Christmas Morning

This is a video that Andy sent us of him opening his Christmas Package.

Christmas!!!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!:) Hope it was as magical as mine was!

We got to do so much fun stuff! We were able to go to the Ulrich's house and we all made omelets (ulrich family tradition) and then we got to skype our families! It was so great. I'm pretty sure that my family is the best in the world. Then we played a ping-pong tournament. I lost my 2nd match but came back from the losers bracket to take the tournament. But then their dad came down and beat me by like 15 points... so that was short lived.

then we went to the Thorin's and played probably the most awesome game of monopoly ever. Started out really slow but then i got the 3 green property's and started dominating. I was way in the lead but we had to leave so i was like ok well there is only one way to make this fair... brother thorin, we will give you everything we have for 1 monopoly dollar. hahahaha brother thorin was pretty much taking one for the team the whole game to be able to get the game rolling... so we thought it would be good for him to win in the end. His easy deals paid off in the long run.

Anyways this zone conference was super awesome too. Most of The trainings were about using the atonement DAILY. That is what i'm going to be focusing on in the next few weeks. But then we had a super great talent show and white elephant gift exchange. Super funny.

Anyways this week are having a baptism! on wednesday! i'm sure ill get some pictures and whatnot. His name is Anthony. I think i have written more about it in previous emails.

Well I love you all! :)

Elder Carter

Tis the season!

Well hello family! Hope you all are enjoying the Christmas Season that is upon us! I know i am not. Yeah so it was so cold here that they canceled church. Legit. It was too dangerous to be outside for more than 4 minutes. You get frostbite too fast. its was about -45 here. It was so dang cold. Just going from the car to the houses was just bone chilling. But hey makes for a great story. I'm down to 2 fingers.. the rest of them froze off.

We were able to go down to Omaha this Tuesday for Trainer/Trainee meeting. Its was pretty great. I was able to talk with president Gardner for quite a while about investigators we have and what to do to help them. He is such an inspired man. We learned lots of great things to do to help our area progress.

Then we went on exchanges this week as well with the zone leaders! I went with elder baize and it was the best! Elder Baize is like my favorite missionary! hes so dang awesome. I feel like i learned so much from him, hopefully he didn't feel too burdened by me haha.

This upcoming week is going to be zone conference! So we get to learn more things! Zone Conferences are always my favorite meetings. We are also doing a talent show and white elephant gift exchange. And i signed up to play the piano. Hope all the fighting with my mother about practicing and taking lessons paid off! haha

I'm excited for Christmas to talk to my family! going to be a great day!

Love you all:)

Elder Carter

Christmas Season

Hi everyone!

The christmas season is so nice as a missionary! It seems like hearts are much more open here than before! Its probably because everyone is trying to focus on christ a little bit more! Because of that we have been able to teach a lot more people! WE also get to go do fun things like caroling! We Have gone out at nights and gone carol tracting instead of just regular tracting! It works so much better that way. Except its cold... Tuesday it was -20 wind chill. SO thats interesting.

Zone training this last week was so good! I Learned so much that i can apply in my life as a missionary. One of the focuses was to use our missions to get to know christ more. I Have thought about that alot recently and i will be working on that because its a unique opportunity that we won't get again in our lives.

This week, actually tomorrow, we will be going down to omaha for Trainer/Trainee, so mother watch on the facebook page for pictures! Cause i'm sure sister Gardner will be taking some. I'm excited to be taught by President Gardner and the AP's, always inspiring.

So something kinda interesting about here... the snow is like... Dry? its weird. Its alot like sand, in snow form. So no one is able to make like snowmen or have snowball fights or anything... kinda sad But thats alright i guess, not like i could do any of that anyways!

Well i hope you all are having a fantastic Christmas Season!

Love you all!

Elder Carter

Same Area New Companion

Hello Family and Friends!

So last week was transfers and Elder Jensen got transferred! And my new companion is Elder Matheson! He is from Spokane Washington. He just started his mission and is definitely excited to work and serve. I'm grateful for the opportunity i have to serve with him; he is a good missionary.

here is a surprise... this week it actually wasn't that cold! It stayed up above freezing most of the time which is good! But bad news... This next week is supposed to be below 0 temperatures... Insert Obligatory Complaint About Cold Weather.

But this week we are going to be having Zone Training! I'm excited to be trained by our zone leaders :) they are definitely great teachers and they are instructed directly from president gardner So i know that the trainings will be great. 

Our whole zone is very new to the mission... i'm one of the oldest missionaries and i haven't even been out for that long. Most of the missionaries here are training as well so thats kindof interesting. I hope we don't get snowed in too much so that we actually have the opportunity to train haha.

I hope you all had the time to go to the Christmas Devotional last night! I loved hearing about the savior and learning about him! I'm grateful that We have the opportunity to focus on him for the holiday season! It definitely softens the hearts of people around here. I loved the quote "without Easter there would have been no Christmas." So true! Christ broke the bands of death for each of us:)

Well Thats all !

Love you!

ELder Carter