“A God of Miracles”

This last Sunday, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was the day of the primary presentation! The Primary primary presentation is the second best Sunday of the year, in my opinion- the first is Christmas Sunday. The primary presentation consists of children up to age 12. They each have parts to speak; usually a scripture or something relating to a scripture and It all applies to a theme. there is also singing. it’s adorable, and the Holy Ghost is always so strong. I personally think that if you want to invite a friend to learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this is the day to do it. Nothing compares to little children testifying of Jesus Christ. :)

There was one song that particularly touched my heart and really stood out to me. The children sang a song called, “The Miracle.” They sang it all together and they all signed (or tried to sign;) the chorus. The chorus goes like this:

“Jesus is a God of miracles; Nothing is at all impossible to Him. But I know this: Of all His miracles, the most incredible must be The miracle that rescues me!“

Monday: I surprised Sister Hadnot with Cane’s Chicken! And guess what?!! She’s never had it before! She loved it! (Duh;) especially the lemonade. She expressed to me just how good it was, and that she hadn’t had lemonade in years.

Tuesday: I was sick :(

Wednesday: temple day!

Thursday: P-day! Annnnnd HALLOWEEN!! I dressed up as a Slytherin Hogwarts student. My friend Shelby bought a new house, so we hung out there. It was super fun! We only had one trick or treater family, so Shelby and I found some popcorn in her car, so we munched on that and the leftover Halloween candy while we chilled and talked.

Friday: I worked at the distribution center! I enjoy working there. We didn’t do much training again because we’re just so busy! I just love Jean-who happens to be in my family ward! She’s like a co-manager in training or something, I think. She’s a cutie pie.

Oh! And the Ellis’ came in with a new sister service missionary! So I’m excited about that! :)

Saturday: I hung out with Shelby again for most of the day and we had a girls’ night. We watched “Cocoa” and ”The Book of Life” in celebration of Day of the Dead. Shelby is a History teacher, so she’s into all sorts of stuff like that. We also went to a super fun Harry Potter party that our friend, Melanie from the ward put on! There were golden snitch treats, poly juice potion (my personal favorite), butterbeer pong, Flying keys, a few dementors, and I believe a few giant spiders. (Ron Weasley would have had a cow!!;) It was amazing!

Can you tell why we’re friends? ;)

Things I’m grateful for: Kind neighbors, toilet paper, Katy Perry shirt, candy corn, ghost reese‘s, Kroger card, learning to be a listener, DIY costumes, late night FaceTimes with Sister Bush, Harry Potter parties, and McDonald’s chicken nuggets.

Will Work for Corn nuts!!

I've been out on my service mission for 3 weeks now, but I am still trying to get the hang of things! This week was one for the books, for sure!

Monday: My mission leaders, The Ellis' and I visited some potentials whom I might serve (and I am now serving). First, we went to an assisted living home, and that's where I met Nikki! Nikki is a sweet, sweet 40 year old lady. She was in a tragic car accident that resulted in some major brain damage. Nikki has a mind of...I would probably say, about a 9 or 10 year old, but she can read at a junior high level. She loooooves Harry Potter, and hates exercise, so I think we have a few things in common. ;) When I first introduced myself to Nikki, I told her my name was Sister Carter, and she responded with, "Hi! I'm Nikki! I go to the Church of Jesus Christ! I can tell you more, if you want!" I can't wait for her to tell me more ;).

Then, we went over to meet the Kemsleys. They are a super sweet couple. Brother Kemsley has cancer, so, although I can't help him, specifically, very much, I can certainly help cook, grocery shop, and visit and be good a friend for the both of them. Sister Kemsley is a talker like me, while Brother Kemsley is kind of quiet most of the time. They have the cuuuutest little puppy named, Lucy! When she jumps on your legs, she looks like she's doing the salsa, haha! I am excited to serve and get to know the Kemsley family better.

After getting to know the Kemsley family, we stopped by to visit with Sister Hadnot. I mentioned Sister Hadnot in last week's post a little bit. She recently became a widow, so she just needs some emotional support for a while. Sister Ellis and I decided to bring her a meal. She brought home-cooked chicken, and I brought some steamed veggies (with a little bit of butter on them;). She seemed to be a little bit more chipper today. Her granddaughter came for a visit as we were just leaving.

I finally got a picture of Sister and President Ellis! I kept forgetting!!

Sister Carter, Sister Kk Ellis, President Stanley G. Ellis

Tuesday: was my first official visit with Nikki! When I first walked in to the assisted living home, Nikki was working on a puzzle. Nikki loooooves puzzles! I however, am not very good at them! Haha! So we settled on a 20 piece kitty cat puzzle.

So, in the assisted home that she lives, they have a huuuuge calendar of fun activities throughout the day. Nikki has at least 3 of them stuffed in a bag on her wheelchair. We decided to see what was happening today. First on the list- "parachute exercise time". As one of my assignments, I am to coheres Nikki into exercising. I had her explain what parachuting was, and it's actually a PE game I remember playing in elementary school! It is where there is a rainbow parachute with several handles, and everyone grabs a handle and you are supposed to raise it high off the ground and then back down- all while trying to keep balloons inside the middle. (It was a popular game in the 90's ;) I was suuuuper excited about that, so I told Nikki that we had to do it!

There is a snack cart that goes around throughout the day. The most popular snack? Corn nuts! It was about that time for the cart to come by, and as we were all working up a sweat, the activities coordinator, Shirley, calls out, "will work for corn nutssss!" (and indeed, we did;) I've decided that visiting Nikki is definitely the best part of my week; especially when corn nuts are involved! ;)

Nikki and Sister Carter at the Olde Oaks Ward Halloween Party

Wednesday: Temple Day! After working at the temple from 1-6pm, I met up with my companions, Sister Bush (STL) and Sister George. Elder Beus (ETL) and Sister Bush's younger brother, Carter also tagged along, to go rock climbing again! It was suuuuper fun! Afterwards, we had to make a Whataburger run (duh;).

Left to Right: Sister Carter, Sister George, Elder Beus, Sister Bush, Carter Bush

Thursday: P-day! (Preparation Day) Whew! Can I just say that I've gained a lot of of respect for proselyting missionaries?!! How in the world to they have time to email friends and family?!! It's a miracle, that's for sure.

Friday: Distribution Center! Before heading over to the distribution center, Elder Walker (Aaron), from my home branch in Jasper, invited me to the Peanut Butter factory that is owned by our church, for a tour. It was loooud! We had to wear ear plugs and hair nets. I told Elder Walker that we were starting a new trend! Haha! I

It was super neat to see how everything is put together for jars and jars of peanut butter. It's a super fancy process! At the end of the tour, Elder Walker gave me a jar of Peanut Butter! I told him that I might grab a spoon and just eat it from the jar. Annnnd.... I might or might not be doing, just that, right now! ;) I forgot to get a picture of us side by side, so here's a selfie with my peanut butter.

And that's a wrap! Week 4, here I come!

Sincerely, Sister Carter <3

Things I'm grateful for: red hair nets and ear plugs, peanut butter, rainbow parachutes, kitty puzzles, back up name tags, Logan's duggie video.

Pulling Handcarts

I had the special opportunity, thanks to Camille Hoff, to work 2 shifts in the Houston temple this week. Rather than just my regular Wednesday midday shift, I was able to work the Saturday morning session for a bit, which starts 6:20am, meaning that I set my alarm for 4:30am so that I had time to lay there and snooze until 5am! haha! It was rough! Especially since the day before, I had to wake up at the same time.

Ya'll wouldn't believe it, but the Saturday morning shift is packed with people! There are probably at least 30 ordinance workers, or so. Like, I'm just thinking...who says, "Let's go to the temple on Saturday morning at the crack of dawn"?!! There are obviously a lot more valiant people in the church than I am! Haha! I think I'll stick to my mid-day Wednesday shift, thank you very much! ;)

Anyway, before a temple shift starts, there is always a small devotional with all of the ordinance workers. Well, on this particular morning, the speaker said something that really struck me. He said, "You never know what someone is pulling in their handcart." For people who don't know the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, members were driven out of their homes due to persecution on several occasions, until they finally decided to trek to the great Salt Lake. Before they left, they built handcarts so they could bring their belongings that they cherished. As you can imagine, these handcarts were immensely heavy. So, the analogy that the speaker was referring to is, that everyone has heavy burdens they are carrying. It was a simple and short message, but it made a great impact on my heart.

Saturday:

My birthday! I'm 25 now, so I'm basically a pro at life! ;) NOT! Haha! I hung out with one of my best friends, Shelby Ward, because she's awesome, obviously! ;) We made lasagna soup, watched the new Book of Mormon videos, and also watched Aladdin. Aladdin was pretty good, but you can't beat the original.

Sunday:

Stake conference! I forgot about the conference being on Saturday too. Adults are supposed to go to that and, I'm one of those now...oops! Conference was good and very uplifting. Afterwards, the proselyting Mission President and his wife came up to me when they saw my missionary tag and asked if I was one of their missionaries. They said that they recognized me and thought they had seen me before. I explained that I was a service missionaries, but that I had gone out with the proselyting missionaries several times and had met them then. The Mission President's wife said matter a factly that I was still a missionary and that she was handing out cookies to all of the missionaries at the conference. I thought it was so sweet and I think I stood up a little straighter and more confidently afterwards. It is nice to hear that what I am doing is just as impactful as what the proselyting missionaries do. Satan can get you down sometimes and make you feel like you're not doing enough, so it was nice to be reminded that what I am doing is enough for Christ.

Monday:

The first time I met Sister Hadnot. She is a sweet lady and very talkative. One of my assignments as a service missionary is that I get to visit with her once a week and bring her a meal to last her a few days. It's a small world in the church. She used to live in Woodville, and she knows the Odoms, which is pretty neat. Sister Hadnot recently had a terrible tragedy happen, and so, by visiting her and giving her meals, hopefully I can help her see that God still cares about her, amidst her troubles.

Wednesday:

I served at the temple.

Friday:

One of my companions, Sister Bush, invited me to help out at a seminar for the local Women's shelter. Even though I had to get up at the crack of dawn, I'm still glad I went. It was super interesting and I learned a lot. The volunteers are so sweet and very knowledgeable. I hope I can work with them someday. I currently won't have time in my schedule, but I'm hoping that someday it will change to where I can help out.

After the Women's shelter, I hurried over to the distribution center. I made it with one minute to spare! I had training for a few hours at the computer. It wasn't the most exciting thing ever, but, sometimes we have to do stuff that isn't entertaining, and that is okay. I'm happy that the majority of my service will not be behind the computer screen. After some training, the time I had left, I helped on the floor. One lady walked in with two nervous women. She explained to me that they recently had been reactivated and needed to be fitted for sacred clothing. After warming up to me, one lady excitedly exclaimed to me that her children had been baptized the previous weekend. I congratulated her, and after talking with her and the other two, it turns out that they were from Natchitoches and were in Houston since the Baton Rouge temple is currently being remodeled. And get this- one of the ladies, Sister Clark knows my grandparents, Mimi (Mary) and Papaw (Gary)! It was super neat, and I enjoyed getting to know them and helping them get the things that they needed.

Saturday:

The Ellis' had another mission gathering! Apparently they hold one once a month. It was nice to get to see all of the other service missionaries again and visit and catch up. We have a new missionary named, Elder Fears. We all thought that he said Elder Fierce at first, haha! He's kind of quiet, but he has some good comments and he is funny. I think he said that he's going to be working with Catholic charities, but I can't remember. All of the service missionaries have a special place in my heart.

Sister Ellis has the whole house decorated for Halloween and it's adorable. We had mummy pigs in a blanket, bean soup, asparagus, and pumpkin cookies! Yum yum! She spoils us! She told me that we (The Ellis' and I ) are going to go check out a couple places on Monday, so I'm super excited.

Things I'm grateful for:

Emmalee, new friends, comfy shoes, good hair days, pumpkin reese's, gas tank warning lights, shelters, Book of Mormon Video bloopers, being serenaded by Sister Bush during comp. study, and Oliver's snores.