O Alagoano‏ 10/14/09

It has been a long week--so I guess that I could start from about 2 weeks ago since It has been a while since I have sent anything (sorry about that)
My last week in Viçosa was incredible, and extremely busy as we helped Edy and his family get ready for their baptism. (which was no easy task)
On p-day, we traveled to a nearby city called Chã Preta, where we climbed one of the tallest mountains in the region called “Serra Lisa” or slick mountain. It was an awesome trip, definitely a day that I will never forget.
Our guide was a man that I met in a car-ride returning to Viçosa one night. I asked if we could visit him and teach him a little about our beliefs. He accepted and invited us over for the day to meet his family and hike the mountain. What a day it was! -
Later in the week, we had Edy and Rosa´s marriage which was followed by the baptism of their entire family. It had been quite a fight to help this family get to this point, yet once there I was truly able to feel the worth of all that we had done during that transfer.
On Sunday we had sacrament meeting, and then later that night the branch rented a little bus to take us to Maceió to watch the last session of general conference… I was so happy to see the joyfull faces of our recent converts and investigators as they saw the large beautiful church building here. As well as the opportunity to see the Lords prophet, Thomas S. Monson. They all loved the session that we watched, and said that it was wonderful to see and hear our prophet. I was so happy to be there with them for that.
The next day however, transfers came (last Monday) and I was transferred to a part on the outskirts of Maceió called Benedito Bentes II, to a large ward called Gurguri. There were 4 missionaries for this ward when I arrived, but after the 2nd day the President called to let me know that one of them would be going home early. After that we were put into a trio, which has been a little hard to get used to. But all is well… I am sure that I will love the ward here and find those that are waiting to hear the Gospel.
I am a bit lost here though… I am not too used to the city (even though, it´s still not very large in this region)… also none of us know anything of the area.
But hey, that just makes the adventure that much sweeter! My companion is named Elder C. Santos and he is a Gaucho! From Rio Grande do Sul, almost every day I drink “Mate” with him. Yet here they call it Chimarrão. My other companion is named Elder Youngberg from Salem, Oregon. Yeah, he is a little crazy, but I like him.
It is good to be in the city where we aren’t hours away from the other Elders, like last p-day, I went to the downtown of Maceió with Elder Silva and Elder Ramos They are definitely some of my favorite elders here on the mission. {Of course along with my SON Elder Dinwiddie (I am already missing him as my comp).
Elder Ramos reminded me of a card that he wrote for you along time ago mom that I forgot to send to you (so I guess that I will get on that). It´s all in English, so you wont have to worry about translating it. Elder Ramos speaks very good English. He also told me that he will live in our basement after the mission as we go to BYU together. haha…He jokes about it, as do all of my other companions, yet all of them have a great desire to study in Utah at BYU or least visit one day. So I guess that I should probably tell you now that I have told all of my Companions that if they every come to Utah, they can stay at our house I hope that is okay with you guys, it is not likely that any of them every will have the opportunity, but I leave the invite anyways.
I received a few letters this week from many of you.
thanks for you love and support.
Hope that all continues to go well for you all.
Please pray for the work to go forth here for us.
Love you all,-Elder Olson