•Cosas emocionantes...7/25/2011‏

Well, there might be some very exciting changes happening this week... We had our interviews with President Howes and he was talking to us about the English and Spanish down here - if we felt like it was a good balance. We had to say our English sisters here have been overwhelmed because they are covering 5 big wards! So we talked about each companionship in our little branch here (there's us and then Sister Donaldson - she was in the MTC with me - and her trainee) taking on an English ward to even the load and help them out. So we met with all of the sisters and talked about it and I'm pretty excited! We're still not 100% sure what's going to happen, but we should know later on today and I just think it would be a cool opportunity and allow us to stretch and grow as missionaries. I've never really covered more than half of a branch and I've definitely never done English work, but it's going to be great in terms of being able to better help our missionaries here, and better work with stake and ward leaders. So we should find out pretty soon what's going on and I don't know why, but I'm just super excited! It makes me think back to what Dad always said - that a change is as good as a break. I've worked for so long in this same area and this same half a branch that a change is going to be very welcome. So that's probably been what's most exciting.

And we had a pretty sweet experience on Tuesday as well. I was remembering visiting this girl a long time ago (like December or January) that had a friend visiting that was way interested. We wrote down her address, but could never find it....We went back again and got the address and went to check it out. There were no cars outside and it didn't look like anyone was home, but we knocked and the girl (her name was Evelyn) answered. She let us in and we went in to teach her entire family! There were 5 of them and they were all super attentive as we taught them. The parents are getting divorced so they're going through a way tough time and need something in their lives. They had a catholic background of course, but the mom seemed to be pretty open, which is super rare. Evelyn was super super excited about the Book of Mormon and was ecstatic when we gave her one (she was asking where she could get one of them and was amazed that we were just giving them to their family). So that was a pretty cool - another new family to teach! With all of these new investigators though, we really have to sift and find those that are prepared and have real intent. So we're kind of in that process now.

One thing that's also cool is that we have the best branch missionary ever! Her name is Sister Leos and she's incredible - when I was here in Yuma before, every person she was a fellowship for got baptized! She is super pro-active and does so much more than any Spanish member I've known. She's been helping with a couple families and arranging all of these activities, visiting them all of the time, and just doing just so much to arrange for getting people to church and such. So she's getting some people excited and hopefully we can see some of the success that we had last time.

Elder Oliver's birthday was last week so we got to celebrate that a little bit - I've been teasing him a lot about how old he's getting and going home in November... but yeah that's most of what's been going on around here, not too terribly much to report this week.

The stake president came to our little branch yesterday and they changed up the branch presidency, switching out the 1st and 2nd counselor. It's interesting because they're bringing in this guy from another ward (he served a Mexico mission and has a Hispanic wife - who plays the organ!) to be the 1st counselor and the 2nd counselor is a very less-active guy, but I think it'll be a way good change for the branch. We just need some help and change. So yep, we are excited for this week and are expecting big changes and just exciting things!

Hasta luego! ~ Elder Carlson

The night is darkest before the dawn...‏ 7/18/2011

Buenos Dias!

Well, it's been a pretty solid week, first of the transfer. It's interesting now because transfers don't really affect us all that much now and the only people that go to transfers are those that are actually moving. But it was cool because we got to take down 2 new district leaders after the leadership meeting on Thursday and I'm excited - should be a good transfer! But this was definitely not one of the easiest weeks of my life...we had an incredible amount of lessons fall through and have been dealing with a lot of people that just are not willing to do anything. It was an especially rough day Saturday - we went around all day with members and nobody was home. Those that we did have lessons with basically told us they weren't willing to do anything and just weren't going to progress. But...we've been tightening down and being extra obedient lately, even on the little things, and we knew that in some way or another the Lord was going to bless us. Another thing we've really been doing is something we've been committed to do by general authorities and that's to invite people to be baptized in every single first lesson, regardless of what we think they're going to say. So we've been really doing that, and teaching about baptism, testifying about it, and were just not getting the best answers.

But we had a super cool day Friday and found 2 families - 11 new investigators in one day! They both just came from OYM's - we had talked to one family on the street, and the other one at another investigator's house. One of the families, the parents are Tacho and Liz, is super solid and had gone to church a couple times when they were up in Queen Creek and really liked it! We had given them are card, and they were the ones that actually called us up because they wanted us to come over. That like never happens... So we had a way good lesson, and hopefully they get baptized here in the next couple weeks.

And speaking of baptism, we had something super cool happen in our branch yesterday - a surprise baptism! The sisters here had been teaching this lady named Gloria that has come a long way overcoming all kinds of drug addictions, kicking her boyfriend out of the house, etc. I actually had been by here place a couple times last August but she kind of told us she didn't want it then...But anyway, every time they set a baptismal date she got nervous and things would come up/she would get too overwhelmed. So yesterday she met with our branch president and they decided to just do the baptism yesterday! We got to help do all of the setting up and then I baptized her! It was one of the nicest baptisms I've actually ever been to, and everything came together perfectly at the last minute. She was just glowing - so happy, radiating the spirit, and just so glad that she had made that decision. Since the sisters have been really struggling down here in Yuma, this was also something they needed as well.

We also had a couple really cool lessons yesterday - found out that this girl was staying at our recent convert's house, so we went over and had a super good lesson with her. She's really thinking about baptism, and wanting to make changes in her life. Then we went over to this less-active guy's house (we're teaching his 9-year old son) and had the most packed lesson ever. We got in, talked about baptism, committed him to be baptized on July 30th, and then basically got out. The whole process was about 10 min - just in and out - because we had to get going to the baptism. We've been struggling to have someone with a baptismal date for a couple weeks, and now it happens all of a sudden in the shortest lesson of my life! Pretty cool - so yesterday was just a good day...

So yep, that's what's going on right now - definitely know that the night is darkest before the dawn. Saturday was a super rough day but Sunday was awesome and it looks like baptisms are coming up! Heavenly Father definitely tests us before He gives us success. We're excited though, and good things are happening!

Love y'all!

~ Elder Carlson

•Yuma will never get rid of me... (‏(7/12/2011

Hola! Well, I'm pretty sure Yuma's never going to be able to get rid of me... we got transfer calls last night, and we found out that there were only going to be a couple small changes in our zone and most everything's going to stay the same. We're going to get 2 new district leaders and a greenie in the zone, and we'll get to meet them tomorrow. It was kind of interesting, because we make recommendations for what happens in transfers and it happened almost exactly how we recommended so that was pretty cool. I'm way excited though, because the missionaries here are awesome, good things are happening in our branch, and Elder Oliver is definitely one of my favorite companions. He's a goofball but really helps me to not stress out and we have a whole lot of fun.

The past week has been a little rough in terms of investigators, because we've had to drop quite a few and a whole bunch are moving out! Some are going to Mexico, or California, or other cities here in Arizona. So our teaching pool has decreased a lot, but hopefully we can really work on changing and improving that this week. At church we still had a few people come which was cool, but one of the most interesting things was I was actually the organist!! I'm still a little rusty, since I haven't really played the piano for quite a while, but it was a fun experience trying to figure out the organ and it's getting a lot better. I still don't use the pedals that much, but it's definitely a work in progress. I always kind of felt at some time or another I would have to take over as pianist at some point in my mission but I didn't know I was going to try to learn the organ! So that was an experience and we'll see how that continues to go.

Meantime, it's been super warm here as always (generally between 110 and 115 degrees) with a lot of humidity, which is actually rare for here in Arizona. So when we go outside and especially when we go out on bike, we're just drenched and sweating like crazy. That makes life interesting and we get a whole lot of water wherever we go.

And yesterday was a surprisingly exciting day as well. So we had district meeting like normal and gave the zone a prize for everyone meeting a challenge we had issued last week (the prize was some way delicious costco-size muffins) as well as said goodbye to an elder who is currently home right now, Elder Bradshaw. He's quite the character though, a super obedient guy with the most interesting sense of humor and the most intense part I've ever seen in my life. But anyway, after district meeting we went to do service at this lady's trailer and it was rough... The bugs and creatures we found as we were cleaning as well as some super intense smells coming from the fridge definitely made it difficult. It was actually somewhat funny - Elder Oliver kept on trying to come in, but would get overwhelmed and have to go back outside again. That actually happened quite a few times before he finally made it. I definitely teased him a lot. That and there was no air conditioning, which we always enjoy. Anyway, we finished that up, and then yesterday as we were walking around in this trailer park a huge group of little kids between 5-12 years old (there were probably 12 or so of them) started following us around because they first wanted to play soccer. As we were going around they ALL followed us and asked if they could come with us. I asked if they wanted to come teach with us and they said yes!! So we have our own posse now and some kids that want to be like us and do missionary work! It was pretty fun. So there was that, and we also saw a pretty intense police chase yesterday with 10 police cars! I thought that was probably a little bit ridiculous - a few too many cars - but it was exciting to watch nonetheless.

So more exciting news is that our branch finally has a branch mission plan! We sat down with the branch council a couple weeks ago and figured it out. So we presented it to the branch this past Sunday and we're pretty excited. One of the goals in this mission plan is that every active family in the branch gives us one referral every month, which would be incredible - especially considering what we're getting right now. But everyone liked it, and hopefully we can really get moving, and be able to be more full-time teachers while our members can be more like full-time finders (like President Bednar says). So that should be sweet.

So yeah, we've been making a lot of trips to and from Tempe for leadership meetings and so forth and we're going up again this Thursday - I can't count how many times I've made this trip...It's so cool though because we always learn so much! President Howes is amazing and has the most incredible insights (By the way, Elder Cuthbertson is an AP now and Elder Rappleye is as well - we were all together in Yuma when I first came out). So what we say is that Yuma is Zion's camp because so many of the missionaries that have been here go leadership, especially zone leaders and AP's. And because Yuma's not the easiest place in the world to do missionary work, but it's definitely doing a lot better!
Life is good though, and I'm excited to stay down here! Love you all!

~ Elder Carlson

•todo suave (‏ (7/04/2011

Happy 4th of July!

Well it's been an eventful week to say the least! We just had a baptism this last Saturday and we were up in Tempe for the two days before that for all kinds of training so this entire week has just been a blur. We first went up Thursday for a Spanish training and it was super good - we all talked about the concerns and problems that our unique to spanish work, and there are definitely a lot...but that's what we love about it. We decided it all tied back to commitments and being able to teach more boldly with more power and authority. It can be tough sometimes, but especially because of who we're teaching we have to be really bold and show how important it is that we really follow through with these commitments. I also got to sing a solo for the training meeting - a song called "Breathe" by Paul Cardall that we translated into Spanish. It sounded pretty decent.
We also had our last big training on Friday for the Fundamentals of Preach My Gospel and it went super well. It's cool to be around so many other missionaries and to learn from them and get their insights. I did enjoy our smaller more personal trainings the past 3 weeks where the AP's came down and we were able to learn a whole lot together. But President Howes is an incredible leader and we learned a ton from him. I love how he really emphasizes the importance of our message and how we should look at people. We are all children of God, helping them to be able to be clean from sin, guilt, and shame to be able to be truly happy and live with Him again. There is nothing that could ever be more important! I also got to sing a song at the training to commemorate and remember the martyrdom of Joseph Smith that was last week - I sang a song called "As a lamb to the slaughter" by Nashville Tribute and it actually went over really well. I sang it with Elder Burgos playing and it was something pretty sweet.
And then Saturday was Belinda's baptism! We were going to maybe do it next week, but she found out that she might have to temporarily move soon, so she wanted to get baptized ASAP. So we hurried up to set it all up and it went soooo good. we had a whole lot of people there and she got so emotional, because the happiness and the change she felt was so real and so complete. We actually went over last night to visit and ended up talking to her aunt that was there. Her aunt is just absolutely amazed because Belinda turned around completely and has become a totally different person - she's so much nicer, happier, and content with life. She reads and prays every single day, and is just happy! Her boyfriend saw the change in her, and his heart was totally softened. He was way against the church at first, but now wants to get baptized and get married (we still haven't even taught him yet), because he's seen what it's done for her. So hopefully we can teach her boyfriend and aunt, and they can get baptized soon.
We find it somewhat entertaining and funny that this is 4th of July weekend and absolutely everyone is out of town and many in Mexico. That sounds like a good idea...let's celebrate our country's independence by going to Mexico! Kind of ridiculous. So it was a little tough to get people to church yesterday, but some did come. What was way cool is that one guy we're teaching named Antonio did come to church! we haven't visited him in almost 2 weeks but he decided that morning he was going to go and he did! he came all dressed up with a shirt and tie and his scriptures and it was just so cool. He's already stopped drinking alcohol and he's stopping the coffee as well, and he was another one that missionaries just randomly talked to on the street so it's just sweet.
So yeah for 4th of July we're going to have a big zone bbq and make sonoran-style hot dogs (bacon-wrapped hot dogs with guacamole and all kinds of stuff on top). We're going to play some frisbee golf and different things even though it's going to be super warm outside - it's been really really warm and humid lately. Saturday it was 118 degrees! So yep, we're staying very very warm....
but yeah, life is good and I'll know next week whether I'm staying or getting transferred! Love you all!
~ Elder Jesse Carlson