True happiness comes when you make others happy.

Week 7

Well, A's baptism was amazing! Her husband baptized her and he decided he is gonna totally change his life!! So, J dropped us. He basically told us that when we teach him, he understands some things, and others just don't make sense to him because he doesn't think he is educated enough, so he gets frustrated and angry, and he doesn't want to put up with it anymore. We still see him periodically and say hi, but that's about it. M didn't come to church, but she does like meeting with us. She said that she doesn't want to convert but she loves our company and "she loves talking about Jesus!" J didn't understand that the experience in Priesthood was an answer, but in my email to President, he said to ask him "If prophets weren't important as God's connection to his children why would he call them?" Words of wisdom, for sure! This week wasn't very productive in a teaching sense. All of the lessons we had planned bailed on us, so we made other appointments, and we spent half the week in Jamestown. On Wednesday we had District Meeting, and we shop after district meeting since we don't have anywhere to shop in VC (We have special permission to do so, no worries), and that takes up most of the day, so we got back and did as much as we could. Friday was A's baptism and we had to get there 2 hours early to fill the font, then the baptism started at 6, and afterwards some members took us out to dinner, than it was time to get home. Saturday was another baptism of an 8 year old boy, which also took a while, and afterwards we did some service. Sunday we had to be to church early for Ward Council, and after church we did our studies than did weekly planning, and had our meals in there as well. We didn't get to leave the apartment yesterday because of the crazy schedule changes. It was miserable, but we got our planning done, which needed to be done, considering the week had just started haha!

Well, the weather has been a little better. There still isn't a lot of snow on the ground, but it stays pretty chilly most of the time.

So, this last couple of weeks I've realized how much I miss my music.... like, a lot... I was reminiscing about the time I sang with Johnny and Mckay, and I wanted to cry! that's the first time I've been truly home sick (I love the rest of you too, but this hit me hard that day haha). Than I started thinking about choir, and band, and Provo, than I went farther back to Bethel, and band and choir there, and man.... That was a ruff day. I miss singing "Sure on this Shining Night" with the Chamber boys, and I could just go on and on, but I won't. I didn't really how hard it could actually be, but, it's so worth it! There really isn't anything like dedicating you life to the Lord, and helping others come closer to Jesus Christ, and seeing how happy they are as they make that journey. True happiness comes when you make others happy. Nothing else really compares. Man, I love this work!!!

Ok, I'm done!! Here are more quotes (well.... quote....)!

"How much wiser and better it is for man to accept the simple truths of the gospel... and to accept by faith those things which he... cannot understand." - President N. Eldon Tanner, General Conference Ensign 1968, 49

Well, I love you all and hope all is well back home(s)!

Elder Carter V

P.S. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but there is a talk by Brad Wilcox called "His Grace" I believe. That talk is absolutely amazing, and I encourage you all to listen to it!

STUPENDOUS!!

Week 6!!!!!

So, the function of my new ward isn't too shabby. We're pretty small, but we keep up, from what I know. All of the classes are small, but I think we have someone in every class. I may be wrong, but I think the High Priests meet with the Elders quorum.... Don't quote me on that. My Bishop, Bishop Garr, is awesome. He does a fantastic job. The ward mission leader is amazing!!!! His only problem is he works at the ER in Fargo and works mostly night shifts, so he's never awake during the day... We've taken him to a couple lessons though, and they went STUPENDOUS! He knows so very much, but he knows how to share what he knows in a way that everyone will understand. He's funny too haha. We do not have ipads, but man would it be nice if we did! We could just show people videos left and right! Every week we get an hour of media time. We get to go to the library and watch talks or read them or whatever we want on mormon.org mormonchannel.org or lds.org. It's way nice because you can use those things in other lessons. Once every 2 weeks we get an extra hour to do family history work, which is pretty cool. I would like it better if there was someone who knew what they were doing who could help me haha!

Well, this week was pretty nice weather wise, it stayed in the 20's until Friday it all the sudden dropped to -7, plus a wind chill, and Saturday the wind chill was down to -35, and Sunday bounced between -30 and -50 just depending on how hard the wind was blowing... It was insanely cold, and we couldn't go outside unless we had an appointment. Thank goodness we did for most of the day...

Update on A! She is getting baptized this Friday by her Husband!!! We are super excited, cause this is the first step for them to have an eternal family!!!! S, her husband, started having heart attack symptoms, went to the ER, and found out he had an artery that was spasming, and had they not come when they did, he would have died that night. Keep them in your prayers!

J came to church yesterday and our lesson in Priesthood was all about the importance of Prophets. Revelation through church attendance? I think so. He's still doing pretty good, just struggles with why we need to keep certain commandments and how we know they are commanded from God and not man. 

MG, an older woman we were helping quit smoking, came to church too, and she actually bore her testimony!!! It was awesome! But, at the same time, we all had a pretty good laugh... She likes to tell stories about how God has helped her in her life, which is awesome! But, in most of them, she ends up screaming "HELP ME JESUS!!!" So, as she was walking up to the pulpit, E. Wright leans over and says "You don't think she's gonna yell Jesus do you?" And low and behold, she did. Everyone was awake afterwards though!! And it was a great testimony and the spirit was strong there. She is a wonderful lady!!

Jm: we haven't been able to get a hold of till about an hour ago. He was at the library and we talked to him for a bit. He was smiling and happy the whole time. He told us that he decided to change his life, to become happier and to help others be happier. He said he is done moping around. He is so awesome! He has a nice smile too! it's amazing how just a few plain and precious truths that were lost and now have been revealed through modern prophets can change someones life so completely. He decided he would come to church with us next week, and I think he is going to love it!

K and D are the same. We took the Ward mission leader, Bro. Kauffmen, to their lesson. That man knows so much! and he knows how to share it too! that lesson was the best we've ever had with them!

J M just back from vacation and we meet with her tomorrow, so we'll see how she's doing.

Well, I can honestly say that I am ready for spring. It's way too cold and no one is out on the streets, and they just want to close their doors even faster than usual. but hey! They say that the sun rises about 5 and sets about 9, so there is tons of day light all summer!!!! I'm super excited for that!

Well, we went tracting in an apartment complex and only 2 doors were answered. And we got 2 return appointments. One of them knew one of the members, and the other said he was a former Lutheran, but now he's atheist and not really interested in religion. We told him our message is very unique, that God hasn't ceased to speak to men today, and as we kept talking he started to get really interested. Come to find out, his girlfriends mom is LDS, but she's never tried to talk to him about it, and he said he respected that because so many people try to force their religion on you. it was a good contact! We're stopping by tomorrow to follow up and teach him about the Restoration.

Man, time flies. I gotta go! Thank you all for your letters and cards and all your love!

Elder Carter V

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

Week.... 5? yeah... Week 5...

Every day is kinda running together now....So forgive my shortness.

So, in answer to some questions. K pretty much dropped us. It used to be that she would always answer calls or texts, or even call or text us, but once I got here and Elder A left, she lost interest... So, we've tried to keep in touch and keep teaching her, but she never responds. It's not snowing, in fact it's all melting. It's been super foggy for the last 2 weeks! I think it's beautiful, but everyone else hates it haha!

Next question. Yes, there are a lot of Christian folk around here, mostly Lutheran. Yes! Lot's of good Christian people!

The snow here is almost gone, and there has been an almost constant fog for the last 2 weeks! Every once in a while it will get lower than 32, but not for long. It's kind of weird.

I loved the package, but I had trouble reading some names. Thanks to all of you!! It means a lot.

I talked in church yesterday, and it went quite well! 

Sorry this letter is so short.... Not a lot happened this week... Lots of finding and meetings...

Here are my quotes:

"Our freedom is limited by our conduct. Obedience to law is liberty." - Hugh B. Brown, BYU Devotional.

"The fundamental principles of our religion [are] the testimony of the apostles and prophets concerning Jesus,... 'That he died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended up into heaven,' and all other things are only appendages to these, which pertain to our religion." - Joseph Smith, Elders Journal, July 1838, 44.
Elder Carter V

Jumping right in with the culture of North Dakota! Alligator. Yum!

So, our car has no heater unless we drive faster than 60 MPH.

3rd week in the field! (or my month mark! Not that I'm counting down, but hey! it's a milestone!)

So, funny thing about staying warm (that's what everyone tells me in their letters), is it's been light jacket weather the last few days!!! I walked around with just my suit, not even a sweater, for the last few days!! I thought it was in the 50's or something! But, low and behold... It was 34. We had a sister in our ward just get back from her mission in Brazil, right on the Amazon, and she kept getting mad at all of us ("us" being the ward) because we were all talking about how warm it was, and she would say "THIS IS NOT WARM!!!!! I'M FREEZING OVER HERE! You people need to learn what warm really is, cause this is not it!" Most of the snow has melted, and it's been really foggy the last few days. I love the fog. i think it's cool.

This week was... interesting. My first week we had a ton of people to teach, my second week was a little less, and this week we hardly taught any lessons. J got a new job, and our other investigators had plans or got sick XD 

So, our car has no heater unless we drive faster than 60 MPH, so we tried to find someone to help us out (with the missions approval, of course). No one in Valley City could help, so we called a dealership in Jamestown, who said we could bring it in on Saturday. So we left early in the morning, dropped it off at the dealership, and a member picked us up and took us to the Christmas breakfast. Afterwards, we helped the sisters in our ward move from Oakes (it's about 2 hours south of us) to Jamestown, and that took almost all day. Once we were done, we went to get our car, and there was a manufacturers error, so they fixed it for free!! Yay!

So, for all you Mistborn nerds out there, there is a place here called "Ellendelle" (it might be Ellendale... I don't quite know). Just a fun little tidbit.

We went tracting yesterday and I had my first door closed in my face!!! It was great! The lady opened the door, I asked how she was doing, and before she had finished saying "good" she closed the door. Not 10 minutes later we walked to another apartment right when another lady was getting out of her car. She saw us, and started speed walking to her door, extending her hand backwards, waving at us and said "don't come to my door! Do not come to my door!" and she closed it really fast. I never thought that 2 teenagers in suits were so scary. Maybe I had something on my face. Maybe it WAS my face! I'm a pretty intimidating guy, what with my huge biceps and shoulders that take up where my neck is supposed to be. Riiiiiigggghhhhttttt (in a very "Kronk"-ish voice).

Sooooo..... I think I'm gonna start sharing quotes, because I love quotes, and there is no one to share them with ( my companion hears them during comp study, but that doesn't count)! This weeks quotes:

"Mistakes of the past don't define you, they refine you." - some EFY song... no idea what year or what it's called.

"What is prayer if not creation? Making something where nothing existed. Creating a wish out of despair, a plea out of anguish. Bowing one's back before the Almighty, and forming humility from the empty pride of a human life.

Something from nothing. True creation." - Navani Kholin, "The Way of Kings", by Brandon Sanderson. 

"I do not wish any Latter Day Saint in this world, nor in heaven, to be satisfied with anything I do, unless the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, - the spirit of revelation, makes them satisfied. I wish them to know for themselves and understand for themselves." - Quoted by Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorom of the Twelve Apostles. Original quote by Brigham Young, "Sermon," Deseret News, Oct. 31, 1855.

"God will not act to make us something we do not choose by our actions to become." - Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorom of the Twelve Apostles.

"The good spoken of the Joseph Smith cam slowly; the evil speaking began immediately.  Joseph wrote, 'How very strange it was that an obscure boy ... should be thought ... of sufficient importance to attract ... the most bitter persecution'." - Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorom of the Twelve Apostles.

"I know that it is not a popular thing to teach, that a backwoods boy from Vermont, reared in New England, and trained on the frontier is a prophet. But, popular or not, it is a fact." - Found on mormonchannel.org under "Stories from General Conference"

"Choosing something bad over something worse is still choosing wrong." - Elder Jorg klebingat of the Quorom of the Seventy.

"Often trials and tribulations are allowed to come into [your life] because of what [you] are doing right." - Glenn L. Pace, "Crying with the Saints".

"I also know that although I may not be my brother's keeper, I am my brother's brother, and 'because I have been given much, I too must give'." - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorom of the Twelve Apostles.

Most of these exerpts are taken from the November, 2014, General Conference issue of the Ensign. Read it! It is so good!!! Next week I won't have as many quotes, cause this is all the quotes for the last month..... Thanks for letting me share them haha!

Well, that's about the extent of my week... Not a lot happened... sorry guys! Love and miss you all!
Elder Carter V

He wanted a Red Rider BB Gun. You'll shoot your eye out, Kid.

"He is the Gift"

Alright, I'm playing catch up... weeks 2-7 will be up soon!

If you would like to receive notification every time we add a letter to the blog, please message me with your e-mail!

Sydnie

Week 2!

Well, in answer to many questions: My ward building is in Jamestown, about 30 minutes away, it became a ward the week before I arrived. Our ward bounderies are a large chunk of the west side of ND! It's crazy big! We have a set of sister missionaries in our ward too, cause it's that big an area! There are about 150 I think? It's smaller than my Provo ward... maybe about the size of Shawnee ward? sorry if I miss some of them.... I'm kinda rushing through so that I still have time!!! Just keep reminding me about them haha!

So, this weeks update!! Lots more missionary work haha! If you haven't noticed, the church bought out the advertisements on youtube and are advertising "He is the Gift". It is amazing. I feel the spirit so strongly every time I watch it! That has been our main focus this week, is introducing that. I invite all of you to share it with friends and family! It's a non-denominational video, so everyone will love it!

So, update on J. He has a firm testimony in the Book of Mormon! We were talking to him about President Thomas S. Monson as being our prophet on the earth today, and he was kind of skeptical. We invited him to pray and ponder about having a prophet on the earth, and he said he would. We set up an appointment with him for the next day, and about 2 hours before, he calls us. Before we could say more than "Hey J" he bursts out and says "I know there is a prophet on the earth today!" He prayed, and decided he would flip open to the scriptures randomly, and the scripture that he opened to was 3 Nephi 8. Somehow that scripture spoke to him and he was sooooooo excited that God had called a prophet today! He said he doesn't quite know who it is yet, but he knows there is one. We're gonna watch some conference talks with him, specificly ones with the Prophet speaking, and see what his reaction is!

Well, each week we get an hour of "media time" which is time to go to the library and use the internet to watch church videos or read talks. pretty much anything on church websites. I was watching a bunch of mormon messages, and one that I absolutely loved was called "men's hearts shall fail them". It was amazing. Absolutely amazing.

In my studies, I've been noticing something that keeps popping up. In the Ensign Dec. issue, there is a talk about "the answer to all the hard questions". The answer to every hard question is a question as well, and that is "Do I trust God more than everyone else?" There are so many rumors spread about the church, and it causes people of great faith to fall away, because they forgot what they believed in and forgot WHO they believed in. This week I was in a lesson with a couple who had a lot of questions, and they were all the crazy ones that are assumptions and half truths. When we explained to the best of our ability, they wouldn't accept the answer. It made me think of what my MTC teacher taught. She drew a stick figure, and had dots on the board, than started to draw circles and it started to look like a solar system. She said that each dot is doctrine. The circles are our level of understanding. We first have to gain a testimony (which is absolutely KEY) of the close dots, which are God and the love he has for all mankind, Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice so that we can live with our Heavenly Father again, and that God loved us enough to restore the church of Jesus Christ on the earth once again through a humble 14 year old boy who had enough faith to do as it says in James, which is to "ask of God". Once we learn, we must pray to know for ourselves, having faith that God will reveal to us the truth of these things. Once we know of these truths, then our understanding widens, and we learn about these other dots. If we try to learn about the dots way off in the distance, if we try to expand our level of understanding prematurely, we will not understand because we don't have that foundational understanding. People talk about "deep doctrine." There is no such thing. Doctrine is basic, but what is basic for one, passes another's understanding. There are things that we won't understand, but there is one who knows everything. When you put your trust in God, and God alone, than nothing else matters, because He will Never, let me say it again, NEVER, lead us astray. Follow president Uchtdorf's counsel, and doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. as we continue to live God's commandments, he continues to bless us. Often times we wont see those blessings till much later. Remember that God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son, and Abraham didn't question him, but did as commanded. He had no idea why he was commanded to do that, but he trusted the Lord. He was blessed, and was taught, and we are blessed by his example. 

Ok, I'm getting off my soap box (for now hehe). Sorry if it was kind of scatter brained XD

So, Christmas devotional?! Yeah?! Wasn't it great?! Now I know why every missionary I've ever talked to says that general Conference is so great, and this wasn't even Conference!!!

Well, gotta go! I would love to hear from everyone! I may not respond very fast, but I will eventually for sure!

I love and miss you all!!!!

Elder Carter V

He's in Dakota!

He's in Dakota now! 

Elder Carter called the family from the Denver Airport on Monday the 24th. Little did we know, he would call again in a few hours! We;;, I'll let him tell you why.  We are so happy to hear from him! Missionary Mondays are the BEST!

**Due to Privacy reasons, the investigators names have been changed** (The Adams Family is the same... He liked that joke. :D )

So, Monday at 3:30 a.m. they crammed a bunch of missionaries going to the airport on 2 charter buses. We got to the airport and half of us got the "random alarm" as we go through the metal detector. As we were going through security they swiped these bandaid-like-thingies on our hands to check for explosives. One of the elders with us, Elder White, passed (of course) but when he went to give them his ID (which was a copy of his paper permit back home) they didn't accept it, so he had to go through a deep pat down, and validation of records, and they checked everything for traces of explosives, and his shoes tested positive!!! Which made the process take even longer.... But when they tested again nothing came from it... I still don't understand how that works. Well, we flew to Denver, had an hour lay over, got on the next plane to Rapid city, and once we arrived we just kinda circled above the clouds for about 30 minutes, than the pilot comes over the speaker, saying we were running out of gas and had to return to Denver. Elder Tautaiolefue about wet himself at that, and we all had a good laugh! When we got back to Denver, we tried to book the next flight, but all the flights for the day were being cancelled because of the weather in Rapid City. After much tribulation, we finally got to a hotel, stayed the night, and went back to the airport. Can I just say that Denver Airport is about the size of most cities?! It's HUGE!!!! Trying to get out of there was like trying to write with your toe nail!!! It's possible, but man is it a pain in the behind!!!

Anyway, after that beautiful metaphor... I am in a tiny place called Valley City, North Dakota! We had a very brief training with the Anderson's since we were late, than stayed the night in the mission home, than took what they call "the transfer train", which is 2 11 passenger vans with a trailer, one travels north on an interstate and the other travels East on another interstate, then they eventually pass each other where the other interstates cross, and head back to the mission home, all the while stopping to drop off and pick up missionaries being transferred. It's an all day event for most people. I finally met my trainer at about 5:30 when we stopped in a city called Jamestown. We then hopped in our car and drove to VC (Valley City). I took a little less than an hour to get to our appointment, which was dinner with a member family that reminded me of the Miners! So, being thanksgiving, we couldn't do much proselyting since all of our investigators had plans, so we met with a few members in our area and did service! We had Thanksgiving at the Kauffmens' house (Jackie, I missed your stuffing.... so very much... not that Sister Kauffmen's wasn't good, but it definitely wasn't yours....), then set up their Christmas tree.

Well, that was my first full 24 hours!! My apartment is in the basement of the Adam's family (haha). It's a cozy little place, except for the bathroom, which has no source of heat but a little heater on the floor. Every time I take a shower, it takes everything I've got to take off my clothes!! It's so cold in there! Anyways, my trainers name is Elder Wright from Idaho Falls. He's great! he keeps apologizing for not doing very much missionary work, but I understand since it's crazy with thanksgiving stuff going on. On Friday I met my first investigator! His name is Jake. He's from LA California! He reminds me of Brad Waddell if he were 6'2" and black. We're also teaching a girl named Keri. She's doing really well with reading and praying about the BoM, but she's afraid to come to church cause she doesn't want to be judged for her piercings and tattoos. She needs prayers!

Well, my first morning my comp and I went for a run. It was -16 plus a wind chill of who knows how much. Everything stayed warm, thanks to my thermals, except for my eyes and nose. After a few minutes of running and breathing through my fancy scarf thing that I got in my package, my humid breath froze on the outside of it and I couldn't breath through it anymore.... That was ruff XD When we got back to the apartment our eye lashes had frozen, and my glasses had a layer of ice on them as well..... Can I just thank my wonderful mother for making me buy all that warm stuff? There isn't really a place to buy something more than maybe a sweater.... The nearest Walmart is about an hour away.

So, Monday is P-Day, and we get 2 hours to email. 

849 Hanna Ave. Valley City, ND 58072 is my address, so send me good stuff!!

J. Adam's, son of the above Adam's Family (I think I just like saying that) was taking the discussions before he was baptized because his parents wanted him to make the choice, and to go into it knowing that it is the right thing to do, and he was baptized! Funny thing is we got to the church and the font started to fill, then just stopped all of a sudden. The entire church had no water, and we assumed the pipes had frozen. Elder Wright, just as a joke, turns to Bro. Adams and says "we could call a  hotel and do it in their pool!" and Bro. Adams looks at him, pulls his phone out, and looks up the closest hotel to the church. So, we then started the services, hopped in our cars, drove about 15 minutes away, went to the pool (the hotel had closed it for us) and J. was baptized in a pool that had a huge twisty slide at the other end! One thing is for sure, that he will never forget his baptism!

Well.... That's about it for this week... I probably missed something.....

Love you all!!!! Don't have too much fun without me!

Elder Carter 5th

Alright y'all, you heard the lad. Send him some good stuff!

Elder Carter and Elder Andrew. Old friends from childhood.

Everyone calling home before they leave to Dakota!

It's blurry, but check out that air! Boy can jump!