Dear Family,
Yay! I love weekly emails. I'll just start by addressing each individual person (that will be easier for this email):
Dad- Happy Father's Day! I'm glad you got my card. I also wish that we could have called you, I brought it up with President and he totally agreed but I guess we'll try to listen to the Prophet on this one. Dang...
Mom- That is so cool that you got to go to the 14ers in Colorado! I now have such a special place in my heart for those mountains. I really hope that some day I can go back and finish the hike I started. Weirdly enough hiking is one of the things I miss the most about my past life (that and roller coaster riding :)).
Kreigh and Kris- I'm glad that Kreigh is doing well in school. I'll be praying that he gets the promotion at Target. I don't know how he can do all the things that he does.
Kyle- THIS WEEK! YOUR FAREWELL IS THIS WEEK! I can't even believe it! How crazy! You will have to document everything so that I can feel like I am apart of it. I wish I could be there more than anything.
This past week was another one full of miracles. The Lord is so gracious with His blessings. we were able to go to the church sites this week with one of our investigator's named Joe. I have been teaching Joe the entire time I've been in Irondequoit. He has been being taught since August. His sister is a member and so he's always been interested in what she believed but never really looked into it further until now. He is great because he will always come to church, he's already living all the commandments, but he would never read the Book of Mormon. He was too scared that it would take place of the Bible and we tried to teach him again and again but he would never take the leap of faith so we quit teaching him. That was over a month ago, and this last past Sunday we felt prompted to go back to his house just to see how he was doing. When we got there he was so depressed. He said that the day before he watched "The Restoration" movie three times in a row (we think it was because he was missing the spirit)! So we talked with him about giving it another try and he said he was really wanting to this time. So ever since, every single day he has read from the Book of Mormon. He also reads a chapter out of the Gospel Principles book (which we never told him to do!). Its amazing in just a week the changes we can already see in him! He's really really reading it, I feel like now its because he now really wants to know. So yesterday we went with him and family in the ward to the Hill Cumorah. This was so exciting because Joe has always tried to avoid the sites, but he was so brave and decided to just face his fears. It was such an amazing afternoon! We had a picnic on the Hill, we went into the Christus room, we watched the new Joseph Smith movie. When it was over I asked him how he felt and his response was, "If Joseph Smith hadn't done what he did I would have never met you girls. I wouldn't know what church to go to. I would be lost." It was so cool!
Another cool experience I had this week was when I was working at the Grandin building I got to take a tour of four people from the Community of Christ. They were actually tour guides over at the Kirtland Temple. They were SO great! I learned so much from them! I learned about when they split from our church but how we have the same history. They're different because they believe that women can have the Priesthood and that Brigham Young was never a prophet. They also don't really read the Book of Mormon. They just think its a cool book, they mostly study the Bible. When I bore my testimony, at the end, of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon one of the girls on tour said to me, "That is cool. It is cool that you are so grounded in something. I wish I could be that way." So we talked about Moroni's promise and how that invitation is to everyone. That God is no respecter of persons and that He wants all of His children to know the truth. It was such a neat tour! You get to meet the coolest people out here!
So everything is going great! Dad, I didn't get to see Bro. Hill but he passed a message to me through some other sisters, so I communicated to him that way. I love being here in this beautiful part of the world! I love you all and think and pray for you often!
Love always, Sister Carter