Bad Boys Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do

This week has honestly been something else for sure and because last week's email was SUPER long I'll try and make this one a little shorter!!

First of all..... Gage GOT BAPTIZED yes, you heard that correctly, Gage followed after the example of Jesus Christ and was baptized by proper Priesthood authority on Sunday!! It was easily one of the best moments I've had on my mission. He was the first person that I found, taught, and baptized and I may (or may not) have shed a few tears (lol what's new) because of how proud I was of him and how happy I was for him in this accomplishment! It was a beautiful baptism, he even wore a suit for the first time!! He was so excited and ready to be baptized and I was just a little proud mama because of it. Wow wow wow, God is good and Jesus Christ is real! 

Last Wednesday my entire zone had the opportunity to go out to Martin's Cove and pull the handcarts in so they can be stored over winter. It was an incredible opportunity to connect with my ancestors. I had many ancestor cross the plains in order to get into the Salt Lake Valley and without them I don't know where I would be today. I felt them so close as I walked the sacred ground that is Martin's cove, and I felt of their pain as they talked about some of the stories of people that died along the way, and I felt of their joy and I knew how proud they were of me and my decision to follow in their footsteps. They sacrificed their lives in order to ensure a better future for me specifically and I know they are giving me their strength and protection every day of my mission.

I love love LOVE Sister Johnson. We get along so well and she has grown so much as a missionary these past couple of weeks. Just a few days ago she had a major breakthrough. There is one road in our area that I felt specifically impressed that there was a family there who was waiting for us to come knock on their door. I also knew that I needed Sister Johnson to know how to receive those promptings. So I told her that I knew where the house was that we needed to go to and that she needed to tell me where that house was. We drove that road probably over 100 times. She cried 5 or 6 times because she felt like she didn't know how to feel the spirit and recognize promptings, but I knew that God needed her to know how to feel the Spirit so we just kept driving until last Friday. We were driving around and she said we needed to go to one specific house and I told her I had received that same promoting and she felt so accomplished that she asked if we could drive that road again. When we did she knew exactly what house it was without question. Although no one was home, we will keep checking in because we know that's where we need to be. I cried because I was so happy and proud of her. It was a great moment.

Also last week we may or may not have had the cops called on us during District P-Day because the Elders were running around outside with Nerf Guns and it looked like there were several guys trying to break into the Church with Guns.... so that was a hilarious moment for all of us, having to give a statement to a police officer about how we all have keys to the church and that we were just playing a game with Nerf Guns.... the cop was really nice though in fact he even laughed when he walked in and saw an entire group of missionaries holding nerf guns... what an event.

I also went to a lesson with Falysha's family and while we were talking we ended up talking about family history and they told us about this 115 year old bible that was passed down for generations and they brought it out and the whole time I was itching to just hold it in my hands and then FINALLY the dad set it on my lap and there I was, holding a 115 year old book. I wanted to (you'll never ever guessed what I wanted to do.....) cry it was glorious. Many of you know I'm *probably* going to be studying anthropology so stuff like this just really jazzes me up. THEN when he picked up the Bible there was a whole bunch of dirt on my pants I HAD 115 YEAR OLD BIBLE DIRT ON MY PANTS, I was so excited about it I had Sister Johnson take a picture of my with my pants before I washed them.... imagine where that dirt had been. It has probably crossed the ocean on a boat and traveled on buggies, and trains, and ultimately cars all leading up to it being on my lap.... holy, it was epic.

I hope this week was incredible for each of you!! I love you all so so much and I pray for you all the time!!

Remember, God is in the Details!

Sister Carter

Woke up late

Well , well, well, what do you know, it's your favorite missionary in the Colorado Fort Collins mission that's serving in the Casper 1st Ward named Sister Carter.

This week has been quite simply, eloquent. Honestly I may have cried a little bit (out of joy no worries everyone) but overall not too shabby.

The biggest event was PACO IS GETTING BAPTIZED. Holy cow I'm literally so excited. Last Tuesday, if you remember, I said he would be picking a date that night...  well he picked Sunday the 22nd so by the end of this week we will have him dunked. I couldn't be more proud. I literally felt so on top of the world that when we got in the car I screamed, laughed, and then cried because I had been waiting for that moment for as long as I could remember. It was such a happy moment to see someone make that commitment and have that desire to follow after Jesus Christ. He is super nervous because there is a lot of responsibility that comes with baptism but we explained that he will get help and guidance from God all along the way and that God never has and never will in this life expect perfection. 

Then we had exchanges!!! I love exchanges because it's always nice to see how other people teach and work. That night though, when we were sleeping at the STL's (Sister Training Leader) house I COULD NOT for the life of me fall asleep for several reasons... (1) it was absolutely dead silent and I don't know about you but sleeping in dead silence is impossible but (2) on top of the dead silence every so often there was a loud rain drop hitting our window..... All. Night. Long. That noise, if I wasn't already, drove me crazy then (3) it was so so SO hot that I couldn't breathe properly.... so add that all together and that equals one night with only 4 hours of sleep... luckily the STL's took good care of me and let me take a nap before I died of exhaustion. 

On exchanges we had a lesson with a guy named Quinn. Now Quinn has been taught by missionaries in the past and for an unknown reason they stopped teaching him. So we called him and he said he would love to have us come over. We went over to his house and started talking and immediately I realized something was weird. He talked about how he had tried to really study and understand the Bible and he wanted to believe it but he said faith is ridiculous, that relying holy on faith is just not possible and he needed an undeniable sign or proof that God exists and oh man... I was biting my tongue the entire time. He talked about how science can be proven and why is it necessary to have faith. He even went as far as to say, if he had a for sure sign, then he would believe. 

*Backstory ft a shout out to my Dad*

So not many of you know this but I often feel as though I don't know the scriptures very well, I feel like when the time comes for me to find one I cant think of it, or I know what it is but I cant find it and all of that. Well when I was younger I can vividly remember the moment where my Dad (hi dad) told me his favorite scripture, and the scripture he had on his plaque when he went on his mission. He told me how that is where his testimony started and how that scripture changed the way he felt about faith. Ever since that day, I might not know many scriptures but I always knew Alma 30:44 because it not only changed my Dad's life, but without him knowing, it changed my testimony as well.

*end of backstory*

As soon as Quinn mentioned that he needed a sign, that very scripture came to my mind. Alma 30 is all about a Prophet named Alma who was trying to teach someone named Korihor who was an Aethist that was preaching to the people and telling them God isn't real because there is no evidence of Him, so how could He exist? Korihor then asks Alma that very question so with all the power of a Set Apart Missionary and representative of Jesus Christ I read that scripture to Quinn. It says, "...Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God?" 

*at this point I feel Sister Abraham, my STL, shift in her chair* 

"Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? 

*she sighs and looks over*

"The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator."

And then I say, Quinn, everything on this planet testifies that God lives and I know it and I know that God knows it.

Imagine me, a 20 year old 5'5, 140 pound brownish/blondish hair, unassuming girl, challenging a 6'3, 300 pound, big guy, saying, "Are you tempting God?"

...Yea my STL was a little shaken...

But even when I testified with all the power in my entire being that God lives, the spirit couldn't pierce his hardened heart. He simply didn't want to believe it. He wanted an undeniable sign and that simply isn't what God is trying to teach us. God wants us to learn how to trust, believe, and know, without having to feel something physically with our hands, or see it with our mortal eyes.

 So after letting him ramble for a little longer about his person vendetta against the use of faith in religion I stop him and I ask one crucial question which would ultimately lead Sister Abraham and I to know if he was truly ready for the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, I asked, "Quinn, do you want to have faith?" He stopped, he looked at me and said, "No, I don't." And I knew, right then and there that there was no point in continuing to teach him. He wasn't ready and I'm not sure if he will be ready for the light and blessing that this Gospel will bring into his life. Faith is the stepping stone to everything we teach. Even when Jesus Christ walked the Earth and performed miracles  such as raising someone from the dead, and healing the lepers, and had the ability to show unto the people that proof, he still taught Faith. He said, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you" meaning that even if your faith is so tiny, so insignificant that it is compared to one of the smallest seeds, a mustard seed, that even that small amount of faith could literally move mountains. Jesus easily could have simply performed the miracles, but instead He performed them according to their faith. Faith is something in the Gospel that cannot be removed, so sadly, we cannot teach him because learning and teaching without faith will waste our time, his time, and most importantly God's time. I am here to serve God and to harvest those that are ready, not to waste time trying to harvest a seed that the owner is refusing to plant. 

So to end the story I thought of an incredible movie about a Professor who made his class sign a document that stated that they knew God didn't exist and one of the students refused to sign. The professor challenge with student to prove that God is real, or he would automatically fail the class. In the end the student proved that God is real and the professor was proven wrong. I honestly couldn't remember the entirety of the movie but I knew God wanted me to have Quinn watch it so I told him to watch it and said we had to leave. I don't know what will happen, and I don't know if Sister Abraham will go back and try teaching him despite my recommendation to not, but I do know now how absolutely crucial faith is in everything we teach.

Wow, that was a long story, sorry about that.

To wrap up this email I had some pretty awesome stuff involving God's greatest creation.... puppies.

First of all, on exchanges that night the members who the STL's live with, has some people over who brought literally the cutest little puppy in the entire world. I'm going to be honest and say I don't remember her name but let me just say I shed a few tears because of its cuteness abilities. Literally I started crying, she was just so cute and she was running around all happy and just so ugh adorable. I literally was obsessed. THEN some members in the ward just bought a Saint Bernard puppy and let me just say that thing is a dumb as rocks but so fluffy that he makes up for it. His little paws just flop around and he fell in a ditch like 4 times and we just watched him struggle before someone walked over to help him out it was ADORABLE. I literally cannot Express the joy I felt with them in my arms.... I cant.

In other news, I bought pants last week because it's starting to get cold, yes you heard that right, winter in Casper is around the corner and the temperature is dropping rapidly so my legs started freezing when I walked.... snow should be coming in the next few weeks.... yikes.

Sister Johnson (my companion) is really struggling to know how she feels the Spirit. There is one street that we have drove down where there is a house on that street that has someone prepared for the gospel so I challenged Sister Johnson to listen to the Spirit and find it. Well we drove that road over and over, probably upwards of 50 times. Shes cried many times out of frustration because she can't feel which house we need to go to but I keep driving that road because I know that we receive no witness until after the trial of our faith, this is her trial and it's up to me to make sure she receives that witness. She will get that promoting, and when she does, that will be an incredible day and she will be ready for the rest of her mission she has in front of her.

I hope everyone is loving life as much as I am here on my mission. Its been a little rocky at times but the Lord does know how to calm troubled hearts, and speak peace when peace is needed. I love being a trainer and I'm ready for whatever the Lord has planned for me in the future.

Pray lots!

God is in the Details!

Sister Carter

PS I might send more pictures later because the Elders and us are getting Pedicures... It'll be glorious

School for that

WOW WOW WOW everyone is finally back in school and so is everyone here in Wyoming is finally settling down and not taking random vacations every 7 minutes, so the hope is that they will have a set schedule and we will be able to see all those people that kept cancelling on us!

Overall this week was pretty meh. We did find 2 new people to teach which, honestly was a little disappointing because we knew we could have gotten more but for some reason the entire week just felt extremely off. We couldn't really feel the spirit, we were stuck in almost like a rut. But 2 New people is still a success, but we know we could have done so much better.

The biggest news of this week is that PACO IS ON DATE TO BE BAPTIZED!! Welllllll so he said hes pick a day today so by the end of the day he will be in his finally steps towards getting baptized!!! LETTTTSSSS GOOOOOOOOO!! Paco will be the first person that I will have taught and baptized on my mission from start to finish, and from what I've heard it's pretty rare to teach someone start to finish with transfers being so all over the place.

I'm really running out of time so I'm trying to rush through everything!

This week I had a rough day (as one does) and the Zone Leaders tried to cheer me up by sending us a hand drawn picture of Elder Muterspaugh eating one if those same spicy chips I talked about last week. Honestly it lowkey made my night because the detail involved was insane. I 100 percent approve.

We also had dinner at a members house yesterday and when we walked up they literally had horses in their front lawn... Wyoming is a crazy place

Me and sister Johnson are planning a mutual activity for the youth and we are doing a missionary life sized game of life so it's going to be epic and I'll write more about it next week!!

I love you all!!
Remember God is in the Details!
Sister Carter

Burnin' Up

Yes, yes, it's your friendly neighborhood beast Sister Carter here to tell you all about the best week she has had on her mission yet!!! Its been a blast and a half so hold on tight!!

First of all WE GOT EIGHT NEW PEOPLE TO TEACH!!! Yes, we witnessed so many miracles this week it's not even funny.

During the first day of the week we got 3 new people that I think I mentioned in my last email and that was HUGE for us. Then on Tuesday we drove all the way down to Cheyenne and got to spend the night with my homegirl from the MTC who is ALSO training!!! It was so good to see her and just talk with someone who is literally in the exact same position as me, training right out if training and share advice on what has worked so far and what hasn't. Needless to say, we were up talking for wayyyy too long.

The next day was trainers meeting!! So far I have been to every single trainers meeting and not going to lie, this one has been the best. They shared a touching video that talks about the trials of missionary work and how as missionaries we are tasked with enduring some of the hardest trials and heartbreaks because we are feeling, at least in part, what the Savior felt so we can more fully understand the Atonement. We can never come close to truly knowing what it was like for Him, but we can feel some of that pain when we have to stop teaching someone who we love so dearly that isn't progressing, or when we constantly face rejection or ridicule, or when we spend all day being extremely diligent but ultimately have no success. We feel so deeply for these people that every single time we teach we plead with them to accept what we know will bless our lives. I cried throughout the video, because I have felt all of those emotions. It also said that when we are faced with those heart wrenching moments in our lives, remember that you are not the first to ask, "Is there no other way?"

*pause for the spirit*

After trainers meeting I OF COURSE went to chick-fil-a with a bunch of the other Sisters who are training!! It was SO much fun and let me just tell you the Colorado Fort Collins mission has some full on gems of missionaries so Wyoming watch out. We are out here converting people with our humor, charm, and of course eternal salvation. It's on.

Then throughout the rest if the week we went finding like crazy!! We knocked on doors, were led by the Spirit, and knocked on some more. I had an incredible experience where we prayed about where to go so we would be led to the elect and I just started driving, I turned down the street and past a house and felt my heart scream STOP so I parked the car and turned to Sister Johnson and said, this one. We walked up to the door and knocked and a young guy, probably 23 or 24 stepped out and immediately I SWEAR I recognized him. I introduce ourselves and ask if he has a belief in God and he kinda says yea and I've been thinking about going to church but I figure I shouldn't worry about that yet so I level with him and say, listen I'm pretty young I'm only 20 years old and I have realized that I need God more than anything else in my life. We shared a scripture and he said he would love for us to come back next week and OH MAN I WAS PUMPED!! I knew that the Lord had directed us to his door and I cant wait until Thursday so we can teach him more about the gospel!!

Then on Sunday we had an incredible experience where a member called us and said that some of her friends were interested in hearing more about the church. So we planned to meet them with the member there and when we showed up I recognized the house as somewhere we had been told a basher lives so my heart started racing and mentally preparing for what was ahead. As soon as we walked in I felt so much peace and it was almost as if God had calmed my troubled heart saying I was where He wanted me to be. After talking with the two ladies I realized that they had been perfectly prepared to receive the gospel. All of the beliefs they had, all the ideas about the after life, and honestly everything they had studied in the Bible were perfectly in line with the Restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It spoke volumes to me how their intense study of the Bible led them to the beliefs we know to be true. I felt as though I would not be able to adequately express all the thoughts I had running through my head in a way that would touch them and represent God, but I can testify that the Lord does fill my mouth with the words to say. I felt Him literally speaking through me as I expressed the love and admiration of Jesus Christ that we as members of the church have. After that meeting, I felt so much confidence in myself to follow the spirit and in God to help fill in the flaws in my ability to teach. I was truly blessed, in that moment, to speak in the tongue of angels.

Yesterday was our zone meeting where we got SO much hype about how well our Zone is doing and how we can improve. During the meeting we discussed how we can truly become beasts in the mission field and rely on the Lord to help us do so. We even got lable maker prints that stick on the back that prove we are the Capser Beasts. *hype* it was epic, but the real trouble came AFTER the meeting was over...

So I did something a little risky... this is where the email subject line comes in... In my district there has been a constant back and forth about a hypothetical team. I have kicked many people off of the team and after a random amount of time they are allowed back on the team WELL APPARENTLY homeboy Elder Muterspaugh thought I was "being snappy" at him so he decided to kick me off the team for THREE days! And listen, I'm team captain, I cant live with being off the team that long... so after our Zone Meeting a few other Elders from the Zone, the Zone Leaders (Elder Dalton and Muterspaugh), and us were about to leave when and Elder brought out a bag full of Ghost Pepper Chips... I bet you can see where this is leading... so Elder Muterspaugh challenged me, if I ate THREE of those chips, I'd be back on the team, and be team Captain again. And with all the Elder hyping me up... I couldn't back down so I did it. I ate all three of them. My mouth.... was NUMB. Burning. Dying. All the horrible things that come with spicy foods. Little did I know the chips where apparently so spicy that its recommended you where GLOVES when you eat them and I had just eaten THREE. Oh man I had never felt that much pain in my mouth probably ever. But I did it and I have now earned the respect of all the Elders in my Zone, my fame will live in forever. I've also never had so many people ask me how my mouth was doing before, it's weirdly nice? And don't worry, that night Elder Lucas prayed for my internal well being in our District prayer so I'm fine now!

Overall this was easily the best week of my entire mission. I saw so many incredible things accomplished and I know the Lord is working His miracles in my area as well as the entirety of the Colorado, Fort Collins mission.

I love you all!! Keep working hard to bring your Brothers and Sisters to Christ!

Remember God is in the Details!

Sister Carter

3 of the pictures are taken from the video where I was DYING from a burnt mouth and the last one is Elder Muterspaugh repping my sun glasses  

Then that's my beast Zone barring our Beast tags