Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Teaching English Too

Alright so this week has been kinda crazy. From Wednesday to Sunday it was normal, looking for people, teaching lessons,and doing all the other things that missionaries do.  But on Sunday things changed a little.  Elder Exilus, one of the other Elders in our apartment has had a nerve problem for the last little while, and he hasn't been able to get it resolved, so he’s been planning to go home and fix it then come back out.  We had all been hoping that he'd be able to finish the cycle here, and then when transfers happened, that he would go home and things could change.  But that’s not what went down.  On Sunday we got a call saying that he was flying home on Tuesday morning, and that Elder Wendel was going to be leaving for a different area too.  Soo it's now just Elder Fotu and I in the biggest area in the mission for only two elders and we have to start teaching both English and Spanish people, which kinda sucks.  (I'm afraid of English people; they're so much meaner than the Spanish people.)  So yeah, that’s the biggest difference between last week and this.
 Aside from that things are going really well here.  We’re just waiting for one of our investigators to complete the lessons and then he's ready for baptism.  Another one has a date for May 1st and Nube I'm planning on giving a date to as well for the 1st of May.  We have an appointment with her after we finish our letter writing.  Our last meeting we had with her on Friday went really well, we decided to read 3 Nephi 11 with her because she hadn't read from the Book of Mormon yet so I figured that it'd help her and we could kinda explain it as we read.  So we got to the part about baptism and got into a little discussion about how everyone needs to be baptized in order to be reunited with their heavenly father after this life.  Then she started talking about her family a little and about how they are all Catholic, herself included and that they had all been baptized Catholic.  She understood that she had to be baptized correctly, by someone who has the authority.  So her question to us was "Can I be Baptized?" To which we very happily responded yes.  But I kinda dropped the ball a little and didn't extend a baptismal invitation there, but it'll be OK, cause that’s what my biggest goal is for her today.  
 But yeah, everything is going good here.  My Spanish continues to improve with the help of Heavenly Father and all the blessings he's given me.  I love you and miss you all. 
Con Amor Carson

I'll post the pics of the car next week, I forgot my cameras cord.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

NEW CAR!!

Well, I don’t really have a whole lot to add this week in response to your question about Marcello; we've kinda been dropped by his wife Sarah.  She doesn't want to join a different church and split up her family and her husband isn't willing to even hear what we have to say.  So we're a little saddened by this.  We haven’t given up hope on them, but it's been hard to meet with them recently.  But hey, Elder Fotu and I are doing all that we know how to do the work here.   We haven't been having perfect success, but we've been trying. 
Aside from that, the weather here has been pretty great.  Just the other day it was like 85 Fahrenheit out, but that was just a weird day.  The green is starting to come out, and the weather seems to be pretty nice, about 55-65 every day now, but it's getting nicer and nicer.
Elder Fotu has been out about 14 months and we're working pretty well together.  I mean we have our differences, but we're doing our best to work around those and do the work the way we should and be as obedient as possible.  Also, I got a brand new car on Tuesday.  It's awesome.  I sat down in it this morning and guess what the odometer said? 111 I was like WOW, I don’t think I've ever seen an odometer that low.  It's a red 2011 Subaru Impreza AWD.  Pretty legit!  I thought that I was going to be getting a Corolla and I was pleasantly surprised and happy to be wrong about that.  I'll put up some picks of it next week.
 Also, I put up some pictures too, some of the area and the people, but also a couple of the ward, so you can see what all the people that have been feeding me look like.  I'll see if you can guess, but one of them is my favorite part of ceviche.  Also, the picture of the piece of Iron is a piece from the two towers with a monument statue thing in behind it.  Oh and guess what?  I'm actually in some of the pictures this time!!  It’s a miracle, but I made it in.
 Anyways, sorry that I don’t have a whole lot to tell you about today, but hey, it can’t be super exciting every week now can it?  However, it IS FUN every week.   I am enjoying every second of it.  That’s about all that I've got to say for this week.  I love you all, and I look forward to hearing from you again. 
 Les Quiero Mucho,
Carson

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Getting Better!

Ok, to start.  Yes I did receive Grandmas valentines’ package.  I thought I told you a month or a month and a half ago, but I’m not sure, I just keep forgetting or running out of time and when I do remember to reply it is late.   I also received your letter Dad, but the same problem has been occurring, no time slash memory problems.  It's good to hear that the vacation went well and that everyone is doing great.  Also "Congratulations on your diploma mark Sarah!! 93% is freakin amazing!!" anyways yeah, good to hear that you had a good time in Vegas.
 This week has been pretty good, just a bit of an adjustment period going from Elder Lopez to Elder Fotu.  He's a pretty hard worker, although I've had to push a little bit.  It's not that he slacks off he just hasn't had many great companions to help him in that regard, but he's pretty good and I like him.  His Spanish isn't perfect yet, which is great for me because I needed a companion to work with who could help me better my Spanish and this will be an opportunity for me to stretch.  I feel pretty comfortable with the language now, but I know I have a long ways to go.  My comprehension has gone way up and another thing that helps me is Elder Fotu is a quieter guy which forces me to talk more.  So my Spanish should see some great improvement this cycle.  I don’t remember if I told you last week, but He's 6' 6" which makes it kinda hard for us to contact the Spanish people here.  They all seem to be afraid of us and when they see us, across the street they go.  Oh well, what can we do?
 Yeah, I got to watch all five sessions of conference, but I'm excited to get the Liahona, so that I can read them in Spanish and actually learn more.  I watched a lot of it in Spanish because I wanted to practice and also one of our investigators was there as well.  Yes I'm still driving and am excited to hopefully be getting a 2011 Toyota soon because I'm driving the oldest car in the mission. 
 Anyways, enough with that stuff.  Our investigators are going pretty good, Nube really enjoyed the session of conference that she went to and our other investigators are doing pretty great too.  I don’t know when your next fast Sunday is, but if it is this coming week, I would like to ask if you could fast for Sarah's Husband Marcelo.  Sarah is one of our investigators, and she's really awesome, but her husband is keeping her from getting baptized, not that he won’t let her, but she doesn’t want to make this step in her life without him.  The hard part is that he doesn’t even really want to sit and listen to us.  I think the main reasons that they just joined a new church and he's happy with it more or less.  Our last investigator is Jimmy, he's the husband of a member and they have decided that they want to get sealed in the temple, so he's taking the necessary steps to prepare for baptism.  He's more or less ready, but he just wants us to answer some of his questions.  We're hoping he'll feel ready enough by the end of this month, although, it would be best if it was by the end of this week :)
 On the other hand, my scripture reading has been pretty good, I just finished Mosiah this morning and one thing that I thought was kinda cool, was that the early church in our times was a lot like the early church in Alma's times.  The members were being persecuted, but Alma told them not to fight back, although it does say that there were some brawls.  But yeah, both the early church in these times and in their times received lots of persecution.

Once again, it is time for me to be going.  I just want to finish by saying that I love you all and look forward to next Wednesday. 
Sincerely,
Elder Dilling 

Friday, April 1, 2011

I'm Alive!

Ok, Sorry I don’t have a lot of time today, it's been a bit of a hectic day.  First, Elder Lopez has officially left.  I was kinda sad to see him go, but that’s ok, cause it's part of the mission.  Elder Fotu is my new companion, and he's pretty sweet.  He’s from Pleasant Grove, UT.  Nube is still going good, and we're doing our best to keep the kids quiet.  Other than that not a whole lot of new stuff has happened since the last week.  Anyways, like I said.  I don’t have a lot of time today, just wanted to say hello, and let you know I'm still alive.  I'll respond to the rest of your emails, next week.  Love you lots. 
Love, Carson