September 5,2020

 Carson sent a voice recording this week so I did my best to dictate some of his thoughts. As he was talking I could hear music. He was sitting out on his deck outside and there was a party going on close by. He said “ Germany has a quiet rule where the government determines that between 10pm and 6am any behavior that disturbed sleep can be fined. They must not have that rule in Switzerland because loud music playing and it is late. This week has been a good week, a little more to do.  We had interviews with mission president on Monday and zone conference on Tuesday.  We had 4 different member appointments which were good. We would eat dinner with the family’s and share a message. Elder Benge speaks fluent German so it is difficult to follow the conversations. They speak really fast and I’m struggling with the Swiss German.  Monday as we traveled to interviews we got stopped on the train a few times so we were late to our appointment with President but he was really behind. We went into Zurich with another elder companionship. We got some lunch together. It was good to talk to the other missionaries, one was a former AP and was really set on doing Facebook.  I was happy to hear him say that contacting through members is a better way to contact than Facebook so a bit of a turn around. I really enjoyed meeting with President  Naatjes this was really my first interview with a president because of COVID.  I really have never had a face to face interview. He is cool and as he shared his testimony he said some profound things, I felt I was listening to an apostle. I enjoyed Sister Naatjes talk as well. She told us about their crazy travel into the country through Czechia. The best part of zone conference I got to see several old companions but I was really happy to see my MTC buddies - Elder Cockrill and Elder Gallagher. Sister Martin was there too she is the one I traveled with from Salt Lake City to Preston England MTC.  I am still feeling really inferior on my German and fear I could be assigned to be a trainer and I don’t know how to speak.  I also worry about if the missionary work is ever going to go back to normal, and with no improvement in near future it is hard to stay motivated.  My companion has had a bad head cold the last two days and worried I’m sick too- we didn’t go to church today. Love you and I will try to count my blessings, grateful for my family. Thanks for your prayers and support” 

Elder carson