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