HEY HEY!!!

Hey Fam! So this week has been super awesome... lots of good things happened.

First we are continuing to find news! We are getting into a rythmn now and each week we are finding about 8 new people to teach and making plans to teach them the following, our sector is small but we have the mindset its possible and the past month it has been happening. We are very greatful for what the lord can do for us.

I went to a place called Entrelagos its about an hour a way from osorno for a exchange (intercambio) for the day, its a super beautiful place, the type of houses and farmer feel reminded me a lot of los muermos, but here its in between two lakes hence the name "between lakes" and its super beautiful, their mamita lives on a side of a cliff outlooking the lake and its super beautiful, in front of her house they had like 10 cows with a man watching over them, I was so bummed when I forgot to bring my camera haha. You could also see the Andes mountains it was way beautiful.

Coming back to our sector we had the chance to have some awesome lessons, its so sweet we have been able to work so much these past weeks and feel the spirit so strong,

We planned a mutual for the hombres jovenes, and the bishop asked if the mujeres jovenes could join in, we said it was fine as long as their was other leaders. We had it this friday, it went super well, we first talked about the questions of the soul that the book of mormon can answer, made goals of how we can make our home more peaceful and unified. Then we talked to our mamita and planned 3 healthy meals that we could teach the jovenes that they could cook. It went super well, one meal I liked a ton, I will definately cook it at home, its a tomato but hallowed out and you put tuna and mayo and the cut up tomatoes back in mixed up and eat it with lettuce, way sweet, but it was amazing because we had a great show up of investigators and menos activos come so we are excited to get the youth program as well as the other programs here improving.

I have really felt the presence of the spirit this week, theres no doubt that what we share every day is the truth. We still have yet to have someone that is progressing to the point of baptism but we know God will help us as we try are best. I love what you said dad, Its so true that part of  Great faith is expecting less of God and trusting him. I feel that the times I have grown most in my life and in my mission is when I felt I was on my own, alone, having to make a decision based on what I have learned in the past, without any further guidance from God. In this time of crisis, trusting God (trusting his promises, his teachings, etc) with a firm hope that all is well, has led me to a higher level of understanding.

As I have read the beginning of the book of Mormon once again Its such a comfort to know that God has made great promises to us. Lets remember these promises and the blessings that come, Christ and his teachings are truly the anchor to our faith, I hope we can always remember that as we apply the gospel in our lives we will find that happiness in this life and after, Many times in the book of mormon it refers to people having all sorts of trials and sadness but a joy that stays with them in all times. As we stay worthy of the spirit we can have this joy that exists in all moments of our lives. The joy of christ and his restored gospel.

" And the Lord provided for them that they should hunger not, neither should they thirst; yea, and he also gave them strength, that they should suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of Christ. Now this was according to the prayer of Alma; and this because he prayed in faith."

-Alma 31:38

Awesome week, work is progressing here!!!

Hey family!

This week was amazing. Like I had said before we havent had too many people to teach in this sector and something super sweet is happening, since the start here we have ignored the hard parts of the sector and got to work with a lot of faith. This past weeks we have truly seen progress and miracles. As of now each day we are finding people and familys. We have increased our efforts with the members and now half of our lessons are with the members. The other day we knocked on a door and a lady answered and was one of the nicest ladies I have ever met. She was so receptive and told us how happy she was that we knocked her door and told us how much she needed this. I know without a doubt the lord prepared us to knock her door.

This Friday we had our council with president and something he said reminded me of a past experience. He said one of the biggest trials we have as missionaries is our attitude and our mindset. If we come to a sector where the work is dead and work as though its dead we wont find progress. I think my personal experience of that is when I was in puerto natales, We had no investigators and that moment the branch wasnt too strong. For that six months I was there I wanted so bad to leave it better. I promised the members that one day this branch would be full. Leaving puerto natales I left with some of the most amazing experiences of my life, gaining a testimony that a branch of 25 with few baptisms with the right mindset and action, that the sunday I left attended 44. And as I left I continued to hear miracles happening, baptisms passing after. I love working especially in places that truly need the mission work.

Another cool story.

In my last sector I constantly taught this one single mom and her daughter, she didnt understand anything, but at least we got her to pray, as we taught her more and more, she just wasnt getting it and refused to attend church cause of her baby. She was passing for hard times and we wanted her to assist so bad but never did, so... we stopped passing by, a month later when I came to my next sector I heard they began to teach her again, and 1 month later she got baptized, I couldnt believe it and it filled me with joy, God truly wanted this hermana to come closer to him, and was a great testimony builder that God is always helping people change and anyone ANYONE can change and come back to the gospel or start.

This has been a awesome week, we had a lot of time to work, we had some interesting lessons thats for sure, others spritual, others a little to old to understand, but I testify that God prepares people, he wants everyone to continue to change, repent and come closer, today we had a cool mutual with all the missionaries and one joven from the ward and the other thats an investigator, and tonight we are going to have a open house at the church with dessert after, everyone was invited to bring their BEST dessert, we will see what happens.

Love you guys a ton, take care this week, ha super hot here right now, gettin the nice missionary tan lines ;)

talk to you later!

Elder Carter

my comp knows how to make pizza so last week we made pizza! it was way good, dough and everything ha

baseball with the zone and our investigator and the son of the mamita

mmmmm right? haha

Buena la semanita...Feliz Año!

Hey family! Sounds like you guys had a great last couple weeks. So funny how its winter there and you are all going to the beach with tons of sun. Its still hot here but the last couple days its been raining more. For the transfers...me and my comp are still together which is sweet im stoked. We have been doing a lot of work here and we will be able to keep it going.

Transfers for us is always a crazy time in Osorno because everyone that travels has to go through osorno so it was a pretty crazy transfer day. We had to be in the terminal at 7:30 in the morning til 9 at night making sure all the missionarys travel fine. Oh man its so boring staying at the terminal ha there was a stand in front of the terminal that sold the normal fast food here (sopapillas con queso, completos, empanadas, mote con huesillo, etc) and I ate so many sopapillas, I think the two joys I have on the mission is eating and working and since we couldnt work eating was the only option haha. Luckily instead of eating junk food all the day as well the presidents wife called us and asked if we wanted some food and dropped us off some lasagna :) oh man it was amazing...haha oh man I sound like such a fatty. But yeah...as well the day b4 cambios was año nuevo, we worked normal but my companion was sick that day so we stayed in the house, I just cleaned up the apartment a bit. As well we met up with the stake president and he told us posiblemente un apostol will be coming here in febrero but not sure...oh how sweet would that be right?! ill fill you in on if that will happen.

For New years Eve we worked normal til 7 and had a dinner with our mamita, we ate lamb it was way good.... have you guys ever ate bbq lamb? its super popular here. and then had to be in the house at 10

For our zone now we have a ton of sister misionarys. Almost half of our zone is sisters its a big change from the beginning of my mission, but all of them are super excited and great missionarys as well as the elders, the new brazilian in our zone speaks spanish very well, he is from sao paulo, I asked him how he feels about not being in brasil during the world cup, ha knowing how much they love futbol their im sure that was a sacrifice.

Yesterday we were planing a division with 2 jovenes but one couldnt come so we just went with one together. It was such an amazing day, after having so many weird days of holidays and cambios we finally got to work all day:) And we had the chance to teach a good amount of people. One man said he would get baptized if he got an answer and said he would ask god with his family. We are stoked cause we are finally finding people in our sector. As well with our program we have of giving "mission calls" or more "duty calls" to the members is going great! the members are way excited and this next saturday we have our first activity for the program it will be a church tour and at the end it will be a Best Dessert contest where all will bring their best.

As well today we have a mutual with the jovenes and 3 of our investigators one adult and  2 jovenes that are going to come and we are going to play baseball, the bishop is excited as well to come and play, as well get to know our investigators.This cambio will be nice because this month is a schedule less crazy so we can work more and get our sector going.

But ya thats whats going down here, loving the mission, one new years resolution that I have is to really care for the people to listen even more to them, to dedicate my mission even more to the people here, the times I have felt the spirit more and enjoyed my mission most is one I have thought of others, truly having a concern for those around me (in my studys, in the street, etc.) Now I just gotta find new ways to do it. As well Im sure as I think more I can think of some new ones, ha not sure if new years resoluciones work like that but ill let ya knew what else comes to mind.

Love you guys a ton, Loving every day,

Chao!

Elder Carter

our christmas tree

tocando puro ranchera no mas haha

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