ELDER DREW CARSON: Week... SOMETHING! I forget!

My dearest family, friends, acquaintences, annnd the rest of you,

Someone once told me (actually, lots of people) that the days in the mission field are like weeks, and the weeks are like days. Maybe I´ve said this before in a previous email, but in my experience, that statement is FALSE. A better way to put it is: the mission is like one day, punctuated with lots of little naps.

LECCION DE LA SEMANA: NEVER judge someone based on the rumors you hear about them. For real. Give them a chance to prove themselves.

Everyone expressed their condolences for me when I received the news that Elder Gallegos was coming to Palmas to be my companion. I heard ALL the rumors. I was prepared for the worst. The thought came to mind to be really hard on him, to act like the captain of a tight ship and go head-to-head on every conflict.

Thankfully, I didn´t do that. After some prayer and scripture study, I concluded that a peaceful approach is normally better than going to war. And GUESS WHAT? E. Gallegos is quite possibly one of the most productive missionaries I´ve ever encountered! I felt unworthy to work with him after two days, but little by little I´ve been working to adopt some of his good habits. What´s more - we have a great relationship. Every morning he irons one of my shirts and I polish his shoes. Honestly, I don´t know where the rumors came from. Things are great and we´re working hard.

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We had a great lesson with Jesús (our less-active friend)! He was expressing some hard feelings he was having and told us a story about something that happened between he and his ex-wife. At the end, E. Gallegos ceded the response to me, and, treading very carefully by the Spirit, I shared a scripture and told him, in essence, that he needed to move the doctrines from his head to his heart. He told me later that that was exactly what he needed to hear. Great feeling :)

Samuel, the partner of Yara (our investigator) accepted a visit, and in this visit he commited to get married to Yara and be baptized at the end of March! We´ll see how he follows through, but it was great to finally find him.

Abel came to church (last week)! This week, our neighbor, Angélica, came to church with the help of a member. We had already left her because she wasn´t progressing, but I think she made friends with a hermana in our development! Woohoo! ALSO, miraculously, Hna. Dulce was able to come to church! Her work called and told her there was nothing for her to do that day, so she attended with her kids. And, perfectly, the Sacrament Meeting was themed around MARRIAGE. BOOM. Miracles everywhere.

We forgot to pay the light bill and they cut our power X) That was a mini-crisis that we managed to solve before we had to buy candles.

We found Paul Mai Lopez and his family in the street and committed them to baptism during the first visit!

I got a new assignment from Hna. Reynoso to check with ALL the elders in the zone regarding their progress with the language and report on their progress.

That´s all for this time, folks! We´re super busy and super excited! Thank you so much for all your letters and support.

Much love,

Elder Carson

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