Too Good at Goodbyes

What's up everyone and welcome back to, What's up with Carter, this week we are featuring TRANSFERS. Now before you get too excited.... I'm staying!! Is anyone surprised though? I mean I am the same sister who stayed in one area for 9 months so I'm probably never leaving Fort Collins until I get on a plane back to Twin Falls Idaho.

A lot has happened this week so let's dive on in *insert diving emoji*

To start off the week I had an amazing interview with my mission president where he get me some tips on how to receive personal revelation. It is always so good to hear from him. As soon as I got on the call he said, Sister Carter, you are always such a smiley happy sister, it's always so good to see you. I've never had a better compliment than that. I was just exuding joy the rest of the day. President Palmer is literally the greatest, there's no other way of saying it.

THEN something epic happened. So my Zone has a Facebook page and we decided that once a week we will post a video called the Weekly Word and GUESS who the first person they asked to speak was.... nope not my companion....nope not my district leader... yep that's right, me. They had ME give my testimony. I feel so privileged. So they asked me to speak on faith which was easy enough. So we filmed the first day.... and it was not so good... so we refilled the next day.... and we had to re-film it... SO WE FILMED THE NEXT DAY AGAIN. But I'm so happy we did because Wowowowow  I looked SO much better in the last video. And then on Sunday they posted it and it has like 2 thousand views on it.... yes I am now extremely famous. No I wont let it go to my head.

We also had the legendary Transfer Doc and MY one and only Zone Leader, Elder Williams, is going to be the next ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT. I would say that I taught him well but he deserves it, hes a great missionary, I'm just excited to actually know my AP, I'm hoping he will one day figure out a way for me to drive by myself.... *fingers crossed* other than that mega news, most of my district is being transferred, which is so sad, and I will be in a trio for 2 weeks waiting for the first wave of reassigned missionaries to get here. It's going to be a party. It'll just be mega awkward when we have MLC and she just has to sit in another room.... although she could take naps during that.... on second thought, she can take my place.

ALSO next week (May 8th) I'm going to be hitting my year mark on my mission. I'm pretty sure I'm in a weird time loop because there's now way I'm that close to having 6 months left... eh it's still a week away, I got plenty of time to thinking about it.

I love you all and I hope you love these emails :)

Remember God is in the Details!
Sister Carter

Sorry I don't have more pictures, I slacked this week

(Is it too late now to say) Sorry!!

I\M SORRY I DIDN'T WRITE LAST WEEK!!! Don't worry though everyone, I'm still safe and sound quarantine in my lovely apartment in Fort Collins Colorado :)

Honestly not much has gone on and by that I mean basically everyday is the same but some days there are just insanely epic things.

For example: Just last week the Zone Leaders ask me and my companion to be the Face of the Fort Collins Facebook page... yes I am now a model, no I didn't charge them, yes I know I should have. But we had a mini photoshoot and within a few days I was staring at myself on the cover photo of the page, that's an adjustment to make for sure. Another example is that we found out just yesterday that our mission could potentially be getting over 100 missionaries next week, which doubles the size of the mission.... it's not for sure for sure yet because reassignments are still being made but..... if it happens, I'm really going to be in for it. There will be so much work to do I might not even GET to proselyte!!

Also and unimportant but life changing announcement.... my mom bought me  hammock.... yes you did hear that right. She sent me a hammock via Amazon and my outside time has been changed forever. Honestly you don't know the joy of having a Hammock and then getting to just hang out in it until you ACTUALLY have one. It was/is incredible so if you get annoyed by all the hammock pictures I'm sorry, I'm just enthused about the dumbest stuff.

We are doing pretty well overall, the people we are teaching are progressing and even attending virtual church in a member's home on Sunday!! It's actually been very humbling to get to participate in 4 Sacraments services every week. You can physically feel the spirit change when the Sacrament prayers are said. I have gained a huge testimony of the Sacrament because of how often I get to see it personally administered to only one family at a time.

I also had all 4 of my "exchanges" with the sisters last week!! So how we are doing them is we only join them for studies. During those exchanges, even though they were virtually and only for a couple hours, I felt so much love for my sisters. I got to help testify to them that they are so needed in this mission, I was an instrument in Gods hands to help them see all the blessings they have because they are serving. And I got to tell them how much I love them over and over and how proud I am of them. I don't know how much my word means to them but I hope it means something because they mean the world to me. I am grateful every single day that I get to be with them. I have made some of my closest friends. I question all the time if I really am a good leader, or if I'm doing the right thing, but one thing I know for sure is that I genuinely thank my Heavenly Father for giving me the chance to associate with them.

I also didn't get to write about Easter!! So you all get to hear my little shpeel about it this week instead. This Easter was different than any other Easter because I got to think about the Savior more than any other Easter. I spent the entire day teaching over and over about how much Christs resurrection has meant to me. I got to testify that Christ rose so that I can live. I got to feel of the relief that comes from knowing that if and when my family passes away and if no when I pass away, Christ made it possible to see them again. He did that for me. The most special part is that I know that He suffered for me, and He would do it all again for me, even if I was the only one on Earth. I could never imagine someone loving me that much, but He did. Easter is a time to celebrate and remember the living Christ because He didn't just die for me, He lives for me too.

Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts about me. I cant tell you how grateful I am to have you in my life, big or small. I love you, and God loves you too!!

Remember God is in the Details
Sister Carter

I Wanna Dance with Somebody

Alright so this week I decided to write my weekly throughout the week to see if it turns out a little better than when I try and write it 30 minutes before my Preparation day ends. So we will see how this goes!!

APRIL FOOLS DAY was this week and I got the sisters to all play a prank on our Zone Leader where we told them all the sisters were in the middle of a breakdown, complete with crying pictures, depressing audio recordings, and some strategically placed phone calls. It all ended with a call to the Zone Leaders when we said, "All the sisters are freaking out and so we sent them a text telling them how much we love them, stuff like that and they all replied with basically the same thing, 'Make sure to tell the Zone Leaders Happy April Fools Day'" it was an epic moment. Elder Williams was a good sport, he gave us all a shout out during our Zone meeting saying that he was so happy that he could still mess with the sisters. *epic*

Well the extra sad news for everyone is that on Wednesday of last week I got weirdly sick. *not corona* I was on an area call with some sisters and about half way through I look over at Sister Robinson and say, "I feel so sick." So we finish our area call and my stomach was just trying itself in knots. It was so bad. It was almost like my stomach was just so full that it needed to get rid of whatever was in there. It was awful. I ended up crashing extra hard that night with a stomach full of Pepto-bismal. *See picture below* A fat thank you to the City Park sisters who went a bought me the Pepto.

This week was actually INSANELY successful in terms of missionary work. We put 2 people on date for baptism, and had 4 people watch General Conference!! Which is lowkey a HIGHKEY successful week. God is working miracles even though I'm stuck inside all the time.

Speaking of..... GENERAL CONFERENCE WAS THIS WEEK

Yes you heard that right.... the biggest event of the year happened. There were many tears shed, many hearts warmed, and many answers given.

I went into Conference with 5 big questions I wanted to find answers to. Within the first 2 sessions all of my questions had been answered. I knew that my answers were from God. After those sessions all the other talks were just additional revelation that God wanted me to hear. It was incredible. I gained such a testimony of how God is so specifically aware of me and spoke to me, a nobody, through a living Prophet. It was incredible.

I am so grateful for the chance I had to be on my mission during this conference. I was able to experience it in such a personal way because I was no longer concerned if the people I was teaching were liking it, or if the family was liking it. I could simply just focus on the joy that I felt and how God was speaking personally to me. It was the biggest blessing in disguise.

I am lowkey loving quarentine... I know most of you might feel the opposite but it's so much less pressure. It's almost as if most of the worries I had as a missionary are wayyyy less. We get an extra 3.5 hours a day to just be outside and get some sun, if we need a break ever, we have permission to take a walk around or pause from the work. It FINALLY gives all of us a much need coping mechanism to deal with stress, where as before, whenever we wanted a break we always felt guilty for not working. I have honestly loved it. I even did some clogging in a park. Not even joking, I just wore my shoes and danced in a park. It was HEAVENLY. No one was really around to appreciate it but it's the thought that counts. Although I miss people, and I miss hugging, and I miss my sisters, I have, and so have so many other missionaries, been working too hard with no breaks and no way to deal with stress so this quarentine has forced us to take the breaks necessary to work hard. I've even noticed that most of the missionaries are overall less stressed. The sisters who before the quarantine were the most worried or stressed are having so much more fun because when they are overwhelmed, they take breaks! It's a huge blessing, at least for me.

I know that the world is crazy right now but I want you to know that I know that God is in control, no matter what. He will provide the blessings if we follow Him.

I love you all!!
Remember God is in the details!!
(Also God is in the details was referenced in conference and I was SO hyped about it)
Sister Carter