I am a Georgia Macon Missionary. Unless something crazy happens. But it looks like that is not the case. It's transfers again this week and it looks like Elder K is getting transferred to the Douglas 1st Ward to serve with Elder S. I'm staying in Tifton to serve with Elder S (yep- I know it's confusing). This week was an eventful one so without further ado, I'll get started.
Sunday (16th) there was a very funny event I didn't cover in last weeks letter. After church we were standing in the foyer and I was talking to some members when all the sudden over the PA system I heard a loud voice that sang "I AM A CHILD OF GOD! AND HE! HAS SENT ME HERE!" I was somewhat confused so I walked into chapel where I found a 4 year old girl playing with and singing into the microphone while her sister went to town on the piano. I had a good laugh and walked out of the chapel and listened to the rest of the song. "HAS GIVEN... HOME! PARENTS KIND DEAR! no. NO! NOOOO!!!.... AHHHHHhhhhhhh!!!...." as her dad went in and grabbed her from the chapel. It was just funny. We also had dinner at the N's that day and had more food that I would care to admit. I'll give you a quick run down of the menu. Ham, rice and cheese, black eye peas (they're actually beans), ham, squash casserole, brussels sprout casserole, boiled okra, creamed corn, sweet potato casserole (it's not actually a casserole but I can't figure out what else to call it), potato salad, tomato okra soup, injected turkey, coconut pudding and a few other things. You can see the picture below. I managed to walk away but I was very full. But otherwise, it was a good day. Church was good. They had a breakfast for all the dad's in the wards to which we were invited. They also gave everyone ceramic tiles with sayings on them and I picked one that I thought it would be fitting [Matthew sent the tile to his Dad. The tile reads, "A father is someone you can look up to no matter how tall you grow"]. The food was great! French toast sticks, fruit, and the best sausage I've ever had. It was called Georgia's best and I decided when I come back to tour the mission, I'm getting some.
Monday (17th) was interesting. I was in a rush with my email (thankfully today isn't so rushed) and I wrote President Jensen's email in about 20 seconds (we have to email him every week). It wasn't long or profound but it worked. I got some new contact solution as it was on sale at Walgreen's and we were in there to pick up a prescription for Elder K. So I should be good on solution for probably the rest of my mission. I also experimented with and tested my tie washing machine. I used an old hot chocolate can and washed it out really good. I filled it with detergent and warm water. After placing the tie in it, I shook it. A few minutes after shaking it, I went through a few rinse cycles and I hung them up to dry. They turned out quite well and some of the ties (particularly the ones I came out with and wear frequently were a little dingy so they look really good now). We had dinner with the F's which was quite interesting. We had some guests show up half way through and we talked to them for a little bit (they were friends with Sister F's son) and we encouraged them to come to church. I also received a very nice package from Elder T up in Canada which included among other things a fantastic book called Brother Lurch From The Church. It's based on a well known novel by Dr. Seuss and has a great moral in it. I sent it home for protection as well as Carlson family enjoyment. It's a great read though.
Tuesday (18th) we had district meeting in Moultrie which is about 45 minutes away from Tifton. We had to leave around 9:00 to be there by 10. It was a good meeting and Elder H (the district leader) did a great job. It mostly revolved around having better studies. We had to do a role play about the Gospel of Jesus Christ in 150 words or less which was actually harder to count the words than it was to do. We stopped in Omega on the way back up since we don't get to go there often and we were going to go through Omega anyway. It's a very small town (a one gas station and no traffic lights kind of town). Sadly most people weren't home so we walked around a lot. We came back and had lunch during which we prepared for our next lesson (we needed it). We came back to the P's as they had invited us back and they invited us in. We talked for a few moments about life and talked about how Mr P became a youth pastor. Elder K asked if we could say a prayer before we began discussing our message. He looked at us "I mean you can but I don't think we'd even been praying to the same God." That's when the flags went up. Luckily, we kept our cool and answered all the questions in a non confrontational way. It was pretty intense at some points. Everything from the pre-mortal world to the Trinity. There were a few anti-Mormon questions thrown in but Elder K did a great job of answering them. I was blessed to remember where several scriptures that really helped us out were- particularly some less well know ones (thank you James E Talmage and Jesus The Christ). It was a good visit and we were relatively proud walking away that we had peacefully held our own in the face of adversity. We'll see how things turn out. We walked home to be picked up by the Sisters to go to dinner when the M's called and said, "We're 6 miles away. Where is your apartment?". We were super confused (at least I was as I have the phone most of the time). The M's are the office couple in Tallahassee and they don't usually travel. After some confusion, we guided them to our apartment as their GPS was out of date and didn't have our street on it. They dropped off some bikes for Elder K and I as well as some supplies (Elder K's bike was declared totaled in a sense. The threads on his fork connecting to his handle bars are basically gone and they are slowly attempting to separate. Elder B- the mission's bike guy- declared it to be more expensive to fix than the bike was worth). Elder M dropped off the bike and Elder K asked, "So, what do I owe you?" Elder M (ever the jokester) looked at him and asked, "What are you willing to pay?" "Well to quote you- I'll pay you with my good looks." Elder M laughed and said, "GOOD LOOKS? You're bankrupt buddy!" It was really funny. Elder M is just really goofy. After we squared away supplies and bikes, we went to dinner. They weren't there so we came back and had dinner at the apartment (a frozen casserole the Young Women had made for us).
I'm really hurrying here so it's going to get generic- sorry =(
Wednesday (19th) we had an intense companionship inventory- it was really good and we resolved many things that had been coming up. We had a good day in Ashburn with Brother T. We had Zaxby's for dinner (someone brought it) while waiting for coordination meeting. It turned out nobody come so we ate dinner and went back out to work.
Thursday (20th) was tiring. We dug up a traffic cone during morning exercise that we had been working on for a few days now (someone buried most of traffic cone and it was just poking out so we pulled it out). We set it on the Sisters front door to leave it as a present for them (they did mention that they wanted it though so it's all good). We had a long weekly planning session but we worked out some good stuff. I got mail also from all the 701, 201, and 101 addresses and it was nice to read them [We had originally been given a couple of different but incorrect addresses for Matthew's apartment in Tifton before we got it right]. We had splits with Brother D and we visited some great people. We were a little late as we found someone really cool named S. We'll see what happens. Sister W dropped off some Japanese food (notice all the food drop offs) which was amazing! I love it so much. We had a quick dinner and got some family history training online which was good.
Friday (21st) we drove to Walmart to get a pump. Elder K's new bike uses presta not schreader valves and we didn't have the required adapter. So we got a new pump and Elder K pumped up his tires and got ready to go to Slyvester. We did a bit of tracting and I talked to one guy but it was really awkward- he just tried to not look at me and didn't say anything. We made the drive and had a great day in Slyvester! Every door that opened up invited us back and we talked to many people who were really nice. There's a lot of work to be done there but it's sad because it's far away. We had a very long potential list we didn't even really make a dent in so we had plenty to do. We dropped off the Sisters, parked in the middle of town, biked to our apartment to eat some dinner of PB&J, (3 miles) biked back and went to Raul (5 miles) and he asked us to come back Tuesday. We biked back to the car (1 mile) and drove home (driving was nice). I was feeling a bit down and a little lonely (Elder K and I were still working things out). I learned that the Lord is always my friend and that knowledge is a priceless gift I now have to help me out in the hard times.
Saturday (22nd) we went to Fitzgerald and it was a good day. Elder K decided for lunch we would put hot dogs on the car engine to cook them. We arrived and I ate 3 out of the 4 foil wrapped hot dog packages with four hot dogs each. Sister S said she could eat 3 or 4 hot dogs when Elder K asked her how many she could eat on Monday. She was very confused and said "I said that? I said I could eat 3?" It was funny. The four packages of hot dogs had slipped into the engine and Elder K and I tried to fish them out (there's a picture coming- Elder K with a stick and me holding Elder K's tie). We ended up pushing them farther into the engine and we later fished them out on Monday (see the second and third picture below). We rode and visited many people. My bottom hurt pretty bad from having a new seat I wasn't used to all yesterday but I endured. We visited M who wasn't really interested anymore as she just can't see Joseph Smith as a prophet because he's not in the Bible. We talked and explained which helped out immensely. When we arrived she asked us not to come back and when we left she said when we came back she would have more questions. Every time we visit she gets a little softer. She's a good lady and I'm hopeful for her. =) We did encounter some difficulties in Fitz, one of them being Sister D's bike pedal fell off. We went to a rougher part of town and made sure to lock up our bikes. We were walking down the street and probably a four year old called out "Those your bikes? I'm going to steal your bikes!" I replied, "You'll have to try pretty hard- we locked them up good!" It was funny. =) I did almost get hit by a drunk driver though. Twice. By the same one. Luckily they swerved to the other side of the street. We had dinner at the F's which was good! We had a good time. It was taco salad with really spicy guacamole. I didn't figure out that the guacamole was the spicy part so I kept putting more on to try and cool it down. It was really good though. Elder K was pretty worn out- I've been running him into the ground.
Sunday(23rd) was good. We had a good day at church and many important things happened. I'll get to it next week.
I know I'm behind. I'll get to it next week. Elder S and I are getting along well! Things are good! I hope and wish you all the best!
LOVE YOU!
Elder Matthew Carlson
