La Semana Santa

Hey family and friends! I hope everything is going great back in the United States of America! Here in Central America, we started the Semana Santa (Holy Week) today! So that just means nobody is going to be home in the city. Everyone will be gone to the beaches! So it's supposed to be a little rough working, but that doesn't matter too much. WE'll find some special people this week. I can feel that. 

So this week I want to tell a little story about a lady named Lauris! She's 55 and hasn't been to church since 2004 I believe. But Elder Workman and I started talking to her a little over a month ago. She was pretty receptive. Didn't talk too much. But we kept visiting her and reading the Book of Mormon with her and little by little, we saw her start opening up. We invited her to church and she said she'd go! And twice, she never went. Now with Elder Villanueva, we've visited her a few times. This last visit, we asked her to share her testimony and she started sharing it! About 2 sentences in, she just broke down crying. She said she really knows this is the true gospel and she wants to go to church so bad, but she gets up at 4 every morning to make tortillas, starts selling them at 6:30 and gets home around 7:30. Our ward starts at 8 in the morning. SO we shared a few scriptures with her and left. We said we'd pass by her house before church yesterday. Well we went and she didn't answer. Pretty disanimated, we went to church. About halfway through, we look to the back of the chapel and in she walks with her two grandsons. Oh what a smile she had. haha it was seriously a beautiful experience. After church, the Relief Society set up a service project to go to her house and help her take water from the well up the hill and fill up her pila and barrels! It was seriously an amazing experience.

We passed by Fabricio this week twice to follow up on the video! Aaaand he hadn't read anything. It was a little rough to hear that...But again, we shared scriptures and testified with our whole hearts, but there was just nothing in him. It was so sad. It just seems like he doesn´t take anything in. It just kind of bounces off of him. 

I don't know if I've talked about Freddy and his family with you guys yet, but they're amazing. Elder Workman and I found him our last two weeks together and taught them a couple lessons. They were super receptive. I've gone a few times with Elder Villanueva and it's been amazing. Elder Villanueva has a gift. He can talk with people and build such good relationships with them. Freddy and his mom both have been reading the Book of Mormon between every visit and it's been amazing. They're going out of town for the whole week, so it's going to be rough not seeing them this time, but that's alright. I have faith in them.

Thank you guys so much for all you do for me! For the letters and the prayers. I love you all and can't wait until next week!

Love, Elder Carter

6 Months!

Don´t get me wrong. I´m not baggy and I do not want to get home, but do you guys feel like it´s already been 6 months? I definitely don´t! I hope everything is going great back home. Here in the big city of Tegucigalpa, things are going pretty great!

We´ve been really focusing this week on challenging. We have 8 investigators with fechas for baptism, but really, about 2 are positive. 

The first one that´s positive is a lady named Cinthia. Elder Workman and I found her last change. She´s a nurse in a maternal ward, so her work hours were pretty crazy. But lately, there has been fewer hours of work for her, which means more time for salvation right? Right. So we started teaching her with more frequency and she´s been accepting us very well. She was very excited about the Book of Mormon and that we believe there are living profets today. We challenged her with a fecha of baptism for the 20th of April and she accepted! She didn´t make it to church yesterday, but she promised this week, so we´ll see.

I´m sorry for no letter last week and a really short letter this week. But it´s almost 6 and we need to get out working. 

Oh! And Fabricio, our investigator that´s 22 and plays soccer, we watched The Testaments with him and he LOVED it! I honestly love that movie so much! You will always feel the spirit at the end. We really hope that animated him to read the Book of Mormon. 

Thank you for everything. 

Love, Elder Carter

Every man is my superior in that I may learn from him.

Changes. 

So we had changes last Wednesday. Elder Workman is gone and fulfilling that next part of his life back home. Like I've said like a thousand times, I've learn so much from him. But, now it's time to look forward and focus on the next 6 weeks.

My new companion is Elder Villanueva. He's from Nicaragua. He's a good Elder. He likes to serve and teach the people. His teaching style is very different that what I've adopted from Elder Workman, so it's been a little rough starting. He doesn't like me teaching too much, but that's probably just what he's used to. We'll be able to come together and teach well soon. 

So the title of this email is something that Elder Workman gave to me before he left. He explained that not everyone teaches the way he does. And even though in my eyes, that's the best way to teach, we always have something to learn from others. So that's my goal this next 6 weeks, to really find what my companion have to offer. I'm sure that in 2 or 3 weeks, we'll be working very very well together. 

So this week has been a little rough with the work. We were going to baptize Mayenci, but she didn't come to church again. So we really need to buckle down with her. She's on vacation right now too, so that's a little difficult.

Okay! One of our investigators is named Olga. She's the mom of two children, Cindy and Lucia. She makes us lunch every day. We had taught her the Book of Mormon and it just didn't click with her why we needed it. We explained that it really was another testament of Christ. And that this book, like the Bible, talked of Christ and no one else. She still had questions, so we decided to watch The Testaments with her. We watched it and in the end, she was crying pretty hard. I shared my testimony that Jesus really is our Savior. And that The Book of Mormon testifies of this as well. The spirit was so strong. We invited her to read 3 Nefi 11 and we still have to verify with her tomorrow. I'll keep you updated on how it is!! 

Thank you guys so much for the scriptures, I know they're going to help so much. I love you guys!

Love, Elder Carter

Hey everyone!

I hope everything's going great back in the good old States. Here in Honduras things are amazing!! 

Actually not too much happened this week. We went to our usual citas and taught our investigators. Nothing super amazing happened this week. We've actually started dropping some of our investigators that we've taught for a while, just because they really aren't progressing. We started teaching a kid named Ariel. He's 20 and he's really just a stud. He's got a good feeling about him. He's heard a few of the lessons before, but I don't think really participated in them. Just becuase his dad has received them and his dad kind of dominates the lessons when we're there. But this week we got there a little early and got to teach him solo. That was a really cool experience because he had a lot of questions! He seems pretty postive, but we'll still have to see with him. 

We have changes coming up this week. Elder Wor...... is finishing out his mission. So we'll see this Wednesday who my new companion will be! I'm really going to miss working with Elder Wor..... though. He's an absolute stud. I've learned not only how to teach from him, but also how to appreciate the things that we have. And that we should really always be happy. Because there is always someone that has it worse than us.

I hope everyone is doing great back home. One request. If you guys could send me some powerful scriptures in the Book of Mormon, that would be great. We have this plan that we're using for all the citas we have with members. We go in and read 5-10 verses with them. That would be really great! I love you all so much! Until next week!!

Love, Elder Carter