11-28-09 Carta De Elder Olson

I can say I had one of the hardest moments of my life recently, that helped build me, but also dropped me to the floor with little strength. I will never forget the past few weeks of my life. "Code Red" is what I would call it. My companion Elder ___, I can say that I very unhappy with him, because I felt manipulated. I don´t know if he did it on purpose, but I was very sad at times with him. I was forced to turn to the president for help.
I guess Elder ___ is well known, for causing problems to other missionaries, I have done my best with him but we could not get any success because I was unhappy, I could not work right, Despite that I tried everything. I have never prayed so hard for help, I was helped and answered in my prayers, but I could not be in his presence, because I felt betrayed by him.
President has exchanged me with another companion, I am now in a area called "Bowen" I don´t have a bike anymore, but it´s a really great area. My new companion is Elder Armstrong, He is a great Elder from Utah. He competed internationally as a swimmer. A really great Elder, I have already known him before, the first day i came in the mission I met him.
And now I am his companion. We are doing well here, and he only has a transfer left, so I have to take care of the area after this transfer.
Sharing this is hard for me, I rather not say anything about all this, but it´s the truth. I did my best, and I guess I wasn´t prepared for Elder ____. But, now I am.

I had a great christmas, I still need to talk to you mom, it was great talking to you Dad, Stef, Ryan, Erin, and Kyra.

I´ll call you soon mom...
Take care.

Elder Olson

*the moderator removed one of the names for privacy purposes

Carta de Elder Olson 12 21 09

This has been a really difficult transfer, I wasn´t able to write last week. We have been doing a lot of divisions, I left to other areas with other elders (Elder Vasquez, Elder Giminez, and Elder George), 3 times this week. It has been really tough week for me, I learned a lot despite the pressure.
I learned that trials are the moments of our progression, and this is very difficult for me, and I know the little decisions I make will make the outcome different, so I am being very careful. Me and my companion don´t agree on some things with teaching, I don´t like to count things, if we don´t cover at least the main idea of the doctrine. It´s hard, but we are going to have to deal with it.
A very progressive week, we are going to call tomorrow I guess (home), we are going to have a Christmas party tomorrow. It will be pretty sweet. I´m going to have to cut short here.

Merry Christmas,

Elder Olson

Helllo everyone

       Yeah, it´s been a great week again. Progress, and full of dificult moments. I learn a ton from each companion, right now, I am learning from someone who grew up entirely different. Elder NIeve (From buenos aires), I had problems with his personality at first, but it´s going really good now. He is like a brother to me, the things we went throught his week strengthened us a ton.
        We had a really good conference in our zone, I met a ton of elders, and we ate argentine fried chicken after.(they celelbrated my birthday this conference. I am going to say goodbye to my teenage years, it´s been a good 15-19!!! I have a month left). Then we ate a argentine barbeque later that night with a bunch of elders (We ate Asado, it´s really good). We stayed in a pension with like 8 elders then left to play soccer in the morning. It was super awesome. (part of P day)
        The week we had was tough, we reached goals, and we didn´t reach others. We are eager for this following week to turn out well. I am starting to get in the rutine of the mission, now that the language isn´t a big problem. I let spanish get in the way of some things, but now it´s just getting better and better now that I have a base, I can focus myself more in what is really going on (Like the people I talk to, or around me).
        Well we rode on our bikes, all over, I popped my tire because I was forced to move off the road, a road far out of the city (A car came fast without much notice) ... and I ran into stickers and nasty stuff. We had to walk far haha.
        Niel, thanks for writing me your letter. Right now I´m trying to pick up the porteño accent from my companion haha (The accent you mentioned). I hope everyone in the family is doing great.
        Take care everyone, I´ll try to send photos next week.