Brothers in Brazil: Serving the Lord: A big change for Eric

Saturday? P day on a Saturday? How is that possible.....?

because HERE I AM IN THE ESCRITÓRIO DA MISSÃO!! IN THIS VERY MOMENT!!!

Wait, I can explain. It all started This last Monday, when our phone was stolen. Not the we were assaulted, just that we went to a soccer field to brincar (I dont know how to translate brincar. It is kind of like "mess around"), and I left the cell phone on the ground. Nós brincamos for about 30 minutes, and when we came back, the cell phone was GONE. Disappeared. And of course, I started to get pretty nervous. I didn't know what would happen - it would be one thing if we were assaulted, but this was just carelessness on my part! So I called the Executive secretary Elder Johnson. After I explained what had happened, he said that he would call me back in a few minutes. And 30 minutes later.............

............President Young called.

"Elder, como que eu posso confiar em você se você perde as materiais da missão? O que eu devo fazer com você?" (Elder, how can I trust you if you lose the mission materials? What should I do with you? ")

Naturally, I was scared out of my mind and almost had a heart attack. Thankfully, he explained that he was just joking, and extended a call to be the new Executive Secretary of the mission. So in case you didnt believe, now you know that Elder Olsen and I really are twins!

It has been a pretty stressful week. I am not at all tired physically, but mentally I am spent. There has been a lot of new things to learn - I dont even want to start on it. But basically my most important job is to make sure that nobody gets deported. So let's hope that I get a hang of it, so that half of the mission isnt sent home! We do a lot of running around - taking missionaries to the rodoviária, buying things for the mission, going to the mail.... its a lot of running around.

This is Elder Johnson. He is my trainer as Secretary. And he was the quarterback of his Nashville Tennessee football team. So, you could say he is a pretty good guy. I feel like if we were at home, I would definitely be friends with him. So thats a plus!

AND we have 2 baptisms this Sunday! I havent actually ever met them, because we have been in the office all week and I just got here tuesday.... But it is still exciting! We are going to their house tonight to meet them.

This is where we work:

Anyway I am pretty happy today - it seems like everything is going well! I hope you all enjoyed Thanksgiving. I am thankful to my Heavenly Father to have this opportunity to serve hHim, and really dedicate my life.

Much love,

Elder Eric Olsen

Boa tarde family!!

Well there I was, sitting in my lil chair working my fingers to the bone in the office and I got an IM on the Brasil missions IM: "Vitória: Oi, Elder Olsen está aí?" "Yes who is this?" "...guess." Haha it was Elder Olsen! It is pretty sweet that he will also be secretary, so that it wont just be me saying that the secretaries work! I don't know how it is in other missions, but here it seems that the secretaries are sometimes mildly looked down upon for being prideful and not working, but to me it seems like its because generally people want to get a reimbursement from an "all you can eat" lunch. YOU CANT DO THAT!!! haha just kidding.

This week was Thanksgiving, so we treated ourselves to a Thanksgiving classic: Pizza Hut! We got 2 pizzas of the day, which totaled like 60 reais, but it was totally worth is. Uma delícia! Although I cant lie, I did miss you guys and I missed eating stuffing and everything. Next year you guys should make rice and beans with your turkey!

Our investigators have been progressing a lot! In fact, Sylvanio and Laurinda will be baptised this Saturday!! WOOOOOOOH! We taught the Word of Wisdom and Laurinda was worried because she drinks coffee like every day, but by the end of the lesson she said "I don't even drink coffee anymore! I stopped right now!!" It was awesome.

I have been studying a lot the Liahona (actually the Ensign, thanks mom!) and this week I really liked the talk by President Monson. I think it applies to me a lot, because after meeting a Sister that did BYU Jerusalem, I really have wanted to go there. But he talked about how it really doesn't matter where we are, we have to walk HOW Jesus walked, not WHERE He walked. It doesn't matter at all where we are, but in any circumstance, we have the opportunity to do what Jesus would do. And so I'm trying to do that, but the more you think about it the more you realize how much more there is that we are not doing.

I've come to gain a testimony of the BoM... and this is why. In the BoM it always talks about the pride cycle: they're poor, they humble themselves, get rich, get prideful, poor, humble... etc. And when I have been in some of these other areas with difficulties, it was easy to rely on the Lord. I have drawn very close to Him, trusted MUITO in Him. But now, I work in the field a lot less, in the AC, its still hard, but in a different way. I have been relying less and less, it is a struggle to remember Him in every moment! And we always think "if I was one of the nephites I wouldn't be prideful!", but it is difficult to stay so close to the Savior. That's why we always have to ponder the path of our feet, to always be diligent and never forget what we know to be true.

That's pretty much my story! I am also excited for natal mom hahaa (#youretrunky! #butidontblameyouiamsuperexcitedtoo). I love you all, and I am thankful to have you in my lives.

Love,

Elder Nicholas Olsen