February 19, 2013 Langue-Hammock

So one of Spencer's friend, Darin Kerr is serving in Boise, ID and will be coming home in June.  His brother, Taylor, who is Connor's (Spencer's Brother) Friend opened his call the other day, and he is going to Guatemala, Guatemala City South June 12th.  Spencer asked his Mission President if he could Skype us when Connor opens his call (which should be in the next month or so).  We told Spencer of the call and that Darin didn't ask his Mission President if he could call when Taylor opened his call.  Leave it to Spencer to not be afraid to ask if he could call when his brother opens his call.

Hey mom and everyone,

Q calidad para Taylor. That’s how you say that’s cool for Taylor in Guatemalan. That kid will fit in out there, dark skin shots with spiked hair haha. The kid is going to turn into a japine (chapine) haha. Man I can’t believe that Darin didn’t ask permission. Man my pres didn’t even think twice when I asked he just told me to do it haha. But that’s cool. I believe that he will have the Honduran border in his mission, I'm not sure. But man Guatemalan can get pretty chilly in some places. It can get down to like 30 to 25 degrees. Just cuz its Central America doesn’t mean it’s always warn haha. 

Man this week was another weird week haha. So on Monday we get a text that we had to be in Tegus for a trainer and trainee meeting with pres on Wednesday. So that meant we had to go in to San Lorenzo again to stay and wait for the bus again and when we came back on Wednesday it was cheaper for us to stay there again so we lost another 3 days of work. But the conference that we had with Pres was really good. Those conferences always make you want to be a better missionary haha. I got to see a few of my friends as well haha. So it was a good time. I did have to sleep in my hammock those two nights. Man did that just destroy my neck haha. 

Man we really aren’t having much success right now. We are still working with Miguel Gallardo and it’s been really hard to keep appointments with him just cuz he the principal of a big public school in San Lorenzo and teaches classes in the university out there too. But he still looks really motivated we are really trying hard with him. He is a very intelligent man but some times that works against us but we are working hard to make sure he gets to be a member. We are still working with the family Nunez. It’s basically just the mom of the family her name is Miriam. She is a great women if they are making dinner when we get there she always has a little for us. Right now is to get here to go to church and get her married but her husband doesn’t want to so we will see what happens. But I really want to see that them both get baptized they would be great members. 

That’s been the really big thing this last week. We are going to the temple next Monday. Ill send you pics next week cuz the computer I'm using is really slow at uploading them. Talk to you guys next week. It will be on Tuesday again. 

Elder Spencer Olsen 

Ok, Spencer wasn't able to write on Monday because there was no electricity on Monday, so he wrote on Tuesday.  On tues. morning, I received an email through my text on my phone.  I was at school so we were emailing a little bit back and forth.  I was sitting at carpet time with my 20 preschoolers telling them about my son that lives in Honduras and showed them a couple of pictures of how he gets water and his washing machine.  I took a picture of my class and sent it to Spencer and asked him to send me one that I could show the class.  This is the picture he sent.

I can't wait for this coming weeks email.  He gets to go to the Honduras Temple Open House with his branch and there should be lots of pictures

Feb 12, 2013

So we usually get Spencer's email around 3-4 pm Monday afternoon.  I read a quick email from him around 3:30 and he said he would have to write on Tuesday because the power was just about to turn off.  The exciting news in our family is that our married daughter, Lauren and Dennis, is pregnant and she wrote to Spencer to tell him.  He was really excited.  He said in his quick email that he couldn't believe that she is prego and he was so excited.  So as you scroll through this post, you will see that he bought a new camera.  So there are lots of fun pictures.  Phylip and Kelsy are friends from our Ward, and Connor is our 2nd son who is working on getting his papers ready to submit to serve a mission.  We are getting excited to have two son's on missions.  

Hey mom and everyone,

Sounds like you just have my life planned out for me when I get home haha. Man and what about the stuff I would like to do haha. So it sounds like I'm going to have a nice new car when I get home haha. Something else I have been thinking about when I get home is a car and I think I want to get a small car like a Honda civic or a Toyota corolla. And good call in what you need to be worried about I’m more worried about getting assaulted then getting sick out here haha. Man and that sucks for Phylip. Send him my condolences haha. That’s way exciting for Kelsy and all the guys from the Ward. Now Connor just has to get his stuff in order and we’llll be in business. 

I can’t believe that my Sis is pregos!!! Ya voy a ser tio Spencer. I’m so ecstatic. You should have seen yesterday when I saw the email haha. I almost jumped out of my seat and was speaking very loudly in English. The people looked at me really weird, because that didn’t understand what I was saying haha. 

Man this last week was a big joke haha. We couldn’t work for like 3 days just so I could go get my camera haha. So I go the camera and man I dropped so much money on that thing haha. With an 8gig SD card and the camera it cost me all 7000 limpers that is the same as 350 buck hahaha. But man this thing is tight haha. It’s touch screen. I can send pics through wifi when I can get a hold of it and all the kind of stuff. And it takes such clear photos. 

So new subject haha. And also on top of not being able too much because we have not had energy in Langue for 2 nights straight. It goes out at like 4 or 5 and it doesn’t come back till like 10 at night. It’s horrible. So we have just basically had to chill like all night. We haven't been able to do anything. Man Honduras sucks sometimes. Wait till you guys come down here and you will see how I really. Live you have no idea. We don’t have clean running water. We don’t even get running water everyday during the week. 

Man I can’t believe how much life is changing without me. I just need you guys to pause for 8 months more so I can be at least a little up to date haha. I love you guys so much I’m doing great. 

Elder Spencer Olsen 

  Man I'm looking so good these days

This is the grandson of mirian nunez the family we are teaching haha big what big eyes he has haha

 This is how i fill up the laundray machine with well water we have to pull out of a 12 foot deep well 

 And this is the machine that i use to wash my cloths

  I would like you to meet my comp Elder Gillagin haha

 This is the branch pres they just took out. Hims name is Jorge Yanez 

 This is our primary presidency the one in blue is the president her name is diana way cool she is only like a year older then i am haha

 Look I'm home haha 

  This is my land lady. She is the Honduran Beautiful Judy haha

  Here I am with Elder Tarver waiting for breakfast baleadas

  just a little more of honduras

 Here is the Honduras i look at everyday haha 

Me with my MTC comp the day i got my camera

February 4, 2013 The Double Dragon

Hey mom and everyone,

So just an FYI, Elder Tarver is my best friend in the mission. And Nacaome is the area that is next to mine. So we generally meet up to do things together every now and again. 

Man with the whole package thing I had a few things in mind. If the Bigmane hat is still there as well I would like that. And if you send me anymore shirts make them large. The xls are too big haha. And white shirts the 16 1/2. 

Man this week... it was awful haha. So on Monday it started off normal. We went to Nacaome to buy some stuff and eat lunch. I had a hamburger that wasn’t that good. But so the big thing here is that not everyone cleans cabbage very well. So one of the young women in my branch was selling something called tajadas, the j makes the h sound. And they put cabbage on it. That was the only thing that my comp didn’t eat that I ate. So Monday went normal. Tuesday kind of but in the night time I really started to feel funny. I woke up the next day and man I felt like crap. My stomach was all bloated and I had diarrhea. But we had a very important cita at 11 in the morning. The family that we are teaching right now, the family Nunez, invited us to eat lunch. So we get there and she had made fish and rice and beans. Man I had to force that crap down. I only ate like half of it. And she told me she felt bad. But she understood. So what she did is she made me an oregano tea with alka seltzer. Man that was the worst thing that has ever entered my body haha. But I got it all down. The radiated lemonade when I had with my appendicitis would have been better than that haha. 

SO we had one more cita that was kind of far away. So we went out there just to see if I could handle it. Man I wanted to kill myself the whole way out there and back haha. So I told my comp that I had to go in haha. 

So I tried to sleep for the afternoon away. That didn’t work that well haha. I just felt so bad. I felt like I had eaten like 3 thanksgiving dinners haha. So I just tried to keep my mind off of it. Couldn’t do that either, so I ended up calling the mission nurse again. She had me take a few pills and other stuff, and the next day she sent me pepto. Then later that night I started to itch all over the place. And I have had a rash on my shoulders for the last like 8 months or so. So I called the mission nurse back and she told me that I was just going for a homerun haha. She is a really funny lady named Sister Smart. And she told me to put on this lotion than she had sent us a little while back haha. So that helped.

And then later that night we tried to go to another cita. We started walking there and we were like 2 blocks away and I told my comp that I wasn’t going to make so we went back to the house and I had what is called double dragon haha. I hope you can imagine that haha. But the next day we went to San Lorenzo for district meeting and I felt fine and I finally could eat because I couldn’t eat anything for like 2 days. 

Man I just feel like everything sometimes is falling out from under me. But I’m really trying. Man this is really getting hard for me. I really want out of Langue haha. Only 6 weeks more. But man it will be crazy to go home. All the things that will become real, school, work, car, phone, and everything in-between. But I’m going to make it through. 

I love you guys. Don’t worry I’ll be fine. I just need a little pick me up so hurry up with that package haha. And I think the camera will help too haha

Elder Spencer Olsen 

January 28, 2013

Hey mom and everyone. 

So the whole Elder Anderson thing is this about 2 weeks ago I asked for new tags but I got them with Elder Anderson haha. I got one for grandpa also I'm getting that as a souvenir for him haha. There hasn’t been an Elder Anderson in the family since Uncle Brett so I figured I would put the other side of the family to work haha. 

Study wise you guys know how I am for reading. That really hasn’t changed much haha. But I try to stay focused. I just started the B of M again going on my second time right now. With my Jesus the Christ I keep starting it and I only get to like the 5th chapter haha. But I did finish our Search for Happiness that is an awesome book. I loved it. The PMG they gave us is in Spanish but the words I don’t understand are very few and I can generally figure out what it means for context clues. But in all honesty my Spanish is top notch. The mistakes I make are few. There are a lot of missionaries that get to the end of their mission and don’t have as good of Spanish as I do. That, I am dead serious about. I'm very proud of how my Spanish is.  A lot of people confuse me for a native speaker. Or think I’m half Latin or I have spoken Spanish my whole life. Sorry for being so proud but I have worked hard to have the Spanish that I have, and I thank the Lord for how much He has helped me. In my patriarchal blessing says that I will be fluent in tongue. And I really do feel that that has come to reality. Oh and about the other books. Don’t worry about them. Ill read them when I get home. The family of 11 in starting to diminish I think that we will at least baptize the parents of the family. There is one kid in the family that goes to another church where the parents told the member that goes with us that he is trying to confuse us haha. The kid doesn’t know anything haha. He was looking for a scripture to try to prove the BofM couldn’t be true. It took him seriously like 20 minutes to find. And the scriptures actually helped our cause haha. It was funny. It doesn’t help that he dropped out at like 13 years old and is only 19 right now haha. Pastors can’t even put up with me haha. But with the 2 parents we should get the younger kids of the family. But their date is for the 26th cuz we have to get them married. But that shouldn’t be a problem. The big majority of the people here in the south is that people who aren’t members don’t get what a temple is. The majority of the people think that a temple is where you go to for meetings on Sundays and through the week like a chapel. So we have to explain that a lot. I imagine that in Tegus they realize a little bit more. But on the 25th we are going to go to the open house with the members and hopefully with a bunch of investigators so that they can get to know the temple and everything. I'm so excited. 

So I got some great news with this week. So we had interviews this week and I asked Pres. if I could call home for when Connor opens his call and he gave me the ok haha. I’m so excited. Ill probably do over Skype again. But I got the ok so you guys need to let me know when he puts his papers in so I can be ready and everything to call you guys. Also I’m going to need the money before changes. He also gave me permission to go to Tegus for changes to go buy my camera so before Feb. 4th. 

Man you wouldn’t believe my week. So it started off normal and then hit Thursday. So it started off that we had interviews on Friday and we would have had to have gone to San Lorenzo 2 times in the week. That is 70 limps in bus fairs each day. So to save money, the week before I asked the ZL's if I could stay with the elders in Centro Elder Edwards from AZ and his comp. They told me it was ok. So we have to wake up at 530 on Thursday to make it on time to district meeting. So the night before we got everything ready for the inspection and all the things we would need. So in the morning I called the ZL’s to ask see if I could take the phone with us. We don’t have a cell phone haha. Ill send you a pic when I get my camera. And they tell me that I can’t. Even though when they had said I could. And the Saturday before they made us go to San Lorenzo to drop off Bapt. clothes. So being the same me I got mad and hung up on them. They tried to call back while we had to unpack to catch the bus and the phone shut off so it looked like I had hung up on them. So we had to use 140 limps in bus fair cuz the ZL’s goofed us up. And then on Saturday and Sunday literally all of our citas fell on us and then when we were knocking doors for like 3 hours each day and nobody would let us in. Those days literally kill you. 

But I think these weeks will be good. Everything is starting to work out. I’m doing great just getting home sick haha. But I’m going to make it only 8 months left. Can you believe that only 8 months left? That is not an eternity anymore haha. 

Love you all 

Elder Spencer Olsen 

January 21, 2013

Hey mom and everyone. 

So this is the way I look at it. Have you seen, “On the Lords Errand,” the movie about the Prophet? Well his family doesn’t call him Pres. Monson they call him Tommy so I figure it’s ok to call me Spencer, and better that way ha-ha. 

Man what can I tell that is new. Not a whole lot changes. Its mainly just knocking doors all day long cuz the big majority of the members don’t know how to give references ha-ha. For pday, it kind of sucks for where we are. If we want to go play with the zone we have to pay 35 limps to go to San Lorenzo and that is a lot of money for us. And that’s just to go there that’s not even counting coming back, plus paying for food and internet today. So today we didn’t go. We just went to Nacaome. It’s a little bit closer and we don’t have a grocery store here so that’s the closest one to us. I also got a bunch of Christmas letters this week and Sis Lyons gave me ten bucks so I went to a bank to go change it out. We bought some food went and had Chinese fried rice and chop suey and came back to write here in Langue. 

Here in the south there is only one indoor actual bball court and it’s in Choluteca and that is about 2 hours from where I live and is out side of the zone so we can’t go there. Lame. And you know me and that stupid toilet. That hasn’t change in my mission I still hate doing that ha-ha. We do play a lot of soccer. I have gotten ok. But you know I don’t like wasting myself in the heat for something I’m not a huge fan of. I love playing bball so much. I can’t wait to get home to play that all the freaking time. 

So the whole thing about ward missionaries... if they existed that would be nice haha. I haven’t had a single area that has had ward missionaries. We literally have to do everything haha. Not sure yet. This has kind been an expensive month for me and I only have 35 bucks till the 1st so I’m going to have to pull out some money this week on Thursday haha. But when ever you can put it in that would be fabulous. Hopefully by the beginning of Feb. I should be able to go get it. 

Here in Langue there are a few places to go hike. And where you go to you can see an island called Amapala and El Salvador and obviously the ocean but really far away. But other then that, we don’t do much. On Wednesday we went to go hunt gyrobos and we had to hike quite a bit but we didn’t get anything. But it was fun we are going to go back out one of these days to try to catch something. 

But you know it’s the same old. I did have to finally talk to my comp about being more relaxed in the things we do. We had just a normal day for missionary work. it was a little bit of a tough day and when we got home and prayed to start nightly planning my comp called our day a big waste. Man I got on my soap box. I have unfortunately inherited that from my father... but I got a little upset with him that the day we had had wasn’t a waste that things happen. He hasn’t realized that I gave an unemployed member a work reference that it is like a for sure job. So he is starting to chill out a little bit haha. 

Well I love you guys hope everything is good. Sounds like you loved your get away haha. 

Elder Spencer Olsen 

January 14, 2012 It's Hot

I hope everyone enjoys his email.  Sounds like he's getting a little homesick.  I will explain his last comment in the next email.....

Hey mom and everyone 

Man my weeks are really starting to go by really, really slowly. My comp thinks that if we aren’t knocking on doors or opening the mouth with people, we are just the most disobedient people in the mission. Like on Sunday we had to wait for some members to leave to go to a meeting far away so we didn’t end up leaving the chapel until like 1 in the afternoon. So we get home to eat lunch and I wanted to rest just a little but of time. Like 20 30 minutes to let the food pass through my system. And the moment I laid down in one of the hammocks they have hanging up he tells me we have to go and that we are wasting time. Oh man did that just kill me. I was so tired. That is one thing that I will never be able to get rid of is that Sundays in the afternoon I’m just soooooo tired that I don’t want to do anything.

Nothing too big is going on around out here. It’s just really, really hot haha. Man I hate the cold I'm so glad I’m not in AZ right now I want it to be hot when I get home so we can go out on the boat. We did get a reference the other day from our mission leader. It is a family that lives in front of him. They are a family of 11 in one house. But that’s with kids and grandkids and families of the kids. We will see what happens with them we just started teaching them this week. Tonight we have a cita with then and we will be eating fried shrimp with them for free. Yes be jealous. But that is the big thing.

I don’t know if I told you but we are teaching a big wig teacher here in langue. So we went to go talk to him on Thursday with our land lady who was also a big wig teacher here. Back ground info.... teachers in place like where I’m at in little cities with a lot of villages around them are the people with all the money. The few people with cars are the store owners and teachers. So we went with her to invite him to the open house and all that. And the way that our land lady is she likes to talk a lot. So we didn’t get a whole lot done but we did challenge him to baptism with a date for Feb. 2 so that was really big. 

But ya know just the same old same old. Oh for the YM/YW they still stick with the old school books. This year is D&C. because not everyone has a computer out here. Umm not sure on the whole camera thing but ill ask about it but the soon the better. At the beginning of Feb. we might go to Choluteca that might be a good day to look but I don’t know if ill go to Tegus before that, but sooner the better for the money. 

But I’m doing great. I love what I’m doing and I love you guys and all the support you guys give me

Elder Spencer Olsen 

(The soon to be elder Anderson ha-ha)