Box Letter

Matthew sent us a box full of goodies and with it this letter. It was very exciting.

Hello family!

This is a box! With stuff!!! Not impressed? Ah well.

Any who, this is a box with some of my Christmas things in it as well as a taste of Georgia.

I sent some grits. In packet form. They're the four different flavors. So you can cook them up and each try a little bit of every one. If you want to put cheese on the original, I suggest pepper-jack. Apparently, it's a big breakfast food, so that's why I haven't had it at a member's home. The fried chicken here is really good. It's chicken that's fried, yes. But it's somehow more than that!

But yeah. Life is good. Like guda cheese. Maybe guoda? Gouda? I'm not sure how to spell that.

Matthew drew a picture of a very important math equation: "Cheese! + Crackers = Mini Sandwich!"

Your Noodlehead in Georgia,
Elder Matthew Carlson

This was found on the back of the letter.

Dinosaur!

Matthew didn't title this handwritten letter but there was a sticker of a dinosaur at the top of his letter and he had labeled it "Dinosaur!" so that seemed like a good title for the post.

Hi Family!

It's kinda weird to be writing a letter, since I just wrote one. I'm sending you things. It's gonna be good! But no email as well. The internet was full. So we decided to come back and do it Tuesday. Haha! It was just all the computers were taken and we had lots of other stuff to do.

Today, I found a new favorite chemical. It's called general purpose cleaner. It's made by Walmart. But it makes things white and smells like the baptistry at the Portland Temple. It's awesome! It's the best! But yeah. There was much scrubbing today. But the fridge is really shiny. You know how I love shiny. But I digress. The other scrubbing I did was on my hands. But I learned a good lesson: Never Buy Cheap Super Glue. The bottle burst and I got a lot on my hands. I was fixing the shower as a piece had broke. I fixed the part while keeping my fingers spread apart. Soon my fingers had a clear shell around each of them. I soaked and rubbed and picked for 20 or 30 minutes. But it's all better now. And I didn't lose much, or really any skin! Blessings!

I really do miss Elder H. He's a great friend now. I'll see him in 2 weeks at zone conference though. Huzzah!

The work is interesting as we're having sort of a backslide. Our investigator with a baptismal date is sort of faltering. We're moving her date back two weeks. It's rough, but she's not ready. She could have been, but she made some poor choices and now she is dealing with consequences. It's rough.

But on the other hand, the branch is awesome! We had fast and testimony meeting and it was great. The spirit was strong! It felt really good. I even bore my testimony. It was good though.

Much love,
Elder Carlson

Boiled Peanuts

I still don't understand the names Matthew has been giving to his letters but here it is anyway. We sure are proud of our Matthew.

HOWDY! How are y'all doing this fine afternoon? Good? Good.

Life is good here in Alma Georgia. It seems like everything just keeps on trucking.

I'm sorry I haven't written a good amount in a while. It's been hectic on p-days with library closings and transfers and stuff going on but it looks like it's settling down until Martin Luther King Jr. day. The library will be closed again but that's okay. I don't think I'll ever have time to cover everything but I'll cover the highlights.

After packing (see picture of packing), we drove to Douglas Tuesday morning. Elder H put on his transfer hat and everything (see picture of Elder H in white hat). We had our last district meeting and it was a good one. We talked a lot about goals and plans. That seems to have really been a prevalent theme recently. Very prevalent actually. Then we took pictures. One picture this week is of Elder B and I. He's our district leader, the one in the used-car-salesman suit. He's great though. He's in Atmore now. Elder H and I spent the rest of the day in Douglas as we didn't really want to use the 50 miles to go there and come back again for that night. So we didn't do a whole lot. We talked to people and did email since we didn't get the chance to on Monday. We did met some members in Walmart (we were there to pick up walmarty things. Alma doesn't have everything we need. Like shower curtains). They invited us over for dinner which was excellent. It was some really good ribs. We came home and slept on the floor. I was particularly privileged to sleep on the carpet which was awesome. I said goodbye to Elder H and Elder B at 5:00 in the morning. I could tell Elder H was really sad but I hadn't even really woken up yet. I don't think I could feel anything at that point. I went back to bed until 6:30. I woke up and exercised. As I was showering, it really hit me that Elder H was gone. Then I got sad.

I spent the rest of the day with Elder Y. In the district picture I sent last week, he's the one in front with the sunglasses. We didn't have a whole lot of missionary work to do but we decided to work still. We cleaned the Douglas house like nobodies business. I swept, dusted, scrubbed, trashed, and just all out cleaned everything. We also moved a large desk to the other side of the house. All the doorways are about 32 inches wide and this desk was 30 inches sideways. It is also very heavy. Needless to say, we took off quite a bit of paint on the door frame. I felt kinda bad about it but looking at the door frame more closely, I realized a lot of missionaries have felt the same thing in the past. We went to lunch at a fantastic little Chinese buffet called The Peking House. They had some really good beef and broccoli. We met a member there who asked us to come and administer to his wife. We went to the hospital and did so. While with Elder Y, I had some good times. I got to know him much better. I had kinda gotten to know him from the MTC but that was the MTC. He's a cool guy and we talked about stuff. He's pretty scholarly.

We tried to see some people later in the evening but they all fell through. We came back and went to sleep. I was pretty exhausted by the time I hit the hay and woke up the next morning. I found my new companion Elder F asleep on the couch. I had a little chat with one of our zone leaders, Elder F, who talked to me about Elder F. I woke up Elder F and we hit the road. After arriving in Alma, a shower was in order and Elder F started to unpack. Planning began and, after a few moments of deliberation, we were off. We visited plenty of the members in the area for the next few days. One interesting note. We are not on bikes at all. We walk and go in the car. I like being designated driver. The only downside is Elder F. He very much wants to drive and to drive fast. I prefer to stay at the speed limit so he calls me a "city boy". He's a big joker. That brings me to my next big highlight. Elder F. See the picture of the blond guy. Elder F is great at just opening his mouth. He can talk to just about anyone. He has a real fire. He doesn't just understand the Gospel but he has internalized it. He just wants to work as hard as he can. I really mean that. Some days I think he just about kills himself. One day he almost did. He just wants to do all the good he can. But in that we are the same. We are both focused on one thing: helping people as best we can.

This whole time in Alma I've really been learning about how much I really have. How much I have been able to obtain and achieve. A significant portion of the people down here, particularly in the poorer parts of town, cannot spell and many did not even graduate high school. I have been able to attend college and to learn calculus and about how tons of stuff works. I've been able to study famous works of art and to go to other countries! Some people here have never been outside of Georgia. I think of the the thousands of people here in Alma that have never once received a Priesthood blessing or been able to go inside the temple. Unaware of what heaven is, who God is, and who they really are. That is what I'm here for. To teach people and help them the best I can.

I love you all!

Elder Matthew Carlson

The Pink Letter

We received this wonderful hand-written letter from Matthew today on bright pink paper.

Hello Family!

As you can see by the lateness and pinkness of the letter, things are a tad bit crazy. I'm in Douglas right now. In their kitchen. With a bowl of candy. It's deliciously bad for me. Elder H and I are having one last conversation. He's really become a really good friend. We're talking about missions and the Atonement. Two of our favorite topics. I'm sad that he's leaving but to every end there is a new beginning.

You have hopefully read my email [the previous post] and read a little bit about what's going on. Unfortunately, my email was deleted and never sent so you received the abridged/condensed version.

But the cool experience I mentioned in my email is this:

We were out on our bikes and stopped at a less active member's house. We knocked on L's door but he didn't answer. We called and reminded him of our appointment but it went to voice mail. We looked at our planners for backup plans but we felt like something was off about our plans. We decided to pray and afterwards we decided to tract the street to the left. Tracting is something we don't do often if at all. Members are much more effective. Missionaries in the past have tracted it over 4 or 5 times. So we tracted. We tried 3 or 4 houses and then knocked on the last house. They invited us in and we taught the Restoration. It was just an awesome lesson. I was a little thrown at first as I'm not used to just "Lesson! Go!". Usually we have appointments and I can prepare mentally. But once we started teaching I was fine. We answered a lot of their questions, gave them copies of the Book of Mormon, and gave them pamphlets. It's just up to them to act on. I prayed about them and I feel good about them. It was two guys. W and D. They were in Alma at their relative's house for the holiday. As they said themselves, this was the perfect time for come and really the only time to come. Hopefully they'll find the Atlanta Elders. But it was cool to see how much the Spirit really plays a role in the work we do. The rest of the week was very low key. Not many lessons or any new investigators :-(.

I did almost have a tree fall on me. We were at Sister W's. We were chopping down trees that day and had cut down 3 or 4. Sister W was chopping another down as we had taken a break on a nearby log. She took a break as it was a very thick oak tree (very hard). It was very close to being chopped down. As she was resting, we heard a loud crack and creaking. The tree started to move. I looked up and noticed the tree was getting closer. It was falling. Towards me! Sister W, realizing our impending squishedness, cried out with a loud voice of warning. Her cry of "ooooo! OOOO! OOOO!" rang in our ears as we jumped up and out of the way. It landed where we had just been sitting mere seconds previous. She later explained that she had been trying to say "move" but due to the sheer panic of almost squishing the Elders, she could only make out "OOO". We had a good laugh about it.

Love,
Elder Carlson

Transferance!

A small letter is way better than nothing at all. It's always so good to hear from Matthew.

This email is going to be short as well. I had typed a longer email but due to computer troubles I sort of lost it all. So here it is once again.

Transfers are here! The madness of the whole thing is once again upon us. This transfer happens to be one of the biggest transfers in the mission. There are dozens missionaries in Alabama headed to Georgia, several from Florida to Alabama and all over. There are only a few people that aren't affected by transfers. Transfers are actually quite nice in Florida. It's one slightly crazy half day and then it's over. Here in Georgia since everything is so far apart, it takes a good two days to get over transfers. For Elder H and I, transfers start Tuesday morning and end Thursday morning. Crazy huh?

Elder H is moving to Moultrie Georgia. It's right near Valdosta but I'm staying in Alma and an Elder F is coming to replace him. I'm very sad to see Elder H go. He's a great missionary and friend. He really taught me a lot. I know he says that I'm training him but I distinctly remember a letter from the mission office he received that said "Trainer" on it. I'm going to miss him and hope we can be companions again in the future. We are still in the same zone so we can still see each other.

This week was a rough one for him and I. Most of our investigators were gone this week for vacation. We did a lot of finding and it didn't produce a whole lot of fruit but we planted seeds. It was good. We had this one really cool experience one day but I don't have time to retype it.

I'll see if I can write you a letter later today or not. I really don't know what'll happen the next couple of days or even what I'm doing after this.

Thank you so much again to everyone who sent Christmas cards and presents. I tried to sent thank you letters, but I may have missed some of you.

Remember that I love you all and that I miss you.

Elder Carlson

The Holiday Madness

I don't have much time. About maybe 5 or 10 minutes. But I am emailing to let you know that I'm still alive n' stuff. So don't worry too much. But I had a great Christmas and it was awesome to see and talk to all of you! I wish I could have talked longer but that's okay. I need to be more grateful for what I receive. Speaking of receiving things, thank you everyone who sent me a Christmas gift! You will be receiving thank you cards sometime next next week (yeah it's crazy).

I send some pictures in this email, but I don't have time to explain them. You're going to have to figure out what they all mean. I will be sending another memory card home next week. I recorded all 40 minutes of Christmas in 1080p. Really nice, but it takes up TONS of space on my card. I think I'll start doing videos in 720p.

Life is good though. Transfers are next week so Elder H and I might split up :( but such is life. I'll write a long letter explaining the last two weeks next Tuesday.

Chow all y'all! :)

Turns out I have a little more time than I thought. Anyway. I'll tell you a little about what's going on here in Alma. For Christmas we went over to the P's as I mentioned before. Very nice family who loves the missionaries.

Looks like I got to go.

With love,
Elder Carlson

Christmas Skype

We were able to video Skype with Matthew this morning. It was wonderful to see his smiling face and hear his laugh. It seems like he's doing very well and enjoying his service. He really likes the members of the Church in Alma. He had a great Christmas and enjoyed his gifts. Elder H's mom made him a stocking which was very nice. He said they had more than one invitation for Christmas dinner so we're interested to hear how that went. He told us that riding bikes in Alma is a bit of a challenge because there are no bike lanes and they live a mile or so out of town. He also told us that they live in one of the nicest apartments in the whole mission so he will almost certainly have some interesting experiences when he is transferred. Our time on Skype went all too quickly and we had to say goodbye.


Matthew had been joking before he left that we ought to make a cardboard version of him as a stand-in for while he was gone. So we did make a cardboard Matthew (picture below with the other kids and Scooter) before Christmas. I think it turned out quite nice and we had a lot of fun before and during Christmas with cardboard Matthew.