WEEKS 25-31

WEEK 31

So last week while i was in the cyber around 3pm my zone leaders called me and told us that Hna Orihuela and i have transfers! What?!?!?! We got tansfered together to Guayacanes, Guayaquil.... we are openig a sector together here. so we dont have any one to teach... we contact all day long... and thats not easy here. All the house have litterally walls infront of their house with little windows. so they dont have to leave if they dont want to. the people here are not humble like my last two sectors The people here are a lot harder and dont like to listen! We knock a door, introduce oreselves and they say like 80% of the time "im Cathlic(christian, evangelico, etc) and im strong in my religion, and i rather not talk about your faith." and then theyslam the door! but the members here are great and my mission leader is awesome!

 They are taking all of the Hermanas out of the branches( like were i was in Triunfo) and putting only Elders inthe branches. 

So yesterday our mission leader accompanied us so we could find the conversos and less actives. We passed one mane who was like 50 years old and he said, "where did this doll come from?" referring to me, we just kept walking and he continued to say "I will love you in silence." This line tops all the rest! Let me tell you, its not boring being a gringa in Ecuador! 

One the more spiritual side I have really gained a testimony about our loving Heavenly Father and his plan for us. During this last week we contacted a lady whose husband passed away sometime ago and she cried while talikng about it. I beared testimony about the plan of salvation and how see could see her husband agian. but all I could do was smile while doing it because i knew what i was saying was true! Then agian today during my personal study I was reading in Abraham about how God stood in the midst of the noble and great ones. All I could feel while i was reading these verse was that I was noble and great in the pre-existence. Maybe not apart of that group but Heavenly Father choose me to fulfil something here in ecuador. WE all play an important part in Heavenly Fathers plan. May we all strive to do our part!

With all my love!

Hna Olsen

WEEK 30

Im doing great! Klever had an interview for his bauptism and he came out point at me with a phamplet of the word of wisdow and said determinedly "youre going to be my Godmother." Haha ive explianed to him that we dont do that but he still says it! He REALLY REALLY wants to be baptized! Ive been working with him the whole time ive been here and its a miracle that he is going to be baptized! 

We have other investigatores, we are still working with the lady from 666 and im teaching pretty much the whole entire fsmily of the president of the branch here. We have a tons of less actives. Its hard to balance out the investigatores, the converts, and the less actives.

The people here in triunfo are soo loving. Random people i judt meet will give us food and the miembers always want to have dinner with us, so there is now way im going to loose wieght here!

Funny story from earlier today. So its rude here not to say "buenas tardes( manaña or noche) to someone even if you pass them in the street. So we were walking to go buy are food for the week and I said buenas tardes to some random guy and all he says, in english, "white girl" Hahaha we laughed so hard! The poeple here think its impressived to speak in english to me but that was the first time I heard
"white girl!" 

Im also very grateful for parents who tuaght me how to work. Last Tuesday we did a service project, under the HOT Ecuador sun, bagging huge bag full of sand. One of the Elders here ask me how Iearned to work so hard, needless to say i impressed some of the Elders. I truely am born from goodly parents, thank you mom and dad!

I Love you all

Hermana Olsen

WEEK 28

Hello!!

I have a new companion! Hermana Orihuela, she is from Lima, Peru. She has 15 months in the mission. She was in my Zona pack in quevedo so were already friends and are really excited to be comps!

We had a baustism Saturday, Veronica Macías! She was very excited to get bautized! My investigador from 666 is doing great! She loves learning and going to church but she wasnt able to go to church last Sunday and now see cant get bautized until the second saturday of the next month. We have new bautismal rules: 3 church attendance for all three hours, one Sunday has to be a Fast Sunday, they have to fast and give fast offering. It makes the work a little harder but we will have convierts and not bautisms. 

So... I left the mission field this week for like 5 hours... calm down! I had permission! haha We had a meeting for all the sister missionaries in the house of pres and hna Riggins and they live just the tiniest bit out of the boundries! But something i learned was that Christ ask us to come unto Him and to be perfected by Him. Everyone knows that. But how we are perfected by Him is that he gives us weaknesses and trails so that we have to rely on Him and His Atonement to overcome our trails. There is no other way we can be perfected. Christ came to earth so that He would now how to help us in the flesh; so He could experience what we experience. SO that He could take upon Him the sins off the world so we can have a forgiveness of our sins. But through the power of the Atonement we can also turn our weaknesses into strengths. It Is only through Christ we can ever became better. That one day we can become everything that God sent us to become. I will never be able to doubt this. I have seen the healing power in the lifes of my investigadores and myself. Everyday is a new day to perfect ourselves in Christ! 

Love,

Hermana Olsen

WEEK 26

Its crazy that i have 6 months already!! 

The work here is going great! We went to the temple with our branch and it was fantastic! I uploaded pics to dropbox!

To answer your questiones: yes i have a shower but its ice cold and it will always be, where i live is the city and the roads are  cement, the side roads are dirt our sometimes brick. 

we have a new rule that we have to do 10 contacts each day and wednesday we only contact all day long. So i have gotten pretty good at contacting. One night there was a man that was smoking and we were waiting for someone, so i told my comp that i wantedto contact this guy and give him a paphlet of the word of wisdom. She said if i did she would by me a hambruger. So I did it. It was so funny! when we walked up to him he looked at us with these big wide eyes, looked at his cig and then dropped it; we hadnt said a word yet either! but we explianed the WoW a little and gave him a pamphlet. He say he smokes because he´s stressed so we explianed to himthat he can get rid of his stress by praying and how to pray. 

But the awesome thing about all of this is that before we said anything he could tell that we were someone that he should have respect for. It amazes me that as a 19 year old girl I have the power and authority of God to help peolpe and to change lives. I teach people that are 2 or three times my age but they can see that as missionaries, we have something that they need! I love sharing the gospel! 

Love you lots!!!

Hermana Olsen

WEEK 25

WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!!! Finally! So Triunfo is an hour away from Guayaquil and my sector is huge!!!! I have a lot of "campo" in my sector with alot of cows on the side of the road just chilling there! My first day we went 45 minutes away(to Bucay) from like our main sector to go teach Miguel, the one that got baptized, and appearntly there is still a little bit more of our sector. Out in Bucay it is so green and beautiful, there are moutians and rivers, and its nice and a little bit cooler! We have 3 other people with dates right now and working with two other families that we hope to set a date with soon!

Hermana Chil is awesome! She has 15 months in the mission and is an excellent teacher! We are getting along great! The members are fantastic here! Im morking in a branch of around 125 members. The branch pres only has like a year as a member. The church is still growing here. Right now im the music condutor(or wahtever you call it). HAHA Ecuadorians dont know how to sing.. you can ask any gringo and they would tell you the same! But I love my Ecuadorian Brothers and sisters, they are like sponges and soak everything up! They love learnig new hymns and how to do things! The mebers have welcome me in with welcoming arms. The YW love giving me hugs and just stay there for awhile or play with my hair. There is one member, Hna Elizabeth, who is like our mom her accpeted me the first day when usually takes a coupke of days. When hna Chil asked her which of the 3 Guayaquils missions was the best Hna Elizabeth said "None, except Hna Olsen!"   

So this week has been really busy! Transfers(with only an hours notice), a couple of trips to Bucay to teach Miguel and help`build his house(thats right I know how to build a house well mas o menos), a couple of trips to and from Guayaquil, we did a session with 2 other zones. And guess what?! I DID IT ALL IN SPANISH!!! I have such a great love for Pres and Hna Riggins! When I made it into the celestial room and saw them standing there waiting to greet us as we made it through for a moment they reminded me of the frist time i made it into the celestial room and saw my mom and dad standing there waiting for me! Pres Riggins with a big and proud smile on his face shook my hand and said "thats right you shake that hand gril, you did it in spanish! among other kind and encouraging words! Haha love him! Hermana Riggins pulled me into a warm embrace, I love her lots too! Later day when we were say goodbye Hermana Riggins wishpered in my ear "Usted es tan buena" or in ingles you are really amazing! I have been privileged to build a relationship with Hna Riggins! I love my Mission! 

This week the Lord has allowed me to feel a great love for the people here in Triunfo! At times I have wanted to cry because of the love that was burning in my heart! I have a feeling that something great is going to happen here! I know that Im suppose to be here and I cant wait to see what happens here!

I have a testimony of the Priesthood. The Priesthood is literaly the power and authority to act in Gods names. EVerything that we do, every coveant we make is possible because of the Priesthood. Without the Priesthood in the earth we litterally could not have our salvation. We could not bautize or make coveants in the temple. And without these coveants we cannot gain our exaltation or have eternal families. As it says in DyC, Joseph Smith as done more for the world than anyother person besides Jesus Cristh. This is so true. Through Joesph Smith the Priesthood was restored on the earth. Without him we would still be walking in darkness and our souls would be lost. I am so grateful that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, this is his church. It is not a church of some random man. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints is the only true church, the only church that has all of the Gospel truths and the most important thing, the only church that has His authority and power. Im so grateful to a repersentative of JesusChrist and His church.

Hermana Olsen