Feliz Navidad!

Thanks for all the packages! Sweet! So far ive gotten 2 from amazon, 2 from deseret book, and one from home. I cant wait to call home on friday! I want to call in the morning and talk to everyone while they open presents so ill probably call around 8:00 your time. Dont start without me!

We had a baptism on Sat! A 16 yr old kid finally got baptized that ive been teaching for a while now. We will also have one this sat with a 17 yr old girl named Autumn! And guess what?! Our mission reached our goal on sunday of 1050 baptisms and confirmations! YYYEEESSS!!! After a long, hard working year we finally made it! We are actually at 1055 right now! This week has been pretty good. We have been recontacting past Spanish investigators and found some awesome ones! This guy named Alejandro Franco is awesome! He Has loved reading the book of mormon and is excited to come to church. He went once before about a year ago. I feel like my Spanish has improved a lot lately too. I got a letter from Aunt Cathy in all Spanish and knew all but one word! Tell her thanks for the letter!

This morning we attempted to go hunting! We went with a guy thats 21 who has been trying to turn his life around to go on a mission. He asked us if we wanted to go hunting with him this morning. We had to get up at 5:15 though! We didnt go too far away. He had a small tent set up called a blind in the woods and an automatic feeder that spread corn everywhere to lure in the deer. But when we got there this morning someone had stolen the feeder and cut a bunch of holes in his blind! We didnt stay too long but he said he would take us to a better spot in another town next monday. Hunting is a lot different here! There is no limit on the number of deer you can kill!

Oh yea and we had a mission conference in Jacksonville on thursday with all the missionaries in the mission which was awesome! I got to see a bunch of missionaries and old companions i haven't seen for a while! Sis. Newman took a lot of pictures if you want to check them out on the blog. floridajacksonvillemissionnews.blogspot.com, im in the pic with the Lake City district!

Love you all and merry christmas!


Love,
Elder Carty

letter from 12/14/09


Heeellooo!

How is everyone doing this Christmas season? I am getting very excited for christmas next week! I cant believe its already here! Plus today i have been gone for 11 months! Crazy! Thanks for the sweaters! I like them both and they both fit very well. They came just in time cause the next day it was freezing outside! I thought about a GPS for Christmas actually but im not really sure how expensive they are. I would use it a lot on my mission probably but i dont know how much i would use it after. If its a lot or you already bought stuff thats fine. But if theres a good deal on one i think the Garmin nuvi one is really good. Thats probably the best brand. Or maybe some cds of some christian music. I get tired of motab and really slow music pretty fast so if you find any more upbeat christian cds i might like. I'm really getting tired of my music. lol. I'm not really too worried about getting much this year anyways. Plus there arent that many thing i can even use.

The new puppy sounds sweet! I have no idea what to name him! Ill let you know if i think of one. It sounds like both of your talks went really well. Always a good experience getting to speak in sacrament. We had an awesome yet different sacrament meeting this week. A family spoke, the parents and 2 daughters, and the daughters played some songs on their flutes in between a talk and then one of their boyfriends who is not a member played his acoustic guitar with them. Then after the next talk he played a small guitar that sounded kind of like a banjo while his dad played acoustic and they played a couple bluegrass gospel songs. Then after the next talk he went back to the acoustic and sang a few songs including Amazing Grace and one that he wrote about Christ. The Spirit was still there and he played extremely well and had a really good voice but it almost felt like a southern baptist church or something. lol. I really enjoyed it though.

I actually caught about 5 min of the Grizzlies last game. Oops! lol. We went to visit an investigator at a members house and the Grizzlies game was on for a min. I think they were playing Appalacian State. It looked like a blizzard while they were playing! The Gators were undefeated till they lost their very last game against Alabama so they will play in a bowl game for 3rd or 4th. Still not sure what to do about school. I completely forgot to talk to President Newman about it in my last interview.

This week we have our mission conference/Christmas devotional in Jacksonville on Thursday. A guy who is preparing to go on a mission soon is going to drive us down.

Did i tell you about our wheelchair races? We have a random sports wheelchair in our house and we have been having races around the house this week. We would time each other to see how fast we could go from one side of the house to the other while holding a wheelie. haha. Then one night we built a ramp with one of those rectangular tables they have in church buildings. We tilted it up against th back of a big armchair and started at the top. You would go down that really fast and go through a doorway across the kitchen and down the hall where you make a hard right into our study room and have to pop into a wheelie and wheelie through both doors of the bathroom across the living room and back through the kitchen and into the room with the ramp. haha. It was a blast! If you missed going through the doorways after the ramp, you would slam into the frame and fall out of the chair. lol. Whatever it takes to cure boredom as a missionary i guess!

We had a crazy experience with an investigator this week! We have been teaching this black lady of about 50 or 60. She was preparing to be baptized this weekend and we had taught her a couple lessons and she went to church last week. Then this week at the beginning of every lesson she would make some huge deal out of nothing. She thought we lied to her cause The program didnt go exactly as it was written. Then she was mad because we couldn't help her buy cat litter. (We knew she was a little crazy to begin with.) Plus some members got upset with us because she bore her testimony in relief society about how her mom tried to kill her and it scared a couple people. She seemed to be more and more upset each day we went there but we were always able to calm her down and then teach a lesson. Then on Wed night she called us and asked us if we could find someone to help her move and we said we would try. We went back the next day and when we told her we hadn't found anyone yet she completely blew up on us. She was yelling and screaming and telling us to get out of her house so we just left and dropped her pretty fast. She called the next day and kind of apologized but then yelled at us again on the phone. She also ended calling like 10 auxilliary leaders including the bishop and upset a lot of them i think. AHHH!!! So bishop had to go over there Sunday to sort it out but im not sure what happened. Anyways, crazy experience!

Well i better get going here but i love all of you and appreciate the love and support. You are my strength to make it through a lot of weeks. Thanks!

Love,
Elder Carty

Letter from 12/7/09


Hey!

Sounds like everyone is keeping pretty busy for the
holidays! Thanks for the continuous emails and letters!
And for the sweaters you are sending mom! For pday
today we are going to go to lunch with our ward mission
leader, bro wainwright at the restaurant his dad owns
and then go to their deer farm and do something. We
went over to their house last night and watched the
Christmas devotional by the first presidency. It was
really good! Did you guys get a chance to watch it?

The new puppy looks awesome! Youre picking him up at
the airport? Where is it flying from? Do you have a
name for it yet? I cant remember which one is the boy
and which is the girl.

Thats good that you are staying busy dad. I find that
i am happier if i am constantly busy too. It was
interesting today when we came into the library a
lady came up to us and was looking for advice and
scriptural council for her brother who was dying
and we were able to bring her comfort in knowing that
if she prays she will know what to say to help her
brother find peace with God before he dies. We almost
didnt wear our dress clothes to the library but decided
we probably should and it turns out that we could help
someone because of it!

I seem to be breathing all right. I actually have some
saline solution that i could probably use. I dont
think it will ever be 100% but i think its better.
I havent had allergies for a while cause of the cold.
It got down to 33 degrees last night which really
surprised me! I am going to be a wimp when i get
home cause ive gotten so used to the warm weather.
Dont worry about sending money for the couple. They have
had a lot of set backs but still want to get baptized.
If they do the ward can probably help them out with the
money. I think about what you guys might be able to do
this week for my investigators. Thanks a lot for thinking
and praying so much for them! Well i have to get going to
meet bro wainwright. Didnt have as much time today cause
of talking to that lady but im really glad we could help
her. Have an awesome week!

Love,
Elder Carty

Sorry to those of you who are following Elder Carty's letters. I've been a bit of a slacker in posting them. He will remain in Live Oak, FL it looks like through Christmas. He is doing very well. Thank you for your prayers in his behalf. He does not get a lot of letters, so if any of you would like to write him, I'm sure he would love it!

11/30/09

Hello!

Im glad you were able to understand my letter! I sent
a quick one in english later that evening after we found
out about transfers but im not sure if you got it cause
it looks like it came back to me. Just in case, Elder
Smith was transfered and im still here. They did transfers
a little crazy last week. They didnt tell us till the night
before, who was leaving and where they were going and then
we had to get there the next day which was tuesday and we
didnt have a transfer meeting. So Elder Smith packed up
and a member took him 50 miles south to a small town
called Chiefland. My new comp is Elder Price from St.
George, UT. He came out one transfer before i did and we
started our mission in the same district so i already knew
him pretty well. We have been on tradeoffs together in
Gainesville. He is sweet! Though he doesnt speak a lick
of Spanish. Elder Smith actually got pretty good at
Spanish by the end of the transfer but he's still an
english missionary. He wasnt afraid to just say what
he wanted to say, even if most of the conjugations
werent right. But they understood what he said. He
had taken classes before which helped him a lot but
my new comp hasnt taken any Spanish before so hes starting
from scratch. Hes still an english missionary but he
really wants to learn spanish so ill be teaching him
i guess. It will help improve mine a lot im sure. I
feel like my spanish has improved a ton last transfer.
It helped me really step out of my comfort zone cause
i couldnt ever rely on my comp to help teach till
towards the end of the transfer.

Oh yeah! Happy Thanksgiving!!! Hope you guys had a
delicious meal! We had a lot of fun on Thanksgiving.
An inactive/part member family i had met once before
invited us out for the day. They had a bunch of
relatives there too. We thought it might be really
awkward cause i didnt know how many members there
would be. She had like three sisters and their husbands
and a brother and his wife and they were all members.
They are all half Korean. It turned out to be a blast!
Their whole famaily was awesome! They were all laughing
and cracking jokes and having fun. We all played 2 hand
touch football for a while, had a ton of southern food,
including smoked deer and turkey...mmm..., went on a
tractor hay ride, and had a camp fire with smores that
night. They sent us home with a ton of leftovers!
Thanks for the postcard! How much have you rafted down
there? Is that where you usually go rafting? I dont think
we are doing anything special in the work for Christmas
unless i havent heard about it yet. Im not really sure.
Our mission is so close to reaching our goal of 1050! As
of sunday we are at 980! Only 70 more to go! We have like
7 people who are so close to baptism but little things
keep getting in the way like not coming to church or
they live so far out that we can only see them once a
week which makes it hard for them to progress very fast,
or they cant afford to buy a marriage license so they can
get married and then baptized. They all want it but these
little things keep holding them back. Pray that they will
all be able to be baptized before the end of year. The
member work in this ward really isnt very good. Ive only
gotten like one member referral since ive been here and
it was from a less active. Everyone lives so spread out
that it hard to get members in on lessons and theres not
that many active members here to begin with. The other
wards ive been in were a lot better as far as missionary
work goes but i still love all the people here and am
slowly getting used to the southern country accent, lol.

I could always use more ties! Im not sure what else i really need
for christmas. Did you find that sweater? I could use like
a v-neck sweater or a zip up one cause its getting a bit
cold at night and it gets dark at 6:00. As long as my tie
isnt covered up i can wear it. We have a fireplace in our
house and its finally cold enough that we've been having
fires inside every night this week! I am loving the cooler
weather! How did you guys like the movie New Moon? I was a
little disappointed in the first one. Was this one any
better? Anybody have plans for Christmas break? Cant wait
to talk to everyone! Hope everyone has an awesome week!

Love,
Elder Carty

11/23/09

Bueno! (the accents are meant to be on the letter before it)
>
> Esta semana fue muy bien, pero no tuvimos unos
bautismos. Pero este fin de semana vamos a tener tres
bautismos esperamente. Ellos son jovenes, 16 y 17, y
quieren bautizarse esta semana. Tenemos un paraje
quien necesita casarse antes de bautismo. Ellos no tienen
mucho dinero para comprar una lisencia de matrimonio.
Por favor, oren para que ellos puedan tener la fe necesario
para comprarlo y ser bautizado este domingo. Tambien,
estamos trabajando con un joven hispano. El se llama Jose
Alfredo y tiene 16 an~os. Necesitamos llamar sus padres
en Mexico y pedirles por la permisio`n de bautizarle.
Vamos a tener mucho e`xito pronto! Hoy, fuimos al Lake
City por una reunion districto. Era muy bien pero estuve
un poco enojado porque hoy es nuestro dia de preparacion
y queriamos pescar con un miembro. Ahora no tenemos
tiempo para hacerlo. Pues todo esta bien aqui en Live Oak.
El jueves vamos a ir a una casa de un miembro para comer
una cena rica por Thanksgiving. Esperamente no voy ser
cambiado a una otra area porque no quiero salir. Me gusta
la obra en Live Oak mucho! Los miembros son un poco
extran~o..."redneck"...lol, y no nos ayudan mucho. Los
otros barrios en que yo he servido nos ayudan a los
misioneros con ensen~ar mucho mas. Esta semana pasada
e`ramos tracting mucho pero no encontramos a nadie bien.
>
> Papa`, no he recibido el "postcard que me envio` pero recibi`
el paquete. No se` donde esta` su mapa. Yo deseo ir cazando
con usted! Ten cuidado cuando esta` andando en el bosque
solo! Esperamente no necesitara` usar su pistola! Oh! Yo casi
perdi` algo. Las transferencias van a ser man~ana y yo no he
recibido una llamada toda via, entonces yo no se` si voy a
salir o estar aqui toda via. No se` porque nuestro presidente
lo esta` haciendo en esta manera. Yo le amo a mi compan~ero
y nosotros somos amigos buenos. La semana pasada su padre
lo perdio` su trabajo. Pueden orar para su familia? Gracias por
todos sus oracio`nes. Mama`, que chevre que el presidente de
la misio`n por alla` le visito`. Que` le dijo? Co`mo esta`n los
misioneros por alla`? Esta semana yo hube un tiempo difi`
cil con los pensamientos de Joshua. Muchas cosas me recordo`
de
e`l. Ayer, nosotros conocimos un muchacho que ha habido una
vida muy difi`cil. Ah! Necesito salir ahorita!
>
> Con amor,
>
> Elder Carty
>

9/16/09


Hello!

Thanks for the letters mom and rachel and for
 the email dad! I also got a letter from Alayna.
 She gave me her mtc and mission addresses so
 ill have to write her back. Sounds like a
 pretty good week in montana. Wow i miss mountains!
 Well Jose was confirmed yesterday and got the
priesthood which was awesome! Wow this week has
 been a week of miracles! We found 20 new
investigators and 11 new baptismal dates! A few
have fallen off the map and some didnt come to
church but we are definitely going to baptize at
least one or two of them this week. And if all
goes well we will also be having a wedding! So
the bishop called us one day and asked us to go
give a blessing to someone. It was a few miles
out of town in a small trailer park with about
ten trailers. Afterwards my comp felt like we
should tract them and we found a really cool
guy named Robbie who commtitted to baptism.
We came back the next day and sat down to teach
him and people started coming out of the wood
works! Another lady came out named Debra and
as we started teaching her she stopped us and
said wait a min. Robbie and i were just talking
the other day about how we both wanted to find
a church and we thought about going to the
mormon church last night i prayed about it
and the next day you guys showed up at our
door! She was so excited and her mind was blown
she said. Then right before we got to the part
about the restoration her daughter and boyfriend
walk out and want us to teach them! Their names
are Natosha and Earl. She had a crazy/scary story.
She said that the day before she saw us walking
around the park but we didnt talk to her. Then
that night she said she felt as though some
power or devil seized her and she couldnt move
or talk and felt like she was burning and her
soul was in pain. It woke up her boyfriend and
as he looked over he saw a spirit that was dressed
up like a missionary and then it immediately left
and she was fine. They strongly felt that it was
some sort of a demon trying to stop them from talking
to us. We then retaught a little of the lesson and
read Joseph Smiths first vision and how he was also
overpowered for a moment by the adversary but through
his prayer he overcame it and saw God and Jesus. I
dont know if what they claimed to see but i really
felt like satan really didnt want them to be baptized.
We gave all 4 of them blessings and then Debra's
8 year old kid Demonte came in and she wanted us
to give him a blessing too. They all really want
to come to church and be baptized. Unfortunately
they all slept in on sunday! Natosha and Earl want
to be married and they have to, to be baptized so
we may have a wedding on saturday. Sweet! Then the
next day we found a 16 year kid from Mexico who wants
to be baptized and he came to church on sunday and
liked it a lot. Afterwards we met two of his roommates
who want to come next week. He is living here with a
bunch of friends in their 20's from Guatemala. His
family is in Mexico and he came here two years ago
to work and send money to his family. Can you
imagine going to a foreign country at 14 to work
and support your family? Please pray for him and
that his parents hearts will be softened because we
have to get their permission to baptize him. Miracle
after miracle!

Anyways today we deep cleaned the kitchen which
took a while but now the entire house is cleaned
and reorganized. Last week we moved our study room
to a room with more windows and made the main room
into a dining/living room. The whole house looks
completely different from when i got here. It was
pretty nasty when i got here. We may kick a soccer
ball around for a bit and go to the gym. man last
Monday we did a crazy ab workout and it literally
took an entire week to heal. After the second day
it hurt to walk! We are going to do another one
today but hopefully it wont be as soar. My hip
is actually doing really well. I do need to stretch
it and work it out everyday though. I usually work
it out about once a week but now that it a lot
stronger i need to do more. I cant believe how
long its already been since i had my surgery! 
Hopefully i wont
be transferred. Honestly i dont like the ward here
as much as my previous ones but i love the work
here. I found out transfers will be the day before
Thanksgiving instead. Can you give Jason my email
address and tell him to send me an email so we can
keep in touch?

Im glad i guessed the right size on your shirt
rachel and that you like it! It looked like your
style. Glad you had a great birthday and that you
party went really well! Last years new years eve
party was fun. Hmmm...what else happened this week?
Oh yeah we went to a cane grinding this week! Some
members invited us to their annual cane grinding.
They grow a bunch of sugar cane and send it through
a presswhich squeezes out all the juice and then put
like 60 gallons in this huge kettle thing and boil
it for several hours which takes out all the water
and impurities and then they let it cool and bottle
it up into syrup bottles and sell it. It tasted ok...
kind of bitter though. Well thats about all the
excitement here. It has been another great week in
Live Oak. Hope y'all have a great week too! And in
case i dont see ya, good afternoon, good evening,
and goodnight!

Love,
Elder Carty


p.s. - hey could you send me a few good pictures
of Josh. I dont have any pictures of him. Ill work
on putting mine on a cd to send soon. Thanks!

11/9/09

Hey!

Thanks for the email and letter this week. Dont worry
ive gotten your letters every week. Thanks for the
gift cards! Sounds like everyone is doing really well!
Im glad you and joey went to the missionary prep class.
What did you learn from it? How was the big party? Im
excited to read your letter. Sorry i havent written Joey
yet. youve told me a bunch of times and i keep forgetting.
Ill try to do it this week. Youre getting another dog?!
Sweet! Sounds like youll be rollin in the dough by the
time i get back. Just in time to buy me a season ski pass!
haha just kidding, but seriously...i wouldnt mind.

This week has been pretty good. Its been a really
 good learning week of what i need to work on to be
 better. We are fine tuning our door approach again.
 We had a zone meeting this morning for studies which
 was really inspiring. Despite the fact that i wasnt
 too excited to do it on pday. We listened to Elder
Hollands talk from last conference which of course
was awesome! Actually i wouldnt mind that for Christmas
or something, the audio cds of the last general
conference.
Thanks for keeping up on my loans for me. I
was actually going to look at them today because
i just remembered some payments might be due. Thanks!
Just so you know transfers will be the week of
thamksgiving so if you were planning on sending
something i would do it the week before. Funny and
gross story- I was in the shower one morning this
week washing my face and when i wiped the water
out of my eyes i looked down just as a 4 inch lomg
millipede crawls up out of the drain and scurries
between my feet! Nasty! As it tried to crawl up
the wall i jumped out of the shower, and remembering
that there was a hammer in the cupboard, i grabbed
it and beat it till it was chopped in half. Now
every time i shower i am paranoid and stare at the
floor the whole time watching for more! AHHH!!!

We have some plans to go to a part members house
for thanksgiving. They are eating at noon that day
but i dont know if ill get to go or not. Actually
im not sure if ill even get to have a thanksgiving
dinner cause transfers are that day. Maybe theyll
be move to a different day though.

Pray for Jose this week. He couldnt be confirmed
because he didnt make it to church sunday. He went
to work sat with some other guys and after they all
drove to someones house in the woods where they
were all drinking, which was the habit he just
overcame. He didnt have a way to get home and they
pressured him really hard to drink until he gave in.
After a bit though he said he felt really bad and
decided to just walk away. He walked part way home
and ended up having to sleep in the forest. Then he
woke up the next day and walked for 2 hours to get
home but church was half way done by then. He felt
really bad and we had a good talk about how to avoid
those situations all together and he really wants to
keep changing his life. I have no doubt that he be
able to be confirmed this week.

You have been talking to Daniel Johansen? Sweet! He
is awesome! He is a really good missionary and a
really good friend. Ill definitely be keeping up
with him after my mission. Well i cant think of too
much more to say except thanks for all the love and
support. And have another great week!

Love,
Elder Carty

11/2/09

Good morning everyone,

AND HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY RACHEL!!!
I sent you a little something on Friday for your birthday so
it should be there by tues or wed. Sorry its a couple days
late.

This week was a great week for us! We had 2 more baptisms
and confirmed 4 people! The mom of the boys who were baptized
last week who got sick was baptized on tues. Then all 3 of
them and Alejandro were confirmed. He was my first confirmation
in Spanish! I was a bit nervous but it went really well. Our
other baptism this week was Jose Flores. He is a really good
friend of Alejandro and they work together. Last saturday he
happened to be at his house and we invited him to church to
watch Alejandro's baptism and he came and really enjoyed it.
Then we had a lesson with him on tues. and he asked when was
the soonest he could be baptized! It was awesome! On sunday
Alejandro also received the priesthood and after church got
to baptize Jose! He did an incredible job! Now that these
people are baptized we are going to have to do a lot of
finding this week. We have a couple good people but none
of them can be baptized this weekend. The mission has a goal
for a hundred baptisms this week so please pray that we will
be able to find someone else to baptize this weekend.

I am really sad to hear about timber. He has lived for a long
time though. Its interesting because i was talking about him
to my companion last week and felt like he didnt have much
time left cause he was getting so old. Sounds like you had
a neat funeral for him though.

We never got to go gator hunting last week cause half
the family was sick. It was a pretty realxed pday which was
good. We may go kick a soccer ball around today for a bit.
Man daylight savings is really going to hurt the missionary
work. It gets dark at 6:15 now! So if we dont have appointments
im not sure what we're going to do till 9 cause tracting doesnt
really work after dark. Today we are going to work from 3-6
instead of 6-9 cause we dont have any appointments. I really
need to get some pictures developed for my album and make a
cd for you guys. I dont think ive sent pictures home since
Gainesville. I have taken almost 900 pictures! My comp and
i have gotten pretty close. We have a lot of fun and talk about
a lot of stuff. Everything else is going really well here.

Sounds like your job is crazy busy dad! That building in Denver
sounds awesome! A park inside a skyscraper?! Crazy! I dont have
much time left on the comp but im glad your job is going so well.
Keep up the good work! I never got to carve a pumpkin but oh well.
Those frogs sound really cool Aaron and Caleb! Hunting up there
sounds like a blast! A lot of people here love hunting. The deer
arent nearly as big here though. I think i made some of them
jealous when i told them what kind of animals walk by our house.
They go hog hunting with dogs here as well. Which ive heard is
actually really dangerous for the dogs. Can you hunt in the
national forest by our house? It sounds like everyone had a
pretty fun week with halloween and the football game. I love
all of you and hope your is great!

Love,
Elder Carty

Buenas dias!

Hows it goin? This week was just ok... Except for the
fact that we baptized 3 people!!! This week was sweet!
And we have on on tuesday!We are seeing miracle after
miracle here in Live Oak. We baptized a guy from Mexico
named Alejandro and then 2 kids of a lady we found last
week. She was really sick yesterday so we just baptized
her 11 and 8 year old kids and she will be on tuesday.
We are also working on her mom who lives with her. The
mom is Jolena, the grandma is Joanna and the kids are
Tino and Gabriel. She also has a 4, 3, 1, and 2 month
old kids. Its chaos trying to teach them!

So we found out that all the trees in our backyard are
pecan trees. All the nuts fall to the ground in the fall
and there is a place that buys the nuts from you. We each
collecting a whole sackful this morning and are going to
go see if its worth much money. We'll probably only get
like 5 bucks but we might buy a Little Caesars with it.
I looked up a recipe for pecan pie and am going to try
it out. I made pumpkin pie last night and we had it for
breakfast this morning. Delicious! Some hispanics drove
up to our house and started walking around the backyard
collecting nuts right after we did. Thats the second time
we've seen people out there so we called the owner and we
had to tell them to leave.

Are you excited for your birthday next monday Rachel? Any
sweet plans? Oh what i would give to still be in high
school. I miss a lot of things about it. Hows school goin?
Ill write more in a letter for you this week.

Be careful on that pogo stick dad! Sheesh! Thats crazy
about the flight that went 150 miles too far! haha. Today
we are going up to White Springs to a part member family
and the guy is going to take us gator hunting! At least
thats what he said. I think we are just catching the really
young gators that are small. Maybe we'll have some gator tail!
Ive heard its actually pretty good. Ive had to do some
translating this week for one of our zone leaders investigators
and for Alejandro's interview. The Lord is helping me out a lot!
How is work going dad? Anything exciting going on at the
hospital or a lot the same? I have missed home a lot the past
few weeks. A lot of things here keep reminding me of home.
Everything else is going very well though. The mission is
pushing really hard to try and reach our goal for 1050 baptisms
this year. I think we are almost to 900 right now. Sometimes i
feel like we push so hard the first few days of the week that
its hard to keep up the same desire to work as hard on fri and
sat. On wed we tracted for almost 5 hours straight and literally
ran from door to door. I was exhausted! This week really wore me
out cause i was dragging a bit at the end. Its a lot of work
getting baptisms together and still squeezing in enough time
to visit everyone and tract. We did a lot of Spanish work this
week also which drained me quite a bit. Its hard to teach a whole
lesson in Spanish without help. But i think i am learning and
growing a lot in this area. Hope everything goes well this week!
And Happy Halloween! I really want to carve a pumkin but im not
sure if my comp really does. I still might anyways! Love you all!

Elder Carty

Hows it goin y'all? I am back in the country of
Live Oak, FL! Here's my new address:

10208 109th Dr.
Live Oak, FL 32064

Its in north-western florida almost to Talahasee and is a
pretty small town. Everyone here has pretty thick southern
country accents. I love it here though! Its so nice to get
away from the city. Our place here is sweet! We live
outside of town in our own house on like 50 acres! You
can only see one other house from ours. Crazy sweet! The
ward mission leader owns the house and all the land and
lets the missionaries stay there. Its not too big of a
place but its decent size still. Theres a lot of trees
out here to so i almost feel like im at home. Theres a
barn, a chicken coup and a big shed that are either empty
or filled with junk by the house and then a giant tower
with a windmill out back that you climb up. Its like 60
ft! Apparently previous missionaries have named it the
Rameumptom (from the Book of Mormon). haha. Our area is
huge because we cover all the small towns around it. It
covers like 30-40 miles in all directions and touches the
Georgia border. You can tell Doug that there is a big
mining community up in Jasper, FL. My new companion is
Elder Smith. Hes from Seattle, WA. My third comp from
Washington! I like him a lot. He gets pretty excited about
the work and is excited to get a good comp he said cause
his last one didnt like to work much. Oh ya and hes an
english missionary so we are a bilingual companionship!
Im the only Spanish missionary in the entire zone here.
i was pretty nervous about that but im discovering that
i know a lot more Spanish than i thought. Its really going
to be good for me not having a comp to rely on because
then im forced to speak it a lot and listen more carefully.
They havent had Spanish missionaries here for a couple
transfers. Last transfer the english work didnt see much
success but i think it was probably because of his last
comp. We are already seeing some miracles though. We found
a guy that had been taught 1 lesson last time there was
Spanish here and we set a pretty solid baptism date with
him. His name is Alejandro. We also found a sweet family
with lots of kids! Only 2 kids are baptism age, 11 & 8,
and theres the mom and grandma that live there. The dad
is Mexican and lives in Mexico for now so shes going down
there to marry him in a couple week (interesting situation).
The kids are awesome though! The oldest reminds me a lot
of Aaron and the 5 yr old reminds me a lot of Caleb! Then
theres a 3 yr old girl and a 3 month old boy. I feel really
bad for the kids cause they all live in a small trailer
which is disgusting. There barely room to walk and the whole
thing is really filthy. I worry about them getting sick
there. I think they all just moved in though. Please pray
for them all and especially that the mom and grandma will
be able to come to church. We brought a ride for them
yesterday but only the 5, 8, and 11 year old came so we
had to watch them for half of church. lol. It was a blast!
I also had to translate half of sacrament for Alejandro
till the guy who usually does it got the translator device
working. Translating is really hard. I basically just
summarized what the speakers said cause i couldnt think
fast enough. The weather out here has been much cooler
since i got here. Actually, the last to night have been
freezing! The humidity makes it a lot colder than normal.
It has been really nice the past few days except the heater
at the house doesnt really work well and i discovered that
my one blanket was not sufficiently warm. I might have to
ask a ward member for one. I can probably get socks at the
store here. My garments are all mediums, tops and bottoms.
And i couldnt take it with me cause it would have sat in my
suitcase for like five hours in the sun. Its alright though,
i used some of it before i left. Well its about time to get
going. Today has been pretty relaxed which is always nice.
Have a great week! Oh and i may need some extra prayers if
you dont mind. Just that i will be able to speak Spanish
very well. Oh yeah and congratulations to the undefeated soccer
champs Aaron and Steve Carty whose team is clearly Superior!
Ha! Ha!  Get it!  Okay, bad joke. . . .Great job!!!

Thanks!

Love,
Elder Carty

October 12th, 2009

Fam,

Sounds like an awesome weekend! Lucky you with cold
 weather! I am getting extremely sick of the heat!
 It wasnt my suit pants dont worry. But it was one
 of my nicer pair. I should be alright with what i
 have. I was actually given a pretty decent pair
 of pants recently anyways. But i do need like
 5 more pairs of socks. And maybe like 2 pairs of
garments. Actually i could use another short sleeve
shirt probably. i would probably need to try it on
though.

Transfers are this week and im leaving again! I
really wanted to stay here for a while but thats
alright. I leave thursday. This area was spilt in
two before with 4 missionaries but they havent had
enough missionaries the last 2 transfers. We are
getting 3 more now so they will probably send 2
more here so i could end up in the same branch
but a different apartment. I have a bunch of
frozen meat i have to leave behind. You'd be
proud of me mom, ive been cooking a lot this
transfer. Im slowly learning how to make different
kinds of hispanic food. Ill have to miss our
baptisms this weekend as well. We are baptizing
Yave's daughter and 3 Cubans who are the parents
of the kid we baptized last week and the sister
of on of the parents. They are awesome! We ate
at their house last night. The only problem with
Cubans is you cant understand a word they say!
Most of them i can understand about half but
the dad, i literally couldnt understand a word
he said! He mumbles and slurrs his words together.
Even Elder Peck who has spoken for almost 2 years
didnt understand a lot.
Today im at Hermano Pinto's house emailing. We
did laundry here and they fed us this morning.
My companions wanted to go to the library after
and email and then just hang around so im going
with Pinto to play soccer with some other
missionaries and hispanics. We already played
a little this morning.
As far as books go for Spanish, i just got a
work book that i ordered that they should
have given me when i started but the office
people didnt know about it. I should be fine
with the materials i have right now. I feel
like i keep improving. We had 3 trade offs
with members on thursday and we each went to
different appointments. I prayed really hard
to have the words to express myself and the
Lord really blessed me. i was able to think
perfectly clear and recall every word that i
needed to say. It was a very good learning
experience that i need to trust more in the
Lord.
Good job playing soccer Aaron! Thats awesome
that you always win! Keep it up! Do you like
dad as the coach? Thanks for the letter and
the picture last week! Well, time to get going.
Dont send anything till i tell you my new address.

Love you all very much!

Love,
Elder Carty

Oct. 5th, 2009

JOSEPH'S LETTER:

The Fam,

Sorry I couldn't email much. Busy, busy, busy... The Lord's work never ceases. How's everyone doing? Thanks to the sister that gave me the honey. It's delicious! It's actually on the oatmeal I'm eating right now. And thanks for the pictures! There are a couple really good ones of Aaron and Caleb that I might hang up. So about that funny story about being "tarred." We've had to ride bikes for the past week and a half cause we ran out of miles on our car. I was following Elder Peck on the sidewalk and he decides to take a shortcut down a short grass hill (maybe 15 ft. long and kind of steep) and then through an asphalt parking lot. I was probably following a little to close and all of a sudden on the hill he swerves to miss something and by the time I saw it, it was too late. There was a foot and a half deep hole right in front of me in the grass, just big enough for my front tire to sink in and get stuck. I was standing up and immediately launched face-first over my handle bars. At this point I am about 6 feet off the ground because I flew from the hill and am over the asphalt. Of course, I had to land in this particular stretch of asphalt which had been recently fixed, and it's about 2:00 p.m. and probably 100 degrees. I now fly through the air, landing on my hands and then my whole body slides (on my stomach) across 10 ft. of melted tar! It was crazy! Luckily, all I had was a small scratch on my knee. I think the tar was probably a blessing because it absorbed my fall as I slid. Needless to say, I ruined an entire pair of clothes, including a tie! We had to bike to our branch mission leader's house and get some grease remover. It took me like 3 hours to clean it off me and all my stuff!

Now that you're all laughing hysterically at me, I'll share a miracle from this week. It was incredible! We were waiting for church to start and watching for our investigators when a man comes wandering into the church. We start talking to him and find out that he is from Cuba. He has been living on the streets for a month looking for work. We taught him a quick lesson and asked him to be baptized and he said yes. He is really excited, and I'll be the one to baptize him tonight! He said he had a dream a few days before that he went to church and woke up and really felt like he needed to go this week. He asked a friend, who happens to be an inactive member, where he should go, and he recommended our church. Including him, we have 5 solid baptisms this week! A guy and his daughter who have been investigating for 2 years are finally getting baptized, an 11 yr. old Cuban kid, and a girl who's 13 from the Dominican Republic. Both of their parents will be baptized the following weekend.

Well I better end this letter so I can get ready. Oh real quick, do you remember when I got that Hep. B shot in the MTC? They said I had to get another one after 6 months. I'll call Sis. Newman to have her find out if I need to do that, and i'll let you know on Monday. Anyways, hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Carty

October 5th, 2009

Greetings earthlings,

haha. Hows it goin? Im glad you got my letter! I was
 worried for a min that you didnt get it. Wow!
 Miracles this week! And 4 baptisms!!! We had
Gerardo on wed.(the guy i wrote about in the letter),
 a daughter of a lady who we've taught for a while, an
 11 yr old Cuban kid, and another guy named Yave from
 Peru. We are going to baptize his daughter this
 coming week. Those 3 were baptized on Sunday
 between conference. Man conference was awesome!
 I especially enjoyed Elder Holland's talk in the
 last session.

Today we wemt and toured St. Augustine which was
 really fun. There were a lot of cool shops and
 historical sights. Ah! How do i keep running out
 of time! We have to go to be at a dinner in 10 min!
 Oh a girl from Gainesville just started her mission.
 She is in the Las Vegas, NV mission! Her first area
 is in Reno. Whats Aunt Carol's address? Maybe they
 are in the same ward or she could have her over for
 dinner! Her name is Sister Cockrell. Sorry to cut this
 email short. Everything is going well. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Carty

September 28th, 2009

Hey!

I can only write a quick note because we ran out of time today.
 I will be writing a letter tonight instead. Everything is going
 great! We have 5 solid baptism this week and 2 more hopefully!
 All the hard work is paying off. We had an amazing miracle happen
 on Sunday! This week has been kind of crazy. I have a funny story
 to tell. I can now say that i have been "tarred" on my mission.
 Dont worry ill explain everything in the letter. I wrote Alayna
 a letter as well and sent Grandma and Grandpa a postcard. I sent
 Doug and Nat a postcard a week or 2 ago. Do you know if they got
 it? We were going to go to the zoo today but we ran out of time
 for that too. Our laundry took forever today. I bought a soccer
 ball with some of the money you sent. We found some Mexicans on
 the beach and played for a bit which was fun. It was extremely
 hot today though. Next week we are hoping to go down to
 St. Augustine which is supposed to be really cool. I think its
 the oldest city in the U.S. Hope everything is going great
 there! Its 6:00, time to get back to work!

Love,

Elder Carty

Hey!

Hows everything going out west? Things are going really
good here. We are having a lot of success here and expect
a lot of baptisms soon. Sounds like everyone had a pretty
good week! I have been calling my recent converts this week
from Gainesville to see how they are all doing. Most of
them are doing very well and are still very strong in the
gospel. One of them however has been getting mixed up in
the wrong crowd and falling back into old habits. I had
a couple really good talks with her this week and she is
recommiting to everything and giving up some things.
Please pray for her if you could. She has a ton of
negative peer pressure and all of her friends and family
are extremely against the church. I think that had a lot
to do with it because her parents did'nt know till this
summer that she was baptized and they freaked out on her.
Plus all of her friends pushing her to go to another
church just kind of made her fall a little. But i was
pretty bold with her and we made a plan to get her back
on track so she be around soon enough i hope.

I wrote Sarah this week and ill write Alayna today. I
feel bad cause i havn't written her yet. I really want
to keep up on writing people but it really is a struggle
to find time cause i need to keep in contact with recent
converts as well. I probably have 10 min a day where im
not doing anything and we are always gone doing stuff on
p-days. I have to send this email and go somewhere else
to finish

We were finishing up laundry at Hermano Pinto's house,
our ward mission leader and now im at the library downtown.
It is massive! We are going to go to the Museum of Science
and History after this which should be pretty cool. Oh i
got the package, thanks! Thanks for the letters mom and
rachel! Way to go Aaron for scoring 3 goals! Keep playing
hard! I really fell like my Spanish is improving. I can
finally teach a principle how i want to and basically
express what i want to say. The most frustrating thing
is really wanting to say something and not knowing how
to say it so they'll understand. I dont feel like i
have improved as fast as i should have by now though.
My companion Elder Brown was switched the same time i
was and is a lot more fluent. I think he might have
known a lot more when he started though. The beaches
wasn't the best area to start in either cause there wasn't
that many hispanic people. I guess i need to study and
pray a lot harder. Hows Justin doing? What did he decide
to do and what has happened? I need to send grandma and
grandpa a letter cause its been a while since i have.
Know that we are working as hard as we can here to bring
as many souls to Christ as we can. We leave at 11a.m.
everyday and don't come home till 9p.m. Thanks for everyone
love and support! Here's a quote i just remembered from
Maximus in the movie Gladiator, "What we do in life,
echoes in eternity." (and no i didnt watch that movie
recently, lol)

Love,
Elder Carty

Hello,

Hows everyone doin? Im doin pretty good here. Soccer sounds
like a blast! We played at the beach last week. I tore up
my toe pretty good... under my right big toe, from playing
barefoot, pulled a big chunk of skin back and a bunch of
sand got all in it. so i put on a sock and kept playing.
lol It was fine though. I just cleaned it out really good
with some alcohol wipes and stuck a bandaid on for a few
days. My feet and legs were extremely sore for a while.

Oh ya i forgot to ask you who it was that wrote me. On
the letter it said Sarah Wuebkles? She said she was a
young woman there but i cant remember her. Did i meet
her? Ill really try to write her today. I was using
all my spare time before to read so i put everything
else off till i was done.

The retention here for recent converts is about the
same as everywhere else in the world. Its not the best
but its not too bad either.  We live pretty close to
downtown. There are a lot of ghettos in our area and
a few pretty sketchy parts with people from all over
the world. Usually thats where you find the most humble
people. We have met a lot of people from Burma, Sudan,
and Albania this week. Our area is huge so theres some
good and some bad parts. Actually our apartment is pretty
ghetto. lol. Dont worry though, we'll be safe.

I cant think of too much to put in my package. Maybe some
good granola bars or something. I gotta go before i get
logged off. Happy Anniversary!!!

Love,
Elder Carty

Hey!

Que pasa? everythings going good here. We are at a
 members house doing laundry and emailing so i have
 to make this one fairly short. This week has been
 pretty crazy! Im actually still in Jacksonville
 but the little area is called San Jose. Im about
 20 min away from my old area. Its straight inland
 right next to the St. Johns's river. Rosario
 finally got baptized! She has been investigating
 for 6 months! Of course it was 2 days after i
 left. But i got to go back for it. The trahans
 picked me up yesterday and took me to it. They
 are so nice!

My companions are awesome! Yes, there are
 multiple. We are in a threesome! Its different
 but we can talk to a lot more people. Their
 names are Elder Peck and Elder Brown. Elder
 Peck is senior comp and district leader. He
 is from Oregon and has 4 months left in his
 mission. Elder Brown has been out a year but
 was switched spanish the same time i was. This
 area is a really good opportunity to become
 fluent because we're in an all Spanish branch
 and there are a ton more hispanics here. A
 lot of apartment complex are entirely hispanic.
 We had a challenge throughout the mission on
 friday to teach 200 lessons and invite 150
 people to baptism. We ended up with 93 and
 93 which was the most spanish lessons i have
 taught in one day.

Joshua's stone sounds really neat. Im sorry
 you guys are struggling so much. I still
 have some hard days but luckily the work
 keeps me busy enough. Just pray and read
 and pray more. I love all you guys a lot
 and miss you! Thanks for the letter mom
 and the postcard dad! Hope you guys have
 a great week! Heres my new address:

6200 Barnes Rd. #S8
Jacksonville, FL 32216-5658

Love,
Elder Carty

Fam,

Another transfer is coming to a close. And Im being transferred!!! DANGIT! oh well, hopefully my new area will be awesome. I love it here though and we have at least 3 solid baptisms coming up. One of them is this Friday. The day after i leave of course! I should be able to come back for them though if i dont go too far away. I really liked this area and the people here a lot. Sister Trahan was crying when i told her i was leaving. She is one of the sweetest ladies ever. Her personality reminds a lot of you mom. And she kind of looks like you! We went to the temple on sat. and the the Trahan's were able to go. They really enjoyed it. The ward had about 8 recent converts there which was really neat. I got to baptize 5 of the youth. It was the first time Ive baptized in the temple! Afterwards, a guy named William who got home from a mission in Ogden about a month ago, took us out to lunch at Bono's BBQ which was really good. We met a 14 year old kid named Hugo who has been coming with a member for a couple weeks and he told us he wants to join the church but doesnt know how. He really wants to be baptized but we have to see what his mom thinks.

I sent Doug and Nat a postcard. Ill send you guys one this week. Man i am exhausted! I havent gotten over 6 hours of sleep all week cause ive been staying up trying to finish the Book of mormon. My goal is by this Friday. The Lord has definitely given me the strength to endure all week. We did A LOT of finding people this week. Lots of tracting! We went contacting at the flea market yesterday. We go there about every other week. Its really cool actually! Its huge and theres people there from just about every place of the world (and lots of hispanics). They sell just about everything there; fruit, seafood, haircuts, army surplus, sunglasses, shirts, washing machines, and anything and everything you can think of. You can actually bet some pretty good deals there.

Im probably going to buy another memory card for my camera today. Its about $32 bucks for 8GB. The one i have now is 2GB so this one should last me a while. I havent had to spend money on food for about 2 or 3 weeks cause the members have been feeding us a ton so i have some "pros" money that ill use to buy it. We went running on the beach again this morning. For some reason i had twice the energy as last week. We probably ran about 4-5 miles. Running on the beach is harder cause your feet slide a little. We will probably spend the rest of the day at the beach and i may get a shirt or something.

Seattle sounds like a blast! Hope Chicago was fun too! Send me some pics! I need to make another cd of pics for you guys. Thanks for the letters mom, Aaron, and Caleb! That was a really cool picture Aaron! Thanks! I doubt ill be made senior comp. cause i dont think i know enough Spanish. Ill probably have to be soon though cause i think we are getting 4 new Spanish missionaries this week and half the rest here were switched Spanish this summer so theres not very many that speak it fluently right now. Good luck with seminary dad! That is one calling that i pray i never receive in my lifetime. The tower you're building in the backyard sounds sweet! Well im gonna get going. Tell Aunt Cathy and Uncle Jorge they should write me a letter in Spanish! Ill write them back in Spanish if they do. It will be a good language study for me one day. Thanks for all of your love and support fam! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Carty

8/24/09


Hey fam!

Hows everyone doin? Im doin pretty good. We had Sandro's
baptism on sat!
It was awesome! Then in priesthood, Shannon Trahan,
Eduardo, and Sandro
all received the priesthood. Bro and Sis Trahan were
called to be cub scout
leaders. We get to go to the temple this sat! The
youth from the ward are
going and we are taking a lot of recent converts
to do baptisms. I cant wait!
We have a few really good people we are teaching
right now and will definitely
have a few more baptisms in the next few weeks.

Thanks for telling me about Justin. I will be
praying for him all week.
Thats a pretty tough decision. I hope it all
works out well. Where did
you guys go for the week? I got your email
mom. I cant wait to hear about
your vacation though. How are you guys
doing with the challenge i gave you?
Ive been reading the Book of Mormon in
Spanish pretty much every second i
have to be able to finish it on time. I
have been reading 25 pages a
day-which takes my hour of personal study,
hour of language study,
reading every time im in the car, and more
at night when i get home.
It takes forever! Transfers are in a week
and a half! My comp has
been here for 6 months so he's probably
leaving. I really hope i
stay! I dont want to move away from the
beach and we just started
having a lot of success. They usually
keep the Spanish missionaries
in areas for a while. We had a Spanish
zone conference this week
which was really cool. All the Spanish
missionaries from the whole
mission came together. I learned a lot
and it really inspired me
to finish the Book of Mormon and learn
Spanish as quickly as
possible. I never knew how many
scriptures there are in the
Book of Mormon that prophesy of how
the gentiles will bring
the gospel back to their descendents.
There is one scriptures
that says we will carry them on our
shoulders and on our backs.
I cant remember where its at but
thats relly what it feels like
to be a missionary-to carry the
weight of so many souls. It is
a big burden, and without the
Savior i could never carry such a
burden. Our mission broke our
record for number of baptisms.
Last month we had 117 baptisms!

Hey can you guys send me a bunch
of stamps? Im out of them.
I wrote Doug and Nat a note on a
postcard and put a stamp on
it and realized i didnt put any
addresses on it so i need to
send another one cause the mailman
took it. Oops... I finally
bought a shoe shine kit. I have
only shined my shoes once
since the MTC so they were looking
pretty scuffed. They are
both holding together really well
though. Not too much
else is new. Are you guys excited
to start school? I bet
Caleb is excited for pre-school.
Hope you all have a great
first week of school! Good luck!
Remember to work hard and
play hard. Talk to ya later!

Love,
Elder Carty

Yo!

Hows everything going? Vacation sounded fun even though it rained! This weekend was awesome! The ocean baptisms were absolutely perfect! A lady let us use her beach front property and we did the service in their yard and then walked down to the beach. There were nine of us in white. (The 4 Trahan's and Eduardo who were baptized and then four missionaries including me) I baptized the dad, Shannon. It was awesome to be able to go in the ocean! We then changed and finished the service. The Spirit was so strong there. Especially during the closing song. We sang, "I am a Child of God" and as i was standing there i felt overwhelming joy as the Spirit touched my heart and told me that "these moments are truly why I'm here." I also had a very distinct impression that Josh was standing right next to me along with numerous angels singing. I could literally feel Joshua's presence right next to me with his arm around me. It was the closet i have felt to him since i left home.
Pres. Newman came down to watch it too. I had someone take a bunch of pics for me so ill send some to you soon. Then on Sunday they were all confirmed. I confirmed Eduardo and the 10 year old son of the Trahan's. Hey have you ever seen the mission's blog that Sis. Newman does? Our baptism is on the first page today! It's www.floridajacksonvillemissionnews.blogspot.com.

This morning six of us went for a run on the beach really early as we watched the sunrise. I got some really cool pics! Man i want to live on the beach now! What else is new in Montana? Hope you guys all have fun wherever you decide to vacation this week! Oh do you remember me telling you about the 15 year old kid named Sandro? He has been searching and reading and praying really hard this week to know if he should be baptized. Hes a little afraid that he will make the wrong decision cause he is the only one in his family who will be. We had a really good talk with him about how hard yet how blessed he will be for standing alone and promised he would receive an answer that night (sat.) if he spent a lot of time reading and praying. He sent us a text at midnight saying that he prayed really hard and got the answer he was looking for and wants to be baptized this week! SWEET!!! He said his parents would rather have him wait but that it's up to him. We should have his baptism this sat.

I ended up having an eye exam on thurs at walmart and paid for it on my debit card. Ill send you the receipt just in case. I have a follow up app. this week and will buy more contacts then. Its probably gonna be cheaper to buy a bunch at once so ill probably do that. It was really good to talk to you for a bit dad! Sorry mom. Ill call you next time i have a problem. lol.

I have been reading the Book of Mormon out loud in Spanish since i was switched and im about halfway through. It takes forever plus theres 100 more pages than the english one! But its really helping to improve my spanish. I have a goal to finish by the end of this transfer which is about 3-4 weeks from now. I feel like i have improved a lot lately. I am able to have a decent gospel conversation by myself. The Lord is really helping me learn quickly.

Don't be afraid to share the gospel! I read a really good article in the new ensign about how to have the Spirit more and be closer to our Savior. It talked about have a morning devotional by yourself everyday. We need to find our own "Sacred Grove," a place where we can be alone and receive revelation. In order to be able to receive such revelation and inspiration we need to escape the noise and tumult of this world. I commit you to do this everyday for two weeks. Find at least 15 min. sometime in the morning to read, pray and, meditate. I promise you mom, and anyone else who wants to take this challenge, that if you do this each day without miss, you will have a significant added measure of the Spirit and the Lord will reveal to you who you need to share the gospel with and give you the opportunity to do so by the end of those two weeks. Believe that someone will be prepared and they will be. Thats how the Lord works. I promise words will flow from your mouththat you never knew were there. I have counted over 10 times in the D&C where the Lord gives that promise. Do it!

Hope everyone has an awesome week!

Love,
Elder Carty

Hey!

Thanks for the insurance info! I have my eye exam tomorrow. I doubt ill need a new perscription though but i cant buy new contacts till i get an exam. They have a free trial pair of the contacts that change your eye color so im gonna try it! They didnt actually get me a new mattress. my bed was bowed and the other apartment had an extra mattress so i put that one on the floor. Its no bowed but its pretty hard when its on the floor. They probably havent bought new mattresses in the missin for a long time. Im going to buy a pad to put on top of my mattress today. I think Walmart has memory foam ones for fairly cheap. Hopefully not more than about 40 bucks. That way i can just roll it up and take it wherever i get transferred to. Ill use the money you guys sent in my package. Oh ya thanks for the package! The banana bread is delicious! And thanks for the letter mom. I also got a birthday card from Doug and Natalie so tell them i said thanks! Ill write them a letter this week. I wish i could have been there on Josh's birthday. Sounds like it was very good. I was pretty down that day. I still have hard days off and on too but i think its easier for me to deal with it here. Just hang in there and pray A LOT. It helps more than anything else. The vacation sounds like it will be a blast! Im getting some serious swamp fever here. I miss the mountains! Seminary teacher! Crazy! I dont think i could ever do that! I will pray for you (not that you'll need it). You will make a great seminary teacher! Man it sounds like you are going to be really busy this year. When do you go to Chicago? The Lord is truly blessing you guys for living righteously. Keep it up! Guess what? The family i wrote about is getting baptized on saturday! I will baptize the dad, My comp. will baptize the mom, and the english missionaries will baptize the son and daughter. And they want us to baptize them in the ocean! How awesome is that! We are going to do it sat. morning at the beach! I cant wait! Ill definitely get some pictures of us walking out to the ocean. Pray that it will be good weather! Hey what town in Peru is Uncle Jorge from? We are teaching a few people from Peru. Is he close to the capitol city, Lima? We are hoping that Sandro will be baptized this weekend. He wants to but he parents want him to wait longer. But they said it is really up to him so i think they would be ok with it. Oh and we got a referral from missionaries in Washington D.C. The guy they were teaching, Eduardo, just moved here for law school and wants to be baptized! He was on a lunch break in D.C. and decided to check out the temple's visitor's center. A man there invited him to watch the new Joseph Smith movie and he said he really felt the Spirit and then contacted the missionaries to learn more. He is really open and searching for truth. He is very excited to learn all about the Book of Mormon and knows its true. He has even been calling us to set up the appointments. That never happens! Oh and this lady Rosario that we have been teaching forever finally got an answer and came to church! She was really praying one night to know if it was a sin or not to drink wine because she still thought it was ok. She has been going back and forth about baptism for a while too and could never make it to church cause of work. Right after she prayed she read the Bible and a verse in Luke said that the servants of God do not drink wine and are baptized. Im not sure where the verse is but it answered both problems in one verse! We are hoping we can bet her and her family dunked in the next couple weeks. The work is finally starting to pick up here. I love you all very much and hope you all have an awesome vacation! I expect to receive some awesome pictures very soon!

Love,Elder Carty

August 3, 2009


Hello hello hello!

Hows everything going in the mountains of Montana? Things are going pretty good here. Im glad you guys liked your alligator and starfish Aaron and Caleb! I had fun looking for something to send you. Hows everyones life going? Did you get my letter Rachel? Mom, you never told me if ou got that picture cd. I sent it almost a month ago so i hope you got it. Tell me if you didnt and ill send another one. Theyre really cheap to make. My hip is doing fairly well. It still aches a little and is always sore when i run. It seems like its healing fine but who knows. I really want to get my flexibility back. I really hope i can. Im not nearly as flexible anymore. We ended up playing indoor soccer last pday. It did pretty well but i cant move as fast i used to. The main thing that causes it to hurt a lot is my bed. Its really hard and bowed in the middle so if i sleep anywhere but my back my hip really aches in the morning. i had to start putting pillows under my knees like i did right after my surgery. Im not sleeping very well anymore because i cant seem to stay on my back the whole night. But oh well. I dont really know what to do about that. Hmmm...bought a gun eh? Sweet! Dont go shootin anyone! The rafting trip sounds like a blast! Send me pictures! Climbing tower? Youve never mention that before? Sounds awesome! I miss climbing a lot! Its still really humid here but surprisingly the summers arent as hot as i thought they would be. it rains everyday without fail in the summer. We almost got soaked yesterday. Its weird because it will be really sunny and then in 20 min the whole sky will be black and it will downpour, harder than ive ever seen it rain, and then within an hour its cleared up again. Its crazy how hard it can rain here! Ive been kind of down yesterday and today just thinking about Joshs birthday today. Its been hard but i know the Lord is watching over me doubletime for doing his work. The work has been really frustrating as well because we cant seem to find any good people. We havent found any people worth teaching this week and the families we have now arent progressing like they should. But i guess things always get worse before they get better. We are praying really hard for new people to teach. Could everyone include that in their prayers this week? All i keep finding are awesome people for the english missionaries. Which is still pretty awesome. On a happier note, the family i told you about are amazing! They gave us their coffee maker and dumped out all their coffee and tea in front of us. They really loved church and even brought 2 friends. One of which is the daughter's friend and now she wants to be baptized! Its like they are already members. The mom also had a dream the other night, never having been taught of or seeing the temple, in which she said she saw a beautiful building that said "The House of the Lord" and then she was inside with her husband and they were both in white kneeling across a small table and that they were getting remarried. She said she had the most amazing feelings the whole time. She told the other missionaries of the dream and they taught all about temples and how they can be sealed in the temple forever and thats where we are married. Amazing! Anyways, i hope you guys all have an awesome week! Send me some pictures of Misha!

Love, Elder Carty

Happy Birthday Joshua!!!

We want you to know that we love you and miss you so much! Thanks for setting such a great example for us! We know you are nearby and are performing the Lord's work on the other side of the veil! We pray for you always and want you to know that we think about you every day! Keep in touch!

Love,

Mom, Dad, Joseph, Rachel, Aaron, Caleb, Timber, & Misha

The Fam,

Hows it goin? Im doin pretty darn good here! We found some awesome people this week! Thanks for the letter mom! I finally sent a letter to Rachel today so it should come this week. Also tell Aaron and Caleb to check the mail this week cause there might be a surprise waiting for them... Girls camp sounded like a blast! Rafting sounds really fun too! I have seen some incredible miracles this week! Yesterday we met the most prepared family i have ever seen. They are amazing! I wrote all about them in Rachels letter so she can read it to everyone. Long story short, family of 4 are getting baptized on Aug. 15 and they are really excited! They actually called us over to talk to them and wanted us to share our message with them. They are extremely nice and very spiritual. It was all because of the example of a family they know who are lds. They said that they sent them an email sharing a little about the gospel and that their kids just seem so good. People notice everything we do as members of the church, and when we are truly living the gospel and staying worthy, others will notice, and you can all be a light on a hill for someone else. All it takes sometimes is to be an example, and maybe a quick email or something to catch their attention and generations of lives will be changed forever. Share the gospel with your friends! This especially applies to you Rachel. When we share the gospel, the Lord blesses you far more than you can possibly imagine. Don't be afraid to share what you believe with your friends. I promise you if you do so, or are at least looking for opportunities to, the Spirit will give you utterance and you will guide a friend to salvation. Read D&C 100:3-8. The Lord has placed our family in St. Regis, MT for a specific purpose-which is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." There is somebody that each of you know who is prepared for the gospel. Plead with the Lord to show you who it is and I promise he will. That is the reason so many missionaries here have so much success. Everyday they go out believing and knowing that they will find somebody that very day who is ready for baptism. Its all about belief and how hard you work for it. Last week some missionaries filled the baptismal font one morning and promised the Lord that they will baptize somebody they havent met yet that same night. (It takes a lot of faith to do that because they have to find someone who has already been to church twice.) By the end of the day they had found and baptized someone! I love the work I am doing here even though its very challenging and frustrating at times. We have a baptism this weekend with a 15 year old kid named Sandro. I tracted into him and he loves coming to church. I think i already told you about him. We actually arent gonna go coach his wrestling practices cause we found out this is the last week. Oh i got my haircutting kit. Thanks! Did you get the cd i sent with pictures? Did grandma and grandpa and Aunt Carol get my letters? Thanks for everyones love and support! Hmmm...some good restaurants around here are Panda Express(mmm...), Moe's Southwest Grill, Chic-fil-a, Chipotle, and your basic fast food places. Time to get going. Have an awesome week!

Love,Elder Carty

Hello again! Yet another week and another transfer gone by in the mission! Ive been out for 6 months now! holy cow! It doesnt seem nearly that long! Sounds like a crazy but fun week there. Girls camp sounded pretty fun. Hope you all had a great time! It has been a pretty good week here. Transfers are on thursday. Our district leader goes home tomorrow and my companion, Elder Trott, was just called as district leader. Spanish is going pretty well but i feel like im not improving as fast as i should be. Its really hard to learn the language here when everyone else speaks english and half of our investigators do too. I guess i just need to study more and pray harder. Thats awesome that Alayna got her mission call to South Korea! Crazy! A girl in Gainesville that i knew really well just got her mission call to Las Vegas, NV. Is Alayna at home for the summer? Whats the Hawkins and her address? Maybe ill send her a letter. Oh ya ill be staying here for another 6 weeks with the same companion just so you know. Same address for a while. They dont transfer the spanish missionaries as often. It really is hard to get people to church. This week was really good though. Last week we had no investigators at church and this week we had 7. Definitely a lot better! We have a couple really cool families we're teaching right now. Im pretty sure they will all eventually get baptized. We may end up baptizing everyone in one family except the dad unless he stops drinking. I knocked on a door this week and this 15 year old kid named Sandro answered. He is awesome! Baptism date for August 2! He is from Lima, Peru. What part of Peru is Uncle Jorge from? We havent met with the family yet though but hopefully they will follow him. He wrestles and we are going to go to their practice on tues night to help coach. Elder Trott is a really good wrestler. I wont be able to do anything cause of my hip so he'll probably coach more. Hey did i tell you about Shuntez? We were tracting about 3 weeks ago and this 15 year old black kid just walked up and started talking to me, wondering who i was. I briefly taught him the restoration and set a baptism date with him. He didnt speak Spanish so i referred him to the english missionaries and they taught him and his 9 year old brother and they were both baptized and confirmed this week! They are still teaching his mom but shes getting close. The best part is that he is on the same wrestling team and same grade as Sandro. The Lord works so perfectly! Now they will both have a friend and support with the same standards throughout high school. We also started playing 'futbol' every saturday morning with our recent converts and investigators. We play in the gym at the church and someone brings goals to use. We started it 2 weeks ago. Its working pretty well for fellowship cause they all love soccer! And so do i! Its been too long since ive played. My hip is usually pretty sore after but its doing really well. Its gotten a lot stronger from working it out at the gym. Hey mom did you figure out the hair cutting thing? Hope everyones week goes well! Love,Elder Carty

7/13/09

Fam, Sounds like a fun week there! This week has been pretty good except noone came to church! People are very frustrating to work with when they wont come to church because they want to sleep or they have to work. We have a couple people who would already be baptized because they know its true if they would come to church. I got your letter mom. I have no idea who signed for it. It probably just went to some random guy who got a free haircutting kit. You should call Fedex or Walmart and have them send a new on because they gave it to the wrong person. Did you ship it or did Walmart? I wrote grandma and grandpa a letter this week but i still need to send one to Aunt Carol. I sent a letter in the mail for your birthday mom. It would have been on time but i couldnt seem to get to the post office till a week after your birthday. I cant remember if i told you happy birthday. Sorry if i didnt. I promise i remebered. HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY!!! I made the cheesecake the sunday after my birthday. Delicious! Im learning how to cook pretty well out here when i have time to cook. A missionary's eating schedule is terrible. We skip a lot of meals and then eat a lot of food at once when we get the chance. We generally dont have dinner till 10:00. At least im able to go to the gym everyday. This family yesterday brought is three huge platters of quesadillas and stuff to make burritos! We have zone conference tomorrow which is always really really good. Heres some spanish for Aaron and Caleb to learn: You are a monkey./ Tu estas un mono. I have 5 turtles./ Yo tengo una tortuga.Aaron and Caleb are cool./ Aaron y Caleb son chevre.The Book of Mormon is true./ El Libro de Mormon es verdadero.Caleb ran to the field to play soccer./ Caleb corrio al campo jugar futbol.Aaron plays baseball very well./ Aaron juega beisbol muy bien. I finally got to talk to someone in english yesterday. We were about to leave these apartments and i was about to get in the car when i saw a lady sitting on the stairs that looked Spanish. I started talking to her in Spanish but then she spoke english back so i taught her in English. I set a baptism date with her for the 26th. We are going back on Tuesday so hopefully it will still go well. We keep getting really close with a lot of people and then something always happens. Anyways, have fun at girls camp everyone! We are going to go play soccer with some other missionaries downtown later today. I just found out we have to drive to Kingsland, GA tomorrow for zone conference. First time in Georgia! Except at the Atlanta airport i guess...I hope everyone week is awesome! Sorry i havent written you a letter yet rachel. You'll get one by the time you get back from girls camp. Thanks for all the prayers everyone! I need all the ones i can get! Love,Elder Carty

Hola!
>
> Its great to hear from everyone! Thanks for the email rachel! Trek sounded like a blast! I probably wont have time to write you an email here so ill send you a letter by tomorrow. Im planning on sending thankyou notes to grandma and grandpa and Aunt Carol today. I had to wait till P-Day to do it cause there just isnt time during the week.
>
> Ugh...I have been sick for 2 days. My throat was soar and i had a headache yesterday and then this morning it was a lot worse. Dayquil has been my best friend. Other than that im doing really well. I am very angry at Satan right now though. He is doing everything he possibly can to keep people from getting baptized. The lady that was supposed to be baptized yesterday couldnt because she didnt make it to church. Normally people have to come to church twice before baptism but since she had to work so much she was just going to go once and then get baptized right after church. She has been trying get off work on sunday for 2 months and they finally gave her one sunday off yesterday and the same morning, her daughter was driving to come visit and broke down in Georgia so she had to go help her. AHH! The Lord will provide some way though.
>
> Im glad youre doing a little better with Josh, dad. I was having a really hard time about 2 weeks ago but Im doing much better. These 2 talks i read changed my views on a lot of things and really brought me comfort. You should all read them. "The Atonement" by Cleon Skousen, and "Tragedy or Destiny?" by Spencer W. Kimball. The Atonement talk was the best talk i have ever read or heard before. Its not just a normal talk about the atonement, it will blow your mind! Everyone who reads this letter should look up and read those talks. The second one talks about why bad things happen and why theres pain and suffering in the world.
>
> Spanish is coming along pretty good. I have the first vision memorized in spanish and taught the Joseph Smith story for the fist time this week. It wasnt very long though. Spanish work is a lot harder. Its almost impossible to get them to church. This week we've been sad about things that are going on in some families. 3 families where their husbands are beating their wives. Luckily one guy got deported. Another lady kicked her husband out and is moving and another we cant do anything about. Its really sad. A lot of them treat their wives almost like slaves and are very dominant. We were teaching this one family and having a good discussion with the mom and when the husband came in it was like everyone else didnt want to share their opinions in front of him and he basically spoke for all of them. Its really hard to work with guys. We brought this family with like 4 little girls a bunch of clothes that someone in the ward gave us to give out. They were all really excited. There is a guy my age named Margarito who lives there that we are also teaching. He only speaks Spanish. He told us how they spent like 3 days in the desert to make it across the border. Most of the people we teach are illegal.
>
> Oh I bought some running shoes this week with yours and grandmas money. Thanks! They were 80 bucks but theyre really nice. I havent got the hair cutting thing yet. But thanks in advance! We saw the fireworks when we drove home past the beach on saturday. Thats too bad to hear about justin. I just might write him a letter. Is that address for his apartment there or the jail? Let me know how long he'll have to be there. Hope everyone has an awesome week! Thanks for all your love and support!
>
> Aaron,
> Whats up dude? Rafting sounds really fun! I got to see the ocean here. Thanks for the letter and pictures. I hung them up on my wall. Guess what? I have a remote control helicopter! Its really fun and all the other missionaries like to fly it. My last companion gave it to me. Hope you have an awesome week! Love ya!
>
> Caleb,
> The parade and fireworks sound really fun! Are you getting really good at basketball? We went to eat pizza one day and Spongebob was on tv there! Mr. Krabs turned the Krusty Krab into a hotel! We had a pizza eating contest and i ate 16 slices of pizza! Have a great week!
>
> Love,
> Elder Carty

Hey! Im doing great!Everything is going really well here in the beaches!Speaking of the beach, our district is going to go play volleyball there after this. It will be the first time touching the Atlantic ocean! Ive stopped to look at it but havent been to the beach yet. If only i could swim! Last week we played indoor soccer at the church. It was the first time playing soccer since my surgery. My hip was actually better than i thought. Runing has pobably strengthened it a lot. Though it was really soar the next day. And it really is today too. I ran 2.5 miles this morning which is the farthest ive ran so far. I dont know how far to push it or how much running im supposed to do but its been alright so far. Thanks for the birthday package!!!!!!!! Tell everyone thanks for everything! It was awesome! Ill be writing them all letters this week. Tell Aaron thanks for the letter and the pictures! Did Aaron or Caleb draw them. Are you home from Nevada yet? How was it? Sounded like a lot of fun! Pause...I have to send this and re sign up for the computer before the time runs out.
Cont... I also got the cd that someone sent. Im not sure who its from but thanks! I love it! I cant wait to hear all about the pioneer trek from rachel! Ill write you back if you write me. Rafting and jet skiing sounds awesome! Im jealous! I definitely want to go in a year and a half! Man i cant believe ive already been here for 5.5 months! Hey rachel, wanna go play volleyball at the beach today! We have a baptism this Friday of a lady named Rosario. She been taking the discussions for 2 months now and is finally getting baptized! Pray that she will be able to get work of that day. We have a couple people with baptism dates but theyre not as solid so we'll see. Spanish is going pretty good. We contact at the flea market and tract. We only teach people that speak Spanish so if someone answers the door that doesnt, we ask if they have neighbors that speak Spanish and then keep knocking. It takes a lot more time to find investigators but we have quite a few right now. oh did i tell you what happened last week at stake conference? They created a whole new stake! Area authorities came down and they split up parts of the Jax West and Jax East stakes to make a Jax South stake. It was awesome! The growth here is phenominal! They are getting so many new members that there just wasnt enough room in 2 stakes. The mission has had about 450 baptisms this year so far! Well i better get going. Thanks for everything! I really enjoyed looking at the pictures! Have a great week! Love,Elder Carty

3709 San Pablo Rd. S #2105
Jacksonville, FL 32224

Heres my address! Oops... Sorry i didnt email yesterday. We ran out of time so im sending a quick one today. Dad did you get the letter i sent you for Father's Day? Sounds like either a boring or a relaxing weekend with everyone but you and rachel gone. Sounds like mom and Aaron and Caleb are having fun! I played soccer for the first time since my surgery yesterday. My hip was better than i thought but i havent played sports for so long that im really sore today. Hey i was thinking about what i need for my birthday. I really need a hair cutting kit so i can cut my own hair. Just on of those razors with all the different sizes that clip on. Also, we go to the gym every day here and ive been running a lot but all i have are my Pumas which are very worn out and dont have much support. I was thinking i could pick out some running shoes or something. This week has been a bit crazy for me. Ill be Spanish for the rest of my mission. I got my new name tag in spanish, a preach my gospel, and a new set of scriptures in spanish today at zone conference. I love zone conferences! They are extremely inspiring and keep me going. We have them once a month now instead of every 6 weeks. Last friday was insane! Our zone had a challenge for each companionship to teach 200 lessons in one day! It was 115 degrees and and we spent every second of the whole day tracting and contacting to reach it. Our zone and our mission broke all of our previous records. As a mission last week we taught 6600 lessons, found 1069 new investigators, and had 22 baptisms. The mission is fire and i have never seen so many people work so hard in the blazing heat day after day to brings souls to God. We have seen miracle after miracle this week. At zone conference two people told stories of how they prayed for their investigator to have a dream to know they need to be baptized and that very night they had dreams about being baptized. Another was a man who was woried about the salvation of his mother who died a year ago and was gardening wen he passed out for six hours in the mud and had a vision where she spoke to him and told him he needed to do what the missionaries said and pray about the Book of Mormon, be baptized, and then go to the temple so that she can be baptized. Another miracle was from the english missionaries in our area. They told a recent convert to think of a friend they can teach. She prayed for someone she knew that the missionaries would find her. Later that day her friend knocked on her door and said the missionaries finally found her. The missionaries in a different area had knocked on her door and she said she had been looking for them for a very long time. They compared times and at the very moment the lady prayed, the other missionaries knocked on her door. Another miracle of a brand new missionary who ran into a lady who wanted them to come visit her husband in the hospital. He was going to go through "cheemo" therapy later that day so they taught him and gave him a blessing. Then when he was about to go in for kemo he starting shaking all over his body. They couldnt figure out why but they did some tests and he had neumonia and a blood infection. The doctor said if he would have gone through chemo he might not have made it because if youre sick at all beforehand, chemo weakens your body so he wouldnt have been able to fight it off. Without that sign of him shaking, noone would have known and he may not be alive. Miracle after miracle after miracle. Never has my faith in Christ grown more than it has this week. Its taking a while to learn the language but ive been able to at least approach people by myself and teach them about Christ coming to America, bear my testimony, and invite them to be baptized or if we can come back and teach them. Thats about all the Spanish i know my companion pretty much teaches all the main lessons. Its a lot of fun though! Well i hope these miracles strengthen your faith as much as it did mine. I wish i could have shared more detail but i dont have much time. I love you and miss you all very much. Have a great week!

Love,Elder Carty

Elder Carty goes Spanish!!!


Hola! Como estan? Yo estoy bueno! Estoy en Jacksonville Beaches! Well writing in Spanish takes too long... Ill try to write more in spanish next week. This is crazy! Hey how did you know i got switched to Spanish? President Newman called last week and asked me if i would learn Spanish. Im really excited but its gonna be very challenging. Right now i can only do part of our door approach in Spanish and bear my testimony. A lot of it is coming back to me from high school. Everybody keeps saying i need to read the book of mormon out loud in a transfer and ill be fluent so ive been doing that every chance i get cause it takes a lot longer. Im almost done with first Nephi already. Did you tell Aunt Cathy and Jorge and everyone else im learning Spanish? Our apartment is less than a mile from the beach. Looks like i wont really need my bike anymore cause all the spanish missionaries have cars. If i never use it i may just send it home but we'll see. We just got back from playing laser tag and miniature golf with about 12 other missionaries. I like it here in Jacksonville a lot. It was a nice change but it's starting to get really hot here! My new companions name is Elder Trott. He's from Gilbert, AR and is very fluent in Spanish so im learning a lot. Although he learned it in the MTC. Theres only 14 Spanish missionaries in the mission and i guess we are losing a bunch over the summer so i got called. I dont know what i need for my birthday. I dont really need anything for the kitchen. Maybe some cds or something. I like acoustic guitar music. or you could send some in spanish.
Sorry i cut it short just in case my time ran out. Send lots of cherry nibs! And maybe some money to do stuff on pday. I dont really know what else i could even use... A new tie is always nice. A lot of people have told me that the books 501 Spanish Verbs and 1000 Pitfalls in Spanish is really good. I think theyre pretty cheap. President Newman said he ordered Spanish books for me from the MTC but i dont think it has a verb book. I really need good sunglasses. If you sent money i could just pick some out. Sounds like a pretty fun week for everyone! Tell grandma and grandpa thanks for the subway card! Tell them i have gotten everything they sent and thanks! They said i havent mentioned it in my emails so maybe you accidentally took it out before you send it to them cause i have thanked them every time. Can you call them and thank them for me? Hey do i need to be seeing a doctor about my hip anytime soon? I should probably talk to one at least cause i dont know if im allowed to run or play any sports at all. I love all of you a lot! And happy pre Father's Day Dad! Love,Elder Carty

Heeellllllooooo!!!!!!!!!! Hope everythings goin great! Sounds like its been a pretty fun week there! Glad you didnt kill everyone in the jeep! SOunds like a lot of fun though. Things are going well here. I am at Daniel and Bit's house emailing. Thats awesome that youre going to the temple so much. I wish i could go a lot. I got the package mom. Thanks! My companion and I thoroughly enjoyed the cookies! Thanks for the cash. And thanks for the postcard dad! Man i miss the mountains! Im getting closteraphobic because its so flat and there are trees everywhere and i cant see very far! Ive been in a small area of Gainesville too long. Im sad to go though because i love the branch and working with college students but i think im ready to go. Im starting to get burned out from so much contacting so i think it will be a good change. Tell Corey and Maria Trail thanks for the money! I really appreciate all their love and support and friendship. Thanks for everything! The guy that was going to get baptized on your birthday couldnt because of his living situation. He is living with his girlfriend and he is trying everything he can to move out but he cant afford to break his lease so we are still praying for a miracle. We are baptizing a guy named Ken tomorrow! He is awesome! We had to bike 40 minutes to get to his house and we taught him the plan of salvation. He remembered the Spirit he felt from last time we taught him. He is more in tune with the Spirit than anyone ive ever seen. He was literally jumping for joy when he found out about the book of mormon and the plan of salvation. He was saying these are the missing pieces he was looking for. He loves the bible and knows it really well and couldnt believe that there are 3 more volumes of scripture he has been missing. He is 22 and really wants to serve a mission if he can! He is supporting his mom right now but i really hope he serves a mission. Ill try to let you know where im going when i find out. Did you hear about the swine flu breaking out in the MTC? A bunch of people had to be quarantined and they made some new rules there. The parents have to say goodbye out side and noone but missionaries are allowed inside so noone can bring in sickness. Crazy! We were going to have to push transfers a week later because of it but i guess they cleared it up in time so transfers are on thursday now. Daniel will be my companion for two days when Elder Brunt leaves Tuesday. It should be a lot of fun. Ill try to send a cd of pictures when i get a chance. That way i can send more to you guys and its a lot cheaper. Last Saturday we went to a gator baseball game. It was the regional championship against the Miami Hurricanes. It was a lot of fun! Our branch mission leader is actually the mascot for UF. He is Albert the Alligator and mascots all the football, basketball, and baseball games. We got some pictures with him!

Love,Elder Carty