But in between all the stress, we’ve enjoyed some holiday fun.  We went to Celebration of Christmas by the BYU combined choirs & Philharmonic Orchestra at the beginning of December.  It’s always wonderful and is a great start to the season.  They had some really beautiful arrangements that just made me sigh.

I sang in the Alpine community Christmas concert last Sunday night, conducted by Marvin Payne, and got to sing with a bunch of my friends.  We had some lovely music choices and it really made me feel in the spirit of the season.

Tonight I’m sitting in the LDS Conference Center waiting for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert to start because we were lucky enough to get tickets. We walked around looking at lights on Temple Square after eating at Crown Burger, so it’s already been a fun evening.

Tomorrow we are at the Alpine Christmas show to see Todd McCabe & April Moriarty & friends, so that will be fun, too.

Monday is the Christmas book club lunch when I get to see my pals.  Can’t wait!

So it’s been fun with more to come.  Mark came home from BYU on Wednesday, Brian comes home on Tuesday, and let the party begin!

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.

10-11-2011
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.

9-13-2011
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 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!!!

7-12-2011
Viernes:  We taught this less active lady…and she fed us some dinner before we bounced over to the baptism.  The baptism was of…an investigator of the Sister’s.  I played piano and I also accompanied the Sister’s on a musical number.  I don’t know if I mentioned that Hermana Merrill is in my district (she is the one that I have played dozens of musical numbers in the mission for the past year), Christmas, Zone conferences, Transfer Meetings, baptisms.  But, we have never been in the same district, and so we have had a good time performing here.  Before the mission, she was in the BYU Singers, and she is a Voice major, and so she is very good.  The baptism turned out really nice and the so did the musical number.
Sabado:  Then in the evening we went to [a baptism].  This time, I sang at the baptism and Hna. Merrill played piano for me (this was a first for us, because I am always accompanying her).  The song was really, really good, and the baptismal service was powerful.  I also accompanied a Primary girl for another song for the service, so I had double duty.
Domingo:  Church!  I gave a talk in church which is always really good, because it helps gain the trust of the members, and then I also accompanied the Hermanas with another musical number.  So we did 3 different musical numbers in 3 days!

7-19-2011
Good week.  This transfer flew by.  Today is Elder Silva’s birthday so we are going to have a district activity and celebrate!  I saw your post on mormon.org, Mom!  YAY!  Now all the family is up there (minus me).  I have been directing my investigators that speak/read English to go to your sites, so they are being used .  Keep going strong, and never forget what makes this whole plan of happiness possible!  Personal revelation is real and necessary if we are going to make it through this mortal life.

7-26-2011
Well here we are again, starting a new transfer.  This is number 13 for me, and the news is that…..I am staying here in Mission Viejo!!!!  YAY!  I am super stoked, it is going to be really fun.  However, my companion is getting transferred so I will be getting a new one. So as of right now, I am going to have 3 1/2 transfers left (including this one).  Pretty nuts.

6-14-2011
Wow, so for my news….I am being transferred!  It was a shocker for sure.  I was not expecting that, not even for a minute.  I was only here in San Juan Capistrano for 6 weeks?!  Gah.  Well, I guess the Lord needs me somewhere else, so I am ready to go for it.  This area is insanely crazy, we have seen way more miracles than we have deserved.  This has been the most productive area that I have been in, and truly it has been a great experience.  On Sunday at the stake missionary correlation I was talking to President Cook and I am also being released as a Zone Leader!!!  Hallelujah!  I have been a Zone leader for 8 months.  It is time for someone else to be a zone leader too.  What President Cook told me was that I am going to be a district leader in a Spanish area (hooray), so that this transfer I can get to know the area and then for the rest of my mission I will train.  President wants to have the experienced missionaries be trainers because for awhile most of them were just really young and inexperienced.  This transfer there aren’t any Spanish missionaries coming in, so he is “arranging his pieces”, so that next transfer and the transfers that follow, I can train.  So that will be awesome, I am
really, really, really excited for that, but I am sad to leave San Juan.

6-21-2011
Ok so for the news on my transfer.  So now I am serving in Mission Viejo as the district leader of the Mission Viejo Spanish District.  I cover the entire Mission Viejo stake, and the ward that I am serving in, (the Mission Viejo 5th Ward), covers three stakes!  So there is one companionship assigned to each stake and there are 6 missionaries in the ward. We cover the cities of Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Ladera Ranch, and Wagon Wheel.  President Cook told me that they are putting me in position so that I can train here soon. The district is small, only 6 missionaries, and they are all great, so this will be a really nice transfer, where we can get a lot done!!  We have a full-time car (covering 4 cities), but the car got wrecked a few days before I got here, so we were walking and hitching rides until a few days ago when we got the car back.  The area has a ton of potential, and historically has always seen a lot of success.  Right now, we don’t have a whole lot going on, but we will see here in a little bit and hopefully we can get things rolling!

6-28-2011
I do now know my release date and everything.  So the official day (as of right now) is December 20th.  That is a Tuesday, so I will either stay in the mission home that night and come home on the 21st, or I will go home that day.
Jueves:  In the morning we had a MIRACLE!!!  We were going to check up on a referral in these apartment complexes and this 15 year old kid came out.  He was all like, they aren’t there, but you can teach me if you want!  So, we did, and we taught him about the plan of salvation and the Restoration and we invited him to be baptized and he said yes!!  We are working for July 30th!  He is awesome and has so much potential.  After him, a lot of our appointments fell through until we were able to teach one of our progressing investigators in the evening.  It was a really good lesson about the plan and she really felt the spirit strong.  Then after that we ran over to English classes and helped out with them, and then at the end we gave the spiritual thought.  The classes are so fun!  I love teaching English!

This work truly is the work of angels and miracles never cease to exist!!

(Click on any photo to see them all in a gallery).

Miercoles:  I was way tired and so I slept and then went to District Meeting and then we taught [a family] and then I came back and slept some more.  I felt really, really sick and decided that I shouldn’t go out and teach in the evening, so we made arrangements and I slept.

Sabado:  First, we went down to San Onofre State Beach to help with the state-wide Mormon Helping Hands service project.  We all donned the yellow vests and helped out.  I didn’t do anything crazy hard, so don’t worry, but it was nice to get out and to be doing something else.  It was really fun and then we went down to this beach house of someone in our ward to have shakes.

May 10, 2011
So, my infection hasn’t gone away yet, but I have only been on the meds for like 5 days, so hopefully here soon it will start to clear up.  I am super, super, stuffed up but doing well. I have been getting lots of rest.

Jueves:  In the morning we hosted this meeting for all of the leadership in San Clemente.  We made plans and set goals for the transfer as a zone and it was a very effective and productive meeting.  Then I came home and slept.

Viernes:  Weekly planning.  That went really well and then after that I slept some more.  At this point I was really sick, so that is when [the mission doctor] came over to the house and he wrote me a prescription for some medicine.  After him, I felt pretty sick and so I decided that I shouldn’t go out in the evening.

Sabado:  I went to correlation in the morning and then I stayed in all day.  Elder Thomas came and sat with me all day while Elder Gibbons and Ochoa went out and worked.  However, I did have some needed projects set up so we were able to do those.  We made this huge map of the stake with all of the ward boundaries in it to hang up on the wall, so that took a while.  I slept and then by 9, the other Elders had come back.

May 17, 2011

Miercoles:  I was still pretty sick, this cold just wasn’t going away. In the evening we went and we taught English classes which are SO fun!  I love teaching English classes. We also did this activity with all of the young women to kind of build unity and everything.  It went really well.

Jueves:  In the morning, we went to the San Clemente district meeting and then I had to take a siesta because I am still recovering.

Lunes:  Awesome day!  We were running all over the place.  At lunch, the wall hit me, and I just fell asleep and slept for like 3 hours.  Which was good, because then after that it was nonstop for the rest of the night.  It is raining today which is no fun, but it is a nice change.  San Juan Capistrano is such a cool city, I really like it a lot.  It has tons of history.

May 24, 2011

Some not so good news, yesterday I got pink eye .  No fun.  I am pretty sure that the next thing is going to be boils haha.  Today it hurts pretty bad, but it should blow over here in a few days.  Besides that, life is good.

Viernes:  I slept in, because my mono was killing me and I had NO energy.  Then we had to take our car up to Aliso Viejo because our check engine light came on, and so we weekly planned at some library up there in Aliso Viejo.  That night was sweet because Elder Gibbons got invited to a baptism in the Oceanside 5th ward, the ward I used to serve in.  So, because our stakes touch, we could go to it.  The cool thing was that I got to see a lot of my recent converts.

Sabado:  The end of the world!!!  So many people came up and talked to us about it.

May 31, 2011

Wow, we had such a great week!!  Our area is exploding.  Really, it is awesome.  I don’t think that I have ever seen an area like this before.  Even Escondido which was the gold mine of Spanish work, I think that this definitely rivals/maybe succeeds it.  The Lord truly is blessing us and his children here in San Juan Capistrano.  Our teaching pool right now is so strong!!  It is the strongest that I have had my whole mission.  We are getting legit member referrals every day it seems like and all of these crazy miracles are happening!!  It is so sweet!

So just so you know, my pink eye has now subsided thank goodness and I am doing much better. Apart from one tiny inflamed lymph node, I think that it would be safe to say that I am all of the way back to normal.  It has been 11 weeks now, and I feel much much better.  So yes, take heart in that I am fine and doing well.

Basically we are doing so good and for some reason the Lord is blessing us.  Just this morning, we got a call from the Mission office saying that someone called in from Irvine because the family that cleans their house had a Book of Mormon and they read it every night and they knew all of the stories and they want to be baptized, they just need to go to a church that meets in Spanish and in the afternoon.  WE MEET AT 1!!!  So we called him a bit ago and he was all up for it and we are meeting with him and his family tonight.  Wow.

I am doing so good here and I can’t believe that tomorrow is June.  Wow, it is going way way way too fast.