Week Three of the MTC!- it rhymes!

hey guys, its day 22 here im pretty sure and things are still going
great, we were really lucky and had ANOTHER apostle come this week, I
think theyre all in town because of general conference. M Russell
Ballard came and spoke to us just last night about how to be a
successful missionary, goal setting, how to prepare ourselves, and how
to let your mission carry you into success later in life. It was a
great talk, I especially liked a part at the end where he said that
every morning he wakes up to his alarm clock and says, hmm... im still
here... (He's 86) so I guess that means I better get up and do all I
can today to help build the lord's kingdom, and i feel like i should
apply that attitude to myself especially when im out here. Something
else I think you guys are going to find exciting is that I'll be
singing in the priesthood session of general conference! the elders in
the choir were invited to sing this year and we had to fill out a
survey and I got the letter yesterday saying that i made it, so thats
pretty awesome, hopefully they get a good shot of me. Ive pretty fully
adjusted to life here, it wasnt too horribly difficult, I feel like
the time is going by fast but being at home feels so long ago at the
same time its a little weird. During gym time me and my district have
started playing 4 square, we decided to try it just messing around but
somehow it got really competitive, really fast. so we've begun to take
dominion over the court. It was an elders birthday here the other day,
he plays tennis and is really cool, he got a tie with a piano on it,
that actually plays piano, I already have food sufficient to last me
through a winter or two so if you were thinking of something to
send... idk im just throwing ideas out there. Also something cool was
that we met someone who lives in suriname! he was here in Utah and our
teacher got him to stop by, we were supposed to teach him a lesson,
but instead he just sat us down and talked about life and what we're
going to find in Suriname, hahah he was so laidback and funny and when
my teacher found out we didnt even teach a lesson he wasnt surprised
and called him a "free spirit" hahah i hope everyone is like that
because he was funny and i loved talking to him, from what he
described suriname sounds like an awesome place. I hope everyone at
home is continuing to do well, everyone is obsessed with byu or utah scores
here, anyways i miss and love you all hope to hear from you again
soon!

(So, we'd LOVE to know what that survey asked that got him into the Conference choir, 

but we may need to keep wondering!  4 square? Really?!! Somehow we aren't surprised!) 

hey! so this week was pretty eventful, we had an apostle speak last night, it was Richard. G Scott. We felt really lucky to catch him, all the dutch people before us never got one despite how long they were in here for. So I thought that was pretty cool. He talked about prayer and communication with God, and how God answers prayers and sometimes doesnt answer prayers depending on whats best for us and in accordance with his will. It was a really cool and interesting talk that really made me think about what sincere prayer is. Our district of 5 is the favorite in the zone and our branch presidency loves us. The other dutch speaking missionaries just left so we're already the oldest dutch speakers at the MTC, a new group going to the netherlands comes in today so we're pretty excited to get some new people. I havnt broken the record yet but probably next week hahah, in other news our pretend investigator we were teaching just turned out to be our new teacher at the MTC! they made it seem like he was a volunteer pretending to be an investigator and then one day during class he just walked in and announced he was actually our teacher, hahah it was pretty funny, his name is brother norton and he's the only dutch teacher who's been to suriname. He's awesome and is one of the best teachers i've ever had. Speaking dutch has gotten a lot better for me. A couple days ago we had a water fight in our residency, ill send you a picture or two once I bring my camera down to the email place later today, it was pretty sweet. And since it was p-day eve last night we built a blanket fort with our mattresses and sheets (also epic) so that was fun too. Im still having a great time and have definitely learned a lot. My companions are awesome and we do a great job of helping each other out. I love hearing about whats happening at home so keep me updated with that too! Love you guys!

So apparently, something was wrong with Elder Carpenter's camera, and as I was panicking, he emailed back and said he thinks he fixed it.  We'll see. 

First Pday email!!!

Our first email from Elder Carpenter was a short couple of lines saying, "I'm alive and well"  so this is the first 'real' one.
 
Things at the MTC have been really great so far, I really like my companions so far and the other two elders in my district are great too. The other dutch speaking missionaries have been super cool and we hang out with them a lot. The schedule is hard for me because I have a hard time paying attention to anything for very long but I'm surviving. The language is coming well so far I think I'm learning it really fast which I'm very grateful for. I sent a letter home to marley and jesse and everyone else let me know if they got it!

We got these really cool water bottles when we got here too that filter water. I wanted to use it throughout the day so I put Lemonade and Sprite in one, when I drank it through the filter I figured it would be filtered, but still sprite and lemonade, I drank through the straw and it was pure water, hahah I was freaking out, at least I'll feel safer drinking the water though. That's awesome seattle won, let me know who wins the Us Open! I'm pulling for federer.

Also on Sunday we had a general authority come for our devotional, his name was Elder Satiti from Kenya, it was a pretty good talk but we were tired, one of my companions fell asleep and started to snore really loud, hahahah we were laughing the entire time, I have a picture of it I'll have to try and send you, I think they have card readers you have to buy to put them on here. They have tons of devotionals and testimony meetings which I can find myself bored in but sometimes there are things that really speak to me I find interesting. The MTC is a really cool place where everyone is super nice and always in a good mood. I've enjoyed my first week a lot so far, in just another week we're going to be the oldest when the other dutch leave so I'm looking forward to helping other missionaries out like the ones before helped us. This is our first P-day and its super nice to have a break. Missionaries make a huge deal out of it. Yesterday was P-day eve and we even had a poem reading for it. It was a little weird but extremely funny. Anyways I hope all is well and that things are continuing to go well for you guys! I'll keep you updated on the latest, Love you guys!
 
I asked him who his companions were, and if the other Dutch speaking Elders got their visas.  I also asked if he could figure out how to download pictures from his camera.
 
I'm the only one not from Utah, there are 5 in my district, my companions are cooper and dibb, the other two are bowen and james, they're all super great guys! And I don't know exactly but the other elders know how so they'll show me next week. and yeah they did get their visas