Elder Ashton Olsen: Week 97 Marcona

Happy Saturday!!! (Except that he writes on Mondays again-Ha Ha!)

We have had a super great week here in Marconita. I've gotta tell you one thing about Marcona that I wasn't really expecting. Almost everyone here is working for a Chinese mining company called Shougang or something like that. I learned a new Spanish word, well not Spanish actually, more like a Marcona word. It's "huelga" which means like their break shift. They work about 12 hours a day until their huelga when they get anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks or more off of work. It's kind of funny because the majority of our members have some higher positions so they choose their huelga to be the weekends. Many of our investigators don't have that opportunity haha. It's super crazy haha. Not only that but the Chinese have been in the town for so long that many of the people have Chinese family as well.

Well, before I answer questions I have one for dad. How's being the new ward Young Men's president? hahaha sorry, I had to do it. I heard all of the news except the news revealed with the womens session. I was really surprised about some of the things they started with this new conference. I don't know about you guys but I'm excited for the 2020 April Conference! I loved Elder Bednar's talk so much, his remarks were super good. I don't have my notes on me right now but I loved the ones about missionary work, especially Elder Uchtdorf's on going "down and back again" haha. I loved his remarks about how we, like Bilbo Baggins, should leave all of our comforts like we did before this life and get on the adventure trail. My companion says that getting to zone conference is a three day thing for us haha. I believe it. The zone conference is in Pisco, which is about 6-7 hours away so we part at 5:00PM the day before to Ica then we wake up and leave Ica about 6:00AM then after the conference we stay the night in Ica, then we part for Nazca the next morning. We from Marcona get back at around 2-3:00 haha.

Now our investigators are actually doing super well. We achieved all of this weeks goals except for investigators with a baptismal date. We are working with Guido, he is a young man that the Elder's found last transfer that basically told them he wants to be baptized. His parents are super supportive. Our other investigator that's progressing is Jenifer. Also the Elder's before found her. She had been investigating the church for quite some time, and recently she has showed interest in being baptized. Almost her whole family are members, most of them less actives but her mom in active and supports her a lot. We are also teaching her cousins, Juan and Mateo. With them we are just kind of waiting for the OK from their mom. They have been attending Church and all of the activities that come with it for the past month.

That's all time lets me write. Thanks for everything!! I love you!!

Con Amor,
Elder Olsen

Pictures of some beaches we went to. Note the super cute baby seagulls. they were like running away from the waves that went toward them hahaha.