Monday, February 25, 2013

25 Febrero 2013, La Paz, Mexico

Mi Querido Familia,
Well it´s been my first week in the new area so far and things are going great! Yesterday was definitely my favorite day here so far. I´ve been getting to know my area a lot but still am adjusting. I´m kind of a slow learner when it comes to knowing my directions of an area haha.. Our area is really cool. We´ve got a lot of parts near centro and I have seen some more gringos. We have people we have been visiting in some apartments and they´re all in these huge hills. So it has reminded me a little bit of my area in culiacán.
The beginning of the week was a little slow because a lot of our appointments were falling. Elder Hernandez only had been in the area 3 weeks before I got here so we both kind of are the new guys but he still knows the area well. There´s an investigator we kept trying to visit named Ana Jazmin but she for one reason or the other wasn´t there for our visits. Her husband is in the military and had just gotten back home friday and we invited them both to church. Sunday came and we were pleasntly surprised to see their whole family in church! The dad, Carlos, is really open to learning more about the church and we´re way excited to teach them. We´ve got an appointment with them on wednesday. They stayed for the whole 3 hours and all the messages in church seemed to be just perfect for them!.. Sunday I got to meet a lot more of the members in the ward too and it´s definitely bigger than the branch in Escuinapa. There seems to be a lot of good motivated people in this area too so I´m sure we´ll have a lot of success the more and more we work with them.
Besides that we´re getting ready for our zone conference tomorrow. It´s going to be combined with the zone in Los Cabos and we´re traveling down there for it. It´ll be a busy day and I´m sure there will be some great messages. Friday we´re heading to culiacán for our monthly Concilio with Pte. Cantú too. So we´re still busy as can be. Hopefully their will be a good amount of time to get some visits in still haha... I´m glad to hear everyone is doing well at home! I love you all and appreciate your letters of encouagement. I know all your prayers are being heard too. Have a great week.
Love,
Elder Carlson
P.S. I´ll have to attatch some pictures later. Haven´t really taken many yet!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

19 Febrero, La Paz, Mexico

Mi Querido Familia,
Well this week has been flying by!! Even literally this time haha! I´m in La Paz now and I flew here yesterday. We took of at 7 at night and I had to take a bus to Culiacán and take a flight from there to La Paz. So after our district meeting and stuff today I have been finishing my p-day today. This last week I was in culiacán for the seminary capicitation too. We were able to learn a lot of things and it was nice to get to see a bunch of other missionaries there. One of the things that really stuck out to me was the need for us to be more humble and recognize the will of the Lord. There was one part we were reading in the Book of Mormon about Lehi´s dream. There´s a part were the people heading towards the tree of life and some of them fell away because they were ashamed. We learned the people who never fell away were the ones who realized what the tree was, it was the love of God. Sometimes we do good things too, but maybe not for the right reasons. I know that I have done that in the past and still need to improve on that. It´s not only important to do good but to make sure that our eyes are on the glory of God. I´m realizing more and more that we are constantly surrounded by people that need the gospel too. A lot of it is just a matter of learning to listen to the spirit, being worthy of it, and opening our mouths to spread our message of joy.. This sunday it was way cool because we got to bring Bryan and Carlos to church. When we got there hardly anybody was there, not even many members. I was praying in my heart that more people would come and realized that they would enjoy the experience either way. Then 2 more investigators showed up that surprised us. Afterwards we found out the Claudia and her soon were there too but had gone to the other branch earlier in the morning and she even payed her tithing offering. It was really a miracle to see it all happen and a great way to depart from Escuinapa.
It was sad to have to say goodbye to Elder Clayson so fast, but I´ll still see him again the next time we go to Culiacán. I´m with Elder Hernandez this transfer and he is from Texas. His parents are both mexican and know spanish, but he didn´t know spanish before the mission. He said his parents just spake english to them but his mom and dad spoke spanish to eachother when they were alone ha. E. Clayson was very motivated and it seems like E. Hernadez is the same way. I´m excited to work together and know we´re going to have a good time together. The zone over here got to areas opened so it´s been kind of hecktic because some people are still arriving today but I´m sure everything will get settled in soon... The other big news we heard today is there´s going to be a zone conference we´re going to in Los Cabos next week I think and a general authority will be there, but it´s a surprise who so we don´t know. There´s a lot of changes going on with the missions in México from what we´ve been hearing. The Benamerito (which was a lds High School kind of thing) is going to open as an MTC in mexico and the 2nd largest mtc in the world! I´m sure maybe you´ve already heard about it, but they´re going to be opening 8 more missions in Mexico too. There will be some more changes going on, but I´m sure we´ll hear about it more in the conference too.
Well I´ve got to go. Thanks for all the support, love, and prayers as always. I´m so thankful to be here and know that earth is being more and more prepared for the Lord´s second coming. The gopsel is true and I´m so glad to be a part of it.
Love,
Elder Carlson
P.S. Pictures on my way to La Paz and a pic with Pte Cantú in the seminary.




11 Febrero 2013, Escuinapa, Mexico

Mi Querido Familia,

Hey! Well this week has flown by. We were able to teach a lot of lessons this week and are starting to teach a new family. Ever since the branch counsel meeting we had it seems like the members have been a lot more involved in the work and we´re able to go on visits with them more. I know that that is the way the Lord wants the gospel to be preached. Everybody should open their mouths and invite one another to come unto the gospel, not just the people in white shirts and ties.

Right now we´re starting to teach a new family. We met the mom, Olivia, on the second visit. She is very kind and seemed to have a special interest in God and was telling her sons that they should have more friends like us. People that will leave a good influence on them instead of invite them to go out and do bad things. She has 3 sons and we´ve taught two of them Brandon and Carlos. Brandon is 18 and Carlos is 14. They both are very smart and really impressed us with the answers they´d give us to our questions. They really seemed to contemplate what we were talking about and understood everything very well. They´re parents are seperated and it sounds like they´ve had kind of a hard past with their Dad but their both really good kids. Unfortunately they weren´t able to come with us to church because they went to Mazatlán this weekend but we´re planning on visiting them with some members this week... We´re continuing to teach another lady named Claudia and her son Alejandro too. Claudia is very sweet and sincere but it is a little bit more difficult to teach her because she can´t read... Also Cristian is coming up on his baptismal date goal but he seems like he got a little bit unmotivated this week. We had an awesome experience with him fasting together but later on the next day his brother kept saying negative comments about the church to him. It´s hard for him because his mother is still in the hospital and now he´s living there with his brother who doesn´t really support his decision. We´ve made some plans to visit him and are going to keep praying for him.

This week I´m going to a seminary capcitation with a couple other people in the zone. We´re leaving tuesday in the afternoon and wont get back until saturday mid-day. We´ll be in Culiacán for the week and Elder Clayson will be working here in the area with E. Collett. It will be a little interesting with them working in 2 areas during the week but I´m sure they´ll have a lot of good experiences together. I´m excited to see what we learn and to apply it to our labors here.. I feel like we´re making some good progress lately and that we´re learning how to work smarter. I feel the most happy here when I can begin to understand a little bit more how Heavenly Father feels and to see the lives of his children change for the better. I know that He loves each and everyone of us.

Love,
Elder Carlson

Monday, February 4, 2013

4 Febrero 2013, Escuinapa Mexico

Mi Querido Familia,

Well this week has really flown by! In the beginning of the week we went to Culiacán for the concilio of this month. A lot of it was focused on the importance of verifying our commitments that we make with people. Sometimes we need a lot of reminders about things until we actually do them. That´s one of the reasons we go to church each week for example, it reminds us of the covenants that we make with the Lord and helps us to remember what we should be doing. I´m glad that Heavenly Father is so patient with all of us, and I´ve seen a difference in how missionary work improves a lot when we do a better job at verifying too!

Yesterday Norma was confirmed a member of the Church and it was awesome to see how happy she is. She wasn´t confirmed last week because we had a district transmission from a different stake in México. We had our zone meeting too and it looks like we are all very excited for this transfer. Elder Clayson and I get along really well and I can already tell he´s going to be one of my favorite companions. We didn´t have as much time to work in our area because of the trip to Culiacán and what not but we were still able to teach a lot of lessons.. We have some visits planned with the members for this next week and we´re going to have a couple family home evenings with them. Cristain is still preparing for his baptism but we´re praying that his mom get´s better (health wise). She had to go to the hospital last week and it looks like she is going to have a surgery this week. I think they´re going to operate on her in Culiacán and we want to make sure to visit Cristain a lot this week because we know that it´s a hard situation he´s going through and he´s going to stay down here in town.

We have a few other people we´re teaching right now and they all have their own unique challenges. I feel really blessed for the opportunity I have to be in this area at this time and it seems like the Lord is definitely speeding up the work. It´s amazing to see all the new things that are always changing in the mission and in the lives of our brothers and sisters here. It´s always comforting to see when we are able to work in unity and I´m going to pray that we can keep speeding up the work by working together with the members here.

It´s still pretty hot here and it sounds like winter is pretty much over in Escuinapa haha. So enjoy the weather you guys have at home too! I love you all and thanks for your support and prayers as always.

Love,
Elder Carlson