I'm an Aunt!-October 25, 2010

WHAT THE WHAT!!??? (You guessed right Dad :))

I'M AN AUNT!!!!

ARE YOU FOR SERIOUS!!??

I couldn't believe it when I got the email from Kris!!! I HAVE A LITTLE NEPHEW! I've just been sitting here crying I'm so happy. He's so beautiful! He looks just like a baby doll, I wish I could hold him! That was not what I expected to hear from the family at all. He came so early! I'm so happy that he is so healthy. Makes my heart just soar!! I can't even begin to explain in words what I'm feeling right now. I'm just so happy. Tell Kris how proud of her I am. How brave she is. Kreigh's a Daddy! How... weird. He's going to be the best though. They both will. Their cute beautiful little family. Kreigh, Krista, Atreyu, and Miks.... I miss you guys. So is his full name Atreyu Thomas Carter? Does he sleep a lot? How is Kris feeling? Is her face any better now? Yay! So many questions... you have to tell me everything about this sweet little angel-face that came to us this week!

Well, now everything that I have to write doesnt even sound nearly as cool. That news just made my whole month! Atreyu is the miracle of the week for sure! Everything here has been going pretty well. Our investigator is still progressing towards baptism. He has some complications before he gets there though. His ex-girlfriend lives with him and the reason why he has her stay is because they have a seven year-old son together. So he wants to be around his son and so he lets her stay in his house. At first Sister Stone and I were confused on why he had to kick her out if he was still living the Law of Chastity but the Lord showed us why. A couple nights ago we went over to teach him and we walked into a scary situation. She was completely drunk and as we were trying to read the Book of Mormon she was screaming in the other room, the most vile things I've ever heard come out of someone's mouth. The Spirit was trying so hard to be there but right when she would open her mouth it could not stay. I've never felt the Spirit so tangible in all my life. Every time it wasn't there I felt so physically ill that I wasn't even able to open my mouth. Like it says in D&C: "If you do not have the spirit you cannot teach". I cried when we left because it was such an awful experience to not have the Spirit there. How lucky we are to be members of this church where it is here as our constant companion when we put ourselves in holy places. Our hope is that we will always be worthy of it, it is what will sustain us.

My thought today comes from a Disney show :) In "The Lion King" after King Mufasa was killed, Simba (who was going through a rebellious time in his life) saw his Father in the clouds. Mufasa chastened him and told him "You have forgotten who you are because you have forgotten me". I've learned two things from that phrase: #1- Disney movies truly are the best :) #2- When we remember who our Heavenly Father truly is we will never forget the potential that we have as His sons and daughters.

Anyway I love you all, so sorry this is short again! Yay for a new nephew! Keep me update on everything! Have a good week!

Love always, Sister Carter

Fall Leaves-October 18, 2010

Dear Family,

Sorry, this is going to be a shorter and a more boring email than most. We spent most of our P-day running around Mount Hope Cemetary taking some really awesome pictures... it was the best! It is so beautiful here! I love it.

Well this week was pretty uneventful. We were FINALLY able to move into a new apartment. It is SO beautiful and big and nice, the only problem is it is in the middle of no where. It is out in West Henrietta where all the richeys live (Its called Riverton Knolls- because I know you're going to want to google it :)). So it is a safe neighborhood but it is so far away from anything, especially since the President decided to ground our cars two times a week, forcing us to walk to save on gas. It will be a good way to get out and talk to people though. This week the President called ALL of the missionaries in this whole mission together for a meeting he called "The Vision". So all 90 missionaries gathered together and he layed the smack down on us. Telling us that we either be obdient or we go home, then he sent us out to the Sacred Grove to pray and ponder about it and come back with an answer. He's raising the bar, he's not going to put up with the way this mission has been in the past.


Our one investigator is still doing amazing. He's almost read the entire Book of Mormon now. His baptismal date is for October 31st... so please keep praying for him. There is still something that Sister Stone and I have to address with him that we're both nervous about, we hope that his testimony is now strong enough to make the change in his life that he has to before he gets baptized. We have another man that we are teaching right now, who is awesome. We knocked on his door one stormy rainy day. He always tells us "Who knew that when I answered that door that God was answering my prayers". He loves to write songs on guitar and even wrote a song for Sister Stone and I! Its called "The Sisters" and the chorus goes something like: " Sister Carter and Sister Stone ... they're the Sisters... they're out to save your soul... they're the Sisters.... they're Latter-Day Saints.... they're the Sister's.... and I think they're just great!" I felt like it was a "Ghostbuster" type theme song. It is the best! His baptismal date is set for November 7th, so keep him in your prayers as well. We took him and Lee both out to the sites this week and it was such an amazing expeience.

Anyway I'm so sorry this is so short and I'm not able to write to all of you! I think and pray for you all all the time. Thank you! I love you all

Love always, Sister Carter

Zone Conference-October 12, 2010

Dear Family,

Sorry I didn't email yesterday. Because it was Columbus Day we just figured that none of the libraries would be open so we didn't even try to drive over to one. Dad knows more about my area then I do :) It was a fun P-day though. We went to Waterloo with all of the Elders in our District to go shopping at the outlets there. The Elders were more excited about shopping then we were! It was a lot of fun. It reminded me of shopping with Mom, though, and made me a little sad (especially when we went into the Nike store :)). I got a coat though! I got a REALLY long uglyish coat from Colombia. But the great part about it is that is very warm and it was on sale! I got it for only $88 (which I know Mom would be proud of!) and I got some really nice gloves and some sweaters to help prepare of the on-coming winter. It is coming.... but the Fall is amazing! It seems like all the trees are on fire right now! Its so beautiful. I'm so sad to hear about Kris' face! I can't believe that happened! I hope it goes away soon! I'll pray for her. Keep me updated on everything that happens with that.

So this was a week of MIRACLES!! I can't even begin to explain the amazing things that happened this week. The Lord has blessed us so much more than we ever deserve. It was such a nice week to have after the disappointments we were faced with last week. So last week we ended with one investigator who had a baptismal date and this week we're going to end with FOUR investigators with a baptismal date! We found these three other people this last week and they have been so prepared they're ready to move in to the waters of baptism. YAY!!!!! There is one man in particular that is surely the Lord's elect. This is a miracle of a story...

On Tuesday morning Sister Stone and I were kneeling down saying our morning prayers together. We prayed fervently that we would be able to find someone that the Lord has prepared and who wanted to be baptized. We had no sooner said "Amen" then our cell phone beeped, signaling we had a text message (this was totally like what happens on the movie "The Best Two Years" :)). The text was a referral for a man. I guess what had happened was a member of the church had come to his home to fix his furnance and they had begun to talk about religion. Whatever this member said to this guy sparked his interest so much that he went on mormon.org and requested the missionaries. So we went over there to meet him the next day and right when he opened the door we knew that this was going to be amazing! He has such great questions and is completely willing to sit down and learn and is so hungry for the gospel. We gave him the Book of Mormon to read and when we saw him again, three days later, he told us that he was already to Alma! WHAT THE WHAT!!?? Are you for reals?! We pranced around the apartment for a good couple mintues after we heard that. He also said that he couldn't stand the suspense and read the book of Moroni so he could know how the Book of Mormon ended.... :) What a guy. He came to Stake Conference this weekend and was so touched by the speakers that I saw him wiping his eyes in the end. He has lived his whole life preparing for this moment. I can't believe that Sister Stone and I get to be so blessed to be apart of this. HE'S TOTALLY GOING TO BE A FUTURE BISHOP!! YAY!

Another really cool thing that happened this week was that a member of the Quorum of the 70, Elder Paul D. Pieper, came to speak to us for Zone Conference. I got a call a couple days before he came and the Mission President asked me to come in for an interview with Elder Pieper! There were only six people in the whole Zone that got the privelege of being interviewed by Elder Pieper and I was one of them! It was SO amazing. What a great man... the interview was filled with so much inspiration and love. He truly is a servant of the Lord. I am so grateful that I was able to have that experience. Another cool thing about that Zone Conference was that Sister Stone and I were asked to sing in it. They asked us to sing the night before the conference!! It was super nerve-wrecking but I've decided that my "gift of tounges" on this mission is the gift of song. The spirit helped us pull together a piece last minute and be able to sing it powerfully. We sang "The Olive Tree" which is one of my favorite songs ever. What an honor that was to be able to sing in that meeting. Its something I'll never forget.

There have been many more miracles but I cannot name them all in this short amount of time. I love this work! I'm so grateful to be apart of it. I love my Savior and I know that He is in everything we do. I miss you all, all the time. I think and pray for you always.

I love you!

Love always, Sister Carter

Conference

Dear Family,

YAY for Conference! IT WAS THE BEST! It was like Christmas morning here! Seriously... we thought about making one of those "countdown chains" that you make for Christmas. The first like 10 minutes of Conference I just bawled like a baby. I'm such a... missionary! It was so good to see a piece of home too. To be able to hear the Prophet and his Apostles, brings such safety and peace to the soul. We were able to see all four session in the Chapel. It was weird not to be able to lounge around in pajamas but it was still fun. I felt like every talk just kept getting better and better. My pen never stopped writing! There is so much to learn. There is so much that Heavenly Father wants us to know and to do, and how blessed we are to have the heavens open! There is no room for doubt on what we should be doing. We have the mouthpiece of God on this Earth. Its amazing to live during these times. I can't even pick a favorite talk. They were all so good. I actually really like the "Courageous Parents" talk. I have no children, obviously, but I love things that are just straight and to the point. All the speakers spoke with such power and clarity... I just loved it. I thought about Dad shining his shoes, Mom making dinner, and Kreigh, Kris, Kyle, Abby and I all laying around sleeping :). We were all doing the same thing for a moment of each of our day :)

Thanks for all your prayers for me and for the people that we are teaching. I promise, they don't go unanswered. This week we had a heartbreaking moment when one of our investigators called us and asked us to not come over anymore. She's been trying to quit tobacco and coffee for weeks now and even though we've encouraged her to not give up and to keep trying she decided that it was just too much. She told us that she doesn't think God cares if she drinks coffee or chews tobacco, that He loves her no matter what. Well of course he does! We tried to remind her that God always always loves us, but He does ask us to do some things to show that we love Him. She has a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet and Thomas S Monson is a prophet today but its not enough for her to quit her addictions. I wish she had been able to hear Elder Ballard's talk yesterday. She would have loved it. It was so devastating. I was able to find peace the next day as I was flipping through an Ensign. There was a quote by Elder Holland that said "I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are the Church of Jesus Christ, and He is our Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him?" He did so much for us. He asks so little. All of these hard moments in our lives bring us closer to Christ. That is why we have them. If we don't embrace the rest that He offers then we will get lost in the storm.

There were many miracles this week, though. Our nine year old investigator, is doing so well! She's so pure and sweet and good, and she has no addictions to overcome! Yay! I'm so excited for her baptism day in two weeks. We also had a moment where God showed us His tender mercy. We were going to a less-active woman's house who, when we got there, appeared not to be home. That was kinda a breaking point for Sister Stone, because she was so frustrated that we were trying to do all that we could when others just didn't give any effort to even show up. So as she was sitting there crying, a car pulled up behind us. It was the lady we were suppose to visit and when we first tried to talk to her it was almost a hostile situation. She wanted nothing to do with us but the more we talked to her and tried to serve her she began to open up and pour out all of her feelings. She has been so wounded in her life that Heavenly Father needed us there to be able to tell her that He still cared. It was amazing how everything just worked out. The timing, the situation, everything....

Well I hope you all have an amazing week. I love each of you very much and I am so appreciative of the sacrifices you make on my behalf.

I love you all! Have an amazing week!

Love always, Sister Carter