I want cold weather ;)

 Monday, May 15, 2023; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil:

Hey all! Happy late Mother's day!

I had divisions or splits this week. Basically, I traded areas and companions with another set of missionaries for one full day. It was interesting to see another area, another missionary house/apartment and also gain more experience and see how another missionary works.

I had a little problem with allergies, just seasonal allergies this week. That wasn't the funnest because it happened on one of the days when we walked a ton. But I am feeling better now.

This week I saw my first parrot, along with several lizards the size of a normal pringles can, and some buzzards. All of them were too small or too far away to get good photos :(

This week was pretty hot (normal :(   ). I walked more than I have in past weeks. It got to the point that I could watch sweat dripping off my face and splattering on the ground.

We had a zoom district meeting with some other missionaries, and it was fun to interact with them and practice a few teaching skills. I like in-person meetings a lot more though :)

I don't think I mentioned it in the past, but people here drink a lot of water, a lot of juice. And a loooot of soda. While there are some normal fruit flavors-grape, orange- most people drink coca cola, or guaraná. If you don't know about guaraná, basically it's a fruit and everyone in Brazil and probably South América drinks It. The United States has a little but not much. There are lots of brands with guaraná and it's fun to compare them. That reminds me of Bishop Lovell holding taste-tests of different kinds of root beer for some youth activities in the past.

My companion and I have been teaching several families here. We are helping one couple officially get married and helping make plans for the wedding so that should be interesting. We also had a few new people in church this past week which was awesome, and along with that had some awesome lessons. 

My Portugese is coming along, I understand a lot of the time except when I don't :)

We receive referrals from church media websites that we use to contact people to teach. We also knock on doors and visit friends of members. Many people aren't interested, but that's ok. I still love giving messages to these people, because even if they aren't converted or want to know more, I want them to have stronger faith in Jesus Christ-which basically everyone here is Christian so that is very helpful. 

During my mission so far, I have thought a lot about faith, and how important it is to continually build our faith. Our faith in friends and family, our faith in God and Jesus Christ and in all other things. I was also thinking how faith has two parts. One is to continually grow our faith. We will always need more faith for everything. But the second is to hold on to the faith you have. In most situations if we don't hold on to the faith that we have, even if we learn and gain more faith, our faith will start to crumble. That is also why we must build our faith on the things that matters most and that are most important, like making our families or future families very important to us, or always having faith in Jesus Christ and what he did for us, what he continues to do for us. 

I invite you all to hold on to the faith you have and build more faith. And if you don't know where or how to start, God knows. You can always ask Him to help you. I know I ask Him for help daily with faith and strength for all things.

Anyways, hope y'all have an awesome faith-filled week!

Elder Olson

Manaus Brazil Mission

Pics-I didn't get many this week. My goal this coming week is one a day, but I forget 

-We walked down a hill that was so steep the sidewalk had stairs part of the way

-Elder Dornelles and Mateus and me

-District meeting, but we moved too much during the photo :(