4/16 5/6‏

Hey family how´s things going??? lifes going great here! i´ve been feeling lots better and i´m pretty sure all my buddies are gone! and so everyone stops getting mad at me for eating intestines it was an investigating family so we had to eat some or they´d have been really offended! so it was helping a family getting closer to baptism! but i´m doing great! i feel great! but yeah this week was super stressful! i´m getting prepared for being a school teacher! people here are super immature and just very unrespectful! its crazy but i´m doing great! got some help from a letter and these emails!!! :) so thanks for that! but yeah lifes going pretty great now! its elder bentley´s birthday this week so we´re going to go party it up! but transfer calls are also this week so elder bentley is super nervous cause all of our baptisms are going to be this next transfer so if he can stay another transfer he´s gonna be able to be here for them! which would be awesome! but we´ll see! so next week i´ll let ya know who my companion is! but yeah other then that i have some pretty exciting news! Last saturday me and elder bentley were going to our english class and as we were walking down the road we saw my old branch president from AZUA! it was so awesome! he´s one of my favorite persons here and it was way awesome to see him and talk with him! turns out Maciel! one of the girls we were teaching awhile back got baptized! yeah i was super stoked! her parents were in active and then for the baptism they came and are starting to come to church agan! made me so stoked! especially cause the last sunday i was there i set up the appointment for Richardson to go visit her and yeah she´s baptized now! super stoked but yeah then i´ve also been going to town on the conference magazine! mom i´ve got a talk for you! Elder David Baxter from saturday afternoon! so yeah! what else??? oh yeah i got a package this week from Peggy! Which came just in time! she sent me a waterbottle with the built in filter! yeah this week we ran out of money cause our temple trip costed us a ton and i had to pay for light so we had to start using some of the tap water for stuff and i was able to put the tap water in my filter bottle and drink no problem! :) thank you peggy! :) But yeah on that subject i´ve had to pull out some of my money to get food and stuff here! we got screwed on money this time so i´m gonna be using some home money but i´ll be using next times money to put it back into to home money! but yeah then i also got the Browns to get my razor! so yeah no worries about that! thank goodness for the browns! they just take care of us here! but yeah off subject! Morgan is about to leave! if someone could get me his address either for the MTC or for his mission that´d be awesome! i did some tie shopping today for him and want to get some out for him! so that´d be great if you could get that to me! and i can´t believe people are starting to leave and get back and that saturday brandy and jaycee are getting married! tell them congradulations for me! and eat a piece of cake of their cake for me! and mom hope the house all goes well! i´ve been praying a lot about it! so hope it goes all well! and dad i´m super jealous about your cruise! pretty sure you owe me a cruise too! i don´t know why but you do! enjoy mexico! and having an ice cream for me! so yeah i think that´s it this week as far as crazy stuff! people partied for the new president. so the streets were pretty funny with drunk people.... youngest drunk i saw! take a guess!!! nope! about 6 or 7! yeah she was drinking a beer right in front of us! yeah this country takes care of there kids... lets just say i´m getting more and more greatful for what i have at home! oh yeah tuesday night we got called home early and found out that their were wars going on in the capital and that there were bombs and everything! yeah we didn´t hear a single gun shot! must be getting lots of prayers for me to be in the calmest city in the country during all this! so thanks for all the prayers! oh yeah i also had to give a talk this week! it was mothers day here and so i talked about Charity and how mothers are a great example of it! Yeah i´m feeling comfortable with my spanish! i´ll find myself just talking in spanish and not even having to think! just being able to say things in spanish! its cool! i can still understand really good! so yeah no worries there! but yeah that´s it for my excitement this week! For investigators...This week has been a good week. A little crazy because of the elections but we still got in some good lessons. Robyn, our baptism for the 9th of June, he´s progressing alot! He´s coming to alot of the church activities and church meetings. This morning he came to a branch service project where the only people who showed up were the missionaries, our branch mission leader, our branch president, and him. He is going to be a very strong member and we´re even getting him thinking about a mission. He is very interested. Our next investigator is Jahira. She is the mother of the Mejia family and her families been sick so its been a crazy week trying to share with her. But yesterday we had a very good lesson with her and watched the Restoration video with her. She promised to go to church next week no matter what! She talks alot about what a church should be and its our church so we hope she´ll go and see what its like. We have a few other people that are progressing very slowly and aren´t keeping their commitments so we may drop them. We´re going to try hard with them though. but yeah i think that´s it for this week! hope you all have a great week! and enjoy your summer! i´m doing great here don´t forget that! thanks for all you do! oh mom for a package talk to nicole about the drink thing! she sent me a mountain dew! so yeah but yeah i love you all!!!

-Elder Carlson!

4/16 4/6‏

FAMILY!!!! How's it going??? dropping my surprise email in! they let us out tonight cause things are pretty chill! i have a feeling we might get called back in tonight! cause this morning and last night it was pretty crazy! so tonight may be more crazy! but yeah i'm stoked to be out! i don't like being stuck in the house! its not fun! but yeah nothing to dangerous! but yeah this week! it was a great week! we got to go to the temple! that was pretty legit! the session was in spanish and i actually understood it for the most part! we woke up at 3 in the morning to leave so it was a pretty rough morning! but we also got to do baptisms for the dead! that was cool! but yeah then we also ate at McDonalds! :) it was great! ate me a big mac and a mcflurry! :) yeah it tasted amazing! i miss american food! oh speaking of crazy food! we ate mondongo this week! incase your not familiar with the dominican cusine its intestines! yeah it wasn't good! the intestines i had before you really couldn't tell this just straight up looked like intestines! i wasn't a fan of it! but i ate it just to say i ate it! i gotta stop donig that because i got my coprologico number 3 and i know have larva of worm! i just had the eggs now i have larva! but i've been drinking lots of coca cola and spicy foods to kill it! but the doctor is sending some more medicine to kill it! and we also found out that elder bentley has it too! so yeah we're all gone take an awesome pill and just clean everything like crazy so it goes away and never comes back! oh i also got my two pairs of pants back! they look great! :) i'll take a picture when i get the vest that goes with the one pair! its awesome! we're looking good and we know it cause we've gotten tons of citas this last week! we've broken my record for most lessons taught! we are killing it here and hope that elder bentley stays one more cause we're working with some families and we work great together so we'll wait and see! transfers are coming up in two weeks! crazy to think that they're almost here! but yeah time is crusing by! can't believe my 7 months came already next month i hit my 3rd of the way done mark! crazy crazy! but yeah life is going great out here! feeling great! working super hard! having fun and loving life! can't wait to get some letters or a package or something from you guys! i had some stuff i needed but to be danged if i can remember it right now! uhhhhhhh i'll write it down this week then i'll let ya know! but i'm diggin this new house mom! i'll keep it in my prayers that you get it! plus its gonna be awesome to have light and AC and carpet and running water!!! :) that's gonna be the best! :) but yeah what else??? i don't know what else to write! oh yeah the new president down here is named Danilo! so yeah now ya know! oh to vote from here what can i do?? after all this political stuff here it made me want to get on it back at home! so if you can get the abstentine ballet or whatever it is! that'd be great! oh yeah and mom my debit card expires next year in may i believe i didn't notice that til the other day! so don't know what we're going to do with that! and if you go into talk with them get some of they're pens! they have awesome pens! so yeah its nicoles graduation wednesday! and you guys are out of school! CONGRADULATIONS!!! :) Another year down! i'm going to enjoy another year without worrying about school but then a year from now i'll be talking about it! so yeah crazy to think that i'm gonna be signing up for college classes next year! pretty exciting! but yeah oh investigators! We have found a lot of good progressing investigators and some families that we are working with. We have been getting lots of lessons with them and also we've found some inactive members that are wanting to come back to the church so we've been working with them too. Our first investigator that has a fecha is Robyn. He is 17 and is very humble. He lives with his grandma because both his parents died. He studys the Bible a lot and knows it really well! He's progressing a lot and is wanting to change his life! We have taught him the law of chastity and has hid from his girlfriend so that they wouldn't have relations. He has his baptismal date for the 9th of June and is very excited. Our next investigator is named Yesenia. She is very interested in the gospel and wants her family to start learning together and going to church. Her and her daughter are sharing with us as often as we set appointments and her husband is an Evangelical who works in the capital. We are working hard to get him there when he's there and to involve him and see how his family is changing and growing! Hopefully he will soften his heart and share with us more. We also have the family Mejia, we haven't been able to share with them this week because they've been gone for the elections but we shared with them last night and everyone is still going strong. The wife really wants her family to be together forever and teach her kids a good example to follow. The husband may be going back to the United States to work for 7 or 8 months so it's going to be an interesting situation but we're still going to be working hard. The next investigator that is really progressing is named Elizabeth. She's around 19 and lives with her sisters. She told us in the last lesson that she prayed and got an answer that this is the true church and wants to continue learning! We're working to get her to church and more members to come with us! She's progressing very good though! We've recieved a few references that we're going to start teaching as soon as all the election stuff finishes. But yeah that's it for the investigators this week! well i was hoping to have more emails this week but i understand cause no one was expecting me that's what happend! but thanks for everything everyone! You guys rock! talk to you all next week! i love you all so much! :)

-Elder Carlson

Skype with Elder Carlson on Mothers day