Saturday, August 25, 2012

Consistently Happy and Content

Wow, that’s quite the story with the wheel and stuff.  It's a good thing you weren't driving on the freeway and had it fall off.  Hearing that reminds me of when I was driving to Great Falls with Jaren and his sister and one of the tires exploded!  Luckily we still had a rim to ride on until we came to a stop.  I couldn’t imagine losing the entire tire!  That could have been bad.  But I'm glad you’re all fine and that you all enjoyed your trip to Utah.  

I've been good here in Yonkers.  We had an amazing week with a ton of new investigators (probably more than I've had in like 5 months combined) and also a bunch of people came to church…the main reason being that we found this family who became news, and came to church.  So that’s pretty sweet. 

Aside from that we've just been trying to find people to teach and stuff.  The hardest part in that is finding areas of denser Spanish concentration, but we're still working hard to find people and help the ward members here.  If I didn’t mention before, my companion has been here for 3 months (in the field) and is a really hard worker and he just has probably one of the most sincere desires I've seen to share the gospel and do missionary work.  It's great.

As for specific events and stuff from this week, I’m drawing a complete blank.  At times I feel like I could copy an email from a previous week and it would pretty much encapsulate what I did this week.  Mainly because I'm just out here doing more or less the same thing everyday.  Wake up, study, Find new people, teach said people and visit members, go to sleep, and repeat.  Now that doesn’t sound like the most exciting thing on paper, but it is amazingly really fulfilling, and you go home every day feeling very content.  Sure, some days are tougher than others, but it's all great in the end, and you feel happy.  Sitting here thinking and stuff, I can’t think of a specific time in my life where I've been consistently this happy and content, which surprises me, seeing as I generally see myself as a content happy person, or someone who doesn’t really get down all that easily.  But it's awesome. 

Anyways, I’m back to the library computers, so I’ll try and get some pics to you soon, but I'm not sure when exactly that will happen.  I hope that all continues going fantastic for you, and that you all have a great week.  Hopefully no more wheels threaten to fall off the van (maybe that’s a sign that instead of a renovation you should buy a new family car).  After all you only have 2 kids living at home now.  Maybe it's time to get a nice SUV or crew cab truck. 

But yeah, that’s about all I've got for this week.  If you have any questions about my area next week, let me know.  But till then, I still love you all and wish you the best for this next week (I think it might even be the last week of summer for Christina and Daniel).

Love, Carson

Hello Yonkers

(Email from Aug 15, 2012)

Well, where to begin?  Everything with Alex is going great.  He's still progressing and stuff but couldn’t make it to church because he was visiting his cousin in the hospital.  And as for Wanda we've been struggling to get ahold of her.  We haven’t been able to see her since our first visit, and I don't think I will ever see her again.  But I'll get back to that.  Summer has been treating me not too bad.  Everyone is away on holidays it seems, but life is going well.  As for who is more receptive, I think that would change more depending on who has been in New York, and who hasn't.  The people who haven't been changed by the New York way of life are much more receptive.  This place really does change people.  It's hard to explain by email, but the newer people are normally much more receptive.  And as for a specific group, pretty much everyone is receptive.  It’s as you said, an "individual thing” although some are nicer than others, or reject us differently. 

Sounds like Dad’s bike trip was pretty fun.  That’s one of the things I really miss.  I really want to go ride a bike, but I can’t here because of the rules.  Traffic is pretty crazy, and I bet if we had bikes they'd have a lot more missionaries getting injured.

And as for Elder Hill’s family, they have your number and should call you soon.  But I'll email Hill and remind him to send his parents a reminder.  By the sounds of things they are planning on meeting you at Sarah’s game in Orem.

I'll keep my eye out for my updated VISA card in the mail, thanks.  While on the subject of mail, don’t send anymore stuff to Manhattan.  I have been transferred to a new Area!!!!!!! WOOO HOOOO!  Well, I’m pretty excited because I really wanted to get a fourth area, and I did.  I'm now serving in Yonkers.  It’s awesome.  Kinda like the city but with a car.  Sweet eh?  And even better, I'm DRIVING!!!  YEEHAW!!  It’s going to be awesome.  My new companion is Elder Hurtado  (pronounced Oortado).  He's from Mexico, from a state about 15 hrs from the border, and he's way awesome!! He has two younger siblings a guy and girl, and I'm super excited to be able to work with him for this last little while!  Elder Colton’s new companion is awesome as well.  It's none other than my favorite missionary Elder Bartlett!   While I'm sad to be leaving him, I'm excited that Elder Bartlett is taking my place.  They’re gonna tear the area up.  And so am I here in Yonkers.  I don’t have a lot to say about my new area, but finally I have another large apartment, so that’s nice.  For the last 14 months I've been living in tiny apartments.

But yeah, as for Sarah and the date she was asked out on, I don’t think she should turn it down, just have fun and make the best of it, who knows maybe she could learn Spanish from him.  From my experience, Mexicans are really funny, and awesome people, sometimes it just takes them a bit to open up.  But I love them.  They're one of my favorite peoples.

Anyways, that’s about all I got for now.  As for Broadway shows, I'm not so sure I can get permission, but it's not really all that high up on my priority list of things to do, so we'll see.

Hope you all have an amazing week and best of luck to Sarah in her games in Utah.

Also I met a member here who knows the Amaya family from the Elbow River Branch, so if you ever meet Marisol Amaya tell her your son met Sis Caycho.  It was kinda cool to meet her on Tuesday.
 
Much Love, Carson

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Here's a short one...

Hey everyone!  This is gonna be a short email today, since I really don't have much time.  But everything is GREAT!!!!  Alex was finally able to make it to church, and he said he enjoyed it, and also we've been able to find a couple more people to start teaching!! Finally! 

But yeah, that’s good to hear that everything is going well for you guys, and that you’re having a good summer.  What is this class that Mom is planning on possibly teaching?  And that’s cool to hear about the school thing.  I’m still waiting to hear back about my other VISA which they're trying to extend, so we'll see how that goes.   

As for the Olympics, not much is happening where I am.  It’s on in all the bars, but I don't really hear much.  How’s Canada doing?  But yeah, that’s about all I’ve got time for today.

Love Carson