Thanksgiving afar

I am doing great. We are actually getting a few more investigators coming up, but I don't know much more about them. My comps and I gave talkks in church last Sunday. They were all on missionary work...go figure. Mine specifically was on how to have a gospel sharing home. I think that the members might actually start getting us a little more referals. THey really seemed to like the talks that we gave so I hope they will actually do something with what we talked about. We are also starting to go around to members houses and give them the lessons so that they know a little more about what we do and will be able to know the basics of the gospel. I think that if you can understand the basics really well then it will be a lot easier to talk to people and answer their questions. I think that that is all we need to know. I had a hard time with that when people would ask me deep docrine questions that they found out from some random source. All they need to know is if Joseph Smith was a true prophet and if the bookj of Mormon is true. If they know that then everthing else doesn't even matter. Too true. So, about Thanksgiving: We went to a members house. It was alright. They didn't really do anything like play games. We just went over there ate and talked a little and then left. Some of it was actually a little anoying. Their dad was over there also and once he found out I was from TN he wouldn't be quiet about how much he hated TN and how horibble of a state it was. It was getting on my nerves but since I am a missionary I had to keep my smile. Even my comps said it was getting annoying. But other than that it was pretty good. The food was pretty tasty. We did get to play in the Turkey Bowl too. Since we played they had to make it flag football but it was still really fun. It was so slick because it frosted the night before and so the field was wet when the sun came up. Fun stuff. Only one guy got hurt: he tore his achileas tenden( probably wrong spelling). It doesn't rain year round here but they say that it rains most of the winter,so that should be fun. I hope everything is going good back home. The work here is great.

Pics of Elder Reed

Here is Reed pointing where his mission is and being crazy with his MTC district!

Elder Reed looking spiffy with his companion Elder Greene. The landscape is a picture of Silverton area, this first place to have the pleasure of Reed serving them.

A Mission Story

That is so cool to have a blog just for me. Anyway, "bigciz" is one of the nicknames that I got in the MTC. I thought it was pretty cool so that is why I have it as my email. It is really great to know that my cousins are still looking in on me every once in a while.
Okay, so here is a crazy story. One of our recent converts, MikeAsbell, that we are teaching works at a warehouse where they load andunload big steel pipes. Well, one of his really good friends that workswith him kept telling the superviser that one of the pipes where it is,is a really bad saftey hazard and it might fall. Well, a couple ofdays ago that really big steel pipe hit Mike's friend in the head. Theresult was Mike's friend in the hospital and he was basically braindead. They were going to pull the plug the next day. That night weprayed for him and put his name on the prayer role in the temple. Nowhe is showing signs of reviving. He responds to pain, he is blinkingand doing other things. The doctors call it nothing short of a miracle.Now, if that does not strengthen your testimony then I don't know whatwill. I know that Heavenly Father has plans for that guy and that iswhy he is still on this earth. I hope that everyone is doing great back home. Oh, and if you needsuggestions on studying, I suggest reading from Preach My Gospel as afamily. That is the best thing (next to reading the Book of Mormon) afamily can do to prepare kids to go on a mission and stengthen theirtestimony. This is the true church and their is nothing anyone can dothat will keep the work from moving forward in these last days. Thanksfor all of ya'lls support and keep up the good work.

Pics to come

Pictures to come soon!
So, for what is going on here. We just had transfers today. I amstill in Silverton, but Elder Greene got transfered. I now have two newcompanions. Yeah, TWO! It will be really weird, but we will see. Ihope we don't scare the ward here. The people here are kind of likethat because they have not had young elders here for like two years.Crazy. Anyway, the work is moving along fine. We still have the sameinvestigators. Let's see how they take having three Elders coming over. Well, their is not much else to report here today. Keep preparingthe young men to go an their mission. THat is really important. Weneed more and stonger missionaries out here in these days.

Elder Reed At Work

Here is how Reed is settling in up in Oregon and taking the Lord's work forward.

Right now we live in an apartment that kind of looks like a house.There are 3 different apts. in it (one downstairs and 2 up stairs). We live in the one down stairs. Before we were living in a tiny room aboveone of the members garages. It was way smaller than the one atgrandmommy's house. That was an interesting experience. WE had funthough. 7) My clothes are all working out great. My shoes still look good andare broken in now. I am actually wearing that suit that we got atdillards. It doesn't look too bad if I just make sure I wear a longsleeve Shirt under it. Oh, I bought another tie too. It is a polyestertie and they say that they are the best ones to wear in the rain becauseyou basically can't mess them up. THe coat that you got me at Mr. Mac'sworks really well too. I get to use it plenty. Well, If you ever want to know something that I don't say just ask. Oh, I was wondering too if you could give me the Ginn's address. Iwant to write a letter to John and tell him how I'm doing. The work is still giong great. We picked up another investigatornamed Jason Harpole. His wife is a member and she really helps out insupporting him. He is already reading and praying about the book ofmormon and praying about It and Joseph Smith. It is awsome. We arestill teaching the Vasquez family, but his job is really getting in theway; and we also just found out that he is here illegally and so thatdoesn't help out any on getting him another job. I am doing good. Transfers are next thursday, but I would besurprised if I were transfered. Thank you for all of the support and Iwill talk to ya'll later. Happy Halloween!!!!

He's Alive!

Reed's not so great with time management as you probably know, so it took him almost the whole time (3 weeks) in the MTC to write his family. We got a letter he wrote in the MTC, and his companion praised him and his willingness to serve and his enthusiasm. Reed never found time in the MTC to set up his email so we recieved his first email after he arrived in Portland. Here is his even filled email. By the way, he can only email to his family, but can receive all emails. Here is his address: bigciz@myldsmail.net (bigciz is the nickname he earned in the MTC...go figure, that's what happens when you get a bunch of 19 year olds together...who knows what it means?!) I started to correct his spelling, but then it wouldn't be as original.

Hi family,
Sorry it took so long for me to get an email sent. I tried three times yesterday, but I could not figure out the password that I needed to set up my email account. This is my account if you ever want to write back. It is bigciz because that was the nickname they gave me in the MTC. So, the rule is that I can only email my family, but anyone can email me. Okay, so once we got here on wed. we went strait to the Portland temple. It is one of the most beautiful temples I've seen. We got to go into the attrium. That was pretty cool. Then we went to the mission office, were introduced, and ate lunch. After lunch we had interviews with President Gessel and then we got together with older missionaries and went proselyting. It was pretty fun. The first door Elder Wood (that was the name of the elder I went with) made me do, I got so nervous. I was tripping over my words and I don't know if the lady accually knew what we were doing. Not at least until Elder Wood took over. After knocking doors we went to the Mission home and ate dinner. It was really good. After dinner we had a testimony meeting. Everyone here is so ready to preach the gospel. After the testimony meeting is when we all got excited: Pres. Gessel and the assistance went into another room to determine who would be our trainer and where we would be going. That is when I found out that I would be going to Siverton Ward in the Keizer Zone. My trainer is Elder Greene. You might get a picture of us in the mail. I think they like to do that. Anyways, we went to bed then. The next day would be transfer meeting day. We got up early to go to the meeting and meet our trainer. During the meeting all of the greenies were intruduced. Once the meeting was over, we loaded up our bags and it was off to Silverton. It is pretty much as far as you can go south in our mission boundaries. Once we got here, we got our stuff into the apartment that we will be temperarally staying. Right now our apartment is being fixed because there was a fire in it. When we got our stuff out, we went to the library, where I am now and tried to do email. I could not figure out the password to set up my email account. Since we could not get in touch with the mission office we went shopping. That night we ate dinner at the house of the people that own the apartment we are staying at. Then we went to meet the bishop of the ward. He seems like a nice enough guy. Then we went to bed. This morning we woke up had comp. and personal study and now we are here. Normally we would not do email today, but Elder Greene said that it wold be okay since you are expecting to here from me. Well I think that I am getting short on time and I don't want to loose this email so I will get going now. I hope this email is not to confusing. I didn't really get a chance to read back through it. Just letting you know that I am doing well and I know that the gospel is true. So, until next time....:)
-Elder Carter

On His Way to Serve - August 31, 2007

This is the day our little Reedo became Elder Carter. Here he is all dressed up and grinning ear to ear after being set apart as an Elder. The whole family got to attend. It was a tough day, though, as the Adversary tried to throw him as many obstacles as possible. Reed is ruining his plan you know;) The cleaners altered his expensive suit to fit a midget just to give a hint. Well, he made it and is happily in the mission field of Portland, Oregon.