Limpio Whoo hoo...the wait is over!!!

Hey guys!

Thanks for the update in the emails. This week has been crazy and it seems like you had a great week too with tons planned for the break!

Ok Mom, I just want to start off by making you cry a bit haha. I'm sorry, butttt I miss hanging out with you haha. And you can txt me when ever and txt yourself back or whatever haha. Just know I would txt you back if I could haha. I had a conversation with you this week if that makes you feel any better haha.

So fyi it is raining hard core here. I took a boat ride (bus ride lots of rain) to Luque again today cuz last week my comp baught new shoes and when we got home he realized they gave him two left shoes!! hahaha. Also this dude was listening to Green Day behind me on the boat. It reminded me of my buds. It sounds like they are all doing good. I read their emails. Also how is Josh D doing? Do you know if he has gotten his call yet? Tell Michael I got a letter for him too.

Ok so lets get to the deats. Miracles : Miracles are a response to faith. They are never wrought without prayer, felt need, and faith. They are natural results of the Messiah´s presence among men. They are wonders, marvels, because of the effect produced on those who see them.

This week a miracle happened. Hno Virgilio Orrego was baptized Sat. and Sunday was confirmed and received the Holy Ghost. He also received the Aaronic priesthood. A little info on Virgilio, cuz I dont remember everything I tell you. He has been rejecting the gospel for 23 years of his life, his whole marriage. He has never once listened to the missionaries, never once went to church, never once prayed to know if the Church of Jesus Christ LDS is true, UNTIL this last change I had with Elder Hakes. Since then he has been sharing with the missionaries (us Hakes Muedas I), he has accepted and is keeping everycommitment givin, he has been to church plenty of times, he has read many pages of the BoM, he has prayed countless time with a sincere heart, and is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, which he knows, without doubt, to be the only true church on the face of the earth. This is a miracle. It is really a cool story. His daughter who is living in France right now has been fasting multiple times that he could recieve the truth. Because of her faith to fast, the faith of the Orrego family, I have witnessed results of the Messiah's presence among men. This experience has added to my testimony an assurance that God does answer prayers. Man this is just super cool haha. I just am blown away by the whole thing. Over this last little while I have come to truly love the Orrego family. They are so awesome. I wish you could meet them guys. In a year I have the chance to see them sealed in the temple. Hna. orrego already invited me haha. It is so crazy I dont know I cant really express my feelings how I would like but I'm sure you all can guess. Truly a miracle.

I am super proud of you guys and your work you are doing back home. That is super legit. Dad, I was cracking up when you said you guys got Caden involved with the Jorgensons cuz of his spazzy energy. But good job guys.

Shout outs...

Mom, I got my Easter package and I may or may not have candy on Easter morning haha. Thank you so much though. Thanks for the letters inside too.

I dont remember if I did this or not but shout out to the Sorce family. Thanks for thinking about me and for sending me the email. I miss having lessons with you guys in our home. I really could tell you care about me and my family. I appretiate all you do for us. Love Brandon.

Jenna, I got another letter haha thanks you rock! I wrote you so expect a letter soon sister!!!!

Briar, I got your letter! Thank you expect a letter as well haha. I don't care what Brooke says about how long I take to write back haha just know one is coming.

Brenna, I also got your letter! Thanks for writting. I got a letter coming your way too!

Gpa and Gma Hansen thanks for the package you rock! I loved the G and G up this week Keep those coming they are so cool. I love you lots. Your always in my heart. Letter on the way

Green family. You crazy family! I got another package from you. YEAHHHH I love you guys! I wrote you a letter as well. Thanks for the photos too. I love that. Cousins, I miss you.

Special shout out to the Sees candy box that I'm sure just got lost in the mail. I love you too. I'm sure your filled with my usual fave. Can't wait till you get here!!! ;)

Cadburry eggs?

...

Well, I love you guys you are all so awesome. I pray for all my family and friends everynight. I care about you all!!! Paraguay is awesome, and the rest is falling into place. Until next
and con mucho amor,

Elder Carpenter

P.S. Goodnight Wesley...I'll probably kill you in the morning PEACE

Changes!!!

Querido Familia,

Sounds like everything is doing great. Mom my elbow is fine haha no worries. By the way, I forgot to say thanks for the pictures and little Duncan in the package last time.

I want to say sorry I brought my camera for you guys and this dang computer doesnt have a place to plug anything in. In fact all its inside are sitting in a chicken wire type box and I cant open it!!! Paraguay. oh here it is haha.

So we had changes this week. I was sad to see Hakes leave. He was truly a great comp. I learned a lot from him. I will also be learning a lot this change. A lot of Spanish and a lot of patience. Yes, I have my first Latin comp. Elder Muedas from Peru. He is a little short chubby guy haha. He speaks no English so I get to teach him this change. These last couple days have been ... well super hard. We communicate fine. I understand almost everything he says and he understands me too, but aside from that, he is just hard. I dont know...I dont want to be negative at all.. it is just going to be a hard change.

Ill be honest, this last change I have been praying that I would be able to have a Latin comp so I could help him with English and he could help me with Spanish. I prayed I would be ready to handle the Spanish side of it. (AND my Spanish has really improved a lot).

It is kind of funny how God answers our prayers right. An Example is like this... I feel like when I pray for a chance to be humbled, I am brought to my knees in a way I dont expect. So I have been praying for a Latin comp and i got one. It just is hard in ways I didnt realize it would be. He is obedient which is good. He wants to work hard which is good. Elder Hakes and I found a good way to work Limpio and have been trying really hard to get stuff rolling with the new bishop and stuff. The problem lies there, its just my new comp wants to try something different. He is the senior comp so I will respect that. So I am planning everything until he learns the area, and when he has it down he will plan from there on. So when that time comes, I will allow him to make the final calls. I just dont want to abandon everything Hakes and I have been doing you know. Thats all about that stuff though. I think it will be better. I just think it might get hard. I hope you guys understand haha. Im not saying it is going to be horrible. I'm just saying it will be a little tough.

Ok. Hermano Virgilio Orrego!!! This is good news. We put a new fecha with him for the 24th this Saturday!!!. It was sick. He told Hakes and I he wants to wait a bit. Then on Sat. we passed by and he was working in his yard. I told him we were ready to work haha and then we started cleaning his yard. After that we taught im a lesson. At the end of the lesson we told him we were planning two Bapt. Services one for the 24th and one for the 30th. He then told us the 24th was next week. I though he would say thats too soon, but then he said thats the date, the 24th of March. Cool right. It was super awesome. So it is all good, I cant wait, it is going to be really awesome. It was crazy cuz just last week he was saying he wants to wait. Hakes and I tried everything to get him to be baptized he just said he wasnt sure. He almost did it too but the 24th is his time haha.

So quick shout out. THere wasnt mail or packages by the way.

So Grandpa and Grandma Carpenter!!! You want to serve again. That is so awesome. I really am proud of you guys. That is super cool. Now there will be two more Carpenters in the field haha. I love you guys thanks for your example.

Family I love you guys alot. You all rock. And guess what else. ... I wrote you all letters so you can start running to the mailbox again in about a week haha. I dont know how long it will take to leave the country just know theyre on their way. Mom thanks for the advice by the way. I want you all to know I am super dedicated to writing you all letters from now on. I think eventually I will fall into a groove. Remember letters are expensive and I have those bigger envelopes so that will help but I will find a way to work it.

Something I would like in the mail .... Mormon Tab SHOWTIME! cd. I heard a little of it. It is super sick please send it. I dont know how many songs are on it but this cd is approved so send them all. Its like the mo tab version of movie songs and junk. Any ways please please please.

Well I gotta go. I love you all. Know I am fine and happy.

Les quiero,

Elder Carpenter

Limpio

HEY GUYS,

 

So I am dedicated to writing you guys more letters. I feel really bad. I just dont know how to write them. I have written a lot. I just always rewrite them cuz I feel like they arent that great. Tell me what you want to hear in letters so I can structure them better. Dont tell me you dont care what I say because that doesnt help at all. By the way, Dad could you write me a letter about your job? I feel like I never asked you much about it and people always ask me. I will write you more questions about that later too.

SO this week we were getting the mail from the mission mail truck in the road and all of the sudden my elbow got clipped by another trucks side view mirror!!! It killed so bad. The truck was going like 20mph and the mirror folded in and smacked the truck too. It didnt break haha it just hurt really bad.

We still dont know changes. We wont find out till tonight, but I am pretty sure Hakes is out. But you never know, the only person who does is the Lord and His plans sometimes are a lot dif than what we expect.

That leads to Virgilio. Well we didnt have a baptism :( He says he knows the church is true, he knows the Book of Mormon is true, he knows Joseph Smith was a prophet. He just wants to wait. He considers himself a member and he practically is, HE JUST HASNT MADE A COVENANT WITH THE LORD YET!!!! IT is the most important step to progressing through the Lords path. This is so frustrating haha. We just care about him so much. He will be baptized...I just dont know why if he knows it is true why he would wait. If anyone has any suggestions let me know. I want to reteach some lessons to him and we are planning on President having a lesson with him so we will see. It is just a bummer cuz Hakes is prolly gone. He even had an appointment to meet with President tonight but now he has work. Blah. Idk im just praying that is all works out. Well moving on.

I read a sweet talk this week by Elder Bednar, its called Honorably Hold a Name and Standing. You may remember this talk. It is about our covenants and church attendance. So cool. I really learned alot from it. It is such a comfort to know the blessings we recieve from being members of the church. I really recommend reading this talk.

Cameron congrats man!!! That is so sick. Youre a legit kid you know that. Potential Student of the Year. Working hard really pays off. Dont ever forget that. That is one of the biggest things I am learnign in my mission. I  realize how important it is to work hard if you want to be successful. This applies before the mission, during and after. But anyways good job.

Caden, I hear you are mister funny guy. I wish I could hang out with you for the day. You would prolly make me laugh so hard I'd poo my pants.

Brooke youre an awesome girl. Really you are much more than that. You are a daughter of God. I have always admired how you hold your standards. They are so high and that is how God expects them to be. Alot of missionaries talk about the girls they want to marry when they get home. The first thing they always say they see in their future wife is a girl who keeps the standards of God. Whenever I hear that, I always am happy that my sister is one of those girls. But to be honest... It really is important to us missionaries haha. Keep that in mind. I know you always have, but I thought I should share that with you.

Zach, I wish I could go to one of your games. Send me pictures. I love you so much bud.

The mission is so great. I really love it. You all know that!! I dont have much left to say about the week so...SHOUT OUTS!!

Mom, I got your package!!!! Tell the Relief Society... thank you so much. I was lacking a lot of the things they sent me haha. Everything made it safely though. Keep in mind Paraguayans can still open packages from the bottom... so put stickers down there too. I think the ring should make it safe though if you sent it, just hide it really well. If you could though send me some good talks to read next package. I dont have much computer time haha.

Well I love you all!!Thanks for all the support. Until next week. 

PEACE,

Elder Carpenter

Limpio Sick Months!!!

HEYY!

 

Great letters mom and dad. I love you guys so much. I barely recognized the house in that picture mom... haha. Sounds like you had a great Stake Conference in Singapore. We had Stake Conference too haha. Well... it was a zoo like normal... haha! Not too bad though.

 

So SIX MONTHS! Holy cow that is so crazy. It is going by way too fast. I love it here! Everyday gets better and better here. I can already see how fast these next 18 months are going to be. So that is kinda what I have been thinking about this week... just my vision for my mission and where I see myself later down the road. Elder Short the AP came to our district meeting this week and talked a little bit about goal making. A Seventy told him that we should have visions for where we see ourselves in the future. Not a literal vision... but it is the dream, the big picture right. Then after we make our vision, we set goals that will help us reach our vision. The goals are the actions that allow us to see our progress. Then we plan out how we will meet the goals. So this week I studied, meditated and prayed about what my vision is. My vision is consecration. I see myself becoming a consecrated servent to my Lord, Jesus Christ. What I realized is that in order to truly become consecrated to this work, I need to give myself to Him. I need to loose my life for Him so that I might find it. To do this I need to work with all my heart, might, mind and strength. I cannot leave my heart out of it though. After thinking about this for a great amount of time, I came to know that there is much more to be done to give Him my heart. I could go on...but I am going to stop right here. So pretty much, I have a lot of goals. The gospel is just so amazing, it really is. I never realized how sacred my dreams could be. Well anyways yeah haha. The gospel is unfolding before my eyes. There is so much that we can do and accomplish when we center our lives around the doctrines of the restored Gospel.

 

How about some Paraguay info.

 So I hope we have all heard the rule... pedestrians first. Guess what...Paraguayans have not! Elder Hakes and I always will be walking down the street and a motorcycle will honk at us until we get out of the way haha. Even if they has the whole road to themselves they honk and makes us move. We will be crossing the street and cars will cut us off. It isn't a big deal to us... but they just do not know how to drive que pucha che`ra.

 

No shout outs this week sorry.

Except Ii got a letter from Karly this week! You can tell her I wrote her back. Also Jenna too woohoo.

We dont get mail till this week.

 

So another crazy story.. so we saw this lady on a colectivo with a brand new wheel chair with the churchs name on the back! She was taking it to a member of her family who needed a new one. So we got off the bus when she did and attempted to contact a ref. who wasnt home then desided to find this lady. /We hadnt talked to her yet so we didnt know anything about her at the time./ So we looked everywhere then we spotted the wheel chair tracts in the dirt haha and guess what... WE FOLLOWED THEM!!! sooner or later we found her house sure enough with a kid sitting in his new wheel chair. His old wheelchair right next to him just torn apart. We gave a good clap and the lady came out. We started talking to her abou the wheel chair and she told us the info. Well then we asked if she would like to learn more about the Church that donated them the wheel chair! ............  she pretty much told us no and that she is catholic. She wouldnt even let us sit down and talk for five minutes. How sad right. We will try again later but it was just shocking to me.

 

Virgilio should be getting baptized this week you will find out next Monday. I have to go, but I love you all! Until next week.

 

PEACE!

Elder Carpenter