March 7, 2016 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly--Elder Marroquin Nueva Santa Rosa, Cuilapa 13

Okay first things first, if you have never seen "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" watch it now. It is an all star film. hehe. I actually really enjoyed it.  Also, Elder Marroquin is Good, Bad, and flat out Ugly. Haha. We have so much fun making fun of each other and stuff like that. Our relationship is above and beyond right now about at 12 out of 10. Perfect. . . . Just in time for changes.

Tomorrow, Elder Marroquin, my papi, is leaving me. How fast the time flies! Elder Marroquin was an AWESOME trainer, and trained me all the more with each of his imperfections. When we have to deal with difficult characteristics of others, we are blessed with attributes that we cannot gain otherwise. Elder Marroquin has about 4 things that are bad about him (the average being has 2,874) He has 6,826 good things about him (I counted last night). He's got good Peruvian looks, but with his cologne that he LOVES he just blows the top off. We have SOO many SNAKES!!! (women that are dangerously flirty). Haha (I hate saying "Haha" and I know you hate it too, especially you mom, Sorry, but I am typing really fast and need to express a jolt of excitement. Ideas?) Elder Marroquin apologizes so much for all the flirty girls. I tell him it's alright and I know he just can't help it. Well I love this Kid (who is older than Jarom). I am going to miss him.

Last Monday, (after all of my pictures corrupted) we went in towards the capital as a district and went to one of three malls like in the United States in all of Guatemala. There we ate Chinese food and shopped for ties and Jerseys. EXPENSIVE!!!!!!! Yea I didn't even think of buying anything, it hurt my brain. I get bothered when something in the tienda is 5 Quetzales (about 75 cents) and these were going for 200Q - 650Q AYAYAY!!!!!!!

Here's a little insight snipped from my letter to President Caffaro:

"There is a difference between having the spirit present in a lesson and teaching WITH the spirit. At first, I thought that as long as they can feel the spirit, all is set, and they (the investigators) would be baptized. But there is something more profound. I LOVE reading the Book of Mormon and I have come across story after story of a prophet or missionary of the Lord teaching the people with profound power that penetrated the hearts of all who listened. I was thinking, "Why can't I do that?"

I think I've received my answer. For all of the children of God, baptized members of His church or not, the Holy Ghost has the role or responsibility to testify of the truth. This means that if I say or share a truth about Christ or His church, the Holy Ghost will be there to testify of those words; however, if I am worthy in every bit of my being, the Holy Spirit can fill me and use me as an instrument to testify with divine power. These marvelous men of the Book of Mormon spoke with and had this divine power in their words. I have been fighting this week to achieve this dignity of the Spirit. To clean up whichever thing that isn't necessarily bad, but that is detaining me from my spiritual potencial. I think you have read, "La Purificacion Misional" by Gene L. Cook where it talks about a 40 day spritiual fast. It has such power. My sister who is serving in Osorno, Chile sent me this talk by mail.

I don't just want the Holy Ghost to testify of MY words, I want to speak with and BY the power of the Spirit of God. This is my search.

Also, with cambios coming up, and with a self-evaluation to be more obedient and a harder worker, I found this common scripture which is scripture mastery: Isaiah 55:8-9

 8 ¶For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

One of the most open and important attributes of Christ (amazingly displayed in the Book of John) is his utter submittance to the will of the Father. We need to find our Faith and Humility to submit to His will in all things, but to do so Joyfully knowing that it is the absolute best way for us."

This Thursday was CRAZY. We went to Cuilapa to file some divorce papers, but stopped off in Barberena and hiked all the way to their chapel to meet the Zone Leaders, but turned out they were waiting at the Chapel . . . in Cuilapa, then  we went to Cuilapa, and on our way back, Elder Marroquin, our district leader, decided to stop off in Barberena to do a baptismal interview, so we hiked all the way to the chapel, then Elder Gollaher showed up and asked if the Zone Leaders had more pamphlets, so Elder Magdaleno and I ditched Elder Galvan in the Chapel and ran all the way to their house through hills and STEEP streets and all the way back. In the mist of all of this, I received a Letter from one Hermana Olson in Osorno Chile. SNAKE!!!!!! No. Annamarie sent me a talk called "La Purificacion Misional" by Gene R. Cook. This is awesome. Look it up on LDS.org and read it. It is for missionaries, but search for a way to apply it to you!

This is me studying up on Annamarie's letter

On Saturday, it was beautiful out and all the. . . . Then it POURED rain. This was one of my favorite days though. When it rains here, the land turns into rivers. More people let us in though!!!!!! Just imagine utter happiness and joy and this is how I felt for all of this day. I love the Mission field!!!!!! What a blessing and dream I am living!

We changed comedors, people that feed us--it's a rule here, to our investigators, Pablo and Elizabeth. We pay them more than they ask for because they need it, and they always come on time, but don't have a phone! on Thursday, Pablo waited on our doorstep for an hour!!!!! (we had told him that if he waits more than 10 minutes to leave and the food is his). He replied, "no, don't sweat it, all is well, I totally just took a nap here so it's cool, I can wait like two or three hours." Haha He is awesome!!!! 

...

...

except yesterday he didn't come to church, nor his wife, and he has missed three meals with us. !?! We passed by his house and he wasn't there. So yea, he disappeared. We're still trying to figure that one out. Well yesterday was Fast Sunday, when the whole church does a 24 hour fast. We ended our fast and the food never came . . . so we went to work. Every single person offered us food. It was AWESOME!!!!!!!!

Love you all!!!!!!!!!! 

Elder Olson

We ate in Taco Bell in Cuilapa

YeeHaw!!! With Rodrigo, our investigator

Rodrigo and Sonia.  Solid!!!

My bud, Fransisco

Eating DELICIOUS sandwiches with Vilma, our convert

Marlon, the branch clerk, in his bakery

William, our convert

February 29, 2016 The Waters of Baptism Nueva Santa Rosa, Cuilapa 12

Hey Family!

This week was rather awesome! I was transferring photos just now and they all just kind of glitched and won't come back. So...... yea. Sorry. It's not the best moment. But hey time's a waist'n. So Here's what I got for ya.

This week was awesome!!!!! It was as if we were fasting.....everyday (always when we fast, or go without eating for a sacred purpose, everyone offers us food) This week it was just like that, but we weren't fasting!!!!

Normally that wouldn't be all too special, but this week we kind of, completely ran out of money. . . . so there was no food. It was really fun trying to figure out how to live and calculating whatever thing was the cheapest to get by. 

Also, EVERYONE!!!!!!! Make Jello with Milk!!!!!!!!! It is sooooo good. 

This last P-Day, we were all in Cuilapa for a zonewide p-day. We had a piñata because one of the sisters is going home next Tuesday and we played a ton of soccer. Afterwards, our district went back to Barbarena and we went to Pollo Campero where Elder Galvan and I each bought our own pizza and compared to scrounging for food, it was NICE. It costed about 40 quetz which is a waste of money (about $5.50), but it was all fun. Also, because Elder Marroquin and I hadn't eaten anything at all that day, when the piñata broke, all of the missionaries just kind of stood there, but Elder Marroquin and I dove in and wrestled each other down to the last bit. We had SO MUCH!!!!! But then we sort of ate all of them and gave the rest away to our investigators.

This week at church was amazing. I was starting to feel like our efforts weren't very good this week as in I couldn't see anything good coming from them, but when we came to church, It was PACKED. We had to bring in more seats. I gave a talk this week on Hermanamiento (fellowshipping), and during my talk, investigator after investigator arrived. It was amazing! We had a record breaking attendance of 78 and 17 of our investigators came. 

After that we had 3 baptisms of Ofelia, her daughter Vanesa, and her grand-daughter Katerin. It was a happy moment. I would write more but I'm rather flustered about losing all of my photos right now. Love you all. Until next week.

-Elder Olson

February 15, 2016 For the Temple is a holy place--mosquito filled colonies, not so much. Nueva Santa Rosa, Cuilapa 10

Hey family!!!!!! Today is an interesting day. I'll say why in just a bit. This week we got the opportunity as a Zone to visit the Temple in Guatemala City. The temple is so beautiful and special. If going to church is like attending high school, going to the temple is like going to college or the university. 

The first covenant that we make with God to show our love, devotion and faith is Baptism. In the temple we can make more covenants to live on a higher standard and have more blessings. Also, within the temple, families can be sealed by the power of God for time and all eternity. Also baptisms for the dead are performed with in the temple, all by the power of God, performed by those holding the authority or permission of God to act in His name called the Priesthood. It was a very special experience. I hope each and every person reading this will one day attend the temple faithfully and worthily.

We ate TacoBell just before because that only exists in the Capital. The day (Tuesday) was incredibly cold and we left at 5 in order to get there on time. The bus ride was very long and thankfully crowded to help with the temperature. 

On Wednesday we had a Zone Conference in Cuilapa (the center of our zone) which is about 1.5 hours away. In this conference, the question was posed, "What would the Guatemala South Mission be like if every missionary were like you?" This hit it pretty hard. This is a great evaluation question to see if we are pulling our own slack or allowing others to pull it for us. I challenge each of you to adapt this question to your own life in the most critical and important way, then change if you need to and press on if you don't. 

Also on Monday we gave up our P-Day running to Lima and then to Cuilapa and all around getting paper-work and meeting with lawyers to help a couple that is investigating the church to get divorced. Sooooo . . . we don't have any money, but these things all work out. (Mom's note: I think they need to get divorced from previous spouses in order to get married)

We continued to meet with our precious families all throughout the week. On Tuesday night we met with a 12 year old Jason Xiloj Lopez and his family. At one point we asked, "And which of all these churches is tru..." Jason butted in and blurted out, "I already know which church is true! it's the church of the Mormons!"

He is super awesome and brought himself to church this Sunday. 

Another one our investigators Leslie Dias-Borjaz, blurted out in a lesson asking if she can attend seminary. So she did. We went with her because that's a rule here for the first time. and Elder Marroquin was jumping all around because he never got the chance to go to seminary. Seminary is a Bible'study class that is before school. Here it is on Saturdays. It is the perfect and best way to start a day with a spiritual leap.

And my final point and the reason why I won't write very much today is because that hoppidy leapidy happy Elder Marroquin returned to Leslie's house after with me and found his match. A little tiny Mosquito buzzing around harmlessly. . . that just so happened to carry Chikonguya, a fun little illness in which all of your bones hurt, your body has an ultra intense fever while all of your core is freezing cold, all of your joints want to fall apart with intense pain, you have no energy whatsoever, and the best part, the cure is to wait. 

We are still working, but just very slowly and yet spiritually. The weaker your body is, the stronger your spirits are. I get to care for him like a baby. It's kinda fun. I am just praying with all my might that we don't have to miss any days of work. I love you all. He is in extreme pain here next to me so I'm gonna cut this short to take him home.

Love you all. Elder Olson