The high light of our week was that we got to go to Houston Saturday morning and listen to Elder Costa. He is in the Presidency of the Seventy.
All the missionaries in the Houston area within one hour of the chapel where he spoke were invited to hear him speak, we were one hour and one minute away so they let us go.
He shared some stories about when he was a mission president, and his conversion story. He is a remarkable man, it is easy to see why he is one of the Lord's elect.
Saturday night we attended the wedding of Johnny Garcia and Carrie Benavidaz. It was a very nice wedding. President Chaka performed his first marriage and you could tell he was a little nervous!
I had been assigned to speak on Sunday about the difference between civil marriages and temple sealing/marriages. So all the time I was thinking about the last words in the ceremony, realizing that at the end of the ceremony that they divorce them with the words(Until death do you part).
We have been teaching a daughter of a member along with her two children, the member has kind of pressured them to listen to the discussions and they are very closeminded about everything for that reason. The member sits there during the discussions and at times they start a conversation that will not allow the spirit to be present. We have decided that we must teach the lessons away from the member, so we can have a chance of having the spirit with us in these lessons. They are pretty closeminded because they are being forced to take the lessons. We have decided we would try one more time without the member present and if their hearts are still hardened to the message we will just tell them that they have to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, and that is the only way they will receive a witness of the truthfulness of it.
No one likes to be forced, that was Satan's plan. It is a lot easier with someone the Lord has prepared to hear the message.
Otherwise, things are going along quite well, here in Wharton, Texas. We've started a FHE for single's, or for those that want to come. Our first one was on Monday and it went pretty well. We played a game that the Elder's thought of, but I(Jennifer) could NOT catch on to!!! It made for lots of laughs!!!
We had exciting news from home last night...Our water heater broke and a pipe broke, and the basement of our house was flooded!!! Many THANKS to Bekah, Bethany, and Luke and our neighbor Jason who moved everything out of the basement, and called Utah Disaster Clean-up!! We'll keep you all posted. Thank goodness for family!!
All for today...Love to All Elder and Sister Carter
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
September 9, 2009
We had our first "official" teaching experience yesterday. A member asked her daughter, and two of her daughter's children (teenagers) to listen to the lessons. Then she asked us to teach them instead of the young Elders. We did a good job. I don't think they are "golden contacts" but we commited them to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon, and we'll meet with them next week. I've decided that I admire the young Elders more and more!!! I'd rather work with those that have become inactive, but pretty much believe in the church.....and answer questions, and encourage them to come back to church. It's usually a misunderstanding, or they got their feelings hurt....We are having some success with the inactives!!
Otherwise, our week is going well. The Young Women are making rolled out sugar cookies tonight. The Enrichment meeting last night was fun (we brought some inactives who had a great time), we made "Batter Bread" and Cactus Jelly.
Yesterday was our second interview with the new Mission President. We're liking him more and more all the time.....and to think that he is only 40 years old!! He is an amazing man!! And pretty funny, besides!! He's pretty excited about a training that he and his wife are going to this weekend in Dallas....with M. Russell Ballard. He kept saying that he was pretty nervous about being that close to M. RUSSELL BALLARD. I told him that he would be just fine, and he said, "Yes, but M. RUSSELL BALLARD!!!!"
Anyway, the work and the service is going well. It's started turning into Fall weather...maybe because I decorated the trailer for fall!!!! It's cooler, and it rains for some part, or parts of everyday!!!
All for now. We're in the last half of our mission! We'll be happy to go home, but we will certainly miss the people here, especially some of them!!!!
Sincerely, Elder and Sister Carter
Otherwise, our week is going well. The Young Women are making rolled out sugar cookies tonight. The Enrichment meeting last night was fun (we brought some inactives who had a great time), we made "Batter Bread" and Cactus Jelly.
Yesterday was our second interview with the new Mission President. We're liking him more and more all the time.....and to think that he is only 40 years old!! He is an amazing man!! And pretty funny, besides!! He's pretty excited about a training that he and his wife are going to this weekend in Dallas....with M. Russell Ballard. He kept saying that he was pretty nervous about being that close to M. RUSSELL BALLARD. I told him that he would be just fine, and he said, "Yes, but M. RUSSELL BALLARD!!!!"
Anyway, the work and the service is going well. It's started turning into Fall weather...maybe because I decorated the trailer for fall!!!! It's cooler, and it rains for some part, or parts of everyday!!!
All for now. We're in the last half of our mission! We'll be happy to go home, but we will certainly miss the people here, especially some of them!!!!
Sincerely, Elder and Sister Carter
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
What a Weekend
We started last weekend with a Temple zone conference on Friday, we arrived at the Temple 8:00 am. We did an endowment session and then we had a meeting with the Temple president. President Bradshaw talked to us about the importance of Elijah bringing the sealing power back to the earth.
We then went to lunch and met at 1:20 at a nearby Stake Center for our zone conference. President and Sister Saylin talked to us and then we had training on talking about baptism during the first lesson.
We were invited to have dinner at Brother and Sister Mario and Dalilah Perez home, since we had the Bay City Elders with us and it was on the way home, al l six of us went to dinner. Sister Perez had made a taco feast. We all ate until we were stuffed and then we visited for a few minutes and Elder Schwarz gave a gospel message.
Saturday at 1:00 pm we had two more baptisms; Oscar and Aricili Calderon. They are a young couple that the Elders have been teaching all the time we have been here. They have been ready for baptism for a while but they both worked on Sundays, so they could not come to church. While Elder Cameron was here, he and Elder Schwarz did a role play with them to show them how to ask their bosses for Sunday off, and it worked.
Saturday night we had Stake Conference, so we picked up Johnny Garcia and Carrie Benavidez and a new member that had just moved to El Campo, Ray Brown ,and took them to Conference in Bay City with us. They had a dinner at 5:30pm because most members have to drive so far to get there and the Preisthood leaders had a session at 4:00 pm.
The 7:00 pm adult session started with a wonderful talk by President Saylin (Our mission President). He talked about how he is a " California Boy" so he doesn't know alot about farming. But "it looks like you Texans know quite a bit"....laughter!! Anyway, he talked about the parable of the 'yoke' and the 'sheaves and the tares and the garner', and how, after he had studied up on the meanings of all those farming terms, he understood the parable better. It was a good talk!! We were reorganizing the Stake Presidency so we had two General Authorities with us. Pres. Snow of the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elder Villlereal. Both were wonderful speakers. Anyway, again on Sunday we had another meeting where the new Stake Presidency was announced. We were invited to dinner at the Mission Home. So, at 4pm we arrived at the Mission Home and had the most fun time!!! Sometimes, the President seems sort of stern...and I haven't figured out if he has a funny side or not!! Well, he does!!! And his 6 children are amazing!! They were acting just like regular, wild, kids on a Sunday afternoon!! It was a wonderful afternoon...in fact, we didn't go home until 7:30pm.
Our time here has been so full of changes!! We've had the change of (1) the mission president, and (2) the branch president and (3) the Stake president!! Everyone has changed!! But, it's all good!! We've changed, too! We are more 'full of the spirit', and, of course, we hope we can keep those same, great feelings when we go home. We're smarter on the gospel, because we have studied so much. And, we seem to be more 'mellow'...because we live in such close quarters, and we are TOGETHER all the time...it seems a good idea to be 'mellow'!!
Yesterday, we helped a man "get rid of the devil" ./...the devil was telling him to hurt himself, and to leave his family....his wife was worried. Her husband wouldn't listen to any family member, so she called us. We talked and talked, and listened and encouraged. Earl gave him a blessing and his house a blessing. He seemed much better when we left. We're going over today to check on him.
Never a dull moment!!!
Till next time....Elder and Sister Carter
We then went to lunch and met at 1:20 at a nearby Stake Center for our zone conference. President and Sister Saylin talked to us and then we had training on talking about baptism during the first lesson.
We were invited to have dinner at Brother and Sister Mario and Dalilah Perez home, since we had the Bay City Elders with us and it was on the way home, al l six of us went to dinner. Sister Perez had made a taco feast. We all ate until we were stuffed and then we visited for a few minutes and Elder Schwarz gave a gospel message.
Saturday at 1:00 pm we had two more baptisms; Oscar and Aricili Calderon. They are a young couple that the Elders have been teaching all the time we have been here. They have been ready for baptism for a while but they both worked on Sundays, so they could not come to church. While Elder Cameron was here, he and Elder Schwarz did a role play with them to show them how to ask their bosses for Sunday off, and it worked.
Saturday night we had Stake Conference, so we picked up Johnny Garcia and Carrie Benavidez and a new member that had just moved to El Campo, Ray Brown ,and took them to Conference in Bay City with us. They had a dinner at 5:30pm because most members have to drive so far to get there and the Preisthood leaders had a session at 4:00 pm.
The 7:00 pm adult session started with a wonderful talk by President Saylin (Our mission President). He talked about how he is a " California Boy" so he doesn't know alot about farming. But "it looks like you Texans know quite a bit"....laughter!! Anyway, he talked about the parable of the 'yoke' and the 'sheaves and the tares and the garner', and how, after he had studied up on the meanings of all those farming terms, he understood the parable better. It was a good talk!! We were reorganizing the Stake Presidency so we had two General Authorities with us. Pres. Snow of the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elder Villlereal. Both were wonderful speakers. Anyway, again on Sunday we had another meeting where the new Stake Presidency was announced. We were invited to dinner at the Mission Home. So, at 4pm we arrived at the Mission Home and had the most fun time!!! Sometimes, the President seems sort of stern...and I haven't figured out if he has a funny side or not!! Well, he does!!! And his 6 children are amazing!! They were acting just like regular, wild, kids on a Sunday afternoon!! It was a wonderful afternoon...in fact, we didn't go home until 7:30pm.
Our time here has been so full of changes!! We've had the change of (1) the mission president, and (2) the branch president and (3) the Stake president!! Everyone has changed!! But, it's all good!! We've changed, too! We are more 'full of the spirit', and, of course, we hope we can keep those same, great feelings when we go home. We're smarter on the gospel, because we have studied so much. And, we seem to be more 'mellow'...because we live in such close quarters, and we are TOGETHER all the time...it seems a good idea to be 'mellow'!!
Yesterday, we helped a man "get rid of the devil" ./...the devil was telling him to hurt himself, and to leave his family....his wife was worried. Her husband wouldn't listen to any family member, so she called us. We talked and talked, and listened and encouraged. Earl gave him a blessing and his house a blessing. He seemed much better when we left. We're going over today to check on him.
Never a dull moment!!!
Till next time....Elder and Sister Carter
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