November 2, 2015 My address is P.O. Box 305 Poplar, Montana, 59255, and my companion is a Payne (and a Larsen hehe)

First!  Let's start with all the changes!  I'm absolutely loving my new area here in Poplar I am actually on another reservation!  I went from one extreme to another!  So, Pine Ridge Reservation reminds me of a 3rd world country.  Poplar (It's on the Fort Peck Reservation) is more like a super run down town.  You actually feel like you are in the U.S., but it looks like no one should be living here.  It's pretty crazy!!  So, according to all the records, Poplar has under 1,000 people living here.  That is a lie.  There are like 3,000 people here.  No idea why no one knows that.  it might have something to do with the whole reservation thing, but I don't know.  We cover a little past Brockton and halfway to Wolf Point, and up close to Plentywood, and not much farther south than Poplar.  I was only supposed to have 1 new companion, but not anymore!  The reason is (story time), first off, there are 2 sets of missionaries in Poplar.  Monday, Elder Larsen and Samplina were walking down a street at night, and Elder Samplina got hit by a car.  It dislocated his ankle and broke his tibia, so he was sent home after being life flighted to Billings, and we got Elder Larsen!!  Elder Payne is from Preston, Idaho (he knows Elder Wilde!  That's too funny!), he is 18.  Elder Larsen is from River Side, California, and he is also 18.  I'm in a trio with (get this) 2 other drummers, but to make things even more fun, we all put special emphasis on Tenor drums in the drum line.  I don't know who's idea it was to put us together, but they either have some great plan in store, or they had no idea what they were doing, cause this will either be a super stinking awesome companionship or we aren't going to get anything productive done.  There is no middle ground.  But!  We've all made the goal to make it productive, so It'll be productive!! 

My new address is P.O. Box 305 Poplar, Montana, 59255.

 Church yesterday was good!  We have a small but strong Branch.  There are about 30 people on average I am told.  The church is in Poplar on the East end of town.

Well, as far as white washing goes, it's super hard.  First, the Elders before us left a note.  It was about as vague as it comes.  We weren't too happy about that.  One of the nice things, is that one of the old Elders here is our Zone Leader, so we can call him with questions when we need to.  We have what's called "The Area Book" which has records of the people who have been taught by past missionaries and what they have been taught, and that book has saved us already a few times!

Well, as for training, I'm not going to be teaching Elder Payne much.  He already knows everything.  This guy is a super good teacher, he knows his stuff, and man does he love everyone!  It'll be a super interesting experience for me, trying to teach a missionary that already knows as much as I do haha!  He really is a stupendous missionary. 

So, the responsibilities of a District Leader are.... Well.... I'm not really sure...  I have a District meeting every Friday that I prepare a training for, the missionaries in my district come to me to ask questions, they report to me how their areas are doing, and that's about all I know so far.  They changed a lot of stuff when I was called as district leader, so I have no idea what I am supposed to be doing.  I may be getting filled in soon ish, but the problem is that everyone else who has been a district leader has had different responsibilities than I do now.  So!  In other words, I am now flying by the seat of my pants (any one know why we say that?  I sure don't.  I would love to find out.)

AH!  I'm already out of time!  Love you all dearly!  My commitment to all of you is to make the choice every day to be happy.  It is a choice, not a circumstance you are placed in.

With appropriate affection (hehe)

Elder Carter V

Me and my new comps!  Elder Payne (Middle) and Elder Larsen (right)

More pics

 

1)This is Johnny's family!  From Left: Christ (Janices son) Me, Johnny, Janice.  Love them, and will miss them so much!

 2)Transfer Train!!  Woohoo!

 

October 26, 2015 The sweet and the bitter.

I'll start with the bitter.... but it is also sweet.... but bitter.  Kinda like an egg. (if any of you get that joke, you are a winner in my book.  Those of you who don't, no worries.  It was a huge stretch)  I am being transferred to Poplar, Montana, which is close to the farthest north you can go in the mission!  To add to the new experiences, I will be training again, I will be the District leader, and (drum role please......) I will be White Washing the area!  (white washing is missionary lingo for having 2 new missionaries in the area rather than one that knows the area)  So, it'll be a challenge for sure, but it sounds like the area is doing good, so hopefully it won't be too rough.  Prayers would be great!

Now!  For the exciting part!  This Saturday we had a wedding!  S and D got married!  They are seeing the blessings of keeping the commandments, and you can see it in their faces. S has stopped smoking, they are married, and they haven't missed a Sunday since we had that little pep talk.  What a great way to leave the area!!  I loved it.  I'm gonna miss them dearly.

Thursday we went on exchanges (again!  talk about low on miles for the month!) with the Alliance Elders, this time I went down to Alliance with Elder Wilson, and Elder Peay did a bang up job taking over in Pine Ridge!  We had fun down in Alliance, but nothing really happened except we were wet most of the time cause it rained all day.  Once we started getting dry, we were going back out into the rain.  It was fun though!

This Sunday, President McKimmey said he could come out with us to visit people after church, so after everyone left, we hopped in his car and started visiting.  We were about to visit 6 families!  First, I want to say that this man is the prime example (other than the Man Himself) of Christlike love.  Every family, every person, you could just see how much he loved them, and some of them he hadn't eve met.  I laughed more yesterday than I have probably my whole mission!  The Dreamers, (they are from New Zealand, so I could listen to Sister Dreamer talk all day long with that accent) have 5 kids I think, but only 3 were there when we were.  The 3 were B, P (she's 13 I think, but she is almost as tall as I am.)  and G, who is in 6th grade (however old that is), and they had a few friends over too.  We laughed so hard the whole 45 minutes we were there!  I'm sure we all had abs of steel by the end.  At one point, they were asking about transfers, and we told them that we don't know what will happen if anything will, than, G asked who the new missionary would be, so I said "He's a tall hunk of a man from Australia."  She spins around to her mom and says "Hey!!!  We could be from the same family!"  We all burst out laughing again and she was very confused, so once her mom composed herself, she reminded her that we didn't know what would happen, that I was yanking her chain.  She gave me a half hearted glare, but laughed soon after!  

Well, that's about all there is to report this week.  Hope all is well back home!

Elder Carter V

1) My district!!  From left to right: Elders Wilson, Peay, Lindeman, Egan, Sister Egan, Paniagua, and Pohl.

 2) The happy couple!!!  Scott and Donna Wallingford!!!  Love these two!

October 19, 2015 My First Birthday, MLC, and exchange with the Zone Leaders.

What a week!  I'm gonna try to get it all in, but it's not gonna happen.

First!  P-day was nuts.  We had to get so much done (including packing for a week) so that we could get gone by 5:30 to meet up with the Alliance Elders in Hay Springs so that Elder Wilson and I could leave our comps (who are spending the week in Alliance) and head to Chadron to pick up the sisters so that we could get to Rapid City before 9.  We stayed the night with the Zone Leaders, then the next morning we had got up at the normal time (thank goodness) and went to the Stake center to prepare to leave to get there in time to be with Bro. Nelson.  I drove up (this was really weird for me) with the ZL's and Sister Pohl (yup!  She had no comp on the way up....  Weird.).  It is a 6 hour drive to Bismarck.  We totally destroyed a pheasant because it was stupid and decided to fly strait into our windshield, leaving plenty of feathers and streak marks on it.  We arrived after getting lost in Mandan trying to find our way to Bismarck, and finally got there only to find out that we didn't need to get there early to go through with him, so we talked with some of the other missionaries there before we went in.  I didn't actually get to go through the Temple with them, but that's okay.  I got see him afterwards, and he was just beaming!  You could tell just how much he loved being in The House of the Lord.  

There were almost 70 missionaries that night in the Temple.  Before we went in they had us take our shoes and suit coats off in the entry way which had a bunch of hangers and shoe racks so that we had more room in our lockers (remember this detail.  It plays a significant role in a second hehe).  I loved it.  I have a firm testimony that the Temple truly is the House of God.  There is no place that brings more peace to my heart than the Temple does.  I've never thought so clear, and I have never felt so.... Well, at peace.  Afterwards, while I was in the entry way talked to President and Sister Hess, President leans forward a bit and says "Do you know whats fun to do?"  Me and Elder Melville (another missionary with me at the time)  shrugged.  "See all those suit coats there?  I switched all the name tags."  Sister Hess's jaw dropped and she smacked him on the arm saying "You are the worst, you know that?!"  We died laughing (quietly, of course, since we were still in the Temple haha).  Thank goodness we already had ours on!  Once we all got outside, I finally got to see Bro. Nelson, and we had a great little reunion there!  That night we stayed in the Assistants apartment with 10 or so other missionaries. 

Wednesday morning we had MLC (mission leadership council), which was a 6 hour training given by President Hess and (this time) a guest named Brother Donaldson (a man from the Missionary department in Salt Lake).  I must say, I have never enjoyed sitting for 6 hours as much as I did that day.  I learned so much about the Savior and my role as His representative.  Now, you are probably wondering why I was at MLC.  Well, so am I.  There were a hand full of other missionaries that weren't in leadership positions there, and we don't know why, although we've got our hunches (namely, future roles in leadership), but we don't want to scare ourselves too much haha!  After MLC, I got to see so many missionaries I haven't seen in forever!  It was probably too much fun, cause I didn't want to leave, I just wanted to stick around a bit longer and keep talking with them!  But, alas, it was time.  So, we then proceeded to drive another 6 hours back to Rapid City, and luckily didn't hit any deer (althought we had about 6 close calls.... No joke).  We did hit 2 wild turkeys though.  We dropped Sister Pohl off at the Sisters apartment, then headed back to the ZLs place to crash for the night.  

Thursday, I stayed with the ZLs and helped them prepare a training on what we learned at MLC for the ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) the day after.  That was pretty much an all day ordeal.  But, we worked hard and it turned out pretty good!

Friday, we got up then went to the Stake center to start setting up for ZTM only to find that the carpet cleaners were there, so I about bit the dust when I walked from the wet carpet to the waxed basketball court.  We had a great ZTM, then when we were cleaning up, I volunteered to get on the stage (which just so happened to have wet carpet) and put stuff away up there.  Once I was done, I hopped down from the stage out of habit.  Remember the wet floor experience?  Well, if you have ever seen Tom in "Tom and Jerry" when he slips on a banana peal and both of his feet fly up in front of him and his head falls we his feet used to be, than you know EXACTLY what I looked like.    When I slipped I heard a couple of squeals from the Sisters, then dead silence.  I then gave them the thumbs up, and they all ran to see if I survived.  Thankfully, the only thing bruised was my pride.  Wish someone had a camera rolling though!

Well, after ZTM, I got to spend even more time with my trainer!  It was a blast!  We went on exchanges and Elder Wright and I went down to Alliance so that he could interview one of the Elders investigators, than spent the night in their apartment.

On Saturday we drove up early the for a baptism (the Alliance Elders investigator wanted to be baptized in Gordon since that's where most of her family lives).  Afterwards, Elder Wright and I went to see M, and she had a cake for me!  We had a mini birthday celebration. The cake was great!  It was totally unexpected!  What a day!

Well, that about sums it all up!!  Hope you all had a super good week!  I love you and miss you loads!

Elder Carter V

1) This is (from left to right) E. Wright, Bro. Nelson, Me, and Elder Ashby (Elder Wrights trainer.  They are the ones that brought Bro. Nelson into the church.) in front of the Bismarck Temple

2)MTC District Reunion!  We're all here but 3 (2 of which are no longer in the mission)

3)Elder Wright and I at the "rest stop".  They had WIFI!!  At least, the sign said they did.  We didn't have a way of finding out haha!  If you gotta go, you gotta go, yeah?

October 12, 2015 11 months and I get to go to Bismark for MLC and the Temple!!!

Well, to start off, S is officially tobacco free!  We finished the program this week!  And, to make things better, S is marrying D on the 24th!  We're so excited!  They are taking the leap of faith and doing what God wants them to do.  They told us how great it feels to finally, after a long time, be doing what they know God wants them to do.

So!  To explain the subject.  I got a call last week right when I finished emailing.  It was from the AP's, and I was wondering why they were calling.  After we chatted for a bit, they told me that MLC (Mission Leadership Council, which is when the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders go to Bismark for a training by the Mission Pres.) was happening this week and that they wanted me to come to it!  Crazy thing is... I'm not in a leadership position.  Everyone tells me that it is a sign, but I don't want to accept it haha!  But!  I leave tonight, drive to Rapid, stay the night, drive up the next morning (and I hopefully get to go through the Temple with Bro. N from Valley City who will be receiving his endowment that day!!  Super awesome!) go to the Temple, then spend the night in Bismark, then drive back to Rapid, stay the next day in Rapid, have another ZTM there, then go back to Gordon with Elder Wright (I get to go on exchanges with my trainer!  he's a ZL here!  It'll be way too much fun haha!).  It'll be a crazy awesome week!

Tuesday we traveled down to Ashby to teach one of Pres. McKimmey's friends who is interrested in the church.  It was great!  K and his wife M are great people!  I loved getting to know them a little bit.  He already knows a lot about the church since his mom is a member, and he told us that he has talked to many missionaries, but at the time it didn't really apply to him (and we took that to mean "but now it does").  We're hoping we get to see him again soon!

We saw the Whitehawk kids, although not all of them could be there, but it was still good.  I taught Mayla how to pray this time!  She was super shy about it, but eventually, with some prodding, she said she would.  She has learned so darn fast!  It's hard to sign with her though, cause her attention span is next to nothing haha! But, that is how it goes.

Honestly, that's about all that happened this week.  We did some tracting but no one was home.  Literally. Love you all loads!  thanks for all your love and support!

Elder Carter V

3)This is our jeep.  I realized I forgot to send this forever ago

I figured I should send these before I forget

1) Guess what these are?  You guessed it.  Rocky mountain oysters.  Yummy!!  

2)Me and good ole Mason, the Hendrix's English Mastif.  He thinks he's a lap dog, but even his head is too big to fit ins someones lap.

October 5, 2015 6 police cars came looking for 2 guys in white shirts, and we fit the ticket! Kinda...

This week was stupendous!

First off!  Conference.  Stellar.  Wonderful.  Inspiring.  Spiritual.  Any adjective that describes something awesome.  The first session we watched at Sister Brownes house, the Second at Bro. Wallingfords house, and, to top it all off, I got to play "Where's Mom-o" with the whole Branch on Sunday! We watched both sessions at the church on Sunday.  Loved to see my beautiful mother, especially when Elder Holland so movingly discussed such a heavenly topic as mothers.  I testify that what that man said is true!  Oh yeah, and I totally guessed 2 out of 3 of the new apostles.  Elder Renlund and Rasband.  Yes, you may bow to my awesomeness!  We all got to experience the calling of 3 new Apostles, which in Hebrew means "One who is sent".  What a privilege to be able to feel the Holy Spirit bare witness that these men truly are sent from and chosen by our Heavenly Father. I sure did worry about Pres. Monson, like everyone else, when he kinda... deflated during his talk.  But!  I was given words of comfort from a diabetic who said that the Prophet is also diabetic, and that is (hopefully) all that happened.  Low blood sugar.  And I'm sticking to it!  And, to make things all that much better, we were told by Sister Browne, our Area Mom (she takes such good care of us) that President Uchtdorf is her favorite apostle.  When we asked why, she responded thus.  "He is the only eye candy out of the whole group!  I know it's not right to lust after an apostle... But can you blame me?!"  We about fell out of our chairs we were laughing so hard!  As for a favorite talk...  I don't know if I could pick one, but I sure loved Elder Bednars about how it truly is a blessing to have "old Men" at the head of this church.  But they were all stellar!

Well, you are all probably wondering about the police cars comment... So, here it goes!  We were at the Whitehawks home teaching the kids when Eugenio gets home (he's the chief of police on the Rez) and we briefly say hi and shake his hand, then he goes to change our of the uniform into something comfortable.  After we had teh lesson with the kids, we talked with Eugenio and Denice for a bit.  While we were talking, Denice looks at the TV screen that has a live feed to the outside, and says "wow!  there's 4.  No, 5?  Geesh!"  And by the time she finished saying that, one of the younger kids rushes in and says "The cops are here!  6 of them!  They're gonna arrest Gracee!!"  So, of course, everyone rushes outside while me and my companion look at each other, than decide we should stay seated inside, away from potential gunfire and from the spot light.  We didn't think it would be a great idea to step outside, the only 2 white guys in probably 100 miles, and we just so happen to represent a church that isn't too keenly liked by those who... well, don't like us!  We didn't hear a whole lot, but after a few minutes, everyone files back in (including Gracee) and Eugenio says with a slight shout "They're looking for a couple guys in white shirts!"  then bellows a laugh like only a 6' 9'' (probably taller) Native American can, and then sits down and we kept talking.  Turns out, they were coming for the person living a couple houses down, but they thought that Gracee was her haha!  Good thing Eugenio was there to set them strait!

Now, in the picture below you will see 3 things. A box, meant to keep tobacco at the right humidity, a super fancy lighter, and a nice pipe.  Guess where they came from?!  Bro. W!  He is a less active member who we have met with since I've been here.  He is a man with a pretty rough background, but a great heart and great understanding of the Gospel.  We finally were able to start the 15 step Stop Smoking program with him, and he is obviously dedicated to it (I don't even want to know how much all that cost, not to mention all the tobacco we dumped...  It was a lot... And he doesn't have money.  At all.).  It was totally wicked! (guess that movie?)

Man!  Time flies!!  Long story short, this week was amazing.  Thank you all for your prayers and support!  I love you so much!

Elder Carter V

P.S. Sorry for being so late, we had an emergency and needed to help someone move out of there house immediately, and we didn't get done till 4.

2-3) First session of conference spent with my good buddy Zigmund (or Ziggy, mundo, boo-boo, and pretty much any other nick name you can come up with haha!  I smelled like dog and had to clean up some slobber, but it was well worth it.  

September 28th

This is me and Emily at the church before her baptism!

The baptism was a Success!  It was great, and Emily was super excited!  A good portion of her family came, and we got to meet her aunt for the first time, as well as her grandpa! 

Well, update on Mayla.  This last time we were there, after we had our lesson, she grabbed me by the hand and dragged me around the house pointing to things than showing me the sign!  she has learned a ton since last time we were there!!!  I was able to sign with her for a bit, than I realized just how rusty I am!  The other kids are doing good as ever.  Love going over.  Everytime.

On Friday we went to see J and his family, but J wasn't there, so we waited with E, C (one of J sons) and T(her other son).  Than, when it was close to time for us to leave, we decided to share a message about general conference with them!  They didn't really seem to care much, but we did it anyways.  Here's hoping they watch!

Honestly, that's about all the exciting things that happened.  We saw some people, didn't get to see others, and spent a whole lot of time in the car driving from place to place.  Sorry this email is skimpy!  Hopefully there is more to report next week!

Love you all very much!

Elder Carter V

This is me shaking the hand of Elder Renlund of the 70.  Great man!

September 21, 2015 I'm a real cowboy!

First, I wanted to give a little update on a girl named T.  She is about 14 and has investigated the church for well over a year.  As we have gotten to know her we have learned just how much she loves reading the Book of Mormon, and as we talked with her, one day we asked her if she knew it was true.  She told us she never really thought about it, she just liked it.  We invited her to pray to find out if it was true or not, and the next day we got a text that told us she got an answer and her answer was it was true!  Once that happened, everything started to fall apart.  Her parents found her reading the BoM (which, we didn't know they didn't know she was reading it considering we've talked to her about it around them before) and they flipped.  At some point her dad forbid her from reading it as well as from coming to Wednesday night activities, and she called us in tears asking us what to do.  We had no idea what to say, so we told her to turn to the Lord.  We had our district pray for her for 2 weeks, and then we got a text from her saying her dad said she could keep reading and that she could come on Wednesday, but not on Sundays.  We were so grateful!!!  Prayers truly are answered!

Well!  I am officially a cowboy!  We left Monday night, stayed the night in the McKimmeys bunkhouse, got up at 5:45, got out by 6, rounded up the cattle on 4-wheelers (there was more than 500 head of cattle from what I understand... When they counted them up at the end they had to use both hands to keep track of the hundreds), than started herding them into a coral.  We would drive in circles behind and on the side just hooting and hollering, and at some point I thought to myself "Self, you sound like Link when he's riding his horse."  So, guess what was going on in my mind the rest of the day?  You got it!  Zelda music.  Anyways!  Once we got them into the first one, we started herding them by foot into the next one, than we would take about 30 at a time between the corals into a circular one where President McKimmey and I started separating the cows from the calves and the bulls (don't worry, they were all steers..... which, if you don't know what the difference is, it has to do with oysters. Steers are very calm compared to bulls).  Once we did that, we herded them into this chute that was only wide enough for 1 cow at a time so that we could immunize them and all that jazz although we didn't actually end up branding them, this was probably the same batch of cows and calves that I helped brand last time.  It was quite the adventure for sure!  When we were sorting the calves, one of the cows full on faced me me with her head down, so I hit her with my "cattle wacking stick" and hollered at her, so she turned and went the way she was supposed to.  When she was through the gate, President Mckimmey came over with a big grin on his face and said "When a cow looks at you like that, that is when you are supposed to hop the nearest fence.  But that works too!"  And to answer some questions, no we didn't get any oysters, and yes we were... ehem.... "safe".  Although, Pres. McKimmey did offer hehehe.   I am very sorry that I have no pictures, but it is probably best that I didn't have my camera.  There were a few times that I am sure it would have gotten damaged or would have fallen out and been a few inches under cow manure.  But, we both came out unscathed, except for the spot on Elder Peays shirt where Pres. hit him when he threw one of the oysters at us!

We are going to baptize E this week!  Everything is a go, as long as nothing drastic happens before Saturday.  In case I didn't say anything before, she is one of the 9 year olds that we teach, but she isn't related to the Whitehawks.  She actually is a Littlehawk haha!  Darn names that end with 'Hawk"!

As you will see in the pictures below, we saw the Whitehawks again, and they are doing great, although trying to have a lesson with them was super tough this time.  They were all bouncing off the walls... almost literally.  

We got to see J and C this week!  Turns out that C is sticking around, although I don't know where we got mixed up thinking he was going to Wyoming...  But hey, we're alright with that!  This last time was a bit on the awkward side...  While we were there and we were talking with them, Cand his girl friend E decided to bring up the religious argument they were having the day before about how God and Jesus are the same person.  So, while they argued, we stuffed our faces with homemade chicken 'n dumplings (made by a real southern woman!  J is a great cook!), then J joined in.  C and J were arguing that God and Jesus were separate distinct individuals, but E wouldn't have it.  So, we continued to stuff our faces in the hopes that no one asked our opinion, since E was already well out numbered....  But, they simmered down and we were late to our next appointment, which was with G at the Jail.  He's doing great.  He's just good ole G.  He's always got something funny to say.  He gets out in less than a month though!  We're super pumped for that.

Other than that, I have nothing more to report.  Love you all and hope all is well!  Hope you like this photos!!

Elder Carter V

This is right after our lesson, Mayla swiped my camera again and we took a selfie with Genio  

So!  Here are most of the Whitehawk kids!  From left to right: Genio, E. Peay (obviously), Emelissa (Blue shirt), Aleeah, Miaa, Me, Mayla, Adriana, Chloe, Luke.