Helloooo!

Did you know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith? Well they did! Thanks for the emails again! This week was REALLY good! We got to shake hands with and listen to 3 general authorities and an Apostle. Then we had a baptism the next day. Couldnt ask for a better week! The people that came were: Elder Anderson (North America SE area seventy), Elder Lawrence (recently called to the first quorum of the seventy preside over Russia), President Ronald A. Rasband (senior president of the seventy), and Elder Russell M. Nelson (Quorum of the Twelve and recently called as chairman of the Missionary Executive Council). It was in Lake City, FL so we had a member drive us down. It was an amazing experience. The Spirit there was incredible. I could feel such love and joy as they spoke and learned a lot. Elder Anderson spoke of desire and prayer and fasting and what it really means to do much prayer and fasting to receive the spirit as the sons of Mosiah did. Elder Lawrence spoke on member missionary work, which was perfect because thats exactly what we've been focusing on. President Rasband taught us what the role of the Seventy has been throughout history and today. Then Elder Nelson taught more about what the other 3 did and then taught about some really cool stuff! ...tune in next week to find out what it was...

haha...just kidding. Part way through he paused mid sentence and said, "I sense that someone here has a question and is worried about things at home and is the only member in his family. Anyone, feel free to ask me questions right now." Then several people had question and he gave answers and expounded on them through the scriptures. Im sure that he said something that was just what someone needed to hear at that time. It is incredible how in tune with the spirit the apostles are. He spoke about the gathering of Israel in the last days. The part that struck me the most was when he talked about how the whole purpose of the restoration and the gathering of Israel was to bring back the holy temples so that families can be sealed together to enter into the Celestial Kingdom. My companion and i are going to be fasting and praying much to find a family to bring the gospel to. Temple work is everything. It is the whole purpose of the restoration. Im so grateful that you guys have been going to the temple every month. I really look up to your example. To anyone else who is reading this I exhort you to take this counsel from a living Apostle of the Saviour Jesus Christ, GO to the temple. If you have a recommend and arent going, Start Now! If you dont have a recommend, repent and get one! Please do not procrastinate the day of your repentance, for i promise that the night cometh sooner than you think. I was pondering this scripture the other day in D&C 88:22, "For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory." If you are worthy to enter into the temple, you are worthy to enter into the Celestial Kingdom. Do not risk losing your family for all of eternity for silly and foolish habits of the world. Please, repent and go to the temple. I promise you as a representative of Jesus Christ that if you do a wonderful spirit of love and peace will be poured into your heart and your home. You will find that you will more quickly develop the attributes of Christ, especially patience and love for others, and that those silly and foolish temptations will be swallowed up in righteous living and love for our Saviour. I have felt His redeeming love in my life this week. I have felt my mind and heart iluminated in gospel truth this week as i have poured through the srciptures and heard the testimony of a living Apostle of the Lamb. I know that He lives. Ill share more about what else ive learned next week cause im out of time.

Real quick, I need to renew my driver's lisence as soon as possible. I have to fill out a few forms but cant print them here. Could you send them to me tomorrow to sign and mail back? Thanks!

Love,

Elder Carty

Rachel Carty - Class of 2010!!!

Another awesome picture of Rachel on the raft yesterday! We did a 13 mile float trip down the Clark Fork in honor of Rachel's graduation!

Class of 2010 Honors Graduate!!! Way to go Rachel! We are so proud of your accomplishments! Good luck in all your future endeavors! We love you very much!

Mom & Dad

5/17/10

Dear fam,

I cant tell you how excited i am for my new area! i am serving in Orange Park, FL which is right across the St. John's River and a bit south. Its connected to Jacksonville but is kind of a separate city. Here's my new address:

2020 Wells Rd. #25G

Orange Park, FL 32073

My new companion is awesome! His name is Elder Williams. Ive talked to him several times before but havent really served around him. This is actually his last transfer of his mission! He is from Buffalo, NY. He was switched spanish after 9 months into his mission and speaks the best spanish i have heard from any other missionary. He is really cool and we get along really well. He is probably the most Christ like companion i have had so i think i am going to learn a lot from him. He is also the district leader here. This area has been on fire for a while and theres a lot of potential here. We set a goal of 12 baptisms for the transfer. Neither of us have ever gotten it before and if we get twelve my comp will reach his mission goal of baptisms. We prayed about it and the spirit strongly confrimed that it was right. I have really been working on desire and the faith to believe that it is possible. I have no doubt that we can reach it if we truly desire it and work hard enough. And after yesterday we only need 11 more! Miracle!!! A member here met a Cuban guy fishing and starting a gospel conversation with him and then referred him to Elder Williams last monday. They taught him and set a baptism date with him for the 23rd, this next weekend, then we taught him the plan of salvation on friday and he was so prepared. He had a complete change of heart and has been reading the book of mormon like crazy. He is already in 2 Nephi! During the lesson and had a small impression that he is ready to be baptized now but didnt want to say anything cause i wasn't sure how my comp would feel. Then the next day we were talking and Elder Williams had the same thought and said how would you feel about baptizing him tomorrow instead. i told him that's what i felt during the lesson and we prayed about it and got a confirmation that it was the Lord's will. So when the guy came to church on sunday i pulled him to the side after sunday school and asked how he would feel about being baptized right after church and he said, "whenever you want is fine with me, im ready anytime!" We had an awesome service and he was baptized and confirmed right after. He is so awesome and has such a strong testimony already of the book of mormon and the church. He said that before he even met us he knew there had to be one true church. He talked to some friends that told him all churches were true and he went to several but just couldn't believe it. Then as soon as he met us he said he knew that he had found the truth. And then to add to the miracle, another miracle, the same member that referred us to this guy has a 13 or 14 yr old girl living with thier family. her parents moved to Puerto Rico but she needed to finish the school year here so she is staying with them for now. She hasnt been taught anything by missionaries but has gone to church a couple times with the family. We visited the family on sat. and shared our goals with them and told them and told them they should set a goal of how many people they want to bring into the church(they are recent converts of only 6 months!) So that night when the girl got home they started teaching her more and commited her to be baptized next sunday and she agreed! They told us about it the next day at church and i was amazed! If only all the members of the church had the faith and courage and boldness to simply teach and invite their friends and family into the gospel. Most of the spanish members here are recent converts of the past year and a half. It is actually an english ward as well and this last year they finally got enough spanish members to have a separate sacrament meeting, sunday school and priesthood/relief society in spanish. It is very close to being made into its own branch. There are 9 missionaries that serve in this ward! Thats incredible! Our entire district plus another spanish companionship serve in the same ward. The bishop is also awesome! He is one of the most spiritual men i have ever met and really knows how to inspire and uplift us. His name is Steve Ross. He is Puerto Rican but grew up in NY and only learned spanish about 5 years ago. He grew up in an orphanage and didnt learn how to read till he was 25 and now he speaks 2 languages. He converted when he was 27. He reminds me a lot of Pres. Newman and has a lot of trust in the missionaries. This sat. We get to hear Elder Nelson speak to us which i am really excited for. I have learned so much in the last few days here! I know this is where the Lord needs me right now and there are so many people prepared here.

My back has been doing much better. They still havent called to schedule the MRI. Im not sure i actually need it but i think i better be sure cause i dont want to mess around with my back. I actually didnt know you guys changed your cell phone numbers. Thats why they didnt work when i tried to call! Well thats about all thats new. Keep up the hard missionary work! You'll find someone there who will be receptive! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Carty

Oh yeah,

i forgot to share another quick miracle! My first night in the area on thurs i either got a small flu bug or food poisoning from Mexican food. i was up half the night with a really bad stomach ache and felt really queasy the next morning. i decided though that i wasnt going to let anything stop me from working this transfer so i prayed really hard and went to work. I felt sick all morning until i went out to proselyte and it went away. The next 2 nights were exactly the same with a bad stomach ache and i hardly slept but i went to work and it went away. I didnt feel any tiredness from lack of energy or food cause i hadnt been able to eat much. In fact i felt more energy than usual. It felt like i was literally being supported by the Spirit and by angels. The Lord always provides a way when we show our faith!

Love,

Elder Carty

Our family had the opportunity of participating in our Stake Temple Day on Friday and Saturday this weekend! It was such an awesome opportunity to have the whole family present to enjoy the temple. Even though our small children, Aaron & Caleb, could not enter the temple, we believe it is truly impressed upon their minds the importance of the temple! Joshua's presence was also felt which truly made the day for us!

Steve

Sorry to all readers of Elder Carty's letter's. I got frustrated with the blog site since it wouldn't properly post the letter's so I quit posting them for a while. Finally, it began working better after I re-downloaded the template. So, I am finally caught up and have posted some new family pics as well! Hope you enjoy our blog!!! It's not the most professional, but hopefully it gets the messages across!

5/10/10

Yea it was good to talk to you guys too! Im glad everyone is doing really well! I cant believe Rachel is about to graduate! Thats crazy! I dont have too much more to talk about cause we talked for so long yesterday. I attached some pics of Tiger Woods playing. I might buy some shorts today at Walmart cause its getting so hot i need some good shorts for pdays. We are still planning on mini golf and laser tag today which should be really fun. For anyone else who reads this i will be transferred on thursday and will try to email my new address on thursday so dont send mail this week or i may not get it for a while. Thanks for the letter Aunt Cathy! Sounds like everyone there is doing really well! I have been meaning to write you a letter for a while now. Sorry its taken me so long. Well we arent spending much time at the library today cause everyone already talked so much yesterday. Hope everyone has an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Carty

5/3/10

'ello mates!

Well this week has been pretty good. Better than the last few! Especially today! We just happened to watch Tiger Woods play at The Players Championship at Sawgrass in the PGA Tour! Well it was only a practice round. The actual tournament starts on thursday but the players are practicing all week and we got free tickets to watch today! Golf isnt too exciting but i got some good pictures of Tiger Woods and the course is absolutely amazing! Its rated the worlds #2 best and nicest golf course. Its in Ponte Vedra by the beach. I felt like i was a millionaire walking around there cause im pretty sure everyone else there was. We had a Benefactor pass and got to go in the clubhouse and get special seating. At every door there are people in suits who open up the door for you and greet you as you walk in. It was ridiculous! The member that gave us the tickets met us there and bought us each a photo. There was also a small hole that you could shoot at to win an ipod touch. You had to chip it over about 80 feet of water to a small island and the person with the closest shot at the end of the day wins. Elder Danielson got 6 inches away from the hole and got second place! The first place winner was like 11! I only tried twice cause i couldnt chip the ball more than 3 feet off the ground. lol. Then we went to Cici's pizza buffet and then to the library. i got some major sun today! I dont really burn very much in Florida and if i do it only lasts a couple hours and it turns into a tan. I think its cause its such low elevation here.

We went down to St. Augustine 2 days this week to visit members and see if we could find some hispanics down there. We had some really good lessons with the members there and they are getting excited about missionary work. We also met 2 cool guys from Mexico and actually set baptismal dates with them and they have read a lot and prayed but they had to work last min on sunday. They dont have a ride to church and the members down there already have a 40 min drive to church and these guys would add an extra half hour just to pick them up. We arent sure if we will be able to see them again or not cause its so far away and i dont know how they would get to church. We may see if there is someone in the St Aug ward that can translate for them. I finally ran into the last two guys i baptized who havent been to church for a while and they are mad at us for some reason and have fallen into old habits and dont want to come back to church. I honestly feel like they just went for a while to see if they could get money or soemthing. I know they had a small testimony but its completely gone now and i doubt they'll ever come back. That really stinks. Im tired of teaching all these single hispanic guys who only care about work and drinking. Thats literally all they do with most of their life here which is really sad. I want to find a family to teach who actually has something to live for and wants to do something with their life. On saturday we were challenged to get 100 lessons that day. I didnt think it was possible but starting at 10:00 at the flea market and contacting there for 4 hours. Then tracting a lot and contacting at a hispanic store 3 different times and driving through complexes and jumping out at every sign of a hispanic. But we finally reached it at 9:30 that night! My legs were aching really bad that night from so much walking and running all day. It was fun though and we felt the Spirit really strong that day.

Things are much better in the district here. Everything was resolved and compromised at district meeting this week cause it was me and several others that were having conflicts with the district leader or others. As far as my back goes i had trouble setting up an appointment last week so i have to call tomorrow to set it up. im going to go to an orthopedic doctor. Its been bothering still, especially each morning but its not extremely bad. I feel like ive gained some weight in the last couple weeks which is not good! lol. The Elder i went to the gym with didnt want to go anymore which stinks. Im already losing muscle! I was eating a lot before because i was working out hard at the gym but now that i stopped and didnt eat less i started gaining weight. This heat here is killing me! It has been ridiculously hot and humid! I think that also may be part of why its so hard to stay focused and motivated cause the heat just drains everything out of you and youre miserable and sweaty and sticky all the time. Just stand outside for 5 min and youll be dripping in sweat! Everything else seems to be going well. I could always use the extra cash but i dont like asking for it. Someone bought us a new washer from the english ward so we can do laundry again!

I cant believe Mothers Day is this week! And i get to call home! It really doesnt feel like its been very long since i talked to you guys last. Im not sure exactly when or where i will call yet but it will probably be around mid afternoon your time. Hopefully ill have a while cause theres a lot i want to talk about like school and options when i get back home. Im really excited to here from everyone! i sent grandma and grandpa cards last week so hopefull they got them. I looked at the Silver Mountain resort website and it looks pretty good! I cant wait to ski when i get back! The first weekend i am going!!! Thats awesome that Daniel Johanson is doing great at BYU! i hope it works out with his girlfriend. The last girl he liked a lot went on a mission too! Oh did you guys ever get those comics i sent a while back about missionaries? Just wondering if you thought they were as funny as i did.

Well time to get going! Happy early Mother's Day mom!

Love,

Elder Carty

4/26/10

Buon Giorno!

Italian eh? Do you still remember a lot of italian? Well this week was alright. We had a couple small miracles and found a couple people. Our car was in the shop all week so we had to ride bikes all week. And our area is huge! We biked about 20 miles a day and of course everyday was blazing hot. By the time we got somewhere we were drenched in sweat! We probably looked horrible at the door! lol. It was fun to ride bikes though cause its been a while. My bike was starting to gather dust. We can finally pick up our car today at noon. We ended up not going free running last week and i took a 2 hour nap. Today Eduardo wants to take me to eat and he said he is going to buy me something. Not sure what else we'll do today. Our washer broke this week. It was already in bad shape and the agitator would only spin one direction and would make a really loud grinding noise. It finally saw its last days so we are at a members house to wash and email.

I have also felt like i need to improve my prayers. I do feel like ive fallen into the same routine for prayers and havent put as much heart into them lately. Thanks for the advice dad! We are going to start doing lots of member work this week and less tracting. We started it last week but then we were on bikes and most of the members live to far to visit. We are going to visit all the members in St. Augustine on wed. We did get a bit discouraged this week but i have been trying to keep a positive attitude regardless of what anyone else says or thinks and trying to gain the approval of the Lord. I felt the Spirit confirm to me that it was overall a successful week so i feel good about it. We had an old investigator call us out of the blue and ask if he could come to church! He would have been baptized before but he had to work every Sunday but now he said he has Sundays off. We have a lesson tonight with him so please pray that Tino will accept a baptism date and be baptized next week. Thanks! Im glad Caleb likes his present! I wish i could put it together with him! Looks like you gotta fire up the old brain again mom! lol. Kidding! I havent been able to get to the store without our car so im buying cards today for grandma and grandpa. Ill try to write Rachel a letter too. Thanks for the letter you sent me Aaron!

Have you ever read Preach My Gospel dad? You guys should all read it cause its not just for missionaries but for members too. As i was reading it this week i had the impression that this book is a simple manual of how to become and live as Christ did. It is a simplified modern day manual of how to live as he did-how to study, pray, feel and recognize the Spirit, develop the attributes of Christ, learn the doctrine of the kingdom, and share the gospel with others. I challenge you all to get you own copy and read it on your own or as a family. You too Rachel! That way when you are asked questions ny your friends you'll know exactly what to say and how to teach them. Just a thought anyway. Let me know what you all think. A ski pass sounds awesome! Does that resort have some challenging runs as well? That triathalon sounds awesome. Ill race in it! Thats good that aarons back is better. Mine is actually still hurting me and i woke up pretty sore a couple mornings. Can i just go to a regular doctor if it just needs to be adjusted or should i go to a chiropractor? Can you maybe call the office today and tell them to pass me the message? If our insurance would cover a chiropractor maybe i should go there. Let me know! Hopefully never but i would definitely take care of Aaron and Caleb. It means a lot that you trust me with that responsibility if something should happen. Thank you. i would probably buy a house in Logan and pay for school and then put the rest away in savings. But ill pray that never happens! Well i better let my comp email now. Que tenga buena semana!

Love,

Elder Carty

4/19/10

Buenos dias!

How is everyone doing? Im not doing too bad. I was am so glad its pday! This week was really stressfull. Im sure this next week will be much better though. Thanks again for the letter mom. I feel bad cause i havent written Pres. Farris back yet. I started a letter this week and will finish it today. I also need to still write Aunt Cathy a thank you letter for the package a while back. I am planning on mailing Caleb a present today. Ive actually had it for like a month but just waiting to send it. Today we are going to go learn some "par kor" or "free running" moves. Elder Danielson used to do it every week with a group at UF campus so hes going to teach me some stuff. It should be pretty fun. I realized this week that i call home in like 2-3 weeks! Crazy! It feels like i just talked to you guys. But im really excited. Im glad our mission pres lets us talk for a while cause i think most other missions are strict about only 30-45 min. I guess we can talk about school and everything more then. Thanks for the info on the financial aid. Yes!!! This little kid in the library just sang the Wonder Pets theme song really loud and it reminded me of Caleb! Did you have times on your mission dad where you just lacked desire? What helped you push through that and keep going and find more desire? I think thats why i havent found anyone cause my desire hasnt been very strong all week. Any thoughts? Im still enjoying my mission though and have actually learned a lot this week. We had zone conference which was really good and inspiring. That day and the day after i was full of desire and we worked really hard but then it felt like i crashed the rest of the week.

Anyways, I hope i havent sounded too depressing. Ill pray for Aaron's back. That stinks! Looks like we both hurt our backs! Mine is still soar every morning but i feel like its getting better. I have been able to work out at the gym pretty hard this week. I am seeing results from weight lifting though! Dont you dare get a boyfriend in college Rachel cause ill just beat him up when i get home. lol. But really i would suggest just dating lots of people the whole first year and dont make the same mistake i did i have a girlfriend all year. lol. How has school been going? Do you have a boyfriend right now? When are you going to write me a letter! What else have you been up to? Well im about to get logged off so i hope everyone has an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Carty

4/12/10

Good Morning!

Ya i've been a bit down for the past couple of weeks but im not really sure why. We worked really hard this week cause we had no investigators. We tracted at least 5 hours a day! We found a few really sweet people! We found a Cambodian family and set baptism dates with them. We gave them to the sisters though and there are like 6 of them! They have been taught by other missionaries and were close to baptism and then moved and lost contact. We also found two awesome cuban ladies who have been taught before as well. Its a mother and her daughter who are 70 and 43. They were all set to come to church but they didnt show. Hopefully they are still cool because they are the only investigators we have. We have been visiting members as well and trying to get referrals. One guy who we challenged to bring someone to church brought his younger brother so hopefully he will turn out to be interested. He's 18. We are going to have a dinner with them this week. We have been working really hard but everyone cool that ive found in the last month or two we can never find again after the first visit so we have to drop them. I get along with everyone which is a plus! All of us in the apartment are really good friends actually. I was really excited after transfers cause one of my really good friends that i served around last summer lives with us now. We really want to go rock climbing and caving after the mission cause he's into that stuff too.

Well i was going to go to the doctor a few days after the crash because everyday i woke up and the pain in my back was worse. Then on tues morning it was so bad i could barely move. It almost felt like i cracked a rib in my back or something or i just tweaked the muscles really hard. I called Sis. Newman and she was going to get it set up but she didnt call back for 2 days. She gave me a couple doctors i can try but the soonest app. wasnt till the end of May! Then i called Sis. Newman to see who else i could go see but she still hasnt called back. It feels a lot better though so im debating if i should get it checked out still or not. It still hurts to twist though. Its really a pain having to go through someone else just to see a doctor. She recommended an orthapedic doctor. The church insurance doesnt cover a chiropractor but i think that would be the best option. Does our home insurance cover one? If so can you call the office and try to set it up? If it will cost a lot then thats fine. I might just wait and see how it feels this week first.

I just bought some blank cds and downloaded the audio spanish version of the Book of Mormon and burned 1 nephi on a cd. Hopefully it worked! Oh sorry i forgot to mention anything about the Easter basket! Thanks a ton it was awesome! I had plenty of snacks for general conference! lol! And thanks a lot for the cd! Although i am going to send it back cause i actually already have that one. lol. Oops! I brought it from home. But if you wanted to send a different one i wouldn't mind. I have Then Sings My Soul and Called to Serve. Actually when does the general conference come out on cd? Maybe you could wait and send that. I loved the conference talks! I listened to all the talks from the last one you sent at Christmas like 10 times! And i learn something new every time! Thanks a lot for all of your prayers. I know they have helped a lot. I better get going cause they're waiting for me. Have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Carty

4/5/10

Hey!

Sounds like conference there was awesome! I really enjoyed each session! It was interesting how Elder Andersen said that they don't choose any themes for the talks but there always seems to be a main theme of the conference. This time every talk was about the family. I don't have much time today to write but i hope everything else is going well. We have had really bad luck with our car this week. First we had to get our oil changed and a tire replaced. Then we took it back in a couple days later because it was grinding when we slowed down. We found out we had no brake pads left and it was metal on metal which destroyed the rotors as well so they had to replace all that. It cost a lot so the office had to approve it in Salt Lake and that took several hours because they were so busy, then we had to wait for parts to come in so they could start working on it. Then they didnt approve getting the brake fluid flushed and replaced(which was burnt out) because it cost too much but they decided to do it 2 days later so we went back in again for that. Then to top it off, on our way to the priesthood session we were stopped at a light in front of a big van and out of nowhere this guy slams into us from behind and then we slammed into the van in front. We're fine but we got whiplashed pretty good so our heads and necks were soar and it jolted my hip pretty good. Its just a bit soar though so we're fine. The intersection was a fork and i waved for him to pull over but as soon as the light turned green i went left to follow the van i hit and he sped off to the right so i couldn't catch him. Just our rear bumper is bent and some scratches in front and back. The van was fine cause we only hit his hitch. Crazy! Anyways the work is going ok. We dropped all but 1 investigator and are starting over. Its been really hard lately to find new people.

Well im excited for the week to come. Conference gave me a boost of spiritual energy! Have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Carty

3/29/10

Family,

Thanks for the emails! good job on the missionary work! I'm sure the lady and her husband will soon join the church. I will pray for them as well. What about Rachel's friend? Did the missionaries ever go back to see him? This week was ok. The last half was a real struggle for me to stay motivated. Im not really sure why. We did have one miracle though. We found a lady tracting who's 3 daughter's were baptized a while ago in new york and now she lives here with one of them. She expressed a real desire to come to church here. She used to go with her daughter all the time in new york and she feels like shes ready to be baptized now. We are also hoping to reactivate the daughter. Oh yeah and this brazilian member brought a Honduran lady with her to church and she turns out to be our next door neighbor! How crazy is that! Not sure how interested she is but i believe she enjoyed church.

Anyways, as far as school i am still undecided but im leaning more and more towards not going to school right away. I think you might be right about needing that extra time to grieve and spend time at home before throwing myself back into the busy world. A lot of ideas have come to mind about what i should do with my life in the last few months. I am keeping a list of goals and dreams and ideas as they come to mind. Today we are all going to the sisters new apt. and celebrating my comp's birthday. Even though hes unfortunately sick on his birthday. This morning we had to help a senior couple move out cause theyre going home. We live pretty close to the St. John's river which is huge and goes right through the middle of Jacksonville. The lakes you probably see are the ponds in our apt complex. All the apts here have big ponds in the middle of them. Theres a lot of water retention ponds in Florida to prevent everything from being flooded when it rains. And when it rains here, IT RAINS! It will pour ridiculously hard for an hour and then stop and its really humid and it will just drizzle for a while. It has started to get humid again unfortunately. UGh... I hate the humidity! lol

General conference sounds pretty fun! i cant tell you how excited i am! I am going crazy! Iwish i could go to the temple with you this week. Oh i forgot to tell you about transfers this week. Both me and my comp are staying and only one guy in our apt is leaving. I am excited though cause we all still get along great. Me and another elder, the on that will be staying, Have been going to the gym everyday for 2 weeks now. We have to wake up at 5:20! But its worth it though cause im going to be ripped when i get home! lol. Ive ran 1-2 miles everyday as well and i feel much better being in better shape. A member gave him a weight lifting program that we are doing and its worked pretty well. Well time to get going! Love and miss all of you!

Love,

Elder Carty

3/22/10

Hmmm...i think ive ran out of ways to say hello.

But hello anyways!!!

myldsmail just got everything updated so im just messing around with it. lol. How is everyone doing? Im doing pretty good. It was kind of a rough weekend for us but it ended up pretty good i guess. Thursday was an awesome day where the whole zone ran from door to door to try to teach as many people as we could. The Lord defenitely blessed us for oyur efforts with someone awesome miracles. One girl from Puerto Rico was especially prepared and immediately accepting of everything. Friday and Saturday were not very good days though. I think part of it was cause we were so tired and burned out from thursday and the other was that most of our miracle people ended up missing appoinments or deciding they werent interested which was pretty disappointing. Plus there was an unusual amount of angry people at the doors we knocked. But Sunday ended up good. We went over to an investigators house and they cooked us dinner. Tons and tons of meat (carne asada, chicken, sausage) plus rice and tortillas and pico de gallo. MMM!!! We had a pretty good lesson and were also able to teach her sister and husband who ended up being really interested. They live in Miami but want the missionaries to come by down there. They couple we've been teaching are finally going to get married! Its set for the 4th of April. We are really hoping the church might be able to help out with the marriage license which is $93, but im not sure. We're trying to figure out a way to pay it this week cause they dont have the money. She doesnt work and he works 2 full-time jobs so she may have to get a part-time job or something.

The zoo was way fun last week! I got a lot of good pictures. Today we are going over to this guys house across the St. John's river who is having a going away party for his mission. He invited a lot of missionaries. I believe he is going to Oakland, CA spanish. He has been studying spanish everyday with the missionaries here for several months now and goes and tons of trade-offs so he's got a huge jumpstart. Well, last week i ended up buying a GPS. I got a really good deal on a widescreen Garmin GPS. They are coming out with a new version so this one was on sale for $99! and was normally about $200. 3 other missionaries and i got one. Its actually been really useful! I hadnt found anything yet to buy with grandma and grandpa's gift card from Christmas so i used that for half of it. Thanks grandma and grandpa!

Anyways im out of time so i hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Carty

3/15/10

Hey!

Well another week has flown by and i barely noticed! Its been a pretty successful week. We are finding several people that are accepting baptismal dates but so many are stuck on the fact that they dont know enough to get baptized. Its hard to get people to understand that baptism is the first step and then comes the knowledge when you have the gift of the Holy Ghost. Its been really frustrating my comp. But we are finding people to teach so thats good. Hopefully they will all keep progressing. I had a cool experience last night of the gift of tongues. I knocked on the door of some brazilians who spoke only portuguese. They can usually understand spanish but its really hard to understand portuguese but last night i could understand almost every word they were saying and they could understand me perfectly. I couldnt understand the words they were saying but it was like the Spirit was wispering the word to me in Spanish or putting the meaning into my mind so i could understand exactly the meaning of what they said. Its hard to describe but it was really neat! Ive been thinking a lot about trying to learn some portuguese. I think it would really help because we keep running into more and more brazilians. Im going to pray about it though to see if the Lord needs me to or not.

Today we are going to the zoo with the sisters and i think some other missionaries are meeting us there. I am way excited! Its been a while since ive gone to a zoo. Last week we finally went to the beach and played soccer. I always play to hard at the beach and cut and stratch up my feet and ankles. Plus the bruises on my legs. lol. Dont worry its not that bad. Someones toenail must have been long cause it cut ankle. Gross! Now im going to grow fungus on my leg! I was really sore this week!

Thats awesome that you guys are so good about going to the temple! Keep it up! We had a branch temple trip on sat. but none of our recent converts could go so we couldnt go either. I miss the temple! Ive been thinking a lot about Josh this month but its all been really good feeling as if he was very close. I think its because its almost been a year. I cant believe its been so long already.

Well i dont have much time left on the computer and we have to go meet the sisters soon. Sounds like everything continues to go really well over yonder. Thanks for all of your love and support and prayers each day! And tell Pres. Farris and the branch thanks for the package!

Love,
Elder Carty

3/8/10

Hi!

This week was really good. We are calling this month miracle march because we have a mission goal thats never been achieved before. We are going to baptize 200 and reactivate 200 people this month! I am really excited! From the first day of march we started to see incredible miracles. We found 5 people this week that are preparing for baptism. One is for the 20th and the other 3 are for the 27th. It is a couple and a brother of the wife. The other one doesn't have a date yet but he will soon. Please pray for them that they will be able to overcome certain addictions. I believe they will. We have been going on a lot of member trade offs the past few weeks because the branch mission leader wants to get the ward excited about missionary work. Although in the south area here we are really struggling for rides. We keep finding more and more people that don't have transportation and there's hardly any members that live in the south area. Most of the ones that do are in leadership and have to go too early and the rest aren't willing to help. We are 10-15 min from the church so its really hard to keep our recent converts plus our investigators going to church. I think they may have to start taking a bus or something. Pray that we will find enough transportation. One Sunday we had to just take someone in our car or he wouldn't have gotten confirmed (which we technically aren't supposed to do, but our AP's said to do whatever you have to do).

Everything else is going really well though. Last Sunday everyone was lame and didn't do anything but today we are for sure going to the beach! And next week the sisters invited us to go to the Jacksonville Zoo! Ive been wanting to go for a while now. I got the letter from Caleb. Thanks Caleb! Youre pictures are hanging in front of my desk. Hmmm... I feel like im running out of things to say in my emails cause not much changes here in the life of a missionary. This morning we have to help the office couple reorganize the storage shed for the mission. We actually work really close to the mission office so whenever we have to turn something in we swing by and they always have a bunch of snacks sitting out for missionaries. Thanks for paying the loan payment. I also got your postcard from D.C. dad. Thanks! Oh for the in-state tuition you have to live in Utah for a year and can only leave the state for a total of 30 days throughout the year. I think you might have to get a Utah drivers license too. Theres a lot of dumb rules for it i think. So Rachel and i will probably have too work there one summer. Im starting to lean more towards waiting till the fall to start school. I havent decided yet. Am i already registered for the spring? Hold on i have to log back on Oh i cant remember if i told you but last month Pres Newman decided that from now on we can only listened to Motab and talks. Not even hymns or other church artists. Only Motab... So if you happen to have any Motab or preferrably some good talks feel free to send some. Motab gets old really fast and i only have too cds. We are sacrificing a lot this month for miracle march. The whole mission is also sacrificing listening to any music in the apt., writing or emailing anyone but family, and eating out at restaurants and fast food. My comp and i also decided to sacrifice our lunch time. Normally spanish missionaries study till 11 and then eat till 12 and then leave for the rest of the day. We started leaving and 11 now and are going to have to make a sandwich and bring some snacks or something to eat. It will all be worth it in the end though when we can see so many of our brothers and sisters come unto Christ.

So someone gave us a crockpot for our apt. and i bought a bunch of ingredients to make a beef stew. I threw it all together and let it slow-cook all day Sunday and ate it last night after i broke my fast. It was delicious! First time i've ever made a stew or soup. I put it thin beef steak, potatoes, carrots, onions, tomatoes, and jalapenos. The flavor was really good but do have an idea of how to make a beef soup thicker mom? It was a good change up from beans and rice almost everyday. We also all bought some ingredients and made a better-than-"tracting" cake. MMMM!!!! Well i dont have too much else to say. Hope everything is still going great and im glad everyone got to go skiing! Hey what are you thinking of studying at Utah State by the way Rachel? Just curious. And great job on being a missionary and handing out a Book of Mormon. Keep on top of him so he reads and prays if the missionaries don't. Way to be an example to the family and your friends. Keep it up! Everyone have a great week!

Love,
Elder Carty

3/1/10

Aloha!...wait...Hola!

How is everyone doing? Im doing great here! Another awesome week finished with a baptism! It was really sketchy to the very last hour but he got baptised on sat night. His name is Jose Luis Abrajan from Mexico. He is awesome! He plays the guitar and sings really well. He backed out on sat morning when he was supposed to be interviewed by Pres. Newman but we helped him understand that baptism is the first step and then comes knowledge and growth through the Spirit and he felt confident about it again. Then he was an hour and a half late to the rescheduled interview but he finally made it into the water that night. It was awesome! Then the person who picked him up was 40 min late to sacrament and so we had to confirm him in priesthood. When we did i felt the Spirit very strong inside and i felt that he will be the means of many others coming unto Christ.

Sound like D.C. was great! Congrats again on a successful trip! That is awesome that you are going to be building a new hospital! I'm sure you're impression was correct that it will help to increase the branch there. I think either way would be awesome- you guys picking me up and going to Disney World or going on a skiing trip when i get back. My new comp and i have gotten along great! He didn't have any food when he got here so ive basically been cooking for both of us. I can make some mean beans and rice and tortillas. MMM!!! We found out the office couple is gone for a few days so we still don't have pros money! This month i am going to start eating really healthy because we started working out at a gym last week. I ran a mile and a half everyday plus a member from another ward gave us a weight lifting schedule for each week so i started lifting again. This morning i ran 2 and a half miles. Ive probably only gained like 5 pounds in fat on my mission but im going to try to lose that plus the extra i gained from sitting around before my mission. lol. I want to be in good shape when i get home.

That's an awesome picture of Aaron's baptism! Oh I got the letter with loan stuff and it took me a few days to find a copier but i sent it on fri. I wasn't really thinking about where i should send it and i sent it back home. Sorry if i was supposed to send it straight to Utah. I also sent a letter on sat that should give you guys a few laughs. Tell Aunt Cathy thanks a million for the package! I will be writing her a letter this week as well as Grandma and Grandpa. We will probably go play soccer today, i hope. Not too many people here want to play soccer anymore and nobody seems to want to go to the beach to play. I love the beach! Dad you should definitely read Jesus the Christ! I didn't get to read much this week though.

Thanks! Well not too much else that's exciting here. Hope you all have an awesome week! And tell Rachel to make sure her friend is reading the Book of Mormon!

Love,
Elder Carty

2/22/10

Buenas tardes!

Everything is going GREAT here in Florida! We had 2 baptisms on sat and they were both confirmed on sunday! We also have on this coming sat for a guy named Jose Luis. Thanks for all your faith and prayers. It helps a lot! Before i forget, i just got my allergy shot this morning so all is well. I had the perscription all week but i was really sick so i decided to wait. Please erase the following before sending to others: I had severe diarea for over a week! I spent every morning in the bathroom and my stomach was a little nautious all week. Its finally gone away. I hardly ate anything this week though and i think i lost a little weight from it. I had to drink a ton of water to stay hydrated. I think im gonna start eating healthier because i just started working out again. I ran 2 miles this morning and lifted weights at some other missionaries apt gym.

Good luck on the second trip to D.C. dad! Ill be praying for you! Today we are probably going to the beach again to play soccer. My new comp is awesome! His name is Elder Johnson from Draper, UT. He has been out for 8 months i think and was switched Spanish right when he got here. He speaks pretty good Spanish. He has been learning for one less transfer than me. He plays guitar and piano and basketball. I am really excited for this transfer! He is a really hard worker and has a lot of faith. I think we are going to get along much better. We will probably be doing a lot of tracting this transfer but it should be fun. When i was first switched Spanish i hated tracting but now i love it! As long as there's plenty of people to teach.

The mission this year has been changing a bit. Last year we learned how to run hard and fast for a long time. Now a lot of the meetings and conferences have been focusing more on Christ and the Atonement and repentance. We use the same approach but really focus it on repentance and Christ. This transfer i am going to study anything and everything about Christ to really increase my testimony of repentance and the Atonement. I started Jesus the Christ a few weeks ago and im about a quarter of the way through it. It is blowing my mind! So many little and big details of Christ i never knew! Did you read it on your mission dad? I was also interesting that a lot of the big words that Talmage uses that we normally dont use in everyday language are very similar to many Spanish words. Without knowing the words in Spanish i would probably not know what it meant in English! Its interesting how much i have learned about the English language by learning Spanish.

Well i dont have too much more to say. I feel like my testimony of Christ has really grown this transfer. I know without a doubt that He lives. I know that the repentance process truly works and how exquisite the joy can be if we are humble and repentant each day. Ill share something else i have learned in the last several months- the key to longsuffering and enduring to the end. It is diligence. A couple months ago in Live Oak i was feeling really homesick and the end seemed too far away to endure. After much thought and prayer the Spirit simply told me what i had to do. Be diligent. I have always worked pretty hard but i learned how to sacrifice more and run faster and harder and be diligent in everything- studies, tracting, teaching. I found that the more diligent i was, the less i thought of home or was distracted by worldly things that dont matter. I found a greater happiness and satisfaction in the work and time seems to dissipate even faster and all i can think about are my investigators and how i can better help them come unto Christ. So if anyone who reads this cant seem to see the light at the end of the tunnel and aren't sure how you can possibly endure...BE DILIGENT! And i promise all feelings of sadness and discouragement will disappear. Times up!

Love,
Elder Carty

2/16/10

Good afternoon!

What a beautiful day in Florida! Well the weather at least. I feel a bit under it right now though. I have had a slight stomach ache for the past 3 days and havent slept well. It wasnt nearly as bad as the flu but i think it was something i ate that didnt sit right and it might have just been food poisoning or something. Pepto bismol has helped a lot so i havent had to stop working at all. Ever since a burrito i had at our favorite hispanic restaurant Pepe's i havent felt good and have spent a lot of time in the bathroom. lol. Everyone went to Wing Depot today after district meeting(which was one of the best district meetings ive had-almost everyone cried when they bore their testimony) and got all-you-can-eat-wings which looked delicious but there was no way my stomach could handle it. I still havent eaten anything today.

Anyways, this week was really good and we should be having a couple baptisms this weekend! I dont have much time to write because i forgot my library card and had to borrow one when someone finished. Im glad the baptism was great! Send some pics! And congratulations on succeeding in D.C. dad ! You're on your way to the top! Im glad you made it there and back safe with the weather! I prayed all week that it would go well. On tues. i had a distinct impression all of the sudden to pray that you would make it there safely to give the presentation. Guess it must have worked!

My comp is getting transferred this week and i am staying here. I will be getting 1 of 3 others that are getting transferred. This week we were planning and my comp blew up a me for something really small and stormed off so i had to go talk to him and get things settled out. We had a long talk about several different things and get along a ton better now. We just didnt communicate very well and he let a lot of little things build up without talking about them. But all is well now. I'm really excited for transfers. Elder Probert my old comp will be my zone leader which im excited for. He has been my favorite comp so far.

Thanks for taking care of my school loans. I think with that loan you mentioned you may have to still pay a bit. They said that it would go into forbearance for a year and then i could do something else for another year to either decrease the payments or something. Ill call and find out. I better get going so i can go on the website to figure it out. Hope everyone has a great week! Congratulations on your baptism Aaron! And thanks for the Valentine's Day package!!! It was great!

Love,
Elder Carty

2/8/10

Hello!

Sounds like everyone had a good week! Thats awesome that you are going to D.C. to present the new hospital! Sounds really exciting! Just drive on down and you can come tracting with us! Speaking of tracting, i dont think ive tracted so much on my mission than i have this week. None of our investigators had progressed for a few weeks so we dropped all of them and started over. We only had like 2 appointments the whole week and all we did is tract the rest of the time. A lot of the complexes dont have too many hispanics so we would have to tract the whole thing just to teach 2 lessons. One of the apt complexes had like 60 buildings with 16 doors in each one! It was huge! But finally by the end of the week we started seeing the fruits of our labors and found some pretty good people. We found a couple from brazil that only speak portuguese. We are going to see them again tonight. Surprisingly i can actually understand about half of what they say. Portuguese sounds weird when im so used to Spanish. We set a baptism date with a lady from Honduras and then last night we found these 3 guys, 2 from Mexico and 1 from Colombia, who were pretty cool. They immediately let us in and asked a ton of questions throughout the lesson. We didnt set baptism dates but they have a desire to do it and want to come to church.

My allergies have gotten really bad. Supposedly Jacksonville is one of the worst places for allergies. I never had them this bad at home. Ithink an allergy shot would be the best option. Im taking some cheap Walmart meds for them right now but they are still not too good. I have really struggled waking up this week because they make me really tired and my eyes are swollen up in the morning and my nose is running all the time. I got them pretty bad last year too. I guess Sis. Newman called mom about it. Does our insurance cover out here?

Did Aaron get my package this week? I also sent a letter on saturday, a short note that you can read at his baptism if you want. Well i dont really have much more exciting news here. We are going to go play soccer again today. Keep up the good missionary work! And good job skiing Aaron! Sounds like you are learning really fast! Keep it up so we can ski together when i come home. Thanks for the letter and the story/poem about the work horse. Thats definitely what i felt like this week. You mentioned on Christmas that you would send some bathroom supplies when i run low. Could you send a couple things? Unless it will cost a lot to send. Toothpaste-Aquafresh Extreme Clean, Freshening Action. Deodorant and Body wash-Old Spice, Swagger(scent). Allergy eydrops. and a sponge thingy for my body wash. i think thats all i need for a while. Thanks! Hope everyone has a great week!

Love,
Elder Carty

2/2/10

Hello!

Sorry about not emailing yesterday! The main server for all the Jacksonville libraries crashed so we couldnt email yesterday. This week has gone by unusually fast! There are only 2 weeks left in the transfer! Time just keeps going faster and faster and faster the longer ive been out. It was an ok week. It has really been difficult to teach lessons and find people to teach in this area. We tract at least 4 hours each day and barely even see any hispanics and we havent had anyone at church for 2 weeks. We are defenitely working hard though so i know we'll find some more. I had a really good interview with president Newman this week. He leaves in 4 months! He told me that during the next 4 months he will be looking for his "anchors" in the mission, those who he knows he can count on when he leaves to be leaders. He gave me a really good compliment and said he will be looking to me to be one of those leaders. We talked about my comp and he gave me some advice and said that he will probably be transferred and ill most likely be staying.

Aarons birthday sounded like a blast! I will be mailing a small package for him today so look for it in the mail. We went to St. Augustine yesterday and looked around in some of the shops there so i picked something up for Aaron. Ill write something for Aarons baptism tonight and mail it out tomorrow. Ill try to write more letters to him from now on. Every baptism that ive had Satan always throws every temptation and negative feeling he has at them the week before to try to stop them from getting baptized. Maybe thats why hes been a bit angry. There is always a trial of our faith before we can progress. I think thats also true for children, though maybe in a smaller degree. Ive really missed Aaron this week!

Thanks for applying for school and scholarships for me! I still cant decide if thats what i want to do. Ive thought a lot lately about coming home for a few months and then living in central america for a few months and returning to school in the fall. I know a lot of people down there and could probably find enough places to stay for a while. I really want to visit Mexico, Ecuador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Ive actually learned a lot about those places from talking to people. I think it would be great to perfect my spanish and ive always wanted to live in another country. I think that may be the only time in my life i would have the opportunity to do something like that. It also may be easier to get scholarships that way. Maybe i could do some online classes before the fall. I think i only need a few more credits to be considered a junior because of the dual credit in high school. If you want to send me the essay prompt i can make time to write it. How soon do you need it done? Or you can just write it, it doesnt make a big difference to me. I cant really think of anything special to put in it. Some of my life goals are to have a family, become a pilot, own my own business, learn several languages and travel the world! I dont know. Just make me look good if you write it. lol.

We will be seeing a member family today. We really dont have too many members that actually live in our area. Most of them live in the other area. Thanks for the tips about member missionary work! We are hoping to have a baptism this weekend for the Nicaraguan that we found. Pray for him that he can overcome drinking because he drank again on sat night and couldnt come to church. His name is Walter. Also pray for Vinicio to be able to come to church. He has had to work every sunday and we cant seem to get him to church one more time to be baptized. Well thats about everything thats going on here. Oh yeah i got your postcard! Thanks for thinking of me while you were skiing! That plus the winter olympics advertising everywhere has made me miss skiing! Hope everyone has a great week!

Love,
Elder Carty