Temple Trip.....
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
La vida de un misionero...3/30/2011
Well it's been an exciting week as always! Nothing ever seems to slow down around here - I definitely like it here in Mesa though, especially considering I was able to go to the temple today!!! It's been 8 months since I've been and I really needed it. It was a good spiritual boost and time to re-charge the batteries. Well I do have to say that I love the missionaries here and I'm so glad that we get the chance to learn from each other and have fun. I went on exchanges with a three-some last week (one elder was in the hospital getting a knee surgery) so I got to train 2 greenies - one brand new! It was quite the interesting experience... Especially considering they're both super random, shame-less guys with a lot of quirks. It was cool though, and I got to do a baptismal interview for a girl who got baptized this last Saturday. I'm excited because I'm going to be able to do my first Spanish one tomorrow! That'll be cool.
Since we had a lot of people on date this past week in the entire zone we had a huge fast for all of them and it looks like a lot of them are going through! We're definitely trying to apply Helaman 3:35 and always remember that spiritual strength comes from humility and relying on the Lord - knowing where everything comes from. Sadly it's been tough for us lately because Fatima, who has 3 daughters that are going to get baptized with her sometime in the future, is still having issues with her husband (who's in some kind of recuperation place and she hasn't seen for a year). She's got limited communication and wants him to be with her in this decision. She takes care of 5 girls all by herself and needs his help, so it makes the situation difficult. But she's awesome, has a solid testimony in the Book of Mormon and the Church, so we know she'll get baptized eventually.
Ana and Pedro are still doing great - we went and had hamburgers at their place and watched The Testaments with them this last Friday. Basically one of the best nights of my life...they're probably some of my favorite people I've ever taught. What was also weird is after that day of fasting we randomly had 2 dinners of solid hamburgers! With Mexicans! kind of strange - needless to say, we were quite full afterwards.
We also got to go to this meeting for the Easter Pageant here at the Mesa Temple. Elder Johnson and I got invited to go with all of the zone leaders to help train the cast members in being missionaries! It's cool that they are set apart for that specifically and really are missionaries for that time. So we found all the Spanish-speakers we could and talked to and helped them. Oh and random story - we went to a wedding in the ward on Saturday and it was so weird to go as a missionary... We basically tried to just eat and get out of there. We felt kind of out of place, especially when they started with music and dancing.
Sunday was also sweet because we had an unexpected family come to church! We've been teaching this lady Gabriela and her kids, and she called us up saying she needed a ride, so we all squeezed into this tiny little car and it was awesome to have her there. She has the sweetest little kids and it's fun to keep them occupied and quiet during sacrament meeting.
That night there was a Mission President's Fireside in Spanish and I got to sing "I stand all amazed" (asombro me da) with Elder Burgos (by the way, he's a Columbian who works with us in our ward) playing a sweet piano accompaniment. I don't know if I've ever had so many compliments in my life. It was a way good meeting though, and we got to hear a lot of testimonies from recent converts and mission leaders.
nd it was sweet on Monday - we got a referral for a sister of someone the zone leaders are teaching, and we had an awesome lesson with her! She was saying this is exactly what she wants for her family and she's all about reading the BOM and getting baptized. It was funny though, because while I was teaching the mom, Elder Johnson was teaching the 16-year old daughter and struggling. I guess she was pretty taken with him and flirting like crazy so it'll make things interesting - as a missionary that's not exactly fun stuff to deal with.... So life is good! I'm staying busy and loving Mesa!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
No pensaba que pudiera estar mas ocupado...3/23/2011
Buenos Dias a todos!
Wow, I always am amazed at how life can somehow get busier all the time!! Before I'd be busy all day long but at least get to rest a little bit when I got home at night. Now after planning I get to make all kinds of nightly calls and I hardly have time to even write in my journal before I go to bed. But it's fun and I enjoy the time helping out my district and getting them excited about making goals and getting more work done than ever before! Mesa as a zone is really taking off here, and everyone is honestly getting pretty excited - I don't know if I've ever seen President Howes so excited before. As soon as we got here, he said he was expecting big things as a zone and we now have 26 or so people on-date for baptism and Elder Johnson and I had 6 in the past two days... So life is good, and we're really trying to keep everything going, keep people progressing, and stay super humble - Because it's the Lord that does all the work and we're just out to harvest.
So last week on St. Patrick's Day was Elder Johnson's birthday and we had an amazing day! We had an incredible amount of lessons, found a ton of new people to teach, and had members with us for good fellowship. The funniest story of the day I have to say was teaching this lady named Yanira - she has this little boy Oscar who was running and yelling back and forth and carrying cups of water around. Anyways, he stopped all of the sudden in the kitchen and had this way helpless look on his face as he slowly slipped and then fell down on his face. His mom rushed over and said ya sabes decir "pee pee"! You already know how to say you need to go to the bathroom! So...right there he wet his pants and then sadly fell first right in his own mess - so in a completely mature and missionary-like way we found the whole situation extremely funny and busted up laughing as soon as we got outside. It was cool finding so many new people this week and seeing what it takes to get in people's houses. We're getting decent at teaching the first lesson since that's all we seem to do...
But on another note, we have more exciting news - Fatima, an investigator who has been investigating for months and months and been through many many missionaries, accepted a baptismal date for April 16th!! So she is going to be baptized then with her 3 little girls. She's never accepted a date like that before, and we had a member with us for an incredible lesson on Monday. I don't think I've ever had a more spiritually intense lesson in my entire life!
Oh, and this last week Ana and Pedro accepted a date for April 9th and they came to church for the first time. They're basically my favorite people ever. Anyway, for their first time at church we had a long sacrament meeting with really long talks given by people that were really really struggling with spanish (i think they were stake leaders). It was painful to listen to, but that wasn't even the worst part. Our last class of the day? A smack-down lesson on pornography and addictions! it was also given by people that couldn't speak well, and it was pretty intense, but thankfully Ana and Pedro are super strong and they just found it all very interesting. Apparently Elder Johnson and Matheson found them when they were going to check out a referral way down south and found out the address didn't exist. When they were deciding what to do, some lady at a nursery called out to them and ended up introducing them to Ana. Miracle.
We also found 2 people outside their place yesterday, taught them, and they accepted a baptismal date for April as well so we're just going to have to keep working with all these people, and doing absolutely as much as we can to get them solid fellowship and keep them progressing in the gospel. I love having a smaller area and being able to make more consistent contact with all the people we're teaching. One of the joys of being here and on a bike.
So I'm still getting to know the ward but life is good and we're doing all we can here!
hasta la proxima,
Elder Carlson
Muchos cambios...3/16/2011
Hola otra vez! (Hello again!)
Well, hello from Mesa! I do have to say it's a completely different world here, and it's been a huge adjustment in terms of missionaries, area, members, apartment, and missionary work in general. I do have to say it's fun being with Elder Johnson again - we get a whole lot of work done, and I feel like we're starting to work more and more efficiently. It's been kind of rough to start out, because I don't really know any members and I don't know who we can get a hold of to be fellowships and to help out with us in lessons, but it's starting to come and it's cool being in a Spanish ward instead of a branch.
Okay, well I'm going to start out with my highlight of the week - we had an awesome lesson last night with this referral that we contacted. The lady that answered the door just let us in without us hardly even saying anything, and we literally had the best, most enjoyable lesson with her entire family! They were all super attentive, and we taught the Restoration very simply and clearly. We've been focusing on doing that - making lessons shorter, more powerful, and easier to understand. They all understood everything without a problem, and were all excited to read the Book of Mormon! I can't even describe what exactly it was (well obviously it was the spirit) but we were just walking on air afterwards. I was happier than I've just about ever been. I love that feeling!
And a quick random super funny story - so a couple elders in my district had an interesting OYM last night. To make a long story short, a very drunk African lady basically attacked them and hugged them and they ended up with lipstick on their collars... It was an extremely entertaining story, and the best part is that the senior companion there is a super quiet, somewhat awkward guy that I would have loved to see in that type of situation. Anyway, we were having somewhat of a competition with them to see who could get the most OYM's yesterday (talk to the most people about the gospel) and let's just say we almost doubled theirs...It's never a good idea to throw out a challenge like that to Spanish bike missionaries who have all kinds of trailer parks and apartment complexes in their area. But it's fun to push each other to work harder and be better! Oh and speaking of OYMs, we were challenged to teach a quick restoration lesson in under a minute during an OYM, and we had a way cool experience with that. I talked to this random lady all about it and we are now teaching her sister (she lives in a different area) while she's being taught by other missionaries. It was just cool to see her reaction - it was logical to her, and we all left happy and feeling great!
Well, it's a different style of missionary work here- we find a whole lot more through referrals than we do through tracting or anything else. I'm getting used to it though, and I'm excited to see everything take off here. We're planning out how we can get members involved as fellowshippers and not just simply be present in a lesson. It makes all the difference in the world!
And Elder Johnson's definitely keeping me in shape - we run to the track and have a good workout every morning, and we do plyos and weights and everything too. That and riding the bike of course helps as well. Speaking of which, I finally got my bike fixed again and hopefully it should be good for a while...I don't know if bikes are meant to be used as much as we use them!
So it's been an interesting change being the district leader here. I get to do nightly calls, training meetings, stake reports, gathering stats, all kinds of good stuff. We actually just had this training meeting last week and learned a TON! It makes it tough to write in my journal, because there's so many other things to do, but i love it and it's fun to be that example for the missionaries here. I also found out something that is going to rock my missionary world!! Preparation days are going to be changed next transfer to Mondays and that's going to throw off my whole week every week, but luckily that's not going to be for another week.
Anyways, that's about it for the week! I love it here in Mesa, and I'm just learning all the time!
Hasta luego!
Transferred! Ya me fui ...3/09/2011
Buenas Tardes!
Well, it turns out that I did get transferred and I'm serving here in the Mesa Zone, right around the mission home. It's interesting how crazy transfer calls are for missionaries - Everyone is stressed out and super anxious, wondering what's going to happen to them and if they're going to go. I couldn't handle it, so I had to work out while I was waiting. Anyway, I got a call from President Howes late Monday night, and he called me to be a District Leader! I was definitely not expecting that one but yeah, he said that he was going to take the Yuma out of me and I found out about the rest this morning. It's definitely going to make things a lot different - a whole lot more work, and a whole lot more responsibilities. But I look forward to it and it will be a definite learning process.
So I'm here in Mesa and my companion is...my boy! Elder Johnson! We took a one transfer break from each other and now we're already back together again. I still can't even believe it - boggles my mind. But it's fun, because Elder Matheson (who served in Yuma with me for 3 transfers and was Elder Johnson's comp this last one) is our zone leader and it's like one big family reunion! I have a good feeling about this transfer.
But my last week in Yuma was a good one for sure. On Friday I got to see Omar baptized and that's a way cool story. That guy went from smoking packs of cigarettes a day and talking about permiscuous things to stopping it all and reading the Book of Mormon every single day. It's amazing to see people make such huge changes in their life and especially see that it comes from within - when they make that internal choice to follow the Savior and to keep those commandments they just do it. We can only do so much. Another highlight of the week was last night, where we got to see Amy Olmeda get baptized! She's 22 and has been taught since September and finally decided to make the commitment. She always knew it was right but wanted to do it when she didn't feel pressured - like it was all her. Her older sister is an inactive member who's starting to come back, and it was really sweet to be able to see them go through this together. They were bawling afterwards, and her older sister promised she was going to be the example and be the best member. I don't know what it was about it, but it was one of the coolest baptisms that I've ever been to. A special one for sure.
But the week was way fun - i got to spend it with Elder Martinez and Lindquist, and we got a lot of work done! We visited so many people, had two baptisms, and had so much fun doing it. Martinez is super funny and entertaining, and I'm going to really miss him. He's headed down to do work in San Luis until he gets his visa. What's sad though is that yesterday we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and he did the blazin challenge and totally didn't make it! We had to tease him saying that since he's a Mexican he should be able to do it in under 30 seconds but asi pasa la vida...
We also had an awesome experience this last Sunday! This lady came to church who I've never seen before (I think it's some member's mom) and she loved all the classes and everything about church. I talked to her and got her address, and we visited her after church. We basically taught all of the first lesson and she couldn't stop talking about how much she loved church. She said it filled her in a way that no church ever had before. We talked about the fruits of the spirit, and it's so cool to teach people that can already recognize the spirit! They know that it's right and they know what they need to do. When we asked her to be baptized she answered with a solid yes and said that she was ready to make a step like this. All I have to say is .... the field is white!!!!
We also found a sweet new family to teach before I left. We were visiting Cesar Barraza (who still isn't baptized but said he would soon) and his sister-in-law was there with her family. I taught them about the Restoration, and the mom absolutely loved it! She really wanted us to come teach their family so we went over just a couple days ago and found her with her mom, brother, and nephew, and talked to all of them about it. They were all so open and receptive, and I could tell that the Lord had really prepared them to hear this and to accept His gospel. We really are only the tools, and are only here to harvest. The Lord has already done all the work and has prepared people all over... we just need to find them!
So I'm excited to see how things are here in Mesa and see the difference! Should be fun!
Creo que ahora ya me voy - a ver...3/02/2011
Bueno- Well this week was a way good week - We had baptisms!!! It was really sad - I actually typed out almost everything that happened this week and the computer apparently discarded it... But it was sweet to see this family baptized this past week. Gloria and Ricardo Juarez (a mom and one of her sons) both got baptized this last Wednesday and it was cool to be a part of it. It was somewhat interesting because last-minute all these branch leaders told us they couldn't make it and couldn't make the program, so we had to hurry and put everything together. We still played the piano him with the right hand and me with the left, and the branch gets a kick out of it. Nobody really knows how to play the piano and I'm sure it's funny to see us sitting way close together with our hands across our body to play. It's tough not knowing when exactly he's going to play the notes, but I'm pretty sure it sounded solid. That and the water was like ice - the water heater at the stake center is having issues and the water literally feels like glacier water. It makes baptisms fun. And Gloria was really hesitant to get in because she doesn't like the cold (nobody around here knows anything about the cold), but she eventually did very slowly and it all worked out. We were kind of stressed out though because Eugenio, the 15-year old son, told us that he was having doubts and that he just didn't feel like he was ready. We really talked to him and testified about everything, and had him pray (while we were praying like crazy!), but he had just thoroughly convinced himself that he wasn't going to go through with it that day.
So... a couple days later I went over to his house with a member from our branch and we were just teaching the Restoration again to the family. Eugenio out of nowhere asked if he could tell me something - he just simply said,"I want to get baptized". I told him that he had come to the right people and that we could take care of that :) it was cool, because we had actually reserved the church and the font for the very next day! We had scheduled a baptism, but it had fallen through. So Eugenio got baptized the very next day, and it was amazing to see the difference in him between Wednesday and Saturday. He was so sure of himself and so confident that he was doing the right thing. He said that he had woken up that day happy, just knowing that baptism is what he needed to do, and he didn't even question it. The Lord really does answer prayers!! So his baptism was also interesting because not only was the water ice cold, but it was also really low and Eugenio is a big dude. Like at least 3 times my size. Anyway, I was baptizing him and I ended up having to do it three times to get him completely under the water (a toe or something kept popping out). It was funny though and he was completely cool with it, because he kept on telling his family how he was extra baptized and super clean. For him, it was definitely something special.
Another highlight for the week is that Elder Lindquist and I have a 3rd companion! His name is Elder Martinez, and he's a way cool elder from San Diego (like maybe 3 hours away! pretty close). We took him out tracting and OYM-ing yesterday, and it was way cool to see all of his greenie fire. i was thinking about it yesterday, and thinking about how we all need to have that greenie fire ALL the time. We have to have the faith that the Lord prepares people, and we have to have the faith that they will accept the gospel. It can be so easy at times to get used to rejection and assume that almost everyone is going to keep saying no, but when we have that faith and that enthusiasm people can tell and will respond differently. I've definitely noticed recently that your sincerity and enthusiasm matters a whole lot more than what you say. People feel that difference and when your excited and happy, it gets them thinking (and totally catches them off-guard).
One thing that's also funny is what happened at sacrament meeting on Sunday. We have this investigator Omar, who is actually getting baptized this Friday because he finally quit smoking!! Anyway, he apparently really doesn't like bread so that's his only complaint about going to church. He keeps asking if they put a cracker in there for him and if they're going to have kool-aid instead of water. So Omar asked Elder Lindquist who was in charge here and how that all worked. So he talked all about the leadership of the entire church and how it all worked. Omar just said,"that's cool...so who do I need to talk to about putting a cracker in there??" That was all he cared about, and it made me laugh.
So yep, work is going good, and I'm fairly sure I'm getting transferred next Wednesday and that's why they only sent 1 instead of 2 visa-waiters. It'll be sad to leave Yuma, but I think I'm ready for a change - something new! I'm excited though, and we're going to finish up strong!!
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