Duh da-da Duhhhhh....Limpio

Shup Guys!

Wow so sounds like politics is really getting crazy. I am speechless idk crazy stuff. 

SO paraguay. We had a good week. It got over 100 degrees. They say it was 115 in the shade haha. I don't know though... but it was hot. By the end of the week though the temp went down alot and it has been really cloudy and it rained once pretty strong and has sprinkled a bit. So I thought I would share a funny story.

So it had just rained the day before and Hakes and I set out to visit this menos activo. On the way we had to walk through a newly cleared road of dirt... now mud. As we got further down the way we saw another menos activos jeep like car off the side of the road. Then we realized it had slid on a turn and went off the side and got stuck in a slippery down ward slope like thing. Literally it had happened moments before. We came up and the members had big smiles. We told them we were there to help so we got in front of the hood and began to push. The member stepped on the gas and the tire spit mud up and down my whole body all over my face shirt tie pants hair into the back of my collar!!! It was so uncomfortable haha. But we got them out and I wiped as much off as I could. They then invited us over to share. So we hopped in the car squezed in really, And took off down the slippery road haha. I thought we might skid off again it was funny and he was driving really fast. They do not know how to drive here. Haha I thought Utah drivers were bad. So then we got to their house and had a good lesson. The Hermano had his foot up on a stool during the lesson and later he told us that he hurt his foot earliar in the week and he has no feeling in his right foot. What the Crap!!! and he was driving!!!!!! hahaha idk fun stuff. 

Anyways... so another experiance I'll tell the short version. We had we found this lady on Sat. night and invited her to church. We picked her up in the morning and went off. On the way she lit up a cig haha. We told her not to but she had already made up her decision. This lady drinks everyday and lives in this tiny shack. Well, she wasn't all there but we didn't realize that till after the first hour. Trust me we wouldn't bring a crazy person to church, I promise haha. Apparently she started a fight in Relief Society hahaha. The other hermanas were so mad. Then she kept calling us HERMANOS DE MIS HERMANOS, brothers of my brothers, it was so funny. Well she wouldn't be quiet so we got her to leave before the last hour haha. We are still going to work with her so we will see how that goes.

Yeah well thats about all the funny stuff. 

Hermano Orrego is progressing really well. He told us after chruch on Sunday that he knows the Book of Mormon is true! So awesome, I know he will be ready by the 10th to be baptized.

SHOUT OUTS

Grandpa and Grandma Hansen!!!! I got your package! The fruit role ups are so bomb. You know whats up! Except the Utes mints are a little iffy :) Thanks so much though I really loved it and have eaten half the food in there already haha. Have a good week guys. I love you guys Chau Chau

Grandpa and Grandpa Noorda!!!! Thank you so much for the stuff. I really needed that journal cuz I have three pages left in my other one haha. Also top romen... thank you haha I miss that stuff. I think about you guys every day. I love you so much. 

Mom thanks for the package haha...You rock.

So I just want to let you guys know how awesome Jesus the Christ is! I love this book. I can't put it down. Talmage rocks. It is a really great way to learn more about our Savior's life. As I learn more about Him my eyes are opened up and I see life in a different way. It is really hard to explain, but I truly believe I am changing. Some times I can't see it... but I am telling you guys... there is something more. The more we learn about our Savior and His gospel the more meaningful this life becomes. I strongly advise you all to learn more about our Savior Whether we are learning in church, the scriptures, by bearing our testimony, the words of the prophets and apostles, what ever way... they are all good, and you will be suprised by the influence of the Spirit. 

Love you all thanks for everything. Special shout out to Brooke! I love you sis, and miss hanging out with you. I just wanted to tell you that haha. 

Con mucho amor,

Elder Carpenter

Stuff and Stuff...week 15 Limpio

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy familyyyy,

What is up? Sounds like everyone is doing well. I wish I could have been at the wedding sounded like a blast. And I hear "Sexy and I Know It"  at least once a week haha. It is very hard to keep myself from shuffling... but at district meeting...I shuffle with another elder!! haha so its all good. I work out!!

Anyways, this week was pretty norm. Our investigator Hermano Orrego is super baller. We had a really good lesson with him about the Restoration and we are going to watch the JS movie again with his family. He came to church yesterday also. So he left Saturday afternoon to go to work and didn't get off until 6 am on Sunday. Then he traveled back to Limpio and got ready and went straight to church! He could have easily come up with an excuse and in his case he could have had a good one, but he has true desires to recieve an answer so he did what he knew he had to do. There are three very important steps to recieving an answer for your self to know if the church is true. They are ... reading the Book of Mormon (accepting its invitation), having sincere prayer, and going to church. An important factor in all of this, is the role of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is a revelator and helps up recieve revelation and understand true doctrines. So this is what Hno. Orrego is doing and he has such sincere desires to know, so we are praying for him everyday and I believe he will get a specific answer from our Heavenly Father. 

Ok so we also watched 3 talks from this month given at the leader meeting thing i dont know what its called. We watched it at the Orregos house also and Hno. Orrego loved it. He invited us to watch it with him haha. Uchtdorf gave an awesome talk and so did Nelson. You should watch it dad and mom if you havn't yet. 

Oh, so we had another miracle this week. The ward mission leader is now reactivated and we had our first meeting with him. It was very good. I am really excited with the progression of this ward. So many members are actually doing visits and stuff it is awesome. 

So I was wondering if you could send me a copy of the talk Uchtdorf gave on the Light Bulb if you guys remember. He uses a story of a plane and the light bulb and it is really good. So if you could find that and send it to me that would be nice. We aren't allowed to get on lds.net unless we have all the quotes by general authorities in PMG memorized haha President Arnolds rule. Elder Arnold from the seventy is our area president. He also gave a great talk in Nov. 2010 gen conference on How we are representing our Savior and what we are doing with His name. Good talk check it out.

Other things I would like salted peanuts... thats it for now. Oh and war heads.

So in the mission I am having interesting experiences. And I have recently been thinking about something... so I thought I would ask you all a question. Are you proud to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? If so, which I hope so, how do you show it? 

    Are you bold with your family and friends, not of our faith, when they ask questions about the church?  I hope you understand what I am talking about when I say this. There are times when I have answered question about the church and afterwards I just felt like I could have given a better answer. Other times I feel really good afterwards because I knew I had been bold and truly shared what I believed. I feel like sometimes we hold back parts of our testimony because we are afraid what people will think of us. It is important to know that God is always proud of us when we bear pure and sincere testimony. 

    Another point I would like to make is... do your friends know how important the gospel is to you? I'm not saying you need to walk around with a mega phone, I'm just saying you are an example for others. The other day we came up to a house with some menos activos, and they were outside with their nonmember friends. As they saw us come up they ran inside and hid. Their friends ended up inviting us in and we talked with them. The sad thing is the example of the members is probably pressed upon their minds. Why would they want to be members of our church if their friends who are acting like they don't want to be members? We never taught them but I just wish the members would have been a little better. Sometimes we do this and we don't know it. I'm not going to list all the ways how we do that but I will leave it up to you to decide what you can do better at to be a proud member of the church. It is easy for me to say all this, so I apologize because I wasn't the best at sharing the gospel before my mission. I am not the best missionary, but I am progressing and so can you guys. The important thing is that we are making changes in our life to become better members.

Well it is now Shout Out Time!

I have to give a shout out to Uncle Brent and Aunt Debbie!!! Thank you guys so much for  helping me out with my mission. You are the best. I know you will be blessed for donating to the mish fund. I love you guys alot and hope everything is going well for you back at home. 

Grandpa and Grandma Carpenter!!! I laughed so hard when I got your package and read the note. I am enjoying the handy tool, and the once sealed pound of beef jerky is so dang good haha. Love you guys.

TAMI GREEN... AUNT TAMI.... GREEN FAMILY...I got your package, POR FIN!!! I ate all the gumballs they were so good haha. And the candy is great also. I loved all your letters! Sounds like you are all good. The letters really are awesome. I wrote you a letter back. Keep being cool guys. Love you!

Well its about that time. I love you all. Brooke, don't skip school or seminary you turd haha. Cameron,I hope the longboarding thing is going good..I sure miss a good skate sesh. Caden, good luck with odyssy of the minds... shuffle it up. Zach don't cry bud! haha I love you. The video didn't work btw. Mom, I love you as usually and Dad, suerte in Singapore. 

Siempre estan en mi corazon. Con sincero amor,

Elder Carpenter

Week 14...Limpio

Mby te corpio?!

 

Sounds like everyone is doing fine in California. This week was pretty sweet so I'm excited to share.

 

Thanks dad,  for all the updates... helps me feel like I'm in the club. Speaking of clubs...Paraguay junk...

Futbol or soccer is huge down here. Everyone plays and they are actually pretty good. Also every one has a club, or a team that is their favorite. It's not exactly like having a favorite team in the states. Here everyone has a club... everyone. Neighborhoods sometimes are sectioned off by clubs. There is graffiti everywhere that says different names (olimpia, ccp, guarani, libertad etc.). Usually I'll see a ccp tag and it will be crossed out and a olimpia will be sprayed over it or just a bunch of grocerias (bad words) all over it haha. It is kinda like gang territory stuff. Anyways theres some deats on some Paraguay stuff.

 

So this week was super sick. So last Sunday we had a change of bishops! To give you just a little information on our old bishop. He has been in for 7 years, way too long. There's some other stuff but thats not important. Ill just say his rep has been slowing down the progression of the work. The ward is super lazy and he is def a big cause to this. So we had the change and now we have Obisbo Palomeke. He's super animo for the work and wants to get all the members involved and get the ward moving again. So we are helping him revive the ward and make some huge changes. This whole week Elder Hakes and I have been dang excited to see what will happen and we are already seeing a ton of progression. So two weeks ago we had about 65 people at church, last Sunday 83, this Sunday 106!!! It was crazy. We are going finding all the menos activos and trying to help them out. We are getting members to actually do visits and do their part. Last week I said I didn't know how I felt about being in Limpio again, but I can tell you right now I am more excited then ever right now. Before my mission I dont think I could comprehend the joy that I am recieving in my mission. I truly feel blessed because we are seeing some miracles happening before our eyes. 

 

so We finally are getting some refrences too.

 We are starting to teach Hermano Orrego. The Orrego family is so cool. We spent New Years Eve at their house for dinner. Hna. Orrego was a misionera and all her kids are super guapos (studs paraguay meaning). Marcos is 17 and fernando is13  they both go on splits with us and do a great job. Then there is Sofi she is 10 and is a nice little girl. They have a 25 year old in France studying haha. Anyways Hno. Orrego is catholic and for the longest time has had a hard shell when it comes to the missionaries. Well we did service at their house last change and really helped them out. They are starting to add on to their house so we did a bunch of stuff to prepare the foundation.

So this service project really softened his heart and has started opening up with us. We hadnt taught him yet, but he told his wife he is ready to listen to us!! So he came to church and really liked it. We met last night at his house and had a really cool lesson with him. We set him with a fecha and gave him a Libro de Mormon of his own to start reading. I am can't wait to see his progression. After he gets baptized their family can get sealed in the temple. That would happen in a year from March if he is baptized on the fecha we gave him. And if so I will most likely be able to be there to see their family sealed for the eternities!!! 

 

Another thing yesterday, I gave another discurso in church on la obra misional. I was studying and praying alot on what I should say and I decided to speak on the duty that we have as members to do missionary work. Please read the seccion in ch9 pmg on "the importance of members". It will really help our family out on knowing what the Lord expects of members in His work. Read it and truly pray to know how to apply it to your lives as members of this church. Also read The section in true to the faith on missionary work. This work cannot be done without the help of the members. There are plenty of ways that we can help out the missionaries and the Lord with the work. Whether it be by sharing your testimony or setting an example, Sharing a copy of the Book of Mormon with a friend , family member, or neighbor, or whether it be inviting them to meet with the missionaries. The ideal thing would be to do all of those and I know it is scary and hard but there isnt a need to be scared because the Lord will help you. Just like you shared with me, mom, in your letter.  GREAT JOB!!!

 

So I would like to share with you an analogy that I shared in my talk. A ward is like a tree. Let me explane like every tree it has the ability to grow into a very big tree.

Every member has an importnt part in the this trees growth. I like to say the the branches are the members. And every branch produces fruit which represents the gospel. Among this tree are people who are hungry and the truth is to satisfy their needs they need to try this fruit. The thing is, the But is, is that it is hard to try the fruit if the members or braches dont extend themselves towards those who hunger to allow them to partake of the fruit. Every member needs to extend their arms out to those around them, whether it be their family, friends, meighbers whoever, so that they can try the fruit. Those who except the fruit then become grafted into the tree as branches as well the the tree or ward family begins to grow. Over time the tree can become giant but this growth really depends on the members. The missionaries and ward leaders are there to help you could say as jardineros or gardeners haha.

Anyways I ran out of time... well whoops. Love you all! Do work! Until next week... I AM OUT... PEACE,

 

ELder Carpenter

Changes...week 13...Limpio

Hey gang!

So changes were this week and I am going to .... stay in Limpio ... with Elder Hakes!!!! haha fun stuff, that just means I will be in Limpio for 6 months of my mission (most likely). So I'm not sure about that, but I do know that the Lord is sure. He wants me here for some reason, He wants me to continue to work hard, He wants to give me success. So I am looking forward to all the things that await me. 

So I thought I would start off by asking a few questions ...

Can you find out and let me know if Paraguay is really one of the most corrupt countries. I believe it...I am just not sure.

Also what is goin on with elections primaries etc. Mitt Romney ... I would like to know something about the real world haha.

And it's ok that the spread packets won't work no worries. 

I'm gunna do the shout outs first this week and change it up a bit. 

No letters haha.

BUT I would like to send out some Happy Birthdays

Grandpa Hansen, you old dog happy birthday. As they say in Paraguay, your not old...you're joven (young) ... your just not Jovencita (very young) hahaha. I love you a lot and think about you guys all the time. Thanks for always making everything fun. I hope you have a splended birthday wish I could have been there. Love Elder Carpenter

Grandpa Carpenter, Happy Birthday. I hope your birthday was wonderful. Prolly spent on the golf course?? If I was there I would for sure buy you a game of gold and a nice cold diet coke ... but I am not there so I'm sorry maybe in two. I have been thinking about you alot though. Thanks for your example in my life. May your golf game continue to get better with your age. Love Elder Carpenter

Grandma Noorda, I love you so much. I hope your Birthday was special. I loved your testimony you sent me and I wanted to tell you I am proud to have great grandparents like you two. You really are great! I wish you the best and I know you are supporting me every step of the way here in Paraguay. I love you lots. Happy Birthday.

Elder Carpenter

OK... so this week has been crazy hot. The humidity is 100 % and it is not fun. I shaved my arms... random. Had a nice Jungle dump... 1st. Elder Hakes tried to eat 10 empanadas in 10 min and almost did it. He only got 8 and 1/2 and a sick stomach. Super funny stuff though. 

This week has been really bland. Sorry this is all, super short letter, I will try to get on later to say more. WELL WHOOPS I love you all so much.

The work is going good.

Con mucho amor,

Elder Carpenter