Dear Family,
So Change calls came and we are staying. In fact our entire district stays the exact same, really strange. Unfortunately I do not get to go to Montevideo this week for changes because there is no reason for me to go, so tomorrow we will just stay here and work like normal. I say unfortunately because I won't be able to say goodbye to Elder Luke. He has two days left in his mission. That's crazy. It seems like yesterday we were here in Florida. It's really normal that the trainer stays with his oro for 2 changes. That's how it was with Luke and I, and president told us that he was going to do that from now on so I wasn't suprised at all that we both stayed. It will probably be my last change in Florida. It would be out of the ordinary if it wasn't. Possible but strange.
So.... no one even asked me how my Thanksgiving was!
We ate lunch with a family that consists of a Mother and 5 boys the oldest being 14 the youngest 6 months and a girl thats about 5. I think they have a dad but he is working out of the country, Needless to say, money isn't something that abounds. The food wasn't bad by any means, but not the normal feast I am used too. I don't know if you recall last year, we were given two little hamberguer with rotten buns..... hgahah.... But this year was still really good, they are an awesome family. Really well behaved children. The oldest is a stud, really mature. Anyway Thursday night I made mini apple pies. I bought the premade empanada dough and filled it with apple pie filling and baked them and I made some vanilla ice cream, it was really good. I should have made a lot more though. They kinda reminded me of McDonalds apple pies. All in all a good Thanksgiving and of course with the sweating heat it didn't feel anything like a normal Thanksgiving.
It's getting hot here. The nights of a sweaty backs have already begun.
So we have some investigators, we are looking for more as always but we are having some trouble getting our investigators to church. It's the biggest snag on the road to baptism for us.
Everything will turn out good though. We found some good looks yesterday that we are excited about.
So I'm going to be sending a little box with Elder Luke (Soon to be know as Jason Luke) to bring to you guys in exchange for a Sunday dinner. I will give him our address and the cell phone number of mom and dad probably. I think he plans on going to California where he used to live first for like a week or so and then coming back to Utah. I'm sure he will let you know.
Im glad to hear everything is going well. Good luck on your big test Spencer. I will make sure to remember you in my prayers.
Thanks everyone for all the love and support.
Love,
Elder Carlson
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Temple Trip
Dear Family,
So Juan miguel still hasn't been baptized.... it looks like his dad kinda changed his mind as well, so the situation isn't getting better. But we aren't giving up, he is a stud. He came to mutual last week, like normal, but this time he brought 5 friends. Also we had district confernce. He went to one of the Saturday sessions, he is awesome.
This week was very nice. On Thursday we had the wonderful opportunity to go to the temple!!!!!! It had been 14 months since I had been through a session in the temple. And we did it in Spanish. That was interesting. My poor companion, he understood lots but I'm sure there was lots of stuff he didn't. Anyway we left Florida at 5 in the morning and had a nice early session around 6:30, after the temple we had a conference with President Da Silva, it was also really good. I am excited to be able to go when I get back. Do you guys know when the second temple is scheduled to be finished? Like 2 years or something? That will be fun to be able to go to the open house and dedication.
Thank you so much for the Christmas boxes. I will almost definitely receive them in 8 days because we have changes a week from tommorrow. It seems almost imposible that Elder Francis is almost done being an "Oro" or greenie. He will soon be a full fledged junior companion. Time flies. Also I might have already said this but normally the mission goes to the temple once a year. But it just so happened that I was in the CCM when they went a year ago, therfore I will only get to go once in my mission and once at the end of my mission, instead of twice in the mission and once at the end. Oh well its a good thing we live in Provo, the only city with two temples....
Im glad to hear that everything is going well. I hope you guys enjoy the vacation. Hopefully Spencer will got a lot of studying in. Although I probably won't be celebrating Thanksgiving like you guys I will be thanking the lord for all I have been given... I really feel like my mission is a huge blessing in my life both right now and in the future. And Dad, about your little comment about "knowing I miss home some times"... I don't want to offend you guys or anything, but I dont miss home. I´m too busy to miss home. But thanks for the loving words of consolation. Maybe I will quote them to my oro if he starts missing home during christmas :)
Everything is going great down here. Really humid but great, it's starting to get hot, we broke out the fans.....
Love,
Elder Carlson
P.S. Elder Luke comes home in 9 days, I will give him your phone number.
P.S.S. I tried making apple pie on Wednesday, it turned out delicious, also I made potato soup yesterday, also delicious, they don't have dill here or I couldn't find it but it was almost as good without it. also I made rolls last week, también, delicious!
So Juan miguel still hasn't been baptized.... it looks like his dad kinda changed his mind as well, so the situation isn't getting better. But we aren't giving up, he is a stud. He came to mutual last week, like normal, but this time he brought 5 friends. Also we had district confernce. He went to one of the Saturday sessions, he is awesome.
This week was very nice. On Thursday we had the wonderful opportunity to go to the temple!!!!!! It had been 14 months since I had been through a session in the temple. And we did it in Spanish. That was interesting. My poor companion, he understood lots but I'm sure there was lots of stuff he didn't. Anyway we left Florida at 5 in the morning and had a nice early session around 6:30, after the temple we had a conference with President Da Silva, it was also really good. I am excited to be able to go when I get back. Do you guys know when the second temple is scheduled to be finished? Like 2 years or something? That will be fun to be able to go to the open house and dedication.
Thank you so much for the Christmas boxes. I will almost definitely receive them in 8 days because we have changes a week from tommorrow. It seems almost imposible that Elder Francis is almost done being an "Oro" or greenie. He will soon be a full fledged junior companion. Time flies. Also I might have already said this but normally the mission goes to the temple once a year. But it just so happened that I was in the CCM when they went a year ago, therfore I will only get to go once in my mission and once at the end of my mission, instead of twice in the mission and once at the end. Oh well its a good thing we live in Provo, the only city with two temples....
Im glad to hear that everything is going well. I hope you guys enjoy the vacation. Hopefully Spencer will got a lot of studying in. Although I probably won't be celebrating Thanksgiving like you guys I will be thanking the lord for all I have been given... I really feel like my mission is a huge blessing in my life both right now and in the future. And Dad, about your little comment about "knowing I miss home some times"... I don't want to offend you guys or anything, but I dont miss home. I´m too busy to miss home. But thanks for the loving words of consolation. Maybe I will quote them to my oro if he starts missing home during christmas :)
Everything is going great down here. Really humid but great, it's starting to get hot, we broke out the fans.....
Love,
Elder Carlson
P.S. Elder Luke comes home in 9 days, I will give him your phone number.
P.S.S. I tried making apple pie on Wednesday, it turned out delicious, also I made potato soup yesterday, also delicious, they don't have dill here or I couldn't find it but it was almost as good without it. also I made rolls last week, también, delicious!
Monday, November 14, 2011
Prayers Would Be Appreciated
Dear family,
I hope there aren't any problems with the video chat on Christmas day. There are a lot of little things that I could see going wrong. I'm sure president will let us know how he wants us to do it though.
Sounds like the new iphone is fun and fancy, so did everyone switch to AT&T or just you.... or did they come out with the iphone for Verizon?
Well we had a good but very difficult week. We started the week not having a planned baptism, we had a district meeting on Tuesday inspiring us to find someone that was prepared and willing and baptize them that week. The Lord prepared the way and we looked through the people we had and former investigators with the qualifications necessary to be baptized this week, specificly investigators that had gone to church a lot in the past. Juan Miguel was one of them his only obstacle is his grandma. I think I have told you about him before. We were able to call the grandma on tuesday and talk with her. At the end she said that if Juan Miguel felt good about it and he wanted to do it she wouldn't stop him, Miracle right?!
We notified the ward-Juan Miguel was super excited and told tons of ward members at Mutual. He told his friends and family too. Everything was going good. We did a companion exchange and got the interview done and everything just perfect. At 3:00 on Saturday we recieved a call telling us that Juan Miguel needed to talk to us because he couldn't get baptized... Turns out his grandma changed her mind and also convinced his mother that it w as a bad idea. Basically turned his whole family against him. Just to try, I called his grandma to try to reason with her, the grandfather answered and after a few words from me started yelling at me. It was very unfortunate. Juan Miguel was devastated. He was at the point of tears when he told us. Very sad. After talking to him more we found out that the only obstacle is really his mother. His father is willing to let him get baptized but wants the mother to be fine with it too. Hopefully we will be able to talk with the mother to help her understand how important it is for Juan Miguel.... Prayers would be greatly appreciated.
Despite this very dificult situation we had a fairly positive week. we found a lot of new really promising investigators.... I don't have any more time but thanks for all the letters.
Love,
Elder Carlson
I hope there aren't any problems with the video chat on Christmas day. There are a lot of little things that I could see going wrong. I'm sure president will let us know how he wants us to do it though.
Sounds like the new iphone is fun and fancy, so did everyone switch to AT&T or just you.... or did they come out with the iphone for Verizon?
Well we had a good but very difficult week. We started the week not having a planned baptism, we had a district meeting on Tuesday inspiring us to find someone that was prepared and willing and baptize them that week. The Lord prepared the way and we looked through the people we had and former investigators with the qualifications necessary to be baptized this week, specificly investigators that had gone to church a lot in the past. Juan Miguel was one of them his only obstacle is his grandma. I think I have told you about him before. We were able to call the grandma on tuesday and talk with her. At the end she said that if Juan Miguel felt good about it and he wanted to do it she wouldn't stop him, Miracle right?!
We notified the ward-Juan Miguel was super excited and told tons of ward members at Mutual. He told his friends and family too. Everything was going good. We did a companion exchange and got the interview done and everything just perfect. At 3:00 on Saturday we recieved a call telling us that Juan Miguel needed to talk to us because he couldn't get baptized... Turns out his grandma changed her mind and also convinced his mother that it w as a bad idea. Basically turned his whole family against him. Just to try, I called his grandma to try to reason with her, the grandfather answered and after a few words from me started yelling at me. It was very unfortunate. Juan Miguel was devastated. He was at the point of tears when he told us. Very sad. After talking to him more we found out that the only obstacle is really his mother. His father is willing to let him get baptized but wants the mother to be fine with it too. Hopefully we will be able to talk with the mother to help her understand how important it is for Juan Miguel.... Prayers would be greatly appreciated.
Despite this very dificult situation we had a fairly positive week. we found a lot of new really promising investigators.... I don't have any more time but thanks for all the letters.
Love,
Elder Carlson
Monday, November 7, 2011
Video Chat for Christmas!
Dear Family,
Thats awesome about Josh Asplund, I assumed he was on a mission I just never heard anything about it. Suele pasar. That's fun that he is speaking Spanish too.
That's a cool story about sister Turley's talk at stake conference, but I don't know, or at least I cannot picture who she is, oh well!
So dad is a Sumo Sacerdote now... High Priest. That's cool, I wasn't expecting that. I dont really know who or why they call people to be high priests. I have been in Districts my whole mission so they don't have a high priest's quorm so I don't really know very much about them.
Gracias for the Christmas presents... now we will have to see how much self control I have. I hope it takes like 4 weeks to arrive, that would make it easier to resist. Last year I was pretty good, I only opened like 3 presents early... haha
Speaking of Christmas. I have a little suprise. We just found out this week that this year instead of doing a normal phone call we will be allowed to do a VIDEO Chat! I know that other missions have been doing that for some time now but we have some fairly strict rules here. I was really suprised to find out. Also they are going to get everyone a washing machine... that was super unexpected. I guess we are baptizing enought to merit such rewards. hahah. And I'm going to be sending a box home with my Trainer Elder Luke, he ends his mission at the end of November and he lives in Logan so he voluntered to take a box home (maybe in exchange for a Sunday dinner with the family). He is a great guy, he is the Assistant to the President right now.
So we had a baptism this week! Melani Lasalvia. She is the cousin of a recent convert. After seeing the baptism of her cousin and coming to the confirmation the next day she was fairly excited and willing to take the lessons and get baptized.
We are focusing right now on refilling our investigator pool.... it's getting a little lonely. Juan Miguel is still in limbo. His grandma still says no, but we have a secret weapon that we are going to try to use this week... President Davidson. He is a Seventy that is on special assignment. I'm sure I have mentioned him when I was in 33. Now he is working with Florida as well to make them a stake. so he voluntered to come with us to help win over the grandma. We are going to keep praying for that.
Everything is going really well here. It's getting hot. I'm looking forward to the days of continous sweating where you cannot escape the heat. Those are always fun..... oh yes and I'm not waking up wet from sweat yet so that's good.
I'm going to use the rest of my time to send some pictures!
Chau.
Love Elder Carlson
P.S. Once again I find myself in a under developed country. The stupid computer won't let me send photos... maybe next week!
Thats awesome about Josh Asplund, I assumed he was on a mission I just never heard anything about it. Suele pasar. That's fun that he is speaking Spanish too.
That's a cool story about sister Turley's talk at stake conference, but I don't know, or at least I cannot picture who she is, oh well!
So dad is a Sumo Sacerdote now... High Priest. That's cool, I wasn't expecting that. I dont really know who or why they call people to be high priests. I have been in Districts my whole mission so they don't have a high priest's quorm so I don't really know very much about them.
Gracias for the Christmas presents... now we will have to see how much self control I have. I hope it takes like 4 weeks to arrive, that would make it easier to resist. Last year I was pretty good, I only opened like 3 presents early... haha
Speaking of Christmas. I have a little suprise. We just found out this week that this year instead of doing a normal phone call we will be allowed to do a VIDEO Chat! I know that other missions have been doing that for some time now but we have some fairly strict rules here. I was really suprised to find out. Also they are going to get everyone a washing machine... that was super unexpected. I guess we are baptizing enought to merit such rewards. hahah. And I'm going to be sending a box home with my Trainer Elder Luke, he ends his mission at the end of November and he lives in Logan so he voluntered to take a box home (maybe in exchange for a Sunday dinner with the family). He is a great guy, he is the Assistant to the President right now.
So we had a baptism this week! Melani Lasalvia. She is the cousin of a recent convert. After seeing the baptism of her cousin and coming to the confirmation the next day she was fairly excited and willing to take the lessons and get baptized.
We are focusing right now on refilling our investigator pool.... it's getting a little lonely. Juan Miguel is still in limbo. His grandma still says no, but we have a secret weapon that we are going to try to use this week... President Davidson. He is a Seventy that is on special assignment. I'm sure I have mentioned him when I was in 33. Now he is working with Florida as well to make them a stake. so he voluntered to come with us to help win over the grandma. We are going to keep praying for that.
Everything is going really well here. It's getting hot. I'm looking forward to the days of continous sweating where you cannot escape the heat. Those are always fun..... oh yes and I'm not waking up wet from sweat yet so that's good.
I'm going to use the rest of my time to send some pictures!
Chau.
Love Elder Carlson
P.S. Once again I find myself in a under developed country. The stupid computer won't let me send photos... maybe next week!
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