This week I had a cool spiritual experience. But the story starts 3 months ago with my old companion. 3 months ago I was looking through old records of investigators and picked out a few to go visit in a neighborhood super far away. We went to find the houses, but one we couldn´t find. Here in Brazil, it´s sometimes hard to find houses because people move and change house numbers, or the house numbers are all out of order, and sometimes house numbers don´t even exist that we have records of. We decided that the house didn´t exist, so I wrote “House does not exist” on the old record so missionaries wouldn´t waste time looking for the house in the future.

This week, I was looking through old records again and came across the same record on which I had written 3 months ago. When I saw “House does not exist” written on the top, I felt overcome by the Holy Ghost and I heard a whisper saying “go back, the house exists”. The next day we went back and I found the house right away. It was way further down the street from where it should have been. It´s number was way out of place. We found the family that was being taught in the past by the missionaries. They were super nice and receptive. We will continue to visit them to help prepare them for baptism. They aren´t quite ready yet, but have lots of potential. If I hadn´t followed the prompting I received to go back and look for the house again, they may have never been visited again by missionaries in the future. It´s very important that we learn to recognize and follow promptings we receive by the Spirit. I hope everyone has an amazing week!

Love,

Elder Olsen

My New companion is from chili, again!  I don´t have much time today to write more, but I´ll write to you next week!

Love,

Josh

The parks here have super old trees

Hey everyone!  This week was full of activities. We started off the week by going to the Campinas Temple! It´s been 5 months since I´ve gone to the temple so it was a real treat. President’s son was there who just returned from his mission in South Africa. That must have been weird for him…. completing his mission just to return to another mission.. haha.

A lot happened on Saturday.  After lunch we were walking on the street and noticed a dog walking toward us with a very bloody paw. A lady who was there said that the dog got into a fight and the other dog bit his leg. I secured the dog so he wouldn´t run away helpless. We happened to be right next to a scouting post for the Scouts of Brazil. They brought out a hose to wash off the leg and we bandaged him up. When we finished there was a huge pool of blood and bloody paw prints everywhere, it was sad. It was a bad wound. I let him go and he ran off. Then we started talking with the Scout Master who helped us. We told him we were both scouts from other parts of the world. (Elder F. is a scout back in Chili). The Scout Master invited us in the gate to meet the scouts there. It´s crazy how similar everything was to the Boy Scouts of America. It´s because Baden Powell started scouting and everyone just copied what he did. They even have the same Scout Oath that we repeat in BSA (translated into Portuguese of course). We bought a neckerchief and slide that they use in their troop.

Saturday night the branch had their annual Festa Julina. Everything was farm themed and they had lots of food and games for the kids. Everyone (besides us) participated in a traditional dance they do here in Brazil. The whole party could be compared to a country fest in the U.S., same idea.

Sunday we had a baptism!!! His name is Douglas. We found him two weeks ago knocking doors. He was super nice and accepting ever since we first met him. He received an answer that the Book of Mormon was true the very night we left him the book. He accepted a baptism date our first visit and was excited to be baptized. The baptism was amazing. The entire room was filled with members to support him. After church we ate lunch at the mission leaders house. They made esfias (dough with a pocket inside filled with meat) for us and I made chocolate chip cookies for them! On Sunday there was an old missionary who visited the branch. He served in this area 8 years ago. We had a family night at the family´s house who he baptized when he was here.

Transfers are tomorrow so we will be traveling to São Paulo for transfer meeting and to receive our new companions. I will stay in the same town and will get another companion from Chili.

Thank you everyone for your love and prayers!  A obra do Senhor não para!

Love,

Elder Olsen

My favorite part of the week was Sunday because we were finally able to bring a family to church! (most of the family) It was a very spiritual meeting. Lots of in-actives and investigators were there. We are constantly working here teaching and finding people. My area right now is one of the hardest to baptize in, but we have a firm baptism for this weekend.

These past few days it’s been raining but it cleared up today. I think it rains a little more here during the winter (now). There are palm trees, tropical bushes, cactus (once in a while), parrots, monkeys (very rare and usually in the less populated areas), bananna trees, lime trees, plants with crazy colorful flowers, bamboo…. Although it´s tropical, it’s not “paradise” because there´s no beach or pretty waterfalls  haha. It´s different than Florida or California because it´s 3^rd world here. All the streams and rivers are very polluted and everything is made out of cement and red clay brick. I’m sure the touristy parts of Brazil must be very pretty. We´ll have to come back and visit!

Tomorrow we´ll go to the temple! I´m excited. It´s been like 5 months since I’ve gone.

Love you all!

Elder Olsen