February 4, 2019 Day by Day

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 proud of him.

Divertido:

     Sometimes I´m sort of like a zoo attraction. At church there´s this little girl who always runs up to me just to shake my hand and stare at me. The little kids here really love playing with the little laser I have on my flashlight, checking out the cool coin pouch that my brother Jacob showed me how to make, and watching me juggle.

     On the way home from a meeting last Sunday night, on man on his porch tried speaking to me in English, but I could hardly understand him, so after he repeated the phrase about 4 times, I realized he was asking what my name was. He said some other things too, that were really hard to make out. Trying to be nice, I told him ¨Your English is magnificent!¨ (In Spanish), then walked to catch up with my companion. I guess he wanted to prove to me that his English really was magnificent, so he called out to me, then flipped me off in English.

Importante:

     Things are usually the hardest when I try to serve a mission without serving a mission. My best moments are either when I work hard to make someone else´s day better, fulfilling my calling the best I can, or when I return home after a tiring, but productive, day, and say to myself, ¨Today I worked¨. I remember my third night here, we got home and threw down our stuff, and before saying our prayer, I yelled out "¡Hoy, Fue un buen dia!¨

     The things that help me most when I´m struggling are first, a knowledge that I´m doing the Lord´s work and I have a work to do, second, a reminder that this isn´t about me, and third, the thought ¨What can I do TODAY?¨. Besides preparation, I can´t do any of tomorrow´s work until it becomes today, so I figure I´ll take things one day at a time. When I recognize all these things, I promise myself that I´ll get up and work, no matter how I feel, because no matter how I feel, I still have the power to make someone feel better. The moment I started focusing on what I can do for the people around me, those problems start to crumble. I´ve also found that light is not the absence of darkness, and sometimes, instead of asking for the darkness to be taken from us, we need to seek to share a greater light. I can´t do that sitting in my bed and feeling sorry for myself. It´s been a good week.

     Yesterday we went with the other two elders in our area to visit a boy named Brian. I don´t know if it´s from abuse or other problems, but he has disfigured fingers and toes, a deformed head and face, two teeth, and trouble communicating (despite his ability to comprehend and think functionally).  If I'm being honest, it was at first hard to look at him. Elder Velasquez was talking to him about the first lesson, and asked him if he was going to church. He said probably not, then Elder Velasquez showed him a picture of Jesus, and told him that Jesus would like him to go church, because Jesus loves him, and wants him to be happy. Brian stopped, stared, and asked, "ME?", almost in disbelief that someone would care for HIM, personally. I was humbled to overlook the goodness of this boy, because of my human eyes, and was able to feel just a little bit of the love God has for his children, and after we finished, I just sat and cried, for how selfish I had been. I don't really know how to explain it, but I learned a lot that day that I don't decide who receives his word and who doesn't. This is for everyone, and I'm just the messenger. 

Love you

Elder Olson