Hey friends and family! Congrats on the baby kristy!

Hey! Congrats Kristy and Dalan!!! Im stoked to see taylor all grown up in one year haha. thats so awesome. Hows it going Elder Farrow!?

Also hey Brent and Audrey!!! Digame! donde esta sirviendo su padre!?

Landon! como esta BYU Provo? Echa de menos Idaho y las papas? jaja

Como esta hermanito (blake)?? como esta la paga (trabajo) ha aprendido mucho español? espero que sepa mucho para que podamos ir a mexico cuando yo vuelva. Les quiero!

pero amigitos escribanme para que yo sepa uds estan vivos  y para que tenga algo differente para leer haha aun que me encanta las cartas de mi papa y mama. ;)

so this week we head down to Punta Arenas for our interviews, president rappleye put enfasis in a new program we recieved a month ago from the area authority (recieved revelation from a discurso of the prophet and got inspired to do this program) we were able to finally get it approved in our branch and it is a program of assignments for less active, and inactive members to give them a small assignment (not calling dependent on worthiness) and we will be keeping track on a chart of how many have come, of our both sectors we have already assigned 5 people and 2 have already assisted. It is a simple yet effective new program, then I was suprised and loved the broadcast last night it was a huge step in the work, and I laughed at how the revelation by our area authority to do that program was approved by the Prophet and 12, and now they come out with this which is basically the exact same thing world wide. So I was stoked this will be awesome. Got some work to do now.

So other things that went on this week is we had an awesome lesson!

Remember that lesson we had with our investigators last week? I had no idea what was going to happen at our next lesson and I was thinking all week of what we could teach them, I recieved nothing and then at the last moment that morning I recieved a response to just read something that you like from the book of mormon, we prepared an outline reading 3 scriptures from when Christ came to the americas and established his church, before we entered I was nervous and really just wanted to have a spiritual lesson, my comp asked if we should pray before I agreed and then we entered, the lesson went really well, we actually asked if they read and fani who always reads said no, and hernan who not so often reads said he did, and he liked what he read, He is one of the investigatores that loves the bible and always from the start didnt show much interest in the bom, more then anything trying to find something that was contrary to the bible, THEN he just happened to read in 2nefi 27-31 and it was filled with all things he needed to know, He told me, you know I read and I learned that god can give us other scripture, who are we to say that god cant give us more. I couldnt believe it, I finally saw a change I didnt think I couldve seen and it happened because of the book of mormon, we continued to share what we had then he told me, you know, when you guys first came I just wanted hear good things and cause I already had my bible, but now I realize I was on a search that I didnt know I was on, and I was searching for this book, the book of mormon, that was the first time ive heard anything like that before and I remember the first time we taught them with my other companion, I told him they are hard, but idk this family has a face of a mormon. We are excited to continue to teach them about how we can gain blessings and a testimony of our savior jesus christ in ways we never thought we could imagine. The lord really does prepare his children.

For the training its coming along great, I like this program they give us and we are working hard, I have come down with a small cold and that really is taking a toll, training has already really worked my brain, but I will care for my body and do what I can to keep going strong. Its amazing what the lord can do for his servants. I have really been focussing hard and have already learned so much from this experience. One thing we are working on right now is how I can help my comp talk in lessons, he has the oppurtunity to testify but I have been really thinking of ways I can speed his progress, we have been taking on many new different practices and methods of learning and are going to see how it works, ha what I love about the mission is you can always try new things and you have so many opportunities to measure and see if it works or not.

hmm here are some photos of me, right now the weather is super beautiful its weird their are 3 days here every winter where the weather is perfect and beautiful, but here is a photo of when it snowed a ton this week. but hey! check out as well this one website called patagoniawebcam.com it is a website where you can see a live cam of puerto natales where im at....this guy at the ciber told us it was cool so Ill let you check it out for me since I cant haha

and the other is in punta arenas.... basically the end of the world, that place is called cerro la cruz

HAPPY LATE FATHERS DAY!!!! and its SNOWING!

So its snowing right now here in puerto natales! ha its weird to think its July, snow is much better then rain. HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!! For our papito we gave him a picture of him with our names on it haha, Hope it was a good one, I gave a talk for fathers day (haha funny cause I gave one on mothers day) and  had the chance to say how thankful I am for your example. One example was your service to others always thinking of how you can help people.

So I have been getting a lot more used to the training, it was a weird change from going to having latino companions for 6 months too a gringo that cant talk spanish. But this program is awesome and its amazing how much the lord helps us if we give all we got.
Ha it is definately a lot more draining, in all of our lessons I am talking almost the whole time, more then anything because the beginning bearing testimony or a couple sentences of a principle is all you can give. Also with the responsability and planning and all but it has already helped me develop myself as a missionary. Also you learn a lot of patience and just giving the animo up.

But we have had some awesome experiences already it is so sweet what you can do with pure faith and a desire to serve.

One of which is we entered a house of one of our investigators and we had in our plan to share the word of wisdom, I felt prompted to pass by 15min early and as we did they were smoking our front, i thought ohhh darn it they are smoking this maybe isnt the best time to teach it they will feel uncomfortable, I then realized that last time we passed by they were drinking coffee so I changed my mind and realized satan obviously doesnt want this to be taught so I am just goin to go for it, then another thing bad was we entered and the dad said, I had a dream or vision last night not sure but it was a voice saying to keep what I have and to not learn more, I then read him a part of the tree of life where the mist of darkness comes as well as the great and spacious building telling him that there is always opposition, but the real test will be reading, pondering, and praying to ask if they are true specifically as well as notice how you feel as you are doing it all, and I said you will never feel bad feelings as you read the book of mormon. THEN we began teaching the commandment and they just started laughing cause they know they are not living every one of the 5 things we cant consume. I began immediately explain why we follow this (because its a commandment to help bless us physically and spiritually)
I then told them the blessings, and he said, no no no I understand it makes sense it is a very good commandment but dont worry i dont have an addiction I just like drinking for special things, I then told him at that point of the commandment its a matter of obedience to the lord our god, sometimes we dont know why but we do them because they are commanded of god, and we can know they are of god by two ways, first by reading the bom and praying asking if its true, cause if its true everything else is true, as well as by testing it out like jesus said to the people (forgot scripture but in mateo o Juan) ha and then out of no where said, well you know what I dont believe in Jose smith, I think he was mistaken, and started talking so much random stuff, I knew more then anything he just didnt want to except this commandment, but I listened for 10 min then said, thanks for your thoughts I respect that, BUT now I want to tell you how I know Jose smith was a prophet of God, and that this church is the church of God. I then Bore my testimony of how I came to know these things and it was such a change of the spirit in the room, the spirit had a powerful presence, I then invited them to think ponder read the scriptures and ask god if this was a commandment, I then asked if they were willing to do that, they said yes, also saying to me, you have a lot of faith in your church dont you, and I said yes, but more then anything in our savior jesus christ. I then promised them they could know this was a commandment of God and asked if they wanted a blessing of comfort to help them recieve this answer (already knowing what blessings are) And I had the chance to give a blessing of comfort to the parents and their son, it was such a sweet spiritual experience, as we were leaving he said, hey im sorry I didnt mean those things we just need to know more to know the truth, I told him not to worry and thanked him for his honesty. Ha but dang my head hurt after that one, it was such a rollercoaster but sweet experience.

 I also was asked if I could prepare a lesson for our noche de hogar at the church and was inspired by what bishop mcmaster did one time for us with the 2 caramal apples at mission prep, I had elder bate and another kid from the branch come up and said it was a race, they had to eat the apple covered in manjar, whoever ate it first won. Elder Bate took a big bite (like I did when we did it with elder mcmaster) and realized after chewing a bit it was an onion, I then taught the principle of how satan wants to trick and blind us of the truth, and the only way to know is through the the gospel of jesus christ, restored to its fulness on the earth. It was a sweet family night.

Ha but this week went well, Its more responsability and things to do but Im learning so much and enjoying the mission a ton. Its amazing how much stuff we can learn on the mission.

But yep sounds like things are going great at home Im excited to see the picture of your baby!!!!

Stoked to have the house colder back home haha (not like ill be there much, more for you guys)
we are heading down to punta arenas tomorrow,
Oh if you guys can think of any fun games to do for a family night let me know
Take care this week, tell  everyone I said hey!

Chow chow!
Elder Carter

June 10, 2013

Hey Family!

So this week was a crazy one, really learned a ton and surely continue to be humbled. Left to Punta Arenas to pick up Elder Linford my new companion from Treemonten, Utah. We left tuesday night and then the plane came in the next day in the night. He is a tall skinny blonde kid thats 18 years old so he blends right in with the people with chile ;) But I was pretty nervous but now its starting to really hit me the reality of training, kids come here and dont talk any spanish and know nothing and you have to teach them everything, while being a missionary in your sector (planning, teaching, studying for investigatores, and getting things to happen in your sector) I can tell you right now that its pretty overwhelming and humbling, its the truth what it says in ether that god shows us our weaknesses to humble us so that we continue to have faith in him and know we cant do anything without him, and thats the truth, Ive had a lot of great times this week where I realized I just cant do this without the lord, But I am trying to stay happy and positive always and be a good example for my companion as well as for all the people around me.

  

some of the things that we have gotten to do is he got to give one of our investigatores the first part of the blessing of health, I told him that even though he cant talk very much he can still use the priesthood and it still has a great power. Also after looking for a hard day we were able to find an awesome family to teach and the spirit was way strong that night, Im seeing that this growth will only bring the spirit and joy more in my mission and life.

Ha but I love you guys a ton and im finding evey oppurtunity to be happy, thanks so much for you letters, ha one thing funny was our first house we entered was a very evangelical house and he bagan to pray out loud and I thought it was a great intro to the mission haha I told him im sure you havent seen something like that in treemonten. It is going to be a great experience, love you guys a ton, excited to grow!

ha sounds like everyone is great excited for the baby news!

Elder Carter

New assignment with this Cambio!

Hey family! so this week was a great week, this weekend we found out the cambios. I was reading in my patriarchal blessing that I read from time to time and was reading about the part in my mission, one sentence said that the president was going to give you assignments he knows he can trust you in, what was pretty funny was right after I read that our phone rang and it was president rappleye, he first talked with Elder Barrientos telling him he would be going to a sector at the very top of the mission to become a district leader, and I thought dang thats awesome thats sweet for him, but then he asked to talk to me after and talked to me telling me I had a new assignment to be training a new missionary. It was a quick call and I just said thanks and that I wouldnt let him down haha I was pretty nervous after that call thinking of what that assignment demands. But I know that the lord calls us to positions to help us grow and to progress and more then anything to help the work go forth.

But yeah Im going to be training an Elder from Utah, im not sure what part but he is a gringo so more then likely doesnt know spanish, so I will continue to learn spanish as I teach another spanish haha. But I cant really explain how I feel right now, its a lot to think about but im excited, It was nice to clear my mind and have a time to think as we had our fast this sunday and to relax.

But yeah didnt really think of that happening cause we are far and idk it didnt cross my mind but I am excited to see what the lord has in store for these next 2 cambios (Training is a 2 cambio program 12 weeks) I know the lord will help me if I just have faith and work hard, I still have a lot of things to work on but the lord calls us when we dont feel completely ready, to help us grow.

But sounds like this week was really awesome, thats super cool that you all had the chance to go to the temple for her anniversary! and Happy BDAY KRISTY!!! love you! iphone haha so hip and up to date.

This week with the work we had some great breakthroughs with our investigatores, one family that we had we had plans to challenge them to baptism but I changed my mind as well as my comp we just didnt feel they were ready to be challenged again but then something came in my head and I invited them to take a tour without anyone else in the chapel this week, they agreed and that was huge news, they do not want to go to a church and have a negative thoughts and agreed to go this time. I was super stoked and I knew the spirit was working with them, they are also reading the scriptures frequently, we just need to have faith and patience.

haha one thing funny is one of the recent converts has a kid and he just learned how to pray and whenever he hears Jesus Christ, he says Amen, so during testimony meeting after every time someone said jesus christ he said Amen really loud, haha it was ireverent but I couldnt help but laugh.

I am stoked for the borden building as well! and take a picture of your 360 camera what does it look like! sounds exciting.

But yeah got a lot of work ahead of me, thanks for all your prayers they truly help I know without a doubt they help. It sure will be a humbling spiritual experience, God gives us challenges to grow and im excited to show and give all I possibly can to make the work of the lord go forth.

Even if there is opposition and people say that you cant do it, God makes giants among men.

Pray for all of you always and Im so greatful for our family, thanks for your love and support,

Elder Carter