Exciting Saturday!!

July 6, 2015

Hey guys! How’s it going?

This week has been pretty good, although it included a mainly insane Saturday!!!

Saturday started with a service project in the morning, where we laid out cement! It was nice to work with my hands, but it was freezing cold in the morning!! It was all good, though!!We were invited back for lunch and it was super yummy!! I really enjoyed it!! It was “churripan” which is like sausages and its delicious!

At 3:30 we headed for the church for Naomi and Juan Carlos’ baptism! We scheduled the baptism for this odd time so as not to conflict with the South American soccer finals at 5:00 pm. EVERYONE was planning on watching it!!! So, we needed to be done well before then. We had lots of members come for the baptismal service. It was awesome!!! They were baptized by ward members which is great! Except that we forgot to practice with our investigators so that they would know what to do once they were in the water. So, we did not cover things like, plug your nose, bend your knees, lean back, etc., So, this poor couple did not know what they were doing and from where we were standing, it kind of looked like they were drowning!! It looked pretty awkward and uncomfortable!! But guess what? They said they felt so good and no one was injured J. It was all great!!!

Some members brought refreshments for after the baptism. But the baptism ended at 4:45 and nobody wanted to stick around to eat the refreshments. They all rushed home for the big soccer game. So we got to take all the refreshments home! There were 3 pizzas, some cookies and pop! It was a win- win for us!! Ha-ha

We had to stay inside the pension during the game. Things get a little wild during soccer games here. We heard a fair number of guns shots so it was pretty good that we were inside! Lol!! Craazzzzy! The members wouldn’t even talk to us when Argentina was playing!!!We lost and now it’s as if Argentina never played. Nobody talks about it!!!

Anyways, at night all the district leaders have to send us a message saying that the entire district is in their respective pensions, safe. Well there was one pair of missionaries that never sent a message. So we called them.... no answer. We called another 15 times... no answer. The district leader called them.. no answer. We called a member and the member when to their apartment and rang the doorbell(they live in a “ pasillo”). There was no answer. We called the assistants who called president. President called us and we explained everything to him. The president called the owner of the apartments and they knocked on the door! Still, no answer. So president drove all the way over to the apartment, with the police. After knocking and ringing the doorbell at ton of times, the missionaries finally opened the door. They had fallen asleep and put their phone on silent. WHAT THE HECK WERE THEY THINKING?????? I think they felt pretty embarrassed with the president and the police standing at their door!! It was 2:00 am before that got resolved!! We take missionary safety very seriously!!

The language is still coming along. I feel like there is no way I will ever know everything in Spanish, but I get by. There are so many different words!!!!!Sometimes I still sat some things wrong, but for the most part, I can talk and read pretty good. It has taken lots of hard work!! It was much harder than I thought it would be!

Everything is awesome! I love it out here!!!!! Although sometimes, its pretty hard, it is all worth it! I want to improve every day. Right now I am really focusing on listening and looking for the guidance of the spirit. I have been really thinking on how I can become a consecrated missionary. Thank you everyone for your support

I love you all!!!!

Elder carter