Sioux-icide (suicide) City Squad

Holy Moley what a crazy week its been. Sioux City is like the complete opposite of my last area. Its been a blast so far.

So here in our zone, we have 6 out of 16 missionaries that are going home this transfer. Its like all of my mission buddies that are here in the zone. That's why we are the Sioux-icide City squad... because we are all dying.

My mom will be proud because i remembered my camera!

Idk if its a sioux city thing or what but it seems like tons of people have like mannequins and statues and stuff like that. i took a picture of one of the more extreme examples.

Sioux City is the dream though, day one we knocked on this door and a guy opened and was like hey i'm actually a member, I was baptized when i was younger and then my branch got closed... i have two kids that aren't members and I want you to teach them. So we taught them and then they came to church.

Today we are working on a skit that we are doing for zone conference on thursday. we are lip syncing and dancing to the song "mary did you know" by pentatonix. It should be super fun, and ill get to use my jive choreography skillz that i don't really have.

And Elder Horne and I are going to sing a duet for zone conf too.

So our mission president announced that our mission will be getting smart phones. 23 months and we finally made it. I will get to use it for like 2 weeks. 

I made a new friend at the mini golf course.

It's the final countdown

Another week is gone. Now I am in my final transfer. Its crazy how fast things have gone.

So this week is tranfers. And I Am getting transferred again! I'm going to Sioux City Iowa! I'm super duper excited. I know the missionary that will be my companion and we will have a Great time. At the beginning of my mission, my dream was to serve in Sioux city. And I didn't think I would get the chance... but I made It! The promised land.

I'm sad I'm leaving Omaha, I've been here for a good 10 months now... but i'm excited to experience something new. It's still a large city, so i'm sure there will be plenty of things to do. It will be quite opposite of my area now though... we have only rich people and big houses here. Sioux City is not even close to that.

I have started this thing called My Plan... Which is like the MTC for returning home. It's super weird because it just talks about things that I haven't thought about in years haha. Next week it will talk about dating and temple marriage. Interesting topics.

I honestly have no idea what to write anymore. It seems like I do the same thing every week, and its really not that interesting. The next couple weeks will be good because we have a lot going on, but as for now that's pretty much all I got.

Love you all!
Elder Carter

December Already?!

Hi :)

I hope you are as confused as i am about how its already December. I feel like it was just January at the start of the year.

As you (hopefully) know, The church is doing the Light the World Campaign again this year. Service!!! 25 ways in 25 days. Its a good time. Definitely find was to serve those around you!

We went to the Gingerbread Festival this last wednesday! Man i did not know that people could build such constructions out of gingerbread. Someone legit build the pyramids out of gingerbread and chocolate bars. There is a good 100 different houses down there as well. People are much better artists than i am.

The temple trip last week was incredible as well. I have noticeably felt a difference in my own spiritual power just from that one trip. 

It was super packed though. There was a good 40 missionaries in the session.

Last week we had another MLC meeting. It was so good. President Gardner talked with us about Real Intent. I think that so often its super easy to get into a rut/ go through the motions, when it comes to the gospel. Having Real Intent can solve all of the problems, and it really is not a hard thing. It is consciously making the choice to do something and to mean it. But it makes all the difference. 

This week is actually our like one normal week for the rest of my mission.... Next transfer is going to be crazy. Christmas Zone Conference, Christmas, new years, just so much stuff going on. It'll be fun i'm sure.

Love you all!

Elder Carter

Merry Thanksgiving!

I totally forgot to mention that this week we have a temple so our P-day is Tuesday.   Hope you didn't stay up waiting for my email!

Our Thanksgiving was so good. We had planned on going to a members house for thanksgiving, and then on  Wednesday night, we got a text from another member in the ward that said they had signed up for dinner on Thanksgiving as well. so we had 2 thanksgiving dinners.  We ate way too much food... I'm still full. And after the 2nd dinner, the little kids wanted to play a fun game where they chase me around and hit me with sticks... There was almost turkey all over the house.

I'm starting to get used to 7 hours of church every week. Maybe that's a good sign maybe not. Sept I don't like when the class teacher doesn't show up so we have to teach the class. Happened in Both Wards yesterday. At least give us some heads up so we can prepare! but I think it went fine.

(I really don't think anybody reads these things so i'm putting this in here for future me to laugh at: What is red and smells like blue paint? red paint)

Yesterday we had to drive around and do apartment inspections. So that was quite boring.

We had exchanges last week on Wednesday with Elders in our zone, and it was sweet. Their bishop was having a "pie night" activity at his house... and there was probably like 100 people there. It was crazy! There was so many desserts.

This week we have the Temple trip (today) and then MLC on Friday. Then sunday is the Christmas Devotional! This week is going to be super fun.

Love

Elder Carter

P-Day B-Day

🐧 21. Hurray. I don't know how i made it this far... but here i am.

Zone Training this week went super well. I gave a training on the Doctrine of Christ (article of faith 4) and i was worried that i didn't have enough material. but when i started going i realized i had WAY too much. I could have gone for probably an hour and 15 minutes and had to cut it down to 30. I hope everyone enjoyed the training as much as i enjoyed preparing and teaching it haha.

Interviews were good as well. Pretty standard i guess.

We went on exchanges with the Assistants this last week. One of them is my old companion, Elder Brinkerhoff. We had a good time, and were able to do a lot.

So there is this family in our ward, the Roundy's, that has a cat that HATES me. I don't even know why. I was sitting on the couch just minding my own business and the cat snuck up behind the couch, and jumped up and HEADBUTTED ME. What the heck? then a little later, i was just sitting there again and it jumped up and slapped me in the head with its paw!

I think i may have mentioned but idk, they do a Gingerbread Festival here at the Trail Center every year. People make gingerbread houses for display. ANyways our ward asked us to make one for it so we did. We helped make a log cabin house out of pretzels and stuff. We made the outhouse too. It looked dang good by the time we finished. Hopefully my mom got the picture of it from the members.

Last night there was a Face to Face with Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard that all the missionaries were invited to. It was just a question and answer session. It was awesome! There was some good questions that Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard were able to answer. Also Elder Oaks just FLAMED people to. He was super funny. Ballard talked a lot about not using technology so much in our lives.

Well i love all of you!
Elder Carter

Two Ward Challenge

Hello family!

This week has been pretty crazy! 

One of the recent converts in my ward got married on Saturday! We helped them get everything set up for the wedding. I guess you can say i am a professional wedding decorator now. I could see purple ribbons in my sleep after that. But man it looked amazing. Never would have thought it was a church gym after what we did to the place.

One of the Areas in our Zone (pacific ridges) got missionaries taken out of it... so now Elder Jessop and I are in charge of their ward too. On Saturday a recent convert from another ward moved into the Pacific Ridges ward, so we went scrambling around to try and get people to introduce themselves to her and also get things set up for church on Sunday. Its been a wild ride. Also 6 hours of church in a row is a long time... but its all good.

Zone Conference this last week was so good. Elder Natress of the 70 came to do a mission tour, and he gave us some great tips as far as missionary work goes. Also we were lucky to be able to have a short MLC with him before Zone Conference. He was super inspiring.

This upcoming week we have Zone Training. So Elder Jessop and I and the Sister Training Leaders will be training our whole zone. We have a pretty good plan for what we would like to do, and i hope that it will go well. I have had only about a long time to prepare... haha.

Also before Zone Training, we have interviews. We haven't planned everything out for that yet but im sure we will get a call from President later this week to discuss the plans.

We will also be going on exchanges with the Assistants this week so that will be fun!

And Amanda's baptism is scheduled for Friday!!! so thats super exciting. We might have to postpone it because she wants someone to baptize her that lives out of town... we will see though.

Well I love all of you!

Elder Carter

Transfers were last week

Hello!

Transfers were last week. My new companion is Elder Jessop! He's from Anchorage Alaska. And surprisingly it is colder here than it is in Anchorage. Literally everyone we talk to asks him about the coldness. Its funny.

So a few weeks ago, i mentioned a lady named Amanda. We have been meeting with her and teaching her for these last few months. She has had some hesitation about being baptized because she wants her husband to get more involved, and she doesn't like setting dates for things. But this last week we went over to her house and taught her a lesson, then i asked what she has been thinking about baptism. She said that she just felt like she was prompted to get baptized. She felt like she was waiting for things that weren't a big deal and that it was time for her to be baptized. She she set a date of November 17th for her baptism. We are so excited for her.

Yesterday we also met a missionary that had previously returned home that served in this area. He told us about an investigator that he used to teach when he was here and set up an appointment for us to go with him and the investigator to the trail center. We got there and talked with her for a little bit and she has been missing the church. She said that she really wants to keep learning more and also get baptized. So thats super awesome! Her name is Megan.

This week we have MLC on Wednesday and Zone Conference also on Wednesday. It's going to be a full week. We have Elder Natress, an area 70, coming to zone conference and mlc to do a mission tour. I have met him once before so maybe he will remember me... probably not. haha

We also might be going to the temple with one of our recent converts.

And another one of our recent converts is going to get married on saturday. Idk if we are invited to the wedding but we will see i guess!

Other than that, i'm excited for this transfer. Elder Jessop and I have a lot of good things going.

Love you all!

Elder Carter

Transfers

Hello!

Transfers are around the corner! I'm not getting transferred but my companion is! My companion is going to Marshal Minnesota! way up north. Just in time for the winter. 

My new companions name is Elder Jessop. I don't know him at all. Hopefully it will be good!

On Saturday, my ward had a Trunk or Treat! one of the members in our ward let us borrow some banana suits. It was quite awesome if you ask me. And last christmas, dad sent me a horse head mask. SO I combined the two costumes. i was a horse banana. It was interesting to say the least. I couldn't see anything because people kept shoving candy into the horse mouth. Good times.

I'm excited for a new transfer! This week we are doing a district leader training on Thursday morning. Not quite sure what we will train about yet but ill get it figured out.

Next week another General Authority is coming to our mission too. He is going to have a special MLC on wednesday morning so that should be fun.

Also in November, the Trail Center does this thing called Gingerbread. Literally hundreds of people build gingerbread houses and display them in the Trail Center. Every ward even has a "gingerbread-specialist" calling. Somehow we got roped into building a gingerbread house or something, so we will see how that goes.

Well i love you all!

Elder Carter

Breakfast of Champions

Hey!

Zone Conference on Tuesday was so good. We mostly focused on the importance of Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. President Gave us so much information from every source you can imagine. We also got to talk about General Conference, and what things stood out to us. 

So we have one investigator named Amanda that has been coming to church for a few years now. She's super awesome, and will hopefully be getting baptized soon. We were talking about how she and her husband met, and we asked about their marriage. This was her story: "I had the day off so i called him and said "hey you want to go get married?" Then we needed witnesses so he posted of facebook that they needed help moving, and the first two people to respond went with us as witnesses.

Pretty awesome i'd say. I think my future wife and i will do that. Sorry fam!

MLC was much different than they have been in the past. A few weeks ago, we took a survey about general missionary stuff, and at MLC we reviewed the results. We discusses the problems that we are facing as a mission and discussed things we could do to solve them. It was unique to get each others input and discuss solutions to help the missionaries. Our mission president has given us a lot of freedom to try and help everyone be the best missionaries possible.

This week is like our one free week. We don't have any special meetings or things to go to. So we will have plenty of time in our area!! We do have one exchange on thursday. but thats not a big deal.

I love you all!

Elder Carter

Hi ^_^

Hi ^_^

I have really enjoyed this week. Wednesday we went on exchanges again with some missionaries in one of my old areas. We went out at about 10 after studying. We went to one street to try and see someone. They weren't home so we knocked on some doors, not really expecting to find anyone home because it was 10 on a wednesday. But we knocked on one door and a man opened the door and let us right in. We shared the message of the restoration with him and he said that he and his wife had just talked about how they didn't feel that the church they had been going to was the right one.

So i knew that we were going on exchanges, and i knew some members that were in that ward, so i texted one of the families, the beans, and asked them to sign up for dinner so i could come over haha. They are just like our family. Their son is so much like me. Its crazy. It was a great time.

We have zone conference tomorrow. And My companion and i were asked to speak about something that we learned from General Conference and what we are going to do because of it. I'm still not 100% sure what i'm going to say yet, but i have spent a lot of time thinking and studying my notes about what i want to say. So i guess we will see how it goes.

We are going on exchanges again with the Lakeview elders, and i am probably going to be with one of the companions that i trained in Sioux Falls. It should be quite a good time.

Then friday we have MLC, which is my favorite meeting.

And on sunday, I was asked to go down to lincoln to preform in a musical fireside down there. Hopefully i will get to see a bunch of the members that know when i served there. But man its been almost 2 years since i saw them. Who knows if they will recognize me haha. I'm excited though!

This week is going to be great.

Love you all!

Elder Carter

???

Hi
Thanks Columbus for finding the 'merica's. 🐧

Life is crazy.

This week has been pretty much the same as all the other weeks. We did have interviews today though. Learned some stuff. Won the interview. then i left.

We have this recent convert named Jacqueline that is super awesome. She is super funny. She has the same humor as me so we get along great. She like HATES Columbus because he kinda was a terrible person... so we texted her yesterday and said happy Columbus day. She said no more like happy indigenous peoples day! so we said happy Lamanite day! aka happy slothful complainers day!
Then we went to their house and shared a message with her. 1 Nephi 13:12. kinda about Columbus. It was funny.

We also have this sweet investigator named willy. He's from texas... and he was pretty much a gang leader down there... and decided that he wanted to change his life around. So we are working with him. but he's got some issues haha.

we have also been helping paint this families house. I don't know much about painting but i think we are doing a good job. its a lot of work though.

They have some super sweet outlet malls here... found that out yesterday.

Elder Johnson and I are doin well. We are working with the ward to help us teach a few people. they have been coming to church for a while but are afraid of missionaries because of past missionaries. so thats cool.

I love everyone.
Elder Carter

The Last Conference

Hey!
This last week has been great.

I hope you all enjoyed conference as much as i did. There were so many good talks. I think my favorite was President Utchdorf's talk from the Priesthood session. It was great.

We watched all of the sessions at members homes. It was quite different than watching them at the church because There was a lot more children talking and distractions. But hey on the plus side there was a lot more treats too.

As you all know we have a tradition of making cinnamon rolls during conference... but our house is being remodeled. But don't worry fam... i kept the tradition alive for us all! I made some cinnamon rolls at one of our members houses, and i must say, for not having baked anything for over a year, i think it turned out pretty great.

We went on an exchange with the AP's again last week too. It was pretty fun. We went to go visit one of their investigators, and then like some random lady showed up and we started talking to her. She originally said that she didn't really believe in and stuff because she had some trials. We testified to her about how trials are needed and sometimes good but that we need to continue doing our part to receive heavens help. Then her whole attitude changed and she wanted to read the book of mormon and come to church. It was pretty interesting.

Hopefully i have mentioned car fasts in one of my email, but if not its pretty self explanatory. Tuesday we had another Car Fast until 5 pm and so we walked around a lot to try and find people. Anyways we were pretty far from our apartment, and we needed to go get our car and go to dinner because it was getting close to 5. So we started walking back... and we got LOST. like totally lost. there was no houses or anything. We were just walking down a road not knowing which road we were on or where we were going. So we walked for a while and there was legit 1 house on the entire road. It looked super duper abandoned but I (half jokingly) walked up to it and knocked. We knocked the standard 2 times on the door and we were about to leave and then I decided to knock on the SIDE OF THE HOUSE. Like i just punched the side of the house 5 times for fun. THEN SOMEONE ANSWERED. She was like oh you guys are the latter day saints. I'm glad you came. This is the first time any of you have visited this house in 50 years. Come on in. We taught her the gospel and gave her a book of mormon. Quite a random experience but whatever works.

Thats about it for this week!
Love you all!
Elder Carter

The Last Area... maybe?

I got transferred! I'm not in Elkhorn. Its just West Omaha. I'm like right next to one of my other Area's that i served in about 5 months ago. So i see a lot of the people that i knew. It's a little weird.

My Companion is Elder Johnson. He's from Rexburg Idaho land of the free home of the brave. So we got a couple of Idaho boys runnin around in these rich neighborhoods. All we really know is potatoes and cows. And the Gospel.

He's a good guy, super funny. We will have a good time.

We did another Musical Fireside yesterday. I don't think it went as well as the one last week but thats alright. Hopefully no one noticed.

Transfer Week is always crazy. On Tuesday I got to take out a new missionary on his First day! His name is Elder Bahlmann. We walked around and tried to talk to people. Not a lot were home. But i tied to throw him under the bus as much as i could! Best way to learn how to swim is to get shoved into the deep end right? He's a good kid though, he will probably be a better missionary than i ever was haha.

We are just going to be working on finding some new people to teach. The missionaries before me in this area had 5 baptisms the last few weeks, so hopefully we can keep the fire going here. It's looking pretty good so far. We got a couple people that will hopefully be baptized in October.

Guess we are going to knock on some more million dollar houses. haha.

Love you all!

Elder Carter

Meetings

Hello dearest family.

This week has gone by so fast. We had so much stuff going on, like I said last week.

On friday we had MLC again. It was such a great meeting. Sister Gardner gave a talk about "women who know" which was basically about how we all need to get married... always an interesting topic among a bunch of missionaries. But it made me really appreciate my mom and my sisters. They are awesome. Thanks for all you do for me! 

President talked a lot about setting goals, and we spent a good hour talking about what our goals should be for our stewardships.
I love going to MLC because it is all of my best mission friends and we are all diligent hardworking missionaries. We are all committed to doing our best to help the work, and so we learn much deeper than in any other meeting. Its pretty sweet.

On wednesday we went to the temple with Greg! He is pretty handicapped, so he was quite scared to do baptisms... so he didn't. But he did do some confirmations. I think he was a little bit scared because he didn't know what was going to happen or anything. But hey maybe next time.

Yesterday we had another Missionary Musical Fireside! Man it was so good. We quoted the Living Christ, and sang songs about different parts of it. Me and 7 other people did a super sweet a capella number. and for only practicing for about 20 minutes... it went super well. Perks of having a musical background!

This week is transfers, and i haven't found out anything yet. probably because we don't have cell service in the library... but oh well. I would not be surprised if i got transferred... who knows though! its all a mystery. 

Tomorrow we will probably take out new missionaries on their first day. We take them out for a few hours and kinda show them what is going on. Usually we just throw them under the bus and make them talk to people and knock on doors. But they have more faith than us and it usually turns out great.

Well i love you all!

Elder Carter

Well this week is already gone..

Hello!

Not a ton has happened since the last time i emailed.

We did have another General Authority come to our Ward meetings today. His name Is Elder Nattress. He spoke for a few minutes during sacrament meeting, and came to Gospel Principles with us too. I don't know why he chose to come to our ward but hey no worries. Man on my mission I've met at least 5 general authorities. Pretty lucky for me. And we will be having another one come in November too. We are just a popular mission i guess.

On Friday We went on an exchange with the Elmwood Elders again. It went pretty well, we drove to a bunch of hospitals to visit sick people. Then a member took us out to dinner too. Texas Roadhouse. I'm still full from all the rolls that i ate... Bread is my weakness. And sugar. actually i just have a lot of weaknesses... Oh well.

Today we are going to the temple at 3. I'm excited because Its been about 3 months since I was able to go last. But on the flip side, our p-day is cut short. Worth

Then we have 2 district meetings this week on Wednesday and Thursday. Also, My recent Convert, Greg, is going to the temple to do baptisms on Wednesday, so we will be going with him.

Friday is MLC, which is always awesome. Its like all my mission buds from across the whole mission. Plus president Garnder just blows our minds every time.

Then on sunday we have a special Missionary Musical Fireside. I told you about one previously but its just where all the missionaries come together and sing and put on a special fireside. A few missionaries and i are going to do an A Capella number as well. I haven't had time to practice... so its going to be quite interesting. 

Oh and we are going on an exchange with the AP's on thursday too... so our week is shot. Got way to much stuff to do and not enough time to do it all. But hey thats what makes it fun!

Love you all!

Elder Carter

wait a minute...Wednesday???

Hi, sorry i'm late. Libraries were closed on monday and we had Zone Conference on Tuesday so we are emailing now.

This zone Conference was one of the best in a long time. One of the trainings by President Gardner was amazing. I had been studying around the phrase "word of God" and looking at all aspects of it for the last like 6 months. Yesterday basically took all my studies and summed them up in about 45 minutes. It was amazing. He completed thoughts that i had left open and took them farther too. We had such a good time. Luckily we didn't have to give a training at this Zone Conference because we would have looked foolish comparatively.

We went on an exchange on Friday with the Millard Elders. I went with Elder Clayton. We had a great time. We went up to one house and knocked on the door, and we saw this young puppy sprint up to the door and got so excited that he peed all over the floor. Then the owner opened the door and the dog ran out at us and peed all over Elder Clayton's shoes. It was so funny. I have never been that excited before but it must have been really excited for 2 random missionaries to come over.

Then towards the end of the night, we met this scientist guy that just went OFF about evolution, and about guppies. Like he spent atleast about 20 minutes telling us about a scenario of when some guppies had a mutation and passed that on to other guppies. Then he went off about subjective truths vs. Molecular truths. Elder Clayton and i were so confused the whole time. We just laughed about it for the next like 3 days. We are still laughing about it actually.

This next week we have our P-day on Tuesday as well because we have a temple trip. So we will be emailing on tuesday next week.

This week we are going on an exchange with the Elmwood Elders. I'm not sure what will happen but i hope it is as eventful as our exchange last week.

well i love you all

Elder Carter

We have a Krispy Kreme like a block from our apartment and last night we saw the hot and ready sign on and we got lured in. We are weak.

A new way to save the day.

Is it just me or do the weeks seem like they don't really happen anymore.

So we had a sweet training by President Gardner instead of district meeting this last week. It was pretty similar to the one we had at MLC. I guess a group at BYU did a study about how the book of Mormon effects people as they read it. So they went to 5 cities around the world and did an experiment where they made a stand and had 531 people each read 1 page of the book of Mormon and mark reference's to Christ or God. The results were Pretty sweet. Tons of people were interested in the book or Mormon and had good experience's with it. The trick is to get people to read it. The book of Mormon will speak for Itself.

We had one of the best door slams of my mission on Saturday. It was so dang awesome. We knocked on the door and this old guy opened it up and just started yelling. He was like "get the ____ off my porch. you two shouldn't be here, you need to ____ leave. Get out of here. You aren't supposed to be here."

We started Walking away and he was still just screaming. We walked off his porch and walked back toward the road and he was just like "I'm calling the cops. Where are you parked at, I'm going to follow you and turn you in you sons of ______. Get away from my car. Ill shoot you."

It was crazy man I just started LAUGHING. we didn't even like say anything to him.

Good times

One of the sisters that entered the MTC with me came back to visit our ward today. It was weird... I've always know her as a missionary. Can't believe how long its been.

Yes you might be thinking I wouldn't mention my brother's b-day. I lived with that guy for 17+ years, he couldn't get away that easy. He's not old... he's just Chronologically Challenged. Happens to the best of us.

Happy birthday brother. :)

Thanks to my dad for livin my dream...

Love you all!

Elder Carter

The Experience of a lifetime.

I will never Forget this past week of my life. I have been so blessed by the Lord. 

As I Said last week, Elder Brinkerhoff and I, and a few other missionaries, we invited to sing the national Anthem for the Omaha Stormchasers baseball game. It was so much fun! We got to go out onto the field and we sang behind home plate. They put us up on the jumbotron for everyone to see! THen we got to stay and watch some of the baseball game. It was a so awesome.

Then on Saturday Morning, the whole mission came in to hear from President Nelson. As he walked in, we all quoted the Living Christ from memory. There was so much power. Many missionaries, including myself, were in tears. We prepared so much for President Nelson, and he could tell. Sister Carpenter (her husband is in the 70) Said she would remember that moment for the rest of her life. She was not alone in that statement. I don't think any of us will forget it. President Nelson spoke to us about the book of Mormon, and the incredible teaching that come from it. We all had the opportunity to shake his hand.

Then on Sunday we had a special Stake Conference with Elder Anderson of the Seventy. I was standing up at the front talking to President Gardner As he walked in, and I started walking away, but he waved at me and stuck his hand out, so I shook his hand haha. I'm pretty much famous now.

I'm so grateful for the experiences I have had. I cannot forget them and they have changed me.

This week we have Interviews with President Gardner. I'm very excited. President Nelson said some things that I want to ask him about.

I love you all!