Rain - a gift from God

This week's been kind of crazy, but a really good one. We had a mission party yesterday (only with half the mission, though). It was really neat. We had a talent show and watched Saratov Approach and then more talents and then a short talk by Pres Heap. Some of the best gifts we can give others is our talents and time. When we use our talents to help others and make them happier, it's a lot more long lasting than anything you can buy from a store.

Elder Evans is really cool. He's from Lewiston, Utah and loves to shoot competitively. I feel like he's already been trained, haha. He's a good teacher and really knows his stuff. He just needs more practice, so hopefully we'll be able to have a lot of teaching opportunities.

White washing this area's been interesting too. It's good that I already know the members, and even a couple of the investigators. We have three main investigators: C and J (they're Pagan, but are coming to church for the structure for their kids) and M (this black guy who's awesome and understands pretty much everything we teach, but he just needs time to get an answer it's true). A lot of people aren't too happy the sisters got replaced by elders, which makes it a little harder sometimes, but some people like us better. 

One cool experience this week was last night, it started raining and we were out on our bikes (we're trying to save miles on our car). It was really cold and I wasn't too happy about getting soaked when it was so windy and cold. But then we rode past this man who flagged us down excitedly. He apparently wasn't too pumped about the rain, either, but when he saw us it reminded him that the rain was a gift from God and he should be thankful for it. So we prayed with him and all of us went on our ways happier. I'm glad that I can have that kind of effect on people just by being a missionary and doing what I know I should be doing.

I hope everything is going well and ya'll remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Love,

Elder Carlson