Week 35 Pisco

Buenos Dias

muy muy muy pero muy buenos dias. Es siempre un gusto hablar con ustedes. Hemos tenido una gran semana. Estamos trabajando como locos.  (Teranslation:  Very, very, very, very good morning.  It is always so nice to talk with you.  We had a great week.  We are working like crazy!)

Hey I don't know if I have too much to talk about but regardless I wanna talk about my dogs. We have 5 dogs that regularly follow us. We aren't allowed to have dogs but they just chill in front of the door and follow us whenever we leave. There are two waiting outside of the internet cafe as we speak. Apparently their story began when some Sisters a long time ago fed them, and they have followed the mormon missionaries ever since haha.

1 So I'll start with the first picture, that is the wife of Marrón, and the mother of Marróncito. She usually doesn't accompany us but every once in while she'll walk a few hours with us. She has a pretty bad infection, don't think it'll heal either, we are hoping for the best. We may be losing her.

2 Then the second, he is Marróncito. He is the son of Marrón and his wife unnamed. He doesn't do anything other than be really really really cute. He doesn't like to go very far with us, but he'll go a block with us. He has a bad case of the fleas like every other member of the family.

3 Then comes Fea. She is the mother of Marrón, she is still a healthy dog other then her fleas, but is really really old. She accompanies us sometimes for the whole day.

4 Then comes the two most faithful of them all. This is Marrón. He accompanies us 24\7. He always is over hanging out with other dogs, he likes to fight but he never starts them. He just walks around circles of his victim until the victim gets mad and starts showing teeth. He is the father of Marróncito, husband of unnamed dog, son of Fea. He will accompany us even to the furthest area, 30 minutes away walking haha.

5 Then last of all, my favorite. Negro. Negro is always happy. You will never catch him in a bad mood, he has a contagious smile. Sometimes he will almost get hit by a car, happy. Almost killed by a dog, happy. Walked miles with us and still going, happy. Ridden with fleas and other skin disease, happy. Haha, he seriously has problems though, in the States they'd probably have it put out of it's misery already but he is still kicking. With his fleas, disease, madded fur, everything. I love him to death, he got lost one time and we found him walking with the Jehovas Witnesses, he remembered his testimony and walked with us haha.

Those are the dogs that watch over us here in Pisco haha. They are truly a blessing for us haha. Apart from that we just had a great week. One of my friends, brother Chavez, told me something about physics, he said that when you have one door open in a mototaxi air doesn't come in, but when you have two doors open, cold air can come through because the air has an entrance and an exit haha. Don't know how true it is but that's what it is.

We had 4 people come to church this week, now we gotta hunt em down and put a baptismal date with all of them.

That's awesome that you got to see Jeffery R. Holland!! I would kill to turn back the clock and go back to that talk he gave to the youth a while back and pay attention hahaha. I have been reading a lot of talks from Russel M Nelson. He gave two talks I love. I found them on the BYU website. He gave one about hymns and another one about the human body and how God's creations are perfect. Both were amazing and I invite you to look for em and share one in FHE. Really interesting stuff.

I love you all and pray for you. Keep safe, and I will too!!

Les amo
Elder Olsen

Week 34 Pisco

Happy Pioneer Day!

Another great week in good ol Pisco. Only one came to church yesterday. She has a baptismal date coming up this Saturday. Her name is Valentina. Her family is way cool. Her mom was recently reinactivated 2 months back and her dad is a recent convert. They used to be unmarried but he married her and got baptized. He is now the secretary of the young mens program and her mom is the relief society president as of 2 weeks haha. They truly are a family who already know the law of consecration being recently reinactivated and the other a recent convert. She has to do all of her relief society stuff and he is at the church every night to teach the youth how to dance. He is a professional dance teacher and is teaching the youth a dance for an activity the stake will have.

We saw a little miracle yesterday. We had some low numbers in the chapel but we decided to be determined to meet our goal of news for the week. We needed to find 3 in 3 hours because of the appointments we had earlier. It took a lot of faith but we found all of the three. We found a nextdoor neighbor at 9:05 to teach right before going to the room to sleep haha. An awesome little miracle of faith.

Good to hear all thats going on over there, Halies marriage was a surprise haha. Heard nothing then out of the blue she recently got married haha. Thats awesome tell her congrats. Parker is already on the mission, that's awesome. I'll have to email him when he is in the field. How does his mission work does he proselyte? I don't think so, but what do they do over there haha. Don't hear much about work in China but I heard that there are "unorganized meetings" haha.

Well thanks for your letters, love you guys!

Chao
Elder Olsen


Pics from the Paracas. It was sick, I met a white guy from Tennasee. He said that he can tell I've been here a while, he says I pronounce my consonants really strong haha. But I donno, thought he sounded funny with his south eastern accent haha.

Week 33 Pisco

Feliz Lunes

We had a baptism go successfully. A recent convert, Jesus, baptized his daughter Darlly. It was an amazing experience for this family that are passing through a lot of financial difficulty.

I love my companion so much!! I am learning so many good things from him! He is extremely diligent and I really do look up to him for his example to me! It was an inspired change to put me here with him!

Last P-day we went to the nearby beach. The sand is all black, but it was still pretty cool see pictures for more.

We saw some pretty big miracles this week. We lost two people with a baptismal date but we found 2 new investigators that went to church and will quickly have a date. Their names were Gerardo and Yobana. They have been listening to the missionaries for 5 or 6 months. The missionaries never had the guts to leave them in the former investigators until I came haha. They said they still wanted to keep listening to the lessons and be baptized later. I gave them the whole testimony is better than knowledge and then invited them to receive the missionaries in a later date.

We had our first interviews with President Richey!!   Him and his wife are awesome people! Sister Richey plays the Organ, Piano and Cello. President says she was always playing for other wards and stake activities. Kinda like the Stacie Bowden of her ward. President is an amazing guy! His council was to be ambitious, be clean, be kind, be happy. The assistants also checked out our area book and planners. Me and my companion had perfect planners they said haha. Our area book, not so much haha. We forgot a couple addresses and commitments haha.

I haven't given a talk since Ayacucho haha. In Miguel Grau I didn't give one, and here I just gave my testimony. I've never taught Gospel Principles, I almost did once but that's about it. I live in Renacer, it's not too classy haha.

Gracias por su tiempo. Recordéis que os amo jajajaja. Sigan trabajando y mejorando con la ayuda de nuestro Señor Jesu Cristo! (Translation:  Thank you for your time.  Remember that I love you, ha ha ha ha!  Keep working and improving with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ!)

Con amor,
Elder Olsen

A picture is worth a thousand words haha

Elder Olsen and Bro. Chavez

Me in an 'artillery thing'

My friend, Bro. Chavez', Mototaxi

Me, Bro. Chavez and Elder Huanca

Tank

Me in a helicopter

Helicopter

Me in an airplane.  It was a pain in the butt to climb up to the door
without stairs.  Ha ha!

Week 32 Pisco

Happy Monday

It has been a super great week!! Wow, we have worked way too hard haha. We had a ton of success with looking for new people. In this week we miraculously found 5 families!! That counted as 18 more of our brothers and sisters looking for the truth. I testify of the importance of contacting and looking for families! God wants all of His families to be together, so I feel that they have been prepared even more!

Along with our focus on families, Elder Huanca and I are working really hard with contacting our referrals!! This week we have recieved 22 referrals. We are running all over the place to try and contact each one of them!  We are doing really well with contacting last week's referrals! We have almost contacted every single one of them. We are still working hard to find the same amount of referrals this week, we are seeing a lot of support from our amazing members thanks to our third focus.

We are working so hard to gain trust and work with our members. My companion told me the story of his conversion and how he had a member by his side giving support and taking him to church! We are working hard as usual with our members, trying to visit and minister to each one of them.

We had our 4th of July celebration as well! We had a grill at the church and cooked up some steaks and hot dogs. We also tossed the pigskin around. The white people taught me how to throw a football. The Latinos thought it was hilarious that I picked it up so fast, haha they were saying things like "oh it's in gringo blood!" I gotta say, I'm hooked though!

We have been doing a lot of work with part member families haha. When I came in to the area, 3 children had baptismal dates haha. They will be baptized these next few weeks. We are also working with a couple Geraldo and Yobana. They are like active investigators haha, they come to activities but don't wanna be baptized. They want a sign that it's the right time, they don't understand that it is already the right time and you should do it as soon as possible. They also are scared that when they get baptized we will ditch them or something like that. I just wanna tell them that we will ditch you if you don't progress, if you get baptized we still gotta get you to the temple, with a calling and all that good stuff haha.

We had a funny investigator yesterday. There was this weird family that sent in their house to the church for us to visit them. We came and the whole family just starts toasting us. They were saying John was beheaded, how can John be an apostle. I told them John and John are different. Then they started to say "Mary Magdelene showed up in the bible video with a baby in her arms" And then I found myself reaching in my bag for my bible but then I stopped myself and just shared the rest of the apostasy and restoration haha. It was funny because the lady behind me apparently filmed the whole thing. Glad I didn't get into it haha.
We had the first ward English class in a long time. We had a lot of people come, I hope that we can get some more to come next week, hopefully nonmembers. Because everyone there were members, I taught them how to pray in English haha. It was a good time learning to use the verb "to be." We are thinking about starting a piano class too, we will see how that goes though.

Thanks for reading all of my miracles and know that I love to read yours!

YO LES AMO!
Elder Olsen

PS you know nothing of hot and humid! Well not right now; right now it's super cold, but still, ha ha!

Steaks!

Week 31 Pisco

HAPPY 4TH OF JULYYYYYY!

We are like usual having a lot of success here in Pisco Pueblo!! When I entered the area we put a focus on members and visiting everyone on the ward council and later their counselors. We are seeing the fruits, this week the members referred us to 18 people. The norm is 5-7. We are going to get contacting some of these new people and get em in the water, it's gonna be awesome.

The Bishop and Mission leaders told the last missionaries that to baptize families, they gotta baptize the parents first, so that dad can get the children baptized. It's a great idea but we have like 3 children we have to teach and it's a lot different than teaching other people haha. We also are teaching a lady named Denzi, almost her whole family are members and she knows it's true already, says she is like having dreams and stuff. Hope she isn't holding a secret like "but I can't be baptized!" We'll see.

My companion is awesome, we are getting some work done haha, he is from Trujillo.
Last P-day we just wandered around, This P-day we have a BBQ planned it'll be awesome. Good to hear about your convert baptism, tell them to keep it up!!

Nothing to much happened this week, I gotta write things down again because I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff haha. Remember I love you and pray for all of you!!

'Merica,

Elder Olsen

Elder Huanca

Week 30 Pisco

Happy Transfers!!

Forgot to say last week that transfers were this week. The thing that you can expect in the mission is how unexpected it is haha, I'M IN PISCO!!! Haha, it is awesome over here, truly a little slice of heaven. I am with Elder Huanca! He is my first companion I will have more time than! He is also a district leader, he is way nervous and stressed, I cannot wait to minister to him!!! It truly was a good success in Miguel Grau with Elder Whitlock. Can't wait to see what I can do in a new area! So far I haven't had a transfer where I just stay with the same companion! I'm always packing hahaha.

It was really bittersweet leaving Miguel Grau, haha because someone told the Bishop I had transfers. Everybody was like "aww" and I was just hiding haha. What made it worse is our youth singles leader told my Bishop I played the flute so he brought his flute and told Bishop that I was going to play a special musical number. I gotta say, pretty embarrasing but it is what it is haha. I played "a donde me mandes iré." Didn't think I was going to play a flute for two years but lo and behold. It was a really nice flute, didn't give me any trouble. Now I'm in another ward that will need a pianist. Way excited.

I had a fun first day getting to know some of the members. With my street contacts I have been having a lot of fun making it a point that they know it's my 1st day in Pisco, that way they assume it's my first day in Peru, it's awesome, I love being fresh. With the members I introduce myself good though haha, I've already met my Bishop and my dear captain Mission Leader. I've met my mother here in Pisco, she give us lunch Tuesday through Friday. It's been a lot of fun taking out visits with the whole ward council members. Always going to be a first focus in all of my new wards. Apparently there are a lot of good people here, there were 5 convert baptisms last transfer haha. We will get some work done here!

That's all my time, thanks for your letters! If you want to know more ask questions. Also tell Parker the first time through the temple is always a little weird haha.

Con amor,

Elder Olsen


1-3 Yesmil, Bishop Huaman, the Farias family
4-6 Anticuchos and THE FAMILY, love them. They are my pension family and the ward missionaries. the family is Sister and Brother Ttito, and the missionaries are me and my comp, Elder Anstead and Elder Howell, they are bosses haha

Elder Olsen and Yesmil 

Elder Whitlock, Bishop Huaman, Elder Olsen 

Elders Whitlock and Olsen with the Farias family 

Sister Ttito, Elder Whitlock, Elder Anstead, Elder Olsen, 

Elder Howell and Brother Ttito. 

Week 29 San Gabriel

It's So Cold!

Seriously. I thought Lima couldn't even get cold, but lo and behold, it's cold. I've seen colder weather but the humidity just kills ya haha. It's foggy every day. Whenever we go up to the mountain part of our area, we are just in a cloud, it's insane haha.

Very good week in Miguel Grau. We are on the rise slowly but surely. We had a lot in church this week! Just not the people we needed haha, none of our people with baptismal dates went, just 4 of our investigators that convive, way young, etc etc. No doubt we are working hard with them but it's a little frustrating when the rest don't go hahaha. Keep praying for Brenda, we haven't found her after she left for Cañete haha. Not her fault, her cell phone broke and we are trying to pass by her every day, but we are having an unpredicted success in visits not falling through. We have a focus in the mission on doing 10 street contacts a day and it's way hard to do that because we are always close to or running late to our next visit. So wierd because usually we have 3 out of 5 visits fall through for contacts and looking for people.

Last P-day was awesome haha. We had like a cultural party thing. And Elder Bala is a Filipino, he was in charge of lunch. He told us to wash our hands really really good. And while we were doing that he put food on a banana leaf. He said a prayer in Tagalic ([Tagalog] or however you spell that, one of the native tongues of Philippines, gramma knows) and he said chow down haha.

I was just reading all about President Russel M Nelson in the little slide-in for the Ensign, and his story is way cool! His immediate family is about 200 people! He has over 100 great-grandchildren!! He also has perfect pitch which is way cool. Lucky duck haha. I testify he is a prophet prepared from before the earth began.

As a focus from the mission, from Sister McGinn, we were suggested to thank our moms. I'm gonna do that right now. I'm basing it on Alma 56:46-48, 56. Mom has been such a great example for me and my brothers. We really have learned everything from her. Mom has 5 stripling warriors and we really have not doubted her council and love for us.

Thank you for everything,

Elder Olsen

I ate on a banana leaf with my bare hands, like a Filipino. Amazing!!

Cookies...ha ha!