Hello, sounds like it was a good week for you. I had a great week as well. The 4th didn't quite work out with going to the battlefield because we found some missionary work to do. We went up to a farm of one of the members in the Murfressboro ward. They were having a big barbecue with a bunch of non-members there. So we communed with them the way people of the south do, we went fishin'! I caught one fish, about the length of my pinky. It was really fun, we also cooked up some pork tenderloin on a giant grill, it was amazing. We spent the entire day there.
I also had a really great opportunity this week to go to the temple. President Hutchings called an emergency leadership council, where everyone in a leadership position (District and Zone leaders) needed to be in Franklin at 8:30 AM Thursday morning. We all went through the temple together and sought repentance and revelation. It was a truly sacred experience, I don't think I've ever felt the spirit as strongly as I did that day. I would be willing to say it was comparable to the day of Pentecost for us. It was truly amazing. Now I know exactly what we need to do for this area and this district.
We have 3 baptismal dates now for our area Matt, Amber, and Mary. Amber and Mary just fell into our lap yesterday, I don't know all the details yet but I'll get them later today. I know though that the next two months in this area and in this mission should explode if we just follow the council received at the temple. I anticipate that by the end of the week we should have 8 baptismal dates set for this area alone. I'm worried about the sisters area because they don't want to follow council. We've got to make some big changes and thus far they aren't really going along with them. Luckily most of the changes that we need to make are all up to me, and then they just have to choose to follow or not to. Its just my job to teach them everything that I can to be sure that they know exactly what they may be denying. Anyways the moral of the story is that as of this moment we're very much in line with the will of our Heavenly Father and miracles of biblical proportions are going to be happening as long as we stay the course.
That was really the big news of this week. As for the camera card I should be sending it off this week. Its just a matter of finding the time to get to the post office because I've got other stuff to send as well. We get the car today and that will make it easier, we may even send it off today. Sometime this week I should be sending it... hopefully :).
I love you lots!!
Elder Carpenter
Thursday, July 9, 2009
June 29, 2009
I love you. Being on a mission you get to learn a whole lot of things about life. Especially being in a college town its interesting to see the difference of lifestyle that the students have here, as opposed to the lifestyle that we all had at Utah State. It seems like they stay out about as late as we did, and they 'party' about as much as we did, and they're horribly miserable! The things that they do that 'make them happy' don't do the trick for them at all. We had an exchange this week with Elder Furrows, one of our zone leaders, and he brought this to my understanding with the help of the Spirit. "We're Mormon!" he kept saying that throughout the exchange and I got to thinking about the magnitude that carries. It really makes all the difference in the world. I must confess that I had no intentions of raising a family or permanently living in Utah at all, but after being away from the culture and environment in a community where there's a strong LDS influence is the only place where I do want to raise a family. Because I know that the teaching of the church are what brings true happiness. Its interesting how much easier that is to see when you can compare and contrast the culture here, vs back home.
Anyways I also had a big breakthrough in studies this morning that I want to share. We had a training on Wednesday about how to gain a testimony. According to Alma 32 it starts with having a desire to believe. Then that desire will lead you to pay the price, like King Lamoni's Father did when he offered to give up all his sins to know God. Then you need to apply the principle and nourish it as it tells us to back in Alma 32. So I was pondering upon that for a while and I came up with the question "how does one gain a desire?" if you need a desire to have a testimony how do you get the desire. So I studied about it and thought about it a lot and I came up with this answer at first. You gain a desire by learning! We're told in Romans I believe that one gains a testimony by hearing the testimony of others and reading the words of God. So I figured that once someone learns about a principle then they have a desire and they'll soon be applying it. Then another question came "What about the attitude 'I know what I'm supposed to do (they've learned), I just don't want to do it.'" Then I figured that learning is not enough to cause a desire. The reason that they don't want to 'do it' or apply the principle is because they don't want to pay the price or make the sacrifice, because their desire isn't strong enough. So at this point I was frustrated because I thought that I had the answer and I didn't. Then in studies today I think I figured it out. It starts as with all things by 'collecting data' (sound familiar) I added a sense though to our 5 the promptings of the Holy Ghost and our response to the Light of Christ. Then that data collected will lead to a trust in something, be it the missionaries, the scriptures, a bishop, pastor, whatever it may be it leads to a trust. Then the person will now listen to the teachings of the one whom they trust. Then listening to the teachings leads one to hope that they're true, because they trust the person teaching, they'll hope what they're teaching is true. Of course we know that hope will then lead to a desire, that will lead you to pay the price that leads you to faith that will direct you to apply the principle. So I'm pretty sure that I figured it out
Data-->Trust-->Hope-->Desire-->(particle of) Faith-->Test
then if the test proves the principle true, that will lead to increased trust and hope and desire and faith and your now in an upward spiral! So that was my most recent discovery. Maybe you can apply it somewhere.
It does my heart good to hear that Jake stopped by. I love that kid. I actually wrote him a letter and was going to send it to Nate this afternoon and have Nate forward it to Jake, but now I have his address and I'll just send it straight to him.
The 4th of July is actually our P-day for this week, they told us to e-mail today and then get out and work. So our P-day will be from morning until 6, then we'll have our planning session from 6-9. There's a civil war battlefield in our area and we're thinking about going to that in the morning and checking it out. We might just get together with the other district and do something together too, we don't really know yet what we'll do.
This last week was an interesting one, we were taken out to a Hibachi grill by a member for dinner, that was surprising but fun. Then just the normal teaching and what not. We're again worried about Matt, last time we went over there Christa (his wife and a less active member) had moved back in with her dad and Matt was over there discussing custody rights over their 18 month old daughter. I never understood how they can go from being a seemingly happy couple one week to talking custody rights the next. I guess its because most people see "till death do us part" as a goal instead of a promise. Its sad and we're worried about how that will effect Matts feelings towards the church and going to church. The good side of it is that Tony moved into Matt's house and we had a really good lesson with him and he agreed to be baptized if he gains a testimony. So maybe our working with Matt was just a means to get to teach Tony. With hard work and a lot of divine help we may be able to get Tony, Luke, and Matt baptized this month.
That's really the big news for the week.
I love hearing that Jake and Mitch would stop by the house still and talk with you guys. Mitch has written me and told my how grateful he was to have you there to talk with and council with and that your writing him. It also makes me happy because as I see all the things going on in the world around me I realize how hard it must be when your not surrounded by the spirit, and always with a companion, and living, breathing, thinking, and working gospel things. So its nice to hear that they know that they can just stop by and talk with you guys. I also know that you'll help them out just like you've helped me. Who I am today I owe to you Mom and Dad. To quote Abraham Lincoln "Everything I am, and could ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."
I thank you both for the example you are to me.
Love
Elder Carpenter
Anyways I also had a big breakthrough in studies this morning that I want to share. We had a training on Wednesday about how to gain a testimony. According to Alma 32 it starts with having a desire to believe. Then that desire will lead you to pay the price, like King Lamoni's Father did when he offered to give up all his sins to know God. Then you need to apply the principle and nourish it as it tells us to back in Alma 32. So I was pondering upon that for a while and I came up with the question "how does one gain a desire?" if you need a desire to have a testimony how do you get the desire. So I studied about it and thought about it a lot and I came up with this answer at first. You gain a desire by learning! We're told in Romans I believe that one gains a testimony by hearing the testimony of others and reading the words of God. So I figured that once someone learns about a principle then they have a desire and they'll soon be applying it. Then another question came "What about the attitude 'I know what I'm supposed to do (they've learned), I just don't want to do it.'" Then I figured that learning is not enough to cause a desire. The reason that they don't want to 'do it' or apply the principle is because they don't want to pay the price or make the sacrifice, because their desire isn't strong enough. So at this point I was frustrated because I thought that I had the answer and I didn't. Then in studies today I think I figured it out. It starts as with all things by 'collecting data' (sound familiar) I added a sense though to our 5 the promptings of the Holy Ghost and our response to the Light of Christ. Then that data collected will lead to a trust in something, be it the missionaries, the scriptures, a bishop, pastor, whatever it may be it leads to a trust. Then the person will now listen to the teachings of the one whom they trust. Then listening to the teachings leads one to hope that they're true, because they trust the person teaching, they'll hope what they're teaching is true. Of course we know that hope will then lead to a desire, that will lead you to pay the price that leads you to faith that will direct you to apply the principle. So I'm pretty sure that I figured it out
Data-->Trust-->Hope-->Desire-->(particle of) Faith-->Test
then if the test proves the principle true, that will lead to increased trust and hope and desire and faith and your now in an upward spiral! So that was my most recent discovery. Maybe you can apply it somewhere.
It does my heart good to hear that Jake stopped by. I love that kid. I actually wrote him a letter and was going to send it to Nate this afternoon and have Nate forward it to Jake, but now I have his address and I'll just send it straight to him.
The 4th of July is actually our P-day for this week, they told us to e-mail today and then get out and work. So our P-day will be from morning until 6, then we'll have our planning session from 6-9. There's a civil war battlefield in our area and we're thinking about going to that in the morning and checking it out. We might just get together with the other district and do something together too, we don't really know yet what we'll do.
This last week was an interesting one, we were taken out to a Hibachi grill by a member for dinner, that was surprising but fun. Then just the normal teaching and what not. We're again worried about Matt, last time we went over there Christa (his wife and a less active member) had moved back in with her dad and Matt was over there discussing custody rights over their 18 month old daughter. I never understood how they can go from being a seemingly happy couple one week to talking custody rights the next. I guess its because most people see "till death do us part" as a goal instead of a promise. Its sad and we're worried about how that will effect Matts feelings towards the church and going to church. The good side of it is that Tony moved into Matt's house and we had a really good lesson with him and he agreed to be baptized if he gains a testimony. So maybe our working with Matt was just a means to get to teach Tony. With hard work and a lot of divine help we may be able to get Tony, Luke, and Matt baptized this month.
That's really the big news for the week.
I love hearing that Jake and Mitch would stop by the house still and talk with you guys. Mitch has written me and told my how grateful he was to have you there to talk with and council with and that your writing him. It also makes me happy because as I see all the things going on in the world around me I realize how hard it must be when your not surrounded by the spirit, and always with a companion, and living, breathing, thinking, and working gospel things. So its nice to hear that they know that they can just stop by and talk with you guys. I also know that you'll help them out just like you've helped me. Who I am today I owe to you Mom and Dad. To quote Abraham Lincoln "Everything I am, and could ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."
I thank you both for the example you are to me.
Love
Elder Carpenter
June 15, 2009
Hey, this week has been going well. Nothing spectacular happened except its been spectacularly hot! Its been in the 90s since about Wednesday and with the humidity here the heat index as I've heard it called is about 102-105. So it's felt like it's been in the hundreds most of the week. It's crazy; we open the door to our apartment and you can feel a wall of heat blast you! Luckily though our apartment is insulated quite well and we have a good AC unit that keeps the apartment cool. Its still a little weird to me to go out after an 8:00 pm appointment and have it still feel like 100 degrees outside. When the sun goes down out here the temperature doesn't drop for another few hours. Its all good though, in Hendersonville I decided that I needed a smaller backpack for bike week and I got one with a camel back in it on clearance for like 15 bucks. Its a 2 Lt bladder and I fill it up and drain it about 3 times a day so I'm drinking plenty of water.
We actually had a really good lesson with Thomas last week too. We brought over Brother Stepanick, who is a completely inactive member. We felt like he'd be a really good fellowshipper for Thomas, so we asked him to come with us on Saturday morning. Brother and Sister Stepanick don't come to church because they have been 'offended' by members before. They also really hate mothers day and fathers day because they had a child who died as an infant and Sister Stepanick couldn't have any more children due to health reasons. During our appointment Brother Stepanick mentioned that they usually don't go to church on either of those two days and Thomas was outraged. He totally called Brother Stepanick to repentance saying things like "You know the church is true! That's just an excuse not to go!" it was pretty sweet. Then yesterday Brother Stepanick was at church! Thomas also agreed in that lesson that he knew that this church was the most correct church out there and that he needs to get baptized. So we've made plans and set goals to have him at church next week, to have him quit smoking, and he wanted to set a goal to stop swearing, and then to get him baptized. He doesn't have a date yet on baptism, but he knows what he needs to do and he's willing to accept help with it.
Then the songs of the Savior thing is really powerful. Its great; its got a lot of music with it that could be used for the youth but the real power comes from combining the music, the words, and the pictures together. They have a really good arrangement of "I Stand All Amazed" its a solo arrangement of only the first verse and its written in a melodic minor key. Then right before the song there's a paragraph thats recited about the ten lepers and how Christ healed them. Then it goes on to explain that each of us has a form of spiritual leprosy. Sins have blotted, defaced, and dacayed at our spiritual well being, and there's no hope for a chance healing, or a self-induced cleansing. Cleansing can only come by the power of the Atoning One, Jesus Christ. Then the song starts and pictures of the Atonement are displayed. Its super powerful, but you really need all three things to get the full effect. My favorite part is the end though. We teach about the Apostasy and the two sister missionaries then start talking about how the Book of Mormon has prophets that testify of Christ for they knew Him. Then the other elder and myself start quoting prophets. Starting with Nephi, I can't remember the first one but the second one is "He is the Light and the Life of the world, yea a light that is endless, that there can be no more darkness, yea, and also a life that is endless, that there can be no more death." and we keep exchanging back and forth different testimonies of prophets including, "Remember, remember my sons, it is upon the rock of our redeemer.." and "Because of their hatred they put to death every Nephite that will not deny the Christ, and I Moroni will not deny the Christ, therefore I wander, withersoever I can for the safety of mine own life." and wrapping up with "O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart. That I may go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth and cry repentance unto every soul... that every soul should repent, and come unto our God." its a really sweet program that has a LOT of power. As I was singing in it on Saturday night and looking around at a room full of people who are starting to feel God's love for them part of my patriarchal blessing came to mind where it says that I've been blessed with the great gift of music and that through the gift of music I can bless many many lives. I thought that was really cool. It's been an opportunity for me to fulfill the promises made to me. The greatest blessings I have ever received is the opportunity to bless others.
I'm really excited because we've got another temple trip coming up in July. I love being able to go to the temple. Thats one of the first things that I want to do when I get home is go to the Draper and Oquirrh Mountain temples.
So one of my goals for studying is that I want to read the standard works before I hit my year mark. I've already finished the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the Pearl of Great Price, and I'm on D&C 101 and I'm working my way through Deuteronomy. Anyways I've really grown to love the Doctrine and Covenants and the Old Testament, because the language used is very similar I think. The way the Moses writes when he's declaring the word of the Lord and the way that Joseph Smith wrote when he was declaring the word of the Lord is very very similar. Makes sense because the instruction was coming from the same person. Temples reminded me of this because I read something yesterday, I wish I knew the reference, it was somewhere in the 90s section of the Doctrine and Covenants where they're given a command to sacrifice in order to build a temple. The command is that it would be pleasing unto the Lord to have a house built, and the language of it makes it sound like He wants the house built for Himself and He didn't quite say why they needed to do it. Then I thought, a lot of times that's the way commandments work. We're told to do something and we don't really understand entirely why, we just know that its been asked of us by God. Then after we do it we realize that we weren't sacrificing because He needed us to, or they we weren't building a house of God because He needed the house, but we're doing these things so He can bless us, and so we can return to Him. Every commandment, every action of our Father in Heaven is directed towards the same thing. To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of men. To bring us home to Him.
Thanks for the advice, I love you lots and appreciate your support. Soon a camera card will be coming I promise!
We actually had a really good lesson with Thomas last week too. We brought over Brother Stepanick, who is a completely inactive member. We felt like he'd be a really good fellowshipper for Thomas, so we asked him to come with us on Saturday morning. Brother and Sister Stepanick don't come to church because they have been 'offended' by members before. They also really hate mothers day and fathers day because they had a child who died as an infant and Sister Stepanick couldn't have any more children due to health reasons. During our appointment Brother Stepanick mentioned that they usually don't go to church on either of those two days and Thomas was outraged. He totally called Brother Stepanick to repentance saying things like "You know the church is true! That's just an excuse not to go!" it was pretty sweet. Then yesterday Brother Stepanick was at church! Thomas also agreed in that lesson that he knew that this church was the most correct church out there and that he needs to get baptized. So we've made plans and set goals to have him at church next week, to have him quit smoking, and he wanted to set a goal to stop swearing, and then to get him baptized. He doesn't have a date yet on baptism, but he knows what he needs to do and he's willing to accept help with it.
Then the songs of the Savior thing is really powerful. Its great; its got a lot of music with it that could be used for the youth but the real power comes from combining the music, the words, and the pictures together. They have a really good arrangement of "I Stand All Amazed" its a solo arrangement of only the first verse and its written in a melodic minor key. Then right before the song there's a paragraph thats recited about the ten lepers and how Christ healed them. Then it goes on to explain that each of us has a form of spiritual leprosy. Sins have blotted, defaced, and dacayed at our spiritual well being, and there's no hope for a chance healing, or a self-induced cleansing. Cleansing can only come by the power of the Atoning One, Jesus Christ. Then the song starts and pictures of the Atonement are displayed. Its super powerful, but you really need all three things to get the full effect. My favorite part is the end though. We teach about the Apostasy and the two sister missionaries then start talking about how the Book of Mormon has prophets that testify of Christ for they knew Him. Then the other elder and myself start quoting prophets. Starting with Nephi, I can't remember the first one but the second one is "He is the Light and the Life of the world, yea a light that is endless, that there can be no more darkness, yea, and also a life that is endless, that there can be no more death." and we keep exchanging back and forth different testimonies of prophets including, "Remember, remember my sons, it is upon the rock of our redeemer.." and "Because of their hatred they put to death every Nephite that will not deny the Christ, and I Moroni will not deny the Christ, therefore I wander, withersoever I can for the safety of mine own life." and wrapping up with "O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart. That I may go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth and cry repentance unto every soul... that every soul should repent, and come unto our God." its a really sweet program that has a LOT of power. As I was singing in it on Saturday night and looking around at a room full of people who are starting to feel God's love for them part of my patriarchal blessing came to mind where it says that I've been blessed with the great gift of music and that through the gift of music I can bless many many lives. I thought that was really cool. It's been an opportunity for me to fulfill the promises made to me. The greatest blessings I have ever received is the opportunity to bless others.
I'm really excited because we've got another temple trip coming up in July. I love being able to go to the temple. Thats one of the first things that I want to do when I get home is go to the Draper and Oquirrh Mountain temples.
So one of my goals for studying is that I want to read the standard works before I hit my year mark. I've already finished the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the Pearl of Great Price, and I'm on D&C 101 and I'm working my way through Deuteronomy. Anyways I've really grown to love the Doctrine and Covenants and the Old Testament, because the language used is very similar I think. The way the Moses writes when he's declaring the word of the Lord and the way that Joseph Smith wrote when he was declaring the word of the Lord is very very similar. Makes sense because the instruction was coming from the same person. Temples reminded me of this because I read something yesterday, I wish I knew the reference, it was somewhere in the 90s section of the Doctrine and Covenants where they're given a command to sacrifice in order to build a temple. The command is that it would be pleasing unto the Lord to have a house built, and the language of it makes it sound like He wants the house built for Himself and He didn't quite say why they needed to do it. Then I thought, a lot of times that's the way commandments work. We're told to do something and we don't really understand entirely why, we just know that its been asked of us by God. Then after we do it we realize that we weren't sacrificing because He needed us to, or they we weren't building a house of God because He needed the house, but we're doing these things so He can bless us, and so we can return to Him. Every commandment, every action of our Father in Heaven is directed towards the same thing. To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of men. To bring us home to Him.
Thanks for the advice, I love you lots and appreciate your support. Soon a camera card will be coming I promise!
June 8, 2009
Note from Bryan's dad: Sorry it's been awhile since I've updated the blog. I'll try to do better about being prompt getting information out here.
Hey, so this week has definitely been interesting. No baptism still. We're just going to have to wait on Matt to work things out himself. He did however say that we could go up with him to Woodbury to help demolish whats left of his parents trailer and then help them start framing a house that their going to build there. So that'll be fun and hopefully it'll help him out. We've given him the stop smoking workshop and it did absolutely nothing for him, or I guess I should say he did nothing with it. He doesn't have a desire to quit smoking, but he does have a desire to be baptized so instead of trying to get his desire to quit smoking to grow we've decided to make his desire to be baptized grow until it'll overpower his smoking habit. I think its in Alma, I don't know the verse but to paraphrase it it says, the word of God has a more powerful effect on changing someones behavior and desires then anything else including the sword. So that's what we'll be trying to do. We've been printing off conference talks and giving them to him to read and we're trying to get a DVD made of a handful of talks throughout the years on hope and enduring and the atonement's power to help us change. Hopefully he'll latch on to something that we teach and will be reminded of the Spirit that he felt when President Monson spoke. So that's the update on Matt.
Ben fell off the face of the earth again and we assume that he's in California because he didn't come to church yesterday. Then Tommy is visiting his mom in Kentucky, and Barbra and Norman were taking care of their grandchildren last week so we didn't get to see them.
So the real kicker for last week was this. On Wednesday we had district meeting and Elder Pearson (The other district leader) was in charge and he went over about 30 min, and then the other companionship in his district and the sisters in my district HAD to use the library for some stuff. So we didn't get out of district meeting until an hour after we were supposed to. So we were super late for our appointment we had after district meeting. So we jump on our bikes in our suits and rush over there. We know that Thomas (our appointments name) cant meet with us right then, but we want to set up a return appointment. So we jump off our bikes run up to the front door as he's leaving walk with him around to the back where his car is, talk with him for about 5 min set up a return appointment. When we walk around to the front of the yard my bike was gone. So someone ran up and stole my bike during the 5 min we were behind his house. I'm really sorry that we didn't have it locked up, we filed a police report and they said they'd be on the lookout for it, but for the time being I don't have a bike. So we spent the last half of the week walking everywhere. One of the members in the ward said that they have a bike that I can borrow for a while and they also said that the mission might be able to replace it because her son's bike got hit by a car and they replaced it. I'll talk to the mission president about it this Wednesday at zone conference. Then Leah, our neighbor, she works as a manager at two apartment complexes and she said that every summer they do a clean out for their bike racks and they usually end up with about 10 bikes that no one will claim. So she said that she'd give me one of them and then wanted to donate the rest of them to the mission. So I have a few options for getting a bike for the rest of my mission at least. I'm still really bummed out though that the one we bought got stolen. So again I'm sorry I didn't lock it up, at 2 in the afternoon I figured that it would be fine for 5 min or so. I guess I was wrong though.
Well I love you guys and thanks for your words of encouragement.
Love Elder Carpenter
Hey, so this week has definitely been interesting. No baptism still. We're just going to have to wait on Matt to work things out himself. He did however say that we could go up with him to Woodbury to help demolish whats left of his parents trailer and then help them start framing a house that their going to build there. So that'll be fun and hopefully it'll help him out. We've given him the stop smoking workshop and it did absolutely nothing for him, or I guess I should say he did nothing with it. He doesn't have a desire to quit smoking, but he does have a desire to be baptized so instead of trying to get his desire to quit smoking to grow we've decided to make his desire to be baptized grow until it'll overpower his smoking habit. I think its in Alma, I don't know the verse but to paraphrase it it says, the word of God has a more powerful effect on changing someones behavior and desires then anything else including the sword. So that's what we'll be trying to do. We've been printing off conference talks and giving them to him to read and we're trying to get a DVD made of a handful of talks throughout the years on hope and enduring and the atonement's power to help us change. Hopefully he'll latch on to something that we teach and will be reminded of the Spirit that he felt when President Monson spoke. So that's the update on Matt.
Ben fell off the face of the earth again and we assume that he's in California because he didn't come to church yesterday. Then Tommy is visiting his mom in Kentucky, and Barbra and Norman were taking care of their grandchildren last week so we didn't get to see them.
So the real kicker for last week was this. On Wednesday we had district meeting and Elder Pearson (The other district leader) was in charge and he went over about 30 min, and then the other companionship in his district and the sisters in my district HAD to use the library for some stuff. So we didn't get out of district meeting until an hour after we were supposed to. So we were super late for our appointment we had after district meeting. So we jump on our bikes in our suits and rush over there. We know that Thomas (our appointments name) cant meet with us right then, but we want to set up a return appointment. So we jump off our bikes run up to the front door as he's leaving walk with him around to the back where his car is, talk with him for about 5 min set up a return appointment. When we walk around to the front of the yard my bike was gone. So someone ran up and stole my bike during the 5 min we were behind his house. I'm really sorry that we didn't have it locked up, we filed a police report and they said they'd be on the lookout for it, but for the time being I don't have a bike. So we spent the last half of the week walking everywhere. One of the members in the ward said that they have a bike that I can borrow for a while and they also said that the mission might be able to replace it because her son's bike got hit by a car and they replaced it. I'll talk to the mission president about it this Wednesday at zone conference. Then Leah, our neighbor, she works as a manager at two apartment complexes and she said that every summer they do a clean out for their bike racks and they usually end up with about 10 bikes that no one will claim. So she said that she'd give me one of them and then wanted to donate the rest of them to the mission. So I have a few options for getting a bike for the rest of my mission at least. I'm still really bummed out though that the one we bought got stolen. So again I'm sorry I didn't lock it up, at 2 in the afternoon I figured that it would be fine for 5 min or so. I guess I was wrong though.
Well I love you guys and thanks for your words of encouragement.
Love Elder Carpenter
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