Cali lifestyle...kinda

This has been a week full of super awesome and scary surprises! Most of our time has been dedicated to finding. It has been tiring for sure but I like talking to people and testifying, even if they arent interested I can still feel the spirit. Elder Linford is getting more and more used to doing door contacts by himself and teaching. He also admitted that even though role playing isnt fun in any way, it is totally worth it. One of the things that I found that really helped out was teaching the restoration in front of a mirror. That way you can see your facial expressions as you teach and you can change things so that you dont look like a robot. We gave the training in district meeting last friday. It was on the importance of listening, it was a good thing we actually planned it out because Sister Wilson(President's wife) came to our meeting. Everything went really well she thanked us afterward for doing a good job, so either she actually liked it or she felt bad. That day we found a sweet new investigator named Jon, he is way awesome and super prepared. We are meeting with him next friday after thanksgiving to set him with a baptismal date. I am super excited for him! Saturday was also super cool cause we taught the restoration at a baptism. Guess who showed up? President and Sister Wilson...for real I was so happy we have been doing 12 week and really practicing. Cause I would have been in more trouble than Elder Linford cause I am supposed to teach him this stuff. It went really well though, there were a few non members that I could pick out that I hope with all my heart felt the spirit as we testified of the Restoration. Since we are on bike, we had to ask a member to give us a ride home. We asked Elder Moyes who is the 1st counselor in the bishopric and also the Medical Advisor for the mission, for a ride home. He took us home in his convertible Chevy Camaro SS. It was flippin sweet! He put the top down, blasted some Motab, and showed us what that car could do. It honestly was a super cool highlight! I felt like I belonged in Cali, apart from the Motab of course. 

Although things have been going really well, the ward has put a lot of pressure on us to get their sons out on missions. There are 4 young men who are ready to go but have no desire to do so, and since we are the only Elders in the ward, the Moms as well as the Bishop have asked us to basically work miracles. So we have some work to do! So far we started just befriending them and making sure they know we are real people. We are gonna be playing sports with them and their non member friends sometime this week, I am pretty excited. All but 1 of them plays soccer so I am stoked!

This week has been great and this next week will be even better! I am super excited to be here, oh and I just got a refferal to go see a relative of mine that just happens to live in my area! Coincidence? No such thing! I hope yall have the best week ever!

 

Elder Carper

PANAMA!!!!

So I am out of the Lone Pine and back in South Bakersfield. Actually I am right next to Fairview ward and in the Panama ward. I see people I knew all the time, its pretty sweet! As I said last week I am training and its going pretty well actually. Oddly enough I am really enjoying training. Its pretty fun and it really isnt that hard. My greenie is Elder Linford, he is from Nampa Idaho. He is way sick, he wasnt the annoying Greenie that I was afraid of getting. He is very humble and teachable but is also very eager to learn. Elder Linford is waiting for his Visa to go to Brazil, and so he has to do an hour of language study every day. So in total with the 12 week program we do 4 hours of study every single day! Basically while he is doing language study I stare at the wall and wish the time would go by fast so we can go work. We are on bikes and its pretty fun, people recognize us better this way. Mostly this week we visited all the members in our area and introduced ourselves. We are working with them pretty closely actually. We have a big list of missionary work ideas that we commit them to do and then follow up the next time they see us. There are three sets of missionaries in our ward, us on bike, and then 2 sets of Sisters, one on car and one on bike. Its pretty fun, it means that the Elders quorum is all ours to use. I have been pretty annoying to them, being all like "Hey when can you come with us this week?" To every single Elder and High Priest. Its ok though cause Im used to getting what I want. We did have a lesson this week from the only investigator the other Elders left us with. Her name is Tessa, she professes to be an Athiest but I dont believe her. I told her that I didnt and she just changed the subject. So this week we are going to be meeting with her again and if she keeps at it than we are going to have to drop her. We cant waste time with people who arent prepared by the Lord when we could be finding the people who are. Its sad to say it but its true, we dont have enough hours in the day! This week we will be finding all the time, Elder Linford isnt a fan of knocking doors, so I said he better learn to like it cause thats what needs to be done. Of course I said it in a way that teased him but I dont remember what I said. So ya I am super happy to be here in Panama and I am really excited to be in a ward that supports missionary work and does missionary work. It will be grand! Here are some pictures of my last night in Lone Pine! First picture is of us and the Rodriguez family, its not a good picture but the others are super blurry. The second is a picture of us with Eddy Ivey who will someday join the church and serve a mission hopefully! Love you all, the church is true!!

Elder Carper

We Started a Revolution

So....they are shutting Lone Pine down for missionaries. Pretty sad but we knew it was going to happen. President Wilson kept threatening the Branch President that he would take us out if he kept resisting us. So now there is no longer a Lone Pine area in the mission. I hope they will reopen it soon but I dont know for sure of course! Its been a sad few days, normally we get our transfer calls Sunday Night and leave 2 days later but President called us Saturday morning and told us the news. So we have been cleaning the apartment hardcore because they are going to sell it. Packing doesnt take nearly as long to do but it still takes time. I am insanely excited to go knock doors and teach people though! For real I cant wait, I miss it! The unfortunate news of the week is that I will be training a new missionary. The assistants called me yesterday and asked me to be a trainer, now I know they hate me. Cause not only am I white washing an area, I am also training. So whoopee for me :( Sorry, I shouldnt sound so excited! We have to leave lone pine at 6am tomorrow in order to be at the trainers meeting at 9am before transfer meeting at 1030. No doubt they are going to lecture us on obedience. I am totally cool with obedience, It is absolutely essential and I am not arguing its importance. But when you serve in a mission that prints and official document stating that we are not allowed to give high fives, it gets annoying. A few times I found myself worrying more about not breaking the rules than actually doing missionary work, so that should tell you something. Anyways even though I am a bit excited I am still nervous, it didnt help that they kept telling me that training is the most important job in the mission and that our whole mission standard is set by our first few months. No pressure right? Lets hope I dont screw this kid up haha nah I am excited to have some greenie fire around all the time. 

 

In other news, the people of Independence and Lone Pine are planning on writing President Wilson an angry letter signed by everyone as to why they need missionaries. We had dinner at the Ivey's home who arent members, and the whole time the Dad was thanking us and talking about how much we are apart of the society and that he honestly thinks it will struggle for a little while once we are gone. I was sad to hear that they are closing the area because I felt like we failed. I have always been able to leave my areas better than when I found them, the wards begin to do good things and then I get transferred. So hearing Steve Ivey thank us and tell Elder Ditty and I how influential we are to the town and how much the town relies on us really brought a lot of peace to my heart, especially when he thanked us for being good examples to his son. So even if the Branch here doesnt do well I can at least say I helped out the town, and that makes it worth it! I find out where I am going and who my new companion is tomorrow morning so I will be in touch! I hope yall have a good week and I hope yall stay safe!

 

Elder Carper

We Do This Forever

Random event of the week....we found a lady walking down the street with her kids, and she asked us to explain what we do as missionaries to them. In the middle of our explanation she told them that we dedicate our entire lives to this. That we dont have families and the church pays us. I was like uh....not true haha. Needless to say she got us mixed up with Nuns. Could be worse I guess but it took us a long time to convince her otherwise, she was from Canada (too bad) and was pretty nice.

The other cool stuff that happened this week included exchanges with the Bishop Elders and some breakthroughs with some Less Actives! Wednesday was our exchange day and we went and did some service for a Less Active family who lives on the Native Rez. I almost got my ankle smashed between a rock and a tractor shovel. The guy had stopped moving so I went in the load it up and then he decided to move forward even more. The guy across from me started screaming for him to stop but luckily I pulled my foot out, now all I have to show for it is a gnarly bruise on my ankle! After our fun at service we got a call from a lady in Fresno asking us to give her son a blessing in Lone Pine. We went over there and her son was just chillin and watching the world series. I guess somehow he hit his hand against a nail and it went all the way to the bone. He didnt want a blessing but he was willing to talk to us for a while. He is an avid skier and downhill mountain biker so in short...we had a lot to talk about! He let us share a message at the end and I shared one of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon. Its Moroni 7:46-48. It says: 46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

It was a cool feeling in the room that I am sure he enjoyed. We talked a bit about what Charity is and I explained how paul describes Charity as the "bond of perfectness." It was a good discussion that I was happy to have! We have been able to meet with more and more less actives than we have in the previous weeks. The Branch President announced in Sacrament meeting that unless the ward begins to help with missionary work, President Wilson is going to pull missionaries out. It wouldnt happen for another few months but I am hoping the branch does something! All of the members are very well known throughout the town and could be an incredible influence! I hope they get it together soon! I was really happy about being able to teach this week, I was surprised to see that I can still teach even though we havent been able to for a long time. Studying every day pays off for sure! I hope yall have a wonderful week!

Elder Carper

Service

These past couple weeks have been flying by for sure! Again we have been doing service service service! We volunteer a lot for the Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce, they ask us to do a bunch of stuff from taking signs down to cleaning up the park. We have been helping the members out a lot as well. We do farm work with some Less Active members and we do a lot of service up at the Fish Hatchery. It is all pretty fun! I have been sick for the past week though, some kind of head cold. Its been miserable but it hasnt stopped me. Definitely slowed down the labor part of the work though haha. I now sound like a zombie even though I feel completely fine! The Branch is doing good, they dont help with missionary work at all but they are nice people. President Wilson has all but decided to take missionaries out of Lone Pine all together given the fact that we dont teach. Today I actually asked him to transfer me out, as much as I love Lone Pine and the people here, I am losing my mind. I was called to teach and I dont get to do that. As weird as it sounds I enjoy knocking doors and talking about the gospel all the time. It is great! The one thing that I am grateful for being here is that I was afraid my spiritual side would weaken from being here and not teaching all the time when I got here. So my studies have been a lot more meaningful and my prayers have as well. One of the cool things that I have been really studying is a talk by Elder Oaks titled "The Challenge to Become." it is a fantastic talk with a lot to learn. One of the many things I have come to find is that we should base our worship on experiences. The spirit will never let you forget very spiritual experiences if you stay close to the gospel, and I have found that whenever I begin to have doubts or whenever I dont want to do something. My mind goes back to memories of spiritual experiences. So no matter what happens to me personally or those around me, I can look back and say "because of those experiences, I know God lives and loves me." I am surprised at how often I need to remind myself but the answer is always the same, when I am reminded of the things I know to be true I always feel the sweet confirmation of the spirit. I hope there is no question in anyones mind of whether or not I know the Book of Mormon is truth. That God lives and is aware of everything we are going through, and that He knows our pains and sorrows, and is there waiting with open arms for us to come to him in comfort. I know that if we do the things he asks, we will be blessed and comforted. The gospel is the only way to be truly happy in this life and especially the next. I hope you all have a good week!

Elder Carper