LAST Phone Call Home

As you know, missionaries are allowed to call home on Mother's Day & Christmas...so yesterday was Elder Carter's LAST phone call home...here are some highlights:

Business first, flight info? I won't know until I get to the Mission Home in Londrina on Tuesday. It's probably a Delta flight. All I know is we leave for Sao Paulo Wednesday morning & sit in the airport all day long. Then we take the "red eye" into Miami, it's about a 9-10 hr flight. From there we will probably go through Dallas or Denver. I do know that I'm the first one in my group to actually get home. I'm scheduled to arrive in Sacramento at 1:25 PM Thursday, May 15th.

What is your schedule like these next few days? I'm pretty much done - today was my last appointment. I said goodbye to the members. I got a nice thank you letter from Annie. Tomorrow (Monday) I will do my laundry & pack, then we leave for Londrina Tuesday. I have my interview with President Leal & he will give me my temple recommend before I leave. I'll get to see all the elders I came out with, that will be cool. We will be on the same flight home then we will probably go our seperate ways in Miami. Elder Riley (my roomie at BYU-I) is Assistant to the President right now. He's a good guy. I'm looking forward to seeing him & Elder Thomason & Pack. They are both from Rexburg. When Pack was younger, his home teaching companion was David A. Bednar. How many people can say they were home teaching companions with an apostle?

What do you want to eat when you get home? 7 layer dip - I've been thinking about it for weeks now. Other than that, whatever...

Are you nervous about coming home? No, I'm ready. It's gone by fast - actually the days go by slow, but before you know it, it's Sunday again - so in that case it's gone by fast.

Have you grown at all? I don't know if I've grown any taller...at one point I had gained 25# but it went straight to my stomach. Didn't get much chance to work out except with my one companion that was a fitness nut. I played basketball the other day & I dunked it...of course the rim was only about 8 1/2 feet...Brazilians are short.

What are you looking forward to most? Warmer weather. It's really starting to get cold here...it's almost winter.

What area will you miss the most? Arapangas. All the members are really nice there. Some areas are kinda snobby. Southern Brazil has bigger cities & the people are more educated & worldly. We don't baptize as many people as they do in Northern Brazil. Number wise, my mission is average, but they baptize way more in the North. Did you hear that they are building a temple in Manoas? It's right on the river. People don't take buses in the Amazon, they travel by boats everywhere. The Manoas temple will be the only temple in the world with a "port!" I had a companion from Northern Brazil & he said that it took you a day to travel downstream & 2 days to travel upstream.

What do you hear from your friends? I hear from the Maughan twins a lot. They have been out about a year now - so has Danny Beesley. Nick Ferguson comes home at the end of May, Nate Smith comes home in July, Langloy comes home in August. I haven't heard from Ricky Messman since he's been home.

Ty had a few questions for us, too. "What's the price of gas there?" Just under $4/gal, unless you drive the Infiniti - super unleaded is about $4.19-4.20/gal. (He was surprised & said it wasn't that bad in Brazil but food prices have shot up in the past few months. He says they export way more than they have to go around & the prices have gone up a lot.) He wanted to know "what cars we still had around the house?" Dad told him that we still have all the same cars around but he will have the Geo cleaned & gassed up waiting for him. He asked Terri "if there are any hot girls in our new ward?" (He said he'd already asked Mom, but didn't trust her answer.) She told him that they were all 16, too young for him. He wanted to know "what the schedule would be like when he got home?" We will have a little "greeting party" waiting for him at the airport Thursday, a family dinner Friday, leave for San Jose Saturday for his interview with President Hunter, attend Jon Hall's reception, high council report & speaking in the old home ward Sunday AM, a family luncheon at G'ma & G'pa's afterwards, dentist appointment that next week. (He said that dentist appointment was not going to be a good meeting. What he really wanted to know was if he'd have some time to hang with Steven Jensen while he was there - of course!)

Only 3 more days...yes, we're counting!!!