Monday, September 28, 2009

Elder Nielson's Visit

Dear Family & Friends:
This past week was great. We had Brent Nielson from the Seventy come and do a tour of the mission. He gave a great Zone Conference, and even let us ask him any questions we wanted for 30 minutes. He said that the Prophet and the Apostles are greater than he ever imagined! He said that he is going to speak in General Conference next weekend, too. That would be scary.
Since it has been raining a lot here lately, our grass has been growing super, super fast. We had neglected mowing it for a while and it was almost 3 feet tall. I tried to mow it last Monday and went to start the mower and broke off the rip cord! Our landlord came and fixed it and it took more than an hour to mow everything. It was super hard and there were mosquitos everywhere!
The branch is doing great! We have had some really good attendence lately and we have had a lot of less-active members start coming back. We also have a really good investigator. He is progressing very well. He was out of town this week, but he asked us for the addfress of the San Antonio Temple because he said he wanted to stop by on his way back. We are going to see him tomorrow.
I am super excited for General Conference this weekend. It's pretty much like Christmas for missionaries (as I have said before)! It is so amazing to hear so many wonderful speakers and to feel the spirit. I can't believe this will be my fourth General Conference on my mission.
Mom, I received a sheet that my dad sent me of some family history from his mother's side that I am going to copy and send to you. I'm pretty sure somebody on the other side is trying to give us a hint or something because I didn't even ask for it, my dad just sent it to me!
We have transfers coming up next week. I really really really hope that I stay in Sinton for my last transfer, I've already put so much into this area. Things here are going very well. Tell everyone that I say hi and to write to me, I love receiving mail from friends and family.
Ryan

Monday, September 21, 2009

Mosquitoes, Rain, & Lots of Great People

Dear Family & Friends:
This week has been great. It has been raining a whole lot here lately. Since it has been raining, the mosquitoes have been coming out a lot lately. I thought we were going to avoid them this year because of the drought, but I guess not. The front of our car is black because we drive through swarms of them at night. At first I thought it was raining because we kept hearing this pitter patter on the windshield, but then we realized what it was! We have been having a lot of attendance at the branch lately. A few months ago we had been averaging 20-30 per week. Yesterday we had 47! We have been in the 40s for the past few weeks. We have seen a lot of less-active families come back and start to attend more regularly. We have also had some investigators who have been attending regularly as well. We have one investigator who just got out of the marines. He’s such a great guy. His aunt is a member and has been sharing the gospel with him and now we are teaching him, too. He’s got a lot of crazy stories from when he was in Iraq. We have been working this little town called Edroy recently and have found some really cool people over there, too. We have been teaching this guy who said that he has been praying for years to find the true church. It was pretty much a miracle when we found him. We knocked on his door and his mom answered and said they weren’t interested, so we went down the street and ended up teaching somebody else. As we were walking back, we passed by the house again and he just happened to come outside, and so we started talking to him and ended up teaching him a little bit. We have taught him a couple of times and we’re going back tonight. Things have really been going great around here! Say hi to everyone!
Love, Elder Carreon

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

A New Investigator and a Few Tornado Warnings

Dear Family & Friends:
We had a great week this week. We had a new investigator come to church this Sunday. He’s a super great guy. He has come to church before (his aunt in a member and brought him). He just got out of the Marines, and he is really interested in the gospel. He said he loves church, and will come again next week.
We had our interviews with Mission President Miller this past week as well. Mine went well. I only have one more interview before I go home. That’s crazy to think that once I finish this transfer I will only have one more to go!
I talked to this other missionary, Elder Hartner, who will be going to BYU in January also. He said that he could try and find us a place in Rexburg. He goes home this month, and Mom, I’ll give him your number and maybe you can figure stuff out before I get back.
It has been raining here like crazy all week long. We got hit with a few thunderstorms and even a few tornado warnings. It’s supposed to be a little bit clearer this week though. We have been working in this small town named Edroy lately. There are only a few hundred people there, but we have found some really nice families. We have been trying to branch out where we work since we have such a huge area, and we are trying to go to some of the places that we haven't been all that much.
Tell everybody hi for me and I appreciate hearing from them!

Ryan

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

One Judge, New Investigators, & More Rain

Dear Family & Friends:
This week was great! We have been having lots and lots of rain here lately. The other day we were coming back from Mathis, and all of the sudden this huge storm came out of nowhere. I literally could not see more than 5 feet in front of the car. Luckily, we were close to home by that point. We're supposed to have rain all this next week.
Earlier this week we decided to knock on this one door, and lo and behold, It was the judge who was at traffic court when I had to appear last month! She remembered me and we laughed about it. We also had an interesting experience. We had this guy we were teaching, but hadn't been able to see in a few weeks, and we decided that we should stop by. When we went to his house he said that he was having lots of problems lately and was hoping that we would come by. It was a great experience. He's got a lot of medical problems and was going to go in for some tests that next day.
Church was also really good this week. We had a part-member family show up and we went to their house afterward and started teaching the husband. They are really great. They were both truck drivers and said they got stuck in Portland last year when that huge snow storm blew in! Things are going well here. I can't believe that I only have a couple of months left. It will be sad to leave. I hope everything is well with you guys.
Elder Carreon

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Elder Nielson Will Tour Mission

Dear Family & Friends:
We had transfers this week, and I and my companion, Elder Kocherhans, are staying! I am excited because I was hoping to finish my mission here and it looks like that will probably happen. We have been getting more information on the General Authority that is coming this month. It will be Elder Brett Nielson from the Seventy. He will be touring the mission and coming to Zone Conference, and he will also be going on exchanges with some missionaries. That's a scary thought! Although it would be a neat experience to do missionary work with a General Authority! We have this family in our Branch that reminds me a lot of the j boys (Ryan's cousins). They too have 5 boys and they have 1 girl who is the baby. They invited us over for dinner this past week, and it was really fun. They live on a farm just outside of Sinton in a small town called St. Paul. They have a big piece of property, and so while we were waiting for the food we played football with the oldest boys. They are pretty crazy also, and they really add life to our Branch! Last week we remembered that we had this watermelon that had been in our freezer for a really long time, and we needed the freezer space so we were trying to figure out what to do with it. When I was with Elder Bugg, we had an investigator give us a sword. We didn't have much else to use, so we decided to use it to slice the watermelon open in our back yard. It was pretty fun! Things have been going pretty good here. We were struggling a little bit to find new people to teach, but things are improving. The Branch is doing way better now than when I first got transfered here, which is good. You can really see the hand of the Lord and feel the spirit working in this area. Hopefully we will steer clear of hurricanes this year!

Love to all, Elder Carreon
P.S. The letters and packages are great to receive! Thank you.