Varadero, Cuba 28 July 2010

There are some huge posters on the walls of this computer place and i decided the two that i like the most were the one of Machu Picchu and one of an awesome looking beach which turned out to be Varadero, Cuba. That explains the subject. I hope Rhett is still planning on cruising cuba with me because it is definitely something i am counting on.

As for the week, no, wait! I have to say thank you. The birthday package was.... da bomb! Thank you so much for all the effort that was put into that. I know it is hard to believe, but that was the best present i have gotten on a mission birthday, heck, i even had a surprise party and was given a 25 lbs watermelon that was incredible, seriously, we think they pumped it full of something because it is sooo good, like my mouth is watering right now thinking about it, but honestly, it is not even in the same league as the stuff you sent, so cool, so sweet, so boss. Mom, i will kiss you right on the face when i see you. And all you others that pitched in with letters, even those i dont know, be warned, you are loved and i may have the same thing in store for all of you.

Alright, now we can get on to the good stuff. This week has been filled with, wait! Sorry, one more thing before i forget. I have gotten it a lot lately, and once from a general authority, so i have to ask- our cousin who served here, the carr, did he serve around the years of 85-87 under Elder Piat? I remember meeting him at a family reunion we invited ourselves to over in pleasant grove or something. I would like to know because there are a few people here who served around him who keep bugging me about it.

Okay, that is it, no more interuptions, on to the week. The week was filled with all sorts of, WAIT! Ha, just kidding that time. For reals, more than just experiences i think it is landmarked by interesting people. For example- there is one that we refer to as DOSM, which stands for Dirty Old Spaniard Man. We also use DOSM because it rhymes with awesome, but that is besides the point (but totally awesome). Our experience with him took place at a little kiosk sort of thing that sells otter pops. We were doing business and he came up, drunk as a dog (you better believe dogs get drunk), asking me if i knew any girls he could become acquainted with (NOTE: the true sayings of DOSM have been edited for the sake of the younger readers). He was a very dirty old spaniard man, hence the name. From the time i have been on the mission i have come to realize that the only way to shake off a drunk is to confuse them. Normal response encourages them, fear feeds them, annoyance angers them, ignorance has no effect, but english, oh my dear beloved english, confuses the living stars out of them. When he started talking to me, i responded in english and he was taken very off guard. He starting yelling that he had sworn he heard us speaking his language, but i just kept it going, and within 30 seconds he was off yelling at a stray dog. It was brilliant. Then as we left it got even better. We said goodbye to the otter pop man in spanish and then saw him so i said "take it easy" and he repeated it kind of in a mocking voice, and you would never believe it, but it sounded perfect. That is the secret to the english accent: drunk spaniard! It was incredible.

Then we were teaching Paula, the one who is getting baptized this week, and got to have a fun little question and answer. It was all normal stuff until she pulled out her bible and asked one that had been bugging her for a long time. She has been reading the old testament and it has been hard for her to read about the cleaning out of the holy land in Joshua. She was wondering why they killed everyone, even the children. I looked at her for a moment, then, reaching for my book of mormon said, "that is why we love the book of mormon". She accepted and things are better than ever.

Next interesting people were found in the Red Cross distribution center in a mystical land called Arganda del Rey. It is about 30 minutes from Madrid and is filled with Romanians and Gypsys. We went to go do service handing out food and the people that volunteer there are so cool. They absolutely hate religion, but love the missionaries to death. Elder Dunn, the missionary i went with, is training right now so i guess they got excited about having a missionary that could speak a little more spanish than normal. They took us for a tour and showed us the ropes. After, when they all usually go out to get drinks, they took away our agency and made us go with them. It was fun to see them in their natural habitat. So much artificial joy. It was fun to have a real smile when we walked out of that place. Free cokes and american music videos explained by half drunk spaniards- wonderful.

Alright, last one i have time for is named Ronny. He is very likely the most amazing man i have ever met in my life. We got a call from the temple saying that a man walked in that wanted to talk to us. We skidadled on over and found him sitting in the waiting room reading. He is a christian convert from Iran that grew up in Kuwait and had to run away to Armenia and now was looking for a better life in Spain. Some of the stuff he told us about was mind blowing. All the fighting he saw in Kuwait was really hard on him, then the turkish slaughtering of christians in armenia made him become a refugee with his family and his being apart from his family looking for work seemed to be the hardest part of it all. He said that not too long ago he met two missionaries that were the nicest people he had ever met. They gave him a book of mormon and he read it in 3 weeks. He came to the temple to tell us that he wanted to be baptized. He was amazing. The first thing he said was that he was Ronny, he was from Iran, he loved God, and did not hate americans. He lives in another elders area but talking to him was a really humbling experience. Hard to believe, but i am sure even harder to live.

Sorry for the lack of time. Every week it is the same.

Love you,

Elder Sky

many thanks 21 July 2010

I am super excited to get your stuff, you are all so faithful at winning my love. It is yours.

So i experienced a lot of firsts this week. Three that are of the greatest interest.

#1: At precisely 7:12 last saturday evening we were at a members house helping him fix his printer and at that very moment i fell in love with shakira. Her new wakka wakka song came on the computer and it was a choice between that and the rear end of the member as he battled with the chords of the printer. She won.

#2: We were teaching Paula the law of chastity and she had one of the hardest doubts i have ever had to faced on my mission, and it is for the sole reason that it was absolutely doctrineless. She had already said that she would live it, in her words, "if God says it, we do it." But it troubled her to think of her personal future as to the fact that she had no idea what was allowed within the dating realm. Her question was- how do mormons flirt? She just couldnt imagine it. It was awkward. We were there with her aunt, her new friend in the church, and a member man: all single mormons. And then of course us who are in a class of our own. Unpracticed and unavailable. The best thing i could muster was that she needed to come to the US and walk across the BYU campus once and she would see, hear, and experience all she needed to.

#3: Mission Council with the new boundaries. The tricky thing with this is that the mission now is twice as big with the canaries as the cherry on top. It was too hard to make everyone travel, and president wanted it to be fully combined, so we got to skype it. Leon and Santiago set up in their chapels to get the video conference going, and the canaries did the same a little bit later because of the time zone difference. We got to go to the MTC and use the systems there. The biggest lesson i learned: the church has some serious tools at its disposal. It was way fun to judge the heck out of all the other missionaries. I dont know why that happens, but it is so much fun to just try to figure them out by what you see on a blurry plasma screen and hear through the speakers. I would love to know what they think of us. For some reason Elder Middleton and i sat in front of the camera most the time, were the first to be asked to do everything, and did the training. Everything in our own special way. We will see if we run into them some other day.

Best quote this week: "Elder Middleton, when i first met you i thought you were the biggest slacker of a lazy missionary i ever met. And then when i found out you and elder carr were my zone leaders i thought to myself - how could he put two of them together? But now i know that i am wrong. After your workshop in zone conference and our exchange i know that you are both great missionaries and somehow know how to have fun." -Elder Jackson (Trainee in his 2nd transfer)

Sorry, we need to end this fast. We dont have enough money to pay for the extra time.

Love,

Elder Sky

The octopus does it again 14 July 2010

Before i even start thinking about writing the big stuff (which is pretty dumb to say since writing that there i was thinking about it (and even moreso now)) i will answer questions.

Wards in Madrid? There are 8 wards in the actual city, but if you go out about 45 minutes there are a lot more. Mostly branches out there though.
Where do they meet? There are 4 chapels shared by the 8 wards spead out in the four corners.
Where is the Stake Center? It is on the temple lot.
Where is the mission home? It is about 40 minutes from the center of madrid by bus, in car it is much much less, It is in a really nice area.

Okay, enough of the funny business. You need to hear about what happened. I have never in my life even dreamed of ever thinking about being near imagining what went down on sunday night. Epic. The entire day there was an inexcapable buzz in the air. Even at church you could tell that peoples thoughts were on the game. Honestly, had they discovered the cure for cancer on sunday, nobody would have heard anything about it until today. When the game started, the city died. The only people on the streets were the people who either left the bar to take a smoke or to throw up, both because of the nerves of it all. It was impossible to do anything. Nobody would accept visits. Nobody would stop to talk unless it was solely to yell a swear word about the game and follow it immediately with a chest bump. It was incredible. Every bar was filled to capacity. The streets were lined with big screens and shoulder to shoulder crowds. In the center i heard that on one single street there were more than 300000 people watching. So of course, with every living spaniard worshiping their false god in full dedication, we found ourselves standing outside the window of a bar watching the game. Luckily, it only caught us for about 10 minutes because then we had to go inside to do weekly number calls. We started getting things ready, still listening out the window for the sounds of the game, as was explained last week. Then it happened. Something that cannot be scaled on the missionary sound classifications. The explotion of noise, the silence, the gasp, and then the absolute loss of all reason. Fireworks exploding right out the window, people rioting through the streets, jumping into the fountains, climbing on passerby cars, and to top it all off, a huge beetle flew in through the window and landed on my face and really freaked me out. Even the bugs were celebrating! As you can imagine, calls didnt really happen. Too much noise and when the goal was scored the entire system locked up. It was a pretty noisy night, day, and following night. At least one thing is for certain: the work will proceed a great deal because now the spaniards believe in God. I hear the cathedrals saw record crowds for the sunday morning mass.

Now, to abruptly change the subject, we had zone conference yesterday. It was way fun. They asigned us a one hour training where we had a specific theme for the first thirty minutes and then our own thang for the last 30. It was way fun. We bought a rope and played a game then talked about it. The assistants, who are in our zone, along with Hermana Watkins said they were supposed to go around and listen to all the different workshops but they stayed in ours the whole hour because they didnt want to miss anything. That got the pride canteen all filled up as normal. Then to make good things great, Hermana Watkins singled me out in her talk. She spoke on unity and said, "Dont worry about being similar, just be united - if we all had to be like each other, Elder Carr would never survive."

Now for another radical change of topic. This last week we started teaching... wow, there is a kid that just snuck up behind me and started screaming at the top of his lungs. It really freaked me out. I looked at him and just started sreaming with him and he stopped. Okay back to business, wait, getting a call..... Done, now we can start. This last week we started teaching a girl named Paula. She is from Barcelona and is a really cool girl. Incredible life. I dont want to lest it off just for her sake, but suffice it to say it climaxes at a failed suicide attempt. The poor girl was just searching for something. When we met with her we had some really humbling lessons. Stuff that just leaves you speachless. We did feel very strongly that she could get a clear answer if she really searched, and that is what we promised her. We gave her asignments and she read them all and more. She would pray every chance she got, just pleading for something to help her know that she had not gone through all that she had for no reason. When we met with her she just said that there was nothing. It was hard for us. Times like that are tough because it is so far out of our control. But we knew what we had felt with her, we knew we had done our very best to leave our hearts on the table as always so we left her in the Lords hands. She came to the baptism on saturday and said it was interesting but still nothing. She came to church and went through all the classes and still had received nothing. Then we got to the last hour which is sacrament for us. She said that during the passing of the sacrament she felt really calm so she decided to give it one more try. She started to pray and said that she plead like she had never plead before. Then she just let her heart pour out and told God that if he would let her feel that He was there then she would be baptized and do whatever she needed to, but she just wanted to feel it. And in that very moment she said that the most overwhelming feeling of joy she has ever felt came over her. So much that she almost couldnt breath and just started to cry. We talked to her that night and when she told us about it we cried with her. I felt really strongly that she need to set the date then so we told her that we would help her fufill her promise and i said the first date that came to mind which was the 14th of august. As soon as the date was out of my mouth i felt the strongest feeling of "no, she has waited long enough, she deserves it now." She had agreed gladly with the first and i thought it might not be good to take the moment, but it was a really strong feeling and when i looked at my companion i was obvious he was feeling the same thing. So we invited her again and she accepted even more gladly. She said she didnt care, she would do what was necessary. On monday when we met with her she had already borken up with her boyfriend and had him move out and gone shopping with her aunt for more modest clothes. We still hadnt even finished teaching the restoration. It is super humbling to realize how little we do, but how much our very best effort is needed.

That is it for me. Talk to you later.

Hugs and kisses,

Elder Sky

P.s. The people in the pictures are Jazmin, who was baptized this last saturday, and her family. She is 9, her sister is a reactivated girl and her mom is working on getting baptized this coming month.

tis a scorcher 7 July 2010

World cup in Spain. Its different than i had imagined. I think the best way to describe it would be to imagine yourself living next to a huge stadium. You never really know exactly what happened, but the noises tell you everything. And i will tell you what, you can hear it. So far the decifering has gotten us thus far:

-Low buzz with the occasional outburst: normal play.
-Huge explosion of cheers through all the city: really good play.
-Huge explosion of cheers accompanied by honking of car horns: goal. (Car horns are key)
-Silence: Bad.
-Drunk people swearing: Loss.
-Drunk people swearing in form of song: Normal day.
-Drunk poeple swearing, singing, and dancing through streets kissing everyone they see: Normal weekend/holiday, but if done immediately following a game: Win.

The world cup has taken over. It is incredible. We contacted everyone we saw in the streets during the last game and ended up with 2 contacts.

There you have it. The world cup in spain. Everyone here is really excited about the game tonight because some german octopus told them they would win. That is where their faith seems to dwell at the moment.

The idolatry has progressed to an impressive point. At least it is a step up from a golden calf. El pulpo aleman.

In spite of all this the work has progressed impressively well. The baptism was amazing. Never in my life have i been able to see such a dramatic change in someone in such short a time. She came on monday saying that she had read all of doctrine and covenants in one night and knew she had felt the confirmation she was looking for. She was an entirely different person than when we saw her sunday. Sadly, she told us there that she only wanted us and the bishop to come to her baptism and that she wanted to be confirmed in a smaller branch because she knew she was too shy to do it all. We were willing to do what she felt she was capable of so we made some plans. Then on thursday she showed up just glowing. She was an entirely different person than when we saw her on monday. On friday we went to the baptism and it was incredible to see the miracles happen. Because of time we didnt get to invite very many people and she didnt invite anyone because she felt guilty inviting people when her family was not going to be there (lots of opposition). When we were about to start the baptism, one person and then later another showed up that were 2 of her best friends. Both didnt know why they came to the church that day, they just said they felt like they needed to. There were a lot of tears. After the baptism she even said that she would go ahead and be confirmed in our own ward (biggest in madrid) which was incredible. She showed up on sunday and she was a totally different person than when we saw her on friday. After her flawless confirmation she was the first one to get up and bare testimony. That was a shocker. She has had a hard life and the first time i met her she told us, through tears, that the only thing she wanted to know is if she was a daughter of God. She texted us yesterday and said that she feels full of light and that everytime she looks in the mirror it surprises her because she sees a person of eternal value- something she has never seen before.

Sorry, we have to leave early to get to a lesson a ways away. Everyone will be traveling to watch the game right now so we have to get our rear ends out of here.

Love you bunches.

Elder Sky Carr

ace in the hole? Well whats it doin there? 30 June 2010

Yes, in case you were wondering, there is a strike right now in the public transit of madrid. This causes us to have to arrive late from everything and leave early for the other things. Obviously you were not wondering that, but now you are. Apparently the government made a 5% pay cut and the workers flipped. Now there are no workers and madrid is flipping. It is nuts.

So as for the normal stuff i can try to squeeze in in the 5 minutes i have left (i am going to make an attempt at filling for the lack of words with pictures of our bike trip) i will give you some quickies.

Susan!! So the other day we were on the bus and this kid got on, i said hi and he got off really fast so i didnt really get to talk to him. Bummer. Well, we ended up seeing him from the bus one day so we got off and went to talk to him and he said, "Hey Elder Skyler." Unexpected. After the shock wore off i was able to ask him how the heck he knew my name and who i was since we had never ever spoken. Turns out he found the blog. You are incredible. And even more incredible, he speaks english, so he will probably end up reading about himself pretty soon.

No time to expound any more on that, just know your reach is terrifying and impressive.

So the pictures are from the Tandem bike experience (thought they would fit the theme of your last letter, Mom). It was so fun. We domintated all the solo riders. Best part of all though: We had planned for a long time to get the tandem, but we knew we had to get something more to make it even better, and as we were walking into the metro we saw a nigerian selling sunglasses for 10 euros each. I went up and showed him the 10 and said that i wanted two instead of just one. He gave us two. So worth it.

The work is progressing. We have an investigator named Nieves that we picked up a couple weeks ago. She has been investigating for about 6 years and has a lot of problems. We have had some really amazing lessons with her and this last sunday we were talking about how we could help her more and it just came down to the fact that she needed to be baptized as soon as possible because she would not last much longer without the gift of the holy ghost, Luckily, the Lord decided to tune in on that conversation. That day we gave her a triple combination. That night she read the whole thing. When she woke up she said she knew what she needed to do. We met, she said she needed to be baptized this week, and here we are, running to make it happen. We are set for friday. Incredible.

Sorry for the shortness,

Just imagine the rest is filled with my love for you,

Elder Sky

dangerously skinny! 23 June 2010

Skinny, eh? I dont know what is going on. I have never changed anything. Maybe it is one of those huge figurative analogy things. Like when i started the mission the weight and stress of the work was really plumping and cushioning me up, then when i started to quit relying on myself, the Spirit, which, as everyone knows, is made of helium, began to take over and is lightening the load.

Or maybe its just because we walk alot and its really hot.

I love being the offspring of a latin mommy and a cali daddy. Content when their kids are tubby and concerned when they are nearing average. I eat lots. Oh, and as for ceviche, i think it is my fivorite food ever, which is wierd, but true. I am also gaining a love for brazilian food. There is a group of about 6 elderly brazilian single women who love feeding us. We are like their vending machines. They put food in and in return i entertain them with my broken brazilian (i refuse to call it portuguese because i can understand brazilian portuguese just fine but whenever i run into a portuguese person i just smile and nod). I think brazilian requires more role playing ability than actual knowledge. Just have to picture that you are a drunk french guy trying to speak spanish. Way easier.

I just realized that the whole beginning of this email would have been a huge and useless sidenote had it not been for the fact that i started out with this... Now this is the side note.

So as for the new companion situation i am extremely pleased. Its like sharing the gospel with a buddy just becuase you both want to. I was super excited when i first found out, which was actually well before i was supposed to. I went on exchanges with one of the assistants to the president and my favorite game to play while i am visiting is the "lets see whats in this drawer" game. Found a lot of cool stuff. Amogst the stuff found was the paper with all the transfers on it. Oops.

As for the actual week, it has been so flip turned upside down. Gosh. Let me just scrape the surface and throw it at you so you can get a sample.

Oh, and before i forget, i would like to request lots of pictures from powell once again. You have done splendidly in the past and i would like to request a repeat. I will reward with many loves and kisses, no matter who you are. Be warned.

Back to the business of the crazy week. We got a call from a guy who had been contacted a few months ago but lived in england so he dodged it with his excuses. The elders who talked to him did manage to give him a card which apparently has been burning into this said individuals concience for the past few months until he came back to spain to visit. When he got here he called us and said he really wanted to hear what we were all about. That was a first for me. While teaching him he said that he was very confused and starting telling us all about his life and i remember vividly that the thought that went through my mind several times as i struggle to focus and listen, which has always been an inward battle, was the thought, "this guys sits really wierd." He continued explaining his interesting story and sitting uniquely until he realized the two utah bubble boys in front of him just were not getting it, so he came right out and said it. Turns out hes gay. That was a first for me. Explains the sitting uniqueness. He was really nice and got a lot of stuff to think about and is actually going to keep learning in england. We will see how that goes down.

Not long after this experience, which caused us to feel a little strange, as you can probably imagine, the Lord sent 3 californian girls to get us back in line. We were waiting for an investigator so we couldnt really escape anywhere and they came to visit the temple so it is not like we could avoid it either. I think it is sufficient to sum up that whole awkward talking experience by saying that i had no idea what to do with my hands while talking to them. Apparently a temple missionary was supervising the activity and she was proud of my brave effort and ensured me i would figure it out someday.

Not long after this experience, which caused us to feel a little strange, as you can probably imagine, the Lord sent Danny, one of our sweet investigators to cheer me up. He was in awe when he realized that we had real names. When i told him mine he tried it out a couple of time (destroying it like they always do) and said, "your name sound like a transformer." That was a first for me.

Not long after this experience, which caused me to feel awesome, as you can probably imagine, i was awkwardly caught up in my first profession of love from one of the young women in the ward. It was wierd. I am going to have to write the whole experience down somewhere because it would make great material for a soap opera. She has helped us a lot with some of the investigators we have of her age, you know, befriending and what not. After sacrament meeting was over she just walked up, let it all out, told me she couldnt work with me anymore, and went on her way, Nothing you learn in Preach my Gospel prepares you for that.

Not long after this experience, which caused us to feel a little strange, as you can probably imagine, we saw a lizard. It was so sweet! We were coming home at the end of the day and there it was, just hanging out on the fence. I chased it for a while and then caught it. We were going to give it as a gift to the new missionary that we live with (he is actually dating a girl from MV that graduated with Jason.), but as i was triamphuntly gitting off the ground with my lizard (it was quite the tussle), my pen fell out of my pocket, and as i went down to get it the lizard slipped out of my hand and started crawling up my arm. That freaked me out so of course i screamed and dropped the lizard. As i chased it again i almost got it and then everything fell out of my pocket, as always happens to me, and it got away.

Not long after this experience, which caused us to feel a little strange, as you can probably imagine, we went to work for what was supposed to be an awesome day. We got a call at the last minute changing a few of our plans but it was no big deal. When we got to the first appointment, it turns out the guy was a bum so we had to change plans. Because of the plan change we ended up with an awkward window of time. Too little to follow through with what we had for a back up plan, and just wandering would be useless. So we made a choice. Contact as far as we could up a street towards the next appointment and catch a bus if we were not going to make it on time. We started out on the course that this silly man who showed tons of promise had put us on. Immediately i saw a man organizing his bags from the shopping trip he just had and thought we should offer to help him. I have loved doing this my whole mission, mostly just because it is way fun to offer my companions help, but also because they never say yes. We feel good for trying and we dont even get tired because we dont do anything. Win win, with just a little loss in the middle. Well, i kind of brushed off the thought because there were a ton of other people we could talk to and we were a little down on our goal for contacts. Luckily the Lord loves to give second chances, (at times i even feel like a walking second chance (not sure what that means but it is true)) because i turned after walking around a kid, tripping, and dodging an old man to see the very same guy walking right next to me with all of his bags. I gave in and offered help. He accepted. That was a first for me. We started talking and he was super cool. He even went so far as saying that he had never met anyone like us before. He then asked who we were. After explaning a bit he kind of got quiet for a second and said, "my wife and i have been looking for a church to go to for a long time." He asked if we were allowed to accept a drink from him. If there is one thing i have learned on my mission it is to always say yes to everything that gets us to have more one on one time with them and even moreso allows them to serve us. He served us and we met his wife and his two apartment mates. They are all amazing. When we had to leave he said he would walk us out. He not only walked us out, but walked with us almost all the way to the church. He said that ever since he got here he had been really sad and was looking for something he didnt even understand. He said that for the first time he had felt it with us.

It is incredible how much the Lord is in charge.

Hugs and kisses,

Elder Carr-emelito

read this 16 June 2010

Wow, there are a lot of things going on over there. Sometimes i forget that while i am here you are all still living your lives. I have a feeling i will hit a greater culture shock getting home then when i got here.

Justin, congratulations on ending your life. Farewell my friend. You will be missed.

Bozzy too, huh? Hmm. Well, maybe Jason and I can share friends for a while until i find new ones cuz the currents are dropping like flies.

Elder Jackson is gone. This was my first experience with a dying missionary. Wierd. I have always had really young companions, and i just got another one so i think i got my first and last taste of that. Well, that is, until the first hand experience, Dah!

Subject change.

Nothing is coming to mind.

Dang. I will just keep going with this i guess. His last pday was fun. We went and catered for the Hermana party. Not sure how we got pulled into that, but I just followed my comp and there we were. All the hermanas in the mission and us serving them cake. It was wierd. I realized somthing while i stood afar off and stared. They are all really old. Like, all of them are older than me. Even the new ones. And of course, as this thought came fluttering through my mind it immediately slipped straight down and out of my mouth. That didnt help the case. I got reprimanded by some, others took it better. I think the ones who took it better were probably staring right back thinking how young i was, but thanks to their filter had no problemas. After that we went on over to the main event which was a big combined meal with a ton of missionaries, members, and investigators from the area that Elder Jackson spent a year in. An appropriate desire. Plus, they served us Ceviche. Amazing. I love mooching off of other missionaries connections.

As for the other areas that i have gotten to serve in, i will give you a simple run down.

Azuqueca. A little town that has one of the strongest wards in spain. Apparently a ton of spanish members a long time ago got up and moved to the same street in the same town because they were all super BFF's. I felt like i was in utah. People kept honking at us, giving us rides, feeding us. Wow. I forgot my camera there.

Torrejon. A significantly bigger town which was actually the beginnings of the church in spain becasue of the air base. Highlights: Serving with Elder Gomez from Guatemala- it was cool since Missy and Brad both lived there so we had an awesome connection (honestly, i am not even sure they went there or what happened, but faked my way through that pretty well. It has been so long i cant ever remember. I think that is actually the greatest skill i have gained on the mission, the ability to talk about any subject for at least 5 minutes and sound like a know what i am talking about.) Plus, we taught an 70 year old cuban man with a baptismal date. That was a treat. He invited me to the party he will be holding in the autumn to celebrate the 3 year anniversary of the death of castro. I accepted. I forgot my hymn book there.

Barrio 2 (ventas). Assistants area. Golden. Huge streets, full of people. Humble as can be. Every missionaries dream.

So far the running surprise i have received in the feedback of the exchange has been the energy. Kind of a hyper missionary movement going on. We will see what kind of impact it will have. Im not too good at the other stuff, so i dont worry about it, i just try to always share two of my favorite things, energy and uniqueness. Sometimes it is received well... The assistant i went on exchanges with wrote down on the exchange paper thingy, "you definitely have your own style of doing things..." Not sure how to take that. Dont really care.

Hmm I just reread the paragraph and it could me taken in many different ways. Hah, interperet as you may.

My new companions name is Elder Middleton. Sandy utah. Year in the mission. Pure blooded pueblo punk. There is excitement in the air.

Sorry, gotta run.

Elder Carr-emelito

184, im nothing!

remember me! 9 June 2010

I got both packages this week. You guys rock. Thank you so much susan and mom (the rest of you are dead to me). Make sure you give Kris a huge kiss right on the face for me. That was super nice of her to do that and she even got harrased by an old spaniard on her way to complete her mission. That is what i call courage and determination.

I have to apologize, i have absolutely no time. It is my companions last Pday and i want to make sure it is his best. Sorry to cut you short, but he is already starting to finally realize he is going home. For example, he just turned to me and told me "oh man, i dont get to be elder jackson anymore.... gregory is a stupid name." You see what i am talking about? I guess the fact that it is now easier to just wait and tell him in person rather than write him is really making it all sink in. In fact, i think i am going to tell him that. Done. That didnt help.

Some quick cool milestones. This may not mean alot to anyone, but it is absolutly incredible for this mission. We hit the 100 baptism mark as a mission. It is incredible the things that are happening. We have half the missionaries, and there are even 40 baptismal dates right now. There are a lot of amazing things happening. Wow. Like i said, big deal for us. Probably almost as good as Karston`s weekly numbers...

I will quickly tell you of one sweet happening from this week. Stephanie, the girl we started teaching last week invited us to her house to teach her. We ended up teaching her and her mom. It was amazing. Her mom lost a child about 20 years ago and was a total wreck, but thanks to some members that got her involved in the church, she was able to keep moving forward. She was going to be baptized there but her husband would not let her. She then left to spain and lost contact with the church. Now her daughtered wandered into the same church and she is getting another chance. When we went in to teach them the second time i went ahead and told them that at the end of the lesson we would invite them to be baptized. We taught them and then we invited them like we said. I will never forget what she said, "Elder, I have waited enough time." So she is scheduled to be baptized with her daughter on the 10th of july. Prayers prayers prayers.

So in the last week i have only worked 2 days in my area because i went and worked in Ventas, Torrejon, Azuqueca, and Alcala. I wish i had more time to tell you about them cuz they were sweet. Guess i will just tell you with you come and get me. HAH! Beat you to the punch!

Love,

Elder SKy

visa shmisha Wed 2 June 2010

Speaking of office stuff... Well, i realized now that we were not talking about any office stuff, but now we are so take this: the mission office is moving on the 14 of june. Plan accordingly! that is where all the letters and stuff get sent to.

Spain Madrid Mission
Calle Fuerteventura 4, 2º, Oficina 8-B
San Sebastian de los Reyes
28703 Madrid

Finally! On to the real stuff.

This last week was a biggie. Super biggie. I think the coolest of all was the baptism this last saturday. Surprise! Dont worry, it was for me too. I dont know if she told you, Mom, but Alejandra decided to get baptized. This was a huge miracle condsidering there are no longer missionaries in Talavera. She finally decided that she had had enough, quit her job, went to church, made the decision and made it happen. We got to hold the service in the stake center (our church) as a double service with the outlanders (the elders with a car that cover all the pueblos that no longer have missionaries, also not really called outlanders, that is just my name for them). It was unbelieveable. Okay, so this is why it was such a big deal. First of all, Alejandra was the first proressing investigator i ever had on the mission. So that was really cool. But even more meaningful, to me at least, was the fact that it came from Talavera. When i left on the mission i remember hearing alot about the importance of setting goals. To be honest i had no idea what to expect on the mission and even moreso in spain so i avoided the numbers (which are lame to me anyway) and just set the goal to make a difference in every area i served in, or in other words, baptize in every area. I never cared how much, i knew i would work hard, but i just wanted that to be my vision. Well, as you know, it didnt happen. Elder Carr had to be humbled first. And as you may be aware, it took a whole year (and the humbling never really happened, the tender mercies jsut started kicking in). My goal and dream was shattered before i even had a chance to get going. Well, the church is true, and i am one of Heavenly Father's favorite children so i got another chance. Talavera was taken care of, and not to mention it happened in such a way that it is a killer reminder that it has nothing to do with me, for heaven's sake i wasnt even there! (looks like the whole humbling thing is still in effect, at least a little bit) And the cherry on top of my bubbly tender mercy mountain: I got sent back to my first area. It is soooooo sweet!

Okay, time is short. Sorry, lots of silly extra tasks we have to do all the time.

On thursday Elder Caussé came to visit and train all of the bishoprics and auxiliary leaders in Madrid. He is actually the only member of the area presidency that has not done a mission tour yet so he went ahead and set his own appointment with the president and set up a surprise leader council. That was pretty legit. 10 missionaries, President Watkins and Elder Caussé sitting together in the high council room for 4 hours just getting the spiritual throw down. Even though my hind quarters fell asleep like 100 times it was a very cool conference. He just gave us the run down on the european vision and then let us ask questions for the rest of the time. Lots of big changes in store.

AAH!, really fast, we have this investigator named Stephanie who is awesome. I will tell more about her in the coming weeks because she is awesome. She is a 17 year old girl who came to church on her own one day and now she is one of the best ever. So, we had an appointment with her for last saturday and the member we set up to come with us stood us up at the last second so we were stuck in a pickle. Luckily, we consumed the pickle and found our way out of the crisis. We are always on temple square and since the MTC is right there we occasionally run into the missionaries staying there. We saw two sisters walking around and had the crazy idea to have them help us with the lesson since we cant teach single women. We called president and he gave us the go ahead so we had one of the coolest lessons ever. They both had about 2 weeks in the mtc and were totally spiritual powerhouses. THeir spanish was terrible, but honestly, it made no difference. It was cool to see at the end that some of the questions and prayers they had expressed were answered, stephanie loved it, and everything worked out in time for the next appointment. It was a way cool experience and i am really sorry i cant tell anymore about it.

I love you,

Elder SKy

ps i sent you a picture with me and franco.