Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Three weeks of updates

These posts are from the past three weeks (Elder Dilling's parents = Procrastinators):

July 18, 2012
I’m glad you all enjoyed yourselves in Waterton.  My week here was pretty good, definitely better than the last one. By that I mean we've been able to teach more people, and our finding is having more success.  Amazingly we had two people invite us into their homes this week as we were knocking doors.  THAT NEVER HAPPENS!!  So that was pretty sweet.  The first guy was an English speaker who was really more interested about getting his questions answered than finding the true gospel of Jesus Christ, so we did our best to invite the spirit and testify, and who knows, maybe something will come from it.  Then the other guy was a young 19 year old Dominican who invited us to come in as we were knocking doors later in the day, so we only had like 15 minutes with him, but he said he'd come to church this week which would be legit.  His name is Eddy, so maybe you can keep him in your prayers.  And then once again, Alex failed to make it to church on Sunday.  His excuse being that he had bad food poisoning.  So we'll let that one slide.  Thats a good excuse.  He's gonna come this week though.

Aside from that all is more or less the same.  The New Mission President is great.  His name is President Morgan, and he's great.  I'm definitely glad I get to have two mission presidents.  We had interviews on Monday after district meeting.  It was nice to get to know him a little more, and talk with him on a more personal level.  Speaking of district meeting, that reminds me about something.  It was way awesome.  Elder McCullam, the other district leader and I made a district meeting together, and using chairs we made a maze in the gym, and had a few missionaries go through it blindfolded in the dark, and gave them each two "guides" one good and the other bad.  They had to make it through the maze of life with their help, but the end was completely blocked, and without the help of the atonement they couldn't make it to the end, so the Missionaries had to come in and introduce them into the celestial kingdom only if they accepted baptism and stuff.  It was way awesome, and after we just shared a few words of encouragement about how we are here to help people in the world to the final goal.  It was a lot of fun, and everyone seemed to enjoy and learn from it.

Aside from that nothing super special has happened this week.  it was good though, and Elder Colton and I continue working and pressing forward.

I love you all and Happy belated birthday Sarah!
 
Carson

July 11, 2012
Thanks for the email everyone... haha, jk.  I'm here early so it doesn't surprise me that you haven’t sent it yet. 

Anyways, this last week has been pretty sweet.  We're still struggling to find new people to teach, and Alex still hasn't come to church, because he slept in again.  But life's good and we're having fun.  How’s Waterton?  Where have you gone hiking?  Have you hiked Crypt?  How was the fly fishing?  Did Daniel enjoy himself? 

But yeah, so most of this week was pretty normal.  But we had a really great lesson with Alex yesterday.  It wasn't really anything special.  We just went over everything we'd taught him and made sure he understood everything, and just wanted to get a feel about where he was progression wise, and he's doing great.  At the end, he asked us a few questions, one of them being about hair, tattoos and earrings (his ears are pierced).  We clarified that he was looking for what the bible and stuff taught, not what we thought.  When we explained how our bodies are temples and what the prophet today had counseled he was like "Ok, I'll take them out and throw them away then".  He'd tried to take them out a few days before, but someone told him they looked weird so he put them back in, but he just made the decision right there on the spot.  It was way sweet.  He is such a great example to me about following the counsel of God and the Prophets.   

Then we had another cool thing happen yesterday.  So during our studies and stuff one of the English elders called me and asked me to speak to this Spanish lady who was trying to talk to him.  I talked to her and she asked for the address and time of the church, and if missionaries could come by her house.  So I took her address down too.  But after I realized afterward that her address didn’t really make sense because the street numbers on that particular street don’t go that high up, so I though “shoot, I must have misheard her”.  But it was ok, because there was a street nearby that did have numbers that high, so maybe I did just mishear her.  Anyways, so the day progresses, and comes to an end.  And I call the sisters because the address the lady gave me was in their area.  When I told them the address that I'd heard, they were like "NO WAY!"  Apparently they had been walking down that street earlier and Sister Sanders looked at a building off to the side and saw this building 31 25 (it's two buildings rolled into one) and felt something say she needed to go knock that building soon.  The address I'd gotten was 3125, and because of that I thought it didn't exist.  But it does!  So she was saying how she'd never really seen the building before and stuff, and how weird it seemed.  That was really cool.  I called Elder McCullam back (he put the lady on the phone to begin with) and told him about the exchange with Sister Sanders, and then he commented back to me how he had felt prompted to go into CVS (a pharmacy) right when he found that lady.  He said that almost right when he went in she talked to him, but he doesn't really speak Spanish so he called me.  And yeah, so as you can see, the Lord has a way of really making sure that people get found, and he can work through many different means.  I'm sure if it had happened differently it may not have worked out the same, and stuff, But God really knows what he's doing, and I can testify that he knows each and every one of his children perfectly.

So yeah, that's the cool stuff that's happened this week.  Aside from that it's all more or less the same.  If you’re still in Waterton, tell everyone I love and miss them, and if you write back today maybe I'll still see it, so feel free.  Till next time. 

Love,Carson

July 4, 2012
Where to start?  Many changes have taken place in the last week.  Elder Colton and I are still the same, and as you know we have a new Mission President.  But first I'll start off with investigators. 

It almost seems like we only have one, because we can’t get a hold of the others.  The one is Alex.  He's SOO Sweet!  Just a great kid.  20 years old, likes basketball, and movies. And he is getting ready to go to school in September.  Unfortunately it’s even been hard to meet with him, but yesterday we had a great lesson on the Plan of Salvation, which I think he understood pretty well.  He shared with us a great experience he'd had with prayer too.  So the last time we were there, he said that he was feeling confused and didn’t know what he was really doing here.  I can’t remember the word he used, but that more or less explains how he felt.  And then yesterday when we went there, he explained how he prayed, and he just felt like something was taken from him, like his worries.  It was really cool, and it opened up a great opportunity for us to testify about the power of prayer and how he'll get his answers.  It was a great lesson, and he's committed himself to come to church this Sunday.  So that ought to be great.  But yeah, Alex is awesome. 

Aside from that, like I said President Morgan has arrived.  He's from Sandy, UT and has 5 sons, three of which have served missions.  One leaves in September, and the other is 16 and will be here until he goes out as well.  So Saturday was the first day we met him.  He came to a baptism we had in our district.  It was actually kinda funny, because that very morning, Elder Hill and I were joking about my Blog and how we both thought that President Morgan had found it and read it.  So after the baptism everyone was chatting, and he mentions how he had "Read my Blog a little" and knew about when I first came down to the city over a year ago and all.  It was really quite funny, and I looked over at Elder Hill and we both just grinned.  But yeah, I'm super excited to work with President Morgan.  From what I can tell, he's going to be a fantastic mission President.  And I'm glad I get to serve with him for these last 10 weeks.  Elder Hermosa (one of the AP's) told me yesterday that Pres. Morgan had told him he had 11 weeks yet, so when he talked to me he cut a week of his 11 because I go home earlier.  So that was fun to hear I guess. 

As for my Birthday it was really good.  We started off our day with a Blitz, and I got a couple little things from some other missionaries in my district: a Canada Dry, a stain remover (because I always drop stuff on myself), some Fruit Gushers, and a Sudoku book (because I really enjoy Sudoku for some reason).  But yeah, so we had the blitz and then a member fed us dinner, and I don't know how, but she remembered it was my birthday and made me a cake, and a really special meal that she only cooks on special occasions.  I didn't even know she knew it was my birthday.  But I definitely appreciated it a lot.  And finally after the baptism I opened your gift because it came the day after my birthday.  And it's really funny getting gifts from Canada, because you have to write on the side what it is.  So when I saw "polarized glasses" I was like “hmmm, what does that mean?”  Then when I opened the package and saw the writing on the glasses case I was like NO WAY!  And then when I opened the package.  I was even happier.  You were definitely right in your letter.  I can’t really use them here.  But I am wearing them right now, and I love them.  It's amazing how much of a difference they make.  They just sit nicely on your face, and they're comfortable in seconds. Quality really does make a difference.  So, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE RAYBAN AVIATORS!  The Eatmores are great too.  But the glasses are sick.  They're even mirrored just like I would have wanted.  So that’s awesome. I'm even more excited to wear them back home and stuff.  I also bought another new hat with some b-day money.  So I'm gonna send a good pic of both of my hats and some other stuff.  But yeah, that's about it for now.  Hope all continues going well for you, and that you enjoy yourselves in Waterton.  Say Hi to everyone else for me too.

Love, Carson

July 4, 2012
Pday’s good.  We got permission to watch the fireworks tonight, so that’s cool, and we are having a zone party with lots of volleyball.  Way fun.  Enjoy bears hump.  Thanks for the extra email.  Thats cool about the dogs who chase the deer away in Waterton. 
 
Love, Carson

June 26, 2012
Well last week I forgot to let you know that transfers were changed to P-Day this week.  So if you get this email between now and 2 your time, feel free to write back.  I'll probably be on the computer.  Otherwise, I'll catch it next week.  This week has been pretty good.  Had lots of meetings, and I got kinda sick, but all in all it wasn't bad.  After Wednesday... um, I really can’t remember anything special happening since last Wednesday.  We're teaching this SUPER cool guy named Alex.  He's way legit, and prepared.  He's doing all the reading, expresses the desire to come to church, but hasn't made it yet.  He will though.  But yeah, because of the Yankees game, we had to do laundry on Friday, and the Laundromat wasn't working till 1:30 in the afternoon, so as our laundry was washing we gotta watch the first half of the Germany game.  It was SOOO sick.  Especially that goal by Lahm at 39'.  But that's all I saw.  Since Friday we've done a whole bunch of street contacting.  Elder Colton really seems to enjoy street contacting, while it's really not my favorite thing to do.  But it was fun, and we talked to some cool people.  Nothing specific came from it, but lots of people now have the means of contacting us when something touches them in the future. 

In case you were wondering why I'm writing on Tuesday this week, it's because President Smith is leaving, and to accomplish transfers and everything P-Day temporarily got moved to today.  And next Tuesday I'll get to meet President Morgan.  So that should be sweet.

Oh yeah, there was one thing that happened this week that I can’t believe I almost forgot about.  Friday night I got a call from my Bishop, which doesn’t happen very often, and I just thought it was about the baptism that was gonna happen on this coming Saturday.  But I was wrong; he was actually calling to ask me to give a talk because one of his speakers had fallen through :(.  He also asked another Elder to speak, and when his last speaker fell through, he asked one of the sister missionaries to speak as well.  So we all prepared talks for Sunday.  And mine was gonna be EPIC!!!!  Anyways, so I prepared it on Saturday, and on Sunday we went to church, and when we arrived we were told the Stake President wanted to talk to us, so we were like “alright, what’s up?”.  We spoke with him, and SURPRISE, we were getting a new Bishop so we didn't need to talk.  WHEW dodged that Bullet (temporarily).  I'll still probably be speaking sometime in July.  But til then I'm safe.

Aside from all that though, my week has really been pretty slow.  Also I'd add some pics, but unfortunately I forgot my cord to my camera, so I don’t have anything to upload it with.  Till next week...

Anyways, I hope all is well and that you have a great week.

Carson