June 23 news from Brazil

Ooooooooooooooooooooolá meus amigos!

Sounds like everyone is kind of espalhado no momento (spread out)! A few in Virginia, a few in Michigan, a few in Brazil,.. Makes me happy to know that one day we can all be together for eternity. 

First of all, good news from Colatina! We had five (5) YES FIVE people in church yesterday! Ajudando as pessoas encontrarem a verdade uma por uma (We are helping people find the truth, one by one)! Nobody will be baptized this week, but at least it is a step in the right direction.

To answer your question, the activity that we did with wheelchairs is done every month here in Brazil. I don't know how the church chooses the place, but Colatina got lucky! We received the references yesterday and will be visiting them all this week. Actually, we visited one yesterday. She was a less active member that was baptized 20 years ago - when we entered, she asked if we wanted some coffee.  ...........yeah. 

Here is something funny, we told an investigator our real names - Eric and Matheus - because she asked, and then she came to church and when people asked - who did you come with? - she said - Eric and Matheus! And nobody knew who she was talking about haha!

Also  I got the package! Thank you very much much and I think it delays 3 or 4 weeks to arrive. Suggestions for you:

I think the packing is overkill, and you could probably just use a smaller box if you wanted to!

Things like ramen or little meals etc, I buy here. the food you send should be snacks - like chocolates, homemade stuff, gummies, jelly beans, jerkey,.. stuff like that. but thanks anyways its 2 reais i wont have to spend on food haha. Also the pictures of Christ as a game thing was good. I had a companion
that had a little puzzle of the plan of salvation. Things like that that would help in teaching are sweet!

Basically just anything that would remind me of home. Oh also if you send more family history send in small font! It is a lot of paper to carry around.

I love the lessons we can learn from the scriptures. When the Savior called Peter and Andrew to the ministry, He first suggested - Cast your nets on the other side of the boat - and they came up with loads of fish. I have found that if something that we are trying to accomplish is very difficult, we have to try something different. We have to think outside the box, and cast our nets on the other side. 

This week we had a zone meeting - the last of our ZL Elder Richards. It was pretty regular, but at the end he said - I know that God has a plan for us. It was such a normal statement - I probably say it 5 times a day.But when he said it the Spirit hit me - He does have a plan! No need to worry. He knows it all. I bear my testimony that He knows all, and He just wants us to come unto Him.

I love you all and you're in my prayers!

Elder Eric Olsen

Oi família!!

NOSSA may I just start by saying that I am muito muito bonito on that plaque haha and I probably will never be bonito assim in my life again. 

ENTÃO boa semana. This week started out great because I got mail!!! But I can't read outside of Pday, so I haven't read yet but I will today. Thanks mom! And other friends that sent stuff. My trainer even sent me a jersey of Santos! (his favorite team de futebol)

The work here is still really hard.We haven't had much success, and its pretty frustrating. Last pday we were in the supermarket and someone approached me and said "hey, where are you from?" naturally I almost screamed, and then spoke a lot of English with Portuguese mixed in. Turns out it was just a guy who has been studying English, but he invited us to his house. So the other day we went there, and he was super rich. He had a collection of 32 watches!! and like 100 colognes! Haha so that was crazy buuuut... infelizmente he didn't go to church either. 

I heard a talk in church that I liked a lot, and he told a story in the talk. He said, "there once was a man with a lot of faith. And an angel appeared to him and said: 'Here is a big stone. Now you have to push it and move it.' And so the man got up every day, pushed the stone every day, and went to bed. For algumas semanas (a few weeks) this continued. And eventually he got annoyed, and thought 'why did God ask me to do this? nothing is happening!' And when the angel returned, he asked. But the angel said 'look at yourself. You haven't moved the stone, but you are strong,  you have grown a lot. This was the purpose of pushing the stone.'" So I liked that a lot. Sometimes we work and work and have nenhum resultado (no results). But its because the Lord purposes are not our purposes, His thoughts are not our thoughts.

One day was better than the rest this week, and when I stopped to think, I realized that for some reason I had been thinking about Jesus for a lot of the day. It really is true, that our afflictions can be swallowed up in the joy of Christ. Not that challenges wont come, because they will, but we have to have our foundations built upon the rock that is Jesus Christ. If I've learned one thing in my mission so far it is that. And to speak Portuguese hahaha!

Well I love you all, hope you are doing well. I pray for you often. I will be sending some more letters to you soon!

Love,

Elder Nicholas Olsen

ps I learned that Nick is only a name for cachorros (dogs) here in Brasil!!

                                                                                     mail!!

                                                                     

                                                                     I finally saw a monkey!