Escuinapa, Mexico 28 Enero 2013

Mi Querido Familia,

Well this week has been pretty eventful and flew by! Elder Cruz and I got to enjoy the rest of our time together this week and were able to have some pretty good experiences. I´m going to be with Elder Clayson this transfer, he´s from Utah also, haha :) but I don´t know what part yet because I´m waiting for him to arrive here in the area with me. There were a lot of changes in the Zone this transfer! In the other branch here in escuinapa Elder Collett arrived too. We´re here in the ´ciber´ (internet cafe) together right now. It´s been fun catching up on what has been going on with the ward over there in Culiacán and hearing about what else has been going on. It was sad to say goodbye to Elder Cruz, especially because now he´s heading back home to Yucatan but I´m happy for him too. I was able to learn a lot from him this transfer and I´m excited for what there is to come.

As far as what happened during the week. We continued visiting Norma, Cristain, and a few other investigators. Norma got baptized this saturday and she was very happy to able to make this covenant finally with Heavenly Father. She seems like a new person now from when I met her. Overall she seems more happy and at peace now. It was a great way to finish the transfer and these are the kind of experiences that make everything in the mission so worth it! We´re excited for Cristain too, he´s baptismal date is in a couple more weeks. We´re going to keep praying to see even more progress their with his family members too and that we can keep finding more people.. This last week we celebrated Elder Cruz´s birthday too! It was pretty funny that we both had birthdays this week and were able to share them together.

It´s really crazy for me to see how fast time is going by. I want to spend all the time I have left inviting people to learn about the gospel and to apply it to their lives. I´ve realized more and more the impact that we can have on our brothers and sisters for good or for bad. I think one of the biggest mistakes we end up making is not doing anything at all, because we think that we´re too small to make a difference. Everybody can make a difference and God has made us in His very image so that we can act, and not be acted upon!! I know that the more we act for good, being kind to others, offering service, and following Christ the happier we will be. I used to try and think about everything logically and there are a lot of logical applications for why we should keep the commandments for example. But the gospel makes things happen that can´t be explained!. Because how would it logically make sense that the more time we spend serving others the happier we will be? Won´t that never allow time for us to please ourselves?.. I know that true happiness is found in making others happy! It´s nice to be loved by someone, but it is even better to have love for one another. That´s something that I´ve learned and now know. It´s easier to love other people too when we remember that Heavenly Father loves us. I know that Heavenly Father loves each and everyone of us more than we could ever imagine too, and when we begin to realize that everything else just falls into place.

Thanks for all the love and support. Keep up the great work at home too in work, school, and with the family! I look forward to hearing about your adventures too even though I don´t always have time to respond to them all. As always, you´re in my prayers.

Love,

Elder Carlson

P.S. Photos: 1.) Norma´s baptism 2.) Last P-day at the Cathedral in Escuinapa 3.) E. Cruz and I with a couple members in the branch

21 Enero 2013, Escuinapa, Mexico

Mi Querido Familia,

How´s it going? Well things are going pretty well here! This week we were able to continue visiting Norma and she has been making great progress. She really has a desire to learn more about the gospel and wants to make sure we have taught her everything she needs to know before she gets baptized. Her goal is for this saturday and she´s going to be interviewed in the beginning of the week. Her son, Saul, on the other hand has been having problems still. We read part of Mosiah 27 yesterday with her yesterday. We read the part about when the angel appeared to the son of Alma. We talked about how the Lord sent an angel in response to the prayers of his father and his people. She realized that she can pray for her son with faith too, so that he can come to have a change of heart.

We´ve also been teaching a 13 year old boy, Cristain, and his mom Maria de Jesus. Cristain is very smart and has been excited about all the lessons we teach them. Maria is the sister of one of the members in our ward and we met them last week and gave her mother a blessing because her leg has been healing from an injury. She´s doing well and is supporting Cristain in his decision to be baptized too! We´re going to keep teaching his family and are excited for all the progress they are making too... Besides that we are continuing to look for more people to teach and are finding more people interested. Everytime we meet someone eager and willing to hear us it makes up for all that work looking. The members have been helping us out a lot more too and we´re seeing that the Lord really is preparing many people to recieve the gospel here!

Besides that we have been enjoying are time here and are doing a little better with the daily goals we have been setting. We haven´t ran every morning, but this morning and several other mornings last week we´ve kept it up. It definitely makes me feel more awake in the mornings and throughout the day. This weekend we´ll hear about our cambios (transfers) too. This is the last cambio for Elder Cruz in the mission. I think he´s having ups and downs thinking that it´s all coming to an end, but he keeps a great attitude and we´re really enjoying the time we have here!

Thanks for all the support and prayers! I know that the Heavenly Father is always ready and willing to answer them. It´s funny how something so little can make ALL the difference. Have a great week, love you all!

Love,

Elder Carlson

14 Enero 2013, Esquinapa Mexico

Mi Querido Familia,

Well this week went pretty well! We did end up eating up cake last monday and it was fun :). This week we have continued to teach the abuela, named Norma, not nancy haha. Accidently wrote her name wrong last week. She´s doing well and we taught her more about the commandments this week and finished teaching her about the restoration. She had some questions about what she would need to do exactly in order to be baptized so we talked about the importance of her recieving her own confirmation from the Spirit. She came with us to to church this sunday with all of her daughter´s family. Unfortunately, we haven´t really been able to teach Martin much this week because he got home late from working and had to work on Sunday too. Yesterday we talked with him to see how he´s doing and have an appointment with him today.

In the beginning of the week we went to Mazatlán to have a little capicitation and interviews with Presidente Cantú. The capicitation was really good and we talked a lot about the reasons we do things, here in the mission and in life in general. Everything has to do with our Desire. In order for us to do good things, we need to desire to do good things. We talked about what happened with King David and when he saw the woman bathing. He ended up falling because the desires of his heart changed. The mistake we make a lot of times we spend time not necessarily doing things ¨bad¨ but also not really productive or good either. We need to be actively engaged because if we spend time not doing to much of anything or get lazy, that´s when we´ll be more likely to fall. We can avoid a lot of unnessary tempations in life too if we keep ourselves actively doing good things. It made me think a lot about how I can make better use of my time and I liked how it applys a lot outside of missionary life too.. We learned about how faith isn´t just to have a positive attitude either. Even though we all should strive to have a positive attitude, faith requires more. A big part of faith is to know the will of God, and to do it. We can all strive to learn more about the will of God in our lives through prayer and doing what is right. It requires a little bit more on our part to do that, but it will make all the difference in our lives and the lives of those around us.

I´ve been striving to work on things that I know that I can improve and to learn more about what God would have me do in this time. I know that we all have a special purpose here and that we all have unique talents and gifts that Heavenly Father has given us. He gave them to use to be used to! Not to be lost or to be forgotten... Yesterday we got the chance to talk with Saul, Norma´s son, too. He´s had problems with drinking and drugs for around 20 years or more now. We promised him that he can change and that the Lord will be there to support him along the way. We´re going to pray for him and hope to see a lot more progress with this family, Martin´s family, and to keep finding more people this week!

I love you all and thank you for support! I know that Heavenly Father is very pleased with us when we strive to do our best and that His love is real!

Love,

Elder Carlson

7 Enero 2013, Escuinapa Mexico

Mi Querido Familia,

Hey!! Well today has been pretty good so far. Thanks for all the birthday wishes! We have been really tired in the mornings lately and we decided to go run a little bit in the morning. Although it was hard to get out of bed and do it I felt really good after running a little bit. Hopefully will keep up the habit this week haha. Things are going pretty well here in the area. We cleaned the apartment a little bit and I think later on we might go and buy a cake or something.

This week one of the cool little experiences we had is when we went to visit a less active family. We taught the grandma a little bit more and she had some misconceptions about the church we were able to clear up. Her name is Nancy, and we taught her a little bit about the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. We saw her in the morning sunday and she was feeling a little sick but told us she´s going to go with her family to church for a little bit and then to the doctor afterwards. She enjoyed church and it was awesome to see that she came with us still even though she wasn´t feeling too great. There´s another family we´re teaching too. Part of the family are members of the church but the dad, Martin, and one of his daughters named Mariela aren´t. They´re really friendly and we gave Martin a book of mormon. We want to share some more messages with them this week so we´re excited about that too.

Besides that there´s not too much going on. We´re feeling better now that there a few people to teach, but are going to keep looking for more with the down time we have. One of our goals is to visit a lot more of the part member familys in the branch and help reactivate familys. There was pretty good assistance in the branch this last week, so we were happy to see that there´s progress going on with that too!

Anyways, thank you all for your support and I hope everybody that had vacation got to enjoy it and those that a working and going to school can enjoy it too! Have a great week and I know that the Lord will help you guys in your goals if you ask for his help and are humble enough to follow his advice! The humble part is really important!

Love,

Elder Carlson

P.S. Here are some more Christmas and New Years photos I got a hold of

1 Enero 2013, Escuinapa Mexico

Mi Querido Familia,

Well this week has been pretty eventful! Things have been going pretty well here with the holidays. It was nice to be able to talk with some of the family on Christmas day and I was glad to see that everyone was doing well. We have been finding a few more people to teach and we´re going to keep on looking. Yesterday we went to Culiacán for our 'Concilio' and got to hear some messages from President and Hermana Cantú and enjoy New Years Eve together. It was a great meeting we had and we were able to discuss several things. A lot of the message was about our need to focus on the eternal perspective of things. We we begin to understand the Savior and His role more in our lives, we´re able to understand Heavenly Father´s purpose for us more. We all have things to work on and to change and Heavenly Father is willing to help us but requires that we follow and accept His son! I know that we can find peace when we truly follow the Savior and I really want to learn to appreciate His love for us more.

We taught a new family this week, the husband is named Alejandro and the wife Claudia. They´ve got 2 little boys and we´re going to visit them and pray that they start progressing and can follow the message we share with them. We also taught a member who hadn´t gone to church in awhile, Maximino, and his wife Carmen. Max got to come with us to a baptism of a little girl in the ward and brought his little son with. It was a pretty cool experience for them to get to see to be there for the baptism. I know with some of the experiences like these that we´ve had that the Lord really does have people here right now that are wanting to hear us. I want to give more to the Lord and his children.

I´m glad to hear from everyone and glad to see the Christmas season has gone well. I wish you all a Happy New year too and that we all can put more of our faith and trust in the Lord. It´s good to see the world didn´t end and I know it´s because there is much more in store for us this year! Let´s make the best of it.

Love,

Elder Carlson