Que Pasa

what is up family. wow what a week. its been a long one thats for sure. Today we got to go to the columbia river temple and it was amazing. Seriously so fun. It was definitely the smallest temple ive been in but it was a great experience. This week has been awesome. A lot more talking with people rather then searching for them like last week so that was better. My spanish is awful. Sometimes i feel like i am not improving i feel like i am just stuck where i am at. But its still fun. I was definitely better this week at just opening my mouth and at least trying. Sometimes that didnt really work out very well but whatever haha. K so a few funny stories. The other day we were out knocking some doors because we had a lesson fall through. which is very common haha. Whenever a lesson falls through we just knock the doors around the house. So anyways thats what we were doing and this guy opens the door all scared and sketched out and i was so confused on what was going on. Like it was just a weird situation. And he was cussing us out under his breathe kind of thing. Apparently he though we were trying to break into his house haha. He had a huge knife in one hand and his pitbull in the other. He straight up was ready to kill us haha. So after i explained who we were he calmed down came outside had us sit down and he was just like ok gimme what youve got i want to hear it. And it was so exciting for me, first of all because it was in English! that was so awesome! So i kind of took this one over and we just started to get to know him. This guy was psycho but he was awesome haha. So we just got talking about a bunch of things really. His roommate came out and my comp ended up talking to him while i was talking to umm Patrick thats is name. So we were kind of having 2 separate lessons going on which i know probably wasnt the best but it worked haha. So he just started telling me about himself. How he basically has lost all hope in life. he has done a lot of things. He talked about how he should be in prison for life. I think he killed somebody but i didnt really want to talk about that haha. He said it multiple times how he shouldnt even be here right now he just deserves to be dead. and that there is no way that god still cares about him. So i talked to him about God and how much he loves all of his children no matter what. The spirit is unreal. I was sure he was going to burst into tears but he held it back somehow. there was like a full 2 minutes of silence of him just sitting there thinking about it. and i know he could feel it. i taught him how to pray and challenged him to pray. he said that prayer didnt do anything for him when he was in jail before so he didnt every want to try it again but i really hope he does. Anyways because he is speaks english we have to turn him over to the other missionaries in our zone. dumb right? yeah i know. But the other missionaries said he didnt want to talk to them so we will probably go by soon and see if he will talk with us :) that was just a cool experience. So in just 2 weeks of being here i have already learned to hate dogs. just kidding i love dogs. i hate little rats though. The average house here probably has 2 chiuahuas. I have no idea how to spell that sorry. But i am not even kidding about that statistic. They are EVERYWHERE here. And they are insane. They arent afraid to attack and they travel in packs too!!!!! They will come at you for all angles. They are super annoying. I havent been bit yet but ive kicked 2 already. This week our ward had a ping pong tourny. I wont the whole thing :) it was awesome. Ive really stepped up my ping pong game out here. we have a table in our apartment :) so that was a fun part of the week. mom that jerky that you sent in the package. Pork jerky korean barbeque recipe. thats what it was called. yeah that stuff was unreal. The bishops son is at byu football camp right now. if spencer happens to be there this week have him look for a blake.l he plays O line too. i thought that'd be cool. Oh another cool story. This week at church. we were just waiting for sacrament to start hoping that we would have at least one investigator show up. This mexican guy walks in that we have never seen before haha. His name is German. So the way church works here is we meet with the english ward because we dont have enough spanish speakers for our won ward. and we just translate the meeting through headphones. the second and third hours we have our own classes and they are only in spanish. so anyways this guy walks in and tells us a little bit about himself. He lived up in royal city washington and just moved down here. he met with the missionaries up there and took all the lessons. He says he loves the church and he knows that it is true. He has no job, no house, and no car. I have no idea why he came down here or how he got here but he showed up to our ward. He basically just wanted to be baptized. How insane is that? so our homie Javier, the one that was baptized 3 or 4 months ago took this guy under his wing and is trying to find him a job and a place to stay. he got him a car. i think its actually a semi truck and he is just staying in that for now i think. but he doesnt have a house so we couldnt set up a time to meet with him. hopefully when we see him at church next week he will be more settled in and we can have some time to talk to him. I really hope everything works out with him. In one of our lessons this week i invited this couple to be baptized. Yes all in spanish :) so happy. but they said no haha. But they will say yes next time i know it. Oh yeah can i get some world cup updates please. and nba playoffs while your at it :) Pops has been good at that actually thank you :) but for real i need to know things about the world cup haha. everyone loves talking about it. everyone house we go in thats all they are doing. really i need to know about Mexico. who is there best player? that would be so cool if i could talk about him. So somebody hook me up :) I love you all so much. Keep it real. Thank you for everything you do. I have the greatest family ever.

Headed to WA!

Elder Carter flew to Washington yesterday! Mom got a 3 minute call from the airport! He's nervous but super excited!! He sends his love!
Six weeks down!.........................98 to go!! :)

Saying bye to my roomies

This Gospel Is Freaking Awesome

wow what an awesome week. definitely the best week of the mission so far. haha i have no idea where to start. ok so last week my comp and i just struggled a little bit as i kind of told you. but last thursday when we got home we just talked it all out for a good hour. we didnt get to bed on time but it was so awesome to just sit there and say everything i was feeling. i cant think of the last time i was that straight up with someone haha. we seriously said everything we hated about each other and it really helped. we still arent perfect but this week things have been a lot better. ok before i forget i need to thank steven for the watch. i get compliments all the time for it and im just like yearh dude this thing was expensive haha. really steve thanks it has been super awesome. the other day i meet this girl who is from hunnington beach and im pretty sure that was in your mission. so i told them that you served there and told them it was like 9 years ago and her dad was baptized by missionaries 9 years ago. so if you know a Bill Wisrack thats pretty sweet. small world. this week we have been getting some really good rain. this is the only kind of rain that i like. i went all out this week on candy and treats for you guys. mexicans know how to make some good stuff. and some bad stuff too. but im taking it back to kennewick and ill send it when i get there. everything here tastes just a little bit different. the sprites here are super limey. the doritos are the greatest. oh so this week i figured out the key to improving my spanish. i changed my pump settings to espanol. its the greatest. just kidding it hasnt helped me a single bit half of the words are still in english cause there probably isnt a translation. but whatever its still fun. okay so get this. i am singing this sunday in from of the entire CCM. me and 4 other guys and 4 girls. lets just hope that God will get my back on this one. keep me in your prayers. we are singing the efy medley thing in spanish. its super awesome i am just awful. i cant believe tie has gone this fast. time has flown by. i am really excited but really nervous about hitting the field. hey keep me updated on Tony please i want to know everything. Natalie thank you for that video. I showed my whole district and everyone is so jealous of the coolest nephew in the world. im so happy  that you guys went to hayleys graduation that is awesome. thank you for being the coolest family ever. i love you all so much. so i fly out tuesday morning at about 6ish. mom ill call your cell phone whenever i land. i dont know if ill call you in texas or in washington but just be expecting a call from me sometime :) oh yeah! the devo that we had on tuesday, totally saw pops like 3 times!! he was always smiling. haha. but why wasnt he sitting next to grandma? come on pops. and i saw david too! he was singing in the choir. make sure that grandma and pops know that david is there and they go say hi to him. i love you all so much. i am so happy out here. its hard work but i already love it and am learning something every single day. this gospel is so freaking awesome. i love you all. mom keep telling steele and cal i love them:) thank you! just do me a favor and stay happy. thats all i care about. love you all so much!! have an awesome week talk to you on tuesday!!

Esta es mi casa. probably didnt say that right. 

awesome tie trade the other day:) elder tanner. 

youve probably already seen this sorry. 

Who Knows What I'm Really Saying...

como esta everybody! what an awesome awesome week. im just going to start of with this experience i had a few days ago. so the hardest thing the past 4 weeks have definitely been the language. but 2 days ago while teaching an investigator i didnt look at a paper or a not once. not one single time. and i pretty much talked the entire lesson. i know my spanish wasnt perfect but i really feel like i could say most of what i wanted. and the spirit was awesome. so that was a huge confidence booster. then yesterday my spanish was horrible haha. its just a bunch of ups and downs. umm oh last sunday i gave a talk in sacrament meeting on faith. i also kind of had the same experience there. things just kept coming to my mind and i just kept talking. i talked for 5 minutes and the only thing that i read was a scripture. i cant remember if i have told you about my awesome teacher. but he is so awesome. his name is luis hernandez. and guess what. he is coming to provo in a few months/ he is honestly one of my favorite people ever. his english is super awesome compared to most of the mexicans here. i showed him a picture of all of you and he wants to meet all of you. what he really wants is a wife and i told him you guys would help him out. im totally not kidding haha. ill give you more details later but mom you should really have him over for dinner one night. everyone would love him! Brandon i told him you served in argentina and he talked to me for 5 minutes about how bad your spanish is haha. so i guess ive learned the real truth here. mexican spanish is the pure spanish of the world. ive heard that from people that have been to tons of spanish speaking countries and argentina is the second worst behind spain. im really sorry you had to learn the argentine spanish but dont worry i still love you and god will still forgive you. my branch president here is soooooo awesome. he is the one white branch president. he works for the US embassy here/ every sunday he gives us what he calls the news from babylon haha. its super awesome though i love it. he gives us all the sports updates. i hope OKC and the pacers can pull it off. just kidding i dont care about that stuff anymore;) this week i really really really struggled with my companion. like really bad. i dont like talking bad about him but everything was just so hard. it got to the point where he would blink and i would want to kill him haha. there was one instance imparticular where it would have been very easy for me to get angry at him and i had to complete right to. but i just walked away and started praying harder then ive ever prayed. i just prayed for the holy ghost to stay with me and help me calm down and it honestly worked. 10 minutes later i forgot why i was even mad at him. i have been blessed over and over in little ways. and its your prayers that are keeping me going. thank you. i know there is more i just cant think of anything! we got to play sand volleyball again today. so fun. brandon i still hope you are planning on playing doubles sand volley ball in the olympics. start your training. i love you all so much.. i couldnt ask for a better family. i pray for you everyday. at least i think i do. who knows what im really saying haha. i love you. tell steele and cal i love them too:)

ps- heres some cool scriptures
isaiah 12:2
D&C 122:7-10

me and my comp puttin in work 

some more volley ball :)

Hola Homies

awesome awesome week this week. time flies here like youd never believe! gosh i never know where to start. first of all mom i need to thank you for those family pictures. i havent yet and im sorry but those have been so awesome. i love thinking about each and every one of you. i love and miss all of you so very much. its also been super nice to show others, i brag about my family all the time haha. so thank you for the pictures mama. this week was a little bit worse diabetes. in class the other day i dropped to 35 which is an all time low for me. it was weird because i didnt really feel that bad either. but its all good. so today we got to go to the temple and visitor center. soooooo awesome! the temple is closed so we didnt get to go inside. but the visitors center was awesome. the coolest part was just getting outside of the ccm walls. the city is super cool. i got a few good pictures of them though sorry. i was scared they were going to shoot me haha. so being outside the walls was fun for a little bit, but i really do appreciate this campus even more now. i felt so safe the minute we got back in the walls. this place is just blessed and you constantly have the spirit with you. i had the opportunity to give another blessing this week. one of the hermanas in my district has been feeling sick and she asked me to give her a blessing. you just cant go wrong when it comes to blessings they are so incredible. testimony builder ever single time. so yesterday we got a new district in our zone. so i am officially a father now. thats what they call it haha. and we had some babies haha. they seem really cool so far. they are pretty much older than me though so its kind of different situation. one of the elders is 25. and he is awesome. i dont feel right leading him haha. ill probably be the one going to him for questions and advice. but its cool to finally be a real zone leader. mom before i forget can you pretty please tell me how much money i have on my card. that would be awesome to know. and did you ever figure out of it charges me extra here? thanks. so things are really good. still struggling with the language, as expected. still very discouraging at times but im having fun. oh yeah i cant forget about TRC. so for trc this week our teacher brought his friend and he is a straight up real investigator. straight up real. and he wanted us to teach him. ok so he already has a baptismal date for the end of the month. haha but he is real. so we asked him what he wanted to talk abot or if he was scared about anything and he talked to us about his parents. either they are already divorced or they are getting divorced and he was having a hard time with that. i immediately thought about the holy ghost, i dont know why i went there but i did. i dont know enough spanish to really help him with his problem ya know? maybe you dont but anyways. i pulled out a sweet scripture about the confort and the help of the holy ghost and had him read it. the spirit was awesome and after the lesson he wanted the scripture. he told us that he felt a lot better. and that was super awesome to me. he wasnt fake he was straight up real and that was super fun for me and my companion. i love you all so so super so super much and i think about you everyday. i couldnt have gotten any luckier when it comes to family. stay close to the lord and everything will turn out just fine. and dont forget to tell steele and cal that i love them. live life to the fullest my friends:)

fello diabetic. elder alverson. cool dude. 

mi companero y yo at the visitor center

my 2 kennewick homies. they are my favorites of the district. 

Elder Nathan Carter, May 15, 2014

By The Way, Cinco De Mayo Is A Bunch Of Lies

Hello everyone that i love so very much. What a fun week. so packed but so fun. gosh i dont even know where to start. im just going to be bouncing all over the place so deal with it im sorry. and i brought my little list of things to tell you guys so thats good. umm my companion at a cockroach. yeah he is dumb but whatever. it was fun to watch. one thing i forgot to tell you last week is they dont let us listen to music here!! its killing me. no music at all. in my opinion thats a dumb rule but whatever ill deal with it. they have a little tienda here. i think thats how you spell it. its just a little shop and it is so awesome. things are super cheap and apparently they use real sugar here in mexico in the food. which i believe because they are incredible. so much yummy food. on fast sunday i shared my testimony in sacrament meeting. yes in all spanish. im not sure if i made any sense but i tried haha.
oh yeah by the way, cinco de mayo is a bunch of lies. no one even cares about it here in mexico. im not even kidding. like it was probably the quiestest day since i have been here. that was very depressing. so i had a little bit of a let down this week. we taught our first lesson in 100 percent spanish. for our first week they would let us slip in some english here and there which didnt make things too difficult but this week zero english. i felt so dumb during the whole lesson. i was so lost and confused and it was killing me to not be able to express myself. we left the lesson and i was honestly depressed. i was fighting back tears walking back to our classroom. when we got back to the class and i sat down i started to think. at that moment when i was super overwhelmed with so many different things it would have been very easy for me to just give up. to be honest it crossed my mind for a split second. i wanted to be home very bad. but i kept thinking. i didnt come on a mission to hang out in mexico for a few weeks. i came because i know that this church is true and this Jesus Christ is real. and i know that somewhere in washington someone needs me to guide them to this truth. this isnt some joke. there are literally people that have their eternal salvation at stake here and that is basically in my hands right now. when the day comes that i will be judged by god, i do not want to look at him in the eyes with feelings of regret and sorrow for not living up to his expectation of me. i do not want to have to apologize for not doing my job and not working hard and not enduring to the end. when i enter into the presence of god i want his first words to be these exact words. "well done my son" that is all i want to hear. and i dont believe that i would here those words if i would have given up a few days ago. i am dedicating my life to the lord. not just for 2 years but forever. i am not saying that it is going to be easy but i will follow christs example no matter what. i want everyone who is reading this to honestly think about what it is going to be like when the time comes that we will enter into gods presence to be judged. what do you want god to say to you? figure out exactly what you want that experience to be like and act accordingly. it is definitely not easy. for anyone of us. but it will be worth it beyond our imagination. i love you all so so much. i dont want anyone to waste time worrying about me (especially you mom) i am having the time of my life. today we played volleyball outside on this sand court. it was so perfect. i took a second to realize where i really was and what i was doing. and there isnt a place in this world that i would rather be right now that right here. this is exactly where i supposed to be. i know it. i love you all so much. thank you for your love and support.
cant wait to skype you on sunday mom:) see you soon!!!

I'm a real life missionary. 

oh and this is elder tanner. he is kevins twin. not kidding. he is the greatest ever. 

my roomies. elder gorham and stallings. both super awesome.

Eating some food

Volleyball 

Elder Nathan Carter,  May 8, 2014

First Week In Mexico

Wow i dont even know where to begin. First of all there is no way i can cover everything. Especially because i left my little notebook at mi casa that has everything that i wanted to talk to you guys about. im super sorry. And it is super hard to do capital letters on this keyboard haha so just deal with my lower case letters. i am loving it here. unbelievable campus. So pretty. it reminds me a lot of samoa here especially the rain. oh man there is just so much i dont even know what to say im sorry haha. oh yeah i am Elder Tucker and i are district leaders. i was really nervous about the whole thing at first but it has been muy bueno. our district is absolutely perfect. We are already super close and really enjoying each other. my spanish is awful. and it has been very discouraging at times. especially because elder tucker (mi companero) is much better at speaking espanol that i am. so a little bit about my companion. he is from washington and he is serving in salt lake city. so we are switching places hahahe is a great guy and i have really come to love him this past week. he is also a diabetic which has been super awesome but bad sometimes too. sometimes he tries to give me a little too much advice and its no fun hah. but he is a great guy and we get along just fine. my roomates are in another district and zone. they have been so awesome. i look forward to going home and being with them every night. we just talk to each other about everything and they have taught me so much. but last night i dont really know what happened but they exploded. they were yelling and screaming at each other and it was about to get physical haha. and no one in the house was helping at all they are such bad peace makers haha. and nobody here knows how to lead i feel like. its kind of difficult. nobody knows how to take charge. but i finally got things cooled down and i think they are good now. the spirit on this campus is incredible. that is definitely my favorite part. i have given my companion 2 different blessing and stood in on another. i am very blessed that i had the opportunity to get experience with blessings before i came here. (thanks pops) yesterday morning elder tucker was super sick and he couldnt study at all. his blood sugar was constantly high and he was straight up moaning because he was in so much pain. we went to the clinic thing first and  they game him some medicine but it wasnt working. he finally asked for a blessing. so we got the 6 elders of our district and i gave the blessing. the spirit was very strong. when i ended the blessing he stood up and looked me in the eyes and said. im good elder carter. everything is fine. literally just like that everything was better. im still trying to figure out if he was just faking the whole time or what. haha im kidding. it was an amazing experience. so there are 10 members in our district by the way. gosh dang it im so sorry i dont have my little note pad here to remember anything i have to tell you. the food is not bad at all. its a hit and miss kind of thing. some meals are incredible and some are just straight up not okay. for example. yesterdays breakfast, chocolate chicken! not even kidding. but i had to try it. it wasnt as bad as i was expecting but still not something ill probably ever do again. but mom i am eating super good so dont worry about that. i have gained a good 5 pounds. they have warned us a lot about earth quakes here and im really hoping we get one soon that would be awesome:) k what else...umm gym time. we get 45 minutes of gym every day! that is such a stress reliever. seriously its incredible. im doing my best stay soft on me knee. i only played one game of ball:) if anyone is worried about me dont be because i am having a lot of fun. its definitely not easy. in fact it is very hard. but i wouldnt choose to do anything else with my life right now. please keep praying for me to learn the language. i need that more than anything right now. i miss you all so much. i have until noon my time to email so if you are on the email me back. i love you all so so so much. oh yeah you can send me mail if youd like. probably not worth it because they say it takes 3 weeks. mom or dad can you please let me know what the international charges are for using me debit card here. and let the bank know that i am in mexico so they dont suspend the card. ill probably send some more emails when i remember more things haha. the city is awesome around us. its super super poor. our window is like 20 feet away from the CCM wall so we here everything that goes on. they party non stop. they have these giant fireworks that go off probably every 5 minutes and it is just a straight up bomb. they are so sweet. and we have heard a few gun shots. the temple is closed so we wont be able to do that but we will go to the visitor center i guess. sorry i am the worst writer. i hope i dont drive anyone too crazy. love you all.

Elder Nathan Carter, May 1, 2014


Nat i love you! mexico is sooooooooo sweet. i seriously love it. it reminds me a lot of samoa. like the grass and weird stuff like that haha. gosh i miss the whole family. you guys are all so incredible. tell steel i love him and miss him. i look at that picture every day. outside of the campus walls the city is incredibly poor. we here gun shots and bombs all the time im not even kidding. they say it is super dangerous area. they party all night long. like non stop. but i love the music and it puts me to sleep:) i cant wait for cinco de mayo haha. it will be so awesome:)

My window faces that hill of houses.

Elder Tucker. mi componero

Safe & Sound In Mexico

Hi Momma:) im here and im loving it. My companion isnt here yet so i dont know how that is oging to be but we made it here safe. And ive made a couple friends. I love you and miss you already. Hey make sure you set up a skype account. And i am pretty sure that my P days are thursdays so thats when you will here from me next. Mexico is awesome. Ive been here for like 2 hours and i already love it. It is super poor everywhere. The city was amazing though. The most people i have ever seen in my life haha. Hey if you are worried about me. dont be. I am just fine. I love you all i should talk to you on Thursday.
I probably wont email tomorrow. Most likely a week from tomorrow. Im not sure though so you gotta just deal with it mom im sorry haha. Oh i forgot to tell you how awesome the driving is here. i was born to drive in Mexico. it is the greatest thing i have ever seen haha. Hey i love you all. Dont forget about me. Tell steele and cal i love them. and every other human too:)

my companion is diabetic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Nathan Carter, Wed, Apr 23, 2014