President: Turning the World Upside Down One Missionary at a Time

Howdy Y'all!!

It's a shortie this week, but I've got some news: I've now been emergency transferred...again with the ET's. So here I am up in College Station (50 minutes from Brenham...sometimes referred to by other missionaries as Temptation Station) working on Texas A&M Campus with the Traditions YSA ward. I'm super excited to work here. There is so much potential to grow and move onward and upward!!

We got a call on Friday night telling me that I would be transferred up here (which I already knew because of the Spirit) but that there was no reason to wait until transfers (which I didn't know). So I got here Saturday night and after I got here I also found out after that I would be taking over the area on Tuesday and that I'd more than likely be made Sister Training Leader.

This has been the craziest 3 weeks of my life. Never did I ever think that I would have 5 companions in 3 weeks.

I guess God just trusts me. 

God really has a way to teach you certain lessons that I probably won't even realize for years to come. All that I can do is try to work my hardest.

Memo: Please don't talk about me coming home. :)

Thanks y'all!!

This week was pretty uneventful. We did a lot of packing and cleaning and telling our service places that we were moving. Nobody was too happy about that...let me tell you that!

so we cleaned and packed and cleaned and packed and I really wondered why I kept packing...until Friday night. then I was just grateful. I only had to really pack up my bedding.

A few cool things that happened this week was that:

1. I got to cut Sis Moore's hair. and that was awesome. I also found out that her sister is in the ward up here, and that was even moore awesome...haha! that was a little punny.

2. We finished cleaning out the Caldwell apartment!! YAY!! It Is nice and clean and beautiful!

3. My new address is:

401 Anderson St #1F

College Station  TX    77840

Keep moving Forward y'all!!

--Sister Carling

What a Week!

Random story: So this week I realized that there's gluten in my shampoo...which is a big deal especially when your skin is irritated by the stuff!! No wonder my skin had been irritated all winter!! 

Monday we exchanged with the STL's and I went up to CS. It was great!

Tuesday we spent a good time on campus proselyting. We had a couple lessons throughout the day and were able to do some follow up phone calls. Over all it was great! We exchanged back that night and yeah. I was really able to learn a lot more about YSA's. Let me say that there is an awesome spirit that comes with working with YSA's. It's pretty cool.

Kyle Field at Texas A&M!!

 Sis.Carling with Sis. Flanery & 

Sis. Andreason after exchanges!

 Wednesday we got to do some family history at the church with Alma. It was great to be able to help her set up her account and get her started. Then we had lunch and i pretty much died. I got sick again this past week and couldn't function properly for a couple days. That afternoon we went to Kruse Village and got to talk to a few of the residents after bingo and our singing. It's so great to see the spirit work! That afternoon we went to go see Kalisa who was in the hospital. She was getting better and we were glad that we got to visit with her. Dinner that night was with the Beggs. They are so sweet!! They have 3 boys and the youngest, Daniel, loves to flirt with us. He's almost 2?? Maybe?? haha. That night we had correlation and actually ended early!! Crazy! we got stuff done and prepped to be able to leave early the next morning to Houston.

Thursday we woke up at 5:30. We then drove the mileage into "town" for Zone conference picking up Sister O and her companion on the way! Zone conference was awesome!! I was able to grow so much!! We also got the dreaded "black boxes" installed in our car. We named ours Torchie. He yells at us when we speed too fast on accident or if we brake too hard (etc). We'll keep him. He also offers repentance if you remember to keep following all of the driving rules...your record will still stay green if you remember to just follow all the traffic rules even if you make a couple mistakes sometimes. :) haha Dinner that night was with the Carliles. It was great. We had stir-fry and life was awesome.

Friday we had a weird day. Weekly planning was in the morning and district meeting was in the afternoon and things were all flippy floppy. That night we went up to Caldwell for their branch party. Marsha, and investigator, came with her husband. It was sweet to see everyone.

Saturday was interesting. Sis Baxter and I were both not feeling up to par. I was having a lot of unknown skin reactions and I was still sick. That morning we had the Service project at the Cemetery. It was great!! We had a lot of people there and we were able to clear out a lot of the brush. After that, We went home and got ready for the day and did some family history at the church with a couple members. Later in the afternoon/early evening we visited Sis Tieman. After, we headed out to Fayettville to visit a couple people. That night we had dinner with the Knox. Ruth made us Korean Barbecue :) It was great!! I feel really special to have it made for me. She got back from her mission in Korea last May. 

Yesterday was also interesting. Sis Christensen and Baxter went up to Caldwell branch and Amanda Chapdelaine was my companion for the day. We got to do visit a couple people and she did an amazing job!! She's going to be a rock star of a missionary. That afternoon we went to the Jensen's to drop me off while we waited for my companions to get back. I showed her my hands and arms that were having some crazy problems and she said that it looks like an allergic reaction (That's what lead me to read every bottle I have to see if there was something I'm allergic to). After, We went out to the Beggs for dinner. We got to have snapper. It was pretty great! After, we came home and tried to send sis Baxter to bed. She was pretty sick all day. We had a conference call with all the missionaries dealing with YSA. It was awesome to hear of all the other success the other YSA areas are having!!

I'm finally coming back to my normal missionary self. Transfers are next week and we will be closing the Brenham area for sisters and the Caldwell area for the sisters as well.  Lots of change and cleaning going on the next week or so...

Keep Moving Forward!!!!

--Sister Carling

Moments of Great Decision

Monday we finished moving Sis Christensen down to Brenham....all in time for Tuesday.

Sis. Christensen, Sis. Baxter and Sis. Carling

Here's the rundown of what happened on Tuesday written by Sister Christensen (inserts by me written in blue): "Tuesday was awesome. We had a lesson with Katie Carr a new investigator in Brenham. We talked about Lehi's dream and was group of people she was. It was a good. Then we went to Blinn College and did some proselyting and then went to LDSSA. A kid that was there asked the golden question. "What happens to those people that were good on this life but never got baptized." The teacher wasn't able to talk to much about it because of all the other people there. After the class Brother Garlick had the Elders get his information and they were able to teach him later in the week. We went to Caldwell after that to see Janell. We had a good conversation with her and hopefully she well be at church next week. We then went to our old apartment in Caldwell and talked to one of our investigators (Rainn Winkelmann) from Brenham for an hour. To say the least she had quite a few problems with fundamental doctrine of the church. So...she dropped us. To drown our sorrows we went to a China buffet only to get another call...This time from President Mortensen saying we were going to have another emergency transfer. We met the other sisters at Buc-ee's in Waller and switched there. Our new companion is Sister Baxter. So funny she use to be Spanish speaking but is now English. When she was Spanish we lived in the same apartment for a transfer. That was while I was in Inwood." It was a crazy emotional day.

  

The steak I ate on Wed was Huge!!

Wednesday we went to our usual with Alma. We had lunch up in Snook in Caldwell Branch with an investigator. Then back to Brenham for Service at Kruze and more unpacking/dinner.

Thursday we helped set up the banquet for New Beginnings. It was amazing!! They had such a great turn out and everything was great :) The speaker was fantastic!! after we went to meet him and he gave us his books for free!! It was all about how to defend the stance on pro life. nothing else eventful happened that day. 

Friday we had district meeting and went to go and help at New Beginnings. we went out to visit the Crawfords (a pm family) and had dinner with the Moore's. It was yum.

Sis. Carling with queen Elsa!

Saturday we had a lesson with Jordache at the Jensen's. It went fantasticly. We talked about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity out of the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet. that afternoon after family history we went to Caldwell branch and visited a few people and had dinner up there with the Mitchell's. I also got to feed a baby goat :)

Sunday I spoke in church and titled my talk "Moments of Great Decision". I honestly had it written out and then that morning I chucked it. The spirit had a different plan for me. So I just spoke from the heart. :) after that we headed straight up to Caldwell for Branch Conference. After that, we had lunch in and visited a recent convert who lived in AZ right by where I live!! It was awesome :) We had dinner at the Gamble's and got to know them better. It was really great! :)

Such was my week and so it will be for the next 2 weeks. We have exchanges tonight and i will get to go up to College Station. I'm excited. I love being up there.

Keep moving forward!!!

--Sister Carling

Hello February! and Other Adventures....

We are now in a trio. We are now covering 2 branches. Lots happened and changed this past week. But things will be okay!! Meet Sis Christensen:

 Sister Carling, Sister Pugh & Sister Christensen

  

She goes home in 3 weeks and was moved into our companionship on Thursday. She's from Rexburg Idaho and she has a giraffe in her house that her mom shot. That's the coolest thing ever.

Monday I colored one of the Caldwell sister's hair. It was great to be able to do hair again!! I always miss it!! that night we went to the Beggs for dinner and they had forgot. So we pitched in to help with dinner and after we played a game of Sequence with teams. It was awesome. we finished 2nd!! We tried to do some finding but with not much success. We stopped by the Jensen's and we were both able to get blessings to help us. They ended out being just at the right time with all the crazy that would be happening later in the week.

Tuesday we had Blinn until like 1:30ish it was awesome to be on campus again!! We had dinner with the Beards and taught the Restoration that night to an investigator we had found the previous week. Grant came with us and was able to answer a lot of Caleb's questions that he had. The spirit was very strong and it was great to be able to share the gospel with him!

Wednesday before Blinn we had a lesson with Alma. We helped her start family history in her "My Family" booklet. The we Talked to more people at Blinn. after we had lunch and went to Kruze to help with bingo. One of the old lady's there invited us back to her apartment and we got to visit and chat with her about her life and family. She ended out giving us gluten free girl scout cookies and crescents and jam. She was super cute. That night we did some more finding and ended out stopping by someone the Elders tracted into. We taught the Restoration and she is SO READY!! Christy has had a hard life and is ready for the Plan of Salvation. She pretty much accepted the Book of Mormon as scripture and had lots of questions.

Thursday we did weekly planning and then headed up to College station for Interviews. That's where the craziness happened. We had a great time learning and teaching and growing and getting to talk to president is always great...until he tells you your being put into a trio and covering 2 areas...but he did it with lots of love in his heart so it was okay. That night we went to Caldwell's apartment and grabbed some stuff for Sis Christensen and headed back to Brenham still wondering how we were going to do this. We've figured it out mostly and are working on it.

Friday we went back to College Station for Zone meeting. After that we grabbed lunch to-go and headed way south to the bottom of our area for a lesson with Rainn. We were able to teach her the Plan of Salvation with Sis Carlile. After that we went to New Beginnings and helped out there for a little bit before it closed. We tracted a little bit and then went to the Giles out in Burton for dinner. We stopped by the Chapdelaine's to introduce the new sister.

Saturday we taught the restoration to another referral from the Elders. Katy had already read to 2 Ne 12. Talk about a reader!! After, we stopped by Jordache's to see how he was doing and to give him a "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet. That afternoon we had Family History and indexing. It was awesome!!! I was able to find 7 names!! Dinner was with the Moore's (Yum!). and we did some more tracting after.

Sunday we had church and tried to follow up with some potentials. We ended out helping this random lady (who is 81) pick up pecans. I asked her about her marriage to her husband and was able to get some great insight on a 56 year marriage. A few lessons fell through and we had dinner. We visited Sis Tieman and found out she read a few times this week!! Success!! Last night (again after 7:30ish) we found 2 people: 1 was a baptist minister open to us coming back and 2 was a woman who already had 2 Book of Mormon's and had taken the lessons in the past. It was quite the miracle. It was great!! :)

Today we got lots to do!! We are going up to Caldwell to get Sis C's stuff. Here we go!!

Keep moving forward!

 

--Sister Carling

 We got a truck!! So we said goodbye to Ralph :(

 

 

Awesome work at Blinn!