Prediction went wrong😖

- September 12, 2023

Monday, September 11, 2023; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil:

Opa tudo bem? Como vocês está? How are all of you???

I spent three days with my old companion and HIS NEW companion. Then my new companion arrived.

His name is Elder Cruz. He is from Texas but has family/roots from Mexico. He's 21 and has 21 months (1year9months) on the mission. Last few months for him. He's super easy to talk to and bond with (especially because he's from the U.S. as well!). We do speak way too much English in the house and around. But we also try to speak a decent amount of Portuguese.

Elder Cruz has super good Portuguese. He spoke Spanish before the mission but says he can't remember most of it because he speaks Portuguese so much now.

It was cool during one of our lessons this week to watch him think for a few seconds several times to remember words that I haven't even tried putting in my word bank, but that he just pulled out of thin air. He knows a lot more than I do currently. I guess 14 months helps you learn better Portuguese.

This week we had a District P-day. My new District has 6 Elders and 2 Sisters. We didn't take any photos, but we went and got lunch, and then shared stories and threw a frisbee for a little while.

Today my companion made a prediction. As we were cleaning our house, he told me our house would be selected to "show and tell" that we had cleaned for the mission. A dupla of missionaries is randomly selected each week to show their house. Sometimes they pick a dupla of Elders and one of Sisters. When it came time pick the Elders... it wasn't us. Woohoo. Then... they decided to pick us to show second. We had cleaned so it was fine. But we will get a pizza out of it. And pizza is a little expensive here. I like to think a pizza here is like spending $30-50 on one in the USA.

After our Mission Zoom call, we went to a lesson with someone. It was an ok lesson. But it started raining. So... we walked home. And got a little, just a tad bit little wet. The photo may not do us justice. We were soaked through and through. But it makes for a good story.

That's about it. Manaus is kind of hot right now. Have yet to get sick-sick. Living and learning right.

During my mission I bought two different Portuguese pocket hymnbooks and colored the inside covers. One of those covers has my favorite phrase on it. I used to have a shirt with the phrase.

DO GOOD. LOVE IS WHY.

That can be applied to many things. But it never hurts to do good. To be nice, to follow God. Everything breaks down to love. Faith in Christ is what makes everything happen. And God, our Heavenly Father, along with Christ did everything for us because of love. Love is underrated. It's so important. Love family. Love neighbors. Love God.

My invitation to ALL of YOU is remember and follow this phrase!

DO GOOD. LOVE IS WHY.

Elder Olson

MANAUS

PHOTOS-