9/16/09


Hello!

Thanks for the letters mom and rachel and for
 the email dad! I also got a letter from Alayna.
 She gave me her mtc and mission addresses so
 ill have to write her back. Sounds like a
 pretty good week in montana. Wow i miss mountains!
 Well Jose was confirmed yesterday and got the
priesthood which was awesome! Wow this week has
 been a week of miracles! We found 20 new
investigators and 11 new baptismal dates! A few
have fallen off the map and some didnt come to
church but we are definitely going to baptize at
least one or two of them this week. And if all
goes well we will also be having a wedding! So
the bishop called us one day and asked us to go
give a blessing to someone. It was a few miles
out of town in a small trailer park with about
ten trailers. Afterwards my comp felt like we
should tract them and we found a really cool
guy named Robbie who commtitted to baptism.
We came back the next day and sat down to teach
him and people started coming out of the wood
works! Another lady came out named Debra and
as we started teaching her she stopped us and
said wait a min. Robbie and i were just talking
the other day about how we both wanted to find
a church and we thought about going to the
mormon church last night i prayed about it
and the next day you guys showed up at our
door! She was so excited and her mind was blown
she said. Then right before we got to the part
about the restoration her daughter and boyfriend
walk out and want us to teach them! Their names
are Natosha and Earl. She had a crazy/scary story.
She said that the day before she saw us walking
around the park but we didnt talk to her. Then
that night she said she felt as though some
power or devil seized her and she couldnt move
or talk and felt like she was burning and her
soul was in pain. It woke up her boyfriend and
as he looked over he saw a spirit that was dressed
up like a missionary and then it immediately left
and she was fine. They strongly felt that it was
some sort of a demon trying to stop them from talking
to us. We then retaught a little of the lesson and
read Joseph Smiths first vision and how he was also
overpowered for a moment by the adversary but through
his prayer he overcame it and saw God and Jesus. I
dont know if what they claimed to see but i really
felt like satan really didnt want them to be baptized.
We gave all 4 of them blessings and then Debra's
8 year old kid Demonte came in and she wanted us
to give him a blessing too. They all really want
to come to church and be baptized. Unfortunately
they all slept in on sunday! Natosha and Earl want
to be married and they have to, to be baptized so
we may have a wedding on saturday. Sweet! Then the
next day we found a 16 year kid from Mexico who wants
to be baptized and he came to church on sunday and
liked it a lot. Afterwards we met two of his roommates
who want to come next week. He is living here with a
bunch of friends in their 20's from Guatemala. His
family is in Mexico and he came here two years ago
to work and send money to his family. Can you
imagine going to a foreign country at 14 to work
and support your family? Please pray for him and
that his parents hearts will be softened because we
have to get their permission to baptize him. Miracle
after miracle!

Anyways today we deep cleaned the kitchen which
took a while but now the entire house is cleaned
and reorganized. Last week we moved our study room
to a room with more windows and made the main room
into a dining/living room. The whole house looks
completely different from when i got here. It was
pretty nasty when i got here. We may kick a soccer
ball around for a bit and go to the gym. man last
Monday we did a crazy ab workout and it literally
took an entire week to heal. After the second day
it hurt to walk! We are going to do another one
today but hopefully it wont be as soar. My hip
is actually doing really well. I do need to stretch
it and work it out everyday though. I usually work
it out about once a week but now that it a lot
stronger i need to do more. I cant believe how
long its already been since i had my surgery! 
Hopefully i wont
be transferred. Honestly i dont like the ward here
as much as my previous ones but i love the work
here. I found out transfers will be the day before
Thanksgiving instead. Can you give Jason my email
address and tell him to send me an email so we can
keep in touch?

Im glad i guessed the right size on your shirt
rachel and that you like it! It looked like your
style. Glad you had a great birthday and that you
party went really well! Last years new years eve
party was fun. Hmmm...what else happened this week?
Oh yeah we went to a cane grinding this week! Some
members invited us to their annual cane grinding.
They grow a bunch of sugar cane and send it through
a presswhich squeezes out all the juice and then put
like 60 gallons in this huge kettle thing and boil
it for several hours which takes out all the water
and impurities and then they let it cool and bottle
it up into syrup bottles and sell it. It tasted ok...
kind of bitter though. Well thats about all the
excitement here. It has been another great week in
Live Oak. Hope y'all have a great week too! And in
case i dont see ya, good afternoon, good evening,
and goodnight!

Love,
Elder Carty


p.s. - hey could you send me a few good pictures
of Josh. I dont have any pictures of him. Ill work
on putting mine on a cd to send soon. Thanks!