Current Address

Elder Jordan Carlson


Send emails to: urumontemission@gmail.com with ELDER JORDAN CARLSON as the subject line. The mission home will print the email and send it to Jordan.

Monday, April 25, 2011

I had a Guitar For Two Days

A lake near where we live
Hey Family,

Well you never told me Chuck Bush died, that’s really too bad. 

So to answer your questions:

To celebrate Easter in Uruguay, first they celebrate Holy Week, it’s also called Turismo, like tourism. So basically it’s just a party. They had a huge, huge, street market/Festival thing down by the river near 33. They pretty much do the same things as America, and they use eggs too but I don’t think they use the Easter Bunny. 
Cotton Candy! 
My scripture case


Our sketchy staircase in our old house

An Emu

Baptisimo!

We didn’t find our stuff.... so it’s probably gone for good. I still haven’t decided what I want to do about it..... 

And no the apartment wasn’t unlocked, but there was a little utility box that had a spare key in it, so they must have used that. 

Yes I bought something.... long story actually....
So what happened was, First off my trainer elder Luke had a ukulele and he was teaching me some stuff on it... then we he left and Pesqueira came in he was always talking about his comps that played guitar and learned so much on the mission, and then one day Elder Reese and I were running in the morning and we passed this music store and I saw a guitar and it was only 75 bucks, so I said to myself hey, why not buy this guitar and start learning how to play guitar, because we always had time after planning at night that we just sat around. Anyway I did it. Bought a guitar and a little book of basics, then two days later  Elder Pesqueira and I went to the Leadership conference, and the day before that was a meeting for the Zone Leaders, and in the zone leader meeting they received a letter from the Area President, which is the guy above the mission president, anyway he made a new rule saying that we can’t have any type of instrument in the house. So all the missionaries with instruments had to sell them. So I bought a guitar and two days later had to get rid of it. Yeah.

Anyway I’m glad you guys had fun in Mexico, you should try to start feeling better, it’s not good to be sick. I was a little sick a week or so ago, and there is this one companionship, our zone leaders actually, who are just dying. They are sick with something new every day. We are still living in their house and there has been no news on our new house. 

Also if Cameron wants to he can by my paint balling stuff for $200.

Also they have us give talks here in our ward every month. so I have already given 2, they were my first real talks since I have been in Uruguay. 

I'm just about out of time! 

Love
Elder Carlson

Monday, April 18, 2011

Rain

Hey Family and Friends....


Well, This week was pretty fun, its kinda hard for me to remember what I told you last week, and honestly I am already forgetting what happened this week. The days are just meshing and flying by. Time is really starting to fly.


So this week we are only going to be having one baptism, but that's ok because the rest will shortly follow. We went to bed on Saturday with it raining a little and when we woke up it started pouring! When we left for church it was still coming down really hard, I got all bundled up in my newly waterproofed rain coat, with my huge goretex boots that i brought, and i even tried out my gloves i brought for the winter. Anyway the waterproofing spray worked really well and i didn't get wet at all on my body, my pants got completely soaked, completely, and the boots worked really really well until water started entering in from the top, but I'm very satisfied overall, the gloves got wet fairly fast, i think I'm going to try waterproofing them. Anyway, when it rains on Sunday, members don't really come to church, let alone investigators. So we ended up having 1 of the 7 investigators that we were hoping to see. There were so few members at the start that they combined Priesthood, Relief Society, and YM/YW all together. But by the time Sacrament came around, we have that last, there were a few more members there. The rain was crazy, it flooded all the streets with like 4 inches or so, in the worse parts there was a rushing river of like 6 inches going.


Anyway its starting to cool down, I guess from what the other missionaries have been telling me the worst part about winter is that it rains a ton and you can never get your stuff dry. There is an Elder in the house we are living in that last winter he washed all his garments and he couldn't dry them so he ended up wearing the same pair of garments for two weeks.... that's a little extreme but I'm not really looking forward to it.


So the other day we were walking around contacting houses and we saw a guy carrying a big PVC pipe with cotton candy sticking out of it. I had no idea that Uruguayans even knew what cotton candy was. So we bought some, it was 10 pesos per bag, like 50 cents. It was on a small piece of bamboo for the stick to hold it. It was fairly similar to normal cotton candy but it had a little bit of a weird after taste.


So about the theft, We found out later in the day, last P-day after I wrote you that my comps camera had been stolen too, and that another guy's completely broken camera had been stolen too. We talked to our neighbors and they said they saw someone run out of our house and run away the day of the robbery, so we know for sure now it wasn't any of the elders. We went to the police station and filed a report just in case. Really the only chance we have at finding our stuff is going to the Feria, its like a street market kinda thing, and looking for it. We are actually going today.... we will see.... It really stinks for my comp because all of his pictures from his entire mission were on that camera.... I'm actually going to try to back up my photos to a DVD today....


This change is flying by, we are already half way done. Oh and one of the elders today mentioned that in like three Sundays from now we call for mothers day! That is really crazy. Time is just flying by. I never have time to write letters, Sorry to everyone if i haven't written back, I get really confused and forget if I'm waiting for a reply or if I'm supposed to be writing back.....


Thats all for now!


Love Elder Carlson

Monday, April 11, 2011

A Bunch of My Stuff Was Stolen!


Dear Family,
Wow you guys are so lucky. It's actually really nice weather right now. Not too hot. 33 is doing good, except with the seasons changing everyone is getting sick, including me. I've got a sore throat and stuffy nose and stuff. Anyway, we had a fairly good week. I think I told you last week that we moved out of our house last pday and we are living with the zone leaders and another companionship, all six of us in one house, it's not crowded but we get distracted really easily. Oh and we have to bike even farther to get into our area. Work is going good, we have 7 baptismal fechas which is the most for our zone. 33 isn't a very high baptizing area, but it's definitively not the worst. Oh yes and dad was asking about the baptizing in Uruguay... ya Mexico does baptize quite a bit more than us. The goal as a mission is to have every companionship baptize one person each week. Its not impossible but very few people are doing it. and almost no one is doing that consistently from area to area. So you get an idea, I have baptized the most so far out of the group that I came with. 10, My mtc comp hasn't baptized yet and there are a few others with 3 and 4 ish. So I've been blessed I guess. I haven't gotten any lazy comps to drag around yet so that's good. 

So for right now we have Romina, Juan, and Lorean planned for the 23 and possibly Maria and Sandra too. All are people we have been teaching for a while now except Lorean, she is brand new as of yesterday. She is a friend of Romina.  Romina's entire family are members because Romina's mom just recently got re married and baptized.... And Lorean's family are all member that are inactive, so hopefully we can use their baptisms to spark some interest again in the family. oh yes so yesterday in church Lorean just came up to us and told us she wants to be baptized, and it just so happened that we were going to be having lunch with Rominas family who Lorean was staying with, so when we went over for lunch she started asking us when we can baptize her.... That was the first time that had happened to my comp but it wasn't for me. haha

Anyway, the entire Zone of 33 didnt get a single baptism the entire month of March, which is really bad. but we should get going here in the next few weeks, I'm not worried. 

Dad, I loved your Spanish advice. haha, and using Mijo is a total mexican thing to do, they don't really say that here. anyway, so you know.  In our current house of six, five are from america, and just so you know English is way more fun to talk in. But my brain has already made a switch. For example, I can no longer sing a hymn in English, if I'm out in the streets talking my brain won't let me talk english to anyone except my companion. that is a funny one because the owner of our apartment always talks to us in English and its super hard to talk back with out using at least Spanglish. Also I have already had quite a few Spanish dreams. Last night I had one where I was in Provo actually on third south and ninth east and I dont know why but I was talking Spanish to someone.... oh ya my first Spanish dream I ever had all I did was order a pizza over the phone. haha

I can't believe school is already out for cameron at least. Does byui end earlier than byu normal? We will see how cams selling skills turn out. Really all he needs to do is what they tell him in the training meetings and then not be lazy and he will make plenty of money. the trick is the lazy part. 

Anyway, some bad news.... So on Saturday between the hours of 3:30pm and 9:00 pm my iPod and my Perfect Push ups got stolen.... We dont know by who or how because our house was locked and everthing was normal. The really weird thing is that both of those things were just sitting on my desk. Also on my desk in plain sight was my camera and my DVD player and my walet. two feet away was my comps desk with an ipod and dvd player and other things. And in other rooms there were speakers, DVD players, money, MP3 players, and other various expensive and steal-able items. The strangeness of the situation leads us to assume things that we dont want to be true, specifically about the one non american living in the house. Whatever the case is it isn't a huge deal, I got the iPod for free, I'm actually more mad about the Perfect pushups being gone. Anyway if they turn up or  we find out more I will let you know,  but for right now you don't have to do anything about it.  

Anyway, Have fun in Mexico, be safe and don't let dad speak Spanish to anyone..... hahah

Love Elder Carlson!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Conference, I Loved It!





Me with Elder Moffitt

Elder Moffitt's shirt...he went to the University of Utah before his mission


Dear Family,


Oh my gosh that snow is amazing.... I'm super jealous.... It's going to be getting cold here soon but we aren't going to get any snow.... I guess thats better though, its not like we would have time to play in it or anything anyway. It would just make working a big pain.....

Anyway, a ton happened this week! Conference first and foremost. I did absolutely love it. It was fantastic. I did get the box too, last Wednesday. Thank you for everything. It all works fantastic and yes everything was still there. Just so you know, I have never heard of anyones box ever getting opened before it got to them.... 

Anyway, I noticed a few themes throughout conference..... Tithing.... Temples (Specificly getting married in the temple.... Spencer......) and Trials too. Elder Holland's talk was awesome as usual I especially liked the part of "Gods voice will be heard" and first comes the witness of the prophets and apostles and second comes the witness of earthquakes and disaster.... very second coming like....

Speaking of which. I would like my name with the churches when the day of burning comes (elder Nelson) so could you write out a check for my tithing for that apx money that came in October and in January. You will have to get on my bank and check the exact amounts, then its just 10 percent...... haha

I really really liked Elder Christofferson's talk, Robbins of the Seventy had a really good one too.

I forgot to tell you but a couple of weeks ago, on change day. I had a bad fever that came out of nowhere.... it was like 101.6 or so.... luckily it pretty much went away the second we got to the church in Montevideo... 

So today we moved out of our tiny apartment. They are going to be doing a few fixes and painting, we are going to be out for like two weeks. We moved in with our ZLs, it's already a four elder house,. but luckily its huge. the only thing is today because of conference and all there are an extra 4 elders living there for a few days. so for today and tomorrow its a 10 elder house! yeah, how fun...

Also I haven't ever mentioned this but I'm getting fatter. I havent gained much, like 10 pounds. But there are elders dropping weight like crazy. Elder Plyler, one of the elders that came with me has lost like 40 pounds....

Ha so Elder Moffitt, my new comp only has 3 changes more than me in the mission like 4 months, and for some reason people here are always saying something about our Spanish, whether it be a compliment or insult. Anyway, we keep getting mixed reviews, so I made a little list of the times that people say my Spanish stinks and Moffitt's is really good and for the times that are just the opposite. For example we have this family that we are teaching. The mom is kinda weird but Moffitt would explain something and she would just look really confused, then I would teach something and she would praise me for my teaching and speaking skills, and the member that was with us totally agreed with her. haha it hurt Moffitt's confidence a little. But then the day before we were contacting and these two old catholic ladies came out and Moffitt started out and then I picked up where he left off, the lady cut me off and asked us "What languages do you speak" Moffitt said, "Spanish and English" She turned to Moffit and said, "You speak really good spanish" and then she turned to me "and You speak really bad spanish"..... Good old 33

They made a few slight rule changes, Now we are allowed to take a small dinner break, before no. Now we have 30 mins to eat around 6 ish.... interesting. Also in the Cyber we can use two separate computers as long as they are right next to each other, before we had to take turns....

Anyway, thats about it. We didn't have a single investigator come to conference, but we are working with some good people so it should be fine..... Watching conference as a missionary with a bunch of missionaries was just awesome....

Thats all for now!

Love
Elder Carlson!