Monday, November 28, 2011

Greatest Missionaries on Earth!

Note: this email has been posted a week late

Ok, before I forget, one idea I have for Christmas is Cinnamon Spread. 

Anyways, sorry I didn't write last week.  We went to the temple, which was super great because I hadn't been in like 8 months, and I was really missing it.  When we got back we didn't have time because of an early appointment of ours, so don’t feel bad about not writing on time.  But I do have time this week.  And to start off, President Smith told us all to email home and say that we are the greatest missionaries on earth. 

So congratulation on getting the job Mom.  And to Dad for getting the white tail, and to Daniel for surviving the scout camp that I'm excited to hear more about.  And to Christina for doing so well in her "clase de costura" (fashions sewing class).  And as for talking to Grandma and Grandpa Dilling on Christmas Day I was thinking the same thing.  This year there's not gonna be one big Christmas thing.  It'll be the upstate missionaries and the city missionaries at two separate events.  As for finishing with President Smith, I believe he finishes his time as Mission President in July, just barely before I go home.  I've also decided that I'm not gonna come home early at all.  So you'll have to tell BYUI that I'm not gonna be able to return in the fall semester of 2012.  And as for your question about whether or not Elder Hulme gets packages and letters, that’s a big "AFFIRMATIVE" he gets like 5 letters per week.  As for me, about 2 or 3 per month...  but that’s ok, I don’t really enjoy writing, so it's all good.  I do return notes and stuff to those who write me.

So for Thanksgiving we're going to have dinner with the Lucero family, a somewhat less-active family in the ward.  They plan to have some non-members for us to talk to, so hopefully we can find some new investigators while we're enjoying the night tomorrow.

So yeah, this last week was super great.  We found ten new investigators, and have some pretty solid people we're teaching.  One of them is Mark.  He's 17 and just seems to really love the church and has a firm testimony about prayer and the Book of Mormon that he's even shared with a few of his friends.  He's just way legit - unfortunately he wasn’t able to make it to church this last week, so the date we extended to him for the 3rd won’t work because he has to come to church twice, but all is well.   I feel pretty confident that he'll get baptized eventually.  And then we've met a few other pretty cool people that we'll start working with in coming days.  So hopefully we'll see a few more baptisms soon.  I really don’t know why, but I can’t think of all that much to write about.  Most of the people we've met seem pretty cool, and I'll be able to tell you more in the coming weeks. 

Today we went and played football in Harlem with some of the missionaries from over there, which was a lot of fun.  It started out pretty cold, but it seemed to warm up a little, and the rain stopped which was nice.  The weather hasn't been all that nice here for a while, so hopefully it clears up a little tomorrow, it's definitely nicer to walk without an umbrella.

So yeah, I'm not really sure what I want for Christmas.  Maybe a few more socks, some ties. Maybe some pens too.  (I use the Pilot Precise V5) That would also be a specific request.  "V5" is mandatory.  The V7 is too thick, so there's something.  Maybe a CD or two as well.  Umm... I was thinking about getting another jacket as well, but I'm not sure.  Not because I need one, but because I like variety.  All my suits are in nice condition though; I think I've actually gotten a little skinnier around the waste.  At least it seems that way, because I gained a belt hole.  But yeah, I'm really not all that sure.  So anyways, I hope all continues to go well, and I'll talk to you next week. 

Love, Carson

Monday, November 7, 2011

I Still Don't Like Public Speaking!

Hey everyone! Glad to hear you all enjoyed Halloween.  We really didn’t really do much, we had to be in early which was kinda boring and we couldn’t go asking for candy so..  Yeah, it was alright I guess.  As for your district Leader question, I don’t think I'll miss it, I'm just going along with whatever it is the Lord would want me to do.  So yeah..  As for my talk though, it went pretty good.  I actually lost track of time and spoke for like 15 minutes (I was only given like 7).  It was the first talk I’ve done without writing it down word for word, but I still don’t really want to ever speak again.  This was just a refresher of how much I hate speaking in front of large groups of people. 

As for Alejandro I'm not sure yet, he’s supposed to talk to them today and I'm definitely keeping him in my thoughts and prayers throughout the day.  We taught him the Word of Wisdom on Monday and he accepted it with no problems, as well as all the other commandments.  We'll give him a date this next week so that he has a goal to work towards.  He still needs to come to church though.  Fernando is also doing quite well, he's had to work late recently so we haven’t really been able to see him all that much, but he's doing well from what I can tell.  Our Last progressing investigator is Carlos.  He's from Guatemala and we've given him a date for the twelfth of November which he says he'll be ready for.  He's come to church the last two weeks in a row and the last time we were there he was asking us how long it takes to get baptized.  So yeah, his girl friend who is a member is also helping a lot too and because he's investigating she's getting much more active than she was.  So he's been a blessing for many people.  Hopefully one day they'll get married in the temple.  I’m pretty sure that’s what she really wants.

So yeah, that’s what is going on here in the Bronx.  As for your question, you could say "como estan" - how are you; "como les ha ido" - how has it been; "Como le van" - How’s it going.      So yeah, that’s some ways for you to say hello to more than one person.  I'm doing my best to learn three new words a day, it's not perfect yet, but I'm trying to improve every day. 

Anyways, that’s about all I got this week, I hope that all is well back home still and that you all have a great week.

Love Carson

P.S.  The day of the snow storm was one of the most successful days I've had on my mission so far.  It was awesome!!!!