The
Carlson Family Newsletter Number 42
April
18, 1994
Dear Family,
It is P. Day, and I think my brain has been turned
off. The past week we have been very
busy, and the coming week promises to be just as busy, although not with
missionary work as such. This evening we
will go back over to Glendora to contact 3 more people we would like to see
baptized. Younger missionaries are not
given the privilege of going back into an area from where they have moved. We will visit tonight only briefly however.
This coming week is full.
First of all, we have a new companion, Sister Shin from Korea. She will finish her mission May 10, and will
be with us till then. Tomorrow we will
take her to one of her Korean contacts in Arcadia. Wednesday, the whole
mission–missionaries–will go to the Los Angeles Temple for the 11:a.m. session. It will take most of the day. Then Thursday and Friday mornings we will put
in 2 hours of community service each morning.
We get pretty discouraged when we can’t find anyone to teach. We had a wonderful Chinese couple. The woman was especially interested, but we
felt that her English was not quite good enough for us to teach, so we invited
the Chinese Elders to go with us. We
went alone the first time, and the second time we went with them. However the Elders took over the lesson in
Chinese, but they took 2 ½ hours to give it, and when they called back to set
up another discussion, she wouldn’t let them come back. She said she didn’t have the time. Maybe we can try again. We just don’t know.
We went to a referral who wasn’t home. A neighbor told us she was out of town. We started talking to the neighbor who spoke
mostly Spanish. I could converse with her somewhat. She has 3 children under 8 years, and feels
she needs a church for them. She told us
we could send some Spanish missionaries, but warned us that she would have to
take religion slow with her husband. She
wants the missionaries to come during the day when her husband is at work. We hope they will follow thru with her.
We had a couple plus an Indian man come to church a week
ago, but the Indian man has gone back to India because his wife in India had a
baby girl last week. The couple we are
still teaching, but He is in the National Guard, and is gone one week-end a
month, so they didn’t get to church yesterday.
We also started teaching a 22 year old member who quit coming to church
when she was 14. She had a baby at that
time.
April
19, 1994
Tonight we finally found our new referel home. Her name is Marsha Carlston, and she has a
husband. They are both born again
Christians. Boy, were they out to get
us. They told us that we don’t believe
in the Christ of the Bible. We believe
Joseph Smith is God. Satan is not a
spirit brother to Jesus Christ. God the
Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are one God. Jesus Christ is the very eternal God. Joseph Smith received visitations from
Moroni, an angel of light. The Devil is
an angel of light.
They went on like this for an hour. We all three bore our testimony to them. We also refuted their statements with
scripture, but of course, they didn’t believe us. It made us realize that we needed to know the
teachings of the gospel completely. It
also made us realize we could not argue with them. There was no way we could change their views.
They called me a Temple Mormon. I asked
them what they meant. He said, “have you
been married in the temple, and taken all those covenants and secret
oaths?” I told him we had no secret
oaths, and yes, I have been married in the temple for time and all
eternity. It would take me pages to tell
you all that went on during that hour, or it was more like an hour and a half. I think it upset them that we wouldn’t argue
with them.
April
22, 1994
The day we went to Arcadia, it was necessary for us to
stop at the bank. We drove into the
parking lot, and parked alongside a very lovely car. The woman in the car called out, “you hit my
car.” I was the only one getting out of
the car, and I stood up and said, “There is no way we could have hit your
car.” But she said, “But you just hit my
car.” I said, “there are 3 of us in this
car, and we would have been able to tell if we had even touched your car, which
we didn’t. She got out, and pointed to a
dent in some beautiful chrome. I didn’t
even answer her, but hurried into the bank.
When I got in, I immediately went to the teller and told her what had
happened, and when I turned around to point her car out, she was driving
out. I guess he thought she had a couple
of old ladies, from our of town–our car has a Utah license–and she figured she
could make us pay for a dent in her car.
We didn’t hear any more from her. I had never heard of anyone trying a trick
like that before.
Days go by, and I don’t even get a letter finished. I know that Trina has been in the
hospital. I tried to get her by phone
but she had been released. I hope she is
feeling better. We have heard that
President Nixon is very ill. Anything we
hear is from someone else. We have no
access to newspaper, radio, or TV. In a
way, it is very good. We don’t hear of
all the rime that is going on. In
another way, we know of very little that is going on. That is ok also, because most of what is
reported is bad news.
Most of you know that I try to grow Amarillis bulbs at
Christmas. They are so beautiful, but
very expensive to buy the bulbs. Here,
they are in full bloom in every one’s garden.
Instead of 4 or 8 blooms, they almost grow in hedges, with so many
blooms you can’t count them. They are in
every color, and oh, so beautiful. I
don’t think Californians realize the beauty they have all around them.
Our avocados are falling every day. We can’t reach any of them to pick them. They are too high, so we pick them up off the
ground, and use them if they are not too bruised. They have what they call finger avocado’s and
we have a few on our trees. In the store
yesterday I saw some for sale at $6.99 a pound.
The season for Avocado’s is almost over.
Our oranges are all gone, and our lemons, altho we see trees still
loaded with both.
We went back to our little Spanish lady this afternoon,
the one that lives next door to the Born again christian. The Spanish lady was not home, altho we had
made a definite appointment. Maybe the
neighbor told her how bad our church is.
Lovingly,
Mother
Uncle Willard said there was
a bad accident in Provo Canyon involving a Carlson boy. Could it have been one of the Carlson’s from
Charleston. They are from a brother of
Alvin E. Carlson, Dad’s father - Jack Carlson.
April 26,
1994
Alice just called: 4 P.M.
Tues. There is two inches of hail on the
ground, thunder and lightening, the worst storm Alice has seen in the twelve
years they have been in Yorba Linda.
Big preparations are goin on
for Pres. Nixon’s funeral tomorrow. The
schools here are closed all day tomorrow.
Four former presidents will be there plus Pres. Clinton. She says the skies have been full of
helicopters
Love,
Mother
