Wow, I can honestly say I never thought that 50 degrees would feel so cold to me! A couple days ago it rained pretty hard here and the next morning i was legitimately cold... I've been seriously fighting this sickness the past few days so that just makes it that much more fun! And because we bike in the mornings to go to this track (to run) it felt super good on those bikes... So yep, I guess I've kind of temporarily turned into an Arizona pansy, because I consented and wore a jacket the other day, when it was probably around 60 or so. I don't know what to do with myself.
So Halloween was pretty fun, nothing overly exciting. We got together as a zone and did some pumpkin carving and that's a story in itself. So we hadn't thought to buy pumpkins a week in advance (a huge oversight on our part) and we went to Wal-Mart, expecting them to have some good size carving pumpkins. Not the case. They had these itty bitty ones with faces painted on, and they had these ridiculous big ones that you could totally not carve. So we went over to Fry's and...no dice. All they had was these little ones that were pretty hard. We were feeling pretty desperate so we ended up just getting those (my companion, Elder Ricker, and I) and then showed up to the activity that night. All I have to say is that experience was much more like carving into stone than a pumpkin. We super bent all of the little saws and things we were using and even super sharp knives took an incredible amount of strength and skill (to not cut myself). I was pretty scared for my companion since he can be pretty crazy sometimes. But I made this sweet ghost (face) and I'll have to send pictures.
Oh, and random news - something that was pretty funny. The other day, Elder Ricker and Elder Wheeler were biking along and I guess they saw eyes of this huge stuffed animal sticking out from the dumpster. So they salvaged the thing and it turns out it's this HUGE blue stuffed dog (named Pouting Pete) like the kind of thing you would get at the fair or something. So they wanted us to come pick it up and left it on the porch of a member's apartment nearby. We went by and there was definitely no dog...so we asked them about it and it first they had no idea and just looked really confused. Then they remembered and called back their kids who were going door to door, trying to figure out whose stuffed animal this was or where it came from (they thought it might have been to their daughter from a secret admirer). So we have this huge stuffed dog now that is our zone mascot and it's pretty cool.
Also this week, as the other elders were biking by the church they saw a fire! They got closer and found out that the dumpster there was on fire and had flames at least ten feet high coming from it - so they had to call 911 and get the fire truck over there to put it out. Kind of random.
Other than that, life has been pretty normal. Things are really progressing with a couple of the families that we're teaching (Ramon and Jazmin, and then Alberto and Adriana). We taught Ramon the Word of Wisdom and have been going by every day to help him and give him support. He came to church yesterday with his neighbor and his little girls and absolutely loved it. He said a really sincere thank you to us yesterday for all that we've done, and that alone just makes everything worth it. Alberto and Adriana came again with us to the Visitor's Center and really enjoyed the art and focus on Jesus Christ. There really are some pretty amazing paintings by artists around here in the valley. They're also happy because their 20-year old son is getting more involved and is starting to come with us and listen. So that's awesome!
And oh man, life is always interesting with the Castillo's... There are 5 people in the family that aren't members but that house is LOCO all the time. There are kids running around, people in and out, and they are always trying to feed us even though they're struggling financially. Plus all of the kids are super loud and opinionated so it's a good thing we're able to take control sometimes. They've been coming to church every week and it's only a matter of time before they get baptized. We're really trying to get them to read everday from the Book of Mormon because that's the only way long-term conversion comes about.
Last night was also pretty cool - we went over to teach our Dominican family and there was a friend there instead! We taught her and found out she was actually from Columbia, and she was super interested. So we're excited to see where that goes! Ultimately, our investigator pool hasn't grown tremendously (it's still pretty small) but we teach them a whole lot and they're really going places! Our current problem is still getting those 2 couples married - they already have substantial families - and it looks like our best option is going to be getting them over to Nevada, because the law is way strict here in Arizona. So that's our major obstacle right now and we're working through it.
Oh and we had Zone Leader's Council this week and made a pretty big decision. We decided to stop reporting our OYM's (the number of people we talk to and testify about the gospel outside of teaching and tracting etc.) with our weekly statistics and are really focusing on doing it because of individual conversion. We have to be opening our mouths and sharing the gospel because we're truly converted and feel the urgency and need to share it! So that was interesting, being a part of a big decision like that. Our mission hasn't been doing quite as well as we have in past years so we're really amping everyone/everything up and making sure we're all committed to achieving our goals.
So yep, that's what's going on here! Always busy, and Arizona's finally starting to get cold(er)!
Hasta luego! ~ Elder Carlson
P.S. I'm pretty sure I'm staying but we should be getting transfer calls again on Sunday night.
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