June, Transfers, Which mission??

 Monday, June 17, 2024; Porte Velho, Rondonia:

This week started off pretty slow. I guess it started getting hot and dry enough that I started having allergy problems. We mostly stayed in house for a few days.

Then on Saturday my ward here had its June festival, which amounts to a party combining Fall, Thanksgiving, and Halloween themes. Lots of food, a live band... and more.

To get ready for the above-mentioned festival Elder Pohm and I helped put up some of the decorations. The festival went well, had a lot of people, food, dancing, etc. 

One day we had a full mission zoom call scheduled for 10 a.m. As we were getting ready, at 9:45 our Stake President [a local church leader over several congregations]-who we don't even know-called us up, asking where we were. He mentioned an interview... we were a little confused. Soooo..... let's go back a few weeks. One of the members in our ward talked to a news reporter about interviewing us. That reporter later talked to us. We had him contact our Mission President to get permission. Long story short, no one told us when this interview would be. We ended up being an hour late. But it worked out. I have no idea how big of news station it was. Nor have I been able to go and watch it. But yes. I am famous! (Just kidding). 

I found out what my last transfer will be in the Manaus Brazil Mission before it splits. I will be leaving Porto Velho, as well as the state of Rondonia. I am off to the city of Rio Branco, Acre. Land of the Terere. I am a little sad that I won't be able to stay longer here in Porto Velho/Rondonia, but maybe I will return sometime.

Based on my soon-to-be new area, I will be a part of the Brazil Manaus South Mission! That means I will be getting a new Mission President [next week]. That's a 3rd [Mission President for me] if you are counting. It's pretty normal to have 2 mission presidents in the same mission, but to have 3 during the same [24-month] mission is much less common. I am excited. I think it will be interesting to have an American Mission President, as I'm in Brazil. 

The old mission had 4 states here in Brazil, my new one will cover 2.5 states [i.e.. Acre, Rondonia, and part of Amazonas].

So, this week I had a lot of thoughts. Some of them were putting myself down for lack of work, or other things some of which were not in my control but that held me back from working my hardest recently. But I was thinking about how God is. 

I read a scripture this week, which is in 1st Nephi, chapter 10 verse 19 [in the Book of Mormon]:

       •"For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round."

(https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/10?lang=eng)

This scripture explains that we can know the mysteries of God. But I saw also that reguardless of whether we see the mysteries or understand them, they are still there. God will always work miracles. He will always work mysteries. He doesn't change, and he has done numerous miracles and mysteries throughout all of time. 

But I was thinking more on this. God works his miracles and mysteries through imperfect people. I was thinking about how I could have done better in various circumstances. I could have said different things on the interview we did, I could have encouraged Elder Pohm and myself to vist different people at several times that didn't seem to bring many results. But often God works through us in ways that we don't realize. Maybe our role isn't what we think it is, to change and improve everything. But it's the small things.

Here's an example: We had wanted to visit this one Lady and her son. We passed by at a bad time, and neither were home. The husband was working near the house but isn't too interested in talking to us and he was working. The next day at church the woman expressed her sorrow that she hadn't been home when we passed by, but expressed gratitude that we had passed, speaking [to her husband of which he told] her. It would have been awesome if she had been home when we went there, but maybe we were needed at one of other visits later that day that worked out because of our extra time.

God knows each one of us. He is pulling the ropes so we can choose and still be blessings to the rest of us.

My invitation to each of you is, don't let the results get you down! Just do your best and trust that God will work through and with you!

Amo vocês! Espero que vocês têm uma semana boa!

Elder David Olson 

Missão Brasil Manaus Sul

Fé, Obras e Poder

Pics-

-Our Bishop with his son at the June festival 

-News flyer

-Elder Pohm and I

-Setting up for the Festival