HOLA FAMILIA!

This week, I just had a stupidly amazing idea: What if I wrote the big letter first, so that I had time to write everything I wanted, and THEN answered the little ones? It'd be so much better that way! So today, that's what I'm doing!

Investigators:

Brother J, Sister B,  Brother F, y Brother J - Progressing like monsters over there. Basically set up. Brother F and Brother J (Jr.) are going to be baptized this week, and in around 2-3 weeks, the parents will be baptized. It's super cool. They're basically set up for the temple in a year.

Sister C - She's doing well, but we haven't had much chance to talk to her. She's actually going to be baptized soon, but the problem is we just can't seem to talk to her! Grrr.....

Brother L and Family - New family we found from a member in the other side of our ward. Turns out, he's got 2 kids that are in the age of being baptized as well. We could potentially baptize 4 of them. However, THEY AREN'T MARRIED. We're going to be praying and fasting for a miracle there, because they all went to church together.

That's about all for now. We're working with them mainly.

Okay, so yeah, this week was kinda bad. I was sick pretty much all the time, and I lost my voice for around 3 days, so I was forcing myself to speak Spanish with just the absolute WORST sounds coming out of my mouth. It wasn't as bad as Elder Sant's stomach infection, so I guess I can't complain right?

Anyway, it was really rough this week because I don't know how to find. I just don't know how to do it. I've tried a lot of things. No one here gives us references for some reason, and I CAN'T SEEM TO CONTACT PEOPLE. I just have no faith in contacts because I have heard very little about success in that aspect. However, I think I might just give up and start contacting a ton because I can't go another week without finding.

Now the fun stuff!

1 - Family, do you guys remember the Elder that like, never spoke unless we talked about Celebrity Jeopardy with him? The Elder that always wore a scarf, even inside, and was just generally very... weird? I guess?

Yeah, my companion is like that guy. He DOESN'T TALK. Like, ever. I try to talk to him about his family or something, and he answers with 2 words. I asked him one time:

"So, how many brothers and sisters do you have?"

"One."

That's all he gave me. Nothing more.

"Is he or she older or younger than you?"

"She's younger."

"And, how old is she?"

"18."

"Is she a member?"

"No."

And that's how it goes! It's so frustrating! I can't joke around with him or really just be friends with him because he doesn't let me do it! The only thing he talks about a ton are movies!

Now I guess I can understand why you didn't want me just staying at home all day, BECAUSE I'LL END UP SAYING 2 WORDS AS A CONVERSATION!

The hardest part about the whole thing is the fact that he doesn't actually know how to teach all that well either. So, we get into a lesson, and he just has no confidence in what he's saying, and basically just throws us off a little in every lesson, because he just talks about whatever the heck comes to his mind. It's very very hard.

I mean, don't get me wrong, he's got plenty of awesome things, like he's super organized, he's very nice, and he's willing to work. He's a great guy, just doesn't talk, and has almost no self-confidence. I'm going to work with him to try to up that a little bit, and help him so that he teaches and knows how to teach better. I'm sure this transfer will be awesome.

2 - We've got a joke now in our district: "Ya tu sabes como hacemos esta viana aqui" (You know how we do this thing here.)

Basically, in the mission, we can't speak in Tu, but we do it as a joke like the rappers in Spanish. They always say stuff like that. YA TU SABES COMO LO HACEMOS AQUI ESTA VAINA. (Viana is like, any thing. It's like cosa, but a little more rough. Like the word crap kinda. YOU KNOW HOW WE DO THIS CRAP HERE!)

Anyway, we say that basically all the time now because ya tu sabes como lo hacemos aqui. We just like enjoying ourselves.

3 - I've started reading the Bible from cover to cover. Gosh dangit. The Old Testament is just chock full of a bunch of random stuff. Like, a donkey that talks, Moses throwing sticks into a room to see which one starts sprouting almonds, and a guy thats sitting in church who stands up, grabs a lance that was for some reason AT HIS SIDE, and then chases a guy and his, well, lady into a tent, where he runs 'em both through. That's the word of God right there. And gosh dangit, the law of Moses was nuts. Guess what? If you picked up a stick on Sunday, YOU DUN GET KILLED! If you gave birth as a woman, you were unclean for like, 2 weeks or something, unless it was a girl, and then it was 2 months. Just the weirdest junk in that law. But there you go. Now you know how it is during Moses' time. Pretty awesome right?

Anyway, with this newfound knowledge, Elder M and I had a Bible Bash. I ended up winning because he misread something in Spanish. It was super fun, and we decided that on the last month of the mission, we were just going to Bible Bash a bunch of people. Just to enjoy ourselves on the last month. It's giong to be awesome.

Okay well, sorry I don't have good pictures this week. I kinda forgot about them. I'm sending this one as like, a preview I guess. I know, it's lame, but you gotta understand that pictures aren't really my priority when I'm outside. I don't even take my camera. It's super dangerous....

I'll take better ones this week. Don't worry.

See you all later! Love you to death!

Elder Carter

We are going to Rock It here

This week was actually pretty boring. I mean, we had a couple awesome things happen, but I'm dead serious when I say that almost NOTHING fun happened this week.

So, first things first:

Brother J, Sister B, and all of them: THEY ARE AWESOME. Brother J, Brother F, and Brother J came to church and were super happy about it. They left after the first hour, but when we visited later that day, they didn't know there were classes after, and told us they were going to stay for all 3 hours next Sunday. What bosses. 2 Weeks to baptism I think.

Sister C: Not sure if I've mentioned her, but she's a girl that comes every week, but hasn't been baptized for some reason. Who knows. We're teaching her, and she actually left her boyfriend so that she could come to church and keep investigating. It was pretty cool.

Sister J: Awesome lady. She's super prideful about how she's endured a bunch of experiences, but I don't care. God knows how to help prideful people. He's knocked me down quite a few notches, and I've still got quite a long ways to go, so I'm confident she'll be baptized soon.

That's all for now. We're going to get a couple more baptismal dates placed this week, and I'm gonna do what I can to get them to church.

Umm.... Lets see. Cool stuf this week:

Got a new companion! Elder T! I'll get a picture next week because I forgot my camera to take pictures with him in the changes.

OH MAN. This past Tuesday, one of our investigators told us that someone was killed in our sector that Sunday. So, 1 week ago yesterday, we had a death in our sector. How nice. Gotta love El Pipila.

SUNDAYS ARE SO STRESSFULL. I think that's why I'm a little sick right now. I was super stressed out this passed Sunday because I had to pass to get 10 Investigators in 15 minutes. Well, we only passed for 3, and none of them came. The rest told me they were coming anyway. We ended up with 5. I gotta find another person to give rides so I can get more people to church.

WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE! It's coming along really well. I'm stoked to see it. It's almost done on the outside. It just lacks a couple windows and then they start on the inside. Scheduled date is 2016 somewhere.

The pictures are of us at the temple. Really cool.

Alright, that's all for this week. Love you all.

Elder Carter

P.S. ONE YEAR!

LOOK! IT´S CABBAGE!

Hi everyone. I´m back. With more pictures! And more updates.

Okay, so this is really sad. Let me explain a little.

In order for a person to be baptized here, they have to go 5 times to church, but if they miss 2 times, they can still do it.

Well, seeing as some people already had a few times at church, we put baptizmal dates like, super early. Around 3 or 4 weeks instead of 5. Well, NOT A SINGLE INVESTIGATOR CAME TO CHURCH THIS WEEK. So, we are down to the wire with these dates. We´re going to have to work super hard here this week to get them there so they can be baptized.

INVESTIGADORES

Brother J, Sister B, Brother F, y Brother J: They are just rockin it. We´ve taught up to the Law of Chastity with them and they just keep doing awesome. Didn´t come to church because of a surprise visit from Sister B´s brother, but we´re going to basically just drag them next time so that they can get baptized in 2 weeks.

Brother J and Brother D: Didn´t come. Aren´t going to leave work. we´re going to have to leave them for a bit.

Sister J and Brother S: We taught the authority really well. Basically, the most obvious we possibly could without going into a match of "Your church, my church." Well, we explained all that, and Brother S didn´t even care, and Brother J still doesn´t get it. I honestly think she doesn´t even pay attention to us when we talk. 

Sister A: She´s doing well, but we haven´t had that many visits with her. I can´t tell how well she´s progressing until later. We´ll see what happens this week.

Okay, that´s all for now. On to good stuff.

Okay family, I dunno if you remember, but there was a video on AFV about that cat that said OH LONG JOHN. OOOOOOHHHHHHH LONG JOHNSON. OOOOOHHHHH DON PIAAAANO. WHYYYYY I EYES YAH. ALL THE LIVE LONG DAY! OOOOHHH THAT LONG LONG JOHNSON.

that video was hilarious. Anyway, I heard that a couple days ago. It was like, at 7 that night, and we walked by this place where we heard two cats going on about this Long John guy. Man, this Johnson must be super long, because all the cats are talking about it.

Anyway, we determined that because there was one that was moreno (tan) and one huerito (white) they had to be missionaries, because that´s how all the missionaries are here to normal people. And we determined that they were performing a blessing or something. We even threw rocks at them and they just talked on about John and how he´s so long.

I also have two pictures! One is of the unity of Elder S and Elder M in the morning, and the other is of a teddy bear a little girl gave me.

Anyway, I gotta go.

Sorry this is short, but I´ll send more next week I think!

LOVE YOU ALL!

Elder Carter

Herro

Hi everyone. It's me again. I'm pretty sure you're all super tired of reading my essays, but I get graded on them, so I'm working really hard.

INVESTIGADORES

Brother J, Sister B, Brother F, and Brother J (son): THIS FAMILY IS SO AWESOME. HOLY COW. We showed up at their house, contacted the two sons, and now the 4 of them are committed to be baptized! They came to church on Sunday, and told us they found the correct path. SO AWESOME. MIRACLES.

Sister J and Brother S: We're going to have to explain the authority a ton, because they just don't get it. They think that we are just there to teach them, not to do anything more. Which, sure, we're there to teach, but we need them to understand that their pastor has no authority to baptize anyone. Not even close. They don't get that, and that's why we see no progress I think. But even then, they haven't even really taken our visits that seriously... So... We'll see what happens on Wednesday.

Brother J and Brother D: They are doing awesome! Progressing a ton, and they WERE going to come to church, with Brother J leaving his work to come to sacrament meeting! But then family came in and took them to the beach. Sad day, but we know now that he's willing to go! WE'RE STOKED! They're going to have a baptismal date for August. We'll work with them too.

Outside of them, we've got nothing more. We're working on finding. That's the key in all of this. If you have the faith to find 12 new investigators every single week, God promises that at least ONE will be baptized in 5 weeks. That's definitely true. So, we just gotta find a ton, and we'll be fine.

Now for the fun parts.

This week, we decided to pull a prank on Elders M and Elders S. We showed up at the house before them, and we figured we would make the house look like we got robbed. I took the pictures of what we did. It was hilarious. The photo is of me and Elder C waiting for them to get home.

So now, this is where it gets awesome:

They showed up at the house, and Elder S is like: "I think we were robbed."

Elder M doesn't even hesitate. He just says:

"Okay. Lets kill people."

He grabbed two knives and started looking in the house to see if the robbers were still there. He checked all the rooms, and Elder C and I were waiting in the bathroom to scare them by jumping out of it. Well, as it turns out, they called us, and the PHONE RANG IN THE BATHROOM.

But, that was actually protection from the Lord, because I am absolutely positive that if we had scared Elder M, he would have stabbed us. It was hilarious.

We went to the offices today as well, and I met the new President! He's super awesome! I didn't really talk to him because he was super busy, but he seems like a very kind man. I'm super stoked to meet him in a couple weeks at our first zone conference!

IT IS SO HOT AT NIGHT. HOLY COW. We live on the third floor of an apartment complex, and so all the heat rises to the top. It's SUPER HOT at night. Just ridiculous. It's so hot that I'm sleeping without even a single sheet. I've now slept 2 nights in a row without anything but a shirt, shorts, and my pillow. Actually, last night, I got a bag and filled it with ice and stuck it under my shirt. That was heavenly. I slept like a baby.

And so yeah. THat's the happenins this week. I dunno why, but I read that in Homestarrunner's voice in my head. DAT'S DA HAPPUNINS DIS WEEK.

I really don't know what else to talk about. 

ONE MORE THING

So we were going to a food appointment, and the lady drives to pick us up. She's super nice, so she took her truck to come and get us.

Well, she takes a wrong turn and ends up coming UP a street the WRONG way. Poor lady was so worried about the food (she doesn't really know how to cook, but she absolutely loves to feed the missionaries. She's such a great little lady.) that she didn't even pay attention to the road and went the wrong way!

Well, anyway, we get in, and she turns around in the way of around 10-15 other cars just to get her truck turned around to go down the same street she came up.

We get around 5 blocks from her house, when suddenly, the most hilarious thing happens:

THE CAR'S TIRE POPS.

Not joking. It popped. She just got out of the car, looked at it, then turned the car off, and we walked the next 5 blocks to her house. It was so funny. I felt really bad for the lady, but she just kinda left it there. It was great. I felt like I was really in Mexico finally.

Oh, and, Mom and Dad, Elder M knows how to fight. He took MMA training for 5 years. He said he's going to teach me. So HA! All those years that you didn't let me take karate can't keep me from learning how to punch people! >:D

Okay, well, that's all for this week. Really short, but I feel like I touched on the coolest parts.

I dunno if anyone has any questions. Man. I feel like I'm in a lesson. That's basically all I ask all the time now. People tell me they don't have any, and then I ask them what is a prophet after I jsut explained it and they can't even tell me they know the word at all. Love these people. Super awesome.

HASTA LUEGO!

Elder Carter

Well now... THIS is interesting

This week I really learned a lot. I think I probably learned more in this week than I have in a while.

INVESTIGADORES

Sister J: No change. Isn't coming to church though. I'm scared we may have to drop her and her daughter. Even though we had a super cool lesson with them where they opened up a ton, we have to drop them if they just can't come to church.

Brother J and Brother D: Brother J keeps insisting that he wants to go to church, but can't come because he has to sell in the sobre ruedas. (I think I explained what those are in a previous email a LONG time ago in like, September of 2013 I think.... Brother D came to church though, and he loved it. He'll be baptized very soon I believe. He's super cool, and he loves to just talk to us. The only problem is he isn't reading the Book of Mormon. Vamos a echarnos ganas.

Brother J and Sister B. We just found them after we went to buy tortillas for a member in the ward, and we contacted the cashier, Brother J. He told us to drop by their house on Sunday, and they were WAITING for us. It was a great lesson, and I'm pretty sure we can get them to church pretty easily. The only problem is that they believe they need around 2 years worth of preparation in order to feel ready to be baptized. I'm just going to try to explain to them that they need to ask God, and God's just going to be like:

HECK YEAH YOU GOTTA GET BAPTIZED.

And then we drown 'em. That's how we roll around here.

That's about it for the investigators right now. But, I'll get on to the fun stuff.

1.) Us four missionaries (Elder C, Elder M, Elder S, and I) are just absolutely nuts. One night, we just started singing with flat billed hats and aviators. We sang O Elderes de Israel dressed as Cholos (mexican gangsters). It was super funny. Last night, we had an epic pillow fight, where it was the companionships against each other. I think we won, but to be honest, I was a little sore, because Elder M and Elder S kept picking on me just because Elder C has a really heavy pillow. Whatever. THEN, around 3 hours ago, we found some spare pipes in the chapel, and I played Pirates of the Caribbean while Elder M and Elder S swordfought. Honestly, we are the dumbest but funniest kids ever.

2.) I learned that we have a new President! Presidente Garcia is now in charge. So far the mission hasn't exploded, so I'm pretty sure we're good. I'm just gonna pray that Elder H throws in a few good words about who trained him in the offices. haha

3.) I am now MORE TAN than some of the NATIVES here. It's so awesome. I'd take a picture of the tan, but I don't think you guys want to see just my arm.

4.) HOLY COW WE ARE SCARED. Our ward is a little.... off-centered. Let me explain why:

Here in Mexico (not all the time, but most of the time) there is very little formality. Even in the church, there's very little formality. Like, not to say that no one shows up to church in street clothes, but at the same time, there's a lot of times where a certain thing must happen, and it just doesn't, because they just think:

"Eh, it's fine. We're among friends here. I can just do whatever, and I think it'd be the same anyway."

So, when there's things like someone who doesn't show up to talk, or they forget or whatever, they just shrug it off.

So this Sunday, the Bishop and his counsellors spoke. I don't really know if it was planned or not, but the talks were... Well, we're just going to say they weren't as spiritual as they could have been. So we're going to work on that this week.

I'm sending a picture of me as a dumb pioneer, and the other of Cholo night. I couldn't join because I was in the bathroom. Jerks.

Okay, well, I'm off now. Thanks for writing me everyone! Have a good week!

Elder Carter