Six Month Mark

Landon's Missionary Planner

August 18, 2014

Buenos dias familia y amigos,

It's great to be writing yet ANOTHER letter. These weeks just keep chugging along like it's nobody's business. They're chugging along so well that my 6TH MONTH MARK is today. I gotta say, it's been quite the ride up until now. It seems like just yesterday that I was being dropped off in the MTC by my grandparents. Time flies! So now that I'm no longer a greenie(says my companion) I can really get to work! It's time to be completely engaged in the work and bring people to Christ.

So this week was fantastic as usual. Although numbers don't reflect, we had a lot of success. We are working on finding right now, and we were able to do that. It's funny, we live right down the street from a cheap Mexican Restaurant, so we go there often. We've had the same waiter every single time. And guess what.....We knocked on his door the other day! We haven't had the opportunity to teach him anything yet, but I hope that we can baptize him some day.

Some news on M and A. Because they work like crazy, we've had to move their baptism to the 13th of September, which means I may may not be here. But nevertheless, they WILL be baptized! I hope I'm here for it, but if not, I trust that the Lord and the ward will take care of them.

So this week we did some really fun stuff. On Wednesday we were walking in the ghetto looking for Hispanics and a guy in a black truck stopped next to us and said "Hey Elders, you ball?" Of course I said yes. So we followed him into a parking lot and then into a little gym. Then we shot to get in the game and played a little bit. The good news is my skills haven't left me and I can still shoot. People always underestimate me cause I'm a skinny white boy, but I can play. So They put the fat old guy on me and I made a couple shots on him. Then we had to leave. So as it turns out, the guy that stopped us and asked us to play is a less active member from Mesa who hasn't gone to church in over a year. Sounds like he just moved here and fell off. So it was a miracle that we found him! We'll work on him for sure.

The next fun thing that happened was we got to play indoor soccer with A and M. We got a text from a member saying that we should come to the church and play. It was SUPER fun and it was great to see A and M bonding with the ward. The members here have done it right with A and M. The fellowship is PERFECT. That's what leads to baptism. The members have a HUGE role in the progression of investigators.

Something that I learned this week was just how much the Lord expects of me. Because the Lord has blessed me with such an AMAZING FAMILY and I've grown up in a great ward and have had incredible influences in my life, He expects me to use all of the tools that He's given me. So I've made the decision this week to push a little more, to teach with a little more agency, to show a little more love, and to become that consecrated missionary that the Lord would have me be.

So there's the shpeel for the week. I hope everything is going well wherever you may be reading, and please know that although I'm in all of your prayers, you're also in mine.

-Elder Landon Carroll

Landon said this is a cookie he and his companion made and they ate the whole thing!

A cool car that Landon saw while out and about.