THE NUNERY! ... Kennedy A week 5

Well hello there folks,

Sounds like you had another crazy week in tmec. It was nice seeing all the families together at the Kofs! Bummer about the cars.

So today was pretty sweet cuz we went to ... THE NUNERY! It is just this catholic place but there is a sweet gift shop in the back, ... so we just skipped to the gift shop hahaha. It was cool we went with our district too so it was 6 of us. This isnt a normal gift shop though cuz it is all this indian stuff from the chaco ( indio parts of paraguay, guarani´s). Just a bunch of wood art. The wood is called palo santo and is endangered haha cool right. I got this tortuga pencil holder and this indian warrior carving and some other stuff. It is super dope, it just weighs a bunch haha. I almost got this spear and a bag but they ran out of the cool ones. I got the kids some sweet bracelets though.

Paraguay info. Well you know how in the states we have snow days, when you stay home from school cuz it is just about impossible to get to school. In Paraguay they have rain days! haha thats right rain days. It rains so everyone gets scared and nobody goes to school. Tight right? Why cant we have rain days. It is actually kind of a bummer because not that many people go to church on rain days, but on school days it rocks!! Thought id share that with you. Quick thought...I miss our rain days when we would get to scared to go to school and we would stay home and play games all day haha.

Dad, Happy birthday! I Hope you had a great day. I thought about you alot.

So Sunday morning I got super sick and woke up at 3am to throw up. It was def the worst. I woke up three times. But we worked really hard this week and had a lot of faith someone would show up to church, so my comp gave me a blessing and we went. We have sacrament last here, so church starts at 8 then sacrament meeting starts at 10. For the first two hours nobody showed but we still had faith, and last second as i was about to shut the chappel doors Braiyan our investigator showed up!!!! It was so cool. I knew he would make it. I was so happy. Then in the meeting a pigeon showed up from on top of the casing haha. So this pigeon (paloma as Paraguayans call it which also means dove) just hung out with us. Everyonce and a while it would swoop in front of the speaker , funny stuff man.

This week we worked extremely hard though. I talked to 83 people this week and we found 8 new investigators (the most in one week this change). I thought id share with you a quick story. It was night time and we were working an area we hadnt touched yet all change (transfer). I clapped this house cuz i saw this guy out side. He looked at us and i started to talk to him, but he quickly shut me down by yelling paraguayans favorite two words, "OTRO DIA!"(another day, or my definition ... NO!) He then turned around to walk inside so i yelled at him, well is there anything we can do for you and he said, just pray for us, so i asked in what i felt like was a sincere voice, Well what is it that you want us to pray for you?. The man just stopped. Back still faced to us and he just stood there. He then turned around came up to the fence unlocked it and let us in. He told us that 15 days ago they had just moved from the chaco, which by the way is flooded hard core right now, and that they would like us to pray for their new home. So we came in and offered a kneeling prayer for them. There were three of them. we then asked if we could share with them and they said yes. We taught them the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then put them with the baptisimal invitation which they accepted, so then we put them with a date for the 16th of june! It was so sick. What we thought would just be another rejected contact turned into a new family of investigators. Listening to the spirit really is one of the biggest parts of missionary work. He always helps us with what we need to say and do. I enjoyed that night alot. .....FYIWell they didnt go to church so they need a new bapt. date, but i have faith that the lopez family will really progress. I love having moments like that.

I want you guys to send a shout out to the new family that got baptized recently. I am super happy for them and cant wait to meet them. They sound like they are really great.

I keep getting these feelings like summer is approaching, but i know its not haha. Winter is:(. I think i just feel like you guys do back at home getting ready for summer haha. So i hope you all are prepared to have fun. Enjoy your summers though and fill them with uplifting and fun activities. You will always remember them. Also family, kids, learn to appreciate family time, it def is the best.

Mom can you send me chocolate chip cupcakes???? I love you.
oh that reminds me. I have three packages in the office, but i prolly wont get them for a while:( so just know stuff is here i just need to get to the office.

Well i love you guys a lot. I think of you all the time. I love my mission. I am having the greatest time of my life here. I feel like i am at home. "IM AN ADULT" haha. I am happiest when i am working hard and this last week was so fun! WE just had a blast. So until next week, i love you all.
Con mucho amor,

Elder Carpenter

I want to see an explosion! kennedy week 4

Hey howdy hey,

Seems like you guys had a super legit week!!!! Baptisms, temple, DANCE RECITALL .... very sweet. Mom i am so proud of your example that you set for all the people that know you.You really make a big difference in a lot of peoples lives.

So this week we also had some baptisms!!!! Sweet right. We baptized two 9 year old girls navile gonzalez and brenda lopez. We have really helped there families reacivate and they are progressing really well. The girls are really cool haha. They are just two little giggly girls. I got to confirm Brenda a member on sunday! it went really well. I feel like i followed the spirit really well when i continued the blessing. It was a really funny. SO sat. morning we show up to the church to finish our cake cuz we ran out of gas at the house, right. We go into the kitchen which is actually where you watch the baptisms. Well the oven part didnt work and the cake looked almost done so we put it on the stove to heat it up a bit and finish it off. After we started filling the font up more and actually had to do that bucket at a time, right, which took forever bye the way. Well while this was going on we kindof forgot about the cake and well..... WHOOPS. I walk into the hall way and smoke is coming out of the doorway of the kitchen.We go in and the cake was a volcano hjaha. fat crack down the middle with smoke blowing out the top. Then the alarm went off haha the cake was done. It smelt so bad. The baptism was going to start in 30 min and we were freaking out trying to figure everything out. We finally got the smell out but forgot about the buckets and the bathrooms were a little flooded haha nothing too big. It was loco as heck but it all worked out fine and nobody noticed. ... Except for the whole bishopric who showed up earlier cuz they thought someone broke into the church haha.

Anyways kennedy is a blast. We have been working so hard. Days just pass bye way too fast. I am enjoying it alot. I have been trying to contact 75 people everyweek like president asked us to and i have actually been able to do it. I am already seeing a bunch of stuff happen so i am getting really stoked. I am expecting that my area will explode any day now i just hope it happens soon. So we found a less active family this week with three kids who need to be baptized. We wouldnt have found them if we werent trying to contact during the day so it was sweet. We are gunna try really hard to help them out. We also found another guy who hasnt been to church forever ever since he moved to kennedy. We taught hima lesson and he loved it and wants to get back to church. His wife isnt a member so hopefully we have something there! So when we contact we have the mentality that our 75th contact will be an investigator of gold. If we do this president promised us that we will find that investigator before 75. Well i believe i had a lot of contacts of gold but 74 really stuck out to me. She really likes the church and has family who are members. Her husband and her 7 year old son and her go to church every once and a while with her aunt and she told us her kid loves being there and they do too. It was so sweet they have so much potential. The hard thing is, is that they are only home late at night. We have usually been in that area only during the day but ended up there at night this last sat. I figured we werent going to clap her house cuz they are never home but i really felt like we should do it. I am very excited to work with this family i really believe they are going to get baptized. It is just a matter of getting them to church and to keep all their commitments. Cant wait.
We also found brian (braiyan ) he is the boy friend (novio) of a member and said he would listen to us! He doesnt really have a religious background though and that is really weird for paraguay cuz almost everybody believes in God. Like he knows a little about Jesus Christ but not much. So the book of mormon will really help him out as he reads it. It will be really fun though. We got to teach him what baptism is. I really think he will be baptized too. We have a bunch of other people who we are trying to visit so i hope it all works out. If so ... BOOM!!!! yup .

I love you guys alot. I am happy you are all happy. I am super stoked for josh he is going to love it. Oh today i met Elder wing, a buddy of jordans from byu. It was so fun to talk about jordan and stuff. We had some good laughs. Everybody loves jordan who knows him haha so it was really sweet especially being able to brag about him cuz he hasnt really heard about jordans mission yet.

Anyways. The work is starting to take off. We are all happy. The church is true and will always be true. I want to bear a brief testimony on the bible. That i know the Bible is true. By reading the bible we come to know our savior more and get to experience His life and minisrty from behing the sceens you could say haha. I also know that by reading the Book of Mormon, one can better understand the Bible and all of its teachings. I love sharing from the bible and helping people understand what it teaches us.

Mom things i really really need.
Ruffles cheesy kind, laffy taffies, starbursts, honey combs if it is possible or coco pebbles or both.peanut butter mnms!!!! and maybe a dog whistle hahaha. that would be interesting. Oh and a new shaver would be nice. Does that old electric shaver still work? if so send it my way if not just a nice normal one haha.

I love you a bunch untill next week. PEACE,
Elder Carpintero

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY, week 3 kennedy a

MOMMY!!!!!!!

I totally forgot to tell you Happy Mother's Day on Saturday... So ..... HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!!
I love you so much. Thanks for sending me all of the memories. I thought I would share with you some of my memories.
I loved going to the grocery store with you. (it kind of gets boring here shopping with other guys haha.)
Picking up the kids with you. Reading books together while i was younger. Your awesome mommy freak outs. (I do miss those haha). Game days!!!! those dont exist here haha. Long talks about life. Trying to explain complex things to you and then you not understanding then me getting frustrated. The list goes on haha ill write more down later.

I loved talking to you guys on Skype, until we had to hang up :( That was really hard haha. You guys all look and sound great though. It is going to take days for us to catch up when i get back though based on how the conversation went haha. It was super legit though you all rock. Brooke i hope you had a great time at mormon prom.

Shout outs!!!!
Zach!!!! Happy birthday buddy. I cant believe how fast you are growing up. I remember the day you were born. ... When you made that first mega punch and Moms water broke hahahaha. Youre super awesome buddy. I wove you so so much. Be happy and know i will be thinking about you. I will sing you happy birthday too:)

Grandpa and Grandma Hansen!!! Thanks once again for the loving package. Loved it. Ate all the candy. I loved the GGup this time it was super awesome. You need to share that one with my mom for sure. SO you should get one of my letters soon but i will try to get another one to you in a little bit. I love you both a lot. Have a great week.


I hear Mitt Romney is doing really great! Can you guys do me a favor though. There is this article I would like that some other elder had. its called "mormon church grids for landmard political race, romney as prominent face of the faith" It is something like that and is sposed to be really good. I believe it is a time magizine article and says some great stuff. Check it out and send it to me if you can.

Cam can you send me "lonely as you" foo fighter lyrics?? :) great song

So like i told you guys on sat. kennedy is awesome i really love it. I thought i would let you know more about elder olds. His name is Elder olds and he likes to party. haha jk but he is from las vegas if i didnt mention that before. He is a really humble guy and we get along super well. I will def be friends with him after the mission. He is 22 and has a year in the mission. He used to work at the airport in vegas and wants to be a pilot after the mission. Super cool right. He has a really big heart and is one of those guys who you just gotta love. And yeah i will fill you in on anything crazy we do in Kennedy.

As of right now actually we are working really hard. I feel extremely focused on the people here and believe we are doing a great job at meeting their needs. We seem to be finding a good amount of people and i really feel like it is going to pick up pretty soon. I only have three weeks here so i dont know the area to well yet so im working on that. I cant wait to see what we get going here. Good times.

Preach My Gospel study sesh as a mission is going excelent. I am learning a bunch. I can see why President was inspired to present us with the challenge. I just hope that everyone else is learning as much as i am. It is actually really humbling to see all the new things i need to apply to have a more succesful mission. I hope i continue to notice the things i need to improve in my work as i read. It is very interesting how the Lord works. I feel like i am shown new weaknesses all the time as i progress. There is always something new we can learn and apply in our lives to bring about change inspired by God.

I know this church is true. I would like to say i know it with every fiber in my being. Every once and a while i have some doubts, but they always are cleared away through sincere prayer. I know what i have experienced in my life, i remember times when God has clearly reached out to me, whether it was in the Temple with three john carpenters as a 12 year old boy or whether it was listening to my moms silly primary example, even the many times here on the mission. Time to time i can feel my Heavenly Fathers love. I know He is there. I know He cares about every single one of us, and i know He speaks to us. I pray that you all can feel His presence in your lives. I have faith that you will. I write these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Love you all. have a great week.
Con sincero amor,

Elder Carpenter

Kennedy week 2

Hola (hola) Hola (hola),

Hope you all are having a great day. Thanks for the emails and letters. Brooke sorry you got a concusio! That stinks haha.

Dad, I'm not sure if they have Padres y Hijos here... maybe, but not in my ward. The problem here is that there are more women than men in the church. So being able to baptize Virgilio was super awesome based on that aspect.

Quick shout out,

Mom, I got your two big envelopes on Saturday. I loved them. Thanks for the CD. Also I love how you are doin FHE with the other families. By the way, Brooke thanks for the letter:) I needed the info. Tell the Kofs and the Starrs I say hi and that I love them. Also mom, thanks for the journal entries. I loved them. Haha even the parts when you were upset with me.

Yeah so this week has been pretty good. By the way, I have a staff infection haha. Nothing too bad but my skin is reacting bad to the sun. So now I have to pop these super smelly pills haha! Theyare worse than fish pills. Nothing bad though... it should go away soon.

Also, I just saw Elder Alder today and told him about the hand out which was super awesome. He was flattered. He asked if you could send his mom a copy of your handout. You can do through email if you need too. It was super cool though he did a good job.

So this week we killed two tarántulas (ingles??) and let the other one go. They were huge haha. They are starting to come out alot now. Really cool right. Mom you would love it.

We had a really awesome zone conference this week at the office. President taught us alot of good stuff. The assistants also did a good job too. We were given some promises. One is if we contact a legit 75 people every week per missionary we will have a golden investigator sí o sí. We also have a promise that if we ask two refrences from every person we can have 10 por lo menos investigators every week. It is some steller stuff. When i recieved my call this mission was having a really tough time. Imagínense un poco a cerca de eso....

I am always changing which is awesome. I am trying really hard to set an example of hard work. I can see that I have come really far, in comparison to my first day in Paraguay.

I love these people. I love them to death. I enjoy listening to them, counciling them, comforting them, caring about them. Probably one of the biggest parts of being a missionary, is showing your love towards the people. Something that has really helped me is consecration, desire, hard work. If I just sit around expecting for progress to come I wont get anywhere. They say your attitude determines your altitude. Pres told that to me in my last interview with him. It is so true. I love learning and applying the things I learn. Just thought I'd share my thoughts on my progress in the mish.

Cameron YOU ARE THE MAN OF THE YEAR!!! You rock bro. Student of the year!!! ¡Que quapo que sos! Always work hard. I'm sure the feelings are so satisfying. I sure feel that way out here when I work hard. I def wish I did before the mish. WELL WHOOPS. but good job. The ladies dig stuff like that ;P

Immmmmm super psyched to talk to you all on Saturday. It is going to rock. Get your thought organized cuz we got a whopping 40 min no mas to converse. Bummer right. Thats the rule though so gotta respect it. I am going to get ready too so be ready to have a sweet ol time.

Also our mission is reading pmg together starting today. I am really stoked. We should finish it in a few months. I havnt checked yet. THis is really going to help us get focussed on ourpurpose. We are striving to focus ourselves more on our purpose and get in gear.

I want you all to know that I know this church is true. It is the very same church that Christ established while he was on the earth. After being lost, It was fully restored by the prophet Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon is proof that this church is true. The priesthood authority has also been fully restored to the earth, and continues to bless families every day. Families are forever. As we follow the gospel and follow the plan of salvation we will recieve the greatest gift of all the gifts of God, o sea, eternal life. If you know these things are true, share them. If you are not sure, find out. Spend some time on your knees and ask your Heavenly Father. He will answer you, because He lives. I know this to be true because he has answered me. En el nombre de Jesucristo Amen.

I love you all very much. I think about every one of you all the time. Family ... I love you all too:) and I think about you all the time too hahaha.

Have a good one, Talk to you on Sat. 4 oclock my time. Be there or be square!!!!

Con sincero amor,

Elder Carpenter