Monday 30 May 2016

Even more miracles!

May 23, 2016

Hey guys!!

Sounds like life is crazy busy in Calgary with all that is going on - tournaments, grad, and vacations!! Hahaha- but don't forget to find opportunities to share the gospel!!! haha jk 

The weather here has been getting a lot colder! The humidity really kills ya! The cold gets right to your bones!! Haha - and it doesn't help being outside all the time! But the members always have some nice warm drinks waiting for us when we enter their house!  It's fall here, so there are tons of leaves on the ground, and I am excited that I don't have to rake them!!! Haha! Winter is coming quickly though!! It gets dark really early and the sun doesn't come up until really late! It's a lot harder to get out of bed on time now! 

The golden investigator that we have is progressing really well! On Sunday, she didn't get to church at 9 am so we waited a little bit and then went with a member to go look for her. We knocked on the door and found her sleeping! We woke her up and told her that we had a car ready for her to come to church! She said she would change and be right there, but then her 7 year old kid didn't want to get out of bed so she didn't come. I was pretty bummed and was praying that she would feel bad and that the spirit would testify to her that she should have gone to church! We went back in the afternoon and she sure felt bad! She apologized like 100 times and said she was feeling bummed all day becuse she missed her opportunity! It's alright, the next week she will come for sure! After we had done everything we could to help her God blessed her that she would want to come the next sunday!!

Another miracle happen this week that I thought was pretty sweet! So lately,  we have been talking a lot with the members about their role in the work. We have been trying to help them have the incentive to invite people because it is waaay more succesful! So anyways, there is this one inactive family whose home we have stopped by at least 10 times! They always are very cold and say they don't have time and show very little interest! They are sealed in the temple and have 2 kids that aren't members. So I had kind of lost hope. If they don't want us working with them, we need to respect that. Anyways, one day we got a call from a member saying that this family needed a blessing and the members had called and arranged it for us! So we were able to enter the home, they were very freindly and even came to church with the member! The member was able to do in 15 minutes what we had been trying to do for weeks!! Haha - we had gone so many times to that house! It was a pretty great miracle to see that after we had done everything we could p, God blessed us!!

The other cool thing that happened with that family is that their 11 year old daughter wanted to come to church but was insecure about coming because she knew everyone was going to be wearing skirts.The member family also have an 11 year girl. So the member's 11 year girl decided she would not wear a skirt and instead wore pants so that her friend would not feel left out! That was pretty cool!!! It really taught me how to put Mosiah 18 in action!! What a great example!!! 

It's been a good week! We working hard and eating some good food!

I love you guys!
Elder Carter

God's love

May 16, 2016

Hey guys! This week was good! Tough, but it was good!!

So, we went to a really yummy restuarant last week that had some great deals! I ate fish there and enjoyed it a ton! It has been a while since I have had fish!! It was great! Haha- plus i get along great with Elder Curtis, so it's really fun to hangout with him!! 

We have been working alot with a woman whose name is Angelina! We found her just talking with people! After talking to tons and tons and tons of people we were finally able to find her. She was super prepared to accept the gospel! She has been stuggling through some addictions and lives alone with her 6 year old son! She is trying to study and work at the same time and really needs help! We arrived! She already received an answer that the church is true and loved church when she came! She has a baptismal date for the 4th of June, which is great! I am very excited about it! God really prepared her for us! She is reading and praying and everything! It does not get much better than that!! How great!!

One thing that has become very clear to me while on the mission is that God really loves each and every one of his children. Regardless of whether they are a member or not, if they are male of female, if they are a drug dealer or and apostle, God loves all of his children. Before the mission, for some reason I had in my head that  God loved everyone but he loved those who were doing good things better. It has really hit me how much God really does love each and everyone of his children! I was reading in Ether this week. It's such an interesting book to me! There is a king who starts doing bad things and then the people he leads start doing bad things as well. After a while, they start to have a war and tons of them die. They humble themselves, repent and turn to God again. Then they have a leader who is very rightouus and the people are rightous. They do great and prosper a ton and have tons of riches of the world. Then they get swallowed up in pride again and have a a bad leader who leads everyone to wickedness. This pattern repeats itself a couple of times. I was wondering , if God knows that the people are just going to become prideful and wicked with the things they are blessed with, why doesn't he just not bless them? Why doesn't he just keep them humble and give them just what they need? I was thinking about that for a while. I realized that God really does love his children and wants the best for us! He wants to give us everything that he has. He loves seeing us happy and therefore will bless people even though he knows that they will forget him and become wicked. He still blessed them because he loved them and if they earned it, he was going to take every opportunity He could to bless them! Pretty cool! 

Elder Curtis and I are doing great! We are really trying to work with the members to try and get people to teach. Preach my Gospel says that the ideal situation is when the members take the iniciative in teaching and invite their friends to listen to us. Our job is to teach. We are trying to help the members understand this.We cannot just go put all the weight and blame on the members. After we have given it our all and done everything we as missionaries can, thats when we can ask the members to do what they are suppose to do. We cannot get mad at the members for not doing what they are suppose to do, if we are not doing it either!

Lots of learning this week! It was good!!

I love you guys!
Elder Carter

A golden contact!!

May 9, 2016

Hey guys! It was great to talk to you guys yesterday! Dani and Bentley look very different! I still remember Bentley as a chuncky liitle kid, and Dani as my little sister with braces and a little clumsy! Haha the tables have turned! I really miss you guys!! It will be so fun to see you guys in 3 months!!
This week went well! Not a ton of crazy stuff has happened but we have been working hard!
After talking to many, many, many people, we finally found a woman who is very prepared to learn about the gospel! It was a miracle! We try to talk to atleast 20 people a day and most of them don't really seem that receptive! Well, we talked to this woman and she seemed very excited and receptive so we tried to meet with her! After a couple of attempts,  we kind of gave up because scheduling its was kind of tough! Well, one day we were walking and we saw her and she invited us in!  She is very prepared and even came to church on Sunday! The ward is doing a great job talking to her and letting her feel very comfortable! So, that was a pretty cool miracle that we have seen! I hope she gets baptized! her name is Angelina.
We have been really trying to work with the ward and their missionary work. I have realized that there are lots who have great intentions and really want to share the gospel but they just don't know how. Maybe they kind of half share it but we are working on how we can get better at it! Lots of people talk but never invite, and until we invite they never do anything! So, we are trying to work around that! But, all is good!
I am having a great time and really enjoying my time here! I feel lots of pressure but it's good for me because it forces me to always be looking to get better!
Haha mom - you would probably kill me right now for how dirty our apartment is! We need to clean today!!!!!
I love you guys!
Elder Carter

A busy week!!

May 2, 2016

Hey guys! How's it going?

This week went well! It was a little stressful for me with lots of stuff to do,but we did it!!

I feel like we are really starting to find great people to teach. I am excited to see how they progress, and also to keep finding new people to teach. The most effective way I have seen missionary work progress is when the members share the gospel. This is something that I didn't do before the mission. I find that when the members share the gospel, it is 10 times more effective than when we share the gospel! We are trying to help them with that! Do you have any ideas how we can help them? What are you guys doing to share the gospel?

Well, this week we had a leadership council with all the zone leaders and then also a training for half the mission. Hahaha - man I was pretty stressed out about that! But we did it! With lots of meetings and planning and studying, I think the material we covered will be able to help everyone out a little bit better!

One thing that I have been learning more and being more aware of is the power that comes through meditating and thinking. A scripture that comes to mind is Helaman 10:3-5, where it talks about Nephi and how he preached the gospel with everything that he had and he meditated and thought a lot about it. Then after he had done that, he was given power to do anything he wanted. It only came after he did everything posible and thought and pondered on what had happen, and what he could do. It was cool for me because I have never really been that good at it taking the time to really think through things. It's something that I am trying to get a lot better at and I have noticed that when I take the time to do it, I receive reavelation or inspiration with what to do or what to teach or say. It was pretty cool for me! It's definitely something I want to keep developing.


Looking forward to talking to you guys on Sunday at 7:00 pm my time.

I love you guys!
Elder Carter

Miracles

April 25, 2016

Hey guys!

Hows it going?

This week has gone by really really fast! We were in the mission home the first part of the week which was really good! Its always sad to see the missionaries going home, but really cool to see all the new missionaries coming in! There were about 10 missionaries who came from Brasil! Haha - I was going crazy because they weren't talking spanish nor english! I could pick out some words, but it was funny! They would try and speak spanish, but it wouldn't come out 100 percent right! It was fun! They also had about 100 riddles at dinner! It was pretty fun! Good missionaries!!

This week we have been working to find a lot of new people. Its easy to teach, but harder to find. We are trying to talk to 40 people a day, and usually out of those 40 people, we get 3 or 4 appointments, and 2 are usually waiting for us. Its good though. We are also trying to be "finding" more of the time and teaching less. Obviously we need to teach, but if we only teach those who are willing to progess and find the rest of the time, we will baptize more! Its tough but I really like it.

On Sunday we had been walking for forever and had not been able to find anything good for about 3 hours. Also, the couple days before had been kind of dry with a lot of walking and a lot of people saying no. We had the idea to go and visit an inactive member. When we got there he happily received us and we were able to visit with his 20 year old son, who was not a member and we were able to give him a baptismal date!!! He originally thought that he was a member, but just had not been baptized! I am super excited and I know it was a blessing because of the hard work we had put into finding this week! Then about 10 mins later, after we left that house we decided to go and visit an old investigator who we hadn't been able to contact for a while. We found her, which was a miracle and were able to get an appointment. Then right after that we were talking to people in the street and we found a woman who got baptized when she was 8 years old and hadn't gone to church since, but she had kids that had not been baptized. She said that she was thinking about coming back to church! Pretty crazy huh!! Then we had another investigator call us and apologize because he was not there when we passed by (we had passed by probably 10 times and he was not there). We got an appointment with him for Wednesday! It was a really cool day for me because all week we had just been working really hard, planning good, keeping good records, talking to tons of people, trying to get the members to share the gospel but nothing had been working. Then on Sunday night, the last day of the week we were receiving all of the blessings! It was pretty awesome! Even if all of those people don't follow through,  it was still a miracle that we found them all!

I really like Elder Curtis! He is a good guy! We have ordered some good empandas a couple times this week! Good times!!!!

Also, one day we had a lunch appointment very very far away. We had to take a bus to get there. Anyways, this family really doest not have any money. She is a single mother of 5 children, and is not working consistently. She is looking but cannot find a way to do it around the schedual of her children. The house was pretty humble, but she was more than happy to have us over. We had another appointment right after lunch, so we had to eat fast and go. Well, when we got there she had just started cooking the food. I was a little annoyed, and forgot about all the sacrafices that she was doing for us. We ate fast and shared a quick message. It was good food, but I was a little bit worried because of the cleanliness of the utensils, but nothing has happened so far.  So after we ate I was still annoyed about how long it took and how we were going to be late to our next appointment. You know how I am about time. Well, as we were leaving, she gives a a huge bag of food with tons of crackers, hot dogs and tons of food for us. I know for a fact that she did not have the money to do that and she was definitely sacrificing something to be able to give us that. In that moment, I realized how seflish and uncaring I was being towards her. I felt bad for the way I thought. I can't believe I thought that way. She was really giving us everything she had and I was too worried thinking that we were going to be late. How rude!!! Anways, I learned a great lesson there and am very thankful for the sacrafices that she made for us! 

It was a good week! I love you guys!
Elder Carter

Still raining!!

April 18, 2016

Hey guys! This week has been really good! The rain still continues! I haven't had dry clothes in like 2 weeks, since it has been raining for forever! We are hearing that a lot of cities to the north are being flooded! Pretty crazy! So far nothing too serious has happened here, but the massive river parana has gotten pretty high! With all of the rain the humidity has been off the charts!!! The other day it wasn't hot at all, but I could not stop sweating. In the morning when we woke up the walls were all wet because of how humid it is! I could not believe it!! It was almost unbearable! Haha - the forecast says it will continue to rain this week! Atleast everyone is always home so we always have people to visit. My umbrella has been beat up pretty good! It is starting to get pretty cold as well! Sweater weather! 

The package you sent me got here! Thanks!! It was awesome! We made the muffins and ate a ton of goodies! I got a little bit of a stomach ache but it went away when i took some of the digezen magic potion that bita gave me! Also my teeth are going to be pretty clean with that nice new electric tooth brush mom send me! Hahaha- are you trying to send me a message? Elder Bluth also enjoyed the package as well! Thanks! I have been trying to eat a little healthier but right as I started to do that I got that package and I couldn't do it anymore! Hahaha- I couldn't resist! 

This week we had to get some flu shots. (a nurse came to the stake center to do them). While I was waiting for my turn I started talk with the family history consultant. She is an older lady who looks like she is about 80 years old! I got talking to her and she is super awesome! You can tell that she really does all that she can to fulfill her calling. She couldn't stop talking to me about the work! Then I watched as she gathered a few other missionaries together and talked to them about inviting and bringing people to do their family history work. There was nobody who was attending very regularly. You could tell that she was very desperate for people to come and do this work. She was doing all in her power to get people there and to help them out! It was pretty cool for me to see the determination in this little old lady. I was thinking about her example as she tried her best to fulfill her calling/assignment. This experience has stuck with me. I think I need to do a little better in that. Those who dedicate themselves and do everything that they can to achieve what they have set themselves out to get are successful. It was pretty cool for me!

This week I got a new companion! His name is Elder Curtis! I had mentioned him a a while back! He is one of Triton and Stevens good friend! I had gotten along really well with him! Now he is my companion! I am pretty excited! It should be great! I was sad to say goodbye to Elder Bluth again. Hahaha- I had a really fun time with him. I spent 6 months of my mission with him! We had a great time! He is off to Venado Tuerto, a little town about 2 hours from Rosario! He also really enjoyed the package you sent me! Thanks mom!

I love you guys!
Elder Carter

Daniela got baptized!!!

April 11, 2016

Hey guys!

Its been a good week! It is still raining a ton here, which sucks! Haha - but it is nice because everyone is at home. It is just too bad we arrive all wet and cold! Hahaha- I have been drinking a lot of hot chocolate or Malta, which are the comon winter time drinks here. I like them but they have toooons of sugar so I try not to drink them because I don't want to get fat -lol!!!!

The most exciting thing that happened this week was that Daniela from Villa Ramallo got baptized!! I had asked president if I could go back for the baptism and he said yes, which was sweet! On Friday we left right after lunch to be able to get there in time. The baptism started at 6 o clock. To get to Villa Ramallo from Rosario, you have to take 2 buses. The first one is to San Nicolas. Then, from San Nicolas you have to take another bus to Villa Ramallo. These buses only run every hour, so we had to be on time for that one. The buses to Villa Ramallo left at 4:20 and 5:10, taking an hour to get to villa ramallo from san nicolas. We needed to catch the bus that left at 4:20 or else we would arrive too late to the baptism and I couldn't do that because I was baptizing her. So, the other option would be to take a taxi but that would be pretty expensive. Anyways, we got on the first bus at 3:00 pm and it's about 1hr and 20 min bus ride, so we were cutting it pretty dang close. As we were pulling into San Nicolas, I was getting pretty nervous because I did not want to miss the bus going to Villa Ramallo. We arrived in San Nicolas at 4:19, and right as the bus stopped we ran off it in order to catch the other bus. Hahaha - we got there right as the bus going to Villa Ramallo was pulling out! We qucikly jumped on and were headed to villa ramallo. That was a miracle because if we had arrived about 30 seconds later we would not have made it! 

Going back to Villa Ramallo was really cool! I really miss that place, even though when I first arrived I thought that I was never going to miss it. It brought back some great memories as well! It was really awesome to see Elder Magby again along with a couple other members that I really got a long with! Daniela had asked me to baptize her, so I was pretty excited! It was awesome to see them again! They looked so good and happy! The baptism went awesome, even though the water was a little bit cold! 

It was really cool for me to be able to go back and be a part of that! I remember when we first started teaching them and all the times we went over there to eat! I remember when we arrived one time and they had decided that they weren't going to get married. They had been fighting a lot, and now Daniela could not get baptized.   I was pretty sad at that moment! But with the good help of the Spirit, we were able to work through it and they finally arrived! I just felt super good during the baptismal service! Elder Bluth and I had to leave right after to get back, but the branch was throwing a litlle wedding party for them! It looked so cool! Too bad we couldn't stay, but it's alright!!

We caught the colectivo (bus) back to San Nicolas and right when we got off the colectivo we saw the other colectivo leaving to Rosario just barely pulling out! Hahaha- we quickly ran and jumped on that one as well! God really had our backs  because we just barely made it!! It was pretty awesome! It was a pretty cool day for me!

This week Elder Aubrey, one of my friends from the mission, came and did divisiones (splits) with us! It was pretty sweet to see him and talk to him a little bit! He is such an awesome guy!

Lately,  I have been reading in the end of Alma about all the battles that were fought. It is pretty interesting how much they planned and prepared for what the lamanites would do to them. I think it is a great example to us of how we should prepare for Satan and all the things that could happen in the world. Everytime the Lamanites prepared and had faith in the Lord, they come out winning. I think that if we also apply this pattern, we will always come out happy and with something that we have learned!

That's all this week!

I love you guys!
Elder Carter

It's pouring!!!!!

April 4, 2016

Hey guys! 

This week went well!

This week Elder Magby called me from Villa Ramallo(my last comp). He said that Daniela was going to get married and April 8th was her baptism date ! I was super excited! They finally got married and this Friday she is going to get baptized! I asked president if we could go back for the baptism and he gave me the thumbs up! I am pretty excited! I really like them. I am looking forward to that so I will let you know how it goes! I do have to pay for it with my own money though, all the buses and taxis but its totally worth it! After so much time working with them, they are finally getting baptized! I There hasn't been a baptism in Villa Ramallo for over a year, so I think the ward is pretty excited about it as well. 

This week it poured here!!!! I like the rain when I can stay inside or if I have a car, but as a missionary I am really not a big fan. We have to go out and work anyway, so we just get wet and cold. I tried the umbrella but after 5 minutes it broke because the wind was so heavy!! Haha- I ended up getting soaked! Since there were not many people out side, we decided to try an investigator who had recently called us and said they had lost interest. We were sure they were going to be in their house because when it rains nobody in Argentina does anything. The thing is that if they don't know you they don't want to let you in or even answer the door when it rains. So we took advantage of the opportunity that the rain would keep the family inside. Haha - we went in the pouring rain and she let us in! We were able to resolve her doubt on why she did not want to listen to us anymore. It was pretty cool. She had some weird doubt that going to church would bring spirits into her house, like she would hear things moving in the kitchen at night and stuff. I guess it happened the last time she was investigating. We helped her resolve her concern, so it was a pretty good visit! 

In the mission there are only 2 Canadians including myself. This week we had the chance to work together during divisions!! He is from Barnwell, which is like 30 mins from Lethbridge. He goes to Calgary all of the time, so we were able to talk a little bit about home! It was pretty fun! It has been a long time since I have spoken to someone about home!! It was cool as well because we as Canadians have a couple words or things that are different from the states. Well, lots of missionaries give us a hard time, or they joke around with us since we have some different words. For example, we say toque instead of beany, or garbarator, or the way we say bag, or that we have poutin, or that we have ketchup chips! Haha!!!  For the first time in my mission I  was not the minortiy!! We had fun joking with Elder Bluth about stuff they do in the states! It was fun! Good guy, he finishes his mission in 2 weeks!

I really enjoyed conference this weekend! We were able to watch it in English which was sweet! The voices of the apostles are way better than when someone is translating what they say. All the english speaking missionaries were squished in the office of the stake president to watch it! I really enjoyed it! It was sweet to hear them speak! During the past couple of conferences, I have taken a lot of notes of every single talk. That was a mistake, since I never even go back and look at the notes, plus the Liahona just comes out with all of the talks anyways. So this time , I only wrote down things that I want to work on. A couple of things that really stood out to me were messages that encouraged the weak  to come closer to Christ. We must seek and then he will receive us,band as we come make efforts to be closer to Christ, we will become  converted. I would like to work more on this. Another thing that I need to get better at is using the priestood power. I don't really know how to do that better, but I think I need to study it a little bit more! Elder Christopherson's talk made me grateful to have my father as my dad! Thanks dad!  

Other that nothing new has happened. Everything is going good! It's starting to get cold here! 

Love you
Elder Carter

Sacrifices bring blessings

March 28, 2016

Hey guys! This week went well!
SO, we had a baptism yesterday!!! Her name is Lucia and she is 19 years old! She was suppose to get baptized a couple weeks ago, but when we went to walk with her for her baptismal interview, her sister told us she was cutting her hair and could not see us. Well, I could see over their fence through the open door and saw the person cutting her hair was holding a razor. I was wondering what the heck they were doing cutting hair with a razor. I then watched as the hair cutter shaved the sides of Lucia's hair off!!!!!! We waited patiently for about 5 mins until she was done. She walked out with both of the sides of her head shaved and the part on top long. She had also bleached her hair. I was so surprised, i just started laughing! I felt so bad but I couldn't hold it in anymore!! I know I am in no place to say anything, especially because I have bleached my hair before too (and laughed at myself!). 

She then said that she had to work and  couldn't go to the baptismal interview. So, we decided to wait until we saw she was more committed. I thought it was pretty funny that 30 mins before her baptismal interview she decided to shave her head. Anyways we waited another 3 weeks and she kept coming to church, reading her scriptures and everything so we decided that she was ready. The interview went well and the day of her baptism arrived. We had one of the members baptize her. He is a convert of 7 or 8 months! It was his first time baptizing and Lucia was not sure what to do. She had to go under the water 4 times, but they finally got it right!!! It was so good to see them keep trying and stick to it!! Lucia was especially happy and excited!!! I am really happy for her!! We now have to work more with the members so that she feels good and loved and welcomed and  so that she becomes "a fiel miembro" (a faithful member)!
Other than that, the week has been good! We have been working hard trying to find new poeple to teach and we are see blessings from that! When sacrafice is made, blessings are given!
We have a family that we are working alot with! We have been working with them for more than 2 months and they have not been able to get over their obstacles in the way of going to church. Well, yesterday after many phone calls to wake them up, they finally agreed to come!! We were waiting for them outside the sacrament meeting, which is the last meeting, at 11:00 am. The meeting started, the hymn was sung, the prayer was given, the business part was taken care of, and still, no family. We came back in to confirm Lucia but then went back out to wait for them. Now, the sacrament hymn started. The first verse, then the second, - I was actually getting nervous and worried. I was starting to lose hope that they would even make it to sacrament. Well,  at the begining of the third verse, they walked in! We quickly greeted them and shoved them in to the chapel. Hahaha!!  I felt bad because there was like 8 of them and the 2 of us and we made some noise! We finally got our seats seconds before they started to bless the sacrament! I just laughed becuase it was so crazy! But it was so sweet that they came!!! Three members of the family are non members and we are really excited for them!!!!
Thanks for everything!! I hope I did good with the details in this letter!! 

Love you
Elder Carter