First Mission in the world without Boundaries!!

The night before preparation day we call p-day eve. It feels like christmas. who knew that sorting out laundry and planning out what you would be eating that week could be so exciting? And reading your emails from friends and family is like opening presents.

This week was incredible!! To all of my friends and family, I am no longer just a Santa Rosa California missionary.. I am a global missionary who can teach anyone across the world by Facebook, Face Time, Skype and soon more! If you have friends or family that you would let me teach I will gladly teach them. Words cannot describe my excitement! The California Santa Rosa Mission is now the 'First Mission in the World' without boundaries. We have gone Global as of Tuesday. And we are already teaching the gospel outside our mission and around the world. We are literally teaching the four corners of the earth! These are the last days!! Through Facebook we are teaching the whole world! on Tuesday our entire mission received iPads!!! Our mission made history! we are the first mission in the world to all have iPads!!! we were going crazy with excitement this week. Bro. Donaldson the head of the mission department in Salt Lake City came to our mission and brought us ipads. They test a lot of things on our mission. He said they designed these Ipads only for the most obedient and that is why we are the first, because mission wide we are one of the most obedient in the world. He and President Alba tested our obedience as facebook missionaries for a while to see how we would do. They gave us 20 minutes a day to teach only those within our areas. Now we can teach anyone in the world including our nonmember or inactive friends and family back at home at any time for as long as we need. Sister Van Wie and I laugh because they seem to think we are pretty responsible and yet we still have to back the car with one of us guiding the other (usually me). Bro. Donaldson and Pres. Alba said they are in the process of allowing Iphones, and getting them to our mission as soon as possible. There is a district in one of the missions in Utah that is testing the idea of having friends and family from back at home be the member present in lessons over Skype as long as it is fulfilling our purpose as a missionary. I got a referral from Steven Smith last night who wanted so badly to be the member present. But unfortunately it isn't allowed in our mission yet. I am officially teaching someone from Washington, Utah, and Alberta through Facebook. the Lord is hastening his work. we call our ipads the 88:73. If you read in D&C 88:73 it says "Behold, I will hasten my work in its time." That time is now! President Donaldson explained to us that Elder Holland compared the June 23rd announcement of missionaries being on facebook, with ipads, and in meeting houses with the restoration of the gospel and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, because he felt that it was be huge in the spreading forth of theses truths. These tools will help the work roll even faster. Catch that wave everyone, because it is getting bigger and bigger, and there is no stopping it. Might as well ride it than watch it go by. We have our area books, pamphlets, Mormon messages, scriptures, facebook, Skype, and other things on our ipads. We can see a map in our area books that shows everyone in our teaching pool including formers and potentials that are close to us at that exact moment we are looking. The ipads are speeding everything up! They are working on creating an app with the pamphlets that now have videos in them. we can rehearse to them what happened in the grove of trees when joseph smith prayed, or we can let them watch a little video clip. Haha, I'm not sure if you can tell how excited I am. But I could go on forever about how cool this is!

So I love my mission! Let me just tell you, after being here for only 2 weeks I have already had ribs, steak, pulled pork twice, pork tender loins and Applebee's . I am serving in a very wealthy area right now, and not complaining. We ALWAYS have a dinner appointment. It is weird if we don't. I don't allow myself seconds, or dessert if it isn't homemade, and if it is, only a small amount. I have also buckled down on making sure that I am full out exercising in the mornings.

Okay this was definitely the line of the week:
Reina, is one of our recent converts that we are teaching. She is 13 years old. We were teaching her about the roll of the Holy Ghost in our lives this week and she asks, "do you think the holy ghost helps you when your playing candy crush?" My companion and I burst out laughing. We didn't really answer her cause we were laughing so much so she proceeded to answer her own question, "yeah I think it does, because right when I think I am going to loose I suddenly see a spot that I didn't know was there before and it always helps me stay in the game." She is such a crack up. She is addicted to candy crush!

This little girl got baptized last week, and Sis Van Wie and I gave the missionary moment. We basically give a short version of Christ establishing his church, the apostacy and the restoration and then invited everyone to baptism who hasn't already partaken of that ordinance. It is so powerful to do baptisms. The spirit testifies so strongly.

 Also the story of the picture of me and the guy in the superman shirt: he finished his mission this week (the day after we got Ipads, bless his heart) and was known for having the most aweful singing voice. That was his legacy! He knew it, and he loved it! So he made that microphone for himself out of pipe cleaners and put on one last performance for us singing "The Spirit of God". At the moment in the song where it says, "the veil o'er the earth is beginning to burst" he rips off his white button up shirt, sending all of the buttons flying (which is what I was holding in my hands). it was hilarious. This guy can not stay in tune to save his life. It is hysterical. And when he sings he sing SO LOUD! It is especially ironic when we are actually all singing "The Spirit of God" together trying desperately to actually feel the spirit, but can't over the sound of his voice

Love you all so much!

Sister Carter

PS- I have officially been a missionary for over a month! The 24th was my 1 month mark!

PPS- If you send me an email, send me your mailing address too! It helps me a lot!

MUCH LOVE!!