Macumba...Black Witchcraft

Wow so Whitney is finally done.... You know what that means. 

You guys are official old as can be.

Viejazo in Spanish

Doughnuts. Yup they were yummy but really fattening, we probably won't be making those again. We invited the whole district, 8 of us in total. So I decided to make a double batch. it used like 2 kilos of flour. almost 4 and a half pounds. And it made a ton! I got sick of making them and baked a bunch as rolls in the oven. It turned out ok, just kinda a sweet roll.

Anyway. Sebastian and his family are doing great. Seba came to church like normal. but this time his mom came with him. She said she might, but we weren't really expecting her to show up. They are a good family, they are just progressing really slow. It's ok though. We have to keep visiting them anyway to teach Sebastian the lessons of Retention. 

We also had Arlene come to church. We are excited about that but she might be leaving to work in Rivera.  It's a city that is on the border with Brazil.  She is a doctor and used to work there for a long time but then she started having problems with anxiety and they made her stop working for a little while. But we will see what happens.

We found a really cool guy this week. He is about 23 ish, his name is Federico. He is really receptive and we have had  two really good lessons with him. The only thing is that he said he would come to church and he didn't. But thats pretty normal. It usually takes most people some time to gain the faith to come to church. I wish it wasn't so hard but hey, es lo que hay.

Anyway other than that everything is going well. Elder Alvey and I get a long just fine. He is a Ute fan but its ok, I believe in the power of repentance. 

I got to do an intercambio with the Brazilian elder in my district, it was really fun, I got to learn a lot of portuguese :) 

Also weird little things happend.

We were walking on this dirt road and we saw some lights in the some tall grass that was on the side of the road. and we were  like, why are there lights right there?  My comp thought it was a fire, it wasn't flickering so I thought they were just some little light bulbs.  Anyway we got a little closer and it was about 8 candles in a circle around some weird looking thing in the middle. We realized it was a sacrafice from one of the weird religions down here, Macumba [black witchcraft practiced in Brazil]. It was dark out so it kinda scared us away but we went back the next day during the day, the sacrafice was a plate covered in uncooked popcorn with a large piece of uncooked meat with a row of tiny baked potatoes and a hard boiled egg cut in half in every corner of the plate, it  was carefully prepared. It was kinda weird.

Anyway thats about all for this week. Hope everything is well.

Love,

Elder Carlson

Sebastian's Baptism

Hey everyone!

So this week was good. A little crazy but... Sebastian finally got baptized!!!!!

Here are some pictures from his baptism:

It stinks a little though becasue my other comp Elder Segura didn't get to see it. So we had changes this week. Elder Segura is in Melo now. I am here with Elder Alvey from Ogden UT.

He is really tall. He is 2 meters. thats 6 ft 6.

So fun news.... This change 4 Brazilians came to our mission. These are the first brazilians that we have had in our mission my whole time here.  The weirder thing.... We were talking about what the changes could be. We guessed that I would probably be District Leader again and I also guessed that Elder Dinkel would be training. In Elder Dinkel's ward the bishop's wife had a dream that a brazilian would becoming to the area. And well it came true! it was really crazy. It's funny because they are the only elders in the mission  that don't know english or spanish. The good thing is that spanish and portuguese are super similar. They were in the MTC in Brazil for only 6 weeks. Elder Tampellini is the elder in my district. He is from Sao Paulo. He speaks spanish fairly well, mostly just has a very obvious Portuguese accent. And every once in a while he throws out a portuguese word. But im excited to get to practice for real now. 

So the baptism was great. We had a lot of problems, all of which I will not tell here but in the end everything was great, his parents both came and they loved it. It really might help them to start progressing.

Today we invited our district over and we are going to make Krispy Kreme Doughnuts! :) yum....

I can't believe that school is almost over, that's crazy.

Love, 

Elder Carlson

Dear family,
The Holmes' dinner sounds really delicious. I would love some BBQ ribs. I did make BBQ chicken once, it was yummy. 

Anyway, The biggest news (and only news) since yesterday night..... Change Calls

I am staying here in Melilla (Melisha) My new comp is Elder Alvey, I already know him because I was in his zone when he started the mission. He is really tall, like 6 ft 4 or 5 or 6 or something. He is from Bountiful Utah. He has about 6 or 7 months in the mission.

My comp, Elder Segura is going up to Melo its close to Brasil. 

The other two elders in the house are staying put. I´m the district leader again. And the other elders Elder Robertson and Elder Dinkle are both training. Robertson is leaving in a white wash and Dinkle is staying and training.

So I will be going to Changes tomorrow and I will get to see a bunch of other elders, including Elder Moffit. I will talk to him about going and visiting you guys. 

Well that's about all I have to say.

Love You guys

Elder Carlson

Sebastian's Getting Baptized!

Dear Family,
No box so far, but I'm sure it will arrive sometime.

That was a great picture mom,  nice snooping :)

For Mother's Day - I'm almost positive 2 o clock your time will work. 5 o clock my time.

I think google+ will work, you go ahead and jump on my account  and add everyone as a friend and everything.... that way when I jump on it on Sunday I won't have to do any of that.

So Sebastian will be baptized this week! :) We announced his baptism and he is all ready!

We talked to the Relief Society and got him some clothing and I gave him a tie so now he looks really sharp in church.... Here's a picture of him:

Ya it was a really good Sunday, I think maybe for the first time in my life I enjoyed my fast. Not that I wasn't hungry, I just enjoyed it. I think it helped that I studied the law of the fast on Sunday. Isaiah 58 is a great chapter about fasting.  

I am really scatterbrained, thinking about a lot of stuff right now. Anyway thats about all I can think about....

Today we decided to do something fun. There is a homeless man that stays near our house and we all ways see him and he talks to us every once and a while. He is a religious man and has a lot of faith in God despite his dificult circumstances. Today was are going to make lunch and go and eat with him in the park. It's a nice day and we have had the idea for a while. It's going to a nice experience.

Other that that I think I will clean and make some bread or something. Yesterday night I made a apple crumble it was very delicious:

Love you guys. Talk to you Sunday!

Love, 

Elder Carlson