The Spirit of Revelation (week 47)

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY YOOOOU GUUUYS!!! I am not sure if this letter is gonna be long or not...I only sent 10 trillion and 2 pictures today....but hey that takes some talent!!!

I had the dankest, dopest, most spiritual week!! It was like BOOM one spiritual thing right after another and I LOOOOOVED every single second of it!! It started with my interviews with President which went really good!!! We had a great conversation about some of things that were bothering me!! I feel kinda bad though, it's obvious that President is worrying about my transfer and everything (transfers are this Sunday)!! I told him that I am not worried about...I was called to the COLOMBIA CALI mission not the Colombia Pasto/Popayan mission....I don't know, it should be interesting.

This week we also had a visit from ELDER DALLIN H OAKS!!! And it was rad, Elder Godoy and Elder Lynn G Robbins were though too!! And all their wives annnnnd ugh the feels. He talked a lot about how we can receive revelation...he said that some scriptures are better for receiving revelation than others!! He compared the Book of Numbers to 3rd Nephi!!! He also said something that really HIT ME...."we cannot ponder if we do not have a question" sooooo true!!! I don't have time to write everything he said but don't worry....I have it all in my spiritual journal (Aubrey I promised you that thing was gonna be rad.....and it is!) Elder Robbins wife totally gave the translator sass.....and then got mad when she started translating her sass hahahahahah that was fun to watch!

I appreciate all the prayers for our fechas peeeero Luz Alba does not want anything to do with us anymore....I am not worried about it, everyone has their agency!! Buuuuut ooooof Fernanda and Daniel are PROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGRESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSING GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!! And I had the coolest experience with them......so we were just talking about the atonement casually, but I had a memory keep popping in my head.....when Aubrey found out about some worldy things going on in my life and FORCED me to say slow prayers with her....focusing on my feelings!! Anyways it was obvious the spirit was helping me out and FAST too! Because before I knew it we were on the floor...and I was praying.....telling them to pay attention to their feelings. Well.....it worked! We asked Fernanda how she felt and she said "I saw God.....I literally saw God but there was so many obstacles I had to go through but He wanted me to do it so I could be with him." We asked her about her testimony.....she gave it a solid 7 outta 10!! We are going to be asking her the bautismo interview questions for her interview in about 30 minutes.....crossing my fingers it all goes well!! Hopefully we have some baptisms this Saturday.

Buuuuut yeah!! This week kicked my butt....I am realizing what it takes to receive revelation......but we need to put in our part too!!! I have been praying and meditating (with questions) soooo hard this week BUUUUUUT I AM DOING SOOO WELL....ugh I just want that for you guys......I hope they are doing the things needed to really get to know our Heavenly Father.....and listen to him, it's a hard thing....but it's the chillest thing so we ought to do it.

I love you all soo much......stay rad!!

Elder Olsen

Unpacking My Adjectives: Recuerdo Norte 2

(Garrett writes Unpacking My Adjectives letters to tell us more about his area he is in! He hand writes these letters in his free time and then I type them up for the blog.)

Hey guys, so I figured I would write a quick UMP letter since transfers are this Monday and yeah!

The area: Recuerdo Norte 2 is a chill area, it's in the northern part of Popayan...literally in the middle of no where. It's a decently sized area though our boundaries cover: Gran Britana, San Ignacio, Busques De Morinda, San Geraldo, Zildemaya, Bello Horizante, Bello Vista, Neuva Gaililea, and part of La Paz. The other part of the norther part of Popayan belongs to the Hermana's, but the entire thing is part of our branch.

The House: Our casa is horrific haha! This area used to have a super nice house in a gated community but because they got caught using the pool and a bunch of other issues they had to change the house. We live in a sketchy neighborhood and our neighbors below us always smoke a bunch of stuff so it smells awful and they blast their music. Haha it's a little different for sure!

The branch: I don't know, I've always been in wards and stakes so being in a branch and district is a little different. There's a ton more work to do. Sometimes the attendance is super good and the chapel is packed! Other times there is barely anyone there...it's so weird. There There are a bunch of less active and part member families, so there's a ton to do. The members are good! Some of them are really good about helping us...others, not so much. We have ward counsel every other Wednesday which is weird...it's usually every Sunday after church. We also don't have our missionary meetings because we don't have a branch mission leader...but it's all good there is a lot of work to do.

Conclusion: Soo yeah, this was a little short but all is well in Popayan. It's different but i'm enjoying it and I can't wait to see the district grow in the future :) 

 Helping Christian and Fernanda wash their dog....I nicknamed her gringa!!

 Mucho desayuno

ELDER CAREY

 ICE CREAM

 With Elder Carey and Elder Marks

El Consolador (week 46)

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUYS!!! So I just wanna start off this email by saying that we are at a different internet place than usual and our internet is kinda sucky....so yeah no pictures (well not all of them) :( but I will send them neeeeeeext week.

So this week was really good! We had scheduled appointments alllllllllll week long...we are busy busy buuuuusy, but it's good that way!! The time goes by a lot faster!! We have been able to find so many new people but its been a challenge because we ran out of copies of the Book of Mormon to give them....so yeah!!! We are doing somewhat well :)

We had a really fun ward activity and we talked about some scriptures and played games...it was fun!!! Not a bunch of attendance though :/ neeeeext time!!! We were also able to help some of the members out of their....I don't know farm? We basically just hoed down some fields for them, and it was super hot and the dirt was super hard buuuut I enjoyed it all of the priests were there and I told them I was from Pasto.....so yeah my new nickname is "gringo pastuso" I think it fits me veeeeeery well :) 

Our investagators are doing very well too......we had 3 dates for baptisms buuuut one of them didn't come to church soo now we have 2!! They are Fernanda and Daniel.....part of the Benitez family!! They are struggling with gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph smith....buuut Christian and Silivia have been working and reading with them so that's really good!!!

Our other fecha that we had is a girl named Luz Alba, her sister is a member and we committed her to be baptized on her first lesson and she accepted but now we have to change her date to the 30th....which is next transfer so we will see how that goes down!!!

We have interviews tomorrow and I am actually really looking forward to them!!! We had to memorize Doctrine and Convenents 31: 11 through 13 which says:

11 Sigue tu camino, doquier que sea mi voluntad, y el  Consolador te indicará lo que has de hacer y a dónde has  de ir.

12 Ora siempre, para que no entres en tentación y pierdas  tu galardón.

13 Sé fiel hasta el fin y, he aquí, estoy contigo. Estas palabras no son de hombre ni de hombres, sino mías, sí, de  Jesucristo, tu Redentor, por la voluntad del Padre. Amén.

(11 Go your way whither soever I will, and it shall be given you by the Comforter what you shall do and whither you shall go.

12 Pray always, lest you enter into temptation and lose your reward.

13 Be faithful unto the end, and lo, I am with you. These words are not of man nor of men, but of me, even Jesus Christ, your Redeemer, by the will of the Father. Amen.)

It was a little tough but I was able to get it down really quickly!!!

Buuuuut yeah I have been thinking about these words a lot lately!!! Because it's true....the Holy Ghost will help us if we are worthy and wiling to be taught!!! We just have to that....that's the hard part. sometimes I feel like I really am not able to listen but honestly if I look back I can see the spirit helping.....every step of the way!!!

Sorry this is short....this internet place is crap and we wont be coming here again xD but I will send all of the photos from this week that I took next week....deal?

Love and miss you all tonzo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Olsen

 Picking mandarins with Hermana Silvia

Waiting for people to come to the branch activity....

....still waiting

Our service project

 More of the service project

 My comp is a stud

We were literally in a rain forest so it was chill

Con mi cooooompey!!!

 Our P-day hike to the waterfalls

 Our hike

 With Elder Corbett and Elder Rodriguez

GRINGO CREW

ELDER RODRIGUEZ

 Elder Rojo (Elder Olsen) y Elder Corbata (Elder Corbett)

MUCHO LZ

DIVINE POTENTIAL (week 45)

QUERIDO FAMILIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! ¿Como Estan? ¡¡¡¡Espero que muy bien!!!! Can you guys believe it is SEPTEMBER!!! TEEEEENAAAAAAAZ it was January yesterday.

This week wasss soooooo good!! I don´t wanna say we killed it because we didn't.....WE MURDERED IT!!! We ended the week off with 12 new investigators and 8 investigators coming to church...we had more but they didn't stay all 3 hours!!!

 This zone conference was different...we had Elder Pizarro and Elder Benavides stay at our house it was fun!! There is an expression in Spanish that says "pasar la sierra" directly translated it means "to pass the saw" but it means to tell it like it is. So you would say "this Elder did something wrong so I am gonna pass him the saw" but anyways we were sitting there listening to Hermana Whitesides talk about our health and some rules that we need to follow...nothing weird!! But then she was like "if you don't I am gonna pass the saw" and the she literally pulled a saw....and literally all conference long she carried this saw. We had another training with the AP'S and they were like "if we don't know who to count as a new investigator are we gonna call the finance secretary" and Hermana Whitesides just stood up and started screaming "LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA SIERRA" while twisting her saw in the air....she's the best hahahaha and President talked a lot about how we need to be excited...he also talked a lot about transfers and also how we are not allowed to say the word "PITI" anymore (that was our word for disobedient missionaries). This conference was just soooo different like we had activities and played games and ate cake!!! There is just a different vibe in the mission with President and Hermana Whitesides....and I like that

Also at conference the AP'S started to pass out mail and I heard "ELLLLLDER OLSEN" and I was like "my family never writes me handwritten letters...not within a package anyway" sooo a big shout out goes to the Johnson Family....you guys ROOOOCK!!!! I loved my birthday card and letter!! At the end of conference they brought out the big rice sack....and started passing packages just like Santa Claus (I love it soooo much) but I was FINALLY able to get my 2nd birthday package. This past week I found a Liahona from 2015 and I read and LOVED the talk "A Summer with Great Aunt Rose" loved it. Marked it. Totally wrote in my journal about it....so when I opened my package and I flipped my binder to a random page and that talk was the first thing I saw I FREEEEEAKED!!!!! Such a good birthday present....thank you to everybody that contributed...I learned a lot about each of you and was able to read some things that I needed to hear entonces muchas gracias!!!

The other week we met a girl named "Vanessa" on the bus on our way to district meeting...we have been working with this girl for a little bit now and yesterday her and her little boy came to church. She really liked it and the members were really good about getting to know her (yaaay for being in a branch) sooo hopefully we can get some progress here.

We have also been working with the Ordoñez family.....they are really great and met with the missionaries a long time ago in 2016 but they never came back. But they were able to come to church yesterday too! Hermana Celia was like "people at your church don't talk bad about each other....and the class was really informative and the teacher was really helpful." This is like a HARD woman too...like she doesn't let us ask her questions because she doesn't like that....so I think we are getting some progress there.

This week a random woman called us.....and was like "we loved the missionaries but then transfers came and my husband didn't like the new ones so we didn't invite them back!" Soooo yeah we went and visited the Bermeo family...a part member family. They only liked the elders because they were disobedient...so we will see how that works out!! Hermana Johanna and Hermano Christian aren't married....they have about a 10 year difference between them. We asked Hermana if she wants to get married but she was like "nooo I want Christian to go on a mission....you boys should encourage him to leave on a mission" buuut I don't know, she has a daughter that he is currently helping raise so I don't know if that's the best idea....but will we see.

It just seems like Hermana Whitesides has 2 things she likes to talk about 1. 1st Impressions and 2. POTENTIAL!!! And I always love it when she speaks because she always passes the saw and tells it like it is. As I continue to be on my mission and I actually look back....I can see the progress I am making....I can see how some of the experiences that I have had are fitting into Heavenly Fathers plan for me!! And that's just that....I have lots of goals...but more than that He has lots of goals for me, and we CANNOT reach our divine potential if we aren't constantly looking and fulfilling those goals and plans that He has for us. I am forever grateful to my Heavenly Father.....I will be forever be grateful for the mission....even if sucks sometimes!!! It's worth every minute :) just something for all of you to think about this week!!

LOVE YOU HONEY BUNCHS OF OATS :P

ELDER OLSEN

 PIZZA!!!

 Elder Benavides and Elder Pizarro snuggling...precious no?

Happy birthday to Nosotros!!

 Playing games at conference

 Some more of the area

 annnnnnd more of our area

Waiting for the hermana's at the church