23 April 2012, Mazatlan Mexico

¡Buenos Tardes Familia!

Well, it´s been a pretty interesting week here to say the least. Things are going pretty well though. I´ve really enjoyed having Elder Brandon as a companion and he´s the companion I´ve felt the closest to so far. We´ve just been good buddies from the start of this transfer. The bad news is that his time with me here in this area has already ended!.. For whatever reason we got a call on friday and they said they need him in La Fuerte, Sinaloa (some small ranch) this monday. He´s going to be a Zone Leader there and it´s funny because that same day he was telling me how he hopes he never has to be one haha... Anyways I went to the bus center with him this morning to drop him off. I feel jipped that he´s already going but I´m sure he´ll keep being an awesome missionary. We´ll probably at least be in the same zone at some point again too.

I got my new companion Elder Runnings this morning too and I´m sure we are going to have a good transfer here together. He seems like a pretty cool guy and we´re obviously here in this area together for a reason. I´m excited to start some more of our plans with helping out the ward mission plan and reactivating some families. I like the ward here but I think they lack a little direction with the ward mission plan. We´re supposed to have an activity this friday so hopefully that will go well and the ward will feel more unified.

Besides that bad news there has been some really good news! We had a lesson with the Familia Meza last week and the Hermana Alba and her daughter Olivia finally decided to get baptized. I talked about them before, the husband, Marco is an awesome member and we´ve been teaching them since before I got in the area.. I think sometimes the Lord might just call us in an area even if it´s to touch the heart of one person in particular and that´s probably why E. Brandon is already out of here now haha. We´re going to baptize them on the 28th of this month, the day after there wedding anniversary too! 

I´m learning a lot about myself, how to be a better missionary, and the gospel lately. There´s sometimes it is so easy to recognize the hand of the Lord helping us out and there´s other times I think we just kind of forget. Then we think that the Lord has forgotten about us. I know that the Lord loves us all and I hope that I can learn how to recognize and follow his will more in my life. 

Thanks for all the support at home as always. You are all in my thoughts and prayers. Hope you have awesome week! 

Love,

Elder Carlson

16 April 2012, Mazatlan Mexico

Hola Familia,

 

How´s it going?! I´m glad to hear that people are doing with this beautiful month of april. It´s getting a little bit hotter here but still not really bad. It´s actually got a really nice breeze here in Mazatlan in the morning and stuff. This week we have been doing pretty excellent. I´m really enjoying my time here with my new companion E. Brandon and we´ve really kicked it off together from the start of our transfer. We get along pretty good and I speak english a lot with him in the house which has been kind of fun.

 

We had a couple pretty cool experiences this week. A lot more people have been starting to contact us, which is kind of funny. I don´t know if it´s because we´re both white and they think we look funny or if they just like seeing our smiling faces walking down the street. We taught this one pretty cool family this week! We taught them the restoration and that Dad seems way interested in the gospel and was way happy about it. They have a couple daughters, so we made sure teach it with a lot of good examples for the kids too. When we challenged them for baptism the dad said yes right away, the mom said she doesn´t know yet and he just was telling her to just say yes haha. They´re a pretty awesome family and it´s awesome when we have oportunities to teach complete familys and not just individuals. They didn´t make it to church but we´re excited to see them this week. I think they´ve got a lot of potential.

 

A lot of changes were made in the zone and so we saw a lot of new faces this morning when we had our Zone Meeting. The guys seem pretty awesome and we have a couple white guys who are pretty new to the mission. Like half our zone this time are americans so it´ll be pretty interesting having such a white zone haha.. I feel like I´m learning a lot about myself, our Heavenly Father, and the plan he has for us each and every week I have here. I hope I can just be lucky enough to see some more miracles while I am here and work on a lot of things I need to get better at.. Love you all at home! Hope you´re doing wonderful and have a fantastic week.

 

Love,

Elder David Carlson

 

P.S. (PICTURES) 1.) Our Zone, first time there´s been hermanas with us in our zone my whole mission 2.) My companion has turned into a cowboy and I´m a gangster now 3.) We like flying brooms in our apartment sometimes

9 April 2012, Mazatlan Mexico

Hola Familia,

 

Well this week has gone by pretty fast! Things are going pretty good here and it´s crazy that we already had another transfer. Today E. Rosales left for another area called Guamuchi (don´t know if I spelled that right) and I recieved E. Brandon from there. I´m with an american again, and he´s from Utah. I´m excited about this transfer and think things are going to go really well. He seems like a pretty awesome guy. It was really weird speaking english to him though, but cool at the same time ha. My spanish has gotten a little better than I think I thought but at the same time it makes the way I think about things in my mind all crazy.

 

The young man that´s going to serve his mission in Boston, Allan Jones, in our ward is really excited about serving his mission. It´s cool being able to talk to other guys who are preparing to serve missions and remembering when I was there. He´s the only member in his family and his mom assited church for the first time this sunday. She said she´d come but she´s not going to get baptized haha. She´s pretty awesome though and I´m hoping we can teach some lessons with her at some point. Besides that we don´t have a ton of people we´re teaching right now. There´s still Hermana Alba and her daughter Olivia who we are teaching but we haven´t really talked about her getting baptized for awhile because she´s had a few doubts about things.

 

I´m excited for all the new things that I am learning but it always makes me realize how there is SO much I don´t know still! I love learning about things in the gospel and it helps me have a better perspective on life and the eternal scheme of things. I hope to be able to become more christlike through my experience here and to work on a few of my many weaknesses. Thanks for all the support. We all have weaknesses but that´s what makes us human! When we recognize the need of having God, our Heavenly Father, and begin to understand the importance of his son Jesus Christ things become a lot more clear and easier to handle. Love you all and hope you have an awesome week!

 

Love,

Elder David Carlson

 

 

Almost forgot.

 

We assisted a baptism of the other ward in our building, Juarez.. The other 2 photos are from today in the Central de Autobuses... I don´t have a picture with my new companion yet.

2 April 2012, Mazatlan, Mexico

¡Buenas Tardes Familia!

 

Glad to hear things are going pretty good at home. Hopefully a lot of you got to see conference. It was pretty awesome if I do say so myself! The rule of the mission is that to assist the conference you´re supposed to bring investigators. We brought an investigator to the the saturday morning session and it was pretty good. He´s a new investigator and a little crazy about the whole 2012 world ending thing, so I don´t know what´s going to happen with him still. He seemed to really like the conference though so that was good. We also saw the Sunday sessions but unfortunately our investigators didn´t show up!.. I really liked hearing President Monson talking and the talk by Elder Uchtdorf. I think it´s really important to forgive everyone, inculding ourselves, for things that have happened in our lives. As children of the God we need to forgive everyone! The Lord will judge us according to what we have done.

 

It´s crazy to think that this saturday I´ll already be hearing about transfers too. I´m pretty sure I´ll be staying here though and I wont be real surprised if I have another transfer with E. Rosales. Things are going pretty good here but we still don´t have a ton of investigators. We´ve got a few ideas that we´re going to work on this week. I know that the Lord is always preparing the hearts of men to hear the Gospel.

 

Thanks for all the love, support, and prayers. Til next week!

 

Love,

Elder David Carlson

26 March 2012, Mazatlan Mexico

¡Hola Familia!

 

¿Cómo estás?.. Everythings is going pretty good here. We had another pretty awesome district meeting this morning. We talked about the ways we can help our investigators to come to church more and practiced challenging people to come to church. Probably the most important part is bearing your testimony about assisting church and talking about all the blessings they will recieve. Most people aren´t going to do something new without hearing about what they´re going to recieve for doing it. The goal then is for them to understand that Heavenly Father really blesses us everytime we follow his commandments. Every commandment equals a blessing, if you want more blessings you obey the commandments. It´s really that simple, but the world will always tell us otherwise.

 

We did find some more people to teach and that was pretty cool. We were teaching a family, 3 kids, and they all were very excited about the gospel. Unfortunately they told us the last time that they visited that their parents don´t want them to go to our church because they already have one. We want to talk with the parents this week (haven´t met them still) and hopefully get their permission to keep teaching. I could understand how people might be hesitant to have their kids talking with a white guy in a shirt and tie and his companion ha.

 

Sounds like everybody is doing well at home. The weather is starting to change here but it isn´t normal at all. Probably the most exciting part of my week is one of the kid´s in our ward recieved his mission call sunday. He´s going to Massachusetts Boston! How awesome is that?! Anyways, I was pretty excited for him and told him how he´ll get to eat a lot of cookies in the Provo MTC and hear some cool devotionals... As always you´re all in my prayers. Thanks for all your prayers, love, and support!

 

Love,

Elder Carlson

 

P.S. This is my district, the big guy is my companion. We ate ice cream today for like my second time in Mexico!

March 19, Mazatlan Mexico

Hola Familia,

 

This week has picked up a little bit but our work with the ward is moving slowly but surely. We had a lesson with the bishop´s family in the beginning of the week with our investigator family. It went pretty well, and the bishop and his wife got to talk about the blessings that their family has recieved through living the gopsel. It was really good because we´re trying to help, Alba, the wife see the blessings her family will recieve when she follows the example of her husband.. They´re an awesome family though and they cooked some food for us this week too : ).

 

We found a few more people to teach this week but we´re still seeing if things are going to progress with them. Sometimes it´s really hard to figure out what we should do to find new people. Ultimately we need to be humble and rely on the help of the Lord though. Then whatever it is we feel like we should be working on and improving, to just do it!.. We had a good District Meeting this morning and it helped me think about the things I can change to improve myself as a missionary. One of the most important parts is what we study in the mornings. We need to study specifically for the people we teach. Not just for our own benefit. Also, to pray to recieve revelation about what our investigators need to here.

 

Also during the week we had divisions with the Zone Leaders and it was pretty fun. I was in Central Mazatlan with Elder Frias and we taught some pretty cool people. After that he had to interview a couple people for baptism.

 

Hope everybody has an awesome week! Thank you for your support, love, and prayers!

 

Love,

Elder Carlson

March 12, Mazatlan Mexico

Hola Familia,

 

This week was pretty good. I feel like we´re beginning to gain a little more momentum but we still don´t have many people to teach, which is a bummer. But we did find a couple more people this week. We had a couple references that might be potential progressing investigators. We had a zone meeting today. The Zone Leaders are really stressed because we have hardly any baptisms and baptismal dates in the zone right now. The mission also is having the lowest numbers it´s had in years they told us to, for this month that is. So we need to change some things. It´s kind of odd though because last month we almost broke the goal of 27 baptisms in Mazatlan, we had 26.

 

The family that we are teaching, Familia Meza, is doing pretty good. The mom, Alba, promised us to pray if the book of mormon is true and about the church. We´re going to see them tomorrow and they wen´t to church so it looks like things are going good. Hopefully we can help her to progress more in the gospel because she appears to have a lot of faith already. We´ve been looking for whatever doubts she might be having right now.. Besides that my spanish is definitely coming along more. I can understand just about everything people say to me now but still am learning new word everyday. You definitely don´t learn a language in one day, it´s step by step, but I´m not too worried about that like I´ve said. I want to work more on improving the way I teach the lessons this week.

 

Hope everyone keeps doing well. Thanks for all your support and prayers as usual!

 

Love,

Elder Carlson