From: Braydon Carter <braydon.carter@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Oct 15, 2018 at 1:43 AM
Subject: The Atonement is Real 10/15/2018
Hello Everyone!!
It has been a great week with a whole lot of lessons like usual. And as usual I am loving it more and more. I love a message I got from a young men's leader, who is a very dear friend to me. Like an older brother ;) He sent me an email saying that his mission was hard at the beginning but the longer he was out the happier he was. That is so true, the longer I am here the happier and happier I get. The more I learn, the more I trust God, the better I become!
This week really portrayed what mission life is like. Especially here in Malaysia and I am so excited to share it with you. First I need to share this picture!
This is a picture of me after riding through a massive storm. It is Monsoon season in this part of the world. Very different from anything you would see in Utah. The rain is massive and it comes down hard. But we just keep pushing forward. A lot of nights we will come home soaking wet. It's pretty awesome, and it keeps us nice and cool:) Then the thunder and lighting is just to die for. It's absolutely incredible. I love it. I really love the thunder, it's the most bass I get out in the mission field which is nice ;) But it is just so loud, and the lighting is so big and bright, I'm often scared I'll be struck by lightning one day. But I think I'll be ok! :)
Second story!
We had something pretty funny happen to us this week. So my companion and I really want to help, not just new people come to church, but really help the branch here in Sitiawan. So we often will visit members, or members that haven't been able to come in a while. It really helps the unity of the branch here in Sitiawan, and it's always nice to mess around with them and build good unity. So anyways we were looking for a member that we haven't met or seen at church. We had his address but the directions and structure here are a lot different than those in Utah. So we were struggling for a little bit, looking for the house. And we finally found it. Here is what we came to find:
THE ADDRESS WAS ANOTHER CHURCH! HA! I'm not sure if it was a joke, or if it wasn't the right address but we both just started laughing. Super big coincidence, and we still knocked anyways in the hopes of talking to a nice person.
Last story for the week, and then on to my spiritual note.
I think it's pretty easy to say, Missionaries are the enemy of Satan. Like I'm pretty sure he really doesn't like us at all. With that being said, he surely tries to do everything he can to stop us. Whether that be through personal trial and doubt or physical things. This week we had something super strange happen that we couldn't just help but laugh at. As we were riding our bikes down the street, I felt my bike acting really weird. It kept jolting. I thought it was just a brake problem, or maybe had something to do with my bike being wet. So we just continued. As we kept on riding, I noticed my peddling wasn't very effective and that it was harder and harder to peddle. It wasn't a brake problem but my peddles just were not cooperating. So I yelled at my companion and we stopped to see what the problem was. It was pretty obvious. Here's a picture:
Now I'm not sure if you can tell right off the bat, but peddles are suppose to line up with each other. As you look at that picture you can tell that they were not. In fact in that picture that was after I tried to fix it. When it actually happen they were both in the down position making it impossible to ride. I tried to fix it a couple of times but every time we would try it would just collapse again. So I took further inspection and this is the problem:
The inside of my peddle was ground down. It had nothing to catch on to so it would fall every time. So we just put a smile on our face and kept pushing forward. A lot of walking. But just kept giving it our all. We are having someone come over today to see what we can do, but for now we will just keep walking. Plus we have been able to talk to a lot of people which has been really good.
Now for my spiritual story for the week. The Atonement is real, and I never have cherished it has much as I do now. So because this is a new transfer ( Oh and by the way I am staying in Sitiawan :) ) I set some transfer goals for my language. Some really hard goals to say the least to really stretch myself. By the time I finish my mission I want to be able to go to China, or a Chinese speaking area and have no problem communicating. I want to be able to read, write, and speak the language. For 2 reasons, first Chinese is awesome. Not only awesome but the day that China opens to be a mission they will need a lot of people to help. I want to be a fulling functioning tool in God's hands to help the China area. I often think about when I return home helping them do some of the simplified translations. Right now they have mainly traditional due to Taiwan being super helpful in translating. But I want to be fully ready to help in any way I can. Secondly I love business and the Chinese people, and having a good understanding of the language will really help me in the business field. So every day I've been pushing really hard. And it's been rough. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don't, but I really leaned on the Atonement. And I have to say, if you aren't fully sure what the Atonement is, or have a strong testimony of it I heavily encourage you to use it. Before my mission I always knew it's purpose but never really used it. As I've been on my mission I have loved to rely on it to strengthen myself. It's like the Gospels own personal trainer for life. Plus you get the awesome benefit of the Spirit guiding you always and helping you grow. This week I really used the Atonement by being accountable. Every night I would look at my goal for the day, then look at what I actually did. Then through prayer I would talk with God about how I can improve, what I did well, and what to keep doing. And I promise you it's been the coolest thing. Every single day I just get better and better. I'm still far from fluent, and even further from perfect. But little by little I get better and better, and that's exactly what the Atonement is. Seriously it's the greatest blessing of all time. And I promise all of you as you learn to really use the Atonement, whether it be in studying, or fitness, or just becoming happier. As we work with God through the Atonement of Christ we become incredible people. Little by little, improving everyday.
My last thought for this week is I learned to just love to work hard. We had a day this week where I was pretty flustered. I wasn't doing good with my goal, it was hot, I was tired, I wanted to sleep, and for what ever reason I wasn't a happy companion. I was in a bad place. I wanted to just sit down and cry. But through silent prayer, and much pondering I just kept thinking and feeling. Just keep going. Give it your all. Push through it. And that night was amazing. Although we were walking we talked to so many people, just loving them and getting to know them. My companion and I started talking and building unity. The night was incredible and the spirit was so strong. Don't give up, there is light up ahead.
To end my email I want to say like always thank you. Thank all of you for your love, support, and prayers. It's felt, and helps so much! I also just want to say just keep pushing forward. Rely on God and really just look for the positive, and push yourself. There is so much joy to be found in growing, and even more joy to be found in the life around us. Use the Atonement, and learn to trust God. I promise you with my whole entire soul once you do those two things, life gets a whole lot better!
I love you all so so much!
我真的知道这教会是耶稣基督本来的教会。 透过祂的福音，透过祂的帮助我们可以有很多的快乐。我也做见证，我知道我们有一位天生的父。祂爱我们，而祂想要帮助我们有喜乐。我答应你们，透过祈祷而耶稣基督的赎罪我们多能快乐。我也知道摩尔门经是神的话。当我们读祂的话的时候，祂会给我们指引。神爱你们。
You are all so amazing!
Until Next Week!
Love,
Elder Carter
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