Oi gente!
Well FIRST of all let me tell you about the food. Every day we almoçamos com uma família aqui na ala (we eat lunch with a family here in the ward). EVERY DAY we have rice and beans and usually some kind of chicken, but if we get lucky its churrasco or carne in some form. And there's always a salad with lettuce and tomatoes. And also if were lucky we get some kind of juice! (the juice here is so good,) and a sobremesa (dessert). The other day we had this mousse de maracuja (passion fruit mousse) and it tasted like the celestial kingdom. BUT also we never ever get janta (dinner). Like people eat it but they just don't invite the missionaries. So Elder Silva and I have been having "jantinha" haha which is like little dinner, we just get something in the middle of proselyting. And sometimes pizza or something. I wish I could use more money but not many places here have swiper things! gosh it feels good to use english, idk how to say "swiper things" in portuguese haha.
Washing clothes is easy because we have a thing in our house, so we can do it any day. But we hang our clothes out to dry, this week i had my stuff out there for 3 days because it kept raining and eventually just had to wear wet clothes. Haha it happens.
Church is super funny. There isn't a piano, so the lady that conducts just sings the first line and we all follow her, but she has like an alto voice so it always ends up super low. But we don't have classes we teach, we usually just hang out with the investigators because we always have some. Yesterday we thought we would have like 15 but only 5 came. Elder Silva decided (and me too) that we need to reevaluate some of our investigators. Because we are looking for the people here that are ready for o evangelho (the gospel), not people who are so flaky.
We did meet a family that i think is eleita (elect). We gave the restoration video to them and the dad watched it 3 times!! Like wow I hope he gets baptized because nobody else keeps commitments like that. Elder Silva said that at least everyone should have 1 or 2 baptisms, and I know that if we continue to have faith it'll happen.
Anyway he was telling me about this family in another area that just called him before church once and was like hey come over and have breakfast and had like this huge spread for them!! Which sounds awesome, eu acho que vocês devem fazer algo semelhante (I think you should do something similar). And help the missionaries like if you have anyone. I know you're thinking about me and elder Olsen, but they're doing the same thing you know? and maybe if you help them out the members here will help us out.
Also please send more photos to me! either on here or in the mail. I got your letters the other day! but cant read until p day so i will today. And I never got the package too... sooo haha idk about that. And also if you send another package you could include peanut butter, just saying.
I started reading our search for happiness, its super good. Also feels good to read something in English for once! Its hard for me to decide what to focus on during study: livro de mormon (Book of Mormon), pregar meu evangelho (Preach my Gospel) , livros como (books like) our search for happiness, language, não sei. Mas the portuguese is coming mas ou menos... I know it'll take time but i just wish I knew everything already! or at least enough to get by melhor que agora. So i guess keep praying for me for that.
ELDER OLSEN-- Elder Silva heard about the mesma coisa (same thing)! he said that they were in missões vizinhos mas eu acho que ainda pode acontecer. Talvez no meio dos dois? ou uma missão ou o outro, não importante (neighboring missions, but I think it could still happen. Maybe in the middle of the two? or one mission or the other. Not important.). Also Im excited for natal bc i realized the first natal will be like halfway mark and the second will be like going away party!
I guess that's all I have to say this week.
Love you all,
Elder Nick Olsen
Love you all,
Elder Nick Olsen
sometimes we get rained on
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Now for Elder Eric Olsen:
Oi gente!
Another difficult week. Unfortunately we had to cut two of our investigators because they weren't keeping commitments. It seems that that is a serious problem here - everybody is willing to talk but nobody wants to change. We also met one girl that told us she was certain that the Book of Mormon was true - I feel something really special in my heart when I read! - but her mother wont let her join the church. I guess this week will be a week of finding, not teaching.
I invite everybody that reads this to look up the bairro Ilha dos Ires in Vila Velha. On street view! It is really barren haha and where we work the most. Also just for the general public to know, Fiats are the most popular car here. And Everybody listens to american music - go figure! AND it is the dream of every member to study at BYU, so I guess I was living the dream last year? huh.
It might be strange but BYU Vocal Point is so dear to my heart right now! One missionary in my house has speakers and plays their music sometimes - it always is calming for me.
One thing I have learned from the Brazilians is to study the scriptures a LOT. They are all fascinated with the scriptures - I think it is because they are converts and excited that things make sense. But the Lord won't give us confirmation until we study, and He wont give us more until we use what we have!
Don't complain about the cold please. Its like 85 every day. KILLER.
I hope that we can find more people that are ready this week. I have hope for one rapaz(boy) that we met but we can only teach him on Saturday nights.
You have NO IDEA how excited I am to hear the prophet and apostles speak. How amazing that we can hear the voice of the Lord through these great men! Counting the days until conference. I think I will watch in English but I don't know for sure... will let you know!
Also let Emily know that one Brazileiro that live with me is captivated by her picture on my desk! ...a little weird, but flattering I hope.
Love you all!
Elder Eric Olsen
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