Zone Leaders Conference 6/2011

WOW! This is a force to be reckoned with! You are the best!

Pres & Sister Howes

Arizona Tempe Mission

•la vida es buena...‏ 6/27/2011

Well all I have to say is life is good :) We just had a super good baptism this last Saturday and it was just amazing to see the difference that occurred over such a short period of time. We had just met Maria a couple of weeks ago on the street and she said we could pass by. Little did we know she would come to church and get baptized a couple short weeks later!! She got baptized with her granddaughter Alyah and there were actually a surprising amount of people at the baptism, so it was cool to see that she already had so much support! Elder Oliver baptized Maria (he actually had to do it 3 times - something kept popping out of the water) and then I baptized Alyah. Everybody in the branch already loves them - Maria is so funny. She has these little sayings that she says over and over like, "Gracias - muy amable" and "que lindos" (very kind and" that pretty). She's an incredibly nice lady with all kinds of faith. There are so many people that really are prepared and Heavenly Father works through us to be able to teach them. That's something that's kind of amazing about agency. Because it's an eternal law/principle, He has to respect our agency and we have to use it to do His work. That's why we do missionary work. and that's the only way it can truly be done. That's what I'm realizing the more I teach and the more people that I talk to - it's all about us using our agency to further the work and help them change their lives. If we don't do it, who will?

Oh, and something else that was kind of crazy was my exchange in the Foothills this week. So we started it right after district meeting and we got a ride back to their place. I quickly found out that the people giving us a ride were none other than the Guths! The grandparents of a family I grew up with all my life. He knew all of us and was asking about Dad, grandpa, and Chrystal. It was just crazy that we randomly rode with someone who knew my family and me! So that was pretty wild. What was even crazier was who we ended up having dinner with. I told him I'm from Alaska and he started talking about working in a cannery up in Soldotna - I thought now that's interesting... I came to find out that he had worked in our family business and knew me and my cousins! He literally knew ALL of my family and remembered me when I was 2 years old running around the entire place. His name is Mac Mooney, and he was friends with the Larson's in Phoenix. It was too weird running into people randomly in the Foothills that actually knew me. That's just random.

But life is going good here, and it's definitely getting super warm! Riding on the bikes is rough, and there's hardly anyone outside to talk to. The good thing is that people are at home a lot more, so we should be able to continue to teach quite a bit. This week was a little rougher in that we had a LOT of appts cancel, but we persevered and definitely had a lot of people that came to church yesterday! That was way cool - that and we should have more baptisms coming up in the next couple weeks/month. Good things are happening, and I definitely know that the night is darkest before the dawn. Our zone has made leaps and bounds the past couple weeks, and we're all super tight down here in our little isolated area.

So we'll see how everything goes - we're continuing with the Fundamentals Training and finishing it up this week with a huge combined meeting in Tempe with half the mission. It'll be cool because I'll sing a song with Elder Burgos playing the piano - his last musical number. We're singing "As a lamb to the slaughter" from the Nashville Tribute songs so I'm pretty excited. Should be sweet!

So life is good and thanks for all that you do! We're working hard and things are picking up,

Les Amo!

~ Elder Carlson

•Tantas personas preparadas...‏ 6/20/2011

Wow, what an incredible week! We had a sweet evening of work last P-day, and we had a couple incredible lessons. Our first was with this random teenager we OYM-ed and he said we could come over (his name's Rafael). We had a way good first lesson and he definitely accepted a baptismal date for a couple weeks in the future. So we were pretty excited and then decided to go visit this name we found in our records. So that evening we were supposed to be on splits, so the night before we were kind of making separate plans for who we were going to stop by. As we were planning my companion said we should definitely stop by this name Mirna that we found in the records, and I said yeah it was already in my plans (we knew something was up with this name - we needed to visit). So after that lesson with Rafael we went and stopped by this name. We found these 2 girls outside and found out that Mirna was actually sick and in Mexico...but these were her daughters (about 20-ish or so) and we started to talk to them. I was kind of skeptical at first because they looked kind of sketchy but we need to talk to everyone, so we started telling them who we are and what we do. One of them, her name is Belinda, got way excited and invited us in. She said it was crazy that we were there because she had just been praying to God asking for guidance and truth - she had been really confused with everything. We then had probably the coolest lesson of my entire mission...she soaked everything in, and described how amazing she felt as she had been talking with us. She said she knew after I said that opening prayer, that we had what she needed. She said she could simply never believe certain things about other churches, and just never felt comfortable. But as she listened she said that she felt an incredible peace, she felt relieved, and just happy. We talked to her about baptism and accepted a date for next weekend! She was so excited about it and kept bringing it up! She knew more than anything that it's what she needs to do. And when we talked about the Book of Mormon she said that it's funny because she was just talking to her sister about how she felt like she needed to read a book. So we said we knew of a good one... I don't know if I've hardly ever seen someone prepared to this degree - it was an incredible experience.

And then another sweet lesson resulted in a couple baptisms this weekend! So Maria Fernandez, who we just randomly met on the street one day, is getting baptized this Saturday along with her granddaughter. Apparently she had been listening to missionaries in California but had never felt the need to get baptized. We had a super solid lesson where we testified about baptism, how ready she was, and how much she needed it. She simply said we were right and that she felt something - the spirit testified to her and she just knew she needed to do it. So they've been coming to church and activities and I'm excited - they're way cool.

We've been kind of noticing some things, and I'm pretty sure that as we improve and better ourselves, the Lord trusts us with more of His prepared children. I feel like we qualify to find them and then He puts them in our path. As we've been going through these trainings on the Fundamentals of Preach My Gospel, we've been applying these trainings and noticing miracles. People are keeping commitments more, and we have more people progressing toward baptism. The branch members are coming out with us every single evening to our lessons. I feel like I'm so much more effective as a missionary and that the Lord has trusted us with these people. Especially considering we've met almost all our solid ones on the streets! As people see us have success from our own efforts, they want to be a part of it and are more willing to talk to their friends about it. So things are looking up here in Yuma :) it's a process.

We had our first meeting with the stake president this last week and we definitely think there's a lot more potential here in Yuma than people think. It's a matter of doing things the Lord's way and everyone fulfilling their callings! Ward council is key, and member missionary work is where success lies. So I'm excited - the missionaries here are all studs and we're looking forward to a very solid July.

It's getting warm here in Yuma! Well into the 100's! So thanks for everything and I love you all!

~ Elder Carlson

•Trabajando muchisimo...‏6/13/2011

Hola de Yuma!
Wow, it's still weird sometimes to think that I'm here again... It feels like I've never left. Especially considering how busy this last week has been! It reminds me of the last transfer I had here with Elder Lindquist! We had over 20 lessons, and a large majority of them were lessons that members came to which was awesome. Our elders quorum here is awesome, and most of them choose an evening to come out with us - so we have someone with us just about every single day. It was cool visiting people that just got kind of lost in the transition, but still have desires to learn and progress. We have kind of turned the area around, and are already starting to see some really cool things! One of the most exciting things is the husband of a recent convert that we're teaching. The sisters here had baptized the wife and didn't think he would be too interested but we met him at a dinner last Sunday and started teaching him. He accepted a baptismal date that same lesson and came to church yesterday with his daughter! He's really quiet and timid (his name is Jesus Pena) but he really liked everything and totally is warming up to us more all of the time.

We also had this pretty cool experience with this lady we randomly talked to on the street - she was super nice and invited us to come back so we went and taught her and had a sweet lesson. We found out eventually that her daughter was baptized quite a while ago, had made some mistakes, and really wanted to come back, so we taught the entire family and they all came to church yesterday as well! The mom's name is Maria Zara, and we're going to see if she'll get baptized soon. She's super cool and it's just been amazing to see these things come out of nowhere!

So with our branch being at 9:00 in the morning, it makes it very difficult to get Mexicans to church - just being honest, i love them like crazy, but it makes it a lot harder to get them there. So we don't have hardly anyone at the beginning and they trickle in as the meetings go on. But what was the best was coming there at 9 and seeing 3 families that we're working with (only 5 actual investigators because of all the kids and such) already sitting there, making up a solid amount of the congregation! It was pretty much one of the best feelings in the world. I guess there have hardly been any investigators at church in the time I've been gone. So our branch president was pretty happy and excited, as well as the people that had gone with us to our lessons! Pretty cool.

We had the first of a series of trainings this week on Fundamentals from Preach My Gospel and the AP's came down since it would have been such a trek for us. It was cool training on the basics, our missionary purpose (the doctrine of Christ) and the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion. We did a whole lot of practicing baptismal invitations and resolving concerns since that's been a big push lately - in the very first lesson we invite people to be baptized, with a date at least by the second. It literally is part of the pure and simple doctrine of Christ and as soon as people recognize the spirit that's testifying to them of that truth, they'll be able to accept it.

So we went on exchanges earlier this week with the Traveling AP's (Elder Cuthbertson) and then later on with the regular AP's (Elder Shiffler) so we're about ready to be done with those... It'll be fun going on exchanges more as the transfer goes on, but it was just kind of rough when Elder Shiffler was with us because we had some of the hardest lessons ever with him. We were teaching people that were just really stubborn and not willing to change yet, so it was a hard process. But it was cool learning from both of them - there's always so much we can do better.

And last Sunday we had a pretty cool experience giving a blessing to a less-active's son who had fallen and slipped into a coma. We gave a blessing and Elder Oliver blessed him that he would rise the next day. We found out yesterday that he did, and that he's opening up to having missionaries come over! We're excited.

So the zone is doing great, and things are really picking up here (they really had been pretty dead)! I'm excited to be able to be here and help out all the members, investigators, and missionaries. We're making a branch mission plan here, and good things are in the works :)

Love you all and it's good to hear from you!
Elder Carlson

tan loco...‏ 6/06/2011

Hola todos!

Wow, it really has been a busy week... and a crazy one! I couldn't have been more surprised at how everything turned out. So since last Tuesday was P-day and I knew I was moving I packed all day and just got to say goodbye to a couple of people. Of course you never have half as much time as you need to say goodbye to everyone. But it was great saying goodbye to my recent converts - it was a very bitter-sweet experience. They all offered super sincere prayers for me, and showed a whole lot of gratitude. And then Wednesday morning before transfer meeting, elders were going around talking to everyone (since everyone had found out their assignments earlier) and trying to figure out who their companion was. I actually did figure out who it was beforehand and was super surprised. So my companion here is Elder Tyler Oliver, who had served here in the Yuma Zone (in San Luis, right on the border) for as long as I served in Yuma. Not only that, but he's never been zone leader or district leader before, so we are white-washing into Yuma just as fresh and inexperienced as you can be. We found our apartment a mess, with all kinds of food and papers lying around everywhere, having no idea what half of them mean or what we need to fill out. We went back to Tempe for a training meeting the next day (an incredible amount of driving) and thankfully got a little more instruction but not much. So I've basically had to take the lead on all of the paperwork and planning and missionary work in general, since he doesn't know anything about the area, or the members, or how to do all of the leadership stuff. So it's been quite the learning experience :)

I was nervous at first because I thought I was going to have to do english work (it's way common for spanish zone leaders to go to english) but thankfully I found out that I'm serving in our sweet little Yuma branch, and I'm covering the same area I covered with Elder Lindquist. It was super fun surprising everyone, especially our branch president - President Dominguez. He's super happy to see me again, and is getting more started with missionary work in the branch. They're working on a branch mission plan, and on visiting less-actives and recent converts. All of the members and investigators I was teaching were equally excited and some of my recent converts were about in tears - it was pretty sweet. I'm thinking part of the reason I'm back here is because there are people that I was teaching before that are now ready and I'm excited to find out which people the Lord has prepared down here for me to teach and baptize. We're getting everyone down here excited, and trying to show and lead by example. We're getting members involved, and we're trying to build our teaching pool. It does feel like there's a whole lot on my plate right now, but I'm glad I've got such an easy-going companion that is willing to work. It's just a matter of knowing what to do!

Life is also a little different here in Yuma, because there are only 12 missionaries in the zone now. There were a lot of white-washes and a couple companionships were taking out. We actually have only 6 missionaries here in the city of Yuma, and 4 of them are sisters!! President Howes has been making some pretty huge changes lately, and it looks like he has big plans and high expectations for us here. So there are 2 english sisters here, and the 2 spanish sisters, who we share the branch with (it's cool - Sister Donaldson, who was in my MTC district, is training here and is serving with us). It's kind of weird being the only elders in Yuma...way different than anything I've known.

But life is good, and we actually had a way good day yesterday and did well on our 3-ish full proselyting days - there are a lot more calls and stuff to juggle with the zone and the office and everything. But yesterday we had a couple really good first lessons with people (one was the husband of a recent convert) and they both accepted baptismal dates! With one there's going to be some major word of wisdom problems to overcome, but it was just cool to see that there really are people prepared no matter where you go.

They're also doing something different for this month as we're doing more trainings on the Fundamentals from Preach My Gospel. We're getting trained on it one day every week for the next four weeks, and President has called two more AP's to help with the training and exchanges (my trainer, Elder Cuthbertson, and Elder Burgos) - so we're going to be even more busy this transfer.

So yep, we're just trying to get a hang of things and get work done here in Yuma! We're trying to get everyone excited and into setting high goals and achieving them! High expectations yields high results. So it was pretty surreal being here in Yuma again, but it also feels like I'm back home. The people here are great and I'm loving it!

Cambios Grandes..... 5/31/2011

Wow, there are some HUGE changes going on right now - this week's been a little different and we had transfer calls last night (so P-day was changed to today). I was definitely not expecting what happened...So first of all I got a call from President Howes and was called to be a zone leader!!! Holy smokes, I still feel so young and inexperienced - I guess that's how the Lord works though. I was definitely expecting the call to be for Elder Johnson, but it was most definitely for me. And I was just barely about to type my letter to the mission president today, and found out that he already had my new assignments in the computer! You'll never guess where I'm going... back to Yuma! That was the last thing I expected. President Howes is by far the most unpredictable person, and there have been some pretty huge changes. So I'm fairly sure they're opening up Spanish zone leaders there, which has never been done before. It might be a rough start, but I'm excited to get things going down there. Apparently Yuma's been pretty dead since I left.

We have had a pretty incredible week though, and have seen all kind of miracles. So it all started last Tuesday, after district meeting. We went out all pumped up after district meeting and went and visited Nelly Ramirez, a super nice 21-year old girl we're teaching. We had invited her to be baptized before and she said yes but we had never extended a specific date. So we taught about baptism and invited her to be baptized that Saturday. She said yes! She was nervous at first, but somehow it helped to relate it to school - baptism is the door, and you can't really learn that much until you open the door. It also means that you don't have to know everything before you go in - just like we go to school, not because we know everything, but because we don't! It's the same way with church, and i don't know why but describing it that way helped her and she just wants to do it.

The zone leaders here were also teaching this family (there's 9 kids but they were only teaching 3 of them) and had been for months and months. They came to church last Sunday and they fasted and prayed during the week, and told them Thursday that they wanted to get baptized on Saturday!! So we had five baptisms (Nelly, and then this mom and 3 kids) this last Saturday that were completely unexpected! We have been so privileged to be a part of it all. So I got to interview them all the other day and it was pretty hectic - lots of little kids running around.

It was kind of rough though, because Elder Johnson got food poisoning on Friday night and we had to stay in almost all day Saturday, just going in for the baptism (poor kid hardly stayed awake during it). So I got to baptize Nelly and sing a special musical number, and it all went great even though the people that were getting baptized all came over 20 minutes late! Goodness, sometimes spanish work can be so stressful. I guess it's to be expected and there's some things that just don't change.

Oh wow, and I almost forgot - so this has been one of the hardest weeks ever in terms of how much people have fed us. They all heard it was my birthday, and I guess in spanish somehow that translates to "Oh, we need to feed him an incredible amount of food". Don't ask me how. So not only did we have that big birthday breakfast but throughout the week we had double dinners where people would make all kinds of stuff and have some delicious cheesecake at the end. The worst was at Juan and Maria's, when they literally kept bringing out more and more food from somewhere - numerous desserts...the good thing is, Elder Johnson and I stepped it up this last week and were running a solid 3 miles every day before our workout. Not that workouts do much when you're eating that much.

But more than anything I'm just super excited for a change right now - to have a new companion and head down to Yuma is going to be an exciting move. I just don't really have any idea what to expect at the moment. I'll find out soon! So I'm packing today, saying goodbye, and we'll see how everything goes!

Adios!

Happy Birthday to Elder Jesse!! 5/23/2011

Ya soy viejo!‏

Wow, it's hard to believe I'm already 20... 2 decades old. I think I'm starting to feel it in my joints and back. But that might just be from being a missionary - I'm not sure. This morning was AMAZING though. A super cool family from our ward that has been helping us fellowship invited us over to make a huge birthday breakfast. So Elder Johnson, the zone leaders, and I went over this morning and made waffles, biscuits and gravy, bacon, all kinds of fruit and fruit juice, and finished it off with a strawberry cheesecake. So at the moment we're pretty full and satisfied. It's just cool to be able to have your birthday somewhere so completely different and have people make it a special day for you.

So there hasn't been anything terribly huge and exciting this week - we had a way good zone conference and we're getting all kinds of sun out on our bikes. We're working on finding new people and spreading out a little bit because we do almost all of our work in one tiny little area but as we've been trying to move out more we've been realizing more and more why the work is generally done there - that's where the Mexicans are!

But it was pretty fun, this week I was going on exchanges (we go on one every week) and I was in an English area and we had the craziest, weirdest exchange. It was a good start, because we got to start off by going to the temple that morning - goodness, I LOVE the temple! It was so peaceful and you're just able to take a break from everything else that's going on. You're able to get guidance for yourself and those you're teaching. I honestly felt like it spiritually charged me, and I just wish I could go more often! So that was sweet. We had a super good lesson that afternoon with a lady named Brenda. She had never really progressed, but when we came in we found her reading the Book of Mormon and she had all kinds of questions for us. We answered them and she was just talking about how much she trusted us and could feel something different with us (it's actually interesting - I was there for the last lesson with her when I was on an exchange there) and she 100% opened up and started bawling and talking about her life. It can be interesting sometimes as a missionary to be in these types of situations... But she made a mistake, and literally felt worthless because of it and said she wasn't worth her time. So it was a perfect opportunity to testify about Jesus Christ, His Atonement, and the worth of every soul in the sight of God. For the first time she wanted to go to church, and she wanted to go buy clothes so she would feel better there at church. It was just cool to see the huge turn-around, and see the hope, brightness, and happiness that were coming into her life. The church is so true.

So that lesson was sweet but everything else that happened that day was just weird. People we talked to were on drugs and not making any sense, and I had the craziest lesson of my mission experience. We had a first lesson with this guy (his girlfriend grew up in the church but fell away a long time ago and wants to come back) and he was higher than a kite. Not the easiest people to teach. So he was telling us how he gets pain in his feet, side, and palms (and wrists) every year like stakes and spears are getting driven into him... like he gets crucified i guess? We talked about what Jesus went through for us and said that we can't comprehend it and he said he could because he goes through it every year. Can't say I've come across that before. That, plus his girlfriend says she's fasted for 51 days and died numerous times and has been to the gates of...outer darkness, for lack of a better term. So we did our best to bring the Spirit and got out because it was just hard. That and we had all kinds of fun encounters with grouchy people that remind me why I like my Spanish work and am not the biggest fan of English work. Hey, mission calls are inspired.

But life is good, and things are going well. We had a random exchange with the AP's yesterday and it was our first double dinner we've had in a while - way good lesson with Mayola who made carne asada but hey she came to church so it was worth eating the food. We just laughed because he got to go to that, and then the rest of our lessons canceled so we got to do a lot of biking and talking to people in the streets and trailer parks. Oh good ol' spanish work...so unpredictable but always exciting.

So we've got a lot of families that are just inches from baptisms and we're really working and praying that they will get their answer and have that faith to do it. In the meantime, we've testified and they've felt the spirit, so it's up to them. Work is good, and I'm having an awesome birthday! We're going to play at the park and enjoy the day so hope all's well there! Love y'all!