Sorry! Got kinda slammed.

Sorry this took so long to send to everyone! I got kind of jammed up with work in the offices and couldn´t write until around right now.

This week was really tough. In fact, I´d even say it´s been one of the toughest while I´ve been in the offices.

We had a bunch of appointments with a whole bunch of new people, and everything just fell through. I think we had a total of around 20 cancelled appointments. Somewhere around there. It was really discouraging, but we powered through it and just said "Ni modo" all day long.

This week was filled with little miracles though. For instance:

We really don´t have any money right now. We´re kinda broke. It costs a boatload for our house. We pay around 800 pesos on Gas (Just absolutely insane), 600 on light (again, insane), and around 300 for water (not too bad, but still high). When the quincena arrives, or in other words, when the money gets there, we´ve got to blow it all on the house, and then the reimbursements take a while to get here.

That´s not to say I don´t put them in on time. It´s just that I can´t reimburse my own account. If I do, I look like I´m just giving myself free money, so I have to deposit to my companion´s account in order to receive my reimbursement.

Well, as it turns out, my companion gets really angry with me when I do that because he doesn´t like seeing money that he can´t have (usually it´s like 1000 pesos or so) and then tells me that I shouldn´t ever do it again, so I just go without money for the next two weeks and pray that my companion will finally understand that when he doesn´t let me deposit money into his account, he has to pay for everything.

The point of this whole explanation is that my companion finally ran out of money, and we were running on empty for a solid week and a half. It was pretty awesome what happened then.

We usually have to pay for taxis to arrive in our sector because it´s BIEN LEJOS (very far) from the offices. So basically we´re spending anywhere from 40-60 pesos daily on taxis.

We showed up to the offices one day and we just had no money. Elder Diaz didn´t have any left, and I had long since lost mine paying the light bill. We were at the offices, working, and all of a sudden, the President´s wife shows up and offers us a ride as we are about to leave! WHAT A BOSS LADY!

She took us to our sector and dropped us off, even though it was super far away from where she was going to pick up her kids.

But it happened AGAIN the following couple of days. We just showed up to the offices without money, and she took us every time. It was really cool that miracles like that took place.

Now, I don´t want anyone thinking that I´m sucking on rocks for water because I´m so dirt poor here in Tijuana. I´m actually doing just fine on money. So don´t freak out and start trying to start up a donation squad to earn money to send to Elder Carter. I really am doing just fine. They send us enough money to last us for a month, and I finally convinced my companion that I´ve got to deposit money into his account so that I can withdraw it, or he´s going to end up paying for literally everything, and we´ll BOTH be bankrupt.

So yeah, that was quite the miracle that happened a few times over. We´re pretty blessed here in the mission.

We also had a pretty funny experience with a guy that we contacted around 2 months ago. He contacted us on a Tuesday when we were leaving to go to the Sector. He started just quoting random verses in the Bible, saying references that didn´t exist. For example:

"IN ROMANS 8:23 IT SAYS THAT THE STRONGEST LEADERS ARE THE ONES WHO KNOW THE WORD OF GOD."

First off, Romans 8:23 probably doesn´t exist, and if it does exist, I´m positive it does not talk about anything remotely close to what you just told me, but you know, I´ll roll with it. I´m sure I can just show him a couple verses like Amos 3:7, Ephesians (that how you spell it?) 2:20, and maybe even Amos 8:11-12. And then I can just explain the whole lesson to him in around 5 minutes, and get a nice strong investigator.

That day, I noted his direction and then his telephone number so we could talk to him at home. Well, we never did contact him until yesterday!

This time, he was much more insulting, crude, and to be honest, utterly hilarious. He goes up to us and starts quoting the same Bible verse:

"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Galatians 1:8

So, according to him, the Angel Moroni preached a different gospel than what Paul, Peter, Jesus, and all the others taught.

This verse is a classic here, and it´s honestly the funniest argument I´ve ever seen. There´s a million ways to show that this scripture shouldn´t be used to argue that "Mormonism" isn´t correct, but here´s my 3 favorites that I tried to use on him:

1.) How many churches have the Bible with this exact verse? Almost all of them! Therefore, how many churches can apply this scripture to their specific church? All of them! Exactly! So the question of which church is correct STILL applies here.

2.) So, according to this scripture, we cannot change the word of God at all. That means you must still sacrifice animals to God, because the word of God back in the Old Testament was to sacrifice the "firstlings" of every flock. Do you do that? No? Well then, looks like the Gospel Jesus Christ taught is false doesn´t it?

3.) What is the gospel that this verse describes? (Many don´t have any clue at all. They just say "the church") Well, let´s go to the New Testament. Specifically, the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. If we look around in these books, we see that Jesus Christ himself taught Faith, Repentance, Baptism (with the three requirements of course), the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. We teach that exact Gospel as he taught it. So, we don´t teach anything different than what Paul taught! How great is that?

There´s still around 3 more that are just super great, but I´m not gonna put all of them here.

Anyway, this man just got super angry with us and told us to read the Bible from Genesis to Revelations and THEN read the Book of Mormon and other books, because the Bible is all there is. He told us specifically:

Joseph Smith is burning in hell.

That was a great statement. Especially since he´s not affilated with any religion at all. Basically, the guy just wanted to show how much he knew about the Bible, and that he was right, and we were wrong.

It´s just so funny that he would try to do something like that. Honestly, apart from the Prophet and the Quorum of the Twelve themselves, we are THE VERY LAST PEOPLE you want to try to convince that your church, idealogy, or theocracy is correct. It´s like trying to tell an archeologist that dinosaurs don´t exist. It´s pointless. They KNOW they exist. There´s evidence.

Like, what are we going to do? Just be like: HOLY COW YOU´RE RIGHT! WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE WE THINKING ELDER? OH MY GOSH DANG GOODNESS! THIS IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT GOSPEL THAN WHAT PAUL TAUGHT! THIS GUY KNOWS HIS BIBLE!

And then we throw our nametags on the ground and begin asking this man how to receive forgiveness from God, according to him.

Just utterly hilarious.

Finally, the photos. These photos are of a drink called "Chia." The little rock things are supposedly seeds. I honestly thought this drink was super gross. I managed to chug it though. All but those rockletts. Ain´t nobody got taim fo´dohs.

The worst part about that drink was that it wasn´t actually liquid. It was like some weird form of gel. Like, I felt the little rock babies in my mouth, but they were surrounded by some sort of gel stuff. It was super gross, but it didn´t honestly taste too bad. Just the overall texture and experience was bad. But hey, that´s Mexico.

Okay, that´s this week. Pretty boring, but overall great stuff.

HAVE A GOOD WEEK!

TAKE LUCK! AND CARE! TAKE CARE OF THE LUCK IF YOU HAVE ANY. TAKE CARE OF THE LUCK THAT YOU HAVE AND YOU CARE FOR IT!

But seriously though, take care.

If I loved you anymore I´d have to punch something.

Elder Carter

Conference Weekend

This week was General Conference! Cool experience actually. I really enjoyed it. It´s crazy to think that this was the second of 4. I´ve seen half of the General Conferences I will see on my mission. It´s just nuts.

Anyway, I actually have a pretty funny story about that:

So, we wanted to show General Conference in our chapel. We don´t have Satellite, so we were going to hook up a computer to a projector, and then we were going to hook it up to an Ethernet connection that was in the sacrament room.

We hook up everything and wouldn´t you know it, the Internet doesn´t work.

Great, so at least I know how to fix it. I head back to the secretaries office to look at the router and stuff. I end up running back and forth in the chapel for around an hour trying to fix this stupid router. (Missed the first 2 talks of the morning in fact)

Didn´t fix it, and so we left to go watch it somewhere else. However, as we go with our bishop, he tells us that the Internet worked for him that same day. So we went back the next morning.

I first checked to see if the internet was working in other rooms; and it was. So then I go to put a connection that worked into a connection to the sacrament room, but it still doesn´t work. So that means that the cable that goes to the Sacrament room was broken. Great stuff. That meant we had to switch EVERYTHING over to the baptismal font.

We get it all switched, and I plug in the computer to the Ethernet, and STILL nothing happens. It´s around8:45 when I´m starting all of this again.

So now I´m running around in a suit trying to fix this Mexican router again, and I find out that there´s only 2 cables connected to the router that are working. I get rid of those cables that aren´t working and start running around the chapel again just to see if I can find where the internet is so detestingly hiding itself. I unplugged and replugged the two working cables into all the connections possible and I just kept running around the chapel refreshing the two computers we had set up.

At 9:00, after around 30 minutes of just sprinting in the chapel all over to switch cables, I come to a solid conclusion:

Of the 7 cables that they had connecting to the internet, only 2 actually worked on the inside.

After plugging into the internet router, the cables to connect to the computer connected to a port that was built into the wall. These ports had other cables that went up into the ceiling of the building and through the walls to arrive at the other ends of the building. Well, these cables, which are inaccesible by all means, were broken. That meant it was impossible to fix the internet and get it working.

Great. So now I just wasted an hour and a half sprinting around and trying everything possible just to end up not needing to do it.

We put conference on a laptop through wi-fi, and then we leave to go to appointments.

When we return for the final session, a man had come in and changed the cables on the inside. He fixed it and the internet was in all of the rooms now.

It made me so mad that he fixed in 10 minutes what had taken me an hour and a half to figure out.

Great day that day. Just fantastic.

Anyway, yeah. That´s my mission story for general conference.

Today Elder D, my companion, took his people to the line this week, and so I got to talk to Elder C, the other North American secretary that was in before I was.

When he showed up, I started talking to him about my work here in El Barrio Central. This is what he told me:

What you guys do is something that no one else does. No one understands what exactly happens in the offices. No one understands that when there´s a call from the offices, it takes precedence over everything. No one gets the idea that there are people that just frustrate you because they don´t do as they´re told. No one understands that you can´t focus on your work in your sector because you can´t stop thinking about how you´re going to solve the problems in the offices.

Basically, no one gets that you can´t just "do better" in your sector. You can´t just "have more faith" and then have a bunch of mirales happen. Not as a secretary anyway.

Secretaries do not have good numbers, and don´t baptize a lot because they just straight up cannot do what is required to get it done. It´s not possible for you guys to make lesson plans, and because of that, your teaching tanks. You can´t really get anything done in the sector sometimes because of how little planning you have to get it done.

He went on to explain that as a secretary, he really didn´t worry about his numbers or baptisms or anything. He knew that his focus was not on the sector. He told me it was important to focus on the sector, but the offices was really our major assignment, and therefore, the requirements that are binding on other missionaries are not as binding on us, because we cannot do everything in our power to accomplish them.

After talking with him, I just instantly felt much better. Now I get it. I´m not actually a bad missionary. Heck, I´m not even doing bad at all. It´s just that we can´t expect to have a ton of success when we´re working in the offices.

Now don´t get me wrong, this doesn´t mean I´m just gonna be like OH HECK YEAH! NO MORE HELPING PEOPLE! Of course I still want to help them out. However, this does mean that I´m not going to just be digging my own grave all day. I´m just gonna work and do what I can, and then realize that right now I´m not supposed to have a ton of success in my sector. I´m just supposed to focus on the offices.

It was a great piece of advice. I am now much happier because of that.

The picture I´m sending is one of me when I was sleeping during personal study. (Not really. But it´s pretty darn funny. It´s like those little kids that fall asleep in hilarious positions just because they´re so tired.)

That day, we had walked all day, and had around like, 2 appointments total. It was a really hard day, and I was just so tired that I took a shower, grabbed the BoM and started reading in Pearl of Great Price, and before I knew it, I was waking up from Lehi´s Dream.

That´s where your moneys going everybody! It pays for my naps! Turns out, the mission is just a bunch of really spiritual naps! How great is that?

Alright, well, I think that´s about it this week. See you all later. Have a good week.

I miss you all as big as a tree. And I love you as big as a big rock.

Elder Carter

Tijuana Temple Update

Below is a picture of Coby's Mission President in front of the un-finished temple.  It is really coming along and we hope that Coby will still be in the mission field when it is completed.

We decided to see if there were any updated pictures of the Tijuana Temple.  We found some great pictures and you can see that the temple is really starting to take shape.  It appears that all of the outside walls are completed and the roof is finished.

Week 2

That´s what it feels like. Week 2. I´ve already passed an entire transfer as a secretary. But it´s only been one week. Nuts.

A few days ago, we had a problem with the cards of the mission, and so I had to stay in the offices all day for 3 days in a row, and then a 4th because my companion had to stay one day. So I had a total of like, 8 hours in my sector this week. It kinda made me sad because I wanted to test out my Fourth Missionary skills. But no... Sadly I was unable this week.

So, investigators! We actually found around 10 new people, but none of them had another appointment in which they were there. So... yeah. Kinda depressing, but I can´t lose faith. I found 10 people! Miracle from the 0 from before!

Here´s the investigators that actually "exist" right now:

Hermana G: HAD a baptismal date for this Saturday, but she fell down some stairs at work and FRACTURED HER ARMS. No joke. She now can´t get her arms wet, and therefore cannot be baptized.... 

Hermano M: Progressing like a boss. Basically set up to be baptized in April. Going to be married and everything. I´m so excited to see him progress! He´s super awesome.

That´s about it right now. We´re still looking.... >:D

Okay, so... cool stuff this week...

1.) Elder L left! He´s no longer an assistant to the President. I´m gonna miss this kid. But I´m going to see him after so no biggie. One of the pictures is with him.

2.) The ceiling in the offices caved in. No joke. I took pictures of that too. Apparently it was just full of water or something and then fell because it was too much weight for the fragile tile. Pretty great stuff.

3.) I found a church that´s like a shed with a tarp over it. It´s so funny. There´s a bunch of churches like this in other poorer areas. Kinda sad, but hilarious at the same time. Pictured below as well.

4.) My watch broke!

Okay, I´m defining "broke" as I was walking and it just fell apart. Still works, and I glued it together, but that watch that Andy gave me I just don´t think it´s gonna hold out much longer. (hint hint haha)

5.) Our ward missionary leader is basically dead. Like, I think he´s past his due date or something, because he´s been in the hospital for about a week now. Poor guy. Maybe his diabetes is catching up with him. Dunno.

I really can´t think of anything cool to write to you guys so I guess I´m just gonna give you what I can remember. Dunno. Maybe if you guys gave me like, ideas on what I need to tell you, I can get a better idea of what it is you´re looking for.

Okay, so yeah. That´s this week. Pretty uneventful because of the stinkin offices. Working on a computer never felt so aggravating. XD

Hasta luego familia!

Elder Carter

The Whole Mission

This is a picture of the whole mission.  Follow the red arrow to find Coby.

Grandpa Carter and President Carreon

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