Hows it goin y'all? I am back in the country of
Live Oak, FL! Here's my new address:

10208 109th Dr.
Live Oak, FL 32064

Its in north-western florida almost to Talahasee and is a
pretty small town. Everyone here has pretty thick southern
country accents. I love it here though! Its so nice to get
away from the city. Our place here is sweet! We live
outside of town in our own house on like 50 acres! You
can only see one other house from ours. Crazy sweet! The
ward mission leader owns the house and all the land and
lets the missionaries stay there. Its not too big of a
place but its decent size still. Theres a lot of trees
out here to so i almost feel like im at home. Theres a
barn, a chicken coup and a big shed that are either empty
or filled with junk by the house and then a giant tower
with a windmill out back that you climb up. Its like 60
ft! Apparently previous missionaries have named it the
Rameumptom (from the Book of Mormon). haha. Our area is
huge because we cover all the small towns around it. It
covers like 30-40 miles in all directions and touches the
Georgia border. You can tell Doug that there is a big
mining community up in Jasper, FL. My new companion is
Elder Smith. Hes from Seattle, WA. My third comp from
Washington! I like him a lot. He gets pretty excited about
the work and is excited to get a good comp he said cause
his last one didnt like to work much. Oh ya and hes an
english missionary so we are a bilingual companionship!
Im the only Spanish missionary in the entire zone here.
i was pretty nervous about that but im discovering that
i know a lot more Spanish than i thought. Its really going
to be good for me not having a comp to rely on because
then im forced to speak it a lot and listen more carefully.
They havent had Spanish missionaries here for a couple
transfers. Last transfer the english work didnt see much
success but i think it was probably because of his last
comp. We are already seeing some miracles though. We found
a guy that had been taught 1 lesson last time there was
Spanish here and we set a pretty solid baptism date with
him. His name is Alejandro. We also found a sweet family
with lots of kids! Only 2 kids are baptism age, 11 & 8,
and theres the mom and grandma that live there. The dad
is Mexican and lives in Mexico for now so shes going down
there to marry him in a couple week (interesting situation).
The kids are awesome though! The oldest reminds me a lot
of Aaron and the 5 yr old reminds me a lot of Caleb! Then
theres a 3 yr old girl and a 3 month old boy. I feel really
bad for the kids cause they all live in a small trailer
which is disgusting. There barely room to walk and the whole
thing is really filthy. I worry about them getting sick
there. I think they all just moved in though. Please pray
for them all and especially that the mom and grandma will
be able to come to church. We brought a ride for them
yesterday but only the 5, 8, and 11 year old came so we
had to watch them for half of church. lol. It was a blast!
I also had to translate half of sacrament for Alejandro
till the guy who usually does it got the translator device
working. Translating is really hard. I basically just
summarized what the speakers said cause i couldnt think
fast enough. The weather out here has been much cooler
since i got here. Actually, the last to night have been
freezing! The humidity makes it a lot colder than normal.
It has been really nice the past few days except the heater
at the house doesnt really work well and i discovered that
my one blanket was not sufficiently warm. I might have to
ask a ward member for one. I can probably get socks at the
store here. My garments are all mediums, tops and bottoms.
And i couldnt take it with me cause it would have sat in my
suitcase for like five hours in the sun. Its alright though,
i used some of it before i left. Well its about time to get
going. Today has been pretty relaxed which is always nice.
Have a great week! Oh and i may need some extra prayers if
you dont mind. Just that i will be able to speak Spanish
very well. Oh yeah and congratulations to the undefeated soccer
champs Aaron and Steve Carty whose team is clearly Superior!
Ha! Ha!  Get it!  Okay, bad joke. . . .Great job!!!

Thanks!

Love,
Elder Carty