!Feliz Pascua! (With Photos)

This week was an awesome week!

The temperature is starting to get colder, the last couple days the wind has been freezing, ha unfortunately wed we didnt have any appointments and couldnt enter a house and the freezing wind at night was pretty fun hah, but right now its not to bad but definately showing signs of what it will be, people keep telling us it is going to be a fun winter, not sure how much snow but just freezing strong wind.

But yeah it has been really fun having another companionship here, its fun to all hang out after we are done planning at night and when we see each other. ha a lot of fun things

We had the baptism of our investigator Alfonso Saturday! and it was so so sweet! unfortunately not much members could show up (only 8) ha but he brought 20 of his friends and family and it was the coolest baptismal service ever. First of all the font is a real font that was cool! I took a picture of the mirror in the room because I was pretty stoked to have a legit font with a mirror and all. But dang such a cool experience, as they were changing we watched some mormon messages and some of his family began to cry, the spirit was super strong. unfortunately one had a lot of scratches but still it was moving, I think the funniest part of watching the mormon messages was the last one we planned on watching didnt work so I just chose another one and it ended up being of the twin towers disasters haha oh it was so bad, about the gospel helping him but as well as patriosm, the video ended with a nice american flag, ha im sure the chileanos were just like "the gringo would put on american propoganda" ha but at the end was the coolest part, all of his family and friends arent members but his dad is an inactive. And we asked alfonso to bare his testimony and he bore a powerful testimony to his family of how he came to know the truth and the baptism and how he knew it was the best example he could make for his family. Then we invited his dad to bare testimony who was inactive and he bore testimony of how great and proud he was of his son for making this decision and that it is the right decision and bore testimony of the truth of the gospel. But was so cool, after the members without us noticing started to give tours of the capilla of his friends and family but dang haha soooo sweet. we will have the oppurtunity to share more with them.

For church I was asked to teach the sunday school class and with all these things I was hoping something easy, ha and sure enough I open the manual and it was "recogimiento de Israel" o sea gathering of israel. ha it had some fun terms and dates I had to remember, but I learned so much from planning that lesson, about the importance of being hole. Especially being so far away from the prophet and apostles I gained a strong testimony of the revelation given to the prophets that the gospel will go forth in all of the worlds and in stakes Israel shall be gathered. But it was a hard topic at first to talk about but as I begin teaching I really gained a testimony of the gift of tongues that I could teach and testify that the church is one and that the church is the same here in chile as in the states, and it is our job to share and bring the rest to the truth.

But yep some cool things that have happened this week, mamita made us pancakes in the night one of these nights I was pretty stoked, havent had syrup nor pancakes for a lot of time

Oh one thing I wanted to ask is if you could send me some recipes. We wanted to make some sweet desserts for alfonso and his family for some family nights, we want to teach them what a family night is, but have some cool family nights with them,

if you have some ideas let me know!

but specifically recipes for

scotch a roos

brownies

different types of cookies

no bake cookies

banana bread

Oh also! I was thinking about this and I was wondering if you could send me a pedigree chart of our family history? my comp asked when our familyjoined the church and I had no idea, it would be cool to know more about that,

But yep love you all so much, I have had so much awesome experiences, ha most of my dreams are of the mission, such as not being able to find a member to come with us to a leccion or something ha its pretty sad. What I have learned most is the importance to stay happy and positive and work hard, its amazing what a positive attitude can do in a day when all your doing is contacts in cold freezing wind. Ha loving every moment.

these pictures are of me and my mamita

the view of our backyard cant see very well but thats the sea with mtns/islands in the back pretty sweet

baptism of alfonso

cuico baptismal font

Hola buenas tardes! como estan!!!!!?

Hey Hey!!!!

So here in Puerto Natales its so beautiful!

We are on the higher part of the gradual hill of the city and have a view from our window of the sea with all the snow topped mtns,

fortunately the weather is nice right now, it doesnt get cold nor snow until later in junio but its gradually getting colder. We have sun right now though and its nice. ha crazy how far south I am, I looked at a map its nuts!

For our house set up its pretty sweet. We live in the house of the mamita but its like an extension of the back and is nice. There is 4 missionaries in total including me who live there. Its so much fun living with another companionship hah a little crazy sometimes with showering and all but overall really fun. My companions name is elder barrientos and he is an awesome elder. ha he knows the island we went to, I told him it was my dream beach. But we get a long great he is super chill and hard working and funny and im going to learn a lot from him. It is a branch here like los muermos and we have about the same assistance about 30, the branch is awesome we have some great members and its a lot of fun. The city is split in two we are in the 2nd sector. What is soooo great about our house is for lunch we just have to walk down the hall to eat in the same house. As well as the capilla is right next door to our house. Yes we have a capilla capilla! its super nice ha I love it so much it was cool to have a church church. The president is our papito (husband of our mamita). They are an older couple and are sooo awesome and funny. She washes our clothes and is always willing to help us (like she sewed one of my white shirts that ripped when I walked past a barbed wire also she is going to teach me how to sew better haha) and our president (papito) is an awesome president. He doesnt have counselors so we help him with some things. It was cool that I was familiar with MLS so I could help him with tithing.

So overall it has been a good welcoming. I also know the other missionaries Elder Vasquez from Salvador, and Elder Renshaw from Iowa, I knew elder Vasquez when I started and he is our district leader ha he is super funny we get along great and also elder renshaw is super funny as well.

For some cool things that are going down already here is there is a prison here and we go every week to teach a member and another cell mate that are there doing some time, they are really nice, was a little scared as we walked in past the security and all the locks and doors into a room but once we started teaching it was sweet, they are really receptive and humbled and have a desire to change. But we teach them every saturday morning.

Also we have a family night with all the rama every thursday, that was a lot of fun as well, we played a game at the end and I lost so I had to dance like a chicken in front of everyone haha great first impression for the branch to watch a gringo do a terrible chicken dance. Awesome branch.

Also we have a baptism next week! He is super inteligent, he is part of the PDI or FBI basically, awesome guy its weird to come to a sector and immediately have a baptism. Excited to work hard here and teach some more people. Everything here is heated with gas so that has been a sweet luxury, ohhh it is so nice haha.

But overal has been an awesome week, this sector is a lot bigger then los muermos so I have really been focussing on memorizing the streets and all the people in the branch. A lot of memorizing and all its a lot to take in but with time.

Awesome beautiful place here we are going to try to go to Torres de Paine soon and some other sweet places close to our sector, ha there are so many tourists and gringos here visiting (gringos means people from europe and americans here) but yeah pretty sweet place. But excited to work, here is a a photo of me and my companion eating at a restaurant here.

Also ha thats funny how he had an accent, im not sure if im getting an accent, haha I went into the dentist alone today though without my comp, it was like going into the doctor without your mom for the first time, haha it was cool to be able to explain what happened and all to do that. dental terms are hard ha

But hey things sound great there back home! Crazy how kristy is about to how a baby! awesome hearing from you grandma! hope all is well! also hope work is good blake! Love you mom and dad! sounds like everything is going great!

All is good!  take care! Ill take some photos of my sector next week!

Con Cariño

Elder Carter

HEY HEY! Going to Punta Arenas! (Photos)

Hey hey! so this week was crazy loco, first of all I got my cambio and I am going to the zone of Punta Arenas!!! It is the furthest most zone in the mission and is beautiful and freezing cold haha, you have to take a plane to get down there and I fly wednesday Im pretty stoked! The sector I am in is called Puerto Natales and when I arrive in punta arenas it is a 3hr bus drive or so from the city. It is another city and I heard it is pretty big, my companion is from honduras but I forgot his name they just told me on the phone so I will tell you more about the sector in all next pday but crazy stuff, I wont have district meetings because it is to far to travel to punta arenas I think we travel like 1 time every cambio to punta arenas. But I will be entering while it is winter so I will have snow im guessing but I heard it is so cold wind snow and all, ha so I need to buy gloves and a scarf. But I am excited to get to know this sector people say it is really beautiful.

Also Had the baptism of Daniela saturday!!!! It went really well, ha we had to plan all of it from the program to cleaning the font again to calling the members, ha wish we could have your planning skills mom that would be so cool to have that many people assist the service, ha not much assisted but the spirit was really strong.

Also had to do the audit for the branch that was long and intense, ha did you have to do that for the ward dad? oh its pretty lengthy and a lot of papers. Once again why I like order a ton.

Im glad hno Goodman had the chance to reach you mom! I had a question of what I need to put when it asks me would I like to take out from the (savings, checking, or credit) what one is it?

One thing I really really want to have is order, like with tons of leaders and people to have callings, ha I love order so much.

Also our branch president asked if I could give a talk even though I gave the last 2, ha so gave my third talk in the last 4 weeks.

But went well, Ive been having a lot of dreams in spanish its pretty funny, it really helped having a latino companion, ha totally need to learn soooo much more so I am excited to have another companion latino. I think my next house we will have 4 missionaries I am not completely sure.

This weeked has been nuts and I am glad all the stress is almost gone, there is a weight limit for my bags I can only bring one with me on the plane and the other they ship over land and I can get it in a week to a month, I bought a small carry on bag so I can fit more on the plane because that is free. It is crazy saying goodbye to everyone here in Los muermos gonna miss my first place. the investigatores take it pretty hard, ha the members are used to it though, but some wrote in my memory book thing and wrote really nice things, feels good to be missed ha.

oh Dad! I know Johnny D haha I played against him before, thats nuts how he is doing good in college. Did he grow? He was a high scorer in high school good 3 point shooter.

Tell Trevor I said hey!

Excited for the ctr ring mom that will be sweet ha Carter sounds like quiete the character.

Ha and thats nuts with the call of Christian! haha he is going to do great there in Africa tell him to pet a giraffe for me. Ill try to find a penguin down there in punta arenas.

Love you all so much,

Elder Carter

I put 3 photos

one is of danny fernando and maitay the kids of our president, it is crazy I got to see maitay grow immensely ha awesome kids, and the other is of our bautismal font and the other is with me and daniela (girl that got baptized) PF

Hola!!!!! (Photos)

Hey Family!

So this week was a good one. Finally had the oppurtunity to talk with our investigator who is a part member family, (daniela) and she had her interview this week and she is going to be baptized this saturday. YESS! so stoked. She only has 9 years but she knows so much about the church and really wants to get baptized. Her aunt is really catolica and didnt want her to get baptized and tried to talk her out of it, but after teaching her and with the help of her mom and sister she is getting baptized, and that will complete that family. I am really excited for that though.

I have been sick for the second half of the week, but continued to work, nothing big, I think I just have been really tired lately and my immune is down but Im feeling a lot better. The sun has been pretty strong the last few days and that kills when you already have a headache. But all is well.

Had a fun excperience we asked this old man if he needed help cutting his field of tall grass. And he accepted, to cut it he gave us that tool that the grim reaper has, haha it was pretty fun to use, hard work with that thing but once I got the hang of it I was chopping that grass like a champ. ha with a tie and all I started sweating pretty bad, probably grossed out the next couple people I contacted cause my face was covered in sweat. Probably think gringos are so weird.

We have really been working hard. Its crazy to think that I might only have one more week left here in los muermos, still I can stay, but I find out this week.

I have really really learned patience this cambio as well as learned some good spanish and am continuing to study and work hard. The mission is such a sweet time to develop good traits. trials and all,

I also had the oppurtunity today to go to a place called saltos de petrohue, with my zone and another zone as well as president rappleye and hna rappleye. It was so beautiful I posted a couple photos of it. It was sweet because there were rapids and waterfalls as well as Volcan Osorno and huge green mtns in the background. Was way fun. It is pretty sweet to serve in such a beautiful place.

That rock climbing looks really fun dad, we should rock climb here in southern chile someday ha

mom hahah that play set is so funny. it has a classy modern touch to it. ha my nephews and nieces are going to be lucky and spoiled. haha fun stuff, carter is way animated now thats crazy!

I have really realized there is always things to be positive about on the mission and have been looking at all of those things especially during harder days.

One cool thing I got to do this week is give a blessing of comfort to our mamita, it was my first blessing of comfort and it was a cool experience. Also since our president wasnt here this week once again we had to do all the fun work for the rama ha. I had to prepare the sunday school lesson for our rama this week it was a fun experience ha, taught about the keys of the priestood and the duties and where did each come from and all that good stuff. It is fulfilling to be able to teach a class and get them excited and all in spanish. But went well, haha hopefully ohyeah also came across a weird beatle huge bug thing so caught it and brought it to our house, ill put a picture of that as well

Overall learning a lot and working hard, even when its hard I love it.

Take care this week!

Mucho Cariño,

Elder Carter