Thank you for your heartwarming emails. Wow! Kyle is in college! I can't believe it! I'm so glad that at least one of his roommates is normal, and that it is the one that he lives with. You always have those strange roommates but I find that just tolerating things that they do works pretty okay :) I guess thats not the best way to look at it, but those types of roommates always end up stretching your limits which in turn makes you almost scream sometimes. Although at the same time you find that you can love someone that you never thought you would love. I love Dad's reference to Eddie from "Friends" :) Now I've got a good picture in my head of what he looks like! Keep strong little brother! I know you can do this! It may seem hard at moments, but you will come off conquerer.
So because last week's letter was all jumbled I've decided that I can only tell you one or two stories every email. Good news is that I write in my journal every night, so I will never forget what is going on and when I get home I will have all of the eternities to fill you in :). So the miracle of the week that I want to tell you about it Lynette. We were walking out of Wegmans (the most famous grocery store in all of New York- seriously its amazing- You walk in and its like Christmas! Its New Yorker's pride and joy) a couple weeks ago when we saw a woman that was sitting on her bumper outside waiting for someone. We went over and talked to her for a couple minutes and asked her if it would be okay if we came to her house to teach her more about our church. She agreed, gave us her address, and we left. So Friday morning we headed over to her house. She lived on 78 Westfall Rd but when we were driving we could only find 76 and 80 Westfall Rd. So we plugged it into the GPS and it took us to 640 Westfall Rd. That was really weird but we decided to follow where it directed us anyway. When we got to 640 Westfall there was apartments that were numbered 74, 75, then 80! So we were getting frustrated by this point and weren't sure what to do. Then we saw this mailman and decided to ask him if he knew anything. All we told him was that we were trying to find a Lynette who lived on 78 Westfall and he said there was a Lynette Williams two apartment complexes over that lived in 78A! What a miracle! So we headed over there and not only was it her house but she was home!
...Before I tell you the rest of the story I have to tell what happened the night before... Sister Stone likes to talk. Which is great! It is just hard for me to build my confidence up because I usually don't have to talk much because she does it for the both of us. So the night before we had went tracking and I totally froze up. I was having such a hard time being brave and opening my mouth. I guess that I thought once I was a missionary I wouldn't be scared of anything any more. I am still me, however, and I still get scared to talk to people. So that night I went to bed sad that I wasn't having enough confidence in the Lord to speak up....
Back to the story: So when we walked into Lynette's apartment she didn't seem all that excited to talk to us. We found out that she loved the Bible, though, so we started teaching her about another set of scripture, the Book of Mormon. Right we handed her the book she started to get so excited. She wanted to try all of the footnotes out, and see how they all compared. Then she started asking us questions about ourselves. She specifically asked my why I was a Mormon, and why I decided to come on a mission. I was able to bear my testimony to her, as well as Sister Stone and after we did she started to cry. She then told us that 15 years ago male missionaries came up to her and asked her if she wanted to know more about the gospel but she wasn't ready then and now God had sent us back because she was ready. As tears fell off her cheeks she laid her head back against the wall and whispered "Thank you Jesus. Thank you". Then she looked at me and stated "You don't talk much. You sit back, and listen. You take it all in. But you need to speak up because girl, when you speak you speak with power." I couldn't have been more shock than if she had gotten up and slapped me in the face. I am here to answer other people's prayers, I never expected them to answer mine. Heavenly Father knows what ALL of His children need, including me. After that all three of us prayed together and there was no a dry eye. The Spirit was ELECTRIC in that room. That is the only way that I can describe in. I thank Heavenly Father from the bottom of my heart for giving me these wonderful, life changing experiences. There is no way that this gospel can't be true. Its been branded into my soul.
I'm glad that you like us singing "Come thou Fount". That was my favorite thing to watch when I was having a bad day. I love the power of music. I love being able to sing for people. I feel the spirit present every time that I do. I'm grateful for the gift of music.
Well I love you all. There's always so much I want to write with not enough time. I just wanted to quickly thank you Mom and Dad for giving me everything. I walk into some of the houses here and the reality hits me that people grow up in homes where there isn't much a chance to chase after dreams. I have always taken for granted that I have a Dad who worked hard in school, who loves to learn, and is always willing to sacrifice and to provide for his family. And that I have a Mom who thought her kids were the most important things in the world and stayed home to so she could be with them and teach them the good things of the world. So thank you. I'll always be in your debt. And indebt to two brother and a sister-in-law that are my best friends. I miss you all dearly but I want you to know that I'm going to try and do good things with our family name throughout my life. I love you! So until next week...
Love always, Sister Carter
This week's thought: (Out of Preach My Gospel): "As your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase"
