WOW!!!! This week
was FANTABULOUSly scrumpcious!!!!
We did a ton of a
lot of divisions with missionaries that bring endless stories. The most special
of the week would be the baptisms of Luis Cardona and Lucrecia (Luki) Hernandez
and their precious daughter Blanca. (She was so valiant that day -- she is
afraid of water). This family is something else. The have the Gospel and the
very name of the Lord Jesus engraved in their hearts. I think Luis will be the
next branch president within the next two years. He was smoking before and
could not quit, but now he says. I have my master. He is in my heart and I have
not reason to smoke more.
I went to a place called Ixhautan on
Thursday with an Elder that has two weeks in the mission. His name is Elder
Cruz. This place is a town up in the mountains about two hours from Barberena
and it is surrounded by little mountain villages. Have you ever walked before?
I thought I had, I learned a quick lesson of what real walking .... and
walking. .. . and walking (hiking) is. Ha!!!! We tried to find a secret
path to avoid walking the whole mountain range and we were going well. .
. . (were) we took the wrong turn and . . . well . . .
climbed an entire mountain face. (If Seth remembers climbing the avalanche site
with me . . . nope. not even close). We went up and up and up and entered into
corn fields and up and up and up. Then we saw an electric pole up high (WE HAD
FOUND civilization!!!!!) After getting there, my entire body was SOAKED with
sweat and my face was covered in salt (salt deposits from the sweat) -- I wiped
my face with my hand and my hand was white with salt-- well, it was one of
those long distance power lines. (one pole per mountain side). Then we looked
up and saw a cross monument even higher (the peak). Having heard that the
village we were looking for was on the other side of the mountain, It made most
sense to go up there right? hmmm. When we arrived at the cross, we
could see the whole world. Elder Cruz and I rejoiced and we walked
"towards the village". Our relief quickly died to see it at . .
. the bottom of the other side of the mountain. "the pioneer
children sang as they walked . . . and walked . . . and walked". We
arrived to Manuel. He grew up in this village. In his baptismal interview, I
asked him how he planned to go to church every week (being a rented house in
the town). He chuckled and said, "ha! walking of course. It's super
close!! How blessed I am! it's only an hour!" He is in charge of some
cattle in a place called Puerto Rojo (red port). Well, that place is 5 hours
away walking and he walks down there to check on them. We also found a garter
snake and grabbed that which was neat. Guatemala is so cool. Even though we got
lost, these elders get to have adventures like that every day!!! Anyway,
Manuel, having 64 years of experience showed us the secret path over rivers and
through fences that took about 10 minutes on level ground to take us back to
where we took the wrong turn. We felt pretty ridiculous, but we were able to
give a Law of Chastity pamphlet to a teenage couple we found there at the
cross.
There are oh so many experiences to
share with you all, but I will have to save them in my heart. The mission is
the very best thing anyone could ever do for a strong basis in Christ and in
being a Child of God.
By the way, Elder Alegria just wrote
to his little sister the council of mommy Olson about having a boyfriend or
girlfriend: If you really want to have one, it's okay. . . .if you want to lose
a friend. You will go too far in the natural progression that a relationship
entails, or you will break up and hate each other forever (at least it will
never be the same). He got that from one of our conversations the other night.
Thanks mom for being all that you are. You have no idea how many people you are
blessing world-wide.
I love life. It couldn't get any
better. I love you all. I`ll try to write down all these stories somewhere, but
better, just go on a mission. Get them for yourself. WOW!!!!! The Lord couldn't
have made a better invitation.
Love you,
Elder Olson.
No comments:
Post a Comment