It's me Elder Carlson in Daphne Alabama. It's been a good week and it's going well. Daphne is a good place and our new ward mission leader is doing a great job! We're working on a ward mission plan and it's looking up. Both Elder W and I feel like we can make a difference here in Daphne. We just need to get the members here excited and focused on sharing the Gospel. I feel they trust us and like us which is fantastic. I would love to be able to work with the bishop a little more closely. He's just soooo busy. It's not even funny. He's a great guy.
But yeah, I'm doing good. I'm loving my mission. It's the best. I thought about it this morning and realized how much I've grown. It's quite amazing. Just in the past few weeks I feel I have grown much in my spiritual strength and in peace. It's a strange idea I know; to grow in peace. But it really is true. The Gospel offers peace. It's up to us to take it. It's not easy but it's the best value in the end.
Father B came to church on Sunday! He's an old retired Catholic priest that we met with. He's already had the discussions and has been meeting with missionaries for a while. We go over every once in a while and answer questions he has. He came! He was very impressed and enjoyed it.
We have been working with several people. There are also a few families we are working on getting back to church. One in particular we feel has some good potential and we are working on getting them to the temple. Brother B has a testimony and is just an awesome guy. He's super friendly and I think will probably do anything for us. He just lets other stuff get in the way of church. We're working on it though =).
There's another guy we meet with every once in a while. He used to be a minister. He almost joined the Church but backed out. He told us the quote of "Don't care how much you know until they know how much you care" which I kind of liked.
PICTURE TIME!
Sofie sent me a Mr. Bacon and Elder W's button almost matched it so we fashioned a suit and headband so they did match (see first picture).
I haven't been using as much money as I usually do so I'd had a bit of excess (we're fed quite well). A new healthy/fancy/organic food market opened up and we stopped by as we were looking for a less active young man who we're encouraging to serve a mission (it would just absolutely transform his life. I've seen those who don't go on missions. There are two outcomes: flounder or regret. They either just flop around with no purpose or direction and not really amount to anything or turn their life around and just live in regret for the rest of their life. They tell me "I regret not going on a mission every day". Sorry, don't mean to doom and gloom, but seriously; SERVE A MISSION). We went inside and found that gelato was buy one get one free. So we did. It's fantastic. The mint was kinda weird but the cookie crunch was amazing (see second picture).
We watched Preach My Gospel videos and ate aforementioned ice cream this morning (see third picture). It was great. =)
Beautiful nature shots (see fourth and fifth pictures) taken by Elder W.
We went on a quest for ties and instead found a very unsightly shirt (see sixth picture).
It was very cold and I wanted to get my feet warm (I didn't want to put on socks quite yet) so I filled a tub with hot water. It twas most pleasant (see seventh picture). Elder W joined later.
Part of my talk was about a broken heart and a contrite spirit. In other words, being humble and submissive to the will of Heavenly Father and the counsel of those He has chosen to lead and direct us. In essence - being willing to change. Of course you can't be truly be forgiven unless you're willing to change. Of course you can't become that person that Heavenly Father wants and needs you to be unless you're willing to change. That's what life is about: repenting or changing! Jesus Christ's two-fold mission was to both empower and lead the way. To give us an example to move towards and the power beneath us to lift us up. We just have to be willing to move, change our direction, and rely on Him in order to move forward.
I love and miss you all!
Elder Matthew Carlson
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| Mr Bacon and Friend |
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| Super Yummy Gelato |
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| Eating the Super Yummy Gelato |
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| What would President Jensen think? |
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| Ahhhh! |
