Hola! Todavia estoy in Yuma y tan animado! 9/‏/22

Hola!

Hey well today is transfer today, and yeah Wednesday is Preparation Day for the entire mission. It is a good day to have it, and it's a nice break in the middle of the week. But anyways, we found out that just about everyone is staying here. Our zone leader (Elder Robinson- super awesome elder) is going home today- his 2 years are up- and his companion is getting moved too. But the rest of us are all still here and I'm so grateful! I was worried that I would be moved and that I would have to leave all these people we've been teaching. So Elder Cuthbertson and I are still here, and they are splitting our area in two and bringing down two more Spanish missionaries. We're anxious to see which half of Yuma we have and which people we're going to end up teaching. My companion is also now a district leader, so we're all going to be a little extra busy.

But the most exciting part of the week was last night! We've been meeting with the Barraza family a lot this week (the ones I talked about last time), and all of the kids came to church on Sunday. And then Cesar Jr. told us he couldn't wait any longer and wanted to get baptized Tuesday! We said no problem so we set up everything and got him baptized last night. It was super cool and especially special for me because he asked me to baptize him, so I performed my first baptism and it was just sweet. I don't know if I've ever seen anyone so happy, excited, and glowing as he was after that baptism. He hugged everyone there (there was actually a pretty huge crowd- over 60 people!) and he just set such a great example for the rest of his family. His 2 little siblings are going to get baptized soon and they are both excited. We sang a really cool baptism song, partially in Spanish, and the whole thing was just such an amazing experience. This family is just making such progress and growing so much!

We had another pleasant surprise when we found a fellowshipper for one of our investigators (for Maria Hernandez), we asked her about getting baptized this week and she said yes! So we're going to have another one this Saturday and she's so excited too. She's so ready and willing to take this step and is just so full of faith. She has no doubts or concerns and I know she's going to be a super strong member. It's so nice having members go out with us, who really help these people and become their friends. Especially when you see their sincerity and genuine concern. I am just a tiny bit nervous because I'm going to confirm her on Sunday and that definitely involves quite a bit of Spanish, but I'm going to really pray and prepare for it and I know it will all work out.

We're singing more than ever, probably 6 or 7 times in the next few days, and I've played the piano a little bit. It can be tough sometimes to come up with so many songs to sing! But it's super cool and fun, and usually enjoyable.

Oh, and Hermana Amparo is going to get baptized the weekend after General Conference, and she's so ready. We've loved teaching her and her family, and she is bringing her husband to lessons. Hopefully soon their entire family will be members together and be able to go to the temple! She brought her family to this big Mexican party we had on Friday. Since it was Mexican Independence Day Thursday our branch had a big party Friday night that was awesome. We had a lot of investigators come and have fun and make friends, so I think it was a definite success. Some of the food was definitely interesting, some very hot, but I guess that would be kind of expected, huh?

So we've got a lot of people preparing for baptism and getting baptized real soon, and I love it! They're making huge changes in their lives, and embracing what they know to be true. You can see their immense faith in Jesus Christ and their desire to follow him and do what He wants. In a lesson we just had yesterday we asked how an investigator felt about the Church and the Book of Mormon and at first she said,"I believe it's true", and then she said no, "Yo se que si". I know it's true. So we've really been blessed and really focusing on commitments like going to Church, reading, and praying, so people have the chance to really know the truthfulness of this wonderful Gospel. I've been learning so much from every single person we teach, and I'm definitely growing all the time.

I LOVE it here and I'm so glad I get to stay this next transfer!!

Doing great and loving it :)

Siempre bien ocupado (Always very busy) 9/15/10

HOLA!

It's been a way good, busy week like always. We're really doing a whole lot of teaching and finding through members and it's really paying off. First of all, the most exciting thing that happened this week was that we had a baptism last Saturday!!! It was Helaman's wife Wendy, and it went super super good. It was kind of funny though, because we had a ton of members and friends all at the Church and Wendy's family were the last ones to get there. We were a little nervous because they were late but all went well. It was definitely amazing being able to participate in the baptism and see the happiness and Spirit that this family felt. Her husband has been really supportive and working together with her as we've been teaching her. I think she has actually been the one teaching him more than anything, but it was just incredible to be a part of the baptism.

It was actually pretty sweet because once again, I got to be very active in the baptism. I found out the night before that I was giving the talk on the Holy Ghost. So I got to give a talk, sing a duet with my companion (he said we've already sung 10x more than he has his entire mission), bear my testimony, and be a witness at the baptism. It was sweet being able to look at them as I talked and to see her just glowing with that Spirit. I also think I must have done a decent job talking and everything because I had a lot of members say that my Spanish is improving and that they really enjoyed it. It can be tough because sometimes when I'm up giving a talk, I get a little tongue-tied and can't really speak Spanish that well.

But I've had a lot of growing opportunities lately, for sure. My companion was super sick last Wednesday so he had to stay inside all day. I got a LOT of studying in that day - reading the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel, english and in spanish. And then later that day I got to go on splits with an English elder and visit quite a few people. It was definitely different being the main person to talk and deliver the lesson. We visited 3 families that all speak Spanish and I had to really do all of the communicating. It was definitely tough at times, because I totally couldn't understand all of what they were saying, but it made me step up and lead the discussions and really practice my Spanish a whole lot. We also met an AMAZING family that these other elders had found - the Barraza family. I went to the lesson because the mom speaks only Spanish and can't understand English very well. But the entire family is so amazing and so prepared. They've been to Church once and been taught for maybe a couple weeks, and they all have desires to be baptized. They all felt the Spirit and Church, and have felt that this is the right one. There's Caesar and Maria, with their kids Caesar Jr., Natalie, and Rene. Caesar Jr. is 16 and he's such a stud - he already wants to go on a mission and feels like he's going to go to Spain! He's already handed out 2 Book of Mormons and shared the Gospel with a few of his friends. The kids are all reading in the Book of Mormon every day, and the husband is really trying to get his wife more involved in the Church. He said she called him the other day to tell him that she was reading it! It was a random call and she was just at home. He was super excited and we absolutely love going to their family to teach them. After being there for only a few minutes, I felt like part of the family and there was just an amazing feeling in their house.

One thing that we've been working on this past week is getting Hna, Amparo ready for her baptism. She has this family thing this weekend in Mexico so she won't be able to do it this week. We had a huge Family Home Evening the other night, and we talked to her about still doing it very soon. It's tough because she's still nervous and thinks she has to know more. She always feels like she doesn't know enough. We assured her that she is ready and that the Spirit will help teach her after she's baptized. What's most important are our desires to follow Christ and get the Holy Ghost to guide and direct us. She is so prepared and we are going to have a lesson with her tonight so we'll be praying real hard about how we can help her.

So my companion had his 21st birthday this past Sunday and he has gotten a ridiculous amount of cake and presents from everyone here! Everywhere we went for like 3 days was a party. As soon as they found out it was his birthday, people were getting all kinds of gifts and making a ton of cakes for him. I was stuffed for so long and I had to eat a lot of cake that I didn't really want to... but it was way cool, and everyone around here is so generous. They all asked me when my birthday is and I had to say that sadly it's not for quite some time. But...if they wanted to celebrate any time, I would be cool with that.

Our lesson last night was also way good. We had a lesson with a less-active and his wife, who has been investigating for quite some time. We didn't really get anywhere for quite some time, because we felt like there was this barrier and that we weren't really getting through to her. But then all of the sudden it got quiet and she was just speechless. We started asking her questions about how she felt and could see that she was feeling the Spirit. We bore pure testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel and she was getting way emotional. She said that she had been asking these questions in defense of her church (catholic) but then that her mind was cleared and that she had just really opened up. She felt the Spirit very strong and said that she guessed she needed to be reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. We said yep, that would be a pretty good idea. Anyways, the husband felt it too and they're going to read and pray together. So the Spirit is amazing and definitely is the true teacher of all things.

This week is transfers and we'll see what happens! I really really want to stay here with my companion because we have a lot going on here, and I love the members and people we're teaching. But I will definitely go where the Lord wants me to go!

Mucho trabajo que hacer‏ (Much work to do) 9/7/10

Hey hey!!!

Well this last week has been way good and super busy... that's one thing about the mission that I love and find really cool. The work never stops and there's always so much to do! There's no time to take breaks and there's no time to really think about anything else than teaching and visiting people. There have been a lot of new people popping up everywhere - friends of members and referrals, random people at Church. We're getting so many new people to teach and it's so incredibly exciting!! We had a referral from the mission office the other day that has a ton of potential. It's a Mexican man named Benito in his 50's who lives alone, and he called to get a Book of Mormon. We visited and taught him a little bit and he's already reading quite a bit. It's such a blessing when people will actually take the time to read the Book of Mormon to know the truth of it.

We also had another cool experience with a recent convert's friend. Some of the investigators and recent converts here are just amazing and some of the best missionaries I've ever seen. They're so excited about the Gospel and bring all kinds of friends to Church and everything! This one new investigator, her name is Lorena, is from Veracruz and seems to really like the Church already. She loves to read, which is like the best thing ever for missionaries to hear, and she said that she's going to read the whole book. She has quite the crazy story about her daughter though. Apparently one of her daughters was abducted and they had to pay $20,000 to get her back. I guess she had been gone for 2 months by the time they got her back. But Lorena has been going to Church, reading the Book of Mormon, and likes everything so far - hopefully she sticks with it and everything works out!

We have a baptism this weekend, which I'm super excited for! Wendy is getting baptized and is the mom in a part-member family. She has been really doing well, reading and praying. She is very shy and doesn't like to talk much, so we have to be careful when teaching her to not make her super uncomfortable or anything. But she's been doing a great job of reactivating her husband Helaman (awesome name!) She has been helping him pray and read and come to Church. It's really an amazing feeling to be part of a work like this. We've been able to work with this family and see them grow so much stronger and closer together as they become more involved with the Church and more converted to Jesus Christ.

There's been a lot of commotion in this area, and a lot of people are going through tough times. It definitely humbles people and tests their faith at times, but it can also bring them closer to God. When we realize that everything comes from the Lord, and that He really is always there for us, we'll be a lot more willing to do those simple things that we know we should do. Our ward mission leader is a really on-the-ball guy who wants to get a ton of missionary work done. We have quite a few branch missionaries now (mostly couples) and we're starting to take them out with us more to show them how to teach and to help them be missionaries. They're studying Preach My Gospel and we're starting to train them as missionaries on what to teach and how to teach by the Spirit. If all of this continues, there's going to be growth down here at a ridiculous rate. The Lord has prepared so many people and when we have more missionaries, we are able to find and teach more people! We have plans to do more splits and really increase the number of people and lessons that we teach.

Church was really sweet this week - we had a lot of investigators come, and even more new faces that I've never seen before. I sat by Hermana Amparo, with her son Edward, and it was just so incredibly amazing. He is the most spiritually mature kid I've ever met and is really just helping his mom out in so many ways. There's a bond that you develop with these people that's just really hard to describe. Like there's so much love and charity there - they know how much we care about them and they know how happy and excited we are when they are doing well and are happy. I've also seen their family grow a lot closer, even though the dad is a strict Catholic.

We also had a bunch of less-active families come to Church this week which was surprising. We've been visiting a lot of less-active families and helping them get back in the Church and feel that love and happiness that they felt before. We had a couple full families come, and we could see how much it helped them and how much the members really reached out to show them their love. We've even had some people just come up to us and ask us to be taught! This less-active named Freddy has been working on coming back to Church and asked us to come over and teach him and his non-member wife who has been investigating for a long time. We are so excited!!! It's not too often that these kind of people come up and ask for appointments. That was just super cool, and we've really seen the Lord's hand in the work down here.

We did have an interesting experience with a Jehovah Witness woman the other day. One of our really strong investigators (his name is David - he's just waiting for divorce papers to be finalized to be baptized) was with his girlfriend (a less-active woman named Martha) and her sister when we visited them. She was trying to have a bible study with them and show them the "right" way. When we came over she shut her Bible and just stopped, because she saw us. We talked to all of them for quite a while and then she was trying to convince us of her Church a little bit. We were determined not to Bible bash or anything, so we just talked a little about the Restoration and testified to her of the truth of it. She wasn't willing to hear any of it though, so that didn't really work out, but it was quite the visit. She would entirely avoid the questions we ask and would talk about some crazy random stuff. What was super cool about all of this is what David did. He was totally unfazed by everything she was saying and kept on referring to our Church as the right church or the true church. He kept on inviting her to Church and saying he would pick her up!!! That was so so sweet. He just really impressed me, and he's going to be an awesome member. Hopefully, he will be getting baptized the end of this month.

We also found that softball is a really good fellowship activity - we've had quite a few games the past couple weeks and lots of investigators and less-actives will show up at these games. I'm actually not bad at it either! I hit a home run the other day and scored a couple more! That was pretty exciting. We've also been trying to be a bit more active since we literally sit down almost all day - studying, teaching lessons, sitting in the car, etc. Our area is just too big to ride the bike much, and we don't really have a choice. There's too much to do!! I've also had tons of opportunities to sing now that people know I can sing. We sing at ALL of our lessons - sometimes multiple songs - and it's so sweet because it always brings the Spirit.

But yeah, that's basically what's going on right now! We have a lot of investigators progressing and getting close to baptism, and we have a lot of new ones to teach as well, so we'll see how that goes!!

Hasta la proxima vez!

(Until next time !)

SUPER busy week!!! 8/31/10

Holy smokes, time really is flying by, and we had a way eventful week!! Sadly our baptism that we were supposed to have last week got postponed, and hopefully that will still be happening sometime soon, but we'll have to see how it goes. We have two more investigators with a baptismal date and we're trying to get a couple more. It's so important that people know how critical baptism is, and that it's so much more of a beginning than an end. Heavenly Father wants to bless everyone and help everyone, but He can't fully do that when we don't have the gift of the Holy Ghost. Hermana Amparo is still just super strong and has an amazing family. They are way hospitable and do everything they can to help us. She reads out of the Book of Mormon and prays every single day, and really is just an inspiration for me of total faith.

We did have an experience this last weekend that really made me think about how important it is that the members are always an example for everyone. One of our investigators, Paula, has family in the Church (husband and daughter - somewhat inactive) and the reason she is not baptized is her husband's family in Mexico. They work in the temple and apparently treated her and her kids horribly. It's sad when something like this keeps someone from baptism and it's so sad that there are people like that. The Church really is true and perfect, but the members have so many imperfections. We told her that baptism, and her religious experience is between her and the Lord, and nobody else. She says she still has desires to know if it's true, so she is going to continue reading the Book of Mormon and going to Church. She has been really faithful in that and we're always excited to see them at Church. We want to introduce her to more members here, and more families, so she can see what they're like. The members here are all so gracious, friendly, and inviting.

We have another investigator, Maria, who is another super amazing person. She is already a better missionary than almost the entire ward. She is bringing friends to sacrament meeting and sharing the Gospel with her family. I don't know if any of the others will get baptized, but she is really strong and fun to teach. I did my first baptismal commitment this week, which was a little nerve-racking. It was Wendy, who also has a husband that's an inactive member. She has been doing really well with everything, so I committed her to be baptized September 11th and she said yes! It was way cool, and I didn't think she would respond as positively as she did. She sounded sure, and has such a desire to do what's right and follow Christ. She came to all of the classes Sunday with her crazy little boys and everything went really well.

Well, there's been a lot that has happened this week. I had my first experience with super spicy food! We went to this place called Buffalo Wild Wings to do this crazy hot wing challenge. Since I've never been one for spices I really didn't want to do it at first, but I decided I've got to be able to handle hot stuff here if I'm going to be eating all this Mexican food. The challenge was to eat 12 of their hottest wings in under 6 minutes. So all of these people like gathered around me and another greenie who was also doing it. They brought out wings that were literally soaking in a pool of the ridiculously hot sauce. I started in and didn't stop to realize exactly how hot it was - it was hard to breathe because of the spiciness in my throat, but I made it through (you couldn't use a napkin or have water or anything until afterwards), and then thought I was going to die. They took a picture when I was super messy and I guess it will go up on their wall sometime soon. The next few minutes were torture but a LOT of sugar packets and eventually cups of water later, I was fine. I felt accomplished tho - even tho I refuse to ever eat something that hot ever again - I finished in just under 4 minutes.

The next thing that was way exciting was that we had a MASSIVE storm on Thursday night!! We had a late dinner that night and we were walking outside when we saw tons of lightning and some crazy wind. I got super excited because Alaska doesn't get sweet lightning. I totally felt like a little kid, just enthralled by the sweet lightning. Anyways, we were driving to someone's house when the rain started POURING down and the wind got incredibly strong. All the lights went out of houses while we were driving, including the traffic lights!! It made everything pretty sketchy, so we went home as the roads were flooded, and there were small tornadoes in places. Apparently the storm was the worse they've had in like forever - at least 15 years. Trees were ripped out of the ground and winds were around 100 mph. We had to drag a tree out of the middle of the parking lot and in those short seconds I was as wet as if I had just jumped in a lake! It was literally like someone just dumping a swimming pool on top of us. It was pretty wild and we didn't have light for some of the night so that was kind of exciting. The lightning was just out of this world, and there were huge strikes like at least every second.

We got to go up to Tempe this last weekend for a talk by Elder L. Tom Perry to our mission! It was super cool and I got to shake his hand and talk to him for a bit. He came up with Elder Hallstrom from the Quorum of the 70 and they gave great talks. They gave tips on teaching and talked about the organization of the Church. This Church is not led by any man, but by the Savior. He gave an amazingly powerful apostolic witness of Jesus Christ and His restored church. He is definitely a man of God and we were so fortunate to get to see and hear from Him.

Sunday was also a pretty eventful day, and I got to talk and sing quite a bit. Somebody was listening at our missionary fireside Friday night, and found out that I could sing. She then decided that I was going to do a musical number in Sacrament meeting so I ended up singing "Llevaremos la verdad al mundo" - We'll Bring the World His Truth. I also gave a talk on faith in sacrament meeting, so it was fun practicing my Spanish some more. Everything really relates back to missionary work, so of course I had to include some of that. I think it all went good - I had lots of comments about the song and everything.

Later in the day, we got a call from our Elder's Quorum President, whose son was getting baptized that day. Apparently somebody bailed on the talks so we ended up giving them (we found out like 20 minutes before the baptism), singing a musical number (a duet with both of us), and being the witnesses at the baptism. Oh, and we also sang a musical number (4 missionaries) at a baptism the day before. Everything went really good, and everybody enjoyed the baptism, so we were all happy.

Oh, and it was pretty wild - there were 4 people randomly at Church who we had never seen before. A couple were friends of members so we have a couple appointments set up, but a couple were totally random. These 2 older ladies had been wandering outside and told us that they were "looking for God and looking for help" so we took them to classes and apparently they really enjoyed Church. Hopefully we can teach them sometime soon and something will come from this!

So yeah, the work has been going good - we never can get enough done in a day as we want to. But the members are starting to get more involved, and we're starting to work with them a little more. I can't believe how fast time is flying by. It seriously felt like I was just writing everyone yesterday!!

But I'm doing great, working hard, and learning so much every day! Hasta Luego!

8/24/2010 Super Hot!!

Hey hey!

Everything's been going way good - we're still super busy and doing everything we can. Last week we had a 3-day training meeting with the president and it was way cool!! Apparently they're doing this new training all over the place and it's really pretty intense. It's called the "Simplified Curriculum" and ultimately it's a guide to using the Spirit even more to teach, and asking inspired questions that help the investigator learn. We're not even really supposed to teach lessons with certain principles - we're supposed to really talk to them, feel the Spirit, and guide the discussion based on what we feel and what they need. Just like Preach My Gospel was a step up from the memorized discussions, this is another step up and it's putting more responsibility on our shoulders. We have to be constantly seeking guidance and constantly be directed by the Spirit when we're talking to people. We need to clear up concerns as we go, and really get to know the people we teach. We can't brush aside concerns they have - we have to get to the bottom of it and try to help them in every way we can. There's no point in teaching people forever when you never clear up something that is stopping them from progressing.

While one of the AP's joined us last Thursday in our lessons, we had a super good lesson with a woman in her 50's, Hermana Amparo. She is one of the most amazing people I've ever met, and we felt the Spirit so incredibly strong in their house. She has 2 sons that were baptized fairly recently - Edward and Franky. Edward is about 12 now and he's probably the spiritually strongest kid I've ever met in my life! Apparently when the missionaries were teaching him, it was more like he was teaching them. He has the testimony of someone who has been in the church for years and we love visiting their family. Anyways, when we visited her last week, she accepted a baptismal date!! We made a "map" to her baptism, that shows what she's going to do every day between now and then to prepare for it. She knows that everything is true, but she's been reluctant to get baptized because she feels like she doesn't know enough. We assured her that she knows what she needs to and that baptism is by far more of a starting line than a finish line. We had another meeting yesterday about families and the plan of salvation, since it was the anniversary of her father's death the day before. It really is a plan of happiness and everything that's been set in place is for our benefit! The more I learn and share it, the more everything makes sense to me and honestly makes me excited. It's an amazing plan and I am so incredibly fortunate to be able to participate in sharing it.

We also have a baptism here in a couple days that I'm way excited about. It's the daughter of a recent convert and she's way ready to be baptized. Her name is Andrea - her mom is kind of crazy, but she goes to Church and has been really accepting and liking all that we teach her. It's really cool teaching people that are completely fluent in English and Spanish, because I can get help with my Spanish and have good practice with everything.

What's kind of difficult is deciding whether or not to drop investigators - it's tough because you don't want to give up on people but if they are honestly not progressing and keeping commitments, there's no point in continuing to teach them because there are other people that the Lord has prepared for us to teach and that are ultimately prepared to be baptized. We had to drop a man named Walter this week because he wasn't progressing in any way and he would keep us over for a super long time just to talk and not really get anywhere. Super nice guy, but we taught him everything and it's up to him to act on it or not.

Our area really is super huge, but there's not as many Spanish-speakers around here as I thought there would be. We're basically right on the Mexican border but so many people learn English here and then that's what they like to speak and hear and everything, It also means that we cover a lot of distance in between people we teach since we're the only Spanish missionaries in Yuma. So...I don't really get to bike like at all, and we're always in our car. It's nice because of the air conditioning, but it's already starting to take a toll on my body. I'm working hard and not gaining weight and working out, but we'll see how it all goes in a few weeks or months. EVERYONE we visit wants to feed us and we feel bad always telling them no, so it's been tough trying to not eat a bunch. They all love someone who can really eat and enjoy their food. I can definitely eat it, but I basically always feel full and I've decided that's probably not a super good thing.

Oh, and that reminds me of another thing - my companion Elder Cuthbertson apparently was a super stud wrestler who was a national champion and set the national record for most pins in a season, as well as second in overall wins for a season. I was not aware of this, because he's a way modest guy and hasn't worked out really for two years, but that was super cool to find out.I'm glad I have a hard-working companion!!

Well, I'm kind of nervous because we're going on splits tonight with the Elder's Quorum Presidency and I have to take the leads on all of the lessons tonight. The hardest part of me teaching is understanding their super fast answers. I can usually communicate what I want and teach everything decently, but the understanding is by far the hardest. I'm just gonna have to pray and prep all I can, and be helped by the Spirit tonight. I am excited though, and we'll see how it all goes.

It's been around 110 degrees for the most part, it'll get up to 115 in the middle of the day, but it's starting to not feel as ridiculously hot to me anymore! That's definitely progress. Everyone here always asks a ton of questions about Alaska, and they also usually ask what I did to be sent here - they figure it must have been some kind of punishment. They're all super nice and accepting here though, and are always surprised that I've only been out here a couple weeks. My Spanish must not be as bad as I think it is!

Shoot well, I'm staying super busy and love hearing from everyone! Loving the work and definitely loving the people. That's one thing that I have totally see since I've been out here. I can automatically love so many people I have never met, and want SO MUCH for them to be happy. I know the Lord is blessing me with this gift, and it makes the work so much more enjoyable.

Hasta la proxima semana!

(Until next week!)

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!!!