Transferred!

Hello!

I am no longer with Elder Pei. I cannot tell you how much I respect and admire that Elder. The way he shows his love for God and others is different, but cool. Almost exactly like Dad. I'm gonna miss our nightly conversations, and the unending amounts of laughter that escaped my curry-filled mouth. Elder Pei never stopped making me laugh, and I've never eaten so much food. BUT, I'm still losing weight. Love it!! My metabolism is bouncing back for a season. I'll see him soon though. I'm not too far away. By the way, this move call, I learned how to cook Elder Pei's curry. It's good. He says that that kind is REAL japanese curry. And Indian curry tastes more like Dad's. I'm confused now. Whatever. Elder Pei's curry is good. I cooked some and had enough for a whole week. YES, I ate curry at every meal (with vegetables) for an entire week, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Now I know that I can't get sick of curry. Thank heavens for that blessing. Plus the extra food money I had for not spending money eating out all week. That was nice. :D

I have moved. It's sad, it's sweet, I'm excited, and I'm homesick for Zhongming. It's a weird feeling. I LOVE those people and I miss them like I've never missed anyone ever before. This kind of homesick is worse than American homesick. But since I'm still in Taiwan, it's manageable. I have moved to Dali. I live in Wufeng, but our area is Dali. That is still in Taizhong. Just south-east of my old area. Literally. I just moved one area over. I'm still in my same zone, and my companion is whiter than I ever thought white people could get. And his hair is flaming red. And he's a Utah fan. Now I've had 2 die-hard Utah fan companions, and Dad will be proud to hear that I'm sticking to my true-blue heart and wearing my BYU shirts every night. Elder Durham. Amazing Elder, and a fantastic leader. He is district leader here in Dali, Wufeng, and Taiping. I'm in Elder Krantz's old district. And Elder Durham is Elder Krantz's best friend. Don't ask me why Heavenly Father has put me with two best friends who cheer for Utah. I'm NOT changing to a Utah fan. Yeah right. And I'm a BYU fan. Love ya Dad.

Heavenly Father is in everything I do. He is everywhere. I have never seen so many goals be achieved by my weak unable self, and I've never been so happy. Yes, I still have problems, yes, I still have problems, yes, I still have problems. But at least I know how to set goals, and at least I know that God exists. Now help me tell everyone else, cause if anything counts as good news, God existing definitely counts. I'm a little worried for my Chinese, but this move call will just help me get back to work on individual study. I can't speak English anymore, and if my letters or emails sound funny... well sorry. I can't help it now. But if I accidentally write a word that you don't understand, well-- sorry. You can tell me about it, but I may not be able to explain it in English. Plus, sometimes I may know that I am about to use a Chinese word, and try to do it in English, give up and leave it in Chinese. If that happens, I'm sorry, but that means it won't be until a few months of speaking English back home that I can tell you what it means.

Johnson and Johnson floss. "Reach". The longest you can find. That'll be good. The floss here isn't very good, and it's expensive. One thing of that "Reach" stuff can last a couple move calls or more. :) Plus, it can be found in almost any store in Utah. I would love some.

Life is good, and I have grown to love these people. Every day it just gets better. I'm sorry if my last email sounded frustrated, angry, or impatient. I wasn't very happy at that point. And that day was kinda tough. So I didn't get a letter out. Sorry. I may not get any out today either. I'm finding it might be hard for my entire mission to be a good letter writer. Sorry. But, Mom, Dad, Shelbs, and fam, I will definitely try to get it out to you as often as I can. I'll talk with Elder Durham and try to set up time to write, but Dali, apparently, has a lot of good things to do, so, for the most part, I will be saying everything through email, and a short, short letter every week or so to Mom. 'Cause I love y'all. And I'll keep trying to find time to write the others.  Don't think I've forgotten you, I'm just finding time is hard to find. Lol.

I would like to send my bike home at the end of my mission, but only because it's unbelievably cheap to do. $20 to slow boat it home (three months) and I don't really care if it gets destroyed, cause if it does I'll say, "ok, no worries, let's take a picture, maybe try to fix it, and then throw it away if it's no use". But if it arrives in one piece, I have a bike that may last me for a while. And it's my mission bike that says Jesus Christ and Missionary on the sides and front all in Chinese.. It doesn't get much better than that. But I won't send it home til my very last day. :D I'll have money to do so by then, so no worries.

I love all of you!!!

Shelby. Write me if you want. I will write you back when you write me. But please feel free to write me. I love getting letters from my little Sister. I would love to hear from you. I promise I'll try harder to get letters to you. I love you, and just keep being a good girl, and follow your heart. Heavenly Father is inside driving, so it's pretty easy to follow-- ;P In other words, Heavenly Father won't put bad thoughts in your heart, so follow your heart! God loves you. Knows you, and believes in you. God believes in YOU. Isn't that cool? That even God believes we can do it? Why are we always so afraid to be nice to ourselves? Why so hard on ourselves? When GOD believes in us? Shouldn't that knowledge give us enough strength to keep moving forward? But men are weak. That is our weakness. Pray for faith, my little sister. Pray for faith, and you'll find that one day-- you'll believe you can do it, too.

I love you all. Stay strong, keep it real, and do things right to seal the deal!

-Elder Carter

(From the editor: We were telling Elder Carter about all the young men in our ward that are driving now...kids he remembers as Deacons.)It was weird to hear about all the young men. I'm excited to see if anyone will follow me into Taizhong. Maybe I can train them! That would be fun. Caleb needs to stop driving. Or at least get his license and then take 10 years to practice on a simulator before he's allowed to drive around my house. I don't want him slamming into the two beautiful birthday and anniversary gift cars I gave my parents. (He is referring to the two cars we now own because he successfully totalled the two cars we owned before, and managed to time them on our anniversary and on my birthday, respectively) That would ruin the story. But keep trying Caleb, I promise you'll be a good driver some day...

I love Elder Pei!!! I miss him already.