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Monday, March 9, 2015

Week 27 Santa Ana

March 9th 2015

What was the spiritual experience of the week? The most spiritual experience this week was during the baptism of Hna G. My companion baptized her but it was a really spiritual experience when she shared her testimony with all of us, the spirit was present and then after that her uncle shared his testimony and it was really powerful. This girl of 10 doesn’t have parents, they both died and she lives with her grandma. Her grandma is really active in the church and she goes to the temple as often as possible. She doesn’t have a job, but she sells soda and water downtown to pay for the house. G. started to cry and well it was a very spiritual experience. It as a little scary to plan the baptism because we did splits with some of the elders from the district so I was solo in organizing and filling out all the papers. I had to find the speakers and fill the font. We had a skirt in the house that fit her but we didn’t have a white shirt that would fit her.  Everyone showed up for the baptism and we were still looking for the shirt, we ended up borrowed it from our ward mission leader. He name is A., he leaves for his mission in less that 3 weeks. I was in his house when he opened his mission call less than 2 weeks ago. 


Have you made progress with the sister who needs baptism and coffee? Yes she hasn’t been having any problems because her daughter returned from the mission 1 week ago, things in the house changed fast. We haven’t been teaching her much but things will start to pick up because we need to teach her everything before the 28th of this month because this is the date we have planned for her baptism.

Have you been back to Lempira any success in finding people to teach out there? No we haven’t been going to the lempira because no one was progressing and it is far from the house. When I was in Copan we had a place like la lempira that was far from the house and there were hardly any members there, but we went. I think that this the church is hard to build with a small cluster of members in an area far from the ward building because it takes a lot more dedication from the members to wake up early and walk to the church.  All of the active members moved but one family, so there is really no members to support the investigators and befriend them.

Have you had fried food all week again? I think we have fried food every day that’s why everyone is getting fatter. I haven’t gotten much fatter but many of the elders are very out of shape. The problem is there is nothing that we can do to exercise because I can’t go and run without my companion and I can’t lay on the floor because it is so dusty all of the time, and we don’t have any weights. One time I was using cinderblocks as my weights but that wasn’t very fun.  Can you look for a video of Pilates that is hard and put it on drop box and some exercise videos that I can follow along. What else have you eaten? Last night I made popcorn and it was very good I like the powder but I think it will last almost my entire mission. 

What was the p day activity did you do anything fun? We hiked a mountain and it was like a long hike. I felt like we were in scouts again because I got stuck behind with my companion because he is a little out of shape and wore out quickly. 

We hiked this mountain and took pictures on top. I thought it was really fun, but my comp said that he would have rather stayed in the house. 

Is that all of the elders in your district that went on the hike?  Did you organize it?  No this is our zone. There are only 6 elders in our district, and my companion and me are the only ones from our district that went to hike the mountain. How many Americans in that group?  There are 5 Americans in the picture.  Was the hill that steep that you had to run down it.  Yes it was really steep. We couldn’t walk or stand because you would just begin to slide.  



What was the big factory you can see from the top of the hill?  There is a wood mill and the other makes dog food. 


Is that corn or sugar cane you are standing by in the picture?  It is corn. The sugar cane is much different.

The member from here that I was talking about the 1 counselor of the bishopric will be moving to Idaho or Utah soon. He got his visa, which will allow him to live work and do whatever in the U.S. When do you think the counselor will be coming do you want to give him our address and we will take him and his wife to dinner?  Well I think that he might be coming on the 28th of this month or near this date. I will give him our address and our phone number and he can call you. They are going to live in Idaho but if they pass through Logan you could take them to dinner. 

How long does it take you to wash your clothes? Do you only wash on p day? I try and wash every day of the week. Sometimes I have a lot to wash and I take an hour to wash 15 items. So like 15 pants or 15 shirts in an hour. 

Did you happen to pass thru the bus terminal aka shopping market? No we didn’t pass through the bus terminal we only went to Vianueva, which is the other direction of the bus terminal from our house. 

Do you only sleep in your hammock or do you use the bed? I only sleep in my hammock. I have slept in it for almost two months straight. It doesn’t show any signs of wear but the stuff bag is almost non-existent because I always put my watch in it to wake me up. I use the bed for storage and to iron my clothes.

We have transfers in 3 weeks but I think that my companion will be going. For some reason right now we don’t have many investigators that are progressing so we will be looking for new ones this week. It has been fun to see investigators of the Lord get baptized, receive the Holy Spirit and 2 of them have already received the priesthood.  This Sunday was the first Sunday of all the time with Elder M. that we haven’t had an investigator in the sacrament meeting. 

Keep an eye out for a lost ruin they are still discovering ruins Yes I heard about that new one they found.

Why was your companion burning his pants?   What was the significance?  Has he been in the mission field for a year?  When he was in divisions, he burned a pair of pants because he has completed 18 months.   Every 6 months you burn something.  I haven’t burned anything because I don’t want to ruin my clothes.  It is better to give away clothes to others than burn them if they are still usable.  I think that I will be giving away some shorts, I have like 10 pair. Is it common to trade something with a companion as they leave?  Yes I will trade a tie and they will write on the back of a tie that they give me.  Do you need a new tie?  No I can have custom ties made for less than 6 dollars, I can even get all the things I want embroidered. 

I am looking for the scriptures right now because the scriptures I bought in the CCM have fallen apart. They are not the best quality. Do you want us to buy the scriptures?  Well I can’t find the ones that I want. I want the Spanish scriptures in real leather. But I can’t find them online, and I don’t want of the fake leather.   Order them to be sent to me if it is possible but if it costs a lot don’t do it and I will have someone look in the distribution center at the Tegucigalpa Temple. 


Thanks for all that you have dome for me but I don’t have any more time. I will try and look fore the scriptures during the week and I will ask President D. where he got his because he has scriptures of real leather. Tell everyone thanks for all they do. Love you all and have a good and safe week. I hope that every one of you will learn something that will help others.


Love ELDER OLSEN

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