•Semana muy buena :) ‏ 9/19/2011

It's been a pretty sweet week and we've been able to get lots of things done! We had a couple awesome baptisms this last week as Maureen Miller (our Native American - her tribe is actually Quechan) and Maribel Soto got baptized. It's cool to see baptisms in different wards and branches, and to see the support that everyone provides for these people as they take this important step. Maribel actually got baptized on Friday, September 16th, which is Mexican Independence Day, so I guess there were some pretty huge celebrations going on in Mexico during that time. But she is incredible and everything went really smoothly. I actually got to baptize her! And it's funny that you mention "keep singing" in all of your letters because that's all I did this last weekend. I sang for both of the baptisms, and then also sang for the 4th ward on Sunday, and all of them went really well - it's just fun trying to find music for all of these musical numbers!

It's actually kind of crazy - we've been analyzing how things have been going lately in our little 10-man (well there are 2 sisters I guess) zone, and it looks like we're actually doing a lot better! We're seeing more people baptized, more lessons taught, and more people with baptismal dates than we've seen in a long time.... We actually set a couple zone records this week as far as member-present lessons go. So our conclusion is that Spanish missionaries are a special breed, and our experience in Spanish work has definitely increased our capacity to do English work. Working with the members and coordinating lessons was is so crucial to everything we do, and it seems like it's been a lot easier in our English wards to be able to do that.

Church was pretty fun yesterday...So we've been doing this competition in our zone to see who can talk to the most people outside (OYM's) and we've got this whole point system worked out. It was cool because it motivated us to really open our mouth and talk to more people, to go out of our way and search for people we could talk to. We established standards of excellence not only in OYM's but all of our key indicators such as people at church, people with a baptismal date, new investigators, etc. We needed some more OYM's yesterday afternoon so we were outside trying to find people to talk to and we see this car on the side of the road with the hood up and decide to go talk to them and see if we can help them. They did need a jump-start, and we thought it was interesting that they were all dressed up just like we were. We started talking to them and found out that they were all Jehovah Witnesses (another car pulled up as well so there were a bunch of them!) and we ended up inviting them to our church, and they invited us to theirs... They were actually super nice, but I just found the whole situation a little bit entertaining. A whole bunch of Jehovah Witnesses around 2 Mormon missionaries is kind of a funny sight. So that was kind of fun and exciting.

Yesterday, church in 4th ward was fun. We had Maureen's confirmation, I sang a musical number, and then Elder Oliver and I did the opening and closing prayers. I actually didn't remember that I was supposed to be saying the prayer. I was so satisfied that everything went well with the song and I guess just wasn't worried or thinking about the prayer. So after the closing hymn, I was all reverent and in my prayer position until Elder Oliver nudged me and told me to go up there! So I walked up there super quickly (it was pretty impressive) and everyone found it amusing...

So it's pretty awesome - October's looking like it'll be a really good month. We already have 3 people with a solid baptismal date, and a whole lot more that are close to one. The only problem is transfers happen right after General Conference so we're not sure what's going to happen and who's going to be here for all of that... Katie and Nick Cavenee are 2 adopted kids that we just started teaching a couple weeks ago and they're going to get baptized soon (Katie's 13 and Nick's 9). Nick is the coolest little kid and came to the baptism all dressed up in his sweet little suit and looking like a missionary. He says some of the most random things that are just so entertaining. I was sitting with him at the potluck after the baptism and somebody asked if the elders were teaching him. He said yes and they asked if we were nice to them. He said that he liked me but that Elder Oliver kicked him in the face! He looked over at me and said, "Right, Elder Carlson?" Of course I had no choice but to agree. I don't know where he got that from but it was pretty funny... and he said that he liked me because I gave him $50. Goodness, teaching kids can be really fun sometimes.

We're also teaching another 9-year old named Jadin that's a little more difficult to teach because he doesn't seem to capture or understand the things that we teach. We'll say that the Book of Mormon teaches about Jesus Christ and then ask him what the Book of Mormon teaches about....no response. That's taken a little bit more creativity and simplicity than I'm used to. But hey, I guess it'll help us to simplify things to the utmost degree! That's one thing that being a Spanish missionary helps you to do - teach simply. First of all our vocabulary isn't incredibly massive and we don't really have any choice. Second of all, just because of who you're teaching, they won't understand a thing unless it's super super simple.

We're pretty excited because we're going to have a big baptism on Friday! Damaris and the 3 little girls Iris, Jessalyn, and Milly, are all getting baptized on Friday in the 9th ward. Their fellowships are incredible and it was definitely the right choice to take them into the English ward. We were worried because the family just seemed to disappear for a couple weeks and we thought we had lost them. We kept coming by all of the time, and thankfully we found them and they're doing great! We were worried that we had wasted time in trying to keep stopping by, but thankfully we didn't give up on them. So that'll be an awesome day.

And it was an interesting day on Tuesday going out to the foothills with our district leader out there. He'd been really struggling with depression and discouragement and it was weighing down on us and the rest of the zone. So I went with him and did my best to stay super happy and optimistic, and it just didn't seem to be doing any good at first. He wouldn't really respond and nothing seemed to help. I guess he had been stressed out with responsibilities and stuff, but as time went on he seemed to be doing better and better, and now things seem to be going great!

We actually went out early this morning with these members in 2nd ward here that are biologists and joined them in some lizard hunting out in the desert right by the Mexican border. We became pro at lizard-finding and ended up finding desert iguanas, flat-tailed lizards, zebra-tailed lizards, side-winders (rattle snakes), horned lizards, and all kinds of exciting creatures. We actually caught them with this stick that has a little noose thing at the end of it - you just have to get it around the lizard's head and pull. It was actually super fun and we caught a bunch of things they had been looking for. It was actually pretty crazy how much work Sister Donaldson had to do to get the activity approved by President Howes...but it worked! It was pretty sweet.

So yep, that's what's going on here! The zone is doing great and hopefully pretty soon here we'll have some sweet zone t-shirts!

Love y'all! hasta la proxima,

Elder Carlson

•Sigamos adelante!‏9/12/2011

It's definitely been a solid week and yesterday was a very satisfying Sunday! We were surprised to have 10 people come to church, and we had a solid number in each one of our wards! So first of all we go to our Spanish branch, which has been doing a lot better recently. The attendance has been way down but yesterday was a good day and Maribel's family came to church (she's actually getting baptized this Friday!). The rest of her family will definitely follow, but in the meantime she's setting the example and just consistently amazes us. So how we met her was actually kind of funny. It was through our awesome ward missionary Sister Leos, and she just lives a couple houses down from her. But what's funny is that Sister Leos didn't even know her before she brought the sister missionaries over! She basically said, "Hi neighbor, I just really felt like I should come over here and share the gospel with you. Here are some of my friends that want to share a message with you." So they taught her, didn't think she would progress at all, and now she's incredibly solid and getting baptized! She has already faced so much opposition but she's unfazed. Goodness, we're excited.

And then we went to 9th ward, where we were super happy and pretty surprised to see Damaris and her little girls at church! Damaris had never gone before, and we had been really struggling for a long time to get her there. But we had a really good lesson with her this week, and the bishop and his wife (who's the primary president - it worked out perfectly) were there. They were awesome fellowshippers, they hit it off, and I've never seen Damaris so happy. We talked to her a little bit after church and she told us that this is the church she had been looking for. We asked her what her favorite part about church was and of course she said... relief society!! Seriously, every female investigator we have just absolutely loves relief society. It's always their favorite part about church. And when we saw her come out there were all these ladies that were hugging her and giving her information, telling her how happy they were she was there and that they would see her next week. They really took her in and it was just incredible. The girls loved primary and it was just sweet.

And speaking of primary, we got to be special guests for the 4th ward primary yesterday. They wanted us to talk about the blessings of serving a mission, and it was so much fun. We asked all of the kids who was going to serve a mission and they all raised their hands, including a couple of the kids that we're teaching! Maureen, our native american investigator, is getting baptized this Saturday and she's just incredible. She's consistent in reading, going to church, and doing everything all by herself. I guess when she reads she gets in the zone and her cousin says that no one can talk to her. She's focused on that reading and nothing else. And when they announced the baptism in sacrament meeting, a 9-year old kid we're teaching leaned over to his mom and said, "I want to get baptized!" He definitely didn't say that in our first lesson, so that was way good to hear. I love our English wards. And it looks like I'll be doing a musical number next Sunday, so that'll be good.

We did have a pretty interesting experience this week though...so Thursday we came to the library here to work on our mormon.org profiles and as we were trying to upload our pictures, all of the lights and computers shut off all of a sudden and we were left in darkness. We went outside, thinking it might have been something here that just tripped but found out that it happened all over Yuma! Even with all of the stoplights and everything. When we talked to more people, we found out that it extended not only into California, but also into Mexico, Nevada, a lot of Arizona, New Mexico... It was pretty big. So everywhere we went people were outside their houses, because they had no air conditioning inside. We thought this was perfect! We've been struggling to find people outside to talk with, so we just figured this was Heavenly Father intervening and making it possible :) They're stuck there, because they don't want to go into their hot houses! So we got to talk to quite a few people. So that went on from like 3:00 to later on in the night. Luckily it wasn't for too long, but people definitely realized how important it was to be prepared! I don't think anyone still knows exactly what happened, but we heard it all came from one worker somewhere in Arizona.

So there was that, and then last Monday it rained!!! I have never missed or loved the rain so much in my life! There was this big storm and a wall of dust, but after that passed there was just a lot of rain for a little while. We stayed out, got soaked, and played in it like a bunch of little kids, and it was pretty sweet. I really enjoyed it. That has only happened 2 or 3 times during all of my time in Yuma (which is fairly substantial). All kinds of people that see me are so surprised that I'm still here! Everyone is asking if I'm just moving my stuff down here - I definitely feel part of our branch "family" here! That's for sure.

Oh and then another thing that was pretty cool was randomly visiting a recent convert on her birthday. So there's this 88-year old lady named Josephine that got baptized just before we took over ninth ward and she's the nicest lady ever. She lives in Somerton, which is a little out of our way, and we never really go down there. But Friday we randomly did go down there, and found out that it was her birthday and she was SO happy to have company on her birthday. She lives alone, so she loves having people over. She's quite the chatterbox...we were there for quite a while, but glad that she wasn't alone for her birthday.

So yep, good things are happening and we're excited like always! We found some more promising investigators and we hope to continue to have success! People are definitely beginning to trust us more in the wards and it's resulting in a lot more missionary work and a lot more excitement. Missionary work is pretty sweet! Love you all! Hasta luego!
~ Elder Carlson

•Al final esta bajando poquito...‏ 9/05/2011

Well this has been quite the interesting week - it seems like this week, in terms of missionary work, it was feast or famine. We had days where we wouldn't teach at all - every single lesson cancelled - and then we had days where we would go from one teaching appointment to another the entire day! Kind of crazy...
But once again, we had another week with lots of meetings... Thursday was zone leader council and then Friday was zone conference, and those are always some pretty incredible meetings. I was definitely inspired as I went to ZLC and we talked about how we're called to give everything and we talked about if we were really leaving everything behind and being 100% obedient. There are always little things that you realize you can do better and we definitely committed to being a little bit better and having more of a sense of purpose to be able to serve with more power and authority. President Howes always inspires me - he's an incredible mission president.
So we're still getting super excited about mormon.org right now and about all the plans the church has for advertisement and getting everyone excited. It's going to be going on around the Phoenix area from October-March so we're getting all of the members trained and prepared on what to do and say if/when people come up to them asking about it, or when they talk to friends about it. It is kind of sad that we're not going to get an incredible amount of the attention or advertisement down here, but we're determined to do what we can and to get all of our members to have a profile down here. People are going to be interested about the "Mormons" and they're going to want to find out about people they can relate to that have similar interests or that are going through similar situations. So that's been a huge push and we're excited to see what happens.
We finally got to know our ninth ward a little bit this week, and decided that they're awesome. It's the biggest ward here in Yuma, and there are just a whole lot of youth. So we went to the bishop's place on Saturday to meet him and talked to him (surprised him as he was mowing his lawn), and we had a way good chat about plans for the ward. His name's Bishop Titensor, he's a young guy, and he just barely got called to be a bishop a couple weeks ago! So he's still new to everything but way excited. He actually came out with us for awhile Saturday afternoon, and yesterday in ward council they had a super good meeting where all of the auxiliaries brought him an auxiliary plan (with what they're goals and plans are, specifically geared toward missionary work) and they're going to put them all together to make a ward mission plan. Goodness, we're so excited to have a plan and a ward council that really can help us with missionary work and focus on those people that are being taught, and families that need help in activation or re-activation. Plus it was funny because all of the people at ward council had a sense of humor so the whole time there were little jokes and people just having fun as they were getting things done. So yeah, we also realized it's going to be important to really involve the youth because there are over 15 priests in the priest quorum!! There are a lot of kids preparing for their mission, so it'll be cool helping them prepare for that.
So yeah, we got to enjoy a lot of church yesterday, with ward council meetings and 3 wards to go...I was definitely spiritually drained by the end of that. But it was cool - in both of our English wards, there were a whole lot of kids that bore their testimony, and I was so impressed at how profound they were and what kind of faith and confidence they had in it. There really was no doubt and it's just so clear to them. So that was pretty sweet.
And this week we met an awesome family that was a referral from one of our Spanish members. He owns a trailer out in the counties here that he's renting to this lady and her 2 boys (a girlfriend lives there as well). So the mom's name is Esther Bell, and then there's Carlos (22), Ronnie (19), and Salina (18). We went there and she said she had been waiting for us! They told us all about how they had gone to a few different churches, and had a really bad experience with the last one, so they just didn't know where to go. They've been searching for a long time, but just couldn't find it. It was incredible to see their faith though - she had really been depending on the Lord and knew that He would provide. They are really struggling financially but they've seen miracles as God has helped them through it. So they all came to church yesterday and it was sweet because they were all spiffed up and looked really good there, sitting all together. The ward really took them in, and we're excited. Good things are definitely coming.
And it was fun - with zone conference we had Elder Rappleye, who's an assistant down here, and he came on exchanges with us. It reminded me of all of our times here in Yuma last year, because he was here with me and Elder Cuthbertson and we spent a lot of time together. It's crazy to see all these missionaries go home...
So yep, life is good, and we've got big plans for our tiny little Yuma Zone. I love how tight and unified our zone is able to be, and how much support there is. So we're here loving it, and it's much better now that the weather has finally cooled off a little tiny bit :) Now it's only like 110...
Love you!
- Elder Carlson

•Una semana diferente.... 8/29/2011

Well we have been trying to adjust to the changes down here in Yuma, and it's pretty intense. There were an incredible amount and we've had quite the time juggling all of these new wards and trying to get things started in all of them. We were trying to think about how we were able to do it so quickly with the 4th ward...we already know most of the members and have a lot of solid investigators there. Speaking of which, we had Annette's baptism this past week and it was awesome! We had a whole lot of support from the ward, and it was cool to see her grandpa baptize her. Apparently he had grown up in Utah next to a church and was curious so he just started going... It was a pretty cool story, and he actually lives in Mexico so it was awesome that he was able to come up. And since he's a little older, he forgot some things with the prayer and everything, and there were a couple times she didn't go completely under the water. So I think overall we had to do it about five times, but she loved it and he was just so proud of her. It was just an incredible baptism, and we got to have a way good luncheon afterwards. It was cool - the young women in the ward made her a candy bar poster. And it talked about hoping her grandpa didn't have "butterfingers" so she could have a "fun dip". I was impressed, it was pretty clever.

So there's that, and we're teaching a lot of part-member families as well in the 4th ward that we're pretty excited about. We foresee big things in the near future. So it's interesting to see how the make-up of our zone has changed (our tiny little 10-missionary zone). We realized recently that there's a lot of older missionaries here, which is super unusual. I've always been in way young zones my whole mission. We've got all of the missionaries from Elder Oliver's MTC district here, and still almost all from my MTC district - weird to think I'm considered an "older" missionary now. I don't think I like it.

But life is good! One thing we've been really noticing lately is how everyone's related in these wards. There's all these main big families and they all seem to be related somehow. I guess that gives a new meaning to ward family...

Ooooh, and we had a couple pretty sweet lessons this week with Maureen (our Native American investigator) and Maribel (currently our only solid Spanish investigator/family). We met with Maureen earlier this week and we weren't exactly sure what to do with her. We've never taught anyone with that kind of background and we were just really unsure about how we were going to help her progress toward baptism, and really get her to read and pray. When we went over though, she said she had been reading and praying and that she knew the Book of Mormon was true! So we invited her to be baptized September 17th and she said yes! It was super cool, and definitely helped us realize who's really in charge here. The Lord really is the one who does all of the work, and we're just here to harvest. We also found out that she had just recently decided to stop drinking and smoking and hasn't for the past month so that's a huge leap - definitely something that can put off baptism for a while. So she called us to get a ride to church, and it was just sweet to see her make these changes and just put forth all this effort.

With Maribel it was also cool, because she's been reading and praying as well in the Book of Mormon, but hasn't committed to a baptismal date yet. Oh and by the way she is just incredible. She has said some of the most profound answers to our questions that I've ever heard. When we were talking about Lehi's vision we asked her what she thought the iron rod could possibly represent. She said she thought it could mean the word of God - the scriptures. We looked at each other and were just dumbfounded. Who would even guess that?! We were pretty impressed. And just with some of the other things, we'll ask her what they mean and she'll give us this perfect word-for-word answer, and we'll wonder if she has an answer book somewhere...that just doesn't happen - and especially not in Spanish work! So anyways, we were talking to her and we invited her to be baptized. She said she would. We invited her to get baptized the 17th, and she just said a solid yes. We were definitely not expecting it, so it took us a little while to register what she had just said. So that was cool, and yesterday she came with her whole family to all of church and it was just nice.

And apparently they're doing a media blitz down here in the Phoenix area where they're doing all of these commercials for mormon.org on all of the local stations and they're putting up all of these billboards to get people interested about it. So at the leadership training on Thursday we were trained on how to take advantage of it and how to train our members in responding to these friends that will approach them. We're all making profiles on there, and encouraging every single member to make a profile, so it should be pretty cool. The only sad part is that the website is not available in Spanish yet, and that the media thing isn't going to reach down to Yuma, because we get TV from California. But we're definitely going to take full advantage of mormon.org and I'm excited! I think it'll really help people understand us better.

So that's what's going on here! Busy as ever and loving the heat! (okay maybe not loving- that might be a stretch)

~ Elder Carlson

Family 8/2011

Should have put this picture in.

The whole family (except Elder Jesse, and Steve - in residency).

Dallin just got ordained to be an Elder, before heading off to BYU.

•Otra vez...‏ 8/22/2011

Well, it doesn't look like there's going to be too much change for me this transfer... We just got the transfer calls last night and guess what the exciting news is!! I'm staying in Yuma again... They really are never going to get rid of me. It's actually funny, because some people have been coming up and telling me that I might as well buy a place and start moving my stuff down because Yuma's just my home! So I guess I was kind of expecting not to move - they're making a lot of big changes down here and I don't think they want to change up the leadership on top of all that. So they are doing what we talked about last week and we're dividing up all of the english wards here amongst 4 sets of missionaries and we're also going to be doing all spanish work within those boundaries. It's been tough keeping all of this to ourselves down here, because everyone kept asking us what was going to happen and it's difficult for me to keep secrets! But we finally were able to tell everyone, and things are definitely going to be changing a lot. So the only difference for us is going to be that we take on 9th ward as well, and we have to give up some solid spanish investigators.

So what was really cool is that the entire Barraza family came to church yesterday!! I was on exchanges with an elder from the Foothills on Saturday and we decided to go stop by their house, since the dad Cesar said he's been having some struggles waking his kids up to come to church with him. It's actually a funny situation, since he's not even a member yet he's the one that's pulling for everyone to come to church. So we stopped by and had the first whole family lesson with them that I've had in a long long time. We talked about how the son Cesar and Nathalie had gone to the San Diego temple - talked about how they felt there and what they need to do to be able to go back. I finally got them to be serious and it was just a super good lesson, and they ALL came to church yesterday. Wow, it felt so good to see them there.

Other news is that our 4th ward is doing awesome!! Annette, who we've been teaching for a couple weeks, is getting baptized this Saturday, and she and her mom could not be happier. It's been amazing to see the change in them over such a short period of time. Annette was super timid and wouldn't really talk to us the first time, but now everything about her is just so much brighter, happier, and friendlier. She loves going to church, she's going to seminary, and she's super happy because her grandpa is coming up to baptize her. So that's sweet. We also picked up a bunch of solid new people that should be getting baptized within the next few weeks - some part-member families and some friends that people have invited to church/activities. We went and visited this Native American lady named Maureen, who came with her cousin to church last Sunday and said we could come by. She's way legit and said she would get baptized, but we're going to have to overcome some word of wisdom issues first... So during the lesson this guy named Rod, who was another cousin, came out and said that his mom was baptized and a member of our church. He basically said, "I don't know really how you go about it or anything...but I want to be baptized". It was pretty random but way cool so we're going to see what happens there. I love just fun experiences like that. And it's actually pretty sweet - last night we taught this 16-year old guy named Bernie Montoya and it turns out he's like the fastest high school kid in Arizona and like the 3rd fastest in the nation for his age! He's a really well-known kid down here and apparently at a state meet last year he ran a 4:12 mile and did most of it with only one track shoe! Somebody stepped on it and it came off, but he finished even though he was bleeding and stuff. It was a pretty cool story... So yeah, his parents are members but way inactive and he went to church a couple times when he was younger. He's way sincere though, and definitely sees the need to be closer to God. So we're definitely excited for this ward - they hadn't had like any investigators hardly all year long. So things are for sure picking up there!
So yep, lots of changes down here. They're taking out all of the english missionaries (the sisters and one of the elders) and we're making this a pure spanish zone. So there are only going to be 10 of us again (like when I first came down here) and we're ready to rip it up. I'm excited! Some day I might move out of Yuma, but it just doesn't look like it's going to be any time soon. It's interesting because a lot of missionaries call it Zion's Camp (because it's not the easiest place to do missionary work) and that's just all I know! I'm definitely a Yuma missionary...

So life is good, the work goes forth, and I will talk to y'all later! Love you!

~ Elder Carlson

Summer in Alaska 2011 with the family

Elder Jesse's siblings in his signature pose, at the beach.

We wanted Elder Jesse to know that we were thinking of him too.

The girls copying Uncle Jesse!

Thinking of you Elder Jesse!