Oi gente!
Entao, first off you pronounce bem tipo with an n na verdade. confuso neh?
Sorry it has been so long but they didn't let me write when I got here! And I don't remember what happened the last week of the CTM so forget about it. Im in goiania now!
When we came to Goiania I was basically dying because there were no other Americanos in my group so I was sozinho. Everyone was nice, but as vezes it is just plumb impossible to understand. And so anyway the first day we had orientation, in Portuguese... and learned that we have like our own mission song! Which is carry on but in Portuguese and at one part you say missao brazil goiania. And that night we stayed in a hotel. and the second day we had this big mission conference. And the whole time i was thinking "I am the one person here who understands Portuguese the least" haha and it was right because I understood nothing. Which is too bad because it was a 70 speaking... but oh well.
At the end came transfers. I was super nervous but it turned out that I am with Elder SILVA (the most common surname in Brazil)!!!!!! And he has been out for like 7 months and knows a little English so thats good. And my area is Goia which is a huge area in North Goiania, the same zone as Sister Marshall. We live in this place... well lets just say when we got there I thought it was a storage unit haha. And we live with 2 other elders, Elder Diego and Elder Moon who is the zone leader.
So the goal for our mission is to do 100 contacts every week. Including this past week, in 4 days, but we did it! Thats 100 each missionary. So my contacting is pretty top notch by now. Sometimes Elder Silva will hang back and try to make me do it on my own haha but I hate that. The lessons are really difficult for me because I really can't understand anything. Honestly I dont know what to do, but what choice do I have but to keep trying and keep praying. Some missionaries have told me that it just comes with time so I hope that within the first transfer Ill be able to have some effect.
Everyone here that I talk to thinks I'm German! " voce e alliman?" cada dia seriously its weird. And also here when we have to go somewhere we take the omnibus. The omnibus is basically just a bus, but there is at any given time 500 people on it and they drive like the ground is desintegrating behind it. So you pretty much get plowed on the omnibus.
Id like to take this moment to apologize for every spelling and grammer mistake here and also for anyone who reads this who emailed me but i didnt answer, i dont really have the time to cram that many in!
But anyways I miss you guys and I hope youre doing well back home. Reading all your letters today totally made me fico tranke (dont really know the spelling but it means homesick.) Pray for me please.
Love,
Elder Nicholas Olsen
Elder Olsen and Sister Marshall in the same zone!
And here is a picture of Elder Eric Olsen in Vitória:
Cheryl and I really relate to the comments about riding buses. They were especially bad when it rained in Sao Paulo. Getting on a bus in the rain was just a crazy experience. Best of luck with your contacting. Remember that the Spirit carries your words to people's hearts, even if they are in broken Portuguese. You will be a great "German" missionary.
ReplyDeleteUncle Alan