Week 87 Office

Happy Saturday!

We have had a crazy good week!!   We have been trying some new things in our ward and it is working out really really well!  We have a lot of good things happening over here in Peru. Traffic is super crazy because of the Pan-American Games.  Everybody is travelling around here because of them.

It's been actually a pretty quiet week here in the office!  We had a couple of emergency transfers to do but outside of that there aren't too many sick missionaries.  I'm getting started with the preparation for the transfers, just kind of coordinating what the dead missionaries are doing this transfer.  We don't really have any plans as far as recuperating our numbers goes, by the end of the year we should have a net gain of about 3 missionaries or companionships, can't really remember.  We used to have senior missionaries when I started the mission being the financial and referral secretary but when they ended their mission they put young Elders again.   The health and migration secretaries have always been young Elders though.

The area has taken a huge leap as well!  We are getting to know the area a little bit more and therefore we have been starting to divide our efforts much more effectively!   From Monday until Friday we had found 8 new investigators!  We found a couple of super good families and a bunch of other people we found on the way.  It's a real miracle for sure.  The only day we didn't find at least one new investigator was Wednesday.  We have been applying a new approach do our daily planning session.  For every appointment we have, we set 3 backup plans: a future investigator, a member from our directory, and an investigator that we haven't set an appointment with yet.

We are working with Jorgenis still, he is just trying to get his new job, we are working on trying to get him to some activities first to help him to see why he needs to go.  Just the same he wants to come to church, has a witness that this is Jesus' Church, and he is even sharing the gospel with his girlfriend who lives in Venezuela and her mother.  They are investigating the church now.   We found a new investigator yesterday, her name is Rosario. He is a member referral.  She wasn't too sure at first about investigating at first but we still taught her.  After we shared the account of the First Vision she said with tears in her eyes "this is what I've been looking for, I have felt the Holy Ghost while listening to the word of God."  Feeling the Spirit is one thing, recognizing it is another.  It's been a long time since I've been in the room so filled with the Spirit.  She's gonna be coming to church this Sunday, super happy about that one.

To answer dad's question about whether or not I'm dying in the office, the answer is the following.  I had an interview with President Richey this week.  He gave the usual you're doing great bla bla bla keep it up bla bla bla.  Then he asks "how many transfers do you have in the office?"  I replied "I'm on my third President" he then says "if we give you four transfers in the office how many transfers would you have left on your mission?"  I answer "I'd have one transfer left President" he then replies "what if we just kept you in the office for the rest of your mission, five transfers, instead of four transfers?"  I answered "I'll do what the Lord wants me to do President" He then finished saying "yeah that's exactly what the Lord wants, you're gonna be in the office for the rest of your mission."  I thought "dangit." And yeah, that's your answer dad!

Thanks for reading my short note.  Love you guys!!  Thanks for all that you are doing for me!!  Remember that "Christ's Atonement isn't God's backup plan in the event that we fail, rather it IS his plan created for us, knowing we will".


Que tengan una semana maravillosa,
Elder Olsen

Papá puso su firma de trabajo en su carta semanal, por lo tanto voy a poner la mía también jaja.

      

ELDER OLSEN

Misión Perú Lima Sur

Secretario de Salud

Secretario Personal del Presidente

Secretario de Viajes

Oficina: +51-1-222-4445

Celular: +51-998-477-553

Week 86 Office

Happy Saturday!!

It was another great week here in the good ol office. It was a super fun little week, especially seeing that it was actually super normal. The leadership council meeting for the zone leaders was on Tuesday. There weren't nearly as many seeing that we lost 6 of them to the new mission! I got to participate in the actual meeting itself being the district leader in the office. Been awhile since I've been in one of those. I tried participating as much as I could but I also had to get some health stuff taken care of and some lunch to get set up for them.

Everything has been going super good in the mission. The missed flight was pretty funny. It was the shuttle that they missed thinking that the shuttle would take them all the way to Ayacucho hahaha. President wasn't too happy, he was talking about how these one of the missionaries that were traveling was an excelling calculus student but when put in a real life situation has no clue what to do. Shots fired on us the millennial generation hahaha. He was saying that next time missionaries miss flights we are going to transfer other missionaries in Lima who "actually want to go to Ayacucho" instead of the ones originally going. I thought that was fair haha. We just sent them in bus though, that's a fun 12 hour punishment ride haha. We did find a few more people, we are working with a man named Richard, he kinda has some bad feelings about some of the members and that's why he won't be baptized. Jorgenis is still job searching in his free time, he says that he is going to fast for a new job, me and the other Elders felt that if he'd fast he'd for sure have a new job. We don't cook too much in the apartment, sometimes I do dinner for the other Elders. I make some pasta for dinner every once in a while. Other times we make pancakes and other foods like that. It is super weird to be in a smaller mission. It is a stark difference in the amount of phone calls and work I get during the week. It's still busy but it is not hard at all. Today we are going to eat something called Ceviche de Pota and watch a movie, probably "Facing your Giants."

It's surprisingly really really hard to proselyte where we can only be in our area from 6:00-9:00, missionaries take their proselyting time for granted hahaha. It would be super awesome if we'd move our mission office so that it can be in our mission boundaries at least haha. We are still taking advantage of every second we get to be outside.

Thanks for reading this, I love you and sustain you all in everything you do. Read this one right here https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/j-b-haws/wrestling-with-comparisons/








Wrestling with Comparisons - J.B. Haws - BYU Speeches


In our Church history classes, we often talk about the importance—and blessing—of openness and candor. So, in a nod to that spirit of openness, I feel compelled to admit candidly that when I first received this invitation from vice president Matthew O. Richardson’s office, I mulled it over for a day, and then I wrote an apologetic email asking if there was any way that I could be excused ...

Week 85 Office

Happy Transfers!

Transfers almost went perfect.  We just had two mistakecitos. 1. Our mission credit card stopped working, right as we were trying to buy extra luggage for a missionary traveling home.  That was fun, we bought the luggage with someone else's card, Bishop Juan.  He works for the Church as a transportation guy. 2. missionaries missed their flights... Again.   I world have loved to take the blame and say that I could've done more and that it was my responsibility but this time I couldn't take the blame.  There was nothing else I could do haha.  Let's analyze this, we sent them 2 hours earlier than their flight time.  I sent them with someone to accompany them through the process, I did their check in online.  They got through security an hour.and.a.half.early... At that point we can't enter, they had to be on their own, we figured once they are passed security there is no way they can miss their flight.  Ya they did.  They missed it because they said "the intercom said 'all aboard the bus to go to the plane to Ayacucho'" and they said "oh we aren't going in bus, we are going in plane."  So they didn't line up in their line and missed they flight.  Not too happy about that one haha.

Other than that it went super smooth.  After 2 transfers in the office I think I'm starting to get the hang of it, it was super easy with less missionaries.  Right when we were doing all the stuff with transfers everyone was calling about their health problems, happens every time. On Tuesday we were training the new missionaries, and I got 4 phone calls about teeth problems.  It was kind of a pain to have to schedule all of those appointments for them haha.  The Church doesn't cover dental problems so that made things easier with payment and insurance things.  Lesson for Brady and Ethan, take care of your teeth because in other countries the dental work is kinda expensive and a hassle to pay for on your part.

The investigators aren't doing so hot right now.  Jeorgenis says he got blessed by God with a job.  Said job has him work on Sundays, he asked for Sundays off but his boss won't let him.  We told him God thinks that job is not right for him, so we invited him to pray again with all of his heart to help him get a job again, but one that lets him have Sundays off.  We hope it goes well.  Apart from him we are just now sneaking in our area again after getting wrecked by the transfers haha.  We will get it back on the rise this week for sure!  We got out on Thursday and Friday and both of those days were successful in finding potential new investigators.

Wanna hear something kind of funny?  I take out everyone's flights 4 months before they end the mission so yesterday I had to request my own flight hahaha.  I thought it was gonna be super trunky but I just kinda sent the request and worked on the next one haha #TookItLikeAChampcito

Thanks for tuning into Saturday afternoon ramble with Elder Olsen.   Love you guys!  You are amazing.  Remember, "you are not humans having a spiritual experience, but rather spirits having a human experience."


Con mucho amor,
Elder Olsen

Week 84 Office

As Promised.....

We visited the most beautiful place on earth.  I'll put photos, it's insane.  Remember those photos I took when I was in San Gabriel of this mountain of dirt and at the top there was this Inca head??  No joke, the pictures are of that SAME mountain, the only difference being that these pictures were taken now (Winter) and not the Summer.   It's called Lomas de Paraíso.  We went today with the office crew and our Mission President and wife.  It was awesome.

Transfer prep is real haha.  It wasn't nearly as bad this time around.  Those three zones that left the mission really helped things out a lot.  Lima always have the most stressful transfers and now it's nothing!  Not to mention I only had to get plane tickets for 2 people and not 15 haha.  We got transfers on Tuesday this time, which is kinda weird because normally we get them on Thursday.  We have had a lot of time to prep.  We have proselyted every day this week in our new area.  We have left at 5:00 sharp each day which is really surprising seeing that it's transfer week and everything.   You can say us office Elders are "performing" haha. We are always anxious to go out and testify of Christ.   In our responsibilities we sometimes forget our real purpose as missionaries which is to invite others to come unto Christ through His gospel.

Our program is confirmed to be called La Campiña IIB.  We are in the Campiña 2nd ward, woo!!  This week we have already got our pool up to two investigators.  The first is a Venezuelan from Maracaibo named Jeorgenis.  He already knows that the Church of Christ is the true one.  He says that nothing is going to stop him from reading the scriptures every day and attending sacrament meeting weekly.  He is preparing for his baptism on the 27th. We are excited about that!!  Ojala que no sea too good to be true haha.  Next one we have Loyola.  She is a single mother with a special kid.  She has been going through some tough times.  She doesn't really have interest in trying to make it to church.  We will work with her just the same though.  Jeorgenis and Loyola, just now realizing that we have some investigators with the weirdest names haha.

Thanks for reading this note, hope you enjoy these bomb pictures.   Love you guys!   Keep going strong!


Con mucho amor,
Elder Olsen