Oct. 5th, 2009

JOSEPH'S LETTER:

The Fam,

Sorry I couldn't email much. Busy, busy, busy... The Lord's work never ceases. How's everyone doing? Thanks to the sister that gave me the honey. It's delicious! It's actually on the oatmeal I'm eating right now. And thanks for the pictures! There are a couple really good ones of Aaron and Caleb that I might hang up. So about that funny story about being "tarred." We've had to ride bikes for the past week and a half cause we ran out of miles on our car. I was following Elder Peck on the sidewalk and he decides to take a shortcut down a short grass hill (maybe 15 ft. long and kind of steep) and then through an asphalt parking lot. I was probably following a little to close and all of a sudden on the hill he swerves to miss something and by the time I saw it, it was too late. There was a foot and a half deep hole right in front of me in the grass, just big enough for my front tire to sink in and get stuck. I was standing up and immediately launched face-first over my handle bars. At this point I am about 6 feet off the ground because I flew from the hill and am over the asphalt. Of course, I had to land in this particular stretch of asphalt which had been recently fixed, and it's about 2:00 p.m. and probably 100 degrees. I now fly through the air, landing on my hands and then my whole body slides (on my stomach) across 10 ft. of melted tar! It was crazy! Luckily, all I had was a small scratch on my knee. I think the tar was probably a blessing because it absorbed my fall as I slid. Needless to say, I ruined an entire pair of clothes, including a tie! We had to bike to our branch mission leader's house and get some grease remover. It took me like 3 hours to clean it off me and all my stuff!

Now that you're all laughing hysterically at me, I'll share a miracle from this week. It was incredible! We were waiting for church to start and watching for our investigators when a man comes wandering into the church. We start talking to him and find out that he is from Cuba. He has been living on the streets for a month looking for work. We taught him a quick lesson and asked him to be baptized and he said yes. He is really excited, and I'll be the one to baptize him tonight! He said he had a dream a few days before that he went to church and woke up and really felt like he needed to go this week. He asked a friend, who happens to be an inactive member, where he should go, and he recommended our church. Including him, we have 5 solid baptisms this week! A guy and his daughter who have been investigating for 2 years are finally getting baptized, an 11 yr. old Cuban kid, and a girl who's 13 from the Dominican Republic. Both of their parents will be baptized the following weekend.

Well I better end this letter so I can get ready. Oh real quick, do you remember when I got that Hep. B shot in the MTC? They said I had to get another one after 6 months. I'll call Sis. Newman to have her find out if I need to do that, and i'll let you know on Monday. Anyways, hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Carty