I learned a ton this week. Just a bunch. I also grew a little I think.
Yeah, I just kinda worked more than anything. Obra de Salvación. Work of Salvation is going harder than ever down here.
I´m going to be in my companionship until around the 9 of June, and when I get to that point, I´ll leave. Who knows how, or where, or what I´ll do, but I will take off.
Until then, I´m learning a bunch from these powerhouses. Just absolute geniuses. We have a goal that we have to give 1 LdM (Book of Mormon) every day. It´s pretty cool. Every day that we don´t give one, we have to take ANOTHER with us. So, after one week, I had around 5 books with me. Finally, I have the 5 away in like, 2 days after they taught me what I gotta do to get the books given out.
They are teaching me how to teach really well, and they´re showing me the difference between numbers and people. Just straight up teaching me a bunch. It´s absolutely nuts how much I´m learning.
But on top of that, my companions and I are just good friends.
We have a bunch of inside jokes that are just absolutely hilarious, and we have very similar interests, and are all super nice to each other most of the time. Like, Elder C keeps telling Elder G that he knows everything about technology, and that I learn extremely fast. I keep thinking I´m so lame and I´ve got nothing to offer, but they keep falling back on me, and they keep telling me how I´m actually furthering the work here.
In fact, Elder G keeps telling me: "Elder Carter, no sé qué vamos a hacer cuando se va."
("Elder Carter, I don´t know what we are going to do when you leave.")
It´s just been an awesome week. Even though a lot of appointments fell through, I felt as though I worked hard, and that I really did do a lot to help the Lord further his work. We planted many seeds, and when the assistants had left for a conference, I stayed in the sector and found 2 new investigators really cool.
It was really great this week.
I taught Landon this week. Okay, not really Landon, but a kid who is EXACTLY like him. Looks like him, talks like him, and says things EXACTLY like he would say them. I felt as though I was teaching him, and I understood that I really need to work hard here to learn how to get the Spirit. We had a lesson super cool. It was really awesome because this kid started crying. You could see his tears welling up in his eyes as we bore testimony of the things we were teaching him.
He still refused in the end to get a better job or to come to church, but I know we touched him. I know that he felt something there, and that he knows we want to help him out.
We also went to a conference where I was used as an investigator. It was really cool that I actually got to teach people how to be better missionaries. Like, I really don´t think I know a whole lot, but when I went with some missionaries so that they could teach me, I found that my companions have really taught me a ton. I´ve been able to receive so much instruction from them. I really think this was all planned by the Lord. I think he was planning all of this since the very beginning.
But, the thing most important that happened this week was my trip to the United States. In fact, around 30 minutes ago I got back from them!
That´s right! I returned to the Motherland! Paradise! The Red White and Blue!
It was actually really sudden too! Pretty awesome.
So this morning, Elder C, a good friend of mine that I met here when I had around 5 months, showed up in the offices, telling me that he was headed to the US. I told him I was super excited for him, and he said that Hermana Carreón was going to bring him.
Well, she happened to be there when he said this, so I said as a complete joke:
"Maybe I could go with you so you wouldn´t get robbed."
She heard this, and asked me:
"Do you have a lot of work to do here?"
"No. Not really. I actually just have to wait on the assistants to give me the stats to send to the Stake Presidents and other than that, I´ve got nothing."
"Okay, then lets go. Get your passport from Elder D and lets go."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. Sure. Just make sure you have everything you need to go."
"Okay then. Elder D, can I have my passport?"
And boom, we took off. We were over in around 30 minutes from that time.
As soon as we crossed, Elder C kept telling me:
"I can´t believe it. I´m actually here. I´m HERE. I´m in the UNITED STATES."
It was really cool to be back over for a little while.
We got into the car waiting for us in the 7-11 and we left to go to a plaza.
We originally just went with the objective to find new shoes for Elder C. We went to a plaza that had around 120 Stores in total. It was super huge, and super awesome. It was green and pretty and there were a bunch of really cool stores. It had an American Eagle. And it was Memorial Day. They had a sale on T-Shirts. Oh man... How I wanted to enter that store.
Anyway, we looked at some shoes, and we went to another store. As we were walking to this store, there was a little stand that a guy had set up. On this table was a bag with a lock. The man had a box full of keys. He showed us that the key was in the box. He opened the lock, then put the key in the box and shook it up a ton. We then chose one key and tried it in the lock.
Well, we didn´t win. But it was still kinda cool.
Anyway, we bought his shoes and were about to leave when I said,
"Could I go check for some ties?"
"Sure! There´s a couple really good stores over here. I´ll take you, we´ll wait in the car, and you guys go check them out. Come back out when you´re done."
So we went to Ross and to Marshall´s. There, I found a Donald J. Trump tie. For 10 dollars.
I love my life.
So I bought that thing super quick and got a couple more ties for my companions because I´m just super nice like that, and then we went back to Mexico again.
As we crossed the line, they checked our car, but really didn´t even check it well. They just opened up the back and then told us to go. Whatever. If it bakes your potato, it floats my boat. Fine by me.
We were back in Mexico, and Elder C started talking to me like:
"You can tell we´re back in Mexico because of the grafiti and the dirty streets and stuff."
And I thought for a second, and then I realized and said:
"Yeah. It´s true. But I love it."
I´ve grown to absolutely love Mexico. I love this place. It´s not green and pretty, but I love it nonetheless. I absolutely love it here. I told Elder C
"I really like the US. I love Idaho and Utah, and I love how great it is. But Mexico is equal to me. I love Mexico just as much. Not for the same reasons, but I love it just as much as the United States."
At the start of my mission it wasn´t like that. I really didn´t think Mexico was all great or anything like that. But after a year, I´ve come to love this place. Everyone is super kind, really open about Christ and God, and it has REALLY good food.
So that was something really cool about my day today.
I´ve got a couple of pictures that I sent this week. I´m just so bad at picture taking. I don´t know why. I guess I just never find anything picture worthy.
The first is of Elder C and I in a car as we traveled to a conference. It was pretty funny because the whole time we were talking about how bad the conference was going to be because the last 2 were just terrible, and then the whole conference was super cool.
The next two are photos of the hardest task I have had to do yet.
We save all of our spending records since January here in the offices, and this week, I had to find every single record that we have on buying furniture SINCE JANUARY. The pictures are of paper that I had to work through to find around 200 expenses. It was just torture, and it took me all day to do it, but when I finally finished, I felt so accomplished it was crazy. I was honestly really proud of myself for having done so well.
I´m going to try to get more pictures of people in the next week. More with my companions or stuff like that.
Okay, I gotta get going. I´m super hungry.
BAI! (Spanish for BYE!)
Elder Carter
