FELIZ NAVIDAD

Wow. The time is here. Merry Christmas everyone!! I can't believe how fast the time is going. This week has been such a good week!! I am so stoked for this letter.

So first off, We have a baptism planned for the 2nd of January!!! His name is Eddie. He is such a stud. His two brothers are members. In fact, his brother Noel served a mission in England and got back not too long ago. We taught him the first lesson and he honestly knows so much about the gospel. We challenged him to baptism and set a date for the 3rd weekend in January. He accepted. Flash forward a couple days when we return. We start just talking to him about his baptism and how he feels. He tells us a story of earlier that day. He said he was walking home from a football game and was thinking about church and getting baptized. He said that he felt really good about it and that it was the thing that he needed to do. He then said that he has been afraid to get baptized because he doesn't want to serve a mission. We old him that is wasn't 100% necessary that he serves a mission right after baptism. We told him about how amazing the mission is and how it can help him. He really calmed down after that. He then asked us if we could change the date of him baptism. We said yeah that was fine. He then told us the 2nd of January! I though he was going to want more time!! So we've been making plans for this baptism like crazy!! We've been going to his house every other day teaching him as much as possible so he can get baptized. I am so excited!!

We also contacted this girl named Bolep. It was a regular door contact. We asked her how she was doing and what religion she was. She said she was Catholic. Then we took a different route than we usually do. We asked her who was the first Catholic in her family. She was surprised we asked that. Then she said that she didn't know. We asked her if she had prayed to ask God if the Catholic church was the church that He wanted that she attend. She said no. Then we testified that asking God in prayer is something that she can do. Especially asking specifically. We challenged her to pray about the church. Anyway, we set up a cita and left. We went back on a friday and she wan't there. Normally we wouldn't return because a lot of people set up return citas without intending on being there. But on Sunday we were out by her house and just decided to drop in. She let us in and we taught the first lesson. At the end, we asked her how she felt hearing the message. She said that she felt really good. Then we asked if she had prayed that one day we passed by. She then told us a story of how Sunday, the day we were there, was her birthday! She said that earlier that day she offered a prayer and asked if she should listen to our message or stay in her church. She said she finished the prayer and not 5 minutes later, we showed up on her doorstep. She told us that she took that and the feeling that she had hearing our message as her answer. It was such a miraculous experience. She has a baptismal date for the 9th of January. 

I really hope that you all have a great Christmas. I love you all so much!!

Love, Elder Carter

THE CITY!!!

Wow. They sent me back to the city. It seems so different. The last time I was here was almost a year ago. I'm in the area Miraflores in the same zone I was in in La Honduras. This place has PISTO. Everyone here is so dang rich. The ward is so strong too! The attendance at church two weeks ago was 260. I am so stoked to be working here. Our ward mission leader is not only active, but also works with us! My new companion is Elder Madero. He's from Arizona. He's super chill. We get along very well. I'm finishing up his training this change. We are opening half of the area this change. There used to be 2 companionships here, but they took the hermanas out and gave us the whole area. It is so big!! We walk so dang much. But at least the whole area is flat.

So when I first got here, we ate lunch at this ladies house and in her garage were parked a Land Rover and a Porsche. The maid atually let us into the house, then cooked us lunch. Fish fillet...We then talked tothe hermana for a little bit and she gave us a reference of one of her neighbors...a 5 member family!!! We're goingto be teaching this family in the house of a member. I am so excited. Also, we had Missionary Correlacion on Sunday and set up a few divisions with the ward missionaries. We are working so dang hard. It's pretty rough though. A lot of the house are closed off and we have to talk to a camera and an intercom. and most of the time, the maids or butlers answer. And we can't really teach them...but it's okay. We are teaching a few college students right now. They leave pretty soon though, it's pretty sad. I don't really have too much to say about this week. We'll make sure to work super hard so we have more to say next week!! I love you all!!

Elder Carter

It really is the best time of the year!!

Hey everyone!!

Wow. The days are just too fast. This week just went by so fast. Well, this small 4 week change has come to an end. We have changes this Wednesday. I don't think I have changes, buuuut we'll see.

So this week. It was pretty crazy. It all started out normal. Tuesday we worked pretty hard and also Wednesday. Like always, we had district meeting on Thursday, but after District meeting, I went on divisions with Elder Torres in Yuscaran. Elder Torres is from Mexico and Elder Rasmussen is training him. He's a really chill guy. He's out here for the right reasons. Well the reason for doing divisions was to do a baptismal interview. The kid was 13 years old and he knew a ton. The sad part was that he never showed up to the baptism on Saturday...So that was rough. Anyway. On divisions, I met this guy that started talking to me about US history and the influence of rock music. It was super cool. He also started talking a lot about the Beatles. Haha those are just a few of the easter eggs of the mission. Anyway. We ended divisions on Friday and I had to pick back up and go to Moroceli at like 2 on Friday. They were also going to baptize. I went with Elder Ruano. I shared an area with him when I was in La Honduras. He's from El Salvador and he's one of my best friends in the mission. It was rough though because the kids that were going to get baptized weren't there!! So we went out and visited a few of the investigators. We also did a ton of contacting. It was pretty good though because they've been having trouble getting new investigators lately. 

So we ended divisions on Saturday and went straight to work. It's always rough going to the other areas to work because you never get to enjoy the work that you do!! Haha but Saturday was a decent working day. We got to teach this lady named Magda. She's super humble and super sick! She has a tumor the size of a basketball in her stomach!! It's a huge bummer because she is really positive and she just left to Tegus to have surgery. So keep her in your prayers!! We challenged her to baptism for the 3rd of January, and she accepted it without hesitating. 

On Sunday the Devotional was super good. I absolutely love Christmastime!! The Mo Tab did so good (As always) and Elder Clayton's talk was great. I always love hearing about different people's Christmas traditions. 

Well, I hope you guys are enjoying the spirit of la Navidad. It really is the best time of year!! I love you all. Until next week,

Love, Elder Carter

Hey friends and family!!

Wow. What a week. This week went by so fast. It's been a pretty good week. Nothing too special happened. Elder Fredrickson and I have been working super hard here with a few investigators. 

We've decided it was time to cut a few of our investigators off for a bit. We've had like 8 or 9 investigators on our board since the first week that my companion came here. We just had a special visit with them, talking about what they were able to learn in the time that they've been visiting with us. Then we tried to ask a few inspired questions, what we were feeling prompted by the spirit at the time. After that, we testified hard. We just layed it all out on the line. After the prayer we put a cita with them in about 3 weeks. Oh we also left something behind for them to read. We made sure they knew that we wanted that they prayed. Then we left!! We just have to keep them in our prayers. I really hope that this time away will help them realize how important our message is.

This week on Tuesday we went to a place called Guinope. Elders haven't gone to this pueblo in over 3 years. We weren't really sure what to expect. It was an hour bus drive from  Zamorano and this place in gorgeous. It was super cold too!! It was really high up in the mountains. It was pretty funny getting off the bus because everyone just stared at us. I guess everyone in Zamorano is just used to seeing two gringos dressed up knocking on doors right now. Anyway, we talked to loads of people, but not one wanted to listen to us. It was a pretty big bummer, but the people there were at least nice. 

After that on Wednesday we did divisions with the Zone Leaders. I stayed here in Zamorano with Elder Quintanar. It was really cool because we opened the mouth like crazy. We worked in a place called La Quebrada Seca about 15 minutes from our house. We knocked on almost every single door and got 6 new investigators that day. They aren't even chumps either! They're really positive!

So, officially this week, we were able to reactivate Jorge and Socorro Flores. They're amazing. I absolutely love visiting them. They went inactive about a year ago just for a few personal problems they had. Wait, I might have told you guys a few things about them. Anyway. They came to church yesterday and that makes 3 Sundays in a row!! We're going to continue visiting them, but they're officially active. We talked with the branch president to get them callings quick. I am really excited to see them progress.

Well, I love you all so much. I hope you can all visit a few less active members of the church. Members never know how much they can actually do with one visit!!

Love, Elder Carter

Hey everyone!!

Sounds like things are going great back home! It's crazy how we're already at the end of the year. Thanksgiving is coming up....I hope you guys can eat a bunch of turkey and sweet potato pie for me back in the USA.

This week has been wild. On Tuesday we had interviews. That, like always, was amazing. I love the time that we have one on one with president. I expressed to him a little of my discouraging thoughts of not having a baptism to this point in my mission. He just told me to keep working hard and that there was not time to get discouraged. He gave a little more advice on how I can find more people that are ready to listen and how to change a few of my teachings up. I've started to put all of that in practice this week and we have found some solid investigators. He also ended the interview with a prayer and asked specifically in his prayer that I would be able to have a baptism soon. I have so much faith that that will happen. But I guess it kind of hits me as well. The whole reasoning behind why I want to baptize. Because don't get me wrong, I really want these people to enjoy the blessings of the gospel like I am. But sometimes it feels like I want a baptism just to say that I've baptized someone. And obviously that is the worst way to look at it. I know that as I keep my focus on the Lord, I and my investigators with be blessed.

This week I also had the opportunity to do divisions with Elder Rasmussen from Spanish Fork. He's such a stud. It was super cool learning from him and being able to work with him for a day. And the area that he is in is absolutely beautiful. It's called Yuscaran. I'm a huge fan of that place. We did divisions on Thursday and then we were able to return and be witnesses at his baptism on Saturday. They baptized in a river and it was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. 

On Sunday we had Stake Conference and got to go all the way to Tegus to see it. It was a super special experience. They talked a lot about the roles of a father and a mother in the households. The Stake Pres also gave his full talk on the 10 commandments. That was a pretty powerful talk. 7 of the menos activos that we have been working with were able to show up to the conference as well. There's a couple that we've been able to reactivate. Jorge and Socorro Flores. They're so so special. Hno Jorge has been in the church for over 30 years and hna Socorro has been in the church for about 5. They went inactive about a year ago, but now they are so excited to be back. They've already gone to church two times in a row and also an activity. They're so sweet and always give us free pupusas. And they're some of the best pupusas I've had.

Well, I hope you guys can have a great week. I hope you can all open your mouths to share this gospel with everyone you come in contact with. Us missionaries need so much help from the members. I love you all. Take care.

Love, Elder Carter

I'm staying in Zamorano!

Hey everyone!!

Well, I'm staying here in Zamorano!!! I'm really excited to be able to stay here and work with the investigators and the less active members. This week has been good. It's been a little slow. Changes week always is when you don't have changes. 

Well. The work. The work is slowly progressing here in Zamorano. We just had a lesson with Avelino and he's not married. So we have to get him married first before we baptize him. It's goingt o be very hard, because Honduras has so many laws for marrying people. We'll see what we can do. I'm not going to lose the faith with this one, because he really has a testimony of this truth. Every time we ask him he tells us, "No, I know this is true." We've been praying really hard for him this week. He made it to church again, so that's three times in a row. Our next cita with him will be on thursday, so we'll tell him how important it is for him to get married. Other than Avelino, we really don't have other investigators progressing. I really want to work hard on opening the mouth to find new, positive investigators.

So this week, I've really learned about submerging yourself in the work. That's been something that has been hard for me. There has always been something in me that has held me back from being 100%. Whether that be thoughts of home or thought of inadequacy. I've really been trying to get myself to be a disciple of Christ, which we learn from Elder Holland is not an easy task. He says that even he still can't grasp the meaning of being a disciple of Christ. The mission, like they always say, is the perfect preparation there is to real life. And honestly, I'm living that right now. I'm growing up. I'm on the downhill slope right now and I feel the time slipping through my fingers. I've been reading a lot of Jesus the Christ lately. What a book. I've been studying it in depth every day. I usually get through maybe 2 pages every personal study. This book is amazing., I have really been able to appreciate my savior Jesus Christ while I read this book. I have learned so much about him and his role in my life. He truly is the savior of the whole world. We as missionarys testify all the time that He died for us. But what does that mean? Does that mean that he's paid the price and we're all good. cheke. No worries? Of course not. Preserve to the end is the key and the finaly step in the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we don't stay faithful, we have no promise. It all depends on what we do every day. We have to try our best to LIVE like disciples of Christ. Not just talk to believe. This is something I know. This is the knowledge that I've been able to gain as a representative of Him.

I love you guys all so much. I just want everyone to know that this church is the true (and only true) church in this world. I know it.

Love, Elder Carter

Hey everyone!!

Well, I've been hearing that in Utah the snow's been falling! Santa vaca. That's crazy. I can't imagine that kind of cold. It's still really hot here. Don't worry about that. 

Anyway. This week has been rough. There has been so many little small things that have been stopping us from working 100%. On Tuesday we did divisions with our district leader. Those are nice, but we lose about an hour or two. Then on Wednesday as we were returning we got stuck in a place called Ojo de Agua waiting for a bus that didn't pass. We ended up contacting a little bit there and that was all the work that we did that day. We stayed the night at the Elders' house in Ojo and returned to Zamorano the next day. The work here has been good though. Yesterday at church, two of our investigators made it. Avelino and Saul. We haven't actually payed much attention to these two. I don't even have a reason for that though. They're solid people, but they are a little bit older. I always have said that people over 60 aren't worth talking to becuase I've been rejected by so many in my mission. But they both showed up to church! So Sunday night we went to visit Avelino. When we got there, we taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and challenged him to baptism. He accepted it with a smile!! He's going to be baptized the 5th of December, so we'll see how he progresses. His only real problem might be marriage. We haven't asked him, but I don't think he's married to his wife.

Also, changes are coming up this Wednesday. We'll see if I stay or if I go. I really want to finish Elder Fredrickson's training. It's been a blast being with him. 

Well, I hope everyone back home has a great week. And someone tell Joran Cutrer that he's a stud for going on a mission for me. Thank you!!

Love, Elder Carter

Elder Carter's testimony.

Chapel tour video in Zamorano

Continuation of Chapel tour video

Iré y haré lo que el Señor ha mandado va?

Hey everyone!!

I hope this week has brought you guys a bunch of joy. I hope Halloween was great for you guys. Man, this time 

in the States is one of my favorite times of the year. Autumn. That doesn't exist here in Honduras, but that's okay....

Nothing too exciting happened this week. It was full of a ton of work. We've really taken President Bowler's 

challenge of 10 abrir la boca every day to heart. We were able to abrir la boca 51 times this week and that 

was pretty good considering the circumstances of where we live. It's pretty rough though because most people 

go to sleep at 8, but by 8 we still need 5 or 4 abrir la boca more. But it's fine. I know with all my heart that as we 

complete with this goal, we will be blessed.

We haven't had much success in numbers this week. We don't really even have investigators that are 

progressing rapidly to baptism, but the investigators we do have are completing with their commitments that we 

leave. It's been great to hear that finally!! I just love when they keep their commitments. It gives me that extra 

boost to keep teaching them. haha Elder Fredrickson always has so much faith for our investigators, but I 

usually don't. If they don't keep their commitments for more than two visits, I just drop them. Or if they don't 

go to church after 2 or 3 weeks...I don't know who's more right, him or me, but it's alright. 

So November. November is the same here in Honduras as every other month. Hot. We just don't expect any rain.

It hasn't rained here in so long. It's been pretty rough because now the roads are super dusty. We're in one of 

the coolest areas in the mission, but man, the sun gets hot during the day. If I got sent back to the South soon,

I'm probably going to die. But hey, Iré y haré lo que el Señor ha mandado va? I hope you guys have a great 

week this week!! I love you all.

Love, Elder Carter.

The peak of my week!

So! This week was absolutely crazy. First, on Tuesday, we had Zone Conference which was really great. I absolutely love Zone Conference because, just like President Bowler said, it gives us an opportunity to change. We have this one opportunity to take everything that we learn in a few hours and change the way we work and live our missions. We learned a lot of how to take care of ourselves as well. I'm going to do my best to follow all the health rules because I really do not want bacteria or parasites AGAIN. I might have parasites right now, but I really don't want to check....

After that, on Thursday we did divisions with the Zone Leaders. That was great, like always. I went with Elder Quintanar from Mexico. He's a great guy. He was my District Leader when I was in Langue. Well, my tooth has been hurting lately, so we decided to make an appointment with a dentist to get it checked out. We had to take a bus to Danli. That's about an hour ride. We got there and I got into the office. By the way, the dentists here are exactly like the dentists in the States, so you can get all the crazy thoughts out of your mind mom. haha Well, the only difference was that the waiting room was like half waiting room, half garden, which was cool. So I went in with the dentist and he said that I had 3 cavities on the same tooth!! So I got those all filled up, which really hurt by the way. 

Well, the next day I returned to Zamorano with Elder Fredrickson. We went contacting and we found this guy called Emerson. At first, he put up this front. He told us he goes to a church already and that he was actually in "training"or something like that to become a pastor. I just told him, give us 45 minutes to explain how the heavens have opened again. (We watched a church history movie on Saturday, so I'm really into talking like the missionaries from church history right now.) Anyway, he listened to us and had so many questions about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith and everything. It was really cool actually, because this was the first lesson that Elder Fredrickson just kind up piped up and answered questions without asking my approval!! haha it was perfect. We actually were answering all his questions before he asked them. The last question he asked us was, "Do you really believe that man holds the same authority from God that the profets of old did?" We testified so hard that we do!! It was so cool. I am so stoked for this guy. He asked us if we actually believe in the Holy Ghost as well and Elder Fredrickson said that we do and that we had felt him testify of the truth during that lesson. After that, Emerson told us that he had felt the spirit too!! It was just so great. That was like the peak of my week!

I love you all so much!

love, Elder Carter

The owls are going to take you away!

Hey family and friends!!

Well, this week was great and full of surprises! So first. I'm going to explain the title because I usually mention something and then totally forget to explain it. 

In church this sunday we had one investigator. His name is Saul. We just contacted him on the street on Friday and invited him to church. He told us that he started drinking at a very young age, so his brain is pretty damaged. He's a great guy but kind of all over the place when he talks. So anyway. He showed up to church on Sunday!! And then he stayed until the second hour. In the class, we were talking about Christ's church. And you have to know about Hondurans. They just kind of take one topic as far as they can in a conversation. So as we were talking about Christ's church, someone jumped in and told their conversion story, then someone else told their's then out of nowhere, someone started talking about the Catholic Church. And I'm not sure if this is just Central America or Catholic doctrine, but apparently, Owls are evil. And if you don't get baptized as a child, the Owls take you away. Well, during most of the class, Saul was zoned out. Then the second he heard the word owl, he sat straight up and said, "Everyone should be baptized, because when I was a child, I wasn't baptized and the owls took me to a really scary place. And I never returned." Then everyone just started laughing really hard. and he went on some other tangent that I totally missed. So. moral of the story...GET BAPTIZED!!

This week was great other than that experience. Elder Fredrickson had his first opportunity to give a real Spanish blessing! He did great! So much better than when I gave my first blessing. That was rough

Anyway. So this week we've been working a lot with menos activos and 12 came to church!! WHAT!! I was so stoked when they all started filing into church. It was so crazy though. I was just going around like crazy shaking their hands and making them feel welcome. It was super cool. We also found a family that is so pilas!! Their names are Marvin and Rina. They're very willing to do what the Lord tells them to. They're so dang humble too.

Well, thank you all for the letters you send me. I've got to go now! 

Love, Elder Carter

PS: October 19th is the official date Elder Carter started listening to Christmas music.

This week was full of work.

Hey family and friends!!

Wow. Another week passed by. This week was full of work work and a branch activity! Elder Fredrickson and I have been able to start to gather together a healthy pool of investigators. We have big plans for next week and we both have so much faith. But first off. Elder Fredrickson is a stud. When I came on the mish I could barely talk Spanish. But this guy. He just goes off!! It's awesome!! Sometimes it doesn't make 100% sense, but he doesn't care. he just wants to talk so bad. His Spanish is going to be so much better than mine by the time he leaves.

So this week, we got back from working one day and as I was about to lie down in bed, the phone rang. I didn't recognize the number, so I did the normal missionary answer. "Hallo, habla Elder Carter. Como podemos servirle?" And then the person on the other end just started crying. It was really weird. So I kind of calmed him down. After that, he told me that he wanted the missionaries' number in La Kennedy. (That's just an area in the city) I told him no, because I didn't really feel like putting those elders in danger. So after a little bit of talking, I found out who it was! He was a kid named Oscar. He is the son of a family in our area. (One of our favorite families to visit) Anyway. About a year ago, he had left for his mission, but had returned early after 2 months. When he returned, he locked himself in his room and didn't talk to anyone. Flash forward a few months when Elder Carter shows up in Zamorano. The same week that I showed up, he ran away from home. So I'm thinking all this in my mind right now during this call. So I told him that I would talk to his mom before I did anything and he agreed. The next day we couldn't visit her. We didn't get to her until the day after. We talked with her and she just bursted in tears. She hadn't heard from him in about 2 months. So that night I called him back. I asked him in what part of the Kennedy he lived in. He then told me that he doesn't live in the Kennedy, but by it in a residential called La Honduras!! Sounds familiar? It should. That was my second area!! Anyway. He told me his directions. I wrote them down and gave them to the Elders that are there. That's as far as the story goes for now...We'll see how that plays out!!! It was an insane story though and I thought I'd tell it....

Well, besides that, we're just moving forward with the work. Thank you all so much for the support and love. 

Love, Elder Carter

PS: I just want to inform you all that all the Christmas packages you are going to send me have to be sent before Nov. 5th if you want them to get to me before Christmas. Much love.

Elder Carter being Elder Carter!!

"Elder Carter, you've got changes" "What??"

Dear family and friends,

Well, it's true. Elder Wardle and I had changes. That was pretty rough because we were just kind of planning for him to die with me. It really caught us by surprise. When we showed up to changes meeting, we went into the room where they hold the changes meetings. Like normal, everyone was talking and reminiscing and all the new Elders were in front just kind of quiet and nervous.

The changes meeting started and the Elders and Hermanas that were going home gave their final testimonies. One of my good buds from the mission, Elder Abbott got to give his final testimony as well. He's a stud. 

Anyways. The changes started and also like normal, the trainers are put on first. As they were going through the names and areas, I saw my area pop up and then my name. So I stood up with a giant smile on my face. Then, the next name that popped up came from Cedar Hills, Utah. Elder Fredrickson. I ran up to the front row and gave him a huge hug and then took my seat. I am so stoked to finally be able to train!! Elder Fredrickson is awesome too. He's just so ready to work and has such a spirit about him. He actually has some pretty good spanish as well, for coming brand new like he did. We've been able to teach a few investigators, but like normal, most of our work falls under retention.

We were able to go to La Villa de San Fransisco again to watch conference. That was great. We were able to watch it in English and that's always a plus. Does anyone know why they stopped having the general authorities talk in their native tongue? I was stoked to hear a few in spanish this time...But that's alright. It was such a great conference and like everyone, I know for a fact that the three new apostles were called of God. I love you all and I'm stoked for next week's letter!!

Love, Elder Carter

Nasty food and 1 year.

Hello todos!!

Well, it happened. I have one full year in the mission. Just yesterday I feel like I was talking to Elder Scott in the airport about summer sales. haha Well, now one year, 1000 spanish words, and 6 ripped pants later, here I am. As you guys will be glad to know, I did indeed burn a shirt. I'm sorry though, all the pictures didn't turn out. I have a 30 second video that I'm going to send to my mom with my camera, so we'll see if she can sub that to the blog. 

Anyways! So this week I had divisions with one of my Zone Leaders, Elder Coe. He's from Taylorsville and he's a stud. One of my favorite ZLs. I actually went to la Villa de San Fransisco. So, if someone can tell Trevor Casey that the cocinera in that area says hi, that'd be great. Anyway. We went out to work in that area and man am I blessed. Zamorano is a winter wonderland compared to la Villa. I was sweating like a pig the whole day. We contacted this sweet old lady that let us into her house. We started just talking with her, getting to know her and all that fun stuff. Then we felt super strongly to talk about Jose Smith with her. That was actually consejo given to us by Elder Duncan, the Area President here in Central America. So as we testified to her about the experience that the young Jose Smith had, she stopped us. She then started to tell us that she had distanced herself from two churches that she had gone to in her life, because to her, they didn't feel right. Then she asked us "Is it really that easy? All I have to do is pray?" And we told her yeah! Of course. That's what Santiago says and he was an apostol! She promised us that she was going to find her very own arboleda and pray. Honestly, I have the faith that she went and prayed. The only bad part of that story was that she didn't even live in our area. 

So divisions ended with district meeting and we went back to our area. that day we had to lend service to a member here in the rama. Her name's Celsa and she is the rumor woman of the whole town. She could not stop talking about things that she had heard throughout the week. And well, for those of you that know me, I love egging people on. So I was acting very interested and kept on getting more and more out of her. Meanwhile, my companion was dying. He was getting so annoyed of hearing it. As we left he told me that he wasn't going to let me talk at all the next time. Obviously he was joking, but I ended up laughing a little more than him after. But wait, that's not the worst part. So after halfway building a chicken coop for her, she made us lunch. She gave us the plate and it had some kind of meat, rice, and a giant full tomato with salt. I hate tomatos. But mom, I'd make you proud because I ate that whole thing. Buuuut still that's not the worst part. As we were eating the meat, we kind of looked at each other. It tasted super bland. And it had a form that was pretty gross. So, just casually I asked her what animal it came from. And she answered pig! Then I went too far and asked what part of the pig.....And you know what she said? Penis. She said it while I was chewing on it. I held back a gag and said, "Oh hermana....Que rica esta carne....Nunca habia probado pene de chancho en me vida...." Then she told me that it'll put more hair in my beard, so I ate it all. That was pretty rough though. 

So on Sunday, we show up to church and this really old guy walks up to us and asks what we were doing at 5. We just had contacting in our agendas, so we told him nothing. He told us to go to his house, so we wrote him in. Then 4 more times in the church, he walked by us and said "At 5 right? good. don't forget." We didn't even check our agendas and at 4 we had a cita at Familia Martinez house and that was all the way across the pueblo. We ended up leaving that house at about 5:30. So we decided to take a mototaxi. We actually had no idea where this guy lived, we were just going to go to his bvarrio and start asking people if they knew him. So we walked by this house and it was throwing a huge party and Elder Wardle turned to me and said "There's no way that's his house." And i agreed. We went and asked someone down the street where he lived and she said at the party house! So we walked up and called at the gate and someone let us in. We went out on the patio and there was Hermano Theodoro with a party hat! We asked him who's birthday it was and he said Me! Haha so we sat there and watched these kids play a bunch of party games, ate some good food, and drank the best horchata. It was a good time and we have some fotos from that as well. Well, I hope you guys are taking care! I love you all. 

Love, Elder Carter

Hey everyone!!

How is everyone doing? I hope great. Things are pretty smooth here in Zamorano. We've been trying to help a lot of the members progress as well as get references from them. We've been able to receive a few this week. We received one from our leader missional that seems pretty golden. We've been able to teach hm twice. He's very very open with us about his feelings. We taught the first lesson to him this week and he took it all super well. He told us that up front, he doesn't believe it. Then I told him what Joseph Smith had said. That if he hadn't experienced it, he wouldn't have believed the story either. He well that that made sense. We challenged him to pray that night, as a family. His girlfriend hasn't been feeling well, so she hasn't been able to accompany us in the lessons. But David (That's his name) Tells us that he tells everything that he learns to her. He accepted to pray as a family and also said that he wants to start going to church. He wasn't able to come yesterday, but he's very excited about next week. I'm super excited for this man. He's such a stud and we can tell he wants to make a lot of changes in his life. Obviously, he still has to get himself married, but who doesn't here....haha but really. He is probably our most positive investigator that we have right now. 

We have gone back to Hernan's house two times, but he hasn't been home. His son says that he's been working abnormal hours lately. We'll see what is going on with him this week. He was also another that was so positive.

Well, I'm sorry for the short letter this week! We didn't have much time today. The family with the keys to the church haven't been home all day and we just got the keys about 40 minutes ago. I hope you all have a wonderful week!! I actually took some pictures this week, but I'll get more quality ones next week!! I love you guys so much.

Love, Elder Carter

"That's a snake!!"

Well family and friends, another week has passed here in the green valley.

Everything has been going great. Always slow when you open a new area, but that investigator pool is growing!! As long as the pool in front of our house. It's been raining almost every day for the past week. It's been a bummer because my pants get super dirty from trudging in the mud. But hey, missionary life. Live and love it. I have a fun story to tell you guys before I inform you about the work! On thursday, we came back to the apartment to drop stuff off after District Meeting. As we were talking in our kitchen, I noticed just a tail sticking down the wall from the ceiling. So I walk over thinking it's just a gecko, and when I get close, I was like, "That's a snake!!" My comp runs over and says "It's a boa!!" So he just goes up to it and grabs the tail, but the sucker was strong and slipped away. So we look up into our roof and see it coiled up in there. And that thing was big. We started looking around for places where it could have gotten in and we couldn't find anything. So we go and talk to our dueño and tell him there's a boa in our house. He comes over and looks up in the roof and can't see it. Then he turns to my comp and calls him a "Visionary Man" Haha that one made me laugh pretty good. (Our dueño isn't a member.) So he goes and gets a hammer to pull the ceiling board out, and when he does....there was nothing there! So we pulled the whole top panel off and finally found it. It had gone to the other side of the wall. When we saw it just sitting there, we started thinking what we were going to do. My comp just said, "Well, I'll grab it!" and he climbed the latter and grabbed it. Haha so we started playing with it a bit and took a few pictures. We ended up skinning it and drying it. Now Elder Wardle has half a snake skin and so do I.

So we've started to work a lot with contacting, especially since the mission has turned it's focus to that. We found two very positive investigators through contacting this week. One is named Hernan. He owns a rock cutting business here in Zamorano. We just walked up to him and started chatting with him. (We did the sly, "Hey, does Juan Alvarez live in this house?" And he said no, then we got to talking. I asked him if he was a member of our church and he said no. Then I asked him why not. And he said, "Well, I've never really thought of why not. I have a lot of friends that are members of your church." Then I said, "Well, now's your chance! We're having a baptism date the 26th of September. Will you prepare to be baptized then?" And he said, "Well, yeah, if it's right." We then had a little talk of how he could get to know if the church was true or not. I told him, "All you have to do is pray tonight. If you ask with sincerity, you'll get the answer." Then he said, "Why can't we do it now?" I said, "Vaya pues! Let's do it!" He prayed and we asked him how he felt. And he just said he was content. We haven't been able to return with him yet, and he didn't make it to church, but I have a really good feeling about him. 

Well everyone, thank you so much for all the love and support! Take it easy this Labor Day and go ahead and drink a good ole cold Dr. Pepper for me.

Love, Elder Carter

Interviews and Zamorano

 Hey Family and Friends!!

Sorry for the weak email last week. We were rushing to get out of here. We started writing late because 

we thought there were two laptops here in the branch president's office...but there's just a really tiny one. 

So. Zamorano. This place is beautiful. It's based around the biggest agricultural college in all of Honduras, 

so there's a lot of farmers. But they're very smart farmers. Actually the university is where almost everyone 

works. It is a giant blessing to the people that live here. It's also a giant blessing to us because the 

university makes State's style milk and cheddar cheese. Finally, no more bagged milk....

The branch here is small, this week we had 35 show up. It's a bit stronger than Langue was, but like 

Langue, there's no Priesthood. We've been able to set up a few activities to help reactivate people and for 

people to bring their non member friends to church. Our first one is this saturday. It's called a Noche de 

Hermanamiento. That's like a family night. We made it "De Traje." Which means everyone from the branch 

has to bring someone (Yo traje tal...) We are also doing it by organizations. Like this week, the young men's 

organization is in charge. Next week it'll be young women's and so on. The young men were pretty stoked 

about it. I'm not sure if they were stoked because we're going to be eating some pasteles or because they 

finally have something to do on saturday night. Honestly, even with this being a college town, there's 

absolutely nothing to do. We've been asking around about what people do for fun and they've just told us 

things that are too inappropriate for this letter. 

So earlier this week we had interviews with president in la Villa de San Fransisco. That's a nice little pueblo. 

Not as pretty as Zamorano though. It's always nice to be able to talk to president. This interview we talked 

a lot about what President Nelson had said the past week. He left us with so much consejo and blessings. 

President Nelson told us that our best friend in the branch should be the Family History Consultant. And the 

first thing that came to my mind was, "Well, looks like we need a Family History Consultant." Last sunday 

we talked to our branch president and he's started making plans to start Family History in the branch. But 

anyways. Back to the interview. We finished talking about the Family History and he asked if I had any 

questions. I just kind of asked him about the hermanas that were in my area before and why he had decided

to put missionaries in. He said that in stakes, the stake president receives revelation for the missionary 

work. He said that the stake president had received revelation to have elders in Zamorano at this time. 

President Bowler said that when the stake president had told him that, 2 names popped in his head: 

Elder Carter and Elder Wardle.

I love being a missionary. I still can't say that I don't think about home a lot, because I do. I think of it 

differently though. Like an ending of a past life and the beginning of a new one. Honestly I've white washed 

my mind on the mission. I just don't think that same way McKay used to. I don't feel like the same person, 

and I'd like to say that's an improvement. Even at this point, I owe almost my whole life and my whole 

testimony to my mission. I love this gospel.      Love, Elder Carter