•ya se esta acercando la Navidad...11/28/2011

Hey hey!

So it was fun to have Thanksgiving this past week! We got to have just about the entire day free, so we went to a big park and played a bunch of football and frisbee, and it was actually decently chilly for Arizona. We had dinner that evening with some recent converts, and it ended up being fairly American, except for the tortillas and the spicy salsa. It was super good though, and I was just happy as I long as I have my pumpkin pie :) Then that evening we got to relax and play some board games (probably the funnest game of Apples to Apples in my entire life) with a bunch of the missionaries here. It was nice to just de-stress for a day, and enjoy some time together. On P-Days we usually have all kinds of things we need to do and have a very full agenda, so it ends up not usually being incredibly relaxing. It is funny to celebrate Thanksgiving with Mexicans though, because they could care less for the holiday, but it's a big deal here. One thing that was kind of cool with the whole Thanksgiving dinner deal, was that the ward helped out our part-member family that we're working with, and actually provided a couple delicious cooked turkeys and just a big dinner for them. Luckily they didn't have any big plans or anything cooking, so it worked out perfectly.

It was kind of crazy this weekend, seeing Elder Burgos (now David) come back from Florida to visit everyone and say hi. We actually ended up doing a musical number yesterday at church, which was sweet. It's just strange to see someone you serve with come back to that exact same area and be with them not as a missionary. It was cool to see him though, and I'm already getting excited about coming back to visit everyone after my mission!

So we had a couple pretty awesome experiences this week with finding new investigators. So ever since I came into the area, we have been struggling like crazy to find new people to teach. We talk to everyone we see, we go through former investigators, and potential investigators, and everything we get seems to be either in the other missionaries' area or in the Mesa Mission! But...we're glad that we're nonetheless finding people for somebody to teach. But this week, out of nowhere, we got 5 new investigators! We had a super good lesson with Ramon and finally got his rebel 14-year old son to participate! It was a pretty huge step of progress. His son has been getting better and better, and thankfully now he's starting to get more involved. It's still difficult because you have to be constantly working to keep his attention, but he is doing better. Earlier, we were working with this part-member family list and contacted ALL of the families in our area and only found a couple that have any potential. We found, at one of the houses, a girl about our age (she's a girlfriend of one of the boys) that was super interested in coming to church! She was excited, but it seemed like every lesson that we set up got cancelled! She also had these crazy situations that came up and prevented her from coming to church. So we finally taught her on Friday, and we had a way spiritual lesson. We asked her if she had ever gone to see the Christmas lights at the temple here and she said she did last year. When we asked her how she felt as she was there she said that it was honestly the happiest that she had ever felt in her entire life!! She has a rough background and her parents were both drug addicts, but she said that day she decided to start changing her life so she could feel more like that, and has been starting to see blessings ever since. She was actually excited about getting the whole family active as well! That would be pretty cool. It's so cool when people already have a really spiritual experience like that, where they were able to truly recognize the spirit and see the potential that it has to truly make them happy. And it was funny- we were going to give her a church tour last night, but she ended up going to the temple and visitor's center instead (everyone gets the temple confused with the chapel) so we told her to stay there and enjoy it - she said she never wanted to leave.

Another cool dealio was one day as we were going through some records, I saw a family name that I recognized because I had taught them once when I was on exchanges. We decided to go by, even though I remember recently talking to a way rude, totally not-interested guy outside the house. So we went in, set up a lesson, and then came with a member and had a way solid lesson! The mom was incredibly sincere as she was talking about the fact that she really did want to know which church was true, and we found out that she would need a large-print BOM which worked out well because we had accidentally picked up an extra just last week! Their family is way cool, and we're excited to just have some new faces and people to work with.

Alberto and Adriana are still doing great - they came to a fireside last night and loved it. They had a scare earlier this week because their oldest son went to the hospital (interesting story...our fellowship went to take her to the hospital to see him, and we got stranded - it was fun finding a way to get home), but everything is good now. Alberto loves his large-print BOM and now reads it all of the time. I'm always impressed at how much they remember from what they read - it's pretty incredible. So we're still working with them and getting everything prepared for our Christmas baptisms. It's going to be the best day ever!! President Howes and a bunch of people at the fireside last night told us to let them know when they get baptized, so they can be there. Families are the best :)

So that's about it for this week. I'm excited to start getting into Christmas stuff!!

Que todos tengan una buena semana! ~ Elder Carlson

•Hay que empezar de nuevo....11/21/2011

Hola a todos! Hi all!

Well this week there were transfers, and although there weren't an incredible amount of transfers for us (we stayed the same), there were some pretty interesting changes. Elder Ricker left and Elder Silos came in, a native from Mexico and we're super excited about that. He's a walking dictionary and is able to help us so much to be more correct and be more legit Spanish missionaries. Speaking of them, Elder Silos and Elder Wheeler had an awesome baptism this past week! So with this one way active family, the mom's brother has been staying at their house for a while and I guess he had been kind of interested about the church but he had never really been invited and they had never really talked to him too much about it. He came to our ward activity (for Dia de la Raza - Colombus Day) and when Elder Ricker came up to talk to him, he said he was totally interested! In their first lesson, they gave him a baptismal date and he just got baptized this last Saturday. It's kind of crazy thinking about the number of people that can be so prepared that can be all around us - how are we going to know if we don't share the gospel with everyone? So there were a lot of people that came to the baptism, and there was a little stress. Our ward mission leader (who has the keys to the font) was in Idaho - we didn't know - and we weren't sure anyone from the bishopric was planning on going, so we were scrambling last minute, trying to help out the other missionaries here and make sure everything worked out. Thankfully it did, and I guess Abel (who got baptized) had an incredible experience when he got baptized. When he came out of the water he saw a pillar of light and he said he literally felt the Holy Ghost enter in him (like when Jesus Christ got baptized). I think it's interesting how the Hispanic people are such a visionary people, and are able to have such faith-building experiences. But yeah, we feel like Elder Silos will be able to do super well in this area and really get things done, so that'll be cool.

Other than that, we had some other new people come into the zone, including an elder who just stepped down from zone leader to train before he goes home. He has a way cool companion from Tonga who's learning English and this is his first time off of the island! Crazy... And I guess temporarily here, we kind of have 4 AP's - 2 are the more typical english AP's and Elder Matheson and Elder Johnson (my boy - who I trained) are I guess more of traveling ones that do exchanges with spanish missionaries mostly. It's interesting - I'm not sure how long President Howes plans to have it set up like this. But I'm glad I did at least an okay job of training Elder Johnson.

Other than that, there hasn't been an incredible amount of excitement this week... Our 2 families are still on track to get baptized on Christmas and we're working out all the logistics. We've noticed something that's kind of interesting with Hispanics...when it comes to parties and especially birthdays, they seem to throw absolutely everything else out the window. We've been working and making such good progress with this family, and because of his birthday and the celebrations Saturday and Sunday, they didn't come to church and broke the Word of Wisdom a little bit. So yeah, we're still working with them and solidifying everything we've taught them, and it'll all work out. More than anything, I'm just excited for a white Christmas :)

I do like being with Elder Twitchell - we've made a lot of really cool and important realizations that help us to better help our zone. One thing that we notice not only in our zone but in general with a majority of the missionaries, there is a definite lack of confidence. There's a misconception that humility is not thinking you're good at anything, but that definitely does not help you to reach your potential. It is important to recognize where our talents and abilities come from and not try to do everything alone, but we have to have confidence as we do missionary work and we have to have a testimony of who we are and why we're here. When we're truly converted, we're going to be obedient and we're going to do the Father's will, which includes us becoming like Him! That is going to involve having faith in who we are and what we're capable of. It's just something really cool that we've been thinking about lately. Oh man, and our zone once again got so close to our goal of 50 member-present lessons. We got 47!! We're going to get it sooner or later, that's all I have to say.

So yeah, it's been a good week - we're still really searching for new investigators and doing our best to figure out how best to work with the members and help them do missionary work. As far as Thanksgiving, that is when our real P-day will be, so that's when we'll have time to actually do stuff. So far, we only have 1 dinner appointment (and a couple options for desert - that's like my favorite part), but we'll see what happens. I did have a pretty incredible pumpkin pie this week...

Life is good though, and we have a really good feeling about December. It's going to be a good month! Plus I can't wait to listen to Christmas music!

Love you all and hope you have a great Dia del Pavo! (turkey day)

~ Elder Carlson

•No muchos cambios...‏11/14/11

Well it's already that time again - goodness transfers go by so fast. We just had transfer calls last night and a lot of it was what I expected. Elder Twitchell and I are staying together here, but they're taking out a lot of our solid senior companions and putting them into leadership. There are a whole lot more people leaving than we thought would leave, so we're interested to see what happens and who comes. It's going to be sad to see Elder Ricker leave - he's way musical and we had all these plans for musical numbers and everything around Christmas time.

It was a pretty exciting week though, and we have a lot of momentum going into this next transfer. So I issued a challenge to the zone here to get a certain number of lessons with a member present. These are by far the most effective lessons, and when investigators have true fellowship they're able to progress so much faster and be so much more solid in all of their commitments (and in getting retained). I could tell that there was a lot of room for improvement so I said if we got 50 as a zone I would treat everyone to pizookies at oregano's here (pizookies are these big cookies in small pie pans with ice cream on top - they're incredible). So all week long we really pushed everyone and worked together at it but at the end of it we found out we got...48! Ahhhh, we were so close, but it was almost twice what we got some weeks and way higher than we've had for months here. I don't know why, but it's super fun for me to look at past statistics and really get pumped and excited to do way better than what's been done before. It gives me something to really push and stretch for, and we've seen some cool things come from it. So we'll see if the zone can get the challenge within the next couple weeks - still a prize on the line.

We also did some pretty crazy back-to-back exchanges this week as we finished everything up for the transfer and had some pretty cool experiences.

My favorite was actually with this brand new missionary that I was with on Thursday, and I was in his area (he still didn't know it all that well). It was just not his day. So we got lost in almost every apartment complex we went in, and when he made pancakes it went terribly wrong. He turned on the wrong burner and smelled something burning...he saw that the pan had burned through the handle of the spatula that was sitting on the other pan, so there was just a chunk of the handle sitting there on the stove and melted plastic all over the pan. It was just a little bit entertaining. One thing that made things kind of interesting was this black guy we talked to at a gas station. I was airing up my shocks and this guy pulled up in a bright red sports car from the car dealership right next door, and he comes out to talk to us (his "brothers"). I found out that he had this LDS-mobile back home, a way fixed-up old car that he had bought from an older member of our church. It had LDS on the front and back license plate and it was decked out with pass-along cards and any other kind of church material. He came over asking us if we had anything we could give children so he could help keep kids occupied who came in and teach them what's important. This whole time I thought he was a member but then he was talking about how everyone asks him that and he says, "No, not yet!" He's sure that this all happened for a reason though, and it wasn't coincidence that he had this LDS-mobile. He also said that one thing we had going for us (mormons) is mormon women. I guess he worked in a gym a while back and lots of members would go work out there. He said there is just something about them - they have a glow, a purity, a light about them that nobody else has. He said, "Don't get me wrong, I love my lady. But there is something special about those Mormon women." So that was actually pretty sweet - we are definitely a light to the world.

I think that was about it for excitement this week. We're still working a whole lot with this legal issue and all of these families that want to be baptized but can't because they can't get married. We've decided to take the passport route and we're setting up appointments today with the Mexican consulate to get that taken care of. It'll probably be a couple months, but it's the only way to do things legally. Our families are still super solid though. They have overcome word of wisdom issues, and have some pretty incredible desires to be baptized. People are definitely out there, prepared and ready. It's just up to us to open our mouths and let them know we have what they're looking for! We're excited to keep inspiring the zone and really keep things rolling here. I love the work and am looking forward to another 6 glorious weeks in Mesa!

Love y'all!

~Elder Carlson

•Al final tengo frio!‏!11/7/11

Wow, I can honestly say I never thought that 50 degrees would feel so cold to me! A couple days ago it rained pretty hard here and the next morning i was legitimately cold... I've been seriously fighting this sickness the past few days so that just makes it that much more fun! And because we bike in the mornings to go to this track (to run) it felt super good on those bikes... So yep, I guess I've kind of temporarily turned into an Arizona pansy, because I consented and wore a jacket the other day, when it was probably around 60 or so. I don't know what to do with myself.

So Halloween was pretty fun, nothing overly exciting. We got together as a zone and did some pumpkin carving and that's a story in itself. So we hadn't thought to buy pumpkins a week in advance (a huge oversight on our part) and we went to Wal-Mart, expecting them to have some good size carving pumpkins. Not the case. They had these itty bitty ones with faces painted on, and they had these ridiculous big ones that you could totally not carve. So we went over to Fry's and...no dice. All they had was these little ones that were pretty hard. We were feeling pretty desperate so we ended up just getting those (my companion, Elder Ricker, and I) and then showed up to the activity that night. All I have to say is that experience was much more like carving into stone than a pumpkin. We super bent all of the little saws and things we were using and even super sharp knives took an incredible amount of strength and skill (to not cut myself). I was pretty scared for my companion since he can be pretty crazy sometimes. But I made this sweet ghost (face) and I'll have to send pictures.

Oh, and random news - something that was pretty funny. The other day, Elder Ricker and Elder Wheeler were biking along and I guess they saw eyes of this huge stuffed animal sticking out from the dumpster. So they salvaged the thing and it turns out it's this HUGE blue stuffed dog (named Pouting Pete) like the kind of thing you would get at the fair or something. So they wanted us to come pick it up and left it on the porch of a member's apartment nearby. We went by and there was definitely no dog...so we asked them about it and it first they had no idea and just looked really confused. Then they remembered and called back their kids who were going door to door, trying to figure out whose stuffed animal this was or where it came from (they thought it might have been to their daughter from a secret admirer). So we have this huge stuffed dog now that is our zone mascot and it's pretty cool.

Also this week, as the other elders were biking by the church they saw a fire! They got closer and found out that the dumpster there was on fire and had flames at least ten feet high coming from it - so they had to call 911 and get the fire truck over there to put it out. Kind of random.

Other than that, life has been pretty normal. Things are really progressing with a couple of the families that we're teaching (Ramon and Jazmin, and then Alberto and Adriana). We taught Ramon the Word of Wisdom and have been going by every day to help him and give him support. He came to church yesterday with his neighbor and his little girls and absolutely loved it. He said a really sincere thank you to us yesterday for all that we've done, and that alone just makes everything worth it. Alberto and Adriana came again with us to the Visitor's Center and really enjoyed the art and focus on Jesus Christ. There really are some pretty amazing paintings by artists around here in the valley. They're also happy because their 20-year old son is getting more involved and is starting to come with us and listen. So that's awesome!

And oh man, life is always interesting with the Castillo's... There are 5 people in the family that aren't members but that house is LOCO all the time. There are kids running around, people in and out, and they are always trying to feed us even though they're struggling financially. Plus all of the kids are super loud and opinionated so it's a good thing we're able to take control sometimes. They've been coming to church every week and it's only a matter of time before they get baptized. We're really trying to get them to read everday from the Book of Mormon because that's the only way long-term conversion comes about.

Last night was also pretty cool - we went over to teach our Dominican family and there was a friend there instead! We taught her and found out she was actually from Columbia, and she was super interested. So we're excited to see where that goes! Ultimately, our investigator pool hasn't grown tremendously (it's still pretty small) but we teach them a whole lot and they're really going places! Our current problem is still getting those 2 couples married - they already have substantial families - and it looks like our best option is going to be getting them over to Nevada, because the law is way strict here in Arizona. So that's our major obstacle right now and we're working through it.

Oh and we had Zone Leader's Council this week and made a pretty big decision. We decided to stop reporting our OYM's (the number of people we talk to and testify about the gospel outside of teaching and tracting etc.) with our weekly statistics and are really focusing on doing it because of individual conversion. We have to be opening our mouths and sharing the gospel because we're truly converted and feel the urgency and need to share it! So that was interesting, being a part of a big decision like that. Our mission hasn't been doing quite as well as we have in past years so we're really amping everyone/everything up and making sure we're all committed to achieving our goals.

So yep, that's what's going on here! Always busy, and Arizona's finally starting to get cold(er)!

Hasta luego! ~ Elder Carlson

P.S. I'm pretty sure I'm staying but we should be getting transfer calls again on Sunday night.

•Feliz Halloween!‏10/31/2011

Hey hey!

Well there's not a terribly good translation for Halloween so "Feliz Halloween" was the best I could come up with. It's funny, Mexicans get a real kick out of the fact that we make this such a big holiday. They have a "dia de los muertos" (day of the dead) but it's more of a memorial day type of thing than costumes and trick-or-treating. We did get to celebrate it Saturday though, and we had a huge get-together/fundraiser. Our ward combined with a couple of the English wards that meet in that same building and we had a huge activity! There was a little bit of trunk-or-treating, but it was mostly other activities and booths, as well as the food, that made it such a big deal. They had cakewalks and dart-throwing and all kinds of cool stuff, and people would buy these tickets (like they would at a carnival) to do these activities and to buy food from the different places. And speaking of food, they had the most incredible fry bread that we had to try more than once... It was a way good activity, and a whole lot of people came. We were excited because we got to go with a little bit of our own outfits. We found these cowboy hats and sombreros, so one of the missionaries wore a poncho and sombrero and I wore the cowboy hat with a horse tie I found and a big ol' belt buckle and everything... the members loved it, even though it was super simple. We definitely did our best and made sure to talk to everyone there and found a whole bunch of potential but... it was all for the other missionaries here or for missionaries in the Mesa Mission. We were proud though, that we took full advantage of the opportunity so we feel like we'll be blessed in some way or another.

Other than that, we had interviews with the mission president on Tuesday and then a big mission tour on Thursday where half of the mission came and we met with Elder Larry Wilson, who I think is in the second quorum of the seventy. It was a super good meeting, and really helped me think about how we shouldn't be apologetic about inviting people to repent! This is an incredible opportunity we've been given, and these are eternal laws of God that we're obeying. We have to have confidence in who we are, who we represent, and how important it is to keep these laws so that we can reap those blessings that He has for us. It was also cool being able to meet with him and Elder Wright (who is the area authority here) as zone leaders and talk about our zones and get a little extra guidance.

I do have to say that was probably the shortest interview I've ever had... there wasn't too much to discuss, plus I was the last one. But the main thing I got out of it is that everything happens for a reason. We have to learn to sustain ourselves and everyone around us in their positions so that we can all reach our potential. The more we reach out to other people and encourage them, giving them confidence and helping them be sure of themselves, the more capable they are going to be in influencing others.

So yeah, we've been really really working with the few investigators that we have and it was cool - we got to go to the Visitor's Center twice this past week! It's an amazing tool to help people gain a testimony of the Savior, Joseph Smith as a prophet, and of the church. Whenever we take people there, they feel the spirit and they see the difference. There's something special. So one of the families we took (Alberto and Adriana and their kids) this week absolutely loved it, and they're really coming along. We still have to figure out how they can get married (they're not citizens or residents), but they're definitely getting close to baptism.

I also gained a testimony of teaching commandments with love as we taught this guy named Ramon last night. He has had a drinking problem for a long time, and he truly wants to stop because he sees how it hurts his family. We taught the Word of Wisdom very straightforward, and he was 100% committed to living it right there. He wants to be that example for his family, and do what God wants him to. He just needed a little push and some help, which is what we're here for :) We're also pretty excited for his family and are looking forward to good things in the future!

We also had a pretty sweet experience as we were contacting some former investigators the other day. We knocked on this door and it just looked super empty but we heard some music, so we were pretty sure someone was in there. We knocked a couple times but nobody was answering. I didn't feel like we should leave quite yet, so I knocked one last time super loud and we just waited... finally this teenage girl answered the door and started talking to us. I guess her brother had been taught for quite a while, but they had never really talked to her. So we talked for a little bit, testified of some basic things and asked her if we could come by and share more with her. She thought about it and said, "You know what? I was just thinking about it... and I'm really interested!" It was just such a cool, unexpected response! We're actually going to go teach her today, so hopefully everything goes well. It was just such a welcome break from everything else that happened that day.

So yep, that's what's going on right now...we're staying busier (and more tired) than ever and doing our best to keep everyone inspired and motivated! Thanks for all you do!

Love ya', ~ Elder Carlson

•Un testimonio del ayuno‏10/24/2011

Hey hey hey!

Well, it has been quite the happening week (like always) and we decided we just needed to re-vamp things here, so we had a solid fast yesterday. We have been doing okay and teaching quite a bit, but it's mainly just teaching these very few people over and over again... So it's way good for them, but there's just not much to work from. Plus, when they're busy, there's not a whole lot to work off of. So we fasted yesterday and we had a couple families come to church! There were 8 in total, and it was so cool to see them all there, sitting together. It was actually the primary program yesterday, and I'm pretty sure I counted 3 investigators that were actually performing in it! They had been to church 1 or 2 Sundays and they had parts and sung in it and everything! It was pretty incredible - there was a boy from a family that we're teaching, as well as a couple more from a family Elder Ricker and Wheeler are teaching. So that was sweet, and then yesterday after church, we talked to all kinds of people (meeting our goals we had set for OYM's and finding potentials) and contacted some pretty solid referrals. We found this lady yesterday, who we actually visited this morning, who got baptized a year ago and has been wanting to go to church but doesn't know which ward she belongs to. So we talked to her and found out that she has kids that live with her who haven't been baptized, and she still has some of that convert fire, so we'll see what happens there. We talked to lots of people that had met with missionaries before but had just moved and not been able to get in contact with them. It seemed like everywhere we went we were running into people that had connections and just needed to find us (even though it was almost entirely for the English missionaries here). We also taught this guy that Elder Twitchell had met earlier in the week and found that there are 5 families living in that house! So there are 9 or 10 adults there plus kids, and the guy we taught was way interested and excited to come to church! His sister had met with the missionaries before, so she already had the BOM and knew a lot. So we're pretty excited to teach all of them this week. Basically, the moral of the story is we definitely have a testimony of fasting. We've been trying everything we can think of to find new people to teach and nothing was working. I guess the Lord helps us realize sometimes whose work this is (he gives us weaknesses so we can be made strong). Yesterday was just a good day.

One thing that's pretty fun is we've been able to go on quite a few exchanges this week! It's fun to go into other areas to see how they do work there, or to bring English missionaries into ours, and have them be super lost as we teach. It's hard to remember not knowing Spanish... We've been seeing some pretty amazing things with the investigators around here. There are quite a few people getting baptized that the missionaries simply talked to out in the streets (from OYM's). Normally it's through members that solid people are found, but we've been seeing people found through missionary efforts as well! On Thursday I went with another missionary to visit this couple who gave up alcohol, coffee, and smoking in a matter of a couple weeks and is getting baptized this Saturday! They had met them in the park one night and were invited to their home to get a drink of water. It's crazy when we think about how many people we walk by, and how many people may have accepted the gospel if we had only found that courage to open our mouths.

There was a baptism this last weekend that came from missionaries just offering to help a lady move her bed into her apartment (Elder Twitchell actually did when he was on exchanges with Elder Wheeler). She and her daughter just got baptized and they are absolutely incredible. They came to church right away and just knew from the beginning that these missionaries were sent from God and that they needed to listen. She said she wouldn't open the door for missionaries before, but she was so glad that God gives us more chances. So we got to have a massive dinner with her after the baptism and it was just a good feeling. The baptism went well, even though it was a little smaller, and our musical number actually went really well. Ricker and Wheeler are super musical and Elder Twitchell can mostly hold the melody, so musical numbers turn out pretty sweet :) Our ward really likes it. Oh, and speaking of that, we found out at the primary program that the Hispanic kids take after their parents and as a whole... let's just say singing's not their greatest strength... But it was fun as always and everyone enjoyed it.

We're working right now with a lot of people that need to get married so they can get baptized! There are quite a few, and it's tough because they're not legal and I guess they need passports (which they don't have money for). So we're working on that, and some families are starting to look a lot more solid. We notice a huge difference when people are actually reading and praying and keeping those basic commitments. We're able to see it in their faces, and see that they're happier and more optimistic - life is just better!

This week should be a pretty busy one... we've got interviews with President Howes tomorrow, and then we have Larry Wilson from the 2nd quorum of the 70 who's doing a mission tour (like Elder Perry did last year) and is coming to talk to all of us on Thursday. So Mesa's a happening place! A lot faster pace than I got used to in Yuma, but I like it. The missionaries are studs and the work is really starting to pick up.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers! I can tell we're getting some extra help :)

Les quiero! ~ Elder Carlson

•Casi nunca dormimos‏10/17/21

Buenas Tardes!

Wow, it has been quite the eventful week... I'm positive this is the most tired I've ever been on my entire mission. Every single night something comes up (companionship problems or some kind of paperwork/administrative work) and we can just never get to sleep on time. We did have a good week though, and got to pick up a new family. We taught that family from the Dominican Republic and had an awesome lesson with them - random health issues came up so they weren't able to come to church this week, but they were pretty excited still to come when they can. Probably one of the most entertaining things of the week was Saturday. Our branch put on this "Dia de la Raza" (so day of the race - basically to celebrate different cultures), and there was food there from all these different countries and it was just super delicious, as expected. We had stuff from Mexico, El Salvador, Columbia, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, and Guatemala, just to name a few. Oh, and I almost forgot - we also had American! That was actually my favorite one - somebody made the most delicious apple pie of my entire life. So the feast was incredible and there were all kinds of people there. Sadly, most of them were members (either from here or nearby wards) or part-members we were already working with, but we had quite the turnout! After the main part where we just ate, there was this show they were putting on, where all of the different auxiliaries performed something. The young women went first and it was just ridiculous...there was most definitely no theme or coordination behind it and they were just dancing, not really knowing what to do. I don't know how anybody else felt, but I was almost embarrassed for them...So we thought that was interesting. And then we actually went next and we had planned on singing something else, but decided to sing "The Star Spangled Banner" instead. So it was funny - the four of us all dressed up in our missionary clothes, in the middle of a bunch of Hispanics, singing the national anthem right by an American flag that was on the stage. They all loved it though and thought it went really well so we were okay with it. We just thought it was kind of funny. And then for the rest of it, people kept on taking forever to get dressed up and get everything set up for their performance and they had to try to stall for time as they were doing so. They were telling these long stories and jokes and then when everything was finally ready there wouldn't even be any kind of rhyme or reason to the things they did. Our conclusion: Mexicans know how to set up a feast, but they definitely don't know how to set up a performance. It was just entertaining how ridiculous it was. That plus they're probably not the best singers in the entire world. So yeah, that was our entertainment for the week.

We've still been working hard with our part-member families, and things seem to be really picking up. They've been coming to activities and everything, and one of our investigators was actually in one of the performances the other night! We're still struggling a little in finding new people to teach, because it's not quite as easy as it was in Yuma. It's a whole lot more crucial that we work with the members here... people on the street are just generally not too interested. It does make for fun conversations though. Oh and we had this mission president's fireside last night that was really good, and Elder Twitchell and I were all set up to translate for it (normally people bring Spanish investigators and somebody has to translate for them). So we were all set up to do it, and then none showed up! So we decided to translate anyway, one speaking and doing the actual translating while the other listened. And it actually ended up being a whole lot easier than I thought it would be! We got into a groove, and you forget that you're even speaking in a different language - except when you get random words like unencumbered...then you have to get creative. But that was pretty fun - a new experience.

I did have my first intervention this week though. There were some major problems in this companionship in our zone, and we had to go over fairly late at night to resolve it. That, plus early in the evening we did a baptismal interview for the Spanish sisters in the Tempe Zone, and totally went way too far when we were searching for it on our bikes. Somehow some Tempe elders spotted us and gave us a ride, so we got to do the interview, race home on our bikes, and then hurry out to talk to these missionaries. It's kind of crazy sometimes, because you realize the kind of impact you can have on these missionaries. The things that you say and the things that you do in these kind of situations are super important so we were really praying that we would know what to do. We talked to them and more than anything really emphasized the need for companionship unity and the need to forget ourselves and go to work. We have to drop our pride and be able to learn from everyone - there's no one way to do these things, and there is always more we can learn. So that was a super late night, and we got to wake up early to do plyos that next morning. So yeah, we feel like we don't really ever catch up when we get that behind on sleep..It's not like we can ever sleep in!

I also got to go on an exchange with my "grandson" Elder Wheeler this week (Elder Johnson trained him) and it was cool to be in my old area. They're teaching this amazing mom and daughter that just randomly came to church and are getting baptized this week! We did have a pretty rough experience though - we got waved over to some people at a gas station that I guess were having an argument. The mom had left her family for this other guy, gone back home, and was now leaving again. It wasn't our place to tell anybody they had to do anything, but it was rough to see this little 8-year old girl get deserted by her mom... It just made me so glad for the family I have and really helped me know even more how amazing the Gospel is and how much it really does bless us.

So yeah, we're definitely staying busy and have big plans for this week! We are going out with power and authority and we are going to do the work of God.

Thanks for all you do! Love you!