Well, life has been pretty different and exciting lately!! We did end up taking on the 4th ward down here and making a lot of changes in areas and such. So we had to take some time to get it all figured out and kind of get started. Nothing much has happened in this ward for a long time, so it'll be cool to actually spend time and get to know them so that we can help them. We already have a lot of potential and referrals to go contact, and things seriously just seem to be popping out of nowhere! It's like this area has been ready to spring and produce, but has just been waiting...
Things are also starting to pick up on the Spanish side as well! So last week we were stopping by this trailer park and there just hasn't been super solid people there...but this lady that we've taught a couple times was there and we decided to go talk to her (she was not the most promising investigator ever) and her sister showed up - they're both ladies in their 50's or so. So we started teaching the sister and she loved it all! She said more than anything she wanted this for her family, especially for her 16-year old grandson, who she's worried about. So we said that would be sweet and that we could absolutely teach her family. We stopped by the next day and found the lady's daughter, her grandson, and a whole bunch of little girls (3 old enough to be baptized). We taught them all and had an incredible lesson....the mom had been in jail and searching for something the past couple years. She had never found what she was looking for, but said that as we were talking she felt like she had found it! She and all of her kids accepted baptismal dates in that first lesson for August! It was so sweet... and the girls are super smart and super cute. There's one named Iris who's 10 and has been reading like crazy every single day in the Book of Mormon. She said the coolest prayer the other day - asking that her brother would come to church with her every week and that he would read in the Book of Mormon with her. They are a pretty incredible family.
We also found a sweet part-member family that was surprisingly open to the gospel! Their grandma, who was a member, had just died, and there heart had really been opened and touched. The mom is a member but the rest of the family isn't, and they were all pretty excited to come to church and be a part of everything.
And then yesterday at church, people that we just weren't expecting to come, came! The Barraza's dad finally came to church and part of this family we thought we had lost came. So that was a pretty cool surprise.
We're excited though - we should have two 9-year olds getting baptized next week, and then the family the week after that. We're really working and hoping and praying that everything goes through!
Sunday was pretty weird though, going to church in English. It's been far too long! There was a ridiculous youth speaker though, that just cracked me up. He was a deacon and got up there and said that he was going to talk about blacks and blood types.... at least that's what both Elder Oliver and I heard. He proceeded to struggle through the entire Official Declaration 2 and then just say in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. It was probably one of the most ridiculous talks I've ever heard in my life. So yeah we were at the church for over 7 hours yesterday and it wore us out! It takes up our entire Sunday!
But life is good and things are literally just starting to explode down here! I love Yuma!
~ Elder Carlson
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