I'm in Casper!!

I made it to Wyoming after trekking for several days of running around and driving for hours! I met my trainer and she has a very similar vibe one of my friends from High School so I think we will get along great!! I did my first lesson and well I'm finally a missionary!! 

I love you! Here's a picture of me with my trainer!! 

Welcome to the Fort Collins Colorado Mission

We're All in This Together

Hello All!

One more week down!! That means my time at the MTC is coming to a close! This is my last P-Day before I will be in Colorado! I would say that time has flown by but..... its only been two weeks and I feel like I have lived here for months.

During this past week SO much happened starting with Elder Neil Anderson from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speaking to us!! That was an awe inspiring moment. I could feel the Spirit just filled the room as soon as he stepped in. After he was done speaking he walked around and shook hands with those in the front rows of the isles and that meant that I got about 2 feet away from him. It was a feeling that I will never forget. Being in the presence of an Apostle is indescribable, I 10/10 would recommend.

After that experience everything else just couldn't compare but I will try to follow it up with quite and exciting moment. One of the Elder's in my District has interesting taste buds, he swears by salt and just is a fan of the strangest foods. One day he was telling us about how he would eat entire lemons. He would peel them just like Oranges and then salt them and eat them. So out of curiosity Sister Erickson tried it and she said yea, it's not that bad and immediately after hearing that she was fine with it the entire rest of the District decided to try it. So we all got sliced of lemon, peeled off the rind, salted it, and stuck it in our mouths. Immediately after biting slightly into it I realized my HUGE mistake. It was for sure the worst thing I have ever tasted in my entire life. Holy cow I swear on my entire life it is terrible. So we all collectively looked at each other and spit it out, then we all proceeded to chug as much water as possible to remove the taste from our mouth. It was horrifyingly disgusting. We have all learned to not trust Elder Trettin's taste anymore.

I had a wonderful TRC lesson with Karissa later that day where we got a baptismal commitment!! The few seconds before we asked if she would follow after Christ and be baptized I was PANICKING. My heart was beating out of my chest, my hands were all sweaty and I just spit out the words and immediately after I said it she said Yes! I think that is something I would like to do! I literally wanted to scream!!! I was so excited to know that I was the reason someone was coming to Christ!!! I spent the rest of the day just bouncing through the halls and smiling so extremely wide I felt so ecstatic. It makes me desperately want to go into the field... only one more week, I can do it.

Although all of those experiences were incredible the best moment by far happened during the next TRC lesson with a girl by the name of Amelia. Sister Erickson and I walked into our lesson with a plan to teach her about the Restoration of Jesus Christ's Church and immediately upon walking in and sitting down she shared with us something very personal she was struggling with. In that moment I knew that anything we had planned needed to be scrapped. We needed to do everything we could to help her reach out to Christ so He could bear her burdens. In that 25 minutes I felt as though I was being directly led by the Spirit in ways I didn't know were imaginable. I learned that God loves all of His children and He desperately wants to help us, all we need to do is reach out to Him and He will give everything He can to aide us. That feeling is something I will never forget. I felt love for her, love for God, and love for Christ.

Another quick fun event that happened is that my companion accidentally had an allergy attack! She tasted part of my food that we didn't realize had peanuts in it and she started to react to it so we went back to the residence where she took some medication to hopefully help but after a few hours her face was getting more and more red so I finally told her we needed to go see a nurse. We walked into the office and they gave her an Epi shot and let her sleep for awhile, while I studied. After the redness calmed down they told us we would have to leave campus to go to the Pharmacy and I swear to you I was so excited to finally breathe the air of the outside world. Even though it was just a few minutes of the outside, it was enough to tie me over until I get back to real life in the field. It was a needed break.

I wanted to tell you all that there is nothing like the love of Christ. I know there are things in all of our lives that our dragging us down but I have personally felt Christ hold my hand during some of the most difficult moments of my life and I know that He wants to do the same for each and everyone of you. He has felt every single pain you have felt and He knows perfectly what you need, all you have to do is reach out to Him. He is already running to your aide, pray for strength and I know that even though the trial might not get better, I promise it will not get worse.

I love you and God loves you!

Sister Carter

Brand New!!

WOWOWOW, I am finally a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! I feel like I have waited so long for the moment when I would stand at the MTC, receive my name tag, and put it on for the next 18 months. The moment, for me, was everything that I had thought about so patiently for the past year or so.

Let me start by telling all of you about the hectic events of the past week.

I arrived in Provo with my mom about an hour before my scheduled check in time and we went to Zupas for my final meal before heading to the temple. We took a few pictures, mostly filled with tears and then drove to the entrance of the MTC where we were directed down to the parking garage. That was kind of the moment when I realized I would be a missionary. I felt this rush of energy and desire to get started. I met my escort who took the final picture with me and my mom before I hugged her for the last time and walked towards the MTC. As soon as I walked away from my mom and waved her goodbye I immediately knew there was work to be done, and I was called for a reason and I needed to put aside my sadness and start doing what I needed to do.

After my escort and I walked up to the main level of the MTC and rolled my bags to my residence hall. (We were STRONGLY encouraged to refer to them as residence halls, honestly we don't know the exact reason but still) She then directed me to where I would pick up my first day packet and I was off! I walked in the main building and waited in line to get the yellow envelope with my keys and my name tags, once I got the packet I walked up to a sister and she put my name tag on which HOLY CRAP I'M A MISSIONARY NOW ran through my mind. I was then shuffled to my classroom where I met my companion, Sister Erickson! We met the rest of our district along with our teachers and then we were sent to the opening missionary devotional where we did all the cheesy missionary things such as sing Called to Serve, here that we are called to the work, and they even changed the words of Armies of Helaman so it said things like, "We are not the Armies of Helaman" or "We are now the Lord's Missionaries to bring the world His truth" Which honestly I loved all the cheese and it seriously made me choke because I was ready for this.

I was then thrown through a whirlwind of meeting my zone, going to more devotionals, meeting my branch presidency, and having to teach my first lesson. The first day we were here they had about 50 missionaries crowd into a room and they brought in someone who was interested in learning more about our church and just told us to talk to them. They then passed along a microphone to those who wanted to talk and man alive that was a ROUGH experience. One Elder stood up and was talking to the interested person and said that we receive trials because of our own choices.... the guy had just lost his mother and wanted to know why he had to go through that... yeaaaa not the best way to answer that. Another Sister stood up and recited one of the first lessons that used to have to be memorized like 100 years ago and it didn't apply really at all to the person's question. So basically we might have been set apart to be missionaries but that doesn't mean we are going to get it right off the bat.

The weekend ran pretty slow. On Saturday we met our first TRC (the person we are going to teach this week) and we got to talk to her about God and figure out which would be best. Immediately after leaving that introduction I knew that we should teach her about the First Vision. Just yesterday me and my companion got to teach her! I think the lesson overall was great! There are definitely things that I could improve on, such as talking slower because when I get excited I get reaaaalll excited and having smooth transitions, but she seems very receptive and ready for the gospel.

It has been hard on my companion to be away from home and shes cried a few times and I often feel like all I can do is to keep telling her to push through it because in 6 months when she's in her favorite area with an amazing companion she's going to laugh at how she almost gave up because of the first week. After seeing how difficult of time she was having I realized that my entire life I had been preparing for this moment. I feel as though every fiber in my being was made for missionary work. All of the things that I have found are my strengths are things that are deeply necessary for a missionary. It feels amazing to finally be in a place where I know that I can succeed!

I just wanted to share one thought before signing off for the week! On each floor of our buildings with the classrooms there are amazing murals. Each of them are incredible but there is one where Joseph Smith is in Carthage Jail and he's really struggling and in that moment God says, "All these things shall give the experience, and shall be for thy good" -D&C 122:7

I testify to all of you that no matter what you may be going through no matter if you feel as though it is worth it right now, every single thing in your life will give you experience and grow you to a point that you can't even comprehend. I know that if I hadn't have gone through some of my trials I would have been struggling much more during this week instead of feeling as confident and secure as I do. As much as it pains me to say, what hasn't killed me made me stronger.

I love you all and make sure to send pictures and life updates to me as often as you can!!

I love the Lord and I love this mission already!

- Savanna aka Sister Carter.savanna@missionary.org

Here is some pictures of my District and me and my mom at lunch before I entered the MTC!