Carta de Elder Olson 10-4-2010

I´m very excited, one of our investigators, Eric, has went to all 4
sessions, and we had many that came to one or 2 sessions. I know by
the spirit, that the prophet, and apostles are true servants of God.
And to have our investigators come was just awesome, to have them feel
the spirit strong. I really enjoyed conference, I especially enjoyed
Uchtdorf´s talk about pride. It´s so true that every sin, has a
manifestation of pride in it. I absolutely love the great counsel we
receive from the prophet and apostles.
Yesterday was the birthday of elder Cisternas, and soon enough it
will be mine. We are getting old together! Elder Cisternasis a great
servant of the Lord, who has a tremendous heart. We both knew, but not
when, that we would be both in the mission field. Thanks to our
experiences, and guidance of the spirit we find ourselves serving the
Lord. I love that Elder as my brother.
I´m positive, that the Lord helps us by placing us in the path of
those that He has sent to help us, or places us in the paths of others
to help them. Let us make sure that we can be instruments in His
hands, and take every opportunity to serve our fellow men, and our
Lord. Pray that you will have opportunities, and prepare yourselves
daily to become his instruments.
I love you, take care, and have a great week. Enjoy the few photos I sent :)

Elder Olson

Carta de Elder Olson 09-27-2010

  Isn´t everyone excited for conference, I can hardly believe that
another 6 months flew out the window. Time is flying, and I am doing
all I can to make the best of it. I´m so excited to be in San Juan. We
are having a lot of fun in our Area, it´s super big and there is a lot
of members here. They invite to eat everyday, which is a great
blessing
       We have investigators, named Eric (14), and Marisa (Eric´s mom) who
are doing spectacular. They had a doubt of coming to church without
nice clothing, because they don´t have church clothing. We let them
know why we dress ourselves in that manner (Tie, dress, white shirt).
We said something similar to this "Our Lord isn´t worried about how we
dress, but he is worried about our spiritual strength and for that
reason we go. We have the option to dress with the best that we have,
and it will be more than enough" We donated Eric a tie and a white
shirt, and he was super happy about it. He is going to all the church
activities, and church meetings. They are prepared by the Lord, to
receive the gospel. I know that the Lord prepares the hearts and minds
of us so that we can accept his gospel. Alma 16:16.
       Sometimes in my mission I find myself thinking about everything that
led me to this very moment of my life. A lot has happened in the past
years, but I recognize that the Lord did not stop working with me
through the holy ghost, guiding me up to this very moment that I am so
thankful for. I can´t express my gratitud in words, I can just say
that the love of our heveanly father, and the Lord Jesus christ is
like the sun "with perfect light" as the song says called "Our saviors
love".
       I´m enjoying my mission the fullest, I hope all of you are enjoying
life to the fullest. I love you all.

Take care
Elder Olson

I have good news...

        I am in San Juan again!!! I was called to San Juan, Chimbas on the
13th of September. I´m so excited, this new area is fantastic.  and I
am already here with my new companion. His name is Elder Boyd, and he
is from Georga. He is a great Elder, and we are doing great so far. I
had a great desire in my heart to come back to San Juan sometime in my
mission, and here I am!!!
        I read a phrase that I saw in the Gordon B. Hincley ensign (His
memorium), and I read the 6 B´s. One of them really caught my
attention and I have been thinking about it, and I can see a diference
in alot that I do. "Be humble, because the humble are teachable". I
feel and know that is true, because we can´t let the spirit be our
teacher if we aren´t humble. So I have tried to be careful, and not
let pride prevent me from listening to the spirit.
        I´m so happy to be here in San Juan. I feel something familiar by
being here. I also feel like that I am supposed to be here. A member
said that I act and talk like a Sanjuaniño. Sanjuaniño is a person
from san Juan. haha.
        I have some really funny stories that happened in my last area, and
the other areas that I can´t wait to share with all of you in person.
I love you all, have a great week.

Carta de Elder Olson 9-13-2010

I´m short on time for my letter this week. We had a really great week
because we got to see the fruit of our labors. We had a great baptism
:)
        We had a lot of training this week. We are doing a lot of training so
we missed a lot of time to work in our areas. We are being taught and
we are practicing a lot, it seems the mission is improving a lot with
these new focuses that we are applying. THe mission is also doing
great ideas, goals for the whole mission to open the mouth 140 times,
each companionship... we did it once before. And there is a lot more
details. It seems the mission is improving, so that we as missionaries
can improve, and become better instruments in the Lords hands.
        I was going to send fotos, this p-day we went to a very sweet
mountain range. called  potrerillos, and we did a lot of great hiking.
We saw really pretty sites too, I took pictures but this computer
won´t let me send my fotos!!! Sorry

Have a great week
Love,

Elder Erik Olson

 I won´t complain anymore in my letters. I hope that's not what it
looked like in some of my letters I had sent. This area in Ugarteche
may be really challenging, but it is really helping me grow a lot.
There are 300+ members, and 35+ were going to church, now it´s an
average of 45+. We are really focusing on the inactive families. This
area has a small house for a church, and it needs a church. We saw the
ex branch president come back to church, for the first time in years
(We have been visiting them, helping them do family home evenings, and
inviting them to church). It was a very heart warming moment to see
them reunite with everyone in the church again. The family was really
dissapointed for bad luck they had, it is a really long story about
the leadership in the church that was always upset with him because
of the decline of member attendance.
       I don´t know why but the cold is just something I really don´t enjoy
(Especially being not prepared for it with the proper clothing). It
was very cold, but we survived. More importantly, recently I found
myself thinking about other things (The mission, teaching, etc...)
instead of whining about the cold when we wake up. This was a very
necessary part of my life that I had to go through, I will admit that.
It´s so great to see the end of hardships, it´s like coming to a
tunnels end where there is a bright sun shining. It´s now warm again
in Mendoza.
       Lately as missionaries we are learning a lot of things, like how to
ask inspired questions, so that those we teach can open their minds
and think about what we teach. So far it has made a huge difference to
our teaching.

I spent a lot of time this week in the apartment again.

 I struggled being inside the apartment, we lost many hours in the apartment
because my companion´s health problems. It was super hard for me
because I never felt so bored, and I suddenly had thoughts that
wouldn´t get out of my head. Thoughts that were making me question
myself. Thought that tried to weaken me. I know that if we pray, in
this types of situations, we can always recieve strength. I felt this
strength and acknowledged that God wants me to grow from this.
        We will always find ourselves in situations, wether it be that we
feel alone, or question our worth. But it is our choice to speak with
our heavenly father, and let him know of our problems, and ask for
strength to face them. We always have to recognize that our capacity
is great, Because we are children of our heavenly father. We can´t
ever question our worth.
        Take care everyone,

        Elder Olson

I can´t wait until the cold leaves

       The conditions are a little rough in Ugarteche. We have electric
estufas (heaters) that don´t warm us up very well. So we just wear a
lot of heavy clothes. They say they never seen weather like this. It
has snowed four times, walking in mud all day!!
       But we had a great week, we are really progressing with the inactive
families, and at the same time we are having success. We are starting
a new program in the mission field. To focus on our purpose even more.
We are here to baptize, and call to repentance. The presidency gave us
a new training program, so that we can do so in a effective way. And
it is working very well. We are seeing more success.
       I can promise each and any one of you that through the gospel, we can
become better people and leave our bad traits that we develop. For
example, I had many problems that are now my strengths. I know that as
we give up our ways and focus on our savior and try to be like he is
we can conquer our weaknesses. "Y si los hombres vienen a mi, les
mostraré su debilidad. Doy a los hombres debilidad para que sean
humildes; Y basta mi gracia a todos los hombres que se humillan ante
mi, y tiene fe en mi, entoces haré que las cosas debiles sean fuertes
para ellos". It requires a humility, we need a lot of it to change.