19- I'm A Big Kid Now

Hey everybody! So this week has been both really awesome and a little bit annoying. So it started out awesome because we finally got in with this guy we have been trying for weeks! His name is Spencer, he is super sick! We got in with him and taught him about the Book of Mormon, probably one of my favorite things ever is when people have questions that seemingly nobody can answer, and then we answer them! It makes me feel pretty cool. We talked to spencer a lot about the Book of Mormon and a lot about why it is important. Hopefully he keeps reading, he was a little iffy about baptism because he doesnt want to be pressured into anything but he was at least willing to think about it!

 

Wednesday was SICK! We got to go to the temple on Wednesday and it was beyond dope! The LA temple is so big! We went with the Bishop of our ward, he was super cool. I HATE LA traffic, it is truly a nightmare. For real it was scary, we passed through these mountains that straight up looked exactly like Utah. It was super sweet, and then we saw a few ferraris and you dont see that in Utah. We went to the 9:15 session so we had to leave here by 6:30am. We were at the temple until about Noon and then headed back. We stopped in a city called Van Nuys (which is insanely nice) and ate at Five Guys. I havent had Five Guys since I was home, that for sure a treat! When we got home we were so tired, it was so hard to go out and work, but we did and it was hot. It made it so I knocked out right on time that night though!

Friday was my birthday and it was AWESOME! Shoot I felt super popular, I was getting cards from people I know...which was crazy because I didnt know I knew that many people. It was fun, everyone was nice! I tried to use my birthday to guilt people into talking to us but it didnt work. they would just give us water and wish me a happy birthday. It was a bit of a bummer but we tried. There was a cool thing though, while I was in the temple I was praying and praying that I could know where we needed to go to find a family that is prepared because we have been working really hard and are just getting doors slammed in our face and unmotivated members to not help us. So I prayed and prayed and finally got an answer that we needed to be on a certain street and 3pm on friday. So we were there knocking and we ran into a guy who was a Southern Baptist. He was dog sitting for his brother, who he said was a Mormon. He said he would talk about the church all the time and he loved being a member. So we left our names and phone numbers and were going to try and contact the member so we can get his records. Well the next day we got a text saying "who is this?" I just said "We are the missionaries of the chuch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints, is there anything we can help you with?" and the persons reply was "More like Mission sluts? I found your card in my house!" So ya that was fun. I was really not excited about that...but I didnt let it phase me, and I am glad I didnt! We found a really prepared person that our ward can really help with on Sunday! His name is brian and he committed to be baptized on August 23rd. We are super stoked for it!!! We also got a refferal from the Hermanas for a guy who apparently is also Golden so we are super excited! Our week turned lame but it quickly got better and once again the good times were more than worth it! 

We have a new Ward Mission Leader who is AWESOME. He has been inactive most of his life but just reactivated and was married in the temple, so he has that Greenie fire that the ward needs! We now have members who are getting involved with our investigators, and the ward is doing better. It has been extremely exciting over the past week! Im super pumped to see what goes on this week! Here are some pictures of Elder Patterson and I at the Temple on Wednesday! Love you all, your the best!

Elder Carper

Much Better Week!

So as you know, these past couple weeks have sucked really really bad. I have been really discouraged from the lack of work and I have pretty much hated my district. Basically this week I came to realize that I was just being dumb. I had no real reason to not like my district and was annoyed at all the things going on because I didnt want to change. After thinking about it I realized that I wanted to change. I want to let everything go behind and not hold anything back from the Lord. I actually got called into president wilsons office last friday because I sayed "pissed" in district meeting and he was really worried that something was going on with me. So he called me in his office and we talked. I told him everything that was going on, I told him all of my feelings on everything and we just talked. We ended up talking for about an hour, which is really long for an interview. It helped me a lot, because 1. I didnt know President Wilson even knew who I was let alone cared and 2. He fortified what I already knew needed to happen. I just needed to change my attitude and chill. So I really enjoyed it and I appreciated the help. Im doing great now :) 

This week I went on exchanges with Elder Johnson my District Leader. He is crazy awesome, we have served around eachother before and it has been a lot of fun. We just went out and tracted but we ran into a couple awesome and scary people. The scary one, was this demon/old man looking thing. You remember Beauty and the Beast? The scary old man? HE LOOKED EXACTLY LIKE HIM!!!!!!!!!! He was behind a security door that doesnt allow you to see inside, but all I could see was these crazy bright blue eyes, and these crazy yellow teeth that looked like fangs. He was this insane catholic guy! 

 

The cool people was this girl named Olivia, she really wanted a book of Mormon but her Mom wouldnt let her. After we left she came running out of her house over to us and said that her Mom finally said she could read it and asked for one. It was really cool to finally find someone who was very excited to read the Book of Mormon. It was great! Anyways I have to go right now, but I hope you have a wonderful week! Im excited to tell you all about my temple trip!

Taylor

The week of a Baptism is always a Hard Week

So this week was pretty hectic. On tuesday we had zone conference and President pretty much just went on and on about what happened in my with all the missionaries doing dumb stuff. He then put in a ton of new rules that are really annoying. We have a standard of excellence now, which some of it is easy but some of it is going to be insanely difficult. The easy ones are like, dont miss church, proselyte for 40 hours a week, service for 10 hours, and stuff like that. The hard stuff with be finding 7 new investigators per week, and having ALL member present lessons.  We have averaged finding 2 per week. Its not very awesome! So after zone conference we all had interviews with president wilson. For me it was terrible, he basically just chewed me out about being too casual.  Later in the week on thursday, I got a stomach virus, I was up all night throwing up. I would rather break my collar bone again than throw up, it is the most painful and uncomfortable thing I have ever experienced. So that was my night on thursday, and then all day friday and saturday morning my whole body just hurt. I was too weak to get out of bed. It was honestly terrible I didnt enjoy it very much. I had to get better though, because I had to baptize someone later that day. 

That was the good part of the week was I got to baptize B.A.!. 

He is a total boss! We have been teaching him for about 5 weeks now. He was definitely prepared by the Lord, I dont honestly feel like I did a whole lot for him. He read the book of Mormon constantly and was always watching bible videos and mormon messages on his tablet. It was just really good to find someone who was ready to hear the gospel. It was super hilarious, the day of his baptism he called me, and his was freaking out. I asked him what was up and he is just screaming "I think I broke the law of chastity!!!" Im just like shoot bobby what did you do? Apparently his fiance gave him a hicky while they were making out. I just laughed, it hurt a lot but I laughed. He swore to me that he didnt touch her inappropriately and I reassured him that he was ok. Then I made fun of him because the hicky was TOTALLY visible while at the baptism. It was really funny! Baptizing him was harder than baptizing Billie, she was very heavy, but I was so physically weak from being sick that I didnt feel like I could do it. Miracles happen though, I was able to do it, I didnt feel like i was struggling at all during it. Afterwards I thought I was going to pass out but i did it without any problems! I was really happy and grateful that he trusted me to be worthy and hold the priesthood. Im also grateful that I was worthy and held the priesthood haha Im sure it would have been a horrible discussion if I had to tell him no.

After the baptism we went home and slept cause we were so tired. Its been 4 and a half days and Im not better. I feel fine, but my whole body is just so weak its unreal. I ate for the first time this morning, saltines. It was pretty much heaven, but also felt like disarming a bomb at the same time cause I didnt know how I would react. Im sure by like wednesday I will be back to normal. For some reason it didnt hit Elder Patterson until Friday night, so he is still really sick, Im not sure what we will be able to do this week but I will keep you posted. 

Transfer Calls are this saturday! I find out if I am staying or leaving. I will let you know next week what is happening with that, mail usually takes 2 days to get here. So just be sure to send any mail before Friday and I will for sure get it. Love you Mom, I hope your week was better than most of mine but Saturday made it all worth it! I hope you stay safe, your the best!

Elder Carper