The Last Week of My Mission

Hello world! This is Hermana Carter...er...Kaela. Due to an interesting life plot twist, I'm home now! Well, I arrived home on January 27, I just didn't get around to this until now. I'm not sure about any life plans at this point, but I'm looking forward to the future with lots of hope. The mission was the best thing that ever happened to me, and I'm very grateful for the last 7 months and all the wonderful adventures I had.

Hey family, and friends! So technically I am home now, but I wanted to send this out to put on the blog and send out to any other people you sent my emails to so we don't have anymore surprises...haha.

So for any of you who don't know yet, I got sick about a month ago and after trying to figure it out in the mission and get better there, my mission president, and I, eventually, decided that this would be better dealt with not in the mission field. So I got home Monday night, and I'm still trying to get used to being at home life and basically there is no doubt that I may be the most awkward return missionary who ever lived.

But here is how my last week in the mission went.

First, it was heartbreaking, because I knew I would be leaving my beloved Ecuador, and I love everything about it. Also, I wasn't able to work very much, so I stayed inside with Hermana Stewart most of the time, and we passed the time by assigning callings to the cast of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Haha. Missionaries...

I think the absolute best part of the week though, and the biggest tender mercy, was that Saturday night we had a BAPTISM!!!!!!! It was so cool to be able to end my mission with a baptism. Not only that, but the three girls who were baptized were real converts. You could tell they really understood the promise they were making with God, and the Spirit was way strong, in fact it was the most spiritual baptism I attended my whole mission, I think. We also had 2 families of investigators there, so I hope they were able to feel the Spirit as well!! Hermana Stewart, Hermana Monzon, and I sang for the musical number "O Mi Padre" to the tune of "Come Thou Fount" (p.s. you can also do that for Joseph Smith's First Prayer, and it is equally amazing) and it was great. Before the mission, I wasn't bit about singing or playing the piano, but now I really enjoy it. Maybe it's just because music sort of doesn't exist in Ecuador haha.

Oh, I forgot to mention, so the oldest girl who was baptized is my age, 19, and her boyfriend was the one who introduced her and her sisters to the missionaries, and he was the one who baptized all of them. And none of us knew this until Sunday after the confirmation, but after the baptismal service, he proposed to her!!! And we had already given them a poster of the Guayaquil temple to sort of hint them in that direction, haha so it all ended up working out really well in that area, haha it was so cute.

But then right after church, I got all packed up and our WML's wife drove us to Quito to wait for President and Hermana Ghent, and when we met up with them there was another huge tender mercy: one of my old companions in Ambato had given Hna Ghent some cards and little gift things from Johanna and Domenica to give to me, so they literally got to me just in time, as I was leaving, and I probably couldn't have asked for anything better than that. I love those girls like I don't even know how to explain. 

So then we drove to the airport, and I decided that maybe it would've been easier to leave Ecuador if it was super ugly, but it isn't, it's such a beautiful country and that alone was causing me so much grief, on top of leaving all of the people I've grown to love here so much, ward members, missionaries, investigators and converts and everyone in between. Leaving my mission was without a doubt the most heartbreaking thing I've ever done.

But after we got me all settled with my flight and my luggage checked and everything, and as we were walking me to security, Hna Ghent gave me probably the best advice I've received yet. She assured me that this trial I'm going through will bless my future family more than if I had stayed in the mission. That was super comforting, and I believe it, although right now I can't really see why I know that someday I will.

So then I traveled all through Sunday night and Monday. I've decided that I like traveling, but I can't stand airplanes, so I'm just going to have to learn how to teleport myself so I can fulfill my dream of visiting every continent. I traveled home with a Senior couple so that was another tender mercy that I didn't have to figure out airports and flights all by my lone, uneducated self. I flew from Quito to Lima, to Atlanta, to LA, to Salt Lake. Meeehhh. But the flight from Atlanta to LA was incredible, and another huge tender mercy. The Lord placed me next to someone who was so incredibly prepared to receive the Gospel. We just got talking, and I was reading my Book of Mormon, and she asked if I was reading the Bible, and that gave me the chance to explain to her a little bit about the Book of Mormon and introduce the Church, and then she was like "I need a church. I really need to get back to church." !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How come nobody in Ecuador never said that to me?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? But we talked about repentance and Jesus Christ, and I gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet, because I had randomly decided to hang onto all my english pamphlets my entire mission, and it was so cool because every time I told her something she would say "Really?? I did not know that!!" So at the end of the flight, I invited her to pray about all the things we had talked about and the pamphlet, and she was like "I will, I definitely will" And I promised her that God would answer her prayer, and she was like "Really??!" And I was like "Yes!!" and then she said "Yes, I know he will answer my prayer." It was so cool, she was just so ready to hear the Gospel. I know she'll benefit a ton from the things we talked about, but I feel like I benefitted even more just by having the chance to be a missionary like how I always dreamed it would be before the mission. Because we do see miracles in the mission but stuff like that just didn't really happen that much for me. 

And then, that was it, I got home that night, on Monday, and I was released Tuesday night. I have been praying, studying, and pondering a lot to figure out what is the purpose behind all of this and what do I need to do now, and I don't really know yet. I know there is a purpose in me being home now, I don't know if I'm supposed to try to get back out into a different mission or if I need to be here, but I'm still weighing my options and trying to be receptive to knowing what God needs me to do here.

One thing I want to say though, is that the mission is the most unique experience that anyone can ever have. It absolutely changed my life, and I know it changed me a ton. It was the hardest thing I've ever done but absolutely the most rewarding. I'm grateful for the many testimonies I've gained on the mission, the biggest and best being that I know Jesus Christ is my Savior, and that he is our Redeemer, for all of us. Every single one of us! He waits with open arms to receive us and take upon himself all of our hardships and pains and sorrows. I know that He has helped me a ton throughout all of what I've been going through, and I would not be who I am or where I'm at today without Him. One scripture that's really helped me during this time has been Matthew 11:28-30

"Venid a mi, todos los que estais trabajados y cargados, y yo os hare descansar. Llevad mi yugo sobre vosotros y aprended de me, por que yo soy manso y humilde de corazon, y hallareis descanso para vuestras almas. Por que mi yugo es facil, y ligera mi carga."

Haha sorry, I don't know it in English. Just Spanish. haha...sorry.

But another big lesson I've learned since being home is this: In the mission, I thought a lot about all the things I had taken for granted, and all the things I was so excited to have when I got home, like clean water, or movies, or getting to sleep in, etc. But the thing is, the mission is worth more than all of those. You only get 18 to 24 months of a mission, or in my case, 7. You have all those things, the luxuries, you could say, all the things you're consecrated from, for your entire life. But the mission, the full time, called, consecrated service is only once. What I realized when I got home and had all of those luxuries was that I didn't enjoy them as much as I thought I would in the mission. The mission is only once, even if you serve missions when you're married, the young mission is only once and it is so unique and wonderful, so enjoy it. Enjoy every moment. Enjoy the mission like you think you're going to enjoy all the other things when you get home.

Well, that's about all I wanted to say. I do want to thank you all for your incredible, never failing support. I love you all so much! My civilian email is kaela.carter3@hotmail.com, so probably use that just incase my missionary email gets shut down during this time. But I still love hearing from you all and getting your mass emails and stuff, so keep those coming my way, please. I may have been released but that doesn't mean I'm not a missionary anymore :) Anyways, I love you all so much, family, friends, and everyone who has been such an amazing support to me during my whole mission! The best advice I can give is just to be a missionary every day for all of your lives, because the mission is the best, and I know it doesn't "end" once you take off the badge. :)

Love you! Thanks for everything!

Hermana Carter

NAVIDAD NAVIDAD LLEGA NAVIDAD OH YEAH AND A BAPTISM!!

So she had p-day today instead of Monday. We get to Skype with her tomorrow for Christmas. I’m just a little nervous about that. I had a hard time saying goodbye the first time. It is interesting she is with the same companion as when we said goodbye in the airport. I’m not sure if I have shared this tender mercy that happen for Kaela and us when we dropped her off at the airport in Salt Lake City, bound for the MTC in Mexico City. The story helps give context to the relationship with her current companion. Kaela was really nervous about the whole travel thing to Mexico City, so was I, badly. She is not an experienced traveler and had only been on a plane a couple times in her life and nothing international and she’s so little the thought of her dragging around a bunch of luggage as big as her in a foreign country about gave both of us a panic attack. So after we got her luggage checked in we were just waiting around in one of the passage ways between the parking and security, basically working up the courage for the goodbye. Kaela wanted to get a photo of all of us on her camera before we said goodbye. So we look down the passageway towards parking and see another sister missionary coming towards us. She is a little petit thing like Kaela and she is with what looks like a mom, dad, and little brother. As they approach us Kaela stops her and asks if she would mind taking a picture of all of us. Seeing her name badge in Spanish I asked her, “So where are you going on your mission?” “Quito, Ecuador,” she replied. Kaela about fell over, “Quito? Not Quito North, but Quito?!!” she asked. “Nope, just Quito,” the sister answered excitedly sensing what Kaela was about to say. “That’s where I’m going!!!” They both squealed and gave each other the biggest hug like they were long lost friends. That is when dad started to get really choked up. I was so grateful. After we took pictures of her and her family and quick introductions it was time to say goodbye. With the new friendship it was so much easier. There was quick goodbyes and hugs and then they ran off together laughing and excited. We looked at the other set of parents, who were looking at us with the same gratitude spread across their faces we had on ours and we all let out a sigh that could be heard for miles around. Well that sister in the airport is her companion now. They are a couple of little Hobbit women.

So the subject is Jingle Bells in Spanish. That`s all I know of the song pretty much. And yes! My third baptism this week!!! Woo!! This means I`ve officially had more baptisms than I had dates in college. Bacan.

SO I`M SUPER EXCITED TO TALK TO YA`LL TOMORROW!!!!!! Hehe even though I already talked to Mom, Stockton, I`m sorry I woke you up. But yeah here`s how I feel in the mission. It`s like AMBATO IS ALL I HAVE EVER KNOWN and then we go to Quito for random stuff and I`m like oh wait the mission actually exists outside of Ambato and then I call home and I`m like oh wait there is actually a world where I don`t wear a skirt every day and I can watch movies. Speaking of which enjoy this picture.

Yeah, speaking of wearing a skirt every day, I was hoping to make it through my whole mission without wearing jeans but yesterday we had a random service project of washing a less active member`s car so I had to wear jeans. The good news is they still fit. The bad news is I felt like a freak.

So yeah, we had a baptism this week!! Anibal was baptised!!!! Haha it was the most chaotic week of my life. He`s super great, he came to church 3 out of 4 Sundays so we haven`t been working with him very long but yeah, I love baptisms, but for as much as I wonder why I don`t ever have any, this week basically explained why. So what we did wrong was we didn`t tell people about the baptism soon enough, I guess, because we ran into the Bishop on Friday and we were like "hey we have a baptism tomorrow" and he said "chuso" (not sure what Chuso means, maybe great, or ok) and nothing else, so we were like...okay cool so maybe the Ward Mission Leader will help us? So we called our WML, also known as Morgan Freeman/Lucius Fox and he was like "okay, I will do all I can to help you, what do you need? I`ll be there on time, no, I`ll be there early!!!" Haha he`s super cool. And yes I will try to get a picture of him because he totally looks like Morgan Freeman. So Saturday came and luckily there was a baptism right before us from the magical ward of Pradera who literally has a baptism every week so we didn`t have to worry about cleaning or filling the font, and we frantically called our ZL´s and DL`s because we don`t know how to do baptisms and they said they would come, which was good, because in all there ended up being 8 missionaries, 4 members, and Anibal. Haha the cool thing was that Johanna and Domenica came!!! And our WML and one other member. And then the bishop came for the closing prayer. And I was feeling upset about how there were hardly any members there, but then I had this feeling come over me that it was okay, the ordinance is still valid and good in the eyes of the Lord and He is happy with my service. So that was really nice.

Okay a MIRACLE just barely happened. So you remember Maggie, right? She was one of our super great investigators, but her fecha (baptismal date) fell because her boyfriend cancelled their wedding, grr, and she dropped off the planet and we could not find her, and she just barely walked into this internet and was like "hermanas, que miraglo (milagro miracle)!!!" and it turns out she lives one block away from us. so cool!!!

So yeah, tomorrow we are going to make this lunch for Johanna and her family, I`m super excited. So we got everything together and then we were like wait, we don`t know how to cook any of this, so we decided to call Hermana Ghent and she was super excited about what we were doing but she said in their family it`s Pres Ghent who makes the mashed potatoes and gravy, so she gave the phone to him and explained to us how to make mashed potatoes and gravy, and he was super excited about what we were doing too, so that is the story of how I called my mission president because I didn`t know how to make gravy.

Okay, so what I learned this week is that asking for references is how to get a billion investigators. Our super wise Zone Leaders, who are equally hilarious, came with us because we were like hey we don`t have investigators help. And they just asked EVERYONE for references and filled up our appointments for the next 3 days. It was so cool. It was also super funny because we always see people here making out in the street and cual quier (whatever) location, and our running joke is always "hey, do you have a ley de castidad folleto (law of chastity pamphlet)?" So our ZL was like "hey, I'm going to give that couple over there a castidad folleto" and we were like, wait, really? And he totally did, and their reaction was hilarious. Haha so that is what I learned this week in terms of the work.

And now for the story of why I started crying in MegaMaxi (supermarket/grocery store). First we found out they sell Campbells Chicken Noodle Soup so that was a miracle. But no, Dad, it was your story! You have to know my side now, okay there isn`t much of a my side but here`s why it made me cry. The thing is, I already knew that story because Grandma Devona, your mom, was the one to tell me about it. And she just told me that Devona, your cousin, disappeared and they had no idea what happened to her or if she was even still alive, and so for some reason I wondered about her a lot, like if we would ever find her. like for me, it meant that there was another Devona somewhere in the world, and we didn`t know where. So the fact that you were able to contact her this week just knocked me off my feet, like it was seriously the coolest thing for me. I obviously don`t know her, but now I`ll be able to meet her, and yeah! Super cool!!!

So me and Hermana M... were wandering around a little bit lost trying to find the limit of our sector and a reference, when we ran into this white girl, and we were like "hey what are you doing here?!" and in broken English she responded that she was from Alemania (Germany) So we were like ah super cool! And she spoke Spanish but not English, and we spoke Spanish but not German, so we talked to this German girl, Nelli, in Spanish, which was super cool. Speaking of which I need to email her. Anyways, we talked to her a bit about her beliefs and stuff and she seemed suuuuper prepared she just wasn`t super interested in receiving missionaries, but she told us how she thinks a lot of the churches are corrupt and just formed by man, and we asked her what she believes about Jesus, and she told us that she believes that he lived, but he was killed and that was the end of it, so then we testified of the resurrection and she was like "wait, what is that??" and we testified that Jesus lives again and knows her personally and stuff and she was like wow, that`s super cool!! So yeah, it was nice to talk to someone with different religious beliefs haha.

Well, I think that`s about it. I can`t even tell you how excited I am to talk to you tomorrow!! Just think, in exactly 24 hours we`ll be seeing each other!!! Aahhh!!! Well have a great night with Chinese food tonight, where are you going? China Lilly? well enjoy your egg drop soup and whatever else you get, maybe get some spicy garlic pork, extra spicy and without veggies in my honor. Haha love you all, see ya TOMORROW!!!!!

Love, Hermana Carter

p.s. Mom, sorry I scared you today/made you cry, haha I love surprising people like that, haha and I hope you enjoy that I left like 2 more messages of me saying "WHY DON`T YOU ANSWER YOUR PHONE" in your voice mail haha.

Cambios

Hey family I hope you had so much fun watching the Hobbit.

NOT.

But seriousy, I went trunky out of my mind when you told me about it. Eso es pecado (that is a sin). So for this pecado (sin), you have to wait to see the third movie until I get home. There. That`s what you get.

Okay, so this week was one of the less productive weeks of my mission. Like we hardly taught or contacted at all. On Tuesday we FIIIIIIIIIIIINALLY moved into the new house, and YES I STILL HAVE BEDBUGS I brought them with me from the other house. -sad face- But Tuesday we were moving and packing all day, and I just stayed packed cuz I figured I would be leaving Ambato, and then Wednesday the maintenance man of the mission came to fix up the house because I guess light bulbs aren`t my thing, and I managed to crush one in my hand while trying to take it out of the ceiling. Luckily we were like miracle protected, and I only have a few cuts on my fingers. There is also one gigantic room in the house so we decided to put our beds, the desks, and fridge all in this room but then we got in trouble so...yeah.

Thursday we went to Quito to have a Christmas dinner with President and Hermana Ghent. I`ll be honest, it was probably the best, most spiritual night of my mission. It was so cool. First, we had an AMERICAN, NORMAL, CHRISTMAS DINNER with corn, ham, potatoes, rolls....mmmmm AND SALAD haha I miss salad so much. It was super cool though cuz all the hermanas got to sit at the table with President and Hermana Ghent and I loved talking to them, seriously Hermana Ghent is like amazing. I super want to be her when I grow up. Then after dinner we had a family home evening together and we had some spiritual thoughts about Christmas, and then we played games, but the coolest part was we went caroling! It was my zone and one other zone, and we stood outside an apartment building and sang christmas hymns and people were like coming out and waving at us and filming us and all this crazy stuff, but the spirit was SO strong, the whole time. And then we came back for hot chocolate, which was super delicious. AND I GOT YOUR CHRISTMAS PACKAGE. Oh my goodness, that christmas tree, and all the lights, are absolutely adorable. I am super happy. 

Okay so now for cambios news. So, things have been...not super great in this sector. I feel like I`ve knocked every door, talked to every person, and the ward is becoming less and less helpful for us, so I prayed my MIND out that I would leave Ambato. Literally every waking moment.And I really felt like I would. But then, my comp got suuuper sick on Friday, like she couldn`t even walk, so she ended up getting transferred to be comps with the mission nurse and I`m staying here. When I found out, I just cried and cried because...I don`t really feel like I`m fulfilling my purpose as a missionary here, like I`ve done all I can here and these people need someone else to help them.

There is good news to all of this though. MY COMPANION!!! Family, you remember Hermana M..., who I met when we said goodbye at the airport?? She`s my comp now!!!!! That`s such a tender mercy, that I get to pass Christmas and New Years with a good friend. I don`t know what kinds of success we`ll have here but we get along super well so that is really nice.

As far as the work was going, my heart probably shattered at least twice this week. First, Ecuadorian Randy (Eddy) for his work, won`t be able to come to church until the new year. But, his wife should be coming during the holidays so I`m pretty certain he`ll at least get married, but if I`m staying here it looks like I`ll be able to see his baptism. Also, Anibal, is getting baptised this saturday. He`s our only investigator, haha, but he`s super fiel. But, the WORST is that Maggi, our super great investigator, had to cancel her wedding, 10 days before she was going to get married, because something happened with her boyfriend. When we came over she was SUPER upset, so I don`t know what`s going to happen, but I feel so bad for her cuz she was so excited and everything. But she isn`t going to be baptized either :( So I don`t remember if I`ve told you this yet, but there are 3 wards that meet in our building. Ambato, Pradera, and Mira Flores (mine). Ambato and Pradera are like the golden wards that get tons of baptisms because they are super good at giving references and hermanamiento and stuff like that, and my ward is not. Haha. So whenever we find suuuuper good, prepared people, they are always in those other wards. It`s super funny. And a little bit frustrating, haha, but yeah, I`ll seek inspiration to see what I can do to help build up the ward in which I`ve been placed.

Okay, so I think mom had some questions. Haber.

1. Christmas in Ecuador is a lot different. There is no snow. There is no Christmas music except for what I play on my iPod and whatever is playing in MegaMaxi. The tradition is that they have a dinner on Christmas eve and that`s basically it. haha.

2. Insights into how to feel the Spirit. Hmm. Be worthy. Repent. Ask the people to turn off the TV during lessons. Ask people to turn off their phones during the sacrament. Haha okay in all seriousness, I can get back to you on that one, I`m still working on that whole thing myself. But everything in chapter 4 of PMG is what I would say.

3. The rice krispy treats are always nummy, especially the one that had chocolate in it. Um, homemade cookies would always be good, although I`m not sure how long they would keep. Pero no se, I`m always good with anything homemade that isn`t rice. Also, can you send me a couple of those things of Steven`s hot chocolate? Like the flavored kinds, raspberry and mexican chocolate are my favorite, but yeah all the hot chocolate here tastes not so delicious, but we found one american brand in Megamaxi today.

4. YES. All of my no show socks are starting to go missing. It`s a super tragedy. They sell them in WalMart (that beauty) and have a little sticky thing on the back cuz they always fall down...sock drama. Haha but yeah that more than anything. Actually if you find cute skirts that are on the longer side, all they sell here are mini skirts and I`m starting to realize that all I have is 4 of the same skirt in different colors.

5. It`s just a super dirty city with a lot of apartments and dogs. Quito has more architecture, it`s like all historic and cool and stuff. They name all the streets after famous people or famous dates in history, quito doesn`t have street names which makes it impossible to find people, Ambato does which is super nice. But there are never house numbers so addresses don`t exist. Things I have taken for granted. Regular addresses. Haha. Okay well I sort of lied, there are actually a lot of cool looking churches here. That`s basically it.

6. I wish I could bring back the view, and Johanna. One day in relief society I thought the entire time about if it would be possible for us to adopt her. I actually prayed about it cuz I was that seriously considering it but then I remembered that we speak english in America and she may not enjoy that too much. And yeah the view here is amazing.

Okay, I think that`s it. Mission Tweets:

-Finding surprise money in your pocket: Good. Finding a mango you forgot about in your pocket: not as good.

-Just realized that I`m wearing brown shoes with black socks with a grey skirt... *throws self into incoming traffic*

-How many missionaries does it take to change a lightbulb? Two! Because they always have to stay together! #reasonsmycompanionhatesme

AND SOME AMAZING FOTOS

oh yeah and emails should be 3:30 ecuadorian time, I`ll confirm next week because we have pday on Tuesday which means YES I will join you for chinese on christmas eve...in spirit...probably eating chinese in the mall because it`s the only place that plays christmas music.

love you all so much!! Have a great week!!!

Love Hermana Carter

An Interesting Week

Haha okay yeah, fam, I did buy your Christmas presents today! They probably won´t get to you until the second coming, and it might cost a fortune to send but it was totally worth it because they are super super cool. No hints, you´ll just have to wait. Unless they don´t get to you in which case I still won´t tell you because then you´ll just be sad because they are super cool.

Well this week is super interesting. I´ve got to be honest in this email, but I shall also do it with as much humor as I can, because that´s how I hide my pain. Hahahaha jk jk jk not really, I mean, I just think it´s funny for how completely crazy this is.

So we have no investigators. Well not zero zero but basically we hardly have anybody. Haha we contacted every day, searched and searched and we got to Saturday and we were just like....uh....like we legit had nothing to do, so we just went to the Church because it´s in our sector and there´s usually other missionaries there or something going on, as it happened there was a baptism so we literally just walked into the church, talked to the missionaries for a bit, and their convert, and then decided to take a walk around the block, so we passed by one investigators house and she told us not to come anymore and then we went back to the church and that was how we lost our last investigator. Haha. But it´s okay, we have pretty good spirits about it, we have cambios this week and I´m thinking that my time has come to say goodbye to Ambato, so I think this week we´re just going to try to do what we can to salvage our area and visit a lot of less active members and do a lot of service. Basically every night this week we´ve gone over to talk with Joanna and Domenica because they are like my life here and also Domenica´s mom is starting to be a little more receptive to us, okay that´s actually a cool story so here it is.

So Paola, Domenica´s mom and Joanna´s aunt is super nice, she´s just like super sweet and loving to us but usually doesn´t sit in the charlas because she´s busy or asleep, but something crazy happened in their family that we don´t know what, but ever since she´s been a lot more receptive to us. Well one night we taught them the Plan of Salvation and then we asked her to say the closing prayer, and she did but then just started crying and crying because she really wants to repent and change, so we shared with her Alma 36 when Alma talks about his conversion, and it was like 9:10 so we were about to leave but then she asked us to stay a little longer so we could sing some hymns with them, so we did, and the spirit was pretty strong, (and yes we did get home on time haha) but it reminded me of the story in the bible, the road to Emmaus, when they asked the Savior to tarry with them a little bit longer, and then say, "did not our heart burn within us?" or something like that. I´m not saying we´re like the Savior or anything, haha not even close, but it was cool to see somebody really feel the spirit and want more of it.

So that was my spiritual experience of the week. Now for some not so spiritual experiences but nevertheless they were a little bit funny. And frustrating. We´ll say funny to give it a more optimistic touch haha.

So first we were tocando and this guy was like well I don´t really want much to do with my religion, but my mom does, so he called her down and she was like "PASEN PASEN" so we went up and she´s like filthy rich. I expected Ecuador to be super poor, and I´ve seen poor people for sure, no extreme poverty, but mostly I´ve seen a lot of super rich people. Anyways so she invites us in and then gives us tea and we were like so....we can´t drink this. So that was how we offended her part 1. But then we tried to do the preguntas del alma (questions of the soul) with the book of mormon and she was like wait wait wait what is this book, and so we showed her the bible and she was like okay reina valera good and then we showed her the book of mormon and she was starting to act a little anxious so we were just like don´t worry, it´s the word of God, it was written by prophets and everything, and it has all the answers to your questions but I think she still thought it was the bible or something, at any rate she started quizzing us and testing the book of mormon, so she was like "what does it say in Isaiah 54?!?!" and I was like....well let me look in the Bible. So I pull out the bible and I had no idea what she meant by her question but I just read the chapter heading and she said "that is correct." And then she started telling us how she lives like a queen and her church is perfect so we were like okay....let´s go. So we said a prayer and then she gave us a watermelon and a thing of toilet paper and some propaganda, which we then gave to a less active member. But not the propaganda. 

So the second story. I´ll admit this was a little more frustrating than funny, but asi es. So there is one street that at first we thought was gold but turns out everyone on this street super hates us, but there is always this one little kid who is like "my mom is home, you can go visit her!" so we finally did on Saturday, and she was suuuuuuuper super nice, and then she asked us what we preach, and so I said something about how God has revealed more of his word through modern prophets and it was the craziest thing....she just like stared at me and said "what do you mean by prophets? There is nothing outside of the bible." So we explained how because God still loves his children, he is always going to give us more of his word and always call people to guide us and me and my comp both testified of the Book of Mormon and she completely freaked out. I´ve never seen anything like it before. She was yelling, and even pushing us a little bit, and telling us that we were confused and worse than the catholics and we need to get out of this devil path because satan has us in his power, so we asked if we could say a prayer so she could ask God if any of this is really true, or at least calm down the situation, but she refused and then kicked us out of her house.

I´ve never experienced anything like that on my mission, it was super weird. But, it actually increased my testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. It hurt, because I thought back to all the times that I´ve gained a personal testimony of the truth of the Book of Mormon and how she told me that all of that is a lie. What I love about being on the mission, though, is how much I get to bear my testimony. And the difference between us and everyone else is that I don´t have to say "I believe this is true" I get to say "I KNOW this is true" and of all the propaganda I´ve been handed and for all the people I´ve talked to with the billions of other religions I´ve seen here, not once have I seen an invitation to pray and ask God if it´s true. But that´s what we do, every day. We invite people to ask God themselves if it´s true, because we know they´ll get an answer if they ask with real intent. I know it because that´s how it happened with me, I felt, I have felt a thousand times that this is the truth. That´s how it all started, with a 14 year old boy praying to God to find the truth, with the faith that he would receive an answer, and that´s how it is now, we pray to God to find our answers. I love it, I love being able to testify of that truth, because nobody else does!!! I´m so grateful for all the answers I´ve received through prayer, because even though there are enough physical evidences of the truth on the church, my strongest evidence is all that I have felt through the holy ghost. Pretty cool.

But speaking of physical evidences, GUESS WHAT. Okay so I´m like behind on the times so this is probably old news, but a member showed us this article the other day (okay so it´s probably a sin that I looked at a material that isn´t the standard works but it´s church related so hopefully not) but National Geographic released an article about how a third of Native American genes all trace back to....guess where.... JERUSALEM. Hahahahahahahahah the article was like yeah we´re pretty shocked about this recent development and I was like BOOK OF MORMON = TRUE.

Well I don´t have much else to say, I always forget awesome stuff but let´s be honest my letters are like way too long anyways AH I ALMOST FORGOT SOMETHING SUPER IMPORTANT.

First, we have an investigator, kind of, she isn´t a member and never comes to church but is one of those poco a poco, but her daughter is a member and I love this family to death and we usually go over there when it´s raining and we don´t have umbrellas but the mom, Jackie, is seriously Ecuadorian Donnie. Haha Dad I´m slowly but surely finding all of your family in Ambato haha. Speaking of Donnie tell her to write me and send me Europe pictures. Okay so that actually was just on my mind not the important thing.

CHRISTMAS IS COMING AND I´M GONNA SKYYYYPE. Except maybe can we google chat because I forgot my skype info? Well whatever works best for you, but yeah, if I stay in Ambato i´ll either do it at Ecuadorian Donnie´s house or with Flia Guerrero, if I leave I´m sure I´ll be able to find a member there, if not...sorry. haha jk jk don´t worry there´s like a billion internet cafes. But I only get 40 minutes so write down all your questions so we don´t waste time talking about how I´ve had bed bugs for 11 weeks haha. I can do it whenever, it just has to be on Christmas, obvs, so tell me a time and I´ll work my super free schedule around it. Also Christmas day is a normal work day....which I´m a little sad about but I decided that instead of normal work me and my comp will just do lots of service and caroling or something because we´re not allowed to tract that day. Also the day before will be our p-day so yes I will be eating chinese food with you, in Spirit.

Ah, okay, done. Haha I love and miss you all so much, I think about you all a lot and I hope you are doing so well. Stockton, I hope you get better from your sickness soon, unless you already did, I don´t know these things haha. But seriously, I hope you are all enjoying the snow! And winter, all that good stuff. Haha it rained today....okay yeah. I love you all a ton, and you are always in my prayers!!! Have a fantastic week!!!

Love Hermana Carter aka kela aka kaela aka I actually forgot my name until my zone leader said it today.

p.s. dad you´ll hate this, I was with Ecuadorian Donnie yesterday and she was telling me all about how she loves candy crush and then she started playing it in front of me and I was just like okay compy let´s go haha it was super funny. but yeah. sorry. hahaha. 

Happy Birthday Dad

DAD!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOODNESS YOU ARE 50 THAT´S SO OLD.

hehehehehehe ;) aw I love you Dad!!! I hope you had a wonderful birthday!!!!!

This week....ahahahaha um yeah. So I´m not sure where to begin!! Okay so really not much happened this week. I always have a billion things to say and then I get to the internet and I´m like wait...whut.

But thank you SO MUCH for that picture of the roof going on the temple!!! Eeee I can´t WAIT to be able to go!!! I hope sooo badly I´ll be able to go to the dedication but yeah I love watching my little temple grow!!!!! Also I am super sad that I am not in Utah right now for a super freaky cold winter, not. Haha I am thoroughly enjoying living directly under the sun and not getting as tan as I would like to. Except I rock the cardigan and 3/4 skirt all day long so yeah that´s what I get.

Dad, I loved that story about what you did for Christmas on your mission. I have a few ideas, but send me more if you get any!!! Today I accidently bought two combo meals from Tropi Burger because I actually don´t understand Spanish as well as I think I do so I gave one of them to a homeless lady and it was like the happiest thing that happened all week. But yeah service is like the best thing ever because that´s like automatic happiness, it was actually super cool with this lady because I bought a gigantic supersize meal cuz I was fasting, and then they doubled it so I was able to give this giant meal to this lady and she was like 90 and super cute. So yeah, I just want to give up on converting people and go find all the less actives and go do service and nothing else but I think my leaders would all toss me off Cotopaxi if I tried to do that because everyone wants baptisms and I´m just like yeah....sorry. My ZL was telling me today how his hardest transfer was when he only had 5 baptisms and I was just like -bashes head into a wall-. I also had a member get mad at me yesterday, when I asked her if she could help us find more of the less active members of the ward and she told me that I shouldn´t be thinking about them, because they´re already baptized and it´s their fault if they don´t want to stay active. -bashes head into wall again-

Also Dad, thank you sooooo much for the hobbit quote. You have to copy and paste it into the blog post here because I love it to death.

Gandalf: Well, why does it matter? He's back!
Thorin Oakenshield: It matters. I want to know - why did you come back?
Bilbo Baggins: Look, I know you doubt me, I know you always have. And you're right... I often think of Bag End. I miss my books, and my armchair, and my garden. See, that's where I belong, that's home. That's why I came back... 'cause you don't have one, a home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can.

Mom, don´t worry about safety. Only the elders in our ward have been jumped yet, funny it was the same street as the church is on. Haha but seriously, don´t worry about me. Yesterday was pretty bad, because all of our citas (appointments) fell through and me and my comp were just like...well what do we do now...so we headed over to the church and a bunch of the missionaries were there, so we asked one trio of elders if they wanted to contact with us and they were like "yeah, but we don´t really know how to contact" and we were just like "yeah it´s okay we don´t either" so that´s the only time I´ve worked on danger street. Okay so actually every street after the sun goes down is danger street but nothing has happened to me, just everyone else.

Actually something incredible and awful happened on that street. So we were knocking doors and we found a couple of teenagers who SPEAK ENGLISH BETTER THAN THEY SPEAK SPANISH BECAUSE THEY WERE RAISED IN THE UNITED STATES so we were able to teach about Joseph Smith and the Restoration IN ENGLISH and it was the most amazing thing ever. And they wanted to learn more, but live in our ZL´s sector, so we wrote down their number and went to give the reference, but THE NUMBER WAS WRONG. So we went back to the house where we found them the next day, but the only person there was their grandmother, and she told us that she wouldn´t help us at all because the whole family is Catholic, and the boys are too, and they don´t want to listen to us. Aaaaahhhhh so we´re going to specific prayer it up to find them again.

Another crazy thing happened. So we were contacting Tupac again, the street that we just always to go to contact half because of the name and half because of the view and we found a deaf lady, and my comp sort of speaks sign language and I have a gospel art book so we were able to sort of communicate with her but she asked for our number, and we gave it to her, and that night we returned early to do our weekly planning (and to celebrate thanksgiving part 2 with the amazing cheesecake that we secretly bought) and SHE CALLED US. It was like the scene in the best 2 years when they´re praying and the phone rings and the hallelujiah chorus starts playing because that is basically how we felt. And it was actually her daughter who called us, but we got the address and I think her family doesn´t want us to come because we haven´t been able to actually get into her house to teach her but we´re going to keep trying. But seriously, super cool, the spirit was actually way strong during that contact.

And mom, I TOTES DEFS want to go visit you and go to the DC temple after my mission. Haha I can´t believe it, today is my 5 month mark. I feel like a baby but I only have a little over one year left!!! It´s crazy, the time goes by so fast.

So I should tell you about some of the people in our ward. La familia G... is my favorite, by far. They speak a little bit of English, and have family living in Utah as well, so they´re like pretty normal but Hermano G... is amazing, he showed us the house of a less active family and he basically taught the lesson and they´ve been coming back to church ever since, so we basically want to bring them to every lesson. There is also the J... family, they are technically less active because they don´t really come to church but they always give us lunch and we´re teaching their daughter, who is basically Mormon already without the baptism, but they have a bunch of dogs and the other day we came for lunch but it wasn´t ready yet so the mom was like here let me put on a movie for you guys and we were like uhhhhhh so that was a little awkward. Who else who else. Well yeah that´s all I can think of right now, but I love the ward. They take care of us, but not our investigators or converts or anything. Haha not at all.

So we´re trying to put together a district choir for I´m not really sure why but we did a practice today, and you know how it is with Latin America and singing....haha yeah it was super funny.

So I´ve been starting to go a little crazy while contacting, because nobody wants to listen to "dos gringitas" so they just tell us that we are speaking English and they don´t understand us. But yeah maybe pray for me that I can actually find some people without risking my sanity.

Also, to all the people who are reading my blog who are return missionaries, or who are even missionaries, or even if I don´t know you but you read my blog or letters because they are just so hilarious and everything SEND ME YOUR FINDING WISDOM. Seriously email me, it´s kaela.carter@myldsmail.net if you have any creative ways of finding people that don't include knocking on doors or chasing down people in the street ENLIGHTEN ME. Hehe. Yeah but really. Thank you.

 

Okay I´m breaking out the mission tweets:

-Things I´m thinking while I´m watching the District

  -1% I´m really excited to apply what I´ve learned here into my daily work

  -99% I think this ward is actually located in the Celestial kingdom.

 

-So I'm thinking the reason I wasn't called Stateside was because I would order a pizza during the weekly planning session.

-How crazy is it to think that someone here in Ecuador is playing music from a band that was started in my very own city. In other news, yes, people continue to blast all my favorite songs during my morning studies. #somuchforspirit

-Things I have never said: "I sure hope a whole bunch of creepy men are standing next to me when this bus jolts to a stop and I fall over."

-So it turns out the guy who lives next to us is a super big fan of really bad Ecuadorian karaoke.

Well, I love you all so much. As far as something spiritual, I´ve been studying chapter 4 of PMG so I can have the spirit in our lessons, and I´ve been studying the conversion process and it turns out the people who have the strongest conversions, like Alma, all went down the exact same path of Faith, Repentance, Baptism (or making covenants), Receiving the Holy Ghost and then not Enduring to the End but actually jumping right into missionary work. Also Alma 5 is a beautiful chapter, go read it with the Work of Salvation in mind. Also this is a scripture but on a less spiritual note my roommate found 2 Chronicles 21:15, 18-19 and it reminded me of my first transfer in the mission.....haha yeah I´m glad I´m not sick anymore, but the fleas are back, grr. haha

Well, have an amazing week, I love you all so much and STOCKTON POR QUE NO ME ESCRIBES but seriously, you are always in my prayers. Thanks for all your support!!! Enjoy these great pictures, and your week!!!

Love, Hermana Carter

Me with my new megamaxi card!!! Super official.  aaaand I bought a coconut and broke it open just because I wanted to see what was inside.

 

 

Contacting Tupac

Wow, this might be a long email. Haha a lot of funny things happened this week.

First, the picture should explain the subject hehe. Well yeah we contacted like 1 door in this street and there was a lady who was like yeah....I'm pretty busy aka I don't want to listen to what you have to say and we asked if we could do any service for her and she was like well I need help setting up my Christmas tree and we were just like uh, yes. So this year I did get to help set up a Christmas tree, not all is lost.

Speaking of Navidad, we finally broke out the Christmas music on my iPod. The day of "Thanksgiving" (seriously how did I miss that one) but I guess it's okay because that means we'll just have to celebrate it again. I'm really glad I have a companion who appreciates my sense of logic. And humor. Haha. But yeah I'm loving the Christmas music, it's giving me a great excuse to listen to J-Grobes and Elder Darchuleta. Aaaaand more Mark Geslison. Haha somebody tell him that I have like all of his CD's on my iPod I don't even know how that happened it like multiplied within my iPod or something anyways it's that for the next 13 months haha. And Lord of the Rings. hahaha.

So, a few things happened this week. Thursday we had Elder Alvaro from the 70 come!!! It was like a surprise, like I learned about it on Wednesday so we had a big zone conference with him and the Ghents and it was sooooooooooooo good seriously I'm trying to think...I don't really remember right now but I do remember that he served his mission in Bolivia, Dad!!! He talked about better ways to plan, and our purpose in why are we here in the mission, like not what do we hope for after the mission but what do we hope for right now in this very moment, and he said that we should all be thinking the same thing, to cry repentance!!! He was super cool, and his wife was super sweet, she talked about her mission and how it just blessed her life so much. Like, not in a trunky way, but I'm pretty excited for life after the mission, like I know it'll have it's trials just like the mission but I just have a feeling like I'm going to be able to see so many blessings after my mission thanks to the work I've done here. The Ghents also spoke, and they are seriously wonderful. I don't remember what they talked about though, but we got to have a mini meeting with just the hermanas with Hermana Ghent and Hermana Alvaro and they were so sweet, seriously Hermana Ghent is like my role model.

Friday...our lunch fell through, so luckily I have a companion who likes fun so we decided to probe the unknown waters of Ecuadorian Chinese Food. Well basically we couldn't read the menu so we just had to guess, Hermana Sellers scored and got some pad thai looking stuff, I have no idea what mine was but it was super gross and yeah. With luck, I'll have a companion who likes having fun for Christmas so we can get Chinese on Christmas Eve tambien (also).

Well, here's a more triste (sad) note. So remember how last week we found a billion people and I was like yeah this week we're going to have tons of success!!! nope. Haha this week was not the greatest in the number area, Saturday we did a bunch of service so our numbers were super bajo (low) and my district leader was just like, what in the world did you do all week. Also on Saturday we found this incredible lady who wanted to get baptized suuuuuper badly into our church, but she doesn't live in our sector so we wrote down her number but I wrote it WRONG. So we can't find her!!!!! And we went looking for her and found her husband and he was super rude to us and just told us that he doesn't speak English so we should leave. Grrrrr. So then on Sunday I was feeling pretty discouraged about that, and we were in the church studying because we went to another ward with Ecuadorian Randy and one of the Elders gave us a reference, of somebody who was IN CHURCH that day, like what a miracle, but it turned out the ref was for my old comps. But the trials of Sunday weren't over. After church we went to a transmission about the Work of Salvation, which was pretty cool, and then somehow right after the transmission i LOST MY AGENDA. My agenda is my life haha it has our entire world, and my money too so I was pretty sure I had been robbed, but I was like how in the world was I robbed during a meeting full of bishops and relief society presidents, but we searched and searched for like an hour, and that was about when I had emotional breakdown #2, I was just thinking why in the world is this happening, could today be any worse, but the 1st counsellor in the bishopric here, and his family, the familia G... are like the sweetest family in the ward, and they came back to help me look for my agenda, and eventually we found it in a bishop's office somewhere, and then they took me to their house and we had a Noche de Hogar with one of our investigators and they made me American food. Haha so Sunday ended on a pretty good note.

Anyways, that's all I can really think of right now. Here's my mission tweets for the week!!

oh just kidding I just found my notes of things I wanted to tell you guys. Haha. First, this is my missionary compromiso  (challenge) for you guys this week. GO TO THE TEMPLE EVERY WEEK FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIIIIIIIIIIIVES seriously there is no such thing as not having time for the temple. And I'll even follow the formula in PMG for making compromisos. (Testify) I know that when I went to the temple every week before my mission, I received so much strength and I was so much happier, and I could tell the difference from the weeks that I missed and the weeks that I went. (Promise blessings) I promise you, Dad, that you'll have more capacity to handle your crazy job. And mom, I promise that you will have more strength to do the millions of school things you have to do. (verificar) Entonces, what do you have to do every week? [Go to the temple!!!] Exactly!! Bien hecho (good job).

Also, uh, there is a quote in the hobbit where Bilbo says something like "I miss my home, I miss my garden. I have a home, but you don't. It's been taken from you. And I'm going to help you get it back." Because Hermana S... and I have decided that's like our missionary purpose but I don't remember how it goes exactly and I like to put motivating quotes in my agenda, haha.

Speaking of motivating quotes, here's one I found. "You can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you can't count the number of apples in a seed. The harvest is the Lord's, your responsibility is to thrust in the sickle."

Also, Alma 26:27-29 is like, my life, and a super great scripture for "Talk to Everyone." and I want 3 Nephi 17: 21-23 to hang up on my wall in my home when I'm a mother.

Yeah okay now here's my mission tweets.

-One of the hermanas just told me that I should start counting my family of recent converts as one of my 5 less-active families #hasteningtheworkofsalvationprobs (and yeah about that...haha yeah not much more to say about that....)

-Doesn't know a word in Spanish- Oh it's okay I'll just wait until Monday so I can Google Translate it...nope.

-They say that the last song you had stuck in your head before your mission is the one you'll have stuck in your head your entire mission. Not really, but that's what I'm assuming, seeing as I've had the Sherlock theme song stuck in my head for 5 months.

-To the vecino who is blasting the Teenage Dream CD by Katy Perry right outside our door during companionship study WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU TRYING TO DO TO ME. -starts blasting "Come Thou Fount" like a maniac

-Well, I just had a craving for 5 guys fries so...yeah. Not much I can do about that one.

Hehe I love you all sooooooooooooo much!!! Thank you all for all your support, and love. I've been spoiled with the greatest family in the world. Love you all, until next week!!!

Love, Hermana Carter

 

A Week of Miracles

Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamiry :D y amigos!!! :D

ALL THE GOOD THINGS OF THIS WEEK:

I got a letter from Hermana Flores!!!!!!! She was super sweet, and chuso, I miss her a lot. It´s crazy how some companions you end up developing such a strong love for, but only after transfers. Like with Hna F..., and Hna S..., sometimes I would feel impatient for no reason at all, and I took for granted the fact that they are seriously human angels. Hermana S... taught me one of the best lessons of my mission, and that was service. I still remember so vividly when I asked her, "how do you do it??? How are you so mindful of every opportunity to serve??" and she just said "I don´t always know if I´m doing something right, or wrong, but I know that every time I serve someone, I´m doing something right." And then Hermana F... taught me charity through and through, and those have been the best two attributes I´ve learned my whole mission and the ones I want to absolutely perfect. And patience, haha. Okay so that was a really long way to say I got a letter from Hermana F..., but also something this week I´ve just been thinking that I want to make the best of the companionship now, the fact that I´m not in a trio (but seriously) the fact that she speaks English, we have a bunch of similar interests, yep, Hermana S... is pretty bacansisimo. So I´m determined not to take that for granted.

I should explain the weekend of miracles part, haha. This week has been a little rough, well, number-wise...we´ve been working pretty hard but haven´t really seen many fruits from it, so Friday our DL went tracting with us and to a lesson with us, well, the lesson was interesting, I am pretty sure America is never going to speak to us again but I guess we´ll see tonight, but he taught us the importance of street contacting, which I hated doing before, but now I love it because the people can´t hide behind their doors, lying about how their cat just died or whatever. So we made a ton of contacts, and then took to practice this concept on Saturday, and at the end of the day on Saturday we had EIGHT people who accepted a baptismal date, my mind was seriously blown cuz 8 people in 1 day has never happened to me. But the next day none of them came to church so that was a little bit of a bummer, but I´m super excited to start working with them this week because some of them are seriously oro (gold). Like a couple who is MARRIED but yeah I´m super excited for this coming week.

However, it was still a weekend of miracles because we are having RAGING success with the less actives. Seriously, this week I came to the decision that my calling here in Ecuador was not to bring people to the waters of baptism, but to find and bring back to the fold the people who have already been baptized but lost their way. Seriously, I love teaching the less active members, they are so great, they all have testimonies already, we just have to help them rekindle them, and the bonus is that a lot of times there is someone in their family who isn´t baptized yet, but have been raised, at least a little bit, in the principles of the gospel, and are way receptive too. They usually have friends who are members, so they already have hermanamiento and everything. Also, with the less actives, the goal with them isn´t baptism, but it´s getting them to the point where they can take the sacrament and the best is getting them to the temple!!! That is such a wonderful goal to have in mind!! One example of a story. We found a less active family, they have daughters in young women's and everything, and we taught them one time on a Saturday night a couple weeks ago, and they´ve been coming back to church ever since, the girls are even going to young women's and the little boy was in the primary program this week! And they were inactive for 4 years!!! I´ve been saying that I haven´t been seeing any miracles, but I´ve just been looking in the wrong place. I was totally called to my mission in the right time, for the Work of Salvation. I still want to help bring people to baptism, a lot, and I have a lot of hope for some of the people we´ve found this week, and we also received a ton of great referrals, but yeah, those are my thoughts on success this week. Also on the fact that success is measured in personal conversion, it makes me so happy to think how much I´ve changed on my mission, and I´m only sitting on 4 and a half months. I know I just need to keep pushing myself harder and harder to develop all the attributes I want, haha pray that I can learn patience because the bed bugs keep biting and our hot water broke again, haha, but seriously, I´ve learned a lot, and that is way more important to me than baptisms right now.

Today was actually pretty fun, we had a zone activity, we went to the parque de la familia and played kick ball, I think I killed myself from running so much at a gazillion feet altitude, and I also got a picture of me breaking the biggest rule of the mission so far, haha we found a zip-line for 12 year olds and we were just like...well...when are we going to get the chance again to zip line in Ecuador. So that´s my goal, to still obey with exactitude and all that good stuff, but also have fun, seriously, I´m living in Ecuador, the opportunities are endless. But since Thanksgiving is this Thursday, we had a big thanksgiving dinner with our zone and the zone right next to us, it was pretty good, I had bacon so I can´t complain, but it was definitely not what I´m sure you guys are looking forward to. But some elders found a guy from Canada who makes pie for government officials so we´re going to buy some pie from him, and...yeah.  I hope your turkey burns this Thursday. Not really. But really. Also our ZL´s found a place called Waffle House that sells milkshakes so we´re going there today too...I hope.

Okay one last funny story. I´ve told you all the scariest stories of my mission, but this one right here has earned the place of #1 most awkward experience of my mission thus far, and that´s with all the times that I´m just super awkward around all the elders because I don´t even try it just happens that way, haha. Anyways, on Saturday we contacted a guy outside of his house and asked if we could come in and share a message with his family, he told us to wait one sec and went back into his house, so we waited a couple minutes and then he came back out and he was super excited, he told us that he was Evangelico and loves hearing the palabra de Dios, so I go to shake his hand, but he just grabbed me and straight up kissed me on the cheek and said "Dios te bendiga!!!" like not even a social kiss, it was the real deal, I was like in shock, I was just thinking to myself okay, let´s just teach them lesson 1 and then get out of here and never return but they all ended up accepting fecha so we´ll see what happens this week. It was super weird. Super, duper weird.

Well, that´s really all I have to report for this week, haha also my Spanish has improved tenfold, I know that´s a straight up blessing from the Lord and a resource I have to use to help my companion learn Spanish. I´m feeling really great here, I´m loving my mission, it´s so incredibly hard, but I´m enjoying myself and determined to enjoy myself even more and work super hard this week!!! I love you all so much and I pray for you every day!!!! Have a great week!!!!

Love, Hermana Carter