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