Carlson Clan Adventures and Projects

M'dear Family, In two days, I'll have been out for a year! It only feels like I've been out like a couple of months or something. We met this really nice Jamaican woman when we were dumping our trash. She asked us if we had another trash bag she could use. We quickly zipped home and got her two "fresh scented" trash bags that the Vans (the senior couple) had given us. We got to talking to her a little more. She'd never heard of the Book of Mormon before! Sister McCann has this great way of introducing the book with the pictures in the front that she did. We invited her to be baptized! She seemed really open to the idea! Totally elect! But then she's moving to South JAX, which is 45 minutes away. :( I hope she starts talking to the missionaries down there. We met another nice lady who lives in our complex who DID set up a return appointment with us, but her phone died and we didn't check Facebook fast enough when coordinating the appointment, so it will have to be next week. We'll see how that goes. J has lived here for four months, but has gone to 5 different churches during that time. Do you think she is looking for something?! We met this really interesting guy in a wheelchair who was fishing in one of the retention ponds in the middle of this suburb area. We got into talking with him, and started asking questions like, "what do you think will happen after you die?”  I don't think they believe in any concept of a soul, or that you go on existing after you die. You're basically unconscious until you're resurrected. No pre-mortal life, no nothin. All the bad people just stay unconscious, good people are resurrected and live on the renewed Garden of Eden Earth, and 144,000 go up to live in the presence of God (their version of the Celestial kingdom I guess) and are rulers with Christ. They also believe that the Father and the Son are different people, but that the Father is Jehova, and the Son is Michael. It would make sense to think some of these things if they didn't have a Prophet and additional scripture to guide them. One thing I do love about Jehova's Witnesses though, is that everyone in the congregation goes out and knocks doors. Very missionary oriented. We asked JW if we could send him the testimony of someone in my first area who was a "Pioneer Missionary" (full time Jehova's Witness missionary) for 15 years who joined the Church. We'll see how it goes. Our current investigators have been in a kind of lag this week.... Except for just barely... We just got a call from E. He says that he wants to move out today... (I started this email at 10, but had to save it as a draft cause we had to leave... Now we're at the Orange Park Mall for lunch). That was really unexpected. Gave Brother A a call. E should be out in a couple of hours.Was not expecting for this to happen... Go E! There was a baptism yesterday of a guy named J F. He's been a gator for a long time, and quit dipping a few weeks ago so he could be baptized. E came to the baptism. Maybe that has something to do with it. It was a really great baptism! A guy in our Ward named Brother D works with J and referred the missionaries to teach him. Brother D baptized him! So fun :) I'm proud of E. I'm so blessed to be on a mission!! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! That's all folks! -Sister Carlson P.S. Sister McCann has a goal to take one picture a day. We were in Walmart today. Saw the two best things in the world put together. Jesus + chocolate.