Trio, coconuts and new area

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 Monday, March 19, 2024; Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil:

This week I was in a trio with two other missionaries for most of the week. Now I'm back living in a house with four of us missionaries.


During the trio[time], my two companions convinced me to go running. I'm tall, and one of them is a head shorter than me. What could go wrong? I found out that my shorter companion used to run track. I got super tired trying to keep up with them. I guess walking around all day everyday does count as good exercise.

The city of Manaus is so confusing because there are parts that seem undeveloped and are very un-city-like. And then there are buildings and roads that are very old and becoming covered in plants and trees. The clash of a city in the Amazon Forest, and the Amazon Forest in the city. 

My new area is up north in Manaus and feels a lot more city-like than my other areas, with bigger roads and more traffic. 

-Our chapel is a two-story building: that's always cool.
-This week it rained just about every day.
-We saw a wild crocodile in a forest area. 
-A crazy dude started following us around, asking for money, then buying us a cup of juice when we didn't. He tried to sell us his jacket and offered me his shirt for free. 
-Found a baby Lizard, along with a stick bug
-My house has two kittens who live next to our front door. They keep entering our house and trying to eat our trash.
-We picked wild coconuts and drank Coconut water.

This week I thought a little bit about perception. Sometimes, we have big dreams, desires, hopes, and wishes. We go through life wanting those things. Maybe we want to be like one of our heroes, or we want to become better at a specific skill.  

Many times, we feel we fail at these big Dreams. We feel we aren't worth anything if our progress on these goals doesn't appear. But often we just don't perceive our growth. Sometimes it's in the skills we desire, but other times it's not. 

This also applies to our testimonies. This week I was thinking about how I often don't realize how much my testimony is growing in the moment. But over time, I see the growth and know the strength of my testimony. 

I have often wanted to just have a strong testimony, but to build that it comes little by little. 

I invite each of you to watch that bank of faith, skills, knowledge and more that you have, that will always increase a little here and a little there. And to always seek more.

Love you all!

Elder Olson
🌴MANAUS🌴

PICS

-The view from my house before the rain
-My companion Elder Griffin and a stickbug or whatever name
-Coconut water 
-Old abandoned building
--The trio, Elder Griffin, Elder Arciga and me :)
-The baby lizard

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