This week was definitely a service week. We came to the church every day this to help make tamales for a youth fundraiser for the youth in our ward. We made over 1,000 tamales and it was so fun!! We got to cut all the vegetable and shred the chicken and make the tamales. Fun music was playing and everyone was just having such a fun time. Everyone was dancing and singing. Ugh i love it! They had these HUGE pots that they made the sauce and oh my goodness. I’ve never seen a pot that big. It was so fun and now all my clothes smell like tamales.

The weather has been so nice this week, like in the 80s and so Hermana Erickson and I have been going to the park to study as much as we can! We were sitting and studying and we saw all these latinos playing baseball. We went up and started talking to them and they were all from Nicaragua. It was so fun to talk to them and we got to share who we were and what we do. There were two girls there and they just kept asking to take pictures with us haha. They asked us to take like 10 pictures with them. We ended up getting their numbers and they invited us to go to their house for lunch the next day to have a traditional Nicaraguan meal!

We went to her house the next day and she was dressed up in the cutest little floral dresse. We met her little sister and more of her family kept coming out as we were there. It was so fun to talk to them. They were so confused why we were there haha. They were all so so sweet oh my goodness! The meal was AMAZING!! So so good!! We had rice and this salsa salad and meat and tortillas to put it all on. That’s a pretty popular meal that we eat here but this one just hit different. It was so good! 

Hermana Erickson and I have been looking everywhere for a pickleball court that is close to our house so we can play every morning and we finally found one!! It’s 10 minutes away and worth it! The courts are so nice and we play 1v1 with our little Walmart paddles. It’s fun and the mornings haven’t been so freezing so it’s perfect! 

Hermana Erikson and I were at another park studying one day and as we were walking back to our car we saw like 6 cops cars driving all around our area. We were curious so we kinda started walking around which isn’t the smartest BUT it lead to such a cool experience! We started walking down this sidewalk in this neighborhand and there was this guy standing by his fence talking on the phone. We started to walk by and he asked us what does that say on your name tags? We told him that we are missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints and he got so happy! He told us that he could see us glowing as we were walking down the sidewalk and that he just saw the light coming from us. His name is Mario and he was so nice. He told us that he has a book of mormon and that he loves to read it. He started talking about his love for God and that he loves sharing it with other people! He just kept saying that we are here on the Earth to love everyone and feel joy and we were like yes!!! He was so amazing!! He told us he talked with missionaries a long time ago and that he got baptized into the church in 2005 but he hasn’t gone in years. We were like we have to get his number and have him start talking with the missionaries again! He was just so amazing and it was seriously a miracle that we ran into him. God really does place people in your path and I am so grateful!

I got asked to speak this Sunday in church! I got asked to speak on my favorite conference talk from general conference and I chose the talk Remember What Matters Most by President M. Russell Ballard. I love this talk so so much! It talks about the things that matter most and that is our relationship with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the relationship with our families. It also talks about how we need to testify of what we believe and what we know. I love that. It was so fun writing it in spanish. I would do as much as I could in spanish and then I would have to look up a few things. I thought I would be more nervous but I was just so excited!! It went so good and I was just happy to introduce myself more to the members and have them get to know me a little more! 

I absolutely love being a missionary and I am just so grateful for all of the amazing experiences I get to have and all the people I have met!! 

I love all of you so much and you are always in my prayers!! 

Favorite scripture this week: 

2 Nephi 9:52

52 Behold, my beloved brethren, remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day, and give thanks unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts rejoice.

Hermana Olsen 🙂