Here Comes February...Flying 'Round the Corner

Hello Y'all,

It's been a week. and so many things have happened...or not happened. Sometimes that tests your faith and where you stand...but it's all for the strength and growth you will receive through the scriptural term, "long-suffering" or "patience". But, blessings have been promised to those who obey. So...I will follow the commands of my Heavenly Father. All I must do is tune into what the Lord is trying to tell me. :)

Tuesday we emailed and that afternoon we had a short restoration lesson with Bernice. It was awesome to see her connect with James 1:5 and realize that she too needed wisdom. We had dinner with Sis Perryman and she insisted on us buying like 5 appetizers. It was so funny. Sis Pugh ended out having leftovers for like a week because of it!! We went finding that night and got to visit with Maddie Ermis, a laurel in the branch.

Wednesday we had our weekly lesson with Alma. She LOVED the "Proclamation to the Family"!! She wanted to take it to all the women she visit teaches and she said "If they don't receive me, then I'll just tape it to their door!!!" She was frustrated that nobody would open the doors to her and her partner. :) She's stalwart!! After that we headed to the church to help set up for Standard's Night!! It was Frozen themed and they went all out!! It was beautiful!!  We had service at Kruze and dinner and finding and correlation. :)​ 

Thursday we had planning and a great talk. At Gazebo, we had a great time playing "Shake Loose a Memory"​. We had dinner with the Gordon's at the Chinese Buffett and then went tracting until sports night. We found out last Saturday that we would be having a recent convert moving into our branch. He's 18 and he got baptized in Austin last weekend. He's excited to be able to help with Blinn (he plays football there) and we are excited to be able to work with him! His name is Grant. Grant came to sports night and invited his roommate. He's totally on fire for the Gospel!! one of the first things he said to us is that he "loves being Mormon!!"

​Friday - Happy birthday Dad!!​ We had district meeting, lunch and then service at New Beginnings. We tried going back and revisiting all of the potentials this past week. We had dinner with Brother Jensen. He told us about Vitamin I...or Ibuprophen. It was great. We got to visit with Priscilla for a little bit.

Saturday ​was pretty great! After the Pinewood derby we stayed for lunch and then had family history and indexing class. Grant came and we were able to really get him started and going. It was awesome to see the spirit work and open doors to his family. Dinner that evening was with the Young's and then we tracted their neighborhood.​ It was a great hilly walk with lots of interesting people as usual.

Sunday was pretty great. We had the usual meetings and lunch followed by visiting people. Dinner was with the Carlile's and then we were out tracting.​The miracle I really saw this week happened last night. We were out finding and I was about to give up...but I'm so grateful we didn't. We found a new investigator. It was like 7:45 at night and we were tracting this trailer park and when we got to the guys trailer, the spirit whispered to me "This is the one!" We have an appointment with him tomorrow. He's definitely YSA aged and has an interest so it will be exciting to work with him. We started by explaining the book of Mormon to him. As I'm typing I'm receiving the revelation that that's what we need to start with and introduce. I'm really coming to understand the power behind that book. It's magnificent.

​Overall this week was pretty great. It was full of adventure. I gotta go. Keep moving forward!!!!​

The picture attached we were working on the Blinn Board and I needed a break. SOO I drew Sis Pugh in a field of Texas Bluebonnets and wild flowers. Gotta say that it's the best :)

--Sister Carling

Good Morning America!! The Sun is Out and Shining!!

It's Tuesday!! That's because we didn't have access to computers yesterday...MLKj Day. Everything was closed. So here we are emailing. Also!! The sun came out on Thursday!!!! Blessings from heaven!! On to the week!!

Monday: tracting a trailer park that night, dinner with President and Sister Plumb

Tuesday: Visiting Bernice and inviting her to hear the lessons, service at Freedom Hill, Dinner was with the Beards and we got to meet the new elder! Elder Croft! He's from Salt Lake area, is 18, and has been out for about 6 months. After dinner we did some more finding and then had a lesson with Jordache. We helped him to create a personal mission plan. It's pretty awesome the things that he's going to be working on!

Wednesday we visited Alma and talked about obedience to our covenants, the Prophet, and laws of the land. It was a great lesson. then we had lunch...tried to do some finding. Service at Kruze and that is always fun. I love singing at the end. It fills my heart with joy to be able to sing to those sweet elderly folk. :) Dinner was with the Chapdelaine's. Sis Chapdelaine had surgery the next day. We did some more tracting and finding and then we had our weekly Wednesday night meeting with BJ Plumb.

Thursday night I wrote a song. That hasn't happened in a while. That morning we had weekly planning. Then we went to go and meet with sis Jackson for a little. Service at Gazebo consisted of Painting nails. The old folk are my favorite. We had a quick dinner and went out finding again...ending the night with sports night. I jammed my finger...It was/still is purple and swollen. Basketball is pretty brutal I guess.

Friday we had district meeting, service at new beginnings, a lesson with Rainn (the Restoration), finding, and dinner with Brice and Kalisa. They are so sweet!! I love them lots!

Saturday we went tracting in the morning and visited Sister Tieman, had lunch and then headed to the church for Family History. I love doing that stuff!! Dinner that evening was with the Biggs.

Sunday we had regular meetings and church and finding and stopping by potentials. We got to visit with one of them and to share the message of the restoration with them :) It was so great!! That night we had dinner with the Beards and we had waffles and eggs. It was so good!!

Monday we went all sorts of places AND got a nap. It was marvelous! Also, I have come to really like deer sausage. It is pretty fantastic. The amazing Moore's (*Wink, Wink Sister Moore*) fed us and served us dear sausage that night.

Today: It's looking to be pretty busy. This week is looking to be even busier. We have Blinn starting today. Here starts the madness.
 
Keep moving forward Y'all!!!

--Sister Carling

Last Week of the Transfer

I forgot my planner. I'm also staying in Brenham for a 5th transfer. This email might be rough without it. I packed my planner away because I was done with it...And forgot that I had to write y'all. My apologies.

 

Monday night we had dinner with the Jensen's. Bro Jensen was still at work and So we had dinner with Sis Jensen and their daughter who's home from school. I'm not sure what else we did.

 

Tuesday it kinda warmed up...not really. We did some tracting in the afternoon and met with Jordache. We went over scripture study with him. then we headed to dinner at the Carlile's...STIR FRY!! YUM!

 

Wednesday we met with Alma. It was great to meet with her as always. Then we went to Tricia's for lunch and a lesson with Sis Carlile. It was great! after the bread almost exploded and a bunch of laughs later we were able to make some more headway with her as we explained scripture study. :) That afternoon we went to Kruze for service and did some finding until mutual where we were able to help teach about the importance of journal writing focusing on the scriptures...see a trend going on?? It was really great to be able to study about journaling through Nephi's eye's.

 

Thursday was weekly planning and finding and going to Gazebo to help with nails. We had an awesome conversation with Nettie. After we had dinner with the Llewellyn's and got to hear about how their family became their family. ALSO!! Aunt Barbara, you'd be happy to hear that Sis Llewellyn made me a jar of sauerkraut. It was pretty great!! Sports night was that night and Bro Gordon showed up. So we all played basketball

 

Awesome picture right?? and I made that shot :)

 

Friday we had a lot of car riding. We had district meeting and then lunch. Then we went to College Station for a YSA conference/Training for all missionaries who would be working on college's and with YSA's. Then we had to book it ALLLL the way to Fayetteville for dinner at the Knox's because our meeting lasted an hour longer than planned. We helped them with their mission plans. I did a lot of phone calling of random numbers in our phone. That always scares me...I wasn't driving so I was calling.

 

Saturday we did some following up in the morning with people we had met the past few weeks. Family history was at 1:30 and we were able to help the Tolman's with some of theirs. We did some more finding that afternoon and went to the Bigg's for dinner. After some finding we went over to Brice and Kalisa's and got to talk with them some more. Did I tell y'all Brice made me a great big Texas?? It's beautiful. We picked out the stain that night.

 

Sunday we had Branch Conference. So church was shortened by an hour and it was an hour earlier. Rainn, our investigator, came. She told us that she found her home, she found her church home. The Spirit was so strong and she loved it!! She told us she wants to be baptized on Feb 1. We are so excited!! She's progressed so much! That night we went over to Brice and Kalisa's to pick up my Texas because we were pretty sure I was being transferred. (But I found out later that I'm not!! Staying in Brenham for a 5th transfer!!) It's so beautiful!! This picture doesn't do it justice...

 

Isn't it gorgeous?? Now I just have to figure out how to get it home...anyone going to Arizona any time soon?? haha It's made of cedar and has an oil stain on it. I love it.

 

Well...I gotta get going...keep on keeping on.

 

--Sister Carling

#end

Rain and Cold are Not my Favorite Combination

So this week was FREEZING!! It was also SUPER rainy...AND I had a cold. That whole situation was a trial...I'm better now...but ignoring all that, life is pretty peachy keen. (I learned some new phrases being out here :) )

Monday we went on an adventure to "The Birthplace of Texas!" Washington on the Brazos that is. It was lots of fun....except the Museum was closed...I REALLY looked forward to that.

Sister Carling - Birthplace of Texas!​ 

Tuesday we did service at Freedom Hill after getting a phone lecture from Tricia. She's so sweet. She wanted us to make sure we were getting enough rest so that we could get better sooner! We were both sick with sinus stuff. That afternoon we had lunch with the Gouge's, did some finding, Dinner with the Moore's (where we prayed to be able to help them more...HA!) The relief Society activity was that evening (Sis Carlile taught it) and it was all about the temple. I LOVED IT!!! After we got to chat with Priscilla and talk to her about how she is doing.

Wednesday we went to New Beginnings to help them out since they would be closed on Friday. After lunch, we stopped by Jordache's to see how he was doing and to set up a time to meet with him. Kruze was great. :) I love my old folks. That night we went to the Chapdelaine's for dinner and a bon-fire. After we had our correlation meeting. In bed at 10:30...and didn't wake up until the New Year :)

Thursday Happy New Year!!! We had weekly planning and then we picked Amanda up for our lesson with Jordache. We reviewed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then had him teach it to us!! He did awesome!! He'll make a great missionary one day!! Then we refreshed how to do tithing with him. After we did some tracting with Amanda, dinner at Taco Bell, and Sports night! The whole Chapdelaine clan was there and we were able to have a great game! 4 on 4.

Friday we had to go to CS for Zone Meeting. It was awesome!! Elder Su'a, one of the zone leaders, sang Les Mis' to get a point across about fasting. It was HILARIOUS!! President was there too. After, we went on exchanges with the STL's. Sis Andreasen came with me to Brenham. We had quite the adventure. Dinner was at the Jensen's. We had a referral way out in the boonies and decided to go and visit it. Our little Chevy Cruze had to have angels pushing it down the dirt road. It was that muddy. They weren't interested. We ended the night at the Crawford's. He told us about his firefighting days and we were able to understand why he hasn't joined the church.

 Sister Carling and Sis Andreasen

Saturday we went tracting and met some interesting people, had lunch, helped at Family History, exchanged back, did some more finding, talked to Rainn (Who has progressed a lot!!), had a snack, did more finding, and ended out our night at the Jackson's. We found 1 new investigator! it was great!

Sunday we had meetings and church (we got our dinner calendar full!!) did some tracting in the bitter wind, went to the Beggs to set up a mission plan, had dinner at BJ and Adrian Plumb's. Saw and AMazing sunset. We ended our night going to Brice & Kalisa's and talking to them. Kalisa had just finished taking down the tree!! We just barely missed helping her.

Monday, today, we went to Walmart. That's about it. Now we are here. Not sure what we will go and do today...we have dinner with the Jensen's tonight. It'll be great.

Transfer calls are next Sunday. eek!! This has been my 4th transfer here and I will probably get the boot. All I can say is:

Keep Moving Forward

Have a blessed week y'all!!

--Sister Carling