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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!