Hey Everyone,
Thank you for your letters and stories. They are always great. A HUGE thanks for the supplies! Over the past week, E. Frank and I have survived off of peanut butter, bread, bananas, and the chocolate that you sent.. Thanks again.
To answer your question Blake:
-to wash clothes, we have some thing called a "tank" that just sloshes clothes around for a bit..then you take them out and scub them by hand in a sink and hang them to dry on the balcony. it´s sort of a pain, but thats life eh?
I hope that you are all going to have a happy new year.. (just not like most of brasil...they will all be drunk).ha!
Well, p-day was good today.. Me and my new comp came to Aracajú to play some soccer with the other elders here.. It was alot of fun,except that all the brasilians are way too good.
My new comp is Elder Frank (also a Brazilian). He is from Belém, which is whole lot hotter than here. He is way cool though, very excited and animated about the work. Everyday is alot of fun with him. It has been a good experience for me this past week, because Elder Frank was new to the area. I have sort of been "in charge" of things. It has pushed me to start making alot of the decisions each day--which is hard for me (you know how bad I am at deciding things).
The work is good. We are focusing on finding new investigators that are men--we are trying to open a new branch in Estância, and all we need is a few more priesthood holders. It has been great.. With Elder Frank we have been talking to a ton of people and finding great new investigators in areas that I haven't been.
Everyday is an adventure! The other day we were looking for a house of someone we had met earlier in another part of town -we never found him. But instead, ended up in the house of an elderly couple. The lesson went very well. However, near the end of the lesson a neighbor was passing by, we invited her in for the prayer. We talked with her for a bit, and explained a little about the church. Afterward we told her that we would like to say a prayer before we left, she told us to wait a moment. She gathered up half of the people on the block! As we prayed, I couldn´t help but thinking of the words of our Savior to the apostles "Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men". Everyone that heard the pray attended chuch on sunday, and we will pass by their houses later this week. This work is marvelous and I have a testimony that the field truly is white, already to harvest I am loving it here and I know that this will be a great year!
Over the first transfer, the 3 most important things that I have learned are:
-be patient.. if you are doing what you are supposed to, everything will fall into place.
-be happy.. no-one wants to be around or hear someone that is sad.. this is a gospel of happiness- we need to live it that way.
-be full of faith.. nothing is possible if you dont have faith. I have learned so much about faith out here. However, there is really no way for me to describe or explain it. It is something that one just needs to experience for themselves.
Iknow that faith works miracles. It is kind of funny, what you had written to me Steve, has been on my mind everyday.. almost exactly how you had written it to me. >faith requires works- yet if your works are not done in faith, then they are a waste.
I have already learned so much out here and I know that I will continue to grow and learn in this next year.
I love you all. Happy New Year.
-Elder Olson
p.s.- I attached a picture that I took on christmas eve near the center of Estância.
-all of the sudden there was a parade of these people dancing and singing--they did an interperative dance (with narration) to Christs birth.. it was pretty sweet.
