Monday, May 21, 2012

•Ya hablamos hace ratito...‏.5/14/2012


Hey hey hey!
So yesterday was Mother's Day and I got to update the fam on everything that's going on around here and especially all of the exciting things. Some of the highlights this week was that Val Hernandez got baptized and confirmed! She got baptized Saturday morning, and confirmed on Mother's Day, and everything went really smoothly. We had to hurry up and teach her everything she needed to know pretty quickly because she had to get her interview and everything, and she's doing super well. She had her friend Malachi, who basically introduced her to the gospel, baptize her and then Grant Dexter, who is preparing for a mission and just got the Melchizedek Priesthood, confirmed her yesterday. Everything went really well for the whole thing and it seems like her mom is actually pretty okay with the whole thing and maybe even a little bit interested. She told us she thought the whole thing was happening too fast, but when we told her Val was definitely ready and talked to her about the witness from the Holy Ghost, she seemed to perk up a little bit. We also have an awesome Relief Society President (Sis. Dexter) who fellowshipped her the whole time and was even talking to her in Spanish (Val's mom is from Mexico and Sis. Dexter served in Chile) so that she'd be more comfortable. Hopefully we'll see something cool happen soon with the rest of Val's family.
Also some cool things that happened were the Family Home Evening on Monday, english classes on Tuesday, and the huge Mother's Day activity that we had on Saturday. The Family Home Evening we used to do as a ward every single month, but not many people were coming so they haven't really done them for about a year now. We suggested starting them again and got put in charge of doing everything. So we made assignments for the refreshments, the sisters took on the activities, and we did the message. There were only a handful of people at 6:30 when it was supposed to start, and I was afraid that not many people would come. Within 20-30 minutes though, people were flooding in and we had to find chairs! There was barely enough room for everyone to fit! We shared a message about service and ways we can serve, but the most exciting part of the night was definitely the activities. I love how hispanic people just put themselves out there and don't really care how they look as they do different things. We had them do some pretty crazy things (it would take forever to explain in this email, but pictures should be able to explain some of it :) and they absolutely loved it! It was definitely one of the funniest nights of my entire mission... We also taught english classes for the first time, which was fun. As we helped people introduce and talk about themselves, we felt so proud of the people we helped, just like parents with their children.
Saturday we had this huge ward party and there were sooooo many people there. Somehow we got put in charge of the potatoes, so we peeled and mashed potatoes for about three hours on Saturday.... the potatoes were steaming hot, so they were way easy to peel but totally burning our hands. Mexican women have this crazy ability to never burn their hands and we just haven't developed it quite yet. They cook tortillas and all kinds of things on the stove and do everything with their hands and it doesn't faze them. We helped set up everything for the activity and of course it was way unorganized because the guys were in charge. As I was taping butcher paper on one of the tables, the 1st counselor said I'd better hurry up if I want to finish before I get home... haha (by the way I said that with a straight face). The food was good and the dance again was funny because everyone gets up there and dances and it's way entertaining.
Also good news with Milta and Ricardo! They totally came to church today, as well as Javier and Itzel! We finally had all of our solid investigators at church and it just felt so good. Milta had a little break from work finally on Friday so they immediately called us up and wanted to come to the church or something, so we went to the Visitor's Center and got to see God's Plan for Families, as well as have a super good lesson and relate Alma 22 to her (it's way applicable). So they're doing great, and we hope to see things progress with them. They also have incredible fellowship, and are really enjoying everything.
So that's the main weekly update. Life is good - just sprinting as hard as I can to the end (physically and spiritually :)
Love ya!  ~ Elder Carlson

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