Brian

11-1-11
So, I am really excited about what is going on here.  I have been resorting to prayer, and counsel from leaders to know what the best path to take is.  We have been seeing tons of miracles too, in spite of everything, so that has been awesome.  I feel that I have finally figured out what true faith is and how to REALLY use it.  It is sweet.

11-8-11
District meeting, and I gave a really sweet training on miracles and faith.  It was one of my favorite trainings that I have given on my mission I think.  It was really powerful.  I called it, “Faith: Go Where the Miracles Are”.  It was sweet.

11-15-11
Miercoles:  We woke up at 5:30 to get ready for zone conference.  My last one.  I played piano, and President came over and whispered in my ear, “Elder Carey, we are extending your call for 18 more months”.  Haha.  They are really stressing out that there is no one that plays piano in the mission.  The conference was powerful.  It was strange being the oldest there.  Later Pres. used me in a training (on the fly), to come up and improvise some songs.  I had to play the same song different ways, it was an analogy for teaching.  After the training, the Assistants wanted to take video of me playing piano for some project that they are doing.

11-22-11
This week was the BEST week of my mission!  Really, it was. It was the best experience of my entire life.  You can’t put a price on missionary work.  I am so happy, the happiest that I have ever been in my entire life.

11-29-11
Thursday:  Thanksgiving!  It was so weird, because last year’s Thanksgiving seems like it was yesterday, and there we were celebrating it again.  Weird.
Saturday:  Rode our bikes down to Vista Village and did some really good contacting.  While we were there a lady contacted US and asked for a Book of Mormon.  For some reason, the only Spanish copy that we had was mine, this copy that I have been using for months, and I had been marking a certain way.  At first, I wanted to say that we would just come by her house and give her a new one, but she was leaving and getting on the train and it was pulling away, and so I just felt prompted to give it to her.  It is a pretty worn copy, but hopefully she will appreciate it.
So yeah, that was my week.  It all went really good, and it is really exciting!  Time is FLYING BY SO FAST!   I can’t believe it.  Missions are way too short.

10-4-2011
Lunes:  So we went over to [an investigator] in the morning and they said that they weren’t going to be able to have the baptism on the 22nd, so they wanted to see if he could do it on the 15th!  We were so stoked!  We have SOOO much work to do before that, but we are putting our faith in God and letting him do the work.  We are really excited for it.  Then we had some crazy finding experiences where we literally found Israel, God’s chosen people.  It was sweet.

10-11-2011
We had a killer week!  We were really, really stoked.  This one should be really good as well, and so we are really excited for the baptism on Saturday.  We decided to put forth our faith, and we sacrificed some stuff!  No music, no mail, 20 min. lunches, and God pulled through!  (He usually does).

10-18-2011
Alright so for the big news:   I AM LEAVING!  Yep, you heard it, I am being transferred again.  I don’t know what it is with me, but this will be my 8th area!  Crazy, huh?!  Most missionaries have 4-5 areas, but me, nope, I get bounced around a lot.  Also, the other news with this is that I will be training!

Second big news:  [Our investigator] GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!  It was sooo awesome.  The service was very nice and very powerful.  Very emotional. I played a piano solo of this arrangement that I wrote of “This Is The Christ”.  It was a debut, and it is way good.  I like it a lot.  Afterwards, we went over to their house and we had a little party with the whole ward (it was big), and that was fun!

10-25-2011
So….I am in VISTA!!!! I am back in San Diego County.  My area covers 1/2 of Vista, a part of Oceanside and a sliver of San Marcos. My companion has been out for 6 weeks, but serving in English, and so now he will finish being trained in Spanish. We were whitewashed and so that has been an adventure just getting around and finding everything.  We have a part-time car (first time in a year), and so that has been fun, pulling out the bike again and riding around.  I am also the District Leader of the Vista Spanish district, and so I will finish off being a district leader.

9-6-2011
Hey what’s up!?  This is Elder Carey here, still in Mission Viejo at least for another 6 weeks.  Apart from my Greenie area, Mission Viejo will be the longest area that I have had on my mission!  Crazy, huh?!   I get bounced around a lot.  So, this would be the first time in over a year that I have stayed in area for 3 transfers.  I am super stoked though because this is an awesome area and an awesome ward! I love it A LOT!  I am really excited.

9-13-2011
Jueves:  We were on the freeway getting off at an exit, when all of the power went out!  You may have heard about it.  It was so annoying!!!  We were in the car for almost 2 hours stuck in traffic, trying to get home.  GAH!!  It was miserable.

Sabado: We sped over to the church to get ready for the fireside!  WOW, it was a HUGE SUCCESS!!  I was not expecting it to turn out soooo good.  Before every song, we had readers that read scriptural passages from the Book of Mormon about the Savior, and then before the last song, someone was asked to bear testimony. As I performed the last song, we turned all of the lights off, and they prepared a slideshow that they projected on the screen with pictures of the Savior.  They had a lamp, so that I could play and sing.  It was REALLY POWERFUL, there were a lot of tears!  It was super sweet.  I arranged all of the songs for the concert, except the last three.

The fireside went like this:
I Believe in Christ on the organ/piano (my comp and I)
Jesus Once of Humble Birth (sister missionary singing/me accompanying)
A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief (Me playing/singing)
Where Can I Turn for Peace? (Relief Society Choir, me accompanying)
How Great Thou Art (Me playing)
Our Savior’s Love/I Feel My Savior’s Love (Missionaries, me accompanying)
In Humility Our Savior (Me playing)
I Stand All Amazed (Me playing/singing)
I Know That My Redeemer Lives (Me playing/singing)

9-20-2011
We went over to teach [an investigator].  We brought [a recent convert] w/us, and she threw down, it was AWESOME!  Man, there is nothing better than bringing your recent convert with you to lessons.  It is the best thing in the world.  The lesson was great, and we were really happy.

9-27-2011
Lunes:  District Meeting.  It went really well.  I talked about all of the ideas that I have tried over my mission about working with members.  We are excited to make things happen.  I am stoked for General Conference this weekend, it is going to be sooo good.

August 2, 2011
The work is going really well right now, we have a ton of potential investigators, and it seems like all these investigators are just being handed to us through these crazy miracles.

August 9, 2011
Yesterday, was the worst day of my mission quite possibly.  Why would [the investigators we’ve worked with for months] deny the things that they were feeling and felt?  Everyone was crying.  We left, I was still crying.   I didn’t get a hold of myself until after we got home.  I feel as a parent must feel if a child decides to abandon their testimony and leave.  It is awful.  I have had investigators drop me plenty of times before in my mission, I have had people yell/throw things/swear/punch just about everything.  But that was brutal.  But if anything, my testimony of the church is stronger.  In this battle literally against the very forces of hell, we have to be the strong ones.  I know my purpose.  I know that I am a Son of God and that I am on the Lord’s errands.  Although I am imperfect, and I struggle every day, I know who I am and what I can become.

August 16, 2011
We just barely got back from the Newport Beach Temple (the Lord’s beach house as it is referred to here), and it was great!  I love the Newport Temple, it is so awesome.  This week has been a week of miracles!  Truly, it has been incredible to see!  From last week’s letter being the worst of times, now it is the best of times!  [Our investigator] told us that after the meeting on Monday she felt awful, and she was really confused.  She decided to do what we told her to do and to read the Book of Mormon and to pray.  She got answers. She knew that everything was true.  I was crying, but this time they were tears of joy and of the Spirit instead of pain and heartache.  She was crying, we were all crying.  It was amazing. Wow.  It was such a powerful experience.

August 23, 2011
Multi-Zone Conference!  The 4 Orange County zones got together for zone conference because we were being visited by Elder Gibbons from the Second Quorum of the 70.  It was awesome!  I played piano (as usual), and he said some really nice things about my prelude, he talked about prelude music and the doctrine behind it, and the importance of it, for the first 15 minutes.  It was neat.  During lunch they had asked some people to share miracles that had happened recently, and [my companion] was asked to talk about [our recent experience] which was neat.  Then after lunch, I accompanied [a sister missionary] on the song that I wrote for the conference.  It was an arrangement of “I Stand All Amazed/Nearer My God To Thee”.  I had kind of done one similar before, but this one was WAY better and new and improved.

August 30, 2011
In the evening we went over and got ready for [our investigator from above’s] baptism!  It was incredible!  The most spiritual baptism that I have ever been to in my entire life.  Quite possibly one of the most spiritual experiences of my life.  It was amazing!  The service was awesome, I played piano and accompanied this girl that sang “Nearer my God to Thee”, and it was powerful.  Then I was privileged to be able to perform the ordinance of baptism, and it was such a sweet experience.  I have never seen anyone change so much in such a short time. It was incredible.  She was bawling, EVERYONE was bawling.  I have never experienced something like that before.  I have had a ton of spiritual experiences on my mission, too.  It was as if we were in heaven.  It was amazing.  One of the highlights of my mission!!!