Hogar Dulce Hogar

Well.. I'm officially home. (well I've been here since monday.)  Just wanted to throw out a quick thanks to anyone who followed my blog/mission.  It was definitely a worthwhile experience, and I wouldnt change it for the world. 

Thats about it though.  Thanks Again, Carson

Coming home early!

Yesterday we received an unexpected phone call from President Morgan, Elder Dilling's Mission President.  He informed us that Elder Dilling's Visa expires Sept 18th and this was overlooked by Salt Lake Mission Headquarters.  So this means Elder Dilling will be coming home on Monday Sept 17th!  We are excited to welcome him back and be with him again!

The Dilling Family

Quite a Few Investigators

Yonkers is a pretty nice area, although I'll admit I've never actually seen the front of my building.  We always enter through the garage and then get to our apartment from there.  I've never even been into the courtyard.  But life is going pretty good.  It is definitely getting a little harder to focus on missionary work, but be assured that I'm not letting that natural man win.  I'm working very hard to stay focused on what I'm doing here, and things are going quite well.

We have quite a few investigators right now that are all doing pretty good.  This one family in particular is really awesome.  We just refer to them as Marta and family because it's her kids, her brothers and sisters, and their kids and husbands.  All in all we generally have about 8 people in that lesson every time we go to her house.  She was found by the sisters when one of their members called them and said he wanted the missionaries to visit his sister (who was having some health issues for which she has successfully been treated and is now recovering).  So we've been teaching them a number of times, and they've come to church a few weeks which is cool because it fills our chapel to capacity pretty much every time they come. 

Just a quick note about my chapel...it's in a rented building.  The church is working on getting an actual building, but it hasn’t happened yet.  Also it has many problems; the biggest one being that every time it rains outside, it also starts to rain inside.  The other day we went to the church and ended up collecting enough water to almost entirely fill one of those big garbage cans.  It was ridiculous!  So yeah, the church is working on that, and I'll definitely get some pics of all that.

Anyways, so we've been working with them, and I definitely feel that they'll eventually get baptized.  It might take a little while, but I can really feel of the generosity and desire to learn.  Also, about three weeks ago after one of our lessons they made some food for us (and them) and then we were talking about food and what we like and stuff, and I made a comment about a type of Mexican food that I hadn't tried and wanted to try called Mole (Mole-eh).  Then the other day when we went by we finished our lesson and they informed us that they had made us some Mole just for me.  That was way awesome, and I'm definitely going to miss them when I leave.  But till then I plan on continuing helping them receive and understand the gospel. 

But yeah, that’s about it for that.  We've also got some other pretty cool investigators who we're teaching, and the work here is going way good.  As for your other questions, I’m loving driving again. It's one of my favorite things to do, not really sure why, but I just really enjoy it (that, and listening to music).  But driving in Yonkers is definitely different than driving in Peekskill.  There’s a ridiculous amount of parallel parking and it's just not fun when two people pull up after and block you in a really tight space.  But that’s just how it is I guess.  Oh, and it's also not fun when you get robbed. 

 
As for the Broadway Play, it was SO SICK!!!!!!!!!!  I went into it thinking that it'd be a decent play, but it was just great.  I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.  It's pretty close to the movie if you've seen it, but they both have their really cool parts.  I don’t really know what else to say though.  I really don’t have a future as a reviewer because I can’t write a whole lot about it.  But it was way awesome!

As for Hugh Hanneson I'll keep an eye out for him.  I've had a couple elders tell me he says hi because his ward is in my mission.  I've actually even served in his stake when I was in Peekskill, but never have I actually met him for myself so that'll be cool.  And as for this whole preparing my room deal, what are you doing?  Just putting my stuff back inside it?  Also I asked this a little while ago, but do you know what my topic will be for the homecoming talk?

Anyways, that’s about all I've got for now.  I hope you all have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you next week which is also my very last P-Day in the mission.  Possibly my last email....

Much Love, Carson (Currently known as Elder Dilling but who is actually named (refer to the beginning of sentence)).  haha

Till next week...

A quick update

(Email from Sept 5, 2012)

I'm doing well.  I really don’t have a whole lot to update for this week, but I hope your week is good. 

Also, I'm going to go see a Broadway play today.  Not the one I really wanted to see, but we're going to “The Newsies” which will be pretty awesome. 

Hope all is well in Canada with school starting.  And have a great week.

Love, Carson

Just doing what the prophet asks

First off, life continues to go well.  I'll admit the news about my home coming talk on October 21st is unexpected.  And as you know I always get nervous about talks, and as I read that I'm already a little nervous.  I mean, it'll be fine, but the feeling of knowing I have to give a talk just won’t seem to leave me.  No matter what the topic is, which is a good question.  What is my topic going to be? 

As for our investigators, they're all progressing pretty well.  We've still been finding a few news, and meeting with our current investigators who for the most part are all pretty solid.  The other day two of them expressed their desire to be baptized, so that's really awesome.  Now we just need to help them get prepared for these things.  As for your question about whether I'll have any before I leave, I'm pretty sure I will, but that's never really been the most important thing for me.  Of course I want to baptize, and that's pretty much my purpose as a missionary.  I'm just trying my best to do what the prophet asks, and then if someone happens to make that choice, it's just the icing on the cake. 

And that’s sweet about the business.  Maybe with that money you could purchase a new GPS for me when I get home.  Just kidding, but I had the rather disappointing experience the other day of having my GPS stolen from our car.  I guess I forgot to lock the car, and within the 2 minutes that the locks close themselves someone came and stole mine, and the churches GPS that wasn't working.  And then when we were coming home, I went to grab a piece of gum from a pack I keep in the car and found out that he stole that too!!!!!!!  I couldn't believe it.  It was ridiculous.  The worst part too is that all my stuff was put away.  The only way to know I had a GPS was the mount on the window.  So that really stank up my day yesterday.  But I've filed a police report and maybe if God feels inclined to bless me so, I'll get my GPS someday.  But yeah, that was something very unfortunate that took place.  Amazingly though, he didn’t take my RayBans that were sitting on top of the GPS in the armrest compartment.  So for that I'm very thankful.  As you can now tell, Yonkers is a pretty ghetto place, with lots of crime. 

Also this morning we found a full bag of weed in the dryer we put our clothes in.  It was pretty funny, so we disposed of that, but it gave us a good laugh.

Not much has happened aside from that though, so I hope that you all have a great week, and enjoy your last days of summer.  And I'll try and find out what’s up with my arrival/leaving date.  I'm surprised you don't know yet.

Love you all, Carson

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