100%

It's been a busy but very good week this week. We traveled to Lubbock and back twice this week so I'm even sicker of the flat, boring Texas landscape. On Thursday we went with Bro Wheeler to the temple and did two sessions with him for some family names he had. We also went on Saturday for another MLC (missionary leaders conference) with Elder Lynn G Robbins of the Seventy and Elder Palmer (an area authority). Those were some long days, but very spirit-filled.

We have had some more lessons this week than in the past, but have still been working hard to find new people to teach. We've been looking for more opportunities for community service and just talking to everyone we see, so I hope the Lord can trust us with more people to teach through these activities. The work is never done.

At MLC Elder Robbins taught us something that had a pretty big impact on me. He taught how since we have 100% agency throughout this life, that comes along with 100% responsibility for what we choose to do. A lot of the time wee don't like the idea of being 100% responsible and we tend to make excuses, blame others, try to hide/cover up our mistakes, murmur, etc (there's a lot more on this list that I'll let you come up with). But we need to dispose of this list, which is "the enemy of repentance". If we turn to anything on that list, we forfeit our control of positive outcomes in our life.

I hope you all will be able to realize how important it is to give the Lord your WHOLE heart, might, mind, and strength. Even though y'all aren't on missions right now, you still have an impact on everyone that you come across every day and you can choose if that impact is a positive or a negative one. I love you all. 

Love,

Elder Carlson

Service

It's been a busy week, but mostly with service so we haven't had too
much opportunity to do a ton of proselyting. On Wednesday, Thursday,
and Friday we helped our apartment manager (who's also a LA
member), to texture the walls in an apartment, paint some cabinets,
and re-pipe four other apartments. On wednesday we also helped a
member cut down the weeds in the yard of her house she's
trying to fix up. We brought over some machettes and hacked away,
which was a ton of fun. We also had to help clean the church for a
funeral for a member of the ward on Saturday.

We've had a lot of appointments punch this week, too. One day we had a
bunch fall through and so we were just driving around trying some
potentials when Elder Wrathall suggested we go talk to this couple he
saw down an alleyway. They were making out pretty furiously, but Elder
Johnson agreed to do it so we turned around. Elder Wrathall was
freaking out because he was joking and didn't really want to do it. We
got out of the car and headed down the alley with Elder Wrathall
begrudgingly following. We told the couple there were some papers we
were looking for that we thought blew down here and then started
talking to them. They turned out to be really cool and actually pretty
interested (unfortunately neither of them actually lived in Borger)
and it wasn't nearly as awkward as I thought it would be, haha. Oh,
the awkward life of a missionary. It just goes to show, though, that
you never know what the Lord will need you to do and even if it seems
out of your comfort zone or inconvenient, He'll make it work out in
the end.

Love,
Elder Carlson

Companions

Elders Carlson, Johnson, and Wrathall (and a few Texas reptiles!)

Zone leader responsibilities

It's been a crazy week. I love my new area, but feel like we don't get
to do a ton of proselyting sometimes because we have other things
responsibilities we have to do as zone leaders. For example, MLC took
up part of Thurs night and all of Friday. We stayed the night at the
Amarillo ZLs apartment and drove to Lubbock from there. The meeting
was really good. It was all about being a leader and how to do that
better, which was great. Then, we had to drive back to Borger after
that. It was a long day. We got up at 4:50 and didn't get to Borger
again until around 8pm.

Today is another good example of zone leader responsibilities. We went
to district meeting in Dumas this week (we switch off between the two
districts) and after had to drive to Spearman to inspect this
bunkhouse the Perryton elders were maybe going to stay in sometimes to
save on miles and such when they had to go out to Spearman. We left
for district meeting at 9 and didn't get back until about 4 (and
district meeting usually goes from 10-12).

We got a sweet new investigator this week too. His name's J and
he's the boyfriend of this less active girl, T.
The Borger sisters passed them off to us because they are supposed to
only teach Spanish speaking people. The lesson was at our Bishop's
house and went pretty well. The Bishop and his family showed up late,
though (to their own house!) and it wasn't the most in-sinc lesson
we've ever taught. We still need to work on our teaching unity since
it takes a little more effort being in a trio, but the Spirit was
really strong during the first vision. He's going to read the BoM and
T is wanting to work toward going to the temple.

We also got to go do some service for this lady this week. She
had called the church building in Borger to ask for some help moving
since we were "the most trustworthy people she could think of". So we
went out there and got to help her load
up some of her stuff and move it to a storage unit (since we have a
truck). It turns out she's a member of the church and her daughter
happens to be too, but neither of them knew the other was a member
until they were both trying to find people to help her move. They
both called the Church, haha.

I'd like to share something I learned from MLC:
During the meeting Pres Heap shared an experience from when he was
stake president and went on trek with his stake youth. At the
beginning of trek, right from the start they all took off. Within 30
min of walking, the handcarts were all way far away from each other.
People just wanted to be the first one to camp. But that's not the
legacy our ancestors left when they first crossed the plains. They
took the time to break the rock-hard ground and plant crops that they
just left behind so others behind them would have food. That's the
legacy we have to uphold. We cannot leave any one of God's children
behind. It's not about who gets there first. It's about everyone
getting there safely. So watch out for our brothers and sisters and do
everything you can to help them get safely home to our Father in
Heaven.

Love,
Elder Carlson