Thursday, June 30, 2011

27 June 2011

Things here are going great!! we have had a pretty powerful week this week and lots has been happening!!! We have been meeting with a 86 year old lady now for almost 2 weeks and she finally agreed to a baptismal date and is preparing to get her life in order and make the mends necessary to be in accordance with god's will. We have been meeting with another man named Jerry Dain. We haven't been able to meet with him this week since every time we went to see him he wasn't home! For a man who has a physical handicap he is never home! We have been searching real hard for those who are ready to hear the gospel and have since dropped a few too! it just makes my heart curdle when I have to drop someone that we have worked with for some time now!!!
We had an awesome Zone Conference this week!! President and Sister Walkers Last Zone conference. I'm not really looking forward to them leaving tomorrow!! We talked with them last night on the phone and well president isn't ready for it. He's gonna be a lost and lonely puppy. I'm gonna miss him and sister walker!! I love them! They are awesome!! It was about the temple, making sure that there are no empty chairs there and that we do all that we can to make sure that there are no empty chair in heaven! Now is my plea, Get there! Don't allow for any empty chairs there! Do what you can to get back if you have strayed, or if you have messed up. Get on your knees and pray and do what you must to get there!!!! The Lord loves you and is willing and ready for you to be with him forever. Do it! There is no better gift that the lord or anyone could ask for than for his children to walk in righteousness!!! I love you and want to see you there!!! Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the lord! There is no time to waist in the service of the Lord! He is willing and waiting for all those to repent!!

I love you all!!!

--

_\../ Elder Karlson \../_


Arizona Tucson Mission
939 W Chapalla Drive
Tucson, AZ 85704
p.s. the picture you see here is the norm for my companion








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20 June 2011

This week has been nuts! Super hot and really smokey with all the fires around here!!!! it was upwards of about 107 this week and looks to be climbing even higher next week and it isn't yet summer!!! I'm so looking forward to it!!! I got in the car and turned on the car looked at the temperature gauge on the rear view mirror and well it said 129 pretty nifty!!! :)

We found a new investigator recently on Saturday, He seems to be pretty good, just need to instill a desire to do and bada bing bada bang you got it!!!! It's been an interesting week! we had Interviews and soon have Zone Conference on Thursday then new mission president on Tuesday of the following week!!! It is going to be a heart breaker to see President and Sister Walker go home! Not really looking forward to that, but change is good and is worth it in the end!!! The Lord knows what he is doing and who needs to be where in whose life in order to make them who he needs them to be! ok so that might have been really confusing, but read it over and you should get it!!! :) The Lord is taking good care of us even if he forgot the Air Conditioner to keep it reasonable! The work is going well and well for the most part we are keeping busy and staying strong!! We were asked how long we had left last week at the meeting and I looked and calculated it all out! saw the number and well tears came to my eyes! just little over 6 months left and it's all over :( They said it was long. they are full of crap! Shortest 2 years ever! Love it! there is nothing that will change the heat or the sweat... ect... but no matter how much it is it is all worth it! every last degree, every least drop of sweat, for that single moment of great achievement. The moment someone gives up an addiction, or decides to read the book of mormon, or whatever it may be it is all worth it in the end!!!
Remember the Lord loves you! knows who you are! and the simple thing he asks us is to get to know who he is and his desires for us!!!
Remember in all you do the command from Jacob a prophet in the Book of Mormon in Jacob chapter 1:19
"And we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day."

Love you! Do all you can to get there!
_\../ Elder Karlson \../_


Arizona Tucson Mission
939 W Chapalla Drive
Tucson, AZ 85704

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

13 June 2011

I'm not for sure if you might understand this, but we came to Nogales today! Been to Mexico and back and well... It's been a great week! :) 1 new investigator... 86 year old woman... She came to church too! that was a blessing for her and for us too! we had been praying for her to find strength to be able to go to church! she has many health problems and really struggling for us to even meet with her because of such poor health. She has great faith for a deaf woman who can't really see much!!! she is awesome! just hope she will keep it up!
She came to church as I had previously said, but about 15 minutes before church was out she needed to use the restroom! She got up and a member tried to help her to the bathroom, but she refused help! She fell on her face in like slow motion!!! I felt soo bad for her!!! she has a black eye and carpet burn, but we aren't for sure what else!!!! :( We have been working hard as we can, and really searching for those who need our help!!! Elder Bradley was sick yesterday! Flu I think, but he is being a trooper today!! P-day a cherished day for a missionary I guess! cause he is right here along with us!!
Love it!!! Well gotta run, but more next week!!!!
Love you all!!!

_\../ Elder Karlson \../_


Arizona Tucson Mission
939 W Chapalla Drive
Tucson, AZ 85704

7 June 2011

OK so this computer says I have 5 minutes left so I guess I have to make it a fast one... but... this week has been super nuts!! on Tuesday of last week 2 members invited us to go to a real nice restaurant with them. It is a rather different restaurant, it might remind you of like a Texas Rhode House or something like that, but was crazy cool. It is a restaurant in the back of an old wild west built town! I sent a few pictures that we took on the phone not real good of quality, but I'll try to get some out to you soon! We got to watch an old wild west shootout and all! So dad I really didn't miss Jackson all that much, just the trees!! there are none here! Palm Trees aren't the same!! really they are dead trees now for the most part, because they have had no water in almost a year, and well starting to get hot!!! 103 and 105 this week and it isn't the summer yet!!! I'm so looking forward to it! :)

This week was my first week conducting in sacrament meeting not scary, just kinda weird! I'm used to standing up in a ward and talking or saying something, and now just a group of 35-40 people, lot smaller!!! It's a really neat experience! get to find speakers soon! for the month!!! aah! not been able to find any new people to teach until last night!
we found an 86 year old Deaf lady who really wants to learn and no it isn't because 2 good looking missionaries came to her door!!! it is because someone opened their mouth and asked her! finally! Deaf people here are a bit afraid to offend or ask someone if they want to learn!! I wish they would do it more often!!! finally :) what is the worst thing they could say... No?

Everyday I see people driving by, laughing, making fun of something they have never tested out themselves, never asked a question, never taken the time to learn. It breaks my heart to see them do that and to know if only they knew what they were missing, if only they knew what they could have and just ignore!!! We have something truly amazing! shaping us and making us the Person God needs us to be, it is the atonement. The ability to be forgive and the healing power it gives us and helps us to forget! He loves us and doesn't want us to suffer! take the time to think it over! he can change us and take and make us who he needs us to be!
In Mosiah 14 it says, "3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6 All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth.

8 He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgressions of my people was he stricken.

9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no evil, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief; when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

11 He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death; and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."

He did it because he loved us not because he wanted to do so!! give it a shot Try it out! he will heal you as he is beginning to heal the 86 year old woman we are teaching!

Love you!! as you can see the computer lied! :) good thing or you'd got a few paragraphs is all!

gotta run! love you!!!

_\../ Elder Karlson \../_


Arizona Tucson Mission
939 W Chapalla Drive
Tucson, AZ 85704