Elder Olson-Update

Drew is still serving in Lowell, MA, and loving the work there. He is now a trainer, along with district
leader. His new companion (straight out of the MTC) is Elder Winegar from Salt Lake. He says, “Well
training is a great experience. I find myself trying even harder than before to do what's right and
working even harder. I'm grateful for this chance I have to grow and learn from a younger Elder. I
know that we will do well together.” His old companion that he had served with in two different areas
and really got along well with, was transferred (two blocks away in the Cambodian program), was also
named Elder Winegar but he was from California. He was glad that his old companion was still in his
district.

He had a recent baptism this month and he was excited to see the change that came with this young
lady as she accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here is a clip from a recent letter about one of his
days, “Sat. 11/19: Today was good. We had studies and correlation in the morning with the ward
missionaries and ward mission leader. Then I had a meeting with the Cambodian elders and we
discussed how we could work together to get the ward more motivated to do missionary work. If
the members would just help us more, the ward would grow so much! People are just afraid to do
missionary work here. Anyway then we taught Romilda (Braz) and did a lot of finding. We found 3 new
girls. Shandel, Shannon, and Kaylea (Eng) that let us right in. We taught them a 1st and they were
really receptive to the message. I hope for the right reason.... Anyway we also knocked on the door
of Maria Silva (Port). She is from Portugal and she is very difficult to understand. I can understand
most Portuguese people and all Brazilians without a problem... but this woman was tough! Anyway we
talked to her at her door step for about 10 min and she told us to wait there while she wanted to show
us something. She came back with an original Book of Mormon in Portuguese. It was very old and she
had marked it up very, very, well. I was very impressed because the Portuguese here from Portugal
are not receptive to the message at all. They all claim to be Catholic and slam the door on us. So I was
shocked. She said she enjoys the book. We gave her a new one and we will be going back to teach her.
She is a nice old lady and would be an excellent member of the church here. Anyway, then we found a
few more potentials and we had dinner at the Peterson's (Eng). They were having a birthday party, so
there was tons of people there and food. Then we finished the night at Sister Machorros. It was a good
day.”

“Everyone is doing well in the district now, so I'm happy for that. The work here is going a little slower
because we are just finding, so it's tough... but I see a lot of good potentials coming from it. We were
able to teach Sandra and her son Kevin (Span). I found them last transfer with the old E. Winegar, and
this is the first time we were able to teach them. It went really well. They are very excited about our
message and we taught about seeing our family members that we have lost, again. We will live with
those we love forever. That really hit home for them. She works this Sunday, so she can’t come to
church, but she will be there the following week. It was a really awesome lesson. They are prepared
and I pray they will progress rather well and become great members of the church.”

“I hope that this email finds you all in good spirits. I hope that this week ahead of you will be one of
satisfaction and joy. I love it here in Lowell. Continue strong in the faith and always be an example of
the believers.”

Drew's Baptism and Other Pics

Elder Olson Update

November 2011

Drew is doing well in Lowell, MA. He loves it there. He has transfers this coming week and he really hopes to stay there in Lowell. He is District Leader there and is doing really well. He is having the opportunity to speak two languages. He says, “We will be having the Baptism of Katherine Cano (Spanish) on the 30th of Oct. or in other words, this coming Sunday if everything works out according to plan. Other than that, most of our work is slowly turning to Spanish. Brazilians are not progressing, so that is frustrating. I guess we will need to find new fresh blood. Over all, things are going well. I am loving Lowell and I'm not ready to leave.”

Drew has the opportunity to translate at church on Sundays. We had to chuckle a bit when he shared his love for relief society. He shared, “We teach the Portuguese class on Sundays and that usually goes really well. Then we do our normal translation in relief society and I don't understand how women enjoy such off topic stories during the lesson. Oh well, it was good.”

I think he is being well fed. He shared his dinner itinerary with us for one evening, “Then we had dinner with the Webster's (English). They are way cool and he is into BYU football, so he quickly gave me the low down on the game. Then we had 2nd dinner with Romilda (Brazilian). That was a lot of fun and we ended the night with getting another dinner from Analor Pachar (Brazilian) and teaching there.”

He shared a great experience a couple of weeks ago about finding a young boy when tracking. He said, “Then we also found Bun (English/Cambodian). He's 15 and he said that 2 minutes before we knocked on his door, he was on the internet searching about Satan and God, wondering if they really existed. (Keep in mind that most Cambodians are Buddhist) He said that he wasn't getting anywhere from being online, so he just looked up and asked if there was even a God….. Then the knock on the door was there. We taught him a first lesson, gave him a Book of Mormon, and he wants to read the whole book. Bun like us, believe that was a sign from God that he exists and that he loves Bun enough to answer his prayers. That was a really cool experience for us. I can't say that has happened all that often.”

He updated us on Bun this past week in his email, “E. Winegar and I had enough time to teach Bun (Eng/Camb) and he enjoyed the 3rd lesson. We extended a baptismal date for the 13th of November of which was accepted.”

“This week has been busy for me as well. We have had a few frustrating things happen in our work, but tudo bem! Satan is working harder than ever to destroy us. But the Lord is with us and his work will move on. Satan has millions of his followers or spirits here on earth surrounding us every day, tempting and trying us; trying to get us to break us from getting back to our father in heaven. They are around investigators, non-members, members, and those great leaders we have. They are working harder than we are as missionaries and members of the church, because Satan won’t leave us or them alone. He won’t stop. We can't stop doing the things that strengthen us. Let’s try a little harder to continue to read our scriptures and work on the attributes of Jesus Christ.”

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