Happy New Years!
I would write it in Spanish but sadly the symbols don't work on this program and it just would not work without them... But anyway, we're SUPER excited for the new year! On New Year's Eve we definitely went to bed like normal at 10:30 and I got to welcome in the new year "dormido" (sleeping) - just like I wanted to. It's been pretty gun this week though, getting to know our new english ward, the Dobson Ward. We met our Ward Mission Leader on Wednesday and he's awesome. He's an older retired guy, but super on the ball. We talked about all of the investigators and the mission ploan, and gave him a few assignments to get us different lists and keys and he did absolutely everything and got it all to us yesterday! I'm not used to having people so prompt and diligent - he also can come out with us any time of the day and is sweet to have in lessons. Let's just say I wish there were a lot more Brother Thompson's out there... And then it was fun Wednesday night having dinner with the Rappleye's, because his younger brother Elder Rappleye served with me for quite a while and they're both awesome. They're a way solid younger couple that doesn't have a calling and said they'd love to come to lessons, so we definitely brought them out with us the very next day!
We brought them to a lesson with Jane, who the elders said they hadn't really been able to make progress with. She has come quite a bit to church and things, but never really progressed toward baptism. She does really like to talk and it can be hard to keep her focused but we started talking about the Book of Mormon and came to find out that she didn't understand it at all. She had only read in random parts, and then had read the first chapter but she said the wording was difficult and confused her. We read it over again with her and explained it all along. Where everybody's coming, what is happening, and why it's important. She said everything made a whole lot more sense and it was cool to hear her say in her prayer thanks for such an edifying, uplifting lesson. I guess some elders had been really forceful in the past and she was very hesitant. But the Rappleye's were good fellowship and it was just good. The rest of Thursday was also exciting - so the elders that got transferred out of the Dobson Ward set up a whole bunch of lessons for us on Thursday and we stayed pretty booked. We met half of the investigators and actually had really good lessons with all of them. There was good ward involvement in those lessons, and we can definitely see all kinds of potential. I don't know why, but this ward only had 2 baptisms last year. Let's just say we're planning on having three times that in the first couple months. There is so much to do and so many people prepared. When we truly understand that, the possibilities are endless. Elder Twitchell and I met with the district leaders this last Saturday to discuss goals and plans for the zone and we set a goal of 25 baptisms for January, even though I've never seen more than 20 baptisms in a month anywhere. We've got big plans and we fully expect miracles to happen here. We've been studying a lot about faith and obedience lately, and consecrated labors. We definitely believe in a God of miracles and this area is prepared - la tierra prometida!
I do have to say our ward is pretty quirky though. There are a lot of really young couples with young kids and then a lot of older people and there are just all kinds of... interesting people. It makes things fun and entertaining though, and they're all willing to help out - I guess they just don't necessarily expect much to happen. Oh and it's been way funny in our dinners lately, especially before Sunday. When we went to dinner Friday, the dad of the family asked us, "So what's going on? People are saying we've got the AP's or the Zone Leaders in our ward... ". We were pretty impressed at how fast the word traveled in the ward. Our presence in the ward was definitely felt/noticed! It is kind of weird going to church and talking to members in English though - a lot of times I don't really know what to say because I'm kind of out of my element. But you learn a lot of things as a Spanish missionary that help so much in english work (namely persistence and teaching simply), and it's fun to apply it here.
Transfers was pretty big though, and there were changes all across the mission. We actually picked up a whole new stake from Gilbert into our zone and we now have 20 missionaries! It's a little bigger than my little 10-man zone in Yuma. There were a lot of boundary changes and Spanish missionaries picking up some English work as well (I guess Spanish really underperformed this last year), but we still have 4 missionaries in Liahona 5 and we're also planning on starting the year off strong in that ward. I guess last year there weren't really baptisms in the ward until March and oh, that's not going to happen this year. We've set some massive goals and we have 100% faith in them. Good things are coming!
We have interviews tomorrow with Pres Howes as companionships, so we'll see how all of that goes. The New Year is a perfect time to achieve things that have never been achieved :) Hasta la proxima!
Love ya!
Elder Carlson
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