Tripanionship

Yep, I'm in a tripanionship now. It's been fun. It's crazy that another week has come and gone.

Monday 21- We went downtown to get a district photo because Sister Marshall was being transferred. We got some hot chocolate then we were picked up by Brother Rose. We went over to the first new investigator of the week, Mrs. Hoff. Brother Hoff is a less-active member but he wants his children to be raised Mormon. Mrs. Hoff is from China and is somewhat interested in learning. We set up weekly appointments with them so we'll see them again tonight. Then Brother Rose came with us to see Waiting and Jianming. It was a pretty good lesson but we should have planned better. It's hard to plan lessons on P-day.

Tuesday 22- We knew we were getting a new missionary and we thought he was coming right around 1-ish. Normally, we would have gone to the transfer meeting but since we only had bikes and we were just gaining one more so they told us not to go. We didn't want to leave and not be home when he got there. We kept waiting and waiting. Finally, Elder Langford showed up around 3:30. We got him settled in and went to dinner with Tim and the Single's Ward missionaries. It was pretty fun. Then, we all went to the Bishop's daughter's baptism. Waiting and Jianming were also there. It was very good and everyone liked it. We also introduced Waiting and Jianming to the Bishop.

Wednesday 23- We got haircuts with the Ann Arbor 2nd Ward Elders from an investigator named Sophie. My hair is very short now. Sophie actually lives in their area so we're going to hand her off to them tonight. Then we were riding over to see Albert when it started to snow. And it was sunny. The picture that's just the blue sky and the sun with the corner of a building? That's when it was snowing on us. Crazy Michigan weather. Then we taught Albert with a member there about the Jaredites and how we receive answers to our prayers. Then we had dinner at the Stein house. They're a great member family and they're super missionary minded. Their daughter, still in middle school, invited her entire class to the Chinese Culture night (no one showed up though...). Then we had a party-thing with an investigator. There was hot chocolate and we had Tim-Tam Slams. And there were small children and it was just fun. The investigators there were Margarita and Shoma. Two very cool people. We had to walk home in the cold after that.

Thursday 24- We saw Marcela with Brother Ayala. We read 1 Nephi 11 with her. She wants to be baptized and we put her on date for the 23 of November also but she's struggling to keep commitments. Then we had our Chinese culture night. It was really fun, there was ping pong and traditional Chinese food and making dumplings. There was a man who showed up to church from China just the last Sunday named Dr. Shu. He came and basically made the dumplings for us and brought friends, it was great! There were a bunch of non-members there and it was just fun. We were walking home when we saw one of our neighbors. We taught him a lesson out in the cold at 9 PM. It's always fun when that happens.

Friday 25- We had a bi-zone conference with Elder Carlson of the Seventy. We had a lot of jokes about that, because I'm also Elder Carlson. It was about being a more consecrated missionary. I came out of there with a lot of things I needed to do. The unfortunate thing: I had a 24-hour bug, so I used a lot of tissues during that meeting. When we got home, we had an appointment but I was feeling sick so we split up. Elder Shepherd went with a member to an appointment with Sophie Harrison (giving her also to the 2nd Ward Elders) and Elder Langford and I stayed home to nap. I was pulling back the covers, all ready to sleep when I got a phone call. It was a member family asking if we were coming to dinner. Apparently, there was a mis-communication between our meal coordinator and us, so we didn't know about the dinner. So we quickly got ready to go out and Brother Takayama picked us up to have dinner at his house. They're a Japanese family with a 17-year-old son. They're super nice. We got back home, planned and slept.

Saturday 26- We had to do weekly planning. It took forever but we ordered pizza in the middle of it so that was good. Then we went to a trunk-or-treat. Got some candy and gave scriptures to little kids. It was pretty fun. Then we had dinner and went our to try to see some members. Our bikes are not the greatest and need some tune-up and the members we were trying to see repair bikes for a hobby. They weren't home but we ran into the second new investigator of the week, Ruiz. I just said "hi" to him. He came over and started to talk to us. He's a really nice guy and wants to learn more. We were walking somewhere else when we found the members we wanted to see and a bunch of others at a party just a few doors down from his. He had said he felt kind of lonely. His schooling is really tough and his roommates are always gone. So we went back to invite him to the party. He hadn't eaten dinner yet, so he made some for himself and a little for us. It was really good. It was some noodles, chicken and some assorted vegetables. It was kind of spicy, but it tasted delicious. Then we brought him over. They gave him a pumpkin to carve and he had a blast. We biked over to correlation meeting.

Sunday 27- We had the primary program at church. So great. We had 3 investigators at church. Then we had ward council, which took forever. We went home, had lunch then went over to the Meyer's for dinner with Tim. They had spaghetti with homemade pesto and home-grown tomatoes in their tomato sauce. It was really good. They also had the apple bread pudding that was so good. They're just a really nice family. He actually was in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir but he moved to Michigan to live with his dad. Then we saw Margarita and Shoma with Brother Dethloff and talked about the Book of Mormon. It was a really good lesson.

Missionary work is hard, but it's worth it! I hope your week goes well all of you.

-Elder Michael Carlson

7 Hours of Church!

Today was a short week when it comes to emailing. I mean, I just emailed like 5 days ago. But here it is in all it's glory.

Wednesday 16- After we finished emailing, we had apartment inspections. We passed, but barely. We gave a Serbian Book of Mormon to our Serbian friend Nikola, but he's really busy with his research right now (story of my life, all my investigators are busy with school). Then we went with Tim to have dinner with a member family named the Dethloff's. We talked about the Book of Mormon. Tim's a pretty funny guy.

Thursday 17- Elder Shepherd was sick on Thursday... Longest day of my life! I read in the Book of Mormon for a straight 8 hours. It was quite boring... Then we went to a family history night with Tim and had some really good coconut cake.

Friday 18- We had weekly planning. It wasn't very long because we're at the end of transfers but we don't have our next planners, so we didn't plan very much. Then we biked over and had a "short" Bible study with Margarita. It was 2 hours long. She's 7th-Day Adventist and we accidentally got her started on the topic of resurrection. She just kept going with scriptures. Then we had dinner with another member family, the Hargrow's, and Tim. We taught them about prayer and it was good. Then we wanted to see a potential investigator from Chile with a member from Uruguay but she wasn't home. So instead, he took us to see Marcela. We had a real quick lesson on prayer because she had to leave to sell her truck. Then we had a lesson with Waiting and Jianming, also about prayer.

Saturday 19- We had lunch with Tim and the singles ward Sisters at Big Boy, so we could start transitioning him over. Then Tim came with us and Brother McNaughtan, our ward mission leader to see some less-actives. We saw Carl and the Stam's and had a good lesson on Nephi's interpretation of Lehi's dream. When we were driving back, Tim told us about a dream he had that he was baptized and then he got married right after. We saw some member families and tried to see some investigators but no one was home. Then we ran into one of our potential investigators, Yohann. He's a Korean man and very versed in the Bible. We had an interesting discussion about Jaredites in Asia and how American Indians are descendants of Asian peoples. Then we had correlation meeting.

Sunday 20- In the morning, we got that fateful transfer call. One of our Sisters is being replaced and I'm getting another Elder. I don't know how we're going to fit him in the apartment. It's just enough for two Elders. I'll send pictures next week to show the size of it. Then we went to church. The talks were about how we shouldn't get offended at people because it's our choice to be offended. Then Elder Shepherd and I taught the 16 and 17 year-old Sunday School class. There were 5 kids. That's the life of a college town. We taught about being Christ-like and talked about what it's like to be on a mission. It was pretty fun. Then instead of going home and eating lunch, we stayed for the next church, because Tim is part of the Singles ward but he wanted us there. It was so much quieter in the singles ward. I think in my ward, there are 45 kids enrolled in the nursery class. It's crazy. Then we finally got to eat lunch at 4:30. After that, we saw Margarita and her friend, Shoma. He's from Zambia and he's a really cool guy. We talked about a lot of things but we tried to steer the conversation to modern-day revelation. Then we stopped by the Dethloff's, for a quick visit. They said they had a roast that would be done soon so we waited for that. They're a really cool family and they have a son who's 1.5 years old. He's adorable. Then we saw another member family, the Adams'. Then we biked home at about 9:15. It was pretty cold but I had my mittens and my ear-warmer, so I was good.

Monday 21- We've just basically been cleaning. We ran to a playground but it was raining, so it wasn't that fun. We haven't even gone shopping yet.

A little bit of explanation for the pictures. The brick building is what my apartment looks like. It's not mine because mine didn't have a cool tree in front of it but it is very similar. The second picture is of our dining table, after we cleaned it up. The green hymnbook on the right and the stuff on it is mine, everything else is Elder Shepherd's. And his desk is even worse. That's why I'm not sure we can fit a third Elder in.

I love you all so much!

-Elder Michael Carlson

Every Sock Has a Silver Lining

You may notice that today is not Monday. I'm sorry that you had to wait until Wednesday. I'm hoping you didn't worry too much. It's been a really crazy story and I'll tell it in the letter.

Monday 7- That was a long time ago. More than a week. I don't really have anything in my planner. I have that we had a member lesson (I don't know who with) and that we went to Big Boy for breakfast. But that's about it... Sorry...

Tuesday 8- We had some real quick weekly planning, like hour long instead of three. Then we had a district meeting with the Mission President and his wife. She talked about managing stress while he did interviews. They're really awesome. He's just a really funny guy but he knows his stuff. Then the district went to get smoothies. We were going to see one of our investigators, named Margarita but her roommate answered the door instead and we taught a quick lesson. She wants to know more but it's more from an intellectual standpoint than a spiritual one. She's from Turkey and she's named Deyra. I think... Then we saw Waiting, but Jianming wasn't home, so we went to a member's house and had some Chinese dessert while talking about General Conference and prophets. Then Jianming called to say he was home, so we went back and had a very similar lesson with him, but it was good.

Wednesday 9- We had planned on seeing some people in a neighborhood called Arrowwood but when we were riding there, we started talking to a lady named Michelle. It was an interesting conversation. She has had a lot of experiences and she liked to talk a lot. I also got sunburned because it was really sunny and it was a long talk. I learned quite a bit though. Then we went to a dinner at a member's house, the Teichert's. Then they came with us to see a less-active family and the two families clicked really well. After that, we saw a former investigator couple, Ryan and Nicole. They're from Shanghai. They're cool people. Nicole is trying to learn the guitar.

Thursday 10- I went on exchanges to the Ann Arbor 2nd area. They don't have any investigators. The missionaries before them were not so great and they had to whitewash the area. We knocked a lot of doors and saw a lot of less-actives but no one was happy to see us. We had dinner at a part-less-active family. It was good but crazy. They had three boys under the age of 8 and they were all over the place. It was fun though.

Friday 11- I exchanged back to my area. Then we had a weekly planning session. It was kinda weird because we had just done weekly planning like three days ago. Then I chased a squirrel up a tree and it started barking at me. I didn't know squirrels could bark. Then we had dinner at the Ward's. He is a member of the stake presidency. They're really cool. Then we went to do an astronomy thing. Apparently, three of Jupiter's moons were going in front of it at the same time. But it happened at like 1 AM, so we just got some cool pictures of the moon. But a less-active (Carl) and our Serbian neighbor-investigator also came. It was pretty cool.

Saturday 12- We met up with a member named Brother Kjar (pronounced "care") and hung out with him all day. His wife's out of town and he works for Google and he just wanted to do some missionary work. We saw a lady named Jill amid a cloud of ladybugs. Seriously there were a lot. I almost was suffocated by them. Then we tried to see some other people but no one was home. We went to Brother Kjar's house and helped him prepare dinner. We made some really good burritos. I chopped some onions and I cried a lot. Then I cut some peppers and accidentally rubbed my eyes. They burned for a really long time but I'm all better now. We had a dinner with the Chen's (Ryan and Nicole) and the Sang's (Waiting and Jianming). It was really fun. Then we watched Elder Holland's talk. So good. We went to see a less-active with Brother Kjar. There was a movie playing and a bunch of cats and screaming children. It was really hard to focus.

Sunday 13- Church was really good as a fast and testimony meeting. It was weird to have my first one as a missionary. It's a lot different. Then we had dinner with the Stein's. They're a super cool family who just want to share the gospel with everyone. We rode over to see a part-member family named the Hoff's. We taught them a real short lesson and rode home.

Monday 14- All the libraries in Ann Arbor were closed on Monday, which is why we couldn't email. I got a flat tire but we patched it up. Then we went to a natural history museum as a district and had a blast. Then the Ann Arbor 2nd Elders realized they had two dinners, so we did splits, I went to their apartments and Elder Shepherd went to ours. We had apartment inspections right after the museum. It was only an hour later that I realized Elder Shepherd didn't have the apartment keys and we were half an hour away. We had a good laugh about it. So we rescheduled our inspections for Tuesday at noon. Then we saw Marcela with Brother Ayala. His grandmother is from Honduras and he speaks Spanish. He was really good, he would just talk to her in Spanish and we would have no idea what they were saying. I think it was on church attendance and judging others. She's great though. We rode home and got a call at about 10:25pm asking if we were going to new missionary training in Livonia. We had no clue. Since we didn't get to email, we didn't know anything about it. It was Tuesday from 9 to 4. So no inspections... again.

Tuesday 15- We had new missionary training which was really, really long. We left at 8am and didn't get home until 5pm. We learned about teaching and how to study and I got to see Elder Jensen from the MTC. When we got back, we had dinner with the Wright's. A super cool couple. They're both studying to become piano teachers and Brother Wright gives piano lessons over Skype. They're just really cool and very missionary minded. Then we went to see the Hoff's again. We watched a video about the Book of Mormon. After that we started biking home. It was 8:55pm and we were almost home but Elder Shepherd wanted to talk to a guy walking his dog. We started talking and he's really interested in our church. We shared Ether 12:27 and he said, "I think you just sold me on being a Mormon!" He's coming to our Book of Mormon study on Thursday and Church on Sunday. He's just a really cool guy named Tim. We would have emailed on Tuesday but we had appointments until about 8:30pm. Crazy day.

Wednesday 16- We had district meeting and I had to give a demonstration about how to begin teaching. It was hard but I did it. Then we went to Subway for lunch. It was good. Then we came here to email. We're going to hopefully have apartment inspections in about an hour and then we have a couple of appointments. It'll be a good day.

Sorry for the wait, I love you!!!

-Elder Michael Carlson

Two things I forgot: First, to those who don't know, the subject is referring to my special socks that have a silver lining to keep away bacteria. Second, PICTURES!!!

Conference!!!

It's been a full and crazy week, lots of good stuff.

Monday 30: After emailing, as a district we went to play lazer tag, which was awesome. I won both rounds we played. Then we went to Wendy's for dinner. Then we went with one of our members to see some less actives while we were in our P-day clothes. So that was fun. Then we saw Waiting and she said that she prayed about when she should be baptized and 11-23 just came into her mind. It was a Saturday, so we thought, "Great!"

Tuesday 1: We went to go see a media referral but he was busy, so we're going to set up a time when we can see him again. Then we went to a senior center and talked with a less-active named Sister Gottschall. She's really spunky and we set up a breakfast with the whole district. We contacted a member referral, Magda, but she was not interested. Then we went to see Marcela and taught a lesson about the Book of Mormon and the Bible. She's being anti'd really hard.

Wednesday 2: We had district meeting and started a tradition of going to Subway afterwards, which was fun. Then we went to go see Albert. We asked him to be baptized on Oct 19, but he said it was too early. He thought about it for a while and then he said, "I just feel like maybe the weekend before Thanksgiving." We looked at the calendar and it also was 11-23, same as Waiting. They both got a feeling for the same day without knowing each other. That's the spiritual experience I talked about in my Q&A. Then we went to go see a woman named Germanie. She had company over and didn't have much time but we talked about the Book of Mormon. Then, as we were waiting for the bus, we talked to a man named Morgan. He loved to talk and I may have said two words.

Thursday 3: We biked to the senior center to help one of Sister Gotschall's friends donate to charity. Then we taught her a good lesson about the Plan of Salvation. We stopped by some houses and had a real short lesson with a family named the Berry's. It was just a scripture and a prayer but it was still good. Then we had our Book of Mormon class but none of our investigators showed up. Then we had a fun lesson with a Chilean family and we're going to teach them again this Friday.

Friday 4: This is the craziest day I've had. Fairly early, we took the buses to the dentist office so Elder Shepherd could get his root canal finished. The ward mission leader, Brother McNaughtan, picked me up, so I didn't have to wait in the dentist office for another 3 hours. The two of us had a really good lesson with a less-active that I have high hopes for. He's a really smart guy, about 25, he just has some medical issues but he wants to come and do some missionary work with us. We actually went to go see Quincy (the three of us) but he wasn't home. Then we went to see Germanie again but she wasn't home. Instead, we taught her boyfriend. We'll see what happens. Then, as we were waiting for the bus, we found a gigantic praying mantis (pictures below). Elder Shepherd picked it up, put it on his helmet and was showing it around. This old Asian lady walked up and was marveling, when it jumped on her. She started screaming and Elder Shepherd brushed it off. Then our bus came and we started getting on when she ran up and handed Elder Shepherd a bag and told him to catch it for her. The bus was leaving but she was insistent. He grabbed it real quick for her and she shoved it in her purse. Then we rode off in the bus. After that craziness, we had dinner with a member family and did a practice restoration lesson with them. Then we went to Nikola's apartment because it was his birthday. We had pie and orange juice and had a good lesson. We didn't get home until like 10:20-ish.

Saturday 5: General Conference!!! My favorite talk was Edwin Dube's about not looking back. And he had a cool accent. We had on our calendar to eat with the Eliason's, so we headed over there. We knocked on the door and they let us in. We were talking and Sister Eliason asked, "Well, missionaries, what can we do for you?" We knew something was bad. Eventually we got it all worked out. They had some leftovers (which they normally don't) and it was good. God really does look out for his missionaries. Then we biked to the church for an ice cream social before General Conference. We had invited Jianming and he was there for both the social and the session. We set up a Chinese session in one of the side rooms of the church but he had no one to watch with. We put on English subtitles and we got a couple other people to watch with us. I didn't get as much out of it but it was cool to be able to watch it in a different language.

Sunday 6: More General Conference!! My favorite talk was President Monson's Sunday morning one about pressing through tough times and having the gospel to help us through those hard times. After Conference, we saw Albert and Cindy and taught them a real short lesson. We also got some questions that we can study and answer for them. We need to get better at that. They have a lot of good questions and so our lessons usually end up being 2 hours long. After that, we saw Waiting and Jianming and talked about Conference. Again a short lesson but it was good. They're just awesome. They always feel bad because their English isn't that good (I think it's really good though). But they've only been in the states like 2 months.

Monday 7: We were going to have breakfast with Sister Gotschall but she was sick. So we went to a restaurant called "Big Boy" as a district. It was pretty good and very filling. We played a bit of basketball and talked afterwards. Then we went home and did cleaning and laundry. We still need to do shopping, eep! Also, Dad, we were waiting for the laundry and your iPhone dock just came to mind. I was working on an equation for that speaker port you want in it. I think I came up with something that'd work but I can't check it so I'm not sure. You might need to change some coefficients. Z^2 + (y + 1/(x+0.1))^2 = e^(x/2-6) Hope it works.

I love you all!!!

-Elder Michael Carlson