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!