Weekly Letter #1

Hey guys! It's my first letter on my mission!

That happened 18 months ago. Holy crud. I'm old.

Okay, investigators dropped. We're still working with Alfonzo, but I don't know really how far he's going to get right now. I'll explain it after this week. It's the trial. Just know this: I need as many prayers in his behalf as possible. I'm serious. Everyone pray for Alfonzo. Specifically, pray that he can quit smoking.

Everyone.

Okay, I gotta move fast. We're out of time, but I'm going to send the most I can.

1.) The pictures are of the mud that accumulated on my shoes this week from the rain, what it looks like JUST outside of Primo Tapia, the sky with a LOVELY shade of pink, me being Bear Grylls in a Crevahce (spelled for the British Accent. Took a video too. Super hilaroius.) and service of cleaning the tank of Squishy, the fish of Angela, one of the best members here. Finished product is there as well.

Okay, here we go. Cool stuff:

1.) We found a small little puppy this week and I felt super bad for him. He was hungry, cold, and forgotten. I picked him up and we started looking for a home for him. We found one after around an hour looking. Poor little guy. He's going to be okay now, but poor guy was whining the whole time because of the cold.

2.) There was a miracle of foresight by Heavenly Father: At the beginning of this week, I had an impression to check my oil holder. I looked at it and it was empty, and I felt like I needed to get oil to fill it.

So, we started looking and didn't find it for a couple days.

Then, we went to walmart where I FINALLY found Olive Oil and I was able to refill my container.

Literally one day later, I used the oil twice.

It was incredible. I hadn't even known these people were going to be sick, and yet, the Lord prepared me for that. It was super awesome.

3.) One of the brothers here is a massager guy. In Spanish, the word is Sobador. Anyway, he knows a little about how to give massages to help correct spines and stuff. So, we went to him because my spine has been acting up for a while, and he started popping bones and joints I didn't even know I had. After we finished, I felt SO great. Holy cow. We have 2 more appoitnments on Tuesday and Thursday. I'm excited.

4.) Americans came to sacrament meeting on Sunday! It was super cool! Just one of the Moms (there were 2) spoke Spanish, and the rest were pure English. I got to translate a little bit for them, and I managed to talk with them a little bit. They are going to be here for vacations until Sunday, so we're going to go with them to deliver small care packages on Wednesday, and then they want their boys to go on splits with us on one visit on Friday. I'm going to take pictures and maybe even ask for facebooks of them. They're super cool. I talked with them after church for a bit and they are just great people.

It was really refreshing to talk to a normal, non-mexican LDS family after a while, and I'll try to explain why.

Families here in Mexico are different than the ones in the United States. Faithful families here aren't like the ones there. The main difference is that faithful families here are the ones that come to church and have callings and fulfill them. Faithful families in the United States are the ones that hold family home evenings, family scripture study, and ALSO go to church and fulfill callings. The difference is notable, and I was really pleased to talk with them for a while. I felt like I was back at home again for a few moments.

Okay, so, I gotta get moving, but please, pray for Alfonzo and also for me. I need some help. Just pray that Alfonzo can quit smoking, and that I can get through this transfer.

Love you all, and see some of you on the 25th!

Bye everyone!

Elder Carter

Conference

This week was VERY rough for me. Saddest part is right at the start.

We lost Brother A.

We haven't been able to get in contact with him since last Thursday! Man! He was going so well, too!

Since we haven't been able to find him, we have no good investigators again. We've been contacting a ton, but no one wants anything. Just gotta keep trying I guess.

Cool things:

1.) It rained A TON here. It rained so much that there were floods. It was crazy. I took a picture of a point where the drainage was. The water was black.

Black.

How gross is that?

2.) We had a Zone Conference that was quite honestly THE best Zone Conference I've ever had. The President gave one of the best trainings I've ever received, and the testimonies of those that were leaving was just too much for me to handle. I cried. I'll admit it. It was a great experience. Best of the mission.

3.) There's a cat that sits with me when we go to wash our clothes. I sit down and he comes over and jumps into my lap and stays there for a while. I took a picture of him so that you could all see how awesome it is.

4.) Brother A was pretty awesome this week. He told us something that I really loved. We taught him about fasting, and this is what he replied after I testified of how it could help him conquer his addiction:

"Carter, por que no me dijiste antes de lo del ayuno?"

(Carter, why didn't you tell me about fasting before?)

It just showed how much progress he was making. He's by far our priority this week.

5.) I took a picture of the coast a little bit further down from our house. pretty cool right?

6.) I took a picture with Elder G. He's a great guy.

When I showed up at the beginning of my time in Mexico, I showed up in Postal, right when he had left. I heard so much about how awesome he was.

I didn't meet him until around a year later, he came to the house of the assistants for a training.

He's such a great guy. Honestly. He's SO awesome. Really kind, and he listens to everyone, and just loves everyone and everything. Great guy.

I had been struggling in the mission for a little while, and when he came to the house again on interchanges with another elder, I talked with him, and he reassured me that I was a great Elder.

When he sang on the concert we had for Christmas, I wanted to congratulate him, because he goes home early for school today. I gave him my contact information, and I wanted to take a picture too.

Literally, not even joking, the first thing he told me when I came up to him was,

"Elder Carter, you're a great missionary."

I love this guy.

7.) Taylor sent me a package! It had this awesome tie, and I tried to pose fancily for a fancy tie. Did I pull it off? It's the tie I'm wearing as I type right now.

8.) Some guy recently ran by us on a horse and asked us if we had seen 2 loose horses running around.

I'm proselyting in a ranch.

And there you have it! The rundown for the week. I hope you all had a fantastic one, and keep posted for the next one right before Christmas! Thanks for the support. Keep on Truckin.

Elder Carter

Primo Tapia

I'm in Primo Tapia everyone! New area! New companion! New investigators! Lets see what's happened this week:

Alfonzo: He's an investigator that's got problems with the Word of Wisdom. You name it, he does it. Smokes, drinks, and does drugs.

But he's a great guy. He's actually starting to leave it, and I think I'll explain a small miracle that took place with him.

So, he explained to us what was going on, that he smoked and stuff, and we started to explain to him how he was going to overcome those things. We had finished teaching the Word of Wisdom, and because of that, he decided he was going to leave that stuff behind. I explained to him that he was going to be able to overcome it only if he prayed every morning and night, asking SPECIFICALLY for help, and that he had to pray in any moment of temptation and read the Book of Mormon before even ATTEMPTING to smoke or anything like that.

We left and returned around 3-4 days later. When we had arrived before teaching the WoW, he had told us that he smoked around 3 to 4 cigarrettes daily.

When we returned, he explained:

"Well, I just want to thank you guys for your help. I've smoked once in 4 days, and I haven't even touched my beer since 2 weeks ago."

It was incredible. This guy, who smoked each and every day of his life since he was a teenager, in 4 days, left it alone completely. It was awesome! A total miracle. From then on, he didn't even smoke.

He told us he relapsed a day ago, but I'm confident he will completely leave these things behind. He already made huge progress on his own. I'm positive he'll get the help he needs soon. He's got a date on the 27th of this month. We're praying for him.

He's really the only good one we've got. All the rest are just numbers, because they haven't come to church, and really aren't keeping committments.

OKay, cool stuff for the week.

1.) This week it rained HARD. Like, it rained a ton. More than any other time on my mission I think, and it got really bad. In fact, it rained so hard that a transformer blew out! We were walking home from the bottom of the huge hill we live on, and suddenly, there's a flash of white light and ALL of the hill goes dark. All of it. The transformer exploded and the sound rattled the night. It was insane. It was pouring rain, to the point where the jacket you sent me Mom, (thanks for that, by the way. Saved my LIVE that night) was soaked. The water had started to just not fall off anymore, but stay there.

2.) Family, do you guys remember the Spray Paint artists from our Cruise a couple years ago?

There's a Spray Paint artist in our ward. He's not a member, but his wife is, and he's a cool guy.

The painting you see in the picture is pure Spray Paint. All of it.

It's so cool.

He told me he could teach me how to do it in 2 weeks. Not perfect, but at least I could get started. I want to see if I can later. I would love to learn that. He explained to me that it just involved learning parts, and then putting the parts together. So, instead of making a whole scene at once, he just puts a mountain with a sky and BOOM, it looks cool. Super boss. I'm going to try it later.

3.) I took a picture at a super cool spot in our sector. The ocean is so cool.

4.) Does anyone know of good talks on Cultivating Personal Revelation? I really need some of those talks so that I can start getting that going. I need some in this area to figure out what else I can do aside from contacting and asking for references.

5.) HOLY COW. I WAS WALKING ALONG THE BEACH WITH MY COMPANION, AND YOU WILL NEVER GUESS WHAT I FOUND. AN OLD SMITHS FRESH VALUES REWARDS CARD. HOLY CRUD. I was so amazed.

6.) Because of the rain, our whole sector got muddy. There's hardly any paved streets, and so there was a bunch of mud everywhere. That picture is just after a day of walking around. Mud, mud mud. Great stuff.

Okay, well, that's all for this week. Thanks for the support. See you all later!

Elder Carter

Bunch of Stuff

So, a lot has happened since the last big email. I'll try to get it all done.

I've been transferred to a new area called Primo Tapia. It's a small town on the coast of Baja California that's around 20 minutes away by taxi from Rosarito. It's a branch that has around 180 members, with around 30 active. It's a really tough area because of the distances. There are around 10 little towns that we have to cover, and because of that, many just say that they can't come to church because it's too far. It's kinda frustrating to see that people will only show their love for God if it's convenient for them. However, that's something they choose, and I cannot overcome it.

 This new area is pretty cool, like, it's right next to the sea, and so I get to see it every day. In fact, it's so close that we are actually RIGHT NEXT to the ocean in our little house. I've taken a picture of it here and attached it. It's right next to the beach, but I forgot to take a picture of that. Maybe next week.

My new companion is named Elder F. He's 25 years old and from Mexico. Don't really know much else about him. He doesn't like talking much, and so I can't really get a lot from him.

 So, with that said, I'll try to talk about the cool stuff that has happened. I can't really put investigators because I still don't know all of them, but next week I'll have a list ready.

 1.) First, I had the WORST mission experience in all of history. There were fleas or ticks (not sure which) in my bed, and my companion didn't tell me until around 3 days after. I woke up for 3 straight nights with more and more bites on my body. I took pictures of the bites. They hurt. A ton. And itch. And in the shower, they burn. The ones I showed are just a few of the many bites I have. So, because of that, I took a can of bug killer and strewed out everything. Bed, stand, blankets, pillowcase, everything. And I just sat there spraying it until I drowned the stupid bugs to oblivion. I took a picture of one of them that I found. Just imagine that in your bed. So yeah, I just absolutely hated that.

 2.) I did my first street contact in English. Here is much more touristy, so sometimes Americans are here. I did my first contact in English, and it was hard. I tried saying "about" but instead tried to say "acerca de" in spanish. Super tough, but not many happen here.

 3.) So, this next thing makes me sad that I didn't have my camera. There were some clouds that were over the ocean that moved into Primo Tapia. It was so cool! The clouds hung there over the sea, and after a few minutes, it moved into our sector. The fog was so dense that water accumulated on my hair. It was pretty cool, but I didn't have my camera with me. The rest of the pictures are with members of my old ward, and with other missionaries. I also took pictures of Jello flowers that a lady in our branch makes. They are really cool. If any of you have questions, let me know. I'll be sure to send the answers.

Thanks for the support.
See you all later.

 Elder Carter


 

Transferred

Coby didn't have a lot of time this week to send out an email.  We did hear that he has been transferred to a little city south of Rosarito Mexico called Primo Tapia.  We have looked is up on the internet and it looks like it is about 15 minutes south of Rosarito.

It is a small little town that is right on the coast.  He mentioned that he could see the ocean everywhere.

We are anxious to receive another letter on Monday of next week.

Below is a map of where Coby is serving.  The star on the map indicates Primo Tapia.

Package Restrictions in 2015.

We received this notification from Coby Last week:

"Dear Elders and Sisters, it´s very important that you carefully read this information.

The following rules will take effect beginning in January of 2015! The packages that are received in the P.O. Box in San Diego are going to be canceled to send medications, Vitamins, candy, food of any type or any other thing that is ingested.


Also, the size of packages that will be received will be for the following measurements:
14.5 cm X 28.5 cm X 22 cm which is the equivalent of about 5.71 in X 11.22 in X 8.66 in.


Avoid sending excessive letters and packages, they should only be sent for things that are really important!


You´re being notified quickly so that you can inform your parents of the change of rules with regards to the postal service.


Remember that starting in January we will not receive packages that contain the previously mentioned or exceed the accepted measurements!"

Marathon

Okay, I'll explain the title in a bit, but lets go to investigators right now.

Sister P: No progress. Didn't come to church again. We're giong to have to talk seriously with the mom about why her daughter can no longer be baptized until late December, and explain that if the mom isn't active, we cannot baptize the daughter, because she will be inactive as well.

Brother J: Never found him this week! We went by a couple times, but the problem is he works almost all day and then goes to bed after getting home, so we basically don't see him anymore. We might leave him.

Brother JL and Sister S: We went a couple times and both times he had another visitor that made it impossible to teach him. So, we've got another appointment. He says he doesn't want to try to read the Book of Mormon because the Bible doesn't say it exists. The cool thing is, if we show it to him, he will accept completely the Book of Mormon, because he accepted Joseph Smith and he accepted the idea that Peter James and John gave him the authority. We just gotta get him to read and we'll be golden with him. That, and we gotta convince him to come to church.....

We have a lot of potential investigators. A lot of names with a lot of people, but we just DON'T FIND 'EM. Grr.....

Alright, stuff that happened this week:

1.) All of our appointments fell through this week, so we just walked and walked and walked and walked. Like seriously, we walked around 30 hours this week. Super hard. That's why I say it was a marathon.

2.) Okay, this story is just nuts. Here we go.

So, yesterday we were trying to visit a family to say good bye to a sister that was leaving. However, she wasn't home and so we left to go visit another family. The street that they live on is Calle 6 (6th street) and so we started walking up to go visit another family.

Around 2 minutes in, we noticed some dogs that were.... trying to... obey the only commandment dogs have. Really horrible image there. ugh.

Anyway, we were about to pass them (something I was really disgusted to do) when all of a sudden, EVERYTHING went dark. The street, houses, everything.

My companion and I looked at each other and we just started sprinting to the principal street called "Las Torres" because the lights there are run by a different grid because of the huge power lines there.

We got to the street and started walking up to the next appointment, when all of a sudden, we see a huge group of people gathered around a certain place.

Here in the mission, we really can't afford to be noticed or anything by bad people, because if we do, we'll be tracked and jacked of our stuff. So, when we saw this big group with police and everything, we took off our nametags to avoid getting recognized (kinda).

Anyway, we had no idea what was giong on. People were running and some were shouting. There were police everywhere and we heard a car horn that was just stuck honking. As we crossed the street and came up around the site, we realized what had happened.

Someone, while driving, had lost control of their car and smashed into the power line, which was made of cement. They smashed into it SO hard that the line broke in two where the car impacted and fell on the roof, crushing the people inside. It was this crash that caused the power outage.

It was a terrible scene. We saw a liquid on the ground, and we were hoping it was gas or water. The car horn had been smashed and was just running the whole time. The car door on the passenger's side was open, and so we imagined that that person had survived. However, the drivers side was so destroyed that not even the door could be opened.

It floored me. It had taken place just moments before. We had been witnesses to the changes that took place. Just moments before, the driver was alive and well. In just a few seconds, he was gone.

I couldn't get myself to function. I stood, rooted in the place where I was, just praying that it wasn't anyone I knew. I can't even describe the horror that fillled my soul. It was just absolutely nuts.

That, by far, is the craziest story on my mission yet.

3.) I managed to sight read an entire hymn nearly perfectly! I was so proud of myself. I'm starting to get better. Slowly but surely it's happening. I'm so great right?

Outside of this stuff... Nothing really new happened. I couldn't take pictures, but this week is giong to be picture week. Bunches of 'em. Get ready folks.

Well, thanks for the support and stuff. I really do appreciate that so many of you are willing to support me week by week. I pray for you all daily.

Be safe, and have a good week.

Elder Carter