18 Marzo 2013, La Paz Mexico

Mi Querido Familia,

Well yet another week has passed by. This week was pretty interesting and things are going well!

I ended up going on divisions in a trio (3 missionaries) for 2 days this week while my companion went to a part called comundu. It was pretty fun and E. Mejia, E. Hernandez (his comp), and I had some pretty good experiences. They have some great investigators in their area right now and we got to teach one of their investigators friends. He had a lot of good questions and is already eager to read the Book of Mormon and learn more about the gospel. He put a goal for his baptism right there in his first complete lesson too and it was pretty awesome to see how prepared he was! Those people always remind me how the Lord prepares people to hear our messages... I think one of the things I learned during those couple days is the importance of just focusing on the basics. We can talk a lot just about the nature of God being our eternal father and when people really begin to understand that, they know that they are important. They know that God loves them and that their a worth a lot more than maybe how they view themselves from a worldy point of view. For our Heavenly Father all things are spirtitual and eternal. He doesn't see things the way we see them sometimes, with their temporal and earthly attributes.

My companion E. Hernandez and I later on also got to teach a few of our investigators. Unfortunately not all of them were able to come to church for different reasons but Isaac went again and is progressing pretty well. He has a goal to get baptized this week and he's doing what he can to prepare for that goal and we're hoping he can read some more of the Book of Mormon this week. If not we'll read it with him! :) .. We have some goals to work a lot more with the members this week. Our ward mission leader, Hermano Nieto, is going to come with us to visit Ana Jazmin and her family. She's doing great and so are her kids, but we haven't been able to teach Carlos too much because of his work schedule he's had with his military service. They have a goal to get married this year and we're hoping to teach them the importance of being sealed together as a family for eternity in the next lesson.

I'm glad everybody seems to be doing well at home. Things are definitely always changing but I know that all our experiences are for the better. Challenges in life are just opportunities to progress and become stronger spiritually (also can apply mentally/physically). I'm glad that Heavenly Father has given us this opportunity to learn and is so very patient with us! If only we could all, remember to feel his love. Have a great week! You have all my love and prayers!

Love,

Elder Carlson

4 Marzo 2013, La Paz Mexico

Mi Querido Familia,

Well it´s been quite an eventful week and things are going very well. We started out the week going to a zone conference in Los Cabos and it was really cool. There were 3 couples of old mission presidents that had served in different parts of mexico. President Romney, Pres Jesperson, and I think the last one was named Pres Cole? One of them was a relative of Mitt Romney too. They all shared with us different advice and experiences about what they had learned in their own service as missionaries and mission presidents. Sister Romney talked about how there isn't much difference between us and Helaman's army of stripling warriors in the Book of Mormon. I liked the questions she had that made me reflect. "How would I treat my companion if he were one of the stripling warriors?" Would it be different than how I treat him now? How would I feel working with them? etc.. It made me realize that God really does expect a lot out of us and that we too can see just as many miracles. We should take after there example and be exactly obedient. Being obedient to Heavenly father brings blessings, but being exactly obedient brings miracles.. Another thing we learned a lot about is how when we give God everything we can we really come to know him and can see all the miracles that he has prepared for us in our lives. There´s an example about how water boils and 100 degrees celcius but at 99 it still doesn´t. The difference in us giving the Lord 99 percent of our effort and 100 is just 1 percent, but it´s that last percent that´s sometimes the hardest. After giving that last percent though we recieve the power of God in our lives. There was a lot of other good stories I heard from them and advice that I was able to take note of too, so I'm hoping to apply it all the best I can.

Later on we had to go fly back to culiacán for the concilio with Presidente Cantú on Friday. We got to work a little bit with the guys in the offices because we got their a half day early and didn´t get back to our area until late saturday night.. The concilio was good and we talked a lot about leadership roles this time. We need to always be trying to be more christlike and our purpose here is to serve others. We also talked more about how the importance of recieving personal revelation through our studies. There´s a quote I like that about how the salvation cannot be recieved through ignorance. We need to be seeking direction from our Heavenly Father through the spirit to be able to do exactly what he wants us to do. We have the opportunity as missionaries to recieve direction from God for the people we teach too if we are doing what we should be, like studying efficiently in the mornings.

The only hard thing about the week is we didn´t have much time to work in our area! We had just a couple lessons but yesterday we had a cool experience. We were looking for a reference named Fabriseo in this housing complex. Their neighbours told us they´d never heard of him and that the people in that house weren´t there. We started talking to the neighbour, Maria, and we asked her if their were other people that would be interested in learning more about God. She pointed us to some other neighbours and we started teaching this lady named Irma. She seemed pretty enthusiastic while we started teaching her and her kids. Her husband didn´t want to come and listen though. A couple minutes later a truck arrived of family members and they got out. We greeted them and one of them was Fabriseo. He was really happy to see us and told us about how he had meet some other missionaries recently. The dad ended up coming out and listening to us too, and we taught several of the family members right there.. We taught part of the restoration but didn´t finish the message. They all said their going to pray and we have an appointment with them on tuesday. It was cool to see how the Lord guided us to find Fabriseo though, even though it looked like nobody knew him when we arrived there.

Sounds like everyone is doing well at home and it´s definitely feeling like spring time here already. It´s cool at night but hot in the day. Have a great week and thanks for all the prayers, love, and support as always.

 

Love,

Elder Carlson

11 Marzo 2013, La Paz Mexico

Mi Querido Familia,

Well it's been a great week! Sounds like things are going pretty well at home too, and that's very good to hear. This week we were able to actually work in our area and it went pretty well! It was still very busy though, as usual haha.

In the beginning of the week we had our zone meeting and it turned out pretty well. Everybody left feeling excited about working harder and looking for miracles in our areas. I got to go on divisions with Elder Cruz we met a cool young man. He's 18 and his grandma is a recient convert of the church. We started talking a lot about what he hopes his life is like 10 years from now, and what he hopes for things to be like. We were able to apply his desires to the gospel. He realized that he wants his future family to be a God loving family, and to achieve that he'll need to put the example. His grandmother's testimony and just support in general helped throughout the lesson too.. In our area we got to teach a young man named Isaac. He's been going to church the last couple sundays and he's preparing to be baptized this month. He didn't seem like the church going type at first, from his appearance, but it looks like he is his changing little by little and we're happy to see the progress he has made.. The family we brought to church the first week was moving this weekend and couldn't come with us to church. Unfortunately we weren't able to get to teach them that much but we're planning on visiting them a few times this week.

Besides that there was an activity an Elder in our zone was planning that we helped out with. It was an activity about Lehi's Dream and the whole stake participated. Members and non-members came and it turned out really good. There was a rope that the followed that was the iron rod. Some other missionaries and I were helping people that were blind-folded to go around obstacles and other ones were telling them to go down wrong paths sometimes.. Everything has a symbolism and I really liked hearing peoples testimonies at the end and we got to compart our own about the activity and what we learned. We could see that Heavenly Father has one path to follow but a lot of people were getting lost or detained when they heard voices of the world telling them to do the wrong thing. At the end everybody ended up in the chapel with the Tree of Life, which represents God's love or eternal life. It seemed like everyone had a good time and left having learned something gospel related so I think it was a success :). Definitely was a good idea of Elder Mejia.

I'm feeling a little bit more familiar with the area now. There's still things I don't know too well but I've really enjoyed getting to know all the members. There really are a lot of people that are willing to support us here and we've been seeing more and more progress the more we try to work with them. I know that Heavenly Father loves each and everyone of His children no matter how old they are, where there from, what color they are, or even how obedient they are! I know that He really wants to bless us and I have seen many of his blessings. He'll never force us to do something though and every challenge we face here in life is for a reason and can be used for our personal progress or downfall. We ultimately make the choice, and the sooner we learn to trust in him, the sooner we'll know what true happiness is.

P.S. Photos: My Companion and I, Fancy views of my Area, The Zone: La Paz

 

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!

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

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