John In El Salvador

Let me just let y'all know. I love my mission. It is fun. It is exciting, but most importantly, it is a place of growth for me beyond my expectations. My letters sound difficult and sometimes discouraging because I always learn more from 1 hard experience, than I respond to positively, than 10 easy experiences. Truth is, a mission's hard, but frankly, it's so worth it.  Sencillo:      Well. I've finally reached the point where I'm still not even close, but that's the fun part. Here are some notes from my agenda: On Monday, all I really wrote was first, I bought some tang, which is fruit juice powder for my water, and that's made things a lot more exciting, and I also wrote the phrase, "We ain't talking marshmallows", not really sure why. On Tuesday we did cambios for a day. I went to a place called Congo and stayed with Elder Pastrana. We had a really productive day there, from finding lots of people prepared for our message to helping ...

Sencillo:      Ahhh P-Days, the dessert of the mission. It's like running a marathon where every 7 miles someone shoves cake in your mouth. Here are some notes from my agenda:      On Monday I got a copy of True to the Faith. I love that book. I also borrowed "Our Search for Happiness" from Elder Hales. That's a good one too. It seemed a little strange at first, but then I realized it wasn't written for members of the church. Every P-Day I get to wash my clothes, and it's always exciting cause our washing machine does this cool thing where it jumps up and down and starts hopping around. I also learned that apparently, when some of my pants said "Dry-Clean Only", they weren't kidding. Whoda thought? After wrighting you all last week we went to pizzahut, and I was a little hungry, so I got myself a pizza and some breadsticks and a 2 liter bottle of juice. Wow was that fun, but ever since then, I've always been hungry. On Tuesday I woke up ...

First note: Sometime in the near future, if not already, my email address will be changed from john.olson@myldsmail.net to john.olson@missionary.com Sencillo:      Wow, this last year in El Salvador went by so fast. Here are some notes I took in my agenda:      On Tuesday we got to explore a new area with the other Elders. I was super tired because that morning was leg day, but by now I've learned that in El Salvador, every day is leg day. On Wednesday I left the house with a goal to finally not painfully stub my left toe on a rock, but it only took my about 3 minutes of walking to fail at that, about 4 times. I was also feeling like I didn't know the lessons very well,, but Elder Perez told me that the night before I started teaching the First Vision to an investigator in my sleep, so it's good to know I'm getting extra practice in. At dinner that night I realized that here in El Salvador, if you eat something enough, y...

"The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not..." Boy do I have a lot to learn. Sencillo:      I have an AlphaSmart. It's a portable keyboard that stores what I type, so I can get more done in my hour for emailing at the computer. I asked my mission president, and he said it's best if I only use it on my P-Day, so I still don't have a bunch of extra time, but today we went to the lake before emailing, so I had time to write a longer email on this AlphaSmart, but I can't make any promises for next week. Whatever happens, I still love you, Mom.       Here's a summary of all the notes I made in my agenda throughout the week:      They give really cool haircuts here and they're only $2. Also, on the buses people pass through all the time to sell stuff and sometimes just start rapping. One of the senior couples just left on Saturday, so when we met with the Mission President for our transferl...

Sencillo:      Today was a pretty good week - tough week, yes, but sometimes that´s what it takes. It´s always hot here and we usually finish the nights sweating. We walk miles a day, sometimes just to visit one person. We had to be in our houses at 8:00 last night cause it was election night, and apparently that´s kind of like New Years for them. I'm pretty sure someone died. We get a lot of good study, with the language and the gospel, and it´s actually kind of gotten fun. Whenever there´s a moment that I don´t have something to be doing (which is never) I try memorizing scriptures. There was an earthquake on Friday! It was about 30 seconds long. And finally, we have a lot of people preparing for baptism, but we got our first official one coming up. (A lot of people accept the invitation to prepare but when it´s official it´s a lot more exciting) His name is Winston. He´s 12, and we can already see his life changing. He´s super cool and receptive, and I´m really p...

Alright, Who Prayed for Humility?                                                                       January 28, 2019 All the letters on the Spanish keyboard are in weird places, so bear with me. I also made a new revised list of contacts before I left the MTC and saved it as a draft, so if anyone didn't receive a letter that was expecting one, just let me know and I'll add them. Lastly, if I don't respond to a personal email you sent me, I didn't forget you, I'm just preparing to respond to you next week.  Mas o Menos Sencillo: Well, who woulda thought that the El Salvador is nothing like the MTC? It was almost snowing when I left Provo. It's not ...