Two Weeks Worth - March 17th, 2014

Week 1: So.. I CUT MY hair. Yep. The truth is out. I felt a little like Sampson at first, but now, I LOVE it. Here's a picture. The other is me and my companion being crazy. I didn't have any super exciting pictures this week, so I had to improvise. ;)

We had a Good week! I got to sing at zone Conference. It was pretty cool. I sang "I love the Lord" to the tune of "Be Still My soul" and kinda made my own arrangement from 2 other arrangements and added Violin and Piano. :) It was fun to put together. 

We now have 2 investigators that we will be meeting with weekly to have our own addiction recovery meeting! I love that book, and have learned so much from it. I'm excited to help these people with their addictions. 

THE SUN HAS ACTUALLY SHINED (shone?) A FEW TIMES THIS WEEK! :D For the first time in 5 months. haha. Alright, that's an exaggeration, but I do miss the sunshine. We thank Heavenly Father every time it's sunny! Such a tender mercy. 

Something I've really been learning is to DREAM BIG! Set goals, plan, aim high! And you can do anything you put your mind to. I've really been learning that with all the planning we do as missionaries. Some of my favorite quotes: "Shoot for the moon. Then, if you miss, you'll still end up among stars." and "If your goals/dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough!" With Heavenly Father's help, and hard work, you really can achieve anything.  That's a challenge to everyone. Set a goal.  Achieve it! And Let me know how it goes. :) 

Sherry is doing well. Sidney will be baptized this Saturday, possibly next Saturday, P.J. will be on date soon! :) 

Love you all! Have a good week! :)

Week 2: Wow.. So exciting couple weeks. MY FIRST TWO official BAPTISMS! :D On Saturday, I got to go back to Worthington because Sia (someone I taught) got baptized! She asked me to sing at her Baptism, so I sang "Walk Tall, You're a daughter of God." She makes me look like a GIANT. She's probably 4'11'' and she's about 30 years old, but looks about 12. haha. I just love Sia.  It was such a glorious reunion with my last companion and one of my best friends, Tara, and some other people from the Worthington ward. 

Back to the Moundbuilders ward! SID is getting baptized this Saturday. He is so excited! 

P.J. told us this week that he IS going to get baptized. He has some word of wisdom issues to overcome, but he's making GREAT progress with them. I'm amazed at his progress. Hopefully, he will be baptized in April. 

Right now, we are seriously working on FINDING. We've been having some bad luck with that lately.

I also got to do a service project this week that mostly ended up with me brushing horses. BEST SERVICE EVER. My poor companion is very allergic, but i was in heaven. haha. 

We taught 2 different Addiction Recovery Program lessons. They went very well. I am using the 12 steps to overcome some flaws I have as well, and the investigators really like when we are part of the meeting to and openly discuss our challenges as well. Let me tell you what, I have been sufficiently humbled AGAIN. I have a lot to improve on to be more Christ-like. Just improve a little everyday. 

Well I love you all! Have a great week!

 Sia's Baptism

 Sister Carter's new haircut

 Companions being goofy

Service project brushing horses

The Atonement - March 3, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

I learned something about the Atonement this week that I wanted to share.

Our investigator that quit smoking, relapsed after 5 days. She was so ashamed, that she ignored our calls and didn't want to talk to us. We had no idea until we showed up at her house. She said about 10 words and then didn't want to talked to us anymore. Among those 10 words were, "I failed." Of course we assured her she didn't, but seeing her suffering was too much for me. I broke into tears as soon as we left. I sobbed, not because she relapsed, because I care about her so much that it's hard to see her suffer. She suffers from addiction when she's smoking and she suffers from terrible withdrawals when she's not. I was so sad for her. This experience made me realize 2 things: 

1. How Heavenly Father must feel watching us suffer. It's so hard. He just has to watch it. He so badly wants us to "Cast on Him our every Care," and pray so he can help us. I KNOW i can help Sherry. There's only so much I can do, but I know that through Heavenly Father, I can help her get through this. But I can't until she comes to me and asks. 

2. How Christ felt. I understand more now about why He died for us. If I could take this away from Sherry and go through all of it FOR her, so she didn't have to, I WOULD. In a heartbeat. Sometimes, we're so ashamed after we sin, that we do what Sherry did. Ignore the calls, hide our face. But Christ is right there with us, just waiting and begging for us to let him heal us. 

It was a very special experience that has made me want to turn to God and Jesus Christ more for EVERYTHING. I hope you all got something out of it as well. Love you all! Have a great week! :) 

Sista C.

P.S. This is my new haircut....chopped it off short.