September 26, 2016 Miracles on Miracles

This week we have seen many miracles! We have been finding success in our finding activities. We have an investigator named C who is 15 years old. Her family isn't interested but they said that if she wants to investigate she is more than welcome to. She has been very out front with us about being atheist and not really expecting an answer. She has told us that she genuinely wants to know mostly because she sees how much faith we have in what we do, but she hasn't kept any of our commitments. We had a "pep talk" with her about needing to do her part and we told her that for now, all we wanted her to do was have personal prayer with the intent to find out that this is true. We nagged her the first few days, then forgot to keep reminding her, then we had our meeting on Saturday where we gave her and her family a tour of the church. Right when she walks in and we're about to say a prayer, she says to her mom "well, I guess now's a good time to tell them. I want to be baptized". We were totally stunned! I asked her how her answer came and she said that she finally prayed the night before, and in the morning she just knew it was true and that she needed to search harder and deeper. We were so stoked! That night the bishops family (they are her fellowshippers) invited her to church and offered a ride, and when she got to church the next day they just took her under their wing and loved her up. I am so grateful for the Worsleys and all they have done for C! They are just the best. They truly have magnified their callings to be missionaries, and now C is feeling the Spirit both in their home, at church, and in her own personal prayers.

We started teaching a young man named J.  We knocked on his door and he asked us a bunch of questions on the door step.  We asked if we could come back another day and start teaching him these lessons which would answer a lot of his questions, and he said yes.  We taught him for the first time earlier in the week, and I had a very humbling experience.  The whole lesson, I was just a robot.  From square one, it was all "muscle memory" rather than following the Spirit.  I recognized that right off the bat but as I tried to fix it, nothing worked.  I was praying so hard on the inside that God would take over, and nothing happened to me.  But God answers prayers in His own way.  He didn't change my feelings or my actions, he didn't fill me with the Spirit so that I could teach more powerfully, but instead, he opened J's heart, so that even though I was on auto pilot, he still felt the truth of our message.  That was a testimony to me that the Spirit was working through him, and that this work is not my own.  This is the Lords work, and He's gonna do it the way He wants to, whether we're down or not.  What a blessing that was, that despite my own imperfection, he still felt the testimony of the Spirit in our message.

I saw G and M this week!  G is the guy that we taught in the Rushville jail back in Gordon, and M is from Manderson (on the Pine Ridge Reservation).  Gene lives up here so we went and visited him.  It was a blast from the past to see him! 

For the first time in my entire mission, I have been allowed to help someone move in when just walking by.  No one this whole time has allowed us to, and in the last 2 weeks, we've had 3 people allow us to!  It was fun to just serve these people.  One of families we helped move live in the same apartment complex as us, and they were just so happy that we came to help.  They were smiling from ear to ear, and that's the best reward you could get.  He told us that now we are his first friends in the area, and we'll always be welcome in his home.  His name was Dutch, and he's Jamaican.  Sweet accent, for sure.

That's about it for me this week.  Love you all!

Elder Carter V

P.S. Here's those pictures I promised from Mt. Rushmoore.

1) #selfiestick

2-3) I'm sure you can tell what this is.

September 12, 2016 Bikes and Service

Not a whole lot happened this week.

Bro. Mertz, from Bismarck, was here in town and we had lunch with him a couple days ago before he went back up.  That was pretty fun.  It was good to see him and talk about Bismarck again!

H seems to be doing good, although we haven't had much contact with her.  Just brief "how are ya"s and trying to set up appointments.  She's definitely a busy momma!

We found out one night that one of the members didn't have a lawn mower and their grass was getting pretty tall, so we decided we were gonna hunt down a lawn mower and get 'er done!  This was probably the highlight of my week.  We showed up with the mower (we had called them the night before to make sure they would be home so they could supervise our work) and went to town, and they were just glowing!  It was absolutely rewarding to be of service for them!  There is definitely a special spirit that comes into your life when you get to serve someone when they didn't ask for it. 

Well folks, that is all for me.  I love you, and hope you're doing great!

Elder Carter V

September 6, 2016 I have no subject for this week...

To answer the questions!  Rapid City is much smaller than Bismarck, although it has a big city look to it when you first get there.  But now that I've driven through the whole city, I realized that it's tiny.  There are 5 wards in Rapid, and 2 sets of missionaries for each ward, so there are a lot of us out here sharing the city, but we have a very different assignment than we have had in the past.  In the Canyon Lakes ward, we are now sharing the ward boundaries rather than splitting it up into areas.  It is going rather well so far!  It requires much more planning and communication than I've ever had to deal with before, but I think that it's gonna be great once we figure it out.  We just travel wherever we want inside the ward and hope we don't try the same people.  But, that's what the planning with each other is for.  We're some of the "guinea pigs" for this whole situation, so who knows what will happen.

Life in Rapid is good so far, although we haven't really had much happen.  Still learning the area and trying to meet as many people as possible.  We started working with a woman named H.  She's from Oklahoma too!  I was so stoked!  We had fun reminiscing about the humidity, tornadoes, random earthquakes (okay, we didn't actually reminisce about that one.  She just told me about it.).  We had a great first lesson with her.  She truly wants to know what is the truth and how it can help her.  She's been through a lot in her life, but has always known that God was there.  She just doesn't know why bad things happen to good people.  Good thing we're here to answer her questions, eh?  We're meeting with her again this week. 

Aside from her, we've met a lot of people, but haven't met with many if you get what I mean.  There are some grand people out here. 

Well, hopefully next week I have more to report on.  Life is good, my comp is great, missionary life is crazy, and I'm lovin it.

Love you all!

Elder Carter V

August 29, 2016 Rapid City

Howdy all!

My new address is 2880 Belgarde Blvd. #303.

Well, obviously a lot has happened, so here's the run down!  I said a bunch more goodbyes on tuesday, then I woke up Wednesday at about 1 AM hurling my guts out, so Wednesday was spent in bed.  The nurse wanted me to go to the hospital, so I did, and they said I got a virus, which exiled me to my apartment.  Thanks to the great Elders of Bismarck and Mandan, I was well taken care of.  They went to the store and got me all the supplies I needed.  After a little, I started to feel better, but still very weak, so in small spurts here and there, I slowly but surely packed my things in my bags.  Thursday morning I was feeling tons better, but Sister Hess didn't want me to infect the whole mission, so I didn't get to go to transfers, nor did I get transferred on that day.  It was super weird, and I felt like a bum! 

Friday was the day that we left.  I finally met my new companion (who I was supposed to meet on Wednesday), and we rode down to Rapid in the Transfer Van with the Traveling missionaries since they needed to make a trip down there anyway.  But, low and behold, I got motion sickness and was out of commission the rest of the night, and the next day wasn't any better for me.  My poor new missionary pretty much just cleaned our new apartment all day!

Sunday brought better news!  I felt tons better, and we actually did some work! 

Now, Rapid City is a cozy little tourist city.  When I say little, I mean it's small in population, but it seems huge to me!  I feel like I'm in a huge city when I drive through it, but really it is pretty small.  It is absolutely beautiful country out here!  Rolling hills, lots of trees, just stunning.  We are living in a 2 bedroom apartment with another companionship, which means we all sleep in one room and the other room is our study room.  It's a slumber party every night!  Our beds are practically stacked on top of each other haha!  But it is a super nice apartment.  We are staying with Elder Stapley and Elder Webb.  They are super funny.  It's never dull around our place when they are around, that's for sure.  We live out in the outskirts of town.

The ward here seems sweet, although everyone was on Vacation this week so there was almost no one there.  I don't really have a good idea of what it's like yet haha.

Fun little tidbit!  I saw someone at the church from the Gordon Branch!  It was the Tiensvolds!  It was awesome to see them!  Plus, my District Leader who I will be going on exchanges with, is now covering Gordon (the area is closed, but the missionaries in Chadron, NE cover it) so we're gonna have to go visit some folks one of these days.

As for my companion, he is the picture of a new missionary.  He has what we call "Greeny Fire".  He's so ready to go out and do work and share his testimony!  It's sweet to see!  He's also been a little under the weather though, so I don't think I have actually met the "real him" yet.  He is from Syracuse, UT, and he has been out for 3 days.

Well, that's about it.  Love you all tons!  Thanks for all the prayers!

Elder Carter V

These are the last goodbyes from Bismarck.

1)  The Forsyth's and Daniel and Kathleen (I don't know their last name, but they are awesome!)

2)  Sister Swenson

Fwd: August 23, 2016 Transfers and a surprise trip to the ER

Howdy all!

A ton happened this week!  But, when I say this week, I really just mean that the weekend was crazy, cause the rest of the week is captured in the heading.

So, me and my comp got a 3rd companion late last week named Elder Baird (and guess where he is from?!  Preston, Idaho.  That'll be my 3rd companion from Napoleon Dynamite country), and when we got him his knee was all swollen.  Well, after a while it got so swollen he couldn't walk without it hurting, and then he started getting fevers.  So, we decided it was requisite that we take him to the ER.  Low and behold, he has staff infection in his knee, and for the next 3 days (Tue - Fri) we were rotating missionaries in and out of his hospital room so the work could carry on in the Bismarck area.  The only exciting thing that happened during my shifts at the hospital was that President Hess bought E. Baird a few movies, one of them being "The Peanuts Movie".  It was so darn fun!  If you like the old TV show, you will love this movie.  If you didn't like it, don't waste your time.  It is so classic, and I loved it!

Anywho,  Aside from that, I am getting Transferred to Rapid City, SD to train a new missionary for my last 3 months!  I'm so stoked!  It's gonna be great!  Now, goodbyes are never fun, but they have their perks.  For 1, I finally got to see S again!  After 4 weeks of no contact but a very short "hello" in the car, I finally got to talk with her!  It was wonderful!  We had a good ole chat, then I had the opportunity to share my testimony with her.  

Now, before I go on, I need to make a side note.  I can finally empathize, in the smallest sense, what the prophets of old felt when they wrote about all the prayers and fasting that they put into the people they served.  In the last 2 months, I have been praying and fasting (not for the full 2 months of course) for that girl to receive this message, because I knew the joy and peace it would bring to her, and it seemed like I had seen no answer.  I have prayed harder in the last 2 months for that blessing to come upon her, then I have ever prayed before in my life.  And at the moment it seemed as if the answers wouldn't come.  But in those 2 months, I noticed a different change.  I felt a small amount of what Paul and Moroni describe as Charity, "the Pure Love of Christ".  That love for your fellow man that can come from no other source than God Himself.  I truly desired her salvation, because my Heavenly Father had blessed me so much and I wanted her to feel that as well.  I felt like God had blessed me with a small vision of who she was, and who she could become.  I felt like I had finally come to know that she was truly my sister, and I wanted to see her in that glorious state that is waiting for those who are faithful to the end.  As I grew in that sense, I felt something else I had never felt before.  I felt torn apart that she wasn't striving to learn about the thing that had brought me so much joy, and that I knew could change her life for the better.  And it seemed like I wouldn't be there to see what happened.

But!  God truly does answer prayers, and they are answered in His own way, and in His own time.  I may not have seen the result I was hoping for, but it was definitely an answered prayer.  As I bore my testimony, I felt the Spirit working through me.  As I shared what I knew to be true, the Spirit filled the room, and everyone in there felt it too.  Now, I don't know yet what effect it will have on her, but I truly believe that it will have a grand effect on her in the near future.  

As for the rest of my goodbyes, it was hard to say goodbye to the A family.  I'm gonna miss them so much.  I love them so dearly.  It has been so great to serve with them!

Other exciting things that happened, we got to pick corn for the food bank at a local farm, and I got to attend N endowment (N is someone I served around in Valley City), which was a special experience for sure!  He was so happy that day!

I'm truly gonna miss it here in Bismarck.  It may not be the "promised land", but it's the closest thing I've found yet (there's my North Dakot'n accent coming out).  

I love you all dearly!  Hope all is well!

Elder Carter V

1) E. Baird in the Hospital.

2-3) Here's my District goodbye pictures

4-14) More goodbyes

August 15, 2016 Adversity - A novel

Forewarning, I wrote a ton in this email, so sorry, but not sorry haha!

Update on the A's, all is well.  They are doing just amazing.  We finished teaching H the Plan of Salvation, and he asked us what to do when we feel like we can't be forgiven of a sin.  So, we explained the Atonement in greater detail.  We told him that "Christ payed it all.  Every last bit.  The price is payed, He took it all on Himself.  Not most of it, not all but the last few coins.  All of it.  It doesn't matter what we have done.  It is finished."  Then he got this thoughtful look on his face, then asked "so....  does that mean that we choose the right so that we don't cause him more pain?"  We were both just amazed.  May I just say, there is nothing like seeing a man who looks like he is made out of steel, tear up as he comes to understand the gift of the Atonement and how we can show our appreciation for that amazing gift.  I absolutely love that man and his family.  I have been so blessed to get to know them!  

On Saturday we went to Minot for a baptism for a man named C.  He is someone that E. Kane taught while in Minot, and it was so special to go to meet him.  He was so happy!  This man had quite the testimony, and it was nice to get to hear it.  

Alrighty!  On to the subject!  Hope you enjoy my studies from this last week.

This week I was studying about adversity.  This has been a topic that has been coming up all over the place lately, so I hope I can share some of my thoughts with you.  First off, we all experience trials, and that is a part of our life.  Before we came here, we knew that we would go through adversity, but despite that, we still shouted for joy at the prospect!  We were excited not only for the good, but for the bad.  In James 1, he begins his epistle by saying "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."  

Christ showed us the perfect example in everything.  We know He was perfect.  He never sinned.  But do we truly understand what it means to be perfect?  Does that mean that he never dropped something, that he never stumbled or stubbed his toe?  Did he know how to play every instrument perfectly?  Could he execute every play in a play book perfectly?  I don't think so.  what we know about His childhood is found in Luke 2; 40, 52.  "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him." "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man."  He too had to learn from experience.  He had to increase in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.  It didn't just come because he was God's son.  It came because He worked at it.  So with that in mind, what if I were hammering in a nail right next to Jesus, who was doing the same thing, and we both smashed our finger at the same time.  That doesn't take away from his divinity at all, but what would make my action imperfect and His perfect?  His reaction to the pain.  I might start cussing and slapping the table, probably get frustrated, but how would He react?  Not too sure, but I've got a vague idea.  He would probably react perfectly.  Whatever that looks like haha!  And with that in mind, we can take His councel to the children of Lehi.  "Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am." (3 Nephi 27:27)

So how do we do that?  Good question.  I've got a few ideas.  Paraphrasing John Bytheway, one of the ways we can endure our trials and endure them well is to "reverse our 'buts'".  Mormon gives a prime example of this in Chapter 2 of the Book of Mormon in the Book of Mormon (inception).  To set the stage, Mormon is a young man (I think about 20ish?) who was asked to lead the armies of the Nephites against the Lamanites.  The Lamanites way out number the Nephites, and they beat the Nephites in the first few battles.  Mormon this whole time is crying repentance to the people, but they won't listen.  They are too hard hearted.  He begins to see prophecy fulfilled, specifically, the downfall and soon to be complete genocide of the Nephite people.  Then, they have their first couple successes.  There were many casualties, and the people begin to appear as if they would repent as they lamented the passing of their dead.

"And it came to pass that when I, Mormon, saw their lamentation and their mourning and their sorrow before the Lord, my heart did begin to rejoice within me, knowing the mercies and the long-suffering of the Lord, therefore supposing that he would be merciful unto them that they would again become a righteous people.  But behold this my joy was vain, for their sorrowing was not unto repentance, because of the goodness of God; but it was rather the sorrowing of the damned, because the Lord would not always suffer them to take happiness in sin.  And they did not come unto Jesus with broken hearts and contrite spirits, but they did curse God, and wish to die."  (Mormon 2:12-14)

What a horrible image!  He knows that these people are going to be destroyed because of their pride, and it seems as if there is nothing he can do about it.  He knows that the war he is waging is going to end in the death of everyone he loves and holds dear.  Talk about adversity.  So how does he respond?  "And wo is me because of their wickedness; for my heart has been filled with sorrow because of their wickedness, all my days; nevertheless, I know that I shall be lifted up at the last day." (verse 19)  How does he know this?  I would guess for the same reason that Nephi did in chapter 4.  "And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted.  My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions...  Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation."

Mormon reversed his "buts" as did Nephi, although it would probably be more appropriate to say they reversed their "nevertheless"s.  So when we are tempted to look at our trials and emphasize the bad, we need to look for the good.  As a missionary, we run into the same issue all the time.  That issue is, someone finally commits, they are progressing in the Gospel and growing from it, then all of a sudden life gets crazy.  Family threatens to disown them for affiliation with the church.  Work doubles their hours.  They get evicted.  Whatever it might be, something always happens to get in the way.  We can look at it in a poor light, emphasizing all the bad, or we can reverse our "buts" or "nevertheless"s and say "You know, that stinks, but it is evidence that this is the truth, cause obviously there is someone trying to keep it from happening."  Adversity is evidence that we are on the right path.  So are we going to act, or be acted upon?  Are we going to use it as the stumbling block to blame our short comings on?  Or will we use it as a stepping stone to become who God knows we can become?  The choice is ours to make.  

Well, hope you enjoyed my thoughts.  It's probably scrambled cause time isn't something I have a whole lot of.  Love you all tons!  Hope you are a wonderful week!

Elder Carter V

P.S.   I promise I had permission to email today.  Our P-day got cut short yesterday, so we had to finish emailing today.

August 8, 2016 Elder Soarez, Elder Stacey, and the Definition of a Mormon.

Well, I wish I had more to update on S, but all I can say is she doesn't respond to our calls or texts, and the times we stop in we don't get to do anything with them, whether teach or help cause the work is almost done and down to only having 1 paint roller and 1 brush, so that role is filled before we even get there.  So, we don't know what happened.  We're pretty upset, but hopefully once the house is done maybe we can get back in.  Please pray for us to!  She needs it so bad.

I once heard that the definition of a Mormon was one going to, coming from, or preparing for a meeting.  That about raps up my week!  Preparing for meetings, going to meetings, and cleaning up after meetings.  But they were sweet meetings, for sure!  Here goes the readers digest condensed version.

First!  On Wednesday we had Zone Conference which was just great.  Loved it!  Learned so much, saw a bunch of missionaries that I haven't seen in a while, and all in all, it was just great.  

Friday was the best though!  Elder Soares of the Presidency of the 70 and Elder Stacey of the Area 70 came to speak to the leadership of the mission, and man, was it just amazing.  First off, nothing beats listening to a guy with a Brazilian accent.  Second, E. Soares is a spiritual giant.  I learned so much from him!  I finally feel like I can make a difference in the lives of those around me.  He got me so pumped, and the funny thing is it wasn't from his words, but from the way I felt.  That is the true sign of how great a man he is.  It wasn't him that taught me, it was the Spirit, who he invited to be present by his preparation and his prayers and fasting on our behalf.  I couldn't begin to tell you about all the things they taught us cause there was a lot, but it was really just awesome.  

Aside from meetings, we hardly saw anyone.  The A's are doing great!  L and C are back, and it was a blast to see them!  I got to help someone put siding on their house, which that was an adventure, but a good thing to know!  Now, if I need to side another house, I know how!  Woopie.

Well, sorry it's short.  That's about it.

Love ya!  

Elder Carter V