Week 87- 10 Weeks??

10 weeks???

5/24/2015

Family, You would think the longer you are on mission the less you would miss your family...it's not true I think I miss you all more and more as I have been out longer. I am so glad that you are doing all well. Mom track sounds sweet I am glad you are enjoying it. It sounds like everything else is normal. I loved talking to you all. I didn't talk to dad or Colby as much. I felt bad after forgive me if it offended you. Colb and dad it sounded like you guys had a great week. Dad, don't worry about this Muslim stuff in Ghana. I feel so safe here. I'm glad you are getting work done and all is well there. I saw some pictures and realized we now have a water purify in our house I was like what the? I think home will be a lot different, I think it's normal to you all but to me it will be a lot different. Thank you so much for always emailing me every week. You guys haven't missed a week...I am truly blessed. Countless amounts of African missionaries will never receive an email from their family members. Most have just packed their bags by themselves, said bye and left some of them their family members don't really understand what they are even doing. We are truly blessed, my heart is full every time I open my inbox and see my family member’s emails.

I love this area and my companion. This has been one of my funnest areas. I am serving around excellent missionaries and love the area. I'm serving around Elder Lomano(tonga), Nxele(South Africa), Thapeli(South Africa), Green(Arkansas), Lewis-Reese(Pittsburg), Mbyia(), Chatterley(Washington). We are really having a lot of fun together. Chatterley goes home at the end of this transfer and said this has been one of his best couple transfers. It seems every Monday we are doing something...we never rest. Sometimes we go to the temple and play basketball, or we go to the mall, or we have a Braii(grill). Last Monday we did a Braii, this Monday we are playing basketball, and next Monday we are roasting a pig from our Tongan brother haha we are enjoying. Last night (Saturday) was elder Nxele Bday, it was raining so we were like let's go buy a cake and celebrate at the mall...so we ran through the rain and had a great night celebrating our brothers Bday! We have had a ton of memories together and it had been a lot of fun!
In our area we are having problems keeping serious investigators that our progressing. We are contacting and teaching 10 new people at least a week but none of them are turning out to be very serious. We however baptized on Mother's Day George and Enock. They are excellent men and have strong testimonies of the church we love them and are so grateful for them. We just confirmed them this Sunday and they love the church. We also have another man named Issac who is also progressing in the gospel and will be baptized next week Sunday we are so happy for him. Also we have a young woman named Jennifer who we teach with George and Enock. She loves the church and loves the teachings we are happy for her she will be baptized next month.  We taught this woman in this huge house 4 weeks ago Saturday and she has been wanting us to come every Saturday. Well her family is an excellent family, very devote Christians and well respected people. The woman travels all throughout Africa and America and is very wealthy. They hold family devotionals every night before bed they are a great family. Well last Saturday they fed us nice bancu with tallapia fish it was great and then she gave us a present and it was snickers, milky ways, and chocolate I almost cried I was so dang grateful. It tastes different than ours there made with real ingredients and made in South Africa but they were so good. She then gave us fresh mangos right off the tree I love mangos so much I can eat them until I'm sick haha. God bless that woman. We also were Able to get a young couple to our stake conference in Kasoa last week. They are from the democratic republic of Congo and loved the church. As soon as they saw the church they were like oh okay we have these all over at home. I love Ghana whenever a visitor comes over they bring out water on a plate always and are always very welcoming. Then if they recognize you as a servant of God they have so much faith and want to serve you with all they have. It's so hard for me because I was raised by dad to never accept such things like that. So I have a hard time especially when I know that they have very little or no money at all. All I do is bow my head and pray as hard as I can that God will bless them for their kindness and he always does.  Members especially recognize this and love to feed the missionaries and it’s so hard because you know they don't have money but they recognize that we are servants of God and they want blessings so they strive to always help us. Members here rely on missionaries to much however they respect and love us very much.

Green and I are getting along better than ever. We are having a blast every day. We buy a 3 cedi(75cent) ice cream quite often and we enjoy chopping that ice cream together I think we have feelings for each other haha just kidding but we are definitely brothers and feel like we are just chilling every day. I thought of grandpa and Dad and how much they love to get ice cream so we decided to get ice cream more haha. We have done some really great things together. We fellow shipped a less active a young man and he loves video games haha so we got along very good talking about video games and we got him to church.  Green and I were riding our bikes and it was blazing hot 94 degrees and we were sweating our shirts were soaked and see through and we were being smart a** about things and Green said I'm going to kick this goat. Well as we rode by some road side goats he booted one in the butt and it flew some ways and we laughed and laughed and laughed until we were off our bikes dying of laughter with tears down our eyes. I'm sure Ghanaians were looking at us like these freaking dumb a 's are laughing over this haha it was so dang funny!!  I have loved all my companions we have all had good laughs but Green and I laugh at times until we can't breathe so we are doing very well.

Family I love you all very much. I want to encourage and invite all of you to read your scriptures at least once a day. I love the scriptures dearly. I thank God that he has helped me gain a testimony of them. Heavenly Father can truly speak to us through them. The sweetest thing about the scriptures is they lead us to our savior Jesus Christ and if we come unto him we can find answers to all our questions. I am over whelmed because I want to read so many books and scriptures but have so little time left on my mission. I do my personal study and then read at night to put me to sleep I love the scriptures so much!!! I know they are true and I know all the prophets in them are true listen to them and learn from their success and also from their weaknesses.

I love you all tons,
Elder Carson

Week 83- Yo Chick!!

Yo Chick!!!                                                                                                                                          4/26/2015

Hey family! As I read your emails I am so thankful for my family, I truly feel so grateful as I read all of my families emails. I'm sorry my emails are getting sparser, it's not easy, I’ll work on it. Dad, Darin is such a hoot, I could just picture his big smile as you come out to see his truck, with his little head nod and a hell yeah this truck has a Cummins haha.

I really enjoy this area. It's really a nice area, it's a lot different then the village but it’s still a great area. We have some wonderful investigators. We actually had a baptism on Sunday. It was a young man named Isaac. He is 19 years old and has the strongest testimony of the restored gospel out of all my recent converts. I know I came to Odokor to help him get baptized. We get along very well. He wants to go on a mission so bad, so I'm excited that some of my recent converts want to serve, that brings me so much happiness and joy, I know a mission is the best thing for everyone at mission age. The three girls I baptize in Kaneshie, the oldest wants to serve a mission, she would do excellent I am very close to that area like my area now borders that area so I was able to see all my people I have loved it. We are also working with two men named Isaac and George: they come to church and love the gospel. They want to be baptized on may 3 so we are so excited to baptize these men and get some future melchelzidek priesthood holders. Enoch he sells sunglasses at circle, a major selling market. He walks around all day with sunglasses on his head in 90 degree weather and makes on a great day 20 Ghana. That is about 6 dollars. He will work from 6 am to around 7 pm he is a great guy and loves the gospel. Elder Green and I are doing our very best here. This area is not easy. The people are very stubborn. They love there church even though they know it isn't doing the correct things. We just try our best to get everyone to pray to ask Heavenly Father if they should join us....the ones that do always join the ones that don't usually remain in a midst of darkness.

In the mission President Hill has set a goal he wishes us to achieve each month. We call it 2 fers. It's 2 baptisms 2 recent converts with a temple experience and 2 less actives returning to the fold each month. It's not easy to achieve this goal each month but it has given me something to work for each and every month. I have yet to achieve it all in one month but I have exceeded in other aspects. In Asuom my companion and I reactivated around 5 people that all hold church callings now. While we didn't get as many baptisms as we wanted. I love these 2 fers though it is sweet. I wish to set goals similar to this when I am just a normal member. Goals are such a wonderful thing. I don't know anything really spiritual to say this email other than setting goals. A talk I read striked me to set goals to write down the progress I am in, in the eternal aspect of things. Like get baptized, graduate seminary (didn't do that one dang it), serving a mission, getting married in the temple, always have a calling, always pay my tithing etc. I love the prophets and apostle as I listen to their talks and instruction it always motivates me to set more goals to help me achieve exaltation and happiness in this life. Family the Book of Mormon is true it is the word of God. Read it every day and feast on its words and I promise you will gain the desire to read it more and will find so much peace in this life. I love the Book of Mormon so much.

I got your package thank you so much I am so thankful for you guys. I love the m and ms I don't need any more packages though god bless you I was thinking I was finished it was a good surprise. Family I love you all very much I pray for you all every single day. I pray for everyone. Tell all that I love them including Grandma and Grandpa. Green and I play catch every morning and I'm missing ball but I am thankful for green!

I love you all tons!!!!

Elder Carson