Hey, I do get to e-mail today :). The people that we're shooting for getting baptismal dates set with are Tommy, we don't know his last name, Lisa and Jeramey, and Linda. They're all people who it seems that the Lord has led to us or us to them and He's prepared them well. Now it's just a matter of us staying on the ball to make sure everything falls into place perfectly. If we do everything we can then the Lord will do the rest.

MTSU is a huge recording school, and actually an aviation school. We have a young single adult in our ward who came here from California to major in music recording. Then we also have several people who are majoring in things like Air Traffic Control, or any kind of job you'd have at an airport. They have their own airport here for non-commercial planes. So there's always little planes flying over everywhere you go, and one of the biggest buildings around is the Air Traffic Control tower. Seems like a great school, but its also a big drug and alcohol school.

Nothing too big has happened here since Friday. We did have a pretty epic bike crash. Elder Garrison was leading the way home on Saturday night and didn't have the right angle going up the curb and so his bike got caught on the curb as bikes tend to do. So he ate it pretty hard, and I like following close behind him at night because he doesn't have a rear reflector or a light, and I have both. So I had to slam on my brakes pretty hard to avoid running over him, so my bike stopped and I kept going. I didn't get hurt bad at all, I've got a scraped up and bruised knee but that's about it, whereas Elder Garrison looks like he got in a bar fight. His knuckles on his right hand are starting to scab over, he had some road rash on his arm, and both of his palms got tore up pretty good. So when we got home my first aid kit came in handy, but he was a wuss and didn't want to clean out any of his wounds with the alcohol pads, so he took a shower and didn't use any soap because it stung the cuts. So I'm hoping he doesn't get an infection, but from what I've seen through the bandages it doesn't really look that great.

Well that's about it for us from here. A pole-cat is actually a skunk. Because its like a cat with the white stripe (pole) down its back. My memory card is also starting to get a little bit full so I may be sending that home in the next few weeks.

Love you all!!
Elder Carpenter

April 24, 2009

Hey, thanks for your letters. The temple was great, as usual, and so was zone conference. I've really noticed an amazing change in Elder Garrison recently, particularly at zone conference. When he met up with some of his old MTC district elders he totally regressed to the way he was at the beginning of the transfer and it allowed me to see how much different he is when its just him and I. So that's a two-edged sword, its good and its bad, good because he's totally improved in the arena where we do most of our work, but it's bad because he's not firm in that...yet.

Zone conference was great. President Hutchings just went to a seminar for the Eastern United States missions and we were the second highest baptizing mission in the area. They were commissioned while they were there by Elder Perry that every mission in the Eastern United States needs to have every companionship baptizing every month! Luckily that was already our goal for this transfer. That commission was then followed by the frightening words from a prophet, "It's very urgent that we baptize more people." Interesting thought.

Things are going a lot better. Our area is doing incredible. Tons of new investigators. We're teaching effective lessons every day. We now have several very promising progressing investigators. My only concern is that I'm not sure if the bishop will approve of us baptizing this month. There's only one investigator that I have in mind who could really qualify for baptism that quickly and he won't have the prescribed amount of days at church. President Hutchings told us to go ahead with it if we felt strongly about it and he'd call the bishop and they'd work something out. I'm not too concerned about it because if he gets baptized this month or at the beginning of next month it'll still be pretty awesome. Its looking like we'll have at least 2 baptisms next month for an area that's not baptized at all for the last 3 transfers.

The next time you see Mitch if you could extend my personal thanks to him, he sent me an Easter package, I already wrote a letter thanking him but if you could pass that along to him as well that would be great.

I love you all very much, and thanks for everything that you do. I wish I had my scriptures with me but I don't and I'm terrible at memorize chapter and verse, but if you want a good food for thought scripture read the last 5ish verses of Alma's discourse to his first son, its the right hand column on the right page and the last verses in the chapter on the left hand column of the next page. It talks about the Liahona and he asks "Isn't there a type in this thing?" how the Liahona is like a representation of Christ, when we're obedient to His words and His ways then we're pointed in the right direction and its easy to follow. It's not necessarily easy to do, but it's easier to see the way in which we need to go. Then compare that to the promise given when Christ institutes the sacrament among the Nephites. If you REMEMBER Him, then you WILL, have His Spirit to be with you. So when we always remember Christ and follow His ways, then we'll have His Spirit with us and that makes the path as Alma states it easy. Then Christ points us to a promised land, beyond this "veil of tears." Love that scripture, wish I could remember the verse and chapter. (Alma 37:38-47)

Love y'all!!

Elder Carpenter

10 points to whomever can guess what a pole-cat is without google or any other online resource!

April 15, 2009

Note: On April 10, 2009, a tornado with winds up to 165 mph went through Murfreesboro. This was four days after Bryan was transferred there. We did not receive an e-mail from him on Monday, April 13, his normal p-day. We got this from him on April 15 after we called the mission home to make sure he was okay.

Hopefully this makes it to you. I actually did send an e-mail to you on Monday but it must have gotten lost to cyber space. I'm perfectly fine the tornado didn't hit right near me but it did hit in my area pretty hard. We had 8 Elders at our apartment on 1322 N. Rutherford Blvd. We had that many Elders there because of musical firesides going on around the mission that I've been singing in so we gathered there to all get rides together for those participating and for those not to go on exchanges in their respective areas. I got some pretty cool pictures and videos of the weather though, but it doesn't give it any justice. The area got pretty torn up but everyone is doing alright. I'm trying to summarize the events of my last e-mail without writing the same thing over again and I cant remember everything that I told you last time. So things are going pretty well. Elder Garrison was trained last transfer here and there hasn't been any work going on for the last 3 weeks. He and his trainer just decided to hang out with some college students for the last 3 weeks of the transfer. So now we have no investigators, and very little trust with the members but we're working on improving that. There's a lot of work to be done here, and I'm really excited to be able to do it. Anyways things are improving slowly but I'm really excited to work here.

Thanks for the package by the way!! I really like that MoTab CD, thanks. Sorry the last e-mail didn't go through but I did try to send it to let you know I'm alright. I also sent Mitch a letter today letting him know that he's been slacking because I dont even know the date that he reports to the MTC. I also sent him some pictures that I printed as well.

I forgot in my last e-mail but wanted to make sure that I included it in this one. My expenses this month are probably going to be a bit high. Mostly because a lot of Elder Garrison's food was taken by his last companion when he moved, whether by accident or not I'm not entirely sure. I also needed to get a tune up on my bike, at transfer meeting they thought that it was someone else's bike and they started to take it apart to move it and they didn't really know what they were doing, so between those two things my personal expenses are going to be quite a bit higher this month. I've used my credit card a few times and I just wanted you to be aware of it, even though I'm sure you probably are, just so you hear it from me. I love you all and want you to know that all is well with me.

Love,
Elder Carpenter

April 6, 2009

Alright so a lot ended up happening this week. I loved Elder Perry's talk as well and plan on using it. As for sharing the gospel, directed at Mom's comments, the most important thing for people to realize is your desires or intent on sharing it. Are you sharing it because you need another baptism this month? Or because you get a commission on their tithing money :)? Or is it because you know how much the gospel has blessed your life and you want them to be able to experience those blessings? I think as long as you make it apparent that the reason you want to share the gospel with family and anyone really is because you love them for who they are, and you know what they can become, and you know that the gospel will make them happier then they have ever been. I know these things are true and I know that you know them as well. Like Elder Holland talked about, Christ took that journey alone so that we won't have to. When you come to church and live the gospel your honoring the suffering that Christ did for us and allowing Him to walk beside us and give us the comfort that we need.
The other big news here is that I got a phone call Saturday morning before conference around 10 (conference starts at 11 here). I'm being transferred to Stones River. That's in Murfreesboro, a bit south of Nashville. I'm going to be 'greenie busting,' which is what your second mission field companion does. Your first is your trainer and the second is your greenie buster. So I've just been busted by Elder Keeler, and now I'll be busting Elder Garrison. Then shortly after that phone call from the Assistants, I got another phone call from President Hutchings. I've been called as a district leader over 2 companionships. So I'm over the district that includes my companion and myself, and then 2 sister missionaries. It's what Elder Keeler calls a dating district. It's going to be so weird!!!! So I've got all my stuff packed up and I go to transfer meeting tomorrow and then I'll be further south. I'm really excited to go and try a new area, but I'm also sad to leave all my investigators. However I know that President Hutchings is led by the Holy Ghost and that Stones River is where I need to be. So I'll leave Elder Keeler and his new companion with the 3 baptismal dates we've set and move on to my new district.
Well that's all the news from this region. I love you all and hope all is well.

Elder Carpenter

April 1, 2009

Jerome is doing well, as flakey as ever. We were supposed to go help him at his pawn shop in Nashville today he was going to call us when he came to pick us up. Never got a call, and he didn't answer his phone when we called him. Oh well. No investigators have made it to church yet. Our mission standard is two times before they can be baptized but our bishop would like 3 or 4 times. Hans committed to come and be baptized once his cast comes off. Jerome is using his busyness with his store as an excuse that won't be able to hold up much longer because he's selling it, and Connie is amazing. I gave her a reading assignment last time and she spent 3 hours studying it!! She was so excited about it that she asked for 3 reading assignments when we last visited her!! The only problem with her is that she's not married to Barry, and she can't move out because she has no where to go and she's pretty much a mother to Robert, Barry's son. So she needs to get married. No big deal; we could get that arranged in less then 24 hours, but she's actually still married to her last husband, who got deported. So she needs to get a divorce before she can get married. Then she can get baptized. The South is crazy.
The mall last week was nothing too spectacular. Its part of the Opry Land stuff I found out. It's right next to the Gaylord Opry Land Hotel. Other then that it's just a mall.
So the reason that I'm writing you on Wed. instead of Mon. is because today is the first of the month, and President Hutchings wanted us to work to the end of the month in order for us to get the most baptisms possible. We did well but fell short of our goal. We got 85 people baptized and 84 confirmed. It's sad if you look at it as we missed our goal by 15, but its really really exciting if you think that our average prior to that was 54 a month. Last month we qualified an extra 30 people for celestial exaltation! That rocks.
We cook for ourselves most of the time but it's usually really simple quick stuff because we only have an hour for meals. We need to be out no later then 6, and we're never home between meals. So we spend about 15 min. in preparation and another 15 min. in eating. Then the next half hour is cleaning, or making study journals for our investigators, or making calls or what have you.
So I think I've told you about the Leguard twins from Australia. That's where we're watching conference on Sunday in their Western Room. They fed us lunch today and told us a story how when they were younger back in the 'bush' as they call it. They were working on the farm with their dad. He was digging a well and had 2 people helping him. The twins went off and found a bobcat. They caught it in a burlap sack and waited until the people helping their dad were not paying attention and then they tossed the bag with the wild bobcat in it down the well!! Their dad had a sledge hammer and ended up killing the bobcat. They twins say that he almost killed them too. The finished the story with, "Oh back in the day we were cheeky mugs weren't we?" So despite all the grief I've given you over the years, dad, remember I never threw a wild bobcat on you while you were stuck 10 feet deep in a well :)

Love you!!

Elder Carpenter