Merry Christmas!! Happy New Year!!!

Hello all!!

Hope that your Christmas was as well blessed as mine and that your New Year's Celebrations will be filled with fun and goals. Mine is. I'm trying to climb up this slope I'm going down...it's not working very well. Time just keeps getting shorter and shorter.

This week was great! I got to talk to my family. I LOVE THEM!! Other than that...this week wasn't too different than most...other than the fact that we didn't get stopped by any trains (This town is split in half by the train tracks...it can make things difficult).

Y'all kinda heard about my week last week...hmm...

Tuesday evening after I sent my email out, we went to the Beggs for dinner (Turkey). and the Ermis' to help set up their family mission plan. They gave us each a cute gift!! It was a box of fruit, awesome lotion, and a cute little Texas charm necklace!!! :) We LOVED it!!!

Wednesday we had an appointment at Alma's (Her Coffee maker broke!! She saw it as a sign from God that is is her time to now quit coffee and nothing is going to stop her from the temple!!!) service at New Beginnings, caroling at Brice & Kalisa's (Kalisa really thanked us for stopping by. I felt so loved!), another turkey dinner at the Chapdelaine's and caroling with them. We dropped a little Secret Santa (Elder Fa'a ruined it by putting in their Christmas card haha! Oh well!)

Thursday was CHRISMAS!! :) That morning we went over to the Jensen's for breakfast (WAFFLES!!!) Jordache and the Jensen's kids were there (minus the 2 on missions). It was so great!! Lunch was with the Crawfords (a 3rd turkey dinner!!) and after we went to the Moore's for dinner...home-made Fried chicken!!!! :) YUM!! and then a great skype with my family!! Thanks for all the gifts that everyone sent! I really appreciate it!! I loved them all!

Christmas at the Jensen's with Jordache!

 

Friday Happy Birthday Mom!! We had district meeting and weekly planning and finding and visiting Sis Jackson and more finding and then dinner with the Knox family. The whole family was there! It was awesome!

Saturday Happy Birthday Marin!! Sister Sheldon (who went home earlier this month) came back to Texas and gave us a quick hello!! We went finding (it was freezing cold and raining all weekend) and had lunch and then family history (Kinda..no one showed up and we ended out leaving early) and then visiting Sis Tieman and finding and dinner with the Biggs.

Sunday we had our regular meetings and church and lunch and cleaning out our area book and dinner with the Moore's and then our appointment with Rainn. She (and we) were SO excited!! The member we took with us ended out living like 2 houses down from her and already knew her!! She had been taught by Elders in Spring Branch about a year and a half ago. She remembers most of the lessons and we briefly went over what she remembers from them. She's re-starting the Book of Mormon and has already (as a New Years resolution/gift to herself) decided to quit smoking!! She's had a long way to get to where she is...but she's ready!! She is going to pray about a baptismal date. We are planning on teaching her the lessons again to help her understanding and clarification on doctrine. We called Spring Branch after and they still had her record!! YAY!!! We are going to get that and be able to learn more about her :)

Today!! We are going to Washington on the Brazos!! The Birthplace of Texas!!! I'm really excited :) Hopefully it won't be too cold and frigid! 

Hope y'all have a Happy New Year!!

Keep moving forward!!

--Sister Carling

2 More Sleeps Till Skyping

Merry Christmas all!!

This week has been long and tiring. You might be wondering why i am emailing on a Tuesday...well I went to the temple today!! :) It was so great! It's been 6 months since I've been and it was awesome to be able to go and feel of the spirit.

Also: The closer it gets to Christmas the more stressed people get and the more they don't want to talk to us. Advice: Take time to "Pass-it-on" this season. Smile at someone. Give a heartfelt gift to a random stranger. Buy someone's groceries. Pass It On!!!!

Run down of the past crazy week:

Mon: 15 Invitations to learn.

Tues: 15 Invitations to learn. Helping the Jarnagin's pack up and clean prior to moving. Trying to visit people. Dinner at Tricia's and we got to meet her husband!! It was great!!

Wed: 15 Invitations to learn. Meeting with Alma (who had an awesome change over the past week. She's determined to not let anything stop her from going to the temple!!) Service at Freedom Hill. Service at New Beginnings. Service at Kruze. Chapdelaine's. Talking to people. Meeting.

Thurs: 15 Invitations to learn. Planning. Finding. Service at Gazebo. Finding. Dinner at Giles. Stake correlation. Visit with Kalisa and Pres Chappell. AMAZING TALK WITH HER!! She really oppened up and we were able to really connect with her.

Fri: Christmas Conference with the WHOLE MISSION!! President and Sister Mortensen spoke in the morning. We watched the nativity story. It was awesome because we read and analyzed Luke 2 as a mission and were able to talk about it before watching it! Lunch with letters in cute little stockings the Senior Sister's made for us :) and then departing testimonies, musical numbers, and singing for like 2 or more hours. Then, we all got our Christmas packages ending the conference at like 4:30. We visited the Llewellyn's that evening for dinner and Life was good. 

 

Mission Christmas Conference

Sat: 15 Invitations to learn. Garage Sales. Lunch. Family History awesomeness!! Dinner with Brice and Kalisa. CHINESE!! It was awesome.

Sun: 15 Invitations to learn. Meeting at 8. Choir Prelude. Church. Talking with Sis Chapdelaine. Lunch. Finding. Finding. Finding. Finding.

Mon: 25 Invitations to learn. Stop by the Bluebell factory for contacting/ice cream. Met some people from Utah (Love meeting members!!). Dinner with President Billy and Beckah Plumb. Ding-dong-ditching with them!! :) It was so fun!! Then President wanted to show us this one house...so we turned around and came back into town and he drove around trying to find it. He thinks we found it but we aren't so sure...because he wasn't sure. haha!!

Blue Bell Ice Cream IN the factory!!

 

 The Cute Blue Bell cow!!

Tues: TEMPLE!!! :) It was so beautiful. I've missed it. I haven't been in 6 months (Since the last time with President Pingree). Sis Carlile took us and we were able to do initiatory and a session. I had an awesome experience at the temple doing initiatory. I've had this name for a while...like 6 or more months...and I was doing her and we got to the end and the Spirit just overcame both the worker and I. Hannah was there. She was there. She was ready. She wanted it and told me. The only information I had was that her name was Hannah and she was born about 1678 in England. It was SO amazing.

Other than trying not to be homesick this whole season, which I've done pretty okay at, it's been a beautiful season. It's really the most wonderful time of the year. In fact...it's my most favorite time.

Keep Moving Forward.

Merry Christmas!!!

--Sister Carling

10 More Sleeps

I can count how many sleeps I have until Christmas and Skype on my fingers...10!!! :) I am SO EXCITED!!

Monday night we taught DJ the Restoration. She totally understands the pride cycle and prophets and has a desire to be baptized (which will probably happen next semester). Ruth came and was a great help to us in bearing testimony.

Tuesday we made cookies. like not as many as last year (over 300 items for the branch) but we made and frosted 70 or so cookies. I've also decided that I'm never to play with wheat ever again. I was itchy the rest of the day! No bueno! That night we were invited to dinner by a recent convert, Brice, and his wife, Kalisa. I'm pretty sure I've told yall about them but they took us out for Chinese. I'm converted. Chinese food is pretty amazingly great. We were able to invite both of them and their friend to the branch Christmas party. 
 

Wednesday we were able to help Alma better prepare to go to the temple by helping her to eliminate things out of her life. It will be a process...but it will be worth it! We contacted went to Kruze, gave cookies to our neighbors and had dinner with the Beards. We also got rid of a really old (like 30 years) couch. It was a relief.

Thursday we had weekly planning, visited a few potentials, and did service at Gazebo. More finding/visiting potentials. Quick dinner and then sports night.

Friday we had district meeting, service at New Beginnings, and a member visit to Sis Tieman. We had to hide her coffee pot...again. She had someone take it down and out for her. Tisk. After, Sis Llewellyn invited us over for dinner. We also learned how to make Sauerkraut. Aunt Barbara, you'd be happy to know that she is going to give me some to try.

Saturday we had another lesson with DJ. She wanted to be baptized before she left to go home from school and she wanted to know all the commandments. We gave her a mini Law of Chastity talk and Word of Wisdom talk after we had gone over the Plan of Salvation and Baptism. She's so golden. We are coming up with a date for her that will help her to be prepared for her first covenant! :) That afternoon we did a lot of finding and trying to visit less actives. that night was the Branch Christmas party. We dressed the part. and so did the Elders (they were Santa's elves).

Sister Carling & Sister Pugh

Elder Fa'a and Elder Knight

Priceless!! 

Sunday was kinda crazy. Meeting in the morning, then church, then a child baptism,then lunch, then choir and we finally left the building at 4. We did some finding at the parks and dropping off goodie bags at some members who weren't at the party. We ended the night at the Carlile's with a late dinner.

Today has been pretty relaxed. (Which is good.)

We've got a big week planned. We will be having Christmas conference on Friday with the WHOLE mission. It will be awesome!!!!

Share the gift with someone this week. 

Keep moving forward!!

--Sister Carling

I Am Very Blessed

Awesome Story of the week:

We got an awesome YSA investigator last Monday while we were sacrificing our p-day to invite people to LDSSA.  She's awesome. She came in late on Tuesday during the meeting and after we were able to introduce her to the Book of Mormon. A word that she kept on using was "Restore"...she wanted to restore herself back to Christ. Oh my goodness Y'all. She's GOLDEN!!! So we met with her on Saturday and we didn't have much time because the Blinn cops pounded on the door and told us we weren't allowed in dorm's (we're thinking her roommate snitched on us and none of us knew that rule...now we do!). They gave us 20 minutes because we came out here to do a "Bible study" and teach the "Word of God". We finished giving a few details about church and intro to the BOM. The member we brought, Ruth Knox, will be going to Blinn next semester.  DJ came to church!! It's been forever since that's actually happened! It was fast Sunday and that's always a little different for a first Sunday in coming to church. During Sacrament, I sat next to her and explained what was going on. She had lot's of questions and she STILL stayed ALL 3 HOURS!!!!! She also asked about missionary work and what it takes to become a missionary.  It was great to be able to answer her questions. We will be teaching the Restoration to her tonight. We are super excited :)

Other random details of the week:

Tuesday I learned that "The Spirit invites you to act and do something." We also had another awesome lesson that night after dinner with the Jensen's. Sydney Hunt, a member we found on Blinn, asked her friend if she wanted to hear the lessons. She said yes and asked us if we could meet her...OF COURSE!! We taught the Restoration and it was awesome. Sydney bore her testimony of the Spirit and how powerful it was there. It was very strong. Feeling some great blessings from my Heavenly Father right now :)

Thursday at sports night we had 15 people there!! We had a game of soccer and a game of Ultimate going on at the same time!! :) It was great.

Friday: How many missionaries get to say they were in a parade...I DO!!! :) The Brenham parade went marvelously!! We got to walk past a LOT of people and show our beautiful faces. We gave out quite a few pass along cards. Some of the comments that I heard was that it was different. Lots of people liked the simpleness of it and the fact that it focused on Christ. I loved it.

 Our Parade Float - Sis. Pugh is behind the camera

Saturday: That morning we got to pray at a baptism. Rachel Michel turned 8 and asked us if we would. I felt SO honored. "Hearkening to the voice of the Spirit will give you peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come" M Russel Ballard. We had our Bible Study with Bernice (Really it's just going over the gospel principles book with her :)). It was great because we had a member there!! We've been taking out our 2 Laurels a lot recently. This was also the day we went to DJ's and the coppers and yada....ya.

 Rachel Michel's baptism

Sunday was crazy...and then one appt dropped...and then the Burns called and dropped us right as we pulled up....BUT THERE WAS THE CHRISTMAS DEVOTIONAL!!!!!! 

And that was amazing :)

and the Jensen's fed us dinner. 

And the Biggs' parents are taking a package home for me. 

And I've just been super blessed. 

So how can I keep from singing?!?!

On the 23 Sis Pugh and I will be going to the temple (Merry Christmas to us!!) So that will be our P-day. We will email that afternoon.

Be blessed and keep moving forward!! :)

 

--Sister Carling

Thanksgiving Madness

What a week to forget your planner on. It's been pretty interesting. This morning I was dressed for 70 degree weather...and a cold front came in. It's now like 50 degrees. COLD!

Monday nothing too important to remember.

Tuesday we had our first LDSSA meeting!! It was great! We had 4 members and 6 nonmembers! It was great :) We talked about Laserus and how Christ raised him from the dead. Then we watched the Because of Him Video. After all that, I GOT TO DONATE BLOOD!!! Oh my goodness. It's been on my bucket list. Third time's the charm right?? It was awesome. Just saying. We worked on re-arranging our Blinn board a little bit. Dinner with the Millsap's. Taking out one of the laurel's, Maddie Ermis, with us to visit an investigator. 

 Donating Blood!!

Wednesday was a service day. Freedom Hill, New Beginnings, and Kruze Village. Followed by some finding, dinner, Re-doing the entire Blinn board for the #sharethegift initiative (It looks awesome). Correlation.
 

Thanksgiving Thursday!! It was so great! We had like 6 appointments. Breakfast with the Knox. Service at a kitchen in town. Lunch and setting up the Christmas tree with Brice (recent convert) and his wife, Kalisa, and the Elders. Drop by at the Gouge's. Up to the Biggs and Plumb's for late afternoon visit and then that evening we Visited the Younger's, a part member family.

Friday we had zone meeting. When we got back we made lots of follow-up calls for the Blinn LDSSA meeting on Tuesday. We did something important...we probably worked on the "BB" (Blinn Board).

Saturday we got to do some Christmas finding!! YAY!! People are so much happier and willing to talk at Christmas time. I love it. We got an awesome poster for the board. more finding. Family History. More finding. Dinner with the Youngs!! YAY! She gave me the best loaf of GF bread I have ever tasted!! I'll send the recipe home to you mom :)

Sunday was awesome. We had a great meeting with the Burns family. We were able to clear up some concerns with them and REALLY help them to progress even further. They REALLY opened up to us. We prepared the best we could. Amanda did great in testifying and sharing her testimony. We worked more on finding and trying to visit less actives. Dinner was with the Carlile's. :) Worked more on the BB.

This is probably really crazy and scrambled. Just a little crunched for time. 

Keep moving forward!!

--Sister Carling

We got Jordache scriptures for Christmas!!

The Blinn Board!!