My Thanksgiving

Dear Family,

Lets see.... Dad asked, Did I do anything for Thanksgiving....

Luckly it is so dramatically different than any other Thanksgiving I have ever had that it didn't feel like Thanksgiving at all, otherwise I might have missed it! We had lunch with some members, and by lunch I mean they gave us a bag with two ''Hamburgers'' each in it. With moldy bread, I really don't care though, we have had some really really good lunches though. By the way lunch is the new dinner down here. We don't eat dinner. One day we had these amazing milanesas and rice, with an almost mexican salsa, which you do not get down here, and then ice cream! Oh yes and the other day we had this mix of stuff, rice, peas, carrots, some meat I think, and eggs, hardboiled, but they looked funny, instead of being completely opaque they were semi transparent. and really big.... we learned a little later that it was ostrich egg. Yum. haha They tasted pretty normal.

Ok here is a bunch of stuff really quick....

• We had two baptisms this week! awesome! I baptized Axel... I will send a pic. It was fantastic.
• I got to introduce myself in church this week, it could have gone better.
• I don't think I have mentioned it ever but the way people greet each other here is with a kiss on the cheek, they do it for everyone, except missionaries! It makes getting things started at church and stuff take forever!
• Everyone here rides scooters or motorcycles, hardly anyone has cars, once I saw an entire family on one scooter, two little boys in front with dad, then two little girls smooshed between mom and dad. haha 6! Six people on one scooter.

Bad news, for some reason, the government takes a vacation in January, and only the government is allowed to marry people, so for all of january we won't be able to get anyone married, which is a problem if we expect people to live the law of chastity....

I think thats about it.  I love you guys!

Every Chapel Has a Ping Pong Table

Hey mom!

To start with I'll answer your questions...

1.  We get fed by members a lot of the time in this area, It's pasta and meat or potatos and millanesas, which is like a chicken fried steak, or we just make some food or have cereal.

2.  We hand wash our clothes, I will send a pic of the laundry room, but we have a member that does it for us sometimes.

3.  Homesick. Really? haha No I'm not,  and I'm not lying either. Missionary work is hard but it's not like I want to go home. It really is going to be fun too, once I learn Spanish and all.

4.  Safe? Yes this area is about an hour from Montevideo, its pretty rural, an I haven't had any reason to worry so far. Plus my comp is a big Polynesian.

5.  What do I need? I will get to that later....

Anyway. So the otherday we were walking and all of a sudden we saw an elephant. yup. Turns out a german circus is in town.

I thought you might be interested to know how we get our money every month. At our first meeting they gave us a credit card with our name on it, and every month they put cash for us to withdrawl from a ATM, it's about 150 american I believe, 3000 urg

So as you can see from the pictures, our apartment is dirty. We were going to clean it today, but we ran out of time really fast.  And I'm running out of time to email.

Every chapel has a ping pong table in it. So if you could, please send my ping pong paddle in the next box you get together. Oh yeah -  thanks for the Christmas box I got it today from my ZLs. It looks like it only took 10 days to get to the mission home. After it gets there, they send it via the bus system to my area, we get a box with letters and other boxes everyweek on pday.

Yesterday, they had everyone in my old district come back to Montevideo and do some medical tests. It took the first half of the day for us, but for some of the guys that are in areas 5 hours away, it took up all the time.

Anyway, so two of our investigators names are Richard, and Axel. They are both getting baptized this Saturday. They are awesome! Richard is 19 years old and Axel is 11. Richard is doing so so so well, and they both know everything pretty much. Our biggest problem right now is that all the investigators we have are ready for baptism, so as soon as we baptize them we aren't going to have anyone left to teach.... So we are working on finding new people to teach.

I do want an ipod sent out soon, but I don't have the time to tell you some of the music I want. You can go a head and start getting it ready if you want, and next week I will send you a list of some music I want you to include. Other than that and the ping pong paddle iI think I'm good.

Thank you so much for the Christmas package and the stuff to make no bake cookies! It was perfect timing. I'm going to try really hard not to open anything else. But since I could see what it was, I figured it was fair game. p.s. peanut butter doesn't exist down here but pretty much everthing else does, so if you get in the mood to send a package, peanut butter is always welcome.

Thats all for now I guess.

Love,

Elder Carlson IV

Jordan at the Buenos Aires MTC

Greetings From Uruguay!

Jordan and his trainer Elder Luke

Hey mom, 

So I get to send you another email now that I'm in Uruguay! Well I made it just fine. The flight only took about 30 minutes and then we got all our stuff and president and all the office elders were waiting for us. We went back to the mission home which is right behind the temple. The temple is awesome and it's weird because it's like in this total residential neighborhood. Anyway we had a few training meetings and interviews and then got assigned our trainers and areas. My trainers name is Elder Luke, he is from Southern California and he has been out about a year. So far things are going great. Our zone is called Florida, Our area is called Estacion, its a little town about an hour and a half from Montevideo, its pretty flat, but more hilly than Buenos Aires was.

We live like two houses down from our Church, and not going to lie, I wasn't expecting our house to be quite so humble, I guess I'm just spoiled from my CCM hotel experience for the last 9 weeks. It's not bad or anything but it does need a little cleaning. Oh yes, and our water heater is broken, so I'll have freezing cold showers for the next couple of weeks.  

My companion has been working hard in this area and had 8 baptism last transfer which is really good, we have two more this week and a few more down the line. We went out contacting yesterday and taught a lesson in a house and went to the store, that's about it. Today we have five or so lessons and contacting the rest of the day, We have a lot of people that are preparing for baptism that need a lot of attention. It's really exciting and I'm liking it a lot so far.

 

A few changes concerning email though. I am still only allowed 30 minutes every week, but from now on I cannot receive emails from friends, only immediate family. However, they have provided a way for my friends to email me or write to me quicker. 

 

If you send an email to   urumontemission@gmail.com they will print out the email and send it to me.

it is Important that you put my name ELDER JORDAN CARLSON as the subject line for the email so they know who the email is for.

 

Also as far as packages they say the mail is reliable but slow average 2 to 3 weeks but sometimes as much as 5 so plan accordingly, And you can get a package to me fairly easy as long as the contents are less than 40 dollars and you should write on the description something general like ''Missionary Supplies''.

 

Also things happened so quickly at the mission home I completely forgot to get my box, but I think they will just send it to me out here, it shouldn't be a problem.

 

One las thing. If you go onto   lds.org.ar    and find the section for CCM and then go to grupos and find grupo 489 they should be posting a group photo soon, probably within the next few days or weeks not sure.

 

Make sure everyone knows about the new email info.

 

Thats all for now!

 

Love,

Elder Carlson IV

A Letter from the Mission President

16 November 2010

Dear Carlson Family,

            Today we went to the airport in Montevideo, Uruguay, to pick up Elder Carlson and welcome him into our mission.  He arrived a little tired, but full of excitement and enthusiasm to get to work.

            We have spent the day with him getting to know him, and we have recognized that he will be an asset to us here in the mission.  With this time that we have had with him he has shown many talents that will be put to use in blessing the lives of many wonderful people.

            Today was the day of transfers; he met his trainer and then headed off for his first area so that he could start ¨ [bringing] to pass the immortality and eternal life of man¨.

            We are now sending you a photo that we took with him this afternoon.  As you can see, he is extremely excited and ready to start.  We are so excited to have your son with us and hope that you receive this photo with excitement and pride in all that your son has done to prepare himself for the opportunity that he now has to serve the Lord for the next two years.

                                                                                                          Love,

                                                                                                          The Da Silva´s

Jordan and President and Sister Da Silva

A quick note before leaving the MTC...

I only have 7 minutes but...

 

Proselitismo was good, I really like the city we are in, or were in, it seems like a big city but really it's just this tiny suburb of Buenos Aires.

We got to talk to our JW guy again it was interesting and he said he would read in the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We put him as a reference for the other missionaries in the area.

 

Guess what! There was a McDonalds in our area!  It was awesome. I got some food there! Anyway I'm looking forward to getting to Uruguay. It's going to be different being out of the MTC and all.

 

Oh yes and I have been meaning to tell you that on the way to our areas on Saturday we go through this toll area where the highway gets wider and at its widest point it was 42 lanes wide!!!! its huge! I wish I had a picture but I don't. Maybe on our way to the airport I can get one of it. Anyway that's all for now.

 

I love you guys

 

Elder Carlson IV

 

P.S.  I think my new pday is going to be Monday but I'm not sure.

I Can't Wait to Get to Uruguay!

Hey!

So things are going great over here in Argentina. The CCM is getting pretty boring so I am so excited to finally get out of here! Yes they are sending us to Uruguay by plane but no  I don't get to call you. Nice Try. But I think I get to write you another quick email on Monday because that is our last day here. Maybe I will just upload a picture or something. But anyway its getting pretty hot now days down here....

I haven't really mentioned my roommates, they are pretty funny. At first we had 4 Latinos as well as my comp and me but then one of them ended up going home which is sad but he was not doing well. It was pretty noticeable. So they moved his comp into another room. So now its just the 4 of us. Elder Robayo is from Sweden. Yep Sweden, His parents are Colombian but he has lived in Sweden since he was like 2. So he is fluent in Swedish, Spanish, and pretty much English. He has such a funny personality, and the mix of cultures is just hilarious. For example, He joined the Swedish army before he left for his mission so when he gets home he is probably going to go to Afghanistan He says the army there is a joke and he won't really have to do anything dangerous. His comp. Elder De Oliviera is from Brazil but has lived in Argentina for the last 10 or so years. So he speaks Spanish and Portuguese and fairly good English as well. He is a pretty cool guy too. 

Proselitismo this week was really different. We changed areas like I said so we didn't get to go to Mauro's. Anyway we switched to an area called Banfield, It's a suburb of Buenos Aires. Anyway my comp and I were in the downtown area of this suburb. There were big tall apartment buildings and stuff, and all these cool restaurants and shops, and in this one area was a full on street market. It was like an outside mall or something it was pretty awesome. The only problem was everyone was in a hurry and didn't really want to listen to us. We had a residential area as well but it was really rich, the first guy we saw in it we started talking to and he spoke perfect English and he was telling us that this neighborhood was nick named "El Barrio de Ingles" basically the English neighborhood. We didn't have very much success there because all the houses had intercoms and no one would come out. But we found one guy named David and started talking to him for a while. He spoke English as well which turned out to be a blessing because he was a JW and he started talking to us in depth about the bible. Anyway he hadn't ever heard about the Book of Mormon so we started telling him about it and told him Moroni's promise that he can know for himself. He agreed to take it and the read and pray, but he said he was going to study some of it and make sure nothing contradicts the bible in it. He said if he doesn't see any contradictions then he won't have a problem with it. Needless to say our next lesson is going to be focused on what makes our church different. We got that a lot, people saying that all the churches are the same, even when you talk about the Restoration. Seriously everyones favorite word down here is "claro" it just means clear but they say it all the time when they are agreeing with you or if something is obvious. Anyway there was for the first time legit businesses in our area so I got to use my credit card, Mom I would like you to check on my bank and see how much it ended up costing me in American dollars for what I bought. It cost 21 pesos so if you could tell me how much American I would appreciate it. We went to a Shell gas station and they had more lays potato chips. They didn't taste quite the same but it was close. It brought me a little joy. haha

Another mini experience that happened today -  We were having our class outside for the fun of it, and we saw a person walking past the fence so we decided to go and talk to them like we would if we were proselyting like normal. anyway I went with another elder, Elder Lythgoe and we started talking to her and Elder Lythgoe asked "Would it be important to you if you could live with your family forever" and I guess she didn't really understand his Spanish or something because she answered back "well of course! I already live with my family!" Anyway so we added "After death?" and she got this look on her face like it just really struck her, and most of the time when we proselyte people just agree with us and don't really think or listen about what we are saying, but you could tell she actually thought about it and it caught her off guard, anyway she was in a hurry but she told us her address, which happens to be right across the street from the CCM, so hopefully we will be able to talk to her again!

I'm really excited to get out of here. For the most part all we ever do now is review and its getting really boring. I'm super excited to be forcibly immersed in spanish because I really want to speak it and I know that is going to be the best way. It's going to be a big change from the CCM, but it's interesting.   I was thinking about what my expectations for the MTC had always been growing up and for some reason I never really pictured learning spanish in the MTC. I always saw myself getting out to my area, meeting my American trainer and learning spanish there. Maybe that's what they do in the Provo MTC, but certainly not out here. It is a huge blessing to be in Argentina already, even if it means my mail takes longer and I don't get boxes of cookies every week from mom. But I'm really excited to call on Christmas, and the main reason is so I can talk to Spencer in spanish! hahah sorry mom. 

Thanks for all the love and support! I can't wait to get to serve the people in Uruguay!!!!

Love Elder Carlson IV

Elder Anderson Visits the CCM

Hey mom!

Things are going pretty good down here in Argentina. Its getting hot now days, and humid! So humid it reminds me of TX.

Elder Anderson came and gave us a little devotional on Sunday. He didn't have that much time but it was really awesome. First off I was on the first row like five feet from him. Second, he speaks fluent French and Portuguese but he is still getting his Spanish down so he talked just fine but he used fairly basic words so I understood every single word he said. And it was just really cool to see an apostle so unofficial. It was a fairly small group and he was in a hurry so his wife gave a little message first and he kept interrupting her and adding things it was funny.  Oh and he kept making her switch to Spanish even though you could tell she didn't want to speak it haha.

Anyway Proselitismo was good except we didn't get to go to Mauro's because he was at work :( It really stunk, we went by his house like 4 times just to make sure. We ended up calling him on Monday and talking to him and he said that he had read in the Book of Mormon and he was anxious to talk with us because he had some questions for us! It was awesome... until we found out that we are moving areas and there is nothing we can do to change that. I'm pretty upset about that and so is another companionship in my district because they had another investigator that was progressing a lot as well. Oh well hopefully the other missionaries aren't too busy to go see them. That would really bug me. Nothing I can do though I will just have to find some new investigators this week. Other than that we had two really good contacts last week where we gave them a Book of Mormon, shared Moroni's promise, and gave a brief lesson on the restoration and Joseph Smith. But we won't get to go visit them either so...

I'm ready to leave the CCM, I'm getting really bored now. we have learned all the spanish grammar rules so now all we do is review and practice teaching. I'm ready to just teach for real. Less than two more weeks. In fact next Tuesday it will only be 1 week!

That's cool about Midland. Flying all the way to midland? Spoiled. The best we ever got was to Dallas and a five hour drive or something like that. I will be in the field for Thanksgiving. Who knows what I will do for that. I'm thinking Asado.

Cameron gets home soon. Like a month and a half right? That's exciting. 

I can't really think of very much more. I'm sure I will find something later that I forgot to say and send you a letter or something. But yup.