Go Big, or Go Home!

Hey everybody! 

So  my inbox was filled with like a thousand pictures this morning! Loved them all! Everything looks great at home! It looks like everyone is having a blast! Ry Guy with the lady friend! Well done big dog! She is a cutie! Nick well done on the tournament! looks like you mom and dad had a lot of fun! And Annie... Put my hat back!!!! haha No its chill, im positive that all my stuff has already been taken out of my room, used, and maybe destroyed... Just means I will have to buy some new clothes and things here before I come home!!! haha 

So Lake Powell this week.... Thats all we are going to talk about that.... haha Send Pictures! 

Then the week after Nick and Ryan have camp and are rooming together? That should be a blast! You both better do work! Let those coaches know who the Carrigan Brothers are! In fact, make sure the whole camp knows who the Carrigan Brothers are! haha And then, always be humble! ;) 

So I am going to be honest guys, this week killed me! We worked SO hard, and our week was incredible! we killed it! We taught a ton of lessons!!! haha it was insiane! We also found a ton of new investigators! We did splits with the youth in our ward like all week, and just went to town! When we didnt have visits, we went to the parks and malls and just taught people! On benches, sittign on the grass, on the play grounds, it didnt even matter, we just taught! We found some new investigators and some are progressing. 

As of now, we have two baptismal dates. One is still with Nikole. She is doing great, but the problem is her parents dont want to support her... Her parents told her that they would sign the paper and that she could be baptized, but they would not come to the baptism... She is progressing really well, and honestly could be baptized tomorrow, but she just really wants her parents to support her in what she is doing... Please keep her in your prayers! She will be baptized on the 20th.

We also found a girl this week names Maria. She is 21 and from Peru. More than anything, she just has a desire to learn and to know! She has never been baptized into any church and knows that baptism is important. But she told us that before she is baptized she wants to know exactly what she is doing! She couldnt be anymore prepared! We set the goal for her to be baptized on the 27th of this month and promised her that she would recieve an answer if she did her part. I couldnt be more confident! She will be a solid investigator and the youth here in our ward are amamzing! 

I am loving our ward! They are incredible! I think with all this hype about missions, the youth are just pumped to go on missions and more than anything they want to help us whenever they can! It has been incredible how much the ward is helping us, Now we just need to find a way for them to share the gospel with there friends! That way I dont need to be in the street dying from the heat all day! haha O yeah! Did I mention how freaking hot it is here!!!!!!! IM DYING! haha Lets just say going to bed sweating every night really isnt my favorite thing in the world! haha 

So yeah... Thats it for this week. We are planning on going hard again next week! I dont know if I will make it another 10 months, but im going to die trying! haha

Love you guys a ton! Have a great time at Powell and like I said, Please send lots of pictures! :) 

Hugs and Kisses! :) haha that was a little gay

Elder James Carrigan

P.S. Ryan, what happens with Anika when you find another girl at Lacrosse camp next week?? You SLY dog! haha Love you buddy! 

Mes de Mil

Hey Fam,

Sounds like summer is a blast at home but also super crazy! I just have to tell you one thing... The mission is ten times better! :) haha This week was super crazy, so much fun, and full of miracles! 

Im not sure if I told you guys, but at the begining of the month, the leadership council made a goal to find 1000 new investigators in the month of June. Usually we find around 750 to 800 a month so it was a pretty solid goal. Well coming into this past week we were a little short, we had found about 800, and we werent sure if we were going to make it, but... We did it!!! It was absolutely incredible! it was so awesome to see the missionaries so excited and working so hard to find these new investigators! It was a lot of fun as well! We were always on the phone like, How many you got, lets go, we need more! But honestly it was one of the greatest miracles I have seen on my mission so far! We have been praying at 10:00 everyday to find the 1000 and my testimony of prayer has grown so much! I know the Lord listens to us and wants to bless us in every way possible! 

This week we also had a huge miracle happen! Earlier this week we recieved a reference from the Elders in Badalona. They said that when they were in the metro a girl came up to them and told them that she ahad already listened to the missionaries and had been to church, and she wanted to start listening to them again! SO we contacted her and she told us that she would come to church. Well we went and picked her up for church on Sunday adn she came! After church we had a lesson with her and we asked her about her past experience with the missionaries. She told us that she listened when she was young but started not believing in God, and that now she relizes that she needs god in her life and really wants God in her life and that the only way she can have God in her life is if she comes to church and is baptized! Well, Elder Arce and I were like well... We help people with that... Can we help you prepare to be baptized? And she was like well yeah! haha So she is getting baptized on the 20th of July! We are super excited! Her name is Nicole! She 15 and her parents are Less Active so we are excited to work with them as well! She also told us that she has a friend who wants to come to church as well! Honestly she is so ready! It was a huge miralce! 

We also had the opportunity to watch the special conference on missionary work! It was incredible!!!! The spirit was so strong and wow the videos! It made just want to go baptize someone! haha I dont know, there is just such a better way for us all to do missionary work and I loved the way they all explained it! Sharign the gospel can be so simple, we jsut need to look for the easy ways we can share it everyday! I honestly have such a desire to share the gospel here with the people of Spain, but I also all of a sudden just have a huge desire to get home and share the gospel with all of my friends. And I guess its just that... Before I understood the gospel and I knew it blessed my life, but here in the mission, I havent only seen it bless lives, but I have seen it change lives, and I always think of peopel at home that need the gospel in their lives! For now, I think I will stay here, but I think I now really understand the importance of the gospel. I love this gospel and I love my savior! 

Last but not least, I got a haircut.... Unfortunately I made the mistake of letter the Elders I live with cut my hair... yeah, I ended up just buzzing it... haha it was bad! But hey, just another good ole mission experience! haha Luckily I dont look half bad with a buzz so president wasnt mad with me, but I thought I was going to get a ton of crap from all the elders in our meeting today but once again I lucked out and no one said anything! Thats another great miracle for the week! 

Well Gents. I love you all! I know this is Gods work! And last of all the church is true and God loves you! Have a great week! 

Loves! 

Elder Carrigan

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

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

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

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