Week 90 SPS

What are you having for lunch today?  Well I am eating in my favorite place where I eat almost every day, Baliadas buffet

Looks like good food.  It only costs 66 HNL(2.93$) and I get a natural drink.

How was eating with Pre. D?  It was good. He had packed up that day and all of his things were ready for the movers to come and put it into a crate. The power went out while we were there but it was great food because sister D. knows how to cook. It was fun just to hear some more of the stories that president has.  What did she cook?  She fixed Salad, Bread and Lasagna.

We are bargain shopping today at Lowes; Don’t you wish you were shopping?  Yes, but I have spent thousands this week shopping.  This week we bought lots of stuff for the mission and we have been learning more about purchasing the products that the mission needs. Like fridges, Sheets, Pillows and everything else that you could think of.

Any cause of the fire?  Well I have the report from the investigation and they say it was the fan that started the fire.  Are you responsible for the repair or insurance?  We still don't know so we just had to pay the rent for next month so we have another month to figure things out.  

Will the Doctor be baptized today? Yes today at 6 she will be baptized I will send pictures next week.   We have to be there by 5:30 for the baptism today.

How did your week go? It was long and sometimes frustrating to try and teach.  My biggest fear is that when I am gone he isn't going to know what to do and when to do it, but he is learning so it will be OK.

Did you get to eat any new and fun places this week? No we haven't eaten in any interesting or fun places this week.

What was a spiritual experience you had this week. Well I think that would be a hard one to answer but it would have had to been the joy that I felt when hna M. came out of her baptismal interview and she passed. It was just a great feeling to know that she is ready to be baptized. We started to fill out the baptismal record and well the lights went out and it was completely dark and the emergency lights in the ward building started to go out one by one until the point where we had to use phones to light up the area to fill it out. Well obviously someone wants to make it hard for her baptism to happen.

How was the weather this week? It has always been hot we are living in an oven the worst is when you turn the shower on and burning hot water comes out.

How is your health? I feel good I have had a small cough for a while though. But it will be interesting to see how the change of going back out to work everyday will be for me. I am excited but nervous at the same time to leave the office.  Are you going to miss driving for three months?  Just a bit but not too much.  I have to speak tomorrow in church.  How long is the talk.  10 minutes. 

Are you still there?  Yes, but I am out of time. Sorry for the abrupt pause. Love you all and look forward to writing next Monday not this one but the next one.

Elder Olsen

Week 89 SPS

How was your week? My week was normal it was tiring but it was worth the effort.

What was the funniest thing that happened this week? I asked elder E. what funny things happened this week. I couldn’t think of any. One thing that was cool this week is we went shopping in the second hand part of SPS where you can buy used clothing. We went into one store and we found some suits for sale for 100 HNL (4.43 US Dollars) and they still had the Deseret industries tag on them. At this same store I purchases a new shirt, a Nike dry fit shirt that cost 2 bucks.

What did they determined caused the fire? Well I still don’t have the official report form the fire department but I talked with the guy in charge and he said that the diagnostic is accidental and they think that it was caused because they left a fan plugged in and running but there is nothing official until I have the document in my hands.

How is your replacement doing? He is learning slowly.  But he understands after I explain it. It is hard to teach someone all that I have learned in eight months in four weeks.  Are you still doing most of the driving or have you turned that over?  I have turned everything over.   Where is Elder E. planning on going to school after his mission?  He wants to go to USU.  His grandma lives in our Stake.  Is Elder P. leaving the office with you?  He should, his replacement will get here next week.  So the AP’s get less training?  The replacements are here for an extra day or two. Will you and elder P. go out and eat this week if you can?  Oh, we will have time.  Where are you planning on eating?  I don’t know but I think sushi.  Do you think the Pres. D will take you out before transfers?  We have lunch and dinner on Wednesday with him. 

When will you find out about your airplane tickets? I have no idea. I asked my companion and he hasn’t said anything. But I am pretty sure that it will be really soon that we will receive them.

What are you studying in the scriptures? This week I have read some different things. One day I ended up studying about sacrifices and it was interesting to learn how pure the animal had to be, and then I studied a little about Christ’s sacrifice. Then I read about the united order.

How has the weather been? It has been extremely hot lately. It is so hot that it has been hard for me to sleep. I am just hoping that my next area has air conditioning or that the house is at least below a large shade tree.

UPS is a rip off the package price was 54 dollars to ship but what are they thinking on the taxes.  Well the taxes are only 200 HNL but they want 3600HNL in fees for the service that they offer to get it out of customs.  So Chris needs to call his shipping guy and put the pressure on them for the crooks in Honduras?  No I am trying to figure out if I can do the process of the import by myself.

What did you do today for p-day?  We went to MAHECO and we just walked around my comp bought a calculator watch and E P. bought a hat and I bought the shirt.  When are transfers?  That is on Wednesday the 1^st.  Next Saturday will be my last p-day on Saturday; I will not get to email you the week after, it will be the following Monday.

Are you really going to pack that cast iron pan around?  It looks nice.  Yes I only have one more area. I think that I will lock it up in a cabinet here in the office. Yes I purchased the blue one. It was like 1500HNL (66$) originally 4500HNL (200$). 

I bought it in Diunsa it is a huge store here.

Did you go and eat anywhere fun this week?  No but I ate sushi in the mall this week. 

Are you going to wash all of your clothes before transfers incase you don't have a washing machine in the new area?  Well I don’t know. I think I am going to give a lot of my clothes away because I have too much stuff I need to start getting rid of some of it.  Don't start cleaning out to early you have a lot of time left to work.  I think I have three pairs of Levi pants that I have not worn the whole mission. 

Are you still using the insurance excel sheet that you designed?  Yes.

Have they told the sister missionaries they could wear pants yet?  No because we don’t know, it says in authorized missions and we don’t know if this is an authorized mission. I feel that Zika has already passed, and I haven’t seen many cases lately here in Honduras.

Is the doctor still on track for her baptism, did she come to church?  No she didn’t come to church but she can still be baptized on the 28th if she comes to church this Sunday.  Does her husband know that, and is he going to make it happen?  Yes he even scheduled his interview so he can baptize her.

Do you ever get ice cream there?  Yes we eat at gelato some time.  But we just ran out of time. Love you all and look forward to talking to you all next week.

Elder Olsen

Week 88 SPS

Did you see the pictures?  Yes, whose house is burnt down?  That was what happened while we were skyping last Saturday in some missionary housing.  You must be the fastest response crew for a fire.

 I didn't even go, my replacement and Elder P. went, I was eating lunch and it was really good and I stayed at lunch. And after lunch we went and found a new house.  What was the cause was it the missionaries fault?  They were at lunch and the fire is supposedly accidental. We still don't have the official report from the fire fighters hopefully on Tuesday they will give it to us.  This one looks a lot worse than last time.  That is too bad, did they loose most of their personal items. They lost everything.  Could we send some money for the Elders?  The mission bought them all new clothes and suitcases. 

What was the spiritual experience of the week? Truly I can’t think of a really impacting experience but I can tell you that I know that the Lord guides us. It was probably one of the hardest situations I have had to face and I had no idea what to do or what to tell the landlord. It all turned our good; we had to have been guided by the spirit. I told him that we wouldn't live in that house from that time and on the day that the apartment burned down. He came to the office and again I didn't know what to tell him but we just assured him that all would eventually be OK. So we will see what we do this week. I think we are going to make the building management company take control because I don't want to make the landlord mad.

What did you do for p day this week? We went to a museum that I had already been to, we ate at McDonald and that was it.

Did you make it out to eat this week? We really didn't eat anything good this week. It was normal we will see what we eat next week.

How is the training going for you replacement? Yesterday we had a Pre Audit and everything went OK. The first week in June people from Guatemala will be here to audit us. Will you be gone before the auditors come? Yes, but I think I will probably come back for that day.

Did the doctor make it to church last week? No she didn't come. That was disappointing, but in the future hopefully.  

Talk to you all next week. Love you.

Elder Olsen

Week 86 and 87

What did you do for p-day? Last P-Day we went to Copan to drop off some dressers for some sister missionaries, and we passed by Santa Rosa, then we went back to La Entrada and went to Florida then we went to a waterfall and it was really beautiful and fun. I had gone there way over a year ago when I was starting my mission. This p-day we haven't done anything because we have extra elders here form another area because they are sick and we don't know what to do with them. 

When does you replacement arrive? He got here on Wednesday we picked him up at 7:30 in the morning.  My replacement did come.  His name is Elder E., he is from the Ogden area and he has 10 months in the mission.  I will try and send pictures.  Is Elder E. emailing right now?  No, he and my companion are not here, I am with the aps, we are writing in waves today because there are way too many of us.  I don't know if we can Skype tomorrow, we could Skype today if you have time because tomorrow I don’t know if I will get the chance with 9 people and only one camera.

What was your spiritual experience for the week? Truly the most spiritual experience was starting to teach Hna M. again. We hadn't been able to have a lesson with her for a long time, like 3 weeks but when we called her we put a date and an hour and it worked out and it was amazing, she told us that she was going to be able to come to church for the whole month, that was the best news that we could hear. I truly know that the Lord is preparing the way so that these people can hear and accept the gospel.

How are your investigators progressing?  Han M. is on track to be baptized on the 21st of May so I think I will still be here to see this wonderful day.

Tell us about your ward, what time do they meet?  We meet at 9 am. Its fairly small attendance of about 100 and many family's from other wards have the calling to come to our ward to help strengthen it with priesthood holders. How many wards share the church house? There is only one ward in our building.

What do you usually do for family home evening? We usually don't do anything special, it is just another night to teach our investigators. We have has a few times when we have had members and investigators and that's when we do family home evenings.