I pretty much do push ups till I can't (so, like, 2?)

Week 5!

In answer to some questions, I have adopted my comps work outs, mostly because I never worked out before. I pretty much do push ups till I can't (so, like, 2?) then sit ups till I can't (about 3) then crunches till I can't (about....... 1/2?) then start over. I do that about 4 times in the morning. We used to go running, but it's too cold and slippery and we about died last time haha! 

To all you who are super worried about me, I am much better now! I took a miracle potion that my mom sent a member here, and I haven't had an issue since! Well.... the occasional congestion headache, but other than THAT I'm good haha. Thanks to all the people (especially Rachel Rubow) for helping my mom through it!

Christmas was great!! We were going to eat with a few members, but most of them had to bail, so we just ate with the Curtis's. It was goooooood food!!! The lady fell off the wagon the night we put her on the stop smoking program, but she's weening off now. We're still working with her though. Finding hasn't really happened because we run into someone we've already taught and end up teaching them a lesson, which isn't bad at all!! One in particular is JW. He is in his 70's and has had one of the hardest lives I've ever heard of. When we first met with him, all I could think was, in the words of Elder Finau "Lets go teach them! They need the gospel!!" As we taught him, and he expressed his concerns, we taught him Gods Plan of Happiness. We taught him that he is a literal spirit son of a Heavenly Father. At that, he looks at us and says "is that why, despite being totally and utterly alone, no one to help me, to love me, I have always known Him? Never forgot He was there?" It was amazing to see him change just by this "plain and simple truth" that had been lost over the years. There is one of the many reasons we need a modern prophet to lead us today! That, and, you know, the Lord has always had one to lead his church, His church is a church of order, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth his secret unto His servants the Prophets" (Amos 3:7), a Prophet recieves direct revelation from God which allows him to teach true doctrine, not the speculations of men, and I'm gonna stop there because the list just goes on and on!

So, the weather was a bombing 30 degrees the last few weeks, and yesterday it dropped over night to 0, and today it is -7, and I don't even want to know what it's gonna be like at the end of the week!! 

Well, and update of missionary work!! J is doing.... ok. He needs to understand that God gives commandments to be kept, not decided which ones we want to keep, but that's something that we're working on! He works a lot, so it's hard to get with him very much anymore. JM is about the same, but she is probably gonna come to church in the next couple weeks, K and D are the same, and A has is gonna be baptized on the 9th! Pray for her and her family, her husband just found out about a severe heart problem that will take a lot to fix, but he can do it with enough help!!

Here's an interesting fact! The root of the word "Virtue" comes form the latin word "Vertus" which means strength. Since when did having virtues and morals become a weakness? Why is doing whatever you want the strong thing to do? It just doesn't make sense to me. In the words of a loving father on his death bed to his rebellious sons "Arise from the dust, my sons, and be men, and be determined in one mind and in one heart, united in all things, that ye may not come down into captivity... Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust." (2 Nephi 1: 21, 23) Let us be men!! Real men! Men of virtue, of righteousness. 

Ok, that's the end of my soap box moment haha!

Each week we get an hour to use the internet in our studies, so we watch videos and mormon messages, etc. Best one ever, and you all probably already know it, is Pres. Hollands Testimony of the Book of Mormon. I believe it was in 2010? So powerful!! That man can speak! 

In our apartment we sometimes listen to talks at meals or before bed, and the one we listened to last night was "Getting Stronger in Lifes Game" I think... It was a devotional, probably EFY, and the speaker compares life to a football game. It's really funny, but also really spiritual, and he sure gets his point across. You don't have to know anything about football to like it either! Just know a few football players and you'll be good.

Elder Wright got an MP3 player full of music for Christmas, and one the songs, I'm assuming, is called "our mothers always taught us." I'm sorry if some of you like this song.... But it's hilarious! It's a great moral, but terribly written. There is a song called "the One Note Samba" and it's actually good, but this one..... not so much hahaha!!! It was hard to keep a straight face, cause it came on and my comp goes "Oh, I love this song!!!" and I didn't want to make him angry hehehe......

Well, I actually shared all my quotes throughout, so for those of you that only read my quotes, now you have to read everything hehe!

I hope everything is going good for all of you! I would love to hear from you!

Love,

Elder Carter V