ELDER DREW CARSON: Year 3, Week 1

I realized today that I’m an oldie - they wouldn’t give me the Mexican discount in Chichen-Itza because my green card expired on the 10th of October.... oops.

LECCIÓN DE LA SEMANA: I was reflecting a little on the adjustments made in General Conference, and out of curiosity I searched out the formal "purpose of the church" as described in the administrative Manual 2: The Church provides the organization and means for teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to all of God’s children. It provides the priesthood authority to administer the ordinances of salvation and exaltation to all who are worthy and willing to accept them.

With this definition, we can easily see that the "meat" of our worship takes place OUTSIDE the church building. What is that meat? Ministering. Teaching the Gospel. Sharing our talents and gifts. Inspiring. Lifting the poor. Blessing. The church simply organizes us. We do the work. The work is a fundamental part of all aspects of our life. I love this quote from Gérald Caussé: "Sometimes we talk about going to church. But the Church is more than a building or a particular place. It is just as real and alive in the humblest of dwellings in the most remote areas of the world as it is here at Church headquarters in Salt Lake City."

I invite all you to take the "church" out of the buildings we have and into the world. YOU are a representative of the church. I promise that as you strive to become like the Savior, the Lord will use you as means to bring His children into the fold.

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We had a GREAT week!! The first half, we were working in our area, finding for November. We already have several investigators who will be getting baptized next month.

On Thursday, we headed out to Valladolid to help out the missionaries. I got to work all evening with Elder Astrada (the Argentine elder that accompanied me a few weeks ago). Then we stayed the night with the zone leaders, who were very hospitable and challenged us to arm-wrestling. Elder Mendieta (from Bolivia) ALMOST beat me - we tied with the left arm, but I beat him with the right.

On Friday, on a special assignment from President, we surprised Elder Jensen by bringing him to the Ek Balam ruins!! He had never been, and President wanted him to have the chance. The funniest part is that he thought we were going to work in a close-by village. When we passed the village, I saw the confused look on his face and almost laughed out loud.

Today, we toured Chichen-Itza (also for Elder Jensen), and had a great time together. I practiced some business skills talking down the local artesan-salesmen. Turns out, one can get a lot lower prices by speaking to them in Maya!!

That’s all for this week, folks. I love hearing from you - your excitement is contagious!! I hope you have an excelent week.

Love,

Elder Carson

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