Like a Chicken with its Head Cut Off

Well it has been another great week and the analogy of "running around like a chicken with their head cut off" now has an entirely new meaning to me! But we will get to that later.

Monday we found out that Austin had to have surgery and get his appendix removed. When we saw him it hadn't burst. The plan was for him to get it removed the next morning but it burst during the middle of the night and so he had emergency surgery. He is doing better now and was at church yesterday but had to leave because he wasn't feeling to good. He found out that he might have to get his gall bladder removed too so please pray for him! He is a tough young man but still is hard to go through at his age!

Tuesday I got to go to Elkins to go on an exchange with Elder Mortensen. He is a big teddy bear. He is like 6'5, 250 lbs and just the most friendly kid ever! We had a lot of fun and saw a lot of success while I was there. It was a lot of fun!

On Wednesday we had our last meeting with President and Sister Pitt. I can't believe that they are leaving this month! They are some of the greatest people I have ever met and it is going to be so weird not getting to see them after a year of seeing them often and loving them so much! I have learned so much from them and am so grateful for all they have done for me!​

After the meeting we had a lesson with Bert, Jessica, Antonia, Tailynn, and Wilbur! They are an awesome family and we taught them a lot about prayer and why it is so important and they really understood it and already have strong testimonies of prayer. Along with that we read Alma 32 and talked to them about how to grow and strengthen their faith and also what actions they must do to plant the seed of faith and to help it grow. They are really awesome so hopefully in the near future they will be able to start coming to church and want to be baptized. We already know it is something the kids have wanted to do so now we just need to invite them. Just waiting for the right time now.

Thursday we had to go back to Elkins to teach a lesson to Brett. His family lives in Elkins but they come to church in Buckhannon because that is where the grandparents are and they want to make it a family thing. So, that took up a majority of our night but it was a lot of fun. We taught Brett (9) and his brother Cody (8) and they are a bunch of characters. They are both getting baptized on Sunday and we are very excited for them. It is really strange though because they look like twins. They are a year apart in age but they said they are 1 pound difference. It is pretty crazy.

Friday we went out to Roy Chapman's and he gave us a brand new experience yet again. We got to skin chickens! Yes, you heard it. It was really weird but pretty fun! I won't go into detail but if you ever have the chance to do it, take the chance and do it! After that it is up to you. That was probably my first and last time skinning a chicken but it was fun! But it was so funny, we would cut the head off and no joke it would flap around for like a minute or two before it stopped. I never actually believed that it kept moving afterwards but it totally does!!

This is what his building looked like afterwards...

Best part is that we ate the chicken for dinner!

Then on Saturday I got to go to a baseball game! and I'm going to one tonight too! There are two kids in our ward that play. One is Ryan Smith and we watched him on Saturday and he had a good game. They ended up winning 12- 11. It was a pretty high scoring game! Tonight we are going to watch Derek play so we are excited for him!

None of our investigators made it to church on Sunday which was a bummer since we thought that at least 3 of them would be coming. Well actually Brett came but I think of him as being a member already. But, we are really hopeful to have a lot there this upcoming week!

Oh also Roy's cat had some kittens Saturday and we got to see them on Sunday!

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I love you all! I hope you have another fantastic week!

Love,

Elder Ryan Carter

"Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming."
 -Elder Dallin H. Oaks