Week 52

From: Chelsea Carr <chelsea.carr@myldsmail.net>

Subject: Apostolic miracles!

Date: August 11, 2014 at 2:13:28 PM PDT

To: Mum <juliecarrfv@aol.com>

   Oh the trio! It's like a party 24/7. But a super exhausting, bike
riding, sweaty, teaching people the gospel sort of party. People are
getting really confused with the two Calls and Carr thing, it's always
funny to watch people's reactions. We're famous in the mission. People
all the time will say "Oh yeah, someone was talking about the three
C's." We've even had random senior couples ask if they could take our
picture. Its funny, we know.
    Elder D. Todd Christofferson miraculously showed up this weekend
and wasn't going to be able to meet with any of the missionaries, but
so many miracles later - he was able to meet with the missionaries in
Jacksonville! Hallelujah! Not only did he come, but he was able to
meet with us, and I was one of the few that got to hear him speak. So
it was all very last minute, but with everything going on, it was
obvious that The Lord wanted this meeting to happen. Towards the end
of the meeting, he started to say "I pray that..." But you could see
something click in his head and he changed the subject and started to
talk about what The Lord wanted him to tell us and how he knows why he
was there today. He started pouring blessings upon blessings and
promises upon promises to us. The Spirit was so strong and not a
single eye was dry. What a blessing to be able to experience that with
an apostle of Jesus Christ. So many prayers answered, so much
revelation received. It was one of the most spiritual experiences I've
had while out here.
    I'm so grateful for Christ's church that has been restored. I
have no doubt after everything that I've been through and experienced
that this is His true church. Elder Christofferson just glowed with
the Spirit. What a blessing to have living prophets and apostles! I
love this gospel!

Love y'all!
Sister Carr

Sisters Call, Call, and Carr. We didn't get a picture with Elder
Christofferson, but this is him and Elder Kacher of the 70 with some
of the elders in Kingland.

Week 51

TRANSFERS!!! Sister Call and I are getting a new companion...
Sister Call. Everyone thinks it's hilarious. We're pretty sure
President was looking at his transfer board and was like, here's a
joke - let's put Sister Carr and Sister Call and Sister Call in a trio
together hahaha, yeah sounds good. He had to make a joke about it as
he announced on the transfer call last night. Funny. But the new
Sister Call only has three weeks left and is leaving early for school,
so she's just moving with us for a little bit. She was in my district
all six months in keystone and has been in my zone all six months
here, so I know her pretty well. So this will be good!
     On Wednesday, I made a covenant with Heavenly Father to invite
20 people to scripture class. I made it three hours before class
started and we still had Facebook and dinner in our plans. So we
talked to everyone that we saw as we were biking around. We had ten
minutes to get to the building and still had 5 more people to talk to.
I decided to forget it and just bike as fast as we could to class. We
passed a park where some people were sitting and the spirit told me to
talk to them - that one of them had come to take a walk in the park to
find some answers to life. We had a long way to go still and I ignored
the prompting. The spirit again said to stop and their one chance to
hear the gospel was literally just silently riding behind them. I
ignored the prompting still. But then I heard Sister Call yelling at
me "Stop! We need to talk to them!" So we had to awkwardly bike back
and squeeze through the fence to talk to them, but we did - and
they're golden. One of the girls was like "I think God put you in my
path today." And then the spirit slapped me in the head. Dur.
     I was on a trade off on Thursday with a new sister, Sister
McCook. We were sitting at the doctors and there was a lady sitting in
the waiting room with us. The Spirit again was like "Talk to her, but
don't invite her to do anything Gospely." So I was like, umm that's
the only way I know how to talk to people, no. I got called into the
doctors office so I couldn't go further with that. Turns out that
Sister McCook received the same impression and once they started
talking and her mom is a less active member of the church and just sat
there and watched Mormon Messages together. They traded info just
before the lady got called into the office. She needs the gospel. Oh
the spirit is so good.
     So lesson learned... Follow promptings!
I love y'all!
Sister Carr

Our district leader and his trainee both wear raybans so our entire
district surprised them and showed up to zone meeting wearing them.
Best district ever. .... Me on cockroach duty.

Week 50

  Miracles. We didn't do a ton for my birthday last week and I was
pretty bummed about that. It's hard being away from home and not
having anything eventful to do and nothing super exciting. But thirty
minutes before pday ended, a member called us and asked us what time
we wanted her to pick us up for dinner. She said the elders were
visiting people with her husband and she felt like she needed to do
something with the sisters. God knows us. Oh that was the best thing
surprise and blessing ever. Yay for miracles.
   We were talking during studies and were like, "We really need a
baptism." And the only person that could be ready for baptism anytime
soon is one of our eternigators who told us last week that he doesn't
want to be baptized, but yet he's the only one who keeps his
commitments and knows it's true and comes to church every week. So we
called him and were like "Hey, do you wanna get baptized next Sunday?"
And we didn't have any time to awkwardly sit there in anticipation
before he was like "Yeah, I could do that next week." Alrighty. That
was the biggest shock of my life. We did a silent celebration dance
while we were still on the phone with him. But then I got an email
from president an hour later that he couldn't get baptized because of
his living circumstances.... So nevermind.
   But we're seeing lots of miracles! We had one night where everyone
was just really open and we reached all our goals that day!
Hallelujah! There's a group called the "Genesis Devotional Group" that
that was set up to help members of the church who are more used to the
black gospel choir type of music at church. They don't usually come to
our stake, but hallelujah they did this week and they're absolutely
amazing. All the missionaries were so stoked, especially the elders,
there's a snipet video of them that one of the elders took. Oh so
good!
Love y'all!
Sister Carr


Ghetto car of the week. Go Miami!

Week 49

 MERRY CHRISTMAS! I don't feel any older yet and it's freaking me
out that I'm officially not a teenager anymore. Not ready for that!
Not doing anything too exciting for my birthday. Typical tracting and
bike riding today.
    We've seen so many miracles this week, it's insane! Bishop
emailed us Wednesday about a lady he met at the bank who was coming to
church, he emailed us Saturday about another lady he somehow met who
was coming to church with her six kids. And then there was this random
other lady sitting in the foyer when we walked into PEC on Sunday
morning. Yay for referrals! Go give your missionaries referrals and
they'll love you forever.
    We ran into a lady named Lauren a few weeks ago and we
miraculously ran into her husband last week and he had put in a
request for a Book of Mormon that we had never received. We've tried
to see them so many times this week, but they're NEVER EVER home, so
we kinda gave up a tad bit on them. But a member called us Saturday
and said that she had a missionary moment with a random lady who knew
us! And it happened to be Lauren who we've been trying to get a hold
of! So hallelujah for members, miracles are happening and everything's
been falling into place! Yay!
    Our iPads have been going crazy and this week our iPads said that
we had 495 new investigators. Best missionaries ever! But for some
reason that we're still not sure of, every single person that is or
ever has been in the Elders' iPads and also the sisters' iPads were
transferred to ours. So our entire week was primarily spent sending
all 495 people back to each of them. Oh the joys of technology!
    I've been studying a lot about the enabling power of Christ's
Atonement. My perspective on what the Atonement means and applies to
me has changed so much since I've been out here. It's unreal what
possibilities are waiting for us when we turn to the Savior. How
grateful I am for that gift!
Love y'all!
Sister Carr

Redneck pic of the week...

Week 48

From: Chelsea Carr <chelsea.carr@myldsmail.net>

Subject: Happy thanksgiving!

Date: July 14, 2014 at 2:17:51 PM PDT

    This week, we've had the most elect people randomly coming out of
the woodwork. Oh God loves us! We got a referral from some of the
elders this week and the guy has been texting us nonstop with a ton of
questions and he just wants to know everything about the gospel. We
haven't even taught him the restoration yet and he's already set on
having his family join the church. He is so sincere and humble about
it and has the cutest family ever. We're so excited!
    We had a less active that we've been working with come to church
yesterday and she brought her friend! The elders took him to
priesthood and after they were like "he's so elect! Jump on it now!"
Oh we're so excited!
    We're still doing a ton of family history! It's amazing how it
just opens people right up! They're always super annoyed that we're on
their doorstep, but then we'll ask them about their ancestors and
BOOM! They're suddenly interested! So perfect! We again talked to Sara
about family history and showed her some pictures of the Fort
Lauderdale temple. She had just gotten off of an eleven hour shift, so
she was a little loopy and got really excited when she saw that the
temple had a "pool" inside. I couldn't hold in my laughs, it was
funny. But the spirit was so strong and I just want to tell everyone
about the temple and the amazing opportunities it gives us. Family
history is the best!
    It's now hurricane season, so every day at 3, you can expect
nothing but heavy thunder storms. I haven't had a night this week
where I've come home dry. We just get soaked to death every time we
walk outside. It's crazy. Welcome to the south.

Love y'all!
Sister Carr

Redneck pic of the week:
(Notice how the windows are perfectly clean and the rest purposely
isn't #badgeofhonor)

 Above: In honor of George Blackburn Carr

Week 47

From: Chelsea Carr 

Subject: 'MERICA!

Date: July 7, 2014 at 1:54:51 PM PDT

    Happy Fourth of July from the South! Where the spirit of 'Murica
runs deep and everyone has at least five grandfathers that fought in
the Revolutionary or Civil Wars! Nope, not at all like that. Most
people we saw were like, "Oh yeah, it's Independence Day..." A picture
of the only fireworks I saw is posted below. Behold the glory.
    On Saturday we were street contacting in an area that we don't
normally stay in when a car sped by us and pulled over to talk to us.
The lady was in a panic and was freaking out making sure we "were
okay." And we were like yeah... Why? She had seen us talking to a guy
and she thought he was robbing us.... Nope, just sharing the gospel of
Jesus Christ. You know you're in Jacksonville when people think you're
being robbed when you say hi to someone. Two more people warned us
about the area within the hour. And then my bike and I  almost got hit
by a car a block away. Yay!
    We got a call from President this week that he was emergency
transferring more sisters into our ward, so we have two more sisters!
I was kinda enjoying having the car full time, but it's good.
    Yesterday, we tried to visit a potential that we've tried forever
but she's never home, so we were doing a one last time check. Her
husband answered the door and seemed so stoked to see us and said he
had put in a request for a Book of Mormon after his wife had first met
us. Don't know who we never got that, but it was such a miracle that
we had even caught him at home and before we dropped her! He's so
excited to learn about the Book of Mormon and said he's determined to
read it "cover to cover." We read Moroni 10 with him and he was so on
board. Oh God is good!
Happy July!
Love y'all!
Sister Carr

Yay for America!

Week 46

June 30, 2014

And then there were two.

We have transfer calls on Monday and president announces where
everyone's going and such. So we're all having zone pday at the stake
center and sister McCann and I get a call from President that they're
both being transferred.... Soooo they had to leave last minute. It was
hard, we all cried. A lot. It's so boring without them, it's not fun.
So this week have had to take over all their investigators and we
seriously haven't had any time to try to contact people or tract at
ally we've been running from appointment to appointment.
We have the car full time now, which is nice, but our miles are
getting cut by a lot so we'll still be biking a lot. We have two
phones now as well. And two apartments. But we use their old one as
our weekend apartment because it's right by the church building.
Living the fancy life, I know.
We have so many good things lined up and so many people to teach and
so many miracles that are waiting to happen!
We had the most amazing lesson with Sara, my miracle golden
child/distant cousin. So rewind a bit, a few weeks ago we stopped by
on a Saturday night to make sure she was going to be able to go to
church in the morning. She was driving out when we pulled up and she
had some friends in the car but she jumped out and hugged us and we
chatted for a sec. Her best friend in the entire world was in the car
and started freaking out after she saw us.... She's long time less
active member. So we show up to her house this week for a lesson and
her best friend's like "hi! I'm a member too!" It was such a miracle
and it's kinda helped Sara a lot now to have someone who knows what
church is like and has a strong desire to go. They both have a ton of
questions and We were able to reteach them the plan of salvation and
take them on a church tour.
They had so many questions about the Plan of Salvation and I'm so
grateful for the knowledge that we do have. Most of their questions
were about family life after we pass away and as we were talking about
it, it hit me so hard how grateful I am for my family and that I get
to be with them forever. I cried. And then Chrissy cried, and then
Sara cried. We all cried. The spirit was so thick, I love how this
gospel!
I know without a doubt that this church is true, I'm grateful for the spirit!
Sister Carr

#whentherewerefour

Week 45

I was able to go to the temple this week! First time in 10 months! It
was absolutely the best thing ever! I've been so deprived of the
spirit that is there, I've missed it so much!
It's transfers and they're closing down the other sister's area. So
it's just me and Sister Call and the elders. We're all freaking out.
Losing my best friends and then taking over all their investigators.
Stressed! Sorry for the short letter, but we have to go pack up a
whole apartment! Uhh!
Post a picture this week of you and how the Book of Mormon changes how
you live your life! #calledtoshare #livethebook

The sisters of our lovely mtc district!

Week 44

June 15, 2014

  Oh my gosh yes so many miracles! We tracted into some baptists...
Baptists don't like us, like at all, and we were getting that vibe
from them we, so we started to just gave them our card and then the
lady's sister was standing behind her and she saw the card was like
"Mormons?! Y'all are Mormons?!" And we're like yeah... (Kinda nervous
cause they usually start yelling at us) And she starts going on and on
about how much she loves family history and needs help with it! Halla!
We gotch you!
   We were having our second lesson with a new investigator, Sara,
and we were reading 1 Nephi 5 when they get the records. So we related
it to family history and why it's so importNt to us. I pull up a
picture of my great great gpa on my iPad and she's like "hey I know
that name" and I'm like what?! So I pull up my pedigree chart and she
knows like two other names. She started FREAKING out. She was like,
"this is not happening, this is not happening!" Don't know for sure
how we're related, but I found my cousin! Oh I love miracles! Any
miracles this week?!
   Okay, so round two of Book of Mormon Facebook attackage! This week
post a picture of you reading the Book of Mormon with your favorite
scripture or a-ha! moment that you've had with the Book of Mormon.
With the hashtag #searchthebook
   Last week has already reached thousands and people all over the
world and the church has written articles on the event and the head
publication people at church headquarters have joined us to help it
grow and reach more and more people! Yay for miracles!
Love y'all!
Sister Carr

#discoverthebook

Week 43

June 8, 2014

This week has been full of trade offs, district service projects on a
farm (not my fav), getting ticked off at the elders for poaching in
our area, spending hours switching the iPad program, and lots and lots
and lots of random little miracles.
So, Facebook. Our mission has been so blessed to have iPads and
Facebook as part of our proselyting efforts. We've been praying to
know how we could best use it and we are so excited with what has come
as our answer. When King Benjamin held his "general conference," he
was only one guy and couldn't reach out to everyone that was trying to
listen. This is where y'all come in. He had his messengers run out and
spread the word. There's only a few thousand missionaries that are
trying to reach billions. So, we are heading a series of Facebook
events promoting the Book of Mormon. We've gotten the 27 other
Facebook missions to join us and we need everyone's help to make it
huge and spread it to as many people as we can! There are those that
are waiting for the joy that comes from this gospel and the Book of
Mormon. And we need as many as we can to help! We need miracles!
We just ran into a lady at the grocery store whose sister sent her a
Book of Mormon and she was practically screaming when she saw our name
tags. She's been looking for missionaries and went on and on about how
the Book of Mormon has changed her. It changes and blesses lives! I
know that there is a power in it. I know that it is true and we can
"get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other
book." With Facebook, we have the capability to reach those billions
of people and introduce them to the joy that comes from the Book of
Mormon.
There will be four events over four consecutive weeks. Join the group
"Called to Serve" and it explains the four different events and how
you can help out. The first event is tomorrow and we'll post a picture
of us mimicking the example photo and use the hashtag
"#discoverthebook" and share your experience how you discovered the
Book of Mormon.
Join the event, post, and invite all your friends!
Help us make this a worldwide event!
Love y'all!
Sister Carr

Join the group!
https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=774654132574908

Join the event!
https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1424327067842153

Week 42

Dry Rain

June 2, 2014 

    Ever seen it raining and the ground's completely dry? Welcome to
Florida. It's been raining a ton, but it's so dang hot that as soon as
it hits the ground, it evaporates. Lots of mist everywhere. It's
crazy. Our A/C broke in the middle of the week, we had to put bowls of
ice in front of our fans to keep it cool, it was awful. But our
superman/recent convert/maintenance guy fixed it for us! Hallelujah!
    The senior couple in our district were scheduled to leave next
week, but they're staying until October! They're from Pamona and he
calls me "Huntington Beach," he's just absolutely hilarious. We love
the Vans! That was such a miracle!
    We've been working with a few part member families who are all
just so adorable. On Saturday, I felt prompted to text one of them and
Facebook message another one of them to come to church, but then I was
like, "nah, they gave us excuses last when we saw them," but then I
did and they both came to church! Oh hallelujah I was in tears! It was
the best!
    We were in a lesson with one of the this week. They're going
through some struggles right now and we're trying to help them get on
the right path. We were talking about that with them and their oldest
little boy who's 9, just looked right at me and was like, "Do mommy
and daddy have to do good to be closer to God?" Oh my gosh it was the
sweetest, most sincere thing I've ever heard come out of a little kid.
He was so worried about his mommy and daddy not being close to God, it
just broke my heart. I love being on a mission and helping these
people come closer to God, so that they won't have to see that
heartache in their 9 year olds face, but they know that they're on the
right path. So worth it.
    We ran into an anti less active. She was telling us all this
stuff and it blew my mind how quick the Spirit was to bolt out of
there. I'm so grateful for a testimony. I'm so grateful that I was
walking out of there saying, "Oh my gosh, what was she on? She's
psycho," when others are so easily affected by that. I'm grateful for
that armor a testimony brings. I'm grateful for our Savior and His
miraculous Atonement. I know He lives, I know that He heads this
Church. The Church is true, the Book is blue, and Jesus loves you!
Love y'all!
Sister Carr

Whataburger trip, me and the boar (had a major heart attack when I
turned a corner too tight and that thing toppled on top of me),
downtown JAX

Week 41

Glad Tidings from Jax

    I love being a missionary! I feel like this is the first week
ever that I'm able to say that. We had an amazing zone conference this
week, three baptisms, wore out two pairs of shoes, met two not very
nice Baptist preachers, and finished the Book of Mormon! Our record
this week was one new investigator, three lessons, one member present
lesson, one member lesson, and found a less active not on our records
all in one hour.
    It's been scorching hot. 104 degrees, in a dress, on a bike. It's
awful. Ive gotten past the point of caring what I look like. I can't
keep up with the demand of looking decent when I'm sweating 24/7. It's
impossible.
    I love our district. There's a ton of us, but we all live so
close to each other and see each other every day, it's the best ever!
This weekend has been so jam packed with baptisms, movie nights, and
meetings that we just see each other all the time! I love having a
second family out here!
    The missions 90 day Book of Mormon read has blessed my life so
much. Whilst meeting with our friendly Baptist friends, they were just
ripping us apart and it really hurt and I was just praying and praying
for Heavenly Father to send me some peace. As soon as I ended my
prayer, I looked up and the sun was just perfectly breaking through
the trees and Spanish moss and the words "Joseph, this is my Beloved
Son, Hear Him!" came to my head. Oh how I love Heavenly Father. There
have been so many nights where I'm struggling and I'll feel prompted
to open to a random chapter in the Book of Mormon and the most perfect
verse is there at perfectly applies to my situation. I love the Book
of Mormon! I know without a doubt that it's true! I love God for
giving us this second witness of His Son! I LOVE it!
     "Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A
voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth
out of the earth.... Glad tidings from Cumorah! Moroni, an angel from
heaven, declaring the fulfilment of the prophets--the book to be
revealed. A voice of the Lord in the wilderness of Fayette, Seneca
county, declaring the three witnesses to bear record of the book!"
(D&C 128:19-20)
Love y'all!
Sister Carr

Sister Carlsons birthday, jax west zone at zone conference

Week 40!! Halfway

"Ohh - oh! We're halfway there! Ohh - oh! Livin on a prayer!"

 May 19, 2014 

    This week has been so amazing! We were so busy at church cause we
had so many people there! Investigators, reactivations, lots of
meetings. It was fabulous!
   New companion time! My new companion's name is Sister Call. She's
from South Jordan, Utah (shocker, I know), she's 21, a dancer, and do
a cancer survivor! She's so great, I love her so much already!
   We did another competition with the elders. Guess who won this
time? We did, 279 to 43! They had no chance! It was fun to bask in
their failure! We all really like competitions, so they introduced a
new member to our district this week. The baptism boar. Whenever you
get a baptism, you get to hang the glorious boar in your apartment.
It's on. I'm turning redneck more and more everyday.
   The sisters double booked and asked us to go visit a less active
sister for them. So we're chatting with her and our convo goes like
this:
"Are you originally from Jacksonville?"
"No, I'm from California."
"Oh no way?! Where in California are you from?"
"Santa Ana."
And then I stared at her blankly and started freaking out. She grew up
in the Samoan branch in the Garden Grove stake. Small world!
Coincidence that the sisters accidentally overbooked appointments? I
think not!
   I went to two ward activities last night for the other ward. Both
were decked out with sheets as table clothes. That brought the Julie
Carr out of me real fast. The South.  It was bad.
   Summer is coming and that means more and more Mosquitos. My legs
are already COVERED in bites, and I faithfully put bug spray on
multiple times a day. The joys of the south.
    I officially hit my halfway mark on Wednesday!
Love y'all!
Sister Carr

Transfers! My old companion, Sister Orton and me. The beloved boar. My
new companion, Sister Call.

Week 39

Grandma on the Bike

    One of our adorable recent converts in Keystone wrote a story
about faith for her personal progress. She was born with a couple of
holes in her heart, AASD, and a couple of other mental disabilities.
She is the sweetest thing ever and I miss her so dang much. In the
story, we went on a camping trip and to disneyworld and we read the
Book of Mormon together. It was adorable. But throughout the story,
she has a "little bird" over her head that watches out for her where
ever she goes and makes sure everything is okay. And as long as she
keeps praying to Heavenly Father, He'll make sure everything's all
good. It was adorable. I've been trying to remember the little bird
over my head that is always going to make good things happen as long
as I keep going! That was a good little reminder for me this week.
    It's transfer time! Sister Orton is leaving and my new companions
name is Sister Call. I've never met her and I have no idea who she is,
I just barely added her on Facebook, so this will be a fun new
adventure. I was a little disappointed that I'm still with the bike,
but I'll take it.
    My daughter, Sister Hillman, is training in my beloved Keystone,
so I'm a grandma! I love mission families! Our oldest "ancestor" on
our family tree that's still in the field will now be a
great-great-grandma! Craziness!
    On Mother's Day, we ate at the Nhiev's home. He's in the
bishopric and is hilarious and he served his mission in Santa Ana, so
it's so fun talking to him about his adventures on his mission. And
she is so adorable and wears all J Crew and Banana Republic, so I'm
obsessed with her clothes. They both escaped Cambodia when they were
kids, so we had the BEST egg rolls ever and a lot of fun exotic stuff.
So good! 'Twas an adventure.
    We're still trying to build this area up! We're praying for a
good transfer!
Love y'all! Keep that little bird above your head!
Sister Carr

Week 37

  We were talking to this former investigator who's Native American
and when we brought up the Book of Mormon, he started telling us about
all these ancient legends about a "man in white that came from the sky
on Turtle Island." What?! We were blown away. The church is so true.
I'm so grateful for this gospel.
  We did a ton of service this week, we got a couple new
investigators from it, but we barely got to see any people because we
were so busy painting people's houses and moving. I'm exhausted.
   We work at a food kitchen type place every Saturday morning. It's
run by another church but they love us to death and always need a ton
of help. The lady in charge kept telling everyone about a community
dinner that they were having on Sunday, so I volunteered some of us to
go help with that. It turned out to be a luncheon after their church
services.... So it was the Mormons serving the Nazarenes at their
church luncheon. It was awkward, but it was really fun and they're
such great people. It was super fun.
    The Ft. Lauderdale Florida temple was dedicated yesterday and
even though we're not in the temple district and like six hours away,
they broadcasted it to our stake center. That was so neat to be a
apart of that. President Uchtdorf talked about the rich heritage of
early missionary work in Florida. Oh it was so amazing to hear him
talk about the early Floridian missionaries and how it's our
responsibility to continue that legacy. Ya got that right. I love
continuing that legacy that my two grandpas left for me here. I love
it! 143rd temple. Been to the first modern day temple and dedicated
the newest! Love it!
Love y'all!
Sister Carr

Our favorite McDonalds worker got us free ice cream!

Week 36

   We've been doing so much service this week. We topped last week
with 20 hours. I didn't have to be on the bike and I didn't have to be
in a skirt, so I love service!
   On Saturday, Sisters Orton, Mccann, Carlson, and I were helping
move boxes at a member's. She has 10 dogs. She kept them in the house
the whole time that we were there but of course this would happen, on
the last load, all the dogs suddenly appear. So we're walking to her
garage to take the boxes and they start swarming me and jumping up and
barking their heads off. My worst nightmare come to life. So Sister
McCann runs ahead to take the last box in while I have the dogs
distracted and one of them jumps up and full on bites my leg. She
finally came back and suddenly all the dogs scatter like she has some
magic anti dog power but then they come back and get me. I literally
can't move cause I'm half paralyzed so she had to pull me away and
pushed me through the gate and she got bit in the process of saving my
life. And Southerns literally worship their dogs so we can't complain
about her deadly "babies" so we sat there bleeding and in pain. I hate
dogs. That was my second time getting bit out here. I hate dogs. But
we have pretty gnarly battle wounds, so it works.
   We started doing a movie night here too. Our first one was last
night and it was a huge success! We had a ton of less active members
and investigators there! It was so amazing!
   We had the most amazing lesson ever in gospel principles yesterday
and all the investigators were answering questions and reading and
asking deeper questions. I was fasting that one of our investigators
would get to church - she didn't. But we had a surprise investigator
come. We've been stuck with her and don't know how else to help her,
but I'm Sunday school she was asking all these amazing questions and
everything was blowing her mind. Oh my gosh it was so good! Definitely
a great blessing! Heavenly Father answers prayers in the best ways
ever!
   The Fort Lauderdale temple is being dedicated this Sunday, so
we're so stoked for that!
   We discovered an anti guy on Facebook that was friends with only
missionaries and members and such. I was friends with him too and I
was super confused how I never discovered it before. So I messaged all
the missionaries he was friends with to let them know to unfriend
them. None of them had noticed his posts either. It was such a miracle
because he was specifically targeting missionaries since he was only
friends with us and not one of us had seen them. Someone's looking out
for us.
Love y'all!
Sister Carr

Week 35

    We did so much service this week. It's unreal. We totaled up to
about 15 hours of service, compared to our usual 2. Major bonding time
with the sisters and the other missionaries in our district. I'm the
only one who knows how to use a drill so I was on drill duty at every
project.
    We had gotten a referral from the Mama Odie of our ward and she is
so dang elect. She's been reading the Book of Mormon all day and all
night, she was so excited about it. She's on a "spiritual journey" and
trying to find out which church she needs to go to. She has this whole
line up of churches that she's promised people she'll try out so she
hasn't been able to come to ours yet. But she said that at every
church she's been to so far, they've given her a bible or something
and she doesn't feel right about any of them and always finds herself
turning back to the Book of Mormon. During our lesson with her she
looked at me and was like, I don't know what it is about you, but I
just see this light in your face and feel instant peace when I look at
you. Ahhhh, best moment ever! It's called the spirit! It's telling you
the truth! Ahh she's so elect, I'm so excited about her!
     We're all so obsessed with the #becauseofhim video. We watch it
24/7 and show it to literally everyone. We were serving at another
church on Saturday morning with some other sisters and one of them was
walking around with it on her iPad showing it to everyone. It's the
best. The church is so true. My Facebook has been blown up with
#beacuseofhim all week. LOVE IT! Of you haven't seen it yet, you have
to. http://easter.mormon.org
And that's really it.
Love y'all!
Sister Carr

Easter Sunday.

Week 34

My Ciera in Keystone got baptized! Hallelujah!
Some of my favorite moments of my mission were of her experiences with
the spirit and how strong the spirit speaks to her and Hailey.
She never believed in God, so our first lesson with her we just told
her to pray about it. The next day, I was asking her about it and she
just smiled and was like "He answered." She had gone home that night
and said her first ever prayer and as soon as she asked if God was
there, she felt this energy roll through her body and since she had
never felt the spirit before, it was a total shock to her so it
freaked her out. She jumped into bed and hid under her covers and was
like, "What did the sisters do to me?!" She was giggling hysterically
when she was telling us about it. She said that His spiritual
floodgates have opened now that she's finally willing to believe. I
miss her so much, I'm so grateful that I was able to be a little part
of her conversion.
And now their parents' hearts are being softened to teach and their
cousin asked the sisters if she could be baptized too! Miracles!
We've been able to get a few new investigators, thanks to our amazing
members. So we're so excited to finally get things moving about after
a long drought. Brother Brown was made our new ward mission leader.
Can't even begin to tell you how much of a HALLELUJAH that deserves.
We're all so stoked.
    We have been cleaning out an investigators trailer for the past
two weeks. Sister McCann and I went into the back room and just
started clearing everything out as fast as we can. Little did we know
that lovely little rodent friends had made their homes between the
trash and clothes that were compressed to the floor. We found that out
the hard way. The elders quickly started making me the running joke of
the day. That seems to happen a lot. Free entertainment, you're
welcome. But anyway, that wasn't a fun experience.
  This area is not the funnest and my testimony has been under attack
the entire two months that I've been here. It's been killing me and it
is so hard to have people attacking us literally every time we go
outside. Being on the bikes doesn't help with that either.  I hate the
south. It's so hard and there's not a day that goes by that I wish I
could go home. I've never been on my knees so much in my life.
There's been a few nights this week that I've felt inspired to read a
certain chapter on the scriptures and I've been told specifically what
verse I needed to start on and it's exactly what I needed to hear.
It's funny how God works like that.
So I'm grateful for those little miracles. I'm grateful for the
Atonement. I've never fully understood it until I came out here and
had to use it and just ask for forgiveness and ask to guide and direct
us and our investigators. I'm so grateful for the peace that comes
from Christ's Atonement, I honestly don't know what I'd do without it.
Love y'all
Sister Carr

Ciera's baptism!

Week 33

From: Chelsea Carr <chelsea.carr@myldsmail.net>

Subject: Happy missionary Christmas!

Date: April 7, 2014 at 12:18:04 PM PDT

To: Julie Carr <julie@jcarrcontracting.com>, Richard Risueno <rrisueno@myldsmail.net>

   I LOVED CONFERENCE! I can't say it enough, it was so amazing!
    We heard that the choir for the priesthood session was from BYUI
and Sister McCann and I we're dying to see it, and thanks to the
amazing blessing of our iPads, we were able to watch them during our
Facebook time. I saw one of my FHE brothers Austin, two guys from my
Idaho ward, two guys that I had a class with (one of them I knew from
OCMCO too), my home teacher in Arizona, a guy from EFY, and Jordan
Terry. Oh my goodness, it was so fun to see people I knew. And there
was a guy in the Orem Institute choir that I worked with in Arizona.
And Sister Hannah Schaap in the World Report! This weekend was just so
good. I looked for Ken, Tay, and Mal during the Saturday morning
session, but couldn't find them. :(
   I love the #LDSconf. The church is so cool, I can't even get over
it. During Elder Corbridge's talk, I checked on Facebook to see if a
potential Facebook investigator messaged me back and there were
already memes and quotes from him. And the talk wasn't even over yet.
People kill me.
   Sunday morning was so stressful trying to finalize rides for our
investigator, Sasha, I was seriously screaming at the phone, nothing
was working out. So we said a prayer and eventually got a ride and two
backup rides for her. #miracles But then she didn't answer when any of
them came to get her. SO FRUSTRATING! The sisters got 5 investigators
at conference by just sitting there and we did seriously everything
thing we could and couldn't get one. It's so not fair and so
frustrating. But then I got rebuked with the first talk that morning.
Uchtdorfs "be grateful no matter what" talk. He was speaking directly
to me. So I'm grateful for a ward that has two wonderful families that
are willing to do everything for us no matter what. Love them. They're
so getting cookies this week.
   It was pretty much the 14 of us missionaries and the bishop and
the occasional investigator in the chapel watching conference. As soon
as they announced that Elder Zwick (he came here in November) would be
speaking, we all screamed and got way excited. He has a fan club here
in JAX. He's letting us go to the temple now, so we love him.
   Had this crazy lesson with this family that I did not want to go
see, but the bishop told us to go check it out. So we're sitting in
the house and all the sudden there's police outside. I was dying. So
long story short, we got out of there okay, they were arresting the
dad's sister who was staying there. I was ticked cause I had a bad
feeling about going, but the bishop still wanted us to. Lesson
learned. Never again.
    I'm so grateful for a living prophet on this earth. Im grateful
for a Heavenly Father who gives us direction through Him. I know that
our Savior still loves us enough to still guide and help us. I'm
grateful for the spirit that was felt this weekend. The church is so
ridiculously true, I feel it every day!
Love yall!
Sister Carr

    This happened to the Elders' car this week, it's sharpie. They so
deserve it #karma for yelling at us

Week 32

  The Elders investigator got married on Saturday. My first Florida
wedding. That was an adventure in itself. The whole time I was like
"Mom would die, Mom would die, Mom would DIE!" It was fun. But they're
finally married so she can get baptized this weekend!
   The sisters found this abandoned building so we ate lunch there
and got some Deep! Deep! Dish! All four of us got über sick, so we
literally couldn't do many thing on Thursday, it was awful and really
ticking me off. My comp had enough guts to go check the mail so I said
a prayer before we walked down there and was like, "Heavenly Father,
I'm failing as a missionary today. This mint the only time we go out
today, So here's what's gonna go down. We're gonna take a walk to the
mailbox and you're gonna put someone in our path that we can invite to
church." So we crawled to the mailbox and the first person I saw I
started talking to. She immediately was like, "where's your church
located? I need to go!" God answers prayers. #truth
  Story time. So yesterday wasn't pday, so it already was the worst
day ever. We were on the bikes and were sitting at a red light waiting
to cross. So we're siting there and a guy in a car behind us starts
yelling at us in his thick southern hick accent. Typical "Joseph
smiths a fake!" "Go home Mormons!" "Hey Mormon!" He even yelled
"prophecy smith" (I had the thought, the mobs even yelled that at
Joseph Smith in the Restoration, oh my gosh, I have to deal with these
same idiots. I'm like the prophet). I was trying so very hard to stay
controlled and calm and not look back at him. My blood was boiling so
I started singing a hymn in my head and was like "Don't let them get
to you, you know it's true. You've been in the Sacred Grove, you've
felt that spirit. You know it's real, it's so undeniably true. You're
the right one here. Heavenly Father please let this light turn green.
Please let them rot in hell, I can't wait till Christ comes and they
realize the truth. Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry."  You know,
typical pep talk. The dude keeps yelling louder and louder, trying to
make us mad and get our attention, so we did our best to ignore him.
  So the light turns green and we go and I'm bracing myself for
something to be thrown at us, cause that's usually what goes down,
and for them to slowly drive by us and yell some more. I start
pedaling as fast as I can and am trying to ignore the car and just
stare straight ahead. So they drive slowly by us, yelling and such and
I don't look at them and focus straight ahead cause I'm so close to
losing it. Then when they passed us, I finally looked at the car so I
can get some mental image of what my persecutors look like, so when
I'm in heaven I can give Heavenly Father a more detailed idea of who
it was. It was a red corolla. With a bike rack. Then I saw the two
guys in white shirts in the car. It was our beloved, oh so nice
elders. I was TICKED. It was not nice at all. So God's a fourth watch
God, lesson learned for the day.
Tis all. Love y'all,
Sister Carr

Our HUGE NormaQuanaHouse district (my zone in LC wasn't this big)