Thursday, December 29, 2011

Happy day after Christmas! Mazatlan Mexico

Christmas buffet with group from Utah

Christmas meal with other missionaries
Apartment, December 2011
Hola Familia!

I don´t have a lot of time to write right now because we have to go pick up some new missionaries who are moving into Villa Verde. After that we also are going to move into a different apartment too. It´ll be nice not having 2 areas anymore but we have to learn a lot more about Flores Magon because we haven´t spent much time in that area. We´re going to have a lot of work finding more investigators to teach but it will be good!

Besides that I had a pretty good week and a good Christmas. Things have been going good here and it was pretty fun because we got to eat with these american families for Christmas who are from Utah. I guess they just stay in Mazatlan for Christmas vacation every year. We had a district meeting this morning and things have been pretty hecktic packing and what not. We also ate lunch with our converts Marcos and Terry who were sad to hear that we will be leaving there ward.

Thanks for all the love and support, hope everyone had an awesome Christmas and has a great week. Remembering Christ´s birth and life is a good thing to do anytime of year so why not keep it up a little longer ya? : ) Hasta Lluego!.. I´ll attach some pictures real fast.

Love,
Elder Carlson

Friday, December 23, 2011

Feliz Navidad! Mazatlan (December 19, 2011)

Hola Familia,

Things are going pretty good here! We had divisions again in the beginning of the week. E. Lopez and I had a good time too. We placed 3 Book of Mormons that day and had 8 contacts! E. Ward and Rosales were pretty surprised how much success we had.. The main thing we need to work on still is finding new people to teach but things are starting to go a little better.. We saw Oscar (one I taught restoration to last week) and his family also during the week and gave him his Book of Mormon and explained some more about it. Things went really good with and I really love his family. We were supposed to see him yesterday but didn´t end up having time. So it will be good to see him again and see how things are going.

Yesterday was pretty cool because we had some thing were we sang hymns and christmas songs near the ocean. It´s at some pretty touristy part of Mazatlan and was my first time near the ocean here so it was really cool. It was pretty funny too because some americans were there listening to us sing, and it turned out they all were members of the Church. We did get some contacts though so it was pretty successful. Was fun to be there with all the missionaries from Mazatlan too.

Today for Pday we also went to downtown Mazatlan with E Lopez and Rosales. It was pretty cool looking around all the little shops they have there and stuff. I bought I tie at one of the stores and we have had a pretty good day. We need to clean our apartment this week and we found out some other information.. We´re going to get new missionaries in Flores Magon next transfer. So we wont be over 2 areas anymore. Who knows where they will end up putting me and E. Ward though but it was interesting to hear about that stuff. All I know right now is a trainer and a newbie are going to be in Flores Magon... Besides that not too much is new! I feel more comfortable with my spanish now but everyday I´m still having to figure out what certain things mean and learn more.

I hope everyone has an awesome Christmas. Things are going pretty good here and I like the weather right now. Thanks again for all the support, love, and prayers.

Love,
Elder Carlson

P.S. Attatched 2 pictures from last week (Navidena and Baptism). And 2 pictures from the place we sang at yesterday! Really pretty.





Monday, December 12, 2011

December 12, Mazatlan Mexico

Hola Familia!

Well it´s feels a little bit more like Christmas now. Mainly because we had a Navidena get together this week in Culiacan! It was awesome because all the missionaries in Sinaloa gathered together there for some activities on Thursday. We drove up there Wednesday afternoon and got ther Wed. night. We ate some food, played dodgeball for awhile, ate cake, and had some testimony meeting thing that night. It was fun to talk with all the missionaries and get together. I met some pretty cool missionaries while I was there and then we headed back Friday morning and got back at like 12pm.

We have been having really cold water in the mornings for our showers for awhile but we went and bought something today to fix it. So it was nice to have water that wasn´t super cold today haha. Things are going good a little better with lessons and everything too... Saturday I baptized an 8 year old boy in the ward also. He asked if I would do it so it was really nice to see him and his family there. Afterwards we confirmed him too and I did my first confirmation. I think I did pretty good for my first confirmation. It was awesome to see how happy him and his family were and made me feel really happy too :).

We got some new investigators and Yesterday I taught Lesson 1 about the restoration by myself to them for the first time. What happened is we went on divisions, me with Elder´s Quorum Prez and E. Ward with the Bishop. We visited some inactive families and it went really well. And then at the end of the night we saw the Elder´s Quorum Prez´s brother and his family. They aren´t members and so I just taught him about the restoration.. I explained a little bit about the Book of Mormon near the end of the lesson but unfortunately forgot to bring one! Haha but it´s not to big of a deal because we are going to visit him next Wednesday and bring one. It´s exciting to see people who are really prepared by the Lord though. He even said to me that with the things that have been going on his life he feels like he had been prepared to hear this message.

Besides that I´m excited to visit with our other investigators this week. We are feeling a little more positive about things this week and it is awesome. Thanks for all the love and support as always!

Love,
Elder Carlson

Monday, December 5, 2011

December 5, Mazatlan Mexico

Hola Familia!
 
Cant believe it is already December! The weather is finally pretty nice here so that is good. Definitely doesnt feel like winter to me though. We had a pretty good week. I hit my first transfer mark but Elder Ward and I are going to stay here for another 6 weeks. I think he will leave here halfway through January but you never know. That kind of stuff is pretty random in the mission.
 
We had a pretty slow week as far as lessons go. Its hard because we need more people to teach. We visited with Marcos and Terre this week and they were having a little party for their family for their wedding. It was nice meeting Marcos family and having some food there. We have one investigator named Isabel who is doing really good. We are going to visit her tonight. She has been going to Church and everything and we have a baptismal date for her. So we are trying to teach her all that we can! Besides that our other investigators arent really going to Church or progressing much. We are going to visit Maria Guadalupe tonight and check up on how she is doing.. Our main thing we need to work on this week is contacting more and getting more references. We need more people to teach!
 
Next week we are going to have some Christmas get together with all the missionaries in our mission. That should be pretty fun! I dont know what they are going to do with 150 missionaries in Culiacan but I guess I will just figure out later haha... Our district is changing a little bit because of transfers too. We are only going to have one other companionship besides us in our district now. 4 people versus the 6 we had beforehand. My spanish is getting better and I finally got a couple compliments on my Spanish haha. Its still really hard to say things sometimes though.
 
Anyways thanks for all the support! Glad to hear things are going well at home. Love you and you are in my prayers.
 
Love,
Elder Carlson