CAMBIOS

Hey Everyone! So we had Changes last Wednesday! I stayed here in Girasoles,

but My comp got sent to the south! But my new comp and I are going to work super

hard. I can feel it. Well, we did work hard this week. We have 6 new investigators!! 

It´s been such a good week. Anyway. So my comp is from Mexico. So he doesn´t speak

any English either, that´s a little struggle. But he let´s me take the lead in the lessons! And 

we pretty much split the time evenly! AND our lessons are all under 45 minutes. So the 

spirit is so strong during our lessons!! If you guys remember Shirley, we taught her and

her family this week. She lives with like 10 of her cousins and her mom. And so far, Only

Shirley has received all the lessons and her mom has received 2. But we taught The Plan

of Salvation this week and towards the end, Olga (the mom) Asked "So what are the 

requirements for baptism in your church?" We were so stoked when she said that! We 

told her, then she said she wasn´t ready yet, but we can tell she´ll feel ready soon. And at

the end of the lesson, Her cousin that was sitting in (Her name´s Paula. This was her first

lesson.) asked us about her church and her baptism. So we made a cita with her for today

at 5! 

The work is rolling. I can´t wait for this week!! We will definitely have a lot of stories for you

guys next week! And a lot of pictures. I have about 10 I need to send, but I forgot my

camera!!! Sorry mom! So until next week...much love

Love, Elder Carter.

And this was in my (mom) letter...

I´m with an elder named Elder .... He´s from Mexico, Merida! Crazy huh! And an elder in 

my ward just got back from Mexico and he said he knew Quinn! (Quinn is McKay's cousin

serving a mission in the Mexico Merida Mission!)

That IS crazy!

Feliz Navidad from the Hondureños!!

Miracles happened this week!

Okay! So on Thursday, we had a cita with a girl named Shirley. She's 20 and she's almost golden. She’s more of a bronze investigator. Anyway, she made it out to church last week. And we went to her house Thursday and challenged her to baptism! She accepted!! She's excited to get baptized, but mission rules say she has to go to 3 sacrament meetings and a ward activity before baptism. And she's going on vacation this week to San Pedro for two weeks. And here, that usually means they'll forget almost everything we taught them. So we'll be praying super hard for them the next couple weeks. But okay so the miracle this week. Yesterday we went to three of our investigators houses to pick them up before church and none of them answered! So we were super bummed. Then on the way to church, we see one of our investigators, Elsy, walking towards the church from the other way! We've taught her every lesson and invited her to church for the past three weeks, but she never really wanted to progress. So we asked where she was going and she said to church with us!! She's Catholic too, so she's got some deep religious roots. Anyway, she stayed for Sacrament (And it was Fast and Testimony meeting! perfect!) and then left for her church. After correlation, we went caroling with some members and the Hermanas in our ward. We'd sing a song then give them a pass-along card about El es la Dadiva. It's “He is the Gift” in English, I don't know if you've seen that video, but it's amazing. So we stopped by Elsy's house to carol and she was so stoked to see us!! She asked if she could join us! (Before she said she couldn't come to the Christmas Devotional) And then she said she wanted to go to the devotional!! So we all went and the spirit was so strong!! It's been such a great week. My comp and I really stepped up our game and have been super pilas. It has brought so many blessings to our investigators. 

But anyway I love this gospel! We get a lot of questions from people we contact if we celebrate Christmas because some church is spreading rumors that we don't. So I carry around a candy cane in my pocket. It's something small, but people notice. I love being a missionary!

Dad's beard is back!!!

You guys have to realize how stoked I was to see dad's beard. I'm his biggest fan. Anyway! Thanksgiving. Super super cool. But first. Elder Smith and I went on divisions on Wednesday. It was great because I don't often participate in lessons with my companion, but Elder Smith had me participate a bunch! And I know my spanish still needs a lot of work, but I felt that I finally got to get my point across! And I had a bunch of scriptures that I remembered from personal study. But that was super cool, he's a really chill guy. The next day, Thanksgiving, we went to lunch at Chili's. We met Elder Tausinga and Elder Gunnell there. We were your typical knucklehead American boys spending Thanksgiving in Honduras. We even recited the Pledge of Allegiance! Hahaha but that was way fun. And then divisions ended...But that night my comp and I didn't have an appointment for dinner! So we went to the Virgilio's house for a normal retention appointment. Hermana Virgilio asked if we had plans for dinner and we said no! Then she asked if we wanted dinner and we said heck yeah!! So she told us to come back in an hour. So we went out and taught a lesson and came back. She served us a typical super small Honduran dinner and after dinner I just stared at my plate. I kind of started to tear up and they asked what was wrong. I explained to them how much Thanksgiving meant to me. And then I told them the story of the pilgrims! It was super cool. But anyway not much else happened! But I'm so thankful for all of you in my life! You guys are all amazing and have blessed me so much!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

 Wow. I can´t believe it´s already Thanksgiving. Time is not even a real thing to me anymore. Like I´ve said to a few of you, time as a missionary is not the same as it is back home. Our days are much much shorter! Every time I look at my watch, 2 or 3 hours have gone by. It´s so crazy. But it´s a blessing. Because some days I can´t wait to end. Hahaha anyway. Like I said last week, our bishop is a gringo and we´re headed to his house for Thanksgiving next sunday!! And we have divisions on thursday, so Elder Smith and I will be heading to Chili´s for Thanksgiving lunch!! There will not be a Honduran Turkey Bowl though. I know. It´s shocking. No football, but yes. There will be fútbol. (Ughhh...) Haha it´s all good though. I´ve been getting a little better!! I can kick the ball while it moves now. I don´t completely whiff. Hahaha you should´ve seen my first game. I brought dishonor on my family. But the work´s good!! We are challenging (for sure) 4 people this week. And they really are progressing, so keep them in your prayers!! We had one guy accept baptism this week!!! Buuuuut he´s not married and has a family of 4...So we will see if he can get married by Dec. 13th! That´s his date! Thank you everyone for all the letters! This one´s short because I´m going to try and send a bunch of pictures!! I love you all.

Hard days and harder nights!

Wow. This has been a rough week. I've been sick for a little under a week. Not much. I think it'll pass. I haven't eaten anything for a while, so I've gotten a little skinnier! I haven't gotten sleep either! Haha it's a little rough. But I think we don't have water from thursday to Saturday every week, because we didn't have it again this week. But besides that, we have no stories! I know. I'm sorry guys! But there are definitely weeks like this in the mish. Investigators aren't progressing, people are going inactive, people are being nice to dogs. It's been really weird. But it's all good! next week will be better! I hope everything is going well back home! I hope I have a better letter next week! Oh and our bishop is a gringo, so he invited us to his house for Thanksgiving!!! We're super blessed and I'm so excited to eat a good American dinner!!

Love you all so much, Elder Carter.

Good times, bad times, you know I've had my share.

Wow. So this week was kind of rough. Technical stuff first, we didn't have running water for 4 days this week. So we took bucket showers! That honestly sucked. Then I found out on Tuesday that two elders in our zone went home. They were a companionship and so that area had to be closed. They had 2 baptismal dates set too! They both were just really homesick and President Bowler isn't going to hold our hands. He means business and I love it. There are no jokes with him. 

So the Spanish. It's really bad. I'm understanding a little more, but this is such a hard language and people speak so fast. The worst part is...they always ask me to say the prayer in the lesson, then at the end grumble because they didn't understand me. Haha but it's alright. So we have two solid investigators!! The mother's name is Olga and the daughter's name is Shirley. We've only taught them one lesson, but they were so open to our message! We're going to challenge them to baptism this week on Thursday! So yesterday we started talking to this guy named Carlos. He's an Evangelical preacher and he did not want us to talk about our religion at all. Which was kind of dumb. He wanted to only talk about the bible, but then kept asking us what we believed. So we'd read a verse out of the BoM and he'd ask where it said that in the Bible...Then we'd say it wasn't in the Bible, but in the BoM! Then he'd scream at us saying that we were liars and needed to only read the Bible. That went on for like 2 hours. My comp loooves to argue and it's a little rough. I could pick up kind of what they were saying, but there's no way I could be a part of that conversation. but it's alright. It was nice walking away from that discussion. haha 

So the big story from today! All our plans for P day got canceled because the Zone Leaders had to take an elder to the mission home this morning. He's headed back to the states for surgery. So my comp and I decided to head to Centro. (Where all the shops are. And I'm here right now.) We get on the bus and the bus doesn't stop at our stop, so we were a little confused. Then the driver's assistant yelled out that the bus wasn't going to stop until Guaymuras. And that's in a different zone, so we were kind of freaking out. So we get there and get off and look around. It was suuuper sketchy and we were completely lost. We walked around for like 10 minutes until we found a taxi that could take us back. So that was our crazy bus adventure. We had Wendy's for lunch too. I love serving in the city. But that's all for this week!! I hope everyone is doing great back in the good ole USA. 

I feel like Brick from Anchorman, I have no idea what's going on, but I'm ha....

 Hello everyone!!

Wow. Life in Central America. It is different...

Haha I love this country so much. The people are amazing. So my comp is from Nicaragua and does not speak a lick of English. It's been super hard, but I know it'll work out! So here's the first Honduran story I have for everyone. So there's just a bunch of dogs everywhere. They're just wild. And dogs here are nothing like they are in the states. They're the worst. So we left to our first appointment with this guy named Jose Angel. He works for the police and has this outside office on the street somewhere. So we were teaching him, he was sitting on a stool. In the middle of our lesson a dog walks up to me and he picks up his stool, yells at the dogs, then nails the dog in the face with the stool. The only thing I could think was..."Welcome to Honduras Elder Carter...." 

Alright, so I live in the city of Tegucigalpa, which is awesome because we can have burgers on pdays!! We have a supermarket here too, but most of what we get are from street shops called Pulparias. These are heaven. I had my first bag of water! yeah. bag. You bite off the corner, spit the plastic on the ground and just start drinking. It's super cool. We get semitas sometimes too. Semitas are kind of like pandulce, but not as good. Honduran food is alright. Mostly and egg, beans with this super salty cheese, a tostada like thing, and platanos fritas. I like those a loooot. It doesn't get too hot here. The rain get's to us though. There are sometimes just rivers of rain water going down the street. Today was pretty chilly. I went on divisions my second day here. And that was cool. It was with my Zone Leader. He's from San Clemente and he's a carbon copy of me. We had a good time and he taught me a lot! Thank you everyone for sending me letters!! I'm sorry if I didn't respond, I love you all! Cheke! ( In Honduras, cheke is like the thing to say. It means like good, great, that's all, and legit. And everyone uses it. Little kids and super old ladies.)

P.S. So we just got back from a Military museum. That was suuuper rad.