Sister Reeves fell off a porch LOLOLOL (10/12/15 email)

Not gonna lie, this week has been the longest thus far. The first few
days of the week were pretty discouraging; half of our appointments
fell through and someone said we should fear the fires of Hell or
something like that. Buuuuut don't you worry because the week took a
complete 180-degree turn! The event that started this turn happened to
be all the love my angel mother kept sending me. I just kept getting
surprises in the mail every time I checked! Shout out to my mom who
somehow always knows when I need help most even if we're hundreds of
miles away.

The next day we were walking out of our first appointment with this
one investigator and Sister Reeves was turned around saying bye as she
COLLAPSED to the ground on her porch hahaha omg we were dying
laughing. She didn't see that there were two steps and she really hit
the ground hard. Thankfully there was no scrapes or bruises or
anything (which you would not believe if you saw her eat it haha). I
honestly think God meant for that to happen so we could just stop and
crack up at ourselves.

Theeeeeeeen, we had our second lesson with this adorable 11-year-old!
I don't remember if I told you about her already, so just in case
here's some background: we ran into her and her aunt and introduced
ourselves. The aunt, T, said she has a faith and isn't interested in
learning more but she said her niece, K, could decide if she wanted to
meet with us or not. Well K was all about learning about Jesus! We had
our first lesson with her and she had never prayed before, but we were
able to hear her first prayer <3 omg I almost cried but I didn't want
to freak her out. It was just so simple and sincere. Anyways, we
testified about the power of prayer to her and talked about how it's
helped us in various ways - one of those ways being keeping us from
having bad dreams. Well, when we saw her yesterday, she was so excited
to tell us about how she's prayed every night since we saw her last
and she hasn't had a single bad dream. She is so cute <3 and her
maturity just amazes me! She's only 11 and she's really pondering
everything we say. K is just so great!

Also, this random 82-year-old man we talked to said he wants to learn
more but he's afraid to become a member of the Church because he
doesn't want to have to go out knocking on doors haha. He thought all
members were forced to serve missions.

We went on a zone hike last week - so pretty!

Another zone hike pic

Ignore how awk my face looks haha I was mid-rawr... Anyways, this is when I was on exchanges with Sister De Leon (who happens to know Camille McAlmont - small world) and this cuuuuuuuute boy, K, wanted to show us part of his Halloween costume. Apparently it's a Lego monster? Didn't know they had such a thing

Classic me.

I will always have a love for onesies. Always.

WE SAW THE PROPHET [on tv] (10/5/15 email)

Conference was AMAZING! Oh my gosh.

Anyways, I have a short miracle story: Sister Reeves and I were
praying to know who we should visit and then we both felt like we
should just walk down the street we were next to. (Also, Sister Reeves
happened to have a Russian Book of Mormon in her bag of all things.)
The first person that answered was Russian and said she was looking
into different religions and trying to know which church is God's
church...ANSWER TO PRAYERS! We gave her the Russian Book of Mormon
that Sister Reeves had in her bag and we have a follow up appointment
with her tomorrow. Two doors later this guy answered and asked why
we're serving missions. We said we love being able to see how the
Gospel changes people's lives. He said, "Maybe it'll change mine," and
took a Book of Mormon and asked us to come back tomorrow. He said he
grew up Christian so he already has a faith in Christ but he wants to
learn more of Him. This just solidifies my testimony of prayer. God
answers all of our prayers whether we recognize it or not.

Well here's my favorite quote from conference: "Small efforts
sustained over time can produce significant results." THAT IS SO
TRUE!! It's the small, day to day things that change our lives.

Thanks for all your amazing influences in my life! Seriously I have
learned so much from each of you and I am so grateful! YOU DA BEST

More selfies with my twinnn

I love Nehalem!! (9/28/15 email)

I have grown to just completely love the people here. It's crazy that
I've only been here for a couple months. I have some exciting news!

So this week we met with our investigator, R (just doing first
initials so I'm legally safe), and his girlfriend, S. They have been
praying about marriage and decided on December 4! And his baptism will
be the Saturday a week after that. The whole ward is so eager to help
in every way. We have a cake decorator, two floral designers, a master
seamstress, and so many cooks - all looking for any way they can help
this young couple that can barely afford rent! It is so sweet to see
the charity these ward members have.

Another event this week: we ran into this girl, K (about 10-12 years
old - bad family situation), and introduced ourselves. Her maturity
amazes me! We asked her if she'd be interested in learning more about
Christ and she said, "I think I really need that. I'm going through a
lot and I want to see if religion will help." We met with her a few
days later and we invited her to say her first prayer. She was really
nervous and hesitant, almost even started to tear up, but once she
started to pray everything changed. We all felt so comforted and loved
and her prayer was just this cute, very simple and genuine thing.

I don't remember if I've said anything about the member, Penny, that's
housing us now, but she is just amazing! She is such a great example
to us and she seriously makes us feel so comfortable! Being on a
mission, away from everyone you're close to, is weird at first because
you just want to be yourself and she was the first person I could feel
completely comfortable enough to be myself with. Penny is a dream!

Post-candy selfie. Thanks, Shari!

Me & my twin

Mish Life (9/21/15 email)

So before I get into how great this week has been, here's two pictures of my last zone:

Also, this is how you feel when you wake up sick on your mission...

Now, onto transfers! So Sister Floyd and I drove to the transfer meeting together not knowing who our two new trainees we're going to be (we both got letters saying we'd be trainers). We got to the meeting and President Taylor called up the new missionaries one by one and matched them with their trainers. Tangent: it is soooo much fun. The excitement is real when you get to see the two companions run up and give each other their first hug. Anyways, when the seventh new sister stood up (of about ten I think), I immediately knew we'd be best friends so I said a quick prayer, "Heavenly Father please give her to me." And then, no sooner than I said, "Amen," did President Taylor say, "...you'll be trained by Sister Carter!" Fastest answer to a prayer ever. I know that President Taylor is matching us up through divine inspiration because that was meant to be. Also, everyone we meet says we are twins (look similar, sound similar, dress similar, and even say the same things at the same time). I am so grateful for my new companion, Sister Reeves.

Here's a picture of Sister Hansen's posterity. She trained Sister Floyd (who trained me), making her my grandmother. So she's on the far left, then Sister Floyd (my mom), then Sister ? (my little sis), then me, then Sister Reeves (my daughter). Not the best quality picture haha sorry.

Our first selfie together. We struggle.

I would just like everyone to know I have the best mom anyone could ever imagine. She found me emoji stickers that I can use in my letters. SHOUTOUT TO MINDY 😘

Well this week has been great, and I wish I could tell you every detail about it. My spiritual thought is very similar to last week's, but it's just so well worded that I can't not share it. In President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk "The Gift of Grace," he said, "Grace is a gift of God, and our desire to be obedient to each of God’s commandments is the reaching out of our mortal hand to receive this sacred gift from our Heavenly Father." He has blessed us with His grace, giving us the opportunity to be forgiven of every mistake we make, and all we need to do is obey Him in order to accept that precious gift. God is great, ladies and gentlemen, and I love the opportunity I've been given to help others to feel His love and grow closer to Him.