Well, I just looked at the "attachments" button and thought of how I haven't 'attached' something in a long time. When will I ever use that button again? I don't know. Sending pictures through email is too slow.
Sorry for the random comment. :P
Hallo!!! Well, luckily I have the country code for USA. So I sure hope that's good enough. I'll buy a calling card just in case. They're cheap. Don't worry about a thing! God will set it up so that it works. I never trust all these stinkin' numbers. Why can't I just use the cell phone? Money crunchers.... grrrr.....
Well, I'm sending pictures home this week. They're full of pictures from Dali. I'll send another card home next week with pictures from the Christmas activity. Only a few from Tanzi so far. I focus on taking pictures of the area and with my companion on the last few days of the move call. Within the rules of course. Although I have taken a picture that was taken at !0:42 or so. I thought that was funny. The clock sitting in the background blaring at me that I should've been in
bed. Well, I tell that clock that it was the last day of the move call, I had permission from President, and I was packing. That's what happens when you go proselyting on Sunday. No time for packing at all till the night time, and then the next morning, IF there's time before you miss the train.
The mini move call we had recently sent home a bunch of missionaries and a few small changes. Got a new Zone Leader here, and some missionaries moved all over the place there, some just stayed put in Tanzi. That's fine with me. I'm expected to be here in Tanzi for awhile. Most senior companions are here for 4 or more move calls. If that's the case, when I leave here, I'll be in the summer of 2011 and going home in less than a year.
I've been out for 9 months now. Just passed the 9 month mark. Passed the 1/3 mark, and have 2 move calls left until my half-way mark. 2 and a half until my "one year left" mark, and 3 or 4 until I've been in Taiwan for a year. That'll be here before I know it. I've got 15 and a half months left before I'm headed home. Lol, it makes me happy to see that big of a number. I don't feel like leaving at all. Then again, I do.
That feeling comes when I'm at the mission home when missionaries are leaving for home. I might just want to avoid going there at move call from now on. I get pretty trunky, especially when our financial secretary Elder Greene puts Wedding Announcements from returned missionaries on the wall in the office. Ugh. He knows it annoys us.
The worst is that all the girls are gorgeous, and the guys are just "ok". So it flips us out when we see those pictures. Drives me crazy. Especially when I know half the people up there. Then hearing how FAST people go off and get married when they get home... ugh. A wedding planned in 7 weeks? Is that even possible?
Never mind. Back to my investigators. :P
Li Baba. He committed to quit smoking completely last night. His interview is this Saturday and baptism on the first of January. We had 9 other members besides us missionaries at his house last night (including his whole family). I had set up only 1. But another family came to support him, cause they somehow found out we were visiting them, and when we picked up our buddy to help us teach Li Baba, our buddy Fang Meng Xiang had two friends with him including a less active Zhang Sheng Cheng, and our very own Liu Wen Shen (who just passed his priesthood interview). So, EVERYONE knows that Li Baba is quitting. He's got a lot of pressure, but his desire is golden.
Daniel will be baptized at 4 in the afternoon on Saturday. He can't let his family know or they won't let him get baptized. I think that is super funny :P. So 4:00 is the only time. Then in a couple weeks, we plan on visiting his family. We'll see how that goes.
The twins were caught smoking on Saturday, confessed to my District leader in their interviews Saturday night, and came to church Sunday. Their mom and dad aren't interested in the church, but they say that if the twins want to come they need to come to learn and do good things, be serious about it. Not come to play. Lol, we'll be visiting them soon too. Also, the twins need permission. They're 17, so they need written permission, and we are doing our best to help them out with that. Please pray for them!!!
Our other investigators are coming along. But they all need prayers. I'm dying in prayer every night. It doesn't matter what I do, I'm there for an hour or more because I can't keep myself from falling asleep. Then I go to lay down and think about other things for awhile, but I never get to it, and I don't ever remember climbing into bed. Then it's 6:00 and it's freezing outside, and we still have to run.
Ugh. At least there's no snow. But I miss the snow.... Cold rain is horribly miserable, but it's still beautiful to me, just like I thought before. There's not any kind of weather I don't like. There are preferences, but yeah.
I will call Sunday morning at 7:00. Be prepared with questions you want answered so you can get them out of the way and we can just talk. An hour will go by WAY too fast. I remember thinking "ugh, still have 7 months until I get to call home" (this is when I just barely got to Taiwan). Yeah, well, 7 months disappeared.
I told a recently returned missionary (Li Baba's son) that I had 15 and a half months left and he waved at me and said "bu-bye!" I was like, "why? That's a long time!" And he told me--- "---bu-bye!" I guess time goes fast out here.
I love the work. It gets hard. It gets easy. But at the end of the day I'm always happy. That may have something to do with the fact that I can go sleep at that time and pig out on food, but really. I really am happy every night. And keeping almost every single one of my goals. I have a ton for the new year, and I'm in the process of prioritizing them and shrinking the list. I don't exactly have the longest time. :P
I love you all!!!
-Elder Carter
ps- talk to you on Sunday, then an awkward email, 'cause I won't know what to say.
"Hurrah for Israel!" (An Elder Byerism)
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