ELDER DREW CARSON: Week 9 in the field!!

Hello all yall goofballs!

This week was great, and there were lots of interesting bits, so I'll get right to it.

LECCION DE LA SEMANA: So, I told you I'd report on the goal we set last week to talk with more people in the street, and guess what? THE LORD BLESSES US FOR THE SMALL THINGS. We reached the goal several days in a row, and as a result we had more lessons, more investigators, and more baptismal dates (and more sueño! woo! good sign!). The truth is, very few of those little successes came from the contacting, itself, but the difference in performance was undeniable. At times, the Lord asks us to do things that seem silly so that He can bless us.

"Really? You wan't me to go without food or water for 24 hours? What for?" Truth is, the Lord isn't looking to starve us with the fast, but it's a way that we can show Him our willingness to obey.

"Really? You want me to pay 1/10 of my earnings to the church? What for?" Equally, the Lord has no need for our tithing to accomplish His purposes, but it's a way to show our gratitude for what He has given us.

Think of a commandment of which you have questioned the value and dedicate yourself this week to living that commandment better than you have been. I promise the Lord will make it worth your while.

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HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY BERTIE, YOU DA ROOTIE TOOT TOOT! Have lots of fun (and candy) and give momma lots of hugs for me!!!!

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We had a day that I will hereby remember as "Code Red Day" - not sure what happened, but President Reynoso called us and told us to hold up in the casa FOR THE WHOLE DAY. WOO! It was a little boring not to have work, if I'm being honest, but we studied a lot and I had the chance to do a lot of writing! I finished my first journal written completely in the mission and started a new (bigger) one.

I did my first stress-management review of the mish! It was fun, actually - I was able to look at all the areas in which I find myself stressing out a lot and read through lists of suggestions to help me with each part. I felt super relaxed afterward! Also, it has me trying a "progressive relaxation exercise" every night and each time I do it I feel like Buddha.

We had a coordination meeting with our ward mission leader, Hno. Rolando, and at the end, he asked me to give the prayer IN ENGLISH. I've never had such a hard time with a prayer in my life. Not even when I was first learning Spanish, because I wasn't expecting to do well. I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT WORDS TO SAY, GUYS. I mean, it means I'm immersing myself in the language, which is good, but really.... scary.... Elder Walch, the other gringo, was there, and I'm sure he thought it was hilarious.

We found a family of four kids and all but the youngest (who's not 8 yet) and the dad (who was working) agreed to be baptized on the 24th of February! They had such a good time in the lesson, and at the end, one of the little boys, named Yael, asked us if we could come back the next day!! The family is Yara (mom), Samuel (dad), Kevin, Aaron, Yael, and little Yaime.

While in a lesson with Abel and his sister, Arely, I was explaining that Arely, due to her age, would be interviewed for baptism by the bishop instead of another elder. She didn't know what a bishop was, so in an attempt to describe him as the father of the ward, I tenderly told her that she would be interviewed by a potato. We all died laughing.

We had a lesson with Marvel and her spouse, Paul, about the Law of Chastity and, as it turns out, they're just living together. But before we could even respond when they told us, Paul spoke up and said, "well, Marvel, looks like we're getting married!" Ahhhhhh.... burden relieved. That was a super happy lesson. Marvel told us that shes convinced of the truth of our message, and after that, she showed up for all three hours of church WITH her non-member cousins on Sunday!! Woo!! More people to teach!

I felt like we should pass by the house of someone we had contacted in the street, and to our surprise, they let us in and we had a lesson with the mom and the kids. They didn't take it super well because they're mega-Catholic, but they said we're welcome in the house whenever we have time to come back. That's not the funny part, though - the mom offered us some flavored water, which is very normal, and we started sipping... interesting, I'd never tried this flavor before... I looked over at E. Melena and his eyes got all wide. He pointed to the counter (subtly), where a giant box of BLACK TEA was sitting open....... Oops. We had to explain awkwardly Word of Wisdom stuff, which set a weird tone for the lesson and yeah.... at least I know what the stuff looks / tastes like now.....

We accidentally shut off the water for a whole apartment building while trying to lend service to a menos-activo member.... also a little awkward, but fortunately the neighbors were nice and helpful.

That's all for this week, folks! As always, I love receiving your letters and hearing your thoughts. Stay righteous my friends!

Love,

Elder Carson

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