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

cont. 1/25/10



Sorry, i had to send it before the time ran out and then
re-log-on. Back to the story... We were at their house one
night and Marta asked how we knew to knock on their door.
We just said we felt like we should tract this complex and
then just started knocking doors. Then Vinicio said that
the night befors we came the first time, He had a dream.
Im his dream 2 people were knocking at his door. He thought
it was the police at first to come take him away but then he
went and opened it and saw 2 people dressed in white and
then woke up. He called his other sister who is a member in
Georgia and told her about it and she said that god is
looking for him. Then later that night we knocked on their
door! He said he recognized us as the 2 people in white from
his dream but didnt tell us till that night. It was sweet!
Well its time to get going. Thanks for everything and hope
your birthday is great Aaron!

Love,
Elder Carty

1/25/10



Hello hello hello,

Yet another week in paradise! I have almost lived
in florida for a year now! I flew here on feb 4 last
year. Well we didnt have a baptism this week but we
had 2 reactivations! The mom of the girl who was
baptized and her other daughter came to church
again so they are reactivated. The moms brother
kind of went downhill though. She said he doesnt
want to meet with us anymore and thinks its
because he doesnt want to give up smoking.
But we are going to try to talk to him again.
We had an awesome miracle though! We met this
guy in his car who was drunk and started
talking to him. He is from Nicaragua. At
first he was kind of rude and telling us
how we were wrong but then he changed like
half way through when elder baker told him
he needed to repent and change. He started
crying a little bit and then really wanted
us to come over when he was sober. We went
over yesterday and taught him a first lesson
and he really wants to be baptized! He is
awesome when he is sober! He said at the
end that we can come over every day if we
want to make sure he is not drinking or
smoking. He wants to give it all up! He
said we are the doctors and he is the sick
patient and we need to check up on him to
make sure he doesnt fall into a coma. He
really opened up to us and said he just cant
live like this anymore and is ready to change.
Miracle!!!

Skiing sounds like a blast! Man i wish i
could go! I think thats the first thing i am
going to do when i get home. Im not sure if
ive ever met Mike or not... Have i? Everything
else is going pretty well. Its a little tough
once in a while with my companion but its
getting a lot better. Being senior comp is
a bit harder but i felt like as soon as i
went senior comp the Lord has been pulling
the extra weight and has given me more desire
to work. We have been working really hard,
lots of tracting. I think we have almost
tracted out every apartment complex with
hispanics. Im actually not sure where we
are going to tract now. Its been tough
finding places with hispanics. We kind of
got a little jipped when they divided the
north and south areas because there are a
ton more in the north area. Plus our ward
mission leader referred his friend who lives
in our area to the other elders which i was
kind of mad about. oh well. I havent done
enough member work though. Im really not
sure how to do it because ive never done it
before. Most of the members either live in
the other area or St. Augustine. We actually
cover St. Augustine but its like half an hour.
We want to go there next pday. Oh i sent a
letter to Aaron for his birthday, hopefully
it will be there on time.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY
AARON!!! I wanted to send something but i
wanted to get something unique to florida
cause im sure you guys will give him enough
toys. I want to get something in st. Augustine
next week. Sorry it will be late!

Thanks for all the fatherly advice. It really
did help a lot. I need to start visiting and
being bold with the members too. i think we
are going to play soccer today, hopefully!
Jason sent me an email last week. I wish i
could help him realize that he needs to go
back to church but i dont think theres much
i can do right now except pray. Will you
pray for Vinicio this week? He is the guy
that i was talking about who didnt want to
give up smoking. I found out he was more of a
miracle than i thought! hold on...