What a week!

We've had a great week. We were able to find two new families that really want to progress. We were teaching this lady named Tatiana. She has a husband and a child. About half way through the lesson, she asked us when we go to church. We told her Sundays at 10. She then asked us a bunch of questions about what we do and what she needs to bring. At the end she told us that she really wants to go with her family to church next week!! It was a little shocking to hear that, but we planned a return cita for tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll get to know her husband. I'm really excited to teach them!

We also found another family. The wife's name is Ab and the husband Ar. This is kind of funny. So we found them on Friday night and made a cita for Saturday night. We show up and were just talking. Ab was there alone with her mom, so we were just asking about her husband and when he was going to get back from work. Then we asked, "Hermana, do you have any questions for us before we start?" And she said, "Yes!" Then turning to me she asked, "Do you have Facebook? I want to look you up." It surprised me to say the least. Then we explained about the rules, then she asked for my name to send a friend request and I kind of just laughed and said it was an American name that she probably wouldn't be able to remember. It was a little awkward. But then we taught the lesson and she was really interested and ´pretty positive. We just agreed that we won't return with her unless her husband is there too. 

So this week we're going to baptize this joven named Alberto. He was going to get baptized 2 weeks ago, but his grandma was out of town and she wanted to be at the baptism, so we postponed it. We also are going to baptize this lady name Julia! She has received the missionary's for about a year. She's about 50 years old and has a big testimony of this gospel. The thing is that she was going tp get baptized last year, but the day of her baptism she woke up with a sore throat and took that as an answer from God that she shouldn't get baptized. So the elders have been fighting with her about that for the past year and she finally said that this week she's going to get baptized!! We're super excited for her.

Well, I love you all. I'm having a blast out here. I hope everything is going great back home.

Love, Elder Carter

Hello Family and Friends!!

What another week! This has been the fastest week of my mission by far. On Wednesday we had Zone Conference with the second counselor of the area presidency Elder Alonso. At the beginning he called the leaders into a room and we had a small counsel about what were the major problems of the mission. We gave our suggestions and then he just dropped the hammer. He pointed out some things that we were doing wrong, Then explained what our really focus was in the mission. It was getting a little hot in there after a while! After we left the consejo, we started with the Conference and he dropped the hammer again. He told us that we weren't a bad or disobedient mission, just that we weren't meeting our full potential. Soooo we have a few changes in the mission now! It was actually a really big animo booster. We all returned to our areas super ready to work. 

The next day, Thursday, we only worked in our area half of the day. At 2 we took a bus to Tegus and stayed in the secretaries' house. It's always cool to hang out with them. Especially this time because Elder Johnson, Cabanatan, Scott, and I were all there. We just joked around a lot and had a great time. 

Friday rolled around and we had another consejo with Elder Alonso. This time he told us how he really felt. He pretty much let us know that the mission wasn't baptizing as much as it could because we weren't giving the example. He talked a lot about how we can contact people. He really focused on thinking of new ways in which we can talk to people. But not just regular new ways, ways that nobody had ever thought of. It was a little frustrating, but we made it out alive. We made it back home pretty late after. We just went to our normal citas.

On Saturday, all our citas fell. We were getting pretty down on ourselves because we had just received a ton of promises from Elder Alonso and nothing was going our way. We actually got stopped by two pastors that wanted to contend with us in the same hour! After walking around, contacting for a while, we found this lady named Rosa walking home. We contacted her and asked if we could share a message. She said "I already go to a Christian church." At that point, I was ready to just end the contact, but my companion asked if we could go to her house and share a message and she accepted! When we got there, we taught her and her daughter the message and invited them to church. They both said yes! So Sunday rolls around and 9 o'clock on the dot they're ready to go. We had a multi stake conference actually. Elder Duncan, Falabella, Meyers, and Anderson all gave talks in Spanish and the spirit was super strong! Rosa loved it so much. She kept on leaning over to us and saying "You're still going to make it on Wednesday at 2 right?" Or "Right at 2 you'll be at the house, right?" haha it was super special to see her so happy in church. 

This week has been a great week. I am super excited to see what this coming week has in store. I love you all so much.

Love, Elder Carter