Hola de nuevo!
Wow, I always love General Conference weekend! It was so good to hear the prophet and all of the apostles and some of the emphases this time around. I was reminded of last April when we heard the conference 100% focused on getting married, and how it was interesting for all of us missionaries to listen to. After we heard the first two talks on Saturday morning about families and children we thought, "Oh boy - hear it comes again". But it's always interesting to me how different people can hear the same words and talks, and see a different focus out of it. They are definitely inspired in what they say, because the message is able to be so universal! I thought Jeffrey R. Holland's talk and Henry B. Eyring's talks were incredible, and I think there's a lot in every single talk that we can apply. A lot of people are going through a lot of trials and it seems like choosing to be happy through challenges and choosing to be happy for other people when good fortune befalls them is way important. I also thought Richard G. Scott's talk was great on receiving revelation and specifically being humble enough to receive it, rely on it, and record it. I haven't been as diligent in my journal as I'd like to, but I have a renewed desire and commitment to be better and to record more during my studies and throughout the day.
So this has been quite the week - we had meetings literally every single day! We had interviews with President Howes, district meeting, Zone Leader Council, ZDLM with the district leaders, and then conference all weekend. I felt like every meeting was super good, uplifting, and enlightening, but if you're not careful you can get overwhelmed and not focus on one area to improve on. We have to be able to set little goals and do it one at a time or we're never going to get anywhere. So it's always fun arranging everything for interviews and zone conferences - there is always so much more behind it than you think about! Reserving everything, getting boards ready, making assignments, setting up musical numbers, and all of the other good stuff. This time around was unique because Elder Lindquist and I actually didn't have our personal interviews with President Howes yet. Elder Lindquist had an important appointment he had to run off to, but we got to talk briefly with him about our companionship and the zone. He, more than anyone I've met, really has an ability to infuse a sense of urgency within you. He talked about the importance of what we're doing and why he put us together. The Mesa Zone has a lot of potential, but it's simply under-performing at the moment. He wanted to put two powerful zone leaders here to get things moving and we really need to get things moving! This is also the first time they've had sisters in the Liahona 5th ward in forever (the L5 is the highest producing unit in the entire mission) and we're going to have to really help them get things going! We need to do it, and we need to do it quickly. He said it was a risk to put us together (he'd like to spread us out), but that we need to do whatever's necessary to get the entire zone cranking. All they ended up doing with Elder Lindquist is giving him this boot thing/air cast and telling him to come back in 3 weeks. We'll see how it goes - we have to be in car everywhere since he can't really bike, and his foot's pretty bruised and crazy looking... hopefully it heals up soon.
So we had a super fast teaching relationship with a lady named Salette that didn't quite end up as we had hoped. Elder Twitchell had talked to her on the street fairly recently and she was way interested! She was saying she was looking for a church and she'd like to come check ours out. She was on vacation so we couldn't meet with her until Friday, when she came to the Easter Pageant with us. We took her through the Visitor's Center and she loved everything we saw and explained. She saw a short movie of Jesus Christ working miracles and said it all looked familiar but she didn't know that He came to the Americas! She was way curious about that and we taught her a little about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. When we shared Amos 8:11-12 she said that was exactly how she felt! She was hungering for something in her life and wanted that spiritual foundation before she had a family. She's from Argentina, about 30, married, and looking for something. She couldn't stay for all of the Easter Pageant, but we met with her on Saturday and had a solid lesson explaining more about the restoration and how she can know that it's true. She said she would talk to her husband about which session on Sunday they would go to. That night she sent us a text saying thanks but no thanks, she wants to just find a catholic church where she's comfortable, because the Book of Mormon confused her when she tried to read it (she had only had the BOM for less than one day by this time). We're pretty sure her husband wasn't a fan and convinced her, because she was absolutely rock-solid the night before. We testified of its truthfulness and how a testimony and understanding doesn't come all at once, but sadly we had to let it go. It's crazy how fast you develop a relationship with people as a missionary and how fast you get attached to them. It crushed us that night, because we haven't had too many people to teach and she was finally someone promising. Well, when one door closes another one opens.
The Easter Pageant was awesome on Friday though! We also had another family that we just barely met come with us, and it was so nice to see it, surrounded by investigators. I love seeing it in Spanish and talking to all of the people there. It's so well-done and there's definitely a special spirit that people can feel as they go. So the family that came with us was people that live in these apartments we've been at a little more lately. There's actually 7 in total - Manuel, Juana, Oscar, Carlos, Norma, Selina, and Karen, and they were excited to come with us, even though we had just met them a couple days earlier. We also got to teach them last night and had a way good lesson. They haven't really been to church, but definitely see a need for God and getting answers, developing a relationship with Jesus Christ. We also had a fun experience at a trailer park as we talked about how much we needed to find humble people. We had just talked to some way close-minded people and just didn't get anywhere. We were walking and saw a lady hanging up clothes. Elder Lindquist asked me, "Do you think she's humble?" I said ,"I don't know - let's go find out!" We talked to her (her name was Mariana) and she was super nice and friendly, and totally humble. Hopefully we'll start teaching her this week. It was just a funny situation.
We also had another awesome lesson with Milta Millan, the care-giver we started teaching last week. We found out her mom died recently and she was way interested in hearing the prophet speak and learning more about him and the plan of salvation. We definitely see good things happening with her, even though the 2 little chihuahuas there are about enough to drive anyone loco.
So that's been our week in a nutshell - big things are coming. I can feel it :) Love ya!
~ Elder Carlson
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