December 15, 2018 Where I'm Supposed to Be

December 15, 2018                               

                                                                              #1

Hello everyone! I know lots of people don't have the time, attention, or patience to read a full letter, but I have many words. Do not fear! This is how I'll break it down.

Simple:

     I arrived at the MTC a little late, around 2 o'clock. I met my companion, Elder Silva, in class. He is from Portugal, and is really cool. I have 3 different teachers that I see at different times throughout the week. They all have names, but I'll get back to you on those. The food is good on some days and tolerable on others, but it's what I need to survive. We have done some workshops called People & Our purpose, where about 70 missionaries get to teach investigators (some actors, and some REAL). There are 4 elders to a room, and life is good. Picking up Spanish is hard, but very possible, my companion talk in Spanish until we need to revert to English. If that happens, we look up what we needed to know, then go back to Spanish. In these 3 days I have probably learned more than I did in 2 years of high school. That is a little something we call the gift of tongues. Now we pray in Spanish too, not including personal prayers, but the MTC is a great place for growth. I was also appointed to be district leader on Thursday night, which involves a lot more responsibilities, but it's a great opportunity. I love receiving letters. My p-day is Saturday, but please don't feel unloved if I don't respond. I probably just saved your email so I can respond to it the following week.

Divertido:

     My companion and I had a very interesting experience that humbled us quite a bit. It came at a great time, since we were starting to thing we had it in the bag. We were in a major rush to shower after exercise time in time for dinner, so we ran to the bathroom with our clean undergarments and soap to take a quick shower. We were so fast, in fact, that we happened to forget our room keys in our rooms, which lock automatically when closed. My companion and I didn't realize this until we finished our showers, and the other elders in our room had already gone to dinner. My companion also realized at this time that he forgot his towel, so we had to share the tiny 2 foot one that my Dad gave me. We found some other elders walking by the bathroom and asked them if they could grab the key from our roommates in the cafeteria, and they reluctantly said yes. I guess they also reluctantly returned since it took them about 30 minutes to come back with the key, so my Elder and I had some really good bonding time, walking around in the bathroom in our undergarments, singing hymns and practicing the little Spanish we knew. By the time we got to class the entire district heard about our bonding time, and it was the running gag of the day, but jokes on them, our Spanish is probably 3% better now.

Importante:

     Tuesday the 12th of December was one of the most miserable days of my life - not because I was in a rush with packing, or because of the other stressful events of that day, or even because I was going on a mission, but because someone knew I was going on a mission and did not want that to happen. 

     In Joseph Smith history, he writes "After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction. 

     "But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction - not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being - just at the moment of great alarm,  I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me."

     I believe in god, and boy, do I believe in Satan. For those of you unaware of the history of this passage, this prayer precedes one of the most important moments in all time, when Joseph Smith saw god the Father and Jesus Christ, and was given the necessary knowledge and tools to restore Christ's church on the world again. It was critical to one person that this never happen, because he wishes that all men were miserable like unto himself.

     This is my critical moment, you can bet that one person would try his best, even to cast me into a pit of despair, to stop me from going. But, as with the passage, a miracle happened. I have pleaded multiple times in the last couple days to feel the spirit again, to feel sure of myself, and even to remember the taste of joy. Every time that I poured out my heart, to no one but Him, that which I asked for had been granted in an incredible, almost unbearable measure.

   These last 2 days have been the 2 greatest days of my life. I have felt the spirit so strongly that even studying a language I can barely comprehend brings me joy. My companion and I have seen so many blessings, both spiritual and temporal, for being obedient, asking in faith, and promising to apply every single thing we learn to gain a greater understanding. 

     I have had so many questions in the past months to which I have found answers in this small amount of time because of the choices I've made. My testimony has grown so great in such a small amount of time, and I don't know if I've ever been happier.

     My first night, I wrote down in my journal: this is what I know, and proceeded to create a small list. The list had doubled, even tripled in size in the course of 24 hours, and still grows. There are so many things that I have learned and am still learning that I wish to share with you, if only time would permit, but if there is one thing I could have you remember, it is the last thing I wrote on that small list on my first, overwhelming, difficult, but necessary night: 

     This is EXACTLY where I need to be right now. No one can make me question that. In the temple, we witness the promise that Satan shall have power to bruise our heel, but we will have strength to crush his head. I testify of that, for I have seen it.

Love, 

Elder Olson