I'm Hooked on a Feelin'

No we are not related... but Carter is a pretty cool last name!

Transfers are here and I am staying put! Yay! I even stay with my trainer which makes me so happy. I love her! We have so much fun together.

The apartment below us sometimes blares their music at night. Last night I fell asleep to "Hooked on a Feelin'" by David Hastlehoff. What a gem. Hah! I will never understand that music video. Nor will I ever know if that man is being serious or not! regardless it reminded me of all the hilarious times my sisters and I blasted that song and dance to it while cleaning the kitchen. Good times.

The Elders got a mini van this transfer. HILARIOUS. They actually requested it. It is the funniest thing to see two big grown men, both football players in a minivan. and they love it. We tease them all the time with text messages like, "Elders, we saw you drive by... Your mini van is a testimony to us that families really are forever!" We have lots of fun with them.

Okay I have some super cool experiences that have been building up. So many miracles have been happening. We have been searching for people to teach. It has been really hard, but we are trying to be as exactly obedient as we can be, and do everything we can. We do this thing called power hour in our mission. It is where we combine our faith with the faith of the members that are feeding us that night. They pray with us that for the next hour the Lord will direct us, and that the windows of heaven will open in our area. I promise you that every time we do this we have ALWAYS seen miracles. One night this week in particular we prayed with the family and shared with them that there was an apartment that we had been referred to by some people who weren't interested in hearing our message, We asked them who they thought would be interested and they said to go try their old apartment. We went but no one was home. We went back about 3 times within the last 6 weeks and every time no one was home. we were actually pretty sure that the apartment was vacant. We told our dinner appointment that we were going to try one last time, and then move on. So we prayed with them and went on our way. Miracle 1: As we were approaching the apartment we saw that someone was there but was talking on the phone just outside. We were so glad that we didn't give up on them sooner. but since the lady was on the phone we decided to stall by doing a lap around the apartment complex to see if we could find anyone else. Within a few feet there was a lady just about to get into her car. We told her we knew that she was in a rush but had something really important to share with her. She told us that she was actually really interested in learning about Jesus Christ and gave us her apartment number and told us to come back (miracle 2). the lady we had planned to see was still on the phone so we decided to go up the stairs. In the apartment directly above her there was a young man in probably his mid 20's walking into his apartment. We barely caught him and started talking to him. He shared with us that most of his family was Mormon. He had just barely moved here and was feeling like he needed something more in his life. He didn't really know what his family believed because they all joined after he moved out, but didn't think he was very interested until we started talking to him. He told us that he really wanted to know more. He was looking for something, but didn't really know what. We had to get going but we got a solid returned appointment (miracle 3). We didn't end up having time to talk to the lady we were waiting to talk to, but we knew she was there so we went back a few days later. She answered and turns out she too has been looking for something more in her life. She was extremely interested and had a great desire to become a better person. She told us that her ex had become a member of the church and that he seemed so happy and she said she wanted that happiness for herself. She was so touched by everything that we told her and wanted us to come back. Thank goodness for prayer because without it she would still be looking. We start teaching all three of these people this week. And every single one of them we ran into at exactly the right moment. The Lord is seriously directing our path. Our testimony of prayer was strengthened so much.

Before I go I have to explain a few of those pictures. A huge group of us went to the beach last p-day and we found this rock and all took pictures pretending we were the little mermaid. I tried flipping my hair up and failed pretty bad, but I thought it was funny so I wanted to send it.

 

 Okay and I have to tell you the story of those shoes in the other pictures. for everyone reading this, I hate mary-janes (type of shoes). I told my mom that I would NEVER be one of those sister missionaries that wore those horribly frumpy mary-janes that sister missionaries seem to love! My mom thinks they are adorable and maybe I don't really think they are that bad.. but I just dont want my mom to be right. Well on p-day I forgot to pack some shoes with me and we were going straight to dinner after the beach. My options were no shoes or sneakers. I chose no shoes. When we got to our dinner appointment the sweet darling lady felt bad for me and decided to offer me some shoes. Fortunately we had the same size feet, unfortunately for me they were the EXACT shoes that I swore I would never wear. When my companion saw me wearing them it took everything in her not to laugh. It was HILARIOUS! We had to take pictures. Then we started having way too much fun and dressed up as super frumpy sister missionaries and took pictures. At church I forgot to take the shoes back to the lady that lent them, but I told her how thankful I was to have shoes that night (I really honestly did appreciate having them.)  She told me, "Oh don't worry, in fact you know what, you can keep them! They looked so much cuter on you than they did on me!" I am now the proud owner of a new pair of Mary-Janes. Sister Van Wie and I are going to dress up as frumpy as we possibly can for our first district meeting of the new transfer. Haha, we think we are so hilarious.

This one's for you mom!!

The Frumpy Sister Missionary Look!!

Anyway I love you all. Until next week,

Sister Carter