Mason's letter -- October 12, 2009

Mi familia!!

Como estan? Well this week has been pretty crazy I guess you could say. We started the week off with a district with 11 people in it. Today we are down to only 6! So they are dropping like flies. Haha, well not really, the 4 hermanas [sister missionaries] left Tuesday morning for the MTC in Guatemala. and our district leader, E. Miligan got the swine flu yesterday so he is in quarantine as of right now for about a week.

Haha so yeah I'm back on the Tamiflu pills!! The doctor gave them to us yesterday. Also, E. Rawson got bronchitis this week, and his roomate got swine flu. Swine flu is going around again. I feel fine though. I got a cold the first week here but other than that I've felt great.

Oh, I got my fingers slammed in a door Saturday as well so some fingers on my right hand were pretty bloody and bruised this weekend. But its all good!! We now have a new district leader, he is E. Merriman. he's a way cool kid.

So this week I finally had a good experience in the RC. I learned the importance of making goals with the Lord. Always when I go to the RC I just try to call and hope someone listens. This last week I prayed about it and set a goal with the Lord to place 2 [copies of the] Book of Mormon and get the missionaries into those 2 homes. Well like the second lady I called I convinced her to let the missionaries in with the Book of Mormon. At first she didn't like the idea but I sweet talked her a bit :)

So I felt good after that but still had to get one more. So I called a lot with no success and went to doing chats. A guy got on and just said really nasty innapropirate things to me so I stopped with that! Chats are not fun!

Anyways I went back to calling people and called an old lady of about 76 I think. Anyways I decided to not read the script that the computer gives you and just freestyle it. Anyways I did that and I think I said what the spirit wanted me to say instead of just reading what the computer told me to say. I talked to her for maybe 20 minutes, her husband had died and he was way religious and he got revelations all the time from God. She gets together with 2 other ladies and they read/discuss the Bible every week. So she was great. She asked me alot of questions and I answered them really well, so I got her excited about the Book of Mormon and the missionaries. I hope it all works out. I felt really good about it.

I wish I had asked her if I could have called her back though so I could've followed up on how she was progressing but I didn't know you could do that! So next time I get one I'll do that and try to have an actual investigator.

This week at the TRC, there was a shortage of investigators so it wasn't very good. We contacted our teacher and it just didn't even feel real at all. I did pretty good with the Spanish though.

This week I printed off a bunch of pictures so I will try to send those home maybe today. they are pretty good. I hope you'll like them.

Anyways the Spanish is coming along slow right now with everyone getting sick and all, but this week we should get back on track. This week I have just wanted to go to Honduras already!! It's all we talk about now. I can't wait until we get there. It will be so much fun. I want to start actually doing the work now insead of just learning in the MTC. I feel like I would learn so much more in Honduras, but this week is our half-way mark so we are almost down hill. I hope no problems arise with the visas. Our roomate going to Argentina was supposed to leave this morning but he didn't get his visa. So that stinks. I feel way bad for him.

I still love this work and I love being a missionary! It's the greatest feeling knowing that I am representing Jesus Christ and continuing his ministry on this Earth. I just hope I can be the tool that Christ wants me to become. I know I can bring many people to the light of this gospel.

I love you all so much and thanks for everything! Thanks for all your letters and support. Mom thanks for the b-day dates. Kylie keep rocking the v-ball court. And how crazy is it that Cal is one!!?? What??!! I wish I could be there but also I'm so glad I'm here.

Love you all
Elder Mason Hanks Cardon