Monday, October 27, 2008

A Baptism Coming Up

Thanks for all of your prayers. We had some great things happen despite my companion being sick at home for a few days this week. It was hard for me, too, because I was getting cabin fever staying home. Usually we are busy every moment, so it's quite a switch to have down time like that.
As for how the work is going, there is this girl whose boyfriend is a member of the church, and he invited her to church and gave her a Book of Mormon and all this stuff. She had been going to her boyfriend's Ward since August, and about a week or so ago she went to the Bishop and asked him how she could get baptized! She lives in our area, so on Thursday we took her over to a member's house and had a lesson with her. It was great! She is super prepared to receive the gospel. She said that she and her boyfriend read from the Book of Mormon together and that she feels different at our church than the other ones she's been to. She is amazing, and will be baptized on November 9th! Please keep her in your prayers! If everyone could please continue to pray for our other investigators, that would help out a lot, too.
Friday night was pretty lame. We got in our car and drove far away from our apartment, and after we were done in that area we went back to the car, and it died on us. It was probably the fuel pump, and this one guy told us that a lot of fuel pumps have been going out lately because this certain gas station puts some extra stuff in the gas that kills the pump faster than normal. We had to walk home, and we've been on bike and foot since then. Gas is super super super cheap around here, about $2.25 a gallon. There are rumors that gas in Ingleside is less than $2 a gallon! I hope it keeps going down!
We're going to a Halloween party at the church on Friday with all of the missionaries, so I'll send some pictures. Tell everybody that I say hi!
Love, Elder Carreon

Monday, October 20, 2008

Nearing the One-Year Mark

Dear Family & Friends: I can't believe it's been almost a year since I started my mission. This week was kind of crazy. We had our interviews with President and Sister Miller, which is always a good experience. They are a big part of why this mission is so great.
I do have one request. I know I haven't really done this much, but I would like to ask you guys if you could pray for two of our investigators this week. That would be great. I won't give their names to respect their privacy, but please pray for them and for us so that we can know how to help them. Come to think of it, why not pray for all the investigators!
Flour Bluff is an amazing place. The people and the members are wonderful. I've learned so much since I've been here. I'll try to resend the pictures, they were returned because I didn't have the right apartment number. Write soon and thank you for your letters, prayers, and encouraging words.
Ryan

Monday, October 13, 2008

Members and the Beach

Hello to alI:
Mom, I did get the Halloween package.We are now addicted to candy corn. We have this member who is trying to quit smoking and wants to come back to church. She says she has tried everything, so what we decided to do was get her to smoke less and less until she can go cold turkey. We took her pack of cigarettes and put in a picture of Jesus, so every time she wants to smoke, she has to reach over the photo. We hope that helps her out.
On Thursday, I went on exchanges with Elder Lopez. He's from Long Beach, so we talked a lot about L.A. On Saturday we spent most of the day on North Padre Island. We ate with a member family who live in an apartment building right on the beach. It was pretty awesome. There were a bunch of people kite boarding in the water and stuff. The week was pretty normal on the whole, but the members around here love us and are giving us a lot of names of people to work with so hopefully something good will turn out soon! Anyway, all is well here and I'll send some pictures soon.
Ryan

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

A New Area

Dear Family & Friends
I'll send home the memory card from my camera today. I have a lot of pictures from when we went to the zoo in Brownsville.
This week I am trying to decide who to vote for. I haven't heard anything about any of the candidates except one rumor that Obama might not actually be a U.S. citizen! That would be a huge problem if that turns out to be true. I have already requested a ballot from California, but I still have no idea who to vote for.
My new area, Flour Bluff, is pretty crazy! There is a real cultural difference between here and the valley.
People here are super nice, too, but more willing to be honest with you and slam the door in your face. It makes finding those who want to hear about the gospel a lot easier, but still takes some getting used to. General Conference was amazing! It's pretty much like Christmas for missionaries because all we do is hang out at the church and watch all of the sessions. I'm pretty sure the world is going to end soon because during the first session all of the speakers were super intense and spiritually powerful and talking about unifying our hearts and minds in Zion and stuff. It was way more intense than I remember it being, but maybe that's just because I actually paid attention! I can't wait until the Ensign (church magazine) comes out. Our area covers Flour Bluff and North Padre Island. Yesterday we went to the island (we usually go on Sundays). It reminds me a lot of California. It's very beachy and there are lots of palm trees and stuff. A lot of the houses come with a private dock. It's really cool, but takes like 20 minutes to drive across the bridge to get there.
Hope you had a great week and write soon.
Love, Ryan