Another Letter (finally)!

Hello Momsie and Popsicle!

It’s me. Your son. I’m writing a letter to let you know I am indeed still alive. I know the previous statement is a little obvious, but it’s been awhile since my last letter. Like 2 or 3 weeks. So long that I can’t even remember. It’s been that long.

But things are good in Mobile. I’ve pretty much adjusted. I wouldn’t say I’m comfortable, but it’s not totally different.

Elder O is really cool! He kind of reminds me of Michael a bit except he doesn’t make puns. He does talk in a British accent for fun though. He’s pretty tall but not as tall as me. He’s about Dad’s height. He used to be a swimmer and he’s been out on his mission for 20 months. He remembers the mission president before President Jensen. He’s that old. He’s going home in June. He’s also very tired. I sometimes have to give him a little nudge but he works hard.

Anyway, I promised you a really long letter next time so this one is going to a long one. I’m thinking I’ll just spew whatever is on my mind right now. So there’s not going to be a whole lot of organization. The foremost thought on my mind is S. He’s the investigator from Alma. He got baptized and confirmed yesterday. When I read that in an email at the library, it brought some tears to my eyes. I didn’t let them fall. But now I understand what Elder F said about the joy from seeing souls enter the waters of baptism. It brings me unspeakable joy. I wish almost more than anything that I could be there when they’re sealed a year from now. He was making plans to attend the temple in a year even before he was baptized.

Mobile is a very interesting place. Many people in the ward are not active. There are some strong members though who want to help. President Jensen is sending missionaries that he trusts in to build up the ward. Looking back at my training, I think I’m kind of uniquely qualified. Elder H taught me to work with members and Elder F taught how to go and find people. I think both those techniques and styles will come in handy. But I thank the Lord for qualifying me for this area (if you can’t tell, I’m working on my humility). We visit a lot of less-active members. Lots! We also visit a lot of part member families. They come to church every Sunday, have been taught the lessons, know the church is true, but for some reason don’t get baptized. It’s kinda strange. We have 2 or 3 here in Mobile and one back in Alma. [Matt drew a really cute picture of himself as a builder missionary with a hard hat carrying a hammer]

Lately I've heard some rather lame excuses from people. My response is "Fried Chicken!" Let me explain. It’s a joke from President Park when I was in Alma. The joke goes like this, “A certain man always borrowed everything from his neighbor and he never returned it. One summer day the neighbor came home with a brand new ride-on lawnmower. Of course, late in the evening, this man came knocking on his neighbor’s door. “Can I borrow your mower?” The neighbor replied “No, we’re having fried chicken.” He then shut the door and went back to the dinner table. His wife looked at him, “We’re having fried chicken? What kind of excuse is that?” The neighbor picked up his chicken and said “It's about as good as any other excuse.” It’s a funny little joke and whenever we made any sort of excuse President Park would say “Fried Chicken!” It was funny. [Matthew drew pictures of two guys playing basketball, a ride-on mower and a chicken drumstick]

But it’s kinda fun having another set of elders who are really close by. They are in our ward, but they work up in Saraland. They stay with some members, the V's. Sister V makes amazing cookies! They’re just awesome.

But time for some crazy stories! The first story is about a less active family we visited. The F's are really nice but they’re really interesting. We went over and met with a non-member who is sort of related to the F's. But while we were over there the friend was talking to us about Catholicism and talking about temples. She’d ask us questions but wouldn’t give us time to answer. We were sitting in their living room and she went off to check on some rice she was cooking. We started to talk to a guy named R who was also a non-member. We heard a huge crash and the friend broke her finger since the pot lids came out and landed on her finger. She came in and was putting ice to it. The ice cube was in a little rabbit thing. She called it a ‘boo boo bunny’. Sister F got a finger splint but her friend didn’t want it. Then some poor person called the friend’s phone. She picked it up and immediately shouted “It's @$#% Broken!” The person must have said “What?” because she shouted “my finger!” She used several words that I can’t say and then told the person “It’s a bad time! My finger is broken and I’m trying really hard not to swear since the Mormon missionaries are here”. Sister F picked this as an excellent opportunity to jump on top of her friend and try to shove the finger brace on it. After a few minutes of intense struggle, Sister F got the brace on. She left to get some athletic tape. The friend threw the brace off. She and Sister F made a splint out of a plastic spoon and some gauze. While this was going on some guys came through with some pieces of armor and went into the backyard to modify them a bit. They apparently have a hobby of beating people with sticks. They do medieval reenactments. It was just crazy. Elder O and I just kind of sat there, not quite sure what to do. He looked at me and I said “I have no idea what to do.” He shrugged and said “Neither do I”. It was just a crazy situation.

We were over at the M’s house the same night and they had really, really good grits. They were cheesy, gooey and delicious. Probably the best grits I’ve had. I actually kind of like grits now. Anyway, I ate probably about a bowl and a half of these grits and I complimented Brother M on his grits and smiled. Then he leaned a bit closer and said, “Do you know the secret to grits?” “No.” He smiled and gave me the secret ingredients to his super grits, “Heavy cream and a stick of butter.” There weren’t a whole lot of grits in the recipe to start with so it was really bad for me. They were really good though. I didn’t eat much after that.

This month we are completely out of miles! It’s nuts. It’s tough to visit everyone or really anyone who lives more than 2 miles away. Unfortunately that is 80-90% of the ward. There is kind of a large sparse space around where we live. No bueno :-(. I’m cool with walking but Elder O is somewhat reluctant. I wish we could just ride our bikes but apparently President Jensen has asked us not to. Next time I see him, I‘ll ask him if we can. Anyway.

Things are good here in Mobile. I miss you guys a lot, but I made up my mind that I’m gonna be here for 2 years no matter what. I love you all and wish you the best in your endeavors!

Love,
Elder Carlson/Matthew (not sure what I go by these days)

Quick Mobile Update

Hello there!

I don't have a whole lot of time and I already wrote a decent sized letter that should be in Oregon soon. I talk about most things in there.

Fun fact about Mobile: you have to be an Alabama and Auburn fan. You can't be undecided. I was over at the V's the other night and in order to get dessert you had to be an Auburn fan (they're big BYU and Auburn fans). I didn't even know who Alabama and Auburn were until about 3 days ago so I didn't really know a whole lot about either. The dessert in question was homemade ice cream with fudge. It looked really good. Needless to say, I quickly sided with Auburn and ate the delicious iced cream. It was really good.

Elder W got strep throat and we think he gave it to Elder O. I was worried that I was going to get it since I had a runny nose this morning. Elder O handed me a packet of 1000mg vitamin C. He told me to drink it. I did and it was awful. Since vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin, your body doesn't absorb that much of it. So I decided to put some protein powder in there to help it stick. That was a bad idea. The whole drink just made me shudder. After a few sips, I realized that I was never going to finish it if I just went by sips. I decided to be a man. I drank it all. I will not be doing so again.

But things in Mobile are looking up. We have a dozen referrals to contact, some investigators with promise, and 17 pages of less actives to see. There's much to do and we're the guys to do it. The Bishop here is really great and is trying to help us out as best he can.

(see Picture #1) This is Sister W. She was the lady that we chopped down trees with in Alma. She was out of town when I left so I didn't get a picture with her. So I talked to Elder H and he sent me a picture of us that he took when he left.

(see Picture #2) This is Elder O with a puppy. The puppy in question is a Beagle/Chihuahua mix. We were at missionary coordination and Brother S just happened to bring his brand new puppy since he didn't want to leave it alone and the meeting was at Brother P's house. I started to pet it and he said "you wanna hold her?" "Yeah!" A few seconds later, I was the proud holder of an 11 week old puppy. I petted it and it enjoyed that but soon I had to focus on the meeting. The puppy became bored and wandered over to Elder O's lap and found attention there. So it stayed and I took a picture.

Thank you so much for the words of encouragement and support, even if I don't write a letter back (sorry). They really do help and make me feel a bit better.

I hope all is going well there in Oregon and Utah and where ever else you may be reading this.

Remember that I miss and love you all,
Elder Matthew Carlson