How ya'll doin?
Good? Good!
A week, it has been! And yes, we have a pet spider living behind the mirror of our car. He only comes out in the evenings ;) Pictures to come!
Just to clear up some things, I thought I'd take a moment to talk about all those I teach! So first and foremost is K! I'm sure I've mentioned her the most! She's our 17 year old investigator who lives with the Knobloch's, an amazing family in our ward. She has a sad back story but is completely full of life and ready to feast on the Gospel every time we're there. She has to wait until she is 18 to be baptized (November 28) due to some permission issues. I'd say going over to the Knobloch's is literally my favorite part of the week because I feel so at home. It's like a spiritual, mental, and physical recharge. We sometimes visit Kate when she's working (in the crazy candy store). AH! She's just amazing. Sister Knobloch is the mom bomb.com! She has become our "mom away from home".
Next up is H. She's the amazing gal who's being baptized next Saturday :) Her parent's are from the Philippines and in September she's leaving to study abroad in France. Was COMPLETELY prepared to accept his gospel when we first met her. Amazing. Just an incredible person.
D! We are teaching both Dand C (9 and 8)! They are the daughters to a recent convert, J. After J was confirmed, she never came back to church. She told the last pair of missionaries stop coming over and leave her and her family alone. Sister Starr and Saedan have amazingly been able to make it back in their home and MAN OH MAN! It's interesting trying to teach wrestles little girls while also trying to kind of teach their mom and re spark what she once felt.
R! He's our 84 year old investigator haha. He just informed us yesterday that he will be out of town every weekend until Labor Day..... It's going to be hard getting that man to commit to church! He's going to all the horse races ;) He is a retired Veterinarian who's wife has been passed away for a while now. He tends to take our lessons more seriously when we bring over older people from the ward (which their aren't very many of..) He want's to be baptized but isn't too sure about setting a date. "oh, you mormon maidens just keep comin' over and work on me. I'll get there eventually" He's pretty funny :)
L is a girl we added who's mom was just baptized a few weeks ago. Her mother attends the Mandarin group but L doesn't really speak Chinese. We had to get permission from the Mission President to teach her. She seems like a really nice 13 year old :) she loved young womens the one time we've seen her at church. Hopefully things start picking up with her!
Last but not least is K M. She's been taught multiple times in the past by missionaries. Her husband and kids are all LDS and she comes to church every Sunday but she just has issues with some things in the church. Joseph Smith is one of them and of few other Doctrinal walls she can't seem to get over. It's a bit interesting. They're family is in the process of moving so we haven't seen her too much.
WELL!!!!!! Those are them! haha we've had a few miracles this weekend with potential investigators. I'll just talk about one. His name is J. The UC 1st Elders met him on the street. They explained who they were and what they do. Joseph became wide eyed, explaining he was just praying for a sign and then BAM! These two elders showed up. He was referred to us because he lives in La Jolla. We've only met him once briefly but he's this huge 6 foot 6 black man who want's to get his life back together and come closer to Christ. Really hoping things work out :)
MY LAST DAY OF TEMPLE SHIFT WAS AMAZING! Sister Saedan and I where standing under the information tent when we saw a family signing to one another. I could see that they were trying to decide where to eat after they were done visiting the temple. The dad was trying to get a picture of his family and the temple so we walked over and I offered to take their picture. When he saw that I knew sign language, a huge smile spread across his face. After pictures I had a decent conversation with the two parents (both being Deaf while all 4 kids were hearing). I told them of a pretty good Mexican restaurant that was near the temple. We also talked about the Mormon Battalion, different temples, and where they were from. AH! It just felt so good to sign and help them out. After saying goodbye and heading back to the tent, the security guard who was with us explained how it was a pretty cool miracle that they were here and I just happened to know sign language.
Sister Saedan just informed me we need to leave soon! I'll see if I have some pictures to send :)
LOVE YOU ALL!
-Sister Carlson
