November 12th - 18th

Wow.. what a busy week! First, maybe I should tell you all I'm safe, despite the Tornadoes last night. I don't know the whole story, but I guess there was one in Illinois that killed a few people and lots of homes, and it was moving fast toward my area. Next thing I knew, the tornado sirens were sounding all around us, and we were told to find a basement! I guess the sirens mean there has been a funnel formed close by, and you need to take cover now. Woah..! But we're fine, and there was no tornado. That was the 2nd time since I've been here that we've had serious tornado warnings. Pretty exciting!

It really was a busy week! We had a sister specialized training on Thursday in the mission home. 70 sisters at that house at once!! woah. It was awesome though. Then my companion and I had an exchange and we went to Powell, where the mission president lives and were there for a day. Quite the learning experience. Then also Stake Conference, which was incredible! The adult session was all about member missionary work, and it was SO powerful!

Our area is coming along nicely. We have some investigators with GREAT potential. Funny story, we knocked on the door of a girl we'd talked to previously, but a man answered this time. We had barely said anything and he said, "Yeah, I know who you are. I'm actually reading the Book of Mormon right now, just out of curiosity." Woah.. Best news we'd heard all day! So he went on to explain that he's Baptist, but has some Mormon friends and such, so he downloaded the Book of Mormon onto his phone, so he could read it. He then asked probably 692 questions about missionaries and doctrine and such. It was awesome.

My new goal is reflected in a quote we heard at Sister's specialized training that was something said about Eliza R. Snow: "She walked not in the borrowed light of others, but faced the morning unafraid and invincible." Wow! What a goal to work toward! Since then, I have felt a renewed sense of strength and confidence knowing that I AM INVICIBLE, but only when I turn everything I have over to God and let Christ carry me. I love being a missionary and representing Christ. Have a good week Everyone!

Sister Carter

 70 Sister missionaries at the mission home for training.

Brother and Sister Bodily from Iona who went to a baptism in Ohio and saw Challis there. They sent an email with this picture and said "she is sooooo happy!" She looks it.

November 4th - 11th: Lost Sheep, Dogs, Solos, and Gratitude

Hello All,

It's been a good week! My personal lesson for the week was to find ALL lost sheep. We've been having a hard time getting our investigators to come to church, but we've had some great success with less actives. We've found 2 less actives that because we visited them, they recommitted to come to church and are working toward the temple again and cleaning up their lives. At first, I thought these were small, unimportant things, because they are not nonmembers needing to be baptized. I then remembered my purpose as a missionary. It is "to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end." Strengthening less actives and being a catalyst for them to  remember the importance of enduring to the end is every bit as important as baptism. They are STILL Christ's lost sheep. He hasn't given up on them, neither should we. I hope all of you will reach out to someone this week. Member, nonmember, active, less-active, we are ALL God's children.

On a different note... I had an interesting experience this week. We were in a recent convert's house, and their dog really likes us. He got so excited that... HE PEED ON MY LEG. It was sooo gross. I screamed and then laughed.  Luckily, I was wearing tights and I could take them off. But seriously, gross.

Also, I am singing a solo at Stake Conference this week. NO big deal, just a few hundred people all staring at me. haha. Pretty excited though, and maybe a little scared. Mostly just SO grateful that I have opportunities to share the talent I have been blessed with AND maybe it also helps to use to get investigators to church. haha. But it's SO nice to sing again.

In our area, we have a couple places that are lower-income. Many are from different countries. We know quite a few people who are being kicked out of their homes because they can't pay rent and so many don't even have cars. I feel so bad for them. I've never felt so grateful for all the blessings I have. My family and I are so blessed. Not only do do we have enough for our temporal needs, we were given the gospel. I've never been so grateful for all my blessings. There's one family who can't pay rent and are getting kicked out. They have health problems, financial problems, family problems, you name it. Yet, they are the kindest most giving people ever. They can barely feed their family, yet they have fed us twice. They can barely afford gas for their car, yet they drive all the way to church every week. They would drop everything to help everyone. This family has been the greatest example to me and I will always remember them. I hope all of us during this upcoming holiday season can reevaluate and be truly grateful for what we have and be willing to give to others.

Love you all!

Sister Carter

 These are pictures I stole from a facebook page called, "The Great Ohio Columbus Mission."

 "Team Building" day. She looks tall!

 Love that skirt!

 Challis arriving in Ohio on "Transfer day."

Is she the cutest thing or what?

October 29th - November 4th

Hey everyone!

So exciting news, My companion and I are 1 of 4 sets of missionaries participating in an experiment. For the next 2 weeks, we are not allowed to tract/proselyte AT ALL. NONE. or.. we get our car taken away. P.s. Have I told you about our car? It's super nice. It's a Chevy Cruze 2014. It had 55 miles on it when we drove it for the first time. Yes, we're spoiled. Anyways... So we are supposed to just work with our members, referrals, and our lists (less actives, potential priesthood, potential investigators, unbaptized children, former investigators, etc). Honestly, it's not too different than what we've been doing. Tracting just isn't as effective. Pretty cool though, in 2 weeks, we'll report to the mission what we've found.

We also had zone conference this week, which was awesome! Loved it. We just had a bunch of workshops about how to be better missionaries.

Yesterday, was the best/worst day. Church was rough because all our investigators backed out of coming last second. We felt empty-handed. BUT one girl we reactivated last week bore her testimony, and it was awesome!

 Then, the BEST part. The Torres family Baptism. (They're from Peru.) So no, technically it wasn't our baptism, it was the Elders. BUT we have gotten really close with that family the last couple weeks with serving them and visiting them and eating with them and answering questions. Juan Jose, Carla, Melissa, and Emilio Torres will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart and their baptism was incredible. The Spirit was so strong, and they were SO happy.  Words cannot express the beauty of that ceremony. I was lucky enough to get to sing in it. I sang "Lord, I would follow thee." It is Carla's favorite and had a significant part in her conversion. She cried the whole time I was singing and I couldn't look at her, so I could keep it together. haha. My mission President came to the baptism and made me promise that to at every opportunity and everywhere I go because "you have a gift." It was very kind and reassuring. I felt blessed to be part of that baptism.

So we had a chapel tour with Joway this week. Oh, he is SO prepared by the Lord. We showed him the Baptismal font. The Spirit was SO strong, and we asked him to be baptized. He wants to, but needs to know for sure if that's the direction he wants to go. He's thinking about it. We're pretty sure he'll make the right choice. I've never seen someone so prepared for the gospel. When we asked him what Baptism meant to him, he gave a PERFECT definition. Better than I could do. The Lord is talking to him, it's awesome!

On a different note, we've met some interesting people. I love all the different cultures we're experiencing. So far, I've tried Peruvian and Nigerian food. so good. We've had a lot of questions about polygammy and the TV show Sister wives... I've never seen it. But if anyone has any good responses to why we had Polygamy, and why blacks couldn't have the Priesthood, they should tell me their standpoints. All I can do it testify of what I know to be true, which is fine, but I'd like to hear from some of you what you think.

Also... WE WON THE CLEAN CAR AWARD. For those of you who know my competitive side.. I don't like losing. As soon as my companion told me it was a competition, oh boy, I knew we'd win. haha. and we did. Partly because our car is new. But they're all pretty new.

Before I end this email, I just want to share my testimony of the church. It's true. It just is. Do everything you can to cultivate your faith and strengthen your testimony. I feel like a new person. Every day is the Lord's. I am His. It's the best feeling, and I hope you all are striving to be better. One way to do this is through the Book of Mormon. As a mission, we all just started reading 10 pages of the Book of Mormon every day. I want to extend a challenge to everyone I know to do the same. Whether you do it in your families or personally, see the difference it makes. You will have it finished before the end of the year. I promise it will make your life better. If we as missionaries can do it on top of 3 hours of additional study and with our schedules FILLED every second, I know you can make time to do it too. We read in the car and every other spare second. The time is worth it, I promise. Anyone who is willing to do this with me, please email or write me so I know who I am doing it with and so I can hear of your blessings and experiences.

Love you all. Thanks for the support and prayers!

Sister Carter

P.s. Picture explanation. The first two are funny door mats we've found. The next is a picture with our Clean Car award key chain.