Deaf Dude, Christ & Happiness

So on request from my mother, this is gonna be a looooong email. Let me start at last week, the Wednesday before Christmas, we were tracking in an area and trying to find out where a Former Investigator lived. While we were walking and knocking, a pit bull and a bulldog came up and started licking us to death. We were kinda nervous because of the pit bull but he turned out to be a friendly dog. They followed and jumped on us for a few hundred yards at least. While they were with us, we stopped to talk to a nice man named D. He was deaf, I forgot how much sign language I actually knew. The words were just flowing through my hands, I thought of the sign and they did it. I was so very excited after our conversation. He kept asking if they were our dogs, but we ended up talking about the gospel and I figured out that he is actually from Utah. He is a baptist, he is only a baptist because the pastor signs while he talks. He wasn't too interested in the gospel but he wanted me to come back just because he was really excited to see that someone else could sign. I was really happy to because it is exhilarating to speak in another language. I really want to be transferred to an ASL missionary, I heard that there is a deaf ward in Palmdale but we dont have signing missionaries over there.

Christmas day was the coolest experience EVER! We went to see some investigators who had actually made me German Potatoes, they got the recipe off the internet. I almost cried I was so happy, German Potatoes are my trunky food haha. They made them for us and we just talked about life, we heard lots of gang stories from them. They are both from the bay area so they have some sketchy stories to tell!

 We then went over to the Leroy's house to visit them because she was having a very bad day, we went over there to cheer her up and found that she had tricked us into coming over. She wanted us to come over because she had Christmas gifts for us. She made me chocolate chip cookies, and bought me a coat. A NICE COAT!!!!! I flipped out cause it was awesome, it helps so much because it gets really really cold at night and in the mornings. During the day is has gotten around 50 or 60 but it gets down into the teens at night. So this whole month I have just been running everywhere because Im freezing and wanna keep moving, but now I have a coat so I can actually enjoy night time. The winter stars are my favorite, I can pick out a lot more constellations and cool stuff in the sky!

 I may have told everyone this already but our main investigators B and Z, asked me last week if I would baptize them. I of course said yes but I was so thrilled and excited! I also learned that day, that Zac wanted to serve a mission. He is 21 right now and wouldnt be able to go for another year, but still! I was so excited to hear that, he would have to be sent somewhere cold because he has tattoos everywhere, but Im still excited for him.

 I went on exchanges last friday, we went with the Spanish Elders. Elder C went with Elder A (the DL) and I stayed in Rosamond with Elder G (DLB) Honestly me and Elder G talked about girls the entire day. Nothing else, just girls, it was kind of nice to take a break! We met this guy named shawn who literally just wanted to bible bash with us. I dont like bashing, because it doesnt build faith, it only tears it down. However, bashing is a big temptation sometimes because people can be so stupid! I have started using the Book of Mormon for that though. (which in turn frustrates people more, but it doesnt tear down thier faith in christ) Every concern anyone could have with our church can be resolved in the Book of Mormon. every single one!

 Last week on monday we went gold mining. We actually found a few gold flakes! We also went into this huge tunnel that this little midget dude made. It is a half mile long, but it is not meant for tall people! It was super sketchy because there were all these lead off tunnels that people would go smoke weed in.They all smelled like weed, it isnt a great smell.

 So that is all the significant things that happened in the last two weeks. The other events are just tracting and trying to find more people to teach. I hope yall had a Merry Christmas, and hope yall have a Happy New Year! Love you guys!

 Elder Taylor Carper

Following Promptings

My main goal of writing a group letter is to let all of you know about some of my cool experiences.  One in particular was super awesome.  One of our investigators, B, is a super lady who is on a 60 foot oxygencord in her house.  Her grandsom, Z, is messed up.  He is a super good 21 year old dude who had a horrible childhood and doesn't really trust us very much.  Last Thursday, we had a rainstorm and the power went out in the whole city.  We had a prompting to go check on B because when the power goes out, so does her  oxygen.  We drove over at like 9:45 and realized quickly that it was Z who needed us.  He was really stressed, and once he realized how much we truly loved him and B, he opened up to us like never before.  We gave him a blessing and left.  Eveer since, he has kept all his commitments and desires to be baptized.  I just think it's super cool to see how The Lord works!  I wanted to share that with all of you.:)  Being able to recognize and follow promptings of the Spirit is probably my favorite part of being a missionary.  Good things ALWAYS happen when you follow a prompting form the Spirit!

Love,
Elder Carper

Best Week Ever!

This past week has easily been the best week of my mission so far. It started out super solid last monday, I got a package from my parents for Elder H's birthday. I got chocolate chip cookies! I was really happy about that! We went to do our laundry at a members house and she gave us both a bunch of rolls, candy, and pie! The next day was our temple day, we drove an hour and a half down to the LA temple. I honestly have never been so scared while in a car in my life! I also have never seen so many nice cars... Anyways, we finally got to the temple and it was HUGE!! We went into the visitors center and talked to the sisters in there. One is from Syracuse, I didnt know her but we knew the same people. In the temple, instead of staying in one room, we actually moved from room to room as we were in the different stages. It was really cool. We went to the distribution center and it was the size of my closet back home. So we just ordered everything we needed! We stopped at Denny's on the way home in LA and the Server guy had a rolex on, we were a little confused but its LA so whatever! Thursday was thanksgiving day, we started the day out well! At 1130 am we had a ward Turkey Bowl game, it was super lame that I had to play with the Old dudes in the Elders Quorum. I realized today why Elder H was only a linemen...that kid cannot run to save his life. After the football game, we had 4 dinners planned. We tried to budget what we ate in the first three so that we didn't die in the 4th dinner. Ya it did not go as planned...our 4th dinner canceled on us and I almost cried because I was so happy! I was soo ridiculously full! Good food though! The members gave Elder H and I 2 pumpkin pies, an apple pie, 2 cans of cool whip, and a tub of Vanilla Ice cream. We are pretty well taken care of! Here are some of the pictures from the temple! I love you guys and hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Elder Carper

There are a lot of pictures but ya its all awesome!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Things I am thankful for:  Taco Bell, mt dew, toilet paper, sports, news, members, FEBREEZE, being in a car, having a bike, short sleeve shirts, dry weather, trees....basically anything green.  I'm grateful for clouds, especially rain.  I am extremely thankful for email, computers, phones and skype.  I am grateful for the Spirit and the opportunity I have to see Him work inside of people and allow them to change through the atonement.  I am thankful for spiritual experiences and for promptings.  I am grateful to be able to ear a nametag and serve His mission.  I am especially grateful for family, it's hard being away from home especially during TG and Christmas.  The members are doing a lot to help us out though so that is nice.  I would go into more detail, but you know I hate cheesiness so I'm leave it at family.  Thank you specifically Mom for taking such good care of me while I'm out here.  You honestly have no idea how nice it is to have a Mom like you.  Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

-Elder Carper

November 18, 2013

Taylor's warts are finally gone and he has recovered. (See gross picture on previous post.)  He writes this week:

This week has been both hard and awesome! It started out slow because I still could not walk. Once Wednesday hit then I was able to start walking and start working. It was so nice to be able to end the horrible two weeks of not being able to walk! We had ZTM on Friday that was very instructive, they taught us a lot about how we can discern the needs of the investigators. Our zone leaders are super funny, but I don't like them anymore. Specifically because I figured out they sent in a recommendation to president for me to train next transfer. I DONT WANT TO TRAIN NEXT TRANSFER. I am only 3 transfers old, and my trainer is a pile who doesn't do anything. In all seriousness I think I have taught him more about missionary work than the other way around. Which is really saying something because I don't know anything about missionary work haha. Now I figure out that I am probably going to train a brand new missionary in 2 weeks.....WHUUU? I have no idea what I'm doing and I am supposed to teach someone how. 

Anyways...The awesome part of this week was also pretty hard as well but it really strengthened my testimony! I figured out that a member (as we then thought) of our ward actually isn't a member. He was excommunicated. It explains why he said he was always busy when we went out to try and bring him to appointments, cause he was married in the San Diego temple, and went on a full time mission to Brazil. So ya that was a really huge shocker for me because I seriously loved the guy, he was hilarious and he knew the gospel exceptionally well. When I had a gospel question, I asked this guy, and then to figure out he was no longer a member of the church was heartbreaking. I spent a lot of time thinking about it and really trying to get past it, but it really hit me that I make mistakes as well. Everyone does, some peoples mistakes are a little more serious than others, but this guy is going to church every week and trying as hard as he can to come back to the church. I then gained a much greater respect for this guy, cause being humbled to the point of repentance is never the most fun thing, especially for me, I cannot imagine how hard it would be to be humbled enough to try and return after excommunication. Like I said it was a serious reminder to me about the atonement and how lucky we are to be able to repent of our mistakes. I wouldn't be here without it! All in all I look at this guy in a higher standard because of the diligence he has. Yes he made a massive mistake, but I think that when he is able to return, he is going to have a powerful testimony of the gospel, I am really excited for that to happen! 

November 4, 2013

So today marks the two month mark of my mission! I'm pretty sure I have only been out for like 2 weeks so that's pretty crazy to think about! This week has been really slow and boring, I finally got my foot fixed, but it sucks in the fact that I am not allowed to walk for more than 15 minutes a day. So I have been studying all day every day for the past 5 days. It really is not fun! The only good thing is that, like I said I can study and better myself. Now that Elder H is a district leader I can go on exchanges all the time, so we have 2 planned for this week because he knows it will be a long week other wise! 

In other news, I get to go to the temple this month! Elder H's birthday is the 25th and so we are going to the temple on the 26th. The nearest temple is the LA temple, which is like an hour away. I am super excited cause the temple is awesome! I hear that the LA temple is the second largest in the world. Right behind the Salt Lake temple because the Salt Lake temple has a ton of underground stuff.

P-days are pretty boring now because ever since the transfer, nobody comes to the Lancaster Stake Center to play basketball like they used to. I hated basketball but it was pretty fun to hang out with the other Elders in our Zone. Now we come here and email, then go shopping and then home. Not a whole lot of excitement but we are gonna figure something out! The picture I added is super nasty looking, so if you have a weak stomach then don't look. I had to change the bandage because someone stepped on it and I was bleeding everywhere!

I hope to hear from you guys soon! Ill talk to you next week!

-Elder Carper

 

Sorry for the weak stomached.  Yuck.

October 28, 2013

I got the call last Saturday that both Elder H. and I are staying! So I get to be in Rosamond until at least December 10th! So I was pretty stoked, Elder H. is super annoying, he freaking tucks me in every night! Its the most annoying thing in the entire world, here is a picture of how he usually tries to tuck me in. Its super frustrating! This week was slow, we had zone conference on Wednesday and that took unbelievably long. It was nice though, Elder Golden of the seventy came and talked to us. M., one of our investigators is really struggling, her Dad died, and she still has a problem with smoking. Its hard to meet with her because she is unpredictable, and we cant see her without a 3rd party male. We have been biking a ton lately, its pretty fun but Elder H. is not really the endurance kind of person so I have to wait for him ever 5 seconds. The work is coming along pretty well, we are involving the members a lot more. We are passing out BoMs to them like candy and they are passing them out and giving us referrals. I'm happy about it cause it means I don't have to go tracting! That part is way nice! Other than that there really isn't a whole lot to report! Hope to hear from you all soon, talk to you next week!

Elder Carper

 

As a Mom, maybe I should have tried this tactic. :)

Taylor with President and Sister Wilson

Week 5- It is good to get details since they didn't come last week.

In Taylor's words.......

First transfer is almost up! The work here is hastening, especially because of conference! Im super pumped about it, cause we now have so many referals that we do not have any time to go out and tract. Which is great cause tracting sucks. This week I went on exchanges with the zone leaders, he went to davis high. He also made sure that I knew he went to davis high, I just about killed him but I figured it would be hard to have the spirit after I kill someone.... Im just kidding he was pretty cool, we talked a lot about the rivalry and what happens in the games, it was cool to see things from his point of view! We set our other investigator, J., with a date. J. is this super ripped black dude that is a IT guy at the same time, so he is super sick! Our other investigator M. and her family, keep refusing to come to church and so we constantly have to set back their date. Yesterday we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Quinton L Cook. He came to a stake center in Palmdale just to speak with the western half of the mission! He talked a lot about teaching by the spirit. We all got to go up and shake his hand, talk about scary haha. He is way nice but it was super intimidating! We also heard from Rueben Acosta of the seventy. So all of yesterday was just a cool experience in general! Afterwards I got to be in the circle and confer the Melchezidek priesthood on a kid in the Rosamond ward named Dillon. He goes on splits with us all the time and is only a month younger than me! So that was a cool experience, he should be getting his call here within the next couple weeks! Im way stoked for him! One thing that I told my family that I figured out, is that I am not only the only 18 year old in my zone, but I am the youngest person in all of the Bakersfield CA mission. Ya I asked president and he said I was right, so ya Im the baby of the mission! Jokes on them though, I will be going home, less than a month after my 20th birthday! A lot of things happened this week, some super good, and some horrible. But all in all this week has helped me grow, and the hard things needed to happen in order for me to progress and become the missionary I wanna be. No distractions, and being able to have an eye single to the glory of God. Even though its hard, Im really excited to see what the coming weeks are gonna bring! I will talk to you all next week!

Week 4 Update

Monday, October 7th Letter

"Last friday marked the exact month that I have been out! I swear my parents kicked me to the curb yesterday at the MTC. Its crazy how fast time goes by! I have learned a lot about what goes on in missions, a lot of it is truly amazing...while some of it seriously scares me! My mom requested that I tell everybody about the ward I am in. Its basically the best ward in the history of ever. The members feed us like kings, the bishop is Bishop Meyers, he has a 16 year old daughter that my companion is basically obsessed with.......he is almost 20. The people of the ward, like I said, treat us like kings! There are several families from Utah, I dont exactly know why they came from awesome Utah...into Rosamond, cause Utah is way better! I had the opportunity to give my first priesthood blessing this week! That was like the craziest experience of my life! I had no idea why the man wanted one, but as I started the words just came out, I honestly cannot remember what I told him! Its cool to see how the spirit uses us as tools! It is the best feeling! We had ZTM this week, that was awesome, I figured out that I am the only 18 year old in my entire zone of 40 missionaries. Ya Im a boss... It also means that they had time away from home before they came, so homesickness isnt as much of an annoyance to them as it is for me. I love working though! Its so freaking tiring! I can do service work for a member all day...like honestly its easy. Although as soon as I go out tracting for 10 minutes I start falling asleep as Im walking. Its so ridiculous! Conference was the best ever, because for the first time in my life, I actually paid close attention to all 10 hours of conference! My favorite talk was President Uchdorfs in Priesthood session, I could have sworn he said Elder Carper in the talk haha. I also loved President Mckonkies talk about teaching, Elder Christoffersons talk about women. Especially President Monsons talk about his wife. I hope you guys enjoyed conference as much as I did! Its crazy now, because while in High School, Mondays were of the devil! Like I despised mondays, but now I live for Mondays cause its P-day haha. Crazy how that works now! I hope everything is working out for you guys as much as it is for me here! I love being here, its basically the best! "

For the record, Taylor ran from the car; he wasn't kicked out.  The picture from the first post supports this claim. :)

Routine is established!

September 30 Update

Taylor realizes that he didn't have mom and dad on his group address.  We are finally in the loop:

"The work just keeps getting better and better! The goal, is to get so many referrals from members that we don't have time to go out tracting (which is a very inefficient way of finding). The members are still feeding us a ton! I can literally feel my pants getting tighter....ya Im pretty excited about it haha. My new favorite thing is fruit golfing, we have a random driver in the apartment, and then we found a bunch of rotten fruit! So naturally, we went golfing! It was super fun...and messy! Actual missionary work wise, we have had some solid success this past week! We have had 3 new investigators, and we now have 5 investigators with a baptismal date! We were super excited for it! Other than that there isnt really a whole lot to report! I hope you all are doing awesome! Im trying to represent that Utah steeze over here...but when people find out that Im from Utah they laugh at me...and call me a greenie so I guess thats awesome haha! I dont understand how you can have a bad companion, cause me and Elder Howe are the exact same person! Its always so fun! Yesterday while tracting I had to say "Supercalifragilistic Expialidocious" in my door approach! As you can imagine...It didnt go well and the lady laughed and threatened to shoot us cause she hates mormons! Good times right? I really love it here! The weather is cooling off, the people are getting nicer since now not everyone has heatstroke 24 hours a day! "

Silence is broken!

After 12 days, we have finally heard from Taylor!  He is in Rosamond, California which is 20 miles west of Lancaster in the Mojave Desert.  Taylor reports, that he is "so distracted by the work that he doesn't have time to miss us guys".  The words that missionary parents want to hear.  He loves the people already and has enjoyed his first week.  Not a lot of details?  That is our complaint also.  Knowing how excited he is will be enough for now.  I am now writing a letter begging for a letter with some detail.  He says that he will send all the cool details in the big group email.  If you received one, you will have to pass it on to me at tcarper@readytek.net. 

Taylor's email is taylor.carper@myldsmail.net. 

His mission office address for letters and packages is:
California Bakersfield Mission
Attn:  Elder Taylor Carper
3512 Coffee Road Suite B
Bakersfield, CA 93308

Pictures from the MTC

Taylor left the MTC this morning.  He had emailed us briefly yesterday to tell us that he could call us from the airport.  He warned us that it would be early morning.  The phone call didn't come.  I was not going to miss it.  I stayed home from work and kept the phone charged and by my side.  By 2:30 pm I thought I would check in with my work messages, and lo and behold, there was a message from Taylor.  He had called work not my cell phone.  The missionaries made it to the SLC airport with minutes to catch their planes, and he wasn't able to call earlier like planned.  Taylor is hanging out in the Phoenix airport until tonight when he flies into Bakersfield.  The message reported that the MTC has been great these last days.  Maybe soon I will get more specific details.  Here are some pictures.

Elder Carper's First Impression

Taylor's p-day isn't until Wednesday, but he was able to send a letter home on that first day.  Here are some highlights:
"..it was unlike anything I ever expected! I walked in and I instantly loved it!  I was beyond thrilled that I got to see Jeff and he was my host......I'm pretty excited for everything!  I'm also really nervous because I have no idea of what I am supposed to be doing!  Praying a lot is going to ultimately make this easier!"
Yes, he put exclamation marks on all of those sentences.  Can't wait for an e-mail on Wednesday.

First 24 Hours as a Missionary

His face says it all.

Jeff is at Taylor's left shoulder.  Once Jeff sees Taylor, his original escort lets Jeff take over.

 

Last night was amazing.  Family came and we met with President Stevenson and Bishop Marcum for Taylor to be set apart as a missionary.  It was an amazing experience.  Taylor's countenance had changed.  He really looked like a missionary. Afterwards at home, we gathered around the table and discussed the amazing blessings that were mentioned.    This morning was long and slow for Taylor, not his parents.  Taylor was just anxious to get to the MTC.  We left plenty early to take pictures.  When we arrived at the area for pictures we were informed that the MTC wasn't rigid on the time and we could drop him off when we were ready.  We took a few pictures and Taylor was more than ready.  We dropped him off 5 minutes early and there was Elder Jeff Ball.  What a bonus!  Elder Ball escorted Taylor off to the MTC.  I didn't cry a single tear today until I got home and found that Taylor had left a letter on everyone's pillow.  I cried when I read the sweetest, sincere and thoughtful note. What a calm, sweet peace our family feels knowing that Taylor is in the right place doing the right thing because that is what he wants to do.