We talked to a guy yesterday who said that he knew a lot about God. I asked him if he knew God. He thought for a bit and said that he would be willing to listen, but we would have to show him heaven.
I thought that was a cool phrase. Show me heaven.
My hippy side has begun to flourish once again. Mother, feel free to be proud. Father, feel free to be afraid.
I am feeling better from the yuckiness of last week, but i am feeling a new drain: Say hello to the new marathon me! The Driggster and the Romanian love to run. I am willing to follow. Every morning we spend about 40 min. conquering the mountain behind our house. The past few days i have been doing really good on excersices. You know, new motivations. I really want to be able to play with Cal when i get home, and right now i am just not physically capable of such an endeavour.
Me oh my what a week.
We had some really cool things happen with Olga Marzal this last week. For those who do not remember, she is the one who has been kicked in the rear like 500 times by the holy ghost. Her whole life has been leading her to the doors of the chruch of jesus christ, but she has always been unwilling to realize what was right in front of her face. I have good news, she realized. She knows its true. From her first encounter with missionaries 40 years ago all the way to her dialing the wrong number on the phone and ending up with the missionaries, she has been shown heaven bit by bit. This last week we invited her to be baptized and she made a long speal about how she wanted to be totally sure and prepare more and feel it and know it and a bunch of other totally lame excuses. I kind of zoned out during the speal. When she was all done i just told her that is was her date, she could do what she wanted, but God allowed us to feel that this was her date and we knew God wanted her to do it. She looked at us for a bit and started to open her mouth to protest, but she accidentally said yes. Naturally, i immediately called no take backs, double stampies, and no erasies. We got her. She is shooting for the 28th of Nov.
We had to push the prince's date back a bit because we didn't feel he was ready. Yesterday we got to reset it. We felt it finally. He said the closing prayer and prayed to God that He would let him get baptized this time. He said that it was something he knew he needed and wanted and prayed that it would work out this time. Once again, i called no take backs. I even added a no battle. We got him. He is set for the 7th of Nov.
Ronnie and his family and Isa are all doing good. They are still working it for the 28th of Nov. as well.
Oh yeah, another cool thing happened. We ran out of saldo on Sunday. Saldo in Spain is the minutes that we get on the phone. We are charged a certain rate per minute and it subtracts from a monthly allowance of 50€. You could usually expect a solid chew out when you ran out, which i regularly did. Recently, Pres Watkins bumped us up to 70€ so that we would never run out. Well, i ran out. Not sure how, but i did. I called him from a pay phone and he spent the first little while just heaping praise at us for what he saw on Sunday (we will get to that) and then asked what he could do for us. I told him to prepare for an emotion change and told him i ran out. He just asked how much more we would need, 10 or 20. I said that we would be able to do it with 10 and he said, okay, i will give you 20. Then he said, don't ever feel bad for using the tools that the church has given us to further the work of the Lord. He is now going to permanently raise us to make sure it doesn't happen again.
I was pleasantly surprised.
As for what happened on Sunday, we had quite the surprise for Mr Pres Watkins himself. As we were preparing to leave to go pick up some investigators for church, we got a call. It was Watkins telling us he was on his way. We asked to where and he said he was coming to church with us to see what all the fuss was about. We went to church and went through the normal routine. The member all loved Watkins and he even came to our Gospel Principles class. At the end he told us that he had never seen things run so well. Every seat of the church was full, there were several less actives present, and more than 10 investigators to take care of. He said it was amazing. Once again, he began heaping praise we didn't deserve and then went on his way. I still dont agree with the whole praise for the results thing. I have always worked hard on my mission, and my first year i didn't really hear anything because not much happened. Now that things are happening, i realize how undeserved it is because we just have the luck that the timing is right. Nothing to do with me. I blame it all on the driggster.
Well, that does it for me.
Make sure nobody gets to close to Caleb when he is yawning, you may run the risk of falling in. That could cause a bit of a choking hazard if the person is equal to or greater than the size of Harrison.
Love,
Elder Anthony Skyler Oluwa Seun Carr
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
here you go
Yoddle,
Sorry about the lateness of the email, we have had a pretty packed day. We got invited to go see Las Ventas bull fighting ring with some Elder and then right after caught the tail end of a multi zone bbq…. featuring Aranjuez. All the city zones like to have activities because they are all really close together, but since our zone is the pueblo zone, it is a bit on the impossible side. Luckily, the other missionaries like us, so we get invited... also a small chance we are invited out of pity. No matter, at least people are beginning to hear of Aranjuez.
Las Ventas was cool. According to them it is the most famous bull fighting ring in the world. According to them. I had never heard of it. I found it interesting how the tour guide tried to almost minimize the actual brutality of it all. She kept saying that the bull fighters get extra points if they can kill the bull with the least amount of suffering possible. I for one am indifferent to the sport, but I figure that if you are going to be hanging out in the outlying edges of Babylon, you might as well just go party in the center and quit fooling yourself. No need to cover up. A grown animal is being slaughtered in 20 minutes for the entertainment of others. Admit that the crowd cheers more when the kill is hard. And they cheer even louder when the bull starts to win. All I know is that the whole time I kept having the whole gladiator deal running through my head.
Maximus!
Oh yeah, I also thought it was really funny how they blindfold and armor the horses. I could just imagine a horse chilling there in the dark thinking: its nice of them to dress me up like this, but I would really like to know what is going on out there, everyone sounds like they are having a great time- ooouughgghugoouughg! What the heck was that!? Did I just get hit by a car?
As you can tell, I got a lot out of the tour.
Sorry about the distractedness. This last week a went through a bout of strep throat which was no fun. I didnt want to call the mission nurse because she just loves to drug people up on the cheap medicine. So instead I went downstairs and knocked on our land ladies door. Turns out that she and mom attended the same herbology class at Hogwarts because she is a pro. At the end of the day I came home to a basket full of lemons on my desk and a jar of all natural honey. The instructions were a nice echo of what I maybe should have remembered from my home treatments. I am over the throat issues and now moving through a baby cold which does a nice job of simply draining me completely.
And here I am.
I just hope what I am writing makes sense.
Its okay if it doesn’t make sense. Nothing now a day makes sense. It is like there is something missing. Some link somewhere. For a moment I thought the missing link might be baby Cal, seeing as he is clearly beyond any norm or standard known to us, but then I realized that there is no chain in existence big enough to consider him as a link. I remain in confusion. Sometimes fear. Especially when I look at the pictures of Cal before going to bed.
Something to ponder.
Well, time is almost spent, but I did do missionary work this last week, so I guess I could share something.
We have been teaching this really nice Romanian man and his wife for a couple of weeks now. He is a strict Orthodox and loves to read the bible. We were teaching him the other day about the book of mormon and we ended up reading a chapter with him. About half way through the Chapter I got this funny thought that we should switch it up. Just switch chapters. I thought it would be weird to just cut it short right there, but the more we read the more bored I felt about the topic we were reading. So finally, I just stopped him and told him to switch to 2 Nephi 4. We started reading and I felt way better. I have always loved this chapter. While he was reading he kept pausing and asking us if he should keep going. It was weird because every time we just told him to go ahead and finish the chapter. At the end I started talking and began to ask him a question, but out of nowhere I just went blank. I couldnt think of anything to say. Impossible you may say, but it indeed did happen. So instead of trying to push something out, I just shut up. He stayed there staring at the page. It was totally silent. We were all quiet for about 5 min. Finally, I looked up at him and I saw a tear running down his face. He looked at us and told us that this was word for word how he felt. He said that many times he had thought about these things and he felt a strange burning in his chest. He couldnt describe it. I had one of those cheesy realizations after. We are all trying to teach as the perfect companionship: us and the spirit. Sometimes when we are teaching, we have to give the spirit a chance to teach.
He is not married yet so he will take a bit to get baptized, but he knows how much of a miracle he is.
Sorry, time is gone.
Love you bunches,
Elder Anthony Skyler Oluwa Seun Carr
Sorry about the lateness of the email, we have had a pretty packed day. We got invited to go see Las Ventas bull fighting ring with some Elder and then right after caught the tail end of a multi zone bbq…. featuring Aranjuez. All the city zones like to have activities because they are all really close together, but since our zone is the pueblo zone, it is a bit on the impossible side. Luckily, the other missionaries like us, so we get invited... also a small chance we are invited out of pity. No matter, at least people are beginning to hear of Aranjuez.
Las Ventas was cool. According to them it is the most famous bull fighting ring in the world. According to them. I had never heard of it. I found it interesting how the tour guide tried to almost minimize the actual brutality of it all. She kept saying that the bull fighters get extra points if they can kill the bull with the least amount of suffering possible. I for one am indifferent to the sport, but I figure that if you are going to be hanging out in the outlying edges of Babylon, you might as well just go party in the center and quit fooling yourself. No need to cover up. A grown animal is being slaughtered in 20 minutes for the entertainment of others. Admit that the crowd cheers more when the kill is hard. And they cheer even louder when the bull starts to win. All I know is that the whole time I kept having the whole gladiator deal running through my head.
Maximus!
Oh yeah, I also thought it was really funny how they blindfold and armor the horses. I could just imagine a horse chilling there in the dark thinking: its nice of them to dress me up like this, but I would really like to know what is going on out there, everyone sounds like they are having a great time- ooouughgghugoouughg! What the heck was that!? Did I just get hit by a car?
As you can tell, I got a lot out of the tour.
Sorry about the distractedness. This last week a went through a bout of strep throat which was no fun. I didnt want to call the mission nurse because she just loves to drug people up on the cheap medicine. So instead I went downstairs and knocked on our land ladies door. Turns out that she and mom attended the same herbology class at Hogwarts because she is a pro. At the end of the day I came home to a basket full of lemons on my desk and a jar of all natural honey. The instructions were a nice echo of what I maybe should have remembered from my home treatments. I am over the throat issues and now moving through a baby cold which does a nice job of simply draining me completely.
And here I am.
I just hope what I am writing makes sense.
Its okay if it doesn’t make sense. Nothing now a day makes sense. It is like there is something missing. Some link somewhere. For a moment I thought the missing link might be baby Cal, seeing as he is clearly beyond any norm or standard known to us, but then I realized that there is no chain in existence big enough to consider him as a link. I remain in confusion. Sometimes fear. Especially when I look at the pictures of Cal before going to bed.
Something to ponder.
Well, time is almost spent, but I did do missionary work this last week, so I guess I could share something.
We have been teaching this really nice Romanian man and his wife for a couple of weeks now. He is a strict Orthodox and loves to read the bible. We were teaching him the other day about the book of mormon and we ended up reading a chapter with him. About half way through the Chapter I got this funny thought that we should switch it up. Just switch chapters. I thought it would be weird to just cut it short right there, but the more we read the more bored I felt about the topic we were reading. So finally, I just stopped him and told him to switch to 2 Nephi 4. We started reading and I felt way better. I have always loved this chapter. While he was reading he kept pausing and asking us if he should keep going. It was weird because every time we just told him to go ahead and finish the chapter. At the end I started talking and began to ask him a question, but out of nowhere I just went blank. I couldnt think of anything to say. Impossible you may say, but it indeed did happen. So instead of trying to push something out, I just shut up. He stayed there staring at the page. It was totally silent. We were all quiet for about 5 min. Finally, I looked up at him and I saw a tear running down his face. He looked at us and told us that this was word for word how he felt. He said that many times he had thought about these things and he felt a strange burning in his chest. He couldnt describe it. I had one of those cheesy realizations after. We are all trying to teach as the perfect companionship: us and the spirit. Sometimes when we are teaching, we have to give the spirit a chance to teach.
He is not married yet so he will take a bit to get baptized, but he knows how much of a miracle he is.
Sorry, time is gone.
Love you bunches,
Elder Anthony Skyler Oluwa Seun Carr
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
HheEyYy,
(Caleb & Ali)
I got the package. I am speechless. It is a good thing emails are typed and not dictated, because I would not be able to express myself in any way, shape or form. Cal is ridiculous. I honestly can’t think of a joke that works. I would say that you should go play basketball with him, but he wouldn’t fit through the hoop. Even saying that you should be careful about letting him sit on your lap because of the high femur shattering danger would be inappropriate because if it were to happen, which it probably will, I would feel horrible. It’s one of those things that is only funny until it happens.
Mom, forget about getting a new love sac before I get home. In a couple weeks I think Caleb will be bigger and more comfortable than the love sac. He even has built in heating.
I think Cal and I are destined to be best friends.
As for the rest of the package, thank you so much for everything. It was all perfect. I’m going to cut out the picture of Bri flipping off the camera and keep it forever. Atta girl.
Some quick baby sized requests. Ah! I can’t use that term anymore! This could be horribly blown out of proportion depending on what baby comes to mind. If it is an Ali type baby, it works. But if Cal comes to mind, you are going to have a serious headache. Any object of such magnitude should be handled with great care, for even the thoughts can cause great harm to insides of one’s head bone.
(Caleb & Ali)
Some quick minimally sized requests that in no way should be thought of as being comparable in smallness to Caleb who is in no way small and minimal. Could you send the recipes for your homemade ranch and salsa? Also, if you can track down the story “the giving tree” it would make a great addition.
Well, I am still a missionary, so I guess I can tell you what’s been going down.
There have been a lot of cool things happening. We have been teaching English classes for the last couple of weeks. I love English classes. We don’t speak English in the mission anymore so it is a nice little way to make sure I don’t forget too much. Plus, they are practically handing their fragile minds to me on a silver platter for me to mold to my pleasing. Last week we were going over how to tell someone how your are feeling. In my circle we had about 8 people and by the end they were really getting it down. I had them go practice on the more advanced students in the Driggsters circle which was very effective. They would go up and tap them on the shoulder and say, “Hello, where is the nearest toilet?” And then suddenly grabbing their stomachs and lurching forward, almost to the ground they yell out, “I’M SICK!” We have been working a lot on talking with your body. They are really getting the hang of it.
We got to have couple more awesome family nights with Ronnie and his family. The last one we had we watched the testaments and at the end they had tons of questions. I felt like it would be good to read from the 3 Nephi 11 so they all opened up and we started reading. I thought at first we would only read the first page, but then I felt really strongly that we should keep going just a little bit more. Then when we went a little bit more, I felt that a few more bits would hurt. After about 8 bits we finished the chapter. At the end they all were really pensive and we ended up talking about the focus at the end of the chapter thanks to the spirit the first part brought in. The focus at the end is baptism. He has been challenged about 10 times and started saying the same excuses. Then his family kicked in saying they wanted to be baptized. We then shared something different, and to be honest, I don’t even remember exactly what we said. He then looked at us and said, okay. We are planning on the 28th of November and if everything goes well we should be able to move it up.
They need lots of prayers.
Well, our hostess is kicking us out.
Love you tons and bunches,
Don’t drop Cal, he may make a hole in the floor and kill Mamina if you are at our house,
Love,
Sky
Thursday, October 1, 2009
the Lord did say he would raise a peculiar people
09/30/2009
Good things are happening.
Business first.
I have not bought a guitar yet, and might not ever be able to. We are way too busy right now trying to fit everyone in, which is a good thing. I did however buy myself a new suit for my birthday seeing as the chubbyness of my bum completely massacred my other pants. Thank you for the suit. I may be spending a bit more to get it all tailored up. Maybe some shoes too. All the sales are happening right now.
Speaking of shoes, thank you for getting that all figured out. I will wait a bit and then send some pictures, mostly of the inside. You can just give them to Jason if he likes them, they are very good quality.
We did end up visiting the thug man, and he was really cool. His name is Rodrigo and he is from Brazil. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and then asked him to read a bit and pray. His answer was, “Thank you so much for this.” He is cool. We will keep him.
Still waiting on the nigerian name. Dont worry though, Oluwa Damilola Adesipo Prince Olekokun wont let us down. I mean, come on, he is royalty.
We did not eat any of the fish. Seeing as we are fishers of men, we didnt want to start any bad habits.
Done, now for news.
Some good stuff and some better stuff, I will let you be the judge.
We went to visit our bombshell, peruvian, old, less active member the other day in the day care center. She always has me laughing up a storm. She is always complaining about all the other old hags in the center. She says that she ended up in one of the nicest rooms, even though she is new, just because her roommate is black. It was cool, she said that everyone else was missing out on this ladies awesome culture, but then it was cooler because she said that seeing as she is a peruvian mountain woman they now have so much culture in that room it is coming out of their ears! Pretty sure I did see something coming out of her ears, didnt know you call that culture. I love sassy old women.
Elder Driggs has made some new strides in his personal development. He is now cursing fluently in spanish. I am hoping the next step in his progression will at least be that he becomes aware of the cursing. It has made for some very funny moments. For example: We were in the kitchen eating lunch, and in walked our new roommate, Juan Carlos, from Andalucia. We were eating egg sandwiches and the Driggster took a bite of his, and of course, the yoke exploded out the other end all over his hand. Well, he ment to say MIRA, but since he cant speak in tu form, it has to be MIRE. Sadly, all he could remember was that he was supposed to have an E somewhere in there. So, with food in his mouth, he screamed out MIERA. This is dangerously close to the equivalent of the shiz word. With food in mouth, it is exact. Juan Carlos stopped, smiled, and said, “Now there is a word I can understand, atta boy.”
Hmm. This has been rather worldly. Maybe we can try to edify a bit in the remaining seconds.
Well, at church we had an amazing turnout. We had so many people show up that we had to add an extra row. As we were shifting over to the last block of priesthood, things were crazy. Everybody loves everybody, which is awesome. Sadly, it lasted really long. We were already 30 min into the class and nobody was teaching. I will go ahead and say it now, it turned out to be a growing experience for me. I had to mature enough tear myself away from the way fun chatting to go see what was going on. I asked the Mission Leader what was going on and he said the the Branch President was going to teach. Only problem was that the Branch President was in an interview. I didnt want the investigators to just sit there for an hour so i asked him what he was going to do. He just looked at me and said this Sunday was the presidency message and it was presidents turn. I asked a few more leaders, but nothing was working. Finally, i just told i would do it. He said okay and got things started. I have had to do this two weeks in a row now. It has been a really cool experience. Both times that we have ended up with no teacher, i have felt really strongly that there needs to be a class. This alone was huge because i love just chatting with everyone and usually never care about shedules. Then when i was teaching, some really cool things happened. Lessons came out that i knew werent mine. Things i have never thought of. Stuff, that when i thought about it later, the investigators there really needed to hear, but i never knew at the time. Kind of a humbling experience, for me at least.
Sorry, time is spent.
Love you bunches,
A big wet kiss everyone,
Sky
Good things are happening.
Business first.
I have not bought a guitar yet, and might not ever be able to. We are way too busy right now trying to fit everyone in, which is a good thing. I did however buy myself a new suit for my birthday seeing as the chubbyness of my bum completely massacred my other pants. Thank you for the suit. I may be spending a bit more to get it all tailored up. Maybe some shoes too. All the sales are happening right now.
Speaking of shoes, thank you for getting that all figured out. I will wait a bit and then send some pictures, mostly of the inside. You can just give them to Jason if he likes them, they are very good quality.
We did end up visiting the thug man, and he was really cool. His name is Rodrigo and he is from Brazil. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and then asked him to read a bit and pray. His answer was, “Thank you so much for this.” He is cool. We will keep him.
Still waiting on the nigerian name. Dont worry though, Oluwa Damilola Adesipo Prince Olekokun wont let us down. I mean, come on, he is royalty.
We did not eat any of the fish. Seeing as we are fishers of men, we didnt want to start any bad habits.
Done, now for news.
Some good stuff and some better stuff, I will let you be the judge.
We went to visit our bombshell, peruvian, old, less active member the other day in the day care center. She always has me laughing up a storm. She is always complaining about all the other old hags in the center. She says that she ended up in one of the nicest rooms, even though she is new, just because her roommate is black. It was cool, she said that everyone else was missing out on this ladies awesome culture, but then it was cooler because she said that seeing as she is a peruvian mountain woman they now have so much culture in that room it is coming out of their ears! Pretty sure I did see something coming out of her ears, didnt know you call that culture. I love sassy old women.
Elder Driggs has made some new strides in his personal development. He is now cursing fluently in spanish. I am hoping the next step in his progression will at least be that he becomes aware of the cursing. It has made for some very funny moments. For example: We were in the kitchen eating lunch, and in walked our new roommate, Juan Carlos, from Andalucia. We were eating egg sandwiches and the Driggster took a bite of his, and of course, the yoke exploded out the other end all over his hand. Well, he ment to say MIRA, but since he cant speak in tu form, it has to be MIRE. Sadly, all he could remember was that he was supposed to have an E somewhere in there. So, with food in his mouth, he screamed out MIERA. This is dangerously close to the equivalent of the shiz word. With food in mouth, it is exact. Juan Carlos stopped, smiled, and said, “Now there is a word I can understand, atta boy.”
Hmm. This has been rather worldly. Maybe we can try to edify a bit in the remaining seconds.
Well, at church we had an amazing turnout. We had so many people show up that we had to add an extra row. As we were shifting over to the last block of priesthood, things were crazy. Everybody loves everybody, which is awesome. Sadly, it lasted really long. We were already 30 min into the class and nobody was teaching. I will go ahead and say it now, it turned out to be a growing experience for me. I had to mature enough tear myself away from the way fun chatting to go see what was going on. I asked the Mission Leader what was going on and he said the the Branch President was going to teach. Only problem was that the Branch President was in an interview. I didnt want the investigators to just sit there for an hour so i asked him what he was going to do. He just looked at me and said this Sunday was the presidency message and it was presidents turn. I asked a few more leaders, but nothing was working. Finally, i just told i would do it. He said okay and got things started. I have had to do this two weeks in a row now. It has been a really cool experience. Both times that we have ended up with no teacher, i have felt really strongly that there needs to be a class. This alone was huge because i love just chatting with everyone and usually never care about shedules. Then when i was teaching, some really cool things happened. Lessons came out that i knew werent mine. Things i have never thought of. Stuff, that when i thought about it later, the investigators there really needed to hear, but i never knew at the time. Kind of a humbling experience, for me at least.
Sorry, time is spent.
Love you bunches,
A big wet kiss everyone,
Sky
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
the happenings
09/16/09
Hi,
Some quick requests, if I may: Could you (anyone who feels that this could apply to them or who could contribute in any way) send me some short, children’s stories. I want to get a bunch of stories together that could be used as a sort of “family night parables” thing. I was thinking of things along the lines of “the giving tree” or things like that. Stories that can be easily tied back into the gospel. Since the people here don’t have the same children’s literature we do, people will think I am so creative and awesome. This is a good thing.
Funny story for Isis. There were two missionaries teaching a lesson to a family not too long ago. One was missionary of about a year, I think, and the other was being trained. To make a long story short, the new missionary made a mistake in is Spanish. It was a very warm day and, since he doesn’t know how to say much else, he decided to comment on the temperature. Weather talk, always a winner. Well, except this time. He commented to the father of the family, “¡estoy caliente!” The father, of course, reacted as any good father would by screaming to the kids, “Run, children! To your rooms! Grab the dogs! Hurry, now, go!”
(“estoy caliente” is the equivalent to expressing that one is currently in heat)
Great family.
Now, on to the main event. Elder Teixeira.
Elder Teixeira is a native from Portugal. He speaks perfect Spanish, but is Spanish is a mix between Spanish and Portuguese… Spatuguese? So anyway, he is a member of the first quorum of the seventy and also a member of the Europe area presidency. With this information in mind, you will now understand the following statement which I would like to make:
I was publicly reprimanded by a member of the first quorum of the seventy.
It was awesome.
During the conference, Elder Teixeira left the pulpit and came down to stand in front of us and use the whiteboard. We just happened to be on the second row in the very corner where the whiteboard was situated. He then proceeded to ask how many of the missionaries had progressing investigators (took us a while to understand it because he said it in Spatuguese: inspesquitadoras). We were fortunate enough to be able to raise our hands. He then asked how many of the missionaries had more than two. We were still able to keep our hands up. He then saw us and, due to our phenomenal positioning right in front of his face, asked us to come up so he could make an example out of us, I mean, use us as an example. He asked us for two of our investigators. We told him Isa and Ronnie. We then wrote their names on the board. He then asked us to give some background info on them. We were speaking Spanish at this point, so the majority of the attention slowly shifted to me, as far as the answering the questions spoken in Spatuguese was concerned. We then told about each of them and he was very happy about it. He then asked if they had baptismal dates. I told him that we have invited them, but they are both still not to that point. He asked the same question again. I tried to word it differently, but gave the same answer. Apparently, it was still the wrong answer. This was when it got awesome. He told us that there is no excuse under the sun for a progressing investigator not to have a baptismal date. He then told us that we were going to go in to the lesson with Isa and her husband Miguel Angel and tell him that his wife wants to be baptized and we want to invite him to be baptized with her, otherwise she will have to be baptized without him and progress alone. Miguel Angel is the reason Isa is not baptized yet. He wants nothing to do with us. He is one of those sinners who is comfortable with is lifestyle. Elder Teixeira said that we would alse make sure Ronnie set a date. Worthy of note: Ronnie has been challenged by many missionaries, and always says he will get baptized when he is ready. So after Elder Teixeira man handled me a little bit more, he let me sit down. I talked to him after, mostly because I wanted to shake the hand that so powerfully slapped my pride. He thanked me for being a missionary he knew could handle a teaching opportunity like that (i am not sure why this keeps happening to me). Then he said he wanted me to tell him what ended up happening with Isa and Ronnie.
Well, we did what he said. First with Miguel Angel. He was very much the same in the lesson, but when we went ahead and told him what was up he was silent for like 2 minutes. Then he said that this was serious. He would have to change a lot and told us he would have to think a lot about it, but he thinks he is ready to change. Amazing.
Then we did it with Ronnie. We had an awesome lesson and ended up just asking him when he was going to be baptized. He delayed a little bit and said that when he felt he was ready, he would do it. We then read the requirements for a baptismal candidate in Doctrine and Covenants 20:37 (I think, it is in the second column in the middle in Spanish). I then took off my tag, handed it to him and said that we would change roles for a bit. I then asked him, “Elder Carr, what do I need to do to feel ready?” He paused for a bit and said, “Repent of your sins, pray, read the scriptures, and go to church.” I then asked him, as myself again, “Are you willing to do that?” He accepted and said that the next time he would have an answer for us. Later, as we were walking to the station to catch the train back home, he pulled up next to us in his car. He said that he had been looking all over for us. After the lesson, he felt so amazing inside that he wanted to thank us in some way, so he tracked us down and gave us a ride to the station.
Time is spent, but I will for sure keep the updates coming on them.
Love you bunches,
Elder Sky
Hi,
Some quick requests, if I may: Could you (anyone who feels that this could apply to them or who could contribute in any way) send me some short, children’s stories. I want to get a bunch of stories together that could be used as a sort of “family night parables” thing. I was thinking of things along the lines of “the giving tree” or things like that. Stories that can be easily tied back into the gospel. Since the people here don’t have the same children’s literature we do, people will think I am so creative and awesome. This is a good thing.
Funny story for Isis. There were two missionaries teaching a lesson to a family not too long ago. One was missionary of about a year, I think, and the other was being trained. To make a long story short, the new missionary made a mistake in is Spanish. It was a very warm day and, since he doesn’t know how to say much else, he decided to comment on the temperature. Weather talk, always a winner. Well, except this time. He commented to the father of the family, “¡estoy caliente!” The father, of course, reacted as any good father would by screaming to the kids, “Run, children! To your rooms! Grab the dogs! Hurry, now, go!”
(“estoy caliente” is the equivalent to expressing that one is currently in heat)
Great family.
Now, on to the main event. Elder Teixeira.
Elder Teixeira is a native from Portugal. He speaks perfect Spanish, but is Spanish is a mix between Spanish and Portuguese… Spatuguese? So anyway, he is a member of the first quorum of the seventy and also a member of the Europe area presidency. With this information in mind, you will now understand the following statement which I would like to make:
I was publicly reprimanded by a member of the first quorum of the seventy.
It was awesome.
During the conference, Elder Teixeira left the pulpit and came down to stand in front of us and use the whiteboard. We just happened to be on the second row in the very corner where the whiteboard was situated. He then proceeded to ask how many of the missionaries had progressing investigators (took us a while to understand it because he said it in Spatuguese: inspesquitadoras). We were fortunate enough to be able to raise our hands. He then asked how many of the missionaries had more than two. We were still able to keep our hands up. He then saw us and, due to our phenomenal positioning right in front of his face, asked us to come up so he could make an example out of us, I mean, use us as an example. He asked us for two of our investigators. We told him Isa and Ronnie. We then wrote their names on the board. He then asked us to give some background info on them. We were speaking Spanish at this point, so the majority of the attention slowly shifted to me, as far as the answering the questions spoken in Spatuguese was concerned. We then told about each of them and he was very happy about it. He then asked if they had baptismal dates. I told him that we have invited them, but they are both still not to that point. He asked the same question again. I tried to word it differently, but gave the same answer. Apparently, it was still the wrong answer. This was when it got awesome. He told us that there is no excuse under the sun for a progressing investigator not to have a baptismal date. He then told us that we were going to go in to the lesson with Isa and her husband Miguel Angel and tell him that his wife wants to be baptized and we want to invite him to be baptized with her, otherwise she will have to be baptized without him and progress alone. Miguel Angel is the reason Isa is not baptized yet. He wants nothing to do with us. He is one of those sinners who is comfortable with is lifestyle. Elder Teixeira said that we would alse make sure Ronnie set a date. Worthy of note: Ronnie has been challenged by many missionaries, and always says he will get baptized when he is ready. So after Elder Teixeira man handled me a little bit more, he let me sit down. I talked to him after, mostly because I wanted to shake the hand that so powerfully slapped my pride. He thanked me for being a missionary he knew could handle a teaching opportunity like that (i am not sure why this keeps happening to me). Then he said he wanted me to tell him what ended up happening with Isa and Ronnie.
Well, we did what he said. First with Miguel Angel. He was very much the same in the lesson, but when we went ahead and told him what was up he was silent for like 2 minutes. Then he said that this was serious. He would have to change a lot and told us he would have to think a lot about it, but he thinks he is ready to change. Amazing.
Then we did it with Ronnie. We had an awesome lesson and ended up just asking him when he was going to be baptized. He delayed a little bit and said that when he felt he was ready, he would do it. We then read the requirements for a baptismal candidate in Doctrine and Covenants 20:37 (I think, it is in the second column in the middle in Spanish). I then took off my tag, handed it to him and said that we would change roles for a bit. I then asked him, “Elder Carr, what do I need to do to feel ready?” He paused for a bit and said, “Repent of your sins, pray, read the scriptures, and go to church.” I then asked him, as myself again, “Are you willing to do that?” He accepted and said that the next time he would have an answer for us. Later, as we were walking to the station to catch the train back home, he pulled up next to us in his car. He said that he had been looking all over for us. After the lesson, he felt so amazing inside that he wanted to thank us in some way, so he tracked us down and gave us a ride to the station.
Time is spent, but I will for sure keep the updates coming on them.
Love you bunches,
Elder Sky
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Hala madrid
09/09/09
Sorry about the delay, even though your are probably just waking up. Today we cruised up to Madrid and toured the number one religious gathering place in spain: the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, home to Real Madrid.
It was amazing. We got to sit in the stands, see the trophy room, walk through the locker room (even saw the toilet where countless legends have, well, you know…), and even sit in the players’ box. When we were down by the field, I even flirted my way into getting a blade of grass from the field, a blade of turf from the players’ box, and a dirt clod (should sell for millions on ebay). At first it proved to be a worthy challenge, seeing as the security guard on duty was a 40 year old Spaniard man. But in the end, victory was achieved, a heart was won, and a blade of grass acquired. I regret nothing.
As always, I took pictures of everything. I will hopefully be getting those off soon.
Tomorrow should be an interesting day. We get a surprise mission tour from Elder Teixeira and then a spiritual cuddle with President Watkins. I will let you know how that goes.
Yesterday was really cool. We taught Michael and of course he was stellar. Earlier in the week we had invited him to pray about things he can do better to stay strong. He told us that he prayed for an answer and then opened the book of mormon. After opening the book, he realized his thumb was pointing to verse 1 of chapter 16 of Alma. He handed it to me to read and told me that it was his answer. It is one of the peace/war chapters. I read it and paused for a moment. I then went ahead and took another moment. Then two or three more moments. Still nothing. I had no idea what he found. But of course, our miracle, Nigerian, bombshell pulled through. He said that he too was at peace right now. More peace than ever before. He then said that he also knew now that he needed to be ready and prepared for when the devil would make his cries of war against him. He did not want to hear even the faintest rumor of war inside of him.
I no longer skim over the boring war history versus straight to the fighting parts… as much.
Day before yesterday was fun. I went on exchanges with a really cool missionary who has been out for a long time. I learned something really cool from him. Please don’t take this the wrong way. I have always read/heard about how we are never supposed to compare ourselves to other missionaries to measure our own personal level of achievement. I had always thought that this meant that we were not supposed to compare ourselves to really successful missionaries so we don’t get depressed. I realized a bit more. Also got to avoid comparing oneself to the poor missionaries. It was sad to see how frustrated he got with people when they wouldn’t listen, even to the point of condemning them. I honestly wasn’t surprised every time he was turned away, I wouldn’t want to talk to someone I could tell didn’t like me. At the end of the day I was feeling pretty good about myself and how far I had come, but then I realized that I still had a long way to go. I don’t want to put myself on a scale with missionaries like that. It was sad, but educational.
Day before the aforementioned day was really sweet. We were walking out of the train station after arriving in one of our pueblos and a bus pulled up. It is a bus we don’t usually take and actually takes us in the opposite direction of the person we were planning to visit. I didn’t know why at the time, but it seemed perfect, so we jumped on. About a minute after jumping on I realized I had no idea what I was doing on this bus. It was clearly my fault. My companion is a trainee, he can push old ladies into bushes and it would be my fault. About a minute after this realization the phone rang. It was one of our members asking us if we could pass by the hospital in one of the far away pueblos. Her niece was there and needed a blessing. The pueblo she needed us to pass by was actually the pueblo we were in at that very moment. The hospital where her niece was was actually at the end of the bus line we were on. Very cool experience. We ended up going in, singing a hymn for her, and giving her a blessing. Yep, I sang for someone. Yes, it was to put her out of her misery. Didn’t work though, so we just gave her a blessing and left.
Well, time is spent.
Loves and kisses,
Sky
Sorry about the delay, even though your are probably just waking up. Today we cruised up to Madrid and toured the number one religious gathering place in spain: the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, home to Real Madrid.
It was amazing. We got to sit in the stands, see the trophy room, walk through the locker room (even saw the toilet where countless legends have, well, you know…), and even sit in the players’ box. When we were down by the field, I even flirted my way into getting a blade of grass from the field, a blade of turf from the players’ box, and a dirt clod (should sell for millions on ebay). At first it proved to be a worthy challenge, seeing as the security guard on duty was a 40 year old Spaniard man. But in the end, victory was achieved, a heart was won, and a blade of grass acquired. I regret nothing.
As always, I took pictures of everything. I will hopefully be getting those off soon.
Tomorrow should be an interesting day. We get a surprise mission tour from Elder Teixeira and then a spiritual cuddle with President Watkins. I will let you know how that goes.
Yesterday was really cool. We taught Michael and of course he was stellar. Earlier in the week we had invited him to pray about things he can do better to stay strong. He told us that he prayed for an answer and then opened the book of mormon. After opening the book, he realized his thumb was pointing to verse 1 of chapter 16 of Alma. He handed it to me to read and told me that it was his answer. It is one of the peace/war chapters. I read it and paused for a moment. I then went ahead and took another moment. Then two or three more moments. Still nothing. I had no idea what he found. But of course, our miracle, Nigerian, bombshell pulled through. He said that he too was at peace right now. More peace than ever before. He then said that he also knew now that he needed to be ready and prepared for when the devil would make his cries of war against him. He did not want to hear even the faintest rumor of war inside of him.
I no longer skim over the boring war history versus straight to the fighting parts… as much.
Day before yesterday was fun. I went on exchanges with a really cool missionary who has been out for a long time. I learned something really cool from him. Please don’t take this the wrong way. I have always read/heard about how we are never supposed to compare ourselves to other missionaries to measure our own personal level of achievement. I had always thought that this meant that we were not supposed to compare ourselves to really successful missionaries so we don’t get depressed. I realized a bit more. Also got to avoid comparing oneself to the poor missionaries. It was sad to see how frustrated he got with people when they wouldn’t listen, even to the point of condemning them. I honestly wasn’t surprised every time he was turned away, I wouldn’t want to talk to someone I could tell didn’t like me. At the end of the day I was feeling pretty good about myself and how far I had come, but then I realized that I still had a long way to go. I don’t want to put myself on a scale with missionaries like that. It was sad, but educational.
Day before the aforementioned day was really sweet. We were walking out of the train station after arriving in one of our pueblos and a bus pulled up. It is a bus we don’t usually take and actually takes us in the opposite direction of the person we were planning to visit. I didn’t know why at the time, but it seemed perfect, so we jumped on. About a minute after jumping on I realized I had no idea what I was doing on this bus. It was clearly my fault. My companion is a trainee, he can push old ladies into bushes and it would be my fault. About a minute after this realization the phone rang. It was one of our members asking us if we could pass by the hospital in one of the far away pueblos. Her niece was there and needed a blessing. The pueblo she needed us to pass by was actually the pueblo we were in at that very moment. The hospital where her niece was was actually at the end of the bus line we were on. Very cool experience. We ended up going in, singing a hymn for her, and giving her a blessing. Yep, I sang for someone. Yes, it was to put her out of her misery. Didn’t work though, so we just gave her a blessing and left.
Well, time is spent.
Loves and kisses,
Sky
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
the columbian receptionist just winked at me... eek.
Alright, let’s roll.
Time to hear about the Driggster. Elder Driggs is from Provo, Utah. He went to Timpview high school and BYU a year before coming out. He is super excited about everything, really really really bad at Spanish, and loves my cooking. The excitement is growing, the Spanish is improving, and the cooking really is that good. Believe it. I think my favorite part is that I am finally not the only one that leaves every contact thinking they are going to be baptized. It is nice to have a companion as innocent as me.
Alright, time for some updates.
This last week at church was explosive. Explosive because my old bubble problem has been acting up again. We called up Michael on Saturday to see if his mom was planning on coming so we could set up a ride from the train station to the church. She has a bit of arthritis in her hip and is really diabetic so her feet are not doing too hot. Well, Michael told us that she had something come up and she wasn’t going to make it. That was acceptable. Of course, that is not how it turned out. Apparently she woke up that morning feeling like she really needed to go to church. She fixed her schedule and decided she could fit it in. I got a call about 10 minutes before church started from an annoyed Michael who was going to be late to church for the first time and was heartbroken about it. He said his mother had decided to come to church and asked if we could find a ride. I called around but no one was going to pass by there. I had to call her back and tell her that we were really sorry but there was no way we could make it. It was just too late and we couldn’t ask a member to miss a whole meeting to get them. She understood and apologized as well. An hour later the door swung open and in rolled three very sweaty Nigerians. Michael, his mother Esther, and his little brother Samson. It was a huge surprise. I talked to her after she got a drink and had a chance to rest and she told me that she felt like this was her chance to show God her faith. She told God that she wanted to go and that with his help she knew she could make it, but she was going with that help or not. In her own words, “weh mede dee trek wid feht.”
The other day we taught Michael about the priesthood and we were reading about the Aaronic priesthood and the ministry of angels. He had an interesting take on it. He said that it make sense. If the priesthood is the power of god, then it makes sense that we get the power of the angels to prepare us. I thought that was cool.
I am kind of experiencing a bit of writers block this week… sorry. It doesn’t help that I have an old Bulgarian women talking on the phone behind me. The noise doesn’t bother me at all, I just get distracted really easily because I start pretending I know what she is saying and making up funny conversations in my head. I cant help it.
She just told the person on the other line about a Bulgarian holiday called pushageezerfest. According to her, it is where everyone runs around all day in funny costumes and push old people into bushes.
See, it’s a serious problem.
We had a funny lesson the other day with one of the bus drivers here. We talked to him all the time when we would take is bus and we finally got to go over and teach him. His name is Angel and he is a 49 year old Spaniard bachelor. He is also a less active Jehovah’s Witness. The lesson was a lot of fun. It was like teaching a broken insult machine. He kept trying to use is old JW tricks, but he couldn’t remember most of them, and he kept remembering that he likes us. I had a way good time. We taught him about Joseph Smith and he got frustrated because he promised us that it wasn’t supposed to make that much sense, so he made us promised to come back later so he could prepare. We accepted and should be teaching him again later this week.
Well, I am sorry for the shortness of the letter, but it is hard to write when laughing. The woman just told the person now that she is going to build her house upside-down so that she won’t feel as overweight. Logical.
Love you all tons and bunches,
Hugs and kisses,
High fives and winks,
Anthony Skyler Carr
Time to hear about the Driggster. Elder Driggs is from Provo, Utah. He went to Timpview high school and BYU a year before coming out. He is super excited about everything, really really really bad at Spanish, and loves my cooking. The excitement is growing, the Spanish is improving, and the cooking really is that good. Believe it. I think my favorite part is that I am finally not the only one that leaves every contact thinking they are going to be baptized. It is nice to have a companion as innocent as me.
Alright, time for some updates.
This last week at church was explosive. Explosive because my old bubble problem has been acting up again. We called up Michael on Saturday to see if his mom was planning on coming so we could set up a ride from the train station to the church. She has a bit of arthritis in her hip and is really diabetic so her feet are not doing too hot. Well, Michael told us that she had something come up and she wasn’t going to make it. That was acceptable. Of course, that is not how it turned out. Apparently she woke up that morning feeling like she really needed to go to church. She fixed her schedule and decided she could fit it in. I got a call about 10 minutes before church started from an annoyed Michael who was going to be late to church for the first time and was heartbroken about it. He said his mother had decided to come to church and asked if we could find a ride. I called around but no one was going to pass by there. I had to call her back and tell her that we were really sorry but there was no way we could make it. It was just too late and we couldn’t ask a member to miss a whole meeting to get them. She understood and apologized as well. An hour later the door swung open and in rolled three very sweaty Nigerians. Michael, his mother Esther, and his little brother Samson. It was a huge surprise. I talked to her after she got a drink and had a chance to rest and she told me that she felt like this was her chance to show God her faith. She told God that she wanted to go and that with his help she knew she could make it, but she was going with that help or not. In her own words, “weh mede dee trek wid feht.”
The other day we taught Michael about the priesthood and we were reading about the Aaronic priesthood and the ministry of angels. He had an interesting take on it. He said that it make sense. If the priesthood is the power of god, then it makes sense that we get the power of the angels to prepare us. I thought that was cool.
I am kind of experiencing a bit of writers block this week… sorry. It doesn’t help that I have an old Bulgarian women talking on the phone behind me. The noise doesn’t bother me at all, I just get distracted really easily because I start pretending I know what she is saying and making up funny conversations in my head. I cant help it.
She just told the person on the other line about a Bulgarian holiday called pushageezerfest. According to her, it is where everyone runs around all day in funny costumes and push old people into bushes.
See, it’s a serious problem.
We had a funny lesson the other day with one of the bus drivers here. We talked to him all the time when we would take is bus and we finally got to go over and teach him. His name is Angel and he is a 49 year old Spaniard bachelor. He is also a less active Jehovah’s Witness. The lesson was a lot of fun. It was like teaching a broken insult machine. He kept trying to use is old JW tricks, but he couldn’t remember most of them, and he kept remembering that he likes us. I had a way good time. We taught him about Joseph Smith and he got frustrated because he promised us that it wasn’t supposed to make that much sense, so he made us promised to come back later so he could prepare. We accepted and should be teaching him again later this week.
Well, I am sorry for the shortness of the letter, but it is hard to write when laughing. The woman just told the person now that she is going to build her house upside-down so that she won’t feel as overweight. Logical.
Love you all tons and bunches,
Hugs and kisses,
High fives and winks,
Anthony Skyler Carr
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