Piano Guys

Hey everyone! 

Hope y'all have had a great week. It's been a good teaching week here, we've been getting a lot of referrals which has been nice. We've been doing a lot of knocking on doors which freaking sucks, but I guess you can't win em all

One cool thing that happened is that we were in a lesson with a friend of guy named brother Thornburg, and he is a very less active guy, and we were really struggling to get him to come to church and things like that. But it was really cool this last time because evidently he had started listening to general conference talks like all the time because we had sent him one and he really liked it and started listening to them a lot. He said he can feel the spirit super strong as he listens to them, and now he wants to read the scriptures and he came to church and brought his daughter with him, so its super sweet! 

Another cool thing that happened is that I was able to go help someone move, and it was just me and the dad of the family because my companion went with a member to a lesson and because we each had a member with us we were able to do that, so that was great because it was just me and this family moving, and this family was really great friends with the Piano guys! Like they've stayed at their house before, they text each other a lot and all sorts of stuff! They gave me two autographed posters from them because I was telling them how much I love that group.

The rest of the week was pretty much just a blur, there was some really good weather tho so that was nice. But yeah I know that this gospel is true and that as we look at people through Christ's eyes that serving and lifting other people becomes a lot easier. Love y'all! 

Elder Carlson 

 

 

Specialized Training

Hello everyone!

Hope y'all have had a great week, the temp has definitely been nicer. It got up to like 40 degrees one day, and then I think like 60 another day. It was so freaking nice. We had specialized training on Tuesday and Thursday for 6 hours each so that was fun it was all about how to better contact referrals and how to do better door to door contacting (I'm hoping Elder Watts doesn't get any ideas lol)

We had a good lesson with a lady named Sue Knight the other day and that went really well, she definitely felt the spirit. I'm really hoping she'll continue to keep reading the Book of Mormon and increase her testimony.

Another thing that happened is we stopped by a man named Rob who we found the other week and said to come back, anyway we were really excited because he seemed interested. So we showed up to his house and he had his Bible laid out on his table so right then I was like freak. We sat down and he was like so I think we have some differences because we believe that God and Jesus are the same. So we explained that we do believe that Jesus and God are separate and then he started going through all these scriptures trying to prove him right. I had like a ton of scriptures on that exact topic but after a bit I realized that he wasn't open to hearing any new ideas so I just kinda chilled and waited for it to be over.

I think that's about it. I hope u guys have a great week and I love and miss you all! 

-Elder Carlson

This is Too Freaking Cold

Hey everyone! 

Hope u guys have been able to stay warm, here it's been so freaking cold. The other day we got to go knock doors for an hour and a half at night while it we were in a blizzard which sucked, but fortunately we got to stop and get some food at a members house afterwards. 

On Thursday I went on exchanges with my district leader and that was sweet. He is a Spanish missionary so the first two families we stopped by didn't speak English, so I got to use the little Spanish I knew and mostly not say anything

The rest of the days we pretty much walked all over in the cold shoveling snow and trying to spread the gospel to people who didn't wanna listen, which I mean I don't blame them if it was this cold I wouldnt be letting people talk to me either, but still.

President Monson our prophet passed away this week, it was sad that he passed but I'm glad he is in good health and with his wife who passed away a few years ago. 

Anyway I know the church is true, and I'm grateful for Christ's atonement and how through it we can be healed from any kind of guilt or pain. Love ya all! 

-Elder Carlson

I don't have any pictures from this week because it was too cold to take out my tablet lol, but here is a quote for president Monson on respect of his passing. 

Happy New Year

Hey everyone! 

Hope u all had a great week. We actually had a pretty good one up here, we met this guy named Dr Z (coolest freaking name ever) and he is a less active and fun fact he doesn't have a large intestine...yeah I didn't know that was possible, so basically he has a huge hole in his stomach with a bag on the outside, so yeah I think u get the idea. 

On Wednesday it was freezing and me and my companion biked 20 miles!! I was so done when the day was over, but the hot chocolate tasted good after that for surewe saw a guy named Joe who is the most interesting person I've ever met, he is hardcore hooked on smoking and drinking, and he never got an education so we've been teaching him lessons for 5 year olds and he still couldn't understand it. 

We also got to teach a less active named Brother Thurmond and he is super cool, and really into music, we had a super great lesson with him on feeling the Holy ghost and how to recognize that which is a problem a lot of people I've met with face, people expect this huge sensation right after reading and praying about the Book of Mormon, but it doesn't work like that, we need to trust in God's timing and know that we will get that witness on his time not ours.

It's been snowing a ton here which has been nice, I mean if it's gonna be annoyingly cold there might as well be snow to make things a little better. But yeah it's been fun, we get to do a lot more service projects like shoveling snow, and it's actually pretty fun. 

Something cool we do is on Wednesday we go volunteer at a place called the thrift depot, and it's basically a ghetto version of Goodwill, it honestly sucks because the people that work there are angry old lady's, and we just move boxes for like 3 hours without talking to anyone. BUT we do get to take free clothes home, so I have taken advantage of that lol. Anyway I hope u guys have an awesome week, and happy new year! 

Elder Carlson

Pics descriptions:

1. Shoveling snow 

2. Shirt I got at the thrift depot (the necklace is my trainers, not from the store)

3. Another couple shirts I got

4. It was so cold in the car that our hand sanitizer froze

New Jersey, New Comp, and Christmas

Aloha everyone, 

Hope y'all have had a great week, like I mentioned last week I was getting transferred, and now I'm up in Moorestown New Jersey, it's actually called riverside New Jersey but it's in the Moorestown area I guess. We have a car which is nice, and we also get bikes so we do that a lot too, and it's freezing so that makes it suck but you can't win em all.  My new companion's name is Elder Watts, he's from Utah, and he's not polonesian. He will take some getting used to. We get fed here quite a bit which is nice, the people here are a lot ruder than in southwest Philly, but there are definitely nice people. We do a lot of knocking on doors which I hate cuz nobody wants to talk to us cuz they have lives and stuff, but it could be worse I guess. 

On Friday we had a Christmas zone conference and that was awesome. My new district seems pretty cool, and we had a talent show and I got to play a piano peice I know and it went really well. Yesterday was Christmas eve and we got to take cookies around to investigators, and that was fun! Then we had Christmas eve dinner at a members house and we ate vegan shepherds pie which was actually really good, definitely different than anything I've eaten on Christmas eve

Today I get to FaceTime my family which I am SUPER excited about, and thank u to everyone who sent presents and packages, its been super awesome to get them. I know this church is true and that's the only reason I'm out here doing what I'm doing, Merry Christmas! 🤶

-Elder Carlson

First Transfer

What's up everyone,

So I just found out last night that I'm getting transferred, so that's fun. It's weird to think that this place I've spent like 4 and a half months trying to bring people to Christ, and now I'm moving on to somewhere new. I'm not sure where yet but I'll find out tomorrow morning so don't send anything to my apartment cuz I'll be gone Tuesday morning. I'm definitely gonna miss this area, I've learned more about polonesian culture than I ever thought I would, and it's been an interesting experience literally sharing the gospel in the hood, and street contacting gangs smoking weed on the side of the road, and basically the whole ward being from Africa, but it's been a great experience.

We were able to meet with Anime this past week and it went well. He has a bunch of weird questions that we don't even have the answers to like why do we not call Jesus Christ Yahweh, and stuff about the Bible and really deep doctrine. The thing with him is that he doesn't like faith, he wants there to be physical proof of everything before he believes it, but it can't work like that because we got put on this earth not knowing everything, and that's because faith is a huge principle Christ taught during his early ministry. He definitely could feel the spirit and said he did and he's coming to play basketball today with us. He's a super great guy.

We were also able to go down to New Jersey this week. We were helping a member move, and he needed to go down there, so he drove me and my companion in his big u haul, and it was amazing! It was literally all open fields, forests and farms. It was so sweet to get out of the hood and go down there for an hour or so. 

But yeah we haven't been able to meet quite a few people this transfer with elder Selu, so I'm really hoping that he will be able to meet with them while I'm gone. I really want them to be able to be baptized because they want to we just literally can't get a hold of them and then they always cancel. 

So yeah that's that. I've been able to study a lot of different topics to answer investigators questions and it's been really helpful to study all those topics and it always makes me realize how true the church is, and how God truly has a plan and his timing is perfect. Love and miss u guys! 

Pics descriptions:

1-2. Last time getting falones cheestake

3. Dope mirror selfie with the elders 

4. Right before going street contacting for 4 hours in the freezing cold 

5. Christmas tree in the mall

6. Christmas tree with cool effects 

7-8. District pictures 

9. Messing with snow

10. The elders when we were waiting for 45 mins in a snowstorm

11. Collage of some things this transfer.

12-13. Pics from New Jersey 

14. With ma boi Anime before I head out

Snow and Dispelling Spirits

Hey guys! 

Haha yeah that title might seem a bit strange but I'll explain that in a bit.  First off we finally were able to meet with our investigator Anime and that was awesome, he had a lot of really interesting ideas and most of it didn't really make sense and I'm not sure why people have these weird questions, but they were really genuine and we answered them pretty well, just a lot of questions about Heavenly Mother and whether or not to call Jesus by that name or the original Hebrew name Yahweh. Stuff I've never even thought about but it was cool to see other people's perspectives I guess. I really hope we can keep helping him progress, he's super solid and feels the spirit a lot with us.

Now about the dispelling spirits...so this happened actually when me and Elder Selu were handing out Light the World cards next to the church for three hours in the freezing cold and getting ignored by everyone. This older African man comes up and asks if we can give him a blessing. I say of course, and he says that Satan has been sending evil spirits into him and giving him demonic attacks and doesn't know what to do. Now I can tell he has an evil spirit in him because right when he walked up a terrible presence felt like it came with him. So we take him inside and go into a room, and I start giving him a blessing, and I basically tell the spirit in the name of Jesus Christ to leave his body, and all of a sudden you can feel the Holy Ghost in the room. After the blessing he goes "after that I no longer have bad urges and demons because I am filled with the holy spirit" so yeah I guess that can go down as a pretty dope experience! 

Other than that we were able to help a member move all day on Saturday which was sweet cuz that meant we could spend a ton of time in the snow, like for real it feels like I'm in Idaho or something cuz that's like the only time I see snow! It's so cool, plus I got these really sweet snow boots that are actually super ugly but freaking sweet. Um other than that we convinced a bunch of people that me and my companion were from Australia (we started street contacting in different accents to keep things from getting too boring) so that was dope. So yeah there we go, this week has been focused a lot on lighting the world during Christmas time. I know that doing as Christ did in his earthly ministry we can feel the love of Christ for others and be blessed for doing that.  Love and miss y'all! 

-Elder Carlson 

Pics descriptions:

1. Chilling with the Phillies mascot 

2-5. Handing out Light the World calendars in the freezing cold getting ignored

6-10. Snow!!