Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Happy New Year from the Big Apple!

Dec 28th email from Carson: Well it was so awesome to talk to y’all on Sunday (Christmas Day).  Not all that much has changed since Sunday.   I'm somewhat jealous that you’re out skiing right now, but that’s cool.  Things here in New York are going pretty swell.  We're just looking for a few new investigators to kinda take the space that Mark and Angel left after being baptized. 

But yeah, the Christmas season has come to an end, and as great as it is, I'm kinda glad.  Mainly because here the people were really busy around Christmas, and we've lost contact with many of our investigators, but hopefully we'll be able to find some new people whose hearts are softened by the Christmas Spirit.  I know they're out there, now’s the time to find them.  But yeah, that’s about all I've got for this week.  I hope all goes well, and that you all have a wonderful ski trip.

Love, Carson
                                                               Our Christmas Tree

Jan 4th email from Carson: Hey everyone, Happy New Year!!  It seems like everyone is saying that, even 3 or 4 days after the fact.  Anyways, things are going pretty good, we had a good New Years Eve playing board games until 10:30 and then we got the amazing opportunity to listen to college parties going on above and all around us till like 1:30 in the morning.  I think I was the only one who was able to fall asleep and stay asleep through all the partying.  So that was nice.  I got a decent sleep.  But aside from that it wasn’t too special. We had to come home early, and when we got home we just chilled till bed time. But yeah, it was great.  And before I forget too, I have planned to write the letters today along with a few other letters that I have to send and have written, but I just want to stick them all in one envelope.  So you should get them in a week or so.

So Elder Hulme and I more or less take turns approaching doors, although it seems like he does more of the English doors, and leaves the Spanish ones to me.  Not that he can’t speak Spanish, he's just kinda gotten into the habit of using me as a crutch which I think is kinda funny.  It's mainly because I'm his trainer, and that’s just kinda what you do it seems.  I know when I got here I did the same.  My trainer did all the speaking, and I just tried to do what little I could.  But yeah, we normally just whoever’s closer to the door does the talking and that normally is pretty half and half. 

Our chapel is a building itself.  And it has a parking garage below it.  It's pretty big seeing as it's the stake center, but the funny thing is that it's not big enough to hold the stake, so we have to rent buses and use a chapel that’s not even in our stake boundaries  (my last chapel actually).  But it's got very few windows, and what windows it has are really barred up.  And the whole thing is just red brick.  I think I've sent a few pics of it home.  Just look for a building with a white steeple.  And the nice thing is that it's not too far away, normally we take the bus to get there, but it's within walking distance as well.  Although for me, everything is within walking distance, it's just a matter of how tired out do you want to be at the end of the day?  So yeah, we take the bus to church.

For laundry we have to go to a Laundromat not too far from our house, and I don’t really air dry much except for the normal shirts I wear, because I still don’t want them to shrink.  But everything else goes in the dryer.  It normally takes just under 2 hours to do all my laundry on P-Day.  And as for dry cleaning, I've only dry cleaned my suits once my whole mission, and that wasn't until I hit my year mark, and to dry clean two two-pant suits cost about $25.00.  So I avoid doing it too often.

And as for the snow, we still don't have any, but the weather has finally gotten cold, and I'm more than done with it already.  Yesterday was bitter cold and windy, so I've decided that one cold day a year is enough for me with a good number of chilly days.  I don’t like the cold at all.  Mainly because it's not fun.  I can’t believe how warm Calgary has been! 

But yeah, that’s about how things are right now in the Big Apple.  Today we're having a Zone Dodge ball tournament, and then after that I'll start writing letters. I hope you all have a great week, and that all goes well for you.

Love, Carson
My Zone