anda chapeando?

Hey friends and family!

How's everyone going? I hope well. It would be nice to get a few pictures of you guys. Maybe picture of the family dinners....

Haha no that's all good. Everything's great here in Langue. We're doing our best to invite everyone to listen to the good word. We had a pretty healthy attendance yesterday at church. We hit 30 exactly. That might not sound like much, but the rama hasn't had that in 6 months. We've been working really closely with 2 families in particular and they both came to church. W didn't even pass by, because Saturday they told us they wouldn't have time. It was super exciting to see them there. The mother of one of the families actually prayed in sacrament meeting. They felt super welcomed and the spirit was really strong. 

My companion and I also had the opportunity to give a talk in sacrament on prayer. It was actually a suprise. A sister in the ward was assigned the talk, but didn't show up, so the councelor that was directing just announced that we were going to talk! I sped through my scriptures, looking for something to share. It actually turned out pretty good. It's amazing what a mission can do. Missionaries can give 15 minute talks without any preparation. Because that's what we do everyday! Just talk to everyone about the Restored Gospel.

We've also been able to work a lot with an investigator named Mixy. She's the friend of the Branch President's wife. She's so ready to receive this gospel in her life. We have only taught her formally one time. She had so many questinos about Josph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She promised us that she was going to pray about it all. That night she sent a message to the Branch President's wife at midnight that said she had received an answer. She has a baptism date for the 8th of August. She only has one problem. She lives 15 minutes from the church by bus. She was going to attend church yesterday, but someone was shot and killed on one of the busses in the morning, so she decided not to go. 

I hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. And if you're not enjoying the blessings, what are you waiting for? The time is now!

Love, Elder Carter

Rain and Lluvia

Hey everyone!

I hope it's nice and cool in the states or wherever you're serving your missions, because in Honduras, it's hot. We've been receiving some rain though. Yesterday we were actually contacting about 2 hours away from the house when the storm hit. Lighting was striking all around us and it was starting to flood. By the time we made it back to the house, we were soaking wet and my Missionary Manual was completely wrecked. Luckily I had put my scriptures in a plastic bag! Other news...We're going cave exploring today in our area. I'm super excited for that. They tell a story here that in the cave and angel fought with satan. In the end, Satan lost and the angel slammed him on his back. There's and imprint of a human spine inside, so we're going to check it out. 

SO this week, the work has been pretty chill. Like I told you guys last week, we've been trying to focus ourselves on helping members gain testimonies. While doing that, the members have entrusted us with references. We've been able to teach these people with the members present in the lessons. There is nothing better than that. The lessons are always more effective when the investigator has his friend testify of the truth! We also worked with the branch council yesterday and planned a Relief Society activity. This is going to be the first Relief Society activity in years here. The sisters are super stoked. One sister said that she's going to invite five friends. With our spare time, we were able to contact a few houses as well and at one house, we found a young couple that are excited about this message. They had received the missionary's before, about a year ago, but the missionary's just stopped coming one day. They only have one problem, they aren't married!! So we really need some prayers for Yaneli and Milton! 

Sorry for the short letter everyone! I'm rolling up on my 40 minutes. But Iove you all. Just remember the church is true, no matter what anyone says!!

Love, Elder Carter

Chanfaina

Hey family and friends!!

How are you all doing? I hope the summer is treating you guys well. It's started to cool off a bit here. We've been getting a nice breeze every once in a while. The rain still hasn't come back, I hope that doesn't affect the watermelons. Everyone tells us that in August, they sell watermelons here for 5 Lempiras a pice. That's about a quarter. 

So we had changes last week. My new companion is Elder Avila. He's from El Salvador. He's a stud. He loves to work and we pretty much both love all the same things. We share the same vision of the work and I can see us doing good work here in Langue. 

So during Consejo de Rama (Ward Council) and Weekly Planning, we made a lot of plans with the members here. We are focusing ourselves on working a lot with the members. Their testimonies and animo is pretty weak. So what we want to do this change, is help all members have strong testimonies and a desire to work with investigators and other less active members. Our goal is to have a solid attendance of 40 members in the church every week. Right now we have from 8-25 every week. It varies drastically.

With this as our goal, we won't stop working with investigators and we won't stop looking for new investigators. We are still following the council that Presidente Bowler gave us to search for the chosen. We've decided to not waste our time with many investigators we've had that aren't necessarliy progressing that fast. We have a new investigator name Rixy that is pretty excited to listen to us. WE also have another new investigator name Mixy that was a refernce from the wife of the branch president. They both have huge potential to progress in the church, not just to be baptized.

Thank you all for the love and support for all the missionaries in the world. Don't ever stop praying for us!! Not just we need the prayers, but every person we meet does. I love you all and until next week.

Love, Elder Carter

Prayer

Dear Family and friends!

Hey everyone, How's it all going? It's going pretty good here in Honduras. We've been doing our best to reactivate a few families. That's what the branch here lacks is families. And that is President Bowler's focus this month as well. He gave us some council and said that if we see a family at any point of the day, talk to them. It doesn't matter if we're late to a lesson or have to cross the park, talk to them. I can't wait to see the blessings we are going to receive for doing this small thing asked of us.

So this week we were able to find a guy named Luis Angel. He's 18 and just a stud. We were doing the usual "Door Approach" at his house and he cut us off and invited us in. We chatted for a bit and taught him about faith and challenged him to baptism. He accepted for the end of July. The second time we went back with him, we taught him about the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I absolutely love teaching this lesson. This lesson contains the answers to so many questions that the people have. As we taught him of Joseph Smith and the questions that he had, I could see in his eyes so much interest. We then challenged him to pray about all that we had taught him, and he said he can't. We asked why he couldn't. He then explained that he had been taught by another church that he could only pray for his studies, his parents, and for health. I explained prayer with him and how God is really our loving Heavenly Father. I expressed that He really wants to hear from us. After a few seconds of him thinking, he said, "Can I pray right now?" He prayed and I have never in my entire life heard such a sincere prayer. He poured his whole heart into this prayer and the spirit was so strong. 

Prayer is the basic communication that we have with our Father in Heaven. Even though He is the God of the entire universe, he individually hears and answers our prayers. We can honestly feel free to talk about anything with Him. Just like we talk with our fathers here in earth, we can talk with Him. I am truly grateful for this opportunity that I have to talk with my Father in Heaven at any time and at any place. I love you all so much.

Love, Elder Carter