So much stress (6/27/16 email)

I think this has been the most stressful week of my life. This may sound like an exaggeration, but I thought about it and I think it's an accurate statement. We finished the last of the zone conferences, gave a talk in church, had two more DLCs, went on two more exchanges, moved to Salmon Creek.... I have been so overwhelmed that I thought my personality had permanently left me. Thankfully my brain feels pretty much back in order now. But if I were emailing you just a few days ago this email wouldn't be coherent.

Our zone conference trainings went well! Everyone was asking where I learned all of these facts and it's literally all from the Intro to Nutrition course I took at BYU for one semester. It was just so packed full of information! I highly recommend that class and the World Religions class there - probably my two favorite courses.

Moving our stuff from Cascade Park to Salmon Creek wouldn't have been so hard if we had just dedicated a day to it. But we thought it would be more efficient to just do it a little at a time--filling the car whenever we were in the Cascade Park area and then emptying it whenever we were in the Salmon Creek area. It was a beautiful idea in theory, and it did save a lot of time and miles, but it was a little too stressful at times, like when we'd be driving around all day with an ironing board blocking the rear view mirror, or when we weren't sure how we'd keep our perishables from going bad AND make it to a meeting on time--and we were getting to crunch time. We started freaking out a bit. Then we knelt down and prayed. We realized we were being too dramatic, so we took a deep breath and figured things out.

Then on Saturday we got a call from Sister Taylor. I knew something was wrong because she sounded so distraught, and I've never seen her not perfectly put together. She told us that Elder Lambert had suddenly passed away. I just broke down and cried. After we hung up, I thought, "OMG, how am I going to talk to people today??" But then I had this vivid image of Elder Lambert saying, "I don't want anyone wasting time being sad! Please just go out and find more people to teach." He was always so happy and never wanted anyone to be at all sad ever. I love that man!

Then yesterday my back started acting up because I'd been sitting in so many meetings this week. But we had so many amazing lessons set up that I had to just ignore it. Then our evening lessons cancelled so I took the opportunity to get a priesthood blessing because I was to the point that all I wanted to do was lie down on my stomach and cry. So we went to our ward mission leader's house and I JUST LOVE HIS FAMILY!! He and his son gave me a blessing and then his wife said, "Do you want to lie down for a bit? You don't have to feel weird if you just want to lie down on the carpet. It's really soft! Here. I'll lie down too. It's completely normal!" Then she just got down on the carpet and encouraged me lie down too. So there I was lying down on the carpet with Sister B with two silent tears rolling down my cheek. It felt so good to have some relief from the pain. It was such a dream!

So my lesson learned this week: It's not about me and I need to stop being dramatic and I need to make more lists so I feel less stress. It's been a good week overall! And also I learned that I grow SO MUCH MORE when I'm stressed...but I also get more white hairs. So there are pros and cons.

God is so real!! (6/20/16 email)

This week was seriously amazing! We had this one major miracle that I am just dying to share. We had been trying to get a hold of this one girl, N, who the Elders referred to us but it was such a struggle. Anyway we really felt like we should just stop by on Friday instead of trying to call her to set something up. We stopped by and we talked to her parents and they said it's really not a good time for N right now because she's going through a lot. Buuuuut here's the twist! N emerged from behind her mom crying and wiping tears from her face and said that its just so weird that we stopped by right then because she had just finished praying and asking God to send her help. She told us that right when she said, "Amen," she heard the doorbell and assumed it was someone else, but when she heard it was missionaries she knew immediately that it was Him. We went to her backyard and had an AMAZING lesson! Throughout the lesson she kept saying, "This just makes me so happy I want to cry!" Also she kept saying, "I just want you two to know that God is working through you. He's using both of you to help people like me that are searching for the truth." At the end of the lesson she said the closing prayer and just started crying, thanking God for guiding us to her house and she said, "Please help me to be able to share what I've learned with others and bless other lives like Sister Carter and Sister Okerlund have touched mine." THEN, as we were leaving, she said, "I'll be praying that you find more girls like me that have been praying for your help." She is just so amazing and I LOOOOVE her!

We went to the two zone conferences last week and we have two more this week and I love this because I get to be reunited with so many wonderful missionaries! This is Sister Beckstead (I told President that I want to be her companion and he said he'll think about it lol...I think life would be too easy if we were companions bc we are kindred spirits so that wouldn't even be a challenge) and my beloved Sister Reeves. I love these sisters!!

We went on a double date to Freshii, this amazing food place, with Sister L and Sister S (both have been housing missionaries since August, and they're both hilarious and pretty much the same person). I love these women!

We are the only three ginger sisters in the entire mission and we got to be in the same room at their zone conference last Thursday! Sister Davis, Sister Arbon, and Sister Carter

This one member who just returned from Russia had this fox fur hat. It feels like such a dream! I'm pretty sure I could be a comfortable temperature sitting in an ice bucket if I had this hat.

This is right before we gave our first health training. 

Sorry I don't have a better picture of us lol maybe this week we'll get a better one.

We went to a baptism on the coast because someone Sister Okerlund taught got baptized on Saturday, and Brother and Sister B, the cutest couple that ever existed, drove us there and back. 

THEEEN they shared their Father's Day cheesecake with us! 

I LOVE THEM AND CHEESECAKE SO MUCH!

Also I've learned something major this week! We were listening to this song called "It's Not About You," and it sounds so harsh at first but it's so correct. There have been a lot of the sisters struggling with discouragement lately thinking that they're not outgoing enough or that they don't know enough about the scriptures, but what they need to realize is that it's not about you. "Greatness is not within us; greatness comes through us from God." As we learn to rely on God, our weaknesses don't discourage us. He can make our weaknesses become strengths if we're humble and allow Him to. The world doesn't revolve around me I guess!

Love you all!

I have found Nirvana (6/13/16 email)

This week was AMAZING! I mean, I know I say that almost every week, but I promise you the weeks just get better and better. I honestly think that mission joy can be portrayed perfectly by an exponential graph. The first week was rough and I frequently thought, "What did I get myself into?" The second week was better and time just starts going faster and faster and you start loving the people more and more. I can't even explain it. But every month is better than the last!

We were in a meeting this morning called DLC for the Vancouver East Zone. There were six elders and Sister Okerlund and me. The Zone Leaders, two 20-year-old boys, set up the time and place of the meeting and what we would give trainings on. We all talked about how we can better love the missionaries around us and the people we meet every day. Some elders were talking about how they naturally don't show love as much as most people; how they really do feel love for people but don't know how to show it comfortably, and they felt bad about it. We talked about how you shouldn't try to be somebody you're not; but just to pray to know how to bring others happiness, and that as you do, your love will be apparent. Anyway, we opened and closed by singing a hymn (where everyone sings no matter how beautiful or not beautiful their voice is because we're praising God) and kneeling down together to pray. Some people cried. It felt completely normal to me - we've been to so many DLCs and they're all pretty similar - until the closing prayer. I just had this overwhelming feeling in the middle of the prayer and thought, "Look at where you are, Sister Carter! You're in a room with a bunch of 18 to 24-year-old boys and you're all praying together and discussing how you can better love people! This is not normal!!" Most people my age are probably partying and having a grand old time while we're here on a mission just eating, breathing, and sleeping missionary work. We pray to know how we can best be using our time each day to help other people learn about their potential and be as happy as they possibly can! This is just mind blowing to me, and I am so glad I'm a part of this wonderful adventure called a mission.

Anyway, sorry for all this. I am just so amazed with everything right now.

Here's a picture of Sister Taula serenading us. I just love that girl. 

We get to go on exchanges this week!

We got to have lunch with all the sisters in the Vancouver East stake. I LOVE THEM!!

Sister Twitchell and I found these huge dandelions and thought it'd be cute if we took pictures of us blowing them away, but they were a lot harder to break apart than either of us anticipated...major fail.

I just love you all and I cannot believe how enlightening it is to be on a mission. I've never learned so much in my life! I hope I just keep learning more and more and never hit a plateau or anything. Byeee!

Oh funny quote! This one Sister always says, "The real reason we gain weight on the mission isn't because of stress or anything - it's because our spirits grow so much and they need a vessel that can hold it all."

First few days in YSA (6/6/16 email)

God doesn't do random!! This transfer is so meant to be! When I was serving in the ASL branch, we would sometimes interpret for a member, A, that attended a hearing ward in Vancouver with her family. Well she's about to graduate high school this week and she wants to go to the YSA ward, and look who just arrived in the ward that can interpret for her! And because I was in the deaf branch I also know of members in the YSA ward that know ASL and can help with that! And if I didn't serve in the deaf branch then I never would've known that I was capable of interpreting rn so I never would've volunteered. I am just so excited about this and A is so excited about this and the bishopric is so excited about this. This is just so meant to be! Also I get to see people that I knew from the home wards I've served in! This is such a dream! I want to serve here forever!

This was my last time seeing Nilo. 😪 

He seriously is just so cute and I wish I could take him everywhere with me.

When I left my roommates...sorry it's blurry lol this was literally the best option.

Saying goodbye to my baby, Sister Davis!! I miss her so much already! 

Seriously gingers just automatically have a connection. She's the greatest.

We went to lunch with a member, S, who all the sisters fight over! Lol everyone fights over who gets to take her out bc she's already such a good missionary and she's only 17!! Two of the English sister companionships, the ASL sisters, and now the YSA sisters all have to share her. 

Also sorry my name tag is once again askew. I struggle.

In the next few weeks we're having zone conferences, and I was asked to give a health training at each of them! There's been a problem with people obsessing over their weight and doing extreme diets to lose weight, so I get to give training on how to be healthy. I am just so happy I took Nutrition at BYU bc that's where almost all of my facts are coming from. Also Sister Okerlund and I get to be on a panel with the APs at a youth conference. We have no clue what that means yet, but we're super excited!

Also we were talking to the UPS man as he dropped off a package at our house one day and we gave him our card. He ended up texting us and we told him that we teach about Jesus Christ. Then he invited us to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with him...

Stateside missions can be exotic, too.

Sister Okerlund just loves this member that started housing missionaries last year named Sister S. And I just love this member, P, that started housing missionaries last year. And so we introduced them, and they became instant best friends! We're having a double date this week for lunch. It was so cute as they were both struggling to use their iPhones together. TWINS!!

Sorry I look bald, but it's been 100 degrees this week. 

These are cute children that asked me how they can talk to God. So adorable!!

Goodbye ASL 👐🏽🤘🏼🖖🏽 Hello YSA 👫👰🏾💑 (5/30/16 email)

Well I'm being transferred from the deaf branch to the young single

adult ward on Wednesday! I have so many different emotions: so sad I'm

leaving the deaf branch 💔, but so excited to be able to teach people

my age and make some new BFFs, and also apprehensive about what to

expect in the YSA ward because I'm just sure there's going to be

awkward affection and flirting I'm going to be exposed to. But I am

super excited! Especially because my new companion will be Sister

Okerlund and she seems amazing. In the car ride with President and

Sister Taylor to the airport a few weeks ago, President asked me who I

want my new companion to be. I quickly listed off like eight different

people and Sister Okerlund was one of them! We went to a sister

training leader meeting last week at the mission home and at the end

President Taylor just said, "Well while we're here, do you all want

to know who your new companions will be?" Lol everyone was silent

for a minute, then we were all freaking out! Of course we do! So when

he said Sister Okerlund and I were going to be together in the YSA

ward we both got so excited!

This is the deaf branch mission leader. He is seriously the cutest and I

wish I could adopt them as grandparents! They won a bunch of different

things at some deaf social (t-shirts, water bottles, etc) and didn't

want them so they gave them to us. He spelled each of our names on

everything and skipped the R on my water bottle. Haha it just makes it

that much more meaningful!

This is H! She seriously has my heart. When I first got here she couldn't finger spell her name--or any name really--but now she's explaining the story of the Restoration on her own! She has seriously come SOOOO FAR in this short time! I wish I could take her home with me because she is just the sweetest thing. And she loves getting fake nails lol she has a different color every other week.

Here's a member of our branch, K. He doesn't like pictures so I had to sneak some with him.

This is Brother and Sister C! They take both sets of ASL sisters out to eat every week! Because we cover so much area, it's hard to plan when we'll actually be near their house. So they just meet us in whatever city we're in that day. They are such a cute and sweet couple! Oh and Brother C isn't even a member, but he takes the missionaries out every week.

 Here's the ASL fam. Yeah we all look kind of awkward, but we just had to hurry and take a picture right before they left.

Since it was my last Sunday in the branch yesterday, I was asked to give a talk. Oh man preparing for that talk helped me personally so much! Isn't it weird how that's always how it works? Well anyway, I decided to talk about positive thinking/perspective (btw there are about a million talks on that), and I learned so much! This one talk by President Uchtdorf is called "Grateful in any Circumstances," and it's about how we shouldn't focus as much on being grateful FOR things as much as just being grateful IN our circumstances whatever they may be. And I also read a talk focusing on living in the moment. It's so easy for us to continually look forward to how things will be just around the corner, or look back and reminisce on the way things used to be, but every moment in our lives is a special time. Every aspect of our lives is part of a perfect plan set up with an eternal perspective, so we need to live in the moment and enjoy our lives. That's what I learned this week! I would share a quote from one of the talks, but I changed all the quotes to ASL grammar in my notes and I'm too lazy to look them up in English again. But it's an amazing lesson to learn, and I feel like it's something all of us can constantly improve on! Love you all!!