Where is your new location? Ocotepeque. We live so far away that we
are closer to San Salvador El Salvador than we are from Copan. It is like a 5
or 8-hour bus ride to get here. It is
different this is how apparently Honduras used to be it is super calm here and
everyone just does what they want and there all happy,
Who is your new companion and how do you get along? My new
companion is Elder C., he is from Costa Rica he is just
starting the mission he has 4 months now so it is great. He has been here 3 months. Does your comp speak English? Yes he speaks fairly well. Is your comp fun what is he like? He is fun but he is serious as well. Does he like the area? Yes he does, he doesn’t know any other yet to
compare.
Did you go back for the audit or was it too far away? I didn’t go
but the best part is they didn’t say that we had anything major that was
wrong. Does Elder E. call you? He has called me a few times for small things
but that’s good because he is doing well.
Do you have any people that
cook for you and wash your clothes? Not really it is expensive because we
always have to go far when there are zone meetings so we have to save our money
to travel.
When do you think we will find out about your itinerary to come home?
My itinerary should come soon. I will call and ask when I will get it right
now.
How is the weather in your new area? It is cold and rainy at night
and hot and sunny during the day. The power goes out a lot especially when it
rains.
Did you take some pictures of the baptism and your new area? I didn’t
get any because the batteries in my camera were dead.
What was you spiritual experience of the week? Well I would have to
say the most spiritual experience of the week has been to see the change in attitude
of the branch president. He got really mad at us and was
super defensive until he realized that we were actually there to help and
we wanted to do a good job. How old is the branch president? The branch president is 55 years old. He is a bus mechanic.
Tell us about your branch or ward? It is small and we meet in
an old school. We have been working on cleaning it up because it was super
dirty and the branch president’s office hadn’t been cleaned in 8 or so
years so that is now clean and we are working to get all of the inactive
Young men back to church. How many young
men are there? Well there are 2 right
now, we could have 15 but I would be happy with 8. What are you doing to activate them? First of
all, we found them, now we will visit them and have some activities.
How did your talk go in your last area? It went ok. I have been sick
and it started on Saturday night. I didn’t sleep at all but I wrote my talk in
like 10 minutes in the morning and it was good. I gave the talk and then I went
out of the meeting and laid down until the meeting ended. Then at the end I got
sick to my stomach and started puking in the bathroom so we went to the office
and I tried to sleep there, I had a high fever. I still don’t feel that great
and I can’t eat much, I took tests and it was possible salmonella but I hope I
will get feeling better soon. I just don’t have very much energy and it has
been really hard to stay hydrated. I had to talk this week because one of the
speakers didn’t prepare the talk but it all went fine I am getting pretty
professional at winging things like that.
Please try to stay hydrated. Well
it has been really hard to stay hydrated with the mega diarrhea I have
had. Just try to drink as much as you
can, so that maybe you can start feeling better. Ok I get my blender so I can make juices as
well so I can drink more. You need to eat, eat, eat and use some extra money
and buy a lot of meat. Well the meat is nasty so I just eat eggs. I also have a goal to eat 1 fruit a day but
they don’t sell bananas in the pulperÃas.
I have been drinking a powder sure. If you continue to loose weight, you better say something to the
president. Ok. I went and took the stool
tests the no it didn’t come out that I had anything i just had lots of leucocytes.
Today for p-day we went to Guatemala, well the border, and there is
a free zone until we got to “migraciones” but we were technically in Guatemala.
So is there shopping in the free zone. There
is only duty free liquor stores and some pulperÃas, we went to the exact point
that were you cross you are truly in Guatemala and we took pictures, we didn’t
cross. We bought all Guatemala foods and snacks on the border. How long did it take to get there? 20 Minutes.
It only cost 30 limp or 20 each to ride the bus
How are your rashes doing in the cool? Well it came back.
What were you doing last week that you could not email? We hiked to a waterfall climbed a cell tower
and it took along time also there wasn’t light until 4 in the afternoon. How tall was the cell tower? 80 Feet you couldn’t
see much because it was on top of a mountain and it was cloudy all you could
see was white. I can’t believe how big
the snail was in the picture. It looks pretty on your hike to the
waterfall, it looks more like a jungle than most of the other places you have
been in. It is a protected area one of
the few left (like a national park) called Guisayote. Elder N. came from Santa Rosa to go with
us. In the picture that you are on the
ground, did you slip because it was slippery? Yes it was clay and was wet and I
fell on my butt.
Well the apartment is awesome there is hot water on tap so it is
great. It is the nicest apartment in Ocotepeque. How
much does that rent cost? 2800.
It is super hot water that comes out; you have to turn the cold on
to cool it down.
Where are the next closest missionaries? There are 2 other missionaries here in
Ocotepeque. Are they in the same apt and
are they gringos No they live a ways away. They are both Latin’s. So you help plan everything and the members
show up. What about the relief society and primary? Well, we go but we
are the only people that show up. Bur
finally we had one meeting with the branch president. We only had 24 people including 4 missionaries
come to church last week, but we will change that. How long has the area been open? Many years, sounds like plenty of people to
teach. Yes, and over 300 inactive
people. The church has had a hard go at it here. Well hopefully you can help teach some people
that will be strong in the gospel. Many just
don’t have the desire and they make up excuses but they say everything is true.
Do you walk your area or ride busses? District meetings are here and we walk almost
everywhere sometimes we use moto taxis. Are
the other elders working hard? Yes they are trying there best. Have they had baptisms there or is it
slow? They have had one baptism in the
past 3 months. Who is the district leader? I am, and technically I am the first
counselor, I have one of the instruction manuals of church leadership.
What are you eating? We have eaten lots of papusas this week.
What is the primary source of income for the people living there? Pulperias, brick mason and teacher. How many people in the city? It is
small like Preston Idaho size.
Do you wear a coat in the cold?
Yes we almost always wear a raincoat.
Do they have a larger grocery store in the city? The best place
to shop is in pricesmart, which is 2 hours away in El Salvador. Don't you have to get permission to cross the
border? Yes, but there are a lot of
people that will bring stuff back for us.
Do they travel there to buy food?
Most members just eat eggs tortillas and sour cream and beans. Here they
just have the market but some of the best vegetables I have ever seen. I bought
carrots and ginger.
Well we are out of time. Have a good week. Love you all. I want to
see pictures of the back yard.
Elder Olsen
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