Dear Family,
My heart is feeling really heavy right now. Thank you for telling me about Grandpa. Its not exactly what I wanted to hear but its good to know what is going on. Please tell him that I love him, that I will pray earnestly for him and Grandma. I didn't know Mom was going to be starting treatments so soon. Well I guess its better to just get started, the first step on the road to recovery.
Well... I'm actually not quite sure what to write about. I have some stories but those don't really seem important anymore. I think I just need awhile for all this news to sit and process through my brain and then things will become more digestable and I'll be able to think more clearly. Right now I'm not so sure what to think or feel. Everything is kinda confusing. I guess we can't expect life to be full of all green lights, right Dad? :) So I will leave you this week with the few things that I do know and are always clearly lit up in my mind:
I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father. I know He hears us, and not only that but that He answers every pleading of our heart or uttered prayer. When we speak, He listens. And because He loves us more than words could ever express, He knows what is best FOR us. He knows the Sons and Daughters He created and who they can become when we put out lives into His hands. He loved us enough to send His only begotton Son. The only perfect man who ever walked the earth. The One who came, not for Himself, but for others. Who taught us the way to live, to act, to treat others. He showed us how we could find peace in this life and how we can be with our Father again in the next. He provided the way. He waits with arms wide open, always. No matter what we have done in the past or where we think our future is headed. He established His church to help guide us and help us find refuge throughout our own personal storms. That church is led and guided by a Prophet and his 12 Apostles. I know that Joseph Smith was the first Prophet, called again to restore that church, in this last dispensation. Although he was an imperfect man he did all the Father wanted him to and sealed his testimony with his own blood. President Thomas S Monson is that chosen prophet today. He speaks what God would want us to know, he will never lead us astray. When we listen and apply the things that he admonishes us to do we will always be in accordance with the Father's will. I know that the Book of Mormon not only clarifies doctrines, but that it heals the soul, it answers our deepest soul-hungering questions, it testifies of Jesus Christ. I have a hope and belief that families can be together forever. That our family unit will always be connected... no matter what side of the veil we're on. It makes no difference. We're forever. I know that God keeps His promises and that the Atonement is real.
Being out on my mission for almost 8 months now I've seen that my tesimony hasn't changed much. I knew all those things before I came out here. The only difference is that now it has been more rooted within me. That when Satan's whirlwinds come, because they always do, that testimony will keep me solidly standing on the rock of Israel, our Reedemer, and He will never falter. I know Heavenly Father give us hard experiences in our lives to turn us into the people that we need to be and I'm grateful for them.
I love each one of you so much. I'm excited to be out here on a mission. If I've learned anything lately its that work cures grief :). I pray for you each, every day.
Love always, Sister Carter
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Mandy Mission
"And this is the account of Sister Amanda Carter and her brethren, their journeyings in the land of Western New York, their sufferings in the land, their sorrows, and their afflictions, and their incomprehensible joy..." (Alma 28:8)
