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
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
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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