Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Week 26, and I've killed my first companion!

Well, I killed Elder Edwards (missionary term for "was his last companion" or "sent him home"), and my new companion is Elder Allen.  He is from Arizona, and likes sports. He has been out on the mission for 18 months now.

So, for a quick weather report, we have had quite a bit of rain for the past couple weeks, but yesterday the clouds decided to open up and let loose! We got back from Stake conference and had a companionship study, which was interrupted by the discovery of a wet carpet. Our apartment was flooding! It was crazy! We through everything out of the way, shoved the couch and chair to the other side of the room, told the Adams what was going on, and started drying it up as best we could! We had a sump pump in the corner that had the biggest puddle (maybe a half an inch of water), but we discovered it had rusted and wouldn't pump the water out. So, we put a different pump in there and pumped it out our window than started the process of sucking the water out of the carpet with a Rainbow vacuum and a carpet shampooer. It was not exactly how I expected to spend my Sunday. We ended up drying it up real well, than we flipped the carpet up over some buckets and put some fans on it so it would dry. It still looks like that now, but it's almost dry! I love it when a plan comes together!  Then, to make things even better, it is currently snowing... Again...

This week we had a lot of appointments fall through. When we went to Gs house, he was as drunk as can be. Not very conducive to the spirit. We met with L, and he is doing amazing. What can I say more? We talked about eternal marriage and he really liked that (who wouldn't?) and we invited him to be baptized. He said he doesn't know for sure if the church is true yet, but he has definitely seen too many "coincidences" to ignore. S is such a great support to him too. She answers his questions pretty darn good from the looks of it! They are just amazing people. We were supposed to meet with G this week, but when we got to his apartment, he was super drunk and I couldn't understand a word he said.  But, we'll stop by again and help him stop his bad habit!

We had a super cool Family History experience this week! There is a guy named S that we told about Family Search, and he is super excited about it. He is retired and he doesn't do much any more, so he spends a lot of time working on his tree (often times staying up till 4 in the morning before he realizes it's that late).  He got stuck in the mid 1800's due to the immigration of his family from Norway, and has been getting a little disappointed that he can't go back any farther. While we were talking to him about it, Elder Edwards asked "have you ever started with a prayer and asked to find this relative?" He looked at him for a second, than said "you know, I never even thought to do that. I didn't want to bother Him with such a little thing." So, we invited him to pray this next time, because we know how important the family is to God. We saw him a few days later, and he got all excited and told us that a lady from Norway contacted him about his family tree. She had a letter supposedly from the child of the people he couldn't find any information on. So, now he has some information to go off of, but it is kind of vague. Than, after we  left his house, maybe a few hours later, we got a call from him. He was in tears, and said "you will never guess what just happened." he then told us about that lady in Norway and how she had found more information, including birth dates and their parents names, so he was able to find them and continue his line pack to almost the 1600's (i think he said that... Pretty sure that's how far it went). It's amazing to see the fruits of Family History. Our Father in Heaven truly does love families and wants us to search our ancestors out and learn of them.

Well, we had Stake Conference this week, and there were 2 things that really stuck out to me. First, one man talked about the story of Esther and what Mordichi (was that his name?) told her. He basically said "Esther, this is what you need to do. Now, the Lord is not going to take away your agency, so you can choose to do this or not, and if you choose not to, the Lord will provide a way for his people to be saved. But, you will be deprived of the blessings that will come if you decide not to do this." He talked about how we are all a "Plan A" in the Lords plan. Will we be like Esther, and change the lives of those around us by doing what is right, even though the odds are far against us? Or will we deprive ourselves of the blessings that the Lord is so ready to bestow by not doing as he asks?  The other thing that stuck out in Conference was something someone said about mothers.  He said "It is a great thing to be a mother. God has entrusted mothers with His children." He then went on to ask are we worthy to be trusted so by God? Are we going to raise our children the way God would have us? that is why it is so vital to have a good family setting. God has provided us the perfect place to learn and grow, and that is the family. It is no wonder why Satan is attacking the family so vigorously today! He has destroyed the bounds that children are to be reared, saying that the sacred procreative power that God has given us is something that we can use for entertainment, or to satisfy our worldly pleasures and desires. No matter what the world declares marriage to be, it is far more than a piece of paper saying that we are married. Marriage is a sacred covenant with God and with our spouse, and God promises us in that covenant that if we keep our end, which includes being married by those holding proper authority, that we can be together forever, not just "till death do you part".

Well, I'm out of time! Love you all!

Elder Carter

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