WEEKS 32-39

NOVEMBER 24

This week I will have 9 months!! What?!?!?!!? I don;t know where the time went! The weeks go by so fast its not even funny! I have learned a lot in this 9 short but amazing months. I´ve learned how to be paciente, to look at things in different ways, learned how to smile through hard times and the love that Heavenly Father has for each one of us. 

The more I study the plan of happiness and the Gospel the more I can see how much he loves us. He has done sooo many things so we can be forgive of our sins and return to him. Such has having faith in His Son. repentance, baptism which includes receiving the whole Ghost(He tells us what we should do), and the sacrament. But above else He sent His Son to pay the price of our sins. It is through the power of the Atonement that we are cleansed, and we can find happiness once again. During my Thanksgiving meal, Sloppy Joes, I will be giving thanks to my loving Heavenly Father who sent His Son to die for us.

We went to the temple again this week! Ive been through the temple in spanish as many times has in english! This time we had a multi zone training with pres Riggins! He was the director for us, he kept smiling at us during the session. During our training he taught us if we want to defeat the enemy we only 

need to be obedient. It is such a simple fact that sometimes we forget it. He declared repentance in our mission. He is powerful. Above else he is inspired of God. I love my mission pres!

with much love,

Hna Olsen

NOVEMBER 17 

This week has been absolutely amazing!! We were able to go a sealing of a family that hna ori "rescued!" The covenants we make in the temple are so important and the blessings we receive upon or faithfulness are amazing! The knowledge that we have has members of the true church is powerful, inspiring, and gives hope of something great to come after life! My wonderful family, I know with all of my heart that this is the church and only in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints we can perform all of the saving ordinances that we need. The Holy Spirit has testified of this truthfulness to me time and time again. And there is nothing better than watching the people you have helped make and keep these covenants!  Im so happy that I know that I will be able to live with my family forever!!  

How are my invests.? Paul from the family Lopez is progressing REALLY GOOD! He already knows the Church is true and is ready for baptism, he only needs 1 more church attendance! His wife due to the time of the year works until 9 at nigh and hasnt been able to listen to us but has a desire to learn more. Richard, he gives me a headache... we will explain one lesson superful powerful, wipe away all of his doubts and the next day we come back its like we didnt even teach him..... Please pray for these invest. We have a couple more these are the ones weare focusing in. 

Another tale from the Gringa in Ecuador: yesterday in ward counsel they asked me to give the closing prayer but in english! I thought "this is my language, I can do this!" but when I gave the prayer i felt like i was 3 yrs old and all of my 19 years of english disappeared!! Oh was my face red! The whole ward counsel laughed along with me after the prayer! The Bishop( his family has adopted us has their kids) ran up to me and said "Can you see your experience now with spanish?" and congratulated me! Hahaa we will see how my spanish at Christmas! 

I love you my dear family! 

Hna Olsen

NOVEMBER 10
Im doing great!! My stomach is fine this week, the members love feeding us so the exces of food made me a little sick.

Our baptisms will be the end of this month or the started of this month. They are progressing but the people here progress slower than the people in the pueblos. 

My comp is from Peru! She is really sweet and we can joke around so its really fun! 

In Alma 26 I read this today:

 1 And now, these are the words of Ammon to his brethren, which say thus: My brothers and my brethren, behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?

 2 And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?

 3 Behold, I answer for you; for our brethren, the Lamanites, were in darkness, yea, even in the darkest abyss, but behold, how manyof them are brought to behold the marvelous light of God! And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work.

 4 Behold, thousands of them do rejoice, and have been brought into the fold of God.

 5 Behold, the field was ripe, and blessed are ye, for ye did thrust in the sickle, and did reap with your might, yea, all the day long did ye labor; and behold the number of your sheaves! And they shall be gathered into the garners, that they are not wasted.

 I Love being a missionary! I Love bring people into the fold of God! Sometimes its hard but watching people change makes it all worth it! I get to rejoice everyday in the work of the Lord. My dear family, share the gospel with everybody!! Its addicting!

NOVEMBER 3
Im doing great! Thank you for the recipes! Yes im a little tired of Ecuadorian food! This sector is trying my gringa stomach! Im excited to make some american food! leah´s tummy is cute! Its little too! 

 Halloween isnt huge here like America. The Kids to do trick or treating but not a lot and nobody does pumpkins... I was sad that i couldnt do a pumpkin this year but that´s ok! Its crazy that its already nov! and when we skyp ill have 10 months in the mission! What?! 

We have three invetigatores with a buatismal date! 2 are a married couple with 2 kids and are golden investigatores! The want to be silled(<-- is that rigtht?) in the temple! I heard that Klever in Triunfo is going to be baptized the 15! I might be able to go to his baptism too! I Love being a missionary! Its amazing to watch some one change with the gospel in their lives! I lovge watching people apply the Atonement in their lives and overcome their weaknesses. It may be hard sometimes to be a misionary but its sooo worth it! The blessings we recieve for ourselves, our investigatores and our family makes everything perfect!

OCTOBER 27

We are in summer here! At its defiantly really hot! Hotter than usual... and guayaquil is the hottest place in Ecuador! But luckily we were blessed with like 4 days that were breezy and overcast. But i still sweat like no ones business! The people here are very different. You have to go SLOWLY with them! We had 5 people committed to come to church and none of them came. We went to pick up or "golden family" but they werent even home when we showed up and they were the most excited to come! Its a little frusturating here but i know the success will come!

Today went to "Isal Santay." Its a beautiful, nature place were you rent bikes, and ride along paths and you can see crocs! dont worry they cant get to us, the path is like one huge bridge. It was awesome! I defiantly have the coolest mission ever! 

With all my love!

Hna Olsen!

OCTOBER 20

I'm doing great! We have investigators that are coming along really well! We are working with a lot of less actives too! Its a little harder in Guayacanes but i, learning how to be a better missionary! I cant believe that i already have 8 months! It doesn't feel like it at all... I still remember stepping on the plane to go to Mexico! I feel good with my spanish! My Spanish isnt perfect but its a whole lot better than it was 8 months ago! 

I certainly have learned a lot on my mission and still have a lot to learn! But what i have learned and hope to learn more about is the power of the Atonement. A lot of people think that the Atonement is how we are forgive of our sins but its soo much more than that! There is a healing power that comes from the Atonement. Because our savior felt everything that we have felt and will ever feel he knows how to help us. He is that one person that one "best friend" we can always talk to, that we know he will help us. He can take the worst of the worst and make them the best of the best. He is always waiting with his arms wide open to comfort us! I have also learned how merciful our Heavenly father is! He gives us every chance (more than me deserve too) to repent and come unto Him. He wants ALL of our us, His children to come back to Him
Love

Hermana OIsen

OCTOBER 13

Well this week has been better! This week i had a companion exchange for a day. Every once and a while you have a companion exchange with the sister training leader so you can learn new things and she can help you if you need it. We were able to teach a lot that day, which lifted my spirits and i was able to refocus! We finally have some people to teach! we have like 3 families, one single, and A LOT of less actives! The Lord is blessing us for our efforts. Thank you for all the prayers which are offered in our behalf, they help more than you guys can know!! 

So I taught someone in english!! Well kinda of.... We found some one how was born here moved to New York when he was 4 and has lived there for years! So he speaks english and prefers english. i started explaining the restoration but he had other family members there and i felt bad speaking a language that the rest of his family cant understand. So I asked him if I could teach in Spanish, he said yes. As soon as we started teaching in spanish his Evangelic parents jumped in and well it went south from there.. they only like to bible bash. So we started our testimonies about the restoration, invited them to church and left. Oh well, he said he´s going to find missionaries in the stated when he goes back tomorrow.

The pic says: Here we are Catholics and we are not going to change religion. our parents were Catholics, we will always be Catholics. Please don't insist.

It just makes the mission a little bit more interesting!

OCTOBER 6

I don't know if you got my last email but I got transferred to Guayacanes in Guayaquil! The people here are really hard because they haven't been humbled by poverty... but that just means ill learn how to be a better missionary!

I don't know how Klever´s doing but i sure hope he will get baptized, i work soo hard with him! 

I loved GC!! I listen to all of it in Español! Pues, hablo espñol! I loved how much they focused on listening to the prophet! Having a Prophet is what makes us sooo different from the rest of the churches! We are so blessed to have a prophet in the Earth that receives direct revelation from God Himself. 

SO these last two weeks in Guayacanes have been they hardest weeks of my mission. The people here don't want anything to do with another religion that isn't their own.ESPECIALLY the Mormons. Haha a couple funny stories. We got contacted by Jehovah Witnesses! We were getting ready to do our weekly planning session when we heard a knock on our door. Hna Orihuela looked out the window and said "Hna the Jehovah Witnesses are outside go talk to them!" I thought this will be interesting... Long story short, the conversation was going just fine until we disagreed about if Jesus has a body or not. This 50 yr old JW spoke with the face of the devil! "Where does it say that in the bible, show me in the bible!!!" WE started explaining one verse in John but before we could even read the verse "but in 1 Peter it says that he is a spirit!!" I was thinking, "well is you would stop talking we could teach you the truth!" 

The other story: we walked by one house with their door opened they said hello to us so I decided to contact them. I tried asking them where a certain address was but before I could even finish asking my question the old man said: "no, hay nadie" (No one's here.) Uhhh... I can see you...

Thank you, my dear family and friends, for all of your support and love and prayers! I pray that all is well with you guys! 

Love,

Hna Olsen