Highs and Lows

I am writing the blog post for Taylor this week.  His email time was spent in shock with news from home.

High:  Taylor had his first baptisms on Saturday, February 22, 2014.  B & Z were baptized.  What a miracle it was since the grandma was on oxygen.  Her sats went down to 60, but she was able to get baptized.  What a great occasion.

Low:  Taylor's grandpa (Scot's Dad) died on the same Saturday.  He was diagnosed with throat cancer right before Thanksgiving.  He was given a treatment plan and pretty good odds to beat it.  He was 90% through his radiation and chemotherapy treatment when the doctor decided he was finished with the treatment.  Poppa had to deal with shingles beside the pain from the treatments and it was time to heal.  He was nourished this whole time through a food tube.  He had a stroke which prompted a MRI.  The MRI revealed that one of the tumors kept spreading during treatment.  The cancer was in his jaw and brain.  We found out on Thursday that he was terminal.  He came home that same day, refused food and water and died Saturday at 7:45 pm.  It was quick, but what Poppa wanted. Taylor found out on Monday (yesterday) by email.

Blessings:  There are too many blessings to list here, but we have been blessed.  While the funeral is in Bountiful on Saturday, Taylor will be going to LA Temple.  What a perfect place to be.  He gets to go to the temple because it is his companion's birthday.  Coincidence?  We know otherwise.  We are so grateful that Poppa didn't suffer any longer than needed.  He lived a great life, and he told us that his parents needed him on the other side. We know that Poppa will help Taylor from the other side.  Scot and I were relieved that we didn't have to worry about how much to tell Taylor because we didn't want to cause worry and distraction for something he couldn't change.  It was easier to just write about what happened realizing that he could deal with it easier then worrying about when Poppa would pass away.  Taylor's mission president and his wife are wonderful and have checked on Taylor and reported to us that he is doing well.

Love,
Elder Carper's Mom

Horse Crap and Painting

This week has been wonderful! Probably one of the best weeks I have had so far! Tuesday, Elder Cox was really really sick. I think he had food poisoning. So on Tuesday we were stuck in the apartment all the day long. Tuesday reminded me a lot of Wednesday, because this time I was the one who was sick. It was wayyyyy too much fun! I was finally able to move Wednesday night. We had an appointment that night with someone who was actually a refferal. The members finally took the opportunity and made an appointment with them and just asked us to show up. It was wonderful! I got to teach without having to find. That was super fun! Thursday was completely filled to the brim with service. We served at a old folks center for like 5 hours and then went and painted a wall for the rest of the day. That was super sick! I forgot how much I enjoyed work! It was nice to take a break from missionary work and do some hard labor! That night was Z and B's interviews, it went decently ok but we had to push their date back 2 days to Saturday the 22nd. Both Elder Cox and I are super excited for it because they are both our first baptisms! Elder Cox has been out for 10 months, I hit my 6 in 2 weeks. It goes to show that fruits will come as long as you are being obedient to the mission rules and working hard! I have been working with B and Z ever since I got here in September and now they are finally ready to make the wonderful covanant of Baptism! :) they have come a long way and I firmly believe they are ready to recieve that blessing and make that covanant! 

Friday was a day like any other, all of our plans fell through and we knocked in Mojavi from 12 to 9 with an half hour break at 6 for dinner. It was a hard and long day but it was very rewarding. Every time that happens, something wonderful follows. Just like last week with our bad day, something wonderful happens at the end of the night that makes up for everything! We had a very spiritual lesson with B and Z. I love feeling the Spirit as I teach, it is the reward in of itself for missionary work.

Saturday was hard as well, we went and gave more service for the same family that I talked about last week, the super crazy one! Luckily there wasn't any drama going on, but the Dad had us muck the horse pens. Do any of you know what Mucking is? I didnt until we mucked for 3 hours on Saturday. Mucking is when you shovel out the crap the horse lays down. This horse has been living in its own crap for 2 weeks, and it got to the point where it had combined with the dirt and so we had to dig up the entire thing. It was about 15 by 30 feet big. So that was wonderful, and I threw away those shoes because we couldnt take them in the house.

The numbers for this week were all zeroes, that makes it sound like it wasnt a good week but it was wonderful. Here is why: Yesterday, the First counselor in our stake came to our ward. He came up to my companion and I and asked how our week went. We both said that it went ok but it was hard because we were both sick, and we just keep knocking doors all the day long and had to deal with a lot of crap, literally . He then asked us how we knew we were blessed. I had no idea how to answer! He went on and said this: (not verbatim)  "If you are being completely obedient, so much so that you can pray guiltless, knowing you did everything you can, then you will never have a bad week. Missionaries too often judge their weeks, and attitudes by the results of the work. More often than not missionaries get discouraged because they think they arent being obedient or working hard enough. So the next time you have a bad week, look back at how obedient you were, and if you were exactly obedient, than you will realize that you had a wonderful week because the Lord is proud of you." I havent ever done that the 6 months I have been here, so It is time to start! This week has been absolutely WONDERFUL :) Im praying that this next week is even better! Love you all, hope to hear from you soon!

Elder Taylor Carper

Penguins and Apostles

I can't believe I forgot to post this email from Taylor.  It is from January 20th.  It is an interesting one.......

 

So this week has been very very interesting!! I figured out that I am staying in Rosamond for another transfer. So I will be here for 6 months! I was really relieved because we have 3 baptisms in February! Some weird things have happened this week, on wednesday we had to drive 45 minutes down to Palmdale to fix our car. We were there all freaking day! It took them 2 hours just to find the problem, and then another 4 to fix it. Guess what the problem was, the brakes. I wanted to tell them just sell me the parts and I will get it done in 30 minutes. Unfortunately missionaries aren't allowed to work on cars :( So ya we were there for like 6 hours. It wasnt the greatest day of my life.

Friday, we had to go to Mojavi for district meeting. It was really funny because we stopped at subway on the way back, while we were there, a party bus from USC stopped as well. Of course there were a lot of crazy people, but one of the girls that were with them came and asked me if I was a Mormon. Once she figured it out, she yelled out that we were Mormon missionaries and so a bunch of people came up to us and asked us a bunch of questions. Among them of course, was do we enjoy being virgins, do we want any alcohol, how many wives do we have, what is Kolob etc. They ended up asking us if they had hit all of the stereotypes yet and we told them they werent even close. While we were talking to them (with most of them being wasted) one of the main girls offered me a beer cup, I took it and dumped it out on a plant, gave it back to her and said "you will thank me for that someday." Either she knew it was a good thing, or she was just too drunk to care because she didnt get mad or say anything! The only one who got mad was a little 5:2 pothead dressed in a penguin onesie. He was freaking out about penguin parties or something but he was really funny.

Saturday we had an adult session of Stake Conference, I loved it! They passed around papers of refferal sheets. We only got like 5 refferals but still, its more than I have gotten all three transfers being here. On sunday, it was a regional stake conference. It was televised straight from Salt Lake. President Eyring, and Neil L Anderson of the 12 spoke. I love President Eyring, he is my very favorite speaker. He talked specifically about rescuing family members who have fallen away from the gospel. I love hearing his talks because for some reason, his always make me feel the spirit, with ever talk he has given, there has always been something that I personally needed to hear! 

Our day yesterday took a turn for the weird as we were asked to come over and dedicate a home that was apparently haunted by an evil little ginger girl. The Bishop had to come with us of course because it is his authority. It was weird because we had to do a lot of research on if spirits can actually take the form of children. The conclusion is that they can, and so if you ever see a legitament spirit, and it is a child. It is almost always an evil spirit, because good ones take the form of their perfect bodies. The reason why we start small and grow up, is so that our bodies can grow into our spirits. Pretty crazy huh! Anyways, this week was good, I had a lot of fun. Elder Cox and I will be here for another transfer, so I will be here for sure until March. Unless I get emergency transferred...which would never happen unless I was crazy apostate or dying. Neither of which is likely to happen so Im good!

See you guys, hope to hear from you all soon!

Elder Carper

Hard Work is a Great Plan

This past week has been pretty routine! Tuesday was an especially weird day, this week I resolved to just get out and work. So I took the PMG promise and just went to work. I basically forced my companion to work with me all day, we took a half hour lunch and dinner break but other than that we were out knocking doors all day long. We ran into a woman named N, I dont really understand why, but when people see missionaries, they automatically begin to unload everything bad that has ever happened to them on us. As if we are going to make it all better, Nicole, the wonderful daughter of God she is, spent 2 hours venting, crying and swearing about how her husband is abusive, she ruined her life to drugs, she hates her daughter and her dog and her chairs. 2 hours straight she was just talking about how her life is falling apart. In the end she wasnt interested in hearing the gospel, she just wanted to vent. She expected us to make everything better for her, all I said was that we cannot better her situation, but we can teach her how to work through it and involve her loving heavenly father. Oh and the entire time it was windy and raining, and she was alone in the house so we couldnt go inside, so we were freezing. It was fun. Then we went over to our favorite investigators, B and Z. They are awesome! It was hard though, because Z had a misplaced idea that he had a "deal with God." He thought that God was ok with him smoking and drinking still as long as he is trying to be good. We finally gave him an ultimatum and made sure he knew what he was getting himself into. He finally agreed to be 100% sober with his baptism and for the rest of his life. We were really worried going into the lesson but the spirit was there and it ended up being really good! 

Wednesday was very uneventful, we were out knocking all day. One cool thing that happened was I ran into D, he is that super awesome deaf dude who thought we were J-dubs. I taught him a very simplified version of the restoration in ASL and he then said that he wasnt very interested. He just liked that I could sign. That was a bummer but the rest of the day was good. One thing that I love about being on a mission is that without fail, every single day, if it was a very long and hard day, if plans fell through, people slammed the door in your face and nobody wants to listen, the Lord always rewards you that night with a spiritual experience. Ours was that night with Sister L (aka Mommy #2). We talked to them for about 2 hours about temples, she then asked us to give her a priesthood blessing for her to quit smoking. She wants to go to the temple, and so does her husband. The spirit was really strong in that lesson, and Im very thankful to have been apart of that. 

Friday was a really good day, we had ZTM at 10. First, we had a training from President Wilson, who of course gave us a big lecture on obedience and the importance, I was really happy because I figured out that I was doing things agaisnt the rules without even knowing it. So now I can change it and be happy! Sister Wilson totally chastized us on working. Her thing was that we need to work smarter not harder. We have been trying to do just that but it is near impossible for us to get our members involved. We have had 1 member refferal and after they gave us the refferal they didnt want any part in fellowshipping because they didnt want to lose their friendship. We told them that it is a commandment as well as a reward in of itself but that hasn't grabbed hold yet. We are continuing to talk to the Bishop and ward missionaires, which by the way, we have 6. I only knew about 2 up until yesterday, but we are just trying to get everyone involved and it is super frusterating, because knocking doors all day long is no fun at all. Especially in white neighborhoods, white people are so mean. Hispanics will actually talk to you for a bit and then turn you down.

Saturday was very uncomfortable, we gave service to a family called the Sheldons. They are an extremely messed up family. They have 4 kids that are all in Juvy or in foster care. They are also super loaded so they insisted they take us out to lunch, in which the whole time, the husband is complaining about how he hates his kids. How 3 of his kids tried to kill his wife, how his oldest stabbed him and he broke her arm or some freaky thing. The whole time I was just like "I freaking love Utah." You dont get all the crazy messed up things out here in Utah. People are usually nice, out here they are scary, and kind of crazy...Anyways it really strengthened my love for my family and the place I lived. California is nice and all but there are just way too many problems out here, like gang violence specifically is a huge one in rosamond. The gangsters love us though, they will literally do anything for us. So that is a plus! 

I hope all of you have a wonderful week and an even better Valentines day! Hope to hear from you all soon!

Elder Carper