We just received the following hand written letter from Matthew today. It covers his first week in the mission field just like the email we received earlier in the week.
Hola Mi Familia!
I'm in Georgia. Alma to be exact. It's a little itty bitty town on the northeast corner of the mission. It has 6 stoplights, 2,000 people, and lots of drugs. It's been interesting.
I went to the airport and called you guys [he called home the day he left the MTC]. It was an early morning and it was raining. We piled in a bus and set off to the Salt Lake City Airport. I called you then got on the plane. It was a smooth flight and it was a big plane. The second part was a much smaller plane. Consequently, it was awful. It was bumpy and I didn't get to sleep at all. The Elder next to me was unfazed and fell right asleep. He kept sleep kicking me the whole flight.
We arrived and loaded into a big van as we met President Jensen and Sister Jensen. They're really nice. We were quite cramped in the van. It was a 12 person van and there were 15 people.
We made it to the mission home alright. It's quite beautiful. It reminded me a bit of our house inside. I have pictures of the outside. President Jensen talked to us and gave us some info/pictures. We had a dinner of sourdough sandwiches, chips, and a nice drink. It was delicious after so many weeks of MTC. Something simple and light. The MTC wasn't bad, it was just fun to have something that wasn't mass produced. We time to talk to our family and tell them where we were headed and our address. Then we all sat as President Jensen spoke. I sat criss-crossed-apple-sauce-indian-style on the floor. He told us how the mission was and how it was going. He told us important info and mission rules. One thing I'm excited about is we are allowed music! Maybe for Christmas you can send me an iPod with some Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Inside Out, Chad Woolner, missionary music essentials, etc. I will need some speakers though. No headphones para mi. Anyway, we got granola bars and were sent to bed. I slept okay but was quite cold. The AC fan was right above me and was blowing on me. I got quite cold. I only had a sheet on my air mattress. I found some towels and used them to survive. The next morning we had blueberry pancakes and hash-browns. It was delicious - especially the pancakes. I don't usually like pancakes but these were good. Maybe Sister Jensen is magical?
Anyway, we packed up and since I was headed east, I had to wait. I said goodbye the the remnant of my district and hopped into the car with Elder T since Elder L told me to (Elder L is an assistant to the president). We tried to visit some people who sent us away but we were able to see just one person. Anyway, we tracted for several hours and saw some really cool houses. This one house was an original 1830's era house. It was beautiful. It had, what looked like, mahogany flooring, brick and stone walls, ivy, and a red velvet carpet on the stairs. We had only a few people who were rude to us. Most people told us that they were happy in their respective denominations. A few people thanked us for the hard work we did. That made me feel a little better but I was still a little sad after tracting. We came back to the mission home and loaded up our stuff. Elder F and I drove the big van with our bikes on the back. We stopped at a place called Firehouse Subs. They had this cool machine that dispensed drinks. It had a touch screen and you select different flavors and brands as well as additives. If you wanted vanilla Sprite, you could get it (Don't get it, regular Sprite is much better. It was fun to try though). We got sandwiches and mine was really, really big. I couldn't eat it. It was greasy, cheesy, and kept squirting it's juices out on my hands. I ate about 72% of it. Not bad I'd say. It was good though. We finished up and we headed off to Valdosta. We grabbed Elder Y and Elder M, who had hung out there for the day. We then drove to Douglas. We crashed there for the night. It was packed. There were 10 Elders in a 2 bedroom apartment. I slept on the couch which was quite lucky of me. Most guys slept on the carpet. My companion slept on linoleum. I offered him the couch but he just wouldn't take it. He took NyQuil, talked for a while about things. Most of the stuff he said was kind of random so I think it was the NyQuil talking. After 10-20 minutes, he shut down and I slept on my love seat.
We awoke the next morning and, in our pajamas, loaded the car and set off into the sunrise (we drove northeast I think - we drove towards the sun). We arrived in Alma and put my bags inside. We showered, got dressed, and took off on our bikes. We only get 700 miles a month here in Alma. We have district meeting tomorrow which takes 41 miles and we were at 659. So we had just enough miles. I saw some interesting people that first day. Sister W, the L's, L, and Brother D. I'll tell you a bit about each one though. Sister W is interesting. I'll tell you more about her later.
The L's are a nice family that were recently reactivated. They want to get sealed as a family which is a big goal for them and we're going to help them make that goal. Sister L works as an accountant. Jobs are really hard to get in Alma. Brother L fixes/customizes old cars for fun. He told us all about a truck he's working on. Those are the big things here in the South. Trucks and chihuahuas. The truck he was working on was a cool red one that had blown it's engine due to a clogged radiator hose.
L is really big. Not as tall as me but much bigger. He's a less-active member. He gets a lot of his information from televangelists so we try to teach him correct doctrine. He's a really nice guy who really tries hard to be a good member of the Church.
Brother D is awesome. He's a tall and skinny. He's very quiet but it's fun talking to him. He was baptized two years ago by some missionaries after they had been talking to him for a few months. He's a very, very strong member of the Church. He has his baptismal certificate on display as the centerpiece on his mantle. He's an amazing guy and we visited him a couple of times this week since he doesn't have a whole lot of visitors.
We've been working hard and riding [bikes] is of the ways. My legs were pretty sore for those first five days. I haven't grown butt calluses but they're coming. My bike's been pretty solid. The brakes got a little unadjusted from the bike ride over here but we fixed the rubbing and it's fine. You'll have pictures soon enough. I'll send the SD Card next P-Day.
I used my other two good stories in my email but I still got one more. We went over to Sister W's. She was raking massive amounts of leaves and burning them. We helped out. I raked and Elder H tended the fire. Sister W scooped up the piles I made in her wheelbarrow. We cleaned up about 50 or 60 wheelbarrows of leaves. We had quite the fire. Then Sister W got tired of scooping. She was going to set all of the remaining piles on fire. We told her, "No, you need to do it in this fire pit over here." She promised she would watch it and even got a chair and sat in front of the pile. We told her that she might set her grass on fire. She said she didn't have enough grass to catch on fire. We told her it might set the tree above it on fire. She assured us it would be fine. We somehow convinced her to not set everything on fire. She put away her matches and grumbled, "You guys are no fun." We scooped up more leaves and dumped them on the fire. Sister W made a 'hmmm' noise and disappeared. We poked the fire to open up some air holes. Sister W appeared with a gasoline can. I started to say, "Wait, I don't think that's a good idea." and got to "don't" when she started spraying. I have to admit if was kinda cool but then she just threw the whole thing on the fire. My companion backed up and we looked at each other. There was a small bang and a fireball. It was quite awesome actually. We collected the tools and wheelbarrows and brought them back to her trailer. She looked at the wheelbarrow and said, "That's getting to be an old wheelbarrow." She then threw it on the fire. It was pretty funny.
That's pretty much been my week so far. It's pretty rainy right now. We're headed to FHE in not that long.
Here comes the good part. Question and Answer.
Q: Cockroaches?
A: Yes. Moving on...
Q: Car, bike, or both?
A: Both
Q: How much do I love and miss you guys?
A: Loads [picture of dump truck and cement mixer full of love]
Thank you so much for all your letters. I really appreciate them.
Big loves,
Elder Matthew Carlson
Friday, December 2, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
First Letter from the Mission Field
We just received this from Matthew today. It's the first letter he has sent us since he arrived in the mission field. What a wonderful man our little guy has turned into.
Hey y'all!
I think I said that right. I'm working on my "y'all"s and my "all y'all"s. I don't understand "all y'all"s. Y'all is you plus all, right? So "all y'all" means "all you all"? That doesn't make sense. But welcome to the South.
Sorry there will be no pictures this week. I didn't bring my usb cable to the library today. I forgot. :(
But I'm stationed in a tiny little town called Alma. It the home to about 2000 people and reminds me a lot of Philomath, but not as nice. They're some really interesting people here. REALLY interesting people. There's also some very nice people as well as some mean people. Luckily the nice people are more numerous than the mean people. I still haven't had a shotgun in my face, but we came close this one time. That was kinda scary. More about that some other time.
Here's the answer to the question I know you're all dying to ask: Have I seen a cockroach?
The answer: Have I seen a cockroach? Have I seen a cockroach? Let me tell you, I have done more than just see a cockroach, I have battled one in mortal combat. His eyes were menacing and dark. My hair was slick with sweat and my armor was coated in dirt from the day's work. The cockroach charged towards me and I dodged it with a quick sidestep. While the cockroach roared past me, I countered with a blinding attack of light. The cockroach was momentarily dazed by the flash of light. Sensing an opportunity, I charged with my sword raised towards the dazed cockroach. Seeing my advances, the cockroach pulled itself out of it's stupor and began to stampede towards me. As we came closer and closer, the cockroach accelerated to ramming speed so I made a quick plan. Seconds away from the imminent collision, I jumped and cleared the cockroach with my long legs. I rolled over the cockroach's armor plated back and landed heavily on the ground. I stood up quickly, brushed some dirt off, and surveyed the damages. My armored tie had mostly protected me from the cockroach's barbed feelers and powerful ways of grossness but I was still hurt by the ugliness of the cockroach in particular. My tie and my collar stays, while Teflon coated, just could not withstand that sort of firepower. The cockroach rattled like a train going around a corner. It stopped and looked at me as it if was confused. "Why are not squished?" it seemed to say. I raised my sword over my head and yelled my battle cry in retaliation to the cockroach; "THIS. IS. MICRO FIBER!!!" I ran towards the cockroach, sword at the ready. The cockroach, still taken aback by my sure audacity, did not register my advance and was slow to respond. I charged and swung my sword and smote the cockroach down. Then I picked it up with tongs and flushed it down the toilet. I then bowed and claimed my title to be forever known as "Elder Carlson, Cockroach Slayer".
So yeah. I've seen a cockroach. Two actually. I only killed the one though. With a water bottle. It was about the size of my fingernail. The other one I saw was about the size of my palm and I thought about stepping on it, but then my shoe would get really gross. Plus it was HUGE. And it freaked me out.
Alma is an interesting place. It has very few people but has many fast food restaurants. We have DQ, McDonalds, KFC, Pizza hut, Harvey's (it's known as Carl's Jr. back in Oregon), and others. It's kinda funny.
My companion is Elder H. He's a fun guy. He's from Idaho and he's been on a mission for about 10 months. Sometimes I start talking about a movie and he puts his hands in his ears and goes LALALALALALALA. I forget that he hasn't seen some of the more recent ones. On our down time during dinner we like to talk about movies, funny bits, and songs. Luckily for me and for him he likes to sing as well. I think I may have drove Elder P nuts in the MTC. Elder H is pretty silly but he's a good missionary. It's rough sometimes because we can't be out and about on bikes after dark here in Alma. It turns out it's one of the drug capitals of Georgia. We can go out if we have appointments in the car but we only get 700 miles a month. A little under 200 of those miles are used going to the weekly district meeting. Some of our investigators live 16 miles away and that's a little hard to do on bikes since we have to take a highway with no shoulder. It's almost the new month though so we can use our car again. We used it today actually.
The branch is small and we don't have many dinner appointments, or really any, so we've been mostly feeding ourselves. My companion and I are headed to the grocery store after our emails are sent to pick up groceries. I'm excited to get things other than boxed mac and cheese. Skim milk is also something I'm looking forward to. And lettuce. And apples. And fruit. And vitamins. You know, stuff.
Here's one funny story. We went and visited an older gentlemen who is a less active member. For those of you don't know what a less active member is, it means that it's a member of the church who doesn't come to church anymore. We visit them all the time to see how they're doing, help them out if we can, and help them come back to church. Most of the inactive members here have no desire to come back or just can't come for one reason or another that we can't do anything about, so we visit them to just see how they're doing. This was an older gentlemen in a nice house in town. He has two chihuahuas, Radar and Roxy. Roxy is a very mean little dog who doesn't like anybody. Luckily I didn't get bit, which Elder H warned me might happen. Radar is a very.... excited dog. Imagine Scooter but faster, smaller, lickier, and not as smart. He jumps over everything and will claw and squirm his way into your lap and on your head and under your arm. He's very persistent and he never stops moving. He was quite determined to lick every part of my body he could get to. He got my ears quite well. Sitting down on the couch was a mistake. I knew that before I sat down. He was eyeballing me and watching were I was going to sit down. I sat down and he jumped up onto my lap. I pushed him to the other couch cushion and he jumped up on the headrest and ran back and forth between the sides of my head alternating between licking in the left ear and the right ear. I didn't like it but he was fast and whenever I got close to getting him he would run to the other ear. He is called Radar because he has huge ears on the top of his head that just stick up and look like radar dishes. I gave in and petted his belly which he enjoyed for about a second and then began licking my arm. Then he ran and sat on Elder H's lap. Then more licking, then he chased Roxy and growled, then he tried to jump on my head. We were only there for a few minutes and he must of gone several miles in running and jumping. The man we saw was quite nice and we visited with him. He's been working on remodeling his house and he showed us all the changes that he had made. We talked about his extensive lighthouse collection as well as his eagle collection. Interesting guy.
I love you all and miss you. But I believe that what I can share can really help people. It's really helped my life as well as numerous others. I'm a representative of Jesus Christ, doing what He would do if He was in Alma, GA. This message blesses people and helps them understand who they are, who God is, why they're here, and where they are going. More importantly, this message is the way back to our Heavenly Father.
There is a God. I can promise you that. He's our Heavenly Father. I know He's there and He cares for me, and cares for you. He has a Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is my Savior and my Redeemer. He has done for me and for you such an unspeakable act of kindness that we can never repay Him. I know that this is His church restored on the earth today. He leads it and He guides it. We have a prophet today, just like in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, who's name is Thomas S. Monson. The Book of Mormon is another witness of Jesus Christ. It is scripture from God. Every word and every verse is revelation for our day and our age. There is no way a farm boy with a third grade education could have written it. It is a witness that Jesus was, and still is, our Savior. Read it. It is the best book on Earth today. That's why I'm here. To share with people a message, to help them, and to show them the Book of Mormon and invite them to read it. Please read it. Just give it a try. I can promise you that if you read it and pray, you can find out for yourself if it's true.
See you in 23 months.
We also received this picture of Matthew with President and Sister Jensen:
Hey y'all!
I think I said that right. I'm working on my "y'all"s and my "all y'all"s. I don't understand "all y'all"s. Y'all is you plus all, right? So "all y'all" means "all you all"? That doesn't make sense. But welcome to the South.
Sorry there will be no pictures this week. I didn't bring my usb cable to the library today. I forgot. :(
But I'm stationed in a tiny little town called Alma. It the home to about 2000 people and reminds me a lot of Philomath, but not as nice. They're some really interesting people here. REALLY interesting people. There's also some very nice people as well as some mean people. Luckily the nice people are more numerous than the mean people. I still haven't had a shotgun in my face, but we came close this one time. That was kinda scary. More about that some other time.
Here's the answer to the question I know you're all dying to ask: Have I seen a cockroach?
The answer: Have I seen a cockroach? Have I seen a cockroach? Let me tell you, I have done more than just see a cockroach, I have battled one in mortal combat. His eyes were menacing and dark. My hair was slick with sweat and my armor was coated in dirt from the day's work. The cockroach charged towards me and I dodged it with a quick sidestep. While the cockroach roared past me, I countered with a blinding attack of light. The cockroach was momentarily dazed by the flash of light. Sensing an opportunity, I charged with my sword raised towards the dazed cockroach. Seeing my advances, the cockroach pulled itself out of it's stupor and began to stampede towards me. As we came closer and closer, the cockroach accelerated to ramming speed so I made a quick plan. Seconds away from the imminent collision, I jumped and cleared the cockroach with my long legs. I rolled over the cockroach's armor plated back and landed heavily on the ground. I stood up quickly, brushed some dirt off, and surveyed the damages. My armored tie had mostly protected me from the cockroach's barbed feelers and powerful ways of grossness but I was still hurt by the ugliness of the cockroach in particular. My tie and my collar stays, while Teflon coated, just could not withstand that sort of firepower. The cockroach rattled like a train going around a corner. It stopped and looked at me as it if was confused. "Why are not squished?" it seemed to say. I raised my sword over my head and yelled my battle cry in retaliation to the cockroach; "THIS. IS. MICRO FIBER!!!" I ran towards the cockroach, sword at the ready. The cockroach, still taken aback by my sure audacity, did not register my advance and was slow to respond. I charged and swung my sword and smote the cockroach down. Then I picked it up with tongs and flushed it down the toilet. I then bowed and claimed my title to be forever known as "Elder Carlson, Cockroach Slayer".
So yeah. I've seen a cockroach. Two actually. I only killed the one though. With a water bottle. It was about the size of my fingernail. The other one I saw was about the size of my palm and I thought about stepping on it, but then my shoe would get really gross. Plus it was HUGE. And it freaked me out.
Alma is an interesting place. It has very few people but has many fast food restaurants. We have DQ, McDonalds, KFC, Pizza hut, Harvey's (it's known as Carl's Jr. back in Oregon), and others. It's kinda funny.
My companion is Elder H. He's a fun guy. He's from Idaho and he's been on a mission for about 10 months. Sometimes I start talking about a movie and he puts his hands in his ears and goes LALALALALALALA. I forget that he hasn't seen some of the more recent ones. On our down time during dinner we like to talk about movies, funny bits, and songs. Luckily for me and for him he likes to sing as well. I think I may have drove Elder P nuts in the MTC. Elder H is pretty silly but he's a good missionary. It's rough sometimes because we can't be out and about on bikes after dark here in Alma. It turns out it's one of the drug capitals of Georgia. We can go out if we have appointments in the car but we only get 700 miles a month. A little under 200 of those miles are used going to the weekly district meeting. Some of our investigators live 16 miles away and that's a little hard to do on bikes since we have to take a highway with no shoulder. It's almost the new month though so we can use our car again. We used it today actually.
The branch is small and we don't have many dinner appointments, or really any, so we've been mostly feeding ourselves. My companion and I are headed to the grocery store after our emails are sent to pick up groceries. I'm excited to get things other than boxed mac and cheese. Skim milk is also something I'm looking forward to. And lettuce. And apples. And fruit. And vitamins. You know, stuff.
Here's one funny story. We went and visited an older gentlemen who is a less active member. For those of you don't know what a less active member is, it means that it's a member of the church who doesn't come to church anymore. We visit them all the time to see how they're doing, help them out if we can, and help them come back to church. Most of the inactive members here have no desire to come back or just can't come for one reason or another that we can't do anything about, so we visit them to just see how they're doing. This was an older gentlemen in a nice house in town. He has two chihuahuas, Radar and Roxy. Roxy is a very mean little dog who doesn't like anybody. Luckily I didn't get bit, which Elder H warned me might happen. Radar is a very.... excited dog. Imagine Scooter but faster, smaller, lickier, and not as smart. He jumps over everything and will claw and squirm his way into your lap and on your head and under your arm. He's very persistent and he never stops moving. He was quite determined to lick every part of my body he could get to. He got my ears quite well. Sitting down on the couch was a mistake. I knew that before I sat down. He was eyeballing me and watching were I was going to sit down. I sat down and he jumped up onto my lap. I pushed him to the other couch cushion and he jumped up on the headrest and ran back and forth between the sides of my head alternating between licking in the left ear and the right ear. I didn't like it but he was fast and whenever I got close to getting him he would run to the other ear. He is called Radar because he has huge ears on the top of his head that just stick up and look like radar dishes. I gave in and petted his belly which he enjoyed for about a second and then began licking my arm. Then he ran and sat on Elder H's lap. Then more licking, then he chased Roxy and growled, then he tried to jump on my head. We were only there for a few minutes and he must of gone several miles in running and jumping. The man we saw was quite nice and we visited with him. He's been working on remodeling his house and he showed us all the changes that he had made. We talked about his extensive lighthouse collection as well as his eagle collection. Interesting guy.
I love you all and miss you. But I believe that what I can share can really help people. It's really helped my life as well as numerous others. I'm a representative of Jesus Christ, doing what He would do if He was in Alma, GA. This message blesses people and helps them understand who they are, who God is, why they're here, and where they are going. More importantly, this message is the way back to our Heavenly Father.
There is a God. I can promise you that. He's our Heavenly Father. I know He's there and He cares for me, and cares for you. He has a Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is my Savior and my Redeemer. He has done for me and for you such an unspeakable act of kindness that we can never repay Him. I know that this is His church restored on the earth today. He leads it and He guides it. We have a prophet today, just like in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, who's name is Thomas S. Monson. The Book of Mormon is another witness of Jesus Christ. It is scripture from God. Every word and every verse is revelation for our day and our age. There is no way a farm boy with a third grade education could have written it. It is a witness that Jesus was, and still is, our Savior. Read it. It is the best book on Earth today. That's why I'm here. To share with people a message, to help them, and to show them the Book of Mormon and invite them to read it. Please read it. Just give it a try. I can promise you that if you read it and pray, you can find out for yourself if it's true.
See you in 23 months.
We also received this picture of Matthew with President and Sister Jensen:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)