July 16,2014

Hey Family,

     It sounds like everyone had some fun this week, except for you Dad but at least you'll get a day off this week. Nothing really happened this week but I will tell you about it anyway. Last P-day we went outside to play football but some Scottish kids were playing on our field but they let us play with them. By the way Jake I'm not that bad at soccer but I still got schooled by 12 year-old Scottish kids ha ha. Later that night we had a devotional with Elder Donaldson who is an area 70. He talked about prayer, and my prayers have definitely gotten better since he came. Nothing else happened so I guess I will tell you what a typical Preston MTC day is like.

 I wake up and go on a run at 6am with Elder Albrecht (not my comp, but we go on exercise splits) then I eat some breakfast at 7am.  It is usually some yogurt. After breakfast we have personal study for an hour then we have German class. In German class we usually learn German grammar which is way different than English grammar. then we have comp study/ teach investigators. The investigators are our teachers but the roles they play are people who they taught on their missions so I guess its pretty accurate of what happens. All of our lessons are in German so sometimes we teach false doctrine on accident. One time an investigator asked if Joseph smith translated the Book of Mormon by Magi (magic) and my comp said "Ja" but I cant blame him because I didn't fix the problem because I didn't know what was going on.

 Another time we had an investigator ask if we believe in reincarnation. In German the words for "reincarnation" and "born-again" only have one letter change so the words sound almost the same so we also told that investigator "Ja". At least the "investigators" here already have a firm testimony of the gospel or else we would be leading them astray haha. Its a good thing I'm still in the MTC. After that we eat lunch. Then we have language study where we learn more vocab and practice grammar. Then we do this program to learn even more German. Then its teaching more lessons, planning and bed by 10:30. So basically I do German for 8 hours a day but I love it. I love you guys and I will leave with my testimony auf Deutsch:

Ich weiß, dass die Kirche wahr ist.Ich weiß, dass Jesus Christus für mein Sünde sühnen.Ich weiß, dass Gott und Jesus Christus leben. Ich weiß, dass Joseph Smith ein Prophet war. Ich weiß, dass das Evangelium Jesu Christi wahr ist. Ich bezeuge, dass das Buch Mormon wahr ist. Im Namen Jesu Christi, Amen. 

Elder Carr

July 9, 2014

Hey family,

     It was a pretty cool week this week! Friday was the 4th of July and I celebrated it in England haha. We drew all over the white board the night before and wrote USA in red, white and blue. We also drew a flag in the corner. Our daily motto was: "1776 and 1812! #TheLittleColoniesThatCould". We also had fireworks on the board with references to 1Nephi 13:17-19 and article of faith 10. Our teacher walked in and we sang the National Anthem and he got so peeved. It was so funny. Our teacher is from northern England BTW.

 I had my first fast Sunday on my mission so I reached another milestone. We have a new teacher that just got back from climbing Mt Kilimanjaro (or however it is spelled). He served in my mission with Kyle Baird. His name is Bruder Field. He spent most of his time in Switzerland and he told us that Switzerland allows ten Visas for American Missionaries so I hope I will snag one of those.

 We are learning more and more German everyday and we are transitioning from Vocab to grammar... I hate it!  I know all the words I want to say but I don't know what articles to use, what kind of verb I am using or what the endings on the verbs and adjectives are suppose to be. I was really discouraged, but we watched a talk on Sunday from a MTC devotional Richard G Scott gave and he promised that as long as we studied diligently and have faith we will be blessed with gift of tongues and excel in the language. I am kind of itching to get out in the field and leave the MTC but I know that I still have a lot to learn and that I am also learning patience at the same time.

 I love you!

-Elder Carr

My "British" 4th of July

The house on the left has been washed- not so the one on the right- Don't take deep breaths in England!

Dear Family,

It sounds like you have had an eventful week. So the first highlight of the week was the fact that I ate fish and chips! Number two, was that I made my first tie trade, and I got the better end of the deal haha. 

So I have kind of a funny story for this week: when we pray in German and want to say "we thank thee" we say "wir danken dir" and this one elder in my district drew a fat little giraffe thing that he named a "Virdonkin Deer" it was weird. At the end of the day I was saying the prayer and when I said "wir danken dir" I started busting up laughing because all I could think about was the "Virdonkin Deer". Now everyone laughs when we hear "wir Danken dir" so now we say "wir sind Dankbar" instead which means "we are thankful" so we won't laugh. That may be a dumb story but it was really funny in the moment.

 We went on a church history tour of Preston and it was awesome. We went to the Preston market square where Orson Hyde and Heber C Kimball would preach back in 1837. They baptized hundreds from the market square. This was also the place where Gordon B Hinckley preached the first time on his mission. Preston was his first area. It went way differently for President Hinckley. Instead of baptizing thousands, he was really discouraged by his first experience.

 After the market square we went to the place where president Hinckley lived when he got the famous letter from his dad that said ''...forget yourself and go to work.'' Our last stop was a little town called Downham. Heber C Kimball and Joseph Fielding went to this town and baptized 110 people in their first 5 days there. After about a year in Downham, Heber was ready to go back to the States and left the mission in the charge of Joseph Fielding. As he left he took his hat off because he knew that he was on sacred ground. As he walked through the town all of the townspeople came out of their houses with tears in their eyes to bid him farewell. All of the children in the town came out and held his hands and lead him to the church as a sign of respect. When Heber related this experience to Joseph Smith, the prophet said that an ancient prophet blessed that valley and Heber bringing the gospel to the valley was a fulfillment of that prophecy. I love modern revelation. Today was easily the most spiritual day I have had at the MTC. I love you all!

Leibe,

My district- notice the awkward gap between elders and sisters- yep no inappropriate relationships happenin' here

The market square where Heber C Kimball and Joseph Fielding preached

The Downham Valley

The "Virdonkin Deer"

 Elder Carr