May 7th - 13th

My Dearest Family,

It was really good being able to hear your voices and see your faces last night. It's always good. I'm happy that everything is working out for you. Please keep on in the gospel and in your seperate lives, and carpe diem.

-Paden

-president's letter-

Dear President,

The call last night went really great. My family was all really happy to see me, and everything went rather well. It was just kind of an interrogation, they asked lots of questions. Everything went well.

f- the apartment is clean.

F- My family is doing really well. The two younger girls have summer baseball starting, my little brother has ballroom all over the place, tryouts are coming up next week I believe. The two older girls were in the school musical last weekend. They said it went well. So, cool.

A- We finally found a new investigator, and he's a pretty cool. His name is Bryan. Pretty sure he's a single parent with a couple kids. I set up the return appointment for Sunday night when we were supposed to skype. I completely spaced it. It only happens twice a year, and I was being a missionary at the moment. Good thing I don't have any anniversaries or anything. So last night we went to visit him at 5 instead of 7:30, and it all worked out. Taught a simple Restoration, he accepted baptism and a return appointment. I'm really excited to see him progress. Something he said when we asked him to pray was that he wasn't allowed to because he hadn't been baptized yet. So we prayed, but told him that we'd ask him to pray in the future. It was all good. Nothing else really to report. It rained like crazy this week. We went out and got soaked anyways. I need to invest in a new umbrella.

C- Our companionship is still doing really good. He's having more struggles internally than he thinks with the issues at home with the turmoil in his family. It's really none of my business though. I stay out of it unless he wants to talk about. I asked him to let me know if I am too invasive.

T- A story from this week: On the road that we found Bryan on there was a big orchard and a long driveway. We walked down it to see if the people at the end would like the gospel. They weren't really interested. We couldn't really figure out what the trees were. They kind of looked like fuzzy green plums. Figs, perhaps? Also, I think I have a kind of sensor that lets me know when we're getting close to a preacher. It fired up when we were down in King on a suburb off main street and I started to get that inkling, and then a few houses later, BAM: preacher. He was really nice. They usually are. He just didn't really want to talk about the gospel.

S- In the scriptures, I've moved into Ether. Lots of warfare. Sons can't get along with Fathers that are kings. It remind me a lot of modern gang warfare. I'm about 30 pages from finishing the Book of Mormon again. In the Old Testament I finished 1 Samuel. It was way good. Saul finally died in battle. Everything he did finally caught up with him. I thought it interesting that he committed suicide instead of having the Philistines kill him. It kind of reminded me of Hitler, or the Japanese in World War 2. The more I read the scriptures, the more I realize they were really meant for our day.

Yours, Elder Carter

April 30th - May 7th

Dear Family,

I love you. This week was nothing special. Just another week. We just went out and did. I'm way excited to talk to you next week!

-Paden

-president's letter-

Dear President,

This week was pretty great. We had a lot better success and it really helps with the morale in my opinion.

f- We do update our area book when we have things to update. We haven't had a potential in a long time, and the people who we were teaching I have moved to formers for their various reasons. The apartment is clean too.

F- My family is crazy busy with the end of the school year coming up. Here's an excerpt from my mom's email:

"This week is massively busy. The senior project night is tomorrow night, then the high school musical HONK is Thursday Friday and Saturday with the commencement dance being saturday night.  Then the last choir concert the next monday with seminary graduation on the 20th, graduation on the 23rd."

For my senior project I prepared and performed a mallet trio for xylophone, marimba and vibraphone called Bicyclops by Bela Fleck. For my senior night I just wheeled out the xylophone out and played for the two hours I was there and told people what I did when they wanted to know what I did. It was tons of fun. It makes me kind of reminisce on high school. As much as I disliked it, there were some golden things too.

A- The area this week: Nothing really new to report. I guess I need to be more observant. The new investigator we got this week is Jacob, and we are supposed to contact him today. This week was a lot of just kind of a "pounding the pavement" sort of finding. We went and just did.

C- Our companionship is really well. I hope we start sleeping more because we stay up some nights just talking about anything and everything.

T- A story from this week: We get three others on one day this week, which was awesome. We stopped on a road and started walking and about the third door we got to the guy invited us right in. This man is a victim of brain trauma, a stroke, and fortunately for us that day, was on a nicotine low. Woo. He jawed for about 40 minutes about a lot of different stuff. He hates the government, he doesn't believe anyone ever landed on the moon, he told us all his stories of how his brain got the way it did. Yeah, he was just a little fried is all. We ended up leaving him with a mormon.org card because he would not let us talk at all. Those just gotta happen sometimes though. It was a great lesson in patience.

S- Scriptures this week: The end of 3 Nephi and 4 Nephi. I believe it was 4 Nephi where the churches start to form and discriminate, and the church the CLAIMS Christ starts to discriminate against the actual church of Christ. Thought that was interesting. In the Old Testament I'm still in 1 Samuel, late teen chapters. The story of David and Goliath. They're at war with the Philistines. I can't help but think of Calvin and Hobbes, because Calvin calls his parent Philistines here to there. Quite cool, quite funny.

Best wishes, Elder Carter

April 23rd - 29th

Dearest Family,

This week I hit 8 months. Weird. I'm running out of time, already. My time here in Pilot Mountain is also running out. May 23rd is when this transfer ends, and I'll probably be moved out at the end of this one. So this transfer needs to be awesome. But the problem is, it's not. We're having a hard time finding people as of right now. This next week will be a lot better though. President Thomas came up this week for interviews for district meeting and he told me in my interview that I might be being a little too hard on myself. He told me that if I'm out sharing the gospel and declaring repentance to people, then that's good missionary work. I'm actually slowly becoming divorced from the actuals (number) side of missionary work. I hope everything works out.

-Paden

-president's letter-

Dear President Thomas,

This week was really on the lame side actuals-wise. We went out and worked though. I'm really learning to become divorced from the actuals side of missionary work and just going out and doing work. Maybe that's why I'm here in Pilot Mountain. Because the more and more I try to just get actuals, the less and less they become. Must be an effect of something, like in statistics or in economics or something.

f- the apartment is clean. We had Bro Morris call from the stake. Their calling is to inspect missionary apartments. But isn't the ward mission leader supposed to be doing that? Our ward mission leader's name is Jim Bunton, and he lives about 30 minutes away out in the Walnut Cove area. Maybe they just have them come up because he works 4 days out of the week in Durham.

F- My family is doing really well. Nothing has really changed now. Dad's gearing up with spring semester (not sure if it's started or not yet) and everyone is dealing with the stress of the school year ending. My grandparents returned to their mission in the Heber Valley girls camp after a six month hiatus. I'm pretty sure they are glad to get back to work.

A- Not really much to report here. We gave Marvin a call after a few weeks of leaving him alone and Melissa actually answered. She said that they're still working with the doctors to find out if her lung cancer is terminal or not. She said that her father is doing better and that Marvin stays tired a lot because he has to haul the both of them to doctor's appointments and her father to dialysis three times a week. Hopefully things calm down so we can be back in contact with them. Hopefully we can find some more people to teach, in fact.

We had another lesson with a guy named Jack today. He was kind of busy with the small chicken farm that he lives on, but he gave us a couple minutes to sit down with him. He wasn't interested, but he thought it was enlightening. He asked if there was any way he could download and we told him about the church's website and how he could get it off there. He said he would.

We also had a lesson with another guy. Never actually caught his name. I'm saving him for "T." He was a believer in William Branham, a latter day prophet who was active in the 60s and 70s.

C- Our companionship is still really good. Trying more to focus on the work this week instead of just being friends. At least we have good conversation. He's a really well rounded kid and he knows his stuff.

T- Ok, so this guy we ran into invited us in right off. We sat down, got acquainted, and he told us how he had his first run in with the church when he was serving in Vietnam. One of the guys in his group of soldiers was a member. He said that he actually came really close to joining the church and that he's read most of the Book of Mormon, but when he got back he went back to the church that he was with, which at the time was the Methodists. But even after a time, he left them as well. Now he's an independent Christian who believes in William Branham.

The coolest thing that we got to talk to this guy about was prophets. It was something that we could feed off of, so we did. He believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but that the Book of Mormon was his writings and that the only real writing we needed was the Bible, and that William Branham, uhm...superceded I believe is the correct word, Joseph Smith. So we cleared up that, talked about the Book of Mormon, taught him about that. Then the multiple wives conflict came up. Cleared up that. He was humble about it too, which was cool. It really made me think of the iceberg effect in chapter 10 of Preach My Gospel. After all this though, he still wasn't interested. Good missionary work though, right?

S- In the scriptures this week: 3 Nephi. Lachoneus faces the threat of the Gadianton Robbers, and so he sends a proclamation throughout the land for the people to gather themselves to this one giant capital city and bring everything with them that they could. So they did. When the Robbers tried to invade they had nothing to survive off of so they had to turn back. Reminded me of the scorched land technique used by the Russians, first with the invasion of Napoleon and then when the Germans tried to invade. Except the Russians took everything and burned everything else. In the Old Testament, in 1 Samuel, with the story of Samuel growing up, the Philistines invading, Eli dies at the news of his sons dying in battle, the ark is taken and the Philistines are plagued for having it in their posession, then they give it back. I love the Old Testament.

This next week will be better. I'm sure of it.

Best Wishes, Elder Carter

April 9th - 15th

Dear Family,

This week has been cool, as always. The new missionary is an Elder MT Sparrow from Las Vegas Nevada. Elder Child headed out to Marion, NC with my MTC companion, Elder Sawicki, actually. I though that was kind of ironic. Marion is a pretty big area. It's out in the Asheville Zone. Asheville Zone is infamous for huge areas. Marion covers two complete counties. Ours is half of one and half of another, and we don't have access to a little less than half of it because it is too far away and we don't have the means of getting to it. Elder Sparrow has been in 7 areas before this one! Elder Child was only in 2 before this one, each for six months.

So, if anything, read "T" for this letter. That's my story for the week.

-president's letter-

Dear President,

This week was a little on the lamer side. Yesterday was good though. In spite of a lame lesson-less day, we stopped by a less active who needed some help and a friendly visit.

f- the apartment is clean.

F- My family is doing well. Haven't heard from them this week, don't know what's happening. Last time they checked in though, everybody seemed happy and busy. My 15 year old sister just got back from her choir tour.

A- The area is doing swell. I think a lot of it has to do with Elder Sparrow. Things just seem to happen now that he's here. Thursday we were out finding and we had a micro-miracle. They're always fun to search for. We parked at an intersection and there was a house on the road that we had parked on next to the road that we had planned, so we decided to go knock on it. This older woman came out named Regina. She was awesome. She told us basically her whole life story and how she feels like there's something else she can do to become closer to Christ. She actually talked a little too much, and we didn't get a whole ton of the Restoration in, but we did leave her with a pamphlet and she agreed to a return appointment. We did tell her that the message that we were sharing with people was the thing that she needed to draw closer to Christ. She already has a strong testimony of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. She told us that she has short term memory loss, so hopefully she we won't have a problem with the Restoration and the Book of Mormon.

To report on everyone else, Marvin is still kind of transient. He told us to give him a call this week though. It's the same situation with Shannon and Murphy. Murphy gets back from a long haul tomorrow and we're supposed to see if we can go visit them. So. Regina really needs to work out. We have a potential named Shannia that we have an appointment to go visit Tuesday morning and hopefully that works out as well. She's kind, but flaked on the first appointment.

We visited a less active on Friday by the name of Matt Glass. I've only visited him twice, but when we went over there with Elder Sparrow, something sparked. I don't know what. He's taking us out to dinner tonight though. Elder Sparrow must have some kind of fire that Bro Glass really liked. Hopefully we'll be able to get him back to church some time this transfer. He works a lot, and when he has available time to come, he doesn't, and he doesn't know why. That's the only reason he gave us.

C- Elder Sparrow is the man. We get along really well. He actually reminds me of a friend I had from back home who is currently preparing to serve. Actually, he might be in the MTC by now. We have a lot of similar likes.

T- A story from this week: I don't mean this story to be a way of demeaning Elder Sparrow or telling you about something that he did that may or may not have been bad. It's just a story that really sticks out.

We were out on Armstrong Road and came to the last house in a cluster of houses. We came up to this house and we knew something was up, because there was silver duct tape or tin foil or something covering the door jam and a window and the back half of the house. It kind of looked like the stuff you put on a house before you put siding on. I'm not sure what it's called. The man actually answered us from a window on the side of the house facing the driveway. He automatically wasn't interested, so Elder Sparrow asked him if he knew anyone who could use a gospel message. He said that he did, but he wouldn't tell us because we weren't sharing the gospel.

They went on for the next hour talking and arguing. about 70% of it was this man asking us about our beliefs and why we believed them. He had "done his research" and knew all about our church. Elder Sparrow's portion of the conversation was him trying to explain to this man logically why we believed and what we believe, whilst trying his best to avoid all the anti stuff that that this guy was bringing up (i.e. how stupid it was that we believed the satan was our brother and the pre-existence, as well as the nonsense of the Book of Mormon and the Prophet Joseph Smith. He also brought up more than once the "absolute fact" that the Book of Mormon has had 5,000 changes to it, and that the writings of the former prophets branded the African Americans as demons and subhumans.) He told us that we needed to leave the church and take off the tag and tie and go share the gospel out of the King James Version, and that we needed to stop being deceived.

Well, he told Elder Sparrow that. I disengaged in the conversation about 10 minutes into it. This man was not even listening to a word we said, so I didn't listen to him, and didn't find a point in trying to speak to him. I sat in silence except for a few times where he asked me a question.

It pains me that people base faith on knowledge. Faith is not knowledge until after we receive a witness of it, which only comes after the trial of our faith. The thing that makes me the most sad is that I use to be just like that. I was guilty through most of high school for "looking beyond the mark" and that concept as explained in Jacob 4. I received a testimony though. If I can, stubborn hard-headed people that we come in contact with daily can as well.

S- Scripture study has taken me through most of the war chapters of Alma this week. I love how the Nephite armies are always quick to remember their God in their victories and to remember Him in everything they accomplish. I read Alma 60 this morning and it reminded me of a quote that Abraham Lincoln said. I can't remember the quote exactly, but it was Mr. Lincoln prophesying about the government. He said that the time is not far off that the government will become socialistic and start to be more obsessed with money, and that it will decompose over time. Something to that effect. That's what Alma 60 talks about. I love the metaphor that Moroni writes of "cleansing the inner vessel." It remind me of a line from the Constitution that says that it is our responsibility as citizens to make sure the government does not become corrupt, and that if it does, that it is our responsibility to rise up and abolish it, and reinstate a new form of government. It's something I have partially put away while serving for these two years, but I have always been an activist in one way or another in different causes.

My Old Testament studies have taken me through the first part of Judges. The story of Gideon taking the army from 22,000 to 300, and then winning is awesome. It's a real faith builder for me. I find it interesting that instead of instating a king they had a judge instead...kind of like the Book of Mormon. Hm.

The new transfer holds bright promise. I am always grateful for a new beginning.

Best Wishes, Elder Carter

April 2nd - 8th

Dearest Family,

We had the best week that we've had in two transfers this week. We actually fulfilled our goals for other lessons, recent converts and less active lessons, and new investigators! We haven't done that the entire time I've been here. So cool. Nothing else really happened. We got kicked out of Siloam this week. So Shoals and Siloam are off limits for a little while. There's been several home invasions out there and it had the people up in arms. We got told just to clear out. So we left. More details in "T."

Something really funny that happened: I'm staying here again! I just finished my third transfer here, and I'm staying again. But the funny part is this: Elder Child is leaving! The new missionary that is coming will be the third companion that I've had in this area. Elder Child has been prophesying for about three weeks now that I'd be leaving and that he'd be staying just because he spent six months in his first two areas. So, ha. We're going to find someone so golden this transfer we're going to melt when we find them. We have president's promise. He told me that when he moved me here he had a really tender feeling that I needed to be here. So I'm supposed to be here.

Hope you all had a good week. Carpe diem.

-Paden

PS: my friend Taylor Barzee, fellow bandmate (he came up to the house a few times, he was a tall lanky kid with brown curly hair, not sure if you remember him) came home from New Hampshire off his mission with health concerns this week. He has to have two valves in his heart worked on and some other repairs done. He goes into surgery April 23rd. If you could, have a prayer for him please. Thanks much.

-President's Letter-

Dear President,

Things are really great this week! We had the best week that we've had (I think) in the last two transfers. And it all happened from a good time of planning in an area that we haven't drove out to yet. The problem is, now the areas that haven't been touched are further away. Oh well. This transfer I'm going to start with the areas that are closer and start to just go through with a fine comb; be really thorough in my efforts. I'm sure the new missionary will be able to help out too.

f- the apartment has been cleaned.

F- my family is doing really good. My 15 yr old sister went on her choir trip to Los Angeles this week. Waiting to hear back about that. My 17 yr old sister wrote me about their trip the week before. She got to sing in Grace Cathedral, a gothic cathedral in San Francisco during their tour. I love gothic architecture. Her writing me made me reminisce about he high school tour I went on (she's in the same high school choir) to Seattle my senior year. Good memories.

A- The area did really well this week. We had several days of good finding session where we went for several hours out of the day. Our really good day was Saturday. We went to an area that is kind of far out, but we met several people and set up three return appointments. Time will tell how they work out. I'm hoping they will so that we won't end up having slow weeks number wise for the next transfer for the new missionary. We had one appointment sunday night that fell through. The guy told us to come back and then he wasn't there. Some people. The next two are for today. One is for a guy named David. He is really poor, lives in a singlewide. We could tell by his physical appearance that he's seen better days. We actually gave him a Bible and a Book of Mormon. He agreed to an appointment. The other is with a middle aged woman named Shannia. She didn't know anything about the church. So we told her everything, but kept it simple. She agreed to a return appointment. I'm really looking forward to teaching her. She was really nice. She told us that she's been taken advantage of by several people over the last several years and that she usually isn't as nice. So hopefully it all works out.

Manny and Araceli dropped us. Brother Fisher is still working with them. Marvin's teaching schedule has been adjusted because Melissa (his wife) has lung cancer now. We've lost contact with Shannon and Murphy. So these new investigators really need to work out.

In other news, we had a member tell us that he would like to come with his two teenage grandsons to some appointments with us sometime this summer. I'm excited. The members are starting to get involved more and more in missionary work. He's about 65-ish, and his grandsons live with him because their mom has made a few bad decisions in life. We met her when we stopped by to visit him this week because he had a knee surgery earlier this week.

C- Our companionship has done great. I'm really gonna miss Elder Child.

T- We got kicked out of Siloam this week. We parked the car, went finding, taught a lesson. Went back to the car to grab the umbrellas because we thought it was going to rain. On our way back out, this guy rolls up on a four wheeler and tells us that we need to go move the car because there's been a lot of home invasions and the car looks really suspicious. So we did. We went and drove around trying to find a place that we could go put the car. We eventually came back to the same road, but went on a road off of it. It turned out to be a private drive way, so we turned around and were coming back, and this same guy rolls by in a big jacked up truck. He stopped, we stopped. He went in reverse, came up, and told us that we needed to "clear out." He wasn't angry or intimidating, just really serious, and rehearsed to us again that there had been several home invasions in the surrounding area. So we left. And we're not going back for a long time. We decided not to go back to Shoals when we got the cops called on us, and Siloam after this. Fortunately they're neighboring areas in our area. Unfortunately, it knocks out about an 1/6 - 1/5 of the area.

S- Scripture study this week: Alma. Finally made it to the war chapters! The courage of Captain Moroni, the cunning of Amalackiah. I love the phrases "the cause of Christians" and "the standard of liberty." It really reminds me of the Revolution age of the United States. When Amalickiah takes his army and marches over to Nephi and kills the king and takes over, it reminded me of the military dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell. Ah, Bitish history. So much fun. I finished Joshua. They finally take over all the place that the Lord has given them. Joshua splits up the land for an inheritance for the twelve tribes. Into Judges now! Woo!

Sinceriously Yours, Elder Carter

March 26th - April 1st

Dearest Family,

Thanks for the letters and pictures, I was really happy when I got those. I loved conference, how did you like it? My favorite speech was probably Elder Holland's speech, because I was an answer to a prayer. I had come across that in my scripture study (I'm reading the New Testament, again) and was puzzled. So, cool. This week kind of whomped except for Sunday. We put a good effort into this week, but we need to be more obedient, especially with the morning schedule. Obedience brings blessings. Sunday we had a great day though: 1 member present lesson, 3 other lessons. Best day we've had in about a month.

So, story from this week: we had this nonmember family named the Sampsons that we stopped by last month to give some food because they had none. They were pretty gracious, but nothing has worked out until last night appointment-wise. We decided to stop by again, and guess what? The man of the house was out on his front porch reading his bible. Long story short, he opened up to us, told us about how all the things in life are really stressful and crazy, and how his house might be haunted. We shared scriptures from the Book of Mormon and bore testimony, stepped inside and had a prayer of comfort and protection. Weirdest thing: my companion offered the prayer said that during the prayer he said that felt like his voice was dying out and that he was about to black out and back of his legs and back were pretty cold too, and that he saw an orange rectangle in his mind's eye. I also saw a white sphere in my mind's eye as well. But we finished, the Spirit was strong, we went back to the apartment and talked about the paranormal and demonology for the rest of the night. It was a wicked cool experience.

Hope everything is well in your endeavours, love you all.

-Paden

-President's Letter-

Dear President,

This week was kind of on the lame side until yesterday. We had a great day, probably the best day that we've had all transfer. And guess what? It came from an increase in obedience to time management and the morning schedule. So, yeah. This week:

f- shined my shoes, the apartment is clean. We're gonna clean the car too.

F- My family is good. My little sisters got the steers, they're super excited to get started on feeding them and making them look fat and happy and pretty so that they can do well in the upcoming weigh-in. My littlest sister (the 8 yr old) sent me pictures of the baptism. I baptised her before I came out. Neat experience.

A- The area is doing really well. We did a lot of finding this week even though nothing really worked out appointment-wise.

To report on our investigators: Marvin cancelled again this week, they were sick. John's teaching schedule has been adjusted. He's kind of just a transient acquaintence until he gets a bit of sense and a job. Manny and Araceli worked out really well yesterday though. We had an appointment with them, it all worked out. We taught the First. Everything went well, they shared their insights. When we extended the invite, they said they would when they found out that it was true, but they didn't want to set a date. I think the fact that we were bold enough to set a date with them kind of threw them off guard. So, bummer. And we can only meet with them on Sundays. But they are going to keep reading and praying. They actually got to 1 Nephi 5 after one week, which is awesome. We actually gained their daughter this week as well. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon, and she agreed to read. She's more of a spiritualist, though. She believes that nature is God. Her name is Isla, she looks to be about 15 or 16. She's quite bright, Brother Fisher (their member contact) says that she reads Thoreau for fun and has read CS Lewis as well.

Our other new investigator is a guy named Murphy. He is the father of the family that we took food to about a month ago. Nothing has worked out appointment-wise until last night. More to come in "T."

C- Our companionship is really good, I'm starting to dread transfers. Me and Elder Child have really complementing personalities and we get along well and work hard together.

T- So, story from this week: we had this nonmember family that we stopped by last month to give some food because they had none. They were pretty gracious, but nothing has worked out until last night appointment-wise. We decided to stop by again, and guess what? The man of the house (Murphy) was out on his front porch reading his bible. Long story short, he opened up to us, told us about how all the things in life are really stressful and crazy, and how his house might be haunted. We shared scriptures from the Book of Mormon and bore testimony, stepped inside and had a prayer of comfort and protection. Weirdest thing: Elder Child offered the prayer said that during the prayer he said that felt like his voice was dying out and that he was about to black out and the back of his legs and back were pretty cold too, and that he saw an orange sphere in his mind's eye. I also saw a white sphere in my mind's eye as well. But we finished, the Spirit was strong, we left. It was a wicked cool experience. Definitely a testimony builder of miracles, the power of the Priesthood and the power of the Book of Mormon.

S- In the scriptures this week I finally finished Deuteronomy! Yuhhss. The Law has been so much fun to read. I thoroughly enjoyed it. On to Joshua and the rest of the Old Testament. Something I remember was a law that was set forth about how if there is a stalk of wheat or corn left in the field that it is to be left for the fatherless, the cold and the poor. I pondered why for a moment, and was puzzled, but then it came to me: the Law of Consecration. Genius. I'm still in the mission chapters of Alma, read about 17-32 this week. Awesome stories. They converted thousands. I love the first part of chapter 32 when Alma talks about being humble and being humbled. Interesting concept. I like it.

Yours, Elder Carter

March 19th - 25th: 7 Months

Dearest Family,

(Paden wrote the same first two paragraphs to us that he wrote to the President. So I decided not to print it twice.)

Enclosed is the president's letter.

-president's letter-

Dear President Thomas,

This is the first two paragraphs of my email to my family. I wasn't going to include it, but I think it's appropriate just to summarize the week.

"This week I hit seven months. Odd, isn't it? Didn't really help much, we had a week that was a little on the lame side. We put the effort in for the time that we had. Monday was p-day, so it was burned. Had dinner with someone, but no appointments. Tuesday, Elder Child was sick all day. He said that he had a sinus infection. Things are really starting to warm up here, so the allergies are starting to fire up. I haven't had too many problems, except for at the end of the day my nose feels like it has ran a marathon. Elder Child has some intense allergies to pollen. His nose has been crazy all over the place this entire week, actually. Did have dinner with someone that night though. And then Wednesday we had an LTM in Winston-Salem. LTM stands for leadership training meeting. Usually only the senior companion/leaders are invited, but this time they invited everyone. It was good. We learned about a lot of great stuff, did some role plays, the usual missionary stuff. It's fun to mingle with the other missionaries that are in the zone. We had about an hour or so and that was all for finding on Wednesday.

So basically, we only had about 4 days this week, and that doesn't include the fact that yesterday afternoon was kind of a joke. We had only an hour of finding (well, not even that, about 15 mins was travel time) and then we had an appointment with a referral at a member's house. That actually went really well. I'm really happy about that. I feel like I'm making excuses, and for the most part, I am. I'm tired of mediocrity in my work and I'm tired of just laughing things off. I need to step up, take some initiative, and start really doing things. But anyways, not complaining. This week was good...it's just...circumstances. Oi."

f- We did the role plays from LTM. We still need to do them more, if anything, for the sake of having a better companionship study. Deleting the tape players, worked on a door approach. The apartment is clean. Still haven't shined my shoes yet. Working on it.

F- Family this week: My 17 yr old sister is on tour with the high school choir to San Francisco. She is the choir president, so she's kind of been stressing out, but I think that she will have a lot of fun as well. My 15 yr old sister leaves for her choir tour in just a few weeks. I believe they're going to Los Angeles. My mom is still rocking microbiology.

A- The area this week: I don't need to explain monday through wednesday.

We had an appointment with Marvin on thursday, but he actually missed it. We haven't had contact with him since then. Called him a few times, but nothing. We kind of briefed him about the Word of Wisdom, but hopefully that didn't scare him away. He has to quit smoking, and that's it. I think he's still coming along well, just gotta get back in contact with him.

John...uhm. I've told you that he's homeless, right? We need to sit down with him and have a chat. He actually called us about 3:45 AM Sunday morning and was trying to get a ride for a friend. I think that he was dissapointed when we told him that there was nothing that we could do for him. He seems to only come to church when he needs things and when the weather is favorable. I still think there is a side of him that we can work with. Just seems like he's in survival mode right now, trying to exhaust his resources before he has to do something about it.

We had an appointment yesterday with a referral that a family in the ward (the Fishers) set up for us, and it went really well, even though the lesson composition was kind of awkward. They are a mexican couple who moved her from south Texas a few years back, named Manny and Araceli. The both work for Brother Fisher. He's a pretty well-off guy. Really knowledgable in the scriptures as well, but has a tendency to try to convince people. He's a good guy. Anyways. Brother Fisher wanted to share the Restoration DVD with them and then just answer questions instead of teaching the first lesson from front to back. It went well, they asked some good questions. They agreed to meet with us again next Sunday, which is kind of unfortunate, but we did get two new investigators. Gave them each a copy of the Book of Mormon. In the back of my mind I was like, "...ok, gotta lead this towards baptism, gotta get the invite in..." but it never happened. I am dissapointed in myself because I am the one to blame for not taking the initiative for doing it. They will be baptismal dates next week though.

In other news, the Chris' are still moving. They aren't packing a WHOLE ton of useless junk, but some of it's like, "...why?" They actually loaded us up with about 30 pounds of MRE's that they don't want to take with them. They're good, they kind of have the old food taste. Just gotta add some barbeque and hot sauce. We have planned to ask them for referrals next time that we get over there.

C- The companionship is doing good. I was kind of dissapointed when he was sick all day on Tuesday, but I don't like to push people at all. I did ask him if he'd be well enough for our night appointment though, which actually ended up cancelling. We put in some good effort though. This week was kind of like an opposition week. Not necessarily lots of trials, but with the knowledge of this week, we can take it forward with an example of how NOT to do things.

T- A story from this week: Met a mexican guy who was pretty chill. Came out and talked to us on his door step. He was probably 20 or 21. He had terrible teeth. We asked him about his relationship with Jesus and whatnot, if he read the Bible. He said that his faith in Jesus had been diminishing over the last few years because of all the bad things that had happened. I took that opportunity to relate to him the parable of the branch and the husbandman (I don't know if it has an official name, but yeah, John 15,) and then I told him that maybe he's just one of the branches that is getting "purged" right now. A smile then spread across his face, and he said, "Maybe so." So we asked him if he was interested in learning about the Book of Mormon and he said that he was, but he was waiting for a warrant to be served on him because he missed a court date. Bummer deal, but we left him with a pamphlet and our number and invited him to call us back once he gets done with all the chaos. That experience really made me happy. Truly happy. No lesson, no return appointment, no new investigator. I did make someone smile though.

S- In the scriptures, I was in Alma this week. Going over Alma and Amulek's mission, and how the sons of Mosiah went out as well. For some reason, Alma 17 just really came more alive this time than usual. I love it. I was in Mark this week as well, read all about Jesus ministry and miracles. I'm thinking I'm just gonna stay with the Old Testament until I finish it. Deuteronomy is really great anyways. Finally made it to chapter 6 in Preach My Gospel. It's really fun to look back and see all the notes I took in my study journal. The study journal is a really cool idea.

This week was good week. This next week will be ten times better. I'm recommitted.

Yours, Elder Carter

March 12th - 18th

Dearest Family,

This week has been awesome. And I don't know why. Numbers were terrible, we had several days where we tracted for 4-6 hours every day with no success, but you know what...we worked hard. It feels awesome. I love working hard. And it really helps that it's getting hotter. Makes you feel like you work harder. It probably stays in the mid 70s most days. And it's humid. It's not even that hot but you're sweating, all the time. And it's only going to get hotter. It's probably gonna be hot for the next six months. Wooo mission. I'm excited. This week's gonna be awesome because we have two different referrals we plan to go see.

Enclosed is the president's letter.

-Paden

PS: Can you send/stack on the card some money please? I need to buy a new bike tube and a new pair of pants. The one pair I have left doesn't really fit any more. I have one pair I bought and one pair that was given to me by a member in Greensboro when the pair I was wearing in the accident was thrashed. Anything helps! Love yuhz

-President's Letter-

Dear President Thomas,

This week has been awesome. And I don't know why. Numbers were terrible, we had several days where we tracted for 4-6 hours every day with no success, but you know what...we worked hard. It feels awesome. I love working hard.

f- the apartment is clean, hopefully clean enough for Bro Morris, clean inspection man.

F- My family is good. Mom's rocking microbiology, the girl's musical got postponed (which apparently never happens,) my little brother is still dancing, and the smaller girls got the 4H steers this week. All is well.

A- The area. The only real person I need to talk about is Marvin.

Marvin is coming along really well. We're going to teach him the Word of Wisdom this week. He's really okay with the fact that we're going to help him stop smoking, and that we had the courage to tell him that he needs to quit smoking. He likes that we're open with him, even though he's told us that we have a tendency to beat around the bush with some topics with him. His wife and father in law are still sick, and he stays busy. So he can only meet with us about once a week. It's a bummer deal, but the lessons we do have with him are awesome.

Karl fell through an appointment, hopefully we can get back in contact with him. They found a new investigator on exchange this week, but she called us two days later and told us that she wasn't interested. Dang. Trying to work more with less actives and members to help the referral work and ward mission plan move along. Things are starting to pan out. The fact that I put the effort into going out and going finding is the most important part to me. I put the effort in.

C- The companionship is good. I don't know what to do sometimes. Elder Child really gets down on himself sometimes, and I just kind of let him. I talk him through some of the things that he's experiencing, and he admits that it's just him being hard on himself. But then he does it again when I have things that frustrate me. I try to be a little more relaxed sometimes. But I came back from exchange and dinner hadn't been called, we had no team for our appointment that night, the aparment was a mess. They were 30 minutes late to the dinner the night before. I was a little annoyed, so I expressed it. He just got down on himself again.

He talks about how he just can't think ahead, and that's why I do a lot. He thinks about a lot of trivial things, and talks about it a lot too. I know I don't have a terribly long attention span either, but he thinks about movies and stuff all the time. I can't say anything, because I know I get distracted sometimes too. Oh well. It's not a huge deal, just trying to figure out how to help him overcome it.

T- A story from this week: On exchange, we met this guy who was walking down the road with a few paintings. He was holding one, but he also had a few smaller ones in his bag. This was Wednesday. We had a cool discussion with him, even though he was really REALLY crutch-y. I say that just because he was searching for anything that could be wrong with The Book of Mormon. Elder Christensen and I explained it really quite logically and historically for him, which was what he was looking for, because he was logical and historical and liked context as well. But then he asked the question: "Where's the proof? There's proof over in the holy land where there's hay stubble in the clay bricks and stuff and ruins of everything, but where's the proof of these Nephites?" We explained to him, uhm, twice that the Nephites were wiped out because of their wickedness by the Lamanites and that the Native Americans were all that were left of the Lamanites. That was the crutch he was using. If the Book of Mormon really was happening, then apparently the people of Christ's Church would have survived and the Lamanites should have died out. He didn't even want a copy of the Book of Mormon. Lame.

S- I'm in Alma! Yay! The first chapters of Alma's mission. I love how Alma saw the problem (the people of his own church were being wicked) found the solution (appointed Nephihah to the chief judgement position so he could go and take care of it himself) and then went about fixing the problem (preaching, baptizing, calling repentance.) I also love the story how he gets thrown out of Ammonihah, then he's met by an angel who tells him that if he goes back and puts his best effort into it again, he will be received. So he goes back SPEEDILY and who's the first person he meets? Amulek. And they go on to have one heck of a mission there. So cool. The Old Testament still has me in Deuteronomy. Lots of laws. It's fun to read, reminds me of the Puritans. I half expected it to say something in the sex laws (chapter 22, I think) about how the woman has to wear a red A on her chest for the rest of her life. Oh, The Scarlet Letter. Epic story. Anyways. In my Preach My Gospel studies, I've been working all week on comparing the differences between the sermon on the mount in Matthew (5-7) and the sermon on the mount in 3 Nephi (12-14.) Lots of cool stuff. It's one of the personal studies at the end of Chapter 5. It's been enlightening. I like it.

Anyways, this next week will be awesome. Gotta work on my faith, make it stronger. More faith, more morale to carry on.

Yours, Elder Carter

March 5th - 11th

 Getting Paden to send pictures is hard.  I had to threaten him.  But he finally did it.  Here is Charlie Brown that was a stow-away in his luggage to the MTC.  Charlie really wanted to go on a mission too, with Paden.  Oh and he has his golden pig there with a new hat.

 He loves his guitar!

 Elder Child.

Paden is fascinated with the plant life there. He sends lots of plant pictures but only about 3 of him. 

Dearest Family,

I've been thinking a lot about the word "mechanism" a lot this week. I don't know why. It's a cool word. Like, a fear mechanism, or a fight or flight mechanism, or...you know. Different mechanisms. Seems like in all things, the mind wants to be in fear. Uncertainty is definitely a large cause of it. Oh well, you gotta keep your mind occupied somehow.

Enclosed is the president's letter.

-Paden

-Presiden'ts Letter-

Dear President,

Lots of good effort this week. I'd say we put our fair share into the work. The zone fast will pan out to help us even more, I hope.

f- the apartment is clean.

F- My family is doing swell. My mom is doing well in her microbiology class. My little sister has hit the rutt that most musicians hit where music stops making them alive. That's the part where you have to branch out and start doing things differently or it just loses its savour. My little sisters are about to get their steers for 4H. They're excited.

A- The area is doing really well. We picked up a couple people this week. Met a few good people. Worked hard.

We actually picked Marvin back up. It has been 2 months since we had talked to him last. Then, monday night, we had an appointment fall through, and I thought we might stop by because he was on the way back. So we did. He's agreed to start meeting with us again! Woo!

We got a referral from Dobson for a guy named Garvy Dixon on Tuesday. Stopped by, he's pretty golden. He's actually just a way inactive member. He might smoke, we watched his 12 yr old walk in with a cup of coffee, yeah. Lots too fix. He knows that we can help him fix his problems though. We might be able to teach his girlfriend, who he said that he's been trying to get to read the Book of Mormon. We'll have to talk to her and see.

Picked up a new guy named Karl Eisenhauer. Isn't that the coolest german name? Anyways. Left him with a pamphlet and a copy of the Book of Mormon, stopped by for our return appointment and he's read part of it, studied the pamphlet. Unfortunately, he also did some research online and ran across from anti. Threw the "glasslooker" thing at us. There were scriptures he pointed to us as well in Mormon and Moroni where they were admitting to writing an imperfect record because it was in reformed egyptian and not in hebrew. So he was kind of sceptical about that. He also wanted to know where in the Bible it talks about the Melchizedek Priesthood. I looked it up. It kind of talks about it a little bit through Hebrews, how Christ is the high priest of the Melchizedek Priesthood, but then I figured this out: the only real things we know about the Priesthood is because of modern revelation. I guess we'll just have to be bold and tell him. I don't know why that had never hit me before. It's true though.

C- Our companionship is good. Elder Child is the man. I brought up this week in step 13 that he really needs to lead out more because he's the senior companion. I'm kind of tired of just doing everything. He's helping more, but there are just some days where I wish he could help out more. But the problem with that is, whenever I tell him something he kind of gets down on himself and is bummed for a little while and apologizes. But that's ok.

T- A story from this week: Ran into a guy Saturday. The following conversation happened at about 4:45 PM:

(before we even say anything, his door was open and he saw us)

"I'm baptist and I'm not gonna change!"

"...Ok? Well do you have a moment that we could share a message about Jesus Christ with you?"

"I'm baptist and I'm not gonna change! (you could tell he was obviously drunk)

".......Well can we leave you with a card."

"Yeah, you can leave me with a card, and a book, if you wanna swap it for one of these!" *holds up a beer bottle.*

"Nope! Have a nice day sir."

Some people's kids. I guess he was just getting his early drink on so he could go to church the next day and feel better about himself.

S- Scripture study this week: I've started a new thing. I've decided to read from the new testament for a week, and then the old testament for a week, split with Book of Mormon studies and Preach My Gospel studies. This week I finished Matthew. Some things that didn't poke out the first time: The crucifixion. An earthquake caused the tabernacle to fall, fulfilling Christ's prophecy that it would fall, one of the things that they condemned him of blasphemy for, and Pilate's wife asked him not to do anything with Christ because she had been troubled by a dream that she had. In the Book of Mormon, about to finish Mosiah. Got to the story of Alma the Younger, good story. The story of Zeniff's people and what happened with them, and when the people had a knowledge of what actually happened, Mosiah (the II, I think...) causes that the record should be read to all the people so that they would know what happened to their ancestors. Good stuff.

Yours, Elder Carter

February 27th - March 4th

Dearest Family,

Guess what? Thursday we got the cops called on us. It was awesome. We were out in one of the most rural stickish parts of our area. So the first house we walk up to, this white truck pulls up and the guy tell us that no one is home and he didn't want to talk to us. So we went on our merry way. A few doors later, this one woman...she's like "how do I know you're missionaries?" First obvious sign: tags, second, Book of Mormon. Some people...weird. So we decided to go back to the car to find another street near by, and this crazy woman in an SUV follows us for about 1.5 - 2 miles. So we pull off the road, she keeps going, goes to the end of the road, flips a U turn and comes back and drives past us.

...Ok...?

So we're going, we're going, duh duh duh duh and we get a call. A member from a neighbouring branch (Dobson) is a cop. He calls us, and he's like "Uhm, so you know, there's a patrol car out looking for you. We've had about 5 or 6 people call in and complain about you guys today." It was awesome. Hope everything's well, I wrote a return to Challis Shandell and Faith's letters. I'm excited for the package.

-Paden

-President's Letter-

Dear President,

Things are good here in Pilot Mountain. A piece of work, but a work in progress, right?

f- The apartment is clean. Before I forget AGAIN, I have a guitar. So you know.

F- My family is doing good. My mom got a 93% on her microbiology test. My sister has kind of hit a rutt in her choir work. She has wrote me and told me that it just isn't to her what it used to be. I wrote her back and gave her some suggestions. It's kind of a stage that ever musician hits. My two little sisters are getting their steers soon for 4H. They're excited.

A- The area is good. We are working with the people that we have. We have:

Kerry: We went over with a member and taught her a good First. She accepted baptism for the 7th of April. We can't meet with her again until after next week though. We called and invited her to church though! She's in her late 30s, she's got a couple kids. She's a nurse who works during the night, so she basically just hangs out all day. She's cool. I don't know how sincere she is though.

Janet: Even though she told us that she didn't want to meet with until after she had read the Book of Mormon, she has agreed to meet with us this upcoming week. We left her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and that's what we'll be going over with her. Our goal for her this week is to get her a baptismal date.

Tim: He fell through his follow up appointment, so we called him back the next day and he said that he can meet with us this week. We don't know how we would baptize him because he is mostly paralyzed. Any ideas? We did talk about baptism though, and he immediately told us that he wouldn't know how we would do it. Hopefully we'll be able to figure something out this week though with him. He's a really nice guy, a little not all the way there though because of his handicap.

John: He came to church. Woo! Cool. He brought to us the opportunity to serve a family that he knew, and we were able to take a whole ton of food over to them that the ward brought to the church. We went over with the Relief Society president and the elder's quorum president. They were a really cool family. We'll hopefully be able to see them sometime next week. With John, we're trying to drag out his teaching so that by the time we are able to get him baptized he won't scam the church. Because he's really close to getting back on his feet. He's really close to getting his ID so that he can start applying to places for actual work. Good for him.

This is my first time with a third transfer in an area. I don't know what to do. Some nights for weekly planning I wish that Elder Burton was here. He would know where to go and what to do. We do pray specifically where to go finding and it seems like it's a lot better than just blindly choosing some places to go. I'm just so convinced that one of these days we're going to find someone so golden that we're gonna melt in their aura. It will happen. This week, actually.

C- Our companionship is good. Elder Child is the man. I find myself just playing the senior sometimes because I get impatient with waiting for him to do something. It's frustrating. But it works out. We balance each other out a lot.

T- A story from this week: We got the cops called on us. By five or six different people, aparently. We chose a kind of rural area to go tracting and I guess there's been some home invasions or something because people out there were sketched as all get out. The first house we went and knocked on was empty, but this guy rolled up in a white truck and told us that no one was home and that we didn't need to be wasting our time in this are a. And then he drove away before we could go talk to him. A few doors later, there was one woman who asked "How do I know you're missionaries?" "Well, the tags?" "That's rediculous. Anyone can make those." "Well, we do have our Book of Mormons and missionary stuff." She wasn't interested and turned us away. So we decided to go back to the car to go to a road nearby. Before we hit the first house on the next road, we get a call. It's a member from the Dobson branch...who's a cop. He's like "Uhm, so you know, there's a patrol car out looking for you right now. Red Corolla, around the Shoals area, right? Well, if you get pulled over, that's what it's about." Stellar. Just stellar. The day went out fairly well, despite the shenanigans.

S- Scripture study this week. Mosiah. I'm in the story about Zeniff going up to the land of their inheritance and merging with the Mulekites who were already there. Cool story. I think it's chapters 9-22. I'm on 15. Good read. I'm in Deuteronmy (finally). Israel's on the war path. Seems like Moses keeps choosing different places for the land of their inheritance or something. But he's a prophet of God. It's fun to read about. Remind's me of General Sherman's march to the sea.

Hope everything is well, Elder Carter