Zone Conference with Elder Scott February 22, 2011

Dear Family,

Well hello! As you noticed, I didn't email yesterday. With Presidents Day and everything, things just got crazy busy but here I am now. Plus I'm not sure what to really say.... President Christianson came to my apartment Monday night to tell me about Mom. For some reason I couldn't have been more shocked. That was the last thing I expected him to tell me (I actually thought he was going to tell me to stop talking on the phone so much because sometimes I can be a little chatty :)). Needless to say it has been a very hard week for me. I think somewhere in the back of my head I knew that this was coming but I really didn't think it would be coming for awhile. I wish I could be there with you all. That is what has hurt my heart the most. I just want to talk to you, know how you're feeling, grieve with you. Every morning I plead with the Lord to send angels to care for each of you. I'm comforted knowing that they will do more for you then I ever could. I just want each of you to know that I have a witness that this work is absolutely true. Every piece of it. If it wasn't then I would be on a plane ride home right now. There is nothing more important to me than my family... but the Lord is Who lets us be together forever, and for that reason I will serve Him till He tells me to stop. I won't quit going "however long and hard the road may be". He is my anchor is this storm that has hit our family. He'll keep us safe. President Christianson was able to give me a blessing before He left, in it he told me to trust what is going on and to "Be still, and know that He is God". Heavenly Father loves Mom, even more than I do. He'll take care of her.

We were able to meet a servant of God this week! Elder Scott came Saturday morning with President Jay E Jensen, from the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elder Cook, who is apart of the Area Seventy here. You could feel the power as Elder Scott walked into the room. It was so tangible! Then he had each of us come up and introduce ourselves and shake his hand and tell him where we were from. He's much shorter in real life! He's got such a gift of looking into people's eyes and just KNOWING things about them. There is reason he is called a "seer". It was such an incredibly humbling experience. I'm never going to wash my hand again!! (Don't worry, just kidding. I already have). It was so great because we were so ready to be taught the most profound uplifting missionary message and guess what he talked about..... MARRIAGE. Marriage!? What the? That is something that didn't even cross my mind. I think all of us were a little in shock even thinking about that. Ha! What an interesting topic. It was amazing though. He is such a sweet man, especially when he talks about his wife who passed away awhile ago. He just admonished us to go home and get married! Alright! Sounds good, Elder Scott! At the end of the meeting he bore simple sincere divine testimony of the Savior. My whole entire spirit was on fire! The room was like electric! He finished by saying, "I know He lives because I know Him." There is no doubt in my mind that Elder Scott is one of those special witnesses on this earth today. That he is God's instrument to relay the messages that we need to hear. What a great time period to live in! We are so blessed to get to have living Prophets and Apostles today!

Another thing that is happening to our mission that is kinda cool is that we are now online proselyting missionaries. So I will be getting a Facebook soon. You can add me if you want but please don't post anything to me because I won't be able to talk to any family and friends from home. The purpose of our Facebook is to add people in our surrounding area (ex. Investigators, less actives, recent converts, ward members) and then to link them to a blog that we create and the websites: mormon.org and lds.org. So I have decided that since I already have a blog, and since I pretty much write everything to you that I would put on my blog, that I will just refer to my rochesteramanda.blogspot.com on Facebook. If you could do me a favor and put the links mormon.org and lds,org somewhere on my blog so that people can access that I would appreciate that a lot. I'm really excited for this! So if I start explaining what fasting is or what Sunday School is in any of my emails home, you'll know why. Satan is using the internet for bad so its about time we start fighting him off with the good. Hopefully it all works out, you know how computer savy I am :).

Well family, I really love you. I really do. I think about you now more than ever. Kyle, I can't wait to hear where you are going to be going. Kris, I am so happy you got a new job and that you send me so many pictures of cute Atreyu. Kreigh, I wish I could see you being a Dad, I know you must be the best. Mom, I really love you, you're everything to me, I hope you know that. Dad, thanks for being a pillar of strength, I don't know what any of us would do without you.
I will leave you with my quote of the week "Nothing very valuable can come without significant sacrifice and effort and patience on our part" -Elder Holland.
I love you all.

Love always, Sister Carter