A Mission Birthday-June 6, 2011

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for all of the birthday warm wishes! Makes me feel so good. I love that my birthday gets to be on a day when I can email and talk to you. The only thing that I asked for my birthday was that the sun would be shining and it is! Heavenly Father is so kind! Thank you so much for the package that you sent me. I woke up early this morning and sat on our patio and opened it up and read all of your letters. They made me cry. I miss you all so much. I wish I could be with you today, but I felt very close to home this morning. Sister Stoker told me this morning that it is so lucky that I have a family that so invested in my life and in my mission and that they know we well enough to know that I would scarff down some Chili Cheese Frito chips :)... (I got Sister Stoker hooked!). I could have ever picked a better family.

I'm sorry that this week has been a little bit of a harder one for Mom. I'm praying constantly that the treatments will be over soon. Oh I hope so so bad!!! Mom is so much like super woman that I can't even imagine her hurt... I guess all we can do is trust in God and know that He knows more than we do on the matter. I'm glad that Kreigh is back in school! I hope this semester goes well for him! What classes is he taking? Poor kid, he has a lot of his plate right now with work and school and being a husband and dad but he can do it. We are never given more that we can overcome with our Savior's help. Kreigh is a strong-willed person. Kyle looked so cute in his little missionary outfit! I bet he's getting the butterflies. I remember how nervous I was as the time drew nearer, the hard thing is that Satan really works on pre-missionaries too. He tries to break you down before you even begin. Kyle's picked the side he wants to fight on now, so for that reason he's a target for the adversary.

I'm excited to get the blog started, I'm worried it will be boring and I want to make it look really cool so if you have any ideas I'm totally up for them. You really can do anything to it and I won't care. The cooler it is the better. It is true we are really busy now days. We only get about a hour or two every day in our area, we even have a hard time doing our personal and companion studies some days. The Lord is helping magnify the time that we do have though. Yesterday was our only day in our area and we were able to find a new investigator, teach two lessons, teach two less-actives, go to church, teach YW, have a dinner appointment, and still manage to get in our studies. It was a miracle day to be able to cram in so much.

Its been one of those emotionally draining weeks. We arent going to be able to teach Mark anymore because his girlfriend doesn't want him to be taught by Sister Missionaries. Their relationship is sensitive right now so its probably best if the Elders teach him. Drat! Oh well, we're just happy that he gets to be taught. We had some crazy drama happen this week with Tanya. She was mad at us and didn't ever want to see us again.... it was crazy. But, the Atonement works. She has a good heart and we ended up working past our differences. Sister Stoker and I just had a really good lesson about how we ARE STILL HUMAN. Big shocker I know. Its hard sometimes, though, when you wear the name of your Savior and you know that you are a representative of Him. I wish I didn't make mistakes but we're trying to do the best we can and just move forward. So Tanya's baptismal date is now set for June 18th.

I've been reading a lot lately about keeping an "eye single to the glory of God". In D&C 4 it tells us that "faith, hope, charity, and love with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work". So it must be an important thing to have if it is what qualifies us to help the Lord move His work forward. I guess the conclusion I have come to is that we need to have to keep an eye single to God's work and glory, which we know from the scriptures is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man". If that is God's purpose I want it to be my purpose. I found a scripture in Matt 6:22 that I now love that says, "...if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." We can be His lights in this world that unfortunately has so much darkness.

Well I love you all. We've got a great birthday planned hiking down in Letchworth Park and going to the Ross family's house for birthday fun. I love this mission, its the greatest thing that ever happen to me. I love all of you. Thank you for loving me.

Love always, Sister Carter