Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Holidays! 

I'm grateful that it didn't snow like it was supposed to!

This week has been pretty good :) Thanksgiving and other festivities! good times!

Oh wednesday before thanksgiving, Brother Homer took us out to a restaurant named Chevy's, and it was dang good. I got these steak tacos that were so good. Their salsa was divine as well. we probably ate 20 cups of that salsa. We ate so much food.

THen we had thanksgiving. We went over to the Thulin's for dinner. They made a ton of food! mostly because they have 10 kids... But it was a good time! But i've probably had enough food in the last week to last me the rest of my mission haha.

Yesterday we had a talk by a young woman about service which is quite fitting because of the new Christmas Initiative that the church has put out. She said something that i thought was pretty profound "The phrase What would Jesus Do is a common phrase but i don't like it because it seems like a guilt trip, instead i think what if that was the savior?" I hope as we do the service activites and such we can think that way instead of being guilted into serving our neighbors :)

This wednesday is transfers! So I have no idea if i will be getting a new companion or not. It won't be likely that i am getting transfered but you never really know! i'm sure youll find out next week!

Love you all!

Elder Carter

Ice age :(

What a terrible week. It SNOWED. alot. And its windy and cold... awful conditions. And this upcoming week its supposed to snow and Hopefully our cars don't get grounded because i don't want to walk everywhere! We will see!

BUt other than that its be super awesome!!!!! We spent a lot of time this last week shoveling snow for people. Which has been really great for my back... NOT. But its all good.

Our ward here in Sioux Falls does a potluck every 3rd sunday and so we had a potluck on sunday! Which happened to be my birthday! So it was like a sneaky celebration for my 20th! Plus a bunch of our investigators came to church this week too so it was like a sweet birthday present from God! haha Can't do much better than that,

 Except if my mother were to send me a cookie cake... WHICH SHE DID. Got a package in the mail on saturday with a cake in it.... and now its a little less than halfway gone. I also got a sweet new scripture case in the mail from my grandmother too which is AWESOME because i had just given my other one to one of my investigators. 

On tuesday last week we raked some leaves for a member in our ward and the pile of leaves was legit taller than me. SO that was kind of fun, but we didnt get to take pictures because we put them all in bags before we had a chance. Most leaves EVER. 

In light of thanksgiving i want to say a few things that I am thankful for!

I'm thankful for my family who has supported me in everyway!

i'm thankful for sweaters that keep me warmish.

I'm thankful for the gospel that brings so much joy to those who live it

and most importantly i'm thankful for my Savior who paid the price for us all that we might be cleansed from sin

Love you all!

Elder Carter

Meet the Mormons!

Hi! (:

This week has really been awesome. We have been quite busy running around teaching people. Like ive mentioned before we have a few investigators that are progressing quite well and we've been teaching them the gospel like mad! Its been great.

So our ward mission leader, brother oakes, Is such a dang good missionary. He is seriously willing to do anything for anyone. He spends about 40 hours volunteer teaching the gospel in PRISON. Crazy! he just goes and teaches them for no reason. But anyways he built this home theater in his house so that the missionaries can come over and watch meet the mormons with their investigators. He has watched that movie 40 times as of yesterday! Holy cow its crazy. So we invited a couple of our investigators over to his house and watched it. It was a great experience for them and for us. This weekend Brother Oakes will probably be driving us and one of our investigators down to Omaha to tour the temple grounds and the trail center. He going to drive us... 2.5 hours down... just to help the investigators. now THAT is magnifying his calling. I hope to be like that someday.

We had exchanges this last week, and i went with Elder Nelson. He is so much like me, its pretty sweet. It was nice, we went around teaching the word like always! and During the exchange i had the opportunity to go to District Leader Training. President Gardner and the Assistants trained us on how to lead and several other things. They helped us see what the new focus and goals for the mission are and how to help our stewardship achieve them. I'm excited. and side note... My trainer, Elder Karl, Is actually one of the assistants now! So That's pretty sweet. I was trained by an AP. good times!

We went and raked some leaves for a member in our ward again, here is a picture of me just chillin in the leaves. There was quite a few leaves to say the least. but its good to get some service in!

Hope this week goes swimmingly! Love you all!

Elder Carter

Waskully wabbits

Hello family!

This week has been pretty good! Last Monday was Halloween! Hope all of you got lots of candy! And were safe!

Tomorrow is the election so that'll be interesting. We will probably finally stop being asked who we are voting for from everyone we talk to. Don't know whats going to happen so that'll be a fun surprise.

On Thursday we had zone training! it was so good. We had the stake president come and speak to us about what we can do to better work with members in our ward. Its obviously more effective to use the members in our missionary work, we just need to know what to do and how to do it. thats definitely what we are going to work on. picture at the bottom.

Elder Jensen and I are working hard with those investigators. We taught one of them this morning. He is already converted to the gospel and knows its true. I'm certain he will be baptized in the next few weeks or so. He has been investigating for years and he knows pretty much everything. His name is Anthony. hes awesome.

The video i sent is of me chasing a rabbit (hence the title). I thought you all might like to see it.

We are working hard and trying our best to do what we can to help the people in our area. I love sioux falls and am glad i am here.

Love you all!

Elder Carter

Happy Halloween

Hello Everyone!

Happy Halloween! Get lots of candy! Scare some people! Good times.

We as missionaries are not allowed to be out working on halloween night. We must either be in our apartment or be in a members home. and we aren't allowed to drive after 6 because of the kids running around. Its good to be safe. Tonight we will be going to one of our members houses, the prestons. It should be pretty fun. Ill take pictures!

 This week has been good! EXCEPT it got to below freezing... already. You will probably hear this like every week because its cold.

So my dad asked some more questions that i thought i would also answer in this letter:

What is sue falls known for?  Sioux Falls is known for... i don't really know. like everyone here is a doctor though because there are two pretty large hospitals.
How many stakes are there?  There is only one stake. I covers like... all of south Dakota and into Minnesota.
What part of Sue Falls do you live? we live in the city.

I do like it here in Sioux Falls though. The members are very nice and the city is pretty cool too. Theres like everything you could ever want here as far as like restaurants, stores etc goes. I'm sure i will enjoy being here!

We have been working a lot with a few people that will hopefully be baptized in the next few weeks. Most of the people we have been teaching have taken the discussions for a LONG time but for whatever reason they want to be baptized now. I'm sure ill say more about them in later emails.

Well thats about it for this week!

Love you all!

Elder Andy Carter

Sioux Falls!!

Hey everyone!

Yes i got transferred! I'm up in one of the furthest north parts of the mission... so its cold. Already. I guess in the winter it gets to about -30. So excited for that.... NOT. We can't even go outside when its that cold. youll get frostbite within like 5 minutes outside. So thats going to be interesting.

But i'm excited! This area is one of the best in the mission. And i'm with one of the missionaries from my MTC district!!! Its going to be a blast. His name is Elder Jensen! Hes such a funny guy. 

On sunday this week, we were sitting in sacrament meeting and this guy came in and we talked to him and he said that he had been investigating the church for almost 10 years but never joined becacuse he was living with his Girlfriend but now he is ready to get baptized. His name is Anthony! What a miracle. We hadn't even talked to him or even heard of him or anything but he just showed back up at the church. Hes a good guy and says he already has a solid testimony of the gospel. We will see how it goes from there.

Its been a crazy week. I'm looking forward to having everything settle down a little bit. 

Last week we went hiking on P-day (before i was transferred) and it was kinda fun, But we got attacked by some strange bugs. Pictures of hiking attached!

Then we also went to transfer point and we had all matching ties. We had so much dang fun back in CB. #godsquad.

Love you all!!!

Elder Carter

Transfers once again!

Hi:)

Yes this week is transfers. I haven't found out for sure if i'm leaving yet but assume that i will. But you never know!

So last week i saw something that reminded me of my sister savanna, and this week i found something for Katie! Pretty cool i think. We knocked on all the doors on that street to. Most people were gone... But still worth a try i think haha.

 

Other than that it's been a pretty relaxed week. Just runnin around teaching people. One of the families we are teaching is the Castaneda family. They are soooo awesome. Two of their kids are super great. They will probably get baptized in the next few weeks i think. Hopefully they will be able to come to church, both of the parents are blind so they can't drive and we have been finding rides for them. But they are so awesome.

We had some good meetings this week with our stake president and another one with all the priesthood men in the stake about member missionary work. Seriously the comparison between the work the missionaries can do and the work the members can do is not even CLOSE. Definitely help out the missionaries any chance you get!

Love you all!

ELder Carter