Nov 14, 2016 Settling into La Joya

Hello Mom and everyone,

So, this week was interesting. It turns out we have a bed bug problem. After a bad night, I look like I have chickenpox. They are super itchy and annoying and everyone asks about it when they see my arms. "que paso a tus brasos" "oh chinchas". we are working on it though. last night we slept with the lights on and that seemed to work until we get it taken care of.

But usually we eat lunch with a member around 2 and if we are hungry at the end of the night we get tacos or something. So are P day has been different both times now. Last week we focused on cleaning and stuff but today we went to a mall to look for a keyboard and look around. My comp also wanted an action figure to display. So, the first week we had a lot of mole and chicken because that´s the celebration dish. I´ve had taquitos once and milanesa a few times. We eat it at members houses like back home except they don´t usually eat with us. My stomach has been fairly solid there was only one time when the bishop gave us fish I got a little sick but other than that all is good. And so far, the food is pretty boring. The best thing I’ve had is tacos with al pastor. Look it up it´s really good. We are getting along well unless trump gets brought up. He just bashes bashes and bashes him and it got really annoying so I talked with him that he needed to stop. Every time someone asks me about him I just say, quien, no conozco just because everybody hates him here. He´s a decent trainer. I think we use English too much with each other but we are working on it. It´s just hard because I learned a lot of leadership skill at work. He used to just teach the whole thing and let me testify (which I couldn´t do very well because I wasn´t that involved) but now I´ve asked him to include me more so now I have been teaching. He was the kind of kid that grew up in the church without a testimony and gained it here on the mission. and he´s only been in La Joya (our area and ward) for about 6 week or one change so he knows some but is unfamiliar with a lot of it. My speakers work fine. I usually use the MP3 because I was able to change it more to my liking. My comp has a speaker that plays off of a USB so I’ll look for a cheap one of those. My face is really just the same. There´s a lot of dirt in the air in Arizona and it´s the same here. sorry for the shorter letter but I am running out of time. Our Investigators our great, we are having a baptism this Saturday and we just got another fecha with a stubborn investigator. Oh, and yesterday we had to go us this huge hill to give an hermana a blessing. It was a long walk but it had a great view. Oh, and I´ve been a part of like 5 or 6 blessing now and gave one to an hermana misionera in broken Spanish. Well I hope everything is well Love you all

Elder Mitchell Olsen

 With his Zone Leader doing Divisions

 Enjoying Al Pastor

La Joya, Oaxaca, Mexico 

 The hill he climbed to go give a lady a blessing

 The view of La Joya

A very large, ugly spider

Nov. 7, 2016 First Week in Oaxaca-La Joya Elder Chacon

Okay so much happened this we and I forgot my journal so I will probably forget a lot but here goes

Things are going really well. My comp keeps noticing how I don´t really have any shell shock. That´s because this place is exactly like if California street was a big city. It amazes me how comfortable I am here, even with everyone speaking Spanish. I do My best and can most time get my thoughts out but don´t understand much. Right now, I basically only share my testimony while my comp does most of the heavy lifting. It´s such a blessing he speaks English. My comp is great, he´s a real nerd loves comics video games and movies. our apartment is really small it has a 10x20 living room/ kitchen two 7x10 rooms ones our closet/ drying room the other is our bedroom. Then a toilet shower room It´s really weird but very common here. And I have a good computer today so there will be pictures. E Chacon lost all his photos last week on the computer right next to mine. There are signs when a computer is infected and this one Is good. We do have running water but we have to fill up a reservoir for a well thing. It’s not hard we just have to turn on a pump and open two valves and wait 15 mins. Haha Kitchen that’s a good joke. It´s a fridge with a sink and an electric stove on a picnic table. I´m going to try but I don´t think I´m making much here. And we are only there for breakfast. We are in a suburb it´s called pueblo Nuevo It´s about an hour away from the central. We shop at this, I believe a Walmart branch called bodega. Sunday was cool though. We had 4 investigators there and everyone bore short and sweet testimonies and of course I did as well. We walk everywhere unless its super far then we take a bus or moto. I forgot to get a pic of one but it’s like a motor tricycle with a 3 seater in the back. Ok so we have 2 people almost ready for baptism and 4 dates for baptism. two of them I was able to ask if they wanted to. He said if it´s revelation that he gets baptized January 7 then he will. That´s super specific so we are praying for him and his wife a lot. Here they need all the teachings and to go to church 5 time to qualify for baptism. My Spanish is better than most people starting out but I know I have a lot to go. The elders quorum president and now also the 1st counselor in the bishopric doesn´t like gringos (I´m guessing cause of his mission) so he picked on me a little during priesthood. I don´t shine my shoes everyday but I do wash them which usually makes them look just as good as a shining and I shine them every other or every 3 days. One day my comp, who is district leader had leader training and I went with two Latino’s. That was really interesting but we got along well. I tried contacting with them but fell short most times because of the language which is fine. I think that’s it. Oh, there’s an hermana here that is exactly like aunt shelly.  But she looks and acts exactly like a brown shelly. It’s almost funny. Welp I love you all good luck with everything. 

PS I want to learn the piano here so for my birthday I may buy a keyboard(about 100$) so you don´t have to worry about sending me something then. if you don´t want to.

 Saying Good bye to his Companion

 A bird in a tree

 Last Day at the CCM

 Where they all are going  Mitchell was the only one going to Oaxaca

 The Bus ride to the Mission Home

 Breakfast at the Mission Home

 The Mission Home or Office?

The Mission Office 

 Elder Chacon and Elder Olsen

 On his way to his Apartment.  It's about and hour from the City Center

 Dinner

 Welcom Home

 Water Heaters

 Let the adventure begin in Oaxaca

 Wow that's going to stink when it rains.  That is his front door.

 The streets of Pueblo Nuevo his area

Futbol (Soccer) Field

 The streets of Oaxaca

 Very humbling

 Doing his laundry

 His desk.  All of the things we sent him with

The Kitchen 

 Humble accomodations

 The Closet

 He got the top bed

The Bathroom sink 

 Milk, eggs, juice, syrup, jam, yogurt, Valentia

 The Kitchen Sink

 His stove on a picnic table.  I love the iron on the floor

 Study Time.  Look at Mitchell's table compared to his companion's

Shower toilet 

His Closet is a 7x10 bedroom

I Have Arrived Safely, Oct 31, 2016

Well, Elder Olsen had to get up at 2 am on the 31st to travel to Oaxaca.  His flight was at 6:55 am on Aeromexico.  I woke up in a startle at 5:30 which is 6:30 in Oaxaca.  So I looked up his flight information, and I actually tracked his flight.  I forgot about it for a little while and then I looked again and saw that the flight had arrived.  I assumed he made it to Oaxaca and all was well.

And then a few hours we received a quick email saying he had arrived in Oaxaca

I made it to Oaxaca safely. The flight was short and we have just been hanging around the mission office all day. I am serving in La Joya and my comp is a Venezuelan that speaks English. His name is Elder Chacon. Oaxaca is a lot of fields with like city hubs. I can’t be on too long. So, I love you all.

Then a little while later we were at our daughter's house celebrating Halloween and we received a quick email/text saying he had made it and he wanted to know if I could send him some recipes.  The funny thing was that we worked on putting a simple cookbook together but we never finished it.  Now he sees the importance of it.  I asked him which ones he wanted and he rattled off a few of his favorites.  Then we received this quick email:

Dear mom and everyone,

Things are interesting in Oaxaca. It´s exactly like I expected though. Very dirty with run down building. 

My apartment it really tiny and it’s just us to in it. Elder Chacon is really cool. He speaks English and likes all the nerdy things. 

The plane ride was fine but I was and still am so exhausted from waking up at 2am. when we got off we were met by the President and his wife and 2 AP’s.  they took a lot of pictures. I did my best with the sign but I had limited resources. After that we piled into a van and drove to the president’s house. this was around 9am so he fed up french toast sausage hash browns and a half peach with like yogurt on top. We walked over to the office took more photos and then he let us nap for about 2 hours. it didn´t help much. after that we had a few logistical things. Then we had a really good lunch of soup ribs pasta and potatoes it was really good. After that we finished with the paperwork stuff and did interviews. My president is super cool. After that we met our trainers mine is DL then he taxied over to our appt. I forgot my camera so I’ll send pics next week. Love, you all

Elder Mitchell Olsen

It's such a relief knowing that he has made it to his mission, he is in good hands of his wonderful Mission President and now it is all up to Mitchell and the Lord  what he makes of his mission.  I know that he is going to be a great missionary and I am really ready to begin this journey.  It's real now!