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
