Flying by!

Things are just zooming right on by! It seems as though the weeks are just melting together into a giant blob of missionary work. I'll ask Elder B about "Oh yeah, we saw that person on,...Thursday?" "I think it was on Tuesday" *checks planner* "Oh. It was Wednesday." Anyway, just crazy. I just gotta keep chugging on. =)

But I've been doing pretty decent. It's been a productive week and were trying to do our best. I don't always do everything perfect but hey, I did the best I could do at that time. It was pretty cool. I decided that tracting and our usual approaches to find people weren't working so I decided to ask for a media referral to a family who was ready to hear the Gospel. The next morning we got an HQ referral for someone who wanted a Bible. We stopped by today and they seem pretty interested but we'll talk to her in a few weeks about how her reading in the Book of Mormon is going.

President Jensen has really been encouraging us to become scripture scholars and memorize scriptures. I've memorized 25 scriptures so far! I have all the articles of faith and some of the Book of Mormon scripture masteries. It's kinda cool to be able to whip them out as need.

Sorry I don't have too many pictures. It's been rather rainy and I don't take my camera with me as often. I got drenched one day. It was nice to come home and put on dry clothes. We've been getting fed pretty well by the ward. They've given us groceries if they can't have us over that week which is really nice.

Last week, we went to the thrift store and Elder B got 8 ties. I got one tie. This one (see first picture). It's nice but I didn't notice it was silk. They get ruined in the rain so I don't usually wear them all that often. I really like the CTR Clothing ties. They're very durable, hold up nicely, and, as far as I've been able to tell, are fundamentally indestructible.

It's also been rather hot some of the days this week. One day in particular it was hot and we came in for lunch but neither of us wanted to really move so we sat down for a cold drink. Elder B decided his face could use some cooling off and I took a picture (see second picture).

That's pretty much all I got for this week. Sorry - it wasn't very exciting.

But I miss you all!
Sincerely,
Elder Matthew Carlson

Pensacola Nights, Like Pensacola Days

Shalom and good evening to you my friends! Welcome to my letter, center of stories and wonder.

Haha, I'll stop now.

Hello to all of you. I didn't get a letter out last week but I here's this weeks (complete with pictures). Before I start, a bit of humor.

This story is from Brother R who was in the airforce for many years. He hold us of one time that he was flying a top priority scramble. He and his copilot hopped in the plane and got in the air. After a few thousand feet he noticed a bee in the cockpit. After mentioning this to the copilot, the copilot explained rather panicky "I'm deathly allergic to bees! If it stings me I'll die!" He wanted to land but Brother R wasn't going to abort a high priority mission for a bumble bee. "Just keep climbing. I won't agitate it." So they kept climbing and once they reached about 45,000 feet. He hit the depressurize cabin button. The bee was hovering right above his face and he said the bee grew bigger and bigger and then popped! It was hilarious.

Things have been good here in Pensacola. Elder B and I are continuing to do our best and find those who want to listen. If I could, I would just serve and teach all the time. But alas, I do other stuff. Like meetings and contacting potential investigators, and tract. We're hanging in there and having some fun as we go.

We were helping the old people play bingo and Elder B had this one lady who was really funny. The employee would call "B 15!". This lady would look at her card and notice she had a ten as well as a five (her column was something like this 3-7-10-5-12). She then asked if she could move the 5 and put it in the 10 to make 15. Elder B laughed and said no. We have some fun stories about the bingo people.

I don't have much longer, so on to pictures!

We were biking across the street when I heard a loud bang behind me. At first I thought it was a car backfiring but I realized it came directly behind me and the only thing directly behind me was Elder B. I rationalized that bikes don't backfire and was confused. I looked back and saw Elder B in the middle of the street, stuck. It turns out his bike had indeed, backfired. One of his gears split in half and his bike locked up. He got off and wheeled it off the street to inspect it. That's when we saw the damage (see the first picture). It's fixed now but it remained like that several days since it was a bike from CTR Bikes. Their customer service is terrible. Elder B gave up and paid for it out of pocket.

Elder G and I (see the second picture) together for almost the last time. He's doing well in Madison and is enjoying his new companion.

We were biking the other day and stopped for a water break and I spied a really cool cloud with the sun coming through. The camera actually did it some justice and I enjoyed the effect (see the third picture).

I never sent any pictures of the naval air museum so here's one of me in an airplane (cockpit)! (see the fourth picture). I'll send the rest of the pictures home on an SD card here pretty soon.

I love and miss you all!
---
Elder Matthew Carlson

Drinkin' a big ole' glass of P-Cola

HOWDY! :D

Things are going pretty good here in Pensacola. We're working on finding, as our investigators seem to have disappeared. They all moved away, stopped progressing, or dropped off the face of the earth. Ah well. We're going to have to hit the books and hit the streets. We'll rack our brains and figure out a good way to get things done. People are out there and we just have to find them.

I'm doing fine and am healthy and well. I'm not too fat (yet) and am working on maintaining my money and size. I only got $20 of groceries this week! That's pretty good. I can spend $30 a week! That includes haircuts, stamps, other food, and any other expenses.

Nothing too terribly exciting happened. Things did happen. I got a letter from Stephanie! That was exciting. Elder G left and Elder B came. We ride out bikes a lot. Someday I'll have a car again, but until then I BIKE! I'm considering asking president if I could buy a little 20cc gas engine for my bike. Just for the hills. =)

I do have some pictures today, but the computer and my camera got in a fight and now they won't talk to each other. =( Next time though. =)

I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!

Elder Matthew Carlson

And the cycle continues...

Well, it's transfers. In a nutshell, I'm staying in Pensacola. Why? I don't know. President Jensen told me when I got transferred here that he didn't know why. Elder G is leaving for Madison and Elder B is coming. I think I've heard his name once but I've never met him. It seems as though I'm never able to hold on to a companion for very long. I'm not complaining or anything, I'll go where I am needed and with whom I'm needed. It just seems that I am destined to move around much in my time here. We'll see what happens. I like Pensacola. I think there are some wonderful members here and there is much to do and a large pile of work to be done. Someone has to do it.

Anyway, it twas an most exhalirating week. We had some success and were able to put in our efforts and were able to reap somewhat. We recieved a referral for a fantastic lady who is really excited about the Gospel and about the church. Her name is J. She found the church from the TV show "Sister Wives". She watched and correctly reasoned that there is no way that we actually did that. So she started investigating the church, bought a copy of the Book of Mormon from a thrift store and began to read it. She has read most of mormon.org already. She's even already halfway through 2 Nephi in only a couple weeks! She's very smart and has already done much research and already know tons. I think it's really cool how whenever we ask her "Do you have any questions?"; she often says "There are no questions, just answers". It just really helped me out. Most of my efforts here on my mission are devoted to finding and helping people like her. It's pretty cool. =)

I really have learned so much and changed/grown significantly in my time here on my mission. I can feel that I'm a different person, and I just have to trust in the Lord that I've grown in a postive direction.

In other news, I had lamb the other day! It was actually really good. It had eggplant with it and everything. It wasn't very lamby though, it just tasted like meat with tomatos and eggplant. It was really good though.

Thank you for sending the salad recipe! I also have a recipe. =) It's for Dad. It's from Brother J and it's very simple.

BROTHER J'S COOKIES

1 batch of chocalate chip cookie dough
An oven

1. Make chocalate chip cookie dough.
2. Seperate dough into two parts.
3. Bake half of the dough in cookie shape for the required time
4. After pulling cookies out of the oven, smear the remaining cookie dough on top of the baked cookie.
5. Enjoy. =)

I hope you all have a wonderful week and know that I miss you. A lot.
Love,
Elder Matthew Carlson

Enthusiasm Means ‘God in You’

HELLO FAMILY!

How you doing? =)

This week has been pretty good and I've enjoyed it. We kind of had a lull in the work but we worked hard and persevered and it looks like things are going to start picking up. I'm really, really happy about that.

It rained a ton! We had to stay inside one for the most of one day- President's orders. It was flooding and you just could not get to some parts of town. It was crazy. I survived and it looks like that it's going to clear up.

We went to the airplane museum and there were more airplanes than I can count. I tried to take pictures of a few of them but there were far too many. Unfortunately for Elder G, they had many engines (prop and jet alike) displayed. Oftentimes sawed in half so that you could see the inner workings of each one. They had plaques that explained some of the history of the engine. I wanted to stop and look at each which quickly frustrated Elder G. We made it through the engine section and had fun sitting in the cockpits of planes (see first image). It was fun but man was it cramped in there (see second image). I kind of want to learn how to fly planes now though.

Here me is triumphantly with my free bagels (see third image).

Sorry, I don't have much time this week.

Here is a quote from Zach C that he sent me which I found pretty cool.

Float on by faith and hold on 'til Zion,
Jump into the tempest and fight it like lions.
Cleave unto light and cov'nants remember,
Fight! Fight for Israel, for God, and forever!

Love and miss you all!

-Elder Matthew Carlson

Matt the Fighter Pilot

Cramped Cockpit

Free Bagels!!!

Lots and Lots of Fried Things

Well, for starters let me add to the ever growing list of "Southern Food that I tried that is really bad for me". I have now had fried ice cream. It was actually pretty good. It had a cinnamony outside that was kinda crunchy, whipped cream on the outside, and a fried... something that functioned as a bowl for the ice cream. It was good, but I'm sure very very fattening. Luckily I've been biking a whole lot and jogging in the mornings so I think I'll be okay.

The good news of this week is that Sister B, one of the investigators we have been working with, is getting really really close to baptism! She just needs to pick a date that works for her schedule. She's really cool, she loves the church and has a testimony, quit smoking, and is just ready. So hopefully that will be pretty soon. I'm excited =).

This week was a little sad at the beginning until about Thursday. Up until that point, I hadn't gotten any mail in a while. Then I received a nice letter from Sofie! Yay! Then the next day a whole BOX came for me as well as a few other letters. I was really excited to say the least. Thank you for the wonderful gifts from the magic Disney-power land.

There are some really awesome member here that I just love. They are the M's, the J's, and the F's. Let me tell you about the J's.

Brother J is a software developer for his company. He's a really cool guy. Sister J is a really nice lady who loves musicals and works in the stake youth leadership. They took us out to sushi at a nice sushi restaurant since it was "cheat day". They're on a diet where they can't eat carbs or sugar, that sort of thing, but they have one day a week where they can literally eat everything they want. I think I ate more than 2 rolls of sushi all in all. It was a ton. It was really good sushi, some of the best I've ever had. One of them even had fish eggs on top. I ate that too. Sister E is Brother J's mom. She's from Finland and she is fantastic. We were over at the J's and she made us a huge dessert and we were eating and Brother J said while staring wistfully at my dessert, "Oh, I wish today was cheat day". Sister E looked up from her large pile of brownie and ice cream and said "Good thing today is my cheat day." Brother J looked at her and said "Every day is your cheat day." We all had a good laugh.

Yesterday was Stake conference and the stake leadership gave wonderful talks. They really were about the members stepping up to the plate, living the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and going to the temple. I loved the stake president's talk because he was very much cut short on time. He was talking rather rapidly as he only had one or two minutes left when he stopped for a second and asked "All those who believe what I have said, please manifest." Of course, almost everyone raised their hand. "Then go to your bishop and get a temple recommend." Then he closed the talk and we were done. Elder G and I thought it was hilarious.

I love and miss you all! I'm going to the Pensacola Aircraft Museum after this so I'll have some fun pictures next week.

-Elder Matthew Carlson

From the Portland of the South

After discussion, Elder G and I have decided that Pensacola is actually Portland, but in the south. This is due to the large amounts of crazy people, the proximity to water, crazy squirrels, and strange stores. But it's good. There are some awesome people here. I'm actually writing this on a member's laptop since the library is closed.

But this week has been pretty good. We've been working hard and we helped three people move! That's a lot of people! We had help but I got pretty pooped out. I'm feeling better now (I got a good night's sleep last night) but I was tired this week. Not quite Alma tired but I was getting close. That's really tired. Like fall asleep during dinner tired.

Let me explain about the crazy people comment. Every week I have been here, we have run into some crazy person. I've heard that the church orders hits on people and there are secret tunnels under the temple to the CIA. There is also a ton of people who are very knowledgeable about anti-Mormon stuff. I am sorta glad that there was a binder in Mobile that had all the answers to common anti-Mormon questions. I usually just try to answer their questions (that usually doesn't work), bear my testimony, and then leave.

As for the crazy squirrels, they are very calm around people. You can get pretty close and they don't mind if you don't make much noise. There was one squirrel I saw that would take a few steps and then flop down on the ground. Walk a little ways more and then flop down again spread eagle. It was pretty fun. Squirrels are everywhere here.

I have discovered the joys of Sonic, especially after 8 pm. They have half-price shakes which are very nice. A $3 shake suddenly becomes a little more than a buck! We usually get one after coordination meeting on Wednesday.

Elder G and I are working well together. He's a great guy and a hard worker. We work well together and we've had some good laughs. We're working on teaching together in unity and we're getting there. It's really all about getting a feel for the other's teaching style and getting on the same page and making sure you're headed in the right direction. That's why planning is so important.

We had district training on Saturday. That's where President Jensen and Sister Jensen come and have a little meeting with our district. It was a great meeting and I learned a lot. The focus of the meeting was the Book of Mormon and time usage. I had a nice chat with President. I think he's really happy with me and what I've been doing, so that's cool.

I played floorball today. It's basically just hockey but on the floor. I got really sweaty. The A/C in the gym was broken so it got hot. I was running and passing and it was intense. A member here, Brother J is really the lead behind the floor ball thing. He's from Finland and has been playing hockey for forever. He was whizzing the ball right and left, I only got it from him a few times. He's a pretty good guy.

Two very exciting things happened this week! One, I got a package from Sofie! It had wonderful gifts of candy which was kinda melted (see first picture). I really appreciated it though.

The other exciting thing was that I GOT FREE BAGELS! FREEEEE! I got bagels in Mobile and they were pretty good. But they became moldy a couple days before the expiration date. I wrote the company and they sent me a coupon for free bagels. I was pretty proud of myself (see second picture).

But that's pretty much what's shaking.

I love and miss you all!

-Elder Matthew Carlson