Well I guess I need to just stop thinking I'm going to move because it definitely doesn't happen too much... I love the area though, and Elder Twitchell and I work great together. I guess that's why President Howes doesn't want to separate us. So we're staying together here in Mesa for the 4th transfer (6 months) and I guess we'll see what happens after that. We were pretty surprised at the transfer calls - out of the 20 missionaries in our zone, only 3 are moving out and one of them actually started his mission here and was here for about 13 months! Our Mexican in the Liahona 5th ward is leaving, and Elder Loomis, who lives in our apartment. It's weird because we actually recommended with both of those missionaries that their companion leaves and they stay! So yeah, we'll see if there are any crazy changes on Wednesday at transfer meeting.
It was exciting this past week to see Brenda Kirby get baptized! She was waiting on First Presidency permission and she definitely got it. Her fellowship in the ward is a super hard-core planner and the whole thing was pretty elaborate, and everything turned out really nice. I sang as part of my talk on baptism, and there was a really good video presentation as they got changed after the baptism and everything. Brenda is just so happy - she's been waiting so long and just emanates and radiates light more than just about anyone I know. We've just been lucky to know her and be a little involved in the process. So Sunday, when she got confirmed, we had the most ridiculous morning. So both of our wards start at 1:00 and we had a meeting with a stake president way down south in our area at 12:30 that we couldn't re-schedule. He was busy until about 12:45 so we didn't get started until then. We did the meeting absolutely as fast as we possibly could and took off. We literally hit every single red light on the way there. What really got us was a red light at the canal where there's not even a road! There's a bike path and we got stopped, watching as this super ridiculous-looking biker very slowly pedaled across the road. So we're stressing out and getting there as fast as we can and we got right there to the chapel doors the second our ward mission leader (Brother Thompson) started saying her name to start the confirmation. If we were there literally seconds earlier we would have made it. Thankfully, he's stud and Brenda's incredible so it was all fine, but we just didn't know what more we could have possibly done. It was a really good confirmation though, and the rest of Sunday was very good. We finally got to go to more of our Spanish ward's church, and we taught Johana again because she wasn't able to make it to church.
So I think I talked a little about Johana before, but she is awesome! We heard this last week how she got here to be with her family from Mexico and it was a pretty crazy story. So she was walking out in the desert for hours with this group of people that was going to cross the border. As they were crossing in a van I think, the police started pursuing them. The driver said they'd need to get out and run, so they all got out and were running toward the mountains. She was way tired at some point and couldn't go any farther, but somebody else picked her up and helped her make it the rest of the way. One of the guys in charge there asked if she wanted to come with him and stay at his house for the night or if she wanted to stay with everyone else. She chose to go with him and found out that everyone that stayed there got caught. She also found out that everyone at the house those people would have gone to also were caught so she was literally the only one that made it! And during this whole time, she had some crazy spiritual experiences and was basically having a conversation with God. She promised that she would make Him the center of her life and felt this incredible need for something in her life. And then... we were some of the first people she met, and she knew it wasn't a coincidence. We had been sent into her life for a reason. So we've been figuring out how to get her and Hugo married so they can get baptized. It's cool because she's a very strong confident person and she really gets things moving. Hugo can definitely be lazy and kind of look for reasons not to do stuff, but thankfully she's there, and he is now reading in the Book of Mormon every single day because they read together. She's committed to coming every Sunday to church and studying every day. It's cool to see the incredible desire she has and the commitment to everything we teach. She is definitely prepared and we can't wait to take them to the Visitor's Center tonight! It should be awesome. - I can't wait to teach them more about eternal families and the true blessing that the gospel brings to families. It's funny though - because Hugo works in the evenings, we'll teach them together in the afternoon and then her sometimes in the evening as well (we're doing the new member lessons with Alberto and Adriana). So we may or may not have had a couple days where we taught Johana twice in one day... She loves it though, and she's learning all of the doctrine way fast.
This morning we got to go and package all the Easter pageant cards and we did it in record-timing. There were only 10 of us missionaries there and we did it all so fast - we shrink-wrapped stacks of 500 or so invitations, labeled the boxes, put other stuff in the boxes, taped them up and loaded them on to massive pallets and we did hundreds of those boxes.... it was crazy how fast it all went. I was literally running everywhere, but it's fun because it's an activity that's so measurable. We have 100% control of how fast we're going to get it done. In missionary work, you personally control so little of it. Things happen in Heavenly Father's timing and with people that He has prepared. I love it, and I have such a firm testimony that He does prepare people and the most important thing we can do is to give people an opportunity to accept the gospel - we don't know who will and we don't know when. But we've definitely seen miracles as we've been able to see and be a part of so many of these huge changes. Jeff received the priesthood this Sunday and is just loving it. Alberto and Adriana are absolutely converted and soon their entire family will be together! I'm so glad I get to stay to see the rest of them baptized - it's going to be incredible.
So that's what going on in Mesa right now! Not incredible amounts of changes, but always cool people to teach :)
Thanks for all you do! Les quiero mucho!
~ Elder Carlson
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