First Week!!

Saturday, February 4, 2023; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA:

Óla!

A brief overview:

I have been called to the Manaus, Brazil Mission! I will be speaking Portuguese. I was set apart as a full time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints last Sunday. The first two weeks I will be doing at-home online missionary training. Following that I will fly to São Paulo, Brazil for four weeks of training at the Brazil Missionary Training Center(MTC). Then I will be off to Manaus for two years! 

The Manaus mission covers a big chunk of the Amazon, so I am very excited to go there. And scared ;)

In this first email I will explain what my schedule this past and coming week has been and will be. Bare with me, I will be in Brazil in about a week :)

This past week I started my mission! Up at 6:30am, to bed by 10:30pm. I was given a schedule that is a little bit complex to follow because it is all in military time/world standard time (0:00-24:00). It also is in Brazil São Paulo time(BR), which is two hours ahead of me in eastern standard time. The schedule does have flexible times at the beginning of the day so that we can get up and go to bed at 6:30/10:30 times, just some of the personal and companionship study time happens in the evening instead of morning for me.

While doing training from home I must have one of my parents with me at all times as a companion (In the house or accompanying me elsewhere). 

Each weekday has consisted mainly of 3 classes via zoom. The instructors live in Brazil. The first class lasts one hour and has about 60-70 missionaries who are doing online training. 2/3 of them are Portuguese native speakers, and then there are some English and some Spanish native language speakers. Because of this they have translators who use a zoom feature so that each language can understand the instructors and any missionaries who speak or give prayers. When we first got on they told us to put the first letter of our languge before our name so that as the meeting went on we could be put in smaller rooms with people who spoke our language. I did exactly that. E-Elder Olson. Only problem was Brazilians don't spell English with an E. In Brazil they spell it with an I. So I had to change my name to I-Elder Olson. This made even more sense when I realized Spanish is spelled with an E in Portuguese :)

Following that meeting I have 2 classes that are 3 hours each. One is with Irmã Vitia and one with Irmão Reis. Along with the instructors, there are 7 of us missionaries in the classes.

Even though I am currently doing stuff from home, I have a companion who I do things like scripture study and extra language practice with when we aren't on zoom calls. His name is Elder Pohm. My District is a group of 6 other missionaries and I(7 total) and they are the ones I have classes with. We are grouped in companionships, two sets of Elders and a trio of Sisters. All of these Elders and Sisters are from the USA, also learning Portuguese for the first time. 

Most of them are from places like Utah or Arizona that are in MST. Brazil is 2 hours ahead of my time, and 4 hours ahead of their time. This also means that normal meal times for me happen in the middle of class time.

The two classes consist of spiritual lessons and scripture study, as well as learning the language. I am working on learning Portuguese, and it comes slowly. I was hoping to go foreign and learn a new language, but I didn’t anticipate the amount of work, particularly mental work that would come with it. 

One decent measurable success from my week is that I was able to memorize the missionary purpose in Portuguese, but don’t quiz me ;)

Then today(Saturday) is preparation day (p-day) so I was able to go to the temple with my parents and do a little bit of last minute shopping. 

Fun fact, half the time in Portuguese you pronounce the letter r as an h. Very confusing sometimes.

My favorite word to say in Portuguese so far is Saúde, which can mean health, or cheers. I love saying it because you pronounce the ú with a oo sound that is fun to say, and then the de sounds like jee or g (sa-oo-jee). My current favorite word (not just to say) in Portuguese is Fé, which means Faith. I just love how a word that is so small can be so important. 

I know that Faith is super important. Any kind of religious Faith will lead to good. But especially Faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement. In all that he has done and still does for each one of us everyday.

You can email me at Olson.david@missionary.org. My emails will also be posted onto a blog (davidsolson@blogspot.com).

Love you all,

Elder Olson

Pictures-

-Me in front of the Raleigh Temple

-A Portuguese Book of Mormon+name tag :)

-First zoom call with 60+ Missionaries!