Two miracles

I want to share two miracles that happened this week.

The first has to do with James 5:16-18 : The prayer of a righteous man availeth much - even more so when a whole stake prays together! We have been passing through a drought in our city - it's been months since it rained. The city has discussed rationing water, and the water had already been shut off a few times during the week. Last week, all the members of the Church in Nanuque were invited to fast on Saturday, asking the Lord to send rain. After lunch my companion and I opened our fast together. Elder Garcia then shut all the windows in our house - he said we needed to show our faith that God would send rain! When we woke up on Sunday morning, it was cool and cloudy - the usual bright sun was nowhere to be found. It had rained! And continued to rain throughout the day. Truly a miracle!

The other experience is related to Mosiah 5:2 - that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and the workings of the Holy Ghost, people can be changed. I received a call from one of my missionary friends in another city this week; he had been teaching one of my recent converts. He said that as they reviewed with her what is the meaning of a testimony, she realized that as she had been listening to the talks of this last general conference, she had felt a deep feeling of peace - a feeling that the Church is really true, and that she no longer wanted to do anything contrary to God's divine will. She wants to "do good continually", just as the scriptures explain. 

What a wonderful thing to be able to see the marvelous works of the Lord! I know that He lives, and that through His Atonement all mankind may be saved - but only through obedience to the laws and ordinances of His Eternal Gospel. Sometimes to gain our own testimony, God wants us  to act and show our faith.

Please pray for Fábia, Felipe, Pedro, and Maria! They are working towards being baptized this Saturday.

much love

Elder Eric Olsen

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Unfortunately, this week nothing too special happened!

A few interesting nuggets: this week one missionary from our house was emergency transferred, so it looks like we'll be in a trio for 3 more weeks! hahaha its weird. I mean I like it but at the same time, as my comp said, "someone knocks on your door and when you go to see who it is there's 3 random dudes just standing there." hahahahah. But its an experience.

Also our ward reached 91 people at sacrament meeting this week, which has grown a lot since we got here! Not that it's all thanks to us, but I would like to think that we helped a little bit :) haha. 

Unfortunately, a lot of our investigators are falling through. I'm sure that H.F. is preparing people to hear the gospel, we just have to find them!

But I miss you all very much, and thanks for all the prayers. Love y'all!

Love,

Elder Olsen

NANUQUE! This week was wonderful. We are so blessed in this area to have local leaders that are super willing to sacrifice their time so that they can meet our investigators. We are working with a ton of families in which not all members of the family are members of the church, so a lot of our leaders are already familiar with the church members. We are starting the papers to marry 3 different couples this week. We are trying to work with families!!! It has been a great experience - it is really special to see the church members responding to their families' doubts.

When we teach people, we always open and close our visit with a prayer. Many times, our closing prayer is said on our knees. When we visited one of these families, we closed with a kneeling prayer. The next visit that we had with them, we invited the dad - whose name is Genival - to offer a prayer. Without us saying anything more, he got up off his chair and kneeled down to pray! It was really touching to see a grown man humble himself before God - not because we told him to, but because he knew that he needed to.

Also, this week it hit 113 degrees farenheit here. You could say it is hot. Take advantage of the cooling weather, because here we are suffering!

ALSO pray for rain, because we are needing it.

Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts - I know that God has heard our cries. He is blessing me beyond measure, and blessing Nanuque!

much love

Elder Olsen

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WOW it's been quite a week, I'm super tired. But I guess at this point in the mission "the pains", as my old comp elder Bennion would say, start and you just have to deal with it haha.

I didn't get a scripture to ponderize last week, so I chose 2 corintios 5:17 which says (I'll do my best):  

Se alguém está em Cristo, nova criatura é; as coisas velhas já passaram, eis que tudo se fez novo.

I really loved this scripture when I saw it, especially thinking about and seeing how the gospel changes lives. One can become completely different through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. From neutral to positive, from lukewarm to hot, or from a person completely estranged from God to one who shares a close bond with Him. I have seen it, and, more importantly, felt it in my own life.

Elder Zeballos and I used to just feel joy sometimes and say "the gospel is just so great! Why would anybody not want it?" and I am sure that if everyone could feel the way I feel because of it, we would all follow this path.

This week was a lot of work, but we're doing out best. We have found a few people that really want to follow Christ so we have our work cut out for us.

Thank y'all for the prayers and support, love y'all!

Elder Nick Olsen

still in Uberlandia and Nanuque

Nanuque! Yeah, you could say that I am just a short 14 hours from Nick. De ônibus, that is. The temptation is great to go visit, but the discomfort of the onibus is enough to keep me safe and sound here in the north of Minas Gerais. 

I got a new companion - Elder Garcia! We already spent 6 months together in the office as secretaries, and were both pretty surprised to be together again. When President Young announced it in the transfer meeting, he said "I don't know why the Lord wants them to be together again, but it is His will!" We are excited to make a difference in the city. We are trying to get really involved with the leaders here, and help people to become more committed in their discipleship.

Unfortunately we spent a good part of the week travelling. It was not too exciting. We did have a baptism of a young woman that had been taught by the missionaries before we arrived. This week we will work with the rest of her family. 

As we walked down the street this week, a man stopped as he was passing us on his motorcycle. He said "Oh Elders, I have a reference for you!" He then gave us her name and address, and told us to go there on Saturday. When we arrived on Saturday, we found out that the reference is this man's wife! She had been taught previously by the missionaries, but didn't have the desire to follow the Savior. When we invited her to baptism, she explained to us that she knew that the Church is the only true church on the earth, and that she needed the Savior's help in her life. She will be baptized this Sunday! 

I know that the Lord loves us. He waits at the door and knocks - we need only answer His call.

much love

Elder Eric Olsen

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That's right, I was not transferred! Going on 8 months here in UDI, fortunately I moved wards a couple of times or else I would be going crazy by now haha. BUT my companion changed, now I'm with Elder Sanchez, from Buenos Aires! He is kind of quiet, but super spiritual. And after getting to know us a little bit better, he opened up more and is really funny too! It's the first time I received a companion that I don't already know since October of last year! So that's pretty crazy.

On Saturday we had a baptism (Wooh!) of a lady named Marivan that my other comp and I found knocking doors. It was so great to see someone making promises to follow the Savior, and even better in the middle of a holiday weekend full of iniquity! (lol) She smoked 3 packs a day since she was 11 years old, and now she is free of cigarettes and starting again. It is an honor to have been able to help her and she even chose me to baptize her.

That's pretty much it! baptism, new comp, yep. I hope you all are well and happy, I pray for all of you often!

Much love,

Elder Nick Olsen

What a great weekend! What a blessing to have living prophets and apostolos!

This week was great. Obviously the things that stuck out were General conference and a meeting in Goiânia. Speaking of which, I got your package mom! I will make the brownies today. And thank grandma Olsen for me for sending twinkies!

The General Conference was great, I have never gotten so excited about it as I have on the mission. This time, like you all, I noticed a lot about scripture study (which didn't weigh on my conscious too much, I have learned to love the scriptures so much) and faith. I think I need to improve my faith, because it seemed like almost all of the speakers were reprimanding me! haha. That's what I love, they all speak and the spirit takes what's necessary to our hearts.

We have one investigator, Marivan, who is ALMOST getting baptized! she has a date marked for the 10th, but is having trouble with café and the word of wisdom, pray for her please!

Unfortunately, that's all. Due to the viagem not that much happened. Actually, I did get to renew my visa, so I'm legal again! (haha yes i was illegal for a little while...) 

But I love you guys, I always pray for you. Hope y'all have a great week!

Much Love,

Elder Nick Olsen

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Here is a picture of Elder Eric Olsen at transfers this week:

A week full of miracles

                       

This week was full of miracles. We had a lot of success and took 7 people to church with us, so the ward members were pretty excited about it! The Lord really blessed us.

One of our investigators is Marivan, a lady who reminds me a lot of Grandma Olsen haha! She has been smoking for like 40 years, but we have been trying to help her stop. Last week we had marked for her to stop, but she wasn't able to. But without us even saying anything, she said to us "this Saturday will be the last day I smoke. On Sunday im gonna wake up, go to church, and not smoke another cigarette." And she did! It was really inspiring.

Another awesome thing: I felt like dad! haha for the birthday of the proclamation to the world, we went to the central square with some other missionaries and distributed copies of it to a ton of people. and then at the end one sister wanted to sing families can be together forever, and someone said that I knew how to conduct. Usually I try to get out of stuff like that, but I realized that conducting nobody would be looking at my face bc I would be turned around from the crowd! So I accepted and it went well haha. Only afterwards I remembered that dad had done the same thing during Christmastime in Austria 30 years ago.

It seems like everyone ran into people talking bad about Joseph Smith and the church this week! So i'll just add my testimony to the many others, that Joseph Smith was a prophet. And I know that the Book of Mormon is true, because it was shown me by the Holy Ghost. As an apostle of the Lord said (more or less) "no evil man could write it, and no good man could write it, unless he were commanded of God to do so."

I hope yall have a great week! thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

much love,

Elder Nick Olsen

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EMERGENCY TRANSFER AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I was unexpectedly transferred to Nanuque, Minas Gerais this week. Actually, when I got the news, I had to take 4 hours of buses back to my house, pack my bags, and take another 3 hour bus ride to Vitória. From there we took another 12 hours of bus rides to a city in the new zone to do interviews, and from there we went another 3 hours to Nanuque! My new home. Needless to say, I will spend the day sleeping..!

Nanuque is super different than other cities in the mission. The church has been here for forever, and the city is relatively small - so everybody has already spoken with missionaries. There are a ton of incomplete families. I think I will need some advice from Elder Austin, because I have never had to work in a place with so many members! This must be what it is like to  serve in Utah!

So, my week was pretty much just travel. I have been impressed here with the recent converts. There are quite a few youth that have been baptized recently, and they are all excited to teach the gospel to all their friends. They have felt the happiness that comes from the true gospel, and are so excited! One rapaz, Ian, said that he wanted to get the addresses of all his friends today so that we could teach them all tomorrow! I  wish we could all be like him - ready, willing, and excited to share the gospel with out loved ones. He is an example to me.

Elder Eric Olsen