Hola a todos! Hi all!
Well this week there were transfers, and although there weren't an incredible amount of transfers for us (we stayed the same), there were some pretty interesting changes. Elder Ricker left and Elder Silos came in, a native from Mexico and we're super excited about that. He's a walking dictionary and is able to help us so much to be more correct and be more legit Spanish missionaries. Speaking of them, Elder Silos and Elder Wheeler had an awesome baptism this past week! So with this one way active family, the mom's brother has been staying at their house for a while and I guess he had been kind of interested about the church but he had never really been invited and they had never really talked to him too much about it. He came to our ward activity (for Dia de la Raza - Colombus Day) and when Elder Ricker came up to talk to him, he said he was totally interested! In their first lesson, they gave him a baptismal date and he just got baptized this last Saturday. It's kind of crazy thinking about the number of people that can be so prepared that can be all around us - how are we going to know if we don't share the gospel with everyone? So there were a lot of people that came to the baptism, and there was a little stress. Our ward mission leader (who has the keys to the font) was in Idaho - we didn't know - and we weren't sure anyone from the bishopric was planning on going, so we were scrambling last minute, trying to help out the other missionaries here and make sure everything worked out. Thankfully it did, and I guess Abel (who got baptized) had an incredible experience when he got baptized. When he came out of the water he saw a pillar of light and he said he literally felt the Holy Ghost enter in him (like when Jesus Christ got baptized). I think it's interesting how the Hispanic people are such a visionary people, and are able to have such faith-building experiences. But yeah, we feel like Elder Silos will be able to do super well in this area and really get things done, so that'll be cool.
Other than that, we had some other new people come into the zone, including an elder who just stepped down from zone leader to train before he goes home. He has a way cool companion from Tonga who's learning English and this is his first time off of the island! Crazy... And I guess temporarily here, we kind of have 4 AP's - 2 are the more typical english AP's and Elder Matheson and Elder Johnson (my boy - who I trained) are I guess more of traveling ones that do exchanges with spanish missionaries mostly. It's interesting - I'm not sure how long President Howes plans to have it set up like this. But I'm glad I did at least an okay job of training Elder Johnson.
Other than that, there hasn't been an incredible amount of excitement this week... Our 2 families are still on track to get baptized on Christmas and we're working out all the logistics. We've noticed something that's kind of interesting with Hispanics...when it comes to parties and especially birthdays, they seem to throw absolutely everything else out the window. We've been working and making such good progress with this family, and because of his birthday and the celebrations Saturday and Sunday, they didn't come to church and broke the Word of Wisdom a little bit. So yeah, we're still working with them and solidifying everything we've taught them, and it'll all work out. More than anything, I'm just excited for a white Christmas :)
I do like being with Elder Twitchell - we've made a lot of really cool and important realizations that help us to better help our zone. One thing that we notice not only in our zone but in general with a majority of the missionaries, there is a definite lack of confidence. There's a misconception that humility is not thinking you're good at anything, but that definitely does not help you to reach your potential. It is important to recognize where our talents and abilities come from and not try to do everything alone, but we have to have confidence as we do missionary work and we have to have a testimony of who we are and why we're here. When we're truly converted, we're going to be obedient and we're going to do the Father's will, which includes us becoming like Him! That is going to involve having faith in who we are and what we're capable of. It's just something really cool that we've been thinking about lately. Oh man, and our zone once again got so close to our goal of 50 member-present lessons. We got 47!! We're going to get it sooner or later, that's all I have to say.
So yeah, it's been a good week - we're still really searching for new investigators and doing our best to figure out how best to work with the members and help them do missionary work. As far as Thanksgiving, that is when our real P-day will be, so that's when we'll have time to actually do stuff. So far, we only have 1 dinner appointment (and a couple options for desert - that's like my favorite part), but we'll see what happens. I did have a pretty incredible pumpkin pie this week...
Life is good though, and we have a really good feeling about December. It's going to be a good month! Plus I can't wait to listen to Christmas music!
Love you all and hope you have a great Dia del Pavo! (turkey day)
~ Elder Carlson
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