~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 :)