Semana de no se!‏

Wow what a week!!! alright sooooo lets get started! this week was crazy! we started off with a  branch valentines party where our investigator paulina sang and during her song winked at elder bitton! haha it was great! then i got more custom made pants! then we get to thursday... So started off thursday awesome! Got up and i made some pankcakes! they looked awesome and i'm getting pro at making food now! then we went throughout the day and came to our lesson with paulina! She told us during this lesson that she was not sure that she wanted to be baptized and that she wasn't sure she could change and all this stuff that was just lies cause there was something else. She never told us what that stuff was but we figured it was just friends talking. So we asked her to pray about it and let us know the next day cause the next day was their interviews so she's like ok. So we left went to bed then next day we got up did our regular studies and then we made lunch and called her! First call she didn't answer second.... a guy answered and said she wasn't there.... yeah awesome huh??? so yeah we didn't have time to really worry about her cause we had more lessons so we went to them and on our ways back we passed by her house and she was out side so we're like hey interviews are right now are ya getting baptized or not and she's like no.... yeah not what we wanted to hear so we're like ok well are you coming to the english class tonight?? oh yeah don't know if i told you we started an english class but we did! anyways she was like yeah! so we decided we'd talk to her there! so we went to the church and juanel gets his interview and his goes for 40 minutes! we thought he just went off on some crazy story of his past and that it wasn't gonna happen and he finally comes out during english class but he was good to go! so we were stoked for him! and you probably guessed it that paulina did not show up to the class! so yeah after english class we're like alright... well this sucks that paulinas not coming so we go to the colmado by our house to by some stuff to eat and we get this call from our branch secretary and he's like hey i've got a young lady that's here and wants to talk to you. So we ran back to the church and guess who was there! Paulina! yeah she was like in tears and wanted to get baptized! you could tell the change in her! she had finally prayed with real intent and got her answer! so yeah we had to make a few calls got her appointment set up for the interview a few hours before the baptism! so the next morning at 3:50 we got up headed to a bus and drove three hours from Azua where i'm at to the capital and we went to the institute building where we got to listen to Elder Bednar and Bishop Mcmullen the bishop of the presiding bishopric! it was awesome! we didn't get to shake their hands but we were super close it was really cool! after that we booked it back to Azua and got to the chappel where we had paulinas interview and prepped for the baptism and finished all around 5:55 and the baptism was at 6! awesome huh??? well yeah that was a stressfull crazy day! but it was good! Elder Bitton baptized paulina and a member of the ward baptized juanel! sunday we got to help in the confirmation of them both! it was cool! they'll be awesome members of the church! then to make this week more exciting i also gave my first blessing in spanish! It was pretty crazy but really cool! yeah crazy week this week!!! but yeah that's my week this week! you are welcome to send packages! they don't cost me much to get them out! if you could send me my winchester multitool thing! some breakfast foods like granola bars or stuff like that! and.... rogaine please! haha my hairs gettin worse! Stef be quite! but yeah that's if you could that'd be awesome!! :) well that's it for this week! til the next! i love you all!!!
-Elder Carlson

Hola familia! How's life back in the states??? things are going pretty
great here! nothing to interesting or exciting! This week was pretty
chill and relaxed! Crazy food for this week would be Yuka! its like a
potato but not quite as good! i would recomend it once but other then
that not that great! but yeah anyways other then that we really didn't
anything weird! uhh i do have some super exciting news!!!! but yeah
i'll tell you that later! My crazyness for the week was that we were
teaching a lesson out in the street and we look down the street and a
huge brawl just starts up and so we're like wow is that a fight and
the investigators were like oh yeah they do that everyonce and a
while! yeah we just kept going on with the lesson! it was actually
really cool! i'm not gonna lie pretty stoked to go back to the guy!
But yeah super mega exciting news! is coming later! other craziness
for this week is that we went on splits with two returned
missionaries! the one i went with just got home and knew a lot of
english so i thought wow alright he's gonna be pretty legit fun to
hear his stories of the mission! wellllll yeah he turned out to be
crazy! we split apart and we needed lessons for the next day so we had
to do contacting and the guys like ok i'm fine with that so we went
out and elder bitton and the other guy went to our citas! well yeah we
went to do contacting and me and elder bitton have an order of how we
contact so we know where we're at and so we started where we left off
and this guy is like no we're not doing it like that! so he's like
come on missionaries go by the spirit! so he walks into the area we
already contacted and like goes to this ladies house that we already
contacted and so he goes and knocks on the door without listening to
me cause supposedly he knew best where to go. yeah theres a whole
thing about missionaries are the representives of Jesus Christ in
their area so they have stewardship to do that and so yeah he kinda
was out of line doing that! but yeah anyways already contacted the
lady and she comes to the door and he's like hi we're missionaries
from the church of jesus christ of latter day saints and we'd like to
share a message with you can we come in. yeah the lady was like taken
back i'm sure cause she knew me from before and yeah so we go into her
house and he like wants to teach a lesson and when we're contacting we
set appointments for the next day not right then. yeah we taught the
lesson right then. yeah so he starts the thing off and asks if i'll
pray so that usually means that the other person starts the lesson so
i was like ok i'm interested to see where he starts the lesson and so
i finish the prayer look at him and he is just quite.... yeah i taught
the whole lesson myself and the lady was just laughing the whole time
cause we both knew what was going on and this RM just thought he knew
all that or something! yeah it was a crazy day the rest of the day! he
was an interesting person! anyways time for the super exciting mega
awesome news??? not yet! so yeah guess what??? i got two pakages this
week! :) i love my girls! :) thank you mom sister and nicole! :) you
guys are the best! i feel loved this valentines day! :) oh yeah by the
way happy valentines day tomorrow to all! i bought my heart tie for
this special day! :) oh yeah tie count is over 50 now! :) i love it!
haha but yeah what else??? oh investigators which leads into my super
exciting mega awesome spectacular news! so yeah Juanel and Paulina are
still awesome! they are both just rocking it and they both are
visiting with us this week almost every day because... they're gettin
BAPTIZED this saturday!!! but that is not all of my super exciting
mega awesome spectacular fantastic news! i get to meet Elder David A.
Bednar saturday!! yeah he's coming down here! i'm super stoked! :) so
this saturday i'll get to go see him talk and meet him and then come
back and have two baptisms that night!!! pretty awesome huh??? :)
thats my news! but yeah well now this letter is now boring cause the
good news is done! uhhh well yeah i believe that is all! as for next
packages! :) :) throw in chocolate! i miss good chocolate! root beers!
or dews which ever! tide to go! and uncrustables! :) and fyi the flat
rate boxes are a lot better! you can fit 20 pounds into the box for 55
and mom your package was like 5 pounds for 45 or something like that!
Elder Bitton says its just better that way! yeah but thanks for the
packages! oh yeah still can't bake anything so no baked good stuffs
please! i appreciate the thought! save those for another time when i'm
in a house that has a good stove! but yeah i think thats it for this
week! sounds like life at home is crazier then here! Mandys wedding
stuff is a lot crazier then here for sure!! well hope all is well this
week! Paz!!!
-Elder Carlson
 

Week 1 (of new transfer)

Well hello again from the month of February! wow how time passes! this week has been a good and interesting! no weird foods this week still living the good life of elder bitton and my good cooking! last night pancakes! ;) yeah love american cooking! ok yeah the thing with transfers cause everyone asked about them! Transfers are every 6 weeks! and theres 16 transfers in the 2 years. So a transfer does not mean i get transfered to a new place its just a new time! i´ll probably stay here in azua for 3 this last one, this one, and the next one. So yeah but yeah there ya go! transfers just a time thing really! but anyways this week for investigators status is: This week was a good week. Paulina ,one of our investigators with a baptismal date, helped us a lot this week. She met with us alot and even gave us her friend as a referal. She makes sure her friend is at every lesson and even went and got her out of bed and brought her to church with her this week. She is really excited to be baptized and she keeps every commitment we give her! We gave her the law of chastity lesson and ever since that she dresses a lot better! It is a cool experience to see the change in her already. Juanel, our other investigator with a baptismal date wasn´t so great this week because he wasn´t at some of his lessons and missed church. But we found out that he had stuff with his family for the lessons and sunday he slept in a little and thought he couldn´t come to church late so we made sure he knew he could come whenever. He´s really eager to learn more about the gospel and tries to talk about the next lessons we have planned before we even tell him. So he is eager to learn and become a member. yeah thats about it! our excitement for this week was that we got to meet with larry again! The fugitive! yeah turns out the federal marshalls broke into his house like ten years ago and put him in prison then he got back here by some congressman and now he´s just living here but we´re not a 100 percent sure what he did but we´re guessing he was a mafia boss slash pirate slash drug lord. yeah not a 100 percent sure but he loves talking to us and thinks were the nicest people there is! so we´ll probably go back and see him again! uhhh nothing else to crazy! got my custom made pants but one pair was two tight but the guy is fixing those then i dropped off another pair for him to fix. they´re all pinstriped but i have a green pair a black pair and he´s doing a brown pair for me right now! all my shirts except three are now fitted to me and i dont have the tons of extra fabric just hanging out! uhh life´s pretty good! no earthquakes this week and still rockin the illegal 24 hour light! water we´ve been doing good haven´t run out in a long time! oh yesterday was intense! i´m still trying to get used to the fasting here! i didn´t load up on enough sugar so yesterday i was shaking cause my blood sugar level was low! so next month i know to load up on sugar! but yeah i´m getting used to the cold showers! but supposedly theres like an attachment that you can hook up to the shower head thats a hot water heater so if you guys find one of those for cheap do not be afraid to send it! :) i will not complain! ok list time again for things i wouldn´t mind having out here. Recipes! not to complex with lots of weird ingredients like a good recipe for garlic bread would be a good one too! uhh seasonings! preferably the pre mixed ones so i can just toss some on and not worry! Snacks! i´m lacking on things to just snack on like granola bars! preferablly chocolate with peanut butter! and measuring utensils! like the cup thing that you have mom! something like that would be awesome! :) but yeah i think thats it! thank you much! :) but yeah i think thats about it from here! if theres anything you guys want from here let me know and i´ll get a package sent off to you guys! so let me know! stuff is cheap here so yeah whatever you´re thinking! ummm yeah i think that´s it for this week! :) have a good week! talk at yal next week! :) much love!

-Elder Carlson

End of the first transfer

I have finished one transfer! only 15 more to go! this one flew by so i'm sure the next will go by a lot faster! I don't think we've really done anything to crazy this week! uhh yeah guess i'll go into the investigators this week! Jorddy our start investigator failed us once again this week! didn't show up to church and isn't meeting with us so yeah we have to push back his baptismal date once again!  We gained a reference named Juanel. His girlfriend's family is members and they all support him very well! He has a lot of excitement to change his life and become a member! He's keeping his commitments really well has gone to church several times! He's accepted a baptismal date for the 11th of February and i have no doubt he'll be ready by then. Our other investigator with a baptismal date is Paulina. She meets with us almost everyday and accepts everything we give her! She also asks questions to confirm what she learned! She has her baptismal date for the 18th of February and with some more support from her sister that lives with her she'll be an awesome convert! We're working with the branch to get them both ready to go for after baptism and the branch is helping a lot! We have a few more references from the Branch President that we're working with that should be putting a baptismal date with tonight. The references from our president are little girls... yeah it's not the funnest teaching them cause you really have to make things simple simple and then we have to talk with parents. They've all been to church lots of times and the reason we got them was cause the president thought that they were already baptized but found out they weren't so turns out we'll be baptizing them... yayyy.... oh well its baptisms and helping there families! But yeah we're working a lot with references which rocks cause contacting just doesn't do anything! so if you ever have missionaries ask for reference help find someone and help the missionaries out! Makes life so much easier! But yeah oh i don't know if this is true or not but supposedly theres been like 50 some odd earthquakes that happend here. crazy huh?? i've only felt a few but they haven't been to big! uhhh what else??? oh yesterday we had a pretty awesome day! we met a guy from spain that's visiting here! he was good buds with us and today he's heading back to spain. he asked us for a blessing so we gave him one then he said when we finish our mission if we ever go to spain he works at a hotel and will get us a room for free! so if he's still there i may have to hit him up on that offer! but yeah he's gonna add me on facebook so nicole or stef who ever is keeping up on my facebook check my facebook and look for a friend invitation from estrubal something or something like that! he's a bigger guy i'll send a picture with this email. its the guy in the middle of me and elder bitton! so yeah he's pretty cool! had a lot of crazy stories! uhh i don't really know what else to write about this week! it was kinda a boring week! we have transfers this week so i'm on a new agenda book thing so i don't have all my stuff from the last week! uhhh stuff to send in packages! snacks! i lack snacks! and breakfast stuff! uhhh oh and a big mesquito repelent candle! elder bitton has one and it rocks! clears mesquitos outs of our room! uhh yeah and root beer! in a can! there is no root beer in this country! so pretty much any or every package don't be afraid to throw in a rootbeer! uhhh yeah! OH the pictures from everyone! wow everyone is changing! Blake is huge! Stef you look like you've lost weight! Everyones just looking different already! didn't think that'd be possible but its true! i'm getting the missionary affect! but yeah i think thats it for this week! Keep being the awesome family you are! my inspirational thought for the week is the hymn come come ye saints! read it! it's a good one! well family! Enjoy the life! and til next week! Adios!

Con amor! -Elder Carlson

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