Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Sister San Diego


G'day.
Spent Australia Day with an Australian... AT THE SAN DIEGO ZOO SO WE
WERE SURROUNDED BY KOALAS AND SUCH!
So much to say. So little time ;)
Wednesday we had a world wide mission training "Teach Repentance and
Baptize Converts". It was basically the mission department of the
church (the head of which being Dallin H Oaks)  training all the
missionaries in the world how to be that much better. It was intense
and extremely YES. The church hasn't had anything like it for a
decade. I might just share what I wrote down at the end of this email.
Feel free to read about what I learned.
So you know Mitt Romney? His brother is in the stake presidency here
in Poway (cool guy, I shook his hand... HA!) He just got called to
serve as a mission president somewhere.. Why am I telling you this? I
don't know.
I'm going to go deep now. Hold your breath.



Sunday we had a meeting with one of our Investigators, W. W hasn't made
 it to church the past 3 weeks and has had struggles with
his family. I might have written about him in one of my past emails
(possibly calling him Spock), but he knows the church is true, just
can't get baptized without his family disowning him. He told us he had
something he wanted to discuss before the meeting, so we knew this
might be one of those times as missionaries, we would be ears to hear
and eyes to see. Now this is a kid who shows no emotion on his face,
but in our meeting, he just broke DOWN. Imagine Spock breaking down,
bawling. You can't. We testified of the savior and of his atonement
and in turn, he shared probably one of the most profound statements
I've ever felt. It went something along the lines of:
"If nothing else, at the end of your missions, remember me. know that
you have touched someone's life so deeply, and it has made all the
difference in the world."
He went on but I couldn't hear through my own tears.
I don't think I've ever felt the spirit so strongly in a lesson. Nor
have I ever wanted to hug someone else more than I did that moment.
But. Ya know. Missionary life.
Our weeks was full of spiritual miracles.
So many.
No time to write about them.
I'm looking at sister stew sitting next to me and she's already busted
out a million paragraphs. Sorry family and friends HA!
A is still on date for the 6th. Her sister is getting baptized
this Saturday. M is still on fire but couldn't make to to church
with work. Added a gal named J. She's pretty much another
Hillary :)
All is well.
I love being a missionary.
-Sister Carlson
Ha! I just remembered, we were asked to give a last minute lesson in
relief society this past Sunday. HAHA! I loved it
It was a great.
More pictures to come next week! Again. No time. Sorry!