Elder Carter goes to the US

Hello, my family and friends. It was just a fantastic week this week full of utter enjoyment.

Let me start this with investigators, and progress and stuff like that.

Sister G - We're going to baptize her very soon. She´s more faithful than some of the members... Super awesome lady. Just gotta work on her coffee addiction....

Brother M - He's progressing really well. They have plans to get married, and plan to be married by April. We´re praying that we can baptize him after conference.

That´s all we've got. Sister P really hasn´t talked to us, and we can´t get a hold of her. Oh well, we´ll see her later if the Lord says we need to help her out.

Okay, so, as you´ve guessed from the Subject of this email, I crossed, for the first time in 8 months, the border between the United States and Mexico to enter a world that I assumed I would only view from hilltops for the next 2 years.

I was thinking I was going to wait until the end of the email to describe it, but I don´t think you guys will read it very well because you´ll just be thinking about what I said about the U S of A. So, I´ll just get into it.

Sooooooooooooo,

Whenever we have people from the States that leave, they have to go to San Diego. That means that the President must take them there in his car.

We showed up in the offices at 9, and the President was about to leave to go to the States, when he said he needed someone to accompany him. Elder L, the assistant, was busy taking stats from the Zone Leaders, and another Zone leader was not there.

That meant that I was the only person who could go with him.

"Me acompañe a la linea por favor Elder Carter?"

(Will you accompany me to the border, please, Elder Carter?)

I could barely contain my excitement.

Elder D gave me my passport and I shoved it into my pocket and just barely managed to stay calm as we got into the elevator.

As we got into the elevator, Presidente Carreón pulled out his iPhone and said:

"Tengo una pregunta, Elder Carter, quien es esta persona?"

(I have a question, Elder Carter, who is this person?)

He handed me his iPhone and I looked down at the picture, thinking that I was going to see a missionary that perhaps he couldn't recognize.

I looked down directly to see

My very own grandfather.

I was speechless.

The President then told me:

"Me dijo: I am Grandpa Carter"

(He told me: I am Grandpa Carter)

I could not believe my ears or eyes. It was so cool! And then we proceeded to talk about what happened. The President told me he spoke to Grandpa in ENGLISH! That is just crazy! The President doesn´t really speak English. I mean, he does, but not WELL, and not FLUENTLY.

We proceeded to talk about stuff about Grandpa and Dad and about my family.

As we drove to the line, he talked to me about how good it was what Grandpa did, and how he was really glad that there were people that are willing to help out like that.

Anyway, we drove to the Otay Border, and I walked across the border.

When we got into the office, one of the officers looked at us and began to say something like this:

"I KNOW WHO YOU GUYS ARE. I KNOW WHAT YOU DO."

I got really scared for a second, because 

1.) IT WAS IN FREAKIN ENGLISH.

2.) I HAD NO IDEA WHO HE WAS

3.) I WAS SPEAKING SPANISH AND IT SCARED ME THAT HE INTERRUPTED ME LIKE THAT

And then he said:

"MORMONS."

That was about the closest I will get to cardiac arrest I think.

So I crossed with no problems. We got into the United States, and I kid you not:

The air just tasted better.

100% serious.

Not to be racist or anything like that. The air just felt better. I don´t know how to describe it.

Anyway, I meet up with the President at a 7/11 after asking for directions in English (weirdest thing ever) and then we drove to the airport.

During the whole time, we talked about many things, but I noticed a few things during our little trip:

1.) California is really green and pretty.

2.) The roads and everything are really clean

3.) People actually obey traffic laws

4.) Everything in Spanish that I saw, I understood.

So, we arrive at the airport and do what we had to do there, and then left.

As we were in the airport, I was talking in complete Spanish to the President and I have to say:

I felt pretty darn cool.

Not to say it like I´M SO COOL. Or anything like that.

I just felt awesome. Just the simple fact that I was able to understand Spanish and many others could not just made me super happy.

As we left, I began to talk to the President about the United States. He then listened to me talk about the differences I saw between Mexico and the US.

He and I had a really nice little chat as we passed through San Diego.

To be honest, it was a great experience. I feel just so much happier about everything now.

Alright, so I´m sure you have a million questions, so I´ll try to answer the biggest ones:

1.) Did you have to translate for someone while you were there in California?

No, I didn´t get that chance.

2.) Did you go anywhere besides the airport in San Diego?

No. Just airport and back. No stops anywhere.

3.) What other things did you get to do in San Diego?

Really what I described was about it. Sorry. I didn´t throw my nametag on the floor, scream I´M FREE and go home.

4.) Why did the President need someone to accompany him to the border?

He normally has other North American Elders go with him to the US.

Alright, so if there are any more, just shoot ´em to me. I´m willing to answer them all.

Outside of that, what else happened....

I talked with the mother of an Elder on the phone a couple days ago. She told me she was reading my blog. I was amazed, but then she described me and I was like, WOW!

She proceeded to tell me that she was looking in all the other blogs about missionaries in Tijuana and that MY experiences helped her know what her son was going through a little better.

It was really cool to know that I was helping her without even really trying.

It also made me think....

Does MY mom do that?

Now that I think about it... That´s probably all Mom does. She probably knows more about this Mission than I do right now. But hey, that´s a Mom´s job. She´s gotta send me the stuffy nose pills when i get a stuffy nose. That´s how a Mom works.

So thanks Mom, for taking care of me even though I´m thousands of miles away.

Also, to that mother who reads this blog, thanks for being so supportive of your son. You have no idea how much it means to us as missionaries to know that there are people that are willing to give all they´ve got to just see us baptize 1 person. We really get discouraged sometimes, but with the support we receive, we just power through it knowing that we can´t fail.

Okay, so... there´s that... What else?

This email is really long this week because I have a TON of time to write it. I hope it´s super awesome for you guys.

Alright, I´m gonna talk about Elder L for a little bit.

Elder L is quite possibly one of the greatest missionaries this mission has ever seen.

I have never met anyone who does what he does.

He single-handedly can make people baptize better.

Not only does he baptize every week, but he knows everything.

Like, I remember talking with him one time about who was a good missionary and who was bad. He said this:

"There are no good missionaries. Everyone is a bad missionary. Everyone. But Christ was a perfect missionary, which means if we want to baptize everyone, we have to be like Christ. That's why Chapter 6 exists. That´s why the word "love" is mentioned so often in PMG. That´s why I say it´s more important to love the people than to teach well or speak well."

He says stuff like this all the time. He's just an absolute genius. I honestly don´t know where he learns this stuff from. I just don´t understand where he learns it, but he knows stuff like that. I would say he´s probably done more for me on my mission in 1 transfer than my entire mission has done for me so far.

No one really likes him. To be honest, many people think Elder L just planches (there´s the word again. Remember that it´s "to destroy someone´s religion" or as i think about it, "punish") everyone. Really, he does. But he is super humble, he loves the people, is very patient, and above all, he has more faith than almost anyone I've seen.

He told me that he saw another Elder just baptizing a ton and said to himself:

He has nothing that I can´t have.

And then he just went and baptized a bunch.

He said he had a goal of baptizing 13 people that transfer, and he did it. He baptized a total of like, 15 (I think. I don´t remember well right now).

So, I am now resolved to just do what he does. He told me that he just did his work. He just contacted a ton and just did what he was supposed to do.

This transfer, he will be going somewhere else, or, in other words, leaving as an AP. He leaves as an AP and becomes a District Leader, training 2 people.

He has set a goal that he is going to have 5 baptisms every week.

I want to be that missionary.

So, I´m just gonna work. That´s just it. The Lord says he´s gonna put people in my path, then that means I gotta talk to everyone to find them, because I never know who they are.

That´s what´s happened this week.

Alright, I gotta get going. This is way too long.

Take care everyone. Next week is going to be the miracle week. I´m not going to accept failure.

Be safe and BE HAPPY. (I gotta work on that....)

Elder Carter

AND IT CAME TO PASS

1 And it came to pass, that after two thousand and thirteen years had passed away, that there arose a man who was mighty in the ways of speaking and writing, and in that same year, he journied to the land of of Tijuana.

2 And there he served the Lord for a period of two years, or until the two thousand and fifteenth year, and the Lord was pleased with him, and blessed him and all of his household.

Holy cow it´s hard to write scriptures.

How´s it going everyone? I´m sure you´re all fine and dandy.

This week was really tough on me. Not just because we didn´t have a lot of success, but more than anything because I just kept running into problems in the offices.

So, I´ll start with our investigators first.

1- Brother M. He´s a really cool guy. He was deported around 5 months ago, but found a job and is now living here with his wife who speaks more English than Spanish. He´s progressing really well, and despite working 6 PM to 4 AM he still goes to church. Really cool guy. He didn´t come to church last week because he didn´t get back home until around 6 AM that Saturday. It was hard on him and he couldn´t get up to go to church at 8:30.

2- Sister G. She´s a relatively new investigator. We haven´t taught her anything but L1, but she's actually basically a member already. She goes to church on her own, pays her tithing, and feeds us whenever we visit. It´s really awesome. She came to church this Sunday, which was awesome! (The only investigator in church however. Kind of depressing)

3- Sister P. I like to call her "Milagrosa Mujer" (Miraculous Woman). We were visiting a family that has been investigating the church since Adam and Eve, and we wanted to see what happened to make them stop going to church. We contacted this lady and found out that she actually had a ton of questions. We answered them quite easily, and in fact, she gave us a couple questions we didn´t actually know how to answer.

For instance, where in the Bible does it say that the Sabbath Day is on Sunday? All evidence in the Bible is actually pointed to Saturday. I studied hard the following morning, and found Acts 20:17. It was the best I could manage.

She got on the Internet and looked up Mormons. We all know how great of a source the Internet is to get information about religion. So she found out about Poligamy, the gold plates, and basically just all the stuff that we really don´t like talking about because it doesn´t matter. (PMG Chap. 5 "Use the Book of Mormon to Respond to Objections")

So basically, we answered everything and she began to listen to us. We taught all of lesson 1 and she accepted a Book of Mormon. She told us she was just reading out of curiosity, but I can almost guarantee that if we add a little more of the Spirit into the mix I think we´ll get a nice strong convert.

That´s the grand total of investigators that we have right now! Pretty grim looking, but we´re dedicating this week to find.

Alright, so that´s the investigator part, but I´m sure no one cares about that and all they want to hear about is whether or not I survived the 3 knife fights and 4 shoot outs that I´ve had in the past week.

Well, sorry to say, I didn´t actually kill the last one. Just got him in the leg and he got away.

hahahahahahahahaha

Okay, cool stuff:

1.) Have you ever had Carrot-Apple-Pear-Pineapple-Celery juice? It´s the weirdest tasting thing I´ve ever tasted! David, the old Ward Mission Leader in Postal, made us some on my last week, and I realized I forgot to write about it! It tasted pretty good actually. Like Apple juice, but that tasted like vegetables. It was awesome. Dunno exactly how to describe it.

2.) WE DIDN´T HAVE ANY GAS FOR AROUND A WEEK.

That was just beyond frustrating. I paid for the gas, and then later, I found out that I had to PAY AGAIN to make sure that the service got reconnected. After getting it reconnected, we didn´t have it for like, 2 more days after because we had to wait for the service to be normal again. I was so desperate for hot water in the mornings that I took a pitcher of water, stuck it in the microwave for 3 minutes and bathed with that. It was actually really awesome after taking a cold shower for a week.

3.) I´ve been thinking a lot about Homestarrunner. Mostly just because Elder L says "freakin" a lot and it reminds me of "I FREAKIN HATE SIBBY!"

Dunno. It was just super funny to me when I thought about it.

4.) I passed 6 months here in Tijuana. I´m about to hit 8 months in the mission. Just crazy how fast time is moving. I´m only 3 months away from having 52 weeks left in the mission. What are the blocks at home at? It´s just super crazy for me.

5.) I´ve been really discouraged for the past few days. Mostly just because many of the members here are very very VERY closed to missionaries. Especially because the missionaries that were here before began to planch everyone. (Basically just tell them they were going to go to hell if they didn´t give references.) So we´re starting from the ground up with the member trust. In fact, we´re even starting at square one with our leaders. Basically, it´s like we´re opening a new area. Exactly like that. It´s hard, and beyond any way to say it other than that.

So, in light of that, I´ve thought a lot about something that I heard one day: "You'll come to find that missions depend entirely on faith. The missionaries that have the most faith have the most success."

After thinking about that, I began to realize that I have really no faith at all. I mean, I have a little, but I honestly cannot say that I ask for a reference believing that I will receive one. Heck, I cannot even say that I contact someone honestly believing they will accept. It´s really bad to think that way, but that´s just where we´re at right now.

So, I began to study in Chapter 6 again. That´s where I go whenever I have problems in the mission. If I have problems with my companion, I study in Chapter 6. If the members aren´t giving me references, I study in Chapter 6. If I just really feel discouraged and like nothing is going right, I study Chapter 6. It´s honestly my favorite chapter right now.

I specifically studied in Faith and Hope, because I really could use a double dose of that. And I found something very interesting. According to Preach My Gospel:

"Faith leads to action, including repentance, obedience, and dedicated service."

"Your faith will be manifest through diligence and work."

"God works by power, but His power is usually exercised in response to faith"

After reading this, I began to think, and I wrote in my Study Journal a really cool idea.

Faith leads to Action. Which means, if we have faith, we will perform actions according to our faith. Or in other words, little faith, little actions. Lots of faith, lots of actions.

Faith, because it is a principle of action, will be manifest through diligence. Now, that means that Faith and Diligence are interrelated.

Finally, God works by power, which is a response to Faith. Which means that God responds according to our diligence, seeing as Faith is manifest by diligence.

All of this piles into one big conclusion:

Diligence is the only way to see miracles.

We can fast, pray, and read the scriptures all we want. But unless we are diligent, absolutely nothing happens.

The consistent act of doing what you supposed to do without murmuring automatically qualifies the person doing the act for a miracle; but that doesn't mean that it will happen right then and there, because, as Preach My Gospel says as well:

"You are able to do miracles according to the Lord’s will."

So that was a huge eye opener for me this week. I really need to be more diligent.

6.) It rained HARD a couple of days ago. It was so bad that President said that the missionaries had to stay inside! It was crazy! There was water that ran like rivers in the streets. Just absolutely insane. Of course, we were lucky and we stayed inside the offices to watch it. It was super cool to see it all. I got to see what rain looks like from far away. It´s like a cloud. Really cool.

Alright, that´s about it for this week. Nothing really super awesome happened. I mean, we have experiences here and there but none that are really WOW I GOTTA SHARE THIS WITH MY FAMILY type deal.

I hope all is well at home. I´m still trucking along here and I know you guys are too.

Keep on keepin on!

I love you all.

I would love you in a box, I would love you with a fox. I would love you in the rain, and I would love you on a train.

But I will not eat Green Eggs and Ham.

Elder Carter

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

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

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