2nd Week

Well the MTC just keeps getting better! It has it's discouraging moments at times, but I've never felt the spirit this strongly before. I love it here and there's nothing I'd rather be doing. I can't wait to actually go out and teach though. I know I still have a lot to learn, but there's only so much roleplay you can do. I want to teach REAL people!

I had a couple really cool experiences in the Referral Center this week. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's basically missionary work over the phone or through chat (which we get to learn how to do tomorrow). On Thursday I talked to a 60-year-old woman from Maine. She had ordered a free copy of the "Lamb of God" DVD after seeing an ad for it on cable. She wanted it to teach her deaf granddaughter (11) about the life and teachings of Christ. She was a very religious person but had been frustrated with organized religion her entire life because she felt they taught some false things. We talked for quite awhile about the Savior's sacrifice for us and exchanged some personal stories. I offered to send her a copy of The Book of Mormon and she seemed really interested and said she would read it. I was able to bear testimony that if she read it and sincerely prayed about it, she would know of the truth of it.
The other experience I had was yesterday when I called an elderly man in New York to confirm the delivery of a copy of The Bible he had ordered. We then got talking a bit and when I asked if he'd like the missionaries to visit him he said "Yes! Can they come on Monday at 1:00? Because I need to change the oil before that." I assured him that they would be there at the specified time.
It's been awesome to see how prepared and ready some people are to hear about the Gospel. I just wish there were some way to find out how things turn out.

I'm still struggling with Spanish somewhat but I think it will come with time. I can pretty much understand the teachers when they speak it and grasp a good portion of the scriptures, but I have trouble speaking it. I also found out that I can't roll the (rr). The tutor told me that it's something we learn in the first year of our lives, and if we aren't exposed to that sound very much then a lot of us lose the ability to do it. I might never be able to, but he said people would still understand me from the context of what I'm saying. He said his dad has spoken fluent Spanish for 30 years and still can't do it, so oh well.

The weirdest moment of the week was when I met an elder with my same name. He spelled it Erik Olson but I still thought it was pretty crazy. I wanted to get a picture with him but I didn't have my camera.

Well,it seems like it was just yesterday that I was writing my first e-mail here. The saying "the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days" is definitely true. It's kind of a weird phenomenon. Thank you all for your letters and support!

Elder Olsen