February 20, 2017 Zone Conference on Valentine's Day

Dear Mom and Everyone, 

So, this week was super slow and nothing really happened, Monday last week was super annoying; we took our cloths to another missionary’s house to wash them in a washing machine that they have but it broke so we had to carry soaking wet cloths all the way to a laundry mat near our house and the probably weight about 50 lb. or more.

Tuesday, we had a zone conference so we had to be on a bus for 5 hours or so. The conference was good and we had bbq sandwiches and a good talk on obedience but when we got home my comp was sick so we spent the rest of the night in. Oh, and sis Madsen took a cool valentine’s day pic so keep an eye out for that on Facebook.

Wednesday was my comps birthday we got out and worked normally and were planning to fast after lunch, but we went to go give a lesson to a recent convert and they ended up throwing a party with churros and beans on bread. 

Nothing really happened until Saturday, in was late and we realized that we promised a member that we would make her really good food for Sunday. Frist, we said coconut shrimp but that was too expensive, so we ended up getting stuff to make amazing hot dogs pan-fried in oil and my barbeque seasoning with chipotle mayo avocado tomatoes and grilled onions, they were soo good.

The cooking is going okay, if you're going to send recipes just send simple ones that I can do on a stove. Comps good we have a good time together. the apartment is clean, I know my room wasn't but my apartment is. There are little stores very few feet but that’s all of Mexico, we shop in a place called Cheduari it's really nice and has a lot of American stuff like mountain dew. There is a place called Coppel that I need to look at for the camera but we didn't have time today. for the camera, it doesn't have to be super nice, I can take the pictures on the one I have and put the memory in the Wi-Fi camera to send. Best experience this week was at the conference. we were taking about the reason we are obedient and the last one said to do it because we love Christ, not for the fear consequences or the joy of blessed.

Well I love you all 

Elder Mitchell Olsen

February 13, 2017 A View to Die For

Dear Mom and everybody,

So this was a good week and the time is blazing, already half way through the change and Cook is probably heading out in 3 weeks, but life goes on. Oh and the other missionary in the hospital left after 3 days but he's fine now.

On tuesday we had divisions but the zone leaders live so far away that they just came to us and did trios with us and another companionship, but the other trio ended up in the hospital all day while we went out to our area. we started off giving service to an investigator we are digging out a pipe thats just full of dirt. and we walk around all day talking to people that the zl knew when he was here.

Wednesday was normal until we got home and made some really good fajitas 

Saturday We started the day off with a great lesson and just kept on having great lessons and promises to come to church.

Sunday but they were nothing more than promises nobody showed up to sacrament meeting. We did have a great meal though, a nopal (cactus) salad, beans, and thinly slided pork. we finish food and it's 6pm so we try to find a lesson but we get rejected all day and go home in vain.

Oh I forgot we found a really cool restauraunt on the side of hill looking out to the beach. The first time we go we just get a liquida (smoothieish thing) and today I got a shrimp and octopus cocktail that was super tasty. But next week we are trying to go to a place called gringo burger because nobody here knows how to make a burger and he hope they do.

How is your apartment now that you have been living there for a couple of weeks? How come you don't have hot water? Do you not have a water heater or is there a problem? We got to see pictures from Elder Cooks program.  I was able to pick him out.  That's fun that you all got to do that.  Are you making friends and getting help from the ward?  How many are in your ward? How many youth do you have? Do you have to teach or speak at church? Do you get to see the beach or are you by the beach?  You sent a picture home of a view at the top of a street looking down at the beach.  Is that from your apartment?  Do you go to the church to write or do you go to a cyber cafe? Is your area a cruise port? How is the weather? How is the cooking going?  Sorry I havent sent you any recipes yet.  I keep forgetting.  I will do that. give me some ideas of what you want.

The apartment is super good, I put a hammock in there that’s really nice to lay on when it’s really hot. We just don't get hot water, our water is in a giant container that gets pulled down by gravity directly to the sink and shower, We thought about putting tubes across the roof to have the sun warm it up but that is just a thought right now. The ward is a little closed off but there are a few cool members that we can get into lessons and stuff. Well with all of the less actives we would have 200 in the Elders quorum but only about 5 elders show up in total about 40 come consistently. So far no talks or anything. We see the beach everyday we live about a half mile from it and yea that pic is from our house. We go to a cyber cafe but we are trying to get keys to write in the church. No cruise port and the weather is super hot and humid. 

Yelp I love you all 

Elder Olsen

Service Project - a pipe full of dirt

 a friendly iguana

 A view to die for

 Living the dream

 Shrimp and Octopus Cocktail

 Where's the missionary tag.  This would have been a perfect picture as a "tag picture"

February 6, 2017 New Schedule and Hospital but not Me

Dear Mom and Everyone,

They area is really interesting and about 5 time bigger than my last area. It's made up of about 5 or 6 big nieghborhoods and for the furtherest one away we get on a bus for 30 mins or so. Right now we are working with a few people around the area but we have to plan really well to make sure we aren't walking so much or paying a lot to travel. The area is pretty tough just because it is so big and it's so hard to get people to sacrament, and every night I come home I just collapse on my bed and pass out. Oh and the food here is alright. The memebers make dinner for us or send us to a little comedor like a little lunch place and everybody makes the same thing. But I'm loving the area it's a lot of fun and my comp and I are just bouncing off of each other and I was reading my patriarchal blessing and I realized that I am fulfilling a huge part of it with both my comps.

Well we've got our new schedule that President chose. Heres how it goes: In the morning we get up at 7am and in any order from 7-10 we exercise, eat, bath, plan for the day, and study personally. Then from 10am-9:30pm again in any order we proselyte comp study for 30-60min, lunch for 60, language study 30 mins, and 30 mins of free time,(buy food, nap, study more) and 9.30- 10:30 prepare and go to bed.

It's super cool and shows how much trust the higher ups have for us.

Okay the exciting thing that happened this week. My comps district leader, so on sunday around 5:30pm he gets a call that an elder is going to the hospital, Cook is like what have you called sis madsen? their like no so they call her and she told them to go home and rest for a while. So they did that and we were calmed down and finished the day. Then when we are getting ready for bed We get another call that he got worse and they have permission to go to the hospital. So They go have this guy can't walk every time he does he throws up and he's in and out of consciousness. So we head for the clinic to see whats going on and to inform sis Madsen whats going on because she doesn't have very good spanish. So we hang out there until 2am seeing if he gets better and they decide to hospitalize him so we head home and they are still running tests on him. Were hoping he gets better and I think he will.

Well aside from that nothing too exiciting this week. I love you all

Elder Olsen

January 31, 2017 Zicatela - Puerto Escondido - Elder Cook

Here are the pictures from the second surprise email we received from Mitchell

then some of the photos of my house and area and my comp

we also ate at an interesting resturaunt with some other missionaries

January 31, 2017 Pictures of Last Week in La Joya

Mitchell was unable to send pictures the last couple of weeks and then we received 2 surprised emails with pictures.  Here are the pictures from the first email:

ok to start, the baptism we had last week

Then we had a skit with batman masks