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.