First from Nick:
HEY FAM how are yall sounds like a dream with that 20 degree weather there. Literally every day Elder Silva and i are just sweating through the shirts. I have a ton of stuff to say so this will probably be super disorganized but oh well there it is.
I dont need anything mom so dont worry about me! But i dont know my address dusculpa, eu acho que você pode just send stuff to the mission home,
Então the first thing you need to know is that Portuguese is IMPOSSIBLE!! haha no just kidding but it is super hard. I think Im improving little by little. Elder Diego (other missionary in my house) said the whole first transfer he didnt understand anything but then the second is 100 times easier. but i already understand some stuff so i think ill be good, just continuing to figure stuff out as i go.
With tracting, we have a mission goal to have 100 contacts every week. So if you say "oi tudo bem? nós somos missionários..." then it is a contact! And yesterday was the last day and I still needed 50 haha so that took a good 3 hours or so straight of just talking to every person on the street.
No baptisms yet. I think its probably because we dont have enough faith. But we decided to work super hard so that if we dont get baptisms we know its not us, its just not the right time or the lord is preparing someone or something. MAS we have been having troubles with casamento. Yesterday we had 2 families at church with us which was good but neither are married. And you know that has to happen before baptism. Whenever we meet people for a lesson or whatever well be like oh youre married parabéns! just a festa or like the papers and everything? and 75 percent of the time theyre like oh umm just a festa you know... or something. So thats upsetting because you wanna see them baptise but oh well. A big thing in this mission is like were harvesting. There are people here who are ready, allready preparado to be baptised, so we cant mess around too long with people who arent the real deal.
Elder Olsen Im also in the slums cara!! Like yesterday we almoçamos com um membro que mora in parque oeste, another bairro, and like it wasnt even that nice really but just the fact that everything was clean and people were wearing clothes without holes and shaved legs was so so crazy to me. But we tried to contact people there and they were really mean, like Elder Moon was like "opa senhor como está?" and he was like "deixa me andar tá bom?" which means just let me walk okay? But in goia (nosso bairro) if you walk up to someone and invite to church theyll be like oh heck yeah! even if they wont and pat you on the back and stuff or say they respect you for the trabalha. And also when you leave someones house they always walk you to the gate, even if they leave it open its really nice.
This week we had a huge storm which was crazy haha me and elder silva took shelter under an awning but i leaned up against the wall and didnt know that it was completely sujo... so my shirt is wrecked! but nobody cares and hopefully when I wash it itll be good. But btw mom i still havent received me other glasses which is weird!
Also this week ive been pretty sick, but nothing serious. Just routine cold and stuffy nose stuff, but it was bad because that made me even more difficult to understand for the brazilians haha.
Também there is this expression that is super hard for me... a gente. in the ctm they said dont use it because its bem informal mas tudo mundo uses it! including presidente! and the reason its hard it because it means us but you conjugate like you, so im getting used to that.
Long story short serving is good! my biggest concern is still the language of course but it will come im sure of it with the help of the Lord. Elder Olsen since last week Ive prayed for you every day, and i know this transfer is hard but itll get better im positive. I hope youre helping the missionaries at home pais, because we all need all the help we can get! Pray for me please! But dont worry :)
Love you,
Elder Nicholas Olsen
And now from Eric:
Oi oi gente! A gente esta no lanhouse! A gente is super difficult for me too, Elder Olsen. I have been trying to not use it... But if you are using it I will too haha!
Another week of heat and sweat. And dirt. and poor people! Like you said Elder Olsen, every time I see somebody that has a house with four walls its like WHAT. But our apartment is decently nice! Blessings of the Lord I suppose.
This week was super difficult again. My Portuguese is still horrible... I guess it is good according to the usual new missionary standards, because all the members say so. But the investigators wouldnt know, because I still havent said hardly anything in a lesson...! My companion likes to really really REALLY give every detail, so I could teach baptism, the Holy Ghost, and keeping the commandments, and afterwards he would go back to baptism because I forgot to say a phrase.. UGH frustrating! But he has a really deep knowledge of the scriptures - especially the Bible, which I need to work on. He has an answer for any question. And he talks really fast, so he has an answer QUICK. ...thats why I usually dont talk much! But I can understand a little more every day.
Elder Olsen, I heard this week about two twins that served in Brazil. At the end of their missions, they got permission to work in the same mission for a week! A ultima semana. Então a gente deve tentar a fazer a mesma coisa! Seria bem legal.
We talked a lot about regras this weeek with our brazilian companions. Its such a different culture. They all think that the rules are just here to give us a guideline! Like if they dont like one, they just break it,... yeesh it is different!
We went on splits with a zone leader this week. Elder Strebe came with us - a rare ginger aqui no brazil. When we taught with him I actually got a chance to teach too! It was pretty neat to see anoher american teach, because it is always easier to understand what americans are saying!
Yesterday we went to visit an investigator of ours. He lives next to another investigator, and they were playing cards with some other guys. They started arguing with us about our chuch, but it was really cool - one of our investigators was like NO listen to what they are saying, they taught me ALL this cool stuff about the plan of God and how the church of Jesus Christ was REestablished here! haha it was cool to see that we were making progress and he truly believed.
I am jealous of your cakes. They look way better than anything I ever made! But I am making cookies today for an investigator. Hopefully.
Love you all.
Elder Olsen
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