October 13, 2014

Vineyards near Livermore, CA

Livermore's downtown

Livermore's downtown

Happy P-day!  Let me start off by saying that it is so hot.  It's weird to think that it's almost Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas!  I have enjoyed looking back at where I've spent my holidays the last three years.  I've been all over the place and have certainly enjoyed every second.  P-days are not as relaxing as people claimed they were.  You still wake up early and in fact, you feel like you have more to do than usual because on P-days you are allowed to go to stores and actually do real life things.  Today we went to Target again, as well as Trader Joes.

Livermore used to be a "farm" town.  I believe it.  But Livermore has got nothing on Rexburg, Idaho.  That is a true fram town.  Livermore is full of vineyards and rolling hills.  It really is beautiful in its own unique way.  "Downtown" or Main Street has a ton of cute restaurants that are always crowded.  It reminds me a bit of Clarendon in Arlington, but Clarendon is way fancier, cleaner and more modern (newer).

Sister Gregerson and I got a chance to do some service for a sweet inactive member.  She has a beautiful piece of land and lives up in the rolling hills by the windmills.  She is building a waterfall in her backyard and has a fancy grill and lot of other fun things.  It's quite extravagant.  We went over to help her with planting, power washing and painting!  It was great.  I literally primed and painted her barn for her.  O.K., it was more of a shed, but it was so fun!  And the view was beautiful.  I missed Rexburg a bit looking around at the scenery.

I'm a bit nervous for ipads let me tell ya.  Truthfully I don't want to go back on facebook!  I'm really not looking forward to it.  Today even, in the stores, music was playing (Justin Timerberlake ha), who I am a big fan of, and I literally wanted to run out of the store.  I felt so uncomfortable.  I LOVE not being int he world.  It really is a blessing not being a part of the craziness.  It is fun serving and spreading the gospel.

I had the privilege and blessing of being able to share my testimony in both of the wards we cover:  Livermore 1st and 4th wards.  It's fun being able to cover 2 wards!  It's hard keeping track of every one but a blessing.  I love everyone.

We also got the opportunity to teach the Young Women in the Springtown ward which we do not cover.  We just got invited to teach about virtue.  It was wonderful of course.  I TOTALLY remember Young Women's.  It was some of the greatest times/moments/memories/experiences of my life.  I hope those Young Women got something out of that lesson.  :)

Our new investigator with a baptismal date for November 1st is amazing.  Our last lesson was actually at the Stake President's house.  We extended our baptismal invitation to him then and it was a quick yes!  How blessed his life will be for this wonderful decision he is making.  I'm excited for him.

The gospel truly blesses families and lives!

Love,

Sister Carter

5 October 2014

[Editor's note:  This is slightly out of sequence due to snail mail vs. email, so enjoy going back a few days]

 How are you all?

I am in my first area!  Livermore, California.  I'm currently at Target with my companion, Sister Gregerson.  She's from Atlanta, Georgia!  So much has happened!  Livermore is a cute little town about 40 minutes away from San Jose.  Everyone is connected and pretty much related.  Lucky for me, I'm following in the footsteps of two amazing sisters.  One that got transfered to Palo Alto and another that went home.  Truthfully it's slightly intimidating, but with the Lord's help, I will be able to love and serve just as well as they did.

My companion is a fireball.  She is literally on fire.  I am the first sister she has trained and she will go home in about 6 months.  She graduated from BYU Provo in Neuroscience (did I even spell that correctly? ha!)  So to say the least, she is brilliant.  She is about my height, blonde with a short hair cut that is a bit of a bob.  She's got blue eyes but looks can be deceiving.  She is tough.  She knows her stuff and is incredibly obedient.  It is a blessing to have such an obedient trainer/companion.  She is starting me off just right!  I know I am supposed to have her as a companion.  She has already taught me so much.  I only hope I can do the same.  We're on the way to a dinner appt now.  Pday is really over in 3 minutes.  We give restoration lessons/dinner messages where I recite the First Vision.  It's great!

(later)

Today is Preparation day.  We have to pay for laundry which is a bit of a pain, but oh well.  WE live in a fairly nice apartment.  All of our neighbors know who we are seeing as sisters are always coming and moving in and out of that apartment.  The Hispanic population is that of Arlington around here and it makes me pretty sad and disappointed that I'm not an Hermana.  I just flock to these groups of people and wish that I could communicate with them better.  I hope they feel my love through my smile and hopefully my presence.

So far, we have taught a lot of less-active members.  It has been wonderful meeting everyone.  They knew I was coming and have all give me warm welcomes.

Having General Conference as my first weekend on the mission has been a blessing.  It helps me to know what to say or reference.  Overall it's a great topic of discussion and of course a great commitment to invite people to do.

We are big on commitments here in LIvermore.  We don't knock on doors but simply street contact.  If we aren't in a less-active member lesson, we are at a member dinner or contacting.  We, meaning the San Jose mission, is one of the missions being tested to see if contacting, rather than door knocking works.  We participate in a lot of service as well.

On Friday morning, we went to Quail Gardens, an elderly home and played BINGO.  WE also sang to them.  At one point, when the four of us sisters were singing "Nearer My God To Thee," they all joined in.  Truthfully, I hate that song because it reminds me of the ship, Titanic going down, but you just have to believe me when I say that I sobbed!  I could not handle it!  The tears were flowing and would not stop.  It was so beautiful singing with them.  They were all so old and at the tail ends of their lives!  They really were nearer to God than me in a sense.  I just started my mission not even a week ago.  I have got so much to do in this life and so much to (hopefully) accomplish.  I think about where I was, where I am, and certainly where I'm going and can't help but be so incredibly grateful!

I loved singing with those sweet old people.  Many whom were asleep, couldn't talk that well or something of that nature.  But as soon as we started singing, they did too!  I'm so blessed to be able to be a missionary.  I am so grateful that my Father in Heaven trusts me with his children.

I love my mission president.  The Mellas are perfect.  Sister Mella is Marsali Hancock's sister.  Sister Mella totally knew who I was and on the night before transfers took my companion Sister Walton and I to see her!  Marsali lives a couple of minutes from the mission home, so it was truly wonderful to be able to see her.  I didn't however get to see Annie or Rachel.  Marsali's house is beautiful.  She played the violin for us!  It was perfect.  I felt like I was back in ARlington with her.  It was so wonderful.

I've come to the conclusion that I am going to be tired for the next 18 months.  I have literally been tired since September 17.  But, what a blessing!  What an opportunity.  As I think of other missionaries and their experiences, I decided flat out yesterday that no matter what happens I am not going home until this work is finished, until I am called home.  This may not always be easy.  It may even get harder, but nothing, no force will take me away from this work until March 30, 2016.  How blessed I am to be able to number myself among the 88,000 missionaries all over the world.

The Lord knows us.  He knows our needs, our wants, and our abilities.  My favorite talk at conference was the one given by the Brazilian Seventy. "Are we living up to the blessings we are promised in our Patriarchal Blessing?"  I may at one point have been living under my potential and my privilege.  I am SO grateful for this mission and this blessing of an opportunity.

Love always,

Sister Carter

October 9, 2014 Monday P-days, General Conference, Investigators

I have met so many people. It is insane. I am so grateful to be a missionary. I think of the Missionaries that helped us join the Church. Since then, I have a better understanding of this Gospel, what it is all about and of course who my Savior is, who my Heavenly Father is, and what I want my life to end up being.

So, Preparation Days are officially on Mondays so expect my emails every Monday around this time :)

I am in Livermore, California!! About 40 minutes from San Jose or so. This is my first area and I will probably be here for 6 months. 

My companion's name is Sister Gregerson. She is from Atlanta Georgia. She. Is. Tough. She has been out for about a year. There are 4 sisters in my District but we are the only two English speakers, the other two sisters are Spanish speakers. We have a lot of Elders of course! We only drive in my district (YESSSSS NO BIKING!!!!!!) (I probably just jinxed myself) and I am the driver. For whatever reason she doesn't drive so it's all me......Kinda exciting and helps me learn the area better. The car is really nice.

Am currently sitting with my Companion at the Library. We started our laundry and are headed to Target after this. 

We don't knock on doors but rather proselyte by contacting. We go downtown and ask people "do you want a picture of your Savior Jesus Christ?"  Or "Hi! We're the Missionaries.... Have you seen Sisters like us before?" It is so fun. I think since I have a talent for running my mouth, this has been fairly "easy" for me to talk to people. 

The members feed us EVERY night!!!!! Crazy right? Such a blessing, BUT some nights we have two dinner appointments in ONE night!!! hahahahaha. I really am a missionary. It's crazy. A crazy blessing!

Did you get to watch General Conference? It was amazing!! My first Sunday on the Mission and I get Conference! I wasn't really watching it for myself, but rather all of these Less Active Members that we teach. 

[editor's note:  names have been removed, but this is a general summary of the people she and her companion are teaching]

1.  A woman who is not active, divorced, with 4 sons, works at Wal-Mart, and has a VERY tough time.  She has two cats.

2. A man who is not active but has two sons who are very, very in active. He knows what he needs to do to come closer to Christ but doesn't. He knows what is good, what is better and what is best but needs to actually do it!

3. A young single adult who we met street contacting downtown! He had lots of questions, especially about Prophets!! I hope he was sincere because I really liked him! He's clearly a wild teen but this gospel will only add to his life. 

4.  A Hispanic man. He is a "born again" Christian. He lives with his mom? Has like 4 kids. Goes to Church! So cute. I liked him. He has a good heart. 

5.  Another man, a Meth addict. We met him street contacting too. He had a friend on a mission in Paris France. We are teaching him tonight. He needs help. But when we prayed with him, he said he felt a feeling! Totally the Holy Ghost!!!!! I'm excited for him, but this addiction is going to kill him if we can't help him by introducing him to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He has his agency!

6.  A cute family. The parents are both cops :) He's been out to DC. They are older and just got married about a year ago. They have two kids who are like 16 and 18, I believe they are his kids from another marriage. She say's she doesn't like the church too much because of women's roles. We're going to start giving her the lessons.

Anywho, so much more to tell everyone,

 

Sister Carter