May 31, 2011 - Letter Home

All you got!


(talent show, other church, inglish class, junior, eloisa, teachin in another school, more bonfires, coookies)

Hey Fam! What a week! So awesome to get a bunch of photos from Lyns in her graduation! So awesome that it finally happened! I hope she has an awesome graduation trip and vacation in Hawaii! Man, it's really hard to be away from all these important events. Congrats Lyns!

So this week went really fast. Me and Elder Persinger are becoming better and better friends and we are working harder and harder: I've finally got this fire inside of me lit to just give all I got until the end, and it's pretty awesome just to try and give it all up for the Lord and in love for the people. I've got to change this area! It's gotta become a ward! They need so much for it all to grow! Why has it taken me so long to get this kind of fire and faith? I wish that I could've had this kind of motivation since the beginning. 
No fear, no stress, no doubt, just doing all you can do without the idea of actually getting anything back from it. That may have been the best lesson I've learned: the work is it's own reward, and while you should believe that huge miracles are around the corner, you should not let any setbacks get you down, because those big miracles... it's just one corner away. I'm becoming more and more grateful, even when there're setbacks, to get to know Christ and get to share some of the feelings that He had for the people. I want SO much to just keep going like He did, until the very end. It's a really big commitment, but once we make it, everything just works out right. I still have a lot to work on, but I'm feeling very good about myself, about the work, and about my mission. What a great blessing to have this time in my life! There is so much happiness to spread. :)

This week we participated in a talent show of the ward and got 5 investigators there, and we did a skit where we all dressed up gangster and had a rap battle with some other members but with all the words taken from Primary hymns, and with Elder Persinger beatboxing,. Hehehe, it was kind of a last minute thing but I think it all worked out all right. People laughed. :)

They've released cookie mix at our local supermarket and we're going crazy making cookies for everyone! One reason is that nobody knows what they are and everyone likes them, and so we're trying to buy out ALL the cookie mix the supermarket has so nobody else makes our same discovery. Exclusivity! It's fun to bake... Hmm.

We had a great success in our English class, getting 12 investigators there, and having some really fun English activities, like playing UNO while reciting numbers and colors and playing Head Shoulders Knees and Toes... I wish we could get as many people to church as to our other activities! This week we invited EVERYONE and followed up on EVERYONE to go to church... and no one came. Everybody slept in they said. 
Man! Now I know a little bit of how God must feel when we repeatedly don't keep His commandments even after His many many invites and His many blessings He gives to us. Sheesh. But the battle goes on... B)

We're making Bonfires, fun. We're gonna teach in a school here and get a BUNCH of references. We're gonna play soccer this week from the kids we challenged last week, and we started to teach one of them.

Anyway, business as usual and not that much to relate. Sorry! But I know that big things are coming, because everybody is needing some success here in this area. More love, more faith, more courage, more discipline, more sacrifice... this is how we'll win this war.

Love you guys. :) Can't wait to rip it up in Cali and convert all of Santa Monica! I want to be a missionary forever!

Okay, I'm rushed, sorry. I love you, have a good week, thank you for all the great e-mails. :)

Elder Connor

May 23, 2011 - Letter Home

When you get kicked off....
Hey family! It's another transfer today and I have the luck of staying with my awesome companion Elder Persinger in this area for the next 6 weeks! My hope is that I can stay here until The End. I am excited. There are a lot of reasons for wanting to stay here. We had a lofty goal of baptizing this last transfer and while we worked our pants off (not literally like Brendon did though... :P) alot of baptismal goals got canceled and right now we're without definite plans, but we have reason to beleive this next transfer will include miracles. The first reason is because we feel like the Lord is preparing something for us. The second reason is that President called us Friday night to congratulate the awesome numbers we got this whole transfer and promised us that we would baptize this next transfer. Yeah! We're gonna go for it!

We had a couple cool experiences this week, the first or foremost was our visit with Rafael and his family of 5, our next door neighboors, who the missionaries have taught a bunch and have given up on at times, but we had a sweet visit with him where he said he was finally understanding what the missionaries were trying to pass to him and his family and he said he would read and pray to receive an answer about the BoM. If you can just write the names "Rafael and Janice" on the prayer roll at the temple for me I'll be super happy because they need a miracle. We love them and their kids so much we're always messing around with them and we got the 3 kids, boys of 15, 14, and 9 to church and to the English class we teach this week. Sweet! I want to see them all serve missions one day! This week we made a basketball hoop in the front of our house and taught those and other kids basketball and the youngest, Matteus, really loves us and is excited about the church. It would be the best thing to see an entire family like them be baptized!

Weird thing happened with Matteus the other day, we were walking back from our English class and we saw a horse tied up and we went to go pet it and Matteus just got a little bit close to the horse and suddenly it leaps forward and tries to bite him! Matteus fell on the ground and we freaked out and pushed the horse out of the way and got Matteus out of there but it was crazy! One violent horse! Matteus is good now though and we joke with him that he's going to turn into a werehorse at the next full moon. :)

horseness

We did a pretty sweet thing this week. We were with some other kids from the ward kicking around a football (soccer ball) after English class and we saw some other kids in the park doing the same thing so we CHALLENGED THEM! We said that if we won, they'd have to go to church, and if they won, they could take our scriptures... (heh heh win/win) It was a hard game and those other kids were pros, but in the end we pulled it all out and BEAT them! Yeah! It was so sweet! They said they'd go to church - but they didn't - but we see them like every day on the street so something'll come out of it prolly.

We had a sweet super district meeting the other day where everyone in our zone rescheduled their lunch to other days so we could make a huge feast and eat it all together in the chapel. It was fun! We made cookies for everyone. Someone else brought a cool indian food meal. It was Elder Olsen's last district meeting and he's going home tomorrow and it was pretty sad because he's an awesome missionary and was pretty broken up about leaving. He gave a way cool spiritual goodbye talk. After, we played soccer with a basketball in a super slippery smaller basketball court with our church shoes on and with single chairs as goals and it was super fun. "Slipball" we call it. The hardest part of the game was just staying on your feet and not running into others.

Fun times.

Anyway, the work is slipping and stumbling on! Nothing can stop it! I'm expecting big things from this next transfer so your prayers would be super appreciated! I gotta change this area!

I'm SUPER EXCITED about the awesome college schedule my parents set up for me and I am so pumped to get home running! It's so cool to be so close to the temple where we're gonna live! I just can't wait to be with my family but I know it'll come soon enough so I'm gonna just keep running running runnin until that day! I am so thankful for your e-mails and support and hope you all can keep running as well and can really try to think of the example of our Savior as much as possible throughout the day, because there are so many opportunities to serve and to feel His love and that's the only way we will be able to have truly true happiness in our lives. Live it!

Very much love for you all!

Your Elder,
Connor Carpenter
 
P.S. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkgOBL1-bwA
http://youtu.be/BX9pPscxlXw  (the view gets better towards the end, be patient)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_NZRDlZ1Q8

May 17, 2011 - Letter Home

Little Big Email

Hey family! This week was good! I hope your week was good too! Thanks for all of the great e-mails! :)

Unfortunately.... I don't have alot of time today. Sorry! But I'm sure it'll be okay just this once if I summarize the week quickly... And I got photos!

Bed Brakes!

This week we did a service project cleaning out an old school so that a ward could use it as a church building while their chapel was being built.

Service Project

We played soccer afterwards. My team won! It's easy to be awesome at soccer when playing against 10 year olds!

Strange, still-eyed beast

We had a cool zone conference. I got a sweet new phone. But no letters... :(

Sister Dullius

We helped the Dullius family chip away at concrete for a day. Fun!

We helped a family put a bunch of bricks into their yard. We got a bit dirty but everybody started looking and asking why we were helping and we told them that's what we do, and we got to teach a couple cool people.

Funny Lady

Dilberto came to our English class. He's a cool new investigator we're teaching.

Star Fruit

Mara isn't smoking! But we figured out she isn't married! Another hurdle.


Jedilson and Sonia treated us to an awesome soup dinner!

Soup with Jedilson

We made brownies with our next door neighboors. They got burnt.

Elder Toad

I love you all so much! Thank you for everything! Especially your prayers! Keep working hard and trusting in the Lord! He'll make it all all right!

Your Elder,
Connor

May 10, 2011 - Letter Home

Grand Finale


Hey Famly!

This week was awesome; Elder Persinger and I are getting more and more on fire as the transfer goes on. That's why it would be AWESOME if I got to stay here with him next transfer. He's getting to be my best friend on the mission. Heh, I think it's pretty awesome how now each of my new companions gets better than the last. I love my companions.

Elder Olsen

Unfortunately, it seems like we're still just getting started after the last couple weeks, we had to move on from a bunch of investigators that were really awesome and that we love a lot and who want to have the blessings of the gospel, but just don't seem to want to make the sacrifice to get to that point. Man, this part of missionary work has got to be the hardest: seeing people you love not ready to choose the right.

However, we've had victories this week and are finding new people every day. One cool thing this week was finding Sister Mara, who had studied with the missionaries a couple years ago but then they were emergency transferred and she got left behind. She had been going to another church here, but after our visit, she went to our church Sunday, was treated very well, and even though she was hesitant to pray and go to church and study with us and accept the invite to stop smoking and get ready to be baptized.... we asked her to do it. And that's when the Lord did his part. It's hard, and maybe not right to describe these experiences through text, but we had a very spiritual experience with her, and she decided to change everything in her life just to follow the feelings she had felt. It was awesome. So thats how we inherited like a million cigarretes and ashtrays and stuff, which are in our apartment right now til we get rid of them. Weird. We traded her for oranges (vitamin C helps against tobacco poisoning) anti-toxifying tea, and cinnamon gum. It's gonna work! We passed by today and she's saying it's still a bit hard but she's resisting the temptation. Yeah! I'm pretty excited about her and I'm excited for her family too, who were a bit less interested and doubtful that she could stop smoking, but they'll probably be inspired by her act of faith. All right!

We were dragging pretty seriously Saturday, because a lot of things fell through and we didn't know if anyone would come to church. We prayed and fired eachother up that God was going to make a miracle happen, and sure enough, we get to church and discover that an inactive guy, Joao, that we had invited to church really quicklast time we saw him, came to church with his wife and two daughters (not baptized), and said that we should come and talk to them to see how they could be baptized. Awesome! Miracles! They seem really cool, and have two other teenage sons we haven't talked to yet. Great!

Anyway, this Sunday was great and I loved the phone call, and while I did get a LITTLE trunky for about an hour or two after, just because of the realization that it was my last phone call, right now I'm right back on top. Like Brendon and Elder Clay, me and Persinger made a promise to eachother to keep running until the end of our missions (a little easier for me than him, the guy's got forever to go! :P) For sure, there's a lot of baptisms and success and suffering and sweating and getting tired and miracles in these next couple months for us. :) Awesome.

Well, I have to e-mail tomorrow for a college test I'm doing, and my camera ran out of battery just now, so I will wait till tomorrow to send photos.

I love you all, I am happy, and most of all, I am thankful. I have so many blessings! And not just that; so do my family, friends, and many people I know. We are all so blessed. I know that Jesus Christ lives, and that he'll cure us and save us. Going about life with the intent of following Him at whatever cost gives us the greatest rest and satisfaction. I love you all my families.

Have a good week! Keep fighting every day! Love love,

Elder Con

May 3, 2011 - Letter Home

Firin It Up!
Hey everyone! Another week, another P-day! Lots of great letters from my fam! Thanks guys!

Last P-day was awesome cause we ate out with a bunch of missionaries in the center of Porto Alegre, then went to the temple for an awesome session. I want so much to be able to go to the temple every week, if not more. I have gained such a different perspective of temple work having entered into that sacred place seeking revelation as to what I need to do with the work in my area, with certain investigators, with my studies, and with my life. Every single time I've been in the temple I have received some special experience or insight. I love it! I hope to have that powerful resource throughout my life. I'm so thankful that our mission has a temple! 

Temple Group

After the temple we went to a shopping mall which had the biggest bookstore I've seen in Brazil.

Bookstore

We went wild looking through language learning tools but then realized that we were short on money and the books were super expensive, so I had to pass up on a Gaucho dictionary and some sweet Italian textbooks and I got a short but sweet Italian grammar book that'll help me decipher the Italian Book of Mormon. I really want to try and crack that language... :)

Friday was super awesome as we got together as a mission to hear from Elder Christofferson. We saw Elders from the Porto Alegre South mission, which included some people I had stayed in the CTM with and also a certain Colby Hansen which I had gone to EFY with after Senior Year! Dude, that was so cool that he remembered me. Small world! I loved seeing all my old companions. The conference itself was sweet. We were planning to be singing "I Love to Read the Scriptures" (Hope I translated that hymn name right) when he entered into the chapel, so the assistants told us to stand up and start singing, and we waited for him to come in, but he didnt, and we ended the song, and we got the sign to sing again, and so we continued from the beginning. We reached the 4th verse, still no one entered! The anticipation raised and raised and we sang again, again, again, 4 times. Each time everybody sang louder and louder both because we were trying not to laugh and because we were sure that Elder Christofferson would enter any minute! On the 6th repitition of the song he entered and it was so awesome! A new energy came into the room as he stood up at the pulpit and smiled and just looked at all of us and we finished and he said, "I'm so happy you all love the scriptures so much!" It was fun. 
The topics of the conference were very special and specific to our mission, and he really pumped us up. I loved the vision that he gave us all. It's a bit hard to describe. He spoke a little Portuguese at the beginning but switched to English with a translator later because he said he was getting confused with Spanish. I thought he spoke very well! We learned he speaks 8 languages. But man, I love him so much. I know that he is an Ordained Apostle of the Lord.

What was cool is that just 2 days afterwards, we went to Stake Conference where we had the special, unannounced treat of seeing and hearing (through a satellite transmission) from the Prophet and Elder Holland in a transmission JUST to Rio Grande do Sul. It was so awesome, they talked about churrasco and chimarrao and their experiences with this people and everyone was in wonder that they had come to talk just to all of us. So cool!

So, just so you guys can understand some of the photos I sent, some cool stuff is that there was a cool car show we went to, you can see my sweet ride there.

Car Show

 Oh, and we got some investigators, Glaucia and Jennifer, who'll be baptized next month, and we made No-Smoking signs to help Glaucia overcome her cravings. I'm praying so hard for her to stop, she's so awesome! 

Glaucia and Jennifer

Uhhh, so also we invited these kids next door to have a bonfire in our yard and it was a pretty fun PNight. It was cool cause their parents came over later, and we ate roasted bananas and started a conversation about the gospel and the mom told us they didn't drink or smoke and had wanted to find a church to go to. Jackpot! Our next door neighboors! So cool. 

Anyway, later they ordered us Cheeseburgers to thank us for the fire (best Cheeseburger I've ever eaten) and so we made cookies for them, and tonight they said to come over and eat some cake, and we'll watch a movie about the church. Cool! The mom's name is Janine and they have 3 sons: Matteus, Andre, and Gabriel. We'll see what happens... :)

All is well here, I love my companion, I love being on a mission :)

And I love my family! So glad to know y'all are surviving over there. Love you so much it hurts. Have a good week!

Elder Carpenter