Elder Michael Olsen

hello Family!!
well i had a great week! i have just been trying to settle down here in jamaica. things are going awesome. my companion is elder wiggins, whom i was all ready comps with in park slope 6 months ago. he is a cool guy and a good missionary. we get along really well and work really well together. this is his last transfer so he goes home in 5 weeks. well we are definitely going to be working hard here. we have alot of good people to work with right now. one lady named shantel who is amazing! she has been to church like 3 times all ready and has allready read through 1st nephi and is working on 2 nephi. she knows that it is true, she is just a little nervous and wants to make sure that it is something that she wants to do. she is only 24, and is worried that she is the only one in her family joining the church. she really wants to get her mom involved. so hopefully we wil be able to make that happen. please pray for her. well i found out at transfer meeting that we are working 2 teaching pools. we are working both the jamaica english ward and the jamaica spanish branch. yep thats right i am working a spanish branch! pretty crazy huh, so this last week i have really been studying spanish, i want to learn it as soon as possible. yesterday at church i hardly understood anything that they said. elder wiggins was called english as well but for the last 3 transfers he has been working the spanish branch as well. so he has picked up on alot but still doesnt speak it perfect. so yeah yesterday we went to 6 hours of church, it was a pretty long day. our area is gigantic! we cover all of south jamaica clear down to JFk airport. our area is about as big as all of the other areas in the zone combined. so there is alot of work to do. we get alot of media referralls, right now we have 15 media referralls that we havent even been able to contact yet. we are the only companionship in the mission that has a car in the city because our area is so large. driving in the city is pretty crazy haha. so jamaica queens is where 50 cent the rapper is from if anyone was wondering. our pad is on the same block that he got shot 9 times ha, pretty cool huh. well i am way excited to be here in jamaica. the english ward is awesome! i am pretty sure that there is not one white person in the ward. ha it is crazy. this is one of those wards that you will never forget because it is so different than your average ward. i know that we will have a ton of success here! the ward has been waiting and praying for this new building for years now. the church has all ready made the plans, bought the land, everything. there just is not enough attendance and not enough people are paying their tithing. so i think all these people need is a good push! and i think that we could double the attendance in just a few months. there is a ton of work to be done. the spanish branch is awesome! but i think that it wil be hard for me to really take the lead in the branch cause i literally cant talk to people. but there are 6 of us missionaires working that branch and the District leader elder martinez is awesome! he is really motivated. and is really good at working with the members. We have an awesome zone! we set a goal to double the number of baptisms in the zone from last transfer. and everyone seems really excited. there were a few missionaires in the zone that were pretty disobedient last transfer, but they got blinded out of the area. and new missionaires came in. One of which is elder Cascardi from brazil. tyler met his dad at the CTM in brazil. he is only on his 4th transfer and he got blinded into this area training a new missionary. with a dead pool(zero investigators) but he is such a champ! he is working really hard. well everything is going amazing! we are seeing miracles e veryday! please continue to pray for me and the people that i am working with. i love you all. i am glad that you were able to make it home okay and that you had a fun trip! Hurrah For Israel!!!
Elder Michal Olsen