Sunday, October 6, 2013

AUGUST 25, 2013

Hello everybody!!

What a great week! We had some truly wonderful experiences this week as well as some really trying experiences! We have continued to teach Sister BB and she is progressing in her desire and knowledge, just not going to church yet... Hopefully this next week because we have a plan! We are also teaching her sister, Mand their sister-in-law and niece, Aand R. R has been going to church with Bishop's family every week for almost two months now but hasn't been taught by the missionaries! We started teaching her last week and have already taught about the Restoration, Plan of Salvation and Gospel of Jesus Christ. She has a scheduled baptismal date now for September 21!! That was an exciting day:) She has also been sharing what she has been learning with her mom, A. We started teaching Arlene on Friday and have taught her twice now as have a scheduled return appointment for tomorrow! She is very receptive to the Gospel! Well, here is our plan. M and A are next door neighbors along with their parents, who are active members. Sister BB lives just down the hill from them enroute to the road that the Church is on. We are trying to convince them to go with Brother and Sister S (the parents) so that they aren't going alone! Hopefully that will be a more encouraging situation to go to church! That whole family is a very wonderful and humble family! I have learned so much from them and continue to learn every day! 

We had a couple really hard days this week though. Wednesday and Thursday we had almost everybody cancel appointments with us so we were out in the field for 6.5 hours with only 3 lessons taught each day. That's not exactly a picture perfect day, but we figured out a new system that will allow us to improve our proselyting. We are now turning everything into working by areas of strength. We have three areas that are very productive areas to visit so those places are the only places we will go from now on. Maroka, Fara-on, and Crossing/Shopping. All of our investigators live in one of those three areas and they all have many members to help with fellow-shipping. We think that our new tactics will help us be more effective tools in the Lord's hands.

Sister B is doing much better!! We gave her the priesthood blessing and she said that she has the faith that our blessing would heal her! What a neat experience! We returned a couple days later to find her walking again! What?! How cool is that! Brother B received an early motorcycle rent payment from his nephew and was able to take sister to get some medicine until they can get to the doctor. It was literally a miracle before my eyes!  That was such a neat, wonderful experience! Talk about the faith sister had to be healed! It reminded me of Moroni 10 where it talks about the gift of the spirit to be healed because that kind of faith is definitely a gift!

Sister M is continuing to progress! She told us that she has prayed about our message and the Book of Mormon and believes that it is true! That was wonderful to hear! We have taught her about the Plan of Salvation now and assigned her to read Alma 40 before our return appointment on Wednesday. I have the faith that she will follow through. Last night when we were teaching, there were lots of distraction around and it wasn't inviting the spirit. So I prayed in my heart that God would help us block out the distractions. Guess what happened next! There was a brown out (small black out) and it silenced the loud music, the drunk karaoke and the yelling down the street! That was really cool because the lights came back on in 2 minutes or so but everything else had still stopped! Another miracle before my eyes! 

Sadly Basketball didn't happen this week. The other Elders that we are coordinating with got sick because they ate some expired bread and eggs. Not a very wise idea, but this week hopefully! Shoes... Mom, please send them to me. I will write the information down and send it next week so that we can get the right size. On the plus side, I have continued to slim down at a remarkable rate! We had a baptism this past Saturday (for the Cadiz sisters) and I was asked to baptize Brother L! That was a really neat experience! Anyway, we took some pictures and I look considerably thinner. I think I am close to 200 pounds now, which means since I entered the MTC 2 months ago, I have lost 20 pounds! What a blessing! I also have been having a grudge match with a toko that made home in our house. I won though! We got him out and he came back so we shot him with permetherin and then were able to get him out. He is still alive and living next to our trash can, but he is out for now! I will send pictures next week! I think I figured out how to do it here, but not this week. Sorry!

Nate- Sounds like you are living life as usual! Keep that up so that my brother will be the same when I get home! I hope you get this job and your interview goes well. Where is it for? What will you be doing when you get the job? Keep me updated!

Ali- How is Cheer going now that football has started? Are you getting more busy? I hope that school goes well for you and that you continue to grow through scripture study and daily prayer.

Dad- Testimony is key! We learned in the MTC that our testimony is our only truly unique message. Our Gospel is unique but all missionaries can share that. Our testimony is our own and that won't ever change! Great council! I miss the fathers blessing before school. I always looked forward to that! I love you and pray for you and the rest of the family always!

Mom- I love your emails! They are so full of wonderful detail! You help keep me up to speed on how everybody is doing! I guess the amount of rain we had been receiving was unusual because it is the end of dry season. In a couple weeks rainy season will start and it will likely rain every day. Say goodbye to the little bit of tan I have been able to accumulate... I am glad that all my siblings are way excited for school! Have fun Ethan in Ms. Bauder's class! Grady you are now half way done with your pre college schooling! Congratulations! Conference will be broadcast to our stake center a week later. We will get to watch it there and invite our investigators and other members to join us! I am excited for that! I am glad that there wasn't a crazy announcement at the stake conference. My language is improving! I am better at the end of the day than the beginning. By planning at the end of the night, I usually struggle to speak English and will often forget words that I shouldn't. A frequent is mountain. I don't know why, but I just call it the bukid now struggle going back. It is a fun little problem:)

Palangga ko kamo!!

Elder Carver 

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