November 29, 2016 -- A "Stuffed" Week

This week was crazy busy. I guess you could say it was a "stuffed" week. The biggest news is that Elder Rasband is getting transferred to Shenectady, which is right by were I started out in my mission!!  We both thought I was going to be leaving Elmira because I've been here the longest, but I guess not.  I'm going to be training another new missionary and I'm PUMPED!!  Training back to back is going to be awesome!  I'm really going to miss Elder Rasband though. We've become pretty good buds in the past 12 weeks and I'm going to miss all his jokes.  Some of the other big things that have happened are a Zone Training Meeting and a Thanksgiving of course!

Elder Rasband and I have been teaching this guy named Neko.  He's about the same age as us and is super cool. We've been teaching him awhile now and he's been having a problem that a lot of upstate New Yorkers have.... they don't keep their commitments.  Neko has the best intentions but he has a lot of negative outside forces acting on him.  Sometimes I feel like we missionaries are the only good force acting in his life.  Anyway we got real with him in one of our lessons this past week and once again committed him to read in the Book of Mormon. We came back the next day and he had read the first 100 pages.  Elder Rasband and I were stoked!  Later that week, Neko invited us over for a Thanksgiving lunch with his family.  It was great and definitely tasty. There's a picture of us with Neko attached.

Thanksgiving was fun. We played in the turkey bowl with the ward and yes, my team won.  Elder Rasband and I combined our baking skills and made some chocolate chip cookies for our investigators . For dinner, we went to a member's house. Sister Barnes makes some of the best home made rolls I have ever tasted... sorry Mom.  Overall it was a good Thanksgiving.

Some people were baptized in the Elmira ward this past week and somehow I was roped into singing a solo for it. The song was called "Ancient Words".  It reminded me of when I got baptized and, instead of having all the cousins come together to sing a song, my mom thought it would be a good idea to have me do a solo. That's a nerve racking thing for an 8 year old to do. I did it and am still traumatized from it to this day... Just kidding but I still remember it.  Anyway it went well and I was happy to help contribute to making it someone's special day.

The sky is blue, the Church is true, and life is good.

 

Love, Elder Carlile

 

Winter Has Arrived
 

Thanksgiving With Neko