Super busy week, Cuban dude, Games...

 Monday, May 20, 2024; Porte Velho, Rondonia, Brazil:

This week was super busy. That's a good thing and a bad thing. Lots to do and it kept us busy. 

Some of the days this week were super packed with lessons and visits. Because of distance and poor planning on our part (though gotta talk to those who are interested) we played a game of "can we beat the time Google maps says it takes to walk from one place to another." Sometimes we won, other times, we lost

Also, the people in this city decided to play some jokes on us and make sure that those interested in talking to us live as far apart from each other as possible

We had a member throw a joint birthday party for a friend combined with a welcome party for my companion and me. We got to meet a lot of people which was super awesome!

One of the biggest symbols of my current city (Porto Velho) as well as the state (Rondonia), is a tourist attraction, which also appears in artwork, on the flag, and in cultural things. They are called the 3 Maria's. They are three big water towers. Very simple. Not really too exciting. One day we were really close to them, so we passed by and took a few pictures. 

For one of our visits this week, we texted this older man and arranged a lesson with him. When we got to his street, we started searching for his house number. We passed a house that had a few guys hanging around the doorway, all tattooed and looking big. Obviously, I shouldn't judge others, but it's always good to be friendly and cautious right? Anyways, I took note of them. We waved and passed by, still looking. When we couldn't find it, we returned to those guys to talk with them, see if they knew who we were looking for. Turns out, they were part of his family, and that was his house. So, we ended up teaching them. The older man is Cuban, speaks Spanish and some English with a heavy accent. But not much Portuguese. The rest of the family are Venezuelans, who speak Spanish and some Portuguese. Very interesting lesson. 

During most of my life, I have had a temple within easy driving range, often 30mins plus traffic time. Then when I started at college, I was blessed to have two temples around 10 minutes away. I was able to go to the temple weekly. Some weeks, that was hard to fit in my schedule. Some weeks it felt like a small burden, when I had so many other things to do. When I arrived in Manaus, I found that the members mostly live within an hour of the temple there. Such a blessing. But see, Manaus is a big city. All of the people there have easy access to the temple. Then I arrived here in another city, another state, Rondonia. Here, of course they have normal chapels. But temples... the closest is in Manaus. It's not too far, you can get there by bus. But 24 hours in a bus doesn't sound like fun. That's 24 hours to get there, and 24 hours to return. I bet most of you who are reading this email live within an hour drive of a temple. Some of you, maybe even closer. With more access, we must go to the temple more often, not less. In the temple, we can receive a mountain of blessings. Blessings for ourselves, our families, both those living and those who have passed on. 

I want to invite you all to learn more about the temple, what temples mean. And I invite you all to visit them as often as you can. They are literally so beautiful, and so full of love, peace, and the Spirit of God.

I love y'all!

Elder David Olson

Missão Brasil Manaus

Pics-

-Me in front of the 3 Mary's (Maria's)

-The Rondonia Theatre

-Nice sunset

-Simple river had some large fish