Another Week in Tucson

Well it's hard to believe it's already been another week. So much has happened this week but it's gone by pretty fast. Everything is still going really well here!

On Tuesday I went on another English-speaking exchange, this time with Elder Richins (one of the zone leaders). We spent the day in a small town called Marana. We taught some really good lessons and found a couple of really solid women to teach. I was amazed at how helpful the members in the ward were. Both of the women we found were referrals from members. Things went really well for us and I learned a lot.

Friday was my first zone conference. For convenience, the four zones in Tucson were combined. I met a lot of people and learned a lot about how to get members involved in missionary work. Assistance from members is so crucial to this work. Both my mission president and his wife are very powerful speakers and they really motivated me to go out and give my very best.

General Conference was awesome! It was a great chance to sit back and take in the words of prophets and apostles of God. We watched all of the sessions in a chapel with a few people who don't have cable. It all seemed to go really fast though, faster than I can ever remember it going. The coolest part, of course, was seeing my Mom singing with the choir. Several people we are teaching were lined up to come to a session. We picked up Ramiro (the ice cream man) and took him to a members' house. Reynaldo showed up late but he still made it to the Sunday afternoon session. He'll be baptized in 2-3 weeks if we can get some legal issues taken care of first. Martin didn't show which was a disappointment for us because we thought he'd be there for sure. But we'll keep working with him and others.

Sergio (father of the Gomez family) seems to be more and more satisfied with his current church. It's really too bad because his family would be an awesome addition to our branch. Hopefully he can come around eventually. Melissa (the 16-year-old) went to Mexico this week so we're not quite sure what's going on with her. That's something that's somewhat frustrating about serving so close to the border. Many people just come and go from Mexico unexpectedly. One day they'll be ready to come to church, and the next they'll be in Mexico. On the brighter side of things, we found a woman named Lourdes who seems very interested. We also talked to two other women with families named Margarita and Denise who sounded interested as well. There are definitely some frustrating things about this area but the field is still white and I love the people here.

The weather here was extremely hot through September. It was still over 100 degrees every day, but as soon as October 1st came around it was like it knew. On Friday when we walked out the door early in the morning for zone conference, it was only 59. It has actually rained the last few nights, although I haven't seen any of it. The last few days have been just about perfect. I heard we got some snow in Utah. Is that true?

Thank you so much for all of your letters! Getting mail out here is awesome! If you write though, please send things to the mission office address. Thanks again and I love you all!

Elder Olsen