Hey everyone,
Well, my past week has been really busy.. it has been great though. I am really glad to hear from all of you, and its good to know what is going on back home. I appreciate the letters and stories from you all.. they always make my day better. I miss the kids so much..Whenever I hear stories about Taide rolling around comically yelling, Mackenzie playing with Toby, or Devyn telling me about her birthday; I realize that is what I miss the most.. watching all the kids grow up. Dad, I miss sitting and just talking with you.. mom, I miss laughing with you.. grampa, I miss working with you.. grandma, (surprisingly) I miss scratching your back. I miss every one of you.. ..yet I would not trade anything at all for the work that I am doing right now.
So last wednesday, our district with a few others took a bus down to the federal police station.. It was pretty cool; we were scanned, had to get our fingerprints taken, and had to turn in a bunch of identification papers.. I guess so they can catch me when I rob a bank or something. Anyways, while I was waiting for them to call my name on a bench with a few of my companieros, two catholic priests that were dressed in mideval looking red tunics walked over and sat next to me. They had huge jedi boots on and wore a large metal chain and rosary beads around their waists.. quite a sight! When they sat down I began talking to them in my broken portuguese.. Luckily one of them knew about as much english as I knew portuguese, so we were able to communicate somewhat okay.they were catholic missionaries from mosambeque and were serving just north of Sau Paulo. We talked for a few minutes.. The one told about 3 cousins that he had who belonged to our church. They were actually really nice guys, it was alot of fun to talk to them..
On friday we had our first experience of proselyting! Wow, what a day that was.. We drove to a place called Santa Cecilia, it was an old chapel right above a subway junction, so there were plenty of people. I was actually really scared, as were the rest of my district.. Right before we left I read to them 2 timothy chapter 1 and we had a good prayer.. I think this helped alot. At first it was very difficult, I could not hardly speak..but after about the 3rd person I was throwing together sentences with every word that I knew, and it just started to come. The only problem was when they would ask a question back...I usually could only pick up 1 out of 10 words... First of all, My vocab isn´t too big; and secondly, they talk so fast!! When I would understand the question, I wouldn´t always be able to answer it because of my lack of portuguese. It was definately a humbling experience.. most people were very kind and would listen to the message, but some people just shrugged off the message.. Some where in too big of a hurry.. and some protested it because they were diehard catholics. However, I noticed that the people whom I would talk to because they had stood out to me for some reason, would listen intently.. and I could see that they were pondering what I was saying. This was when I was able to speak the best as well.. I like to think that I may have changed someones life.. I hope..one certain story was when elder holmes and I both felt impressed to walk inside an old sewing shop. We both spoke to the 2 old ladies working there.. told them of the restoration, about Joseph Smith, and I promised them that the book would bless and help their families.. We spoke with them for about 15-20 minutes or so. They were so extremely happy.. We ended up giving each of them a Book of Mormon with an information number inside.. They were so happy, They hugged the books, thanked us, and blessed us for the message. We both walked out of the store a little bit higher than before. I love the people here already..
At midnight on saturday night there was a huge thunderstorm that woke a few of us up.. because we had the windows wide open. Half of the room was soaked with rain..but wow, it was such an incredible storm.. I have never heard such deep thunder.. I watched it for quite a while..
Well we were able to watch all of conference this past weekend.. What a powerhouse of talks! Every one was so good.. maybe it´s just because I´m on a mission, but it was awesome. I know that the leaders of our church truly are men of God. What great council..!
Well minha família.. I better go now. Thank you for everything.. Keep in touch and let me know how everyone is doing.
I love you all,- Elder olson
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