Blue or pink?

- March 28, 2023

Tuesday, March 28, 2023; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil:

Olá!!!

If any of you have questions, comments, thoughts, let me know! If you want better or specific pictures let me know too and I will do my best!

All missionaries get a debit card with some money that gets put onto it every two weeks. My companion and I took an uber to the nearest (safe?) ATM and withdrew our money for the next two weeks. We then went shopping for groceries.

My companion decided we should fast one of the days this week. We went 24 hours without food or drink. I thought our monthly fasting was a little difficult back home-USA where I could rest and relax all day. What was funny was I actually didn't sweat as much that day. Turns out if you drink less/no water, you sweat less! Who knew ;)

This week we had Zone conference. The Brazil Manaus Mission has 109 missionaries total. I think there are like 4 Zones? Each with 20-30 missionaries. We had our Zone conference with another Zone as well, so maybe 50-60 missionaries total came. It was a lot of talking from our mission President and spouse- President and Sister Beck- as well as other young missionary leaders. While I loved all that they said, I sadly did not understand but maybe half of it. My Portuguese is GETTING better, not already there ;) We were in a nice air-conditioned room so that was cool. And they fed us lunch which was super nice. Not that I don't eat enough or well otherwise. But there was more variety including my favorite.... mashed potatoes :) My companion also had a group of missionaries singing the Hymn Brightly Beams Our Fathers Mercy (Hymn 202 in the Portuguese Hymnal, don't remember in the English hymnal). There were 8 singers and I was on hand for my companion so I sang bass :)

As could be expected I often either don't understand things that or said, or it takes me a minute to process. And then the person thinks I didn't understand anyways and gives up talking to me. The way that learning a new language on a church mission is that you first learn church terminology, so I can understand things a lot better when it is dealing with the basic missionary lessons and church topics. My vocabulary, processing speed and general language skills progress every day.

This week one of my ward members had a baby shower/Gender Reveal party. It will be a boy. It was funny though because they did it inside and when the moment came there were these smoke flares that they lit. Within a minute or two the room was filled with smoke, so everyone had to leave until it cleared. Maybe they should hold it outside next time? ;)

We also had a super fun activity with our ward that included trivia questions (I only kind of understood the church ones), and then afterwards soccer for the kids and karaoke for adults. It turns out Brazilians love American and English music. There were also popsicles with flavors of fruit that I did not know.

This coming week my older brother Steve ends his mission. When I saw him in São Paulo a few weeks ago he gave me the tie that he wore when he first arrived in Brazil. In his honor I will wear it for the day he flies home :)

One of the cool things my companion Elder Paiava does-to help teach about Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation-is that he gets a blank piece of paper. He then folds it into a paper airplane. He talks about how we are like this airplane, flying through life. And then turbulence comes. It gets rougher and rougher *he shakes the airplane around*. And then boom. We do something wrong, or imperfections happen, and we crash. Not only does our airplane crash, but it breaks into pieces. *Elder Paiva then rips the airplane in half*. The airplane is now in a pile of 5-10 small pieces. There is no way this airplane can be put back together, right? It is destroyed. It won't fly again. But how do we move forward? *He picks up the biggest piece of paper. He unfolds it to reveal a cross*. The way we move on is Jesus Christ. He picks us up. He helps us move forward.

I testify to you all reading this that Jesus Christ Lives. He atoned for our sins. He has already felt our pains. He knows exactly what we are going through and what we have gone through, because he too has been through it. For us. His love for us is so great. We can't even comprehend it. And He, the Perfect One, invites us to come unto Him. To be like Him. I invite you all to seek and find Him.

I love you all! Eu Amo Vocês! <3

Elder D. Olson

Brasil Manaus Mission

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