Week 9

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!