there is something special that makes it suuuuuuuuuper difficult. Tulua has 2 chapels and they announced that they are gonna close one and turn it into the district offices............just about everyone has problems because the chapel is super far from just about every area........it's hard, but with the Lord's help we got this!!!!

Speaking of having it....I'M NOT TRUNKY.....literally every time an airplane flies by I hear "teeeenaz Elder Olsen only 3 weeks and you'll be on one of those" and today they sent me my itinerary and he was like "PRINT IT PRINT IT PRIIIIIINT IT, RIGHT NOW SO WE CAN SHOW THE HERMANAS" and I just sat there like "is this child freaking kidding me jajaja"

Yesterday I was super sick and throwing up.....but we visited the P family and Hermana P gave me agua panela and forced me to take a nap on her couch and put blankets all over me......I felt better after that

Anyways....I'm gonna write some bomb handwritten letters during the week!!!

Looooove yoooou!!!

ELDER OLSEN

The Lion King 2.0

A chill church in Andalucia

Desembarcos in Andalucia

Chillin with the Hermana's....waiting in the rain for correlation to start

A cathedral in Tulua!!!

Graffiti is life

RAIN and bugging my compa xD

Here's a video that describes every ward activity that I have had in Colombia.....screaming children in the background of salsa dancing!

Unpacking My Adjectives: Amigdalas
Heey fam! I decided to write this letter to explain a little bit about what's been going on lately...I was hoping that Tulua would be the part of the mission where I wouldn't have to go to the hospital but....NOPE!
Symptoms: Sooo for the past two and a half weeks I have had a lot of pain in my chest, not too bad of a pain but I was itchy and I felt like somebody was sitting on me so sometimes when I took deep breaths it hurt to breathe. Not only that but my chest was super red and swelling. At first I didn't think it was too big of a deal and something to do with not eating enough calcium. But, even after trying my best to change that nothing changed so I decided to call Hermana Whitesides and she set up an appointment for me.
Hospital Ruben Cruz Velez: Sooo on Tuesday Elder Mendoza and I (we were on divisions) went to the hospital, and it was weird. First, the hospital is literally gated and you have to pass through security guards and tell them about your appointment, doctor, ect. Second, the hospital is literally an architectural nightmare (this is Colombia...I shouldn't be surprised) and literally there aren't any waiting area's, just a bunch of chairs and lines outside. There's a nice awning thing though so you don't get rained on. We called the doctor and he told us just to wait by the pharmacy, so we waited for like five minutes and then he showed up and took us inside. We went to the hospitalization department...the inside of the building was weird too, it reminded me of the high school, old but well taken care of. He sent us to a room...and it looked super sad and creepy looking.
The Exam: The exam was interesting...I recently just cut my hair so the doctor noticed my hearing aid and was asking me a bunch of questions about that and then after he asked me about the problem. He took my blood pressure and I felt my chest as I breathed and then took a light and looked into my mouth. As I said "ahhhh" he was like "woooooah" and even had Elder Mendoza look into my mouth....they were talking about certain body parts that I didn't know words for (always learning more Spanish jaja) and then he deicded to do a heart exam (annnnd that craped the crap outta me)! He hooked a bunch of weird cords up to me...Elder Mendoza was having fun taking photos haha but it didn't last long and the machine started to print a bunch of results.
Results: My heart exam came out perfectly normal (I'm honestly surprised based on all the greasy Colombian food I eat jajaja) so the doctor basically told us that my tonsils are super swollen...and I guess that has an impact on my chest and lungs. He said that people can live a long time with the king of pains I've been having...but it's a temporary problem and he gave me some prescriptions for some pills and a shot.
Prescriptions: Pharmacies in Colombia are just really interesting...you don't really need a prescription to buy anything XD All the machines have all these South American countries and their rules printed on them but Colombia always has "venta libre" printed on machines jaja. I just needed two sets of basic pills (I've taken the same drugs before). Buuut what was weird was the shot...1. they don't give shots in the hospitals, you get them at the pharmacy. 2. I was talking with the girl working the pharmacy...she's literally only 23 years old and her college program was only like 2 years....que raro! 3. The cute 23 year old Colombian with a legal drug dealing license takes me to the back to give me a shot and she tells me that I have to have it IN THE BUTT! Jaja she was asking me if that was the 1st time cause I was super tense BAHAHAHA...it's not my fault...it's not everyday that a cute 23 year old Colombian injects you in your butt ;)
Conclusion: I'm almost done with my pills and I'm doing tons better...all my weird chest pains went away, so I guess I'm good! It was an experience though...
(This is literally the most awkward thing I've ever read. I'm cringing inside. And laughing my head off! Oh boy...)

Unpacking My Adjectives: My Second Baptism!
On the 6th (Thursday) My comp and I had some appointments fall through so we started to contact in a neighborhood in our area called "Brisas de San Antonio." So we just started knocking doors...like normal...without success....like normal! Anyways, some dude in the house next door pulled up on his motorcycle and seemed super excited to see us (It weirded me out...that should have been my sign to leave!) Anyways, this guy had my comp hold his bag of eggs while he parked his moto in the hall and then went up to his apartment. He asked us if we wanted water...we politely told him that we were fine but he said "oh no you're going to drink water" (hello...second sign that we should have left!!) Anyways, he lived in a house that had two houses within the house so he sat us down on his PUBLIC staircase...I was closest to the door...and he brought out a bottle of cold water and ONE glass (third sign we should have left.) He was standing at the bottom of the staircase looking at us and holding his water and looked at us and said "take your watches off" and I just looked at my comp with the "LOL, another I got robbed in Colombia sotry" look. But we looked back at this man and he said "take your watches off so no metals are touching your body," that seemed a little weird to me, but I took my wathc off and then he asked me to unstrap my bag...then he took his water bottle and poured water in the cup and told us "the water that I'm going to give you will make it so you never have thirst....nunca jamas." Then he dipped his fingers in his water and looked at me and said "don't be scared" then, with his wet fingers he started to draw crosses on my face...my thoughts were a mix of "padre celestial por favor ayudeme" and "caaaaaarajooooo!" (P.S don't google translate that word. I don't think Garrett meant to think such bad words in his head hahahaha!) After painting ten crosses on my face this guy put his hand on top of my head and started to speak gibberish...my comp and I were just staring at each other with the widest eyes! After that he pointed to his finger water and asked me to drink it...and I was like "pues, no gracias!" He then introduced himself as a healer of Jesus...and kindly told me that I need an eye exam and my comp needs to avoid sugar because he's close to having diabetes XD He told me that the next day I would be tired (yeah....I wasn't) and that the power I just received is special. After that my comp literally started to talk about the restoration and gave this guy our number and the church's address (FACEPUNCH!!) Buuut yeah...that is the story of how we knocked into crazy and I was baptized....again!