Tuesday 13 October 2015

I was humbled!

Hey guys!! How's it going!! 

Well this week has been pretty good! I am back working hard with my toe pretty much better , I hope!!!

I was thinking about the scripture that you told me you guys were thinking about (ponderizing) in Mosiah 4: 27. It's a pretty good scripture! I was reading it and studying it a little bit and I liked the footnote in D&C 10 :4. In this part, the Lord is not letting Joseph Smith translate the Book of Mormon because Joseph had given some of the pages  to Martin Harris and then Martin Harris lost them! So, Joseph had to repent for doing this before he was able to translate the plates again. Quite a bit of time passed between when he gave the plates to Martin Harris and when he was able to start translating again. When Joseph finally was able to translate again he was trying to translate very quickly to make up for the lost time. Then the Lord said to Joseph to take his time and to work well but cautioned him not go faster than he could. I thought that was pretty cool and it put the scripture into a little bit of a better perspective to me. We must do our best, but not take on more than we can handle!! Good choice on the scripture,dad!

The other elders in our ward are always late. One of the elders is from mexico and he is always late. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS. And you know how I am about being late. Anyways, it gets annoying when we have lunch together or have a lesson together because we can't start until they get there. So I went and talked to him to try and help him with this problem. He said he would do better and work on a plan to improve. I was pretty happy about that! Well, turns out that later the same night we had a lesson together with a "menos activo" (less active) that wanted all four of us to go for some reason. It was in the other elder's area area, so we headed over there. We arrived on time and were waiting outside for the other elders to arrive.  They didn't get there until about 20 minutes later!! I was ticked, especially because the elder I spoke to said they were going to try to do better. But,  I didn't say anything, trying not to ruin the lesson we were about to have. I know that going into a lesson with a spirit of contention is not good. But to be honest, as we were going in I was pretty mad!!  Then, to top it off, the "hermana menos activo" (the less active sister) who wanted us to go there wasnt even there!!! I was even more ticked off cause we were wasting time that we could have used working in our area!!! I was not very happy, but God knows me pretty well and what I need to learn. 

SO, get this- about after 10 mintues of waiting she walks in with 6 large pizzas for us to eat!!!!! I can't tell you how fast my atitude changed from being mad and upset to being grateful and humbled!! This family really does not have money. The mom is out of work and they have 3 kids. Their house isn't very nice and they live in a very dangerous part of our area because they can't afford anything better. Yet, they sacrificed their money that would have been very useful to them to try and help us out!! I was truly touched!! It made me think that I need to be more giving and also that I need lighten up a little bit. Everyone makes mistakes but we are all trying to go to the same place. God probably gets pretty frustrated at us sometimes too, but through Christ all is possible and we can become better. Everyone needs Christ and that makes us all equal! I felt bad about being so upset, but was truly humbled and grateful for the food and the kind act they did for us and for how this sister reminded me to lighten up!

The other day we were walking behind a little girl and her mom. Suddenly, the little girl just stopped in the middle of the side walk and started going to the bathroom!! Haha - I thought it was classic!! The mom's face was pretty funny! Haha!! It got me thinking about my parents and some of the things I have done to embarrass them!!

Anyways, thats all!! I love you guys!!

Elder Carter

Sunday 11 October 2015

Great conference weekend!

Hey guys! What's up?
Wow!! This week has been crazy!!
Conference was freaking awesome!! It was so sweet! We watched it in english, so that made it even better! I think it is way better to hear their actual voices!! All the English speaking missionaries got to watch conference upstairs in the high council room, which was pretty fun! We went out for ice cream in between sessions on Saturday!
There were so many good talks!! I would probably say I have two that really stick out to me! One of them was by Elder Anderson. He related the story about the family who died and left 3 children and how the surviving kids chose to move forward in faith! It was crazy! I was really inspired!  The fact that one of the sons was out serving a mission when his parents died was pretty significant to me because I could put myself in his shoes. And I can't even imagine it! What amazing faith! It helped put a lot of things into perspective for me! 

The other talk that I loved was Elder Holland's talk about mothers and how the love of a mother is like that of Christ's! The whole time I was listening to it I was just thinking about my mother and what an excellent example of that she is. She has sacrificed so much for me!  I will never be able to repay. The talk just made me extra grateful for the mother I have. Elder Holland was saying that sometimes when it is hard to feel the love of Christ, it is truly displayed by a mother. It made me think a lot about whether or not the  decisions I have made, am making, and will someday make are going to make my mom proud of me. Thank you, mom! You are the best!!!!!
This week I had my operation on my toe! Everything went well and I have been resting for these last couple of days!! Actually, another elder in the zone got the same surgery so we hung out for a while,while our companions went out and worked! He is a pretty cool guy!! He actually is one of my good friends on the mission, so it was pretty fun!! But I think by Tuesday I will be back into the full swing of things! It will be nice to get back to good old missionary work!!
We don't have a ton of people to teach right now, so this week we have been focusing on a part of our area that is a little bit outside of Rosario! We have to take the "collectivo" to get there, but I think there is a lot of potenial there! I am looking forward to finding new people over there so that we can help them!!
It's crazy to think that I have been out over a year! I really have enjoyed my time and I feel as if it is going by way too fast! Looking back it has gone by faster than I can ever imagine!! I am really trying to enjoy every minute because I know it will be over before I know it!!

Thank you so much!
Love you guys!!
Elder Carter