The Spud in Peru

LAST EMAIL AS A MISSIONARY EVER…..

Played a little soccer this morning!! Awesome!

Wow…. I think it just hit me…. I am going home in a week…

Teresa was baptized this last week! She is so awesome!!!!! She also cooked us lunch! How delicious!!! This Saturday we should be having two baptisms but I recieved the best news today, familia Cabello, the family I taught in Surco in my first area will be getting sealed on Saturday”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am soooooooo excited! I am sooo happy for them! They have had to fight so hard but they did it!!!! So this next week should be quite interesting with saying goodbye, having my very last interview with president. Wow…. it is unreal….

What can I say…. This has been the most amazing time of my life. Never have I felt so happy… I have come to realize how this gospel brings such pure happiness. I am so grateful… just so humbled that I was allowed to come to Peru and meet so many wonderful people and experience for myself what it really is like to feel, to have, and to put into practice the gospel. I have seen miracles, I have experienced the power of faith and I know it all to be true, never ever will I deny what I have felt, I cannot nor will I. I am so thankful for my parents, for their examples and support as I have been here serving. My companions have helped me so much, through the thick and thin I have felt their support and learned so much from them. I am thankful for the opportunity I had to deeply rooten my testimony upon the basic principles of this gospel. As my president said last week in my interview… “You did it, you have learned what you need.” It is so true and I am so very thankful for it. I feel happy, nervous, excited, sad, joyous, content, etc. Basically I feel every emotion…. hahaha… it is quite hard to bring myself to realize that it has come to an end…. I feel at peace though knowing that I have gave it my all… it was not even close to easy but I was able to give it my very best!

I want to thank each one of you that has supported me during and throughout my mission, the constant letters, scriptures, I really appreciate it. I thank you all so much. I hope in one way or another I have or will help you in a way to show gratitude.

The church is still true down here in Perú.

Elder Jaxon Ryan Carter

Well….este….

Wow… this will be the second to last time I write home!!!!!!!!! WHAT?!

hahahah! This week was awesome!!!!!! We are finding new investigators like crazy but not only that… the chosen ones. Wow… we now have 7 with a date and all 7 came to church. We have one set for this Saturday and 4 for the next week and the other two for August!!!! Wow we are being so blessed! We had an excellent week and we are looking forward to finishing her off strong!

We had our zone meeting and it was awesome! It was like the perfect combination of motivation, correction, doctrine, and congratulating them for their hard work and efforts. It was an awesome zone meeting and at the end we sang… I do not know the name in English but it is “El fin se acerca” which means like the end is near. hahahahahahahaha. I thought I was pretty funny! The zone got a good kick out of it!!

So wow… this week we have interviews with President and it will be the second to last interview with President. Wow…I want to express my deep gratitude and love for him. He has helped me so much. He has been such a great example to me. He is such a wise man, and man…. it is going to be hard to say good bye to him. He has been such a support through all the hard trials I have gone through… he has known when to whip me into shape, and when to be kind and motivate me. I am so grateful for him.

We taught familia Guerra who has a baptismal date for the 30th and we taught them about the plan of salvation and we brought a member, a mom with us to befriend them and she started to testify and looked at us and and talked about how we are sent from the Lord and pucha… it reminded me of my mom and almost jerked my tears…. now don’t get trunky on me guys… not yet! I still have two more weeks.

Love you all,

Elder Carter

What a week….

Happy 4th of July all the way from Peru!!

Elder Datje, from Boise Idaho, and myself!! God Bless America!!

Wow… I love working hard. I love that feeling of satisfaction yet realizing there is still so much to do!!!!! We had an amazing week! We now have 5 people with a baptismal date and they ae progressing towards baptism!!!! Sooo awesome!!!

We were able to reach 23 lessons with investigators! And we found 10 new investigators. how amazing! We are being so blessed as we are working so hard and really bringing this area and zone upto its full potential! The zone…. 12 missionaries… taught 123 lessons with investigators…. WOW! Absolutely amazing!

We are seeing so much progress and the key is that we are opening our mouth and spreading this gospel!!!

So this last week was my last leadership counsel and I bore my testimony… why?… the tear monster just started ripping out water from my face. It was really weird! hahaha. Man, this time has been so awesome. Such a blessing!

We unfortunately have to move again…. the owner lied to us and there are single women where we live so we are on the hunt for a new place…. which sucks… I guess i’ll pack my stuff up to move and just leave it pàcked up! hahahahahaha

We are able to study this month in chapter 1 in Preach my Gospel and man, I still am learning about how important our calling is and how we can help others come unto Christ! We were able to watch a talk by Elder Anderson that he gave to new mission presidents about baptism and WOW! How awesome!!!! We need to find the balance in between inviting without explaining why but inviting directly with might! It is awesome sand so we put it into practice and we now have 5 with a date! The blessings come very quickly! I am learning so much! I love it! We will be training our zone this week on this so I am super excited!

Well, have a great week! Thanks for all you have done!!!

Elder Carter

Hard work=Results

💥Happy 4th of July!!!!!!!!!!󾓦💥
We put in a good week of work boys… wow…. we did two interchanges with two companionships and they are awesome and we saw them improve in many things!!! And guess what, we have another investigator progressing!!!!!!! His name is Elkin, he is 20 years old and is the other brother of Jhorlenny!!! We are finding the chosen ones for days in that family!!! They are awesome!!!!

We had a sweet multi zone meeting and some people from my group bore their testimonies and wow… it hit me… I felt the spirit super strong and it was jerking at my tears…. I was also able to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday.. wow…. but because here fasting is not super common I said it was my last fast Sunday and everyone thought I was going home and they wanted to hug me and I was like no! Not yet!!! Calm down…! hahahaha

These couples served us an awesome lunch!! Such wonderful people!!!

So things are going super well! It is getting colder here and I love it! I enjoy the cold!!! We had a solid district meeting this week where I put the goal to pray everyday before we leave our house asking God to direct me to one person that needs to hear the gospel! Wow, it is not what I expected but we are finding people to teach and we have some progress here!

My comp is super awesome, he knows English so sometimes we speak in English! We are putting goals and achieving them! I love to see the progress!

We found an investigator named Hernesto and straight up he told us, I am testing you to see if you are intelligent enough to speak with me! Hahahaha! Man the people you find here! Super funny!

I am working out with Elder Tadje from Boise Idaho and we are getting yoked!!! hahaha, the workout today kicked our butts!!!!!! But all I can say is I am so happy!

I wanted to express my testimony of the plan of salvation more specifically of the knowledge that we will be together again. When Grandpa Davis passed away after we had fasted for him and he remembered our names… my parents had conference on and Pres. Packer was talking about the resurrection and when he testified that we will be exactly like we were but in a perfect form the spirit touched my heart. I am so happy to know I will see my Grandpa again, and also that my parents are always trying to help us and give us opportunities to feel the spirit… if they had not put conference on that April.. never would I have gained this testimony… Thank you.

Love you all,

Elder Carter

BOOM!

Well, this is going to be awesome.

My new comp is the illest, dopest, Mexican ever! I love the guy! He is too fresh!!!

So we are working super hard and he loves to contact, and me too, so we talk with everyone! We contacted like crazy looking for new people and we saw some success but the results will be seen more in this week so we have some high hopes!!!

We started teaching a guy named Edwin, he is 19 and has had a rough past, but he said he felt Gods love for him and loves to pray, it is so awesome! So amazing to teach him because he is so intrigued and receptive!

Jhorlenny was confirmed and her mom accepted a baptismal date, and her mom is a hard core coffee drinker but we taught her the Word of Wisdom and she accepted it and is willing to not drink coffee! What faith… wow! It surprises me… honestly.

I had a temple recommend interview with President and wow… he opened my eyes to how blessed we are to have and be worthy for a recommend. In the world there are about 7 billion people, there are about 15, 000,000 members, about 8,000,000 go to church, about 4, 000,000 are old enough to have one, and about 2, 000,000 actually have one… I am one of those…. how incredible it is to think how many people there are on this earth and how many have been able to actually go into the Temple. We are so very blessed… we should act like it…. that is something I have realized… act according to the special and divine lineage I have… we must all do that.

Well things are going so well! So awesome!!! I thank you for your support and your prayers! I will talk to you all next week!

Elder Carter

And the beginning of the end begins…..

Well… Elder Quada has headed off and I am all alone… hahaha. I am in a trio with the other two missionaries in Vitarte until my new companion and my last companion, arrives tomorrow… He is Elder Espinoza… from Mexico, he is from the same group as the first missionary I trained, Elder Arguello, he has about 15 months!!! He is super awesome! I was in the same zone when he was being trained! hahaha. I hear he works super hard! I am super excited… my last compànion… wow….que tal…

So Jhorlenny was baptized… but it was not as easy as we thought… hahahha… Saturday she was supposed to get baptized at 3 and after going to the temple on Saturday we went to fill the font up and there was no water… sometimes here in Lima… there is so much “stuff” in the sewage and it brakes…. flooding the streets with “stuff” it smells super good, haha anyways that affected the water… so we moved the baptism to 7 at night and we called a guy to come fix it so that there was water and he said he would be there at 3 30… we waited and waited and waited… he did not show up until 8 40 at night and so we had to cancel it and she was then baptized on Sunday, it was a very great baptismal service and lots of members were able to come! Super awesome! We were a little worried though.

I was able to go to my charla trunky… for those who will be finishing and it was very interesting… I feel prepared to go home… knowing I have 6 weeks to give it all I’ve got and then I can rest… my body is tired… my joints weak, but my soul filled with joy that keeps me going even with the tiredness and weakness… I love it!

We were also able to go to the temple with Diana, our convert, and she was like wow… never in my life have I felt like that! She said she felt so relaxed and so calm and peaceful that she went home and slept like a baby until 6 at night! We also went with Jesus another convert, hahahaha, he also enjoyed it.

Well… this is it boys…. buckle up… it’s time to bring her home. I am very pleased and happy with all that is happening! I am excited for my new companion and all that we will accomplish this transfer! I thank you for your support! Until next week

Elder Carter

The transfer is coming to an end…

Wow… It is already Tuesday…. this is the last week of this transfer… My companion is going home on Monday and I will have my last companion of the mission… my last transfer… how exciting… how crazy…

Well this week we were able to meet with Elder Rasband… He shook everyone’s hands… and looked us dead in the eyes. I proudly looked into his eyes and said hello… hahah. it happened so fast! It was awesome!!! He gave a great discussion… but very short unfortunately… it was an odd discussion… different than I thought, but one thing I noticed in him is he is so humble, he is an ordinary man, who the Lord has called to help him progress and also to use him as a guide for us as his children. What a blessing.

Jhorlenny, our investigator that was progressing came to church and is doing super well, she has her interview on Friday! So my companion should be fisnishing with a baptism. How awesome.

Today at the temple… I received such a peaceful feeling about my mission, about everything that is going on. I felt the Lord is very pleased with me. I appreciate the temple so much. It always helps me.

This week I have something called the trunky charla… it’s like a meeting for all the people who will be finishing soon… not excited for that… it is all day Friday… so that is where I will be. It seems like just yesterday my companion was there and here I am… wow… time is flying by.

The Peru, Lima East Mission! All of us!!!!

This last week we had our zone meeting and it went quite well! haha. We were able to have the sister missionaries train as well and it all went very smoothly this week. We are putting a big emphasis on studying and using our time wisely, I am grateful for this.

I just wanted to share my gratitude for my Savior… I seem to see how everything turns to Him… It seems like a blur to me… yet looking back.. I see how much has gone by and how much I have learned. I am grateful for the scriptures and the spiritual experiences I have had to know that they are true… like Peter… I know they are true because no one told me, but because the spirit of the Lord has manifested the truth of them to me.

Thank you for your support. For your love and prayers.

Elder Carter

I love moving!!!!!

So this week we moved… and it was the second time I have had to do it and it was better than last time but still was not the best! Our new room is super small!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like super small it is not the best… but I will just suffer I guess…

So we also had to fight with our old land lady! First off… well… it was partly my fault, we forgot the keys in the room when we were moving so when we returned to get our suitcases out of the old room we had to climb in to our room because we were locked out. Well I climbed up and when I hoisted myself up I kicked out a window and shattered it. hahahahahahahaha. So then I had to tell her about that so she comes over and also wants the room painted and wants other stuff replaced and so we layed low, but then when we went to pay her for the window she got mad and stuff and was like you have to pay me for the days that you are not living there until someone moves in and I told her very firmly we are not going to pay and then she asked about curtains and a window and my comp was like you made no contract with the elders so we are not responsible and she was like so who is going to replace the stuff and we were like you… and she knew we got her so trying to pick her pride back up she made us clean up the window even though her workers were very capable but yeah. You cannot stump us. hahaha!

Another thing I wanted to tell you guys is we have been challenging Diana, our convert, share her testimony with someone… well we were going to meet with her at 5 and then have a lesson at 5 30 with an investigator named Sandra but Sandra came at five so we invited Diana to acompany us and we invited her to share her testimony! WOW. She is so strong. Her testimony was perfect! She shared her feelngs and did it just how we had taught her. It was so spiritual!!!! I LOVE THE GOSPEL!

We had a way cool leadership council about studying and so I was reading in the Book of Mormon and in Alma 37 verses 38 to 46 it compares the scriptures to the Liahona and I love how it performed tiny miracles as they used it with faith. The scriptures can do the exact same thing for us if we use them with diligence and faith. A great scripture that also goes along with this is 1 Nephi 10 verse 19. This scripture is amazing!!!!!!!!!! I know studying the scriptures will be our liahona because the words of Christ will tell us all things we must do.

I invite you all to read those verses… they will help you all like they have for me.

Thank you for your prayers and all that you have done for me. Have an amazing week!

Elder Carter

Wow….Que tal

So first things first… yesterday we had our stake conference where a member of the seventy and our mission president spoke, but our mission president had a little surprise for my companion and I… on our way to the stake conference building, he sent us a text telling us to come to the stake pres. office. So we showed up and he had some friends from back home and he says to us… you are going to translate for them….. wow….. IT WAS VERY DIFFICULT. I would describe it as I have an English switch and a Spanish switch but trying to translate one to the other is super hard… I translated for the mom and Elder Quada translated for the dad. My mind was absolutely worked… just dead… hahahaha. But at the same time it was very spiritual. President talked about them in his talk and how they had been key helpers in converting their daughters as he was president’s Bishop! Super spiritual because I translated that to her… the man started crying… they have a son in Canada serving… one lady talked SUPER fast and yeah I did not translate that one too well! It was not very understandable. And another talk he was just repeating the same things… it was hard… very difficult.

So Jhorlenny came to the stake conference yesterday and only needs to come one more time before she can get baptized! She is doing super well!

So we are moving tomorrow and it has been kind of hectic. We cleaned… I ran to the office with Elder Garate to get money and turn in our forms, we have to go get the keys later because we will be moving our stuff tomorrow! The room is a lot smaller but brand new! So that is sweet! I figured… well about 60 more days and yeah… won’t even matter! hahahahaha. anyways… that will be interesting tomorrow! This is the second time in my mission I have had to move and I am not excited… hahaha…

I went on a division this week with an elder from Cusco.. he lives like 2 hours from Machu Picchu and he lives on like a farm and man he is the humblest guy I have ever met! He is super cool! I love that guy!

So things are going really well… my comp is winding down in time which scares me because it means I am just that much closer… yet I am happy knowing I did my best!

Well I wanted to share with you guys something very interesting…. I studied the three kingdoms of glory and in Doctrine and Covenants it explains who will go to each kingdom… yet the Celestial is the only one where the blessings are mentioned… that is our goal and we must live what we preach… we must put it into practice in our lives… that the gospel will become a daily pattern… not a forced routine.

Love,

Elder Carter

A week of success and …..

Wow what an interesting week we had… We had the most lessons in one day that I have ever taught on my mission on Wednesday… We taught 9 lessons in one day! It was amazing!!!! Over all this week we taught 30 lessons! We are working super hard… and we are seeing results!

We have been working with Jesus… a convert that Elder Lambson and I had together here in Vitarte and we are teaching his sister and she accepted a date and came to church this Sunday… we are also teaching a re-activated members sister and she also came to church… she doesn’t know much about the church but she has this desire to know more and likes going to church. It is super awesome!

So we had an interesting contact on Saturday…. Elder Quada is a big boy and does not put up with crap… anyways we were contacting a 20 year old girl at her house, she was interested, super sick contact and then her dad… super huge peruvian… comes out and says we are busy okay… super mean and slams the door in our face… Elder Quada being a funny guy… says…. “Muy Mal” very bad…. in English and the guy hears and he opens the door again and begins to rip us a new one and says we are interrupting him and his meeting and that we cannot knock on his door and so we ask where can we preach he says in the street but not in his house… then he says how would you like it if I interrupt your meetings at church and then Elder Quada says that is why we came to invite you to church and during all this he is like in our faces just yelling, it was nuts… then we were like okay… we will go and then my comp makes the mistake of saying but you don’t have to be rude about it… and then he insulted us with curse words saying we were foreigners from…. and other really bad stuff…. then the very next house we contacted…. he let us in and we taught him! hahahahaha. Never give up! What a great story!

Diana and her Mom and little boy! Amazing people!!

We also ate lunch with Diana our convert! Super cool! We are starting to teach her mom as well!

Well we haven’t had Elder Rasband come yet… I don’t think I made that clear… hahaha. But we are all doing good! I thank you for your prayers!!!!

Love,

Elder Carter