Happy Thanksgiving! November 22, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving Family!!

Its so crazy that it is already Thanksgiving time... Sister Stone and I have already totally gotten into the Christmas spirit. We got a tree and made sugar cookies and cut out snowflakes. Our apartment looks so cute! I hope that you all have an amazing Thanksgiving at home. Maybe its good to be at home with Grandpa trying to heal. I'm glad to hear that he is home. Tell him that I am still praying for him and think of him often. I wish I could be there to see him. Our Thanksgiving day is full of running from home to home to visit some of the widows that don't have anyone on Thanksgiving. We'll be like President Monson :) I'm excited. Its going to be such a wonderful day... and we'll probably get fed lots of Thanksgiving dinners :).


So this week has been INSANE. Such a crazy, up and down, week. So I will give it to you in a bulleted nutshell:
- Accidently stabbed myself in the stomach (a TOTAL miracle- I'm completely fine- I have a new-found testimony of the physical protection of garments)
- Saw a naked guy (Don't worry... didn't see too much :))
- Got "anti-ed" three times within 24 hours (that doesn't seem like a lot but when you're happy cheerful girls you don't get anti-ed too often)
- Had a crazy homeless lady treat us to hot chocolate and tell us how Jesus' DNA is still in a tree somewhere (I don't even know what else I could say about that...)
- I've had the cold the entire week (makes it really hard to work and function :()
- Scott came to church (What a miracle!!! We've been waiting for him to come for a month and a half now!)
- We're having a nerf gun war today with the Elders (very excited...)

We were able to find a new investigator this week. We went over to her house because her Dad is actually a less-active member of the church and we were told to go visit him since we live a couple doors down and she was there! She's our age and looks really hard core with all her nose rings and tatoos but she is such a sweetheart who claps her hands together when she gets really excited. When we first met her we weren't too sure how interested she really was to listening to what we had to say but when we went back for our appointment she was all ready for us with a Book of Mormon out on a table. I guess she had searched her house for her Grandpa's old Book of Mormon. Her Grandpa passed away a couple years ago and he was a really solid member and she always looked up to him. It was such an amazing lesson because we were able to share with her the Plan of Salvation and where her Grandpa is in that plan. She loved it. It was awesome. She's great!

So we had a hard day yesterday. Our golden investigator didn't come to church and when we called him he told us that he has been talking to his friends, the last couple days, and they showed him in the Bible how there shouldn't be anything added to it and that we think Jospeh Smith has done more for the world than Jesus Christ, etc... It was such a heartbreaking, heartwrenching, huge blow to the gut. What!? Our solid "Bishop man"? We tried to explain things as best we could to him, and told him that this comes down to if the Book of Mormon is true or not. If it is, this is all true. If it isn't, its not. We told him to keep praying to know, that this was no one's journey but his own. He needs to ask God what is right and stop listening to other people, including us. AH! I just HATE SATAN SO MUCH! I hate his guts! He's so evil and stupid... He hasn't left this place since Joseph got on his knees. Its been such a hard last couple of weeks. Satan has kicked the trash out of me. Physically. Mentally. Spiritually. I'm just so tired. I keep having Nephi's words come to my mind though, "I know in whom I have trusted". Satan wins these battles sometimes but he will never win the war. I know that, and that helps keep the big perspective on things. I found this quote by Bruce C Hafen that I just love:
"Each of us will taste the bitter ashes of life, from sin and neglect, to sorrow and disappointment, but the Atonement of Christ can lift us up in beauty from our ashes on the wings of a sure promise of immortality and eternal life. He will lift us up, not only at the end of life, but in each day of our lives."
Although sometimes I feel down, I'm not out. I will fight and proclaim and declare and love and serve and tesify until I take my last breath. I owe Him that much.

I love you all. Thank you for all your prayers and emails. They always make me happy. I haven't gotten your package yet but I'll look of it. I hope you have an amazing Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for- and it all has to do with each one of you. Have an amazing week!

Love always, Sister Carter