Monday, June 24, 2013

Looking, looking, and... More looking!

Happy Sant Jaun´s Day everyone! 

Yeah, today there is another lame excuse to have a holiday here in Spain... haha Just about everything is closed! Yesterday we were contacting people on the street and I was askign people why Spain even had this holiday and nobody even knew... haha But yesterday was crazy! Everyone had a ton of fireworks and they were settign them off a ton! They also were burnign a ton of things in the street, but mom dont worry! :) I am kind of hesitant to tell this story because mom might get nervious, but... well, here it goes! haha Liek the title of my email says, this week we just contacted like crazy! So yesterday we were out contacting in a park and firecrackers were going of like crazy all around us, but we find this family and we begin to talk with them. They were a really great family from Peru. We started teachign him there in the park about the Book of Mormon and how we can become closer to God through the Book of Mormon. Everything was goign great and he showed a ton of interes, I was about to take down his information when all of a sudden, a firecracker comes flying at us, it hits the guy in the chest, lands rigth in the middle of us and then blows up.... Yeah, ruinned the spiritual moment! The guy got super mad and just started to flip on these kids! It was actually kind of funny to watch. Only problem is that we didnt get the info.... We just had to give him our card. I am prayign he shows up to church next week! We will see! But yeah, I am tryign hard to keep my patience lately, sometimes you just get sick of things people do... But it made me think of our Saviour and the things he went through for us. Honestly, he went through much worse and the amazing thing is, he had the power to stop all of it at any moment! 

Alright another funny story! haha

So like I said, lots of contacting this week. So Elder Arce and I were walking back to piso one night after a LONG day! Super tired! And I see this sweet little Family from Ecuador! Parents, 2 kids just beautiful!  And I say Elder.... Lets go, this is the miracle we have been looking for today! The Lord is going to bless us with this family! Like I was 100 percent confident this family was going to accept us and our message! So we stop them and we start talking, all is going well, testifying, great discussion, and then we begin talking about families and how really the message blesses the family! So my companion asks how many are in their family. They say well us and our two kids, and in this moment the little girl comes up and hugs her mom! And Im not going to lie... She looked pregnant.... SO... My companion slips... He says O and I see that one is on the way.... Yeah... She wasnt pregnant... I saw the most beautiful family slowly slip out of my sights... haha After the contact we were laughing so hard! We both felt so bad, but hey I guess it happens... 

So yeah... Thats about tops it for the week! haha We also are visiting tons of members and just doing our best to get to know everyone so we cant start working with the ward. So far the ward loves us and we are tryign hard to keep it that way! Lots of little acts of service, thank you notes, singing it the ward chior, things like that... We have found a lady that comes to church every week but isnt baptized! Miracle! So we are going to go and visit her this week, and we know the Lord has great things in store for us! We just need to keep working hard! 

Sounds liek everything is going well at home! Im tryign hard not to think of you guys and summer! haha Im not goign to lie, I have had some dreams lately about Lake Powell... Not fun! haha But honstly I love it here! Im truly living the life! Love you guys lots! Talk to you next week! 

Elder Carrigan

Monday, June 17, 2013

Barcelona!!!!!


Ivan's baptism
Youth in Badalona

Hey Everyone! So there isnt much news to report this week... As far as the work goes, it was kinda boring... Like I told you guys last week, Elder Arce and I were both transfered and we are now working in the Barcelona 1 ward. Due to this our week was mostly full of meetings with the bishop and all of the presidencies of the ward. Let me just tell you one thing. THIS WARD IS AMAZING! haha We are having so much fun!

Barcelona 1 hasnt had Elders in their ward for about 5 to 6 years so we are like being praised right now! haha It is pretty fun! Not going to lie! The ward has a ton of young single adults and a ton of youth as well so we have been working with them all week! It is incredible! We donty really know our area so we were calling around to see if we could meet with someone or if someone could help us out a bit, and with in like 5 to 10 minutes like 5 young men were ready to come contacting with us! haha Never in my life have I seen this! 

So anyway, our week was filled with member visits and meetings and when we werent in either of those we were hitting the streets hard in Barcelona! You never would guess what I ran into contacting this week... We were just walking around because obviously we have no idea where we are going, when all of a sudden we turned the corner and BOOM! Sagrada Familia!!!! haha Its huge! And literally it is right in the middle of my area! haha I literally was just thinking about it how blessed I really am! I am serving in BARCELONA, Spain! haha Its crazy! 

So thats about my week went... This week we are planning on just continuing to get to know as many members as we can. We figure that the ward is super excited to have us here and we need to use that excitement while we can. hopefully we can get some references out of them and find some people on our own as well. Lots of prayer and fasting! Although we are working like crazy, honestly I am having the most fun I have ever had! Barcelona is great! The mission is great! Life is great! What else could you ask for right?? 

Well, last thing. I guess yesterday was fathers day.... Happy Fathers Day Pops! :) Thanks for everything you have done for me throughout the years! I honestly can say that I dont think I would be here if it wasnt for your great example and your great friendship! Thanks for everything you did, continue to do, and I know you will do in the future. Love you! 

Well, I love you all! Have a great week! 

Love
Elder Carrigan

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Transfer Surprise!

Wow these weeks just fly by! haha


Sounds like life at home is crazy! Kinda glad im not there! haha Really I am loving the mission life right now, and this week we had a blast! haha Details to come, but first let me hit you up with a transfer update! 

So Saturday night, Elder Arce and I were finishing up a visit when we recieved a call from President Pace. Niether of were expecting to get transfered so we were a little suprised haha. Well, I answered the phone and the first thing President says to me is, Elder Carrigan, I have a surprise for you... We will be moving you and Elder Arce to Barcelona 1 and putting other missionaries in Badalona... So let me explain exactly what this means. Elder Arce and I will still be companions and will still be the ZLs, but we are going to be opening the area of Barcelona 1 together. Right now there are only Hermanas in the ward and finally President is putting Elders there! We are super excited! Barcelona 1 is an amazing ward! They meet in the stake center in Barcelona, which is huge! The ward is giant and there are TONS of youth! I was talking to the hermanas there the other day and they say that the ward is really excited to finally have elders in the ward and that she is positive that the work is going to boom when we get there! I sure hope so! we are so excited! Like lets be honest, I have the chance to work in Barcelona Barcelona! Like the real deal! So yeah... Thats transfers for you! haha It is pretty crazy though! President opened a ton of areas this transfer and more than half the mission is in the training program right now! Its insane! The mission is so young but the mission is seeing so many miracles! 

Mom, I loved that the youth in the ward are going to work with the missionaries! I wish I could have worked with them before my mission! I feel like I am finally getting the hang of things and I am already a year into the mission! I wish I would have known things that I know now when I started my mission! I think the youth will have a lot of fun and more importantly, I think you should try it as well! Go proselyting with the sisters! haha The youth will love it! And more than anything, show them that it is fun! There going to get rejected like crazy but if they see you are having fun, they too will have fun! Its the same with the new missionaries, they all think that contacting is lame, hard, boring, etc. until they see they older missionaries having a blast doing it. Then they too have fun! we get to pick up some new missionaries today and I am super excited! New missionaries are the best! But anyway, Nick I know you are busy this summer, but if you have some time, find the mission office and tell them you want to go on splits with the missionaries for the day! It will give you a little bit of insight on what the mission is really like! You could go with one missionary and dad could go with the other! haha I highly recommend it! 

On Sunday we had an activity with the youth here in Badalona. They all came and we did splits with them and sent them out contacting. They all kind of got a view of what is was like... There was one girl who is absolutely crazy! She is the type of girl who doesnt take a lot of crap, but it was hilarious! She would get rejected and she would like follow the person and say things like "Hey, show a little respect!" or " Hey, we arent jehovas whitnesses! Call me a JW one more time and I will hit you!" haha We had to teach her that she couldnt really say those things but I couldnt help just laughing! Anyway, it was great! 

So anyway, on to the highlight of the week. This week, like normal, we knocked a lot of doors! haha but we also had the opportunity to go to Mataro. It is a city just up the coast. It is one of the areas that president it opening so we had to go up there and make sure that the area was split, that they had a good piso, area book, all that stuff... But anyway, as Elder Arce and I were walking back to the train station I had a really strong impression that we needed to stay for the morning and do some proselyting there. So he was like alright lets do it! Right as he said yes, I kid you not. DOWNPOUR! It started raining SO hard! The streets were flooding! haha But do you think that stopped us? Heck no! haha It was so fun! We were running from door to door soaking wet! It looked like we had just gotten out of the shower. haha Everyone was like what are these kids doing! We knocked this one door, and the guy opened, we asked him if we could share a message and he slammed the door in our face, we turned around and were about to run to the other side of the street when the man opened the door again. He said, Look I dont want ot hear any message, but if you want to stand in here, because its raining super hard,  you are welcome to. We just smiled, thanked him and said dont worry about it, then ran to the next door! haha Honestly it was the most fun I have ever had knocking doors! 

Well, thats about it for the week... Next week I will let you know how Barcelona 1 is! Justin, good luck my man! I know you are going to kill it! Just go baptize all those bangkokian people! haha Julie and Bran, congrats on the little Chinese girl! :) Love you all!

Elder Carrigan

Monday, June 3, 2013

Miracles!


Hey Everybody!
 
So today we had concillio with President so this letter might be a little short... We got to go to WORK! ha ha But anyway, this week was really good! Mom, your advice was great, but it came about a week late. haha So at the start of last week we decided we had to change some things up. We were knocking A TON of doors and werent seeing too much success from it so we decided to just contact in the street and teach as many lessons as we could in the street! We killed it! We worked really hard, and although we didnt find too many people to teach, we saw so many miracles! And the Lord definately blessed us at the end of the week! Honestly my testimony keeps getting stronger in the fact that if we are obedient and do the best we can, the Lord is going to work miracles and bless us! So now lets talk about the blessings! :)
 
This week were able to see the BAPTISM of Ivan! It was incredible! Such an incredible stroy! So Ivan has been working like crazy! The past couple weeks we have only been able to talk to him 1 time, 2 times if we were lucky! SO this past week we finished teaching him everything and we started talking to him about his fetcha for Saturday and he said he really wanted to and he felt like he was ready, but he wasnt sure if his work was going to let him and on top of that, a job came up in the Islands that he took and the company could call him at any moment and he would have to get up and go right then. SO we said a pray and we came to the point that if God really wanted him to be baptized this weekend he would provide a way for it to happen. So anyway, Friday night we were walking through the street contacting people and we saw him eating with his wife, Miracle! He saw us and came up to us and said, I want to get baptized this weekend! The company called me and I need to leave on Monday! The only thing was that he also had to finish up his other work adn either work all day Saturday or all day Sunday. So we had a problem... We werent sure when we were goingdo the baptism... We thought maybe right after church and then we could confirm him as well, but the bishop said he needed to be confirmed in sacrament meeting so we were thinking alright then we will do it before sacrament meeting but there was other meetings we couldnt get around so we thought we were done, that was it... BUT, Miracle! Ivan called us and said that one of his friends was going to take the morning shift Sunday morning so he could take Saturday off and then come get confirmed and leave right after. So we planned it! But then we had another problem. He still had to have his interview with our district leader... Wait, Miracle! Our district leader was on intercambios with other pair of missionaries here in Badalona. (This part is crazy to me, they had inicialy planned the intercambio for the beginning of the week, but our district leader woke up a little sick so the rescheduled it... Miracle!) So, Friday night we called like all the members and invited all of them, we were super scared that no one was going come, but little did we know that there were activities planned in the church Saturday morning so there were a bunch of people there! Miracle! So we got the baptism and we went to open the closet to the baptismal clothes but I forgot the keys... Good one! Just so happened that the hermana in charge of the baptismal clothes was there. I asked her if by chance she had he keys and she told us, wow thats wierd I usually dont bring them but out of casuallity I brought them today... Yeah... Miracle! Well to end it all. He was baptized and came to church on Sunday to be confirmed. He also then bore his incredible testimony in the meeting! Maybe it doesnt sound that great, but I literally saw the hand of the Lord in the baptism. When he was baptized, I was reminded of what he told us the Thursday before, "If the Lord wants me to be baptized this weekend, then it will happen." Well, I know the Lord wanted it to happen. I know this is his work. We are only here to help everything come to pass. It was amazing!
 
Well other than that... Like I said, lots of hard work and lessons in the street. Nothing else really beats a baptism right! haha Welll maybe one thing... I used a Bide for the first time today! haha If you dont know what it is then look it up online! All I can say is man, those things leave you CLEAN! haha It was an unforgettable experience! haha
 
Love you guys lots!
 
Elder Carrigan

Memorial Day Weekend?


Hey everyone! 

Once again it sounds like everything is well at home! I loved the pictures from Justins farewell! I am positive he did a great job! Dont need to be there to know that! Now go kill it in the field baby! The Snells cabin also sounds like a lot of fun and the picture of the cabin was beautiful! Definately beats the piso I am living in! haha 

Well this week was great! We worked hard and we continue to knock just A TON of doors! haha We did a rough estimate of how many we knocked this week and we think we are up there around 1500 this week... haha We found a couple of people but honestly they have already kind of fallen off the face of the earth. The good news is that there is a good chance that we will have a baptism this Sunday! The mans name is Ivan. I cant remember if I have told you too much about him. He is great and has a great desire to follow Christ The problem is we havent had a ton of time to teach him because he has been working like crazy for the past two weeks. We talked to him on saturday and he said he wants to be baptized so we set a firm date to do it! Im excited! He also has a wife and a daughter. We havent yet had the opportunity to teach his daughter and wife, but the other day we met the wife and she was super nice to us. We are hoping that sometime soon in the future we will have the opportunity to begin to teach them both! 

Also this week we started teaching a women named Karla from Chile. She is great! My companion is also from Chile and I know some things about Chile so it was really fun getting to know her and talking to her! We talked about Completos and candy and all sorts of stuff, then of course the Gospel! haha She is a young mom and has two little boys who are incredible. Unfortunately she is stuggling right now... She just lost her job here and doesnt know exactly what she is going to do. She wants to go back to Chile and work, but she doesnt want to leave here little boys here. We talked about how the gospel can bless her life and how it all starts with baptism. She accepted a baptismal date but unfortuanately didnt come to church this week because her son was sick, so we will have to talk to her again this next week and confirm another date.

Other than that... Lots of knocking and contacting! haha I think I have talked to more people than ever! I have met some crazy people! haha This week I am pretty sure we taught the restoration to a man that was high... It was an interesting expereince! BUT, We were able to talk to the bishop this week which was a huge miracle! It was good to see what he exactly wanted out of us and we are excited to get to work doing things for him! 

Well, thats about it from me... I will be sending all the pictures I have in a package either this week or next week. I will try to get them out soon1 

Love you guys tons! 
Elder J. Carrigan

Great Conference Week


Good Morning Everyone!
 
Hey everybody! Hope everything is going well! Time absolutely flies! Cant believe I talked to you guys over a week ago! Sooner than we all know it we will be talking again! haha Nick, sorry to hear about the loss... Keep your head up. Thats all you can do until next year comes around! There is always room to get better! Dad, thanks for the package! I got everything! Popcorn is always great and of course the Oreos are didnt hurt either! We already ate all of them haha! Oreas and Milk, its just something you cant turn down!
 
This week was an average week in the mission... We still continue searching and I think I knocked about half of Barcelona this week! haha Not too much success! Im not worried though, I know there is someone behing one of those doors!
 
This week I was able to go to a pueblo called Vic for an intercambio! I worked with Elder Roney! He is such a stud! I met him before the mission. A girl in my ward at BYU introduced us and we went and hung out at his house one night! It was a lot of fun! haha Vic is  a very small city in the North, but it is beautiful there! It is very close to the border between Spain and France, so everything is very green and very wet. it rained the whole time I was there, but we had a lot of fun! We saw a lot of miracles! There we also knocked a lot of doors, but we found two incredible families while knocking! I am hoping that Elder Roney can start teaching them and help learn the Gospel.
 
This week we also had a conference with all the missionaries in Barcelona and Hospitalet! it was a lot of fun and it was incredible! I learned so much and I cant wait to apply what I learned int he conference to our work this week! There is always something special in mission conferences that I cant rely describe. The spirit is so strong, and I always seem to recieve so much personal revelation! I love them.
 
So Elder Arce and I are going to try to start working more with the members here in Badalona. It will be tough but we both feel it is something very necesary for the area. We have been trying our best to look for the little opportunities to serve the ward members and the bishopric. The only problem is the bishop really wants nothing to do with us, so it is a little frustrating. We talked to him yesterday to see if we could visit with him for 10 to 15 minutes this week and he kind of just blew us off... We dont really know where to start because we dont really recieve support from him. We are still looking for a solution. Any advice? I would love to hear it!
 
Other than that, everything is good! I dont really have much else to report for this week! We are having fun and working hard... What else can you ask for! :) Today is a fiesta in Spain... (Know one  knows why! haha) Just an excuss not to work! haha So everything is closed, but we are headed in to Barcelona to play a bunch of sports with the whole Zone and a bunch of youth who dont have school! It will be really fun! I will try to put all the photos I have on this USB and send it to you guys as soon as I can! Love you all tons!
 
Elder James Carrigan
 

A Great Mother's Day


Hey Guys!
 
It was great talking to you guys yesterday! I feel like so much was going on that I didnt even have the chance to wish Mom a Happy Mothers Day! So Mom...
 
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! :)
 
I really am so glad that you are my mom and really THE best mom in the world! You have done so much for me and I really am thankfull for every little thing! Even if I dont show it some times... ;) I love you so much! I hope you enjoyed your mothers day!
 
So yeah, yeasterday was fun but also really strange! Everyone is getting so old and so big! STOP CHANGING! haha So a couple things I forgot to mention or couldnt mention because I was in a members house... haha
 
First thing is you asked me about the ward... Ya couldnt really respond to that one... The ward is good but the bishop is a WACK! haha The way he does things is super weird! For example, one guy in the ward has a callign and his calling is to walk around the church and ring a bell when its time to change classes, and if it doesnt get done, the bishop freaks! It is actually kind of entertaining to watch! haha There are also some crazy members in the ward. We had an old man give a talk yesterday (actually the bishops dad) and over the pulpit, he was calling people out and chastizign them for not wearing a skirt to church or for wearing a sweatshirt... Yeah proabably true that they should come a little better dressed to church but not really the place or time to do it... haha The members dont help us too much but we think its because the missionaries before us didnt work too much with the members, so we are trying to improve the member relations. We are doing lots of service for them and trying to set up lots of activities, unfortunately the bishop wont approve any of them and if the bishop doesnt approve them, he refuses to support them which means he wont anounce it in sacrament and wont let us anounce it in any class... Kind of annoying... SO right now we are tryign to figure out a way to have fun with the members but not make the bishop mad... We will figure something out!
 
Next I had a question... How is Brighton Soccer doing?
 
And then one other thing... Sometimes I log into my email and some of my emails from people are already read but I havent ever read them.... Im fine if you want to read my emails, but can I please read them first :) haha
 
Other than that I really dont have much more to say... I told you everything yesterday. We are searching like crazy in a wealthier part of the town right now where all the Spanish people live! Both me and my companion what to find a Spanish Family that can really help the church here in Badalona and we know there is at least one spanish family that is willing to listen to us! We just need to find them! We have litterally been walking up and down the streets in this part of town talking to EVERYONE we pass by! Although its tough, we know we will be blessed. Whether it is with this spanish family or with other people, doesnt matter! We will keep searching!
 
We are also teaching lots of people, but the problem is not too many are progressing... They all have problems with something and we cant get them to chuch! Always a bummer! we are teaching two that are progressign right now. Ivan and Natividad. Ivan is a golden investigator and should get baptized on the 25th of the month. Only problem is he works like crazy this week so we dont know if we will be able to meet with him this week. We might have to push the baptism back a week or two... Natividad is... something else! haha She is so funny and just a die hard christian! She knows the bible really well and we have really good gospel discussions, but she doesnt really seem to understand that God´s authority to baptize was taken and then restored to the earth so she says she doesnt need to be baptized again... We are working with her... Good news is she loves really the Book of Mormon, She loves coming to church, adn she is always praying so she is progressing! haha She also always sings in our visits! She gave us a CD yesterday witha ton of Christian Rock music its awesome! Other than that... We are looking for those who are willing to listen!
 
Well Guys, Love you guys ton! Miss you guys like crazy and you are always in my prayers! 
 
Nick, Good luck in your games this week! Go out and kill it! No regreats! 
 
Ryan, Keep killing it with the ladies! Anyone who says you look like me definately knows what they are talking about! Some people in our family are blessed with good looks, others... arent! haha Loves! 
 
Annie, keep being amazing and winning all your soccer games! Your great! I love hearing about all your games!
 
Love you all tons
Elder Carrigan

Come Killer!


Hey Family!
Sounded like it was a good week at home! Nick (or should I say Nancy? I knew I called you a girl at my farewell for a reason! :) ), sorry you lost to Jaun Diego, but I heard your hit was SICK! haha You can tell everyone it was for different reasons, but I know that it was for me! haha Let me just tell you that when I read Mom and Dads emails about your games, they pump me up! I wish I could be there! I will be honest, I miss watching Nick, Ryan, and Annie playing, but it is just one of those small sacrifices! :) All of you better keep killing it in everything you are doing! I love hearing all your great stories!
The work here in Badalona is... Going. haha Unfortunately we are still kind of struggling right now. This past week was a killer and I am dying! haha Last week we didnt have a P-Day because we had a bunch of 20 new missionaries come in last week. Almost all the missionaries in Hospitalet and Barcelona did splits for the day and blitzed their areas.A Blitz is when just a ton of missionaries go to one zone and work all day. Unfortunately we didnt find too many people in our area... After that, Elder Arce and I started working in our area and our investigators all peaced on us! haha We havent be able to get a hold of anybody! then today we also didnt have P-Day because we had a consillio meeting with President. Needless to say, Its been a tough week! haha Elder Arce and I are pushing forward and we know we are going to be blessed, just need to put in some more effort to finding the elect! Becasue he is new here and I am still relitivly new here as well, we have plans to pass by as many members as we can this week to get to know them and to start inproving the member relations and find some menos activo families. We have noted that the missionaries having attempted to work with the menos activo families here for awhile and we are hoping this means there are some family members and friends just waitng for us to find them! Of course we will continue to knock a lot of doors and talk to everyone in the street, but its time to change things up a bit!
So anyway the funny story of the week as got to be when Elder Arce and I were knocking doors this past week! We knocked this door and this HUGE RIPPED guy like steroid ripped guy answers the door and this little tiny dog comes running out! So I look at this huge guy adn then this tiny dog, the huge guy then tiny dog. Then the huge guy looks at his dog and says Killer come, and then slammed the door in our face! Elder Acre and I just looked at eachother like what in the world just happened and the fact that he named his little Taco Bell dog Killer! I dont know! It could be that I am just starting to hit the weird stage of the mission, but I thought it was hilarious!
Well, thats about it from my end! I cant believe I hit a year this week! It doesnt feel like it at all! I just got to keep working hard and like you said Dad, No Regrets! It all goes by way too fast!
Love you all tons!
Love Elder Carrigan
P.S. I heard Carter got baptized this week! Congrats buddy! Im proud of you!