The Fact of Growing

This week has been a blur.

One of those Oh-you-just-drove-through-a-little-town-and-missed-it kinda moments.

Lot's of times I swear that all I did was blink...and maybe that's all I did. But it's gone.

Next week, I left home 1 year ago: scared, doubting, but hopeful. Hope in the fact that I knew I was supposed to do this. 

Well, here I stand. I know I was called to serve here for a reason and I am learning to be more confident in all that I do, yet relying on the Lord for His help and guidance. I'm still learning in all that I do, but I know that the Lord is with me and will help me with everything...if I allow him to.

Growing hurts. In case y'all didn't know. It's doing what's uncomfortable and getting out of your comfort zone. I'm always learning about growth.

Last Monday I finished my quilt. It is amazing!! It's also pretty huge. I can't wait to show y'all...but I forgot my camera cord. So I will hopefully email it next week!! :) Also, Sister D packed and we had dinner with the Elder's (Elder hunter was transfered and Elder Fa'a is Now training training) at the Plumb's. Their kid's are adorable!! We stopped by the Jensen's and, after, Priscilla's.

Tuesday we made our way to the mission office...It's like a 2 hour drive. Sister D got transferred to PARKWAY!!! How awesome is that! I was so excited for her!! and i got my new companion...drum roll...Sister Pugh!! (her last name sounds like pew, as in a church pew.) She is from Bluebell Utah. She's amazing. We had a long trip home, kinda got settled, went to help out with pecan's at the Gouge's, did some planning, had dinner at the Beard's and went to go and meet the branch president. It was a busy day that wiped both of us out!

Sis Pugh and I!!!!

Wednesday, we were able to teach Alma the Restoration of the Gospel. Her testimony grows EVERY WEEK!! :) It's amazing to watch. After, we went and did some service at Freedom Hill and later at Kruze Village. That night we had dinner with the Moore's. Their little girls are the cutest.I love them so VERY much!! :) That night, we went to mutual to introduce Sis P to a bunch of people in the branch. Things were awesome.

Thursday, we did some planning and some finding...same with Saturday...and Sunday. We really are just needing to find investigators...so that's what we are trying to do.

Friday we had district meeting. On our way home to lunch, we were getting out of our car and noticed that the Sapp's were getting out of their car...TO DO AN APARTMENT CHECK!! They helped us and we were able to get an even better score than last time!! YAY!! They also took us out to lunch. It was a great experience :) That night we had dinner at the Carlisle's I love sister Carlisle and I will probably tell y'all this every week.

Saturday we did family history...and lot's of people came! :) YAY!

Sunday was Sunday and it was also crazy. According to Sis Pugh I am really happy when I go to church. I didn't know this until then. The sacrament is just a SUPER happy thing to have in my life.

This morning, we went up to College Station with the Relief Society president to help her with some decorations for the Harvest Festival/Chili Cook-off/Trunk-or-Treat on Friday. She got a call and that call told her that her father had passed away. Another precious, precious soul in the Spirit World. As she was making calls and relaying information back and forth to different siblings on the drive home, she mentioned that she was so grateful that we were there. I felt so much like a burden, but she looked to us as a blessing. I admire her ability to remain so calm in the situation she was put in. She had been talking to us about her dad's critical condition on the drive up, and to have him leave this mortal realm not even 2 hours from us talking about him, was such an experience. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me. He has blessed me with a knowledge of HIS plan: His plan of happiness. The fullness of that being contained in The Book of Mormon and through modern day prophets.

Ya'll be blessed.

--Sister Carling

Twas the week before transfers...it felt just like fall

Hey y'all.

Last Monday, I got a big chunk of my quilt done. It's looking pretty awesome. All I need to do is the border and the star (the hardest part!!).

Tuesday we did service like...all day long!! It was pretty great :) We visited this 93 year old lady (Jonnie) and helped clear off her back porch and trim back some bushes with Sister Jarnagin. After that we had lunch out at the Gouges where we got to help with the pecan harvest. They only have 14 trees. It'll be fun to help them out with that. :)  That afternoon we had various different things to find new investigators and that evening we had dinner with the Jensen's!! Brother Jensen got to visit my family on Friday and Monday and took back some stuff for me. My family sent me back a wonderful package. It was great. :)

Sister Carling with package from home!!

Wednesday morning we went to Freedom Hill. We came in the nick of time to help them out in the re-sale shop. It's always a blessing to know that the lord with guide you where you are needed! That afternoon, we did some family history with Anne Robinson and were able to help her find some more family. Kruze village is always great. I love being able to sing for them. It makes me smile quite a lot. we did some more visiting  of members in the ward. That night we got to visit some girls who go to Blinn. They are awesome! I really thing that they will be a great tool to bring with us to different appointments and lessons. Correlation ended the night.

Thursday we had exchanges and I went out to the Caldwell branch. It's teeny tiny. I say teeny tiny because the average attendance in like 30 people. It's a really hard area, but the member's are amazing.

Friday we exchanged back at district meeting. I didn't really realize how much I just loved Sister D and with transfers coming up and all...I really missed her. That day we did some service at New Beginnings. I'm not sure what else happened that afternoon. That night we had dinner with the Moore's. They are awesome. I am going to enjoy getting to know them more!! HA! That reminds me!! That night we had to finish weekly planning and as we were closing, Sis D was praying. She said "We're grateful we got to know the Moore's more." I just bust up laughing. Somehow that was hilarious to me. I couldn't stop. The deeper I get on my mission, the more I laugh. I've come to learn that laughing is the best thing in the world. I love it. Sister D and I are pretty much always either laughing...or moo-ing at cows. It's pretty fun :)

Saturday we went contacting at the Flea market.We got to see a few ward members and invite a few other people to learn more about the restored gospel. There was this one lady who talked me into buying a stamp for a dollar...Sister D and I are still trying to figure out how she did it....It's a cool stamp...a cactus...it's just that I have no stamp pad or anything. after that we got lunch and headed to the church to get it ready for family history. That afternoon we had decided to go to downtown to do some contacting...little did we know that they were having a beer tasting downtown. We turned around about as soon as we started walking. We went to the neighborhood we were going to have dinner and did some tracting. They Young's fed us that night. They are very sweet. That night when it was too late to go tracting, we baked some brownies and wrote cards for some members in the branch. It was super duper fun :)

Sunday we had meetings, church and studies. That afternoon we went adventuring (aka-trying to find people on the branch list). That night we had dinner with the Knox. They always crack me up. When we got home we finished our numbers, Sis D had a conference call, we called our district leader and gave him our numbers and then at 10:26 we called our Zone leaders back to find out the transfer info. Elder Hunter and Sister Davis are leaving Brenham :( BUT!! It just means that each of us get to grow and to learn. (Being positive here...)

I am going to miss Sister Davis. She is awesome. But i am excited to gain new friends and experience through this whole learning experience. Thanks yall for all the love and support. Yall don't know how much help we feel and strength we receive out her.

"Y'all be blessed, okay?" (an old black man told us that as we were walking into a store...)

PS- Mariah got baptized last week!! Here she is with Robert (who also got baptized), her parents and some of his family:

--Sister Carling

jay-dub's

So this week was much like last week...that is...we are working on finding people.We talked to a lot of people this week! 

Monday we had more quilting. I am now 1/3 of the way done!! yay! i have everything cut and all of the blue sewn together. It's so exciting to see this coming all together!! (Sis Carlile is taking pictures as we go along...so I don't have them with me!) That night we were able to visit with David. He is the director at Gazebo, the old folk's home, and has told Sis D and I that we both have a job if we ever want one. He's pretty cool! We were able to have a great conversation with him about the Book of Mormon and the atonement. It was pretty amazing.

Tuesday we woke up super early so that we could get ready for the day and then go to seminary and then go to College Station for Specialized Training and Interviews with President Mortensen!! [On our drive there...it was SUPER FOGGY!!! Never have I ever driven through fog, let alone fog that you can only see like 10-15 ft ahead of you!] That man is so inspired. I've come to love him a lot. Something I've learned since that is that we don't need the church, the church needs us. It is though our gifts and talents that we are able to unite with the Lord and come together on this special journey of life. When we invite others to serve, we allow them to feel needed. It is harder to tell someone "Hey! you need the gospel." If you approach it as "Hey!! The church needs you!" you will find more ready and willing hands to serve. They may not join the church at that exact moment, but you will be able to do your part in inviting them to come closer to you. (For mor answers on how to better attune your missionary work, So Clayton M Christensen's book "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" or visit everydaymissionaries.org.) After our session of interviews, I got to go on exchanges with Sister McLean (again, I love her!!) because our companions were helping with the training. After, I got to stick around for the last 20 minutes of training because they (Sis McLean and Andreasen) had an appointment with an investigator. That was awesome to be able to see how the Spirit directs teaching to be different to each group. That evening we had dinner with the Jensen's and found out that Bro J was going to be in AZ this weekend and would take some things home if i needed to! Happy day!! I was so happy to get some stuff sent home :) At dinner we were able to "Master Teach" the Restoration to them. It was SO very powerful. I am grateful for the opportunity which I have to be a missionary!!

Side note- we've started listening to Christmas music. It's my favorite.

Wednesday we got our week started.We started with going to Alma's and reviewing conference with her. SHE HAS GROWN SO MUCH!! It is beautiful to watch the gospel change her. After we went to help clean and serve at Freedom Hill. We got the room mostly organized!! It's awesome!! After lunch, we went to go and visit a few potentials before we headed tout to Kruze Village to help with bingo. Did you know that older people out here don't say Cheetos like normal? I wish you could hear some of them say it. it sounds more like chEE-toe's. Sister D and I get a crack up out of it. After some tracting, we had dinner and went to correlation meeting. Per-usual, it was great!

Thursday we had the shortest planning session Sis D and I have ever had. It was 2.3 hours. We decided to reward ourselves by getting ice cream at the Blue Bell factory before going to our lunch appointment. Shame, shame I know...but they are dollar scoops there and it was a good incentive. Lunch was at the Gouge's and we were able to arrange to come out again this week to help pick up pecans. (I love pecans). After that and doing service at gazebo, we did some tracting and finding before heading up to the Jarnagin's for dinner and family history with Janice. That night proved to be pretty awesome. We all got a little more excited about doing family history!

Friday we had district meeting and we learned more about faith. It was a really great lesson and I was able to grow my testimony by sharing it. After lunch, we went back to the Jarnagin's to help her clean their window's. (They are putting their house up on the market :( ) After, we went to New Beginnings to help them out because we weren't able to help them on Tuesday or last week. I love the ladies there. They are so sweet and happy. That evening after dinner, we went to visit Sister Tieman. There were REAL, LIVE LIGHTNING BUGS GLOWING ALL UP AND DOWN HER NEIGHBORHOOD. CHECK OFF THE BUCKET LIST. Now all I gotta do is catch them and put them in a jar. THAT is still on the bucket list. Anyways, it was cool.

Saturday was the Scarecrow festival in Chappell Hill. We wanted to go contacting there and the weather was proving to keep the rain in the clouds. (It's been a beautiful gloomy all weekend.) and guess what...we got 25 contacts that day AND I got to see Sister Lambros from the Sealy branch. That was cool.BUT WHAIT!!! I FORGOT TO EXPLAIN THE TITLE OF MY EMAIL!!! So right as we were getting ready to leave, there was a knock on our front door. I looked through the hole and saw 2 people standing there...we got tracted out by the Jehovah's Witnesses!! Sister Davis told me to open it and so I did. We had a pleasant and wonderful conversation with them where we were able to give them a restoration pamphlet...because they gave us a watchtower. It was a funny exchange. As we were leaving to get in our car like 6 JW's turned the corner. Sis D whispered "They're surrounding us!!!" to me and pretty soon we were talking to all of them. It was an interesting start to the day. We did family history and then went out to visit and to try to find more people. That night we were so tired we watched The Testaments and we wrote cards to addresses that were PO Boxes. It was great.

Sunday we had the usual meetings and church. We came home, ate lunch, and got a call from the Elders. We are trying to come up with ideas about how we can work together better. It seems to be working! After studies we went to the Michel's to follow up on a commitment we had left them and invited them to do more. We had dinner with the Bigg's and we had deer for dinner! It was pretty good! After, we got to watch the women's session of conference! (FINALLY!!) It was amazing. Let me just say that it is wonderful!!

This week we were able to strengthen our testimonies. I've come to realize that when you're desperate, you can sometimes go to extreme measures. If you have the Lord on your side, you can do anything.

ps- the picture of me and the horse is the horse that is right by the church building. There is a field and it lives there. I love to pet it's nose.

--Sister Carling

#genconf

Nope I still haven't seen women's session. We are (hopefully) planning on seeing it this week. This week was one of those different and crazy kinda weeks. We feel like we got nothing done...but in all reality we did get stuff done.

This week we went to college station twice , had exchanges, watched general conference, and judged a scarecrow contest. I'm amazed that we happened to get a lot done.

Sister D and I made it a goal to take pictures this week...of us that is (not of cows). We managed to fail. miserably. We got pictures of the scarecrows, but that's about it. haha. So, y'all must forgive me for no pictures this week.

...but none of this is important.

My heart goes out to the Brown family. On Sunday, Brother Mark Brown entered the realms of the next life. His son, Elder Brennan Brown, and I entered the MTC the same day. As I thought about this and cried, I realized that Mark is just on the other side serving along side his son, both doing missionary work, teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, and helping others come closer to Christ so that all of us may return to live with our Heavenly Father. 

Elder Neal A. Maxwell said right before his death, "I go on the remainder of my journey, short as it may be, through the process of dying, with a calmness and with these reflections. Some anxieties are understandably common to life's exit routes leading to death. Later, when we look back after the trip through the veil, our anxieties will turn out to be naïve and perhaps even amusing. After all, in Gospel grammar, death is not an exclamation point, merely a comma." Nevertheless, dying is a new, individual experience. For those Paradise bound, what seemed to be the grim ballet of separation, with but one pirouette, turns out to be a resplendent reunion." 

My mom shared with me Amy Brown's post. Thank you Amy for strengthening my testimony. Amy added, "Death is not a period or an exclamation point, , but a comma... Mark has just reached that comma..." 

How many times do we, as human's, get our skirts caught in a blender (you get my point) when the Lord decides to put some punctuation in our life. Punctuation is what makes the writer a sense of direction and the reader sense of living it. It gives motion to a story.

Our Lord loves us enough to give us trials. He knows what we can handle.

But remember this...

The Savior knows exactly what you are going through.

He has felt the joy and pain that you feel.

betrayed

   forgotten

      lost

         heartbroken

            lonely

               broken

                  rejected

                     despised of men

the list could go on...and he's felt it all for you.

JUST for you. and JUST for me. and JUST for each individual.

The Atonement is not just for the sinner. It is meant for the saint as well. For the mother who was hurt by her child. For the man who does great at his job, but lost it. Even for Sister Amy Brown. The Atonement is just as much for her as it is for you.

Remember that...Remember John 3:16. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

"that whosoever believeth in him"...It was for whoever would look to him as a Savior...but even more importantly it was for those who wouldn't and would never look to Him. We must faithfully believe in ourselves as well as others.

The first thing that we teach people is that "God is our loving Heavenly Father". Do you know why?? Because everyone needs to know that before you can truly help them to understand why there had to be a Restoration of Christ's Gospel.

These trials that you are go through here on the journey of life are only there to make you better...so don't become bitter. You are capable of achieving greatness. You are a LITERAL child of a LOVING Heavenly Father. He created everything and can command all things. All you have to do is accept the challenge of hard things...

...because it's the hard things that make life worth it.

I would talk to you all about this week...but that's not important. The important thing in life is to be centered on the Savior. So, as it was said in General Conference,"What thoughts come to mind if you had a personal interview with the Savior one minute from now?" (Click here to see the inspirational message)

His talk is one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did this weekend. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to hear from my leaders, to be encouraged, edified, and uplifted. I pray that each of you will take the time to think about the punctuation that the Lord has placed on your journey of life. Most of them turn out to be blessings if we allow them to. As we live the gospel, we will further come to realize that "the gospel is not weight, but it is wings" (Here for the full talk).

I know that what i am doing here in the great state of Texas is the Lord's work. I have been called to serve Him here in these final last days in the hastening of His work. I say all this in Jesus name, Amen.

Have a blessed day, y'all.

--Sister Carling