The moment has arrived. The last transfer of the mission has begun. Starting today, I shall begin the last 6 weeks of my mission. It's just so incredible and impossible that I just can't wrap my mind about that yet. Well, I'd better start doing that, because these next six weeks are going to go by way too fast.
INVESTIGATORS
Aaron - Se bautizo! He got baptized! However, the baptism was on Sunday, so we have to wait until the next Sunday to see him confirmed. His dad baptized him, and I'm hoping he'll be at church to see him confirmed. Cool kid. We're excited for his progress.
Javier - A guy we taught a couple days ago. He's really cool. Didn't come to church because a family was supposed to stop by for him, and we didn't notify them... So we're going to have to tell them this week. We actually passed by his house a couple days ago, and we were going downhill on bikes, so we pretty much passed by in about 3 seconds, but in those seconds where we were by him, he yelled, "I'M STUDYING WHAT YOU LEFT ME TO STUDY!" Looks like he's going to progress pretty well. We're excited about that.
Roberto - We're not so sure about this guy. He's an older man that we found when some kid gave us a wrong address which was his. We taught him really quick, but honestly it doens't look like he's too interested. Most likely we're going to leave him.
WEEKLY BUSINESS
1.) First things first, at the beginning of the week, I ended up playing some tennis. And honestly, the way I got to play was just straight up a miracle. I keep seeing miracles in my own life, and not those of the investigators. Strange, but still awesome.
So, Elder Luna and I, at around 8:30 were just looking around for people to contact near the house. At that hour, we don't want to go too far away because we won't be able to teach much, and if we don't do anything and we go home, we end up losing an hour of proselyting, so basically, we just start knocking on doors and contacting when we can't get anything else near the house.
We contacted like, 4 or 5 people, and by then it was around 8:40. I looked over at Elder Luna and was like, "Lets head home."
Elder Luna looked around and said we needed to just go for a little more time to find people to talk to.
Basically, we end up going by a park with some tennis courts, and I sit there and watch two people play some tennis, and I realized,
Holy Cow. I miss playing that sport SO MUCH.
Just as I thought that, one of the members with his dad showed up to play with these two guys I was watching, and I looked at Elder Luna and just took off to go play.
I showed up and asked them if they would let me play a few games. First to 3.
I got up and was confident that, albeit a long time having since played, I would still be able to play decently.
I was 100% wrong. I played horrible. As we say in Spanish, "Fue un asco total." Honestly, probably the worst game I've played since I've started tennis seriously. I was kinda ashamed, but I found out they wanted me to play more, so I told them that if I just worked in the mornings on P-days, I would be able to play with them at night. They said it was good and we set off again. I felt really good after that. I really miss that game.
2.) I also got to talk to my Mommy! It was a pretty awesome call. Especially when the internet worked. Basically, I just kinda got a bit trunky after that call. I'm so close to home, but still a bit far off, you know? But it's fine. I'll end working hard.
3.) Elder Luna finally finished his mission. I'm really going to miss that guy. He was so funny. We got along really well, and had almost all the same interests. And basically, he and I had the same views on almost everything. We never had any arguments, and we never had any point where we fought or anything. There wasn't even anything about him that annoyed me. He's the first companion I've ever had that was like that. It was pretty cool. I'm going to miss him so much. But it's fine, he has my email and everything. I'm going to see him later on.
4.) Elder Cruz showed up! He's my new companion, and my last, at that. He'll be the one to see me off. He's from the State of Mexico, in a little city outside of Mexico City. Nice guy, and it seems like he's a little quiet, but that's fine. As long as he contacts and as long as he teaches stuff that isn't apostate, we'll be just fine. haha
5.) Just before getting my companion, I got together with Elder Kessinger and Elder Giles and we hung out a little bit before getting my new companion. It was pretty cool, and we went downtown, where I took the pictures of these gigantic heads of people who were like, the George Washingtons of Mexico. I actually went to the street where we walked when we visited Ensenada on the Cruise. There was no cruise ship there though...
And, to finish, I just wanted to talk a little about how I feel right now.
Sometimes, I feel like, out of all the things in my life that I could have done during these 2 years, there are a lot of things that I would have liked much more to do than serve like this, and sometimes, I feel like there is nothing I would love doing more for the rest of my life.
However, one thing is sure: There is nothing more worthwhile that I could have done.
I could have studied for 2 years, but that would have barely scraped the surface of the knowledge I've gained here.
I could have done Humanitarian Work in Asia for 2 years, but that wouldn't have even reached the depth of the richness of service.
There's a bunch more, but honestly, during these 2 years, I feel like I have gained more and learned more than in any other way in my life. I know now why a mission means so much to people when they go home, and why they all love it so much. It isn't necessarily that they loved doing it, or that they just had a total blast all the time, but it's more that they appreciate profoundly the things they received there. I feel like I will treasure my mission forever. Even after everything is over, I will still appreciate this small chance for service.
Thanks for all of your prayers and fasts in my behalf. There were a lot of sacrifices that many of you had to make for me, but know that those sacrifices were worth every drop of energy you put into them, be them small or big. It's helped me a ton.
I can't wait to see you all in 6 weeks. Bye!
Elder Carter
