Alright, so this week was a lot of work. I don't even really remember what happened but I'll try to do my best.
Pday was normal and kinda just bleh. We ended it with a visit to a recent convert, Luzia. She's about 75/80 years old and is the biggest grandma ever. She gets super happy whenever we visit her and even stops us in the road to drink suco for a little bit. Sometimes we have to say no though because we're running around like chickens with our heads cut off. But she's great. Always makes way too much food and literally watches every move we make to see if we've tried everything on the table. I like to eat until I'm satisfied, but she's one of the ladies that insists that you eat literally everything on the table. It's cool I guess. She's just a nice lady and loves when we're around.
This week we've been working with Nenês family. We baptized him a week ago. His mom is really cool and his sister is too. His mom is an older lady and his sister is 25 and is married with 3 kids. They like talking with us which is nice. And the sister likes to read on the bus. She actually read the Book Of Mormon! Do you believe that? Her kids are cool. She has a 7 year old and a 4 year old. The 4 year old literally flips out when we're there. He's crazy. Punching his brother. Yelling. But he's alright. It just makes it hard to teach. We found out that they have to move from their apartment because their Landlord told them they are too noisy and are bugging the neighbors. We said we'd help them find a house and move them too. We have to get as much trust as we can from these people. Nenê is doing great. I'm worried about his friends he hangs out with in the road because they are a bad influence and really just have big mouths. Just talk smack all the time about everything. Sometimes I think if I wasn't a missionary I would have a talk with these kids. They're 14 year olds who think they can talk bad about the church/elders/Nenê. Just really obnoxious. What's weird is half of them are baptized. I'm glad Nenê is moving. He went to church alone this Sunday. We gave him a white shirt and tie. The first time he went to church he saw this dude wearing a red tie and said it was bonita. So we bought him one just like it and he loved it! It felt good. Now we just gotta get him some pants because he feels a little self conscious in jeans. He was the only young man at church but he's super firme! I didn't get to confirm him because I went to do an interview for the sisters in a city far away. On the way back we hitch-hiked and hitched a ghetto bus that stopped every minutes. Mission life is fancy.
This week was just a lot of contacts/door knocking. We had a big teaching group but it wasn't giving fruits so we started over and added 23 good people to our group this week. I wish I could write about every contact but I just can't. We meet so many people and see so much weird stuff that it's crazy. We found this sweet family this week. I saw this little green house on the railroad tracks that was just begging to be knocked. So we knocked it. Out came 2 girls. 8 year old Emily and 14 year old Edilma. We taught them outside their house because they were alone at home. They turned out to be really smart. The 8 year old was probably one of the smartest people I've ever taught. Really articulate. The other is really interested in the message. We told them to pray about Joseph smith and marked another day to talk with them and their family. The day we went back everybody was home. The house looked small from the outside but was super deep on the outside. And there were tons of people there. The girls' mom was there and she has I think 5 kids? yeah. And they were super excited to hear the message. We asked Edilma and Emily if they had said the prayer and they said the did. It was funny. They said they prayed together and afterwards Emily asked ,
Did you see the light?" she thought she was gonna see a light like Joseph Smith. Usually I like to teach about the feelings of the Spirit so the people recognize the response from God. We left that part out and she misunderstood. Gotta teach thoroughly and clearly! But they said they had felt a peace that they hadn't felt before. They. Will. Be. Baptized. I wanted to stay in that area to keep that family but it didn't work out.
Transfers happened like 6 hours ago and big things happened. Last night we got the call while doing an exchange. Elder Vargas and I were trying to get 30 lessons before the week ended. Got 'em. The assistants said I was transferred, but not to take my stuff to the transfer. We already knew what that meant. Elder Bochi is the new District Leader and he got an American who doesn't speak well. I went up to Zone Leader and Vargas got booted. My companion is Elder José. He's from Paraguay and looks pure Lamanite. He's cool. Maybe I'll pick up some Spanish with him! That'd be sweet. I've already gone on tons of exchanges with him and I used to live with him so I know how he is. He's a great missionary and works hard. I don't even know why I went to the transfer haha. I stayed in the same city with another dude that stayed too. The area I'm in goes to the same church as my old area so I'll see all the people I knew before. I'm a little nervous to be Zone Leader, but at the same time it's about the same thing as being a District Leader. Just a little higher up on the food chain. I have to fill some big shoes. Elder Vargas was great. Great at motivating, and great at thinking really fast. He always had a plan for everything and taught as if he had been doing it his whole life. I'll just have to train the heck out of myself to be the best I can be. It will all come. I'm not worried. One thing I've learned is that the Lord strengthens people by breaking them . I'm ready to be broken! Working with tons of Sisters is not easy but it's possible. I saw Kennedy at the transfers, seems like I see him on a monthly basis.
Right now President Lanius is stressing the Spirit and keeping him with us. Sometimes I find myself with the Spirit more than other times. He talks about the things that separate us from the spirit and the things we can do to have him with us. This work is seriously driven by the spirit. You can talk all you want about what you know but if you don't have the Spirit with you, the message doesn't get the the hearts of the people. I feel great when the people I teach feel the Spirit. It's an indicator that I'm worthy to be a tool in the Lords hands. When we told Nenês mom about the first vision she said she felt a thing happening on her skin. It's real. The Spirit testifies of truth. All of us need to be worthy of the Spirit to be able to accelerate this work. I'm happy the Lord has chosen me to do this work so marvelous. This past transfer I've learned to work really hard. I've learned that numbers are everything. No matter what anyone says, numbers and goals help us to reach more people and have more possibilities to baptize. And our goals show God what we want to do for him and our faith in him will help us reach our goals. He wants us to succeed. But, we have to want ourselves to succeed too. This is the Lord´s work. There is no other. The field is white and ready for the harvest! Love you all and hope it's a good week. I pray for y'all daily and feel your prayers too.
Love,
Pday was normal and kinda just bleh. We ended it with a visit to a recent convert, Luzia. She's about 75/80 years old and is the biggest grandma ever. She gets super happy whenever we visit her and even stops us in the road to drink suco for a little bit. Sometimes we have to say no though because we're running around like chickens with our heads cut off. But she's great. Always makes way too much food and literally watches every move we make to see if we've tried everything on the table. I like to eat until I'm satisfied, but she's one of the ladies that insists that you eat literally everything on the table. It's cool I guess. She's just a nice lady and loves when we're around.
This week we've been working with Nenês family. We baptized him a week ago. His mom is really cool and his sister is too. His mom is an older lady and his sister is 25 and is married with 3 kids. They like talking with us which is nice. And the sister likes to read on the bus. She actually read the Book Of Mormon! Do you believe that? Her kids are cool. She has a 7 year old and a 4 year old. The 4 year old literally flips out when we're there. He's crazy. Punching his brother. Yelling. But he's alright. It just makes it hard to teach. We found out that they have to move from their apartment because their Landlord told them they are too noisy and are bugging the neighbors. We said we'd help them find a house and move them too. We have to get as much trust as we can from these people. Nenê is doing great. I'm worried about his friends he hangs out with in the road because they are a bad influence and really just have big mouths. Just talk smack all the time about everything. Sometimes I think if I wasn't a missionary I would have a talk with these kids. They're 14 year olds who think they can talk bad about the church/elders/Nenê. Just really obnoxious. What's weird is half of them are baptized. I'm glad Nenê is moving. He went to church alone this Sunday. We gave him a white shirt and tie. The first time he went to church he saw this dude wearing a red tie and said it was bonita. So we bought him one just like it and he loved it! It felt good. Now we just gotta get him some pants because he feels a little self conscious in jeans. He was the only young man at church but he's super firme! I didn't get to confirm him because I went to do an interview for the sisters in a city far away. On the way back we hitch-hiked and hitched a ghetto bus that stopped every minutes. Mission life is fancy.
This week was just a lot of contacts/door knocking. We had a big teaching group but it wasn't giving fruits so we started over and added 23 good people to our group this week. I wish I could write about every contact but I just can't. We meet so many people and see so much weird stuff that it's crazy. We found this sweet family this week. I saw this little green house on the railroad tracks that was just begging to be knocked. So we knocked it. Out came 2 girls. 8 year old Emily and 14 year old Edilma. We taught them outside their house because they were alone at home. They turned out to be really smart. The 8 year old was probably one of the smartest people I've ever taught. Really articulate. The other is really interested in the message. We told them to pray about Joseph smith and marked another day to talk with them and their family. The day we went back everybody was home. The house looked small from the outside but was super deep on the outside. And there were tons of people there. The girls' mom was there and she has I think 5 kids? yeah. And they were super excited to hear the message. We asked Edilma and Emily if they had said the prayer and they said the did. It was funny. They said they prayed together and afterwards Emily asked ,
Did you see the light?" she thought she was gonna see a light like Joseph Smith. Usually I like to teach about the feelings of the Spirit so the people recognize the response from God. We left that part out and she misunderstood. Gotta teach thoroughly and clearly! But they said they had felt a peace that they hadn't felt before. They. Will. Be. Baptized. I wanted to stay in that area to keep that family but it didn't work out.
Transfers happened like 6 hours ago and big things happened. Last night we got the call while doing an exchange. Elder Vargas and I were trying to get 30 lessons before the week ended. Got 'em. The assistants said I was transferred, but not to take my stuff to the transfer. We already knew what that meant. Elder Bochi is the new District Leader and he got an American who doesn't speak well. I went up to Zone Leader and Vargas got booted. My companion is Elder José. He's from Paraguay and looks pure Lamanite. He's cool. Maybe I'll pick up some Spanish with him! That'd be sweet. I've already gone on tons of exchanges with him and I used to live with him so I know how he is. He's a great missionary and works hard. I don't even know why I went to the transfer haha. I stayed in the same city with another dude that stayed too. The area I'm in goes to the same church as my old area so I'll see all the people I knew before. I'm a little nervous to be Zone Leader, but at the same time it's about the same thing as being a District Leader. Just a little higher up on the food chain. I have to fill some big shoes. Elder Vargas was great. Great at motivating, and great at thinking really fast. He always had a plan for everything and taught as if he had been doing it his whole life. I'll just have to train the heck out of myself to be the best I can be. It will all come. I'm not worried. One thing I've learned is that the Lord strengthens people by breaking them . I'm ready to be broken! Working with tons of Sisters is not easy but it's possible. I saw Kennedy at the transfers, seems like I see him on a monthly basis.
Right now President Lanius is stressing the Spirit and keeping him with us. Sometimes I find myself with the Spirit more than other times. He talks about the things that separate us from the spirit and the things we can do to have him with us. This work is seriously driven by the spirit. You can talk all you want about what you know but if you don't have the Spirit with you, the message doesn't get the the hearts of the people. I feel great when the people I teach feel the Spirit. It's an indicator that I'm worthy to be a tool in the Lords hands. When we told Nenês mom about the first vision she said she felt a thing happening on her skin. It's real. The Spirit testifies of truth. All of us need to be worthy of the Spirit to be able to accelerate this work. I'm happy the Lord has chosen me to do this work so marvelous. This past transfer I've learned to work really hard. I've learned that numbers are everything. No matter what anyone says, numbers and goals help us to reach more people and have more possibilities to baptize. And our goals show God what we want to do for him and our faith in him will help us reach our goals. He wants us to succeed. But, we have to want ourselves to succeed too. This is the Lord´s work. There is no other. The field is white and ready for the harvest! Love you all and hope it's a good week. I pray for y'all daily and feel your prayers too.
Love,
Dallin Stephen Carroll
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