January 18, 2011 - Letter Home

Swimmin'


Hey family! 
Yes, another week has come. A majority of our work this week was spent with Andrielle, and preparing her for baptism. She was baptized this Saturday! 

Andrielle and Us

Like always, things go wrong at baptisms, so we had to cope with an activity before the baptism going too long, the water pump needing to be fixed, the church printer not working so we couldn't print out programs, the bishop having to go somewhere else on emergency, and the food arriving late, but IT ALL WORKED OUT at the end, and Andrielle went for a swim in the baptismal font.
She was way happy! She always is! She's special! 

Andrielle and Family

Her sister and mom came, the sister, Rochelle, who I think will be baptized soon for sure. We spent a lot of time getting to know their family, and I am certain that with time, they will all be baptized. They are all almost members already. Very cool. I am excited to see what happens with them! 
Our other investigators, especially Barbara and Luciane, are doing really well and I'm excited to see what happens to them in a couple weeks.

Is it strange that I can't think of anything else worth talking about? Has anything other than walking to appointments and knocking doors and studying happened?! I'm gonna have to stoop low to get something worth communicating.

Watermelon milkshakes. Cut up a watermelon, freeze the peices, then the next day throw them in the blender with strawberry yogurt. Awesome!

The New Testament. I'm swimming fast through it all now! I'm in Collosians. Apostle Paul is awesomely eloquent at first, really getting in to the joy of passing through trials and difficulties and just being full with love and faith in Jesus Christ to keep it from getting to you. He makes it seem so easy! Unfortunately I'm finding he's getting a bit repetitive now. After New Testament I'm gonna have to choose between focusing on the Old Testament, Jesus the Christ, or the Book of Mormon again. I'm a bit torn as to what it should be.

Josh Groban. I stole a bunch of his music from another missionary and that's how I start my day every day now. Mom knew what she was listening to. Why did I ever doubt that it was cool?

I'm on to my last little package of peanut butter! What will I do without peanut butter?!

Hey Polly

Sometimes speaking badly pays off. 
Elder Cazeau stopped a street vendor one day to buy a hammock, and the guy said the price was 65 coconuts, but Elder Cazeau started talking and the guy didn't understand him and they got a little frustrated and it actually started to rain while they were there struggling to communicate (I just stood to the side because it was an important learning opportunity for Cazeau :P) 
So the guy just says that Cazeau could buy it for $30 too, just so he didnt have to leave swimming through the oncoming thunderstorm. 
Bargain! A sweet new big hammock for our apartment.

A peice of toast, butter, fried egg, lots of ketchup, and spicy flavoring salt + a cold glass of coke is the best quick snack EVER. I made one, just messing around, but ended up eating 5! At the end I added on a fried chicken patty and it got to be even more beefier. I mean... chickener.

We have a war going on in our house at showertime. Elder Cazeau started it! He sprayed me with cold water from a syringe while I was in my nice hot shower! So then I dumped a GLASS of cold water on him while HE was taking a shower. The next day, HE dumped a BUCKET of cold water on me! I don't know what I will do in revenge this time, but I'll make him swim in ice-cold water for this! Curse you Cazeau!

Oh! How did I forget! I don't know if you remember me telling you about the blessing we gave this firefighter that fell from a tree and had horrible head damages and the doctors said he wouldnt make it but we arrived to give him a blessing... He was at our house today. Got released from the hospital. He's completely back to normal. We talked a bit more: he lives right in front of the CHURCH! We got a family home evening scheduled. Woah! So awesome! He was pretty happy. That was special for us.

WELL.... I love you guys. 
7 months mark reached. I still don't like it. I love being here. I don't want to go home and face the real world, and not be able to go out and testify of Christ to people. I have fear of losing touch with my habits of prayer and scripture study. I don't know if I have what it takes to survive. I don't like to think about this but it keeps coming up. The only answer is to hold on and trust that the Lord'll take care of all of it for me :). 
That goes for all of us you know! One step in front of the other. Prayer and scripture study are important! They require effort, but not very much time. We can do that! 
Just keep swimming... swimming, swimming. Remember? 
Just keep going in the right direction and we'll get where we need to.

Baptism Cake - Soooooo good!

I love you guys! Hope you have a good week! Stay strong! Try hard and don't ever let yourself get discouraged! Alright, let's go!
Love love love,

Your Con,

Elder Carpenter