Made it to Madrid

Hey Everybody!
So much to write in such little time! So this place is awesome! Basically, compared to the Provo MTC, this place is the celestial kingdom! haha. I love it here because it is more like home rather than a giant EFY camp or something. The food here is more like a catered meal rather than cafeteria food! Basically everythign is just nicer. I feel more comfortable here and I think this will make it easier for me to learn! The temple is like ten yards away from the front door! It is beautiful! We got to go today and the celestial room is absolutely beautiful! I literally had to squint walking into it because of of white and how bright it was!

So my companion is Elder Pearson for now. The El Salvador missionaries dont get here for another 3 weeks. I think the two that I saw were missionaries from the field just stopping by because I havent seen them since! Elder Pearson and I are having a good time together and I think we should make a good companionship. we both like to work hard and he is already pretty good at speaking the language so he can help me learn and correct me when I am wrong! The language is coming along.... People here speak so fast that I have no idea what is going on haha! One of our teachers daughters is staying in the MTC to act as the companion for the one hermana here. I try to talk to here a little bit but it is definitely a lot harder to talk to natives than it is to talk to my teacher in the MTC. Plus she laughs at me becuase I sound like an idiot and talk so slow... ha ha o well!  The Jet lag isnt too bad, I slept for most of the nigth last night and I havent been too tired today! I feel like I am adjusting pretty fast!

So yes the plane ride was great! Thanks! I owe you big time dad! I ate dinner and then I was out cold! It was funny because my eyes were all red and all the flight attendents were askign me all these questions and they kept telling me that my family would come visit me and I had to explain that you guys couldnt. I told them I could only email you once a week and skype home on Christmas and Mothers day. One of the flight attendents kept saying! O thats so mean! Your only just a boy! The rest of the flight they treated me like I was 5 years old! It was annoying but whatrever... It was great to see Dad though! Hard but definitely worth it!

So today we got to go to Madrid! It was so epic! We walked around everywhere! I took a lot of pictures so I will try to send them home soon! I just dont want to waste time trying to connect pictures! Sorry... We went to the Cathedral Santa Cruz and it was really interesting! It is right next to the King´s Palace so it was awesome! There is so much history in Europe and that is why I love it so much! It was really interesting though because we were talking about how the truths of the gospel are in some of the statues and pictures. Some things are directly related to the temple and its interesting to think about how much truth the Catholic church has, but it just has been corrupted by men! For example, there is a picture in the Cathidral displaying God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost all as seperate beings! YES, IN A CATHOLIC CATHIDRAL! It just built my testiomony a little bit and reminded me of how in a world where religion is so confusing, our church just make sense! Its crazy to me how some people cant see it! I guess its my job to try and portray that to them! :)

So moms package got here today but I havent opened it yet... At least you can count the days it took to get here!

Congrats to Annie for making the Blue Knights soccer team! Thats awesome sista! Well done!

Will you please post my new address on Facebook, I dont know if you have or not, but I would appritiate it! Thank you!

Other than that I dont have much to say... I know that on Saturday that we are going to the park and proselyting! That should interesting due to the fact that I DONT KNOW SPANISH!  ha ha o welll, As long as I rely on the spirit. I know everything will be ok! Well ladies and gents! Thats about it!

O and yes dad, My Pdays will always be on Thursdays while in the CCM. Next week for Pday we are plannign on going to the Real Madrid Stadium! Im stoked! It should be epic!

O and one question! That money that I took with me, do you think it is a good idea to transfer it to Euros? Maybe Dear Elder me the answer to this question! Thanks!

Well, I love you all! Hope everything is going well at home!

Love,
Elder Carrigan! 

Travel Plans

Whats up fam!
This week has been awesome! On Thursday we recieved our travel plans and then yesterday we met with the guy who signed our Visas off! So I will for sure be leaving this May 29th! Unfortunately, there are a couple of missionaries going to Spain that didnt get there visas so they have to stay behind, but Elder Pearson got his so we are both gone!  These are our travel plans,
Delta Flight 2190 SLC then we have a 4 hour layover in JFK and leave on Delta Flight 126 to Madrid!
I am pretty stoked! I am thinking I will call when I am in New York It says we land in New York at 3:13 so expect somewhere close to these! Write me a dear elder and tell me what you think! I will try to get a letter back ASAP so we can be on the same page!

So the internet is being really spotty so I am going to try and write as much as possible and then I will be sending a letter as well! It sucks!

So thank you everyone again for the love and support you send! I love hearing from all of you! Dad definitely wins the 'Most Epic Package Ever Sent To The MTC" award! I thought the first one was epic and then I got the second one! The Ice Cream was amazing and we all had an amazing time playing with the left over dry ice! ha ha We put all of our Dr. Peppers, Cokes, and other drinks in the cooler with the dry ice and within under 5 minutes the drinks were icy cold! It was amazing! We then put the remaining dry ice in one of the toilets and watched Provo's very own old faithful! It was awesome! ha ha.

So mom you wanted to know when your package got here, I got it on on Friday! It was awesome thank you! Everyone from my zone loves every package you guys send! They have a saying they say that goes like this! "When Carrigan wins, we all win!" ha ha its always a great time!

So I wish I had some awesome story or experince to share with you guys but I dont... All I can say is the spirit here is amazing! And it is amazing what the spirit can do! You can clearly tell the difference when you are trying to teach and you dont have the spirit from when you are teaching with the spirit ! It really is the spirit teaching these lessons, not me! I love it! My spanish is comign along... I dont feel like I know a lot but them when I am trying to say things, the words just come to me! The gift of tonges is amazing!

So just a couple things I need....

Dad, Is TSA/Customs going to give me crap about all those medications if the are in my carry on? The smart thing to do would be to carry them on but I dont want to have to deal with a ton of crap!

Mom, do you remeber if I sent a thank you card to the O'neals? I thought I did but then I got the impreassion that I didnt... I might just send them a letter just in case... I also have a task for you! (It might be impossible) Will you please look for and send me talk by Elder Bednar? It is called "The Characrater of Christ" He gave it on Christmas here in the MTC and it is amazing! I just dont know if the release talks given at the MTC... If you cant find it, dont worry about it!

Nick, I need you to get ahold of Trevor Montgomery somehow, He wrote me a letter and I want to respond but he put his home address in Vegas instead of his BYU appartment address. If you could please get his BYU address and DearElder it to me ASAP, I would love you forever!

Ryan. I got letters back from everyone except from you so if you dont write me back soon, I promise you, you will be trust down to hell! Love you :)

Annie, Keep being beautiful! A letter is on the way!

So I am going to try to get some pictures to you soon! I dont know what will happen when I hook up my camera to an MTC computer and I dont want to waste a lot of my emailing time trying to figure it out... You might just have to wait till im out of the MTC... We will see!

Well, that is all the time I have on this crappy internet! Expect a letter as well! I love you all mucho! TALK to you soon!

Love
Elder Carrigan!

First MTC Email

Whats up everybody!

So first things first, Dad. One of the straps on my shoulder bag broke... Im not sure quite what to do. I can sew it but because of my poor sewing it probably will break again. dear elder me ASaP with a plan. I was thinking I could either send it home and you could send me one back before I leave or grandma could maybe get it from me... I dont know! Its not a very important thing but it is something I use and would like to get it fixed! I could always wait and get it fixed in spain. Its a simple fix!

Second, Mom. have you gotten the letter from the soccer boys? I havent got it yet and would love to read it! If you have gotten it, will you please send it to me! Thanks!

Next, thank you everybody for the packages and letters! Everyone here knows me as the kid who gets mail everyday! ha ha trust me, I deffinitely do not mind! I feel like because of the packages I have really experienced "The Underground" of the MTC! Its like you get a package and everyone has to see what you got and try to trade you ha ha! I have found that Dr. Pepper and riches bagels sell at a really high price! ha ha The Chips and Salsa were divine! Thank you Holly! And Grandma, thank you for the little gifts everyday! I really enjoy them, and so do the Elders in my district! :)

So it has been a week at the MTC and let me tell you the days are super long! Its a lot harder than what I thought it was going to be but also a lot of fun! I hate the food here but i guess it is just something I have to get over! I dont eat the breakfast because it scares me but usually I can find something for lunch and dinner that isnt too bad! I have seen a ton of my friends all of the place and that gives me a real boost everytime! It reminds me that I am here for a reason, and although its hard, my friends are around the world going through the exact same thing as me!

My family has already heard some about my compamnion and can fill you in a little... (I am sending another letter home today with more info!) He is from Ferth, Idaho. (No Idea where that is) So use your imagination... He is a farmer and very very shy! He was made Senior companion so its hard to acomplish things because he cant make up his mind, but I am trying my best! I dont want to just act like the senior comp becasue then he wouldnt learn to take charge for the future. I am really trying to break his shell so he will be an effective missionary. I will say though, everytime he comes out of it, he is a pretty awkward kid... he does this like funky side walk thing.... I dont know! Its hilarious! ha ha

So the language has been hard but I feel like for me only being here a week, I am pretty good! I know a little bit so I can understand lots and work my way through a conversatuion. We had our first lesson with an investigator and I did most of the talking. Im not sure if it was because I am a take charge kind of guy or if because my comp knows no spanish and wouldnt say anything even if he did... I am struggling to write lesson plans because I know what I want to do but he has something totally different in mind. i am pretty sure the Lord is trying to teach me to be patient!

It has been fun though! Yesterday we were teaching a lesson about baptism to our investigator and it was difficult because I didnt know too much vocab... I was trying to say how the last lession we talked about the restoration and blah blah blah then about how through baptism were can recieve a remission of our sins... well some of the vocab sounds very similar, Past is pesado. Sin is pecado. Little did I know, Fish is pescado! Ya you guessed it! I said in our fish lesson, and through baptism we can gain a remission of our fish... Ya, ha ha! all you can really do is laugh! There is no time to get down on yourself!

Well thats it for this week! I love you all and thank you so much for the love and support! I am trying to write you all back but just know it gets busy!

Love
Elder Carrigan!

P.S. Nick in his tux... STUD! Keep the girls off of you! Peace!

MTC Companion

Elder Carrigan and Elder Butler

Love Notes

I was cleaning up after our last family BBQ and found a few 

"love notes" from cousins. I had to share...

 How cute is that?!!

 Hopefully James follows Alex's advice...

At least write back!!! 

MTC drop off

We sure love our missionary!!

And he's off...

Farewell Talk

Growing up, I was never the biggest kid. There was always someone who has bigger, stronger or taller than me. I played competitive soccer and this turned out to be a bit of a problem. Because of this, my Dad would always tell me that what I lacked in size, I needed to make up for it with my speed, quickness, effort, or mental toughness. This soon became two words. Play Big! When I gained this mentality of playing big, I felt like I was not only more effective on the field, but I was also more confident in my abilities and myself. I then had a competitive edge over my opponents.

So for a minute I would like to compare life to a sports game. And in this giant game of life our opponents are bigger, stronger, and smarter than all of us, and Satan, the opposing teams coach, has told his players to play dirty, and cheap, and to do whatever is necessary to make us fail. If we do not find a competitive edge over these opponents, ultimately we will fail.

Elder Jeffery R. Holland said this in the priesthood session in the October 2011 conference...

"This is a life-and-death contest we are in, young men, so I am going to get in your face a little, nose to nose, with just enough fire in my voice to singe your eyebrows a little—the way coaches do when the game is close and victory means everything. And with the game on the line, what this coach is telling you is that to play in this match, some of you have to be more morally clean than you now are. In this battle between good and evil, you cannot play for the adversary whenever temptation comes along and then expect to suit up for the Savior at temple and mission time as if nothing has happened. That, my young friends, you cannot do. God will not be mocked. So we have a dilemma tonight, you and I. It is that there are thousands of Aaronic Priesthood–age young men already on the records of this Church who constitute our pool of candidates for future missionary service. But the challenge is to have those deacons, teachers, and priests stay active enough and worthy enough to be ordained elders and serve as missionaries. So we need young men already on the team to stay on it and stop dribbling out of bounds just when we need you to get in the game and play your hearts out!"

This quote does not just apply to the future missionaries of the church; it can also be applied to each and every one of us on a daily basis. So the question that comes to mind is, how can we stay active enough and worthy enough to play our hearts out so we can defeat the opponents we face everyday? I suggest we use the same strategy I used to beat my opponents on the soccer field. Play Big! I would now like to share how I gained this mentality on the field, and more importantly, off the field.

The first thing we need to do is buy into our coaches system. I have had the opportunity to play for many different teams in my life and each has taught me different formations, plays, and even rules. I have found that when I stopped complaining about how the coach did this or how the coach did that, and truly committed myself to what they were teaching, I learned a lot more, and my overall experience was much better. In the Introduction of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith writes, “The Book of Mormon is the most correct book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than any other book.” The key word in this statement is abiding. Without a desire to abide by the principles being taught, without a desire to read the scriptures everyday, without a desire to pray everyday, without a desire to go to church every week, the Lord cannot help us. He wants to help you and let you know the “mysteries of Him,” but he is not going to give you something that you don’t truly want.

The next step is to prepare ourselves and I believe this is the most important step because this is where we take our mentality and our desire and turn it into action! To prepare for this for any contest we must train and condition ourselves until we are fit for the fight. As athletes we train and condition ourselves for our games. This requires a constant effort. We all know that you cant expect to run 15 miles one day and expect to be in shape the rest of the month. To be in shape requires you to run and lift everyday. Only then will you be in top shape. Spiritually conditioning yourself is very closely related. We can’t expect to read the scriptures or pray once a month and find ourselves in tune with the spirit. It takes a constant effort of reading the scriptures everyday, praying everyday, and going to church every week. Only then will you fully be in tune with the spirit and be ready to face temptation at anytime. President Monson said this, “When the time for decision arrives, the time for preparation has past.” When a temptation hits us, we are not going to have time to think. You need to know exactly how to conquer it when it arrives; I believe this can only be done with the constant help of the Holy Ghost.

Finally, Its game time! Its time to show everyone that all that hard work has paid off! And I believe this is where I can no longer compare life to a game, because in any big game I have ever played in, I have been nervous. I have been nervous about the end result, and I have been nervous about if I have prepared myself enough to be able to compete for my team, but in life, in the most important battle, this battle between good and evil, I’m not nervous. I know that although I will never be anywhere close to being prepared enough for this fight, and I will mess up plenty of times along the way, I also know that my teammates, Jesus Christ, God the Father, The Holy Ghost, and all of you who love and support me, will always cover me! You will always have my back in times of trial and need. So don’t be scared to fail! Have confidence in yourself and confidence in your ability to do good! In Mathew 5:16 we read, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which are in heaven.” As long as your works glorify your father in heaven, you have nothing to be afraid of! So let your light shine! The last quote I will be sharing today is from Nelson Mandela. It is my favorite quote and I have tried hard to live by it throughout my life. Nelson says,

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Brothers and Sisters it is our responsibility to stand up for what is right in life, and life Brother Mandela says, “As you let your light shine, you unconsciously give other people permission to do the same!” I know from experience that is you stand up for what is right in life; you will never be standing alone! Whether it is one of your friends who takes your side or Jesus Christ himself, some one will always have your back!

I would just like to end with my testimony that I know this gospel is true and I know that this church is the only true church on the earth today. When I was younger, It used to bother me when people would come up to the pulpit and say they knew the church was true, because I didn’t think it was possible to absolutely know. Well now I know that I was wrong, because I learned this this gospel is true by doing this steps I just talked about and If you really want to know if this church and this gospel are true, I would invite you to do the same. I know that Jesus Christ atoned for our sins and made it possible to return to our Father in heaven. The atonement is an amazing thing and I know it works! I have not only seen it work in my own life, but in the lives of many others as well. I know the Book of Mormon is the truest book on the earth today and a man really can come closer to God if he is willing to have a desire to learn from the book. I know Joseph Smith was and still is a true prophet of God. No man would be willing to go through or able to go through without God helping him along the way. I love my friends very much and I know I wouldn’t be where I am today without their influence in my life. They have always been there for me in my time of need and I am thankful for that. I love my family very much and I can only pray that my brothers and sister keep becoming the great people they are becoming. I am thankful for the most amazing parents! They have set a great example for me and I hope I can one day be just like them. I love all of you and thank you all for you for the love and support. I really do have the such great family and friends! I say this, in Jesus name. Amen!

Missionary Pics