BUCKHANNON WEEK 1

What a great week it has been! I have only been here 5 days and I already love it here!!! Maybe cause my companion is amazing! Maybe because this week has been awesome and has been super busy. Maybe because I now have a car and it is finally warming up here (even though it snowed yesterday....) I can't pick one thing but it has been awesome!!! The members here are great and the people here are great!

 

I got here on Wednesday and ever since getting here it has been fun! On Thursday we taught an awesome lesson to a new investigator. Friday we were able to have a dinner with a family in our ward and the missionaries here have started teaching the wifes dad about our church which was cool. We were able to teach him the Plan of Salvation which is my favorite lesson to teach. I just always feel so good teaching that lesson because of the peace that it bring me to know the plan that God has made for all of his children to receive the most happiness and joy in this life! And it is always amazing to teach of Christ's sacrifice for all of us so that even though we have imperfections we can be cleansed of our sins if we repent and work on changing and always becoming better. But not only that, he suffered so that he would know all of our pains, and trials and afflictions we would all face in this life and he wanted to be able to support us through all of it.

 

On Sunday we had a baptism for Rita Barker! It was so great! I don't know her super well yet but she seems awesome from what opportunity I have had to talk with her! It is always amazing to be a part of a special moment in someones life like that!

 

And an amazing things happened on Sunday too! A kid whos dad is a member and has a grandma that is a member but has not been baptized came up to us on Sunday and told Elder Fielding that he wants to be baptized and wants to know how to do it! He already knows a lot about the church since he has been around it his whole life and goes to church with his Grandma whenever he asks her but now all we have to do is teach him the lessons. So in two weeks we should be having another baptism which I'm super excited for!

 

I love you all! I hope each of you have a great week!

Elder Ryan Carter

 

 

"You will come to know that what appears today to be a sacrifice will prove instead to be the greatest investment that you will ever make." -Gordon B. Hinckley

 

"Tough times don't last, Tough people do"

Going a Few Fersees Yonder South

Well today is my last day here in Morgantown and it is kind of sad... I am going about an hour or so south to Buckhannon WV to serve with Elder Fielding!!!! I'm so excited! I don't know if I have talked about him much in the past but he was my Zone Leader while I was serving in Portsmouth! I have already served with him on exchanges in the past and am so excited to get to serve with him! I don't know a lot about where he is from or anything but I know he is an awesome missionary and works hard and I'm super excited for a fun transfer!! (I added pics of us)

It has been a fun last week in Morgantown though! Yesterday members fed us twice which always makes for a good day! Good 'ol Wendy's and some pulled pork sandwiches!! But along with that we have been having a fun week! We didn't really find many more people to teach but we were able to meet with Steve and Melanie which was great! Steve read 5 chapters out of the Book of Mormon and it has been so cool to see how much he has progressed in the last few months! I haven't been able to witness all of his conversion but since I have been here he started to read the Book of Mormon, after meeting with several missionaries in the past, and Melanie came to a church activity for the first time in a couple years. It is so cool to be able to be a part of such an amazing experience and to touch the lives of others even if it is in a small way.

Patty and Jenna have gone from being all shy and quiet and always having anxiety to praying in front of people, participating in classes, and lets not forget working on reading the Book of Mormon from cover to cover!

I have loved Morgantown so much and have had so many great experiences here!

Thank you all once again for all the love and support you give me each week!

Love,

Elder Ryan Carter

"You can't move mountains while sitting on your backside" -Ephraim Hanks

Onward Christian Soldiers

What a great week it was! Because it was Spring Break for the University we got to see a lot of the University Elders this week which was great. On Friday we were able to go on a short exchange in which we were able to find 15 potential people to teach in about a 4 hour period. It was so exciting! I was able to go around with Elder Hollembeak, who has been on his mission for about 3 months now, which was so great! We had so much fun and the crazy thing is to think that I was just where he is and how fast it has gone. Along with that though, it is so cool to see how much I have learned and yet to see how much that I still have yet to learn. The coolest part was at the end he thanked me for how much he learned, but in reality I learned probably just as much as he did. Maybe it was new, or maybe it was something that I had just forgotten, but it was such a cool experience. I have a firm belief that the more you teach or share something the more you learn. But I also believe that it isn't always learning something new. Sometimes it is just learning something that we forgot, or even putting together a connection of things we may have knew but just hadn't realized yet.

 

But earlier in the week we were able to meet with Talitha. She is the one that we met last week and pulled over wanting to talk to us. She is so great. She has a lot of interesting beliefs but when we really get to talking to her, she already believes all of what we are teaching her, she just doesn't recognize it yet. We were able to read through the Articles of Faith with her, which is are 13 basic beliefs, and as we read and discussed, she kept telling us that she was looking for things that she disagreed with. We got through all 13 and at the end she said, "I have no problems with any of these things. It all just makes sense." Which as a missionary hearing that is always great.

 

We also were able to meet a man named Bill and his wife. Bill apparently was taught about 4 years prior before he moved to Morgantown. One of the missionaries where he used to live called him to try to see if they could meet up with him. Well long story short, he now lives in Morgantown and is interested in meeting with us. It is so cool to have such little miracles happen all the time after all the hard work we put in.

 

Well once again, Thank You all for everything you do for me and for others! I am so very grateful!

Love,

Elder Ryan Carter

 

I love Baseball

"Every accomplishment begins with a decision to step up to the plate."

Small and Simple Means

Well what a week it was. I don't know if I would say there were any crazy miracles or anything overly exciting but there were still definitely miracles. On Thursday we were out finding people to teach and someone opened up their window and yelled at us and said "Hey are you the mormons?" We said yes and then he closed his window... kinda weird. But anyways it was probably about 2 minutes later a car stopped going down a hill, rolled down their window and said "Thank you for all you do guys. Keep up the good work." I have know idea who they were, but the fact that they stopped is something that if you are a missionary, know that never happens. It was truly a cool experience. Nothing really happened from it but it definitely brightened by day. But then later that night we were walking home on the main road by our house (which doesn't have any sidewalks and it was dark) and some members from another ward in Morgantown stopped and drove us where we were going. It was such a tender mercy and a sweet little act of kindness that meant so much to me.

 

Later in the week though we didn't really have much to do and we hadn't been able to meet up with one of our investigators yet that week so we decided to just stop by and see if they had any time. When we got there the lights were out but there car was there. Just as we were about to walk away and the door opened and Melanie, who is a less active member, ended up talking to us for like 45 minutes which was awesome. Her boyfriend, who is the investigator, wasn't home when we got there but after 45 minutes he showed up and Melanie went back inside because we had to do something so we ended up talking to Steve for another 45 minutes or so. It is amazing how the Lord will guide us to where we need to be so that we can touch others lives around us.

 

Then Sunday night, after we had a slow week, we decided to call some people who had been busy lately but were interested in meeting with us. We were able to set up 2 appointments and I'm very excited to start teaching them. The Lord truly works by "Small and simple means."

 

I am so grateful for each of you! Hope all is well!

Love,

Elder Ryan Carter

 

“What we know will always trump what we don’t know.”    -President Pitt

 

(From my mom)

"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!"    -Audrey Hepburn

8 Months Down and More Snow...

SURPISE!!! MORE SNOW!!!  I'm really startng to not really like this whole snow thing... I mean I don't know about the rest of you but usually a couple days with a few inches once a year is good for me. Anything more than that is a little too much. Schools out here have been cancelled probably 20+ days and even the University has shut down like 4 times and from talking to people it has only shut down once in the last like 15 years. So it has been a... "fun" winter... especially since I have the great pleasure of walking everywhere.

 

 BUT we saw a crazy miracle this week because we were out working even though it was pretty cold. I was on an exchange with Elder Sorensen and we were walking around knocking on peoples doors hoping that somebody would let us in or talk to us or really just show some interest and say we could come back another time. Well we had found a few people that said we could come back and we will see how those go but then we saw a miracle. We saw this big yellow and pink house and both of us decided we had to go knock on it. We expected some like young hippy guy or something and then this old man comes to the door and before we could even begin to talk... he yells at us and said "Go Away!"... so we did. I don't know why it works this way but either right before or after we find someone really good or interested I feel like there is always some angry person who doesn't like us. But anyways we were walking down his steps and a girl pulls up in her car and says "Are you guys Jehovah's Witnesses? Are you out witnessing?" (We get that a lot...) We told her we were the Mormons and she excitedly said "Do you have time to talk. I have something I want to talk to you about." Long story short she has a lot of interesting believes but by the end of talking to her for about an hour and a half (in the cold) she said I really like what you guys believe! It sounds so loving and merciful. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she would read it and call us when we could meet up again. Only rough part is we were sitting on metal benches that entire hour and a half and we were in the shade so when we got up I almost fell because I couldn't feel my legs... But it was all worth it!

Miracles are everywhere as long as you are obedient to the commandments and working hard!

 

I brought my notes from our Zone Conference last week and just a quick few things I really liked.

        If our investigators connect with us, they connect with Jesus Christ.

        This Church can give you everything because it requires everything!

        Don't let Satan win the battle of your souls.

        Jesus Christ, the best teacher ever, taught using parables, or stories.

 

Well I love you all! Hopefully there isn't a ton of snow next week so I can actually email on Monday!

Love,

Elder Ryan Carter

 

"We need to fortify the weak areas to create strengths." -Richard G. Scott

 

"When we recognize our own weakness, we stand in awe of His strength.” -President Pitt

Wild and Wonderful West Virginia!

This week has been a little rough and a little slow. We have been able to meet with a few people but haven't been able to find too many people to teach which makes the weeks go by a little slower.

 

We have been able to continue to work with and teach Jenna and she is doing awesome. We gave her Mormon and Moroni to read out of the Book of Mormon and it has been pretty funny seeing what she likes about them. We were reading Mormon with her and she said she liked the fighting out of it because she has a good imagination and could imagine herself there which I thought was great. I always try to point out the things more related to the gospel just so she can relate it to herself and continue to grow. Patty has been doing great too! She started reading the entire Book of Mormon and has already read all of 1 Nephi, 2 Nephi and Jacob. She has been reading like 6-10 chapters a day. It has been crazy and it is so cool to see how excited she has been about it. She has really been understanding it and enjoying it and it has been great.

 

We were able to have a Zone Conference this week which is always a good experience because President Pitt is just such an amazing man an he always helps me out so much in this work. It has been really cool to see the changes that have happened in our mission and ever since the new year, we have had one big focus. Get back to the basics. Study the basics of the gospel. Learn the basics of teaching skills. Learn the basics of finding people to teach. Help and serve the members. Everything is all focused on being more simple in all we do and as a result becoming the best missionaries, and the best servants of the Lord in this great work! As I have been able to do these things it has been great to see the blessings. There is still much work I can do but it all has to do with focusing on the basics.

 

Last night we had a cool experience too. Both of the Sister Missionaries in our ward had a really bad feeling yesterday. I'm not exactly sure what happened but they asked us to give them a blessing and to go over and bless their home as well because they just didn't feel safe there for some reason. After giving them a blessing and praying with them they said they felt much more peaceful. It was a great experience and it is always so cool to be able to use the Priesthood to bless others.

 

Thank you everyone for all of the prayers, support and love. I really do appreciate it and am greatful.

Love,

Elder Ryan Carter

 

“It’s not what you do once with all your heart and every ounce of strength that counts, nearly so much as that which we do every day, whether we want to or not.” -President Pitt

Transfers are on Thursday…no Friday….no Saturday!

So this week got a little bit crazy with transfers so we didn't see a ton happen because of it. We were originally supposed to have transfers happen on Thursday, then it was supposed to be Friday morning, then Friday afternoon, then Friday Morning again and it finally ended up happening on Saturday. Elder Davis finally made it here Saturday around 530pm and it has been pretty crazy since then. Elder Davis just turned 20 in January as well and he has been out on his mission for 9 months. I don't know a ton about him yet, but he said he is from Payson, Utah and grew up in California. I'm excited to be working with him and hopefully this will be an exciting transfer!

 

Valentines day wasn't too exciting as a missionary... Especially since the day got a little crazy not knowing what was going to happen with transfers. But at night some people from the University Ward came and pranked us and covered our door with hearts so that was pretty fun.

 

Sorry not too many exciting things have happened since Thursday. I'm excited for this week though so hopefully I will have more next week to share with you all!

 

Love you all!

Elder Ryan Carter

 

"If we have faith in Jesus Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest of times in life can be a blessing." -Henry B. Eyring

 

"It was the hardest thing I have ever done, but I just knew I had to do it. So I did." (Quote from story in 'Mountains to Climb'

 by Henry B. Eyring)

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