Week 5 of the field!

So guess what??? i survived 2 more earth quakes!!! oh yeah!! :) rockin it down here!  the one was a 3 pointer up north and we didn´t feel that but then the second was in the east and that one was a 5 and it was after midnight and i felt it so i woke up and was like whoa was that an earth quake! so i was like dude! yeah he didn´t answer! he was asleep still! so i was like maybe its just my crazy brain freakin me out! yeah we left with the branch president that night and hes like oh did you guys feel the earthquakes! yeah i´m not crazy! :) haha but yeah just thought you should know that! but yeah crazy foods for this week! juice made out of rice and pineapple! yeah not to bad but not to good! and my crazy but favorite food i tried this week was....... Fried Intestines! :) yeah i tried them and they were good! one of our old investigators owns a food place and we went to go get a chimi one night and he had them hangin up so we asked what they were and he´s like oh they´re intestines and elder bittons like oh wow and the guys like here let me fry you up some and elder bitton was like ok! i was like dude your crazy! guy fried us up some and brought them out and elder bitton just started going to town and he´s like man these are super good! so i had to try one and just see for myself plus be able to say i had intestines! so i tried it and it was way good! tasted like fried jerky! :) yeah i know you´re probably upset at me but oh well! it´s passed now! oh ok yeah so apparently everyone knows about the supposed hospital visit! yeah the atm is at the hospital so i take money out there so it says hospital! i didn´t go in to the hospital for any reason! if i go to the hospital its for a very bad reason that you will know about before emails! you don´t go to the hospital here! so yeah no worries! haha uhhh yeah what else??? oh we had an exchange with the assitants to the president! yeah the one came with me and elder bitton for a day and the other went with our Zone leaders! yeah that never happens! oh well it was pretty cool! we got two more fechas (baptismal dates) this week! and hopefully one tonight! heres the update on our investigators. This week has been a great week! We recieved lots of references! They are helping us out a lot! The members are doing great at helping us! Our three new fechas are through members! Paulina is a girl of 18 who is a reference from one of our less active members who wants to change her life and wants to be baptized. She sets up appointments every day if she can. She is very excited to learn more about the gospel. Jorddy is still wanting to learn more about the gospel but we´re still trying to get appointments with him and getting him to keep commitments. Estefani is 9 and is excited to be baptized but is taking a little longer to learn everything.
We have more investigators but they don´t have fechas! uhh what else??? oh i´m getting new pants today! here people make there own clothes so elder bitton had a guy who made me some pants and then he´s been fixing my shirts so they fit me way better! so yeah still need some tide to go pens! i can not keep white shirts clean! uhhh yeahhhhh i don´t know what else to put i think thats it for the week! Go Giants for the superbowl! Stef and Beau your car looks awesome and you definitly should have gotten it earlier when i could drive it! when i get back i´m gonna drive it! uhhh yeah life is good here! people here are treating us awesome! spanish is coming slowly but surely! OH!!! Yeah important thing! we got 24 hour light! we got it totally illegally but we really didn´t have a say! it was our land lords choice but we´re ok with that! candle light planning is gone! finally! :) but yeah i am pretty sure that is it for the week! love you all! keep me updated on life! :)
-Elder Carlson

Week 12



Scott and his mission president and wife

Wellllll so i have some super exciting news that i guess no one heard about... I LIVED THROUGH AN EARTHQUAKE!!! 5.2! Ahhh yeah!!! It happened thursday morning about 5:38! lasted 8 seconds and the center point was about 40 minutes away from here! Crazy Crazy! but yeah we were just sleeping in bed and all of a sudden everything started shaking! i woke up immediatly and was like holy crap is this an earthquake then a split second later i was like HOLY CRAP THIS IS AN EARTHQUAKE!! Guess i said holy crap out loud cause elder bitton was like yeah! We both have not been in an earthquake so after were like what do we do. we ended up going outside cause its safer in the streets cause theres not tall buildings so we sat out in the street. no after shock! so yeah it was intense but a bummer we didn't have an after shock!  but yeah no one got hurt or any major damage! so yeah no worries just something cool i get to say i lived through! :) but yeah pretty cool! anyways heres the updates on my investigators. This week has been good. Our investigator Jorddy accepted a new baptismal date for the 11 February! He came to church too! So he's headed on the right track! He's gotten work off on sundays to come to church but he works a lot during the week so it makes lessons hard to get in but hes already got a strong testimony. One other investigator that we have is giselle is a referral that we got and she wants to learn more and change her life. But she got a job that works her on sundays. We'll keep working with it! Gosera is another referral that we got and she wants to change to but shes finding it a tough time to get herself to commit to everything cause she doesn't want to fall away later! But other then that we're doing a lot of contacting and a lot of first visits but we'll get there! My Spanish is progressing day by day! So grateful to have the opportunity to speak this language and serve these great people! Oh yeah i also gave my first talk in spanish yesterday! it was intense and i learned about it saturday but i made it through! this week in weird food lets see... a drink thats called habichuela con dulce! which is like a smoothie of beans and sugar! not to bad actually! uhhh had wheat with eggs and tomatoes it was interesting! not to bad mainly tasted like stir fry! uhhh yeah i think thats about it for weird food! got let down by some of our memebers! Remember Domingo and Celeste??? yeah we went over to see them cause they're leaving for a month and so we asked for a glass of water while we talked! i had like two then Domingos like they need to eat! so we got fed that wheat stir fry and there i had two more glasses of water! and yeah....after that elder bitton was like we just got bickmored... Elder bickmore is and elder who came out the group before me and accidently had tap water... yeah we found out that celeste was giving us water from a big 50 gallon drum with a wood lid cover yeahhhh it wasn't good! we won't be asking about that anymore! but we're all good! swig downed some soda! and some coke! supposedly coke gets all that crap out of your stomach! so yeah i'm fine! :) i've had an eventful week! but! here we go with my list of things! k i found out express packages are better for here cause they don't cost me anything and they get here faster! but they do cost more there! and if you guys could send me some uncrustables like the pb and j ones that'd be amazing! uhhh yeah i think that's all i need as far as package stuff! Dad there are a ton of motorcycles here and they are super cheap so me and elder Bitton were talkin about them and he road bikes before and he said that you could get stuff for cheap! so if you're ever bored check out some bikes for me that i could swap out the scooter for and get me one! cause yeah i've decided i need to upgrade! Thats all they ride here and they have some sweet stuff for cheap! but yeah that is all for this week! i'm gonna send pictures but i have to get off and use another broswer! so yeah talk at you all next week! :)
Elder Carlson

(second email)

Alright so these aren't in order but theres my earthquake damage on my desk! then theres my day at the salon! oh yeah didn't tell ya that! last monday i went to the salon to get my hair cut yeah! the lady put some like regrowth stuff on my hair and it burned! then she wanted me to get this shampoo and elder bitton was looking at the ingredients and one of the ingredients was placenta! yeah not washing my hair with that! then the other is my blistered food and then other is my bitten ankle! blasted mosquitos!
(third email)

Oh yeah heres me and elder bitton first night we were here! yeah my eyes look stupid because when your in pitch black then theres a flash its crazy! but yeah we had no light the first night so yeah it was intense! we're on a weird light schedule now! oh yeah mom just don't look into the area stuff i'll send ya pics when i get some! you're not supposed to look like a tourist so i dont get much but look up banana trees and thats about the area! so yeah haha but yeah thats it for the week! love you guys lots! :) Adios!

elder carlson

Week 11

Wow! Elder Bitton has about the same time left before he leaves as i just had out in the field! Crazy! Anyways! This week has been pretty crazy! I've had a crazy week of welcoming to the DR food! The ward members love feeding us and giving us stuff and i've got some crazy food! This weeks crazy food is Duck, carrot juice, and the craziest of all Black Bean Juice! Yup pretty much just watered down refried beans pretty weird but it wasn't to bad! i'm not gonna lie it was crazy! but we also had some way good stuff! like Chinola and watermelon juice! pretty sure that's my favortie now! you all dont know what chinola is but im gonna send this home! it is super good but its band in the states cause its illegal so yeah anyways totally sendin it home! but anyways this week we had some good times! Spent one day doing like 55 contacts it wasnt the funnest but oh well! but we did some awesome lessons and then some where the lady kept telling us that whatever church is good because it doesnt matter where you go as long as you follow christ cause shes been coming to ours but only when she didnt have hers! so i gave her a scripture 3 nephi 27: 8 that says if its a church about moses it should be called after moses and if it should be a church about christ it should be his name and shes like well yeah but i think its about what you worship and not what its called! yeah that scripture totally showed her whats up! so yeah we also had a member that bore her testimony and yeah the spirit was super strong and she couldnt deny that the spirit was there but she denied everything that we said but shell realize whats going on i know it! but anyways yeah oh we went over to the browns who are some of the couple missionaries here and we made the muffins cause our stove doesnt work but yeah the muffins rocked! alright so heres my list of things i need! :) a good flashlight/ lamp it sucks planning by candle light! good church cds preferably some guitar instrumental!, no bake desserts!, tide to go, and random dessert stuff! they dont make a lot of desserts down here and it kills me! oh this will sound weird but if you could throw in some little sugar packets like for coffee thatd rock too cause members give us fruit and it just needs sugar! uhhh yeah i think that should be it! Work is going slow right now so sorry not much exciting to right about this week! Being white washed its just a bunch of contacting and trying to find people to teach! But i have like another 3 or 4 months here that i'm sure i'll pull out some awesome stories for you guys! hopefully some baptisms too! :) anyways thats it for this week! i'm gonna try and send off a package this week to someone but it'll have stuff for everyone and yeah i'll talk at you guys next week! Thanks for everything! Love you guys so much!
oh new years i went to the browns and cooked the muffins and then we went back and went to sleep while people blasted music and shot guns and let off fireworks! so just another typical day in the DR!!
-Elder Carlson