It's been a very cold week and it's supposed to only get colder. YAY! I took 29271 steps last week. Way down from the week before.
The Short of Things:
I guess I should probably explain the subject of the email here... We were driving to visit some people with Brother Myers and I was sitting in the back seat. He had some full pop cans laying on the floor. I noticed a few had exploded and got a bunch of coke-ice everywhere so I sat on the other side of the bench seat. We tried to see someone (not home) and then we hear a "POP!" I look over and another pop can had exploded. We had a laugh and then we hear a shotgun go off. It was super loud! I looked over and there was coke-ice all up the door and all over the window. It was crazy. And I was very glad I wasn't sitting on the other side.
The Long of Things:
Monday 20- We had a great P-day. Then we had FHE with the Bishop and Emilee. We watched Mormon Messages and ate homemade bread. That bread was so delicious. It had coconut oil in it so it was healthier but you couldn't taste it at all. It was just so fluffy and moist. My companion and I ate an entire loaf just by ourselves. It was that good.
Tuesday 21- I went to the doctor! Hooray! And they just told me stuff I knew and just generally made me sad inside. We saw Toni C. and had a great lesson with her. One thing she thought was really funny: She was asking why women don't get the Priesthood. I told her, "The Priesthood is to help other people, you can't do anything for yourself with it. Men need a lot of help doing things for others, women are already really good at helping other people." She thought that was great. We tried to see Sister Lock but she was busy. We visited the Pitts and it was crazy.
Wednesday 22- We did not have district meeting as we normally do on Wednesdays. Instead we saw Kate L. She has great questions but we taught her for longer than we should have. She's very interested though. Then we saw Emilee and visited for a bit. After that, splits night! I went with the Nobles to go see the Harrells, who are actually in the North area. He's from the south. He had on a Bulldogs hat on (that's for you Matt, I forget if you were allied to them or if they were your rivals...).
Thursday 23- We did weekly planning today. Hooray... Then we tried to contact a referral but his grandpa wasn't very nice to us. We had a ride to the devotional but then they cancelled last minute, so we tried to call some people about it, but everyone was busy. We knew Hank and his family was going, so we called them twice. No luck. We decided to go anyways and see what would happen. When we got there, they were just seconds from driving off but we caught them and they gave us a ride. It was awesome and the devotional was pretty great.
Friday 24- We had interviews with president for a super long time. Then we did our media hour. And we went out to eat with the district. That was pretty much our day...
Saturday 25- We attended a baptism for the North Elders. It was really good. Then we had dinner with Emilee and talked about magnifying her calling. We also gave her the book "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" to read. She loves it. Then we went visiting with Brother Myers. Nobody let us in but we did good work and had a lot fun too. Also, I had pop cans explode on me (see above story).
Sunday 26- Church was really good. The talks were all on prayer and they were good. Hank and Kate came to church along as Emilee's friends. She had a meeting after church with the Bishop to get her recommend to do baptisms for the dead. We passed off Rosa to the Sisters in Belle Isle. We'd never seen Rosa before and we'd have to have a male come with us to go in her house, so it was for the best.
All in all, it was a pretty good week. I love you all soooo much!
-Elder Michael Carlson
Monday, January 27, 2014
Monday, January 20, 2014
Two Days of Walking and One Tired Me
It's been a long week. We walked about 64257 steps last week, or 24.34 miles. It was a while. And it's been pretty cold. But I've been having fun.
The Short of Things:
We walked two days and got really tired and sore from it. But it was good. We did a lot of Less-Active work, which was fun. It's great to bring people closer to Christ. Also, on Sunday I ate loads of the best food I have ever had on my mission. I had some Cafe Rio style stuff and I indulged way too much. It was worth it. Overall, good week, if a bit cold.
The Long of Things:
Monday 13- We just hung out with the North Elders all day. We didn't do much.
Tuesday 14- We went to transfer meeting. It was fun to be there. We had to say bye to Elder Sale but we got Elder Schenk. He's a visa waiter too. Then we had Cici's for lunch (delicious). We saw Emilee and taught her about enduring to the end.
Wednesday 15- We had district meeting. That was pretty fun. You've heard the analogy of the Bible and Book of Mormon being two points that make a single line? I added a third point for personal revelation to make a single plane. It was pretty funny. Then we saw Sister Tate and Toni C. Both are less-actives. Sister Tate doesn't have transportation to church and Toni just hasn't been in a long time. We had great lessons with both of them about the importance of reading the scriptures. Then we had splits at the church. I went with Bishop to see Sister Lamb.
Thursday 16- This was our fist walking day. We had two appointments cancel on us so we tried to find other people to see. We saw Robert (Emilee's brother) and chatted for a while. Then we saw Sister Buboltz. Then we ate dinner at Sister Kerr's and walked home.
Friday 17- Second walking day. We had weekly planning then we walked to the church for our media hour and walked home. That was our entire day. In hindsight, it seems like a terrible idea... Elder Schenk got his visa though... So he'll be in this area for about 8 days total.
Saturday 18- We had an appointment cancel on us so that made us sad. We saw the Barnes. It's crazy at their house, there's always stuff going on. We tried to contact two referrals that we had made appointments with. Neither of them were home. We saw the McGills and Kimmie instead. Then we went teaching with Brother Myers. We saw Todd and had an extremely spiritual lesson about "being OK". It was good.
Sunday 19- Church was great. The talks were on setting and achieving goals. Elder Betts taught a lesson in Primary, which was pretty fun. Then we had lunch with the Myers. It was delicious. She made pot roast and homemade crescent rolls. I ate a lot. Right after that we had dinner at the Bishop's house. They had Cafe Rio style food. Complete with Dr. Pepper pork. It was also extremely delicious. I ate way too much at both houses. It was just too good. We did have a good lesson with Bishop and his family about setting family goals. One goal they had that I thought was cool was to have a family scripture. That kind of defines their family. I thought maybe we could do that. Then we had missionary correlation at the Burnettes'. We got good stuff done.
Love you all a ton!!!
-Elder Michael Carlson
The Short of Things:
We walked two days and got really tired and sore from it. But it was good. We did a lot of Less-Active work, which was fun. It's great to bring people closer to Christ. Also, on Sunday I ate loads of the best food I have ever had on my mission. I had some Cafe Rio style stuff and I indulged way too much. It was worth it. Overall, good week, if a bit cold.
The Long of Things:
Monday 13- We just hung out with the North Elders all day. We didn't do much.
Tuesday 14- We went to transfer meeting. It was fun to be there. We had to say bye to Elder Sale but we got Elder Schenk. He's a visa waiter too. Then we had Cici's for lunch (delicious). We saw Emilee and taught her about enduring to the end.
Wednesday 15- We had district meeting. That was pretty fun. You've heard the analogy of the Bible and Book of Mormon being two points that make a single line? I added a third point for personal revelation to make a single plane. It was pretty funny. Then we saw Sister Tate and Toni C. Both are less-actives. Sister Tate doesn't have transportation to church and Toni just hasn't been in a long time. We had great lessons with both of them about the importance of reading the scriptures. Then we had splits at the church. I went with Bishop to see Sister Lamb.
Thursday 16- This was our fist walking day. We had two appointments cancel on us so we tried to find other people to see. We saw Robert (Emilee's brother) and chatted for a while. Then we saw Sister Buboltz. Then we ate dinner at Sister Kerr's and walked home.
Friday 17- Second walking day. We had weekly planning then we walked to the church for our media hour and walked home. That was our entire day. In hindsight, it seems like a terrible idea... Elder Schenk got his visa though... So he'll be in this area for about 8 days total.
Saturday 18- We had an appointment cancel on us so that made us sad. We saw the Barnes. It's crazy at their house, there's always stuff going on. We tried to contact two referrals that we had made appointments with. Neither of them were home. We saw the McGills and Kimmie instead. Then we went teaching with Brother Myers. We saw Todd and had an extremely spiritual lesson about "being OK". It was good.
Sunday 19- Church was great. The talks were on setting and achieving goals. Elder Betts taught a lesson in Primary, which was pretty fun. Then we had lunch with the Myers. It was delicious. She made pot roast and homemade crescent rolls. I ate a lot. Right after that we had dinner at the Bishop's house. They had Cafe Rio style food. Complete with Dr. Pepper pork. It was also extremely delicious. I ate way too much at both houses. It was just too good. We did have a good lesson with Bishop and his family about setting family goals. One goal they had that I thought was cool was to have a family scripture. That kind of defines their family. I thought maybe we could do that. Then we had missionary correlation at the Burnettes'. We got good stuff done.
Love you all a ton!!!
-Elder Michael Carlson
Monday, January 13, 2014
Garbage Michigan Roads
The roads here are atrocious. Potholes everywhere. 18442 steps this past week, pretty sedentary. Funny story that explains the picture. I just want everyone to read it. This past Monday, after shopping, we hung out with the North Elders for about an hour, then we went to put our groceries away. While shopping, I had decided to buy some bananas and some salad to try to be healthy. When we were putting our groceries away, I discovered both to be completely rock solid frozen. I was pretty sad. It was quite cold on Monday and Tuesday. Oh, also, Elder Betts and I will be staying together for another transfer. Same address and all that.
The Short of Things:
It was extremely cold on Tuesday, so cold we had to stay inside. I ate some crazy Mexican candies. Some were filled with chili powder and others just looked like eggs. The chili powder ones were really gross but the egg ones were fairly decent. Also, I "wrestled" with some kids' TMNT action figures. There were 5 of us battling it out with our action figures. I tried some seafood crepes (still not a fan of seafood) and Despite the weather, we had some very spiritual lessons.
The Long of Things:
Monday 6- We hung out with the other Elders all day. It was really cold. See above story.
Tuesday 7- We got a call that said we had to stay inside because it was -47 deg with wind chill. I got a hair cut, which was nice because my hair was getting pretty long. We had lunch with the other Elders and hung out for a while. Then we had dinner with Emilee and her friend. It was pretty fun.
Wednesday 8- We had a zone meeting and we talked about being in a war and about how we need to be prepared and ready to fight. We ate at Cici's pizza for lunch/dinner. We taught Emilee and went on splits. I saw Brother Jackson with the Nobles (Brother Jackson is in the North area and the Nobles are the senior couple).
Thursday 9- We saw Sister Buboltz and helped her set up her new camera. Then we taught Hank L. about the Restoration again. Then we saw Hank Z. and taught him. Then we tried to see Toni C. but she wasn't home. So we went to see the Myers and then had dinner with the Kerrs.
Friday 10- We did weekly planning. Bleh. Then I went to a sleep clinic to see what they could do. We had our media hour because we were close to the church. Then we went home to eat dinner. We saw Kimmie and ate Mexican candies with her. I got one that was basically a sucker without the stick. It was good until I bit it open and a bunch of chili powder popped out. It hurt my tongue.
Saturday 11- We saw the Barnes. It was crazy! There were like four little boys all bringing out all their action figures and "wrestling" with them. Then we talked with Sister Lamb. She's hilarious. Then we had a great lesson with Sister Lock about the Book of Mormon. We contacted two referrals and set up return appointments. Then we met with the Myers for dinner and teaching with Brother Myers. They made us seafood crepes (Sister Myers made me steaks). I tried the seafood, but the texture of shrimp is just gross. We saw the Cornettes with Brother Myers (North's area).
Sunday 12- I went to ward council for the first time this transfer. It was pretty long and boring... I was in there for about 1.5 hours. I contributed for about 15 minutes. We had two appointments but they both cancelled so we tried to contact another referral. He wasn't home. We had dinner and went to see the Myers. We had a great lesson with them about Alma 33:19-22.
And that brings us to today.
I love you all soooooo much!!!!
-Elder Michael Carlson
The Short of Things:
It was extremely cold on Tuesday, so cold we had to stay inside. I ate some crazy Mexican candies. Some were filled with chili powder and others just looked like eggs. The chili powder ones were really gross but the egg ones were fairly decent. Also, I "wrestled" with some kids' TMNT action figures. There were 5 of us battling it out with our action figures. I tried some seafood crepes (still not a fan of seafood) and Despite the weather, we had some very spiritual lessons.
The Long of Things:
Monday 6- We hung out with the other Elders all day. It was really cold. See above story.
Tuesday 7- We got a call that said we had to stay inside because it was -47 deg with wind chill. I got a hair cut, which was nice because my hair was getting pretty long. We had lunch with the other Elders and hung out for a while. Then we had dinner with Emilee and her friend. It was pretty fun.
Wednesday 8- We had a zone meeting and we talked about being in a war and about how we need to be prepared and ready to fight. We ate at Cici's pizza for lunch/dinner. We taught Emilee and went on splits. I saw Brother Jackson with the Nobles (Brother Jackson is in the North area and the Nobles are the senior couple).
Thursday 9- We saw Sister Buboltz and helped her set up her new camera. Then we taught Hank L. about the Restoration again. Then we saw Hank Z. and taught him. Then we tried to see Toni C. but she wasn't home. So we went to see the Myers and then had dinner with the Kerrs.
Friday 10- We did weekly planning. Bleh. Then I went to a sleep clinic to see what they could do. We had our media hour because we were close to the church. Then we went home to eat dinner. We saw Kimmie and ate Mexican candies with her. I got one that was basically a sucker without the stick. It was good until I bit it open and a bunch of chili powder popped out. It hurt my tongue.
Saturday 11- We saw the Barnes. It was crazy! There were like four little boys all bringing out all their action figures and "wrestling" with them. Then we talked with Sister Lamb. She's hilarious. Then we had a great lesson with Sister Lock about the Book of Mormon. We contacted two referrals and set up return appointments. Then we met with the Myers for dinner and teaching with Brother Myers. They made us seafood crepes (Sister Myers made me steaks). I tried the seafood, but the texture of shrimp is just gross. We saw the Cornettes with Brother Myers (North's area).
Sunday 12- I went to ward council for the first time this transfer. It was pretty long and boring... I was in there for about 1.5 hours. I contributed for about 15 minutes. We had two appointments but they both cancelled so we tried to contact another referral. He wasn't home. We had dinner and went to see the Myers. We had a great lesson with them about Alma 33:19-22.
And that brings us to today.
I love you all soooooo much!!!!
-Elder Michael Carlson
Monday, January 6, 2014
SNOWMAGEDDON!
Yep, it snowed about 12 inches yesterday and last night. It's been fun. Last week, I took 29826 steps. It's kind of humbling to know that's about 1 day in a Brazil mission.... yeah... I'm not ready for that.
The Short of Things:
Well, this past week has been crazy. There were two snow storms, the first bringing 6 inches of snow, the second falling with 12 inches. Also New Year's Eve happened (possibly the best night of sleep I've gotten). There was a white elephant gift exchange and I got a package of Twix. There was a lot of hanging out with the North Elders this past week and not a whole lot of teaching, sadly. But it's been fun. I'm glad I'm a missionary. Despite the inclement weather, I still enjoy it.
The Long of Things:
Monday 30- After hanging out with the other Elders all day, we had dinner at the Myers, which is always fun. They're a crazy/awesome family.
Tuesday 31- New Years Eve! We had to walk that day because we ran out of miles. It was pretty dang cold and there was snow everywhere. We walked down to the Montoya's house to make sure it wasn't broken-in to (they're out of town and asked if we could check it for them). Then we walked to Emilee's, taught her a lesson and she fed us dinner (it was a very last-minute thing). Then we were walking home (we wanted to be in early with New Year's Eve and all that) and we stopped by the Myers'. They gave us ribs and a ride home.
Wednesday 1- 2014! We had district meeting and a white elephant gift exchange. I got a package of Twix. It snowed about 5-6 inches, so we just hung out at the other Elders' apartment.
Thursday 2- We saw Emilee and had a great lesson with her. She's teaching us the lessons now. It's been great. Then we went to see Hank and family. It's always crazy at that house. There's always something happening. We also have interesting conversations. We talked about Greek gods being Christian. Then we saw Kimmie. She's a member who has some health issues so she can't always make it to church. She did make us some delicious Reese's cupcakes. Then we had dinner with Sister Kerr.
Friday 3- Weekly planning! The great and dreadful. We did that for a while, then we went to contact some people. There were a bunch of people we tried to see but almost no one was home. We did see Sister Lamb. She's quite a funny person and very enthusiastic. She gave us zucchini bread. My toes started to get cold though so we went home so I could get another pair of socks. Thus prepared, we ventured out again. We saw the Kholer's and talked with them about missionary work (he's the Elder's Quorum president).
Saturday 4- This was a depressing day. We tried to see a bunch of less-actives but they either weren't home or weren't interested. We did stop by the Bishop's to talk about missionary work in the ward which was good. Then we went to the Myers' and went out to see some people. It was pretty good, we saw the few people we tried to. The Myers' gave us chili and we went home to eat it.
Sunday 5- Church was cancelled because of the weather. It was pretty weird. We stayed at the North Elders' apartment all day because the weather prevented us from going out. It was a long time to be holed up. I got really good at solving a rubix cube though...
And that brings us to today, with a foot of snow on the ground and temperatures of -1. Much different from what I can expect in Brazil. Woo hoo!
Another week spent serving the Lord,
-Elder Michael Carlson
P.S: love you all!
The Short of Things:
Well, this past week has been crazy. There were two snow storms, the first bringing 6 inches of snow, the second falling with 12 inches. Also New Year's Eve happened (possibly the best night of sleep I've gotten). There was a white elephant gift exchange and I got a package of Twix. There was a lot of hanging out with the North Elders this past week and not a whole lot of teaching, sadly. But it's been fun. I'm glad I'm a missionary. Despite the inclement weather, I still enjoy it.
The Long of Things:
Monday 30- After hanging out with the other Elders all day, we had dinner at the Myers, which is always fun. They're a crazy/awesome family.
Tuesday 31- New Years Eve! We had to walk that day because we ran out of miles. It was pretty dang cold and there was snow everywhere. We walked down to the Montoya's house to make sure it wasn't broken-in to (they're out of town and asked if we could check it for them). Then we walked to Emilee's, taught her a lesson and she fed us dinner (it was a very last-minute thing). Then we were walking home (we wanted to be in early with New Year's Eve and all that) and we stopped by the Myers'. They gave us ribs and a ride home.
Wednesday 1- 2014! We had district meeting and a white elephant gift exchange. I got a package of Twix. It snowed about 5-6 inches, so we just hung out at the other Elders' apartment.
Thursday 2- We saw Emilee and had a great lesson with her. She's teaching us the lessons now. It's been great. Then we went to see Hank and family. It's always crazy at that house. There's always something happening. We also have interesting conversations. We talked about Greek gods being Christian. Then we saw Kimmie. She's a member who has some health issues so she can't always make it to church. She did make us some delicious Reese's cupcakes. Then we had dinner with Sister Kerr.
Friday 3- Weekly planning! The great and dreadful. We did that for a while, then we went to contact some people. There were a bunch of people we tried to see but almost no one was home. We did see Sister Lamb. She's quite a funny person and very enthusiastic. She gave us zucchini bread. My toes started to get cold though so we went home so I could get another pair of socks. Thus prepared, we ventured out again. We saw the Kholer's and talked with them about missionary work (he's the Elder's Quorum president).
Saturday 4- This was a depressing day. We tried to see a bunch of less-actives but they either weren't home or weren't interested. We did stop by the Bishop's to talk about missionary work in the ward which was good. Then we went to the Myers' and went out to see some people. It was pretty good, we saw the few people we tried to. The Myers' gave us chili and we went home to eat it.
Sunday 5- Church was cancelled because of the weather. It was pretty weird. We stayed at the North Elders' apartment all day because the weather prevented us from going out. It was a long time to be holed up. I got really good at solving a rubix cube though...
And that brings us to today, with a foot of snow on the ground and temperatures of -1. Much different from what I can expect in Brazil. Woo hoo!
Another week spent serving the Lord,
-Elder Michael Carlson
P.S: love you all!
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