Week 77 SPS

I figured out what I wanted to do on excel and it works now. I also used what i learned to save myself hours of work yesterday in like five minutes I made a simple thing that saved me literally hours. It’s not what it was it is what it did. It took data mashed it together and then from a drop down box you could select the last name and it would fill out the Name the Date of Birth and the insurance number.  Did you show Sister D?   No I might just do all the insurance things it won’t take long.  The old nurse used to do it but when she finished sister D. started to do it but she says it takes hours and it’s really hard. But now it is not hard and in like 30 minutes I can file all the claims for the month.  I have been working on automating the processes as the financial secretary, we will see if I have time to finish this next week.  Do you have a deadline or do you just want to finish it next week?  I just want to finish next week because the next week is the week of changes and it is crazy. 

Grandma said the baptism is still on and they got married?  Yes she hasn't been able to come to church this month because of her work but next month she is will hopefully be in an area that she doesn’t have to be on call Sunday. When did they get married?  4 months ago they just hadn't told us.  Do they have to come 3 times in a row or just 3 times total before they can set a date?  There is no set number, but 3 is a good number, she has more because she had gone off and on for the last over 9 years. I hope she gets baptized before I get transferred but if not, well anytime works.  We also have a new investigator and he will come to church this Sunday.

What was the spiritual experience of the week? It has been a long week i finally finished the Book of Mormon and now I have started reading the Doctrine and covenants. I have learned so much but the thing that was the most interesting that I learned was when Joseph Smith was translating the plates and martin Harris asked Joseph to ask god if he could take the manuscript and show it to his close family: Joseph asked and through the urim and thumim God said no. Martin Harris wasn't satisfied with his answer and had Joseph ask yet again and god said no. He then asked him to ask yet again and god finally said yes. Truly I sit there and thing how often we are like Martin Harris and we try and change the counsels that god has given unto us. So that was one of the things that I learned this week.

Is the new car coming and any decision on the house? Well we still need 2000 KM more to get the new car we are getting there fast surely during next month we should get a new one. The house, well they haven't said anything and probably wont say anything.  So we are fine until they actually start to do something.

Where did you travel this past week?  Yesterday we went to Yojoa for a few minutes in the morning.

How many new missionaries are coming in the next transfer and how many are going home? 18 new missionaries will be coming not this Tuesday but next it should be interesting because it will be the first time my new comp will be with all of the newbies.  So what time will you have to get to the airport to pick up the new elders?  We have to leave at like 7 in the morning.

What did you do for p-day? We ate breakfast with president D. in Denny's.  What did pres. say at breakfast?  He just said thanks for all we do. But he does a lot more than us. We heard some funny stories and then we went to the house my companion went and had his hair cut and we then went and ate at INKA it was really good again I ate the sweet and sour chicken and it was really good.

How is your health? I feel good the only thing is I really want more sleep; it is tiring sometimes what we have to do.

How did you shrimp turn out? The shrimp were OK the only thing is that after buying the shrimp I didn’t have money to buy spices so I just battered them and fried them with tempura batter and ate them with my salad with Asian sesame dressing it was good. 

Is Easter a big week in Honduras?  Do they do fireworks?  Yes it is a big week the Catholics walks through the streets with their statues and candles

Has is been raining and is it warming up?  It has been cold and rainy here.

I need to go, I am busy doing things too. Love you all and talk to you next Saturday.

Bye

Elder Olsen

Week 76 SPS

Are you guys going to write on the computer or on the phone or ipad. I have something that I have been learning and want to show you, but you will have to use a computer with excel.  It is interesting, excel is one of the coolest things out there, it might be cooler than Photoshop in ways. I haven't finished yet, but you can see some of the features.  This is a form that we have to fill out then we sent to the insurance company to get the money back. Just click on the Add New Claim button and fill it in and see what happens it took me like 2 days to learn how to do this, its not that hard the next thing I am going to do to it will probably take me longer.  

Tell us about a spiritual experience this week? To be honest I don't remember anything in specific but we did have the opportunity to do some service on time this week. I don't even know if you could call this service but it counts to me. We were visiting one of the more elderly sisters and she said and has said in the past that someone always calls her phone like a lot sometimes more than 20 times a day and it really bothers her. Well just so happened that during our lesson her phone rang and she had me answer it and tell the person not to call ma back. It was super simple but she was really happy and she even got a laugh out of it. So we helped her out although in a very small way she was super happy. I just hope the number hasn't called her back again.

Were you able to teach the doctor this week?  Yes we were able to teach her this week but only for about 30 minutes if it was possible she would be getting baptized but she has to work yet again. This month she has been working in the section of the hospital with the newborns that have major problems so she is really busy and apparently she is the only one that can do all the tests they don't let anyone from the other departments do them because they don't want more people handling the babies. So she now has a baptism date for March.  Hopefully her boyfriend, who she has been with 9 years, will finally propose so they can get married. I think he is just waiting for her to get baptized, but who knows.

Did you make it back to continue teaching the little girl that you baptized? This week I can’t remember, she is really hard to find and they are remodeling their house right now so everything is outside. We will keep trying to have another lesson with her, she came to church on Sunday so she is still doing fine.

What did you eat this week? Well I haven't really eaten anything special, but I just bought shrimp to cook they look really good.   Grandma wants to know how you plan to cook your shrimp?  Well I think I am going to have a Parmesan orzo with shrimp and possibly tempura shrimp or something.  Those shrimp are really cheap they cost 6 dollars a pound; I will send a picture of them.   The jumbo cost 15 a pound but they were literally quarter pound shrimp.  Head off for half a pound of them because I bought the pre cleaned ones. Another half of shirmp are not cleaned. Grandma has a good recipe for spicy shimp, but you cook it on the grill.  If you grill the shrimp make sure that the fire is out when you are done.  Yes or I will burn the house down.

How is your health? I feel good, I just need to start to do some exercise to put on some muscle and everything would be perfect.

Do you have a new mission nurse or is sister D. still covering that?  Yes Hna E.  is the new nurse.  How old is she, and does she track?  I don't know how old she is. Yes they are missionaries as well.  Is she a RN or just assigned to do that?  She has to be something because she knows all sorts of weird stuff.

My companion’s, Elder C. and Elder C. are both older by 8 years.  Are they more mature than the other elders since they are older?   No they are not more mature because they are older, they are just missionaries like every other.

How has the weather been this week? It has been cool, sometimes hot and it has rained a little.

Which airline do the American elders fly home on?  Either Delta or American.  American is easier for Sister Mower because it goes thru Texas so I'm thinking American for you to?  Who knows we will se they buy my ticket in 12 weeks.

Any decision on the house selling it or fix it up?  President said he doesn’t think they will sell it.  So will they fix the house, up any chance for hot water?  No I don’t think they would do that. If I had been thinking when I started my mission, I would have bought a small on demand water heater and a hose that would have been a great idea. 

Will you mail the machete or bring it thru customs?  I will bring it through customs.  That should be fun. Usually they see missionaries and wave you thru. Did you take elder M.  to the airport a few weeks ago?   In 2 weeks, he finishes with elder p.

Ok thanks. My time is up, but it has been good to talk with everyone.

Love you all.

Elder Olsen

Week 75 SPS

Is the baptism still on for next week? No we haven't been able to teach her everything because she is busy, during her first year as a doctor she has to work all the time and she is always on call, which means she works always. Sometimes they make her work 36 hours straight. Its crazy but she is also studying at the same time to have a specialty.

Do you have a release date?  Officially it has now been set as the 18 of August.  There is one sister that will be leaving at the same time.

How is the new companion? Do you want to be a lawyer now or does he argue every point. He is interesting he is really nervous all the time and he is really stressed out, but he is calm so it’s good. I am not sure if he is actually a lawyer but he has graduated from the university with some degree and I think that he wants to further study in law, I am not sure but I will find our one of these days.  Does he speak English? Where is he from?  How is being in a threesome? He doesn't speak English and he is from Panama, he is pretty cool but does some weird things.   He puts so many creams on before going to bed I just couldn’t believe it. Its really hard to be in a threesome just thing about it there is never combos to split three ways there always to be split 2 ways like a pizza 3 people cant eat from one pizza you have to buy two so in some ways its difficult.

What was one of the most interesting things that happened this week?  I think that the most interesting thing that happened this week was one of the area 70 came to our house and also one of the ex mission presidents and the man in charge of the assets of the church (He is from Utah and he reports to the presiding bishopric) here in central America, came to our house to look at it because they want to get it ready to sell. This would mean we would live in an apartment. We will see how fast this is. Hopefully it is in the next month that would mean new car, new house with hot water and it would just be a great month.  If they move you to an apartment, will it be in the same area or closed to the office?  We would be in the same area, I think.   It will all end up being president’s decision.  Well the house was clean; we had cleaned it really well. They saw that there were a lot of problems (condition of the house wasn’t that bad, almost everything is normal wear and tear), they just need to find a budget to fix it and then I am sure that they will make us move to renovate and sell it.   Would you be in charge of finding a new apartment?  Yes I would look for it. I might begin to look for a house for all 6 of us to live in, that would be big enough for the new missionaries, but it all depends on what the area says and what president wants to do. They suggested the new missionaries would stay in a hotel their first night, but that would be really expensive and the new missionaries are crazy, they would destroy it without supervision.  It would cost more to rent hotel rooms than pay to rent a large house.   Real estate here in Honduras does not make sense; things cost more than they are worth.

What was your spiritual experience for the week? Well I think that my spiritual experience this week has been small ones mainly being that I have been trying to be better with keeping a study journal so I can look back on what I have learned in the chapters I read in the B of M. I have been writing my notes on a post-it note, and then I stick them into my scriptures.   When I am done, I will have a post it book. It is amazing to see how much more one can get out of their scripture study by simply taking notes. 

Is President acting excited to finally be close to finished his mission?  At times yes and at times no: Overall I think they will be excited because they won’t have to worry about so many things.

As the financial sec., has any new problems happened this month?  Not much, it has been really calm, I have almost finished everything for the whole month.  So are you getting so efficient that your work is done by the middle of the month?  No I still have a lot to do but it is just nothing important.  Have you learned a lot about finance?  Yes, I think if someone made the programs, I could keep track of everything.  The church has a program, but it just doesn’t have all the needed items.  Your uncle works for the church.  Yes he does, and it doesn’t seem to be such a bad job to work for the church especially in third world countries, I would do it for a while if the opportunity opened up.

How is the weather?  Its cold here, super cold.

What did you do for p-day?  We went shopping and that was it.

Well sounds good, I don't have any time left, we have to go to our area because at 7 we will be leaving to go to a baptism in Santa Ana, one of my old areas.   My new comp was there when they took him out and a man said he wouldn't get baptized if my companion would not be there, so we are going if that means a baptism. I will be able to see some of the converts there as well, which will be great.   

Week 74 SPS

What was the spiritual experience of the week? It had to be during a lesson that we had last night with an inactive member from Tegucigalpa. He served his mission, came back and went inactive. He has been inactive for a lot of time but when he came here to San Pedro, we started to visit him and he really has a great potential. He just talked to us about how he felt and how he was thinking about not coming to church this Sunday, it was really neat to feel the spirit, how we felt it there and he know that it was there.  I feel like he wants to change he just has to get up the willpower to do it and not turn back.

What was your biggest challenge this week? I think it has been not getting too frustrated with people. Many times people get some stupid ideas and they don't thing of the results. And they get mad when one tries to explain things too them. There is many times that people first call and they tell you all about there problem and then they ask well what are you going to do about it. Then comes the moment that you have to ask, “who am I talking with”.  This is one of the biggest frustrations that I have, every week they call and they expect you to know who they are when they don´t tell you.

Where did you go for p day today? We didn't do anything today we just went and cut our hair and now we are writing and after we will go and get something to eat.  What did you have for lunch?  We ate at a new meat place by our house it was sort of expensive, we tried it but I don't think I would want to go back. 

I have been fixing some problems the mission has with baptism records hopefully preventing future problems.  What were the problems with the mission baptism records?  Lots have been lost.  Were they digital?  No, we have the paper records; they just haven't been well take care of by others.  I made and excel sheet that should fix these problems, the new secretary (my companion’s replacement) comes tomorrow so we are going to make him think that this is how it has been all along so he does not have bad habits.   Do you know who is coming to the office?  I think so his name is Elder C. he is a convert and he is a graduated lawyer.  He will come tomorrow in the afternoon, someone else is going to go and pick him up. 

Did you eat any good food? Yes I made tuna and also I made a lot of salad, one night I made that yellow saffron rice that I bought.

How did the baptism go? Hopefully you have pictures, who baptized her?   When do you usually do the confirmation? The baptism was good.  She got baptized last Saturday. She was extremely nervous and didn't even want to take pictures but after she was baptized everything was good, she wasn't nervous anymore. She knows everything about the church she has come for her whole life she was just never baptized. It was the most organized baptism that I had seen the family brought snacks and the grandma was really excited that her granddaughter was finally going to get baptized this was one of her few wishes in life. I baptized her and I had to do it twice because I messed up the first time. All converts get confirmed during sacrament meeting the Sunday after their baptism. She was confirmed that Sunday. She is really happy we haven't been able to have a lesson with her this week but we have passed by her house to see how she has been doing.

What was something funny that happened this week? There was nothing-super funny that happened this week.  What about the pillow pictures?  That isn’t me with the pillows, that was elder P.  

So, when is the doctor scheduled to be baptized?   Will you be doing the baptism or will it be her boy friend?   She is schedule for the 27^th, I hope.  Her boyfriend and future husband will baptize her. 

Love you all, see you later