"For a Mother, It's Hard"

The following are Carter's mom's comments, followed by Carter's weekly email:

"Just wanted to share Carter’s latest email with you. This one REALLY got me crying!! Might even be my favorite mission email of Carter’s yet! See, THIS is why missions are so great for anyone who can go. It turns our goofy high school teenagers into these amazingly focused & spiritually grounded people who we then stand back in amazement wondering where they put the batteries & how do I get mine!

We learn from their examples in big & small ways over & over again. Even just this past week with Clark home, I found myself a little surprised (and very proud) as I took note of some of his insights & actions. This mission & time of service transformation is nothing short of a miracle to me. While also obtainable for each of us, without the mission structure, few of us would be able to come close to the levels of personal growth each brings home.

With Carter, he reminds me just how much I love that like our spirits, our testimonies can continually grow & different insights are always before us. Each time we might reach a new level of understanding within the gospel, it only opens our spirit to the next level now within our reach. Our knowledge then increases as does our desire. Of course none of this growth is ever possible without our Heavenly Father!

I am continually surprised by the growing weight of wickedness we are all feeling. Our only rescue now comes from our personal relationship with Heavenly Father. How very blessed we are to have a missionary right now who is out there standing strong with his brothers & sisters representing us! How grateful we are as a family that the work being done by Carter increases the righteousness of the world instead of taking away from it.
The gospel is true. We as members are extremely blessed far beyond our potential for understanding. The realization & fulfillment of our lives & covenants made, now lays squarely at our feet. It is our agency, our choices which determines where we stand. Now it is ours to be accountable for our actions or lack thereof. I choose to stand with Christ. -B"



"...So this week we went to Guayaquil for the Leadership Council Meeting! It was really awesome because President focused on the Atonement of Christ. He sent us all a Talk by President Uchtdorf which was really amazing and then in the meeting he showed us a bunch of pictures of Christ and asked for comments about them. One of them was Jesus on the Cross and Mary was fainted on the ground. When I looked at that I thought of myself and the difficulties that I may face as a missionary. And how hard it must have been for Jesus to have his own Mother watch Him die. It reminded me of a Gospel choir song we sang my Senior year, "Take my Mother Home". It made me think of how much Mary must have been suffering as well. For a mother it´s hard to even let a child go play at a friend´s house, let alone die on a Cross. As men, well at least for me, I never want to let my Mom see me suffer because I know how much pain it brings to her. Trust me I already know that because she saw me suffer 3 years of Chemotherapy. It impacted me pretty deeply and it helped me to have a deeper love for Christ. So ya. Christ is an incredible example of someone who finishes what He´s called to do, no matter the circumstances.

The other great thing about this week is that I had the opportunity to prepare and pass the Sacrament. While we were preparing "I Believe in Christ" was playing and it was just a super powerful moment for me.

Christ really is the center of everything in this world and the world to come. This is His Church and through and only through Him we can be saved. I know it´s true with all my heart and I testify of it daily! He lives!..."

Love, Elder Wilcox. :)

Unplanned Baptisms

     Well this week we had 6 unplanned baptisms!! :D 5 of them were planned for next week and one of them wasn't planned at all!! :D oh my goodness it was incredible. We went to a river and it was just super spiritual and amazing and I loved it and A TON of people went!! There were like 30 people there. Like whoa.
     Also on Friday the Assistants came to do an activity in the church where they showed the movie "Meet the Mormons" and it was INCREDIBLE!!!!!! I absolutely LOVED it!!! If you haven´t seen it yet go watch it!! As soon as I get home I´m gonna buy it and watch it 80 twenty times. I´m not sure what I mean by that but it´s gonna happen! :)

One Year!

     Well this week is the famous one year mark and it´s super weird! Like I don´t know anything and it´s already been a year! Like it feels like I left Santa Rosa like 2 months ago! Time is going fast and it´s kinda really weird!
     This week was another week of lots of working and looking for more people! We haven´t found much but we are taking good care of the people that we do have. Our amazing little family of 5 is progressing immensely and one of them already wants to go on a mission! Ah! :D He´s super cool. :)
The baptism went well. I had to do it twice because her feet came out of the water xD But it was a great experience because it´s a baptism! :)

Let's Get Married!

My week was pretty normal except for one day in particular... I think it was Tuesday but I went on splits with another one of the office missionaries and we went to his sector to go find new people to teach. We're going around just talking with whoever and we find this girl and she's about 20 years old and we start talking. Long story short, she asks me if I know how to cook (they get really distracted while we talk) and I said that I love to then she said, "Bueno, casémenos!" which means, Let's get married!" I had no idea what to say so we just said, uh... here's a pamphlet, go to church, bye! We basically ran away. Oh my gosh it was scary! So there's my interesting story for the week

It's a Boy!

     Well as you know my P-Day wasn't Saturday because I got transferred to the wonderful land of Naranjal!!! :D It's about two hours out of Guayaquil and it's a little town that has a little bit of everything to offer. My companion is Elder Cordero and he is from Bolivia and we get along great. He's my Step-Son! (Missionaries have a sort of lingo describing missionaries that are brand new or relatively new in the mission field. A "step son" is someone who was trained for one transfer previous by another missionary, then given another companion for their second transfer. A transfer is a period of 6 weeks.) Yep! I'm gonna finish training a new missionary! :D But this kid is super smart and he already knows like everything that there is to know. Like sometimes it feels like he's training me XD
     We're working with a family of 4 right now (Grandma, Daughter, and 2 grandkids.) and they are GOLDEN!!!! Their baptismal date right now is for Aug 15 but we're totally gonna move it up because they already have a few church attendances. :)
We had a baptism on Saturday who was Katty A. and she was SOOOO excited to get baptized! Like it seemed like she lived just for that moment in her life!

Corriendo por todos lados

     This week was super crazy!! So Monday was full of getting everything ready. Then a couple of the new missionaries came that night but their plane got delayed so I was in the airport with President and his wife for like 2 hours which was actually fun! The next I spent like $25 in taxi fare.... It was a lot! I went to the airport in the morning to do transfers for the Galapagos then I went to the temple to get a room ready for suitcases, then I went to the office, then I went to the airport again to get new missionaries, then to the stake center in Centenario, then back to the airport to pick up the new assistant who got transferred from the Galapagos! And then back to the stake center! Hahah It was a grand day. Then Thursday morning I went with President in his car to Machala!! It was awesome because it's like road trips with the fam. And President is just like a normal person and he kept cracking hilarious jokes xD Friday we came back to Guayaquil in his car as well and I asked him about a bunch of medical stuff and he explained a lot and it felt like to me that he answered a prayer that I didn't realize that I had about being a Pediatric Oncologist or not. Well the answer is definitely yes!!! I'm so doing it! President basically counseled me to do it so it's my future! No matter how long it takes I will become one!! Ya! MURICA!!!!! Haha speaking of America! We sang the Star-Spangled Banner in our Zone meeting this morning as the opening hymn! It was awesome! Also I found out yesterday that Boyd K. Packer died!! D: That's two apostles in my mission now! :( wah! I don't want him to go but he's gotta go teach the gospel to the lost spirits in the spirit world. He's gonna save so many souls there.

"The Right Place, at the Right Time"

This week was a great week of "Right place at the right time" One event in particular was when I was with Elder Haslam. We were running short on time and he just kept feeling that we had to go visit this guy in his ward who has cancer. Immediately I started feeling the need and desire to visit him too. We got there and his wife answered the door and her face completely lit up! "Elders," she said, "I've been praying that you'd come" WOW!!!! What an incredible blessing and opportunity it was for us to get there at the time that we were needed and to do what God needed us to do. We gave him a blessing and had to leave. But wow. It was truly incredible and humbling. I love being a missionary!!!

Here's my letter to President! Carter included his letter in Spanish again... Here's the translation:
     "As always I'm very happy to be here in the mission and for the opportunity to help the missionaries and my investigators. I love sharing the gospel and being an instrument in the hands of the Lord. Something specific this week was absolutely incredible!

     I was with Elder Haslam and we didn't have much time, but he felt very strongly that we needed to visit a member in the ward that is having a lot of difficulties with cancer. I immediately felt the same way. I knew that we had to go to their home. First we bought them some juice and cookies, and when we arrived, his wife came to the door and she just lit up. 'Elders', she said, 'I have been praying that you would come.' Wow!! How marvellous it was to see that God put us there in the exact moment to help and minister to his children."

"Well Flip Elder"

Dear Fans of Carter Wilcox,
     It is now mid August and there have been little updates to this blog. MY BAD! Here are his letters from least to most recent, with pictures thrown in intermittently. Carter has been transferred from the office to a new area where he is working as senior companion to a new missionary. He's loving life and the Ecuadorian members have commented multiple times on the caliber of man he is.

¡14/03/15 Y muchos fotos!

How are you? I hope you´re doing well. :) How was your week? My week was a little busy but it was all well in the end. Here´s how it went:

Carter decided to be funny and send out half of his email in Spanish this week. The translation is: "This week I did a lot for visas and passports of the missionaries and everything went really well. I almost had problems Friday, but we made an agreement and only need to go a few more times and everything will be good. I'm assuming he's talking about the visa office in Ecuador and visas for incoming missionaries. I also did almost everything I had to do to prepare for the finishing missionaries the other week and I'm excited to help another group of missionaries return home and start the next phase of their live."

It was super fun though! I love being Secretary because I get to help people more! 
I had a baptism last night! His name is Jabeth H. and he´s super awesome. We´re like bros now so it´s pretty sweet.
That´s pretty much it.

Love, Elder Wilcox

Carter with his companion Elder Romero and the Alvarado family.

Elders Romero and Wilcox

Elder Wilcox with the Assistants

Mickey lollipop

Ronald McDonald, agreeing to be baptized

"Huh?"

Elder Wilcox with his plaque,
"Mission President's secretary, Ecuador Guayaquil South Mission"

They found Subway!

"Nom nom nom"

With his trainer, Elder Rodriguez

The Catch-Up Game

     In an effort on our part to catch you up on Elder Wilcox's life in Ecuador, here are a select few emails from the past few months. Since the last blog post, his trainer Elder Rodriguez left and Carter was put with Elder Perez from Panama. He was with this companion when we talked with him on Skype Christmas Day. In updating Carter's Facebook page, many members have commented on his happy demeanor and how funny of a guy he is. :) We've also learned that he's had two other companions between his current companionship and Elder Perez. He has 8 months as a missionary already.
    Carter was transferred from Santa Rosa South to Guayaquil, where he is currently serving as the Mission Secretary to the President with Elders Espinoza (from Arizona) and Cayax (from Guatemala). As of this month he is now also the District Leader. He says it's hard and scary, but challenging and he enjoys it. (Office elders tend to have their mission office duties and then serve in a proselyting area after office hours.) Pictures of the past few months will posted sometime in the next week. Enjoy!:

**"Well this week came by huge surprise to me! I was living with the Zone Leaders at the time and the Assistants called and told them that I have transfers so I packed everything and went to the bus terminal the next morning. And as you know they told me that I´m going to be training to be the new Secretary and at first I just thought it was a joke but then they told me that it was really what was going to happen. Being Secretary is a lot of work but I also really enjoy it. It´s helping me be more organized in my life and teaching me how to do complicated things. Thank you so much for the opportunity that you have given me to do this!

**Hola Presidente!
Well this week was just another normal week! Not much new. Just teaching and preaching and all that fun stuff!! This week what the Lord has been teaching me is Patience. I live with my companion and one other companionship and they always pick at me like I used to pick at Kendle. (Bit of karma as well...) Holy cow they bug the crap out of me. But during my personal study I`ve been trying to develop patience and reading about how Jesus did things really helps me to control myself. I`m getting better but it`s still a work in progress.

**The week was SUPER busy!! I went to the airport 5 times this week!! 3 times to send missionaries home (Disobedient, trunky, and finishers) and 2 times to do transfers for the Galapagos Islands. Twas lots of times and lots of waiting.... Not much else happened after that. I also slept in the temple hotel (Note to the Reader: In other countries, members often travel long distances to receive temple ordinances. To help lower costs, some LDS temples have rooms where visiting members can stay for free) for a couple nights which was really cool. :)

**Well honestly, I don't remember a lot about the week... That's why I write things down!! Life as the Secretary is super busy but it's also SUPER fun!!! I get to talk to and meet lots of the missionaries and this coming week we have a new group of missionaries coming in and a group that's leaving so it's really cool to see brand new missionaries and their super scared faces and also the awesome stature of the missionaries who are finishing with honor. I also go to the airport a lot.... The transfers to the Galapagos are all coordinated and taken care of by me so it's fun to buy plane tickets and get people on planes and pick them up and what not! This week will be fun because I'll be sleeping in the Temple hotel pretty much the whole week!!! Super excited!!! Have a great week! Love you all!!!
Love, Elder Wilcox

**This week was a good week. We had a lot of lessons with and without members but not very many new baptismal dates yet. We're working hard and praying that we'll find that golden family that´s waiting. We are working with a family that wants to get baptized but just needs a couple papers to get married then we can baptize them. We also taught a lot of lessons to Less Active members and we had one rescue this past week with a goal of more this week."

But it's whatevs...

"I wish it was cold here! Haha this time of year is when it gets hottest here! We were in the Mission office last week and that`s why I didn't write. I've lost weight because of sweating and walking in the heat all day, I`m not sick. I`m not sure how the call for Christmas will be but I will let you know when I know :) I understand like almost everything but ya speaking the language is a lot harder but it`s coming along. People tell me that I`m doing WAY better than other Gringos that they've known but it`s whatevs.. (Carter's dad and older brother also didn't have too much trouble with the language, apparently it runs in the family) I just wanna know the language ya know?? Yes there`s a lot of English speakers in my zone but we all speak Spanish whenever we talk any way so it doesn't make that much of a difference. Ya the box hasn't come yet but I`m sure it`ll come some day. (Carter's mom sent him a box about a month ago, and it still hasn't made it to him yet)

This week was another week of looking for more and more people to teach. This week we didn't have as much success as we would have liked but we`ll keep trying. One of our baptismal dates for this week is proving to be a bit of a challenge because of the religious leader he had in his other faith. But we`re working hard on him along with the sisters and I hope all will go well for his baptism this week. We also have a family that is getting married today so that they can get baptized this Saturday as well and I`m really excited about it!"

Yep. That's Carter

End of Transfer 1 in Guayaquil

"Hey everyone, sorry I don`t have time this week at all. I`m in Guayaquil right now (Just for the day, I don`t have transfers) and I only have time to write to the President and to send this one email. Hope you all have a great week and I love you all!! :)

Letter to Pres:
This week we kept working with the families that we had and we also found another man named Miguel A. and we put in a baptismal date with him for the and we`re really excited about him because he has a really strong desire to learn and he`s super receptive to everything. He also asks questions so it`s a great opportunity to teach him. I`m still learning more and more Spanish, of course as I probably will be for the rest of my life and I seeing the hand of the Lord in my life in helping to open my mouth and speak a language that I barely know.

Have a great week!! :)
-Elder Wilcox"

Latest Baptism

He's been in the country for less than 3 months, already has a jersey.

October 27, 2014

"This was a really good week for finding people. We found a family on our own and we put in a few baptismal dates for the kids and we have the permission for them so we just need to keep working hard with them. The parents aren't married so we won`t focus as much on them but if they will join us for lessons it would be great. We also found another family and we`ve only talked with the parents and we've made a little progress with them but not much has happened with them yet. The District Conference was really great and I enjoyed listening to all of the talks and especially the musical numbers. I felt the Spirit so strongly during the last song. Yesterday as well we had a lot of investigators in the church and it was a great sight.

Also Pres came to our zone and gave us a training which was super awesome. He´s such a spiritual guy and I feel super lucky to have him as my mission president!!"

October 13, 2014

"We just have the assistants and the ZL`s bring the mail when there is some. I got a letter from Ensley and that`s it so far. You can look up how far away I am. I`m in Santa Rosa, Ecuador so just look it up on Google Earth. Like, the Peruvian border is about an hour away from me by bus and the Mission Home is in Guayaquil which is 4 hours away. THIS IS THE REPORT TO MY PRES. There`s not much in it:

This week we had another baptism. Her name is Milena R. and she was a reference from the Hermanas and the reason she didn`t get baptized before was because she wanted to be baptized in a river so we set it all up and she was baptized and it was a really great experience. Our numbers are low right now and we`re trying to work as hard as we can. I`m still learning Spanish and all the scriptures for the lessons and the techniques but it`s coming along and hopefully I can have them all down soon. This week was also my birthday and it wasn`t any different from another day except that it was Milena`s baptism"

¡Muchos fotos!

     This week we had another baptism! It was super cool and we went to Arenillas to baptize him in a river. The Hermanas also had a baptism this week. Their baptism was an investigator that my companion had taught with his last companion and that fell through while she was in the baptismal font but the Hermanas went to her house a lot and they helped her to get baptized. It was a super spiritual experience that I´ll always remember. Also I had my first Bible Bash this week. I didn´t talk much because I´m still learning Spanish but I understood what was going on. We left soon after I realized it was a Bible Bash because it was escalating. Our investigators are progressing well and we might have another baptism this week if Maximiliano attends Conference on Saturday.

     How´s everyone? By the way, to send packages, make sure there is the green sticker on it and make sure there are stickers of Jesus on all the edges and cracks so the mail people don´t open it and steal stuff.

Elder Wilcox

'Dem Baby Blues

¡Hola amigos y familia! This is what we got from Carter this week: 

"My comp is from Colombia. His name is Elder A. Rodriguez He speaks some English which is nice so we can communicate a little better. My apt is ok. It´s nicer than most of the buildings here but you know not like America but it´s whatevs. The area is big. My comp says that I´ll never see all of it. The ward is super nice and they all know who I am because of how white I am. Food is always soup, rice, and a little meat. And you get a spoon to eat it all. That´s everyday pretty much. The other day I drank Malta (for those of you who haven't tried malta, it's gross). Ask Dad what that is. He´ll explain. I baptized another person on Saturday. Her name is Nathaly and I think it´s really funny becase she totally has a crush on me because of my eyes. Everyone tells me that my eyes are super pretty and cool. It´s pretty funny. The showers are still cold and it´s still super humid. Everything is still in Spanish and I´m still learning... I´ll send pics"

Carter with Nathaly and Elder Rodriguez

¡Ecuador!

Carter's emails continue to be a few sentences so we're having a hard time getting long emails for actual substance. Here are some snippets from a letter we got from his mission president, President Torres

    "It was a very special experience to personally greet your son, Elder Wilcox, at the airport upon his arrival in Guayaquil. We were impressed by his great spirit and desire to serve. We are grateful and humbled to have him serving here with us. 

     From the airport we took him and the other missionaries downtown to the Guayaquil Temple for a picture.  We then went to a stake center to meet the office staff and take care of some paperwork, and orientation.  We enjoyed a great Ecuadorian dinner after which it was my privilege to interview your son as well as the other arriving missionaries.  What a nice experience it was to get to know your son and feel his outstanding missionary spirit!"

Carter was sent to his first zone, Santa Rosa South. His companion is Elder Rodriguez. Shortly after arriving he was able to baptize Myra C. in Spanish. He was pretty excited that he was able to recite the prayer in all Spanish too. That's all the details we have about the past week. Hopefully we'll start to get more consistent lengthy posts! Write him a letter and you can get your own details on what's going on in Ecuador.

Carter with the other arriving missionaries

Birthday Cake Game

Carter with his trainer, Elder Rodriguez

Aftermath of the Birthday Cake Game

Two sisters who were recently baptized.

Guayaquil Temple

MTC Week 4

     I'm doing good. Spanish is coming along but I'm not fluent yet. I was made District Leader on Sunday and in Spanish class our teacher has us write down our progress and mine was the lowest so he got a little upset because I'm the DL and I need to lead the group so I set really high goals for the week. I'm going to learn 300 new words, 40 new phrases, 10 new scriptures, and 10 new grammar principles. It's going good so far but we'll see if I can make it! 

Spiritual moment this week:

     So on Sundays we watch a movie right? For a devotional and they're awesome and ya? Well this week it was all about the Salt Lake Temple. It was made in the 90's and it's really cool. It just showed the struggle and how many times they had to restart and all the people sacrificed. Some guy lost his arm while working on the Transcontinental Railroad so that they could get the material to the temple site faster. One part I really liked was when it said that the temple connects families now and in the past and then it went to talk about the angel Moroni and remember how we have an ancestor who worked on that? I don't even remember his name but it was really cool to get that testimony of the temple. So treasure the temple and go as often as you can.

Carter's MTC Zone

Carter's District

Carter's MTC Companion