April 22, 2013 El Triunfo Lawson's Pictures

So most of you know that I have joined ldsmissionarymom.com and we are linked to our specific Missions.  I have made several friends and we even had a potluck last weekend with several MM from Arizona with missionaries in Honduras.  Well, tonight, as I was checking my email, there was an email from a Mom looking for Elder Olsen's mom because she had a picture of her son and Spencer together eating Biscuits and Gravy. (I sent 2 mixes of biscuits and 2 mixes of sausage gravy in Spencer's package that he just got). I immediately answered the email and she sent me the picture and a link to her blog.  As I was going through his blog, Elder Lawson, I saw a few pictures that Spencer was in.  I got permission to use his pictures.  So the following pictures are from Elder Lawson.  Because it's been 4 weeks now that Spencer has been able to send pictures, I was very grateful for the few that she had of him.  Enjoy the updated letter. 

Hey mom dad and everyone 

Well where do I start. Let’s see, yes I did take Elder Wallis spot in El Triunfo. My comps name is Elder Torres. Anyways lets see this week was just a normal week. on Monday we did divisions with the Zl's so that they could go get to know our family that is going to get baptized so that they could be eligible for a family fund we have so they can get married. And the ZL that went to my area took the keys with him and we got stuck outside. Luckily the ZL I was with knew how to get in to the house haha. Not the 1st time that's happened to me hahaha. Tuesday and Wednesday were normal and then on Thursday one of the AP’s went to visit our zone so we had our district meeting together with him. Then I did divisions with my dl his name is Elder Lawson and that's not Clawson it’s Lawson hahaha. But we had a good normal day. But on Friday morning since I figured my comp wouldn’t appreciate the biscuits and gravy,  so I made them with Lawson.  hahaha. So for the biscuits we just made them like pancakes. The only thing is that they didn't get cooked all the way through. Oh and I did find fully cooked turkey sausage patties that we cut up almost into ground beef style and it turned out really good. We also fried and egg and put a piece of plastic cheese on it and put that on top of the biscuits and then the gravy, sooooo good. 

With the baseball field there is a nice one near the church.  It’s like 3 or 4 blocks away, but where I was was a lot further away near the entrance of Triunfo. but we went to see one of the games there on Saturday it was the Jr. league and man there were rag tag. Nobody had on the same uniform hahaha. Oh and yesterday it was awesome in church showed up like 5 people from a circus. Wow that was real good Spanish grammar hahaha. And 2 of them wanted to talk to us so we went to the circus in the afternoon and started teaching them hahaha. We will see how that turns out hahaha. But it was awesome. 

The Caceres family is doing good. They went to church yesterday and today we turned in all of their stuff to the Zl's to get them married so its out of our hands right now. They are ready to go. We just have to hope the Zl's can pull off their part to get them married on time but I believe it should all work out.

Ya I found myself a cook his name is Elder Olsen hahaha. He made me some very delicious chicken finger the other day and I'm trying to convince him to make me some fried shrimp. We will see if that works out hahahahaha.

The house is amazing. You can t get much better then unlimited use on an ac unit in the south. There are a lot of missionaries that have houses with ac but they have to pay for it. But where I'm at the land lord is paying the light bill and has told us that it’s not a big deal if we leave it on all day long and that if the light bill comes out at 3000 which is what we are paying he isn't going to do anything to us hahaha. There is always water in the pila to bath so that's good. We are solid there. The missionaries aren't moving out of there for a long time hahaha.

The computer place that I'm at won’t take my camera so I cant send photos again but I will for surely do it next week. I love you guys I'm doing good just 6 months more and we will be doing it big hahaha. 

Elder Spencer Olsen 

 Biscuits and Gravy for Elder Lawson

 District Meeting outside because the church was locked

The Zone - Spencer Front and Center

 The Pool in the Backyard of the Big house that he moved out of in El Triunfo

Elder Lawson standing in the middle of the pool in El Triunfo

El Triunfo April 14, 2013 Honduras Missionary Mom Potluck

So there is a website for Mom's that have missionaries on missions, and I joined just before Spencer left on his mission.  I was linked up to other mom's with missionaries from Honduras.  Everyone has been so helpful.  You are able to ask any question or find out any information about your mission from this site.  Since Spencer has now hit his 18 month mark, I have made some friends along the way.  I have seen other groups get together and go out to lunch, but working full time, that is hard for me to do.  We had tried a couple of times and it never worked out.  Well, in November I think, Spencer had been at a Zone Conference and there were several Missionaries from Arizona.  He had sent home the picture and I had realized, I had been reading a couple of blogs from their Moms.  After we received our other son's Mission Call, we started looking at important dates, and I decided that I wanted to finally put together a pot-luck with the mom's that I had emailed and their husbands to start to get to know them.  Well, it finally happened on Sat. and boy was it fun.  We all brought dishes to share, pictures, and stories of their missionaries.  We had so much fun meeting each other and sharing the experiences we have had with our sons/daughters.  I think we have made new friendships that will last a lifetime.  It was a great evening of food, fun and stories.  I Love being a Missionary Mom.  Oh and this is week 3 of no pictures.  Pray for some tomorrow

 Olsen's, Edward's, Wallis', Bitter's, Cook, Derring's, Smith's, and Borchardt's

Good Food, Pictures and Fun Stories.  It was a wonderful evening.

Hey mom dad and everyone,

Shoot how this week has been crazy. So I cant remember if I told you this last week. But right after the last session on Sunday I got a call from my Zl's in my last zone that we had baptized the most in the mission as a Zone so Pres. had invited us to his house for a nice dinner Monday night at 6pm and that I had to be at Pres's house at that time on Monday. So on Monday we got all we needed done here in Choluteca and then headed off to Tegus. And to get to Tegus you have to pass by my last Zone, so when we passed, the San Lorenzo Zone got on the bus. What luck hahaha. so I was talking with my last comp Elder Mendoza and how everything was going, and I made a comment that everyone had on long sleeve shirts, and he asked me if they had told me that we were going to the temple and I said no. So it came to be that we were going to be able to go to the temple on Tuesday morning . Man I was soooooo excited to be able to go do that because I haven't gone to the temple to do work in like 16 months ever since I left the MTC. And come to find out we were the 1st missionaries in the mission to go through the temple hahaha. We scored big this last week. It was really interesting to go through . We did the session in Spanish. So my last time I went through the temple in the MTC we did it in Spanish as well. And when people asked how much we understood I said I understood like half. But now that I went through completely understanding Spanish. Man that last time in the MTC I didn’t understand anything hahaha. But is was great. 

And while I was with the Pres. I talked to his wife cuz she says if we can live in our houses or not. And ours was way too big for 2 people. It was for like a family of 8 hahaha. So I told Sis Hernandez that the house had a pool that wasn't full but could easily be filled and I didn't feel that that was appropriate for missionaries to have in their house. And she told me that I was right, and that we needed to move which is what I wanted, but my comp no and I knew that she would say we needed to move haha. I win hahaha. And we already had a less active member that wanted to rent his house so when we got home we let him know that we wanted to move in. And we called the land lady of the old house. So on Saturday we helped the member move out of his house and we moved in. He has a crazy brother in law that moved our stuff for us. He looks a lot like Curtis haha, but a way cool guy. So now we are living in a new place with ac and we don't have to pay the light bill oh happy day hahaha. 

So about the investigators. Right now we are working with a family of 6. They have 2 older children that are already into their thing, so we will see how it works out. The father’s name is Javier, mother Edith, and in order to oldest to youngest 1st David, then Elizabeth or La China, then Javier Jr. and Kayla. The parents are super awesome. They aren't the most rich people in the world, but man they are always giving us food. It is soo great hahaha. But they are understanding everything. The big thing is that they aren't married and have been together for 25 years. But they are so willing to do anything to get baptized that they already said they are willing to get married so we are starting their marriage process so they can get baptized on the 27 of April. Well it’s been a long time of writing I'm so excited about Lauren and Dennis I cant wait to see pics of the actually baby hahaha. Love you guys and stay safe 

Elder Spencer Olsen

April 8, 2013 El Triunfo Conference Weekend

Hey mom dad and everyone
Man this week has been all over the place for me. The entire week I was in my area for only 2 full days hahaha And one of those 2 day I had a drunk member sleep in my bed for like 3 hours hahaha. Let me tell you that story.
Right now I'm going to tell you about a miracle that happened to us on Thursday. So during the week some friends told us that another friend started drinking cuz he fought with his wife.  So on Thursday we were supposed to go to the stake center of my zone which is an hour away. BUT the Zl's who were in charge of the meeting were in a place called Tegus where they had ZL council with the mission pres. the day before and had missed their 4 hour bus ride back to the south where I'm at in the southern part of the mission. So they canceled our meeting cuz they didn’t make it back in time and passed for the next day. So then we had to change a bunch of appointments so we ended up having to leave the house at like 1030am and take away a little study time so we could get everything we needed to get done. So we went to the first appointment and were there for like and hour and a half, a really long time but it was worth it cuz we were able to challenge them to baptism and they accepted. It was awesome. So after, I was thirsty so we were looking for drinks and couldn't find a place that had anything. And then I found a used American cloths store and went in cuz I need pants hahaha. So I went in there and didn't find anything. Then leaving the store I saw a bigger store to buy drinks and so I went to go get a drink and as we were walking out we ran into the drunk friend. He told us that he was bad with God and that we couldn't go where he was going, but instead we were going to take him home but no one was there. So I asked him if he had eaten, and he told me that he hadn't eaten in 5 days. So what we did is we took him to our house so he wouldn't be alone, and I made him 2 sandwiches and made him a glass of water with oatmeal and sugar. And then I lent him my towel so he could bath cuz we imagined that he hadn't bath in those five days he had been drinking. Then we put him in my bed so that he would sleep it off a little until his wife got home. We are trying to help him but he thinks he’s the only way to fix the problem and his wife blames us for him drinking. But I think that we did helped him a lot. We just need some more help from friends so that he can get good again. But the way we got a hold of him was just a complete miracle. I'm praying for him so he can get better cuz he is an amazing guy.
I hope that was easy enough to understand hahaha. It was a crazy day I need to get a new towel.
For conference, man I have been sleeping in  a hammock for 2 days. It’s crazy. But it was awesome.   My favorite talk was the talk from Cardon. It was awesome. I loved it. And the Latin Elder, Elder Fallabela, I have met him before. He used to be the President of the Central American area and he came a little while back and I got to shake his hand. It was really weird to hear him speak in English cuz I have only ever heard him in Spanish hahaha. But it was great. I have actually heard that story he told. He went to the Mesa Temple back then . He actually had to sell his car so that he could just have enough to go up to AZ, then went with nothing to go back with. It was sooo awesome to see that.
Well I forgot my cable to pass fotos so you will have to wait till next week but I have a few. And I’ll let you know next week with Connor’s stuff and every thing. But I can get a hold of any type of food or ingredients so just send me stuff. I didn’t have any time to cook last week, but we will see this week.
I love you guys miss you lots. Just 6 more months and I’ll be home to share everything. I'm doing great
Elder Spencer Olsen

April 1, 2013 El Trifuno Sandlot

 Hey mom dad and everyone,

So in all of Latin America here its called holy week ( la semana santa) what everyone does here is the go to the beach. Everyone has the Week off of school and they just party it up. My comp's from Puebla Mexico and he told me there they actually crucify a guy in memory of the sacrifice of Christ.

But from Thursday to Saturday everyone in the world is at the beach. So there wasn't much to be done those days. But with my comp he is a very interesting guy.  He was concerned when a bunch of people told him I was really disobedient hahaha. And all the people that told him that, I don't even know hahaha. And we aren't even going to start when I wanted to change the house.  But he is realizing that everyone just blew everything out of proportion hahaha. 

I'm doing my best to try to get along with him.   You have no idea how much I have just dived in to the culture down here its wild. But I’m trying to deal. What I'm going to tell Pres. is it take me out in the 1st change and to put my comp to train. 

 But the greatest thing that has ever happened in mission. There is a Sandlot baseball league in my area hahaha. Now when I say Sandlot I mean that. Half of all the guys that play are playing barefoot the other half that isn't barefoot are in sandals hahaha. They have 3 trashed balls and like 5 cracked wooden bats hahaha. The batters box has been dug out like a foot in to the ground.  But on Wednesday I went and they let me play with them. When I was in Danli I bought a really nice $80 glove for $7.50 hahaha. So I went out and played. Man it has been a long time since I've played baseball hahaha. But I had a great time. I'm going to try to see if I can baptize at lease one of them hahaha. 

Man this is a really hard keyboard to type with. I think I’ll end here for today but I'll try to get a better computer next week. I love you guys I'm doing better. Trying to make it through. Talk to you guys next week.

Elder Spencer Olsen

photos are downloading really slow send them to you next week 

I Google Earthed his area in El Trifuno and saw the Sandlot field he talks about in this email.  I noticed the field as soon as I zoomed in on the city.  I also Googled his church building and discovered it is just a couple blocks to the East of the ball field.  If you start at the North/East corner of the ball field and go over 3 Square Blocks to the East you can see a white square and a white rectangle in that square block.  The white square is the parking lot of the church building and the rectangle is the actual Church Building.  I love Google Earth.  Check it out.  It looks better on your own computer.

March 25, 2013 Changes - El Triunfo

It's been an eventful couple of weeks.  Spencer's brother, Connor, received his Mission Call on March 22, and Spencer's Mission President gave him permission to call him when he opened his call.  The Sunday the 17th, Spencer called us to make arrangements of when and where we would be opening his call, but he didn't know where he would be.  He knew that he was going to be transferred, but didn't know if he would have access to a computer.  We were going to be Skyping or on Google Plus Hangout. Well, we didn't receive a letter on the 18th because he lost power at the internet cafe just as he started writing to us.  I was very disappointed, but I got over it because we got to talk to him.  

Well, the big day for Connor came.  He is at BYU-I along with his sister and brother-in-law.  They had his activity room filled with people and his computer set up with Google Plus Hangout.  (We practiced the night before.)  We were gathered at our house in Gilbert, AZ with our family and friends with the computer hooked up to the TV.  We had Connor big and us, Grandpa Ray and Aunt Michele Anderson logged in and Uncle Brett and family logged on in Tucson.  Then we had to wait for the call from Spencer.  We met at 6 pm AZ, 7 pm Idaho time.  And then the call came in at 6:20 pm.  He had access to a computer, but after trying to get him hooked up, the internet connection was too slow.  So we had a friend hold the phone up to Connor so Spencer could hear and he read the call.  He will be serving in the Argentina, Buenos Aires North Mission reporting July 3rd.  Spencer isn't due home until Oct. 16th so they will miss each other by 3 1/2 months.  It was so fun for the brother's to be able to share this moment with each other.  When Connor read his mission, Spencer yelled out, "Connor, you're going to Argentina!"  Connor yelled back, "I know!"

Hey mom dad and everyone

Ya last week sucked I was finishing reading your letter and right as I was about the start to write your letter and the internet went out on us. I felt so bad. But we did get to talk on friday for like 3 hours so you can't feel to bad. Hey just calm down with this hold it out stuff im fine. I just got a little baggi talking to you guys, and it didnt help that they had sent me to one of the worst areas in the entire mission. But things are getting better. Me and my comp talked some stuff out. He had apparently heard some stuff about me from some other missionaries that were complete lies haha. But we got everything fix.

So starting last week on Sunday we had the dedication. Man a live that was so amazing. The first 2 sessions were really great. But it was the 3rd that was the best. I had noticed that Elder Holland hadn't used headphones for the 1st 2 sessions. So in the 3rd session he finally got to  talk. Man that guy really is powerful when he speaks. Then to finish his talk he gave his testimony spanish. Wow that was crazy. He doesn't speak it that well, but man it was so amazing to be able to hear an Apostle speak in a different language. Then after Ucktdorf gave his final talk and he said something really interesting. He Said he KNEW Jesus Christ. That was so pòwerful to know that that man literally speaks with Christ. WOW!!!

Then on Monday I had a great conference with some senior missionaries that are psychologists in the Carribien. The actual conference that they gave wasn't that interesting. And I had translate for the mission nurse Sis Smar. I seem to get along with the old ladies of the church hahaha. But after I was able to talk one on one with them. I have been getting a little stressed out but he helped me out a lot. I'm not crazy anymore hahah.

Then i got my changes to Triunfo. Man I have joked my entire mission about going to this place. I never really thought that Pres. would send me here. I have just heard the worst things about this place from Elder Carter. But now being there it really isn't that bad. It's just that everything is just really far from our house. My house is huge, way too big for 2 missionaries. It's big enough for like 8 missionaries haha. So I have found a new place that is prefect for 2 and the bedroom is insulated with ac and the land lord said he is going to pay the light and water bill and its only 500 limps more then the place we live in right now.

Oh a little back tracking. The Saturday before the dedication Alfonzo after nearly 12 years finally got baptized. He literally dropped smoking in a week. It was awesome. That Friday before I had to convince him to go to the dedication cuz they live in a sketchy place and they don't like to leave the house alone but I convinced him to go, and he loved it. I'm so excited for him. I just hope he stays in a good path.

Right now in El Triunfo we should be having at least 1 baptism if not 2 this weekend. I'm starting to like my area a lot. We will see how eveything goes. I am going to tell President to take me out at my 3rd change and to put me in the city to finsh out my mission. We will have to see what happens at the end.

Just remember that im doing good I know what I need to do. I'm doing it. I love you guys. 

Don't worry about me too much.

With all the love I can give 

Elder Spencer Olsen  

Alfonzo, his wife Juana and their granddaughter Stepheny

This is Kefor, my Branch Pres. from Langue.  

He was the coolest church leader I have had on my entire mission.

This is the Nunez Family.  I got a pic with them just before I left Langue

Some little kids we dressed up as missionaries. haha

I had to fix our water tank so that we could shower.  haha

I guess he learned well from his father.  We own rental properties.

Tarver and I went on Divisions last week and climbed this hill that has a view of my area and of the ocean.

This is Hna Yolanda.  All the Missionaries go to her house to eat baleades after district meeting every Thursday.  She is way cool haha. And with her is her daughter Mamita.  She is 15 Mitchell. haha

This is Baxter and another husky that lived there.  His name is Casper

This is my Honduran Husky puppy. His name is Baxter

This is the landlady of my house in Langue.  She is the Honduran Grandma Linda. They are exactly alike. haha

This is Hna Magoon.  She is the coolest sister in the mish.  She is just one of the boys. haha

This is another family.  They are way tight.  They always gave us food. haha

This is my Zone after the Temple Dedication

This is the Cruz Family.  They make Hammocks for a living.

Yeah, we got Alfonzo baptized

I look sexy in white hahaha

This is a really cool member named Diana, her daughter Alma and mother-in-law Yolanda