I don't have much time since we have to be leaving soon, but I'll write what I can.
The day before I left Alma, I took some pictures with all the peoples, some of them including S and Brother D. S in an investigator who Elder F and I taught who is getting baptized on the 26th (see the first picture). Brother D is a very nice member who we visited and answered his questions. He gave us a lot of food which was nice (see the second picture). Then I got on the transfer van at 5 in the morning and I left Georgia.
But it was a long ride on the transfer vans. I say vans as I drove about 6 hours to Pensacola, then got on the other transfer van to get to Mobile since the one I was on didn't go all the way to Mobile. I arrived in Mobile and we went and visited some people since we had stuff to do. Elder O, my new companion, is awesome. He reminds me a lot of one of my roommates in college. Except my roommate played guitar and Elder O plays ukulele. He's really funny and is a good missionary. He's pretty silly and it's fun. We have some good laughs.
Mobile the city is very interesting. It's a big city and it's very nice. I enjoy tracting much more than I did in Alma or Tallahassee. People are very willing to at least listen to our message. Accept it is another story but they'll listen. We're really working on building this area up as it has really been struggling and we visit a lot of less actives and part member families.
But you know what is really crazy? Mardi Gras. It was p-day and some members offered to take us downtown. We asked president and he said go for it so we did. When we got there, I knew things were going to be crazy. There were lights strung up in sort of ceiling (see the third picture). After a half an hour of waiting, Mardi Gras happened. There were dozens of floats, several bands, lots of drinking and smoking, and hundreds of people in costumes throwing beads and moon pies at my face (see the fourth picture). Why? I don't know. Did I want them? Yes. By the end of Mardi Gras, Elder O, Elder N, Elder W, and I were all jumping up and down, shouting for them to throw various things at us. All in good fun of course. I received many moon pies, about 3 or 4 pounds of beads and lots of candy. Elder O and I felt pretty cool with our multitude of beads (see the fifth picture). We had a good time though.
We had a mission conference yesterday on Tuesday and a member of the Seventy came and talked to us. It was a good conference and we were really tired when we arrived back in Mobile.
But now I must close.
I love and miss you all,
Elder Matthew Carlson
