I Love Cebu!

~ 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

2nd Manila Trip 4/22/2014

	Elder Dallin Carlson
Sent:	Tue 4/22/14 8:52 PM

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

	Elder Dallin Carlson
Sent:	Tue 4/15/14 11:52 PM

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 became a year older and a zone leader in one day!  It was pretty exciting.  However, I was expecting that there would be a Carcar Carlson car..... turns out all there is is 'lson' because there's no car :P  It's ok though, we can get around but the Zone Leaders of San Carlos are way out in the "boonies" (or as it's called in Visaya, "bukid") compared to us, so they need it more.  

People ask where our ride is and we point to our feet :)  It's much more compact, lightweight, versatile, and can get us more places than a car can!

So now I'm working with a bunch of people who are new to me, but we also end up working with a bunch of people that Elder Quinco doesn't really know well either! This is because whenever we get punted (not able to teach at any of the appointments we scheduled for that time) we go and find other people to teach (try some tracting, talking to people)  :) .....I was just looking through my planner from last transfer to find some names, and I realized that there's 3 different areas in my planner: pinamungajan, Emergency Transfer to Tanjay, and the end of the transfer after I arrived in Carcar! 

This last planner, I made it all fancy with pictures of the temple and put on the back a quote I got at the beginning of my mission; it's basically my motto for this transfer:

"The Past is behind, learn from it.  The Future is ahead, prepare for it.  The present is here, live it" ~Thomas S. Monson

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 :)

anyways, g2g now - have a great day!

-Og representante sa Ginoo,

(-A representative of the Lord,)

~Elder Dallin Carlson

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

Scenery etc

3/18/2014 •Opening the area

Hey everyone!

I seem to have bad luck with computers here - last three weeks in a
row my computers have been crashing..

Anyways, It's been quite an adventure opening the area here, we've
been talking to a lot of people and getting a lot of contacts and
really sore feet - we had one area down and met everyone, but then we
re-split the area and the sisters got that part!  We even had a new
investigator, Nida Maningkil - we had been looking for a part member
family and we ended up searching all over for them but while we were
searching we found the Maningkil family, they said that we could teach
them but not then because they were about to go somewhere so we
continued on our search, found the house of the part-member family,
but they weren't there so we returned and the Maningkil's trip got
cancelled just in time, and so they were open for us to teach them -it
was interesting because Nida was tagolog, and her friend had major
hearing loss so it was unusual and very difficult, but they were very
receptive nonetheless and so I'll be sure and refer them to the
sisters!

Then there's our other new investigator, he's the brother of one of
our recent converts, and was taught by the missionaries before, but
had only been to church once a few months back. the good news is, we
taught him once and he came to church the very next Sunday!!

On another note, I was thinking of what I wanted to do for the next
district meeting... but I finally got to talk with the Sister Training
Leaders (STLs) here (just about what they need as far as workshops -
that's all I need to know) and they mentioned how they need to see the
bigger picture with the work, beyond just getting investigators to
church and getting them baptized, but seeing beyond that to other
things we can do with the branch, etc. that will help them on their
way to celestial. and therefore, I have decided that I should teach on
vision (Proverbs 29:18) and goals.
-a servant of the Lord,
~Elder Dallin Carlson

3/11/2014 ~ Second week in Tanjay

Having computer problems again...
But it was a good week! It was good to finally get everything taken
care of with getting a new passport, and to go to Manila, even if it
was a super short visit.  The coolest part about it is me being able
to say that I've been to Manila!  (and my companion too)   The senior
missionary to help me with it all was Elder (David) Olsen, and it was
great to be with him for a little while.  Apparently he was very
impressed with how many people I talked with about the church while we
were waiting at the embassy - there were some inactives and many
potential investigators (including the security guard there at that
part of the embassy)!  It helped that Elder Olsen had articles of
faith cards for me to give out, I hope it helped inspired Elder Olsen
to talk with more people.
I thought you might like to know something - we've been keeping a
tally of how many people we've contacted (investigators and
less-actives) this last week in the process of whitewashing the area
(last week it was 42 individuals in 24 families)- I feel like we're
opening the area with how much was put in the area book - one time my
companion mentioned to someone that they hadn't put jack in the area
book - what I said then is they put jack in there, but they left out a
last name or address of any kind so it's basically not all that useful
..   but it's taught me a very very valuable lesson on how to keep the
area book.
speaking of area books, I had a great idea on how to keep track of
those in my district - I have everyone come after personal study with
their area books and while I'm quietly reviewing it with them, i try
and encourage everyone to study quietly so that they can invite the
spirit and prepare their minds to receive revelation during the
workshop

(computer problems....)

I had a realization as I was teaching the A.P.s workshop - if we teach
a lesson the same time every time with the same words and questions, it
makes a metaphorical rut in our teaching methods and then if there's a
reason we need to take a different path (comparable to a dog in the
road) .... if we're stuck in the rut, we'll run right over the dog!
Anyways, that's about it for now, no more time left because of all the
computer problems...
hope all's well with you and yours!
-a servant of the Lord,
~Elder Dallin Carlson

 

3/4/2014 ~•Passport issues

Hey everyone!
There's been a LOT of hassles here on the computer today with the internet cutting out as I'm trying to take care of passport papers, etc..this message might be relatively shorter than usual with trying to keep everything within 2 hours.  It's sorta a  headache..

Anyways, it's been pretty crazy here with both of us being new to the area and both of us having no idea where anyone is or who they were teaching. we can't find hardly any progress records and extremely few updated teaching records and nothing to tell us where they live except for the name of the Barangay(district)  so we have almost no current information, so we have to ask members to come with us and show us where people live in this or that area - the members have been awesome, most every day we have someone to kuyog with us, and they help us as much as they can and as far as they know the area.

Another crazy thing is trying to figure out how to take care of my passport and renew it, that'll probably happen next week, there was a lot to do with that on the computer today so this is about it for now.

Hope all is well with you and yours and that everything works out here in Tanjay D with figuring out about our area and flying to Manilla to take care of my passport... talk to you next week!
~Elder Dallin Carlson

 

2/25/2014 ~ Leaving Pinamungajan tomorrow

Hello everyone!

it's been a crazy week - I totally wasn't expecting the call yesterday that'd tell me I'd be part of an emergency transfer this Thursday!  but I feel that the new area is where the Lord wants me, I'm glad I could be worthy enough to be trusted with leading/opening an area completely new to me and being District Leader.  Looks like I'm gonna need some speed packing skillz, because I'm going to be going to a different island tomorrow!  It's hard to focus and my stomach feels kind of weird - maybe cause of the stress, I think it'll pass.

District Leadership Counsel went great last week! I learned a lot, including the importance of always continuing to study PMG.  In our District Meeting when I relayed it to my district, before the meeting i set an example by starting to study early, and without me having to say a word the rest of them caught on and they started studying too.  This set the perfect atmosphere for a spiritual learning experience, and we all were able to feel the spirit very strongly.  We all were edified and instructed by the spirit and I honestly think that it couldn't have gone much better than that.  It also made me feel really good to hear the Halls mention about the importance of asking inspired questions and listening, and then say that they learned that from my workshop when I was a District Leader in Toledo.  And then I tied that back to the subject by telling them that I learned that from my studies of preach my gospel and they could learn that too and more if they studied right.  The whole experience made me feel successful as a District Leader and that is more satisfying than anything else.  to be knowing that I'm fulfilling my purpose to the best of my ability as a child of god, as a missionary, and as a district leader.  

As far as an update with our investigators, we haven't been able to visit Segundo Hubahib but we've been continuing to try, I wonder if I might be able to contact him when he goes to anchorage or naknek....

and Johanna Ondong has moved to Cebu city for work and so we referred her to those missionaries...

but we had one investigator who because of the help of kuyogs, and we have 4 new investigators who they are planning on encouraging and bringing to church who we just taught a few days ago! yay for member missionary work!!!

hope all's well with you and yours,

love,

a servant of the Lord,

Elder Dallin Carlson

 

 

 

2/18/2014 1 Nephi 1:7‏

 

From:	Elder Dallin Carlson
Sent:	Tue 2/18/14 7:17 PM

Kamusta tanan (hey everyone!)

It's been another great week here in Pinamungajan, it's unusual to not have anything happen this transfer, that hasn't happened outside of training Elder Benjamin!  But I'm glad I could figure out why I'm with Elder Mozar for another transfer - we have more progress and improvement to make together.  I still have things left to teach him and help him learn and understand.  

We've been making good progress, getting a lot of work done, 11 lessons in 2 days (a good portion of those were lessons where we had multiple focuses, like trying to teach/adapt a lesson for investigators AND less-actives or recent converts and less-actives, etc so here in our mission those count for each type of tudloan you focus on) - but we need to work on stopping as we're going between places to talk to people.  I guess I need to strengthen my testimony that there are people out there being prepared to recieve us.  

 

I get so tired sometimes  - last night after planning I sort of had an experience like Lehi...

"And it came to pass that he returned to his own house at Jerusalem; and he cast himself upon his bed, being overcome with the Spirit and the things which he had seen."

....I was still in my shirt and tie, and fell asleep... and then I woke up this morning, surprised at what had happened.  but the Lord continues to strengthen me so I continue with faith and diligence.

 

Now for the people we're teaching... we're still trying to figure out if one of them needs to be baptized or not, she has mental disabilities and so we're trying to figure out if she can learn enough and follow the commandments....but it needs more work because she's really shy and if she doesn't answer questions, how can we tell if she's understanding if she doesn't answer questions?  We'll try and help her feel comfortable with answering questions and I'll update you on that next week.

With Johanna Ondong, it turns out that she moved to Capitol area for her work, so we'll continue teaching her husband here and refer her to the missionaries in that area.  Her husband would be working but his diabetes is keeping him from doing much, but maybe this happened so we could teach him - there's only One person who knows why....and He knows all.

 

With the Jarana family, they finally came to church!!   ....well, everyone that could fit on their motorcycle.....  we'll have to work on how they'll transport the whole family to the church.  It seems that every sunday the branch president is sending his son everywhere on the motorcycle to bring people to chruch from all over Pinamungajan!

have a good week!

love, 

Elder Dallin Carlson

2/11/2014 •Transfers - me and my companion aren't transferring but I'm a district leader again! :)‏

Hello everyone!

it's been a great week, not sure how much I'll be able to write here because I've basically been computer hardware support for a couple of the Filipino missionaries here who've had problems and weren't sure what to do.

But now for the cool stuff - I found someone who works in Naknek, Alaska every summer!! I worked there before, at AGS and apparently he works at Leader Creek, another seafood company, at a dock not very far away!  His name is Segundo Hubahib and I think he has a daughter in Kenai, I'll try and remember to ask who that is.  Every year, he goes to Washington and works there (he was taught before by the missionaries there) and then he stops by a relative who lives in Anchorage on Tudor street, apartment 3

Anyways, update on Augustino Gingosa and Archie (husband of Jessica Romerica)..... they're on opposite ends of our area, but they're both husbands of Less-actives and former investigators where the baptism didn't go through because they weren't married yet.  but now, we have helped them move forward by committing them to a long term goal, marriage, and then set short term goals and work towards it. I've discovered that's something we all should learn, like that quote in Preach My Gospel on the Goals page in Chapter 8.  We need to have a long term goal (exaltation) and make a number of short term goals to work towards it (repent for this, improve on that, go to the temple, fulfill covenants, etc) and then continually work towards the goal(s) - in this way we have a vector - we have force AND direction.  otherwise, it's like going on a journey with a destination in mind but no idea where to go to get there and no directions.  Eventually you'll get lost/frustrated and go back to where you were before.

That's about it for this week if i want to not go over the assigned amount of email time...

love you all!

~Elder Dallin Carlson

~ Computer Problems 2/04/2014

Hey Everyone!

Another week with computer problems... this one might not be as long with having to change computers three times...

but anyways, the weather is warming back up, didn't miss the sweating but .... sweat happens. just gotta have a paño to take care of it!

as for the work - we've had some interesting developments with the Jarana family (comprised of some Illongo speaking grandparents who have one child and his family and some other grandchildren living with them), it turns out that they won't come to our church because they'd be ulaw (shy/embarrassed) to not go to their church and on top of that go to another church. but the next Sunday(this last one) their granddaughter came!  We were super surprised/happy to know that there's some progress happening there!

Another of our investigators has us in an interesting situation.  she's....(i think the preferred term is) challenged, and living with a member (family)  who's less active.  We found out about her because she came to church, and she's really interested, we're trying to teach her simply and see if she has enough mental capacity to need baptism.

and then there's Johanna -  we weren't able to teach her for awhile because she was working, and she hasn't been to church for three weeks now, but when we visited we found out it was because of her husband going to where he's from because of his illness...when we taught her she wanted to write the scriptures down so she could study more about it! :)

Anyways, gotta go, hope all's well with you and yours!

-a missionary/servant of the Lord,

~Elder Dallin Carlson

Pinamungajan

1/28/2014 Alaskan Weather!

Dallin Carlson

1/28/14

• 

hey everyone!  

We're still getting the edges of storm and the last few weeks have been remarkably and surprisingly like alaskan summer weather!  it's crazy, I'm not even sweating much lately!! :)  but it's good....just wasn't expecting the weather here in Cebu in January to be like an Alaskan summer with the wind and rain!

Right now I'm working on the Isaiah chapters in Second Nephi, I'm learning a lot!  When I was younger they were so hard to get through but now they seem to just open up and if I just focus, I can find out so much!  but it's like the ocean, there's always more to explore if you're willing to go in-depth!

Some other imagery I've learned in my studies is how we can progress - sometimes it's like the parable of the sower and we have to remove rocks (obstacles) or worldly cares (weeds) and be humble/pliable (loosening up the earth) and prepare ourselves to recieve the word (seed).  It can also be compared to stone cutting, you have to chip away the pieces, looking forward with an eye of faith to the finished product. but it requires the heavenly attribute of patience as we focus and set our determination to perservere no matter what it costs.

anyways, hope all's well there! 

-a servant of the Lord,

~Elder Dallin Carlson

1/21/2014 Sinulog is almost over :)

• Sinulog is almost over! :)‏

Dallin Carlson

1/21/14

• 

hi everyone

The weather here with getting the edge of the hurricane was just like an alaskan summer!  not super warm, plenty of wind, some rain, and even when it's sunny you don't sweat because of the wind!  It was a nice little break from the usual sweltering weather here.  

I've been a little sick lately, but I might finally be getting better - it seems no matter where you are, the holiday season leaves most people with some sort of illnesses, and leftover colds and sinus/throat problems.  whenever there's a gathering of any sort, you can hear people coughing here and there.

We've used the bikes a couple times, but it's really hard to bring a kuyog, if we want anyone to come they have to ride one of our bikes.  But we don't do that much because we have a really good deal worked out with our branch president, who does habal-habal (gives people rides on his motorcycle for money) for his work - we give him part of our support, and in return he gives us rides whenever he's here, and kuyogs (comes with us) almost every day.... so.. the bikes would probably be best used somewhere else where it'll be used ALL the time, maybe somewhere where they don't usually have a kuyog.  Biking makes it really hard if we're on the hills/if it's muddy/if we have a kuyog    unless we ride a motor.

As far as our work, last week we were able to do splits and therefore teach plenty of people, but we didn't do so much of stopping to talk to people... so that's our focus this week - we've been doing really good with that, and I think the Lord really wants us to do that because we've been punted a lot lately, so I guess it might be to help us go out and talk to people.  

it's hard to remember all the names of all the people we talk to, I've definitely been using the Potential investigators section in the back of the planner a lot. and it's always exciting to find former investigators or less actives who want to be taught!! 

We haven't been able to visit Johanna in the last week, but she might have been able to get me a sinulog shirt with my name on it!  we'll be visiting her tonight and teaching her and her family about baptism.

oh yeah, one cool thing that was able to happen on sunday was a few less actives who came to church for the first time!  one of them lived really far so we went out to their place early and walked with them to the branch president's house so she could get a ride from there!

that's about it for this week - until next week! :)

-og sulugoon sa Ginoo,

~si Elder Dallin Carlson

1/14/2014 Sinulog

• Sinulog‏

Dallin Carlson

1/14/14

another great week in Pinamungajan! The biggest progression here in the last week may have been my personal progress, but that's still really good.  the story of what's happened for me here in Pinamungajan is pretty much the same as mosiah 18:26 "but for their labor they were to receive the agrace of God, that they might wax strong in the Spirit, having the bknowledge of God, that they might teach with power and authority from God."

 In out work lately, we've lost a few investigators(not as much as the zone leaders here), and so we've been putting a renewed focus on finding - we've been FTEing everywhere and even tracting a little bit, and finding a lot of people - I'll let you know next week about anyone who progresses a lot, we're still working on the follow-up appointments. 

We had one investigator who had a baptismal date for febuary, but last Sunday she had just gotten back from taking her husband to the hospital and next week she'll be working for sinulog.

Sinulog is sort of like thanksgiving with the huge parade aspect of it, but it’s to respect their saint, santo niño.  And since it’s on a Sunday every year, I'm always a little apprehensive about sinulog because since everyone wants to see it and because there's a lot of job opportunities that pay really well, the branch attendance is going to drop...probably all over cebu, and maybe even on nearby islands.

 Me and one of my zone leaders had a really good conversation last night about the prophets and how they were real people and how Lot and Noah probably had friends that weren't bad people but just because of persecution or embarrassment or family members wouldn't listen, and we pondered on how they must have felt.  But in bearing testimony and giving our all, we slowly secure our own salvation as we do our part.  It all depends on our faithfullness.

love you all!

-a servant of the Lord,

~Elder Dallin Carlson

1/07/2014 Investigations of Investigators

Dallin Carlson

1/07/14

It's been another great week with continued progression!  I continue to have increased companionship of the spirit and resultant increased guidance as well as increased power and authority in my teaching.  I'm finally learning how to remember that I'm not perfect but continue despite that.  The key has been to remember it but not focus on it.  And with that I’ve been able to make a lot of progression, which has given me more desire to do better which has helped me learn more which has given me greater desires for righteousness, etc just like Abraham.

One noteworthy thing lately that’s happened is with one of our investigators, Johanna Ondong.  She finally knows that this church is true!  She came to church, and with the upcoming temple trip, she wants to go see the temple!  She knows that she can’t go inside, but she heard that the spirit’s really strong there (even outsdide) and she wants to experience that for herself. I'm so happy for her and the changes she's making in her life - we're hoping to be able to teach her husband and children as well, but in the meantime we'll focus on her and wait for their time to come.  It will eventually.

Then there's an investigator family, the Jarana (huh-ran-uh) family - I've been teaching them since the end of November...they wouldn't pray at our first lesson, and when we asked them to pray the second visit they pulled out a piece of paper and read off a prayer they had written according to the pattern we had given them - we tried to explain to them that their prayers were supposed to be from the heart and not recited, and we thought that was the end of it, but they were too used to the recited Catholic prayers.  It turns out the had lost their recited prayer for awhile, but time before last they pulled it out again and read off their prayer - later as we planned our next visit I realized if we didn't teach them the right way to pray they'd never be able to pray sincerely with real intent with faith that they'd get an answer, and without which they would not be able to progress.  So we taught about praying sincerely, and as we taught I had a scripture come to mind, which was later brought up by our branch president as well - i guess we were on the same spiritual wavelength. at any rate, it was 3 Nephi 13:7-8 about praying with "vain repetitions as the heathen".  Earlier they had brought out the prayer, and I had asked for it to show my companion - they never asked for it back, and they understood that they shouldn't use it... while they were reading the scripture and looking at the Book of Mormon I slipped the paper into my bag - it is now in my journal as remembrance of them and how after that thir prayers were more sincere than the prayers of many members.

Hope all's well wi8th you and yours! 

-og sulugoon sa Ginoo,

(- a servant of the Lord,)

~Si Elder Dallin Carlson