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

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

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!

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!

In Trienta y Tres With Elder Moffitt

Hey everybody!

So, Dad, Ya I got to see Elder Bendschenieder, or however you spell it at changes the other day. He looks good, ready to get out of the CCM, I don't know his trainer but I'm sure he's good. He is in an area called Trinidad. One of the guys in my group elder Plyler started in Trinidad, I'm pretty sure he really liked it. He is in a biking area. 

Anyway, Im here in Trienta y Tres! (33) Everything is going just peachy. My new comp Elder Moffitt is from SLC, he went to Brighton High School. He has 10 months in the mission. We have a good number of investigators right now so we are keeping busy, Our area isn't a downtown kinda area. Actually its really similar to Estacion. They both are fairly small towns. Nothing really big building wise, but I did get to see some cool public statue things today. Maybe I will send some pics next week.

No Box yet. Maybe this Tuesday though. 

Conference- we are all going to the Stake center and watching it together. It's going to be great. I'm sure we are just going to buy a bunch of food and pig out during it too. I'm really excited. The last conference was amazing and recently we re listened to all the talks off my ipod, except i dont know why but the sunday morning session wasn't on there.... oh well. 

That is so awesome about Zach White! I bet you he will be learning Spanish and some Guarani. It's the native language there. Almost all the missionaries from Paraguay that are here in my mission speak both. But yeah, it gets really hot. 40 c is normal for them. Not fun. 

I remembered about Dad´s birthday already. And yes that is crazy I have an old man father now. 

It's starting to get cold already. We have had some chilly morinings already. Oh yes and my new house has an air conditioner. It's like the only one in the mission. Figures, right when it starts getting cold. But our house is teeny, very smalll and it's only a two elder house not a four  elder house like my last one....

Well I think that is about it for now. I forgot my camera cable.... but maybe next week.

Have fun in Mexico!

Love,

Elder Carlson

P.S. Is Whitney going to Mexico? or Spencer or Cam?

Leaving Florida

Hey Everybody!

This week flew by. We have changes tomorrow. I'm going to be leaving my good old oro area here in Florida and head up a little north to a city called 33. My area is called Central, I don't know if it's a downtown area but I know 33 isn't a very big city I think it's like Florida sizewise. We were expecting me to leave because I already have had 3 changes here which is fairly normal for an first area. But then on Sunday night Presidente Da Silva called. He only calls a few people before changes. Assistants, Secretaries, Financers, and Zone Leaders. He asked to talk with my comp. Turns out he is going to be a Zone Leader. That is the second, of two, of my comps that have become zone leaders after being comps with me. Anyway after we found that out we were doubting that I was going to leave because the Zone Leaders have specific areas in each zone and so we knew that Pesqueira was leaving for sure. And we werent really expecting a white wash in our area.... anyway. We got calls and it turns out that they changed the Zone Leader Area to my old area Estacion so Pesqueira is going to be staying! My new comps name is Elder Mofit. I don't know anything about him but I have seen him around. He was just comps with one of the elders in my CCM group, Elder Sasselli. So I am taking over his area in 33. I like my area here a lot but I have been here a while and talked with everyone multiple times and I would like to get to know a few more areas so everything worked out well. I just don't want to pack. That is going to be awful. We leave tomorrow at 9 in the morning.

No news on the box, there is a good chance that I will get it tomorrow at changes.
Also we have a few old investigators that we are working with but recently we found a part member family with twin 9 year olds that want to get baptized! Yeah! Now they just have to come to church! haha

Spanish is going really well. I don't really have many problems now a days. I just have to pay attention to understand people. Elder Pesqueira and I don't really talk that much Spanish..... because he isn't a real Latino, he is from Orem. My next comp is a gringo, but maybe we will speak more Spanish, who knows.

I think that is about it.

Anyway... Love You All!

Elder Carlson

5 Baptisms This Week!

Dear Family,

Well the weather is getting a lot nicer, it has cooled down quite a bit. I have noticed that this entire change, like the last 5 weeks, has been a little cooler. Just yesterday it dropped to like 20 degrees C, I don't know what that is in F. but it's significantly cooler. There isn't really fall in this country it shifts pretty fast from summer to winter, so we will see how long this nice weather will last.

I have a kinda weird request. Do you remember the photo that you included in that little book you made for me of dad and his big Alaska fish? Could you send me the original by email. I want to print it out.  Thank you

SO.... This week was incredibly busy and awesome! We had all 5 baptisms!!!! Yeah! and a whole boat load of problems!!!!!!! yeah!  Haha there are always problems when you are trying to baptize, this week was normal problems X 10.

So we baptized:

Daiana and Alejandro age 22 and 41

Joselin age 15

Maria and Maria! age 82 and 14

I baptized Joselin, Elder Pesqueira baptized Daiana, Alejandro, and old Maria... Daiana and Maria with my help. And then we had a future missionary in our ward named Martin baptize little Maria.

So, up until Friday everthing was going good. My comp and another elder (we did a comp exchange) went over the interview questions on Thursday and there weren't any problems. But when we came back and went over them again on Friday with the Marias, the old Maria (she is 82), was having some problems because they hadn't eaten in a while and she started blaming our church, it was kinda confusing because she is a crazy old lady and kinda goes off about weird stuff sometimes. Anyway, she said she didn't want to get baptized.... But we were going to be coming back on Saturday morning to do the interview for at least the little Maria. 

Saturday. We planned on having the interviews at 10 in the morning with the ZLs, they didn't end up getting started till 11:15. Finished by like 12 ish and took a taxi over to Marias, Old Maria was really happy and said she wanted to get baptized. We had told our president of the branch what they had told us about not having food and he ended up pulling some stuff together and bringing it to them. So we had the interviews and they took forever but we finished without problems. We ran to lunch, 2 hours late, and then filled up the font. Then at 5:30 we walked over to the Marias house again to call a taxi and bring them all to the church. we called the taxi at 6ish and it was supposed to be there at 6:15. Well we called them back at 6:30 to see why they weren't there, they finally showed up at 6:40, but the stinkin taxi driver already had a person in the taxi and thought he could get away with double booking his taxi!!!! So we decided to put the Marias in the taxi and start running to the church, we told the taxi driver that he needed to drop the Marias off at the Mormon church and then drive back on this big road called Artigas and pick us up and then we would pay him for everything. So we took off it was already 6:50, oh and it takes about 30 minutes walking to get from Marias to the Church. So we started out running until we got to Artigas then we were basically powerwalking and waiting for the taxi to come get us... 

The stinkin taxi never came back. He never got paid either. It ended up making us even later. And we still hadn't set up chairs or figured out baptismal clothing for our investigators! Luckly the other elders set up the chairs for us. We got the clothing figured out, got changed and got started. There weren't any other major problems after that except screaming children and both me and Elder Pesqueira had to be in the font to baptize two of the people because of certain difficulties.

The Marias, Joselin, Daiana, Alejandro, Elder Pesqueira, me and Martin

Anyway it all turned out fantastic and they all came to church the next day and got confirmed. Yeah.

Now we just find some more people to teach...

Love 

Elder Carlson 

P.S. We have transfers on the 22nd. Yep, there is a really good chance that I will be changing areas so there is a really good chance that I will be seeing Elder Bendtschneider in a few days.