Alrighty P-day is almost over we've had a long day so this letter may be a little short. It's 4 here and P-day ends at 5 when we get dinner, and I'm in desperate need of a haircut. So we had to go shopping today and Brother Gladden was kind enough to give us a ride but he couldn't go until 12. That took a few hours because we had to ship some stuff with him too. All this was fine and we weren't too pressed for time. We came into the office to do our e-mails at 2 and Elder Hansen just barely finished!!!! Ugh. Oh well I still love the guy.
Anyhow the temple was great. We get to go 4 times a year no more then that, depending on our ride situation sometimes less. Most of the areas here have at least a part time car like our area. However, we're limited on our monthly miles so if we used to car to drive out to Franklin, where the temple is, the round trip would probably use up the miles for 2 weeks where we'd have to walk or ride our bikes. So if you can get a ride to the temple on your assigned day, then you can go. The temple is super small. It's smaller then our stake center. They don't have a laundromat in the temple so you need to provide your own clothes, so we borrowed some of the members' clothes. It was a great experience as usual.
Lola got sick so we couldn't teach her this week but that's okay. Then Chad called a few hours ago and canceled our appointment tonight because the heating unit in his house went out last night around midnight, so he and his wife and 2 small children are staying at the in-laws' place until they can get it fixed. We did, however, teach a lesson yesterday to a very, very large black man named Jerome, who told us that he's been "lookin' fer da truf fer a bery wong time." He's really funny and very Southern. However after we taught the lesson he accepted the commitments to read and pray, and we also committed him to be baptized when he comes to know that its true. He's very accepting. We found him off a member referral in a neighboring area! He heard the gospel from them. He asked them how they could be so happy in trying times like these, and they told him about the gospel. He wanted to know more so they called us and sent us over there! Because they opened their mouths this man is going to get baptized and become a candidate for salvation in the celestial kingdom! Maybe I'm jumping the gun a little bit but the Lord has prepared this man to be taught. If those people would have brushed off his comment or told him some other reason for being happy because they wanted to avoid a sensitive subject then this man would probably have to wait several more years before he heard the message of Christ's restored gospel!! Member work is the way to go. It's much much more effective.
I got a call from Ed last week on Tuesday saying that he spoke with the Stake and they told him he'd have to wait 5 months and then they'd consider him for re-admission into the church. After that Vicki wanted to wait for him. When I got that phone call it saddened my heart. However we were able to get back over there and teach them some more and Vicki decided that she still wanted to get baptized now. So now she's set for this Saturday! They finally realized that Vicki will be so much more of a support for Ed once she can obtain the gift of the Holy Ghost, and she'll be happier herself! I'm really excited for them. Now we just need to find some baptismal clothes because we don't have any in Hendersonville!!
President Hutchings is still thinking about shutting down the area and I can understand why. I think shutting the area down from missionaries will do a lot to get the members to realized that they need to at least help the work out. Unfortunately I'm afraid if they close the area that the investigators we have won't be visited by the members and they'll fall back into searching mode or 'Church shopping' as most of them call it down here. Then they'll miss out on an opportunity to partake of the blessings of the gospel now and have to wait for it to come to them later. I'm torn, but I'm still pretty sure that they'll keep Hendersonville open for at least one more transfer.
Which leads me to the GPS. Thank you very much. We did get the GPS this week and it works wonderfully. Everything is going well here. I'm very happy and working very hard and wouldn't have it any other way. I've learned some southern cooking techniques, and the two that work in every case are add more butter and throw in a piece of bacon. Whenever you're cooking anything from green beans to fried chicken they throw in a piece of bacon to add to the flavor and the grease. The butter works the same way.
Love you all and I love hearing from you.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Feb. 10, 2009
Surprise!!! You get a Tuesday letter today! We had our zone conference yesterday so we didn't have our p-day then, and they moved our p-day to Wednesday for a temple p-day, however we already had some afternoon appointments set so we talked to President Hutchings at the zone conference and he approved us having a split up p-day. Whenever we go to the temple (4 times a year) it's supposed to be our p-day because we've been called to serve the living, not the dead, so we don't take temple time out of our proselyting time. However, we didn't want to cancel our teaching appointments, so we thought we'd check with President Hutchings. So we did some laundry last night, and now we're writing our e-mails this afternoon, and then we get our temple time tomorrow. So that's exciting and that's why you had to wait an extra day for your e-mail, sorry.
This week has been an excellent week. I decided to go over some of our numbers and make some new records (if Elder Hansen has one major weakness it's record keeping), and I realized that when I got here we had 1 progressing investigator. Now we have 12 progressing investigators and one set for baptism! So despite some discouragement, things have gotten much better. I've also come up with some plans on what we can do to get the ward members working and many of them went right along with what both of you suggested (Mom & Dad). One of the things I learned in drumline, and then even more out here teaching investigators, is that when you can get the person you're trying to get someone to understand something if you can let them reach the conclusion on their own and make the commitments on their own then they're a lot more likely to stick to it. So I'm going to talk to the bishop and see if we can set up a day where Elder Hansen and I could teach the relief society and the priesthood combined, and try to get the youth to take care of the primary like we've done back home several times so that all the adults can make it to the meeting. Then we'll teach about the importance of missionary work and set up 2 lists on the board, Missionary Responsibilities and then a list of Member Responsibilities, and then we'll let them fill up each list. It seems most of the members feel like if they feed us and give us rides places that they've met the requirement of missionary work. So hopefully that will help out.
I also got a package today from the young women of the ward that was very nice. Tell them thank you very much. However I have no idea what I'm going to do with half of the stuff in there. :) Thanks also for the talks on CD. Elder Hansen had heard half of the talk on the sacrament from my I-Pod and was thrilled to see that we have the completed talk now. So thank you very much.
Ed says that he's called the stake but they haven't gotten back to him yet. However we talked to the stake executive secretary and he hasn't heard from Ed. Unfortunately, we can't do anything at all for Ed at this point, because he has to be the one to make the first move to set up the appointments with the stake as part of the repentance process. All we can do is support and encourage him now. Vicki is doing fanstastically though. Our last lesson with them went really well. They decided that they needed to get us some dessert after our lesson with them 2 weeks ago, so they went out and bought doughnuts, and ice cream, and hot fudge, and peanuts, then they cut the doughnuts in half and put ice cream in between the two halves, then drizzled the hot fudge on top with the peanuts. It was a heart attack and a half but totally worth it! Ed also said something that made both Elder Hansen and I rejoice. When we were telling them that it was very unlikely that Ed could be baptized with Vicki since the stake contact had yet to be made. Ed told Vicki that regardless of where he stood to be baptized he wanted her to go ahead with it and be baptized with or without him. Then he bore his testimony on how important baptism is. It was the best possible thing that could happen! So I don't want to say that it's a sure thing she'll get baptized, but it's pretty darn close.
Our meeting house is actually in Gallatin, the closest building and the former meeting place was the stake center that's technically in Madison, but it's on the border between Madison and Goodletsville. The wards here split several months back so it wouldn't surprise me too much if the church website still had the Hendersonville ward posted as going to that building, and it might just be set as far as closest meeting house. Which is the stake center but we've been assigned to the Gallatin meeting house about 15 miles away.
So transfers are on the 24th of this month and we'll know on the 21st whether I'll be transferred or not. If I were to wager I'd say that I'm staying here, however, I'm not willing to wager.
So we've got some great investigators that we've found. There's this guy named Chad, I'm not sure if I've told you about him before but he's a preacher of a non-denominational church. He's presently not preaching, but he's still got his employment posting as preacher. He knows the Bible really well, but he doesn't fully understand it. In the 2 lessons we've had with him thus far he's been very receptive, and in the lesson we had with him yesterday it was very powerful. That's the only way I can think of explaining it. He definitely felt something. I just hope that he can identify it as the spirit.
Then we also tracted into a women named Lola whose been church hopping for years. She said that she had a dream about 5 years ago where the Savior told her that he had a work for her to do and she needed to go to church. So she picked the Methodist church and started going. Then she asked someone a question and they couldn't answer it, so she left that church and joined a Baptist church, then when she was dissatisfied with that she joined a different Baptist church. She said that she recognized us as servants of the Lord because she could 'feel the fire' when we spoke with her on her doorstep. It was a testimony to me that the Lord has truly been preparing people for us to teach and trusting us with the opportunity to teach these people who have been so carefully prepared by the Lord is truly a blessing to us.
Funny story for the week then I'll be done. Yesterday we had to wash the car before Zone conference because they inspect all the vehicles there. The conference started at 7:30, meaning that we were up at 5:30 and washing the car at Bro. Gladden's (Santa's) house at around 6:30 and we needed to leave by 7 to get there on time. So we called ahead and he agreed to let us use his hose and told us not to expect him to come out and greet us. So we're out there washing the car in our suits hurrying as the sun is coming up. Right as we're finishing Bro. Gladden comes out and gives us these two thermoses and told us that it was his special hot cocoa and that we could bring the mugs back later. I love hot chocolate so I'm way excited to try Santa's special hot cocoa that he made with half and half he told us. However what I didn't know is that Bro. Gladden loves coffee. He doesn't drink it any more but he loves the taste of it so he buys a wheat drink that is a coffee supplement for him. It has no caffeine and none of the other bad stuff for you, it's actually quite healthy, it just tastes like coffee. So we jump in the car and we're driving, I pop the top on the thermos and take a sip, as I'm going in to drink it I remember vaguely thinking, 'something smells like coffee...' it was a very disappointing shock. Elder Hansen and I decided that we needed to go home and drop the thermoses off as to 'avoid the appearance of evil'. I'm still a little disappointed that Santa's special hot cocoa is really just a coffee supplement....oh well.
Love,
Elder Carpenter
P.S. Mom I totally forgot to wish you a happy Birthday last month!! Then when I remembered I felt horrible, then I forgot again the next P-day and so on and so forth until today. So happy birthday!!!! I hope it was a great one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This week has been an excellent week. I decided to go over some of our numbers and make some new records (if Elder Hansen has one major weakness it's record keeping), and I realized that when I got here we had 1 progressing investigator. Now we have 12 progressing investigators and one set for baptism! So despite some discouragement, things have gotten much better. I've also come up with some plans on what we can do to get the ward members working and many of them went right along with what both of you suggested (Mom & Dad). One of the things I learned in drumline, and then even more out here teaching investigators, is that when you can get the person you're trying to get someone to understand something if you can let them reach the conclusion on their own and make the commitments on their own then they're a lot more likely to stick to it. So I'm going to talk to the bishop and see if we can set up a day where Elder Hansen and I could teach the relief society and the priesthood combined, and try to get the youth to take care of the primary like we've done back home several times so that all the adults can make it to the meeting. Then we'll teach about the importance of missionary work and set up 2 lists on the board, Missionary Responsibilities and then a list of Member Responsibilities, and then we'll let them fill up each list. It seems most of the members feel like if they feed us and give us rides places that they've met the requirement of missionary work. So hopefully that will help out.
I also got a package today from the young women of the ward that was very nice. Tell them thank you very much. However I have no idea what I'm going to do with half of the stuff in there. :) Thanks also for the talks on CD. Elder Hansen had heard half of the talk on the sacrament from my I-Pod and was thrilled to see that we have the completed talk now. So thank you very much.
Ed says that he's called the stake but they haven't gotten back to him yet. However we talked to the stake executive secretary and he hasn't heard from Ed. Unfortunately, we can't do anything at all for Ed at this point, because he has to be the one to make the first move to set up the appointments with the stake as part of the repentance process. All we can do is support and encourage him now. Vicki is doing fanstastically though. Our last lesson with them went really well. They decided that they needed to get us some dessert after our lesson with them 2 weeks ago, so they went out and bought doughnuts, and ice cream, and hot fudge, and peanuts, then they cut the doughnuts in half and put ice cream in between the two halves, then drizzled the hot fudge on top with the peanuts. It was a heart attack and a half but totally worth it! Ed also said something that made both Elder Hansen and I rejoice. When we were telling them that it was very unlikely that Ed could be baptized with Vicki since the stake contact had yet to be made. Ed told Vicki that regardless of where he stood to be baptized he wanted her to go ahead with it and be baptized with or without him. Then he bore his testimony on how important baptism is. It was the best possible thing that could happen! So I don't want to say that it's a sure thing she'll get baptized, but it's pretty darn close.
Our meeting house is actually in Gallatin, the closest building and the former meeting place was the stake center that's technically in Madison, but it's on the border between Madison and Goodletsville. The wards here split several months back so it wouldn't surprise me too much if the church website still had the Hendersonville ward posted as going to that building, and it might just be set as far as closest meeting house. Which is the stake center but we've been assigned to the Gallatin meeting house about 15 miles away.
So transfers are on the 24th of this month and we'll know on the 21st whether I'll be transferred or not. If I were to wager I'd say that I'm staying here, however, I'm not willing to wager.
So we've got some great investigators that we've found. There's this guy named Chad, I'm not sure if I've told you about him before but he's a preacher of a non-denominational church. He's presently not preaching, but he's still got his employment posting as preacher. He knows the Bible really well, but he doesn't fully understand it. In the 2 lessons we've had with him thus far he's been very receptive, and in the lesson we had with him yesterday it was very powerful. That's the only way I can think of explaining it. He definitely felt something. I just hope that he can identify it as the spirit.
Then we also tracted into a women named Lola whose been church hopping for years. She said that she had a dream about 5 years ago where the Savior told her that he had a work for her to do and she needed to go to church. So she picked the Methodist church and started going. Then she asked someone a question and they couldn't answer it, so she left that church and joined a Baptist church, then when she was dissatisfied with that she joined a different Baptist church. She said that she recognized us as servants of the Lord because she could 'feel the fire' when we spoke with her on her doorstep. It was a testimony to me that the Lord has truly been preparing people for us to teach and trusting us with the opportunity to teach these people who have been so carefully prepared by the Lord is truly a blessing to us.
Funny story for the week then I'll be done. Yesterday we had to wash the car before Zone conference because they inspect all the vehicles there. The conference started at 7:30, meaning that we were up at 5:30 and washing the car at Bro. Gladden's (Santa's) house at around 6:30 and we needed to leave by 7 to get there on time. So we called ahead and he agreed to let us use his hose and told us not to expect him to come out and greet us. So we're out there washing the car in our suits hurrying as the sun is coming up. Right as we're finishing Bro. Gladden comes out and gives us these two thermoses and told us that it was his special hot cocoa and that we could bring the mugs back later. I love hot chocolate so I'm way excited to try Santa's special hot cocoa that he made with half and half he told us. However what I didn't know is that Bro. Gladden loves coffee. He doesn't drink it any more but he loves the taste of it so he buys a wheat drink that is a coffee supplement for him. It has no caffeine and none of the other bad stuff for you, it's actually quite healthy, it just tastes like coffee. So we jump in the car and we're driving, I pop the top on the thermos and take a sip, as I'm going in to drink it I remember vaguely thinking, 'something smells like coffee...' it was a very disappointing shock. Elder Hansen and I decided that we needed to go home and drop the thermoses off as to 'avoid the appearance of evil'. I'm still a little disappointed that Santa's special hot cocoa is really just a coffee supplement....oh well.
Love,
Elder Carpenter
P.S. Mom I totally forgot to wish you a happy Birthday last month!! Then when I remembered I felt horrible, then I forgot again the next P-day and so on and so forth until today. So happy birthday!!!! I hope it was a great one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Feb. 2, 2009
I probably spoke too soon about the members getting better last week. They did well for a short time but now they're back into a slump. We went and talked to the first counselor in the bishopric to see if we could get him going out to do his home teaching and set up a family mission plan. He let us in a talked with us politely until we asked him to set up a family mission plan. Then he said that he already had one and it was to hold family home evening every week. We complimented him on that goal and explained that it was a great thing to do, but it wasn't really a mission plan because it didn't involve any missionary work. He then promptly told us that he would not do any mission work nor home teaching because he was simply too busy. I don't understand how anyone, including ourselves as missionaries, can expect this ward to do better if their leadership refuses to put forth the same effort that they're asking the ward members to do.
Then to add to it, last night we had an exchange planned with our ward mission leader. We had called him Saturday night to confirm it, and we had also set up plans to see one investigator and 2 families in the ward, he had called and confirmed appointments with all of them. We don't have the car this week so when we have an exchange we usually plan things on the outskirts of our area because its a lot harder to get there on bikes, and there is absolutely no public transportation here. Along with no curbs, sidewalks, or shoulders, so bike riding at night isn't always the funnest, nor safest thing to do (sorry mom). So about 20 min before our exchange our ward mission leader calls us up, we were at a dinner appointment so we didn't answer. He leaves a message saying that he can't go on exchanges with us because of the Superbowl!!!! Then we had to call and cancel two of our set appointments because we didn't have time to get out there and see them. We rode about 10 miles out to our other appointment and they didn't answer, then we rode another mile or two to our last appointment and they told us they were too busy to talk to us! Then we rode another 12 miles home!! So that was super frustrating. Oh well there's still work to be done.
We set a date for Ed and Vicky this week!! They're going to be baptized on Valentine's Day, assuming that the Stake leaders approve Ed. The bishop told us that it was entirely a Stake matter and that he had nothing to do with it, so we hunted down some phone numbers and Ed's called hopefully twice now to set up his appointment with the Stake President. With any luck he'll be ready to be baptized by the 14th. Then Hans has stopped seeing us. We've stopped by several times and each time his daughter comes to the door and tells us that he can't see us. We'll keep going until he tells us to stop though, its easy to stop by because we have another investigator who lives two doors down from Hans. His name is Sam, and he was a member of the Catholic church here until they decided to build a new church. They reviewed Sam's financial history and told him that he needed to donate 10,000 dollars to help build the new church. So he stopped going. That was about 5 years ago. We taught him the first lesson, and stopped by again his wife was sick so we couldn't stay, he told us that he'd been reading and we asked where? We meant where in the Book of Mormon, he answered, "In the bathroom." We got a good laugh out of that. He's made it almost entirely through 1 Nephi! Including the introduction and he read the 3 Nephi chapter we assigned him.
As far as food goes nothing strange yet. No gravy yet, but most people here in Hendersonville are what they call 'transplants;' they're from somewhere else. I did, however, hear that deeper south they fed our district leader Elder Calkins raw catfish. That sounds appetizing not at all.
I have been spoiled with packages and I feel really bad asking you to send so many but there's just so much random stuff each week that I go, "I never thought I'd need this," then I realize that I do. I did get the sweaters and the hand warmers. As far as ice storms they happened in Paduka, which is the part of our mission in Kentucky, but here it just rained really hard. Yesterday it was about 65 degrees and a slight breeze, it was the PERFECT weather. I had my short sleeved shirt on and was very comfortable. Right now its about 28 degrees and its freezing! I still love it.
So famous person for this week. Do you know Gary Allen? His real name is Gary Herzburg and he's an inactive member in our ward. We went by his house earlier and I got to play the leadsheet of a song he's writing. I played the piano background and he played the guitar part, it was awesome. He has the coolest house. It's a lake front house on a little peninsula within the peninsula, water surrounds three sides of his house. His front room is huge and has the vaulted ceilings, and he has a 7 foot grand piano that's just so pretty along with several guitars. He's a really nice guy, but wouldn't commit to anything important. Like coming to church. Oh well, he left last night to go on tour and we don't know when he'll be back.
That's about it for this week. I'll let you know next week if anything exciting happens.
Love ya'll
(I have started sliding into a few southernisms with my words, like ya'll, bigun, boy I'll tell ya, and then most of all no one here ever does anything, everyone is always fixin' to do things, "I'm fixin' to fix my car," "I'm fixin' to go fishin'" no one ever does anything they're always fixin' to do it.)
Then to add to it, last night we had an exchange planned with our ward mission leader. We had called him Saturday night to confirm it, and we had also set up plans to see one investigator and 2 families in the ward, he had called and confirmed appointments with all of them. We don't have the car this week so when we have an exchange we usually plan things on the outskirts of our area because its a lot harder to get there on bikes, and there is absolutely no public transportation here. Along with no curbs, sidewalks, or shoulders, so bike riding at night isn't always the funnest, nor safest thing to do (sorry mom). So about 20 min before our exchange our ward mission leader calls us up, we were at a dinner appointment so we didn't answer. He leaves a message saying that he can't go on exchanges with us because of the Superbowl!!!! Then we had to call and cancel two of our set appointments because we didn't have time to get out there and see them. We rode about 10 miles out to our other appointment and they didn't answer, then we rode another mile or two to our last appointment and they told us they were too busy to talk to us! Then we rode another 12 miles home!! So that was super frustrating. Oh well there's still work to be done.
We set a date for Ed and Vicky this week!! They're going to be baptized on Valentine's Day, assuming that the Stake leaders approve Ed. The bishop told us that it was entirely a Stake matter and that he had nothing to do with it, so we hunted down some phone numbers and Ed's called hopefully twice now to set up his appointment with the Stake President. With any luck he'll be ready to be baptized by the 14th. Then Hans has stopped seeing us. We've stopped by several times and each time his daughter comes to the door and tells us that he can't see us. We'll keep going until he tells us to stop though, its easy to stop by because we have another investigator who lives two doors down from Hans. His name is Sam, and he was a member of the Catholic church here until they decided to build a new church. They reviewed Sam's financial history and told him that he needed to donate 10,000 dollars to help build the new church. So he stopped going. That was about 5 years ago. We taught him the first lesson, and stopped by again his wife was sick so we couldn't stay, he told us that he'd been reading and we asked where? We meant where in the Book of Mormon, he answered, "In the bathroom." We got a good laugh out of that. He's made it almost entirely through 1 Nephi! Including the introduction and he read the 3 Nephi chapter we assigned him.
As far as food goes nothing strange yet. No gravy yet, but most people here in Hendersonville are what they call 'transplants;' they're from somewhere else. I did, however, hear that deeper south they fed our district leader Elder Calkins raw catfish. That sounds appetizing not at all.
I have been spoiled with packages and I feel really bad asking you to send so many but there's just so much random stuff each week that I go, "I never thought I'd need this," then I realize that I do. I did get the sweaters and the hand warmers. As far as ice storms they happened in Paduka, which is the part of our mission in Kentucky, but here it just rained really hard. Yesterday it was about 65 degrees and a slight breeze, it was the PERFECT weather. I had my short sleeved shirt on and was very comfortable. Right now its about 28 degrees and its freezing! I still love it.
So famous person for this week. Do you know Gary Allen? His real name is Gary Herzburg and he's an inactive member in our ward. We went by his house earlier and I got to play the leadsheet of a song he's writing. I played the piano background and he played the guitar part, it was awesome. He has the coolest house. It's a lake front house on a little peninsula within the peninsula, water surrounds three sides of his house. His front room is huge and has the vaulted ceilings, and he has a 7 foot grand piano that's just so pretty along with several guitars. He's a really nice guy, but wouldn't commit to anything important. Like coming to church. Oh well, he left last night to go on tour and we don't know when he'll be back.
That's about it for this week. I'll let you know next week if anything exciting happens.
Love ya'll
(I have started sliding into a few southernisms with my words, like ya'll, bigun, boy I'll tell ya, and then most of all no one here ever does anything, everyone is always fixin' to do things, "I'm fixin' to fix my car," "I'm fixin' to go fishin'" no one ever does anything they're always fixin' to do it.)
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