Happy New Year!! (Photos)

Hey Family! Well was awesome seeing you in skype, hope you guys passed christmas good, Excited for the new year? ha nice idea with the beach, its super super hot here. We are in great need for one of those thermostats in our house. ha youll have to take pictures of the gifts you got cause it was a little blurry. This email is going to be shorter cause I kinda already told you all about this week, but...

yep we are just waiting for the transfers, we already found out a lot of changes for our zone, one elder will be training a brazilian so that will be fun for that elder, we still dont know ours though they will be calling us tonight to tell us the cambios. Im almost sure we will be staying together but you never know. I want to stay though!

We actually just started a sweet program for our ward called mi deber misional where we give them a type of mission call (duty call) that they open as a family. Ill tell you more about it as time goes on, we are really focusing on getting everyone excited. It was way sweet to see the family and was amazing to have a family prayer im so blessed to have such an awesome family. Hah we sure know how to have a good time and as well grow closer to god. Thanks so much for all you guys do.

Ill be letting you know the cambio next saturday. and if I change it will be monday haha. but I dont think so.

I have been dying from the heat here its terrible ha I just gotta get better at putting on sunscreen. heres some photos of this week for you all. Next week for sure ill have more to talk about... love you so much!

chaito!

Elder Carter

Merry Christmas!!!

Hey Family and Friends!

I sent you another Email regarding skype!

This week was super awesome and crazy. So that we can have things to talk ill save the majority for the skype on christmas!

But some highlights of the week were, finding two more people that said yes to getting baptized if God answers their prayers.

We had our activity of caroling and christmas activities which was way crazy and stressful at first but ended amazing.

Had a super awesome experience in a baptismal interview, Its always so cool to do baptismal interviews to hear the testimonies of the people that are ready to take upon themselves the name of christ. He will be the father of a family that all are members already (wife and kids) and now he will be completing this family :) . As well we have a couple more activities for this weekend but Ill be telling you about those during skype, the first is today we are going to be traveling to a place called rio negro a city nearby where we will be singing in the plaza with another zone. and Sunday we are part of the stake choir and the christmas program will be tomorrow sunday, so we are excited for that. Ha my head has never hurt so much at all the planning and preparations for a lot of things but Im still enjoying it!

Its been super super hot this last week, I think this was the first week of all my mission where it hadnt rained once in the week. I think thats a record here in southern chile haha.

But yep excited to hear from you all this week, christmas is such an amazing time to serve others and enjoy it with the people we love. Lets continue to remember why and not get caught up in the meaning of christmas that the world has created. ooh man it is nuts how people can act during this time, here in the stores its nuts, it reminds me of when we would go to the mall the week of christmas. Im so greatful we have the gospel to remind us of the true meaning of christmas. So im excited for this week to continue serving in this time. Hope we all can reach out our hand and find a way to help the rest remember the reason for the season, and bring the spirit to someonee this christmas.... be talking with you soon fam!!!! Love you guys a ton!

Elder Carter

Christmas Caroling! Loving the christmas season!

Hey Family and Friends! thanks for all the birthday wishes once again! It was definately a week to remember! It was sweet to hear from some friends and everyone!

This week has been amazing yet one of the busiest weeks I have ever had on my mission. This week we had a zone conference, mutual, leadership council, and an activity that we planned of caroling with all of the zone at the zone of all of the investigatores that they are working most with. Maybe I can start first with the zone conference. It went super well!!! I think the part most stressful was having to plan all the details, it was a conference for 80 missionaries, like the lunch, location, tables chairs, and DISHES, oh man I never thought finding dishes would be so hard ha we had to look in so many different places to find disposible dishes. BUT after some stressful days of coordinating it happened and ended amazing. The focus this conference was the holy ghost. It was amazing!!!! It was exactly what our zone needed to hear. It was all about the most important thing we need to know about converting someone or the way someone can endure to the end and enjoy the blessings of the gospel is by having the spirit. I think a great example of this was a lesson we had monday. We were working with a teenager who is preparing to serve a mission and we knocked on a door to teach and he let us in. The lesson went amazing, our focus was our purpose as missionaries to show and invite him to try the restored gospel  (ha well thats what we teach always) but it was so cool how we put emphasis on the spirit that he his feeling in this moment and that he WILL feel as he does the things we invite him to do. As we invited him to baptism he agreed excited to see if this great news of the true church of christ really does exist. He ended with a prayer and I can tell you I felt the spirit so strong. IT was incredible, there are sometimes where you just know everyone in that room felt the spirit, now its our job to show him the evidence and way to apply the restored gospel in his life.

The activity we planned I would say is one of the highlights of my entire mission. It was such an amazing day. We came up with the idea to leave as a zone and sing to all of our investigators that are more receptive and our baptismal goals. We had to coordinate all the directions and coordinate the rides but after a lot of stressful coordinating and planning it was incredible. We had all of our zone together with santa hats and red ties, with some other members from our stake. As we suprised each of the investigators the spirit was incredible, I felt the spirit touch the hearts of these people, as we sang to the people we had planned some of the neighbors of the people began to come out, I was so impressed with the missionaries in our zone and the members here, they began to go over to them and talk to them and we sang to them as well, the coolest part of this activity is its just the invititation to a even bigger activity we are going to do, we created a ton of invites to our activity we planned as a zone to come to the plaza in down town to come here us sing carols, then to go to the stake center after for some hot chocolate and activitys of christmas. Music has such a great power to invite the spirit into the hearts of the people. We started at 6 and ended at around 9:30 it was amazing. We sang to many families and you could just see the excitement, one man that the sister missionaries were teaching after singing, he was emotional and then said he was going to get baptized. We took a picture of each of the missionaries and their investigators and we will be giving them out as gifts for christmas to each investigator. I can tell you right now that this christmas season has been one of the most amazing christmass I have ever had, I know without a doubt that christ is my redeemer and when we think of others and serve them with love, we will find that eternal joy. This is the restored gospel of christ. I know... because the spirit has testified to me, The most I have ever felt the spirit is when I live the gospel and strive to apply it in my life. I hope we all can have those experiences, it all starts with applying the restored gospel in our lives, having that desire to serve our God with all our might.

With other news its that time again to talk with you guys for christmas, Ill be letting you know what time and all, whats the time difference during this season? More than likely we will be writing in the night. But Ill let you know.

I had a awesome birthday! My mamita made a special dinner for me of home made hamburgers! FIRST TIME EVER on the mission!!! and a desser t name brazo de reigna (queens arm) hahah weird I know, but its like a cake but like a roll its super delicious.

Thanks so much for the gifts for christmas!!! im stoked to make our cardboard tree and put the lights hahah, We are loving the christms present gifts! ha me and my comp are getting a kick at it! awesome idea!! ha looks like you put a lot of thought in it, I love it.

Take Care!

Les queremos Mucho

Elder Carter

Awesome Week! Thanks for the invites!

Hey Family and Friends!

Thanks so much for all the Birthday Emails!!!!

ha ill need to print them all out to be able to read them all and ill read them tuesday! thanks so much! the work has been amazing....our sector doesnt really have any investigatores but we are finding!!! never a time on the mission where I havent enjoyed it, We are working with the jovenes a lot, one joven we are teaching he is only 12 years old and his mom is inactive but we are trying to activate his mom and get him to want to be baptized. We actually have a sweet activity planned at 6 today! We are going to be showing the jovenes how to build a fire and then we bought supplies for smores. ha graham crackers dont exist here so we are improvizing with other type of cookies, ill be sure to take pictures! That one joven is actually coming and inviting his cousin so we are excited each activity one person more has come so lets hope it keeps rising.

Sounds like you are all well though!

other news is we finally got our house organized!!!! we asked one of the missionary couples if they could give us another table and a shelf because we didnt have anything basically and they hooked us up. Ill take a picture of our house as well. We are actually going to make a christmas tree out of cardboard for christmas.

This next week will be crazy, already this week we have been preparing the zone conference for our zone, we have to coordinate it because our zone is hosting it and 2 other zones are coming so we have had to coordinate the trips to the conference, the hermana that will cook the lunch, etc. But we are excited to see how it goes. We also have some other counsel meeting stuff later in the week so we have to prepare a presentation of how our zone is doing and what we have planned to do better.

With our zone we are also planning some sweet activities for all the investigators who are planning on getting baptized or who have a goal to get baptized as missionaries we are trying to get approved to go as a zone singing carols to these investigators and with that carol and visit we were going to invite them to a small activity at the stake center where we will be giving tours of the capilla with some fun acitivities of navidad with hot chocolate BUT we still have to plan it just some ideas me and my comp are creating. Lets hope we get something going! 

We have been finding a ton of news to teach so that has been awesome! we just are really trying to find people to progress. but we are really praying and working hard...I have never prayed so hard to find a family that we can bless with the great message we have. We have that desire we just got to do our part and let the lord do the rest.

Ha something super cool that we are doing with me and my comp and a little funny is we are singing a hymn in the morning immediately when we wake up to help us get going faster and invite the spirit first thing in the morning. Its working amazing and it puts you in a awesome mood. haha but not going to lie we sing terribly. I think its more that we sing super well but people here it bad. But try singing in the morning one day and youll see what I mean its hard to get the pipes warm;)

But hey what more can I say, loving every minute of the mission, I just have such a big desire to keep learning more about our heavenly fathers plan and how I can continue to help others. This is the best season to be a missionary. Thanks for all the love from back home, it just gives me that much more excitement for the work, haha and dont worry mom pictures from home dont make me trunky. But hey love you all take care! Get the christmas spirit going there! I think the best way to remember christ is to listen to some nice christmas songs and invite others to come unto christ ha.

ha oh yeah one more thing! WE PLAYED FOOTBALL FOOTBALL TODAY!!! with the whole zone it was the best thing ever haha send you more photos next week,

Chaito!

Elder Carter