January 30th - February 5th

Dearest Family,

I love you so much. Thanks for everything you do for me. Everything you need to know about the week is written in the president's letter. Thanks for the letters and the valentine's day candy. :) They got smushed on the way over, which is ok, they were still good.

-Paden

PS: I want a jar of dirt.

PPS: The feast of tabernacles (Leviticus 24 or 25, can't remember) is on the 15th day of the seventh month. 7.15. Faith's birthday. Food for thought. :)

-President's Letter-

Dear President Thomas,

This week has been fantastic for the most part. We just gotta find more people to teach. I guess we're finding in all the wrong places.

F- My family is doing good. They're staying busy. My parents are busy with school. My dad's BIO250 class is going better. He says he feels more confident about it. My 17 yr old sister just auditioned for a music scholarship at BYUI, and they're waiting for the results of that. She's also waiting for a track to start on. My little brother is still busy with dance. He's ballroom dancing at competitions in Utah right now. My two littlest sisters are going to do 4H this year. They're both excited. I can't believe it. My youngest sister is only 8. My parents know what they are doing though...I hope I hope I hope.

A- The area. We still are searching for more people to teach.

Marvin and Melissa were supposed to call us yesterday because they just got back from their honeymoon. But they didn't. Maybe it's just not their time right now.

I had the first contact with Jessica this week in like, 3 weeks. She said that we might be able to come see her Sunday, but we never got back in touch with her. We'll give her another call this week.

We dropped Kenneth and Brenda and Tiffany. Tired of waiting, tired of appointments falling through.

We find cool people every day. We have really gotten into the groove of teaching people on their doorstep, and it's turning out to be pretty successful. We just can't hold on to people. It's annoying. But we don't get down about it. Especially after a day like yesterday (see T for that story.)

We're seeing an older lady named Janet tomorrow who we found. We told her all about the Book of Mormon and she told us that she had always wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon but had never been able to get her hands on one. So we gave her one. That's probably the most success that we've had this week. We've started handing out Book of Mormons on doorsteps. And people are ok with that. We always ask for a return appointment with the people that we leave the Book of Mormon with. A few...return appointments, which is a plus. Others are ok with us just dropping by some time in the future. And I'm ok with that. The thing that frustrates me is all the ignorance in the world about us and the high and mighty more-holier-than-thou's we run into. It helps me to grow some patience and long suffering for sure. And hopefully some Christlike love one of these days. It's all a progression, right?

C- The companionship is still good. I don't really feel a senior-junior thing going on. I kind of feel a friend-friend thing going on. Which could be good, could be bad. There are some instances where I have to step up and just do it because I get tired of waiting for him to make a decision. There are times when we both have a great door contact and it goes really well. I have taken up the project of calling the less actives on our roster and seeing who we can meet with and who not just because I'm tired of having empty nights. And he helps too. We switch off giving calls to these people. We have two appointments so far this week with less actives. That's better than nothing planned for the night, right? Third watch is getting better.

T- The story for this week: Yesterday we knocked into some people. I don't even remember their names. They invited us in because it was kind of chilly yesterday. So we taught them a first lesson. They were all ok with it up until we got to the Book of Mormon. Then we really got an ear full. I don't really want to recollect on it because it makes me really kind of angry. But basically, the husband that was there took the liberty to educate us about Christ and about how we can know if we are going to heaven (1 John 5:13) and how we can and must be saved (Romans 10:9,13) and the only way is through Christ. The same mumbojumbo that we hear every day. The thing that hurt the most was when the wife asked me about my testimony and so I shared it. I told them that I can't tell them what to believe, but I can tell them what I believe, and that is that I know that what we were sharing is true. The spirit entered the room then. It's kind of cool when you realize that you are being a chanel for the Spirit, isn't it? Anyways, different topic. I got done, was on the verge of tears, and the husband basically told me that he was going to discount everything I just said only because I didn't mention the Bible. It hurt. But I didn't let it get me down. So I cut it off. We left shortly after offering them a Book of Mormon. He wanted to send us off with a prayer and gave a beautiful protestant prayer (y'know, full of the "justs and yours and you knows and glory to your names?") So irreverent.

So we leave that and we talk to this guy out in front of his house who was selling wood. He told us that we were going straight to hell for believing in what we believe in. We don't believe in Christ, Joseph Smith was a fraud, he wrote the Book of Mormon. The thing that sealed it was when he said," I wish you knew what I knew. I'm afraid for your souls and I will pray for you."

Basically, this was the first time in my mission experience so far when I got tired of being told I don't know Christ. It's ignorance again. They only know what they know because of what they've been told. But that's mission life isn't it? I don't let it get me down. I get a rhythm when I get the blues.

S- Scripture study this week has consisted of 2 Nephi: the Isaiah chapters and Leviticus. I have tried to compare the Isaiah chapters to the verses in the Book of Mormon, but I just don't have that attention span. It's still really enlightening stuff. There's somewhere in there where it says "they are in captivity because they have no knowledge." I really do believe that. Leviticus is cool too. I am kind of losing my zeal for it though. But I'm nearing the end. It's really cool stuff. I think it was chapter 20 or 21 that talks about sexual transgressions and the punishments for those. I labeled it the Puritan chapter.

After yesterday's experience I've decided to start reading the New Testament again so that I can get more into the head of the people we teach. I guess that's just my nature. I'll read it during breakfast and lunch and if I get any other spare time.

Everything else is going well. Zone activity today, woo. I'm going to try and sit down and record some stuff that I've been working on on guitar. Recording is always way fun. I have the song layout entirely done for one song so I can start working on a melody. P-days are great. Woo!

Best Wishes, Elder Carter