August 6, 2010

Dear Family,

How are you? I'm very excited to get to email you!! It seems like it has been awhile since I was able to tell you all the exciting things that are happening. First off... Thank you Dad for the lovely drawing. It was very spiritual :) Thank you Mom for the pumpkin bread, we even used it in an object lesson. Congrats Kyle on your Eagle and being ordained an Elder... I wish I coul be there for it. Plus.... You must tell me EVERY DETAIL about your date! I want to know all... and how your Lagoon trip went. Kreigh and Kris, I need to see the new pictures of Atreyu. And Abby... I miss you. I'm not even sure if I'll be able to call you on Monday but if I can it will be some time in the afternoon. We have a layover in Chicago for a couple hours in the afternoon so if I can call you, that will probably be when it happens.
So this week was the beginning of the new changes. It is very mind-boggling that a week from now I'm going to be in New York with a new companion. My stomach has been doing flip-flops but I'm feeling like its ready to get out there and try. It reminds me a lot of China. I wasn't sure, in the beginning, how I was suppose to teach the kids, because I didn't have too much training, but it came with time. And I loved every minute of it.
Its been a lonlier week than most. Our six Elders that were in our District left for Las Vegas on Tuesday. I didn't think that I could miss them so much. They were brothers to me. We learned and grew together. A really special experience happened with one of the Elders, a couple days before they left. Our teacher had us go to another classroom of Elders, sit and get to know them and their needs for a few minutes, come back and plan a lesson plan for them, then deliever the message we thought they needed. After Sister Anderson and I were done teaching we were just sitting in out classroom waiting for the rest of our classmates to get back from teaching. As we sat there Sister Anderson and I were just joking around with the teacher when one of the Elder's in our District, Elder Stone, walked in looking dazed. We've seen that look many times here :) So we started to chuckle and asked him how he was doing. He just replied "I have never gotten revelation like that for someone before", then he sat down in his seat and began to cry. It was a very tender moment. It reminded me of what this work is all about. This is the Lord's work. He knows everyone's hearts, He know their needs. It is a privelege to be able to be called of Him, to have that privelege of receiving revelation on behalf of others. I miss the Elders but I know they are going to be amazing missionaries in the Lord's hands.
We started our Visitor Center Training on Wednesday. There are nine Sisters in that class. Half are going to Rochester and half are going to Oakland CA. It has definiitely been a different kind of training. Most of our work in the Visitor's Center is referrals. I don't really like to be pushy so I've had a hard time with it, but when I see someone write down a name on a referral card I start to get so excited! That person is going to have the chance to hear the gospel! Its so amazing. We're learning a lot of history about the sites... which is so much fun. Last night we had a mock Visitor Center where memebers came in pretending they were non-members and asked questions as we took them around showing them different pictures and testifying of different things. It was really scary because this is the first time I had to work on my own... without any companion to back me up. It went alright, other than me telling the investigator that Joseph Smith was the seventh child in his family (He is the fifth, and I'm not even sure why I found that important enough to tell people anyway :) ). Those experiences are very humbling, reminding me constantly that I cannot do it on my own.
Tomorrow is our big LAST day, we've been getting referrals all week and we're actually going to call them tomorrow and see if we can set up times for the missionaries to come meet with them. After that we're going to Temple Square. I'm kinda excited for this. We are each going to be assigned to a sister for 4 hours and go walk around with them, inviting people, teaching people... this is the real deal! Ah! So exciting! I get to be called to the Temple Sqaure mission for four hours! I'm going to have to make the most of it...
So Monday is the day. We fly out really early. It will probably be a crazy day and I'm a little nervous but I'm excited to get started in this work! Its time for me to start meeting those people the Lord has prepared, and I'm grateful for this opportunity. I love the quote by Louise Alcott... "I'm not afraid of the storms, for I'm learning to sail my ship". Anyway I love you all... Thank you for your prayers. I think of you often! I'll talk to you Monday!

Love, Sister Carter