Monday, May 5, 2014
~ Last email 4/29/2014
The Lord's work continues here in Carcar... people talk to me
all the time and tell me I'm almost going home, but it doesn't feel like it...
it doesn't feel like it's ending. maybe that's because we just keep doing
the work and I don't let it distract me - we got 31 lessons and 152 FTE's last
week, both way over mission standard of excellence - with Finding The Elect,
that's half again as much as the standard of excellence! We're super
proud of the work we're doing, and we plan to continue it till the end right
before I need to leave, and then we'll probably do splits so Elder Quinco can
still work while I'm trying to do all that stuff with packing.
One thing I'm trying to get done before I leave is writing to
each of my areas before I go home so I can make sure to get my email and Facebook
to the people I worked with and taught so I can have some way of following up
on my areas and mga tudloan.
And now for our teaching pool! we used to have an Investigator
with a baptismal date, but then her husband decided that he didn't want her to
change religions but he's fine with her taking lessons from us and so it's
confusing because she can go to our church instead of Catholic but she can't
join our church. I would love to talk to him and work it out but he
doesn't want to talk to us. We'll just keep teaching her and pray that
her husband's heart will be softened and that he will listen to us and become
baptized as well.
We also have had some really good On the Spot Teachings (OSTs)
and one of them was a family and part of a nearby family, all above 18, so I
have a lot of hope for them ... they all seem really excited about the message
except for the mom, she didn't even want me to write her name down.... but then
she was asking a lot about our religion (obviously interested) so we'll
see if we can help her to gain a testimony of our message and then if she prays
to know and comes to know then she'll have the testimony she needs to trust in
the Lord and our message enough to let go of whatever else is holding her back.
There's also an excommunicated member we're working with, he's
always studying his scriptures and coming to church, he's stronger than his
less-active partner! I figure it's only a matter of time before he can
write to the first presidency and get reinstated! He gave me a
Philippines flag as remembrance from him and his family
That's about it for this last email, running out of time now (in
more ways than one)
g2g! Hope all's well
with you and yours!
-og
sulugoon/representante sa Ginoo,
~si Elder Dallin Carlson
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
2nd Manila Trip 4/22/2014
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Elder Dallin
Carlson
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Sent:
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Tue 4/22/14 8:52 PM
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Hey everyone!
Thought you might want to know about my trip to Manila -
it all went pretty well! Everything worked out with the flight for me and Elder
Smedley - we found out that Elder Fabiano and Elder Hale (they were in my batch
at the MTC but they went to Cebu East Mission at the mission split) and it was
awesome! I had already been through everything so they sort of followed
my lead as I figured out where the driver was and as we got into the vehicle
that was sort of like a kidnapping vehicle :P
On the way to the bureau of Immigration we went by
landmarks and stuff that Elder Olson showed me last time so I was able to point
all of them out to the other Elders and so they were impressed... and then when
we got to Immigration there was someone waiting for us who helped us take care
of the paperwork and get the 5 passport pictures we needed and get to the
fingerprinting and then she said we were good and said she'd take care of
everything else! and then the other elders had to take care of some things at
Manila city hall because they had a tudloan who had no first name on his birth
certificate and so he needed someone to take care of that and they had
permission from their mission president so we took care of that and went to the
airport to wait a few hours for our flight going back to Cebu.
In our work there's been a lot of tracting because of
Elder Quinco - I actually feel sort of blessed to have a companion who loves to
tract. We almost have more investigators than we know what to do with!
But some aren't that progressing so we'll just put them on the backburner, it's
nice to have a fresh teaching pool.
To answer your questions about Easter, they have this
whole thing with Semana Santa (Holy Week) where everyone is on vacation so most
stuff is closed and the first part doesn't have much besides some Catholics
doing mini processions with their saints (sometimes it's one of the apostles or
there's also Mary, or as the Catholics here call her, "momma mary" or
Jesus - Catholics here call him "poppa Jesus") but there's Mundy
Thursday, then they have most stuff on Good Friday with "processions"
- it'd be like a parade but there's only one float, usually with Jesus hanging
from a cross or "momma mary" and then there's a bunch of people
following it, many of them holding candles. Then there's nothing I can think of
that's super significant on Saturday and then they have Easter Sunday where
they have breakfast and lunch as families and invite people (that's why some of
our investigators didn't come to church) But like most Catholic stuff, it's
focusing all on the death of Christ just like when they have crosses everywhere
and do a cross when they pray - they always ask why we don't do the cross when
we pray and we simply explain that we remember his death and the cross but we
don't focus on it but we focus that he was resurrected and because of that we
will too and if we live righteously, because of his suffering in Gethsemane we
can return to live with our Heavenly Father.
I can' believe the mission is coming to a close - time just
goes so fast when you're working hard! reminds me of the saying "time
flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana" ....who knew there were
such things as fruit-flies and that they like arrows? :P
anyways, I've got to go now! Don't worry, I'm determined
to stay focused and give my all hangtud sa akong paguli!
love you! hope all's well with you and yours!
-og sulugoon sa Ginoo,
~si Elder Dallin Carlson
~Visited Naga, my second area! 4/15/2014
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Elder Dallin Carlson
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Sent:
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Tue 4/15/14 11:52 PM
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Hey everyone!
It was so awesome to be able to watch the rebroadcast of General
Conference this last weekend - I heard once from my brother when he was on his
mission that for the missionaries it's better than the Superbowl because we get
to watch TV, listen to the prophet, apostles and other leaders of the church,
and receive revelation all at the same time!! It's so true. :)
This last Thursday I went on splits with the Naga Elders (It was
my second area and I'm now in my ninth), partly so I could help Elder Tantiado
learn about his new responsibilities as a district leader - I think I covered
most of the stuff really well with him.. but for their work that day they
already had a schedule for their work with a bunch of people I had never met..
but at least we were able to visit the seaside boys! They are my Recent
Converts from when I was assigned in Naga.. the only thing is, my last
companion there must have decided that my Recent Converts weren't keeping
commitments and weren't keeping commitments so he dropped them. I wish I
could go back in time and encourage him to strengthen their testimony and
understanding, but I guess I'll do that with the missionaries who are there
right now. one thing I'm going to do to fix that, probably this Monday,
is do splits again with them this Monday and visit my converts and do what I
can to make it an effective handoff to the current missionaries. I'll
have to build their trust in the current missionaries, especially with
seaside boys... after their experience with that one companion, they're
"ulaw" (shy) with the other missionaries. I won't be able to
teach them always, but I'll do what I can in one visit to help with handing it
off to the current missionaries.
..And then there was the Zone Interviews on Monday! The
workshops were really good, I learned a lot of things that I'm planning to
apply in my mission. In the interview the next day, I'm so thankful for
the ways I learned that I can improve my prayers... after the interview, while
my companion was being interviewed, I applied the suggestions immediately: I
took a minute or two to let the idea sink in that I was about to talk with my
Heavenly Father and tried to imagine if it were happening in his presence; then
I tried to make it as sincere and personal as possible. The spirit was so
strong, and I felt like I had reached a deeper level/meaning of how prayers are
supposed to be.
Our Zone is doing pretty good overall, I've been pondering how I
can help them more.... to become better and improve. There are many who
are making significant improvements on their own, which I am very glad to
see.
... and now its later and I just found out that I have to go to
Manila again on the 21st for immigration papers - it stinks that I have to
leave work in my area but it's cool that I get to go to Manila again - I hope I
can see Elder Olsen again! I heard we should be getting my new passport
soon.
that's about it for this week, hope you have a good one!
-og misyonaryo sa Ginoo,
~Elder Dallin Carlson
P.S.this is probably the cutoff
date for sending stuff to me through mail... anything you want to send to me
you can just send it to me in an email telling me all that stuff :)
~ Awesomest zone ever :) 4/08/22014
Hey everyone!
Another week in my 9th area with my 16th companion... It's
been awesome! Our workshop in relating the workshop from Zone Leadership
Counsel went really well (that's what our Zone said to us :) and I think we
were able to sufficiently cover everything (about born-again/conversion and the
role of the Book of Mormon in the salvation of all people in this dispensation)
and even have a practice teaching! Then we find out that that's exactly
what we needed to do, because in District Leadership Counsel the following day,
the Assistants made an implementation that from now on, the District Meetings
will be 50% practice teaching!
This last Monday, at District Meeting I got to hear Elder
Painchaud(payshoo) teach his district .. he has a whole different
attitude when he's up in front of everyone teaching, I can see that he's made
significant progress and that he's really trying. It's sort of sad to see
him leave in the Emergency Transfer (E.T.) but at least it wasn't like,
"E.T. Phone home"! :D Anyways I'm super excited to do splits
tomorrow with Elder Tantiado in my second area, Naga!!! I heard that
there's some of my converts that have gone inactive, so I'll see about visiting
them and see what I can do about that.
As far as our Investigators here, there's one in my mind that
sticks out the most - his name is Philip, he's from Kentucky. He's had a
religious awakening of sorts and goes to 4 or 5 different churches every
Sunday. he's also well versed in the bible and reads all the time -
everything from "book of law" to "the godmakers" to all
sorts of commentaries on the bible and so it makes for interesting teaching
experiences, a lot of unusual questions that are interesting to answer.
Then there's a person we talked to once - we were doing a On the
Spot Teaching with someone else when she came by the door and said "Oh!
naa diay mo" (oh you're here) ...but we had forgotten who she was so after
we finished teaching there we went back where she had gone and found there was
only one house down that path, and we talked to her and found out we had
already talked to her and invited her to listen! so we invited her to be taught
then and there, and she agreed! It seems that we were really meant to
teach her! The next step is trying to schedule so we can come when her
husband is there.
One more thing - our zone was only contacting about 50% of the
referrals they recieved and in one week after we told them to make sure and
contact, they've already gone up to and probably above 90%! It's
exciting.
...exciting, except for the referral we tried to contact...it was
from another mission, there was a guy who had separated from his wife who
became a member - we tried to text him but he would only give one rude reply
and wouldn't respond to our texts after that - some are receptive, and others
harden...sort of like eggs vs. carrots when boiled. it works with trials
to, some soften and others harden.
I can't wait to see the re-broadcast of general conference this
weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
anyways, I've gotta go! hope all's well with you and yours! love, ~Elder
Dallin Carlson
Zone Leader and Birthday! 4/01/2014
Hey everyone!
I guess you would like to hear about my
progression as well, my conversion is getting deeper than ever before. I
love my studies and I'm definitely going to continue daily studies after I get
home - in the eternal perspective, I think that time set aside for that will
help more than anything else! I found that out at college when at first
it seemed that there was no time for studying the scriptures, but then with the
religion classes I had to read every day... but I found that as I set a time to
study and read daily, I had time for everything I needed to do! I have
learned so much on my mission, so many things of such eternal significance.
It is my pleasure to serve him, and it's sad to see my mission running
out but I know that I will never stop serving him. the changes and
(spiritual) progression will not go away after my mission :)
P.S. you'll
probably want to take care of any last letters this week, they usually take
three weeks to get here and I leave May 7...
Happy Birthday Elder Dallin!
~ I'm gonna
be a Zone Leader!! 3/25/2014
From Elder Dallin Carlson
Subject: I'm gonna be a Zone Leader!!
How's everything going there? Everything's going
well here especially considering...IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW!!
It's happening right on transfer day... but I guess I'll
just have to go at it with the attitude that I've been trying to have every
day... just decide that it'll be the best day of my life! It doesn't
matter if I'll spend half the day travelling and be in a new area and the members
can't do anything for my birthday... there's still the fact that I can
look at the transfer as getting transportation as a birthday present, I just
have to look at it as having a chauffeur instead of not having a Filipino License(yet?)
I really hope that I will be allowed to have a License, it would
make it so much easier for splits.... and besides that there would be the fact
that I'd have a Filipino License, which would
be awesome in and of itself.
But one awesome part of my birthday is that the Lord is
giving me a gift of trust, responsibility and leadership by having me be a Zone
Leader in Carcar, Cebu! Looks like I'll be hopping Islands again. I
didn't get to spend too long here, we found many people's houses in our areas,
and found much soreness in our feet...but it was needed to help my companion
learn the area, I'm glad to suffer any and all things needed for the Lord's
work.
One thing I wanted to mention here in my letter is an
interesting question that was brought up in District Meeting Last week when I
taught about vision and goals... the tendency is to make plans and then set the
goals according to your plans... we discussed this and we found that we need to
find the balance between setting goals (to make us stretch) and having names
behind the numbers.. Any suggestions on how that process should go? I
told the missionaries to seek the balance through the spirit and prayer,
continuing to self-evaluate with everything.
Which is what I will continue to do to the end of my mission and to the
end of my life.
Until next week,
-a missionary
and servant of our Lord Jesus Christ,
~Elder Dallin Carlson
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