8/17/2010 Busy as ever!!

Hey!!

It's nice to hear from everyone. This week has been SUPER hot like always, and it's been pretty humid lately as well. This is actually my first legitimate mission Preparation Day so that is kind of exciting. We've been keeping real busy and I'm definitely trying to learn the language. I can still understand a lot of what people say, but I struggle with speaking it. No worries though...it will come!!! I definitely get humbled all the time when I realize how much I have to learn and how much better I can be. It's good though because it always keeps me closer to the Savior and realizing why I'm here.

We've been doing a lot of service for people lately, yard work and digging up cactuses and such. That's definitely a new experience and I'm pretty sure I still have spines in my hand from that. Apparently gloves don't do any good because they just go straight through! But it was fun and it's nice to get a little workout every once in a while.

We've had some exciting things happen this past week! We've set baptismal dates for 2 of our investigators, so we should be having some baptisms in the next 2-3 weeks. I'm way excited, and it's amazing to see the Lord's hand in everything. Some people He has prepared so well and they just accept most everything we teach. This lady we visited last night, Hermana Amparo, is just an amazing person who is so spiritually ready. We had a lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and everything went so smoothly. She felt the Spirit strongly, and agrees that she needs to get baptized. The only thing with setting baptismal dates is that everyone always thinks they need more time and that they need to know more. So we're helping and talking to a lot of people and it's been quite interesting - it changes all the time. We were out on the street talking to people and almost every single one flat out rejected us and didn't give us a second. But I just enjoyed it, because they're the ones that are missing out, and it's my job to just be enthusiastic and loving. There's no point in getting all depressed and discouraged, because it's not us as individuals they are rejecting - it's the Savior and His Gospel.

We heard a really inspiring poem yesterday at a member's house. It talked about a missionary who was getting discouraged and tired walking around, knocking doors all day and getting rejected time after time. It talked about when this missionary had a dream that he was talking to the Savior. He would talk about something that was rough for him, and the Savior would console him and tell him what he went through. Although our hands may hurt from knocking doors, the Savior's did from having nails pounded through His palm and wrist. Our backs may hurt from our backpacks, but Christ carried the burden of the cross He would die on - apart from the suffering of every sin, sickness, or temptation that anyone would ever have. We may not always enjoy our companion, but Christ was rejected and despised all his life - He was constantly surrounded by people that were mocking and spitting on Him. It was just an amazing poem that helped me have a better perspective about everything we do. I have no right to ever complain about anything I do or anything I go through. I am so blessed and I'm carrying a message of joy and happiness! There's no better thing, and there's no better place to be.

We're still working hard on finding new investigators and just talking to more people in general. We have a car and because someone else had to use my companion's bike, we aren't really doing any biking. I'd like to because it's nice to get exercise, but as of now we don't really have a choice. Working out is interesting here, because we have tile floor everywhere in our house and it can be tough to even do push-ups and sit-ups and things. But I've been doing great and working out whenever I have time, and in whatever way I can.

My companion is great and we're getting along really well. We have an apartment, and we get fed by the members almost every single night. The members are all gracious and welcoming, and we're starting to work more with them, which is definitely what we need to do. When we eat dinners with them, we're starting to commit them to come up with 10 names of family and friends that they know and pray about them to know which ones to visit or introduce. 60% of converts come through members so we need to be spending our time accordingly. It's wise to not be spending all day tracting to find maybe one or two people, when you can benefit so much from just spending a little time with members. We're working on really setting a good example for the members here so they will trust us with teaching their family and friends. They're all great, and we'll see how everything works out.

We don't spend as much time outside as we'd like to because we have to take a full hour for training and a full hour for Spanish study outside of our Personal and Companionship studies. We're trying to be super productive with our remaining time, and everything has been staying busy.

We're actually having a few days of training this week, and the AP's, President and his wife are all coming to train our zone (Wednesday through Friday). So we're not going to have hardly any time to get everything done. We are excited because they're going to be going out with us for some appointments and we're setting up a lot.

Mornings have been sweet - sometime we meet up with missionaries to do soccer, this morning we played tennis. All the missionaries down here are way tight because we're so isolated from everyone else. Another thing about this area is that people stay here for a long time so they get to know each other real well.

It's been great though! I'm loving everything, and working hard!

8/12/2010 I'm in Arizona!!

Hey, I made it to Arizona!!! I got here early on the 10th - I woke up at 3:30 to make sure I had everything packed up and we left the airport that morning. It was kind of a rough flight because I have a cold and my ears didn't to well with the elevation, but I was super excited to get into that airport. It felt so surreal to finally be in Arizona and legitimately be in my mission field. The mission president and his wife came with the AP's to meet us, and they were all super nice and welcoming.

We went to a LOT of introductory meetings that day, and we were all pretty tired, so it was kind of an overload of information. We also did our interviews with the president, and he is just an absolutely amazing man. He's got a super strong missionary spirit about him, and he said I can't be just a good or even a great missionary. I have to be a super-star! We got to go to the Mesa Temple Visitor Center afterwards and that was a super cool experience. I don't think I've ever so thoroughly enjoyed a place like that before. We watched the Lamb of God and walked around an art exhibit, and I felt the Spirit so incredibly strong. I can't imagine how life would be without this knowledge and without having this hope and comfort in a loving Savior who wants to help us.

An English-speaking elder and I stayed the night at a member's house in Tempe, and they were a super nice somewhat older couple. I enjoyed talking to them about their families and missionary work and everything. The next morning we went to more meetings about everything, and met all the mission office staff. Then it was time for our transfer meeting!!!

I was one of the last to be called, and found out that my first area was going to be in Yuma, which is in the very southwest corner of Arizona. It's super hot here, but I guess it basically is everywhere in Arizona. My companion and trainer is Elder Cuthbertson, a wrestler from Alabama. He's a fairly quiet and soft-spoken elder, but he seems to be very determined and I think we'll do great together. So yeah, I got to take a long, hot truck ride down to Yuma yesterday, and get all settled in. We got to know each other and last night, we had an elder's quorum activity that members invited friends and investigators to. We played soccer and it was a really cool experience to meet everyone and kind of get started speaking Spanish. It gets kind of crazy, because so many of them just switch back and forth between English and Spanish, and I get kind of lost sometimes. I'm sooooo grateful to my teachers at the MTC though, because they did an excellent job teaching me and I understood almost everything that was being said. Speaking is a little different though, and that's going to take some practice. We do have a lot of appointments and a FHE to do tonight, so I guess I will have the opportunity to practice real real soon.

I've also met some really cool people from Nigeria yesterday - they don't speak Spanish, but they're super interesting guys who like to talk to us. They definitely make everything real interesting and entertaining. I can already see that I'm able to talk to other people so much easier than before, and it's easier for me to just get to know random people.

Oh, and the last week at the MTC was pretty wild and crazy. We were having departure meetings and zone leader meetings, as well as classes and teaching appointments and everything. We were CRAZY busy, but also incredibly excited to leave and get to work. My district was practicing a song (O Mi Padre) to sing for our last Sunday there, and I was practicing the duet I was going to sing with Elder Mitchell on Sunday (I Need Thee Every Hour).

Sunday was probably the highlight of my week. I don't know if I said before, but our branch president at the MTC had us write talks in Spanish every week. He would give us all a topic and then we would all write talks because we didn't know until sacrament meeting who was actually going to give one. Anyways, I was up on the stand after blessing the sacrament when he announced the rest of the meeting. He said that first my district was going to sing our song, and then after a couple sisters would give talks that I would give one, which would be followed by mine and Elder Mitchell's duet. I had no idea that I was going to be giving a talk or singing that duet, so that was kind of a surprise for me. Everything went way better than I thought it would though - the district song was better than we had ever sung it, and my talk went a lot longer than I thought it would. I didn't think I would have so much to say in Spanish! This was all interesting, because I was still sick and without a voice, but my duet was literally by far our best performance of the song. It was amazing, and when I sang that song it was like my entire body was surged with this power in knowing how much I need my Savior. So yeah, it was a pretty busy Sunday - some elders said they might as well have called it "the Elder Carlson Show" but I was just grateful for the opportunity to sing and everything.

We definitely said a lot of goodbyes and I'm going to miss my zone back at the MTC. They're all a fantastic group of elders and we got super super close to one another.

I'm loving everything here though and I'm excited to meet more people and get started teaching!!!

The Final Countdown!! ‏ 8/04/2010

Holy Smokes, this week is crazy because it's my last week here!! I can't believe I've already been here in the MTC for so long! It's already been 8 weeks and it's funny, because around here I feel like such a veteran. It's also funny to think about because in a few short days I am going to be a super newbie/greenie so it'll be fun to go through all that again.

We taught an awesome lesson in the TRC last week to a Native Honduran woman who talked very softly but extremely fast Spanish. The lesson went great, we kept her involved, asked a lot of questions, shared scriptures, testified, and at the end of the lesson we committed her to baptism and set a date! It was funny because we suggested she get baptized on the 8th of August and she said the 9th was her birthday! We told her hey, what better gift can you get than the gift of the Holy Ghost and to have your sins washed away?? She was a great investigator and we learned a lot from her. These lessons are always super exciting.

Well we got a new district last week and our zone has been huge! We have over 50 missionaries and it's pretty wild in our residence hall. I'm so proud of them and grateful for a mission president that really emphasizes being obedient with exactness. At first I may have been a little bit skeptical but it has made the transition so much easier and it helps everyone out. The Lord blesses you when you are obedient and it really is the first law of heaven. The new missionaries are all great and it's cool being able to take the lead and set an example. We taught them a couple lessons last week and showed them all the ins and outs of the MTC. We're definitely doing our best to show them EVERYTHING here, especially the stuff that past zone leaders didn't tell us.

Well I got my flight plans last week, so that's super exciting! I am leaving August 10th from the SLC airport at 8:31 so hopefully everything works out. Flight plans are an amazing gift when you've been in the MTC for quite a while.

We had some really awesome lessons this week about faith and obedience. We had a large group meeting about faith and the fact that we are sent out to baptize. There's nowhere we can be sent that we cannot baptize. The Lord has prepared so many people to receive the Gospel and we're just going out to harvest. We really do need to have faith and talk to everyone. You can never judge or tell who would be receptive to hearing the Gospel. We also had a lesson in class about faith and about the faith of the brother of Jared. He had so much that it was a perfect knowledge. We need to have that same kind of faith he had, so we can see the Lord's hand in our lives. I realized that there is always so much room to improve and I can definitely build my faith. It's always good to have something to work towards.

We had a zone workshop on Saturday that was totally awesome and reminded me of things I could do better in my teaching. We had one on asking questions, testifying, and one on scriptures. We taught entire principles and lessons doing solely one of these things and it made me appreciate the strength of all of them. We need to use the Lord's word in teaching and promising blessings (scriptures), we teach very powerfully when it’s something that has made a significant impact on your personal life (testifying), and asking questions is the way to get the investigator to search in their life and find applications that they can use daily. It really made me think and realize that lessons should definitely not be me talking - they should be talking, reading scriptures, and thinking about these principles. I'm so grateful for all of my teachers here - they are phenomenal and have taught me so much! They really push me to do more than i thought i could. One's leaving today so we have to say goodbye and take pictures with him and such.

We had a great mission conference on Sunday and once again they focused on obedience and the fact that selective obedience is no obedience at all! Obedience really is vital in everything we do. They also talked about how great it is that we will have a perfect judge who knows the desires of our hearts. On Sunday, the elders in my district sang a song and it was sweet! We did it acapella (Be still my soul) - it went way better than ever before and we made the President cry - i think that's a good thing.

We are teaching an investigator today in front of all the new missionaries, so we had a meeting on monday for that and it was really cool. When we do this, we can't have anything else on our mind than the desire to truly get to know and bless these people. I'm excited - it's an awesome opportunity! We've attended some departure health meetings and things and seen immature missionaries that haven't been here too long and are rowdy. It makes us appreciate our awesome zone who strives to do the best in everything we do.

We had a great fireside last night about faith and obedience, and it was just sweet. They talked about how fear makes mountains out of mole hills and faith makes mole hills out of mountains. And sometimes trying doesn't bring triumph. You just have to get the job done! We always get great inspirational speakers.

Well we went to the temple for the last time this morning and it was great!! I hope we get to in Arizona!

I'm pretty sure I’m singing for a devotional on Sunday here in front of the whole MTC so hopefully that goes good! it's the duet I told you about before. I've been kinds of sick this week but i'm finally getting over it and things are goin great! Working hard and loving it!!

Less than 2 weeks left!! 7/28/2010

Hola!

Holy cow, it's been busy around here like always. We're getting a new district of 12 elders here tomorrow that we get to welcome as zone leaders and get them situated and everything. We're actually already training new zone leaders even though we've got a couple weeks left but they're both super cool and we're going to teach them everything we know. It was cool- last night we picked up an elder from New Zealand, so that was sweet. He has an awesome accent! And yeah we should be getting travel plans Friday or Saturday, and we're super excited for those!! As of now, we should be leaving on schedule on the 10th of August. there have been a lot of missionaries here with visa issues so thank goodness we don't have to worry about that!

This morning was awesome because we were finally able to go to the temple again. It's been closed since our first week here. We had an AMAZING session with an absolutely AMAZING breakfast afterwards. It was a super good morning.

Oh, and some of my exciting news is that last Thursday, I tried out to do a musical number with an elder in my district, Elder Mitchell. Elder Jones, our new district leader, accomopanied us and it went really well. We're doing a duet of "I need thee every hour". We made it! so hopefully we'll be performing it soon, either at a devotional or fireside. We're really excited so that should be a cool experience. They've talked about the power of music lately, at firesides and things, about how it is a language of heaven. It can convey things that words can't. I want to be able to use that in teaching appointments any time I can. Even some of the simple songs have the best Spirit. We heard a story of an investigator who knew that the church was true, because of the music he heard in the church. It has amazing power, and it's so enjoyable!

Elder Twitchell and I taught a pretty good lesson on tithing this week to our classs, and we had a sweet object lesson. We used a bunch of Lucky Charms from the cafeteria for it, and showed how it works with paying and getting blessed. We thought it was a good way to teach and have snack time at the same time ( dos parejas con una roca). We enjoy coming up with analogies and object lessons that help convey the importance of various things.

We were humbled a little bit with last week's lesson in the TRC - we felt that we could have done a better job, and that there are things we could change that could help invite the Spirit a little more and help us be more receptive to the Spirit. We're now doing an English fast almost every single day for a few hours, and we only speak Spanish during class. We're trying to step everything up since we only have a couple more weeks, and we want to hit the ground running! I'm learning so much, and I'm trying to use it a whole lot so I don't forget it!
We had a really awesome experience the other night with a challenge we were issued. There is a quote from Pres. Hinckley on pg. 94 in PMG that says missionaries should start out every day on their knees, and be in the spirit of revelation. We found a quiet room and offered a sincere prayer that we could find someone who needs us and that we can say what we need to say. We felt we should go by a certain tree in front of the cafeteria, so we went there and although no one was there at first,we saw someone walking toward us. We talked to him and introduced ourselves. It turns out he was an international missionary who had just come from Taiwan, and he was feeling overwhelmed. We helped him find places and talked to him about how much the Lord helps us here. we promised he would be comforted and that he would be able to learn the language. He felt uncomfortable with his English and he's going to Paris, France - learning French in English, when his native language is Mandarin! He wrote down our names to put them in his journal, and I knew we had been inspired to talk to him that night. I love that amazing feeling when you know you're following the Spirit!

Well, I'm doing great and learning tons!! Hasta proxima semana!!

Hey everyone! 7/21/2010

I completed "la vision" this week and it was super sweet! We were supposed to teach 30 lessons and get at least 10 contacts every single day. We ended up getting well over 40 lessons this week and got all of our contacts done as well. It was a SUPER busy week but we learned a lot about Spanish and a lot about teaching. We were incredibly busy but wow, that really made time fly. We did our first TRC last Wednesday and it went really well!! We had no problem communicating and the investigator committed to baptism. We are definitely coming along and progressing all the time. Anything is most definitely possible with the Lord's help.

This week we made a lower goal of 25ish lessons so we could have more study time and make our lessons more quality and applicable. We've already started doing this and it's much more beneficial. Instead of teaching missionaries as investigators, we are teaching them as themselves. It makes everything so much more meaningful and sincere. It also means we have to expand our vocabulary more!

We had a great Large Group Meeting about recognizing the Spirit and it really was amazing. If we are doing what we should be, praying for the Lord's help, and striving to magnify our calling, we will be inspired to do those things the Lord wants us to do. We don't need to question all the time if what we're thinking really is inspired. If we're doing what we're supposed to, it could just be our thoughts. We don't have to KNOW that we're being inspired. We really can feel the Spirit all the time here and it really is amazing. We can feel the love the Lord has for each missionary here and we get filled with that love when we teach them. I can't even describe how amazing and empowering this feeling is!

We had a really good zone workshop on contacting, making lessons simple and meaningful, and becoming a missionary. We always can work on simplifying lessons, but it's a good thing we can't get too complicated - we're teaching in a completely different language! But becoming a missionary is the most important thing we can do. you can either go on a mission or become a missionary. We shouldn't go on a mission, but let the mission go through us. If we don't do this, it will be a long two years and it will drag on. But if you keep the right attitude and remember why you're out here, it will be the best time of your life and you will accomplish so much. You can especially feel this if you have a sincere love for the people you teach and want them to have this amazing change in their life.

Part of how I can feel my testimony growing so much is how often I share it! I bear my testimony so many times a day about how glorious this gospel is and how I know the Church is true. I love being able to feel the Spirit so much, and the Lord's help in making me the missionary I want to be.

We had a sweet devotional last night, and the speaker talked about how when we follow the commandments, we acquire truth, light, knowledge, faith, power, and ultimately Spirit! When we disobey, we lose these things. The only way to reverse this process is througth repentance. There was some profound stuff though. Those who need repentance the most know the least about it. And it takes a really good man to repent, but it's the really bad man that needs it. It totally makes sense and these devotionals are so inspiring! As missionaries we have more commandments (mission rules) and when we follow all these we are blessed so much and can have that much more spirit and power!! It's so amazing.

Well, I am doing well, teaching a whole lot, and doing the best I can! Thanks for your support! I really appreciate mail and hearing from everyone!

Adios hasta semana proxima!

(Adios until next week!) ~Elder Jesse Carlson

Super busy as always!! 7/14/2010

Hola!!

This week has been super crazy just like every week has been here. We literally don't have a spare second all day long to do anything. We're in class for hours every day and whenever we're not in class, we're teaching. We finished our week of perfection and it's helped so much! We are doing great with the language and speaking Spanish so much better than we thought we could at this point. Our "week of perfection" has now turned into "la vision" and we're supposed to have 10 contacts and 30 lessons each week. We're teaching a ton and as of today we have already taught 20 lessons this week. We still have until Monday! One of the good things about teaching in another lesson is that you have to teach pretty simply because you have no choice! You basically have to. We also started something that I think is a pretty good way of starting off a meeting. We start each lesson by singing a verse of a hymn in Spanish, and it's really cool. These songs really do have an immense amount of power, and they can always bring the Spirit.

Oh and I have exciting news!! As of Sunday I am a zone leader here so I get to be in charge of 40-ish elders here in the MTC. I love the opportunity to serve here and I’m growing so much as a leader and as a missionary. My comp and I have been getting trained in that all we need to do.

Our lesson last Wednesday in the TRC was so good! We ended up teaching a teacher that works here, but it has been our best lesson so far! We were teaching about the plan of salvation and he was asking a couple pretty tough questions. I was surprised when i answered them far more logically and simply than I ever have before. I made connections in my mind that I had never made before, and I know that I was being taught by the Spirit as well in that lesson. He committed to being baptized and stopping drinking and smoking. All of this teaching makes everything so much more exciting and it really does make the time fly by! I can't believe its Wednesday again. All the weeks are starting to run together.

We had a really really cool devotional on Sunday and Dallin H. Oak's daughter played the violin throughout it. She talked and performed, and she was so amazing! The Spirit was crazy strong there, and apparently she's a super distinguished violinist, so that was perfect. Plus we don't get to listen to music here, so it was a very welcome sound.

We did have an "investigator" here that really humbled us and made us think. She kept saying, "I don't know if I believe in God" and was almost refusing to do anything. We started to kind of feel how missionaries feel when they get discouraged that people won't accept this wonderful gospel in their life. We're determined to bring the Spirit with us this week and let her know how important it is, so we look forward to that.

I've been getting a lot more confident about walking up and talking to random people. I haven't always been one to do it, but we're definitely getting in the habit of that here. We really do have an urgent message to share with the world, and it's so vitally important that everyone has it in their lives!! I can't wait to get out there and spread the Gospel like crazy!

Well I'm doing super good and staying incredibly busy! Loving it here, learning a ridiculous amount of Spanish, and learning a lot about being a leader!

Nos vemos! Estoy aprendiendo todo el tiempo. El Evangelio es maravilloso!

Busy, Busy!! Wed 7-07-2010

Holy smokes this week has been crazy!! It's our "week to perfection" so it's been super rigorous. This week we've already done two English fasts (one was fast Sunday) and we're doing 2 english fasts - today is one of them. It really does make me realize how much I'm learning! But definitely at the same time that I have a LONG way to go. We're doing an insane amount of work but I know it's going to pay off. We're teaching tons of lessons, practicing with other missionaries and we're speaking Spanish all the time outside of class. We have a TON of scriptures we're reading this week and memorizing a ton in Spanish so we can use them in our lessons. We're going through all of the lessons in Preach My Gospel and scriptures, and making questions and commitments for them. I can't even list everything we're doing this week - it would take far too long. But I never thought I could learn so much so fast! I definitely know we're getting help here.

Well last week we taught the second discussion for the first time and I think it went really well. We didn't feel nearly as solid about the material, but we kept it very simple and focused on the investigator, so it went far better than we thought it would. We were also pretty excited because she's from Ecuador and she was very impressed with our Spanish! That made us feel a little better.

We have definitely had a lot of devotionals and lessons about the Book of Mormon, so we definitely know the importance of it when we're teaching people. We've had a lot of authorities talk about how there's no way other than divine help a young uneducated boy could translate 531 pages of doctrine from ancient symbols so fast and so correctly when it takes experts with all kinds of resources years just to transfer from like English to German. It really is amazing. What is also really cool is how few corrections there were in the original manuscript. Joseph Smith would say it, and say it once. I know when I write anything I could revise it at least 20 times to get it the way I want it. What he said once has withstood immense scrutinization.

We had a cool musical/presentation on Saturday about the history of the people that made the Bible (and Book of Mormon) possible. It was quite interesting, and I've never really known any of it. I loved listening to the music though, because we can't listen to music here! That's probably one of the hardest rules here for me. Oh, and one of the most exciting things that happened was on Saturday night, we all got to see fireworks!! We were given permission to stay up a little later and watch the ones above the Stadium of Fire. It was awesome, because I haven't seen fireworks in so long! We still had to get up early though, so that was fun. Oh and I got to bear my testimony for the first time in Spanish on Sunday, and it rolled off my tongue a lot faster than I thought it would. It's so amazing what goes on here and it really is a growing experience.

We taught our first lesson in Spanish yesterday and it actually went pretty good! We ended up teaching okay, but we forgot about all the teaching skills we had learned in English, so that's just going to take practice. We are definitely getting super excited about this work though. I love being able to talk to and teach people who aren't missionaries!

We also got to go and clean the temple for 3 1/2 hours this morning! It was super cool! We were pulling up carpets and cleaning lockers and it was just a super neat experience. Definitely enjoyable. Well, I'm doing great and getting along great with my companions!

Hasta luego!

~ Elder Jesse Carlson