The Girl is on Fire

LISTEN UP this week has been INCREDIBLE!! Honestly this week has made me re-energized about being a missionary and I'm SO PUMPED. Who knew training would give me so much hype. But anyway let me get into it.

So Wednesday was the big day, the trade off between Sister Harry, Sister EvM and my new missionary (I'll have the big reveal on her in a second). That morning honestly flew, all of a sudden we were at the church dropping them off and I was just left there, car keys in hand (yes yes I am now the driver and I could'nt be more pumped) and sim card in my phone ready to face the world. So I spent the rest of the day in yet another trio with the Stl and another sister until the van came back with my new missionary!! Also Sister Abraham hooked me up with a ton of new music and I've been jamming for the past week.

So transfer van pulls up.... my heart is pounding... I feel the sweat dripping off of my hands.... I see all the sisters get out of the van... and just as I see my new missionary..... she runs inside to go to the bathroom *yikes*

So I sat outside and waited for awhile before finally meeting her!!!

SISTER JOHNSON

Wow no tea no shade to all the other missionaries but I think I got the coolest one out of the bunch. She is honestly so chill and we've just been throwing jokes and laughs all day everyday, it's been hype to say the least.

After I picked her up and dropped her stuff off we hit the ground RUNNING!!! This past week we have seen so much success in our area! Last Thursday we had and incredible miracle.

We had a few extra minutes of contacting before we had to go home and we prayed about where we should go and Sister Johnson felt like we needed to contact a person named Kevin. Just the day before I had seen a random interested person in our area book named Kevin who I had never heard of, didn't have any history, and basically we didn't know why he was in our area book but after she received that impression, we called him right away. When we called he said he would love to have us come over THAT NIGHT (I know, sick right, it gets better). So we get his address, it's not in our area, and we go over to his house. We send him a text that we are here but we never got the apartment number so we are just parked outside. we waited about 15 minutes with no response and we decided to leave. Just as we had left and started back to our area HE CALLED. So we answer the phone go back and start talking to him. We talked for a long time and every time we talked about religion or God he was saying things that fell exactly in line with what we teach people everyday so homeboy is SO PREPARED. And THEN he tells us that his 8 year old daughter said that within the next month God is going to bless their lives *pause for dramatic effect* AND THAT HE BELIEVES GOD PUT US IN HIS PATH FOR A REASON.

Yup, he's gonna get dunked.

Then we started to get pretty confident in ourselves so we made a little wager with the Zone Leaders. If we get 6 New People being taught this week... which would beat THEIR record in one week... we can go their their camera rolls. Now I know that seems like a weird prize but we have heard LEGENDS about Elders Camera Rolls. They apparently have so much dirt on SO many people and they have the best stuff so naturally

We.
Gettin.
Dat.
Camera roll.

So yesterday we started the week off with a BIG bang. We had a lesson with someone who hasn't been interested in hear about the gospel for 3 years and then the Elders went over and did some service and she said she would love to have us come and teach her *hype* then we taught someone by the name of Ty and all of his Sisters came out and said they had been reading the Book of Mormon and we invited them to a chapel tour or Saturday so they are 2 more new people *hype hype* THEN we contacted a less active family who has several people over 9 that are unbaptized and they seemed super excited to have us come back so we are seeing them on Thursday so 3 more new people *hype hype hype* Then we have return appointments for 3 more interested people and we are contacting a lot of part member families and stuff like that so like 4 more new people pending *hype hype hype HYPE*

I think I've screamed out of excitement during more this past week than I have the past 2 transfers.

This email is getting long but really quick, Sister Johnson and I got to go out to Martin's cover this Saturday and paint benches for a service project with the Ward! It was honestly a blast and a half. They sanded all the previous paint off the benches and then we primed and painted then all brown. My back was extra sore the next day from hunching over but it felt so good to build up relationships with the ward, and to feel connected to my pioneer ancestors. It was a little strange to think about all the behinds that probably had sat on those benches, but exciting to think of all of the behinds that will sit on them after I have redone them! It was amazing! I also got a little bit of a tan, so my watch tan is starting to come along nicely.

Ugh I love serving a mission

I hope you all continue to draw closer to God everyday! Don't forget that Christ has already walked your tomorrows so He knows how to best prepare for them today! Listen to His guidance and you will feel your burdens literally getting lighter, and your joy becoming full!

Remember God is in the Details!!
Idk why but our zone has made it a THING to say we are beasts and I have taken that very seriously.
- Sister (Beastmode) Carter

I almost forgot! The Elders randomly had some sisters, we have no idea who *sarcasm* put Turkins (yes they are a real thing) in their bathtub. Listen I was peer pressured into it by my STL and really I had absolutely no choice at all in the matter... sooo

Also the last one is of us in full beast mode... blurry and all... we out here gettin it

I'll Make a Man out of You

Listen up everyone I have big BIG news and I want you all to pay really close attention.... IM GOING TO BE TRAINING A NEW MISSIONARY!! Yes yes, you heard me right, I, the missionary who JUST finished training, am trusted to raise a brand new missionary.... I am just as shocked as you are! So far I don't know anything about her, not even her name, but I'm already so excited to instill in her the little nuggets of knowledge I've learned over the past few weeks. Hopefully I'll be a great trainer, I really really want to do everything I can to make sure she loves the field. AHHHHH I'm so pumped!!! Me training also means both of my companions are being transferred. Honestly it might be a little weird not having Sister Harry around because I've just gotten used to her general vibe for the past 3 months so it will be interesting to not have her here. I'm also in charge of an area now, and I'll have the sim card, and I'll be driving.... woah that's a lot of weight on my shoulders.

This week has overall been pretty basic. I got to have a mini exchange with Sister Abraham, my STL, where we talked to this guy who turned out to be an insane basher. I talked to him on Wednesday and he overall seemed pretty chill minus the few moments when he said Joseph Smith received Satanic Visions, but he wasn't that threatening. THEN the next day Sister EvM and Sister Abraham went to see him the next day and he apparently started screaming at them and started to like get up in their face and tell them how their eyes are closed and how they are blinded and all of that crap. And HOLY COW Sister Abraham was SO upset she was about so go OFF on this Homeboy but because we are missionaries she politely just left real quick.... so I'm going to say that the Lord was protecting me but for some reason didnt feel up to protecting Sister EvM and Sister Abraham. 

We had a little ceremony for Sister Harry hitting her 6 months where we burned her shoes (that was more of a blessing for me because they STANK) and roasted marshmallows with a member. It was honestly so much fun. It felt a little weird because it was so close to what it would be like to be normal again but it still wasn't quite the same... oh well I'll be normal again eventually.

I also hit my 100 days on the mission!!! My mom sent me a little crown to commemorate the day. Let's just say I've worn that thing more than should be socially acceptable, but I'm just excited I've hit some sort of milestone besides just another random week. 

I just wanted to give a shout out to my sister who just started her senior year and I'm so so so excited for her, also shes not allowed to graduate because shes still 12 to me so shes too young.

I'm still LOVING the mission and I cant wait to teach my new missionary all the ins and outside of everything!!! AHHHH TOMORROW CANT COME SOON ENOUGH!!!

I love love love you all!

Remember God is in the details!

Sister Carter

P.s. I am finally done with the Facebook fast so don't be freaked if you see me posting all about Jesus and how great He has been to me!! 

Also a member in my ward found a day old kitten in his driveway so he rescued it and put it in his microwave to keep it warm and it was SO ADORABLE

My pictures aren't sending so I'll send them next week!! BYE!!

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

EVERYONE DON'T WORRY I'M STILL ALIVE

I am so sorry I didn't write an email last week. Life just got way hectic so I didn't have time or really the energy to write the email! Little do you know writing these emails takes 45 minutes to a hour to write and man alive its TIME CONSMING! But don't worry I aim to please so I'm going to keep churning these emails out!

The past two weeks were lowkey BRUTAL my friends so lets get right into it.

This week our favorite person we were teaching we sadly had to drop. Last Monday I had a extremely strong feeling that we should ask her to be put on date to be baptized and promise her that if she did, she would get a job within the next month. Let me tell you, I did NOT want to do it. Like my little heart was about to beat out of my chest and when in the scriptures it talks about how people wrestled with God.... I can testify to you that is exactly what I was doing. I was sitting in the lesson SWEATING and trying to get out of this prompting that I received. At one point I even thought, well if they somehow mention her work then I will know for sure that I needed to do it. Almost immediately after I thought that I got the response that, "No, you are going to do it anyway." So I thought crap. I already knew what her response would be and I knew that if I did that she would immediately freak out and we would no longer be able to teach her but as most wrestles with God end.... I lost. So with sweaty hands and I very heavy heart I told her what God wanted her to hear, and just as expected she told us that we needed to leave her house. So we left and immediately I felt my entire heart break. I honestly was visibly upset. I didn't understand why God would tell me to do something that would lead to this dramatic of a response so I just asked Sister Harry to pull over and give me a few seconds to just... well honestly be heartbroken. I stood outside of the car for probably 10 minutes just in absolute pain because I didn't understand why I had to do it and almost immediately into praying and asking why I had to do it I got the response, "Do I not know more than you" and wow, that was the worst response, I had to do a mental check and try and kick myself out of the rut I was in. The rest of the night was brutal for everyone. Part of it was that both of my companions had to receive their own personal witness that it was necessary we needed to stop teaching Shawna and then they had to deal with the loss of losing someone we had each grown to love so much. The best and only way to describe the loss is to try and put it in perspective. We as missionaries are tasked with trying to bring the gospel to every single person that we can and during that process with each person we honestly grow to love them as if they are a part of our family. We cry with them, we laugh with them, we feel close to God with them. Then imagine having to end that relationship knowing that we were offering them literal eternal happiness and they rejected it.... It is one of the most heartbreaking feelings as a missionary. I can't even adequately describe the emotions that we were all experiencing all that night into the late hours, and even into the next day. It. was. brutal. But I know that every person will one day know that Jesus is the Christ and that this is the true Church. That is the only way I was able to get through each of those painful moments. My only hope is that one day I will get to see Shawna and she will thank me for whatever small role I played in her conversion. Who knows!!

This week was filled with a lot of really tough conversations.We had 3 drop lessons with people that we were teaching that were making no progress,  and along with those tough conversations came very little other success in the missionary work. We are working every single day as hard as we can to find the people that we know God has prepared for the gospel but with little to no proof of our efforts but I know that God is trying to teach us all something, and I have a sneaky suspicion that it is humility.... YIKES, everyone please pray for me because if God is trying to teach me humility....  these next few weeks might be tough.

BUT on a much much much happier note we also had District PDay which was INSANELY fun. We spent the first few hours at breakfast together where I sadly lost a bet so I had to eat apple butter.... yeaaaaaaaa that stuff is NASTY. I could barely swallow it before literally chugging water and Diet Coke (yes yes my Diet Coke addiction is back in full swing.... Sorry Mom lol) Then we went back to the church were we had a Nerf Gun War... yup I lost... and THEN we played the missionary approved version of Dungeons and Dragons called Pirates and Plundering..... *pause for jokes being mad about my very apparent nerdiness* BUT LISTEN hear me out, it was SOOOOOOO MUCH FUN. Within the first round of the game Elder Muterspaugh had killed 3 people and I was about to break into the Governors house to steal all of his money... yes.... I got very into it. I have decided that when I get back to Provo.... I may or may not be doing this on a regular basis. Just as a reference in my next turn I am going to be robbing the treasury of the Governor and hopefully killing the King in order to call all of the soldiers away from the ship so we can steal it.... I am very excited.

This past week/weeks I have truly learned to be grateful for the challenges that I have had in my life that has led me to have thick skin. Each day as a new challenge arises I can look back on my difficult moments in the past and honestly say to myself, "Well, I've been through worse so I can get through this." All of those days led me to be able to handle the challenges that a mission has brought me with such ease and I know that the days when I feel the most down will only last but a small moment, that in 15 years when I talk about my mission to my kids I won't be able to even remember these hard days. I hope every single one of you know that Christ is on your side. He is always walking next to you, doing everything that He can to make your burdens light, and if they aren't light now, it might be because He is trying to teach you the best way to endure all of your burdens that will come so that they will be light. I know that is what He did for me, He let me feel a lot of pain throughout my life so that I can carry my burdens now without any trouble. 

Don't worry everyone, I'm not struggling in anyway, I'm simply just persevering through the normal difficulty of missionary life and I thought I would include you all in my journey!! I'm loving life and wouldn't trade my life as a missionary for anything, even being able to watch Nextflix again ;)  

Sorry this week's email is kind of all over the place, after missing last week I wasn't totally sure what all I have written about and what I haven't but if you have any questions of want any advice or if you even just want to rant shoot me an email and I will get back to you in the next 1-2 Preparation days ;)

Love you all!!

God is in the Details!

Sister Carter

P.S. look at me being all cute and stuff with Wyoming and a random dog that went tracting with us for a little while!