A few pictures...

 There's nothing better than receiving pictures from people via text! It's not only fun to SEE him but great to know that people are taking great care of him! :)

Weekly Update 4/20/15

WeekLy uPdaTe......... 

           Whuttt is up y'all!! It has been a good week! I must thank all of you who sent me a birthday wish the day of, and the day before! You really did make my day!! I'm very grateful for all of you!! Also all of you that sent me packages! Goodness made me so happy!! Tuesday or the day of my birthday was lots of fun! Nothing too crazy happened! We went to lunch with Elder Bravo and his companion Elder Perkins because it was Bravos birthday as well!! We then went and visited some people! We didn't have a dinner or anything. But it was still a pretty good day! It was funny because honestly it doesn't, or it didn't, feel like my birthday! Haha but I still had a good day! I don't feel 19 yet, matter of fact I still feel 12.... LoL

          On Thursday I went on exchanges with Elder Bravo! That was lots of fun! He and his companion work in the YSA wards. Which is the young single adults between 18-30. So that was solo fun! We taught and met some really awesome people! We had breakfast that morning prepared by a couple of college students who work for Disney, they are chefs in one of the really nice restaurants in Disney world. It was soooo good, they made breakfast sandwiches! Freaking awesome! Then later on we went to Chilis! That was pretty good! Elder Bravo and I had a lot of fun! He's a good missionary! There was also a awesome thunderstorm. I love thunderstorms! There were a couple this week! Like almost one every day! We have a cool weather app, so I love watching the weather patterns! I guess during the summer it rains everyday like clockwork! It just gets so hot, and since the ocean is right there, storms just appear everyday! But any who! I had a good birthday!

            The rest of the week wasn't to eventful. On Wednesday we had district meeting! That was lots of fun! I gave another training on extending commitments. Which I was very grateful for the opportunity to give! I learned a lot! And the zone leaders said it was a good training! That's good! Also all of the missionaries in our little area have been playing this game called what are the odds? Basically one missionary asks the other what are the odds that you.... And challenges him to do something! The other missionary says the odds are 1 out of 5. Then on the count of three both missionaries say a number between 1 and 5. If they say the same number, then the missionary who was challenged has to do it. If they guess the wrong number then nothing happens. Well I got challenged to drink two tablespoons of hot sauce. Well I lost. So on Wednesday after district meeting I had to drink some..... Elder Radigan, the man who challenged me to do it, got the hottest sauce at this burrito place.... Any ways it was made with some super hottttttt peppers. Like goodness! It claimed to have been made with the hottest pepper in the world.... I died. Holy cow my mouth was on fire! The stuff smelt hot. Gooodddddnnnnnessss hahaha I'll send some pics soon.

           Our baptism for Saturday was canceled. We are actually thinking we are gonna have to drop her. We don't know what happened, but she just doesn't feel like getting baptized. She knows that the Book of Mormon is true, and that the church is true. She just doesn't want to get baptized. It's really sad, and me and Elder Hamp are just confused. We honestly don't know where to go! She's been going to another church, but she hasn't gone in a while. That's probably it. But we just don't know what to do. It sucks. oh well!!

            Well Sunday was a good day!! Guess whattttt????????????? I gave a freaking talk! Hahahahaha how about that! The first talk I've given in my mission! I had to talk about prophets.  Holy guacamole was I nervous! Hahahah it's pretty nerve racking to speak. Because well, it just is! I was notified about two days prior. So I did my best to prepare! I was literally almost shaking before hand. I was praying so hard that the Lord would send his spirit to "give me utterance" as the scriptures say! I just chose to have faith in the Lord! Literally taking a leap of faith. Well it worked!! I spoke for 15 minutes, and I really don't remember a thing that I said. I probably couldn't do it again either! It was absolutely nuts! Like goodness! Everyone said it was really well done! And the member of the bishopric who asked me to speak thanked me for it, and said it was very well done! Hahahahaha WHAT A RELIEF!!!!!!!!!! You see the Lord does answer prayers! 

            It's been a good week over all, this was the last week of the transfer! On Saturday we got a call from the zone leaders. And well both of us are staying!! Yay!! One more transfer with Elder Hamp!! I'm freaking excited!! We had a great talk on Sunday. We are really kinda bonding! So that's pretty awesome! Hahaha well I'm very very thankful for all of you who have emailed me and written me!! It means so much! Every letter, and email truly helps me get through those tough days. I'm gonna be doing my best to write you all!! Thank you so much!! I hope you all have an amazing week!! I'll keep praying for you all!!

             Op! Almost forgot to mention, that on my birthday Elder Hamp gave me the funniest present! Well first he gave me this book he doesn't read called "the little missionaries book of answers" basically whenever someone reads Anti-Mormon material that book has an answer for it! I love it! But he had these popper things too. Yano those ones with the string, and you pull it and it pops and confetti flies everywhere! Hahah Well he had like 20 of those things for some reason! And he popped one every hour of the day on my bday! Hahahahaha every time it scared the crap outta me! Hahaha it was pretty freaking hilarious!!! Any who! That's all have a good week!! 

Elder Crismon

Photos sent on 4/13/15

 Carter and one of his favorite missionary friends Elder Ashworth

 Carter on an Elephant! Hahaha!

 Carter with the Ford family that he helped convert

 Pirate's island... looks like fun!

 He said this was a picture of a "cool road we found". The trees are pretty!

 Carter's new companion Elder Hamp

 Elder Ashworth being silly

Cater & his companion being silly in the car! :) Not sure what kind of crazy filter is going on there! Hahaha!

Weekly Update 4/13/15

An except from an email to Andee:

Thank you for the happy birthday wish! I can't believe it's already April! Like it's already half way through April! Holy cow!! And I'm 19, and on a mission! I'm almost half way done with the thing!! Time is really flying by!! It's so funny, almost everyday I have those moments when I look at myself in the mirror, or something and say "Holy crap I'm actually a missionary" every missionary has those moments! It's crazy because our whole lives everyone always tells us "you need to serve!" And in primary we sing songs about it! At home whenever we saw missionaries we were like"WHATS UP" hahaha It's just very surreal. I just can't believe I'm doing it sometimes!

Carter's weekly Update:

 

Weekly updateeeeeeee

            So this week has been crazy. Lots of fun different things happened! The first thing that really comes to mind is that on Wednesday we had exchanges! I went with Elder Perkins! He's a great guy! I learned a good amount from him! Like how to plan in the mornings! We had lots of fun! We had some great lessons too! Met some really nice people. We also had district meeting that day! I gave a spiritual thought! Apparently it was pretty good! I'm grateful for that! Hahaha It was a great day though! 

             So pretty crazy. We met a man named Leon, he is a great guy! He has a beautiful family as well! He has a wife and three kids! The only thing is that one of his daughters who is 6, has a brain tumor. It's really really sad, the doctors only gave her two weeks to live. This is as of Wednesday 4/9/15. We ended up talking to him and his wife. We had a good talk. It was very sad. The spirit was strong though! You could feel the love of Heavenly Father! We also gave her a priesthood blessing! I'm gonna ask all who are home to pray for their daughter! Her name is Leonia. She's a very sweet girl!  It was a special lesson! 

             So crazy things that have happened. Well nothing to crazy! But we went through the ghetto this week! It's such a crazy place! There is a very weird feeling as you drive through! We drove through late on Friday night. It was interesting. There are people running around, doing all manner of suspicious things.... Hahaha There was this guy walking around and he was sooooo high it wasn't even funny! While we drove by him, he gave us that look! We call it the "1,000 yard stare" hahaha He looked at us like we were buffalo! Hahaha It was sooooooo funny!! Hahaha it was cra cra! I love this area! It's a great area. 

              So out here in the mission we ride bikes...... a lot. In our area we ride quite a bit! Just because we like to save miles! We only get a certain amount of miles per month! Anyways so the other day I was biking. We do this thing where we hop curbs. Just instead of riding in the street! Haha because that's scary! Hahaha Anyways! So I just started hoping curbs, and I'm getting better at it, or at least I thought.... So I go to hop this curb, and I get over it! It's a tall curb! But the back tire hasn't cleared it yet! I totally popped my back tire... Hahaha it was soooo funny! I think Gods really trying to tell me to lose some weight! Hahaha I LOLed for a little while! The bike is all fixed now! But it was a funny story!! 

              So it's been a good week! I'm grateful for that! One cool thing is on Saturday night there was a huge thunderstorm! It was crazy! The first big one of the year! It was so cool to watch! It rained pretty hard! I was just grateful that I was inside, not outside riding a bike! But I love the thunder! It's so cool. As it rolls across the sky, it's just the sound of raw power! So that was fun, to sit on our patio, and listen in! 

                Well Sunday freaking sucked! So we had a good time at church, and a really good dinner at the Gastons! She makes really good spaghetti!! But after that is when it started to suck! We had all of our lessons fall through, all of them. We had five planned. Then Julianna who is supposed to get baptized this coming Saturday told us that she didn't want too. Man that was a punch to the gut! I imagine that's what it's like when your girlfriend breaks up with you. I don't know what that's like, because I've never had a girlfriend, but I'm pretty sure that's what it's like. It seriously sucks. But we'll see what we can do! There is still a small possibility of her getting baptized this Saturday. But we'll see! Anyways that was my Sunday, it was poop. Hahaha But I received a couple emails that night I got to read! So that was great! Hahaha

             Anyways it's was a very crazy week! Lots of ups and downs. The say the mission is the best two years! And it is, but it's also the toughest two years. That's the truth. The Lords molding me into who he needs me to be! But that's not always fun! I love it out here! I hope you all are doing well! I'd love to hear from yah! I love you All! Have a great week!!

Love, Elder Crismon.

Weekly Update 4/6/15

Da weekly update..........

               Thus far this week has been really good! We've had a lot of fun! We've also had our downs as well!! So on Tuesday of this week we had interviews with President Berry. I love interviews because we just get to sit down and chat with president on our own. We can ask him questions and just get to know him and laugh! Haha Any ways so this interview was good! We talked about iPads, and ways to stay safe from temptation! It was cool! Also we set a goal of July 1st for weighing 250 pounds! It's official ladies and gentlemen Elder Crismon is gonna get skinny! I know I've been saying that for a while now, but I think I'm serious this time! Haha I am serious this time! So watch out ladies, cause I'm finally gonna be skinny!! Hahaha But it was a good interview! Me and Elder Hamp both felt really good coming out of it! 

            So before that though on Monday we had dinner with a member. It was so Fun! They are the Howse family! We went down there and had some good ham and stuff! But it was hilarious! They have three kids, their ages go as follows, like 9,6,2 or something like that! Well the youngest is wanting to get potty trained. So at one point during the dinner while Bro Howse is preparing dessert, she takes off her diaper with poop in it, and the poop goes all over he floor! Hahahahaha nah it was sooooo funny! At first I thought it was an avocado! Hahah But it was poop! It was probably one of the funniest stories of my mission thus far! Hahaha classic! 

            So this week we've worked really hard. Not a ton of success. But we worked hard. We had interviews, ZTM (Zone Training Meeting), and general conference this week. So that makes it really hard to work. At ZTM though I gave a training on adjusting to missionary life! Which is this book that they give us at the start of our missions! It honestly helps so much! I love it! But I likened the book to protein powder, because it's another "supplement" that the Lord has given us to become better missionaries! It was a great training, and it was funny because everyone already knows I'm a tool! Haha One of the Zone leaders Elder Radigan said it was one of the best adjusting to missionary life trainings he's seen. So I guess that's good!! 

             So this week is general conference, we have to go to our church to watch it! But you see every month we get an allotment of miles we can use in the car. The church we go to is forever away. So instead of wasting tons of miles, we asked President Berry if we could have a sleep over with the zone leaders! And HE SAID YES!!!!!!!!!! I'm soooo pumped I love our zone leaders Elders Radigan and Ashworth. It's gonna be a party!! I'll take plenty of pictures!! 

             Well the sleep over was a party! We had way to much fun! I only took a couple of pics, I know I suck. But oh well what do yah do! Haha General conference was AMAZING! I loved it! My favorite talk was either the one by Jeffery R Holland, or the one by President Monson in the priesthood session! They were both amazing and one of my favorite parts is that it landed on the day of Easter itself! It made it that much more amazing! I learned one important fact today! That out of all the holidays Easter is the most important, and that the atonement of Jesus Christ about two millennia ago was the single most important thing to happen in the history of mankind. I mean I knew this, but they really hammered it home this weekend! I love this church, and being a missionary! I know it's true with all the energy of my soul! Another thing this general conference made me excited for was to be a Dad! There was some truly amazing talks given in the subject! Made me miss my Daddio! Shout out to him! If I can be half the Dad he was to me, then I'll be a great Father. 

             It was a good week with lots of ups and downs, with the culminating event being general conference, I'm so grateful for modern day prophets and apostles! They gave me that spiritual boost I needed to continue doing what I'm doing! Shout out to Carter Miller! Your the man! Thank you so much for writing me every two weeks, it really means the world! I'll be writing back real soon! Also Mommy I thank you for your small notes that you keep sending me! They really do make me happy! Also shout out to Rachel Jenson for writing me! She's da best!! haha Any ways that's enough of that crap! Y'all have a good week now! Love yah!!!