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?