Stake Conference

This week was Stake Conference, and that was a pretty cool ordeal. Elder Villalobos of the 4th Quorum of the Seventy came down to talk. Great guy. Love him already.

INVESTIGATORS

Alejandra - We're just about ready to leave her. She just isn't progressing at all. We can't get her to read, no matter how much we try. It's getting annoying to go over to her house and see little to no progress each day.

Fam. Guissar - We had to leave them. They keep putting off the appointments. They are really cool, but if we can't teach them, we can't get anything done.

Lupita Meza - A lady we tracted into. We actually managed to get into her house and teach her and she says she REALLY likes the message. Best part is that she lives literally one block away from the chapel, so it shouldn't be hard to get her to church. We're looking forward to teaching her more.

Antonio - A good friend of a member that is really nice. He speaks English and Spanish, as well as the member, who is a good friend of ours. So basically the whole time we're just talking between Spanish and English. We start in Spanish and end in English. Pretty funny. We've got appointments only on Saturdays with him until we can get him to let us talk to him more during the week, since he works from 7 PM to 7 AMas a security guard every day.

EXPERIENCES

1.) Some Jehovah's Witnesses contacted us on Friday. That was an ordeal. They started saying some REALLY dumb stuff.

It started fairly normally. They just kinda came up and read a scripture in Ecclesiastes that says something like, be wise in your youth or whatever. Basically, just an excuse to come and start arguing. This is what then ensued:

"Who is Jehovah for you guys?"

Elder Rose answers, "Jesus Christ."

That was just the start. They then whip out Isaiah and read in... I think it was 47:3 or something like that, where it says MY NAME IS JEHOVAH or whatever.

Then (we were together with our entire district) Elder Munoz whips out a bunch of scriptures in Isaiah that say that Jehovah is our Redeemer and Savior, and then asks:

"Is God our Savior, or is it Jesus Christ?"

They ignore that and move on and pull out John 17:3. "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."

And then they said, RIGHT THERE IT SAYS THAT JEHOVAH IS GOD.

And I just said:

"But it doesn't say Jehovah. It says God."

"But remember what we read? God said his name was Jehovah."

Then I slapped down the million dollar question:

"If that's the case, why then, in all the New Testament, there is not a single reference to Jehovah? At all?"

They said that the verse in 17:3 said it, and I just answered:

"But that only says God. It does not say Jehovah."

And then, Elder Munoz began to share his experience and Testimony about how he came to know the truth, and they started attacking him, saying it was all fables and crap.

Eventually, we worked down to the point (after about honestly 10 minutes of just wrecking them with the Bible) to where we determined that Christ did in fact call Apostles. Then we asked:

"Why is it, that in all the Old Testament, it doesn't say Peter even once? How do we know he was a prophet if in the Old Testament, his name isn't there?"

They then said this tonteria:

"Peter wasn't a prophet."

At that point, we just got frustrated with how dumb it was and left by getting into a taxi.

Poor guys. They aren't even armed with a Bible.

2.) The reason we were with our whole district was because we went, on Friday, to see Meet the Mormons! It was a pretty cool film. Not gonna lie, it kinda let me down because it seems more like a documentary than a film, but it was still pretty cool. I felt like a boss when the people from Costa Rica began to speak, and they didn't have to dub them with English. That was cool.

Anyway, we watched that, and I saw Elder Hilton again. I managed to talk with him for a bit, and I also saw a couple of other companions. It was quite a fun little thing.

The only bad part was the very end, when the Missionary Mom started in. Holy moly I got SO TRUNKY. That whole day I didn't even want to work. I just couldn't keep my mind focused. It reminded me so much of my home. My mom. My dad. My family. All that stuff. It made me almost cry when at the end, in the airport, the missionary picks up his bawling little sister. That was hard for me.

Not too good. But I'm over it now. We're good to go again. I just can't see it until I go home. Great.

3.) During Stake Conference, Elder Villalobos (pictured) talked a lot about the keys of the Priesthood, and he changed my entire outlook on them. Before, I just thought of keys like, well, just things that people have. Stuff that you use to say you have authority. But he explained it SO well. To the point where I finally understood how that all works. He explained the whole organization and stuff. It was really cool. My testimony with the Priesthood and the keys and stuff is just so much stronger now.

4.) When in Stake Conference, I noticed something hilarious:

No one knows how to sing hymns, except for the chorus.

For example, we were singing a hymn, and during the actual verses, we heard a little bit of singing and stuff, but then, when we got to the chorus, it just exploded with "OUT IN THE DESERT THEY WANDER". It was so funny to hear everyone like, "mmmmefffeeedreefffehhh" and then burst out in the chorus.

5.) This last experience is pretty insane. I went up to Elder Villalobos to say hi, and he looked at me after I talked briefly with him and asked me:

"Are you from Idaho?"

I honestly have no idea how he knew that. Everyone, and I mean literally EVERYONE south of the border asks FIRST if I'm from Utah. I honestly believe that the Spirit told him where I was from. That, or it was just a SUPER lucky guess. Either way, it made me respect him a ton. Great guy. Super awesome.

Okay, that does it for this email. It's kinda short, but that's all that happened this week. I'm trying to think of other cool things, but they aren't coming.

Have a good week everyone. Miss you all dearly, and love you all even more dearly.

Elder Carter

Transfer 14

This is it. This is the start of Transfer number 14. After this one, 2 more to go until I'm home. Holy crud. This is just insane.

INVESTIGATORS

Alejandra - She didn't go to church. And we haven't been able to teach her much because this week she was constantly going around a bunch to a lot of different places. We've got an appointment fortomorrow. Let's hope she's there.

Family Guissar - A family we tracted into at Carranza. There are 4 members in total. Two are members and 2 aren't. We talked with them and gave them the Book of Mormon. However, we havne't been able to see them since Friday because of difficulties. We have an appointment for tomorrow and we're going to teach them Sabbath Day ASAP so they go. We just hope we have a couple new faces at church because of them.

EXPERIENCES

This week was fairly un-eventful. I'll try to name a couple things, but honestly, not much happened.

1.) First thing that was kinda cool was that we went on Interchanges with our District Leader, Elder Munoz. He's a really cool guy. I worked a ton with him. For some reason, I always have a lot more confidence when I work with the leaders, because I think that even if I mess up with something, they can just fix it, and they'll make sure it works and stuff. Not only that, but when I'm with them, they try to show me how to work, and so they work pretty hard, and I have a lot more faith with a companion that works hard. If they contact in a taxi, I contact too. If they talk to someone on the street, I talk with someone else. Stuff like that. It was a good day, to be honest. I just kinda felt a little sad when he left.

2.) We had transfer day on Saturday, which basically means that they tell us what happens for the next transfer. It was hilaroius because ALL of the members were hoping that we both stayed, because they all love us a bunch. (I'll be honest, it's freakin AWESOME that they love us.) One of the members literally started crying and cried for like, 2 hours on Friday knowing that it was possibly one of the last days she would talk to us for a while. Anyway, when they told us we were both staying, we decided we were going to pull the biggest prank on them.

One of the North Americans here was really anxious about it, and told us to call him as soon as we got it, and so we did, and we told him that the church announced that missions were now just a year long, and that anyone who had a year or more was going home. And then that they had to remove all North Americans from Mexico because of racism and danger. He just got quiet after all that for a moment and then said:

"Well that's just stupid."

We laughed SO hard. He's got a pretty thick Southern accent, so it just sounded like,

"Wlats jusstewpid."

We died. Then we told him we were staying, and he killed us again with:

"Oh thank God. I prayed all night last night that you guys would stay."

It was pretty cool.

Then we went around, since it was Sunday, and started telling everyone that we were both going, and that they were going to close Primo Tapia.

It was so funny. Some people were really sad (especially the member who cried on Friday), and others were like, NO! DON'T GO! PLEASE! YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!

At the end of the day, everyone knew we were staying and they were all just SO happy.

It makes me happy to know how much they love us. I know that if I end up here one day because of some weird circumstance, I will have help from them.

That was a party and a half right there.

3.) I fall asleep in our taxi. Every single trip we make to Rosarito, I fall asleep in the taxi. It's like, a 20-30 minute drive, and I honestly CANNOT keep my eyes open after about 5. It's just crazy. One of these days I'm scared that Elder Rose will fall asleep too and we'll wake up in China or something.

4.) I found this outhouse for sale. Honestly. It's just an outhouse. And they're selling it. We should buy it in case of emergencies. I mean, what happens if one day, we're here and we have to use the bathroom? We can't just barge into property that isn't ours right?

I find that after I write my family, I really don't have much to say at the end of the day. It's just so hyped up in my mind, and then it goes nowhere at the end. I gotta start writing this stuff down.

Thanks for the support and love and prayers. Love you all dearly.

Elder Carter

2 weeks in 1 . . again

But it's different this time! I'm going to share 2 weeks worth of stuff in 1 email!

INVESTIGATORS

Alejandra - She came to church this Sunday! WOO! We're set to get her there next week as well, and so we're going to try to get her baptized the 14th of March. We're pretty excited, and so is she. We're stoked.

We've been working with Less Actives lately, so we have little investigators.

EXPERIENCES

1.) Well, we were in Rosarito buying some Blizzards from Dairy Queen to celebrate Elder Rose completing a full year in the mission, when all of a sudden, we see these girls standing around waiting for a taxi. We were waiting for the same one, so we just kinda stood a little ways off.

Suddenly, this car with this REALLY creepy looking guy with a chain around his necks, tattoos all over, and a really dumb looking pair of sunglasses stops his car next to them and is like,

"You girls want a ride?"

They look at each other, and Elder Rose and I were like, naw. They're not quite that thick are they?

Then, they looked back at the guy and started walking to the car.

Elder Rose and I were shocked when they got into the car with this creepy guy and drove off.

We're almost positive that they were kidnapped. It was just so incredibly weird.

2.) We got to participate in the blessing of a member's baby! His name is Joseph Nefi. It was pretty cool and he was crying a bunch afterwards, and couldn't stop thanking us for helping. It was really really awesome. Just as good as a baptism.

3.) I got the pictures of the vase that fell and broke. It was cleaned up by the time we showed up at church yesterday. I really don't know if it mattered much anyway, because I forgot about it until I saw the picture today.

4.) We had to walk up a super crazy ravine yesterday that was just insane. I took a picture of my companion at the top. It was nuts. I also sent a couple pictures of the sides of the hill we live on.

5.) We made some meat a couple days ago. We bought some meat from a nearby Abarrotes store (they're the little stores that are all over. Remember the tienditas?) and then we found some steak seasoning with some salt and pepper and marinated it for 2 days.

When we ate it, it was probably the most delicious meat I've had in a long time. It was SO good. I took pictures of it because it was so delicious.

6.) I took a picture of a really cool cloud formatin that we saw on our way over here. It was pretty cool, to be honest. Looked like a waterfall or something. The picture is kinda bad, but I was in a taxi, in my defense.

7.) I took a picture of what's on the back of a Preach My Gospel that I gave a member. It's so funny. That's how Mexico is percieved. Obi Juan Kenobi. Just hilarious.

8.) I'M SO TRUNKY. I DON'T WANT TO WORK SOMETIMES. What's the best cure for trunkiness? Someone know?

9.) There was a member here that complimented me on my Spanish. He said that out of all the North American missionaries he had met in his life, I spoke the best Spanish, and that my Spanish actually was better than many Mexican speakers because I actually used my grammar correctly. I was really happy about that. All those lessons with Dad finally paid off.

Okay, maybe I hyped that up a bit too much. But it was pretty cool anyway.

Thanks for all the support. Love you all dearly.

Elder Carter

2 weeks in 1

It feels like I haven't been able to write you guys for over 2 weeks. Seroiusly, it was a long week this week.

INVESTIGATORS

Alejandra - Turns out that we found her again, and she's more resolute than ever to get to church. She had an emergency where her 5 year old nephew broke out into hives right before church, so she didn't go this week, but next week, she said she was going to go without any other doubt in her mind. Stoked for her.

EXPERIENCES

1.) This week, turns out that I drank Volcanic Ash. Not even joking. There's a member here who gave us some water with Volcanic Ash inside. Apparently, that stuff was around 2000 degrees at one point, and so it's just pure minerals. Because of that, it's super healthy to drink and use. I tried some and it honestly didn't taste bad. It was just water, but healthier. Then, they swished the ash around in the jug and poured me another glass. THAT was the gross part. It felt like I had dirt in my mouth as I was drinking it. The worst part was that the taste was like burnt stuff. Just imagine burnt paper with water. It was gross.

2.) My companion got REALLY sick this past week to the point where we coudln't work for about 3 days. It was rough. Then, just as he gets better, I messed up my knee pretty bad and I just couldn't walk, so we lost ANOTHER day. We worked a total of like, 3 days this past week.

3.) Elder Rose and I had a good philosophical disscussion a couple days ago where we talked about how truth and intelligence work or something like that. It was pretty hard for me to follow. My comp's a total powerhouse in Philosophy. However, I ended up feeling like we pretty much ended up on the same page. I just think of things much simpler I guess, and that's why we had differing opinions. We ended up talking about it for 3 hours. It was pretty cool.

4.) The reason this week feels like it was 2 in one is because of how many changes in attitude my companion had. At the beginning of the week, he was ready to about leave the mission, and now, he's just SO ready to start working again. I really don't know how it all happened, and for a while, I had to just struggle with him. It was really rough for a few weeks. It's all good now.

5.) I forgot my camera in the house, but I do have a pretty cool story. So, on Sunday, we left the windows of the chapel open, and it got REALLY windy. Turns out, it blew over a glass vase in the chapel and it spilled everywhere. When we got there to shut the windows, we saw it spilled and we were like, (as a joke because of some really dumb excuses from people) "THAT'S IT. I'M LEAVING THE CHURCH. HOW IS IT THAT GOD LETS A VASE FALL OVER IN HIS HOUSE?" Then we went on a rapping spree because of the speakers there. It was pretty fun.

6.) We are SO POOR. Because of the largeness of our area, we are just so poor all the time because we have to spend a boatload of money on just taxi fares alone. It's pretty darn hard. The worst part is that we can't get any more money unless the President approves it. We're really struggling.

I guess maybe this week didn't have so many cool occurances as it was just long and difficult. That might have been why so much happened. But anyway, that's all for this week. Sorry for no pictures, but I completely forgot them in my house. I'll get them to you next week.

Thanks for the support. Love you all.

Elder Carter