More pictures from Kyler rcv'd 8/30/08

About to sing---------------------our handy work

left: Elder Davis drew a random picture w/ weird shapes & we turned it into a missionary

right: A peaceful outdoor study. Went out for some fresh air but apparently we sat too close to the garbage b/c it STANK!!


left: Classroom grammar contest. I wish I could say I dominated, but I really didn't... LOL!
right: Hma Beltran's about-to-leave talk! She went to get married in Mexico!
Tie Streamers! Awesome!

The ROLLA HOLLA!! Tuesday, 8-26-08

Friends, Family, Loved Ones! THE CHURCH IS TRUE! I'd be willing to bet that is the SINGLE most used line in missionary letters home. And do you know why? Becauyse NO MATTER the fledgeling nature of one's testimony upon EMBARKING on this work, the FAITH that it takes for us to be here, QUALIFIES us to see great miracles. here's a poem that I love (it's in French originally so it doesn't rhyme): He said "come to the edge," and we said "we can't, we'll fall."He said "come to the edge," and we said "we can't, we'll fall."He said "come to the edge. We came. HE PUSHED US!...and we flew! I'm just writing to let you know that all is well out here at the edge. We find ourselves there everyday. The work is hard and we, even at the MTC, TAKE ourselves to our very limits, to the very edge of our ability. And when we can come no further, when the handcart of OUR life comes to a screeching halt because every muscle and tendon and sinew is SAPPED from the constant strain of pulling...He pushes us, and WE FLY! And THAT is how we know. It's simple, really: we see things in OURSELVES that we never knew were possible! Things that WEREN'T possible, on our own. Anyhow, the week has been good. Often, MY OWN expectations are too high, or i set them such that they always stay a few yards ahead of me. But I'm learning, every night when I pray and ask if God was satisfied with my work that day, to be a little more joyful in the successes that I DO have, yet still determined to overcome the difficulties that beset me! I have VERY little time today, so I'll breeze through some fun and cool things this week. I may NOT have told you all that Elder Oaks came and spoke to us. His inspired message was on the sacrament. He even said that EVERY member should have the prayers memorized. He also said that we should come to Sacrament meeting having ALREADY repented for our mistakes that week. Those are two things that I NEED to change! I tried to apply them last Sunday, and the results were awesome. Sacrament meeting was much more spiritual, my repentance (for lots of little mistakes) was deeper and more refreshing. Overall, I KNOW that this is one way to deepen our worship and love for this Gospel. I may have mentioned this, but I don't think I did: Elder Davis is the package KING! Our room is LADEN with candy (I'll send some pics of it this Friday). Anyhow, one package came with some Wacky Flavored Jelly Beans: skunk, pencil shavings, boogers, and other stuff like that. We invited the Zone Leaders in to give them some. They wouldn't, of course, but they were glad to take them around and get EVERY other room to have some. We didn't want to waste too much time so we stayed in our room, but for the next hour we heard "come on...come on...," and then screaming, "OHHHH!!! He did it! He did it! Look at that face." It was pretty funny. Lots of crazy stuff goes on at night in those residence halls: all of it hilarious, of course, but also contrary to our purpose while we're here. For example, we get these giant rubber band type things to exercise. Well, one set of Elders tied it to the Pull up bar in the hall, and the other end they stretched to their doorknob. Then, they pulled it back and slammed it shut, right as we were coming home from a day of classes. The three of us were like, uhhhhh...ok. Don't get me wrong, we have fun, but there is a dangerous line that is important not to cross. I think it is better to be on the safe side, than always toeing it. You all may or may not know, but I'm the king of finding pens! I came here and unloaded my bag the first day and my Comps were like HOLY COW, when they saw the beautiful array of pens that I have. they didn't believe me that I had a gift. But now they know. Every day, or so, I see a pen on the ground. I look at it, and then i just smile at my comps. And by now, they know that smile: it's the "I've been blessed with another pen" smile. What can I say, though, we each have our gifts and we are meant to use them in this most important work...lol. On a more serious side again: I've been working hard and really not WORRYING about talking and socializing with other Elders. This week, though, my goals have reflected a desire to be MORE of a social and loving missionary. I've been trying hard to TALK to more other Elders and learn about and from them. It's been really great! I want to end by telling you all about prayer. It's real! The more we practice, the nearer to perfect we can become at this most important communication between us and God! I am learning to hear HIS voice more clearly and frequently, in HIS way. Generally it is by a feeling in my heart or an ENTIRELY new thought in my head. But, almost EVERY night, when I pray, I am drawn to things that I can do, specifically, to improve the next day. Every morning, when I pray about what topic to study, I follow the first idea that comes and it ends up being EXACTLY what my heart needed for my goals that day, or to overcome the sins of days past. It is such a blessing! And it's not just me. Everybody can have this. We are PROMISED this. We have been told that we live FAR below our privileges with the Spirit. This is SO True. That feeling, that indescribable feeling, brings joy and comfort and knowledge to a sometimes OVER stressed heart and mind. USE IT! Pray! Even if it's been a while. Pray tonight! Pray now! You will be blessed! I love you all! Thank you so much for your love and support. Keep it up! I look forward every day to see if I'll get mail to hear about your lives. Oh, on that note, PLEASE, include your b-days and addresses when you send me mail. I want to be able to write back and to wish you happy birthday on your birthdays! Again, use dearelder.com, it rocks! I love you all!
Elder McCarty III
Picture Commentary:
1.L to R Me, Elder Davis, Elder Prettyman (crazy eyes)
2. Blonde Hermana (a visitor). & Elder Prettyman is out of the picture but otherwise a normal hymn-time after 12 hours of class
3. Ready Set.... (Chalkboard grammar racing)
4. Hma Beltran. our teacher, and I
5. In this one you can actually SEE our Hermana, Hma Strasser

First pictures from the MTC

Here are the first pictures from the MTC from Kyler. He did not write anything about them. Looks like he took them himself. He is, as usual, displaying his creative photo expressions...

The Rolla Holla

Life is an adventure. EVERY day of it! Sure, the adventures come in many different shapes and sizes: this part of my life LOOKS rigid and structured and repetitive, but is ALIVE with new personal frontiers, while the coming part consists of foreign lands, strange surroundings, and a clear purpose. NO MATTER the superficiality or depth of the adventure, "all these things shall give [me] experience, and shall be for [my] good." (D&C 122:7). Some Business for everybody: I'm sending home 3 pictures today, hopefully my beloved Mom will be able to scan them in and send them to you. Also, another batch is coming this Friday, so I'll send them next Tuesday. Also, all of the 8 Elders in my district get these letters from "Dearelder.com." They said it is free and you just go online to the website, type in the e-mail and send it to me, and it shows up the next day! Cool, eh? It will also continue to work through pouch mail once I'm in Paraguay. Anyhow, it feels SO good to get letters throughout the week, so I'd love it if you used that. Oh, and I'm going to devote my e-mail time to the Rolla Holla and to printing off my e-mails. So, my immediate family may send me their e-mails and I'll WRITE letters back. If you write me, you WILL get a letter back. i love those ongoing correspondences the most!

So, We sent off another group of missionaries this week. The Elders that welcomed us in are now mostly gone. There is a tendency here towards pride, and it seems like the most RIDICULOUS attitude to have. But, any missionary who's been here more than 2 weeks AUTOMATICALLY assumes they know everything and are therefore somehow superior to others. We have avoided that pretty well in our companionship. More than anything, it's hilarious to me to see these OTHER Elders who put their confidence on the sandy foundation of self. Of course, in reality, it's more sad than funny, and I TOO have a pretty full reservoir of pride to drain. Anyhow, one of those Elders left. His name was Elder Greene. His Visa had been delayed and so he was here for 13 weeks. 4 weeks EXTRA! Needless to say he was a bit discouraged as the weeks wore on. On his last Sunday here, he slept through church, and was generally disobedient to the rules. But, when his visa came, I saw an amazing change. Suddenly he wanted to LEARN again. He asked everyone advice and to help him learn and grow. His last two days served as an awesome example to me of charity and love and diligence. I always knew he was a smart and capable young man, but it was awesome to see him change into a GREAT servant of our Heavenly Father.

Well, the Spanish is coming along awesomely. I love it. Everybody, including me, is amazed by how quickly I'm picking it up considering my ONLY having studied it personally. Everybody in my class and district has at LEAST 3 years, and some have extensive college study of Spanish. I am truly being blessed with fluency and remembrance. THE GIFT OF TONGUES IS REAL! Last week we taught Lesson 1 in Spanish and now we're working on Lesson 2. It is so much fun for me! We set a goal to ALWAYS talk in Spanish as companionship. Every 5 words someone says, they have to iron the other two companion's shirts. It's funny, and we're not perfect. But we're improving! Elder Prettyman, I discovered, was a student at "That school down South," which we don't like to name. I found this out after describing BYU as the school where the girls are girls and the boys are too. We've been having some fun banter about it. Deep down, though, I think he knows the truth. But hey, we can't all be perfect. In fact, one day we had an AWESOME conversation at lunch about returning from a mission (a bit soon, I know, haha). We talked about all the RMs we knew and their resolve to remain spiritual and disciplined RIGHT after their mission, and then immediate falling back into NORMAL life. We decided that these days, the world is such that if you aren't at least a LITTLE peculiar, you probably aren't doing something right. I love my district. We are 7 Elders and 1 Hermana (Sister) large. It is great. We are all really close and, as I mentioned last week, I LOVE singing the hymns after every 12 hour day. There is a lot of love in that little classroom which has become the place where we spend our LIFE for now. The companionship is also going well. I'm learning a lot about EVERY relationship in life. We started doing NIGHTLY companionship study. I'm basically begging my comps, as a favor to me, to tell me what little annoying or frustrating things I do throughout the day, so I can overcome them and be a better friend and companion. it has been great and we have grown a lot closer through it, and there is almost NO tension now throughout the day.

We got new teachers. That is very abnormal. Each district has 2 that take them from infancy in the mission, to preparedness. But, both of ours got married and left. We threw a party for them, with our limited resources. Everybody bought candy from the bookstore and drinks and we made a card. Then, the big day came and I had a brilliant idea. After we'd left the class for a practice teaching appointment, we had the District Leader, Elder Palmer, stall the teachers, and my roommates and I went and grabbed ALL of our ties (probably like 50). We ran back and tied them together and made a HUGE tie streamer, to decorate for the party. Pics will be coming. It was AWESOME! Overall, I am just so happy right now. I know it is an ABSOLUTE miracle that I have the strength and endurance to do as much work as I'm doing every day. Thank you so much for your love and support!

Elder McCarty

Rolla Holla! 8-12-08 The MTC Roller Coasta!

Oh family! The outside world. I found out yesterday, for the first time, that you DO still exist! It was so good to hear from some of you. Distance makes this heart grow fonder for each one of you EVERY DAY! So many fun and exciting things go down at this MTC. Some quick cool ones: Ok, check this out. So, one day my companion Elder Davis and I are teaching a lesson, and I look at one of his thumbs and it's half the size of his other one. So, I'm like ELDER, what the heck is up with your thumb? So, it turns out when he was young he got it slammed in a sliding van door. The thumb was utterly obliterated, so they had to put somebody else's TOE on in it's place. CRAZY! And it really looks like a little minerature Thumb Toe. Hilarious. So, I laughed for like 20 minutes at that. Unbelievable right? Well, it totally seemed plausible to me. Then, 3 days later he tells us it was all a LIE! It's just hereditary. Then I realized how crazy the story was, and I laughed again for a good 15 minutes, both times to tears. I love my companions! Oh, one experience that I love is a tradition in my residence Hall. Every Sunday evening people are preparing to leave the next day. So, we gather in the Pasijo, or hall, and sing Hasta Ver together, and then they bear testimony. It's a powerful experience every time. There's a gap between those that just left and my district: we are nearly the most Senior Elders here now. Crazy! After only 2 weeks! Oh, here's a fun fact about my stay here at the MTC: every day we walk from our building to our classroom (where we spend 12 hours of the day either in class or studying). On the way we pass a statue of the Church's first missionary, Samuel H Smith, with his Book of Mormon and Nap Sack. Every time, without fail, one of the Trio will say something like, "Looking chipper this morning Samuel," or "Had a rough night, Sammi ma boy." It's gotten kind of ridiculous, but we always laugh at it. Hey, we're 19-21 year old boys trapped on a campus of learning, what would you do :-) ! I also love the tender mercies we see here. While here I've seen the brightest rainbow of my life, heard the best a capella harmony after a 12 hour day of classes, heard my companion play beautiful hymns on the piano while I study, and most of all, over and over, felt peace. It's so wonderful! And yet, It's a rollercoaster of emotions here at the MTC. Lucky for me, the steady hand of my Savior keeps me moving onward and upward, working hard, through pain, fear, or inadequacy. I had a TIRING bout with the last of these at the end of last week (Fri and Sat the 8th and 9th). I was working hard, learning a lot, but felt the STRONG need to do more. I was HARD on myself, and I mean hard. My comps noticed my renewed, less jovial, more soul-gasping disposition (that's the best way I can think to describe it). As I beat myself up and drove my internal engine HARDER and HARDER, I got quieter and more introspective. THEN, in a moment of clarity, I saw, after only a day or two, the pain I was causing (which remained, albeit, ENTIRELY beneath the surface) by my quiet isolation. I SWIFTLY apologized. Thus humbld, I was able to look over my planner and SEE that I was in fact LESS successful or effective when I was so hard on myself. I saw that the narrow peephole of focus on ME ME ME, through which I was seeing the world, was acting as a blinder to my own progress and happiness.
BUT seeing and helping with the problems of OTHERS brought me into the light. I became more happy. BUT, and here is the revelation, I was also able to develop a plan, a broad vision, beyond the here and now, one from 1000 feet. now, my actions are coordinated in harmony to achieve those Week, month, MTC, or mission goals. I don't stress or beat myself up. I'm happy. I'm productive. Life is good. And so the week continued on. I got a LOT more done. Then, yesterday, receiving your letters and love, SHOOK me out of something I didn't even know I was in! I had forgotten who I was -- Kyler McCarty, the person. And YOU reminded me. I read your letters and was full of joy and renewed EXCITEMENT to compliment my happy effectiveness. And this all in less than one week! The MTC really is holy ground. It's like a magnifying glass that shows me my weakness and then refracts the light of my heavenly father to burn them away. They truly become my strengths (Ether 12:27). And trust me, it's not just this place. Not EVERY Elder here experiences this phenomenon. I've been working hard with the help of my Savior. I know that EACH of us can experience this growth. The scripture above SHOWS that it is our promise! I have the opportunity to devote ALL my time to it right now, and being stretched this quickly takes a lot out of me. But the way God intended us to live is to always, consistently, and STEADILY do this. I invite each of you to set goals and grow. Not only is it good for you, but MAN IS IT FUN! No matter where you are emotionally or spiritually, God wants you to grow and is just waiting for you to ask him to help you!
I love you all! Keep those letters coming!
Elder Kyler James Rolla McCarty
(no spell check, no time, Sorry!)

THE ROLLA HOLLA!!

The MTC is an experience as foreign as traveling to a distant land. I've been hit with a whirlwind of experiences. I've tried to reach up and pull a few down for the rest of you, but I'm afraid all too many of them are in the back of my mind, only available when I'm reminded of them. But today is P-day, and so I have the 20 minutes they give us here on the computer to relate them all! But, here they are: Week one highlights! Day 1: After I left you all, I stood in lines for about 2 hours, giving and getting different papers and forms. But, while I was there I met two Elders going to Fiji. I'm convinced they only send Elders there that can defend themselves because they were both over 6 foot 5. We had a fun conversation and formed what has so far been an MTC friendship (whenever we see each other). After the lines, I went back to my room, wondering why I had 2 Elders listed under companions. I'm in what the other Elder McCarty termed a "tripanionship." At first I wasn't too big a fan of the situation. Elders Davis and Prettyman had met and learned all about each other's lives and were LESS than enthusiastic about repeating all of the same things again. But they did, and I tried to stay positive.

The rest of that day we had orientation meetings and throughout, Elders P and D (as I'll call them) got to know each other better, and began what has become a deep and effective companionship. Brother Morris, the first counsellor in our branch presidency told us a lot of things. Two struck me with the spirit: (1) Was what Samuel told the lord in First Kings, I think, after repeatedly hearing a voice in the night and arising to see from whence it came. Once he FINALLY realized it was the lord, he said "Speak Lord, for Thy servant heareth." I felt deeply that I TOO needed to be MORE open to those whisperings, by being ready to HEAR and act no matter what they said. I've determined to write a statement of "What I'll do if Given Revelation...EVER!" That way, both the Lord and I know what will happen when that day comes (as it so often has before, and I have acted only with mediocre consistency). (2), and these will have to be shorter to get through them all, but Brother Morris also said that a General Authority had said that Satan can imitate the Burning in the Bosom, but not Peace. This is so True. No feeling can replace the PEACE this gospel brings: knowing that no matter WHAT happens, everything will be alright!

After these meetings, we had our first meal in the cafeteria and MAN are they great! Unlimited food! You get a tray at a time! So, we went to our lines and sat down. I picked up my cup of juice that was in the buffet line (unlike the fountain type juices on the side), and was excited to drink it. So, I lifted it to my mouth while listening to the conversation going on around me. After about a minute and starting to wonder why it wasn't coming, Elder P said, "Elder, are you trying to drink your Jello?" Of course, my glance went from the other elders to the inside my cup, and sure enough, there was the jello, just a-jigglin. I broke out in laughter, and so did the entire table. I was in tears by the end of it. Yes, humor comes easily and often here in the MTC, probably because we are all so ready to smile and to cry, and to enjoy our time in this constantly spiritual environment. Later that night our Mission President told us that "if you never have a dream, you will never have a dream come true." It's a quote I'd heard before and had been struck by before. So, I did as the spirit directed and wrote a card that I carry with me. One side says "The End Game," and the other describes what kind of missionary is the best missionary I can be. That is the direction in which I focus ALL my efforts now. In fact, briefly, I developed a system of 5 areas of growth while I'm here: G-A-T-E-S, or Gospel study, Attribute development, Teaching skills, Espanol, and obtaining the Spirit. Yeah, some were stretched to fit the acronym, but MAN has it been helpful.

Well, Day 2 came, and many more instances of me feeling the holy ghost: a piercing, burning feeling, deep in my heart. Sometimes it leads to tears of joy, but more often to adamant determination to do good! We watched a movie called The District, or real recordings of Elders and Sisters in the San Antonio Mission Field. I felt the spirit as the Elders testified that, "Jackie and Kaleb, God loves you SO much," or as one Elder described a blessing he'd received as "The most beautiful blessing I've ever heard," and I thought of blessings I'VE given, and miracles I'VE seen. Because, family and friends, I HAVE seen them. If you wonder whether they occur, I testify that they DO! Take my word for it, until you see them yourself, because you WILL. I know that! Well, with lots of study and learning, and HUGE improvement in my Spanish, day 5 came along. It was Sunday and I had a total of 9 meetings. I was inspired by several things. The story of David told us that good shepherds who love and care for their sheep can be BOTH tender AND brave hearted. Well, the timer is flashing, 2:12 seconds left. I love this work. I love you all! Life is great and busy. I have felt the spirit and the love in this MTC. IT is so wonderful! I can't send pics or I would. I'll tell you more stories next time. Feel free to ask questions or give advice on the HOLLA. And send me mail!

I love it!
Kyler