Joshua is still hanging in there like a trooper. He has been experiencing some spasms in his diaphragm this week. Unfortunately, that just means more medications to calm them down. He has been very agitated lately as well. We can't get him to eat much, so he continues to lose muscle mass. It's just not a good situation for Josh, but we truly believe that he knew this was going to happen to him before he came to this life and wanted to come anyway despite the knowledge of his physical trials. We believe Heavenly Father has a special mission to perform while he is still here and likely also in the eternities.

Hello!
This week has been crazy! We have been insanely tired from
everything this week. We spent all day yesterday on campus.
It's been really hot here! Today is nice though cause it's
actually cloudy. We've had awsome food the past few days.
We started the tradition of the bi-annual steak feed. Elder
Jolley has been out for six months and I just started so
every six months we'll treat ourselves to a delicious steak.
-except now we're almost out of money. A girl in the branch
invited us to her birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse and
there were nonmembers there so we could go. Then last night
after district meeting we all ordered Dominos pizza at our
apartment. It was a lot fun. Then today four girls took us
to breakfast- lots of awesome bonuses about being on campus.
haha. One of them is taking us shopping to buy us food. A
lot of students have been helping us out when we have a
table set up on campus. On girl is really good at jumping
right into lessons with us. I have gotten over a lot of my
fears of approaching people which is good. We should have a
lot of investi-'gators' at church. We just call them gators.
lol. I talked to a Vietnamese guy and he's going to bring
all his friends! We had a lot of really good lessons this
week. One guy named Smitty said he really felt the Spirit
after i talked to him the other day and then he came back
and wanted to know more. He couldn't get past the fact that
it takes more than faith in Christ to be saved. Another guy
named Lee is going to read and pray with an open mind. He
said he'll do whatever God tells him to. I think he'll get
baptized. There's 2 more girls that are really really close
to accepting baptism. And there's a few more hopeful ones.
We are really focusing on inviting people to be baptized
more, even if we just met them we are supposed to lead the
conversation to baptism and ask them unless the Spirit
tells us not to.
We had a lot of people try to bible bash with us. We never
argued with them but finally we just had to tell them that
if they didn't want to read or pray about the book of mormon
than there's no point in continuing the conversation. Have
I told you about the other preachers here? It gets insane
sometimes! Usually everyday there's at least one preacher
that shouts out a sermon in Turlington Square where we are.
Some are ok but some are crazy and things get out of hand.
One guy was calling calling everyone sinners and said he
was free from sin now. Yet he called people names and was
saying that all real muslims are terrorists and stuff like
that. People were screaming at him and dancing around him.
Girls started kissing together in front of him! IT was
insane! The police on bikes came and had to break up
everything. It actually makes it easier for us sometimes
because people tell us how much they respect us for not
yelling out stuff like they do.
Tell Aaron and Caleb I miss them too! I haven't seen any
alligators yet but i hear there's a swamp on campus that
has some! Actually all of Gainesville is technically a
swamp. The capmus is huge! It's like 3 square miles and
there are over 50,000 undergrad students here. There are
always hundreds of people in the square so there's always
people to talk to until about 5:00 and then there's hardly
anyone so we go do other things. People play four-square
and nine-square there all the time. We joined in yesterday
for a bit after we were done with our table. The students
here are awesome! Except the ones that completely ignore
you when you try to talk to them.
I really need a nap today... After we get food we're gonna
go take a nap while our laundry is in.
Some good restaurants here are applebees, chipotle...i
don't know too many more. Thanks! Hope everything is great
this week! Stay out of trouble and on the road rachel! I'll
try to send an actual letter by monday with some pictures or
something. I don't have any developed of florida though.
Gotta go! See ya!

Love,
Elder Carty

Dear Family,

Sounds like everyones doing great there! Keep up the good work rachel! Way tyo make a basket Aaron! I have a lot to tell everyone. I made it here in one piece first off. I was sent to Gainesville on the University of Florida campus! Our area only covers the campus-which is a HUGE campus. We don't do any tracting, but A LOT of street contacting the students here. We set up a table in Turlington Square on campus with a giant book of mormon and pamphlets and stuff and then just talk to random people about the gospel. When thats not up we walk around campus and greet random students going to class. My new companion is Elder Jolley. He is a great trainer and very hard working and obedient. And incredibly excited and the gospel and everything in life. He's a very happy and fun person. We've become pretty good friends so far. We only have bikes cause our area is too small for a car. A missionary left his bike here and said I could buy it for like 175. Its got some problems with it so if i can fix i might buy it or just get a new one. Oh and we are the only companionship that has pday on saturday because campus is dead on sat. We have an apartment about a ten min bike ride from campus and an office in the institute building where we also spend a lot of time. We get to go to institute classes a few times a week and devotionals there during which the senior couple makes everyone food! They are the Walker's and are awesome! We arent allowed to eat at members homes unless we bring an investigator but he said the investigators offer us food a lot and the senior couple leaves us food all the time at the institute. There is ping pong and foosball and pool there as well! Elder Jolley and I are pretty even at pool and foosball but i beat him at ping pong.
Being on campus is definitely not what i expected but its a lot of fun. I was pretty nervous doing it for the first time yesterday but i taught a few quick lessons to people. A girl named Leslie who was taught the first lesson last week is soo close to accepting to get baptized. We met with her yesterday and she said she wants to give up coffee and tea after hearing how the speaker at the devotional was able to do it when he converted. There was another nonmember there that seems half sincerely interested and half wanting free food. And another girl that walked up to our table yesterday who wants to meet with us! Our standards of excellence are higher than any other mission! Each week our goals are: 1 baptism/confirmation, 10 new investigators, 10 baptismal dates, 10 people at church, 10 baptismal invites, 10 people with baptism dates at church. The Lord revealed to Pres Newman that if we all reach those goals we will baptize 1050 people in the mission this year! He also revealed a new way to approach people to use when street contacting and tracting. Its called Gathering through the Grove. I cant remember why its called that but pres Newman kept waking up in the middle of the night for a month and all he could think about is the sacred grove. He finally prayed and received this revelation. We are supposed to be very bold with people and ask very direct and to the point questions including asking them to be baptized within the first 5 min! We introduce ourselves and then ask, Did you know that God and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith? Did you know that Christ appeared and ministered to people in the ancient americas? Did you know we have a record of these people and His ministry? Most people havent heard this before and so we elaborate after that. Most the time we only have a min to talk and walk with them while they're going to class. We invite a lot of them to go institute and church too. I havent asked anyone to be baptized yet though.
Whats your cousins address and phone numbers? Are they members or just inactive? We could get dinner appointments possibly!
Hows everone doing this week? Do you like the service at the hospital rachel? How was sledding Aaron? Caleb what toys have you been playing with? Tell josh everything I've been doing and read this letter to him.
Also we have a required fitness program in the mission- 100 push ups, 100 sit ups, and 10 forward and 10 backward sprints(i can only jog though). We do that every morning right after we wake up. We also have a gym membership! We get to go every mon, wed, and fri if we do service there once a week. I havent gone yet but when we do we have to get up at 5:00am cause its a 15 min bike ride. Aye yie yie!
Are you forwarding these emails to relatives? please do. Thanks!
I'm not sure what else to write but maybe ill send some pics in a letter if i can. I dont have any of florida yet though. Hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Carty

Joseph landed in Jacksonville, FL on Wed. February 4th. after having to get up and going at 3 a.m. that morning. He was then sent to the city of Gainesville, FL on Thursday. We were able to talk with him on the phone during his layover in Atlanta, GA. He sounded really great. All he kept saying was how much fun he had in the MTC and kept stressing to us how important it is to read the scriptures on a daily basis. He mentioned that he had many spiritual experiences in the MTC. It was obvious he had truly gained a stronger testimony of the church during the short time he was there.