September 24, 2018

This week was a pretty good one! One of the really cool things that happened was that we found a family to teach on Sunday night through tracting! There's the dad, pregnant mama, two little boys and a tiny dog. He was so nice when he answered the door, and they said we could come back a different time (since they were just about to put to kids down to bed). They are so cute and lovely and I am so excited to teach them!! I know the gospel will bless their lives!

Love you all so much! I hope you had a great week this week, and that this upcoming week is even better!

<3

Sister Carlson

PS - Happy birthday Grandma Joanie!!!! 💞🎂🎉

1) This family, the Mackelprangs, have similar dietary issues as Sister Cook, so they asked her what food she missed the most and they made gluten, dairy, and cooked tomato free pizza! (Well, they provided the ingredients and we all made personal pizzas!)

2) Spider deviled eggs we made with our friend Laura :)

3-4) Laura has been getting rid of some of her stuff and she was giving away these shoes...and we happen to wear the same size.... :D I'm always in for sparkly rainbow shoes! And yes, I'm sitting on our washer to you can see them xD I tried to hide that fact in the first picture, but I gave up haha

5-6) We had an appointment with our friend Justice, but she had to step out right before we got there (but she left a cute little note for us) so we entertained ourselves by taking pictures!

September 17, 2018

1) Kaylee's baptism!! She is the only member in her family right now, and all of us are so excited for the string light and example that she will be to her siblings and her parents.  What a wonderful wonderful experience <3 

2) Inspired by my dear sister Indigo, we did a spooky Walmart trip (we didn't get anything spooky, really - unless you count muddy buddy ingredients in that category!)

3) During our service at Salvation Army (the food bank section), I was cutting open a palette of these Coca-Cola cans and the exacto knife went through the plastic and THROUGH THE CAN which exploded all over Val, the lady that works there (who we love!). It was hysterical, these cans are so stinkin thin! 

4 The Incident (aka the funniest thing that happened this week)...just know that Sister Cook and I were busting up laughing when I got back in the car!!

September 10, 2018

Good morning family! 

It's really wonderful to hear from all of you, I love to hear your stories and experiences from the week.

Sister Cook and I were slammed with things to do all week, there was no time to pause or rest! I felt a little bit like I was running around with my head chopped off sometimes, but it's okay (my head's securely fastened)! We had a series of wonderful meetings this week - district counsel (the first one of the transfer!), missionary leadership counsel, stake correlation, and the face to face with Elder Cook that was on Sunday! I feel so uplifted from all of these discussions, but I feel like I can't keep it all in my brain! There's so much inspiration that it's falling out my ears! I'm grateful for my journal that helps me catch a lot of that inspiration and revelation :)

I love this area and I love the people we have the opportunity to serve here. There is so much that needs to be done, and I'm grateful for my assignment in this part of the Lord's vineyard. 

Sorry this email is really lame :/ But I love you all so much!!

Have an amazing and blessed week! <3

Sister Carlson

Pictures!

1) Our district! Elder Service (our district leader) gave us all award stickers, mine was #1 STL haha

2) Temple last week! <3

3) My first MLC! (I don't think we quite nailed the "my first day of school" look, but we tried!)

Also, there was a car with a CT license plate yesterday!!

September 4, 2018

Hi everyone! I'm going to do think a little bit differently this week (mostly because technology is a pain and I have a LOT of pictures from this week).

So! I'm going to recount to you the story of what happened last preparation day:

We were at our District Leader's church building for a district activity and we were bored, so we decided to do some adventuring outside. Sister Cook wanted to take a picture climbing a tree, so we found one and snapped some photos when the elders can over and told us they had found a better tree - by a little canal behind the church that was block off by a fence (that had a convenient hole in it for us all to go through). We were walking along the canal for a little while and we asked the elders where the tree was, and they said we had passed it and were going to adventure. I had already turned around and started walking back when all of a sudden, one elder goes running into the canal and up the other side and my district leader is behind me saying "Sister Carlson, run!!" and I feel a painful prick in my back. We had stumbled into a wasp nest and they were angry! We all ran out and I fell on the way out (classic) and Sister Cook got one stuck in her hair and it was a hilarious disaster!! Sister Cook got the worst of it, she got seven stings: 3 on her head, 1 on each arm, one on her leg, and (the cherry on top) 1 on her bum! The two pictures of her arm are from the day afterwards - they got so bad!! She was on Benadryl for a few night, but she's all healed now so it's okay :) I lucked out and only got the 2 stings right next to each other on my back (see picture three, that was right after it happened). I've never gotten stung before, so this was quite the experience! We all got stung except for one elder, those wasps were brutal (and they chased us all the way back to the church!)

Then yesterday, we found this wasp catcher outside someone's house and I thought it would be fitting to include in this email with our story.... :)

But we are so lucky that none of us were severely allergic and that we only got as many as we did! Everything could have been so much worse - Heavenly Father looks out for us :)

Then transfers!!

Sister Cook and I get to stay together in this area (YAYYY!!!), and I've been called to be a Sister Training Leader. Heavenly Father knew I could only handle a few changes at a time :)

But we got to be with Sister Enkhbold for the day because her companion Sister Peterman was shipped down to Twin Falls! But Sister E's new companion is Sister Woodcock, my MTC companion! It will be fun to all be close together :)

So yeah! The first and last pictures were on Facebook, but I love them so I put them in here. I love Sister Holland (the red head). Then the other three are from our trio for the day! (and yes, we did lay down and may have slept a tiny bit for our companionship study...we were all exhausted!

Then yesterday. There is a new housing division going in Hidden Springs, and at the top of this hill they've barely started making the foundations. So OBVIOUSLY we had to take some pictures up there :D

1) Me and Captain Moroni

2) My beautiful companion (she was so excited we found a tractor....)

3) Selfie with the brown nothingness out there!

4) My beautiful companion part 2

5) Silly me :)

August 27, 2018

Good morning beautiful family of mine!

I don't have a ton to say this week, sorry! But here we go...

Tim was baptized!! Wow!! We are so so happy for him - it's been quite the battle to get him to this point, and it's going to continue on till the end. I am eager to help him continue on this path of discipleship and towards the temple!
We had exchanges this week which was so fun! I went over to the sisters area with Sister Enkhbold and it was so refreshing! I haven't been out of my area on an exchange for like 3 or 4 transfers! And I know as soon as I say this I'll be transferred, but it was fun to be on a bike! We had two really great lessons and other good contacts, so fun! (I also just adore Sister E, so we just had a ball together!)

Have a great week everyone! Love you all!

Sister Carlson

August 20, 2018

Good morning, everyone!

This week has been another full of absolute miracles!! The Lord is blessing us so much and I am just floored ever single day. Heavenly Father loves all of His children, and I'm so grateful for the minister that I've given and that I've received.

We started with exchanges on Tuesday and Wednesday. Sister Peterman came to my area with me and Sister Cook went with Sister Enkhbold in her area. We extended longer than intended and it was inspired and we saw so much success. Tuesday was a very hard day for me (it just felt like one blow after another), which ended up making Tuesday not as effective, but Wednesday was wonderful! Sister Peterman and I ended up going to an apartment complex and tracting the whole top floor. We found two lovely woman who were accepting towards our message, and we are excited to teach with them this week! Tracting does work (and it was a miracle especially because neither of us were very excited about it)! 

Friday was so SO incredible. It was our mission tour, and we had Elder Renlund of the quorum of the 12 apostles and Elder Cook, Taylor, and Alder of the 70 come and speak to us. WOW!! (We're so spoiled haha) It was so uplifting and edifying - it was all centered on God's love and appreciation for the work that we were doing. It was an incredibly special experience, and I left feeling so so happy. I know that God loves all of His children, and I know that Elder Renlund was inspired to say specific things for specific people to comfort and touch them. There were so many things that I was personally able to draw from what was said to make me a more powerful missionary and daughter of God. I know that Elder Dale G. Renlund is an apostle and prophet of the Lord, and I will always be (this word isn't strong enough, but) grateful for this privilege to have him in the Idaho Boise Mission.

Saturday was such an incredible day! In the afternoon, we were going to see Debbie, but we met this lady named Laura outside the apartment. She had crutches and was getting a cart of groceries to take inside and she had her dog, so we offered to help. We chatted with her for a bit and she was interested in learning more. It was 3:30 and there was a baptism happening at 4, so we invited her and she came!! Wow!! I felt like we were on The District or something! She came and had a wonderful experience. She asked us questions and she accepted the invitation to come to church!! Wow, what an incredible, amazing miracle! We're going to teach her later this week and we couldn't be more excited!
What a whirlwind of a week! I feel so blessed to have a Heavenly Father that loves me and His all children here. I know that as we trust in Him and follow the spirit, we will be lead to those people who are ready and prepared to receive His gospel. He loves us. I know that without a shadow of a doubt. I hope that all of you will never forget that. Find strength in that.

Love you all so much!! Have a great week!

Sister Carlson

PS - Grandma and Grandpa Carlson! Thank you for asking to stop by and see me, Sister Bartlett called and told me that you had asked. She was very impressed by all the missions you've served :) Thanks for thinking of me!

August 13, 2018

Hola Familia!

Good morning, President Bartlett.

This has been a week of so many miracles!! I know that these have come because of all the efforts of members, non-members, previous and current missionaries, and the Holy Ghost in preparing the people that we are now teaching. I'll just share a couple with you all :)

Kaylee and Milly, our two 9 year old friend in Hidden Springs, are both eager to be baptized! They are so precious. With family schedules and some hesitation it's been hard to meet with them, but we were able to teach both of them this week after months of trying! 

We received a referral from Sister Doughty (stake president's wife) about 2 months ago for Alicia and her husband in Hidden Springs. But this week we were finally able to have our lesson with them!! They are both starting from ground zero (no religious background), so it was really wonderful to talk about the Restoration. When Sister Cook recited the First Vision, Alicia was extremely touched by Joseph Smith's experience. It was a very tender moment, and the Spirit was there in the room with us. They have been prepared for Christ's gospel for a long time, and we are so thrilled for the opportunity we have to teach them.

So that's four new people we're teaching in Hidden Springs! That's a miracle in itself, going from 0 to 4 in a week!

There's another woman named Debbie and I love her so much. She's a hoot and a half!! She is very excited to teach us the basics of sewing, and so far we've both made pin cushions with her assistance :D She's had previous contact with the church, so she is very familiar with everything - she even has her own quad! She came to church yesterday and we had a wonderful time. I am so happy to have met her and have her in my life! She's so awesome!!

Those are my very most favorite people related miracles....and now here's my favorite not related to our people. Drum roll please!! We got a new car!!!!! With air conditioning!!! He is beautiful and we named him Captain Moroni :)

I think that's about it! I am so grateful for all of these blessings that the Lord has giving to us - each of these people are changing my life for the better, and I'll always be thankful for this opportunity I have to work with them in this capacity. I am grateful to be a in this area! I am grateful to be a missionary! I love this work and I know this is Christ's church restored to the Earth today! What a wonderful work (and time) we get to be a part of!

Love you all so many!! 

<3

Sister Carlson

August 6, 2018

It's been a week!

The work has been okay, we're just waiting on some people and letting them use their agency! It's hard, but necessary haha!

This Sunday, we had the opportunity to teach Gospel Principles in the Boise 13th ward and got to help out in a youth Sunday School in the Hidden Springs ward! We talked about service and sharing our beliefs about eternal families and homosexuality. Both were so fun!! I think the core of the both was simply this: God gives us commandments to make us happy and healthy. Just look at the Word of Wisdom. We know the harmful effects of alcohol and tobacco. It's the same with the Law of Chastity and service. We might not understand everything right now, and we're all given crazy trials (and we don't even remember the life before this to help us out!), but God gives us these guidelines and asks us to have faith. He knows us perfectly, and He knows our full potential. I've seen in my own life the blessings that come from obedience to His commandments. And that's all we do as missionaries and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - we invite others to taste the sweetness of the gospel and find true, lasting happiness.

Love you all! Have a great week!

<3

Sister Carlson