An Answer to her Prayers

Dear Family,

Hey, so to start off I included a few pics of a verb chart that maybe Christina could use, seeing as I only have the one that I am using. 

But yeah, so this last week, well I guess weeks, have been really great.  We're really hoping that Jesse's baptism goes through this weekend, but we'll have to see.  It seems like Satan is working super overtime to make sure that he doesn't get baptized.  He just seems to be too busy to do anything, plus his family really doesn't help him at all, but we're still gonna work with him and support him and stuff. 

Anyways, so as I said this week was really good.  The best part of it was actually yesterday.  I'll say though, that it didn't really sound all that good when it first started.  I was on a split with Elder Fan, one of the English elders in my zone, his companion was with Elder Head.  Our plans for the day consisted of one hour of lookups and the rest of the 7 hrs as contacting and knocking on doors, just general finding (not my idea of a fun day).   Sure, a little bit of finding is cool if you have some lessons planned, but looking at your plans and seeing that you've PLANNED 6 hrs of finding isn't cool. 
So around the fifth hr. we were knocking doors in this project and had knocked around 5 floors without really finding anyone other than a couple Spanish people, but I was in the English program for the day, so I was really looking for people to help the English elders.  Anyways, back to the story.  So we're knocking these doors and we eventually knock on this door that from outward appearances is like every other door we have knocked on, but then a lady named Donna answers the door and looks at us kind of weird, with a gaze that said, “What the heck are you doing here?”  We introduced ourselves as missionaries.... you know the drill.  Anyways, I was talking to her about the Book of Mormon and then I had to look down for a second to grab a card.  When I looked up again she was crying.  I thought to myself ok, what’s up, this definitely isn't normal.  Eventually she composed herself and told us that her father had recently passed and that it had been a really hard week for her and that at the very moment that we knocked on her door she had been praying for some help. She then expressed how we were an answer to her prayers and that she wanted us to come back, so we made a return appointment for this Saturday and even though I won’t be there, I'm super excited for the English elders to get to see her and stuff, she’s so legit. 

Those elders definitely deserve it.  It was also kinda cool too because that very morning I had been thinking about how I always hear these stories of finding people and those types of miracles, but hadn't ever experienced one and now I have.  The Lord definitely works through tender mercies and it made that day of finding more than worth it.

But yeah, that’s the cool experience I had this week.  Aside from that, things are all relatively normal.  Unfortunately, Kenny and them have kinda gotten super busy as of late, but we'll get them back soon.  I hope you all have a wonderful week and I look forward to YOUR letter next week.

Love, Carson

Good things happening in NY

Hi!!  So NY won the Superbowl.  I must admit, I was a little disappointed to find that out, but that's cool.  It's always fun living in a city where something big happens.  All I need now is to have the Rangers win the Stanley Cup, but that's definitely not something I'm hoping for. 

Anyways, this week has gone by super fast as always, and it was a pretty good one too.  Nothing super special is really going on right now.  Jesse our Bap date, currently doesn't have one because of some other trials that are going on in his life.  The biggest one being with his wife who currently is in hospice care because of a cancerous tumor in her skull that they got rid of, but it affected her and now she needs A LOT of help, so that's kinda pulling him away from the Waters.  But it's okay, because he is really sincere and wants to be baptized.  Also, his lack of a job right now hasn't helped much either.  He's doing all he can to make the best of his situation, and we're trying to help support him as much as possible.

Aside from Jesse, we're working with a few other people that we found with the help of the Sisters during a blitz.  We found these way cool guys from the Dominican Republic who've been to the church there a couple times, and have been here for about a year.  We're also teaching their aunt, and all of them want to come to church.  Actually, that brings up a pretty cool story.

So we were at their house on Monday, and we went to teach Kelvin, but ended up teaching him and his brother Eriso and their Aunt Kenny (who are both new investigators).  Anyways, we decided to read 3 Nephi 11 with them because that's the assignment we gave to Kelvin the week before.  We read it and taught a little about the doctrine of Baptism and such, and then without us even mentioning anything about church attendance, Kenny asks when the meetings are and whatnot, so we told her 9 o'clock Sundays.  Then she was like “darn, I work Sundays” (she actually works 7 days a week).  But then she continued by explaining how she'd only had the job for like 6 days, and then went on and explained how maybe in a few weeks she could ask for the day off.  She just wants to get her metaphorical foot in the door if you know what I mean.  So were all like YEAH, that's awesome!  We said “In the meantime we'll continue coming back here to teach you so that you can continue getting prepared for that day.  Her next question was “when can you come back?”  So we fixed an appointment for tomorrow with her and Eriso.  Kelvin has to work, but that’s cool because it gives us a chance to teach them the restoration lesson, and hopefully even extend a baptismal date.  So yeah, they seem super legit. 

Anyways, about the baptismal situation here, tonight I'll be doing a little bit of a split to interview one of the people getting baptized by the other missionaries, and then this Saturday two people will be getting baptized.  So things are going great here in Inwood A.K.A. Washington Heights.  As for your question about interviews, I interview those who I don't teach, and then the zone leaders interview those I do teach.  The Sisters had a baptism this past weekend, and that went pretty great once the candidate made it to the church (1.5 hrs late:))  It was a lot of fun though.  I'll excuse her though, seeing as she is an older lady who has trouble remembering things occasionally.

And finally the packages, they're here, but I don't have them yet.  I should get them tonight, and then I'll be sure to send out thank you's and what not.

Anyways (<--- that seems to be my most used word), I hope you all have a Great Week, I love you all very much,

Carson.

P.S. could you put all the advice stuff on one sheet and send it to me in the mail? That would be very cool.

Superbowl Sacrifice = Missionary Memories

Well, it's always nice to receive your email updates every week, and It's good to hear that all is well.  Things here are going great in Manhattan.  This Last week hasn't been a super eventful one, but things have been going well.  Jesse's still doing well.  Coffee has still been a little bit of a struggle, but he's getting better, and not drinking it every day, so that's great.  That's definitely one of the biggest struggles of Dominicans; they love their coffee.

The Last few days the weather has been hanging around 10-12 degrees Celsius, which is crazy.  And I've really been enjoying it, because I haven't had to wear a jacket, so that's awesome.  Although I do miss the snow a little bit because it's always nice to have some variety, and the days it is cold I wish it was snowing.  Unfortunately it seems that every time we receive precipitation it's warmed up enough that it rains.  And that's not my favorite (in other words, it sucks!).  The really cool awesome thing is that here in New York we almost don't have to be outside because all our tracting is done indoors anyways, and the transit is really good because it can get you almost anywhere you need to be relatively dryly.  But I always have an umbrella just in case.

Anyways, so here's my cool experience.  The other day we had a Blitz (a two hour time period where everyone meets and works in the area of one of the companionships to help them out).  So Elder McMullin and I went knocking doors, and at the first building we had no success at all, but then we went to this other building and found these people who I wasn't aware of, but they've been investigating for 10 years now.  They refer to themselves as Dry Members, or members that aren't baptized.  And right now their big concern is that they don't want to get baptized if they might fall away after their baptism.  So yeah, we taught them yesterday, and I'm really not all that sure what to do with them to help them make the decision to be baptized.  Do you have any advice?

And then in the same building we met this old Lady named Patricia who is bedridden.  Her nephew invited us in, so we went and talked to her and she asked us to say a prayer on her leg which Elder McMullin offered, and miraculously after wards she started to move here ankle a little bit, and it seemed that something had happened.  We asked her if she was able to move it before hand, and she said that she hadn't been able to move it up until the time we said the prayer, so that was really cool.  We'll probably go back there sometime this week, and see how she's doing and try and teach them the gospel.  I know it would definitely bless her life.  But yeah, that's pretty much what’s happened this week.

On another note, we had a really good Multi Zone conference with President Smith yesterday, and that was awesome.  Unfortunately President Smith informed us that even though the NY Giants are in the Super bowl, we can’t watch it :(  JK.  But it was a great meeting in which we talked a little about the doctrine of baptism and stuff related to that, pretty much our mission purpose.

My district is also doing pretty well, and we have 4 baptisms planned in the next 2 weeks, which is fantastic.  As for your question about the languages, there are 5 languages here: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and ASL (American Sign Language).  And we live with two other Elders.  Anyways, that's about all the time I've got for today.  I hope you all have a great week, and that life continues to treat you well.

Love, Carson

This is the Place!

Alright, well I'll start off I guess by confirming the address.  You got it.  But I'd still probably say it's better to send packages to the mission office.  Mainly because I don't know when they'll get dropped off, and it's not like Calgary where they'll just leave a package on your doorstep.  So yeah, just send it there.  Scarsdale is like 20 minutes from where I .live, so not too far.  If the package is one of those padded envelopes and it fits in a box like 4x4 then you could probably send it to my apartment, SO it's up to you.

This area is normally referred to as Washington heights, but the missionaries commonly refer to it as Dominican Heights.  It has a higher Spanish population than my last area which I'd say was like 55/45 Spanish/English but here it's definitely a higher ratio, so yeah I'm super excited to be here serving.  My area itself though is smaller than my last one, but its way cool.  It's also a lot nicer, well at least the buildings are nicer inside.  I'll send some pics next week. 

Anyways, I was walking out of the apartment today to come write my email and I just got this way cool feeling like. This is where I'm supposed to be right now.  So yeah, I'm super pumped to be in this area.  The Ward seems way legit too.  It's not quite as big as my last ward, but from what I can tell they're more willing to come out with us to appointments and from what I could tell on Sunday it just seems more involved in the missionary work.  More so than the Spanish wards I have been a part of so far.  As for my district it consists of four Elders and two Sisters.  Myself and Elder Head, Elder McDaniels and Elder McMullin, and Sisters Major and Sanders.  So that's cool, I get to serve around Sisters which hasn't happened to me much yet, but the district is way cool.  

As for investigators, we've got a few of them, but most exciting of all, we have a baptismal date.  It was for this Saturday, but he still has problems with coffee so we had to post pone it until next Saturday.  His Name is Jesse, and he's just this way humble quiet man, who’s been investigating for a long time and just has so many trials in his life, but he really wants to take this step and I hope so much that he'll have the strength to quit coffee in order to make this change.  His wife is recovering from a brain tumor and he recently lost his job, so things are just hard for him.  But yeah, that's one guy we're working with.  We found another family on Saturday as well as a few other people that seem pretty cool.  As for my Spanish it's still improving and even though I feel completely comfortable speaking it I know there's always room for improvement.  But yeah, things are going pretty good.  Unfortunately I really don't have any cool stories for you right now, but I'll try and have some cool spiritual experiences and stuff by next week.

Just a couple questions I had for you, did you ever live in the 17th ward, or the West Stake.  Elder Head has a sister in law who is from that part of town and thinks she had some Dillings in her ward at one time.  Also, what is Jason's current address?  I've wanted to write him but don't have his address.  Anyways, that's life here in the Big Apple, I hope all of you have a fantastic week and all continues to go well.

Love, Carson

Hello Manhattan!

Hola familia.

I guess that the first thing that I should tell you is that, I'm in a new area!  I've been transferred to North Manhattan!!!!!  Woohoo!!  And my new Companion is Elder Head.  He's a way awesome guy from Clinton, UT or something like that, and he's like the same as me.  Same likes in just about everything which is way cool.  Oh, also I'm a District Leader again, so that's cool.

But yeah, so as you thought, I don’t really have all that much time because of transfers and stuff, but I'm here in Manhattan as I said.  So here are the answers to your questions:

1. How did the baptism go?

The Baptism went great.  Unfortunately I won’t be there to see him get confirmed, but the baptism went swimmingly. 

2. When it snows in New York where do they put the snow they clear from the sidewalks?  And how fast are the sidewalks cleared?

As for your question about the snow, I honestly don't know yet, I've barely seen any snow, and none of it has lasted yet.  But upstate it was cleared really fast.  So I'm not really sure yet about the city.

3. What is the best food you had in the Bronx?

The best meal I had in The Bronx would probably be... I don't really know…I just love like all Spanish foods so much.

4. How many kids did the largest family in your ward have?

The largest family in my last area was like 4 or 5 kids.  Most families are pretty small because the houses here are really small, so yeah, that's a result.

5. Did you see many vandalized cars on the streets of the Bronx, like in the movies?

My area in the Bronx was pretty good.  I've only seen a few broken cars and only two where someone stole the rims.  But I'm sure it happens more in the South Bronx.

6. What are you eating for breakfast these days?  Are you including fruit?

I've normally been eating just a bowl of cornflakes with some bananas.  So yeah I eat fruit and stuff.

Anyways, that’s about all the time I have left for today.  Talk to you next week.

Love Carson

P.S. I used some of the personal money to buy some True Religion jeans for 35 dollars.  It was awesome.  I bought two pairs for way cheap.  But yeah, just thought you should know.

Ready for a Change...

Well I'm glad that all is well in good ol' Calgary.  Things are also pretty good here in New York.  Transfers will be happening next week, and yes Dad, they're every six weeks.  So for this transfers I'm really hoping that I get some kind of change, whether that’s a new companion or area I don’t care, I just want something to change, mainly because I want to serve around other people, and meet new people.  Currently I've served two seven month spurts in my areas, and that’s a long time.  Especially seeing as I only have like 8 months left more or less.  But whatever happens, I guess it is what it is, and I'll accept it without complaint.  But we’ll see, I'll let you know about that next week.

This week though we've had a couple pretty cool experiences.  The first one is just a funny one.  So Elder Hulme and I were waiting for the bus, and unfortunately the route we were waiting for wasn’t the most reliable one.  Se we're sitting there waiting, and we hear this crunching noise (the one that happens when someone gets rear ended).  So we looked in the direction of the sound, and saw this little green VW Golf, and a big Ford E-250 van or something similar in size.  And the funniest thing was the sound was being made because the van was pushing the car, kinda like a tow truck would pull one.  We both just looked at each other, and thought "WOW only in the Bronx!!"  So yeah, that was on Thursday.

Then on Friday we were going to a few of our appointments and we arrived at one and found out that she was holding a bible study group, so at first I thought “dang, this might not turn out very good”.  So they invited us to join them and we just quietly sat down and listened and eventually one of the people turned to us, and kinda in his own way asked, I know that Christ is my savior because of the scriptures, and I can know him.  How do you know what you believe?  SO I was like wow, that’s quite a question, so I explained a little that I'd have to do a little bit of background before I could answer his question, which he was cool with, so we began teaching the restoration to this group of four people who meet together often to study the scriptures and stuff.  And eventually we got to the end of the restoration, and it was kinda cool to say that this (the Book of Mormon) is how I know what I know, and how he can know it too.  We then followed that up by giving him a copy of the book and committing him to begin reading it and praying to know if it was true.  So yeah, it was just a really cool experience, and then to finish it all off we said a prayer.  One of the others did it, and the funny part of the prayer was that they read it out of a study book thing, so we finished our lesson with a recited prayer.  So yeah, we have a little way to go with these people but I think they definitely have a chance of progressing if they do their part.

And then since then we unfortunately haven’t had all that much success finding people.  All the people we've found have juked us or just had something come up, but the work continues to progress and go forward here in the Bronx.  I also have a baptism this Sunday which should be good.  His name is Jesus.  He's a nine year old who’s been coming with his aunt and recently we found out that the cousin of Jesus is actually the Second Counsellor to the Stake President which is cool.  So we've asked him to do the Baptism of Jesus.  So yeah, that’s the other stuff going on in my life right now here in the Mission field.

Umm... yeah, I really don’t have anything else to add today.  I wish you all a good week and hope all continues to go well and that it goes well at the home show.

 
Love, Carson

Happy New Year from the Big Apple!

Dec 28^th 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 4^th 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