Wednesday, February 19, 2014

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

OH MY GOODNESS MY WHOLE LIFE HAS JUST GONE DOWN THE PIPE.

So for the past few weeks I´ve been the apprentice of Elder G. He was the secretary before I was and he knew pretty much everything. He was going to teach me for the next transfer.

Well, as it turns out, he goes to his new area tomorrow. Today was his last day to teach me everything.

I have officially been put in charge of:
All of the financial wares of the mission
All of the website information
All of the Cell Phones
The Email of the Mission
A new Sector
And around 300 credit cards

Pretty nuts.

Not only has he taught me all of this stuff, but he´s also trying to train other people as well.

The hardest part about this is the fact that he´ll be leaving the sector. I really don´t know a whole lot of people, and my companion, Elder D, really knows less than I do.

Basically, we´re going to be left with the knowledge that I´ve got, because Elder Diaz has no idea what he does outside of his sphere of responsibility.

Elder G did manage to teach me around everything that I need to know, and almost everything that I needed to train others on. Basically, I managed to learn how to run nearly the entire mission in around 4 hours today.

It was pretty cool, to be honest, to know that Elder G was able to transfer all of his knowledge to me, and that now I´m in charge of it all.

But at the same time, it´s really scary. I know that I´m actually in charge of it all. If I make a mistake, it´s okay, because there´s a lot of people willing to help me out, but that doesn´t excuse the mistakes.

Just super scary a little bit.

Okay, cool stuff that happened:

1.) Mom, you´re going to absolutely love this:

I have officially decided that I hate video games.

Okay, well, not hate, but it´s like this:

Brother C, the 10 year old boss that just is super awesome, talks to me ALL the time about Call of Duty. ALL THE TIME. Like, that´s all he wants to talk about. It´s all he does all day too.

It made me start thinking about what I did before the mission, and I realized that I just don´t have the same feeling towards playing games like that anymore.

Like, it´s fun and all, but I just don´t have the same desire to just play them all day like before. I like going out and doing stuff better. It´s more fun, and I actually accomplish stuff.

Basically, everything you guys ever told me about video games was completely true. I knew it of course, but I never really paid attention to it. Now, I realize that seriously, it´s completely just to have fun for a few hours, and then do something even more fun.

Like, I can´t tell you how much I miss wakeboarding/snowboarding/longboarding. I miss doing that so much it´s ridiculous. But games just don´t even matter to me anymore.

It doesn´t matter to me if I come home and the Xbox is still there. I mean, I hope it is, but if it´s not, it´s not a big deal. I really wouldn´t mind.

But if my wakeboard is gone, it had better have been sold to pay for medical treatment of a family member, or I will be just heartbroken.

Same with my longboard, tennis raquet, Ripstik, bike (not really mine though so...), and you know, even the lawnmower (really miss mowing lawns).

Anyway, so there´s a major point of revelation. I just don´t want to play them anymore.

2.) I´m super tired all the time

Ever since I got put in as a secretary, I´ve been staying up kinda late. I talk with the assistants almost every single night. I´m trying to learn everything I possibly can about them. Elder L is just absolutely nuts. Super good missionary.

But, sacrifice always comes at a price. There´s always been a price for sacrifice right? This one is sleep. I´m super tired in the mornings.

In Postal, we just went to bed at 10:30 every night, and I never felt tired in the mornings.

Here, after staying up, I just get so exhausted it´s ridiculous.

But whatever. I´ll manage.

3.) I´ve got 2 just absolutely fantastic songs that Andy and Dad have to look for and learn how to play. I want to learn how to play it too. One is called "River Flows In You" and the other is called "Maybe" and they are both by Yiruma. It´s super cool. Gotta listen to them and then play them.

Alright, pictures! Finally!

I don´t actually remember what they are. Sorry. But I remember one is Elder G. He grabbed my camera and took a selfie for fun. I think it´s just full of views of where we are. It´s super cool.

Okay, I´ll take more and get them sent a little while later. I just can´t really get many uploaded right now because of time.

Love you all to pieces.

Really.

Like, really.

Elder Carter








Monday, February 10, 2014

Secretary!

Hello famiry! And other people! How are things going for you?

Good? alright. Great.

So, I am a secretary now and I have to say it´s really weird. There´s a lot of cool stuff that happens as a secretary. I´m learning a ton of new stuff and it´s awesome to be able to spend a few hours with the President.

As the Financial Secretary, I´m in charge of any and all money exchanges that happen inside the mission. I need to make sure that anyone that has a problem with money gets it fixed, and usually I am the one who has to fix it. It´s actually really cool. I love it. It´s really cool to see how money works in the mission.

As a secretary, there are a few changes that are really weird to adjust to:

First is that we don´t have companionship study. We work in the offices from 9-2, so that means that we study personally, but that´s all that we do. It´s super hard sometimes because we don't have planned who´s going to talk or what principles we want to cover, but it´s fine. We´re good for now.

Second, we have District meetings on Saturdays now. Normally they are on Tuesday. It´s super odd to come and work in the offices at 9 on Tuesday. But hey, I like it. It´s great to have a change of pace.

Third, our weekly planning session is on Sunday at night now, instead of Thursday in the morning. That´s really difficult to manage, because Sunday is the best day for proselyting. Everyone is home, and everyone is with their families. But that´s a sacrifice I gotta make.

Apart from those things, everything is pretty normal.

Alright, now for cool stuff that´s happened this past week.

1.) The secretaries and the Assistants to the President live together in the same house. Every single night, I talk with them to see what they do to have success. I´m learning a ton of stuff from Elder L. He really is awesome at what he does. I´m also enjoying the fact that I can speak some English at night. Makes me much more relaxed.

2.) We have this investigator named C. He only speaks English and is 10 years old. He´s a total boss. His family has more problems than anyone I can think of, and yet he's a totally awesome kid. He´s memorized the Plan of Salvation, every single commandment we've taught him, and he goes to church, EVEN THOUGH HE ONLY SPEAKS ENGLISH. Honestly, just an awesome kid. He´s got a baptismal date for the 19th of this month. I'm super happy.

3.) I really miss my set-up in Postal sometimes. I was rolling there. Elder R and I were just hammering out lessons, and we were also finding new people. Not only that, but we were set up with an awesome ward mission leader, and they just started implementing an awesome plan to start getting members involved in missionary work. Oh well. Wasn't my time I guess.

I really don´t know of too much more. This week was just super hectic working in the offices because I wasn't completely proficient in my responsibilities. But hey, it comes with the tag man.

Oh yeah, I have a question for you guys at home:

What exactly do you want pictures of? Like, I know of my companions, but what else? I´m always stuck trying to think of what you guys want for pictures. If there´s something I say that you guys want as photographic evidence, let me know and I´ll see what I can do.

That´s about all this week. Just super awesome en verdad.

Oh, I guess I could also send a picture of the view I have at my desk. It´s awesome. I get to see literally all of Postal. sometimes I look on the hill to see if I can see Elder R and his companion walking from an appointment or something.

Okay. I´m done rambling.

See you all later!

Elder Carter

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

TRANSFERS. I´M SO STOKED

OKAY EVERYONE. BEFORE I START RAMBLING ABOUT HOW GREAT MY LIFE IS, I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT:

I´m a secretary.

Pretty legit. I get to work in the offices every morning from 9-2 every day. Not only that, but I was told that I will receive the new Mission President. So, at the very least, I will be in the offices as a secretary until August. VERY least. But, I will probably be here a little longer than that because as the new President, I can´t honestly say that he knows everyone really well. I think he´ll keep me here until he can learn about everyone else. Not entirely sure, but hey, we´ll see what happens when we get there.

I´m going to be in charge of all the finances of the mission. Every single piece of money that we manage in the mission is under my jurisdiction. All of the missionaries are going to be my best friends now because they want to get their money really quickly. XD

Okay, so that´s out of the way. I´ll talk about random stuff now.

1.) First, we had a not-baptism. Let me give you the background of what happened.
There´s this little girl named A. and she is 9 years old. She´s gone to church since the dawn of time and knows pretty much everything. She still hasn´t been baptized though because her mom didn´t give her permission until A said she wanted to be baptized. So, we began talking to her and had the baptism scheduled for the 31 of January.

We arrived at that date and had warm water running. She´s got asthma, so it´s really hard for her to breathe in cold water. Well, our ward mission leader is not patient at all, so he just turned on full cold to get more water in there. So the water was cold for the baptism.

A shows up and we show her what´s going to happen and everything. She knows what she´s in for, and then we get in the water.

I say the prayer and begin to submerge her in the water.

She immediately stands up.

"I won´t go underwater! No way! I´m too scared!"

I began to talk to her and comfort her, and I tried again, but she refused to go backwards, so instead, she wanted to go forwards. Dunno if really you can do that, but at this point, I was just trying to get her out of the water pronto.

We try again, but she REFUSES to go all the way. Just until her face gets wet. She begins to freak out a lot at this point. I comfort her again and for the 3rd time she tries to go underwater, but again, no.

6 times I tried to help her, and 6 times I failed.

The first time that I was baptizing her, the ONLY thing that was out of the water was her face. If I had pushed just a little harder, she would have been done.

I fear that I am at fault now, and that her salvation now rests on my shoulders. Because I had the chance. It was right there. It was completely possible, and now she hasn´t completed that saving ordinance.

I felt awful.

The WORST part about it is that she actually has a phobia of water because she almost drowned at age 6. So, she has to take swimming classes to get rid of the phobia to be baptized.

I really hope she does soon.

Okay, enough with that.

2.) I left Postal. It´s the only sector I know. I´ve left L, C, Hno. R, Hna R, D, Elder R, and everyone else that´s there.

I was so sad, but at the same time, excited to start working in another area.

3.) I really hate seeing missionaries go home after serving for 2 years.

For 3 reasons. 1, they act as though their mission has done absolutely nothing for them. These 2 years have completely changed their lives, and they act like it was a prison. It drives me insane. One of the missionaries just started talking about how much he hated it the last month because it took forever. One the whole day just didn´t even care at all. So yeah. They just don´t care anymore. I hate it. 2, it makes me start thinking of home and how much time I have to go. I REALLY hate thinking that way, but I kinda have to deal with it. I´ll be seeing it a ton on my mission now. 3, some are really good friends, and I probably won´t ever see them again. It was really sad to see some of them leave, but it´s okay. I´ll make more later. ;)

Just really don´t like seeing them go.

4.) I really don´t have a lot of worth right now in my calling. Of course it´s my first day, so  I´m not worried really, but I don´t like feeling so useless. Especially when I´m stuck trying to figure out what to do and we need it done quickly. Oh well. Just work super hard then.

5.) I figured out the secret of missionary work:

Teaching.

If you can teach like a boss, you don´t need ANYTHING. No rides to the church, no testimonies written in the Book of Mormon, nothing. You will teach and they will do everything by themselves.

I listened to an Elder named Elder C who was also trained by Elder P. He is really REALLY good. He told me that one day, he just decided he was going to find that whole day. No lessons.

Not only did he have 9 lessons that day, but each lesson was a new investigator.

He baptized 4 of the 9.

That´s just absolutely nuts! He told me that the secret was in teaching and finding.

Usually during the training that the Assistants give with the President, they teach us a whole bunch of stuff that we need outside of teaching. Basically, they do it just to circumvent it. They try to overcome the teaching and place other stuff to help the investigator, but Elder C and Elder C (also really great) said that really, we don´t need any of that. Just teach well, a ride to church, and find.

I´m going to put it in practice. Find 15 new people each week, and drop all of the bad ones, and then you have around 2-3 baptisms every single week. Pretty legit to be honest. It´s a super easy way to get stuff done.

6.) I absolutely love Personal Study in the morning. I receive so much revelation. It´s so cool. I´ve learned so much stuff in the past few days it´s ridiculous. Like, did you know that Lehi, in his dream, didn´t have to grab onto the iron rod, because he was brought to the love of God on his own? It´s the same with Nefi and Sam and Sariah. They didn´t need the iron rod because they just straight up received the Gospel out of revelation. It´s really cool to see that as a correlation with our lives. The apostles and Prophets already are there. They call out to us in General Conference and other ways, and we have to grab onto the rod and follow the sound of their voice through the darkness to reach the tree of life. It´s a super cool analogy. Love Nefi 8 and 11.

7.) As a secretary, I´m going to be working on a computer most of the mornings, and I was told by Elder M (AP) that I could be on my email during that time. So, if one morning you´re super bored or something, you can try emailing me to see if I have time to talk a little bit. Not saying that´s a guarantee or anything, but I´ll see what I can do.

Okay, that´s all for this week. Hope all went well with you guys. See you later

Elder Carter