Elder Scott Carlson: December 2011

Friday, December 16, 2011

Elder Carlson's Address

This is the address to Scott's Mission home, not the pouch mail, so you can send regular latters, cards, pictures, packages or anything else here!

Elder Scott Carlson
Dominican Republic Santo Domingo West Mission
C/ Hatuey #73
Urb. Los Cacicazgos
Santo Domingo
Dominican Republic

Wow! this is my last week in the ccm! Thank goodness!!!! I'm so ready! this place is awesome and i've learned so much but i'm soooo ready to get out in the field and get this thing started cause it's going fast but super slow! but this week has flown by and it's only gonna start going faster! i'm excited cause that means more experiences and more people to meet, more of our brothers and sisters in the kingdom! :) alright welllllll i have news you've all been waiting for! i found out that i can either call on christmas or! i can skype the next day! i really wanna skype! i'm not sure what time and all that! i'm sure we'll find out next week and they'll let us get a hold of you some how! but for right now i'm game for skyping! So get all the tech stuff up! i know i have skype on my laptop so if you guys need to use that you can but you'll have to set up your own username and password and stuff! so find a techy in the family or at work and have them help ya out! and i know dad you have your skype all set up! i'll let you know how all that works too! but yeah can't wait to see you guys! i can't believe its already christmas next week! it doesnt feel like it at all! But the good thing is after this one i only have one more then i'm home for the holidays! ;) speaking of christmas! mom i got your package! :) thank you so much! you do not know how long i've been CRAVING goldfish!!! like every time i get a snack oh goldfish sounds super good right now but i didn't have any! so yeah thank you! the only flaw i had with the package was.... it had a bunch of little bugs in it! yeah i'm pretty sure i got them all but yeah somehow they got into the box and they didn't get into any food luckily! but yeah next time wrap it up tight or put stuff in a bag or something so incase that happens again nothin will get in! but when i got the package it was pretty intimidating cause after gym i was doing my sit ups and stuff and we get a knock on our door so i like jump up look out our peep hole and see president glacier and another guy standing out there so i throw on a shirt and answer and there like is elder carlson here.... yeah he's holding papers i'm like awesome i got transfered or someone died or something like that so i was like yeah thats me and the other guys like hey i've got a box here for you that i'll take if you don't want it! talk about a relief! :) so yeah it was good! and the ties were awesome! :) gracias! they're some of my favorite ties! i've traded some ties and got some new ones but there are a few that i don't trade and those two are now in that group! uhhh but yeah what else about this week?? oh the field! wow what an experience! Splits are an awesome way to show an elder what he needs to study! but my cool part of it was we got to teach a lesson! The guy we taught was against the church and his mom was a recent convert who was super strong and his wife was just starting to investigate the church. He was telling them not to go or to look into it and i guess was pretty upset about it. so with that background i was pretty scared to start the lesson so we go down this alley down a street and we come up to a gate and theres a guy sleeping on the couch with his shirt off. my companion turns to me and was like sooo thats him and i really don't want to wake him up... so luckily at that time his mom walks by and sees us and she's like oh come in come in! so we go in and the guy gets up and goes and puts on a shirt and comes back in. So we start talkin alittle bit and this guy seemed pretty happy to me. so they explained how it was my first day and that my spanish wasn't the best and in my spanish i said it was bad and to help me out! so we started the lesson. my companion elder stott started it out and talked alittle bit about the restoration cause that was what our lesson was on then he's like can we have a prayer so they ask the guy to do it and he's like no i don't want to or so i thought. so they asked me to pray and so i prayed the best i could and they said my spanish was pretty good so i said thanks and we went on! we had an awesome lesson the guy was involved he understood it all and was particpating it was awesome! i taught a little here and there. now the two coolest parts of this story. one during the lesson it was so noisy! they lived next to two tiendas and one was blasting music then there were motorcycles going by and they had no windows and the door was wide open so there were so many distractions there! I fought not to get distracted! the things that kept me focused was Angelas. the guy we were teaching was so into to and he was concentrating so hard! The spirit was there! through all the noise and through everything going on the spirit was so full in that little room that had to be the size of beau and stef's walk in closet. and the kicker about that! that's a rich house.. anyways second cool part. when we asked him to pray at the first he didn't pray cause he said he had panic attacks when he did stuff like that! i did not understand that part! so at the end elder stott asked if i'd teach them how to pray! so i did the best of my ability and not knowing that he had panic attacks i asked him to pray for us! He did it! Without hesitation without a second thought! He prayed for us without help or without anything! He prayed with his heart! How every prayer should be! Oh my goodness what an awesome spirit! I didn't understand everything they said and they didn't understand everything i said but like many prophets and apostles have said the spirit talks in all languages and testifies for us when we can't do it exactly right! I'm so thankful for that experience and the chance i had to do that! I can't wait to get out! :) next week! Finally!! :) Well that's it for this week i'm not sure if i'll get to email next week! oh and P-days are now on mondays for me! So get ready to have monday's be your favorite day of the week! :) i know it'll be mine! :) I'm so greatful for all that you guys do for me and the support you give me! :) i love all your stories about blake and hiding beaters and dad and all your school kids and the things your doing and just all the stuff that goes on at home! the news and sports news are great but nothing beats hearing the news of your family no matter how boring it seems! so thank you guys for that! :) i love you all so much! til next week! where we'll hopefully talk face to face!

-Elder Carlson!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Week 8 and pictures!

Holy cow its december!! Can you guys believe it!!! ok well i'm gonna hurry and go over your questions and then go on what i did this week! ok?? bueno! so i dont know if you got the pictures of thanksgiving two weeks ago but we had a big dinner and a lot of the teachers pitched in to give us an awesome thanksgiving dinner! :) so yeah i was taken good care of! and we had elder cornish who talked in the last general confrence come in and talk to us about thanksgiving and being thankful for all we have even the small stuff! I found out that if you are more thankful in your prayers then you are asking for blessings you'll feel the spirit alot more and your days will go a lot better! so try that next time you need a little extra in your day! The rooster picture i sent last week was because the first steps out of the plane thats what i saw! welcome to the DR sign basically! yeah i knew that'd be good! haha uhhh what else oh mom how was church??? :) and i'm so stoked that bryce is getting or got baptized! That is just awesome! that'll be a big push for brianne! hopefully things will be good for her and she'll join this amazing gospel! i'll keep that in my prayers! uhhh dad the present thing sounds good but we're not supposed to give anything to the natives or people here! it's against the rules to do that cause then they'll begin to think that that's what the missionaries are for and they'll go on that for baptism then to be truly converted! so yeah i like that idea but not gonna work! sorry! it's an awesome thought! yeah what else! oh calling home.... NO IDEA!!! my mission president comes in sunday i believe and so i'll ask him then but yeah no one knows even the president here doesn't know! so yeah i'll let ya know as soon as i know! my guess is it'll be all phone! i downloaded skype on my laptop just incase and i know dad you have it so if it's there i'll let ya know but it may not hurt to get the international plan thing! uhhh yeah i think that's about it! oh wait incase you were wondering no packages yet!! hopefully this next week but i'm not holding my breath! oh and if you pay for the international fees there when you send it i don't think i have to pay to get it out here! atleast that's what i've seen here so far! so yeah! uhhh well yeah time to start into the week! i have had an awesome week! The university last week wasn't to great we were just lost and were to shy so we only talked to two people but both seemed really interested! The thing that is driving me nuts is i can understand the language way good! like last night one of the teachers went to town and spoke way fast and i understood it all! but i can not put sentence together with future tense and preterit and past subjunctive and all these stupid irregular verbs and i'm sure no one under stands what i'm saying so ask addison or someone who has learned another language and they can explain it to you! oh but yeah the cool thing is i can understand spanish and french and english reading! not sure about talking and listening to french and as i've said not good at talking spanish! but they'll all get better as i go! today during our session they had 3 different languages going! in english spanish and in french cause there were some haitians there! so it was cool to think that! and i got to read a french book of mormon before it started and i could understand it! it is awesome being able to understand different languages! uhhh yeah then tuesday President glacier gave an awesome devotional! and i mean that in every sense of the word! The spirit was so strong! I love the spirit here! i'm gonna miss it but i know it'll be for the best cause i'll feel it in other ways out in the field! which i leave for in less then two weeks! i head out into the real world on the 20th! my first sunday out in the field will be christmas! that's gonna be super tough but i'll make it through! i'll get to talk to you guys! :) uhhh but yeah i can't believe my MTC is almost done! i'm so ready to get out of here! you can tell everyone is so sick of being cooped up in the same place! and we're all gone learn so much more when we get out there! it's gonna be great! :) i can't wait! scriputure for the day 3 Nephi 9:20! it's a good one! for all of us! uhhh yeah gross thing for this week! Yesterday for lunch i had...... Stomach soup! yup you heard me right stomach soup! it was basically taco soup but the meet was stomach of some animal that no one knows! we're thinking it was sheep! but yeah crazy stuff i'm having already and i'm still in the MTC! i can't wait to see what else i have to eat! :) uhhh yeah i think thats about it for this week! Not much for this week sorry! hopefully i'll have some awesome experiences this week! we FINALLY do splits with the missionaries in the field tommorrow so that should be good! :) i'll let ya know! i hope its with the west elders but no clue! welllllll i think that's it! so keep me updated on life! i'll let ya know how things go next week! :) I love you guys so much!!! Your the best!!!

-Elder Carlson!

Here are those service project pictures i was talkin about last week! :)

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Week 7 and Pictures!!

Wow week 7 already!! well this week what to say??? i've had lots of stuff happen! lets see we got to go shopping at the store! that i had already been to but it was still cool! i got me lots of snacks! and some cotton swabs for my ears... didn't think i'd need them but my ears are really dirty so yeah now they're nice and clean! uhhh we got to do service which i'm hopefully getting pictures of! i hope all the pics get to send on here! there should be 7! uhh yeah we went to the bishops store house and made kitchen emergency kits for emergencies here which they say they use a lot so lots of service oppertunities! :) which is awesome! so yeah uhhh that was monday! oh last friday we went contacting again and me and elder coleman were talking to this guy and he was going to town and so we were both like what language is this guy speakin and can he speak it slower when this lady comes right up to me and like shakes my hand and i'm like oh ok guess she wants to talk so i start talking to her and elder coleman is talking to the guy so we get talking and she wanted to talk english! which here i'm not gonna turn down the oppertunity! so we get talking and you guys know me i'm not one to step on peoples toes so i was nervous about talkin religion but the spirit kept bugging me to talk to her about the plan of salvation which we had just learned so i was like ok why not! so i just asked her what she thought our plan was in life and she's like be with our family and listed off some religions! and she was pretty smart and i was like do you can believe with your family forever and shes like no when Jesus comes thats it! i was like what! like it never hit me that people believe that life ends after they die! i was like no not at all! we can live with our families forever! and i told her about the atonement and used my phamplet i had to explain it and when i went to bare my testimony i struggled saying it in english! i had my first experience with actually being more comfortable using the language here then my own! So in my horrible spanish i was able to bare my testimony that i knew that families can be together forever! she asked where my family was and i told her and told her that i didn't get to see you guys for 2 years and she was just amazed at the fact that i would do that! she's like that has to be hard why are you here??? and i told her that i was here serving them and telling people that they can be with their families forever! and i wanted others to know what i know and to have the abilitiy to be with their families forever! she seemed to feel the spirit i hope! i felt it for sure! but she took the phamplet and i gave her the number to call or told her she could wait til next week and we'd be there to answer any more questions! i hope she's there or called! but yeah i don't like doing this contacting! i get to know these people and already love them in 5 minutes and share the gospel with them then i just have to leave it to them or to other missionaries! i can't just set up another appointment right then or i can't talk more with them! i don't like it but i know these people are ready for the gospel! every contact we make they know so much and are so friendly they just are ready! i can't wait to get out in the field! and i have like two more weeks! it's crazy! i can't believe i'm almost done with the CCM! i'm ready though! i've had with fake investigators! i just can't feel the want as much as i do with the real people! what else?? oh last night! i was afraid for my language skills though cause our teacher who is a dominican said he was talking to his friend from oeste! and he said he had to tell him to slow down cause he couldn't understand him..... the dominican couldn't understand the other dominican from the oeste.... yikes! guess i gotta start loading up on sugar! BUT i also had a super cool experience last night! i was practicing a lesson with elder colemon and i was trying to show him how to like teach people about reading the last two paragraphs in the introduction but i didn't have a book of mormon in english or spanish to really show him right then but i had my french one in my backpack so i grabbed out and showed him what i meant and then i thought about it and i was like if i plan on giving this away i need to mark up some important points so my El Libro De Mormon was at my desk so i grabbed it and did some translating. I started with the english in my head of what i wanted to mark and translated it into spanish with the help of my El libro de mormon then translated it into my Le livre de mormon! it was super cool to think that in that moment i was doing Gods work in three different languages! :) super cool moment that got my language confidence back up! :) awesome huh??? ok yeah well i don't know what much else to say! oh i haven't got any packages yet! i got some pouch mail from mom and nicole and grandma and grandpa carlson and trudy and then i got a letter letter from nicole! No packages yet! Some elders have gotten some packages and for a small pouch thing it was like 75 pesos which is like 2 bucks! so yeah i'm not sure about big boxes! uhhh yeah i'll let ya know when i get stuff! thanks for all your guys emails i love it! :) some elders get zero and i get lots! i am so blessed cause of you guys! thank you so much for that! you all are the best! :) OH one last thing! i got to go do sealings today after my session and it was in spanish and i didn't get all of what they said but still way cool! :) can't wait to do them in english and to go through for my self! :) Keep up the awesome work family! i pray for you all every day! atleast 6 times a day! I love you mucho mucho!