Week 21

    This week's been hard, so we've been making a lot of videos to send home (but they're too long to email) and making up games to play in the car. We started counting how many trucks we can see as we drive. Our record's 34 in half a mile.

   Our three most golden investigators that I've ever found out here both dropped us within the same hour this week. After the second one, I was so losing it. We were meeting with these people to set baptismal dates and check up on their Book of Mormon reading, just on cloud 9 and had our hopes crushed so fast. We started walking away from the house and heard someone yelling at us from behind. Our lovely Dee, who was baptized right before I got here, was running up the street towards us. She was waving and all grins and was so happy to see us. She just started rambling about her day and a recent missionary experience she had just had and how she saw our car on the street and started her way back up the street to meet us. Heavenly Father knew that Sister Carr was about to fall apart and needed some lovin right then and there. His timing amazes me. Dee is such a testament to me of how this Gospel truly does improve your happiness in life and changes you.  It was interesting to see how fast people can use their agency and deny themselves of those blessings and then to literally turn around and see how happy the Gospel makes us and how much better our lives are with it.

     We've been watching a lot of the Bible videos and mormon messages this week. We're obsessed with the Bible videos. They're amazing. That's been helping us a lot. My companion probably hates me so much but we've been listening to a lot of David Archuleta this week. She knows it helps calm me down and just rolls with it. She's great. She's looking for a One Direction hymn album for me. I'd be the most on fire, stress free missionary ever with that blasting as we roll through the Heights.

     One miracle that I've seen this week is being able to help Sister Hillman. It's rough out here and there are some nights that she's just falling apart and I've been able to calmly talk her through it without losing it myself like I want to. I'm so grateful for that.

     There was one night this week that I was just sobbing and I normally can't ever fall asleep, but it was passed midnight and I still couldn't sleep. On a mission, when you have nothing better to do, might as well pass the time with some scripture reading right? I keep one of my favorite pictures from "Reflections of Christ" in there, the one where Christ is healing the blind Nephite and Christ has the clay on his eyes and the guy's just clinging onto Christ, with a bunch of my comfort scriptures on the back. I can't ever describe how the Spirit speaks to me, so I'm just going to type this out and hopefully it makes sense, if not whatever. I was staring at that for a little bit and the Spirit just totally overwhelmed me and I looked at it like I was the one that was clinging so desperately to Christ and trying to reach out and find Him, but He has always been standing there, trying to heal my imperfections and wiping the clay out of my eyes so I can see how close he actually is. I've been trying so hard to find Him and feel His presence, when I've been clinging to Him the whole time and He's giving me this awful time to clear away the clay and show me how close He actual is. I had the warmest sense of peace come over me and it sounds super lame, but it hit me and made me see how much Christ is actually in this work. We've been running into a lot of people of other faiths down here and I'm so grateful that I've been given this truth. If I was a missionary for any other religion, it'd be hard and I would hate my life for getting myself into this. But this is Christ's true church. I've found so much peace in knowing that Christ himself stands as head of this Church and it contains every aspect of His full Gospel. When you have Christ in charge, you better bet that you'll win in the end. It's not fun. But it will be worth it in the end. Everyone has already been 'saved,' and are fine with their Bible no matter what we testify to them. I've had to just let go and know that one day, they'll know. I can't wait for the day when Christ comes and the South is burned and the people will be like "Oh, those girls that we yelled at WERE right. Oh snap, we should've listened." And then we'll just be standing there next to Christ all like, yeah you should've. Oh, BEST DAY EVER. Cannot wait.

Love you,

Sister Carr

Closest thing we've gotten to a baptism this week....

Week 20

I'm gonna be really honest. This week has been the hardest week that I've been out here. The past two days were the hardest days that I've had my whole mission and quite frankly, it's not very fun. Missions are hard. Like really hard.

We're right in the middle of the Bible Belt and I'm for real feeling it. Yesterday we attacked our area book and visited every potential investigator, former investigator, and some investigators, and even tracted for a bit in two of our areas and after 9 hours of that, we didn't get a single yes. And all our appointments fell through. It's the best.  I feel so bad for my poor companion. This week we're focusing on the importance of the Book of Mormon so we just had her testify about it all day yesterday and nothing. Lots of doors closed especially when we pull that one out. Not fun. We broke a lady's porch too, the elders are fixing that. 

I was studying this morning and I just needed some help and some glimmer of hope from Heavenly Father. I randomly opened up my scriptures and Mosiah 24 showed up. I read verses 14 and 15 and immediate comfort came over me. I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father who is there and who is aware of us. He's watching out for us and He's there for us. He answers our prayers. I needed that comfort and I'm grateful for that. I'm still sure of our one baptism this month. All we can do is work and pray. Desperately praying is one of recent hobbies. Love y'all!

Sister Carr

Week 19

     My absolute unfavorite day of the year in December 26th. I absolutely hate it. It's the worst. I refuse to take down our Christmas tree yet. I think we might just leave it there so the Sisters that serve here next December won't have to put it up. They're going to thank me for that. I know it.

     Yesterday all of us missionaries spoke in sacrament about.... Missionary work! Shocker! So I played the piano for all of sacrament last week, taught Sunday School that day too, put on a movie night Saturday night, delivered 15 dozen cookies to people, played Secret Santa, spoke in sacrament this week, worked on converting Keystone, giving a training for District meeting tomorrow, and went squirrel hunting on top of that. I'm exhausted and slowly dying. And we are already 30 miles over our limit on the car this month. But I've seen that blessings come with craziness! I keep having the strongest feeling this week that we are going to get a baptism in January. I've been praying so hard that this will happen and that's been my driving force this week. It will happen! Full faith!

     When Sister Hillman skyped with her family on Christmas, she told them that we've only tracted like 2 times and it hit me that we've been working so much with less-actives and member referrals and the investigators that we already have, and I haven't blessed her enough with the experience of every missionary's favorite experience of tracting. So we've been working a lot on her door approaches for about 2 hours every morning since Christmas. I'm pretty sure she hates me by now. We both hate it. She even told the Sister Training leader that it's worthless and unproductive. HAHAHAHAHA! (You don't say that to the sister training leaders, hello!!) But it's always an adventure to meet all the colorful people that hideout here.

     There's a less active family that we usually visit every week but haven't been able to see this transfer and I was kinda iffy about seeing them, but yesterday I had the strongest feeling to go see them and we just did it. And holy cow am I grateful for the Spirit! We had the most amazing discussion with them and she was dying to have us help her bring FHE back into their home and to help with their family scripture study. I shared 2 Nephi 25:26 with them and I've never felt like people were listening to me so sincerely and intently before. She even said that right before we came she couldn't even sit up she was so sick and by the end of our visit she was laughing and chatting a lot with us. She said we were miracle workers, I'm not sure about that, but it was cool. I love them so much! They are one of the reasons I came out here. I love these people.

     We had the most amazing lesson with Alex yesterday. He won't come to our ward but he'll go to  Palatka. So I decided we were going to have a 'do or die' lesson with him and just pound out all his thoughts and make sure that he was legit about this. I judged him way too hard and from that lesson found that he has the most amazing testimony ever. I've never heard him talk about how he felt about the Gospel or how it's helped his life and I'm so glad we got it out of him. I was giving up on him cause he's met with the missionaries for months and he won't commit to church but dang, does he know that this is true. He bore the most amazing testimony ever and I don't remember anything he said but I just remember that the Spirit was super strong. He's never felt so happy in his life while he's been meeting with us and he feels 'holier' and has received so many answers to his prayers from our lessons. We tried to set a baptismal date for January 30 and he said it might be even sooner than that. WHAT?? God is a God of miracles and I've for sure seen them here. He's remembering the South! This is His work and we're just going along as instruments in His hands. Holy cow I am so grateful for this opportunity to see how real God is and see how closely He is involved in our lives. LOVE IT!

Sister Carr

Me, Sister Hillman, and the Beckham's granddaughter Zowie (She's in love with Teen Beach Movie so she's a homie) on Christmas morning. Pink rifles and pink real tree camo, NOTHIN BETTER. Welcome to the South.

Week 18

   

  HELLO UPGRADE! Welcome to our new little piece of paradise! We've been SOO blessed this week and my heart is so full of gratitude and love for this area! We officially moved out of the trailer Saturday and we have the cutest little lakeside cottage! It was built in the 50s and it's just so perfectly cute and vintagey and I'm kinda a little obsessed with it. It has wainscoatting throughout the whole house and has the cutest we have our own personal dock! Guess where we'll be studying in the morning from now on! Best Christmas ever.

 

Our new address is:

6565 Immokalee

Keystone Heights, Florida 32656

 

     This week has been super busy but soooo good! We had our second Proselyting Family movie night. Four nonmembers came and three of them were in tears by the end of the movie! Holy cow was the Spirit so strong in there. Our ward is getting more and more involved in missionary work. We've been working a lot with our Bishop's family and we have lessons every week in their home for one of our investigators who is SOOO getting baptized not as soon as I'd like but it will happen. But anyway Sister Carver, the Bishop's wife, was talking to me about the challenges we've given them to reach out to their friends and to get "nos" and she expressed to me how grateful she was for all the times we pushed them. She said that she's seen her family do things that they never would've done and never would have if it weren't for us. That built my testimony a whole ton! I'm grateful for the members we have to work with and for the willingness they have to participate in this work no matter how difficult it is for them! So many blessings are promised when we do member missionary work! I've seen these families grow and seen their happiness increase as they help bring their friends and neighbors closer to Christ! LOOOOOVE IT!!

      Last Monday we were walking through the grocery store and I saw those cheese balls that we get from the Daileys every year and it hit me that I was going to miss out on all the Christmas food. And then I had a tragic thought that I wasn't going to get any meat and cheese from Hickorys this year. I gave Sister Hillman this 30 minute schpill about my favorite Carr family Christmas tradition and how that just makes my year and I hate how I won't be getting any this year. And then guess what I got in the mail the next day? Hello best Christmas gift ever?! I kinda freaked out a little bit when I saw that sitting on our porch. Scared some neighbors. Some joyful tears were shed over that wonderful little surprise. Kinda like the best day of my life.

  This is the absolute best time of the year. The Spirit is just so dang strong where ever you go and we've been using and abusing it to its fullest. We'll come in to 'share a Christmas message' and end up with a full Restoration. Gotcha. It works. My testimony has grown so much this past week and it's been such a great testament of why I was supposed to come out and serve a mission. I absolutely am obsessed with the advent package that mom sent me and I look forward to reading those stories every morning. My favorite was the third day with the Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus pieces of the Nativity set. First time I cried opening a present. Lame, I know. How amazing is it that we have a Savior who submitted Himself to the will of His Father and came to this earth so innocently and willingly to give us a chance to return back to our Father?! This month I've been rereading the first four books of the New Testament and His ministry and His teachings blow me away. His Gospel is so simple, so powerful, and so insanely true. I can't get enough of it!

      A few nights ago we were teaching this one family that we've met with a few times. We were talking about the Plan of Salvation and the husband was so hung up on the fact that God has a body. It's one of the simplest truths of this Gospel! I asked him how he saw God and who God was to him. He corrected me and said that God is a "what" not a "who," that's like a sci-fi type light that touches each of us but no one can ever see it or even comprehend what it is. What on earth, dude? I was a little dumbfounded when he said that. It was the first time that I realized the importance of the knowledge that comes with this Gospel. I pulled out a picture of the First Vision - hello, welcome to the truth, here's a picture of God.

     I've ALWAYS known that we were created in God's image, He has a body of flesh and bones, He is our Heavenly Father who hears and answers our prayers, who watches out for us, who loves us, and is actively involved in our lives. It for real hit me so hard that a lot of people don't know even that simple truth. I can't even express how grateful I am that I have this Gospel in my life. We have the truth! We know who we are, Whose we are, and how to get back to Him!

     We have an investigator named Alex that we've been meeting with a lot. He just found out that his cousin is a member of the Church and the Bishop of the Palatka ward, which is maybe like 30 minutes away. I absolutely love Alex to death, but he just won't come to church. He's had 3 different baptismal dates set up, but we've had to push them back cause he won't come to church. We had a ride arranged for him to come last week but he said he wasn't coming. Got a call from him on Monday and he went to the Palatka ward! Holy cow I was dying. You have no idea what a miracle that was! We had a lesson with him Saturday and the first thing he said to me was "I'm joining this church." AHHHHHHHH!!!! He had never felt so much peace before in his life (hello Spirit) and he was shocked to find that the majority of the people in that ward were people that he had grown up with. Each one of them all found this Gospel and he was able to hear them bear testimony of how true this gospel is and how they've found so much peace and happiness in their lives from it. I felt like being really bold and told him that he too has found this Gospel and it's not something to take for granted. It's true and it's his choice to act on the truth that's been placed before him. He simply responded with "Oh sweetheart, I know." Miracles are happening in the Heights.

     This Gospel is true. It's so ridiculously true. I can't even begin to tell you how true it is. It's true. I've never felt the Spirit so strongly in my life before. It comes from living and breathing this true Gospel. I've never been so happy in my life. I just absolutely LOVE this Gospel. It's just so dang true. It's true! God lives! He loves us! I'm so grateful for this time of year. It's like the whole earth suddenly remembers that we have a Savior Jesus Christ who has given us opportunity for exaltation and eternal happiness. He's there all year even if people don't remember. But I'm grateful for this short time that I have to help them remember Him no matter what time of the year it is. He lives!  

Love yall!

Sister C

Week 17

 This week has been so awkwardly amazing.

     First, we're moving from the trailer. I'm SOOOOOO sad about that, for real I'm so in love with that piece of plastic, it's grown on me. But we'll be out by January. Merry Christmas to Keystone.

     We had a mission Christmas party/conference on Thursday. It was the first time that President and Sister Craig were able to see all 300 of their missionaries at the same time. They were a little emotional about it. So I was able to meet my trainer's trainer's trainer and we took a big family picture of all of us. I think we got at least 5 generations in there. Fantastic family time. It was so neat to finally meet all of these missionaries that I've seen on Facebook and that I've heard stories about. I got to see all of my MTC peeps and Sister Conley again! I barely just met and know these people but we were all so stoked on life to see each other and the Elders would make fun of us cause we'd scream when we saw each other. Judge us, I dare you.  It's the most amazing feeling ever just how much you learn to love these other missionaries that serve with you. You just can't help it. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! I can't get enough of the Spirit that's here and just the funness of it all. LOVE IT!

     I'm the only pianist in our ward so guess who's in charge of the program next Sunday? This girl! I feel like Sister Matthews - I'm playing for everyone and their cat out here. Day in the life.

     Starke has a Christmas parade every year (How small town is that??? Love it!) and guess whose float won first this year??? OURS DID! Starke ward, what up?! Us, the Elders, Sister Carver, and Sister Underhill walked next to the float and passed out pass along cards and candy. And it was pouring rain. Worth it. It was SO FUN! We all climbed on the float after and screamed Christmas songs as we drove through the pouring rainback to the church. I've never been more wet in my life. Worth it.

   I'm obsessed with this ward. We spend all day Saturday helping to put the float together and I don't think I've laughed harder in my life. It was such great ward bonding time! I absolutely love the people here. And President and Sister Craig came to our ward on Sunday and helped us get the missionary work amovin, so we should be seeing some miracles with that soon!

   It's been such a great week, lots of bonding time, new investigators, lots of reactivations!, lots of singing and pianoing, and lots of the Spirit. Love it! Love you!

Sister Carr

Week 16

This week has been hectic and crazy and next week will be even busier, so I'm just tryna tackle everything and swallow it whole. We had a couple of great miracles this week. We are still struggling getting our investigators to church - SO FRUSTRATING! But the Elders had an investigator come to our ward Christmas party on Saturday. Hallelujah! Brother Beckham was going to bring Alex to church on Sunday but he never showed up even with Brother Beckham giving him a ride. President's coming to speak in our ward next Sunday and going to whip them into shape cause I'm just so tired of not being able to get anything done ourselves. We need help.

We found a couple this week who have a son who's LDS. He served his mission in Corpus Christi so I'm hoping Dad knows him. They're amazing and I've been feeling like we needed to go see them for a while now but it just never went down. But we went over Tuesday and they were so welcoming and loving and loved us so much! He runs the food pantry and desperately needed our help the next day - perfect timing!

We met a lady named Carol on Thursday. She's Catholic and wasn't really interested but we shared a message and prayer with her. We started driving away and I got the strongest impression that we needed to turn around and give her a Book of Mormon. So we awkwardly drove back to her house, knocked on her door again, ignored her surprised face. I was super nervous and excited and started blurting out how much happiness the Book of Mormon has given me and how I wanted her to have the same joy, etc. The Spirit was so strong and she started crying and I asked her if she would read and pray about the Book of Mormon and she kept saying "I will, I will, I will" over and over again through her tears- so good!

The church is true! I love all of you!

Week 15

     I'm still in shock about Brother Trounce and I honestly don't know what to say. But how grateful I am for the Plan of Salvation! We were out tracting on Thanksgiving morning and we met this lady who just came out sobbing. Her 20 year old daughter just passed away 3 weeks ago and she was having a rough time with the holiday. How grateful I am to have all the answers we ever need! We were able to talk to her about the plan of salvation and shared Mosiah 16 with her. She will see her daughter again and she said she needed a strong church family for support right now. Welcome to the Starke Ward, Cathy. That was a great miracle for us this week.

     My new companion's name is Sister Hillman. She's from Orem, Utah and is 21. All fear that I had of training went away when President announced my companion, but it's stressful and I feel like all the souls of Keystone are on my shoulders. Not a fun feeling. Like at all.

     But I've seen myself grow as missionary. Brother Beckham went to a lesson with us on Friday and he told my companion that he was blown away with how well I taught. I've never had the opportunity to teach and lead a lesson cause Sister Conley always did it, but he said that it was such a spiritual lesson and he was really impressed with how well I was able to teach. I'm starting to feel like an actual missionary and I really am grateful for that.

     We had two Thanksgiving dinners with the Artmans and the Beckhams. I've never felt so full in my life. Worth it.

     I love you all!

Sister Carr