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
