Sunday, June 10, 2012

New York is where I'm supposed to be!

Well I'll start off I guess by saying Congratulations to Todd [Carson's cousin].  He's going to a decent mission, and he'll have a great experience, but it won’t be anything like New York!!!! I actually know a little about Vanuatu because a Sister missionary who flew out with me was from there. It was actually pretty funny.  She thought that the buildings in the MTC were big, so you can imagine what Vanuatu will be like.  Also, she barely spoke a lick of English when she got here. So "Good luck with the people there Todd".  I don't know what they speak though.  I think it's kinda like French, but I'm really not all that sure. The Sister’s last name was Nalawas.  So if he meets any, maybe it'll be her. When does he report to the MTC?

So I'm just sitting here thinking a little about what Todd is going to experience over the next couple years. And a little about how cool it would have been to get to live on an island in the middle of the Pacific, or enjoy the old castles and stuff of Europe or maybe live in a jungle in South America.  All that stuff would've been so sweet, and maybe I would've taken more pictures. But I can’t help but feel like this is really where I belong.  There's a phrase President Smith used in Zone Conference yesterday.  It was something that I think President Packer said at the New Mission President training.  "Missionaries are not called to Missions; Missionaries are called to Mission Presidents".  And thinking on it that way is really cool.  One thing I’ve really come to realize is that it really doesn't matter where you’re called.  When you really devote yourself to the work, the love for the people and the place really comes into your heart.  I know when I first got my call I was a little disappointed, and the only thing that really made me excited was to learn Spanish. But I can in all honesty say now that this really is THE BEST mission ever, and I really don't have any desire to serve anywhere else.  I'd like to travel, but that’s about it.  I'm a New York, New York North Missionary, and I can bear testimony this is where the Lord wanted me to be.  I remember walking out of my apartment about 3 months ago, and getting this overwhelming feeling of “this is where I'm supposed to be”.  It was really cool.  Plus, when you want to come here in the future, you've got a great tour guide who knows the subway lines pretty well, and can get you around the island no problem... :-) but yeah, congratulations to Todd, he'll have a fantastic experience, and his mission will be super great.

Anyways, just a quick correction to your email Dad.  Moroni doesn’t have 48 chapters.  It only has 10... I believe you were referring to Alma.  Haha.  But yeah, I really love those chapters as well.  Especially verse 17.  It's so good, and it's not only Moroni.  In verse 18 it refers to every other great prophet and missionary in the Book of Mormon.  As for great spiritual experiences this last week, I can’t think of anything so special.  I re-read the talk from Elder Rasband in the October 2010 Conference, which was really good.  You should read it (and Todd should as well).

Life for me is going pretty well.  Elder Colton and I are having a little more luck finding people, and the work is getting a little better. One of the people we found is this young kid named Josue.  We first found him at the movie night we had back in March, but then last contact and couldn’t find him.  But the other day we had a bunch of stuff fall through, so we decided to take a dinner break.  First we stopped by the chase bank, and as we were leaving we ran into Josue.  Or better put, he stopped us and reminded us who he was, and gave us his address and stuff, so we went by and taught him the other day.  He's 12, and reminds me a lot of Daniel.  He's also really smart and understands pretty the Book of Mormon pretty well when we read it with him.  But yeah, he's just one of a few people we've found recently that are really awesome.  And I'm really excited for the future, and what is to come.  I really want to get at least one more person baptized before I go home.  But most of all I just want to get this area pumping a little more.  And I'm excited to be with Elder Colton to do this.  He's seemingly fearless.  He just does the best he can, and doesn't really care if he can’t say it very well, but he'll always try, which is so sweet as a trainer.  And it allows him to learn quickly too.

So yeah, that’s more or less life at the moment. I really can’t think about much more to write about.  Life's great, and I'm healthy more or less.  I'll have to lose some stomach fat when I get home, but that's about it.  My limbs are still skinny as twigs. Anyways, I love you all very much.  Till next time,


Carson