DAY 286: September 12

Well hey everyone!

 

    This week might be a little bit of some "same old same old", cuz thats what if felt like. But, we have some cool people we are working with. The guy I told you about before, Cruz, is still progressing, slowly but surely, and I know he will do very well. We only had 1 person at church, a guy named Raul, who will hopefully get progressing soon, he is really cool. Today is Elder Terrys birthday, and we are going out to a place called Voodoo barbeque, then maybe going golfing. One of the elders we live with i s a visa-waiter for Brazil, and he just got his visa, and is leaving on wednesday, so we'll miss him. Sorry this is so short today, but I love hearing about china and from anyone and everyone else who would like to write me!

 

-Elder Cardon

 

P.S. New address! 1343 Jade Ave, Baton Rouge, LA, 70810

 

Pictures, Next Five

Pictures

Hey, I keep thinking and trying to remember to send pictures, but then I never do! So heres a few. I still havent taken one with my companion, which is weird, so I'll get one of those next week. Today, the english Elders left, because one got his Visa and is going to Brazil, and the other one they moved to another area. So now we have a nice spacious apaartment to ourselves!

 

1. Me with E. Woodings and Heredia

2. Me with one of my favorite members, Ponciano

3. So the "cool thing" to do is make covers for your planner. These are all covers that I made for me and other missionaries.

4. The burger I ate when we went out to lunch for elder terrys birthday. MMMMMM sooo good. I didnt do it all in one sitting, though.

5. Me attempting to fit said burger in my mouth. Didnt work.

6. LSU's mascot is the tiger. That's mike the tiger, just chillin in his cage. Wish we saw him eat a zebra or something.

7. Me and E. Freestone, he just got his visa and is on his way to Brazil!

8. Me and Elder Taylor. He's pretty cool.

9. The masterpiece I painted during the storm lockdown. Its called "psychadelic pipes" Dont ask for the deeper interpretation, im not sure that there is one.

10. Our room! The english Elders moved out, so we have two rooms, and two sets of bunkbeds to ourselves. So we combined them, and now we each have our ouwn giant bed. It is likely I will get hit in the head by the fan.

 

-Elder Cardon

 

P.S. Write me a letter! 1343 Jade ave, Baton Rouge, LA 70810

DAY 280: September 6

Well Hello everyone!! This last week has been quite exciting. It involves a new area, new companion, a hurricane, and a skateboard without wheels.

Well, it was sad to leave my old area, but I am excited to work hard here in South Baton Rouge. One cool thing about this area is that we have a car! Its kind of cool, but a little different. In my last area we could have done all kinds of work with a car, but being that this area is pretty big, its pretty necessary and we drive around quite a bit. It is really nice to not have to ride your bike to get groceries! My new companions name is Elder Terry. He is a pretty cool guy from Provo, and we like a lot of the same things. We live in an apartment with the english Elders, Elder Taylor and Elder Freestone, from Utah and Oregon, respectively, and they are both super cool as well, and its alot of fun. Elder Terry is into drawing and painting, and he has a bunch of paint supplies and has made some really cool paintings.

So this last weekend there was a tropical storm out in the gulf, which was reported to be moving inland, so president decided to go on the safe side and New orleans and surrounding areas were evacuated. Several missionaries stayed at the mission home, and at apartments of missionaries in Baton Rouge. So we hosted some "refugees" and had 8 of us in our cozy apartment. I kept everyone well fed with lots of home-cooked food, which they were grateful for. After a little while, president said our area as well was on storm lockdown, and that we were supposed to stay in. We were a little confused, because there was some rain, but not a whole lot of wind. But, we went in, and hung out with the other Elders, made some porkchops on the BBQ, I painted a masterpiece with Elder Terrys paints, we watched the testaments and many other church videos, and we had a good time. There was a couple breaks where we went out and worked a bit, to try to beat the cabin fever, and ended up still having a relatively productive weekend. Overall a pretty good weekend. I am a little bummed that 2 days after I leave New Orleans theres a storm and they get evacuated! Come on! Though the city apparently didnt take much damage, just plenty of flooding.

This last p-day we went to a skate shop, of which the owner is actually mormon, and he bought himself an early birthday present: a skateboard with rubber trucks. Its the deck of a normal skateboard, but has 2 pieces of heavy rubber instead of weels, shaped so that it feels like you really are on a skateboard, to practice doing tricks and stuff. We all messed around on it for a good bit yesterday, and my legs are actually a bit sore from doing it. I stll cant to anything cool, but, this will be an exciting new twist on our morning excercise!

We have some pretty cool investigators in this area as well. Theres a guy named Cruz, who is a super cool, really nice and really funny guy with lots of tatoos. We have found 2 neat families since I've been here, and this area definitely has alot of potential to have some miracles happen.

I love hearing from all of you, family, I was just thinking about how I have family on 3 continents right now, and yet we are connected both by simple e-mails and of course, by the loving ties of the gospel and our heavenly fathers love. Thats about it for the week, hope everyone is doing well. Write me letters!!

-Cam

DAY 273: August 30

Hey Mom! I'm afraid my email will be short too, y'all sent me so much stuff! I'm going to print most of it and read it later. I'm so glad your doing well! I actually know someone who knows someone whos in that ward- I'm assuming theres only one ward there. I dont remember her name, but shes around my age, and she knows somebody in this mission named Elder Zach Pope, she's from Utah. I might think of her name later.

Well, the big news is- I'm getting transferred! Elder Rawlings is staying here and training, and I'm going up to Baton Rouge. President Wall has changed the way we do transfers, now we just get a call that says, "youre staying, youre going" and then everybody comes to Baton Rouge, finds out where, then goes back to their new area. I can only guess where I'm going because president said I'm going "up" to see a "different part" of the mission, so I'm not sure where, but well see. I guess just send this weeks dear elder to the mission home address, 12025 Justice ave, Baton Rouge, LA, 70816

This week was pretty good, pretty average. We have worked hard with alot of people, but are having trouble getting alot of them progressing! This mission thing is tough. We do have a super cool guy named Guillermo, who is Garifuna, and he basically just needs to get married with his girlfriend who is a member and then he'll get baptized. They are a super cool couple, I'm really excited for them to be members. They said they plan on moving back to honduras in the next year or two, and Elder Rawlings and I already have plans to go visit them down there.

Well, I guess next week I'll have some exciting news of my new area and companion and everything, but for now, have a great week, and enjoy all the chinese adventures!

Love,

Elder Cardon

DAY 266: August 22

Hey Family! Where are you all? in CHINA?!?!?! WOW!

I hope everything is going well over there, and that you can all adjust to the time change and culture change! We had a pretty good week, and taught lots of people about the gospel! I still haven't got an email from anyone in China, I want to know what its like. Email me! Oh and you might want to call the mission office and let them know about the few extra digits on your phone number.

So let me tell you about one of our investigators, Jorge. He is a super cool guy. He is a little older, probably around 60, is from Cuba, and carries a gun with him just about always, possibly even at church yesterday. He met with missionaries over a year ago, but one thing or another happened and they stopped coming by. But since then he has read the entire book of Mormon, and LOVES it. He came to church yesterday and really liked it as well, and had some great questions and contributed well to the classes. The other day after we had a lesson with him, he asked us if we were busy, if we had somewhere to go, and we said we were just going to try a few people we had talked to in the area, and he said, "alright come with me". We walked around and he totally contacted people with us! He would see a guy out working on his car and say "hey, you need more peace in your life, these guys can help you find peace" and then we would take over from there. We went and knocked on the door of one of his friends, and totally taught a lesson right then and there, and Jorge bore a sweet testimony about the veracity of the Book of Mormon! I'm really excited for this guy, he could (will) be an awesome member.

So we went on exchanges last week, and I went with E. Southwick in his area, and we taught a guy who was a DJ. He said he was going to leave soon, so didn't have time, but I asked to see his setup, and he let us in. I saw his setup (it was pretty sweet) and played with it for a bit, but after feeling guilty for listening to worldly music that I miss so terribly, we sat down and had a short 10 min lesson. No time my foot, DJ 1ACO!

Alot of time, we go play basketball at the church, but last week we went and played Frisbee! it was pretty fun, we're planning on going again today.

Well, thats about all the news for this week, but, let me know about China ASAP!

Love,

Cam

DAY 259: August 15

Hey everyone,

Good luck with your China trip! It sounds so exciting! Wish I could go with. Can I? Its fun to hear about the adventures going on with everyone in the house. If Jason is looking for a place to live, why doesn't he just live at our house? It doesn't seem like you'll be living in it for awhile. :p And if Kya and Tosh really want, they can each have one thing from my Lego collection, or as many "things" as you deem necessary.

So a few exciting things from the week: Last night, we were on our way back, and there was totally an apartment building on fire. Its where the sisters live, but luckily there apartment was undamaged and they are fine. We have been having a few less run-ins with bible bashers and crazy guys, but we met probably one of the worst bible-bashers ever. "Worse" meaning he really had no idea what he was talking about. Some of them will pick some doctrinal point to go at that you might be able to have some discussion about, but this guy decided on probably the silliest thing ever to determine that we are in the wrong.

We stopped and talked to him on the street, and after talking for a little bit he said "You know I've studied your church, and I've figured out that you're in the wrong". So we asked what it was that he had heard that we are doing wrong. He asked us if we believed in the Virgin Mary, we explained of course we believed she was real, and God had a special role for her, but we dont pray to her or worship her, thats silly. He kept beating around the bush saying "you guys are in the wrong" and told us he had studied the bible more so he knows more than us, we said "you still havent told us anything were doing wrong..." He finally asks "do you have a band in your church?" we answered no, but explained about hymns and how we worship. So he decided to go at that. That was his whole basis of why we aren't the true church. He showed us some scripture in Hebrews about singing praises to God, and praising his name. We explained that through the Hymns, we do that. He was insistent that you had to have a guitar and drums and everything to praise the lord. So I asked him if that's how Christ and his apostles did it, Peter on guitar, James on drums, and John on bass? Any one? He than said that my companion said that we dont worship Christ, which he clearly never said. He said "no, you did", E. Rawlings said, "No, I didn't" and I said "No, he didn't" and that went on for a bit, and I decided this guy was too dumb to be worth talking to, so I just stood up and said lets go. We told him to have a great day, and he kept following us. I was walking a little ahead, and he was following my companion, and he said " Maybe we dont have a band, but does your church have a living prophet and twelve apostles? and a quorum of seventy?" the guy was silent for just a second, clearly feeling dumb, and came back with "well, Christ had twelve apostles, and you just said you only had 11!" We corrected him quickly. He then said "Did you know that Christ called a quorom of seventy?" and I said "Yeah, we have one too" and he laughed "After I mentioned it to you, all the sudden you have one!" I tell you, had there not been other people around on that street, that guy would have gotten a square punch to the face.

Well, writing that took a significant portion of my email time, so I'll probably have to wrap it up. But, I'll be sure to come up with something exciting for next week about "an average missionary day"

Love,

Elder Cardon

DAY 252: August 8

Hey Mom!

Thanks so much for the email! I hope everyone is doing great. I sure do miss Daniel! thanks so much for all the pictures of him and all of you that you sent. And for all the stuff in the package, it was awesome! I put my new speedometer on, and since last Monday we have ridden 72 miles. We will be turning ours in at the end of the month like all the Elders with cars. So last monday We went to the french market again, I tried an alligator po-boy, it was really good! I got myself a stylish white watch as well. To get there, we couldnt find a ride, and all 4 of us in the apartment wanted to go, so we just had 2 of us sit in back of a truck, because thats legal down here! it was fun! I attached a picture of that and a sweet house we always ride by.

So Tuesday was my birthday, and it was a great day. We have our district meeting every tuesday, and so all 4 of us from the apartment have to ride our bikes together to the church. along a quieter neighborhood road where we can all ride in the street instead of the sidewalk, weve established the tradition that on it, we grab on to eachothers backpacks, and let one person pull all 4 of us in a chain. One week Elder Pope did it, next week I did, next week elder southwick did, so this week, I coasted up to the side of Elder Rawlings and grabbed his backpack, and rode with no hands next to him for a second. He stopped pedaling and said "I'm not pulling you". I said it was his turn to pull all of us. He still denied, and tapped his brakes to slow down a bit. I was still going no-hands, and because he slowed down, my handlebar ran into his, which made my front wheel turn sideways, which sent me very quickly onto the pavement. Thanks for the birthday present Elder Rawlings.

After the district meeting, we went out to lunch at a place called copelands cheesecake bistro. It is a pretty high-class place, but they have some lunch specials that arent too pricy. It ended up being over a 2-hour affair, but the food was excellent. On tuesday we have a meeting at the church with our ward mission leader, and we also teach an English class. afterward, some of the ladies in the ward made some food and had a little party for us in the kitchen, with of course some excellent food made by Sister Martinez. It was nice of them.

Well, time is short, but thanks s much for the package, and the continued love and support from you all!

Adios,
Elder Cardon

DAY 245: August 1

Well hey everyone!

Thanks for the letter. I did get the package, but have not gotten yet. Let me explain: The package didn't fit in the mailbox, so they just leave a note in the mailbox that says you can pick it up at the post office, so we're planning on going down there today. Its not very close to the apartment :)

This week, we absolutely KILLED it with numbers. Honestly probably the best I've seen in my whole mission. With a little hard work and dedication, you can get some serious work done, and its been pretty cool to see. So last week I told myself that I would write some stuff down that happened during the week, but then I didn't. But, I do remember a few highlights that maybe you'll enjoy.

Last Monday, after we emailed we went shopping. At Walmart they had a big box of watermelons, that were priced by the melon, not the pound. So Elder Rawlings and I dug through and found a HUGE watermelon (luckily we had somebody to drive us that week), and took it home, and still aren't done with it. We weighed it: 35 lbs.

While we were in a lesson, they had this little dog, and it was running around being a little noisy. It came to elder Rawlings and sniffed him a little, then turned around and peed on him. The lady for some reason tried to blame it on him, not the dog. We went home afterward so Elder Rawlings could change his socks. Not sure how soon we're going to visit her again.

Like I said before, its been raining ALOT. Thursday it rained like crazy, luckily thats our planning day, so we were in the apartment most of the day. But the streets looked like they did that one time when I sent you the pictures. The same thing happened the next day, but luckily we saw the storm coming and took refuge in a members apartment and waited it out. Afterwards I popped my tire by riding through a puddle with half of a broken bottle in it, so we spent the rest of the day taking "la wawa de San Fernando"*

Church was good, last week, another elder and I were asked to teach primary because another teacher wasn't there, so we got to teach the 4 year olds class. Definitely a shorter attention span than most people we teach, but I think they probably learned something.

Thanks so much for the birthday package, I'm sure its full of wonderfully exciting things. Good luck getting everything ready for China!

Love,

Elder Cardon

DAY 238: July 25

Hey Family! Well here we are, another week! This last week was great, we again achieved the "standard of excellence"! I dont know how many other companionships in the mission got it, but we were one of them! Elder Rawlings and I have the gnarly goal of getting the standard of excellence every week of the transfer. I know we can do it!

So one of the families we have been teaching has this 8 year old girl who is probably the coolest investigator we have. Her name is Catherine, and she knows more about the gospel than your average 8 year old member. She has come to primary several times, and retains an amazing amount of what she learns. She remembered everything they taught about temples, she knew the whole song "I am a child of God" in Spanish, knows the page numbers of a few of her favorite hymns, and reads the book of mormon every day. Why cant all of them do that!? The other day we were teaching them a lesson, my companion was talking, and she was sitting next to me and leaned over and whispered "Quiero decir algo sobre El Libro de Mormon" (I want to say something about the book of mormon). So I stopped Elder Rawlings and we let her talk and she said "Cuando leo El Libro de Mormon, me siento feliz" (when I read the book of Mormon, I feel happy". It was the cutest thing ever! Her and her mom have a baptismal date for the 20th, and I'm pretty confident they will make it.

We are overall doing very well, but alot of our other investigators have a hard time just showing some faith and praying! This other lady we have been teaching, Irma, I think I may have told you about, has some reservations just because this is "something new", and it doesnt say the name "Joseph Smith" in the Bible. Well, it doesn't say the names of any of the apostles in the old testament, neither does it say the name "Jesus Christ". Well, doesn't they werent who they said they were. Just pray about it, then you'll know! But I dont get how people have such a hard time with it.

Our apartment of 4 is still nice and tight quarters, but we get along fine. Elder Pope got transferred up to Baton Rouge, and now the other elders are Elder Guerra and Elder Southwick. They are both going home at the end of this transfer, which means someones going to have to get double transferred in and training. Heres why: at the end of this transfer, 10 spanish missionaries are leaving, and 10 more are coming in. There are 13 spanish companionships it the mission, so 10 of them will have to train, and one of those areas will have to be south metarie, the area I was in before this one. Theres a small, but existing possibiltiy that I will go back there, meaning that I wold spend the first year of my mission in 2 areas. Wow! But it would be cool, I liked that area. So well see what happens!

Anyways, hope you all are doing great, and that you send me lots of birthday cards!

Love,
Cam (Elder Cardon)

DAY 231: July 18

Hey Everyone!

Well, this was a pretty normal week on the mission front. We unfortunately didn't have anybody at church, which is always a bummer. Just come to church! If anybody wants to help the missionaries, don't feed them dinner, offer to bring an investigator to church. (or you could do both)

So the summer here is HOT, and humid, but this past week it has been raining, like nobodies bidness! When it rains, it does it for real, alot of water for a decent amount of time. I sent some pictures a few months ago of when it floods, and it still does that. Its really cool.

So this week is transfers... And I am going to... Stay here! With my same companion! I'm really excited. We have people with good potential, and I will be excited to keep it going. Elder Rawlings and I work together pretty well, so I think we will do great this transfer. Man... I am just really drawing a blank for stories this week. I know something must have happened... but I cant think of what. We didnt go fishing, there were no brawls before sacrament meeting... And we had but a few run-ins with drunk guys. Looks like another "same old" email. But, that shouldnt bother any of my family because they are all in San Diego! So have fun over there everyone!


P.S. Birthday wish list:

some movies!
The Testaments
Doctrine and covenants (spanish)
The living scriptures, maybe just the first book of mormon one, and the ammon one. (did we ever get those on DVD?)

Theres never been a missionary with too many ties. Especially polyester ones.

Whatever else your heart tells you.