Thanksgiving and Laser Pointers

December 1, 2014

Good morning,

Let me just start by saying that I CANNOT believe it's already December again. It seems like just yesterday that I was opening up missionary presents on Christmas. Time really flies, doesn't it? Hard to believe that I've already been out 9 and a half months. But that's just how to cookie crumbles. I'm hoping my mission doesn't go by too fast. Cause it already feels that way.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! My Thanksgiving was fantastic. I wasn't really feeling well the whole day but the dinner we had made up for it! It put me in a food coma for sure! We went to the Tyndall's to have a nice, southern Thanksgiving. We had turkey (cooked in an infrared cooker, actually pretty cool yall should check it out), stuffing, cranberry sauce, collards(yummy), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes of every kind, giblet gravy, ham, deviled eggs, chicken n' pastry, cheesy potato casserole(with onions, aww man), homemade biscuits, and much more! For dessert we had pecan pie, cheesecake, and some Hershey crumb cake sort of thing(really really rich whatever it was). But needless to say, we were taken care of. We got invited to three other Thanksgivings, but after the first one we decided that would be a bad idea.

The rest of the week was also great! I know we're not supposed to play the numbers game, but we taught (don't laugh, Dallin) 17 lessons this week! That's more than we've taught in two months! These were good lessons too. We visited a lot of less active members this week and found three new investigators.

One of our new investigators is Robert. He's a referral from another investigator, Stephanie. He lives in an old high school converted into an apartment complex. It's quite interesting, really. But he's great. He's 36, has three kids, and just wants to rebuild his relationship with God. We taught him the Restoration and he understood it! We invited him to be baptized and he said he would, but we don't have an official date yet. We'll take care of that later this week. But it was funny, while we were teaching him the fire alarm went off. LOUDEST THING I HAVE EVER HEARD. He says sometimes it just goes off randomly and everyone goes out in the hallway to see what the damage is, but he can't trust it anymore so he just stays in bed. But Robert is great. Great individual, good Christian. We just really need to focus on commitment with him so that he knows what he's getting into.

Let's see what else we did....I bought a laser pointer so now all of the cats in North Carolina flock to me. It's really funny. Also, we got transfer news yesterday. Both my companion and I are staying! Our branch mission leader said he begged President Bernhisel for us to stay, and here we are! We're planning on baptizing this transfer. Also, we had a great lesson with Josefina. I think I mentioned her last week, but she's 65ish, Catholic, and has a very strong relationship with Christ. And she loves us! I told her last week that I love tres leches cake and then she had some for us a couple days ago! That's when you know they trust, when they feed you. But she was supposed to come to church yesterday, but didn't, so hopefully we'll get her there next week. She said she would get baptized "si Dios quiere," so in other words, she will.

So I was thinking this week about what the Gospel actually means to me. We contacted a man yesterday who said that he didn't need to join a church to be saved. He then asked us what the difference is between us and all the other churches. "What more can your church do to help me with my salvation?" He says. Well, I testified of the Restoration and how we have the proper authority to perform saving ordinances such as baptism, but his Baptist mind couldn't grasp that concept. He's one of those that thinks that the church of Christ is just the whole Christian body, so he wasn't having that. So he told us he was satisfied and then sent us on our way. (After of course asking for our first names and then calling us by those. Little bit of disrespect, but that's pride speaking) But it kind of made me wonder what I could have done differently to catch his interest. So I'd like to pose a question to ya'll. What specific blessings have you seen come from being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?

I'm gonna end on that note. I'm hoping your answers will give me some greater insight as to what that man is missing in his life.

It was a great week and this week should be even better. Hope yall have a good December 1st! Enjoy the red Jell-O for me!

-Elder Landon Carroll


A view of Fort Brag