I Live in Non-Mormon Utah

This week has been boring in comparison to most. Last monday we went up to bishop and went hiking and screwed around in the mountains. It was fun, I love being up here it is just like Utah! My camera died so I dont have pictures and Elder Walker forgot his camera so I will send pictures right when I can! The Lake we went to was Sabrina (Sub-rye-na) Lake. It was up in the mountains in Bishop, and it was raining so we were all wet. It was way fun! There was a super sick looking stream that we tried to get some cool shots of waterfalls, we were successful but it made my shoes all wet. Today we are going to the Manzanar memorial prison. It was a WW2 Japanese American Prison camp and so we are gonna go check it out, and then we are gonna go screw around in the alabama hills. I am pretty pumped about it it will be fun. The Bishop Elders and the Sisters are gonna come to so it will be fun. 

 

This week has been all service all the time. I have been out of Pros more than in it. We are doing everything from helping old couples move furniture to landscaping work at an old fish hatchery. It is for sure fun but it is physically exhausting! Things are getting a lot better though, as in with the work. The people here know us by name and will call us for stuff. Just about all of them are not interested in the church but they love the Elders. We get fed more by non members than we do by the members. Which isnt saying much because on a good week we will get fed like 3 times. The members here are super awesome though I love them! 

 

We had to give talks yesterday, my talk was on "The Witness" by president packer. It went pretty well, I basically just bore my testimony for 15 minutes of the truths that I have come to know and love. I was way nervous, I dont like speaking in church. Whether its at home with over 500 people or here with 20 people. Everybody liked it though so that was good. It wasnt a total flop haha. It was a solid week though! 

Elder Carper

Mammoth, Blood, Guts, Moccasins

This past week has been SICK! Last Monday Elder Walker and I went up Whitney Portal and did some solid trail sessions below Mt. Whitney. We did that for a while and then got a call from the Bishop Elders asking if we wanted to go up to Mammoth and see if they have some cool Labor Day sales. I didnt really want to but Elder Walker did. I soon changed my mind once I got up to Mammoth! I was tired so I had Elder Walker drive up there, and when I woke up I thought I was in Park City! No joke I was in heaven!!!! Ski shops everywhere, snow capped mountains, weird German tourists that kept asking us for directions. All of it was so sick! Honestly this area is the best area EVER! Im so happy up here its awesome! The other sick thing that happened was I bought some sick moose leather Moccasins! They are so comfortable its unreal :) So last monday was great!

 

The rest of the week was super service oriented. I think we have done about 30 or 35 hours of service. The limit is 10 but President told us not to worry about it. A pretty cool thing happened to us on wednesday though! We were walking along the street and a guy pulled up, got out and said that he stopped just to talk to us. He had seen the book of mormon play. I was pretty worried but he went on and said that his "friend" was really sad that the hotel he was staying at had a bible but not a book of mormon, so he asked if he could have one to give to his friend. Whether there is a friend or not I dont know but it was actually nice to have been approached first!

 

Saturday was probably the most exciting day. We got to go dove hunting with our investigator and since we werent allowed to shoot, we just fetched the dead birds. It was way fun, I almost killed our investigator when he ripped the head off of one of the doves and got blood on my shirt and on my tie. Dude I almost lost it I was so mad! That seriously was a fun day though. It was pretty funny because there were 3 hunters there all stacked out with gear. Then there was Elder Walker and I with our white shirts and ties, I felt a bit out of place but whatever! It was for sure a sick week! I was pretty stoked last week that I hit my year mark! I would say the time went by super fast, but it does feel like a year. I just think it seems fast because you realize that a year is not a very long time at all. It has been a lot of fun though, its been for sure hard. Definitely the hardest thing I have done but its also very fulfilling! 

 

Love you guys! Have a fantastic week!

 

Elder Carper

 

this is a sick background showing the ugly side of the Sierra Nevadas. I say Ugly because in comparison to the view from our apartment its not very impressive!

 

LONE PINE

So I am pretty sure I am not a normal missionary anymore. In all of our emails President Wilson keeps telling me that the work here is not like anywhere else. I am starting to see what he means. Elder Walker and I don't really proselyte, the only proselyting we do is walk along the main street and talk to drunk Indians and tourists from Europe. I met a Japanese guy on Thursday though, that was pretty cool. As I said though, we don't do normal proselyting. We give service most of the day, hard labor and yard work stuff, and then we play basketball with investigators the rest of the night. It is really weird and at first I thought I was a horrible person for having fun outside of P-day but so far it is working. The town people know who we are and they have begun asking questions. It is hard to give a short and simple answer without leading into anything else but slowly and surely the work is moving forward! 

 

On the downside of things, our truck Bathsheba was taken from us. We had to drive 3 hours down to Palmdale and pick up our "new car" with is a crappy corolla that already has 50000 miles on it. So we will probably have to do the drive again, hopefully soon the mission gets the Jeeps that President Wilson keeps talking about. That would be really nice to have 4 wheel drive again. The corolla just can't do off road and so that greatly limits the things we can do. 

 

Other cool things that have happened was we went rabbit hunting with Eddy our investigator and Emma who is a member of the branch. They are both like 17 I think...I cant remember but anyways Emma shot a rabbit with a bow and Eddy skinned it. It was really cool looking, Emma almost cried while Eddy ripped all the insides out. I felt super out of place cause everybody was talking about hunting. All I could really say was "I shot a bird with an airsoft gun once.." either way it was a good day! 

Right now we are waiting for the Elders up in Bishop to come down so we can go hiking, they are taking forever. After our hike we are gonna go up to Mammoth because Elder Walker wants to see if the outlets up there have any good deals for labor day. It will be pretty crazy crowded! Love you all! Hope you have a wonderful week! 

 

Elder Carper

 

PS My hump day is Thursday and is the same day as my Dads super huge hump day! SUPER BIG shout out to him for turning 50 on Thursday! Happy Birthday Dad!

New Area- Lone Pine

Dude I don't like white washing. This is a lot better than white washing into Palmdale though, the Elders did some stuff! We have no progressing investigators but apparently have one with a date. We havent found him yet, so thats kinda lame. I was talking to President at transfer meeting and he said that this is a really hard area, and the key to getting things done is to get high up in the town. So we are going to be doing a lot of service. Our new area consists of Lone Pine, Independence, Olancha, Keeler, and Darwin, with a bunch of Indian Reservations in between. Darwin sounds super exciting! Have you ever seen "The hills have eyes?" well if you have, that was filmed down in Ridgecrest but that is how everyone here describes Darwin. It is in the middle of absolutely nowhere and you dont see anyone, but you know they are watching you. So I am pretty pumped, it will be a cool photo sight. 

 

In other news, Lone Pine is SO SICK! I have the highest point in the US, and the lowest point in my area! Mt Whitney is like 14000 feet, and a place called Bad Water, Death Valley is about 250 below sea level. We have no reason to go to Bad Water though, there isnt anyone who lives there. Its for sure a P-day activity. There are tons and tons of cool hikes we can to up in the Sierra's. We are doing what is called the Whitney Portal today, it leads up to a really cool waterfall with an awesome view of Mt Whitney! Seriously I love it here in Lone Pine, it is so much fun! 

My new companion is Elder Walker. He is actually my first companion thats from Utah. This is his last transfer so I will be killing him in the mission, I know Elder Walker from past areas so I am pumped. I was a little worried that he was gonna be trunky and not want to work but he is still going hard! My streak is still kept up, I am still technically Jr companion but I am the designated driver and I get to drive the truck :) Its a 2012 Chevy Colorado, we are losing it soon though. We are getting a car for a little while and then we will get Jeep Compass' soon! So I am pumped, hopefully I will be here.

So tuesday was boring, it was a 3.5 hour drive from Bakersfield to get up here and since both Elders were leaving we had to drive the truck all the way back. It was long but fun, Wednesday and thursday were all just us trying to get our feet planted. We visited some less actives and former investigators as well as the people they indicated we were teaching. 

Thursday was fun, we did service at an old fish hatchery up in Independence. It was fun! They invited us to a big fundraising dinner that night. It was cool it was a bunch of old men in their cowboy gear! It was there that we met Eddy Ivey, he is a stud! HIs parents run the fish hatchery and we talked with him the entire time. He then invited us to a quick game of basketball! It was Elder Walker and I, in our Pros, vs Eddy and his friend Ryan. We totally stomped em it was sick! I have played a lot of basketball over the past year but I still play the way I play soccer. I can take it up all the way and then I mess up right at the end and fail. Its frusterating but its funny! We have played Basketball with Eddy and his friends every day so far except sunday. He invites more people and we talk to them about the gospel while we are playing so that is pretty flippin sweet! 

So we arent in a ward, its a very small and close knit branch. The members are really cool here, some of them are from Utah...surprise... We have met tons of people from Europe, lots of Germany but some France! It is so much fun! We are about an hour away from anything so we are pretty isolated, Im told to get used to very long drives! Elder Walker isnt allowed to drive so its not like we can switch off, so ya I have to do it. Im pretty pumped because today the Elders and Sisters from Bishop are coming down and we are gonna go see some pretty sweet stuff! Love you Mom! Thanks for the letter I got today, I will write my address in the letter you keep reminding me I owe you. Have a good week, hope to hear from you soon!


Elder Carper

Catching Up & Cutting My Own Hair

Hey Mom! So I for sure have been slackin on the whole email thing but the computers in the Family History Center are down and so we have been emailing at a Library that only allows like 25 minutes on the computers. So ya I havent sent any solid emails to people! Now that its all fixed I can do it! 

 

These past few weeks have been like they always are, knocking doors, getting yelled at. People not progressing, gang fights, house fires, desert, the usual fun stuff! It has been really frustrating to be honest. It kind of seemed like the the Ward's side of the missionary work was really getting going and our side stopped. We haven't been able to contact any of our investigators and its sucked a lot! So ya it has been frustrating to say the least. All that however has totally been made up for by this past week! 

It started out slow, just knocking doors, and stuff but Thursday came around and it completely blew us away. We taught this part member family the plan of salvation. We originally went over there because the 2 sons of the family were recent converts and we go over and read with them. Their Dad Pete sat in on the lesson. Instead of reading I felt it best if we taught the plan of salvation. Luckily Elder P and I are really good companions so we pretty much know what the other was thinking! So we began teaching and it was amazing how well Pete understood everything. We peppered in Baptism the whole lesson and he kept blowing it off. We talked about Temples and sealings and how he can be united with his family forever. Pete then kinda talked about how he wanted a fresh start and how he wanted to forgive people who wronged him and all this fun stuff. Right after that, out of nowhere, Elder P looked him in the face and said "Pete, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ, and be Baptized by someone holding the Priesthood Authority from God?" Pete looked at him, nodded his head and began to cry. He couldn't even speak he was just so emotional. The whole family was crying and so excited. We set a date with Pete and told him that his 17 year old son has the authority to baptize, and that he could be baptized by his son. I have never seen the spirit work on anyone the way it working on Pete. The spirit was so thick in the room it almost felt like you could grab it. Pete grew up on the streets, he is this huge, buff, tatted, rock. Seriously he is a really tough guy, and he began to weep like a little child. It was amazing to see and honestly that day made the past 3 months of disappointments worth it! It was absolutely incredible!

 

So in other news, I am getting shipped out to Lone Pine! The mission messed up again and our new areas and companions showed up on our key indicator page. So ya I am going to Lone Pine with Elder W. I know elder walker he is a boss. So I am excited, it is one of the four areas in the mission that people consider to be a "nice" place. So that will be a change from serving in a place where everyone feels bad for you haha. I am pumped for sure! that also means I will be getting a new address so dont send anything to mine! I will let yall know for sure! Love you Mom, stay fly!

 

Elder Carper

 

PS- PICTURES!!!!

this is my district! On my right is Elder O, he is the only black kid in the mission. He talks black and acts black but is the most uncoordinated person on the planet! So he is hilarious!

 

Also, first time ever cutting my own hair! It actually worked haha

 

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