My first week in the office involved taking the departing missionaries to the airport. Elder Geohagen and I did that we're both brand new neither of us had a phone and we didn't know where the airport was and my gps was packed in my bags at the Franklin stake center so we got a little lost but eventually we found the airport and then we got a little lost again and eventually we found all the missionaries there.
Then we've been driving President around the mission all week for him to do the interviews. It's interesting that you mentioned the law of consecration, because that's the thing we've been training on. While Elder Arnold was here he taught about the 3 laws of heaven 1st obedience, 2nd sacrifice, 3rd consecration, and each is a step progressing further and further towards exaltation. We used the example of the Savior's sacrifice in the atonement and asked if He had not first been obedient would His sacrifice have meant anything? Then we tied that into missionary work, if we're not striving to be obedient what power does our sacrifice have? Then we talked about how the essence of consecration is the atonement. "And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of ONE heart, and ONE mind, and they dwelt in righteousness, and there were no poor among them." The word Atone isn't reek or Hebrew or Latin, its anglo-saxton English and it means to be at one. So living the law of consecration as Zion did makes us at-one in mind and heart with each other and the Lord. You can't have consecration without first being obedient to the commands of God and you cant have a worthy sacrifice without first being obedient, and you need both sacrifice and obedience to fully consecrate yourself to the Lord. That's what we've been training on all week several times a day every day.
I figured that I've gone over 500 miles in the last week. It's fun though, just a different kind of fun.
For a time to e-mail home we don't really know yet because we don't know what's going to be happening during the week or on Christmas day, but since we'll be in the office I'll be able to e-mail you again before Christmas to tell you a time for sure. If you could tell Kaylee that I know I owe her a letter and I feel really bad I haven't written her yet, I've been meaning to ever since I got a letter from Sister Baker that had a picture her and Kaylee with their primary class on it, however I don't have her address in my book. So if she could send me a letter I would be more then happy to write her back, or if you could send me her address via e-mail that would work out just fine. I'm planning on getting caught up with all my letters on Christmas and Christmas eve. I'm way behind. I still haven't sent out all those Christmas cards that you sent me!
Hopefully Ali gets feeling better soon, and I'll be writing you back probably today or Wednesday with the time that I'll be calling you
Love you; buh bye!!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Dec. 13, 2009
The firesides this weekend went really great. I really loved being in the choir and it was pretty cool, but it's so time consuming! All weekend was spent singing and it was a very powerful program. We sang "Jesus Name of Wondrous Love," an arrangement of "Simple Gifts for Christmas" called "Simple Joy," and then a slew of other songs, many of which were arranged be Sister Heidenriech, who just finished her mission here. She was a Sr. missionary from Arizona, she made the Songs of the Savior program which we sang as the close to the fireside. They also recorded this fireside so hopefully soon we'll be getting a CD and I can send you home a copy of it. I don't know Sister Taft personally but I do know that she's in the mission.
Sister Matsuda is good; so is Marietta and the Burgesses but none of them made it to church yesterday :(. However Gordan Avery did come to church, we've been working with him pretty much ever since I got to this area and he hasn't been progressing very well and at church he told us that he's noticed that the happiest times of his life have been while he was actively studying the gospel with us and that he'd like to be baptized before Christmas. So that was pretty exciting. The 12 dates of Chirstmas worked wonderfully. We went from zero to twelve dates in nine days and had 14 by the close of the 12 days! This zone is doing really, really well.
For transfers I'm being transfered. I'm kinda bummed out to be leaving. I'm going to go to the mission office as President Hutchings' assistant. I'll be serving with Elder Hansen as my companion, he's the same missionary that trained me so that'll be fun. However now most of my time will be spent doing management-type things for the mission and meetings rather than working in our area. The good news though is I now get to go on exchanges with the zone leaders so I'll be able to come back to this area on exchanges. Other good news is I will now be living at the mission home so I get all my mail direct now.
That's pretty much all thats going on here. I love you guys!
Sister Matsuda is good; so is Marietta and the Burgesses but none of them made it to church yesterday :(. However Gordan Avery did come to church, we've been working with him pretty much ever since I got to this area and he hasn't been progressing very well and at church he told us that he's noticed that the happiest times of his life have been while he was actively studying the gospel with us and that he'd like to be baptized before Christmas. So that was pretty exciting. The 12 dates of Chirstmas worked wonderfully. We went from zero to twelve dates in nine days and had 14 by the close of the 12 days! This zone is doing really, really well.
For transfers I'm being transfered. I'm kinda bummed out to be leaving. I'm going to go to the mission office as President Hutchings' assistant. I'll be serving with Elder Hansen as my companion, he's the same missionary that trained me so that'll be fun. However now most of my time will be spent doing management-type things for the mission and meetings rather than working in our area. The good news though is I now get to go on exchanges with the zone leaders so I'll be able to come back to this area on exchanges. Other good news is I will now be living at the mission home so I get all my mail direct now.
That's pretty much all thats going on here. I love you guys!
Dec. 5, 2009
Things here are getting kinda crazy with meetings this month. I'm really worried about how well we'll do in December just because we have so many non-proselyting meetings. The mission has organized a missionary choir that's is going to be singing in 3 different stakes this weekend and at 2 malls and in the Opry Land Hotel so with practices and the performances it takes our entire weekend!!! Then we also have zone conference this week, so we really only have 3 working days this week!!
Things are still going well we're running into the problem of trying to help the Burgesses get to church. We're unable to go on post to help wake them up and we have limited help because the unit on post is a branch so its a small group and spread out over a LOT of area. Ft Cambell has a lot of just wilderness type land all over it where they do field training and what not. So the actually residence area of the base is spread out long-ways over most of the city of Clarksville and Oak Grove spanning the Tennessee and Kentucky state line, so finding them a ride is hard. So they didn't make it to church, but we're seeing them tonight and we'll figure something out with the branch mission leader. He was called last week, he's really gung ho about the work and that helps out leaps and bounds so we're really excited to work with him.
There is a transfer on the 15th as far as me being transferred it seems probable but I have no idea. I'll find out this Saturday and will be able to tell you next week.
Cool story. Wednesday of this past week we had a choir practice and on Tuesday we had our ZLC at the mission home. So for 2 days in a row we drove down to Franklin and Brentwood and spent the majority of the day down there. On Wednesday after we got back to Clarksville we went to go see an old media refferal we got about a month ago. We had tried to contact this refferal several times and never had any success but we thought we'd try it again. We pulled up to the house and there were a bunch of cars outside like they were having a party or something. We thought about trying another time and then figured that we were already there we might as well go for it. So we did. Turns out the Romita Matsuda a local of the Marshall Islands had moved there about a month ago. Her and certain family members had been taught by the missionaries in the Marshall Islands for the entire summer and had been attending church. Romita wanted to be baptized and then her husband got home from a deployment and was posted to Ft Cambell. So now we're teaching her and she's going to be baptized on the day after Christmas! Then we went to her house again so she could follow us to the church to see where it was. When she was getting into the car she said to us in a very thick polynesian accent, "My cousin is coming too, she is also a Mormon believer!" Her cusin Marietta also wants to be baptized! So we are very excited about that. Thats two families this month who have already been taught everything about the gospel. The Burgesses had a set appointment with the missionaries in Germany every Saturday night for a YEAR! So now its really just a matter of helping them make the last few steps and doing the paper work. Its also a cool story because on Wednesday when we met Sister Matsuda and the Burgesses, we decided earlier that day to implement what we're calling the 12 dates of Christmas. We're trying to have 12 baptismal dates in the zone by the 12th of December and that night as a zone we set 5 dates!!
Thats about all thats been happening here this week.
Love Elder Carpenter
Things are still going well we're running into the problem of trying to help the Burgesses get to church. We're unable to go on post to help wake them up and we have limited help because the unit on post is a branch so its a small group and spread out over a LOT of area. Ft Cambell has a lot of just wilderness type land all over it where they do field training and what not. So the actually residence area of the base is spread out long-ways over most of the city of Clarksville and Oak Grove spanning the Tennessee and Kentucky state line, so finding them a ride is hard. So they didn't make it to church, but we're seeing them tonight and we'll figure something out with the branch mission leader. He was called last week, he's really gung ho about the work and that helps out leaps and bounds so we're really excited to work with him.
There is a transfer on the 15th as far as me being transferred it seems probable but I have no idea. I'll find out this Saturday and will be able to tell you next week.
Cool story. Wednesday of this past week we had a choir practice and on Tuesday we had our ZLC at the mission home. So for 2 days in a row we drove down to Franklin and Brentwood and spent the majority of the day down there. On Wednesday after we got back to Clarksville we went to go see an old media refferal we got about a month ago. We had tried to contact this refferal several times and never had any success but we thought we'd try it again. We pulled up to the house and there were a bunch of cars outside like they were having a party or something. We thought about trying another time and then figured that we were already there we might as well go for it. So we did. Turns out the Romita Matsuda a local of the Marshall Islands had moved there about a month ago. Her and certain family members had been taught by the missionaries in the Marshall Islands for the entire summer and had been attending church. Romita wanted to be baptized and then her husband got home from a deployment and was posted to Ft Cambell. So now we're teaching her and she's going to be baptized on the day after Christmas! Then we went to her house again so she could follow us to the church to see where it was. When she was getting into the car she said to us in a very thick polynesian accent, "My cousin is coming too, she is also a Mormon believer!" Her cusin Marietta also wants to be baptized! So we are very excited about that. Thats two families this month who have already been taught everything about the gospel. The Burgesses had a set appointment with the missionaries in Germany every Saturday night for a YEAR! So now its really just a matter of helping them make the last few steps and doing the paper work. Its also a cool story because on Wednesday when we met Sister Matsuda and the Burgesses, we decided earlier that day to implement what we're calling the 12 dates of Christmas. We're trying to have 12 baptismal dates in the zone by the 12th of December and that night as a zone we set 5 dates!!
Thats about all thats been happening here this week.
Love Elder Carpenter
Nov. 29, 2009
Tiffany got confirmed yesterday -- yay!!! Also our zone did really good this month on our goals. We had a goal of 13 baptized and 25 dates set and we had 12 baptized and 27 dates set!! It was sweet! The Burgesses called later on Monday and cancelled our appointment. The kids were sick with fevers and had pink eye, but we're going to see them this Wednesday. The Ft. Cambell branch now has a branch mission leader that has a much more open schedule in the evening time then most so that'll be a big help.
Thanksgiving was really good, the Stucki's had the best stuffing I've ever had!! It had chunks of sausage in it as well as some mushrooms, it was really really good. She also made the best creamed corn I've ever had. I'm not a big fan of creamed corn but hers was amazing. It was cooked in a crock pot and it was really good; that's all I know about it. Brother Stucki is in the army and he got sent home early from a deployment due to injuries. An anti tank rocket was shot at his vehicle and hit his door, shrapnel tore through his right forearm and his right thigh causing some very critical damage. He's missing large chuncks of bone in his arm due to it. He was also a police officer in Florida before he joined the army he worked in the anti gang units and doing the drug busts and whatnot. His hero is Porter Rockwell, and our dinner conversation was along those lines for the most part.
We've got a few more people that we're working with now our teaching pool has been depleted a little bit due to the fact that they are no longer investigators their recent converts. So we're doing a lot of finding this week. Two people we're working with now are Otis Maryweather who is a really nice guy he came to church yesterday but he's also very uneducated. He has trouble reading and his speech is very hard to understand. He doesn't know if the church is true yet but he wants to be baptized the way that Christ was so he's learning more about the church. Then there's Deborah Phelps she's had a long hard life. She's in her 50's and an alcoholic, she was raised in a church and her parents were very very active in the church and infidelity tore apart her family. After that she decided that she didn't want anything to do with church. Recently she's been in a tough spot in life and talking with her mother-in-law who converted to the church about 20 some odd years ago. Deborah's mother-in-law told her that she'd put her name on the prayer roll in the temple and that got her curious about the church so she ordered a Book of Mormon and now we're teaching her, she was also at church yesterday.
Speaking of the temple President Hutchings and the temple president here have arranged for all of the missionaries in the mission to go to the temple each zone has a specific day and we'll be able to spend round about 4-5 hours in the temple doing all of the ordinances available!! We're all really excited about it.
Love you all and hope that you have a great week!!
Elder Carpenter
Thanksgiving was really good, the Stucki's had the best stuffing I've ever had!! It had chunks of sausage in it as well as some mushrooms, it was really really good. She also made the best creamed corn I've ever had. I'm not a big fan of creamed corn but hers was amazing. It was cooked in a crock pot and it was really good; that's all I know about it. Brother Stucki is in the army and he got sent home early from a deployment due to injuries. An anti tank rocket was shot at his vehicle and hit his door, shrapnel tore through his right forearm and his right thigh causing some very critical damage. He's missing large chuncks of bone in his arm due to it. He was also a police officer in Florida before he joined the army he worked in the anti gang units and doing the drug busts and whatnot. His hero is Porter Rockwell, and our dinner conversation was along those lines for the most part.
We've got a few more people that we're working with now our teaching pool has been depleted a little bit due to the fact that they are no longer investigators their recent converts. So we're doing a lot of finding this week. Two people we're working with now are Otis Maryweather who is a really nice guy he came to church yesterday but he's also very uneducated. He has trouble reading and his speech is very hard to understand. He doesn't know if the church is true yet but he wants to be baptized the way that Christ was so he's learning more about the church. Then there's Deborah Phelps she's had a long hard life. She's in her 50's and an alcoholic, she was raised in a church and her parents were very very active in the church and infidelity tore apart her family. After that she decided that she didn't want anything to do with church. Recently she's been in a tough spot in life and talking with her mother-in-law who converted to the church about 20 some odd years ago. Deborah's mother-in-law told her that she'd put her name on the prayer roll in the temple and that got her curious about the church so she ordered a Book of Mormon and now we're teaching her, she was also at church yesterday.
Speaking of the temple President Hutchings and the temple president here have arranged for all of the missionaries in the mission to go to the temple each zone has a specific day and we'll be able to spend round about 4-5 hours in the temple doing all of the ordinances available!! We're all really excited about it.
Love you all and hope that you have a great week!!
Elder Carpenter
Nov. 22, 2009
Hey, sorry I didn't get to e-mail you last week. I tried to send it and was never sure if it went through or not. A lot of missionaries are having trouble with the myldsmail server its really slow and isn't allowing people to send things. We're here today around noon and its working just fine, it's probably that on Mondays a lot of missionaries are logged on the server and trying to read and send mail so its super slow.
Anyways in the last two weeks we've had three baptisms! Vanessa and James were baptized last week and Tiffany was baptized this week. You should be getting a letter soon that is the printed off version of my e-mail last week. I have just procrastinated putting it in the mail. Other then that this last week has been pretty slow. Just lots of work.
Tiffany's baptism was amazing. We had most of the primary there because she has 4 primary age kids. With that many kids it was really loud and chaotic but it was still very spiritual. She's had a really tough life and has been through and is going through really hard times right now and she bore her testimony after she was baptized about how she felt an emptiness inside but it was a good empty. It was as if all of her sins and troubles had been taken away from her and she was now capable of living life how she wanted to, living life the way God wants her to. It was an amazing testimony and we're really thankful for the chance we have to work with her.
For Thanksgiving its our p-day. Today is a work day where we're supposed to e-mail and spend the rest of the day working. We're planning on playing in the flag football turkey bowl at 10:00 with the ward. Then we have dinner planned with the Stucki's. Then we have a little fake Christmas tree that's pre-lit and we'll set that up Thursday night. That's all we've got planned for Thanksgiving. Next Monday however is going to be the cookie cook-off. Everyone in the district is going to make their favorite type of cookies and we're going to have a cookie contest at the church and watch "Mountain of the Lord" while we eat cookies. It should be a fun time.
Tonight we're going on post to visit the Burgess family for the first time. They were transferred to Ft. Cambell from Germany and were taking missionary lessons over in Germany so we're excited to visit with them and see how things will be going with that. Then we've got an exchange planned in Hopkinsville, we'll be spending the night there and I'll be bringing back Elder Rigby in the morning. That's pretty much the plan for now. Sounds like things are going well back home and all is well out here. Love ya!! Oh and thanks for the package it got here all safe and sound, the Christmas cards look great thanks a bunch!!!
Love Elder Carpenter
Anyways in the last two weeks we've had three baptisms! Vanessa and James were baptized last week and Tiffany was baptized this week. You should be getting a letter soon that is the printed off version of my e-mail last week. I have just procrastinated putting it in the mail. Other then that this last week has been pretty slow. Just lots of work.
Tiffany's baptism was amazing. We had most of the primary there because she has 4 primary age kids. With that many kids it was really loud and chaotic but it was still very spiritual. She's had a really tough life and has been through and is going through really hard times right now and she bore her testimony after she was baptized about how she felt an emptiness inside but it was a good empty. It was as if all of her sins and troubles had been taken away from her and she was now capable of living life how she wanted to, living life the way God wants her to. It was an amazing testimony and we're really thankful for the chance we have to work with her.
For Thanksgiving its our p-day. Today is a work day where we're supposed to e-mail and spend the rest of the day working. We're planning on playing in the flag football turkey bowl at 10:00 with the ward. Then we have dinner planned with the Stucki's. Then we have a little fake Christmas tree that's pre-lit and we'll set that up Thursday night. That's all we've got planned for Thanksgiving. Next Monday however is going to be the cookie cook-off. Everyone in the district is going to make their favorite type of cookies and we're going to have a cookie contest at the church and watch "Mountain of the Lord" while we eat cookies. It should be a fun time.
Tonight we're going on post to visit the Burgess family for the first time. They were transferred to Ft. Cambell from Germany and were taking missionary lessons over in Germany so we're excited to visit with them and see how things will be going with that. Then we've got an exchange planned in Hopkinsville, we'll be spending the night there and I'll be bringing back Elder Rigby in the morning. That's pretty much the plan for now. Sounds like things are going well back home and all is well out here. Love ya!! Oh and thanks for the package it got here all safe and sound, the Christmas cards look great thanks a bunch!!!
Love Elder Carpenter
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