Wow, this has been a way good week. The highlight was definitely this last Saturday, where we had 5 baptisms in the ward!! We had 2 (a couple - Juan and Maria - in their 50's) and the zone leaders had a family of 3. We had a lot of people there, and our ward is definitely getting excited about missionary work. What's also exciting is that there are 4 more this weekend (2 of ours and 2 the zone leaders)! Gabriela Garcia (in her 30's and has 3 little kids) and her little son Jose are both getting baptized this Saturday! She is one of the coolest ladies I have ever met. So she and her husband are separated and she has a whole lot on her plate but she does whatever it takes to get herself and her kids to church. She actually went over to her fellowship's house yesterday to cook us up a delicious lunch (chile rellenos) and she literally squealed and jumped for excitement when she heard that both of us were staying. She affectionately calls us "bonboncito" and "bonbonzote" which basically means little marshmallow and big marshmallow, but we just thought the word sounded funny and she enjoys calling us that. She's just the nicest, sweetest lady ever and super excited to get baptized on Saturday. Definitely one I'll have to keep in touch with.
So we also got to do something way cool this week with the Easter Pageant - they put a huge one on every year here by the Mesa temple. It's all about Jesus Christ, his life, his death, and his resurrection. It's packed with thousands and thousands of people that come from all over just to watch it. So on Friday - Spanish night - we got to go work the pageant, welcoming people there and trying to get referrals from everyone (as well as self-referrals from non-members, and it was an incredible experience. One of the AP's (a spanish missionary), Elder Rands, is a huge college wrestler dude - super full of power in every sense of the word - and he totally pumped us up to go out and work. To make a long story short, we tripled the number of referrals they got last year. It was a special experience, and I love being able to go and testify of Jesus Christ - and especially in Spanish!
Another highlight of the week is Juan and Maria's family. So I think I already talked about their story last week but it's pretty awesome. Maria was not the nicest, most interested person, but literally changed entirely overnight after going to the visitor's center and watching "Joseph Smith - Prophet of the Restoration". She said watching what Joseph Smith and Emma went through changed everything and that's when the Spirit was able to touch her. She changed completely and now is one of the nicest, happiest, most converted women i've ever seen! So her kids have all noticed it and now they all want to be taught so they can have that in their lives as well! Last night, we had a lesson with 2 of the kids who had never had the slightest interest, and they just asked what they can do to get started and have what their parents have. So we're excited and we're all going to the Visitor's Center and the Easter Pageant tomorrow! Goodness, I'm excited.
So that's most of the excitement for the week - this is our last Wednesday P-day so I will be writing on Monday from now on. Love you all!
~ Elder Carlson
So I forgot to talk about the most exciting part of the week! Yesterday, as we were biking to lunch, we were crossing a street and I totally didn't see this huge pothole in the road - like huge pothole. I was all standing up and leaning forward on my bike when I hit it so I totally flew forward, scratched up my hands real solid, destroyed my pants, and got some sweet road scars on my name plaque. I actually found later that I ripped up part of my helmet pretty good so that must have hit something somehow. Thank goodness everything is fine though, and it's all in a day's work. I love being a missionary.
I think we're going over to Elder Matheson's grandparents house for Easter. His grandparents live real close here, and she's an awesome cook so i'm excited.
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