Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thanksgiving.

Wow what a week! i've had some pretty intresting days! :) the day after P day i got to go out to the university and do some contacting! :) it was intense and scary but after awhile i shook off the scaredness and got talkin! we talked to two people and it was cool the second girl we talked to she talked way fast and way soft but the spirit was so strong when we started talking to her i was able to understand her! :) it was way cool! i love the spirit so much! :) yeah things here have been going good! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! :) how's life??? Who's eating where??? we're having a big dinner here tonight! i'm super excited for! :) oh speaking of food! this week i had my first encounter with food here that i'm not to excited for... so yeah everyday we get catered food from here which is usually rice beans and chicken with something else! well one day this week the food was way good and the chicken was so tender it like fell off the bones so i was moving it off my rice to have some more of that and i noticed something interesting.. a vertebrae or part of the spine of the chicken was right there... yeah this i catered too! WELL hope you enjoy your chicken today ;) haha but yeah needless to say i've avoided the chicken lately! uhhh what else??? uhhh we've taught a lot of investigators here which are just our teachers but they are getting on my nerves! i'm so ready to be out in the field and to teach actuall investigators not some that just pretend! when we go out to the university the spirit is just so much stronger there and i just want to be out there so much more! :) its awesome! so yeah i' ready to be out! 4 more weeks! luckily! so yeah stef! i'm missin blake! his pics are so cute and you telling about him just made me laugh so much today! he's still the stud of the computer lab when i look at the pics! :) so yeah keep them up! :) so yeah oh so my toe hasn't been doing to good so i talked to harmana glazier and she said that i need to go get my some sandals to dry out my toe! cause it's not drying so yeah me and elder coleman got to go out into the real world! it's surprisingly like america! minus traffic laws! but yeah it made me so excited to be out in the field! but anyways i've been wearing these sandals and i'm kinda likin them! :) they are super comfty! things here aren't that cheap as some people say it is! atleast what they said! so yeah maybe its just in that store we went to that it was expensive but these sandals are worth it! i'm really surprised i'm wearing them but it's helping my toe so yeah! bueno in both ways! :) uhhh what else???OH hurricane finally one!! give beau a high five for me i'm so glad they shut down desert hills :) uhh yeah oh stef your scrip was money1 :) that was way good! oh mom! go to the ward! early! don't put it off! do it now!!! read alma 34 32-34 and change the words from repentance to the words that are necessary! :) so yeah deal??? k deal! i don't think its cowidence! ;) so yeah what else??? uhhh yeah mom you just need muscle not money! the truck unlocks like it's supposed to i promise!! :) just be a litttle rough with it! its either that or the truck just doesn't want to get sold! we've been attached for to long!! ;)  oh dad! i love that story of the 2nd grader i had to laugh!! but holy cow 2 miles of swimming! that's insane! you have definitly taught me patience! OH k so i have to thank you all for the examples you've givin me! :) since todays thanks giving i'd like to say what i'm thankful for! i'm thankful for mom and all that you've taught me! for helping me do laundry which i now do on my own! and for reminding me to keep my room clean! and the importance of that! i'm thankful for all the things you've said to me about what i should be doing and the way you've raised me! it helps a lot here! Stef i'm thank ful for you and for the love you show me and your family and how much you've grown! it's helped me grow! i love hearing that your praying and reading scriptures every night! i've noticed that my days go alot better when i do that! i'm thankful for your example of being pretty strict about stuff and getting after me about stuff when mom wouldn't or i wouldn't listen! it's helping me right now! Dad: thanks for helping me love everyone no matter what and paitence! much paitence! cause here i need it! ALOT!!!! These elders are awesome but some drive me up a wall! but with lots of paitence! and lots of prayers! i'll make it through the rough ones and onto the good ones! well i'm off for the day thanks everyone for th emails! i love them all! :) you are all the best! :) HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Eat lots of pie for me! talk at ya next week! :)
le amo mi familia! -Elder Carlson!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

New Letter!

Hola familia! :) How's life??? things are great here! it feels like it's been forever since i've talked to you guys! Letters are horrible down here so if you've sent any in the past week i still haven't got them! hopefully it doesn't take that long to get letters from me! i don't know if i'll be getting letters to you guys today at least cause we got back from the temple late! The temple here is gorgeous! :) we're coming down here and seeing it again! inside and out is awesome! :) uhhh what else! i wish i was out in the field! i'm stuck on the same floor of the same building for about 80 percent of my day the other 20 is when we go down for food or when we go for Gym! uhhh where we stay is like a residence place for people who come from far away to do temple work! so we have some locals come in a lot and talk to us! :) it's pretty cool! the other night we got to go out on the temple ground and tell people about the book of mormon and challenge them to read it! apparently the guy we talk to works either for the CCM or is a temple worker so he helped us out a ton! we talked to a guy and girl and found out the guy was waiting on his mission call! it was cool! :) they speak super fast and cut out so many letters and some people have a lisp! oh my goodness is it dificult to understand them! but luckily we have the spirit on our side! haha the spanish is coming a long good! :) we have the basics down i think .... hopefully! but yeah so we can testify and pray and talk pretty well to each other! it's our goal to talk without using english! :) we're doing pretty good! :) its helpful to have such good elders here that are way dedicated and want to learn so we learn fast! :) uhhh yeah i'm not sure what else to say! oh uh food! the food here is catered to us so its pretty good! :) they're not kidding when they say you have rice and beans at almost every meal! we haven't had it for breakfast yet but i won't be surprised if we do soon! uhhhh they have this drink call Bon which is like the welchs of the DR and the juice is SOOO good! :) like it's crazy how good it is! uhhh yeah theres only us 26 missionaries here so it's pretty personal with the teachers but like 2 weeks from now we're getting a lot of native speakers so our time with teachers will shoot down a lot! i think our confidence in our spanish willl too! haha its gonna be intense but i'm excited! more espanol talked is more espanol learned! so yeah what else??? uhhh the people here are super nice! :) they are so helpful and fun! uhh oh my companion! is elder coleman! he is from idaho and he's a big BYU fan so he keeps me updated on what's going on! He said that Riley nelson got injured so that was a bummer to hear! but they're still doing good! and DH and Hurricane in the state championship! please tell me Hurricane wins!! I do not want DH to win at all! so yeah next email time i expect to here a dh loss! uhhh oh yeah! letters go out of here on friday! i dont know if you have sent any yet i haven't recieved any! but yeah we get to email on thursdays! in the morning we print them off and read them so don't be afraid to email me long stuff! Oh stef the picture of blake were money! he is such a stud :) i wish i could have seen him as a hobo in person! :) everyone gathered around when i pulled up the pictures! yeah he got some cheers! haha :) so yeah what else??? uhh packages... i don't really need anything right now and from what i hear its pretty expensive so don't send any really! sorry! you can if you want but i dont know what to have you put in them! pictures mostly! i miss seeing you guys! uhhhh what else??? Oh mom! GO TO THAT WARD!!!! Please at least once for me.... and then one more time for every member of our family! :) Gracias! and Dad tell the carlsons i got there emails and i love hearing from them! :) i don't have much time to email today so i'll try and get to them next week! but tell them hello and that i miss sundays eating pie! no pie down here :( but we do get ice cream and brownies on sundays!:) so thats a plus!! uhhh what else??? i'm not sure what else to say! that's pretty much it from down here for this week! uhhh hopefully next week i'll have more time to email you guys! i love you all so very much! :) i'm so grateful to have you all! your a big strength on my mission! knowing that i have so much support here just boosts my spirits! Keep up the awesome work! Sis don't stop sending pictures! i love them! :) i'll send some when i can! :) Love you much!
Adios!
 
-Elder Carlson!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Week 1 in la republica Dominicana‏

Hey family! how's it going?? i made it here! it's been an intense flight but we made it in! The CCM is pretty awesome so far! i got a new companion and new district! Our whole class rooms and everything is on the fourth floor of the building so i have a feeling i'm gonna get to know this place pretty well! we don't have much time today to email today so i thought i'd just let ya know! This is for sure a third world country but the church is awesome! we have better technology here then back in provo! if only the internet was as fast as provo was! So yeah! hope everything is well there! it was awesome to hear from you guys yesterday! thanks for everything! oh pouch gets here every week so i'll get letters once a week! they said packages aren't to tough to get here. I get to write every thursday like before and mail goes out on friday's so i have no clue what day it'll get to ya there! Hopefully pretty soon! welll Yeah the people here are really nice! they are fun! I can't wait to learn more spanish so i can understand them better! :) wellll keep me in your prayers i'm gonna need all the help i can! this is way out of my comfort zone but i know i can do it with lots of prayer! :) Hope everyones days going good!
 
oh for packages send them to
Avenida Bolivar #825, esquina
Calle Génesis, Los Robles, Santo Domingo
República Dominicana
 
Adios Familia!
yo amo ustedes!
Elder Carlson!


















 

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Last Email from the MTC!

Buenas dias familia! How´s things going? I get to email today because it's our semi pday since we leave tomorrow morning! we get to do our laundry email you guys and get packed! so how's life going?? things are good here! I've been busy! seems like i was just writing you guys not that long ago! Time is flying by here! Hope it is for you guys! So i'm way stoked to call you guys tomorrow! i figure it maybe around like 3 30 cause we'll probably eat and since i'm the travel leader and like the only one that really wants to call home and talk most the time and not eat i better let them eat! so i'll try and hurry as fast as i can! but yeah i can't wait to hear from you guys! So this week has been good! i've definitly been seeing the blessings of serving a mission and seen the gift of the holy ghost and all the gifts that come with it! i've been able to speak better then i would be able to in French! and it's only been three weeks! crazy huh? but yeah yesterday during the lesson we taught i was bearing my testimony and words were coming way easily and after the lesson i went back into the classroom and i couldn't remember how to say any of it! i know that the spirit was helping me with that! So yeah uhh what else! the days all seem to blend together so i don't know what i've told you and what i haven't. uhhh i saw the doctor today and he said i was good to go and didn't have to worry about putting stuff on my toe anymore! uhhh lets see oh i went in friday to another doctor for some reason.. yeah they checked me in and put me in the little room and a half hour later the doctor finally came in! what a surprise right??? yeah getting real world training already! so yeah oh i got my hair cut today! i asked to just like trim up the next so i didn't have the little tail coming down and it turns out that she had to do certain things so yeah like half my hair is gone! yeah it's way short! feels weird but doesn't look to bad! i hope! so yeah i leave tomorrow morning at 3 am to go to the airport not to excited! i am kinda sad! i've grown so close to the guys here! it's tough! it feels like i'm leaving my family again! but oh well i'm gonna get that a lot on my mission! So oh yesterday was a pretty awesome day for mail! i got 7 letters! 3 from the carlsons 1 from grandma jolley and 3 from nicole and her family! I love it! i'm gonna miss getting letters so quickly! one day is like the perfect amount! it's gonna go from 1 day to like 10! but oh well it'll just mean the days letters come will be way more exciting! :) uhhh yeah i love knowing i have so much support back there! thank you guys all so much! oh thank you for all the packages too! i don't want to say stop sending me junk food cause i have so much of it but i have a feeling once i get down there i'll have like none so i dont want to prematurally say anything! so i'll let ya know next email what i need! so i google earthed the ccm! and it's tiny! if you ever wanna look at it! go to the DR and then look for the temple and its the building to the north of the temple! it's tiny! but there's a pool next to us for a hotel and supposedly they have that side of the building boarded up! haha funny stuff! oh well i'm way excited to get down there and just be engulfed in the language! It's gonna be awesome! they said when we're down there the ccm is way chill and that in the mornings you have class and in the afternoons you get to go do splits with the elders out in the field and do prosolyting and all that! way excited but way nervous! So yeah what else??? oh elder peck! is now the district leader for our district! it's cool! he's a stud he's gonna do awesome! i'm nervous to see how our district goes down there! i hope we get split up honestly! Elder Godfrey is awesome! He reminds me a lot like jordan vane! so yeah he's really quite at times! i want to meet some new people! :) so yeah we met this little black elder thats from the DR and he's funny but i'm nervous cause if they're all black i'm gonna stick out like the stuffing in an oreo! so yeah! i got my suit cleaned too! it got the make up stain out and looks nice and clean but i'm gonna be putting it away soon! crazy! i can't wait! i love just wearing a shirt! it's starting to snow almost every day and its Freezing cold so it'll be nice to go from freezing to carribean weather! :) i'll take lots of pictures on my trip down so you guys know how awesome my adventure was! hopefully i'll be able to email pictures down there! they put a block on these computers so i can't send them BUT you guys can email pictures and i can look at them! so don't be afraid! i really wanna see hobo blake! :) so yeah what else!! i'm not sure! oh i'm not excited to leave the food here and see what the food is like down there! i better start taking those stomach pills! i haven't cracked into them cause i'm taking those antibiotics for my toe! uhhh yeah what else! uhhhhhh i dunno what else to put! i don't know what all you've heard and what you haven't! I'm pretty sure you guys weren't expecting and email today so no one sent emails with questions! uhhhhh hmmm i dunno! works going great here! oh! i was going through predicad mi evangelio and studied the christ like attributes and read about charity! it was a good section! The branch president told us to pray for charity every day! i've tried to do it as much as i can and usually when i pray out loud i remember but it's a good thing to have! in Doctrine and Covenants 64: 9-11 it talks about how we are supposed to forgive people no matter what because it is not our place to be upset! you guys should definitaly read it! It's a good couple verses! it really made me think about the stuff in my life and some of the stuff here! with elder godfrey we don't always get along and he's not always exactly what i wish he'd be or he doesn't always do what i wish he'd do but because of the power of charity! we can move on and keep going and continue to have the spirit in our life! When we don't forgive others for big or little things we have contention between us and that tears the spirit away like a rated R movie! i am working on having more charity for others! There are alot of people here and a lot of them do some really stupid stuff but you never know the reason! So you have to forgive and move on! I know that if we do this we will be blessed greatly and that we can have an even greater relationship with the spirit! Which is really important in everyone's lives! i'm so thankful for how close we all our! i love you guys so much! i can't wait to hear from you guys tomorrow! :) it'll be great to hear your voices! Keep strong to the faith! Send letters as much as possible! i'll do my best to reply to them but i do love them so send them even if i don't reply back! have an awesome day! Talk to ya tomorrow! :)

Thursday, November 3, 2011

3rd Email and LOTS OF PICTURES!

Wow! i''m on my last week of the the provo mtc! holy cow how things have flown by! i got my travel iternary but i forgot to grab it before i went to the temple so i''m sending a copy to stef in her letter so check it out there! but everyone be prepared on nov. 10 at like 2:30 ish thats when i should be calling! i fly to texas to florida then down to the DR and our layover in flordia where i'll call is like 4 hours so that is muy bueno! so yeah i bought a calling card for like 10 hours just incase! but speaking of which mom! my bank account is low from the book store because i've had to buy my antibiotics which are coming up in a later story, but then i also had to buy a bunch of stuff to take care of my toe like neosporin and band aids and then a few other things for class like spanish dicitionary things etc etc. so yeah! sorry! if ya can throw more into the account it;d be much appreciated! but yeah so on to the stories for the week! uhhh so my toe operation was a success he sliced up a lot of them! i'm pretty sure you guys have already gotten the pictures or are about to! but yeah he cut out a lot! so i soaked it and all that and it kept hurting and it was way red so after acouple days i told elder godfrey we should go to the health place so we went to the health place to check it out and the nurse walks in to look at it cause the foot doctor only comes in like every two weeks so she took one look at it and was like WHOA! yeah that's infected lets get you an appointment at the medical center down the road so they hooked me up with a shuttle ride to the medical center so me and elder godfrey went off campus in a car! it was way weird but cool! and we went into the appointment and the nurse checkin me in took a look at it and was like wow that is infected! so i was like great everyones first word is wow! that's bad! just what i wanna hear right?? yeah so she checks me in and the doctor comes and she takes a look at it and guess what she said??? you guessed it! wow yeah lets get you on some antibiotics! so they prescribed me some antibiotics that were like 500 mg each pill which i have to take 4 times a day! so on top of this mtc food my stomach is going nuts! but none the less it seems to be going down! i have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow to have him check on it! So i should be good to go! They do know me in the medical place now! surprise surprise right?? haha so yeah i'm loving all the letters and packages! i'm known as the kid that always gets something! so i feel really blessed! i feel bad though cause sometimes i don't get to write everyone cause thursday's are our only times to write and we only have like 4 hours! so i kinda have to pick and choose! Sorry i don't write you guys back to much i figure you get the email and others don't but today i'm writing you guys! So yeah things here are awesome! La espanol es muy bien! es muy dificille! pero con la espiritu estoy apprender it! :) so yeah we gained a new investigator which is just our teacher but we still try to teach him! it's a lot easir now cause the spanish is coming along better but it's still difficult because i dont get every word so i can't express myself like how i want to! so i'm struggling there but with paitience i can learn it! so yeah i can't believe next week i will be out of the country! es muy loco! i can't wait though! one of our branch presidency members told us that the DR ccm is way more relaxed and that i get to go do splits in the afternoons with the elders! so yeah! :) awesome huh?? i'm way excited but way nervous cause i'm not gonna know what they're saying at all! they talk horribly so i'm way nervous! so yeah what else?? we have these things called trc's which are just members that volunteer and come talk to us and we just talk about the gospel in spanish and it's way cool! i love it cause they help us! and its fun to be able to talk about things and they know what we're saying! OH it snowed here! yeah i'm glad i'm going to the carribean soon! it's getting way cool! Oh hey beau congrats on the elk! i want pictures soon! so email some! and i have to brag! when i get out of the temple i can see the leval edwards stadium! yeah its like two blocks away! its awesome! except saturdays when i'm walking to class and i hear the crowds roar and can hear the game going on! So i miss you guys a ton! the spirit is so strong i love it here! i can't wait to be able to talk to you guys and talk about it and not have to write about it! think up some questions! i'll answer them! i don't think i'll get a email in next week cause of the whole flying down there! but i'll be able to talk to you guys! Oh dad i got the socks! i have never been so excited for socks! haha kinda feel stupid saying that but it's true! thanks mom for your two pairs too! they're really warm so when its cold up here they keep my feet warm! uhhh i have like 6 minutes left! i don't like the whole timed thing but oh well its a good thing! so yeah thanks for your pictures you guys sent too! i'll take a picture of my desk beau will appreciate it! ;) so will nicole and all the woolleys! :) Oh it made me so happy knowing that stef and mom and nicole hung out and read letters and pictures and stuff! keep it up! that raises my spirits up so much knowing that my three favorite girls are getting together and talking about that kinda stuff! i hope it helps you guys as much as it does me! :) Uhhh lets see 4 minutes so for my last thought i'll share an experience that i had! I went to a workshop about prayer and reciving revlation yesterday and they had us read our scriptures and come up with a question we wanted answered! as we did this we were supposed to pray to find the answer to the question and then ponder and read scriptures and seek revelation! as i pondered my question the spirit told me to do one question but i wasn't sure if i should do that one so i came up with another one just incase. as i started praying and reading my scriptures my first question was pounding in my heart and all the scriptures i read talked about that! I was amazed at the things i learned and as i was walking back to class the spirit hit me so strongly about the revelation i had recieved i started crying! i felt like a cry baby but the spirit was so strong i was amazed! i couldn't believe it! Stay close to the spirit! Pray alot! Be strong and of good cheer! I love you guys so much! Can't wait to talk to you guys next week!







Elder Carlson and Elder Luke Peck - They've been buddies since elementary!