Well to start off the week we had Transfers where, if you read last weeks invigorating weekly update, I didn't get transferred!! Yep you are correct, I will have spent 1/3 of my entire mission in one area. Which surprisingly is pretty typical. I'm hoping I born, live, die (missionary lingo for start, serve, and end) my entire mission in Casper because eh it's the best, but we will see! Casper is where the Elect are so I wouldn't complain if I am here forever.
Transfer day was actually kind of sad though, I said goodbye to the hypest Zone Leader and dopest STL in the whole mission and they finish their missions in February so the chances of seeing them again are slim. Don't worry though, he had me sign his shirt so we gonna be friends foreva (see attached picture). It was a weird feeling to see them all go but I was already hyped about the upcoming transfer!!
On Wednesday day we also got to visit the sweetest person we are teaching Johnetta. Literally, I can't explain how incredible she is. We have only met her a couple of times and she told us that she wanted to feed us dinner so we show up at her house and she has this cute little set up downstairs with lemonade and pizza and my heart just felt all sorts of warm and fuzzy. We taught her more about the Plan of Salvation and she said, "Well I want to do everything I can to go to the Celestial Kingdom, the highest one is where I want to be." It was just so pure and she's so excited about Church next week. She is absolutely going to love it, I'm sure of it.
As many of you know this past weekend was GENERAL CONFERENCE. Which is lowkey like the superbowl for Missionaries. We look forward to it literally for months and then it's like we blink and it's over, which is about like what it was this week. I felt like there was too much for me to learn that I'm going to need to study them for the next 6 months and then by the time I get them all... a whole new set of talks will drop. Every single talk was beautiful and so elegantly given, I couldn't help but be on the edge of my seat the entire time. I felt intensely that God was talking directly to me through His servants and I knew that those messages were for me. Every message centered on the joy we feel with the knowledge of the restored gospel that we have and I couldn't agree more. I have felt more unending joy as a missionary than I thought possible. There have been many setbacks and heartbreaks but I can now look at them with an eternal perspective in knowing the end from the beginning. This Gospel will bring more than temporary satisfaction, it will bring everlasting joy and I am the first testament of that divine truth. I love this Church and I know, without a doubt in my mind, that it holds the truths of the eternities.
A couple days ago was also a rough day for Sister Johnson. We felt impressed to go to a specific house and when we stopped by the first time no one was there but we went back again and they were sitting in their garage. I looked over at Sister Johnson and she looked like she was going to pee her pants so I said, "Alright, you've got this!" At that point I'm pretty sure she hated me. So we walk up and she stumbles over her words and then we got to the very end and... she literally just stopped talking. Like no words were coming out of her mouth, and I had made it a point to not jump in and save her because she needs to know how to contact people. So we sat in their driveway for easily 30 seconds with her just not making any sound and silently begging me to help. Ultimately I did and set up a time for us to come back and then we got in the car and she was devastated. She felt so destroyed and kept saying how bad she was, and how much she failed and all sorts of stuff like that so I knew this needed to be a teaching opportunity so I just drove out to my favorite overlook in Casper without saying anything. When we got there I just looked at her and said, "Well that didn't go well did it?" She just kind laughed and said, "Yea, I know" I asked her what happened and she made up some excuses as to why it went wrong and I finally said, while those might be excuses they really aren't reasons, what can we learn from this? She just was silent for a minute and said well I realized that I suck at missionary work, and again I stopped her and said, oh come on you know you don't suck at missionary work, you are a great missionary, you just have your weakness like everyone else. We talked a long time about the best way she could improve and I talked about how, while I was disappointed in that whole event I was more upset with myself. I knew I hadn't taught her well enough to prepare her for it so in a way I felt like I failed. It was a good moment for both of us to recognize the need for growth. As a missionary, a lot of times you get stuck being the same missionary you always have been and you stop improving, so having this moment with her where we both talked about how we could improve is going to ultimately make us better, not only as missionaries, but also as people. It was a much needed heart to heart to *Christ's* heart.
Also a guy we passed off this week to 5th ward named Mikey literally brought his Book of Mormon to work, and I just thought that was the sweetest thing in the world. He looks so excited about it too. He's one of the friends Roady and Paco brought to church and he even watched conference with us!! He's probably going to get baptized we are so excited for him!!!
Also, during one session of conference we didn't have another female with us so we couldn't go in Roady's house so he LITERALLY set up a mirror so we could see the TV from his porch, it was genius and I loved it, I would 12/10 recommend doing it in the future!!
I hope everyone is living their best life at home! Go watch some Movies and eat Chick-Fil-A for me! (Man I miss Chick-Fil-A)
This next week it's supposed to be 25 degrees on Thursday.... and it's supposed to snow.... I'm so excited..... yay....
Also just for future reference, Sister Johnson and I solved a very scientific and mathematical problem and discovered that by "pillow measurements" it would cost at least 500 bucks using Amazon Pillow Standards to ship a car... I know you all were on the edge of your seat waiting for the results ;)
I love you all!!
Remember God is in the Details!
Sister Carter
