Amazing week...Baptism of Denny:) etc

 WOW what a week to remember. Denny and Hectors (investigator of the

hermanas) baptism was one of the greatest moments of my life. There

was one of the best attendances of a baptismal service ive ever seen.

We had the family sanchez give a triple to denny with their

testimonies and as well  we had Sister donoso give a himnario with her

testimony so he could remember more the service. since she helped us

with the special number (We sang 2 primamry hymns "cuando me bautice"

y "El bautismo". We had such great support from the branch as well the

other elders from alto had their investigator giovanni who will be

baptized next saturday. The spirit filled that room. It was my first

time baptizing someone so that was amazing to have been able to find

Denny and be part of the start of his journey. Denny and Hector both

had the chance to testify at the end, and the spirit was incredible.

Denny said that that day was one of the best days of his life and he

knows that this is only the beginning. As he testified that he knows

that this is the true church and how much love he felt from the

members, it was a very emotional time. I got very emotional as his son

sang with us the last hymn (we thank thee o god for our prophet" (de

damos señor nuestras gracias)  After the members swarmed immediately

to them and welcomed him and congratulated them with his great desire

to come unto christ. There was a ton of investigators there and no one

could deny the presence of the spirit in that service.

ha but thats not all rewinding a bit in the week we had interviews

this week friday with president it was going to be the last time

having an interview with him (he ends in june and next transfer we

will be having a zone conference with him (we switch each cambio) )

The day they came in the morning we made sure everything was good and

at the time of lunch I asked president what him and his wife were

going to do for lunch, he asked me if I know of a good place and

mentioned this pizza place thats pretty expensive that I heard was

good (I had never went because its to much for a missionary) he said

hmm sounds good, as he was leaving he asked if we were going to eat

with the mamita that day, we were so I couldnt lie and said yeah we

are we are good... as they started to leave we had the biggest desire

to eat with president so I looked at my companion and we both thought

the same thing, haha we ran out to the car and I called president and

said wait! could we go with you president? I made a lame excuse that

we were in intercambios and another elder was going to go to our house

with the other elders but he saw I was just tryign to justify and said

he didnt understand my reason. I realized that I was just tryign to

find a reason and finally said Really I dont have a good reason I just

want to eat with you guys. he laughed and smiled and said hop in. We

ended up having an awesome lunch with him and his wife with all you

can eat pizza. He told us some awesome stories of when he was regional

manager of bridgestone tires. After we returned for our interviews.

This was one of the best interviews I had on the mission, we talked

about the sweet experiences weve had with denny, then we had an

awesome interview of the greatest success on the mission is who I am

in 20 years. I talked about the things the most I had learned on the

mission and it made me realize how much I have been able to progress

here on the mission. After we had a meeting with him and the president

of the district and there they talked about the district conference

(like stake conference) and president found out there he would be

talking 4 hours in total the next 2 days. We asked him earlier if he

would like to accompany us that night to visit and teach denny and

thought that more than likely he would have no time due to all the

talks he would need to plan. But he still wanted to, him and hermana

rappleye came with us to teach denny! it was one of the coolest

lessons, I think there are no other 2 people better to support your

teachings with their testimonies and thoughts. We taught about

obedience and mission work. At the end it was a moment very special,

as we left denny said to president thank you for sending these young

men here and for all you do with tears in his eyes. I was so greatful

for that moment, we took a picture all together (below)

The next days was the district conference which was awesome the first

talk president gave was more intereactive his wife drew the plan of

salvation and with the help of all the members there we taught the

plan of salvation, with some insights that I never had thought before,

the spirit was truly there. My favorite part was when president

rappleye said and to recieve the grace of god in this life and have

success we must... and said "missionaries to feet... follow the lord"

( in that moment without even saying 1...2...3...all the missionaries

(18 in total stood up and said  our missionary purpose (follow the

lord, invite others to come unto christ by helping them recieve the

restored gospel through faith in jesus christ and his atonement,

repentance, baptism, recieving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring

to the end) that we had all learned in the mtc and recite in our

meetings. The spirit filled the room and the truth and importance of

our purpose. to end the last hymn as I sang I was so proud to be a

member and missionary of our church. I teared up in the song "pueblo

de sion"

Ending this week last night I fell right to sleep, Im very certain

that spiritual moments cause fatigue. There were more experiences this

week but to sum up the week I am so greatful to serve the lord and

each day I feel closer and closer to our savior.

So its coming to that time of skypeing for mothers day so let me know

what time works best for you guys. Love you guys a ton:) Im so

greatful for being able to find people like denny that are so prepared

to hear the gospel. next sunday he will be recieving the gift of the

holy ghost.

love you guys,

Elder Carter

Baptism this Sunday!

Hey! So this week was awesome. Denny had his baptismal interview today

and he is stoked for his baptism, president rappleye will be coming

this weekend for a district conference so we had to change the baptism

for sunday instead of saturday and he will get confirmed next week. He

asked if I could be the one to baptize him so that will be a very

sweet spiritual experience. It was so cool to see how excited he is to

start this new life.

As well we have been finding and teaching some awesome people. We are

taking the counsel from ballard and carrying our preach my gospels

during the day. We have been sharing our thoughts with the members and

applying the things we learn with them, we went to a family and read

the quote of gordon b hinckley reading a letter from a recent convert

that didnt get welcomed good, then we got them excited about a tour

they were going to help us with in the church, They all gave their

ideas and applied what we read in preach my gospel, that night they

all came and became the tour guides for an investigator we have that

is 23 years old. The investigator loved the tour and the family with

their kids in all beamed with a spirit of mission work.

As well we had a intercambio with the elders in aysen I stayed in our

sector. I was stoked for that day but unfortunately ALL our

appointments fell and it poured rain, but we still tried to make

something of the day and at the end didnt end to bad, to raise our

spirits we ate a box of trix, ha one of the only gringo brands of

cereal here.

Im starting to talk with a little bit of an accent from

cordoba,argentina, they alongate there words sometimes saying

cordooobes or delgaaado not sure how to explain it but its kinda

funny, im sure when I come home all the hispanics will be confused

where I come from, (gringo chileno argentino honduraño guatamalteco

etc)

Tonight we were thinking about talking with the lider misional of the

district to consider him capicatating the mission leaders to help them

magnify their calling, We are having cordination meeting and we feel

our meetings arent efficient they are becoming more story circles of

our investigators, I think a meeting with them and the lider misional

of the district can make a good impact to help them know how to

magnify their calling. We have been having great progress with El

Rescate and we we really want to assure that the leaders as well are

ready to do their part,

Im so greatful for the love the savior has for us. This easter was

awesome, they dont do much eggs or bunnys here, but for sunday we had

lunch with the president of the branch, the wife gave us a alfajor

with a design on top of a bunny I thought that was cool. The culture

here for easter is very catholic, they celebrate the holy week, and

dont eat meat during this week, ha but there wasnt much who abided by

it. each day has a special thing the catholic church does. We watched

a video in church called gracias a el (thanks to him) it was pretty

sweet its on mormon.org. gave me goosebumps haha. super excited for

this weekend (interviews, district conference and the baptism)

Thanks for all your love and support, I can truly tell you all that I

know that my savior lives and loves me, and that as we live the gospel

its possible.

In one of our lessons we read the chapter 27 of 3 nefi, she didnt

understand it very well but I gave the example of a house to explain

the gospel of christ to explain baptism. Being imperfect people we all

sin, so you can say we are like a house that needs to be clean, the

gospel is the teachings and tools to clean it. But to really start

this cleaning god wants us to clean ourselves completely of sin or in

this sense it would be a down clean on the house, and understand how

to clean, Then each day we have to live the teachings of christ or "

tidy up the house" and give our house a weekly cleaning as well (the

sacrament). But you dont have to worry that your house will get dirty

again because after you give it a down clean (baptism) it is much much

easier to mantain it, because we have all the teachings of christ to

apply each day as well the help from the spirit.

ha kinda hard to explain it in a email but she understood the

scripture. With a lot of people that dont come from strong religious

backgrounds its incredible how many ways you can help them understand

the message and feel the spirit.

But hey take care this week!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND DAD! I know they are both close to each other

haha im sorry being far away makes it hard to remember things

Love you

Elder Carter

Following spiritual impressions, running, and tacos (Photos)

Denny is leaving for semana santa so he wont be able to get baptized

this saturday BUT the next weekend he will be getting baptized for

sure, ha he is super excited. We will more then likely be having 3 all

in the same day for the zone here in coyhaique and are wanting to do

them all together. Denny as well as the other 2 are very excited to

enter the gates of baptism. I laughed because he obeys the

commandments even before we tell him the blessings and promises, he

just knows its true.

We have also been very guided by the spirit. We found one family that

hasnt been in contact with missionaries for 20 years and came to

church with her son that is 25. It was interesting because we found

them by a reference from an investigator that thought she could

benefit from the gospel (not knowing she wasnt mormon), and if we

didnt recieve the dirrection i dont think any missionary would know

how to get to the house it was super hidden.  She has been passing for

a lot of dificulties The church members gave great friendship. We took

a picture in our gospel principles class! Denny the hermana that hasnt

come for 20 years and some others were there, it was a awesome class,

I love our gospel principles class.  We had branch council yesterday

and I feel we are working very well with our leaders. It was very

productive and everything is based upon our branches mission goals. We

have also have been finding great people in our sector and are just

trying to be the best examples for our zone. We feel the zone us

seeing the hand of the lord and everyones excited to work. Loving the

work here, we feel things are becoming very unified.

One other sweet story is we were walking up a steep hill to a less

active family, as we passed by we saw a family all smoking together, I

thought how sad it was that that was there way to bond, the family

wasnt there so we began to walk down the steep hill, my companion

looked at me and said, hey elder i have this impression that we need

to talk to that family that was smoking, they were way far away, he

said "now or tomorrow?" I said now, and he agreed, we went and all the

family kinda left except the daugther, but she was way receptive in it

wasnt weird that we returned to just talk to them, as we talked to her

for a bit we explained we felt that we need to talk to her and she

commented that her brother had drowned last month and she has been

stuggling to know why god would take away her brother of 17, we shared

the plan of salvation for a bit and the spirit was there, its

incredible to know that God cares for all his children and wants all

to know that he loves them and has a perfect plan for them.

Today we are going to be eating tacos with a member and denny, we are

stoked, ha they never eat tacos here so we always just make them with

members, showing them the greatness of tacos;)

Ive been running almost every morning with my comp, its freezing cold

in the morning and I always get a headache but its worth it... i put

some pictures.... one of principios del evangelio... one of me almost

going out to run....and one with me and my comp

Love you all a ton!

No earthquakes here...but the

Hey family so yeah dont you worry the earthquake was way way far from

where we are. That night though the signals were all done in

cellphones and in some sectors of our zones still had tsnumai warnings

(more precautionary then anything), president gave us call to call the

sectors next to the coast and it was cool how fast the church reacts

and how precautionary we hare.  so we gave calls to 2 sectors making

sure they were away from tsnunami danger one had to stay in another

house for the night and the others helped a family stay in there

house, nothing happened but they had tsunami warnings down to punta

arenas, my sector is in the mountains so I was fine as well we were

WAYYY far from the earthquake.

So this week was good, Denny loved the conference, he has his

baptismal interview this saturday. As he heard Eyring say the comment

about being invited about missionaries and preparing to be baptized,

he looked at us smiling saying, I know what you guys said now about

the talks speaking directly to you.

Something cool happened this week one of the families that has

completely reactivated ( a young couple (23 and 24)  with 4 children)

called us a couple days ago, simply saying hey we are kinda down could

you pass by to lift us up, before we passed by I had the impression to

buy some alfajores for some reason for them, as we got there We shared

a comforting message of the holy ghost, then once again I got the

impression to ask if they had dedicated there house, they hadnt, and

their eyes beamed with excitement, recieved the dedication and tears

filled their eyes  They said a lot of their plans for the family didnt

work out and had been a terrible week, it was cool to see that now

that they are coming to church again god is going to help them. and

when we got there it was going to be the birthday of one of their

daughters, the small refreshment we left for their daughter and family

was the perfect way to end the visit- they were left with a reminder

that god is always thinking about them.

Personally I loved the conference. I watched 2 in Spanish and 3 in

English, I like it more in english but it was nice watching it with an

investigator that was way cool. It truly is an incredible experience

each time listening to the prophets and apostles they are truly chosen

men

As well I almost cried after each song of the tabernacle choir mormon.

I truly felt like they were the voices of angels, youll have to ask

bro shcroeder how he feels in those moments.

I loved the talks this time, I thought the comment of Elder Oaks with

regards to women and priesthood authority was interesting.

I got a good laugh of the story of president monson with uchtdorf on

air force one. Dont even think about it uchtdorf!!! haha

Well I dont have my notes but some of my favorites were....

Uchtdorfs dont sleep through the restoration

Christoffersons talk on the resurrection

The counselor of the young mens presidency talk...referring to how we

are the century of choice. And how in one click we could have whatever

our heart desires, and with the powerful question of what does your

heart desire?

As well I loved the repeated principle of being the same person in the

dark and in the light and having courage to stand up for what is

right.

Hollands talk mixed with The prophets was a powerful reminder that we

must stand for what is right and obviously we will face persicution.

I think as well the talk by corbridge touched even more on the topic,

I loved how he said were the huge grey cloud is with tons of

opposition and locura, in the middle of that cloud will be found the

truth. The truth will always have opposition ALWAYS.

As a missionary I just love the simplecity of the messages, these men

come from so many high professions, heart surgeons huge business men,

scholars, etc and they explain the doctrine in the simplest

powerfullest, and most interesting way.

Well I could go on forever but I think you get the idea that I love

the conference and want the conference to be something very important

to me throughout all my life.

I went and splits with a colombiano the other day, he just started the

mission it was cool to be with someone new again, he had an awesome

story of his conversion and had so much excitement.

Well thats all for now this week, The conference made my week, its

sweet being able to apply it now with full time dedication to the

gospel. Have a good week!

Elder Carter