Well...
19 months
3 missions
4 mission presidents
5 cities and 3 states
57 temple trips :)
13.5 companions
17 different beds
32 historic sites
5300 visitors
2876 strangers off the street
and 10,000 miracles later....I'm home.
AIRPLANE MIRACLES!!!!
So i'd been praying for a while that we would have awesome experiences sharing the gospel on the flights home and boy, oh boy, how the Lord answered my prayers! There were many cool things that happened but i'll just give you the 2 highlights:
RAMON FROM HOLLAND
the first flight i sat next to a kid. the quote this week is from him. he really hasn't had a belief in God at all or prayed on his own, but because of the things he's seen this last yr while living in the US, he's beginning to feel like there's something more and he really wants to find out what it is. as we shared beliefs about God in general, he mentioned something about the Mormon book. turns out his manager at work was LDS and before he left to fly home, his manager gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon with his testimony in it. Then he sits next to me on the way home. What the?! Coincidence? Of course not. He mentioned several times that he really is searching. I promised him that if he would read the Book of Mormon this week and pray to know if it's true that God would speak to him in a way that he will understand it and know that it is and that God's real. He was such a cool kid and we were both going home after a long time away and starting over so we bonded over that. Yeah, cool kid.
MARTIN FROM THE UK
So i got all the internationals, I guess. :) Martin is probably 40 or so. He's never been big into religion. He has a very successful business and just bought a nice new home that he was excited to show off. His family came on "holiday" to the US for 3 weeks but the two days into it, his dad became VERY sick and had to go to the hospital for surgery. now they've been here a month and are hoping the dad will be well enough to go home for Christmas. He's in the hospital in La Jolla so i asked if they've seen that big white building by the freeway. He said they had and had wondered what it was. I told him it was the temple and that if he goes with his fmaily and walks around it he'll feel peace and find answers.THis was the beginning of the flight and we still had about 3 1/2 more hours so over the course of the flight we just talked about life and God. He said that before he would've have cared about any of this but with things that happened with his dad, he realized he doesn't really care about anything other than his family. He has a lot of questions and WANTS to have faith but feels like he's seen some things that make him doubt. Over the plane ride we talk about the Plan of Salvation, about Joseph Smith and having a prophet on the earth today. We talked about what makes strong and eternal families. We talked about where we were before this life. It was so interesting because everything he wants to believe or believes deep down is right. Now he just gets to have more tools to get questions answered! I gave him a Book of Mormon and he felt so honored. He was really excited to read it and even before I said much more he said "I promise i will start reading this tonight! I'm really searching. I have a lot of questions. Can I get your email address too?" What a champ! He's very sincere right now and is going to be a great strength to his family. We really had a good plane ride and i feel so blessed that the Lord gave me so many chances to be around people who were so prepared and ready--even thirsting for the message we had to share. because of this i was able to work and teach and testify to the very last minute! I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for that. Also a miracle--the 1st flight was delayed and I VERY nearly missed the 2nd one. I was sprinting down the corridor with 2 50-lb carry-ons and in a skirt. what a sight! But i made it!
ARRIVAL
I was greeted at the airport by Mom & Kirk, Dad & Joanie, Katie & James, Scott, Joni Lilly, Kathleen and Lynn Muir, my aunt Gail (randomly in town from AK. Fun surprise!) and her boyfriend Dave, and of course, Kenley and Parker! It was very fun. Then we went to Scott's apt for CPK pizza and smoothies. More friends there. :)
GETTING RELEASED
Wasn't as bad as I thought. The only part that got me was in the closing prayer when my brother referred to me as "Andrea" and i realized i don't get to be Sis. Cartwright anymore. But it was good to have my family there.
SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE
so honestly i thought things would be more different when i got home. it really wasn't. kenley and parker are completely different people and there's a litter of new babies running around, but other than that, everythign's pretty much the same. i stayed up way late and had a sleepover with my sis then stumbled out of bed into my flip flops and went to get jamba juice. so i guess i'm acclimating fairly well. i even mouthed a few words to a song that was playing. that's not to say i didn't still try to contact people here and there or that i was ready to walk off by myslef in the grocery store. but i think i'm a little normal. scott parker was excited to be the first boy to hug me cause he wanted to help normalize me. luckily it was a good baby step since he's more like my brother. Also, I've been so excited to snuggle with Kenley when i get home, forgetting she doesn't actually like to. So I just had to wait til she was asleep then she didn't have a choice. Anyway, all in all, I feel like everything's pretty under control. I've been blessed to feel really calm and peaceful with everything. We're having a big family dinner today. I have many people volunteering to be my running buddies. Wahoo!
Alright, love you all. Gospel is true and from God. He has a perfect plan and if we follow it, things will go right in the little and big things.
"For behold, all things are done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things." -2 Ne 2:24
--ac
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
“Of course I’m waiting up for my kiddies!”
Quote compliments of Sis. Ludwig last night when we drove down to the Mississippi after zone conf and came home a little later than expected. We said, “hope you weren’t waiting up” and she reminded us that of course she was and then promptly made us hot chocolate and popcorn. :) They really are our parents this weekend. Love them!
HOMECOMING BEFORE COMING HOME
Ok, so I always knew Nauvoo missionaries are spoiled (there’s really no arguing that) but now I’m officially among the most spoiled. I don’t think the other sisters get this email, so I can spill the beans. We came back to Nauvoo Sat around noon (after spending the night at the mission home in Peoria with the Ericksons). We then had lunch with the Ludwigs then went to the temple. It was amazing because afterwards we had nowhere to go so just sat in the Celestial Room for almost an hour reading scriptures and praying and pondering. Way cool! The first time in a LONG time where I didn’t have someplace to be immediately so it was so good to have the extra pondering time. :) From then on, just ridiculous spoiling. We’re staying at the Ludwigs house (in the general authority suite) and getting fed yummy food every time we turn around (in case we needed help gaining ALL our mission weight before we go home) and being hugged and doted upon by senior missionaries every time we’re out in public. Anyway, good, good times! The best part is that this isn’t how I necessarily would’ve scheduled the end of my mission. I would’ve had appts til the last minute. So I was worried I’d feel a lot of anxiety having all this “down time” and be a little resentful of getting pulled out of Peoria so soon, but I really have felt so peaceful about everything. It feels so fun to come “home” before we go home.
POWER OUTAGE ADVENTURE
K, so Sun AM we woke up and it was dark and there were candles lit. The power had gone out in all of Nauvoo at 4:30 AM. The coolest part was that there was a beautiful thin layer of snow everywhere. So we were all in our PJs in the living room by the Christmas tree snuggling up and waiting to see what would happen with plans for church and stuff. We said a prayer and thankfully the power came back on pretty quick after that. It was a glowing blue from the snowy dawn outside. So gorgeous! Anyway, we had church later in the day. We did a fairly impromptu musical # (wouldn’t be Nauvoo without one) and bore our testimonies in sacrament mtg. That was unplanned too but cool cause it really gave me a chance to reflect. So cool to see the city in snow! We ran up to the temple this AM and took pics in it.
TURKEY TROT TROT
So we got to volunteer at the YMCA 5 mile turkey trot on Thanksgiving. Next best thing to running in it. It was way fun. We hung out a lot of the time with the kid dressed up as a turkey and got to talk with him a little about the Church at the end so it was cool to be able to say we shared the gospel with a turkey. We got to be at the finish line the whole time and cheer people on as they came in. It was a dream.
SMALL, SMALL WORLD
So while cheering on participants, one crossed the finish line and looked up and said, “Andrea, what are you doing here?” What the? It was a kid from Poway, Aaron Young. He’s going to the chiropractic school out there. Then later than night I met someone at a member’s house who asked what part of SD I was from then asked if I knew Kathleen Muir. I was like “What?! Yes, she’s like my 2nd mom!” Turns out one of the ward members is her cousin. Then tracting on my last day we met people in their garage. They didn’t want to hear too much of our message. On the way out Sis. Montgomery who I was with was like, “Oh, who in your family plays hockey?” I told them my cousins play hockey. Turns out their kid is good buddies with Peter from Anchorage. The Currys. And we found them in a random garage in Bettendorf, Iowa. So they were a little more interested in getting to know us after that. :) Haha! Seriously, what are the odds?
SIMPLE TRUTHS
Our last lesson with Kayla (the 12-yr old) we went over the Plan of Salvation. We got to the part about the Atonement and as I explained it in little kid terms, it was suddenly so powerful to me. I asked her “have you ever felt sad or lonely or frustrated or mad? Have you ever felt like no one else knows what you’re feeling.” She’s a pretty quiet girl but she of course, had felt all of these things (she’s gone through tougher stuff at 12 then I have at 26). I got to explain that all of those yucky feelings she felt, Christ did too. And just for her. He knew her and loved her before she was born. She had faith in Him when she chose to come to the earth and He knew that she could pass this test successfully. He will be there every time she goes to Him with concerns, fears, or thanksgiving.
I’m so grateful for this gospel. I feel so privileged to have served the Lord and to have become a stronger disciple through experiencing greater resistance. I love the Lord and am excited to work this Christmas to feel a deeper connection with Him than ever before through study and prayer.
SCRIPTURE POWER
“Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.” –D&C 58:42. Don’t know why I put this quote. Not really related, but it just stuck out to me, so I hope it helps someone. This is the power of the Atonement.
Love you all!
-Sis C
HOMECOMING BEFORE COMING HOME
Ok, so I always knew Nauvoo missionaries are spoiled (there’s really no arguing that) but now I’m officially among the most spoiled. I don’t think the other sisters get this email, so I can spill the beans. We came back to Nauvoo Sat around noon (after spending the night at the mission home in Peoria with the Ericksons). We then had lunch with the Ludwigs then went to the temple. It was amazing because afterwards we had nowhere to go so just sat in the Celestial Room for almost an hour reading scriptures and praying and pondering. Way cool! The first time in a LONG time where I didn’t have someplace to be immediately so it was so good to have the extra pondering time. :) From then on, just ridiculous spoiling. We’re staying at the Ludwigs house (in the general authority suite) and getting fed yummy food every time we turn around (in case we needed help gaining ALL our mission weight before we go home) and being hugged and doted upon by senior missionaries every time we’re out in public. Anyway, good, good times! The best part is that this isn’t how I necessarily would’ve scheduled the end of my mission. I would’ve had appts til the last minute. So I was worried I’d feel a lot of anxiety having all this “down time” and be a little resentful of getting pulled out of Peoria so soon, but I really have felt so peaceful about everything. It feels so fun to come “home” before we go home.
POWER OUTAGE ADVENTURE
K, so Sun AM we woke up and it was dark and there were candles lit. The power had gone out in all of Nauvoo at 4:30 AM. The coolest part was that there was a beautiful thin layer of snow everywhere. So we were all in our PJs in the living room by the Christmas tree snuggling up and waiting to see what would happen with plans for church and stuff. We said a prayer and thankfully the power came back on pretty quick after that. It was a glowing blue from the snowy dawn outside. So gorgeous! Anyway, we had church later in the day. We did a fairly impromptu musical # (wouldn’t be Nauvoo without one) and bore our testimonies in sacrament mtg. That was unplanned too but cool cause it really gave me a chance to reflect. So cool to see the city in snow! We ran up to the temple this AM and took pics in it.
TURKEY TROT TROT
So we got to volunteer at the YMCA 5 mile turkey trot on Thanksgiving. Next best thing to running in it. It was way fun. We hung out a lot of the time with the kid dressed up as a turkey and got to talk with him a little about the Church at the end so it was cool to be able to say we shared the gospel with a turkey. We got to be at the finish line the whole time and cheer people on as they came in. It was a dream.
SMALL, SMALL WORLD
So while cheering on participants, one crossed the finish line and looked up and said, “Andrea, what are you doing here?” What the? It was a kid from Poway, Aaron Young. He’s going to the chiropractic school out there. Then later than night I met someone at a member’s house who asked what part of SD I was from then asked if I knew Kathleen Muir. I was like “What?! Yes, she’s like my 2nd mom!” Turns out one of the ward members is her cousin. Then tracting on my last day we met people in their garage. They didn’t want to hear too much of our message. On the way out Sis. Montgomery who I was with was like, “Oh, who in your family plays hockey?” I told them my cousins play hockey. Turns out their kid is good buddies with Peter from Anchorage. The Currys. And we found them in a random garage in Bettendorf, Iowa. So they were a little more interested in getting to know us after that. :) Haha! Seriously, what are the odds?
SIMPLE TRUTHS
Our last lesson with Kayla (the 12-yr old) we went over the Plan of Salvation. We got to the part about the Atonement and as I explained it in little kid terms, it was suddenly so powerful to me. I asked her “have you ever felt sad or lonely or frustrated or mad? Have you ever felt like no one else knows what you’re feeling.” She’s a pretty quiet girl but she of course, had felt all of these things (she’s gone through tougher stuff at 12 then I have at 26). I got to explain that all of those yucky feelings she felt, Christ did too. And just for her. He knew her and loved her before she was born. She had faith in Him when she chose to come to the earth and He knew that she could pass this test successfully. He will be there every time she goes to Him with concerns, fears, or thanksgiving.
I’m so grateful for this gospel. I feel so privileged to have served the Lord and to have become a stronger disciple through experiencing greater resistance. I love the Lord and am excited to work this Christmas to feel a deeper connection with Him than ever before through study and prayer.
SCRIPTURE POWER
“Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.” –D&C 58:42. Don’t know why I put this quote. Not really related, but it just stuck out to me, so I hope it helps someone. This is the power of the Atonement.
Love you all!
-Sis C
Monday, November 24, 2008
"I can't wait to go home and play with my tractor."
This is a long one, but enjoy it while it lasts. Ha!
That's right, quote is by Sis. Soza. When we went to John Deere, we hit up the gift shop. Ever want John Deere windchimes? Or a John Deere retractable dog leesh? Maybe just a simple John Deere picnic set would do. That's right. You name it, they have it. Don't forget the John Deere strawberry perserves. The highlight (other than the riding lawnmower) was the 20 min film with some song about grain and soil to the tune of "Be Still My Soul". That's right. Very moving.
Anyway, enough about John Deere. Oh, but the point was that Sis. Soza bought a mini tractor that she then became obsessed with and couldn't stop thinking about. She'd just bring it up at random times throughout the day. Good times.
WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMMONS...FIND INVESTIGATORS
So there's a family that moved into the ward and most of them are members except the 12-yr old girl, Kayla. The mom and the other 2 girls are recent converts. We're teaching Kayla right now and the family's way into it. It's cool. Yesterday they came to church for the 1st time!
SIDENOTE ON CHURCH: That made it officially our 1st and only investigator at church in Bettendorf. What a way to go out with a bang! Precious cause we found out later that a ward member who'd served a mission and comes out to appts with us lots prayed that we'd have one at church on Sun cause we mentioned to her that we hadn't yet. The curse of whatever happens between Sat night and Sun morning that keeps people from coming. Anyway, precious. Because she prayed for it, it happened!
KAYLA CONT'D AND SOMTHING ON THE HOLY GHOST
Anyway, point being, we met them because their relatives already lived in the ward...the Lemmons. We kept feeling strongly since we got here that we should work with them. Funny cause they haven't been to church in 14 yrs and don't have much desire to come back. But i realized last night that we never would've known the Richards moved in except for that we'd been working with the Lemmons. That's how the Lord works. Something I call pre-prompting promptings. This is why we can never second-guess the Lord. When the Holy Ghost tells us to do something, do it! (I'm not perfect at this, mind you. But every time I do it I remember why I should be.) Anyway, like as missionaries sometimes we feel prompted to go visit someone. It doesn't seem logical or like they'll be receptive but we do and on the way, we find someone else. Really it was that "someone else" who the promting was for but the Lord just gave it to us in a way we can understand cause we probably wouldn't be so in tune with promptings like "go to that spot in the sidewalk at 1:42 and look for a man in a blue jacket." But the Lord helps us find them in ways we understand. Anyway, I don't know how much of that made sense, but it's an important lesson to me.
MIKE THE LURKER
so we're teaching this kid who's roommates with a guy who's a member but doesn't come. it's fascintating cause he's really philosophical. He studied theology in school. He went off the other day how he doesn't know that he'd want to live in the Celestial Kingdom and get to a point of perfect happiness and perfect knowledge because that would be boring. He'd prefer living life again. I think he was picturing eternity as eternal bliss without resistance. It was cool cause the member who came with us explained to him all about how you live life once and you have ups and downs and learn, and then you have kids and you learn everythign in an even deeper way as you watch them go through it and try to then teach them as parents. He reminded Mike that God's plan is perfect and that whatever Mike really and truly desired, within the bounds of God's laws, is what he would attain after this life.
WEEK O' MIRACLES
My Peoria mission pres at interviews on Thurs. reminded us of the power that's in every day of missionary work and to keep finding, teaching, and testifying til the very end. So Sis. Soza and I are working on our week o' miracles. We're excited to see the things that will happen. We really want to leave the area stronger than we found it and leave the remaining sisters with lots to do. Anyway, so that's the plan. Go big or go home. Or i guess in our case, go big and go home. Ha! It's cool too cause even our travel plans were guided by the Spirit. As some of you know, our return date changed and is pretty illogical with how it lined up with transfers but it happened because those making the decisions felt strongly impressed by the Spirit to do it this way. That means they are people waiting on our flights home to hear the gospel. :) Anyway, that's all. I want to live it up here. Please don't think that means I'll be miserable at home. I'm living it up here so I can live it up there too. Give everything I have and come home with the things the Lord meant for me to.
THE SCHEDULE
Just so people know where I am...I'll serve in Bettendorf until Friday night at 5pm, then drive to Peoria and spend the night with the Ericksons (at the mission home). Sat AM we go to Nauvoo for a temple trip, Sunday is church and zone conference and we'll serve at Carthage, then Monday I don't know exactly what they have planned and Tues we fly home.
SCRIPTURE TO PONDER
so i discovered this in my regular Bible reading and have decided to use it as a theme for the last week of my mission. It's when Paul's heading to Jerusalem and he's hearing all kinds of things about what it'll be like when he gets there. (Kinda like when everyone tries to talk to you about going home...):
"But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." -Acts 20:24
FAM-Some people to keep in your prayers this week:
As we work and pray for our "Week O' Miracles" will you keep these guys in your prayers (we finally have investgators!):
Heather and Billy; Kim Millage; Kayla Richards; Mike Levis; Rachael Gammel; Lynn Rolfes; and Cristina and whoever we have yet to find. :)
I know that's a lot but I know it'll help. Thanks!
Love you all,
Sis. Cartwright
P.S. Brock informed us today that we he grows up, he wants to be a missionary...and a cheerleader.
That's right, quote is by Sis. Soza. When we went to John Deere, we hit up the gift shop. Ever want John Deere windchimes? Or a John Deere retractable dog leesh? Maybe just a simple John Deere picnic set would do. That's right. You name it, they have it. Don't forget the John Deere strawberry perserves. The highlight (other than the riding lawnmower) was the 20 min film with some song about grain and soil to the tune of "Be Still My Soul". That's right. Very moving.
Anyway, enough about John Deere. Oh, but the point was that Sis. Soza bought a mini tractor that she then became obsessed with and couldn't stop thinking about. She'd just bring it up at random times throughout the day. Good times.
WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMMONS...FIND INVESTIGATORS
So there's a family that moved into the ward and most of them are members except the 12-yr old girl, Kayla. The mom and the other 2 girls are recent converts. We're teaching Kayla right now and the family's way into it. It's cool. Yesterday they came to church for the 1st time!
SIDENOTE ON CHURCH: That made it officially our 1st and only investigator at church in Bettendorf. What a way to go out with a bang! Precious cause we found out later that a ward member who'd served a mission and comes out to appts with us lots prayed that we'd have one at church on Sun cause we mentioned to her that we hadn't yet. The curse of whatever happens between Sat night and Sun morning that keeps people from coming. Anyway, precious. Because she prayed for it, it happened!
KAYLA CONT'D AND SOMTHING ON THE HOLY GHOST
Anyway, point being, we met them because their relatives already lived in the ward...the Lemmons. We kept feeling strongly since we got here that we should work with them. Funny cause they haven't been to church in 14 yrs and don't have much desire to come back. But i realized last night that we never would've known the Richards moved in except for that we'd been working with the Lemmons. That's how the Lord works. Something I call pre-prompting promptings. This is why we can never second-guess the Lord. When the Holy Ghost tells us to do something, do it! (I'm not perfect at this, mind you. But every time I do it I remember why I should be.) Anyway, like as missionaries sometimes we feel prompted to go visit someone. It doesn't seem logical or like they'll be receptive but we do and on the way, we find someone else. Really it was that "someone else" who the promting was for but the Lord just gave it to us in a way we can understand cause we probably wouldn't be so in tune with promptings like "go to that spot in the sidewalk at 1:42 and look for a man in a blue jacket." But the Lord helps us find them in ways we understand. Anyway, I don't know how much of that made sense, but it's an important lesson to me.
MIKE THE LURKER
so we're teaching this kid who's roommates with a guy who's a member but doesn't come. it's fascintating cause he's really philosophical. He studied theology in school. He went off the other day how he doesn't know that he'd want to live in the Celestial Kingdom and get to a point of perfect happiness and perfect knowledge because that would be boring. He'd prefer living life again. I think he was picturing eternity as eternal bliss without resistance. It was cool cause the member who came with us explained to him all about how you live life once and you have ups and downs and learn, and then you have kids and you learn everythign in an even deeper way as you watch them go through it and try to then teach them as parents. He reminded Mike that God's plan is perfect and that whatever Mike really and truly desired, within the bounds of God's laws, is what he would attain after this life.
WEEK O' MIRACLES
My Peoria mission pres at interviews on Thurs. reminded us of the power that's in every day of missionary work and to keep finding, teaching, and testifying til the very end. So Sis. Soza and I are working on our week o' miracles. We're excited to see the things that will happen. We really want to leave the area stronger than we found it and leave the remaining sisters with lots to do. Anyway, so that's the plan. Go big or go home. Or i guess in our case, go big and go home. Ha! It's cool too cause even our travel plans were guided by the Spirit. As some of you know, our return date changed and is pretty illogical with how it lined up with transfers but it happened because those making the decisions felt strongly impressed by the Spirit to do it this way. That means they are people waiting on our flights home to hear the gospel. :) Anyway, that's all. I want to live it up here. Please don't think that means I'll be miserable at home. I'm living it up here so I can live it up there too. Give everything I have and come home with the things the Lord meant for me to.
THE SCHEDULE
Just so people know where I am...I'll serve in Bettendorf until Friday night at 5pm, then drive to Peoria and spend the night with the Ericksons (at the mission home). Sat AM we go to Nauvoo for a temple trip, Sunday is church and zone conference and we'll serve at Carthage, then Monday I don't know exactly what they have planned and Tues we fly home.
SCRIPTURE TO PONDER
so i discovered this in my regular Bible reading and have decided to use it as a theme for the last week of my mission. It's when Paul's heading to Jerusalem and he's hearing all kinds of things about what it'll be like when he gets there. (Kinda like when everyone tries to talk to you about going home...):
"But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." -Acts 20:24
FAM-Some people to keep in your prayers this week:
As we work and pray for our "Week O' Miracles" will you keep these guys in your prayers (we finally have investgators!):
Heather and Billy; Kim Millage; Kayla Richards; Mike Levis; Rachael Gammel; Lynn Rolfes; and Cristina and whoever we have yet to find. :)
I know that's a lot but I know it'll help. Thanks!
Love you all,
Sis. Cartwright
P.S. Brock informed us today that we he grows up, he wants to be a missionary...and a cheerleader.
Monday, November 17, 2008
"Where's your friend with the long skirt?"
This is what an investigator, Cristina, said to her friend in reference to my companion. i am finally among them. the women in the long skirts.
LIFE DREAM 1/2 REALIZED
so i don't know how many of you know this. but i have a life dream to ride a riding lawnmower. (not across the country like that wierd movie, just in a field of some sort). anyway, so i'm halfway there cause today we went to the john deere pavillion and they had tractors you could play on and yes, a riding lawnmower. we got good pics and had fun. i'm just missing the whole turning it on and mowing grass with it part.
UNIVERSAL TRUTHS
So we had another lesson with Gustavo. It's funny cause I keep being in situations where i'm the only one in the room who's American. makes me feel very exotic. anyway, it was cool to be able to teach him parts of the Plan of Salvation--that we lived with God before we came here, that He has a perfect plan for us to come back as families. Everything seemed to make sense to him. The next day we taught Cristina at the Pages house and had a similar experience, and then again later with a guy named Doug who has many cool, deep ideas. he's big into mediating and drawing truth from where he can find it. it was a cool lesson because just with trying to get do to pure truth on his own, he told us lots of parts of the plan of salvation that has been revealed through the prophets today. it was a cool conversation because we really felt like we were touching on the truths he's known before this life. anyway, i love that lesson cause it everything so clear and every time we teach it, the person we teach is like, "oh. that makes sense." :)
PARABLE OF THE RAINCOAT
so this week i discovered something grand. raincoats! i've never like umbrellas cause i acutally quite like the rain. BUT...it is kinda inconvenient here cause with the humidity and severe cold, you never really dry adn it becomes a tad uncomfortable every time you put your coat back on. my comp happened to have a spare raincoat. i tried it out and it changed my life. it's like getting rained on, without getting wet! man! why didn't anyone tell me?! then i realized, they probably did. but it's kinda like the gospel. it's the coolest thing ever, but all i can do is tell people about it. until they're willing to do something about it and try it out, they'll never really know. so my suggestion to you all, it to try something out you haven't before. whether that's reading the Book of Mormon, going to church, praying everyday, or any other commandment or spiritual something or other that has the potential to change you. try it out and see.
(note: this doesn't work for things like drugs or walking into oncoming cars. I didn't need to go out in an Iowa winter in a swimsuit to know it wouldn't be good.)
YET ANOTHER 8:45 MIRACLE
Last night it was 8:45 and our kid that had a baptismal date that we tried to drop by AGAIN wasn't answering. We had one more contact to get our goal but it was cold and not a lot of people were out. Down the hill and across the road we saw a car pull in. We booked it (in a dignified way :) ) down the grass hill, across the street, and flagged this guy down who was sitting in his car. We contact him, taught him a little, and have an appt to teach him and his wife. Heavenly Father definately took mercy on us. :) I love 8:45 miracles!
ok, thanks for all the prayers. keep them up. i want to go out with a bang and do everythign in bettendorf that Heavenly Father needs me to do.
love you all!
-- sis c
p.s. got an email from a friend who's had 2 babies since i've been gone. does that mean i'm about done with my mission?
LIFE DREAM 1/2 REALIZED
so i don't know how many of you know this. but i have a life dream to ride a riding lawnmower. (not across the country like that wierd movie, just in a field of some sort). anyway, so i'm halfway there cause today we went to the john deere pavillion and they had tractors you could play on and yes, a riding lawnmower. we got good pics and had fun. i'm just missing the whole turning it on and mowing grass with it part.
UNIVERSAL TRUTHS
So we had another lesson with Gustavo. It's funny cause I keep being in situations where i'm the only one in the room who's American. makes me feel very exotic. anyway, it was cool to be able to teach him parts of the Plan of Salvation--that we lived with God before we came here, that He has a perfect plan for us to come back as families. Everything seemed to make sense to him. The next day we taught Cristina at the Pages house and had a similar experience, and then again later with a guy named Doug who has many cool, deep ideas. he's big into mediating and drawing truth from where he can find it. it was a cool lesson because just with trying to get do to pure truth on his own, he told us lots of parts of the plan of salvation that has been revealed through the prophets today. it was a cool conversation because we really felt like we were touching on the truths he's known before this life. anyway, i love that lesson cause it everything so clear and every time we teach it, the person we teach is like, "oh. that makes sense." :)
PARABLE OF THE RAINCOAT
so this week i discovered something grand. raincoats! i've never like umbrellas cause i acutally quite like the rain. BUT...it is kinda inconvenient here cause with the humidity and severe cold, you never really dry adn it becomes a tad uncomfortable every time you put your coat back on. my comp happened to have a spare raincoat. i tried it out and it changed my life. it's like getting rained on, without getting wet! man! why didn't anyone tell me?! then i realized, they probably did. but it's kinda like the gospel. it's the coolest thing ever, but all i can do is tell people about it. until they're willing to do something about it and try it out, they'll never really know. so my suggestion to you all, it to try something out you haven't before. whether that's reading the Book of Mormon, going to church, praying everyday, or any other commandment or spiritual something or other that has the potential to change you. try it out and see.
(note: this doesn't work for things like drugs or walking into oncoming cars. I didn't need to go out in an Iowa winter in a swimsuit to know it wouldn't be good.)
YET ANOTHER 8:45 MIRACLE
Last night it was 8:45 and our kid that had a baptismal date that we tried to drop by AGAIN wasn't answering. We had one more contact to get our goal but it was cold and not a lot of people were out. Down the hill and across the road we saw a car pull in. We booked it (in a dignified way :) ) down the grass hill, across the street, and flagged this guy down who was sitting in his car. We contact him, taught him a little, and have an appt to teach him and his wife. Heavenly Father definately took mercy on us. :) I love 8:45 miracles!
ok, thanks for all the prayers. keep them up. i want to go out with a bang and do everythign in bettendorf that Heavenly Father needs me to do.
love you all!
-- sis c
p.s. got an email from a friend who's had 2 babies since i've been gone. does that mean i'm about done with my mission?
Monday, November 10, 2008
"lead me, hide me, walk beside me..."
The version of "I am a Child of God" sung by Brock Herbst. (Real words= "lead me, guide me...")
It was such a tender moment. He sang it all to himself while he was being swung on the swing, all bundled up in his big coat, with his eyes shut, just relaxing.
Other Brock quotes:
"Mom, I love kissing missionaries."
Granted, it's just usually our arm or whatever he can reach while we're standing there, but it's a phase we hope he eventually grows out of. :)
and "I love missionary work" after a p-day morning of jumping on the tramp together, playing with the dog, and making smoothies.
Also, every time we leave the house Brock and Allison ask if we're going on our missions. Yes, we're going on our mission. Multiple times a day. I love it.
RACHAEL
So we found the cutest, coolest girl. We were tracting in a rather "unsuccessful" neighborhood. We had one door where it opened, we introduced ourselves, and the guy just said "you guys are crazy" and shut the door. We didn't even have time to react. It was hilarious. We weren't sure if he thought the church was crazy or just us for being out in the 2 degree weather. Either way....it was a weird street but we didn't feel like we were supposed to leave just yet. We kept tracting and eventually knocked on a door where the girl let us in before we said anything. What the? Then we proceeded to tell her what we were there for and our message and she was getting so excited. She identified the Spirit even before we did. We started telling her what feelings to look for as evidence of God's truths being taught and she said, "oh, i already know. I've felt that the whole time you've been here." Everything we taught she'd say "this makes so much sense!" or "this is what i've always thought, and now it's right here staring me in the face." Man, oh man. She's so stinkin cool. Anyway, she was way excited but now seems to have disappeared over the last couple days. We're beginning to think we dreamed her up cause she's too prime. Keep her in your prayers that she'll resurface. She's amazing.
HARD-CORE MEMBERS
so one of the best things about serving a mission is seeing how to be a member missionary. there are some amazing examples in my ward of people who just do it. it's not anything extra that they do, necessarily. more of a mentality they've developed. we were over at a family's house the other night and talking about one of her friends and she says "you know what, i'm going to invite her to church." and she just picks up the phone and calls her and she came. another one went over to a family (the cool ones that seemed LDS) we'd introduced her to and just said "I think you guys are really cool and we'd love more friends. Do you want to do dinner." She's doing it even though we're not teaching them anymore and we didn't ask her to or anything. just cause she sincerely thought they were cool. I love these people. They just love the people around them and show it by including them and thinking about them.
TRACT-OF-WAR
So the other day on a doorstep i was standing there innocently holding a scarf (a homemade one that sharon made me that i love) and a random golden retriever comes out of NOWHERE and starts trying to take it from me. I tried to pull back but that's just what he wanted so he pulled harder. yikes! i eventually weaseled it away from him but i was dying. i felt like i was being punked or something. speaking of...
ARIEL AND ERIC
so the lady we live with is scared of missionary work and always teases us about our techniques in finding peolple to talk to. i tell her to stop making fun or we'll take her with us. we called her to go to an appt with us and then went to the house to meet her and she was sittinhg in her sweats by the fire not budging. she said, "if you were gonna play a joke, you could've been more creative that to pick disney names." the appt we had was with a couple named ariel and eric. only we really did have an appt. then she's like "sure, you're gonna take me to some random trailor park." only it really WAS in a trailor park. ha! after much convincing, we finally got her out the door. eric and ariel were no-shows but we did get to teach a guy who's wife locked him out of the house in the 20 degree weather cause she was mad. that was fun! and all in spanish so sis herbst was lost. the coldest lesson i've ever taught but that's what sis herbst gets for making fun. haha!
ok, love you all!
Here's a scrip to ponder: Moroni 10:32. Pick a way to try and do that this week.
love, sis c
It was such a tender moment. He sang it all to himself while he was being swung on the swing, all bundled up in his big coat, with his eyes shut, just relaxing.
Other Brock quotes:
"Mom, I love kissing missionaries."
Granted, it's just usually our arm or whatever he can reach while we're standing there, but it's a phase we hope he eventually grows out of. :)
and "I love missionary work" after a p-day morning of jumping on the tramp together, playing with the dog, and making smoothies.
Also, every time we leave the house Brock and Allison ask if we're going on our missions. Yes, we're going on our mission. Multiple times a day. I love it.
RACHAEL
So we found the cutest, coolest girl. We were tracting in a rather "unsuccessful" neighborhood. We had one door where it opened, we introduced ourselves, and the guy just said "you guys are crazy" and shut the door. We didn't even have time to react. It was hilarious. We weren't sure if he thought the church was crazy or just us for being out in the 2 degree weather. Either way....it was a weird street but we didn't feel like we were supposed to leave just yet. We kept tracting and eventually knocked on a door where the girl let us in before we said anything. What the? Then we proceeded to tell her what we were there for and our message and she was getting so excited. She identified the Spirit even before we did. We started telling her what feelings to look for as evidence of God's truths being taught and she said, "oh, i already know. I've felt that the whole time you've been here." Everything we taught she'd say "this makes so much sense!" or "this is what i've always thought, and now it's right here staring me in the face." Man, oh man. She's so stinkin cool. Anyway, she was way excited but now seems to have disappeared over the last couple days. We're beginning to think we dreamed her up cause she's too prime. Keep her in your prayers that she'll resurface. She's amazing.
HARD-CORE MEMBERS
so one of the best things about serving a mission is seeing how to be a member missionary. there are some amazing examples in my ward of people who just do it. it's not anything extra that they do, necessarily. more of a mentality they've developed. we were over at a family's house the other night and talking about one of her friends and she says "you know what, i'm going to invite her to church." and she just picks up the phone and calls her and she came. another one went over to a family (the cool ones that seemed LDS) we'd introduced her to and just said "I think you guys are really cool and we'd love more friends. Do you want to do dinner." She's doing it even though we're not teaching them anymore and we didn't ask her to or anything. just cause she sincerely thought they were cool. I love these people. They just love the people around them and show it by including them and thinking about them.
TRACT-OF-WAR
So the other day on a doorstep i was standing there innocently holding a scarf (a homemade one that sharon made me that i love) and a random golden retriever comes out of NOWHERE and starts trying to take it from me. I tried to pull back but that's just what he wanted so he pulled harder. yikes! i eventually weaseled it away from him but i was dying. i felt like i was being punked or something. speaking of...
ARIEL AND ERIC
so the lady we live with is scared of missionary work and always teases us about our techniques in finding peolple to talk to. i tell her to stop making fun or we'll take her with us. we called her to go to an appt with us and then went to the house to meet her and she was sittinhg in her sweats by the fire not budging. she said, "if you were gonna play a joke, you could've been more creative that to pick disney names." the appt we had was with a couple named ariel and eric. only we really did have an appt. then she's like "sure, you're gonna take me to some random trailor park." only it really WAS in a trailor park. ha! after much convincing, we finally got her out the door. eric and ariel were no-shows but we did get to teach a guy who's wife locked him out of the house in the 20 degree weather cause she was mad. that was fun! and all in spanish so sis herbst was lost. the coldest lesson i've ever taught but that's what sis herbst gets for making fun. haha!
ok, love you all!
Here's a scrip to ponder: Moroni 10:32. Pick a way to try and do that this week.
love, sis c
Monday, November 3, 2008
"Right next to the Greek Orthodontix church..."
Sis Soza giving directions to our church bldg. Ha! We'll blame it on the language barrier. :) The best part was once she realized what she said she was almost laughing too hard to finish the phone conversation.
ADONIS
last sunday we were driving by a house where we've been trying to meet the member who lives there. we saw the light on so sis soza said, in a stroke of inspiration, "hey, let's try the kings." they answered and let us right in. the mom hasn't been to church in years but somehow she just recently showed up on the records.and she has a 15 yr-old kid who's not but he's definately been searching. he's SUCH a good kid. anyway, we asked him on the phone how he felt when he prayed about the Book of Mormon and we loved the way he described it. He said, "It felt really good. Perfect, actually. Very calming....kinda made me tired." Ha!
BRAZILIAN MIRACLE
so remember last sunday when i did the really awkward contacting to the brazilians? so we're teaching one of them, gustavo. he works for John Deere (like 1 out of every 10 ppl we meet) and he knows engl but not tons--at least not as much when talking about the gospel. so we were trying to find ppl who spoke portuguese to go with us. the night before our appt the other sisters told us they randomly tracted into a house where the girl who answered exclaimed "i'm LDS! i just moved here and have been looking for the church!" wow. ok. :) even cooler, she moved from san diego! she was in the la jolla singles ward and was just baptized in like feb. her name's paula for those who might know her. even BETTER is that she's from brazil. so she came with us to teach gustavo the next day and got to testify in his own language. it was way cool. he's concerned though becuase his fam is the most importnat thing to him adn he doesn't want to go away from the religion that they all are because he doesn't want it to separate the fam. at the same time, he said they all have things in their church they disagree with. we tried to help him see that perhaps the Lord is showing him he gospel so he can take it to his family. I don't know what'll happen with him but he's an amazing guy who has amazing values. Hopefully we can keep teaching him adn it was so neat to see how the Lord looks out for us and sends us just who we need. :)
WARM WELCOME
Also last night we were tracting in our neighborhood and we knocked on a door (after many less than glad-to-see-us people) and the man just kinda listened to us for a sec then walked away. Then his wife pops up and says, "hey! where are you from?!" We said, "oh, well, we live here in the area temporarily. We're missionaries..." "I know. Where are you FROM?" (This is a tip-off that ppl are either LDS or have friends cause most ppl don't know we'er not from here.) Anyway, we tell here and she says "I'm from Pleasant Grove! [UT] Come in and get some water!" Nevermind that it's 7pm and we just came from dinner. We weren't thirsty at all but of course we took her up on it. :) She was so stinkin sweet. Anyway, turns out she grew up in the Church. Her fam's all still members but she converted to another faith and is raising her fam in that. But she's lived in UT and ID her whole life til recently. Anyway, it was a cool connection to make and she lives right by us so hopefully we can see her more. We're going to introduce her to Sis. Herbst cause their kids are the same age. Cool cause hopefully even that little connection was an answer to her fmaily's prayers. she was so cute.
CULTURAL ENLIGHTENMENT
by the way, there are tons of indian fams here and now, jsut from tracting, we've experienced duvaldi (dewaldi...whatever) desserts and seen an evening prayer ceremonish thing. they always invite us right in to talk. they're so great! love it.
Anyway, scrip to ponder: Moroni 9:6. Did I just do that one already? Well that's the one I want to do, so sorry if i did. :)
--sis c
ADONIS
last sunday we were driving by a house where we've been trying to meet the member who lives there. we saw the light on so sis soza said, in a stroke of inspiration, "hey, let's try the kings." they answered and let us right in. the mom hasn't been to church in years but somehow she just recently showed up on the records.and she has a 15 yr-old kid who's not but he's definately been searching. he's SUCH a good kid. anyway, we asked him on the phone how he felt when he prayed about the Book of Mormon and we loved the way he described it. He said, "It felt really good. Perfect, actually. Very calming....kinda made me tired." Ha!
BRAZILIAN MIRACLE
so remember last sunday when i did the really awkward contacting to the brazilians? so we're teaching one of them, gustavo. he works for John Deere (like 1 out of every 10 ppl we meet) and he knows engl but not tons--at least not as much when talking about the gospel. so we were trying to find ppl who spoke portuguese to go with us. the night before our appt the other sisters told us they randomly tracted into a house where the girl who answered exclaimed "i'm LDS! i just moved here and have been looking for the church!" wow. ok. :) even cooler, she moved from san diego! she was in the la jolla singles ward and was just baptized in like feb. her name's paula for those who might know her. even BETTER is that she's from brazil. so she came with us to teach gustavo the next day and got to testify in his own language. it was way cool. he's concerned though becuase his fam is the most importnat thing to him adn he doesn't want to go away from the religion that they all are because he doesn't want it to separate the fam. at the same time, he said they all have things in their church they disagree with. we tried to help him see that perhaps the Lord is showing him he gospel so he can take it to his family. I don't know what'll happen with him but he's an amazing guy who has amazing values. Hopefully we can keep teaching him adn it was so neat to see how the Lord looks out for us and sends us just who we need. :)
WARM WELCOME
Also last night we were tracting in our neighborhood and we knocked on a door (after many less than glad-to-see-us people) and the man just kinda listened to us for a sec then walked away. Then his wife pops up and says, "hey! where are you from?!" We said, "oh, well, we live here in the area temporarily. We're missionaries..." "I know. Where are you FROM?" (This is a tip-off that ppl are either LDS or have friends cause most ppl don't know we'er not from here.) Anyway, we tell here and she says "I'm from Pleasant Grove! [UT] Come in and get some water!" Nevermind that it's 7pm and we just came from dinner. We weren't thirsty at all but of course we took her up on it. :) She was so stinkin sweet. Anyway, turns out she grew up in the Church. Her fam's all still members but she converted to another faith and is raising her fam in that. But she's lived in UT and ID her whole life til recently. Anyway, it was a cool connection to make and she lives right by us so hopefully we can see her more. We're going to introduce her to Sis. Herbst cause their kids are the same age. Cool cause hopefully even that little connection was an answer to her fmaily's prayers. she was so cute.
CULTURAL ENLIGHTENMENT
by the way, there are tons of indian fams here and now, jsut from tracting, we've experienced duvaldi (dewaldi...whatever) desserts and seen an evening prayer ceremonish thing. they always invite us right in to talk. they're so great! love it.
Anyway, scrip to ponder: Moroni 9:6. Did I just do that one already? Well that's the one I want to do, so sorry if i did. :)
--sis c
Monday, October 27, 2008
"This will probably make my hair have more volume!"
Quote by Sis. Soza when tracting in 70mph winds. Always looking on the bright side. :)
no joke yesterday, the wind was so intense. trampolines were blowing into other people's yards and we were getting mauled by inflatable halloween decorations in people's yards as we went out to share the gospel. but there is no bad weather! if it's miserable to be out, at least it means that someone might have enough pity to let you in. :) (sis soza and i also thought possibly that the "wind-blown" look might be alluring enough to get us in a few more doors. :) plus, there was a 92 yr-old woman out there too, going on a walk. but see, she survived the "winter of '36" so this was nothing.
A COUPLE THREE THINGS ABOUT IOWA
First of all, they say "couple three" all the time. It's amazing! Also, the place where Field of Dreams was filmed is nearby. Scott, i'm gonna take you there. The weather is getting chilly but we just keep hearing, "it'll only get worse" and "girl, you better get you a coat." :) actually, i have one to borrow but i figure the longer i put off wearing it the less severe the real cold will seem.
9PM MIRACLE
so the colder and darker it gets, the harder it can be to stay out till 9. but the Lord sure blesses us when we do. I'm scared to ever go in early because it means there's someone we won't find. Last night we had like 8 min but we went out contacting anyway. first we had a pretty awkward exp. where i tried talking to these guys in their car. i wasn't quite sure what to say or what excuse i had to talk to them so i just ended up studdering like an idiot (that whole "given to you in the very hour what ye should say" promise wasn't quite working.) luckily, they spoke mostly protuguese so i tried to just look at them like it was the language barrier's fault that they couldn't understand me. after we sheepishly walked away and they drove off, we started talking to their friend. sis soza and him talked in spanglese (get it? spanish + portuguese) and set up an appt to teach him tonight. :) see the blessings?! so cool!
"DO YOU LIKE my PRETTY DRESS?
"This is just another delightful quote. this was by brock, the 2-yr old we live with when i complimented his sisters on her sunday dress and brock stood there prouldy in his plaid sweater and pants. :)
TRUNK-OR-TREATING WITH THE REVEREND
so we were going to the ward trunk-or-treating. i was worried it would be a waste of proseylting time if people didn't bring friends and it was a ways out of our area. we said a prayer that we'd have teaching opportunities. turns out one of the women in our ward is on some board of churches and brought a baptist minister guy. Rev. Quay. we ended up talking with him the whole time and leaving him with a copy of the BOM cause he wanted to read it and also giving him a tour of the church bldg. it was so delightful! and the members were right there helping and explaining and testifying. yay for halloween!
ANDREA JEAN CARTWRIGHT
so have any of you ever googled your own name or anything? yeah, fascinating to find people with your same name. but even more fascinting to tract into them!!!! what the? we were in the trailor park adn started talking to this woman who was outside. when we came closer she looked at my tag and was like, "oh! we have the same last name!" way weird. then she looks at sis soza and said, "actually, i got a piece of mail for you two." yeah, no joke. she'd gotten my mail. anyway, we talked a lot aobut the gosp and taught what we could and then when we were leaving i asked her first name. yeah, Andrea. says it different from me though. i freaked out. then found out our middle names were almost the same too! we got a pic together.
LUCKY NUT
we met a random guy in front of his house and got talking. he ended up telling us he has a lucky buckeye nut that he carries with him. turns out they're pretty rare but you can rub them and they become shiny. he also happened to have a bunch in his yard so we got to pick out our very own "lucky nut". i'm expecting many more miracles because of this.
GOTTA RUN...but i love you all. i'll leave you with a scripture. Alma 39:17-19. i'ts about why the Lord would want us to have a prophet today. we are precious. we are His children. I know He loves us and that he would and has called a prophet today. I know Thomas S. Monson is His prophet and that the most important decision we can make is the one to find out if Christ's church has been restored to the earth today and then to act upon that knowledge through baptism.
Love you all!
--Sis C
no joke yesterday, the wind was so intense. trampolines were blowing into other people's yards and we were getting mauled by inflatable halloween decorations in people's yards as we went out to share the gospel. but there is no bad weather! if it's miserable to be out, at least it means that someone might have enough pity to let you in. :) (sis soza and i also thought possibly that the "wind-blown" look might be alluring enough to get us in a few more doors. :) plus, there was a 92 yr-old woman out there too, going on a walk. but see, she survived the "winter of '36" so this was nothing.
A COUPLE THREE THINGS ABOUT IOWA
First of all, they say "couple three" all the time. It's amazing! Also, the place where Field of Dreams was filmed is nearby. Scott, i'm gonna take you there. The weather is getting chilly but we just keep hearing, "it'll only get worse" and "girl, you better get you a coat." :) actually, i have one to borrow but i figure the longer i put off wearing it the less severe the real cold will seem.
9PM MIRACLE
so the colder and darker it gets, the harder it can be to stay out till 9. but the Lord sure blesses us when we do. I'm scared to ever go in early because it means there's someone we won't find. Last night we had like 8 min but we went out contacting anyway. first we had a pretty awkward exp. where i tried talking to these guys in their car. i wasn't quite sure what to say or what excuse i had to talk to them so i just ended up studdering like an idiot (that whole "given to you in the very hour what ye should say" promise wasn't quite working.) luckily, they spoke mostly protuguese so i tried to just look at them like it was the language barrier's fault that they couldn't understand me. after we sheepishly walked away and they drove off, we started talking to their friend. sis soza and him talked in spanglese (get it? spanish + portuguese) and set up an appt to teach him tonight. :) see the blessings?! so cool!
"DO YOU LIKE my PRETTY DRESS?
"This is just another delightful quote. this was by brock, the 2-yr old we live with when i complimented his sisters on her sunday dress and brock stood there prouldy in his plaid sweater and pants. :)
TRUNK-OR-TREATING WITH THE REVEREND
so we were going to the ward trunk-or-treating. i was worried it would be a waste of proseylting time if people didn't bring friends and it was a ways out of our area. we said a prayer that we'd have teaching opportunities. turns out one of the women in our ward is on some board of churches and brought a baptist minister guy. Rev. Quay. we ended up talking with him the whole time and leaving him with a copy of the BOM cause he wanted to read it and also giving him a tour of the church bldg. it was so delightful! and the members were right there helping and explaining and testifying. yay for halloween!
ANDREA JEAN CARTWRIGHT
so have any of you ever googled your own name or anything? yeah, fascinating to find people with your same name. but even more fascinting to tract into them!!!! what the? we were in the trailor park adn started talking to this woman who was outside. when we came closer she looked at my tag and was like, "oh! we have the same last name!" way weird. then she looks at sis soza and said, "actually, i got a piece of mail for you two." yeah, no joke. she'd gotten my mail. anyway, we talked a lot aobut the gosp and taught what we could and then when we were leaving i asked her first name. yeah, Andrea. says it different from me though. i freaked out. then found out our middle names were almost the same too! we got a pic together.
LUCKY NUT
we met a random guy in front of his house and got talking. he ended up telling us he has a lucky buckeye nut that he carries with him. turns out they're pretty rare but you can rub them and they become shiny. he also happened to have a bunch in his yard so we got to pick out our very own "lucky nut". i'm expecting many more miracles because of this.
GOTTA RUN...but i love you all. i'll leave you with a scripture. Alma 39:17-19. i'ts about why the Lord would want us to have a prophet today. we are precious. we are His children. I know He loves us and that he would and has called a prophet today. I know Thomas S. Monson is His prophet and that the most important decision we can make is the one to find out if Christ's church has been restored to the earth today and then to act upon that knowledge through baptism.
Love you all!
--Sis C
Monday, October 20, 2008
"You mean the wicked people?"
only 8 min to write. we'll see how it goes...
"HISTORIC" LECLAIRE
so there's this really cool river town here. LeClaire. it's tiny, but famous. yes famous b/c it's the birthplace of "america's first superstar" that's right! you guessed it! Buffalo Bill. he lived here in his "formative yrs" (ages 1-5). there's a whole museum about it. news to me that buffalo bill is a real person. anyway, they have a cute little "main" street and one day we went contacting down. cool and we found some neat ppl. the only prob was it was decorated for halloween so we had a couple false alarms where we almost went up to one of the many scarecrows they had around and started talking to them about the gospel. yikes.
BIGGEST MISSION ADVENTURE YET...
k, maybe that's an exaggeration. but we went on a trampoline today for the first time in at least 18 mths. there's one in our backyard. talk about exhilarating. the next biggest adventure though will be if they let us go to the john deere museum. it's just outside our area. this is the headquarters of john deere (betcha didn't know that). in fact, we were watching this little boy play with toy trucks and he brings one up to his mom and she goes, "yes, that's a combine." hmm. the 2-yr olds know more about it than we do.
MOST MORMON NON-MORMONS
so the other day we felt prompted to tract a street. it was near "friendship park" so we figured the people had to be nice. we went for an hour and a half with not much luck. then we stood at a corner trying to decide if we should keep going straight or turn around. (apparently the Lord was up there just shaking His head saying, "the house is RIGHT THERE...just one more.") we knocked one more door and it opens and the dad stands there with a big grin and says "Hi!!! come on in!!" he and his two cute kids and the puppy welcome us with open arms. what the? did we accidentally tract into members. that's cool. we can play it off like we're just dropping by. the more they talked we soon realized they WEREN'T members but just totally acted like it. they have some best friends who are and they used to live just outside Palmyra, NY (where Joseph Smith grew up) and have seen the pageant out there and everything. turns out his friend once told him that if he ever sees mormon missionaries to at least let them in and offer then a drink. so they did. he had a million questions about missions and how they work so he fired away. eventually we backed up and told him the real point of why we're here and that God has restored His church on the earth. we're going back tonight for a Family Home Evening. :) love it!!
gotta run!
--sis c
p.s. 2 Nephi 2:24-27
p.s. quote is little boy who thought we were going to go teach the gosp to the "wicked people" clearly he's been reading too much scriptures. :)
"HISTORIC" LECLAIRE
so there's this really cool river town here. LeClaire. it's tiny, but famous. yes famous b/c it's the birthplace of "america's first superstar" that's right! you guessed it! Buffalo Bill. he lived here in his "formative yrs" (ages 1-5). there's a whole museum about it. news to me that buffalo bill is a real person. anyway, they have a cute little "main" street and one day we went contacting down. cool and we found some neat ppl. the only prob was it was decorated for halloween so we had a couple false alarms where we almost went up to one of the many scarecrows they had around and started talking to them about the gospel. yikes.
BIGGEST MISSION ADVENTURE YET...
k, maybe that's an exaggeration. but we went on a trampoline today for the first time in at least 18 mths. there's one in our backyard. talk about exhilarating. the next biggest adventure though will be if they let us go to the john deere museum. it's just outside our area. this is the headquarters of john deere (betcha didn't know that). in fact, we were watching this little boy play with toy trucks and he brings one up to his mom and she goes, "yes, that's a combine." hmm. the 2-yr olds know more about it than we do.
MOST MORMON NON-MORMONS
so the other day we felt prompted to tract a street. it was near "friendship park" so we figured the people had to be nice. we went for an hour and a half with not much luck. then we stood at a corner trying to decide if we should keep going straight or turn around. (apparently the Lord was up there just shaking His head saying, "the house is RIGHT THERE...just one more.") we knocked one more door and it opens and the dad stands there with a big grin and says "Hi!!! come on in!!" he and his two cute kids and the puppy welcome us with open arms. what the? did we accidentally tract into members. that's cool. we can play it off like we're just dropping by. the more they talked we soon realized they WEREN'T members but just totally acted like it. they have some best friends who are and they used to live just outside Palmyra, NY (where Joseph Smith grew up) and have seen the pageant out there and everything. turns out his friend once told him that if he ever sees mormon missionaries to at least let them in and offer then a drink. so they did. he had a million questions about missions and how they work so he fired away. eventually we backed up and told him the real point of why we're here and that God has restored His church on the earth. we're going back tonight for a Family Home Evening. :) love it!!
gotta run!
--sis c
p.s. 2 Nephi 2:24-27
p.s. quote is little boy who thought we were going to go teach the gosp to the "wicked people" clearly he's been reading too much scriptures. :)
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
"Where's duh udduh one?"
holy cow! so much to write!!!
quote compliments of brock herbst, the 2-yr old in the fam we live with who says that to me every time i come in because he's anxiously awaiting sis soza coming around the corner.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MISSISSIPPI
so...that gives 2 things away. 1) i'm serving with sis soza. woohoo! so much stinkin fun. i was comps w/ her for one week in the MTC. she's amazing. super just kind and hard-working. she loves being obedient adn working hard. she's thousands of miles ahead of me in her Christlike attributes. she has such an apparent love for the Savior and for others. they kept us nauvoo sisters together for the most part, which was a surprise to us.
THE AREA
we're serving in Bettendorf, Iowa. It's in the quad cities, by Davenport, home of Palmer Chiropractic and John Deere. It's crazy cause we're right on the mississippi again but this time it's the other side (for as easy as mississippi is to spell, it's pretty tricky to type). We're a little less than 2 hours north of Nauvoo so theoretically i could just float down the river. we're sharing the area with 2 other Peoria sisters-- Sis. Mower and Montgomery. they're both a lot of fun. we go on exchanges sometime in the day.
THE ACCOMODATIONS
so we live with a member family, the Herbst. that's the first time i've had that, though they're trying to get it going all around the US. it's really neat though. they're a young fam with 4 kids who LOVE the missionaries. the biggest challenge is just trying to get them not to sneak downstairs and try to hang out while we're studying. the fam's amazing and takes such good care of us. and they have 2 big dogs. so while the little boy is in love with sis soza, the Boxer is in love with me. i'll take it, i guess. :) also convenient, bro herbst is the ward mission leader. yay!
IOWA
The Mid-west, while still very religious and full of fried food, is decidedly different from the South. I think in the South there was a lot more polarity. More people were willing to listen, yet more were whole-heartedly against the Church. Here it's harder to get in and teach people but I've found we get yelled at less too. Interesting. And instead of Baptists, it's Lutheran. Still some similar grammar and sentence structure, but different accent. Fascinating. I'm in a "small town" apparently but compared to Nauvoo it seems huge. I still try to wave to every car that goes by, just out of habit. I guess the Lord wanted me to try to break that before I suffered over-stimulation in San Diego. :)
THE MIRACLES
So here's one of my favorite miracles so far. We get here and there are little to no people to teach so we really have to start working from the ground up. We went out on Sunday and really wanted to go hard all day. It was getting later and we were running out of options of places to go to find people. It was about 8:40pm and we don't go in before 9 but it was getting too late to be knocking on people's doors. We were on a random street trying to find a Spanish fam for Sis. Soza but no luck. As we were walking down the street debating our options, we saw a girl walking to her car. We really wanted to go talk to her but she beat us to her car and we didn't want to go knocking on her window in the dark. Creepy. So we were bummed. A couple seconds later she rolled down the window and called out to us (of course, freaking ME out cause i'm so jumpy). She wanted to know if we'd just doorbell ditched candy to her house. No...(although that's not a bad idea. Bribe people to listen to our message...). But we ended up talking for a long time. Turns out her g-parents are LDS but haven't gone in yrs. She's 21 and single and having a baby any day. she's so stinkin cute! she's looking for a church and is really close to the Lord, you can tell. It was so fun talking to her and SO obvious how the Lord's hand was in all of that. Yay for 8:40 miracles! We went back last night and taught her. She's excited to read from the BOM and pray about it and her g-pa sat in on the lesson and you could just see him soften as she was learning all of this. He even piped in when she asked, "Who's Joseph Smith" and said, "He's a prophet." Thank you. Yay! I loved every minute of it. Her name's Kimber and we're praying everything will keep moving forward and that we can teach her a couple more times before she has her baby.
THE MORAL
At a member's house last night we went to teach and FHE and she really ended up teaching US. (happens often). She brought up the Brother of Jared from the BOM. She said God knows our capacity. With the Bro of Jared, she knew he needed to be told directly how to build the barges and how to get air in them, but then when the Bro of Jared asked how to get light, God said, "well, what do you think?" He asked him to figure it out. she reminded us that revelation is proceeded by work. We can't just expect to have the Lord tell us everything at the exact moment we want it. Joseph Smith didn't get his answer of what church to join just by wondering and praying once. It was after much pondering, studying, and searching. Such a balance to make sure we're not DEPENDING on the Lord for where to go and what to do but we're planning our lives with the knowledge and gifts He's giving us and then we're LISTENING as we go forward and being aware of His answers and promptings.
THE FINISH
We've only got one transfer left and we want to work our guts out. Like a race and going as hard as you possibly can at the end---for those who've gone running with me, you know that's my favorite part. :) I'm excited and love it here already!
quote compliments of brock herbst, the 2-yr old in the fam we live with who says that to me every time i come in because he's anxiously awaiting sis soza coming around the corner.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MISSISSIPPI
so...that gives 2 things away. 1) i'm serving with sis soza. woohoo! so much stinkin fun. i was comps w/ her for one week in the MTC. she's amazing. super just kind and hard-working. she loves being obedient adn working hard. she's thousands of miles ahead of me in her Christlike attributes. she has such an apparent love for the Savior and for others. they kept us nauvoo sisters together for the most part, which was a surprise to us.
THE AREA
we're serving in Bettendorf, Iowa. It's in the quad cities, by Davenport, home of Palmer Chiropractic and John Deere. It's crazy cause we're right on the mississippi again but this time it's the other side (for as easy as mississippi is to spell, it's pretty tricky to type). We're a little less than 2 hours north of Nauvoo so theoretically i could just float down the river. we're sharing the area with 2 other Peoria sisters-- Sis. Mower and Montgomery. they're both a lot of fun. we go on exchanges sometime in the day.
THE ACCOMODATIONS
so we live with a member family, the Herbst. that's the first time i've had that, though they're trying to get it going all around the US. it's really neat though. they're a young fam with 4 kids who LOVE the missionaries. the biggest challenge is just trying to get them not to sneak downstairs and try to hang out while we're studying. the fam's amazing and takes such good care of us. and they have 2 big dogs. so while the little boy is in love with sis soza, the Boxer is in love with me. i'll take it, i guess. :) also convenient, bro herbst is the ward mission leader. yay!
IOWA
The Mid-west, while still very religious and full of fried food, is decidedly different from the South. I think in the South there was a lot more polarity. More people were willing to listen, yet more were whole-heartedly against the Church. Here it's harder to get in and teach people but I've found we get yelled at less too. Interesting. And instead of Baptists, it's Lutheran. Still some similar grammar and sentence structure, but different accent. Fascinating. I'm in a "small town" apparently but compared to Nauvoo it seems huge. I still try to wave to every car that goes by, just out of habit. I guess the Lord wanted me to try to break that before I suffered over-stimulation in San Diego. :)
THE MIRACLES
So here's one of my favorite miracles so far. We get here and there are little to no people to teach so we really have to start working from the ground up. We went out on Sunday and really wanted to go hard all day. It was getting later and we were running out of options of places to go to find people. It was about 8:40pm and we don't go in before 9 but it was getting too late to be knocking on people's doors. We were on a random street trying to find a Spanish fam for Sis. Soza but no luck. As we were walking down the street debating our options, we saw a girl walking to her car. We really wanted to go talk to her but she beat us to her car and we didn't want to go knocking on her window in the dark. Creepy. So we were bummed. A couple seconds later she rolled down the window and called out to us (of course, freaking ME out cause i'm so jumpy). She wanted to know if we'd just doorbell ditched candy to her house. No...(although that's not a bad idea. Bribe people to listen to our message...). But we ended up talking for a long time. Turns out her g-parents are LDS but haven't gone in yrs. She's 21 and single and having a baby any day. she's so stinkin cute! she's looking for a church and is really close to the Lord, you can tell. It was so fun talking to her and SO obvious how the Lord's hand was in all of that. Yay for 8:40 miracles! We went back last night and taught her. She's excited to read from the BOM and pray about it and her g-pa sat in on the lesson and you could just see him soften as she was learning all of this. He even piped in when she asked, "Who's Joseph Smith" and said, "He's a prophet." Thank you. Yay! I loved every minute of it. Her name's Kimber and we're praying everything will keep moving forward and that we can teach her a couple more times before she has her baby.
THE MORAL
At a member's house last night we went to teach and FHE and she really ended up teaching US. (happens often). She brought up the Brother of Jared from the BOM. She said God knows our capacity. With the Bro of Jared, she knew he needed to be told directly how to build the barges and how to get air in them, but then when the Bro of Jared asked how to get light, God said, "well, what do you think?" He asked him to figure it out. she reminded us that revelation is proceeded by work. We can't just expect to have the Lord tell us everything at the exact moment we want it. Joseph Smith didn't get his answer of what church to join just by wondering and praying once. It was after much pondering, studying, and searching. Such a balance to make sure we're not DEPENDING on the Lord for where to go and what to do but we're planning our lives with the knowledge and gifts He's giving us and then we're LISTENING as we go forward and being aware of His answers and promptings.
THE FINISH
We've only got one transfer left and we want to work our guts out. Like a race and going as hard as you possibly can at the end---for those who've gone running with me, you know that's my favorite part. :) I'm excited and love it here already!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
“Missionaries, missionaries, missionaries…everywhere I go, there's missionaries."
Words of a 5-yr old visitor. And you know what, he’s right.
First of all: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!
For his bday, here’s a couple things I love about him:
1. His wheeze laugh that I’m pretty sure I inherited.
2. His dutiful letter-writing.
3. How supportive he tries to be…even coming all the way out to Nauvoo to see me! :)
4. He’s an inspiration of physical fitness.
5. He focuses on the people he is with when he’s with them and let’s them know they are important.
There are many more of course, but that’s just a sampler.
Well, let’s see...adventures in Nauvoo. Everything’s turning Fall. It’s actually getting cold in the mornings. We’ll see how cold it gets in Oct/Nov out here in the mid-west. I’ll keep you posted. We leave in less than a week to our assignments. Kind of exciting!
DUSTY FARMER MIRACLE
So I wanted a while to go to my fav restaurant in the cornfields—The Dusty Farmer. Full of actual dusty farmers. It’s so authentic! But, being authentically small-town, it has bizarre and unpredictable hours so we can never seem to get there. So we FINALLY go one day and it was 1:30 and I knew they closed at 2. But things out here tend to also sometimes just open and close at will. So we get there and the door is locked. I was devastated. So I just leaned my hard against the glass door and stared inside all depressed. One of the sisters said, “well, what should we do…?” and I whispered “just stand here.” Apparently it was inspired cause 2 seconds later someone walked by inside. We got his attention and asked if they were closed and he said no. Turns out we just weren’t pulling on the door hard enough. Ha! So we got to go eat corn nuggets (fried creamed corn. Mmm…) and have loads of fun. Second obstacle…they don’t take credit or debit. So we all pooled together all the $ we could find but thought we might come up short. So they told us if we didn’t have enough we could just pay next time. Somehow, I’ve never had that offer in a CA restaurant. Ha! It was amazing. Luckily, we rummaged up just enough. Good times.
“TEACHING” APPT
Still doing the fake teaching appts but it’s cool because even thought the situation is fake, the doctrine is not and I’m always so blown away at how clearly the Spirit comes to testify of what we are teaching. :) The other night we taught the Normans (temple missionaries who I love DEARLY). We were talking about God and how they can know God is there and how they can know He would answer them individually. During the middle of the lesson they got a phone call from their son who’s kind of gone off track a little and is in the hospital right now due to some unwise choices. When we resumed the lesson we started talking about how much God loves them and wants to hear from them and comparing it to their own son. That no matter how many lousy decisions he’d made, time and time again, they still love him beyond measure and they still will be right there to give help with they need it. They can’t force him to make good decisions but the minute that on his own free will he comes to them, they’re right there. I loved it. It was just so cool how the Spirit taught all of us that day and how profoundly we felt God’s love while we were teaching.
ALMOST LIKE THEY’RE INSPIRED
So last weekend was the Church-wide Women’s Conference. (I thought of many of you while watching it cause we were all watching at the same time.) Long story short, I had a really rough day that day. Nothing really, just days where you can only recognize your weaknesses and Satan’s having fun seeing how discouraged he can get you. It’d gone on for a couple of days actually. But that night I not only got answers through Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk, but more importantly, I had a chance to help someone else out who was going through similar things and that really made my problem all go away. Which was funny cause his talk was about how service to others is the most fool-proof way to combat those feelings and the Lord blessed me with a chance right then to see that work in my own life. Loved it! I know the Lord’s aware of us and sends his servants—prophets and apostles, to give us very specific and important messages.
MORE INSPIRATION TO COME
This weekend is General Conference where the prophet and apostles talk to the whole Church about the things God wants to communicate to all of us. Anyway, woohoo! I’m excited. My invitation to all of you try harder to hear the Lord’s counsel to you individually through it this weekend. Whether that’s through taking notes, writiign down prayerful questions before you watch, watching more sessions than normal, going back over specific talks afterwards, or watching just some of it if you’ve never seen it before. I promise it will be well worth it and that if you’re sincerely wanting to be instructed from it, that you will be in a very personal way. By doing this, you’ll be able to see how well God knows you individually. Conference can be watched on www.lds.org.
Love you all!
Feel free to keep sending mail to my Nauvoo address.
-Sis. Cartwright
First of all: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!
For his bday, here’s a couple things I love about him:
1. His wheeze laugh that I’m pretty sure I inherited.
2. His dutiful letter-writing.
3. How supportive he tries to be…even coming all the way out to Nauvoo to see me! :)
4. He’s an inspiration of physical fitness.
5. He focuses on the people he is with when he’s with them and let’s them know they are important.
There are many more of course, but that’s just a sampler.
Well, let’s see...adventures in Nauvoo. Everything’s turning Fall. It’s actually getting cold in the mornings. We’ll see how cold it gets in Oct/Nov out here in the mid-west. I’ll keep you posted. We leave in less than a week to our assignments. Kind of exciting!
DUSTY FARMER MIRACLE
So I wanted a while to go to my fav restaurant in the cornfields—The Dusty Farmer. Full of actual dusty farmers. It’s so authentic! But, being authentically small-town, it has bizarre and unpredictable hours so we can never seem to get there. So we FINALLY go one day and it was 1:30 and I knew they closed at 2. But things out here tend to also sometimes just open and close at will. So we get there and the door is locked. I was devastated. So I just leaned my hard against the glass door and stared inside all depressed. One of the sisters said, “well, what should we do…?” and I whispered “just stand here.” Apparently it was inspired cause 2 seconds later someone walked by inside. We got his attention and asked if they were closed and he said no. Turns out we just weren’t pulling on the door hard enough. Ha! So we got to go eat corn nuggets (fried creamed corn. Mmm…) and have loads of fun. Second obstacle…they don’t take credit or debit. So we all pooled together all the $ we could find but thought we might come up short. So they told us if we didn’t have enough we could just pay next time. Somehow, I’ve never had that offer in a CA restaurant. Ha! It was amazing. Luckily, we rummaged up just enough. Good times.
“TEACHING” APPT
Still doing the fake teaching appts but it’s cool because even thought the situation is fake, the doctrine is not and I’m always so blown away at how clearly the Spirit comes to testify of what we are teaching. :) The other night we taught the Normans (temple missionaries who I love DEARLY). We were talking about God and how they can know God is there and how they can know He would answer them individually. During the middle of the lesson they got a phone call from their son who’s kind of gone off track a little and is in the hospital right now due to some unwise choices. When we resumed the lesson we started talking about how much God loves them and wants to hear from them and comparing it to their own son. That no matter how many lousy decisions he’d made, time and time again, they still love him beyond measure and they still will be right there to give help with they need it. They can’t force him to make good decisions but the minute that on his own free will he comes to them, they’re right there. I loved it. It was just so cool how the Spirit taught all of us that day and how profoundly we felt God’s love while we were teaching.
ALMOST LIKE THEY’RE INSPIRED
So last weekend was the Church-wide Women’s Conference. (I thought of many of you while watching it cause we were all watching at the same time.) Long story short, I had a really rough day that day. Nothing really, just days where you can only recognize your weaknesses and Satan’s having fun seeing how discouraged he can get you. It’d gone on for a couple of days actually. But that night I not only got answers through Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk, but more importantly, I had a chance to help someone else out who was going through similar things and that really made my problem all go away. Which was funny cause his talk was about how service to others is the most fool-proof way to combat those feelings and the Lord blessed me with a chance right then to see that work in my own life. Loved it! I know the Lord’s aware of us and sends his servants—prophets and apostles, to give us very specific and important messages.
MORE INSPIRATION TO COME
This weekend is General Conference where the prophet and apostles talk to the whole Church about the things God wants to communicate to all of us. Anyway, woohoo! I’m excited. My invitation to all of you try harder to hear the Lord’s counsel to you individually through it this weekend. Whether that’s through taking notes, writiign down prayerful questions before you watch, watching more sessions than normal, going back over specific talks afterwards, or watching just some of it if you’ve never seen it before. I promise it will be well worth it and that if you’re sincerely wanting to be instructed from it, that you will be in a very personal way. By doing this, you’ll be able to see how well God knows you individually. Conference can be watched on www.lds.org.
Love you all!
Feel free to keep sending mail to my Nauvoo address.
-Sis. Cartwright
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
“Nothing says 26 like dill spears.”
Quote inspired by the jar of pickles I found on my doorstep Mon. night that kicked off the bday celebration.
BRAZILIAN FLARE
“What are you doing on my doorstep and why are you in a pioneer dress?”
So Sis. Granja, the crazy Brazilian I’ve been blessed to live with for months, has had a few precious moments lately. The quote above comes from when she and her companion were practicing door approaches (randomly knocking on someone’s door to share the gospel). Since practicing with the temple missionaries hasn’t been entirely accurate in that regard, I suggested they practice rejections with each other. It’s a little demoralizing but very helpful. :) Anyway, so Sis. Alexander (now cousins-in-law with April Fisher we discovered) was “knocking on the door” and that’s how Sis. G answered since Sis. A was indeed in a pioneer dress. Ah, too funny. Maybe not on paper though.
The other moments with Sis. G were in a teaching appt. I went with their companionship. We showed up at the house and the woman we were teaching opens the door and Sis. G calls out cheerfully, “Goodnight!” Stunned and awkward pause. Then “uh…I mean good evening. Uh, goodnight and goodbye.” Then hysteric laughter from all. She’s quite proficient in Engl. but every once in a while that language barrier comes back and bites her in the bum.
BDAY JOY
Thanks for all the bday emails and letters and fun. It was so good to hear from so many of you. I’m really excited to read everyone’s updates. I love you all! :) I had a fun day. We had a surprise breakfast at the Cambre in the morning. At my suggestion, the pancakes turned into choc chip pancakes and it was bliss. (Sis. Lancaster who loathes pancakes but can’t resist chocolate just sat there staring at them, confused what to do. Poor thing.) At the VC one of the senior missionaries found out it was my bday and ran promptly to Ducks (the one and only convenience store in Nauvoo) and got all my favorite treats and made a little cake out of them in the VC. So precious. Then at night we had dot cake with dot frosting. My comp even shaped it into a “C” (she’s pretty good). We enjoyed it with the fake rotten Halloween teeth that Sheena sent. (Ok, we took them out to eat, but not to sing or blow out candles). All in all, fun day. Best part was I got to be a missionary! :)
ON THE MOVE
To clarify: I’m in Nauvoo until Oct. 8 (that means whoever is secretly coming to see me better come soon) :) and then I serve in the Peoria mission until the beginning of Dec. I go home on the 4th. Address-wise, just keep sending everything to Nauvoo and they will forward it. I’ll let you know later if there’s a better way but that’ll be easiest.
Ok, time has flown again. I had lots of stories but they’re gone. Just want to let you know that Heavenly Father answers prayers. Very specifically. Almost like He means it when he says “Ask and ye shall receive.” The very most important thing to Him is our happiness. As we follow the Spirit in knowing what to ask for, then we can know it’s according to His will and will help us to become what we need to become. And something to ponder: Mosiah 2:41. So simple and true.
Love you all!
-Sis. Cartwright
BRAZILIAN FLARE
“What are you doing on my doorstep and why are you in a pioneer dress?”
So Sis. Granja, the crazy Brazilian I’ve been blessed to live with for months, has had a few precious moments lately. The quote above comes from when she and her companion were practicing door approaches (randomly knocking on someone’s door to share the gospel). Since practicing with the temple missionaries hasn’t been entirely accurate in that regard, I suggested they practice rejections with each other. It’s a little demoralizing but very helpful. :) Anyway, so Sis. Alexander (now cousins-in-law with April Fisher we discovered) was “knocking on the door” and that’s how Sis. G answered since Sis. A was indeed in a pioneer dress. Ah, too funny. Maybe not on paper though.
The other moments with Sis. G were in a teaching appt. I went with their companionship. We showed up at the house and the woman we were teaching opens the door and Sis. G calls out cheerfully, “Goodnight!” Stunned and awkward pause. Then “uh…I mean good evening. Uh, goodnight and goodbye.” Then hysteric laughter from all. She’s quite proficient in Engl. but every once in a while that language barrier comes back and bites her in the bum.
BDAY JOY
Thanks for all the bday emails and letters and fun. It was so good to hear from so many of you. I’m really excited to read everyone’s updates. I love you all! :) I had a fun day. We had a surprise breakfast at the Cambre in the morning. At my suggestion, the pancakes turned into choc chip pancakes and it was bliss. (Sis. Lancaster who loathes pancakes but can’t resist chocolate just sat there staring at them, confused what to do. Poor thing.) At the VC one of the senior missionaries found out it was my bday and ran promptly to Ducks (the one and only convenience store in Nauvoo) and got all my favorite treats and made a little cake out of them in the VC. So precious. Then at night we had dot cake with dot frosting. My comp even shaped it into a “C” (she’s pretty good). We enjoyed it with the fake rotten Halloween teeth that Sheena sent. (Ok, we took them out to eat, but not to sing or blow out candles). All in all, fun day. Best part was I got to be a missionary! :)
ON THE MOVE
To clarify: I’m in Nauvoo until Oct. 8 (that means whoever is secretly coming to see me better come soon) :) and then I serve in the Peoria mission until the beginning of Dec. I go home on the 4th. Address-wise, just keep sending everything to Nauvoo and they will forward it. I’ll let you know later if there’s a better way but that’ll be easiest.
Ok, time has flown again. I had lots of stories but they’re gone. Just want to let you know that Heavenly Father answers prayers. Very specifically. Almost like He means it when he says “Ask and ye shall receive.” The very most important thing to Him is our happiness. As we follow the Spirit in knowing what to ask for, then we can know it’s according to His will and will help us to become what we need to become. And something to ponder: Mosiah 2:41. So simple and true.
Love you all!
-Sis. Cartwright
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
"Why quit?"
Inspiring quote by Hans Smith.
He was a service elder last summer. He lives outside Nauvoo. He has a disease I can’t think of the name of right now so he’s confined to a wheelchair. Last summer he was hit by a car (he was in a wheelchair before that though) and we talked about the missionary work that’s come as a result of that (some of it to the driver of the car). I complimented him on being such an awesome missionary even though he wasn’t a full-time one anymore (something a lot of people struggle keeping up after they’re released). He just looked at me and said, “why quit?” I thought it was such a profound and powerful statement. This mission has been very purifying and changing in many ways and I hope I can keep that attitude. Why quit doing the things that I know will make me the most happy. Throughout and after my mission. (Don’t worry, skirts and nylons isn’t in that list of things :) ).
CAPTURE THE OLD WOMEN
So a couple weeks ago we played a nighttime game of Capture the Flag. We did the 2nd summer sisters versus 1st summer. They told us they’d win cause we were old and tired. Unfortunately, they were right. Haha! But also we were being much braver so ya know, there’s a price for that. But I did come away with mud all over my leg, making me look tough at least. I don’t remember the point of that story and in fact, may have already written about it. Well, enjoy either way.
TOUR OF THE HCK
So one quick story, took a family on a tour of the Heber C. Kimball home. (My comp LOVES wearing her pioneer dress. It’s amazing! I love it!) This older man came in and couldn’t talk. He just sort of motioned. I got excited and signed to ask if he was deaf. He wasn’t. He’d had a stroke. I took his fam on the tour but there was just something about this man. Something in his eyes throughout the whole thing. This story has no amazing ending, just that the Spirit was so powerful throughout the entire thing. He testimony and faith came through just by his countenance—even when he couldn’t talk. That just really stuck with me.
SOMETHING TO PONDER
K, here it is…Moroni 10:32. It’s about becoming perfected in Christ. I know this is possible (not in this life obviously, but after) because God, as the perfect Parent, wants us to have all of the blessings that He enjoys. As much as we let Him, He will help us prepare to receive them. :)
Love you all,
Sis. Cartwright
Monday, September 1, 2008
“Clean underwear and amputated legs. Welcome to church in Nauvoo.”
Quote: Sis. Lancaster to my comp upon getting out of her first sacrament meeting here. She was referencing just 2 of the wildcard phrases mentioned over the pulpit that day. The seniors’ talks are typically action-packed with stories and life lessons, leaving you with a slightly different flavor than you’d get at a typical ward sacrament meeting.
Well, well, well....
MORE ON THE COMP
Can I just tell you all the I LOVE my companion?! She’s the stinkin’ raddest. I look up to her in every way. I’ve never had a bum companion. They’ve all been amazing, but maybe this is just such a pleasant surprise cause I didn’t know her ahead of time so it was like an early Christmas present or something. She’s AMAZING and she teaches me so dang much. She learned ASL in the MTC and can teach me all sorts of things I missed out on learning in the MTC (like, um, how to teach the gospel in ASL, not just signing love songs. Ha!) and she’s SO diligent and hard-working and fun and patient. She’s from North Hollywood, which most ppl associate w/ “Hollywood” and she says, “know the show COPS? That’s my town.” Ha! She’s hilarious. Oh, and remember how I said she’s a mix between Ashley Scoresby and Megan Monahan. Well, I found out her full name is Megan Ashley Meyer. What the? Anyway, she’s a gem and I’m sure I’ll have many more stories.
LINGERING LIGHTENING BUGS
So Heavenly Father sent a little present to my comp. The fireflies are gone for the most part cause summer’s ending. I haven’t seen one in a couple weeks. Then last night we were walking home (little did I know Sis. Meyer had been way stoked to hear that there were fireflies out here) and we saw one. She freaked out cause it’s the first one she’s ever seen. Then we saw one closer and she goes. “There’s another one! I’m gonna catch it!” Then just leaps ahead and cups her hands and what do ya know, she caught it! So random. So we trapped it in our hands and tried to take pics of it, which was unsuccessful as you might imagine. But it was a glorious moment nonetheless.
ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD 2008
So coolest thing ever this yr. Since we’re all done calling about the Pageant CDs, we’re turning Nauvoo into like a city-wide TRC. (That’s the place in the MTC where you practice teaching fake investigators.) We all get teaching appts at night where we go teach the senior missionaries and even go tracting to their apts. Ha! It’s gonna be hilarious! And wonderful practice to get us back in the groove. Then the 3 ASL sisters get to practice teaching each other in ASL which will be very helpful. There’s a slight chance we might use it in the “outfield” this winter cause one of the areas in Peoria has a deaf program. Anyway, but we’ll see. (Motto of my mission: “We’ll see.”)
RETURNED MISSIONARY IN TRAINING
So I’ve had a few moments lately where I delightedly find out I’m totally out of touch with the world. One of these moments being when we walked into Wal-Mart and Sis. Thomas mentioned something about New Kids on the Block. The other being when we were playing a game of questions and one was “what’s the biggest news you’ve gotten on your mission.” I said mine was “that my whole city was burning down” and Sis. Lancaster said “that Heath Ledger died.” I said “Heath Ledger died?” and all of the newer missionaries in the car freaked out that I’d somehow missed out on this breaking news. After pondering for a moment on the loss of Heath (poor guy) I felt a little happy inside to know that I’d been successfully detached from the world enough. Not that I was ever great on current events in the first place (Katie, I can read your mind) but still, it just helped me realize the reality of my call and the whole idea of being “set apart” from the world. I’m thankful that the Lord’s given me this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be so out of the loop because I’m so fully immersed in something else. I pray I’ll be able to keep a piece of that throughout my life. I think I’ll have a lot more time in my life if I stop worrying about things that aren’t going to build any lasting happiness.
P-DAY ADVENTURES
So we took the Community of Christ tour today and we had to laugh at all the similarities. For example, apparently we all use the same joke about the 1840’s air conditioning. Ha! Who knew? Made me wonder how often the visitors’ laughs are simply those of the courteous variety. But the tour was awesome and our guide was an old-timer from MO and had such an authentic Mid-West accent. Love it!
DON’T POSTPONE JOY
Sis. Ludwig talked to use on Sunday about the idea: “Don’t postpone joy.” Just one thing mentioned was that when something lame happens that you know you’ll look back later and laugh at, just laugh now so you can enjoy it in the moment. Ha! Probably easier said than done but I’d like to try to apply it nonetheless.
SCRIP. FOR THE DAY
In the words of Nephi (2 Nephi 4:29) “Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions.” I love this. We all have afflictions and we can definitely use them as an excuse to grow week. Or we could be as hard-core or steadfast as Nephi and just plow through them with the strength of the Lord. This kinda goes along with another quote I’ll close with from Elder Bruce. C. Hafen (Apr. 2004 conf) “You can have eternal salvation if you want it, but only if there is nothing else you want more.”
Keep up the good work. Love you all!
-Sis. Cartwright
Well, well, well....
MORE ON THE COMP
Can I just tell you all the I LOVE my companion?! She’s the stinkin’ raddest. I look up to her in every way. I’ve never had a bum companion. They’ve all been amazing, but maybe this is just such a pleasant surprise cause I didn’t know her ahead of time so it was like an early Christmas present or something. She’s AMAZING and she teaches me so dang much. She learned ASL in the MTC and can teach me all sorts of things I missed out on learning in the MTC (like, um, how to teach the gospel in ASL, not just signing love songs. Ha!) and she’s SO diligent and hard-working and fun and patient. She’s from North Hollywood, which most ppl associate w/ “Hollywood” and she says, “know the show COPS? That’s my town.” Ha! She’s hilarious. Oh, and remember how I said she’s a mix between Ashley Scoresby and Megan Monahan. Well, I found out her full name is Megan Ashley Meyer. What the? Anyway, she’s a gem and I’m sure I’ll have many more stories.
LINGERING LIGHTENING BUGS
So Heavenly Father sent a little present to my comp. The fireflies are gone for the most part cause summer’s ending. I haven’t seen one in a couple weeks. Then last night we were walking home (little did I know Sis. Meyer had been way stoked to hear that there were fireflies out here) and we saw one. She freaked out cause it’s the first one she’s ever seen. Then we saw one closer and she goes. “There’s another one! I’m gonna catch it!” Then just leaps ahead and cups her hands and what do ya know, she caught it! So random. So we trapped it in our hands and tried to take pics of it, which was unsuccessful as you might imagine. But it was a glorious moment nonetheless.
ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD 2008
So coolest thing ever this yr. Since we’re all done calling about the Pageant CDs, we’re turning Nauvoo into like a city-wide TRC. (That’s the place in the MTC where you practice teaching fake investigators.) We all get teaching appts at night where we go teach the senior missionaries and even go tracting to their apts. Ha! It’s gonna be hilarious! And wonderful practice to get us back in the groove. Then the 3 ASL sisters get to practice teaching each other in ASL which will be very helpful. There’s a slight chance we might use it in the “outfield” this winter cause one of the areas in Peoria has a deaf program. Anyway, but we’ll see. (Motto of my mission: “We’ll see.”)
RETURNED MISSIONARY IN TRAINING
So I’ve had a few moments lately where I delightedly find out I’m totally out of touch with the world. One of these moments being when we walked into Wal-Mart and Sis. Thomas mentioned something about New Kids on the Block. The other being when we were playing a game of questions and one was “what’s the biggest news you’ve gotten on your mission.” I said mine was “that my whole city was burning down” and Sis. Lancaster said “that Heath Ledger died.” I said “Heath Ledger died?” and all of the newer missionaries in the car freaked out that I’d somehow missed out on this breaking news. After pondering for a moment on the loss of Heath (poor guy) I felt a little happy inside to know that I’d been successfully detached from the world enough. Not that I was ever great on current events in the first place (Katie, I can read your mind) but still, it just helped me realize the reality of my call and the whole idea of being “set apart” from the world. I’m thankful that the Lord’s given me this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be so out of the loop because I’m so fully immersed in something else. I pray I’ll be able to keep a piece of that throughout my life. I think I’ll have a lot more time in my life if I stop worrying about things that aren’t going to build any lasting happiness.
P-DAY ADVENTURES
So we took the Community of Christ tour today and we had to laugh at all the similarities. For example, apparently we all use the same joke about the 1840’s air conditioning. Ha! Who knew? Made me wonder how often the visitors’ laughs are simply those of the courteous variety. But the tour was awesome and our guide was an old-timer from MO and had such an authentic Mid-West accent. Love it!
DON’T POSTPONE JOY
Sis. Ludwig talked to use on Sunday about the idea: “Don’t postpone joy.” Just one thing mentioned was that when something lame happens that you know you’ll look back later and laugh at, just laugh now so you can enjoy it in the moment. Ha! Probably easier said than done but I’d like to try to apply it nonetheless.
SCRIP. FOR THE DAY
In the words of Nephi (2 Nephi 4:29) “Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions.” I love this. We all have afflictions and we can definitely use them as an excuse to grow week. Or we could be as hard-core or steadfast as Nephi and just plow through them with the strength of the Lord. This kinda goes along with another quote I’ll close with from Elder Bruce. C. Hafen (Apr. 2004 conf) “You can have eternal salvation if you want it, but only if there is nothing else you want more.”
Keep up the good work. Love you all!
-Sis. Cartwright
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
“Nature is really…loud here.”
Wow. Lots to say. Long, but again, tough. Sections conveniently titled so you can read only what is of interest. :)
Quote compliments of my new comp Sis. Meyer!
SPECIAL DELIVERY: NEW COMP!!!
Sis. Meyer just came from the MTC yesterday. We’ve been waiting for her with baited breath (I think I learned something once about that phrase like that it’s totally not spelled like that but I can’t remember so you all get the idea). Anyway, it’s so fun to introduce her to Nauvoo. She had about as much of an idea of Nauvoo as I did…meaning almost none. We’re having a fun time. This morning we took her down Parley Street then on an ox ride. So yes, let than 24 hrs away from the MTC and she’s brushing an ox’s hair and listening to an old man in pioneer clothes sing “Bessie the Heffer.” Welcome to Nauvoo. It’s so fun to hear all her observations though and things that I’ve gotten used to so I forget to be amazed with---like how “loud” nature is (with a kazillion crazy bugs) and how many stars you can see at night and how fake this all feels. Ha!
Oh, she’s from outside LA and looks like a mix between Ash Scoresby and Megan Monahan (few of you will know them both cause they’re from very separate realms of my life) so I feel like we’re already BFFs. She’s an ASL missionary so she’s getting me back in gear. She's WAY hard-working and obedient. I love it! I love her! Lots more to say about that but it’ll have to wait til Monday.
SIS. CARTWRIGHT'S 3RD MISSION FIELD
Can’t remember if I’ve explained this in emails before but to clarify: I’m serving in another mission come October. Anyone surprised? Me neither. :) Similar to what happened last winter only we’re just going to Peoria (the surrounding mission) so we’re not technically reassigned, just more on loan. We’ll be there basically all of October and November then come back for a few days here then home. We’re stoked. One of the areas has an ASL program, but then again, so did GA and I never served in it, so whatever the Lord has in mind. I feel very blessed to have such varied experiences to learn from and to try to teach in. Love it!
CRITTERS FOR BATS, BATS FOR CRITTERS
So the thing making noise in our wall (did I tell you about that?) is gone, but we had a nice visit last week from a new friend. We call him Zack. Sis. Rancie came downstairs and got me out of bed the other night and said “Sis. Cartwright, there’s a bird in our house. What do we do?” I thought it was bizarre, but not alarming, so I went upstairs to check it out. As we watched it fly noiselessly in circles, it seemed like a very special breed of bird (Sis. C is without the aid of glasses, mind you). We sat there for a minute watching it, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why I felt like this was no oridinary bird, until Sis. R suggests, “do you think that’s a bat.” All of the sudden, it was the most terrifying, creepy thing and I couldn’t stop shuddering and picturing it dive-bombing me. After exploring some ineffective solutions, I convinced Sis. R she couldn’t catch him in a bucket and to just shut our bedroom doors, go to bed, and call someone in the AM. I of course, had to shield her from Zack with a cookie sheet (he was still at this point, but who knows when he’d fly back into action). Pretty brave, on my part, if I do say so myself. Anyway, turns out the previous missionaries in there (senior sisters) had a similar reoccurring problem so when I called the next AM they knew what needed to be done. They simply plugged up a hole in a spare closet (now known as the “bat cave”) and all is well. Zack escaped by himself at some point in the night. You’d think that tidbit was something they would’ve passed on to the new move-ins, but evidently not. The McConkie house is full of surprises and friends.
YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT?
So we had the privilege of interpreting for a show here that was put on by Vocal Point, an a capella group from BYU. Privlege because I love interpreting, NOT privilege because most of their songs are love songs. So as we’re trying to plan how to conceptually interpret “your hand is holding my heart” and “I wanna be like Grace Kelly,” Sis. Lancaster cries out in despair “I thought I was going to be teaching people about the Restoration, not about romance!” Haha! Joke’s on us. We were nervous cause part of the group coming were professional interpreters but what do you know, the Lord helped us out. Even if it was love songs. :)
ATTACHED PIC
My long, lost twin. We found her at Pageant cause people kept getting us mixed up. She was there working on costuming. You know you look alike when even your fam thinks you look alike. Ha! Enjoy. :)
LAST THOUGHTS
Ok, thanks for reading the marathon letter. Last thought. I was reading in the Book of Mormon, Mormon 2:26 and the Nephites were turning away from the Lord so “the strength of the Lord was not with us; yea we were left to ourselves, that the Spirit of the Lord did not abide in us; therefore we had become weak.” I’ve read this before but again, it just stuck out to me that we have literally nothing when left to our own devices. We can go on for a time (the Nephites were even winning battles) but eventually, when we need the REAL strength and power, we’ll realize it’s not there because we’ve turned it away long before. My challenge to you all is this week to make a real effort to draw on the strength of the Lord. This often means we need to change something to show the Lord we trust His way more than our own and through this we allow His strength to pour in.
Love you all!
Talk to ya later!
-Sis. C
Quote compliments of my new comp Sis. Meyer!
SPECIAL DELIVERY: NEW COMP!!!
Sis. Meyer just came from the MTC yesterday. We’ve been waiting for her with baited breath (I think I learned something once about that phrase like that it’s totally not spelled like that but I can’t remember so you all get the idea). Anyway, it’s so fun to introduce her to Nauvoo. She had about as much of an idea of Nauvoo as I did…meaning almost none. We’re having a fun time. This morning we took her down Parley Street then on an ox ride. So yes, let than 24 hrs away from the MTC and she’s brushing an ox’s hair and listening to an old man in pioneer clothes sing “Bessie the Heffer.” Welcome to Nauvoo. It’s so fun to hear all her observations though and things that I’ve gotten used to so I forget to be amazed with---like how “loud” nature is (with a kazillion crazy bugs) and how many stars you can see at night and how fake this all feels. Ha!
Oh, she’s from outside LA and looks like a mix between Ash Scoresby and Megan Monahan (few of you will know them both cause they’re from very separate realms of my life) so I feel like we’re already BFFs. She’s an ASL missionary so she’s getting me back in gear. She's WAY hard-working and obedient. I love it! I love her! Lots more to say about that but it’ll have to wait til Monday.
SIS. CARTWRIGHT'S 3RD MISSION FIELD
Can’t remember if I’ve explained this in emails before but to clarify: I’m serving in another mission come October. Anyone surprised? Me neither. :) Similar to what happened last winter only we’re just going to Peoria (the surrounding mission) so we’re not technically reassigned, just more on loan. We’ll be there basically all of October and November then come back for a few days here then home. We’re stoked. One of the areas has an ASL program, but then again, so did GA and I never served in it, so whatever the Lord has in mind. I feel very blessed to have such varied experiences to learn from and to try to teach in. Love it!
CRITTERS FOR BATS, BATS FOR CRITTERS
So the thing making noise in our wall (did I tell you about that?) is gone, but we had a nice visit last week from a new friend. We call him Zack. Sis. Rancie came downstairs and got me out of bed the other night and said “Sis. Cartwright, there’s a bird in our house. What do we do?” I thought it was bizarre, but not alarming, so I went upstairs to check it out. As we watched it fly noiselessly in circles, it seemed like a very special breed of bird (Sis. C is without the aid of glasses, mind you). We sat there for a minute watching it, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why I felt like this was no oridinary bird, until Sis. R suggests, “do you think that’s a bat.” All of the sudden, it was the most terrifying, creepy thing and I couldn’t stop shuddering and picturing it dive-bombing me. After exploring some ineffective solutions, I convinced Sis. R she couldn’t catch him in a bucket and to just shut our bedroom doors, go to bed, and call someone in the AM. I of course, had to shield her from Zack with a cookie sheet (he was still at this point, but who knows when he’d fly back into action). Pretty brave, on my part, if I do say so myself. Anyway, turns out the previous missionaries in there (senior sisters) had a similar reoccurring problem so when I called the next AM they knew what needed to be done. They simply plugged up a hole in a spare closet (now known as the “bat cave”) and all is well. Zack escaped by himself at some point in the night. You’d think that tidbit was something they would’ve passed on to the new move-ins, but evidently not. The McConkie house is full of surprises and friends.
YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT?
So we had the privilege of interpreting for a show here that was put on by Vocal Point, an a capella group from BYU. Privlege because I love interpreting, NOT privilege because most of their songs are love songs. So as we’re trying to plan how to conceptually interpret “your hand is holding my heart” and “I wanna be like Grace Kelly,” Sis. Lancaster cries out in despair “I thought I was going to be teaching people about the Restoration, not about romance!” Haha! Joke’s on us. We were nervous cause part of the group coming were professional interpreters but what do you know, the Lord helped us out. Even if it was love songs. :)
ATTACHED PIC
My long, lost twin. We found her at Pageant cause people kept getting us mixed up. She was there working on costuming. You know you look alike when even your fam thinks you look alike. Ha! Enjoy. :)
LAST THOUGHTS
Ok, thanks for reading the marathon letter. Last thought. I was reading in the Book of Mormon, Mormon 2:26 and the Nephites were turning away from the Lord so “the strength of the Lord was not with us; yea we were left to ourselves, that the Spirit of the Lord did not abide in us; therefore we had become weak.” I’ve read this before but again, it just stuck out to me that we have literally nothing when left to our own devices. We can go on for a time (the Nephites were even winning battles) but eventually, when we need the REAL strength and power, we’ll realize it’s not there because we’ve turned it away long before. My challenge to you all is this week to make a real effort to draw on the strength of the Lord. This often means we need to change something to show the Lord we trust His way more than our own and through this we allow His strength to pour in.
Love you all!
Talk to ya later!
-Sis. C
Monday, August 18, 2008
“I’ve had a goal to study diligence…I really need to get on that.”
Quote from Sis. Thomas. Ha!
P-DAY ADVENTURES
Today we went “mini-golfing” (as they say in UT) in skirts. I tried to comment on that earlier today and instead of “mini-golfing in skirts” said “golfing in mini-skirts.” Ha! Close. Mid-calf is almost mini. And yes, Scott, my luck prevailed. Typical hole-in-ones and all that’s to be expected with golfing with me! :) Thought I should make you proud. I was laughing today as I reflected on how contentious miniature golf always was as a family activity. That and picking out a Christmas tree. Watch out! :)
TEMPLE TENDER MOMENT
So I thought this was way cool, and considered it a little “shout-out” from Heavenly Father that He is aware of me. So for those of you who don’t know, at the temple we make a series of covenants/promises with God of obedience, sacrifice, etc. You do that once you life for yourself and then go subsequent times on behalf of someone who’s deceased and never had the chance to make those covenants in this life. Typically you just show up and they give you the name of someone (that person then has a choice still of if they want to accept that or not). Anyway…on the piece of paper with the name it has their birthday. I’ve always thought it would be cool to go through for someone on their bday and today it happened! Woohoo! Out of all the slips of paper I could’ve gotten or all the people who could’ve had her name. :) It was her 98th bday. Or rather, would’ve been. :) I loved it though and thought it was a pretty good gift that I could give to my friend Martha McCulley. Loved it!
STUBBORN SOUTHERN MEN
So of course, I miss dealing with subborn Southern men since I’m not in GA anymore, but I got the chance to talk to one on the phone. I was calling to offer him a pageant CD and we just got talking. He said his wife is LDS and goes every week. The missionaries come over all the time and he’s read the Book of Mormon, he just sees no urgency in getting involved. We’d already been joking around a fair amount and I know with these guys I can get away with anything generally so I just laid it out there pretty good. We had a good chat (with him constantly trying to change the subject when it got spiritual or focused on his spiritual-ness, rather). It was pretty funny. Anyway, ultimately I left him with a verse to read (since he said he wouldn’t do a whole chapter) and something to think about and write down. It’s scary how tricky the adversary is and complacency is one of his most subtle tools cause we don’t feel like anything’s influencing us. We think we’re just being neutral. But if we’re not actively working for the Lord and fighting the adversary, then we’re following Satan. We’re just where he wants us because we’ve become removed and will not be a threat to his work. So devious! It’s like the quote (don’t know who said it but heard it long, long ago). “There’s an election going on. God casts a vote for you, Satan casts a vote against you, and you cast the deciding vote.”
Ok everyone, love you all. Keep up all the good work and thanks for staying in touch!
Love,
Sis. Cartwright
P-DAY ADVENTURES
Today we went “mini-golfing” (as they say in UT) in skirts. I tried to comment on that earlier today and instead of “mini-golfing in skirts” said “golfing in mini-skirts.” Ha! Close. Mid-calf is almost mini. And yes, Scott, my luck prevailed. Typical hole-in-ones and all that’s to be expected with golfing with me! :) Thought I should make you proud. I was laughing today as I reflected on how contentious miniature golf always was as a family activity. That and picking out a Christmas tree. Watch out! :)
TEMPLE TENDER MOMENT
So I thought this was way cool, and considered it a little “shout-out” from Heavenly Father that He is aware of me. So for those of you who don’t know, at the temple we make a series of covenants/promises with God of obedience, sacrifice, etc. You do that once you life for yourself and then go subsequent times on behalf of someone who’s deceased and never had the chance to make those covenants in this life. Typically you just show up and they give you the name of someone (that person then has a choice still of if they want to accept that or not). Anyway…on the piece of paper with the name it has their birthday. I’ve always thought it would be cool to go through for someone on their bday and today it happened! Woohoo! Out of all the slips of paper I could’ve gotten or all the people who could’ve had her name. :) It was her 98th bday. Or rather, would’ve been. :) I loved it though and thought it was a pretty good gift that I could give to my friend Martha McCulley. Loved it!
STUBBORN SOUTHERN MEN
So of course, I miss dealing with subborn Southern men since I’m not in GA anymore, but I got the chance to talk to one on the phone. I was calling to offer him a pageant CD and we just got talking. He said his wife is LDS and goes every week. The missionaries come over all the time and he’s read the Book of Mormon, he just sees no urgency in getting involved. We’d already been joking around a fair amount and I know with these guys I can get away with anything generally so I just laid it out there pretty good. We had a good chat (with him constantly trying to change the subject when it got spiritual or focused on his spiritual-ness, rather). It was pretty funny. Anyway, ultimately I left him with a verse to read (since he said he wouldn’t do a whole chapter) and something to think about and write down. It’s scary how tricky the adversary is and complacency is one of his most subtle tools cause we don’t feel like anything’s influencing us. We think we’re just being neutral. But if we’re not actively working for the Lord and fighting the adversary, then we’re following Satan. We’re just where he wants us because we’ve become removed and will not be a threat to his work. So devious! It’s like the quote (don’t know who said it but heard it long, long ago). “There’s an election going on. God casts a vote for you, Satan casts a vote against you, and you cast the deciding vote.”
Ok everyone, love you all. Keep up all the good work and thanks for staying in touch!
Love,
Sis. Cartwright
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
"This really IS the happiest place on earth..."
"...Disneyland can't compare with what goes on in Nauvoo."
Quote by Sis. Renouf, wife of the pageant president. One of the most sincere, most humble, most missionary-minded women I've met.
HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES ME
Yesterday was a total day of miracles and I don’t even know how to describe it. It was just cool because since pageant has started there have been a lot of things that have pulled my attn away from the VC cause I’ll just have other stuff that needs to get done with Pageant—mostly in the call center. But yesterday I was able to spend a ton of time downstairs on the main floor with the guests and the Lord gave me amazing conversation after amazing conversation. Everyone I talked to was someone I connect with in some way. It was way cool and humbling that the Lord would bless me like that. It was like because He knew I wasn’t able to be down there as much as I wanted, He put all my amazing experiences in one day. :) Love it!
TRUTH RESTORED
Really interesting conversation I had with a woman who was formally a member of a church that branched off from the LDS Church and now is LDS. It was interesting cause she talked about how hard it was because it was so close but so different. It was harder than coming into the gospel from something that was so totally different or off-base or whatever. She said she had a real struggle knowing what to accept and what to reject from her previous beliefs. She had to really start evaluating her beliefs one-by-one, beginning with her understanding of who God is. Sis. Rancie noticed in the scriptures that whenever people start falling away, that’s usually the first doctrine that Satan corrupts is who God is and our relationship to Him. We also talked about how tricky it is that the closer something is to the truth, the harder it is to distinguish. Satan really is subtle. But we have so much comfort in knowing there are things he can NEVER counterfeit…like the feelings of peace that come through the Spirit. Anyway, I love it. I love how clear-cut the gospel is. We tend to overcomplicate things and Satan especially weaves a tangled web but the gosp is simple. The most important thing to know is that God is our Loving Heavenly Father and He sent His Son so that we could be cleansed and return to love with Them.
FAM!!!
So Dad and Joanie and Scott, thank you for coming! I was so glad you were here. :) I’ve gotten many fav reviews on my fam and how cool you guys were. I had so much fun with you guys here and thanks for taking such good care of me. We’re gonna use the candy (minus the snitches I already took) to have a post-pageant unwinding night. The dark chocolate M&Ms. Whoa! :) And bro, thanks for coming to the temple with me. That was way cool. I was really hoping and praying we’d be able to make that happen.
When my fam was here I got to show them how to make shoes in one of the sites. Incidentally, in that same site I got to fix my own shoe with an 1840s awl (I think that’s how you spell it). I was so proud of myself!
CHIGS AND CRITTERS
So the other night—this is how unified our companionship is—Sis. Thomas and I both woke up at 2am itching our chigger bites. We were both like “are you awake” “yeah” “me too. I have chiggers and they’re driving me crazy.” “me too!” Little bonding moment. Then later the other thing that kept us awake is some sort of critter that decided to move into our walls. We could hear him start at one side of the room and gradually move to the other. It was hysterical. I was hoping it was a squirrel and reflecting on our adventures in AK.
Can I tell you all how much I love Sis. Thomas. We ‘re such Engl. nerd twins. She prefers to call us “intellectuals” but I my brain has become far too mushy to merit that title. But we have tons of fun. And she’s really level-headed and keeps me in line. And she loves to go on walks so we walk often. I love it! I love walking in Nauvoo!! Today we’re going to go to the Dusty Farmer (a SUPER genuine Mid-west lunch place tucked in the middle of the cornfields) and then go listen to the brass band play at the park at noon. I love the brass band. Did I tell you that? I even got their t-shirt this yr.
GOODBYE PAGEANT, GOODBYE YPMs
Which brings me to my next point, the YPMs are all leaving. Sniff! It’ll get really quiet. In addition to that, we’re losing like 40+ senior missionaries. It’s a ton of the staple ones that we’re really tight with. We refer to it as the mass exodus. Rivaled only by the one in 1846. :) So the crowds will be slowing but we won’t be cause there will be fewer of us to do the work. The slower times though always seem to give way to miracles of their own. I love it! I loved the pageant! I love Nauvoo! I love this work!
Thanks for all the support. Love you all!
-Sis. Cartwright
Quote by Sis. Renouf, wife of the pageant president. One of the most sincere, most humble, most missionary-minded women I've met.
HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES ME
Yesterday was a total day of miracles and I don’t even know how to describe it. It was just cool because since pageant has started there have been a lot of things that have pulled my attn away from the VC cause I’ll just have other stuff that needs to get done with Pageant—mostly in the call center. But yesterday I was able to spend a ton of time downstairs on the main floor with the guests and the Lord gave me amazing conversation after amazing conversation. Everyone I talked to was someone I connect with in some way. It was way cool and humbling that the Lord would bless me like that. It was like because He knew I wasn’t able to be down there as much as I wanted, He put all my amazing experiences in one day. :) Love it!
TRUTH RESTORED
Really interesting conversation I had with a woman who was formally a member of a church that branched off from the LDS Church and now is LDS. It was interesting cause she talked about how hard it was because it was so close but so different. It was harder than coming into the gospel from something that was so totally different or off-base or whatever. She said she had a real struggle knowing what to accept and what to reject from her previous beliefs. She had to really start evaluating her beliefs one-by-one, beginning with her understanding of who God is. Sis. Rancie noticed in the scriptures that whenever people start falling away, that’s usually the first doctrine that Satan corrupts is who God is and our relationship to Him. We also talked about how tricky it is that the closer something is to the truth, the harder it is to distinguish. Satan really is subtle. But we have so much comfort in knowing there are things he can NEVER counterfeit…like the feelings of peace that come through the Spirit. Anyway, I love it. I love how clear-cut the gospel is. We tend to overcomplicate things and Satan especially weaves a tangled web but the gosp is simple. The most important thing to know is that God is our Loving Heavenly Father and He sent His Son so that we could be cleansed and return to love with Them.
FAM!!!
So Dad and Joanie and Scott, thank you for coming! I was so glad you were here. :) I’ve gotten many fav reviews on my fam and how cool you guys were. I had so much fun with you guys here and thanks for taking such good care of me. We’re gonna use the candy (minus the snitches I already took) to have a post-pageant unwinding night. The dark chocolate M&Ms. Whoa! :) And bro, thanks for coming to the temple with me. That was way cool. I was really hoping and praying we’d be able to make that happen.
When my fam was here I got to show them how to make shoes in one of the sites. Incidentally, in that same site I got to fix my own shoe with an 1840s awl (I think that’s how you spell it). I was so proud of myself!
CHIGS AND CRITTERS
So the other night—this is how unified our companionship is—Sis. Thomas and I both woke up at 2am itching our chigger bites. We were both like “are you awake” “yeah” “me too. I have chiggers and they’re driving me crazy.” “me too!” Little bonding moment. Then later the other thing that kept us awake is some sort of critter that decided to move into our walls. We could hear him start at one side of the room and gradually move to the other. It was hysterical. I was hoping it was a squirrel and reflecting on our adventures in AK.
Can I tell you all how much I love Sis. Thomas. We ‘re such Engl. nerd twins. She prefers to call us “intellectuals” but I my brain has become far too mushy to merit that title. But we have tons of fun. And she’s really level-headed and keeps me in line. And she loves to go on walks so we walk often. I love it! I love walking in Nauvoo!! Today we’re going to go to the Dusty Farmer (a SUPER genuine Mid-west lunch place tucked in the middle of the cornfields) and then go listen to the brass band play at the park at noon. I love the brass band. Did I tell you that? I even got their t-shirt this yr.
GOODBYE PAGEANT, GOODBYE YPMs
Which brings me to my next point, the YPMs are all leaving. Sniff! It’ll get really quiet. In addition to that, we’re losing like 40+ senior missionaries. It’s a ton of the staple ones that we’re really tight with. We refer to it as the mass exodus. Rivaled only by the one in 1846. :) So the crowds will be slowing but we won’t be cause there will be fewer of us to do the work. The slower times though always seem to give way to miracles of their own. I love it! I loved the pageant! I love Nauvoo! I love this work!
Thanks for all the support. Love you all!
-Sis. Cartwright
Monday, August 4, 2008
“Sometimes adversity works in our favor.”
This quote is from Jack Renouf. He’s the pageant president and an incredibly inspired man. The quote came because we were talking about the rainstorm the night before and how it was pouring all day and then let up from pre-show through pageant and then started again as we were packing up after pageant. It was a reminder that even when bad things happen, it can work to show us the power of God. Love it!
Happy August! Whoa.
I LOVE TO SEE THE TEMPLE
So we lost 3 of our sisters. 5 more leave at the end of this transfer. It’ll be weird to be in the last group left. But before they left we had a night in the temple. We did this last yr too. We started it by being able to clean in the temple. We were vacuuming in all the rooms on all the floors. It was way cool. We got to the 3rd floor and Sis. Rancie and I headed straight to the Celestial Room. It was SO quiet and still and peaceful. It was so, so dang cool! We spent a few quiet, prayerful moments, then turned on the vacuums and got to work. The coolest thing though was that the Spirit was so strong, even while vacuuming. Later one of the temple engineer people explained some of the murals to us and then we went to the assembly room to check that out too. It was just so cool. Just a reminder that the Spirit is in God’s temple, at any time of day. It was so fun with all of us in our white jumpsuits fluttering around dusting and vacuuming. Chores have never been so pleasant. :)
VISIT FROM THE GHOSTS OF SUMMER PAST
Ok, not ghosts. Three of the sisters from last yr came out. Sis. South, Francis, and Rasmussen. It was awesome to see them. Sis. South just kinda backed her way into our pageant booth when I was in there and I saw her from the back and didn’t think anything of it cause it was so normal for her to be there. Then it registered. It was so fun to see them and to catch up. They loved being here and loved to remind us that they were enjoying Nauvoo with the benefits of sleeping in and wearing jeans. It was so cool to see them get recharged about their missionary work and the things they learned from their missions. And I’m sure they didn’t mind being called “Sister” all weekend either. :)
SUNDAY, SUNDAY
Yesterday was a good, full day. We got to interpret for someone at church, then had dist mtg, then served in the NVC and made lots of phone calls (I’m continually inspired by the Church members who come here and their desire to share the gosp), then broke our fast at president’s house, then zone conference, then the pageant cast sociable. The Sociable is geared toward a more general (not totally LDS) audience and they perform it all around the surrounding towns when they’re here. The whole thing focuses on families and so many aspects of it really stuck out to me last night. I loved being reminded that families are here to take care of each other. I love the cycle of learning from each other and growing with each other. This all sounds corny but you know what I mean. I know families truly are ordained of God.
Love you all,
Sis C
Happy August! Whoa.
I LOVE TO SEE THE TEMPLE
So we lost 3 of our sisters. 5 more leave at the end of this transfer. It’ll be weird to be in the last group left. But before they left we had a night in the temple. We did this last yr too. We started it by being able to clean in the temple. We were vacuuming in all the rooms on all the floors. It was way cool. We got to the 3rd floor and Sis. Rancie and I headed straight to the Celestial Room. It was SO quiet and still and peaceful. It was so, so dang cool! We spent a few quiet, prayerful moments, then turned on the vacuums and got to work. The coolest thing though was that the Spirit was so strong, even while vacuuming. Later one of the temple engineer people explained some of the murals to us and then we went to the assembly room to check that out too. It was just so cool. Just a reminder that the Spirit is in God’s temple, at any time of day. It was so fun with all of us in our white jumpsuits fluttering around dusting and vacuuming. Chores have never been so pleasant. :)
VISIT FROM THE GHOSTS OF SUMMER PAST
Ok, not ghosts. Three of the sisters from last yr came out. Sis. South, Francis, and Rasmussen. It was awesome to see them. Sis. South just kinda backed her way into our pageant booth when I was in there and I saw her from the back and didn’t think anything of it cause it was so normal for her to be there. Then it registered. It was so fun to see them and to catch up. They loved being here and loved to remind us that they were enjoying Nauvoo with the benefits of sleeping in and wearing jeans. It was so cool to see them get recharged about their missionary work and the things they learned from their missions. And I’m sure they didn’t mind being called “Sister” all weekend either. :)
SUNDAY, SUNDAY
Yesterday was a good, full day. We got to interpret for someone at church, then had dist mtg, then served in the NVC and made lots of phone calls (I’m continually inspired by the Church members who come here and their desire to share the gosp), then broke our fast at president’s house, then zone conference, then the pageant cast sociable. The Sociable is geared toward a more general (not totally LDS) audience and they perform it all around the surrounding towns when they’re here. The whole thing focuses on families and so many aspects of it really stuck out to me last night. I loved being reminded that families are here to take care of each other. I love the cycle of learning from each other and growing with each other. This all sounds corny but you know what I mean. I know families truly are ordained of God.
Love you all,
Sis C
Monday, July 28, 2008
"I know it's true. So much that I can't not share it."
Quote from awesome visitor. Powerhouse member missionary. Hope I can have that perspective.
TRANSFERS
Transfers took me by surprise, as usual. I was pretty sure Sis. Rancie and I were staying together until pageant was through since we need to work on pageant stuff together but we’ve been split. We’ve been together since April. This makes her my 2nd longest comp. We’re bummed but we’ll still be in the same house. (You never get transferred too far here :) ). We’re also both way pumped about our new comps and housemates. They’ll be 4 of us in the little house still. Both of our comps are newer and have never served in Nauvoo (both just in Carthage) so it’ll be fun living with them down on the flats. Our house is right with the sites. In fact, the wagon ride drives past us like 15 times a day at least. We poke our heads out and wave. ….Only in Nauvoo.
Anyway, my new comp is Sis. Thomas. For those of you who remember, I’ve already had a comp with that name. :) This is a diff one. She’s from SLC, went to BYU. We’re buddies already. She’s way cool. And the 4 of us are all very excited for the variety of closets we’ll have. Then the 2nd coolest part, drumroll….partway through the transfer I’m getting my first ever ASL companion! She’s coming in Aug and I’m so stoked to be able to have language study with my comp. It’ll be a dream. I don’t know much about her yet but I’ll fill you in when she gets here.
WHERE AM I?
So just when I think my mission isn’t THAT unusual, we have nights like last night. We had a Sunday Sociable put on by this band that plays this LDS country music. Now normally of course, that would make me throw up, but all their music is about Nauvoo and the pioneers so somehow it finds a special way into my heart. It’s the Nashville Tribute music for those of you who are into your LDS pop culture. Anyway, they were doing a show last night outdoors but of course a flash thunderstorm came so plans were changed. Long story short we found ourselves hanging out listening to this live concert at like 10:45pm. What the? It was just a hilarious situation and we just kept looking at each other saying, “this isn’t right.” For those who don’t get how weird that is, we were up past curfew (with our mission pres there, mind you) listening to music that is abnormally lively for most missionaries and probably not even allowed in some missions. Ha! So bizarre.
CALL CENTER
So we’re still calling people about the CDs. We’re getting some YPMs and pageant cast and even random visitors to come help. They love doing it. The coolest was this random 17 yr-old convert kid who road to Nauvoo from WI on his bike. Of course. He’s been in Nauvoo a few days and loved it and told someone he was praying for missionary opportunities and so he ended up getting in touch with us and coming to help in the call center. He loved it and was awesome. What a champ. We have a few pre-mission people coming in to help and they love it. Such a good chance to get used to talking to just about anyone and testifying in little ways.
Welp, gotta run. I want you all to know that any efforts we make in bringing others closer to Christ is the Lord’s work. As we keep his commandments and honor our covenants He will give us the power we need to do His work.
Love you all!
- Sis C
TRANSFERS
Transfers took me by surprise, as usual. I was pretty sure Sis. Rancie and I were staying together until pageant was through since we need to work on pageant stuff together but we’ve been split. We’ve been together since April. This makes her my 2nd longest comp. We’re bummed but we’ll still be in the same house. (You never get transferred too far here :) ). We’re also both way pumped about our new comps and housemates. They’ll be 4 of us in the little house still. Both of our comps are newer and have never served in Nauvoo (both just in Carthage) so it’ll be fun living with them down on the flats. Our house is right with the sites. In fact, the wagon ride drives past us like 15 times a day at least. We poke our heads out and wave. ….Only in Nauvoo.
Anyway, my new comp is Sis. Thomas. For those of you who remember, I’ve already had a comp with that name. :) This is a diff one. She’s from SLC, went to BYU. We’re buddies already. She’s way cool. And the 4 of us are all very excited for the variety of closets we’ll have. Then the 2nd coolest part, drumroll….partway through the transfer I’m getting my first ever ASL companion! She’s coming in Aug and I’m so stoked to be able to have language study with my comp. It’ll be a dream. I don’t know much about her yet but I’ll fill you in when she gets here.
WHERE AM I?
So just when I think my mission isn’t THAT unusual, we have nights like last night. We had a Sunday Sociable put on by this band that plays this LDS country music. Now normally of course, that would make me throw up, but all their music is about Nauvoo and the pioneers so somehow it finds a special way into my heart. It’s the Nashville Tribute music for those of you who are into your LDS pop culture. Anyway, they were doing a show last night outdoors but of course a flash thunderstorm came so plans were changed. Long story short we found ourselves hanging out listening to this live concert at like 10:45pm. What the? It was just a hilarious situation and we just kept looking at each other saying, “this isn’t right.” For those who don’t get how weird that is, we were up past curfew (with our mission pres there, mind you) listening to music that is abnormally lively for most missionaries and probably not even allowed in some missions. Ha! So bizarre.
CALL CENTER
So we’re still calling people about the CDs. We’re getting some YPMs and pageant cast and even random visitors to come help. They love doing it. The coolest was this random 17 yr-old convert kid who road to Nauvoo from WI on his bike. Of course. He’s been in Nauvoo a few days and loved it and told someone he was praying for missionary opportunities and so he ended up getting in touch with us and coming to help in the call center. He loved it and was awesome. What a champ. We have a few pre-mission people coming in to help and they love it. Such a good chance to get used to talking to just about anyone and testifying in little ways.
Welp, gotta run. I want you all to know that any efforts we make in bringing others closer to Christ is the Lord’s work. As we keep his commandments and honor our covenants He will give us the power we need to do His work.
Love you all!
- Sis C
Monday, July 21, 2008
“I know I’m being selfish, but it’s pageant. We’re all animals now.”
This quote was Sis. Dalley. Pageant season drains and tries us in beautiful ways. :) She said this yesterday when she took the softest, biggest seat at our sisters meeting. It was pretty hysterical and she’s pretty right. :)
POISENING OUR MINDS
So, not only am I totally incapable of beginning years with anything but “18…” (yes, I was born in 1882. What seems to be the problem?) but Sis. Granja (housemate) was trying to tell her companion a story about Harry Potter, and all of the characters she was mentioning, instead of Harry or Ralph (I don’t know their actually names) were accidentally coming out of her mouth with names like “Joseph Smith” or “John Taylor” or “Brigham Young.” She couldn’t even get through her story. Ahhh, I love it!
PAGEANT MIRACLES
So for the first time in years, it rained during pageant. That never happens. It’ll rain right until pageant and it’ll rain right after but never during. But it did. The miracle was that most of the audience stayed and we had almost record-breaking attendance. Those who stayed were blessed for their efforts and there were lots of little miracles. There was one girl who came with some local missionaries. She’s been investigating the Church, but not that seriously. As she was watching pageant, she just started bawling. She couldn’t fully understand why or what was going on. She described it as both frightening and thrilling. That night she realized she wants to be baptized and that the life changes she will need to make will be worth all the sacrifice she can give.
LITTLE KIDS ARE THE COOLEST
One precious moment was at pageant I was walking around talking to people and ran across this cute pageant member. He was like an 8-yr old boy. I asked him how it was going talking to people. He said it was going okay. He then explained to me that he was supposed to go be like a missionary and talk to people after the pageant and offer then the Nauvoo Pageant CD. He’s explaining this all to me in a very matter-of-fact way, which is awesome cause I go to all their pre-show meetings and help with some of the training but he definitely didn’t recognize me. He’s telling me all about the cards then just kind of transitions and says, “so, do you have anyone you’d like to send the CD to?” So sincere! He then realized I was a missionary but still asked me in was so dang sincere. The coolest thing was that the Spirit gave me right then and idea for someone and it was just because of this boy’s simple and fearless faith.
POWER OF ONE
The other day we had a couple come to the pageant cast mtg. They had just recently joined the Church. They told of an experience they had when they were in UT (before they were baptized). They randomly met Pres. Hinckley and Pres. Monson and the wife had no clue who they were. They walked away and she put her hand on her chest and just said, “Wow. Did you feel that spirit?” (She’s a black woman. They always seem to be so in tune. :) ) They randomly came to Nauvoo last summer and saw pageant. During pageant she remembered thinking to herself “wow, they all have that spirit.” They started meeting with the missionaries as soon as they went home. It was a cool story because it reminded me that the Lord can and will use all of us who are willing as sources to carry His light. For myself, watching pageant, I’ll catch a glimpse of someone’s expression during a song, or even seeing a family I take on a tour, and just the way they carry themselves and the way they are allows their testimony to shine through. It’s been an amazing lesson to me. I love all the pageant miracles. We’ve already been able to send out over 200 CDs to people who want them delivered. Way cool! I love this work and being a part of it!
Love you! Gotta run!
-sis c
POISENING OUR MINDS
So, not only am I totally incapable of beginning years with anything but “18…” (yes, I was born in 1882. What seems to be the problem?) but Sis. Granja (housemate) was trying to tell her companion a story about Harry Potter, and all of the characters she was mentioning, instead of Harry or Ralph (I don’t know their actually names) were accidentally coming out of her mouth with names like “Joseph Smith” or “John Taylor” or “Brigham Young.” She couldn’t even get through her story. Ahhh, I love it!
PAGEANT MIRACLES
So for the first time in years, it rained during pageant. That never happens. It’ll rain right until pageant and it’ll rain right after but never during. But it did. The miracle was that most of the audience stayed and we had almost record-breaking attendance. Those who stayed were blessed for their efforts and there were lots of little miracles. There was one girl who came with some local missionaries. She’s been investigating the Church, but not that seriously. As she was watching pageant, she just started bawling. She couldn’t fully understand why or what was going on. She described it as both frightening and thrilling. That night she realized she wants to be baptized and that the life changes she will need to make will be worth all the sacrifice she can give.
LITTLE KIDS ARE THE COOLEST
One precious moment was at pageant I was walking around talking to people and ran across this cute pageant member. He was like an 8-yr old boy. I asked him how it was going talking to people. He said it was going okay. He then explained to me that he was supposed to go be like a missionary and talk to people after the pageant and offer then the Nauvoo Pageant CD. He’s explaining this all to me in a very matter-of-fact way, which is awesome cause I go to all their pre-show meetings and help with some of the training but he definitely didn’t recognize me. He’s telling me all about the cards then just kind of transitions and says, “so, do you have anyone you’d like to send the CD to?” So sincere! He then realized I was a missionary but still asked me in was so dang sincere. The coolest thing was that the Spirit gave me right then and idea for someone and it was just because of this boy’s simple and fearless faith.
POWER OF ONE
The other day we had a couple come to the pageant cast mtg. They had just recently joined the Church. They told of an experience they had when they were in UT (before they were baptized). They randomly met Pres. Hinckley and Pres. Monson and the wife had no clue who they were. They walked away and she put her hand on her chest and just said, “Wow. Did you feel that spirit?” (She’s a black woman. They always seem to be so in tune. :) ) They randomly came to Nauvoo last summer and saw pageant. During pageant she remembered thinking to herself “wow, they all have that spirit.” They started meeting with the missionaries as soon as they went home. It was a cool story because it reminded me that the Lord can and will use all of us who are willing as sources to carry His light. For myself, watching pageant, I’ll catch a glimpse of someone’s expression during a song, or even seeing a family I take on a tour, and just the way they carry themselves and the way they are allows their testimony to shine through. It’s been an amazing lesson to me. I love all the pageant miracles. We’ve already been able to send out over 200 CDs to people who want them delivered. Way cool! I love this work and being a part of it!
Love you! Gotta run!
-sis c
Monday, July 7, 2008
“Be yourself….a son or daughter of God.”
Quote by Pres. Uchtdorf. See below.
SPECIAL GUEST
So here in Nauvoo we occasionally get to see very special guests. Sometimes they’re coming for the purpose of talking to us and sometimes they just happen to be on their family vacations. This week we were privileged to have Pres. Uchtdorf come and visit. He was here on vacation with his wife and his 2 grandsons that are about to go into the MTC. For those who don’t know who he is, Pres. Uchtdorf is an amazing, spiritually gigantic German man who is also an apostle of the Lord and the second counselor to the prophet today. It was way cool to see him. When he first got here he came down to the outdoor performance but just kinda slipped in the back with the mission pres and his wife. Then there’s this part in the performance where they play the anthems of the different military branches and you stand up when yours is played and they take you up on stage. Don’t worry that he gets up when they play the air force anthem. Of course, everyone goes crazy. Cameras going off everywhere. No one had ANY idea he was there before that and he just gets up on stage with everyone else like it’s no big deal. Afterwards there were of course many people who wanted to meet him and he was very kind and patient. Funny that if he’d gone to Disneyland or Hawaii or somewhere else on vacation no one would’ve even looked twice at him but since they were at Church history sites, they had to plan very carefully so he wouldn’t get too mobbed everywhere he went. But he was always very gracious and took time to visit with people as he went along. The sisters in Carthage took him on a tour. No pressure. :) For the weekend he was here we had to be on our best behavior and wear blazers and all that good stuff. On fourth of July AM we had a mission breakfast and then Pres. Ludwig worked it out where Pres. Uchtdorf came and talked to all of us and the YPMs. He and his wife were hysterical. So dang cute. Then last night after they’d left we went to president’s house and ate all the leftover food Sis. Ludwig bought for their visit. Just one more perk. :)
When he was here it was so cool to hear him testify of the priesthood powers that are on the earth today. He testified of the divine process of calling missionaries to their missions and testified so strongly of the love our Heavenly Father has for each of us. I know that because of that love, God provides us with things like the scriptures and prophets today so that we can understand Him better and work better to become what He expects of us.
JULY 4TH FUN
Of course we had to go overboard this year cause I live in a house with an Aussie and a Brazilian. My comp thinks American patriotism is a bit ridiculous so we woke her up that AM to the National Anthem by the Mormon Tab. Choir and Sis. Granja and I stood respectfully in the room with our hands over our hearts humming along. She was not amused. :) Later we made an Australian cake to celebrate her sister’s wedding that was going on in Australia. It was very yummy….and happened to be red and white.
DEAF CENTRAL
Woohoo! We had two different deaf couples. One was two sisters who came. They are deaf but use oral methods of communicating (lipreading and speaking). It was SO interesting cause culturally that’s VERY different from the ASL world so it was fascinating to talk with them and get their perspective. We got to do oral interpreting for them, which basically was just mouthing VERY clearly everything that was being said with facial expressions. It was a challenge but it was way cool.
Later on in the week we had a very sweet deaf couple. They had no idea interpreting was offered here and were excited. Sis. Jones and I got to go around with them to a couple different sites. I still have a LOT of room to improve with my language skills but I’m so grateful to get the practice. And we were able to have more spiritual conversations, which was a blessing cause that’s what I’m working to get better at. The coolest part was that Sis. Jones had actually been fasting that day for an opportunity to use ASL. VERY direct answer. :)
PAGEANT IS APPROACHING
We’re getting everything geared up for pageant. The best part is that there’s a new computer-based referral system we’re using and there are some glitches that still need to be worked out but what that means is that I get to play on the computer for a couple hours a day. Yes, very fulfilling. :) The crowds are finally picking up a bit and it’s so cool to meet the pageant casts as they come in. These families are so awesome to devote so much of their time to coming out and serving in this capacity. They’re such awesome families and I’m so excited for all of the good they’ll be doing out here.
Love you all!
Monday, June 30, 2008
"Heavenly Father is the best matchmaker of them all"
Quote from a visitor. I’m not thinking about making a match for myself, but I thought it was cute and quite profound.
LIGHTENING AND LIGHTENING BUGS….AGAIN!
Some of you more faithful readers may recognize this topic from last yr. The other day I had a cool mid-west experience though. We were coming home from a show and a crazy lightening storm happened. I think it rained for a second but mostly just warm wind and CRAZY lightening everywhere. Me and the other sisters I live with (we moved into the little “sidekick” house last transfer, not the main big one so there’s only 4 of us now) went out and watched it for like 20 min and had lots of fun playing games with the lightening (don’t worry, there were many things taller than us and I wasn’t wearing anything metallic.) Anyway, then when we were going to bed I was laying there awake after I said my prayers (this 8 hrs of sleep thing is a different world. I haven’t fallen asleep face-down on the floor or in my scriptures even once!) and I was still pretty wired from the lightening, so anyway…I was looking around and see tiny but very bright white light in the room. It would come and go and move around the top of the windowsill. All very strange. A list of things it could be. Headlights from far away, a white laser pointer, my mind…..I couldn’t tell. The lightening was still going like crazy outside so somewhere in the back of my mind (I wasn’t going to tell anyone this but I let it slip to my comp) I thought maybe it was a bit of lightening that had gotten stuck in the room in the drapes. I know, it doesn’t make ANY sense. I know. And it wasn’t my FIRST guess, just an option. Eventually I got brave enough to get up and try to get close to the light to see what it was and it came at me then flew around the room, then I solved the mystery. It was so cool though to have lightening outside and this little traveling light inside. Anyway, by the time my comp finished prayers I told her everything that happened (the bug was of course gone) and I just hurredly told her all the things I was guessing it was. A little while later after some silence she goes, (in her Aussie accent), “A piece of lightening got stuck, ay?”
DEAF COUPLE!!!
We had a deaf couple named Eric and Debbie visit and I got to spend a couple hours with them in the VC then our at the carriage ride. They’re newly married and pregnant. She’s just started coming back to church (she actually served a mission in the south) and he’s investigating. He’s planning on getting baptized but has some issues. It was way cool to get to spend so much time with them. I really prayed for the Lord to help me understand. That’s usually the problem—I can sign fine and even interpret but when they sign back my mind goes blank. But He totally helped me and I got mostly everything they said, even if it took a couple times. I wish I was skilled enough to have more in-depth conversations so I could really do missionary work in the way that I would in English but I guess all I can do is study and prepare my hardest and the Lord will make my skills equal to what He needs me for at the time. He knows what I am capable of and if I can’t help them in the way that they need, He will put them in the place of whoever can.
MARTRYDOM COMMEMORATION
We ended up getting to go to 2 programs—one that we do with the Community of Christ down at the Smith Family Cemetary (really good and very interesting to see how their church is so very different with some similar threads) and one at the jail. After the jail one I got to take a tour group through and then later all the sisters went into the martyrdom room as we closed and sang “Praise to the Man” and just had time to reflect. I know that Joseph Smith was not only an unbelievably dedicated servant of the Lord but indeed the first prophet in these latter-days. I think of not only the things that he himself suffered but the things he watched those around him to suffer, and I know that he only had the strength to bear those things because he had the assurance that it was the Lord asking him to go through it. I know that all of the things that he and the early saints suffered have been consecrated to our gain in profound, immeasurable ways.
SUNDAY SOCIABLE
So this year all the young sister missionaries did a musical fireside thing. We did one last yr too. It’s always cool because there’s no better audience than 200 beaming grandparents. We could seriously get up there and do anything and they’d be so proud. :) But plus I love it because the Spirit in the room and the love just radiates because the love that each of the missionaries and visitors in attendance carries. Their testimonies and love of the Savior radiate. The theme was Becoming One in Christ and at the end they did a video with clips of missionaries from all different parts of Nauvoo (performing missionaries, temple, Nauvoo Restoration, gardening, sewing room, teamsters, band, etc.) sharing their feelings about the gospel. Really just reminded me that as we all try to align our will with the Father’s, we become one in Him. We do this by making His highest priorities become our highest priorities and we learn in the scruiptures that His #1 priority, or rather His work and His glory is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” All of our most sincere, concentrated efforts in that area, whether that’s through parenthood, missionary work, being a good friend or good visiting teacher, will bring us closer to God because we are making our personal missions in life become the same as His.
After the sociable Sis Ludwig had us all over for an impromptu ice cream party. Gotta love it. :)
Ok, love you all!
LIGHTENING AND LIGHTENING BUGS….AGAIN!
Some of you more faithful readers may recognize this topic from last yr. The other day I had a cool mid-west experience though. We were coming home from a show and a crazy lightening storm happened. I think it rained for a second but mostly just warm wind and CRAZY lightening everywhere. Me and the other sisters I live with (we moved into the little “sidekick” house last transfer, not the main big one so there’s only 4 of us now) went out and watched it for like 20 min and had lots of fun playing games with the lightening (don’t worry, there were many things taller than us and I wasn’t wearing anything metallic.) Anyway, then when we were going to bed I was laying there awake after I said my prayers (this 8 hrs of sleep thing is a different world. I haven’t fallen asleep face-down on the floor or in my scriptures even once!) and I was still pretty wired from the lightening, so anyway…I was looking around and see tiny but very bright white light in the room. It would come and go and move around the top of the windowsill. All very strange. A list of things it could be. Headlights from far away, a white laser pointer, my mind…..I couldn’t tell. The lightening was still going like crazy outside so somewhere in the back of my mind (I wasn’t going to tell anyone this but I let it slip to my comp) I thought maybe it was a bit of lightening that had gotten stuck in the room in the drapes. I know, it doesn’t make ANY sense. I know. And it wasn’t my FIRST guess, just an option. Eventually I got brave enough to get up and try to get close to the light to see what it was and it came at me then flew around the room, then I solved the mystery. It was so cool though to have lightening outside and this little traveling light inside. Anyway, by the time my comp finished prayers I told her everything that happened (the bug was of course gone) and I just hurredly told her all the things I was guessing it was. A little while later after some silence she goes, (in her Aussie accent), “A piece of lightening got stuck, ay?”
DEAF COUPLE!!!
We had a deaf couple named Eric and Debbie visit and I got to spend a couple hours with them in the VC then our at the carriage ride. They’re newly married and pregnant. She’s just started coming back to church (she actually served a mission in the south) and he’s investigating. He’s planning on getting baptized but has some issues. It was way cool to get to spend so much time with them. I really prayed for the Lord to help me understand. That’s usually the problem—I can sign fine and even interpret but when they sign back my mind goes blank. But He totally helped me and I got mostly everything they said, even if it took a couple times. I wish I was skilled enough to have more in-depth conversations so I could really do missionary work in the way that I would in English but I guess all I can do is study and prepare my hardest and the Lord will make my skills equal to what He needs me for at the time. He knows what I am capable of and if I can’t help them in the way that they need, He will put them in the place of whoever can.
MARTRYDOM COMMEMORATION
We ended up getting to go to 2 programs—one that we do with the Community of Christ down at the Smith Family Cemetary (really good and very interesting to see how their church is so very different with some similar threads) and one at the jail. After the jail one I got to take a tour group through and then later all the sisters went into the martyrdom room as we closed and sang “Praise to the Man” and just had time to reflect. I know that Joseph Smith was not only an unbelievably dedicated servant of the Lord but indeed the first prophet in these latter-days. I think of not only the things that he himself suffered but the things he watched those around him to suffer, and I know that he only had the strength to bear those things because he had the assurance that it was the Lord asking him to go through it. I know that all of the things that he and the early saints suffered have been consecrated to our gain in profound, immeasurable ways.
SUNDAY SOCIABLE
So this year all the young sister missionaries did a musical fireside thing. We did one last yr too. It’s always cool because there’s no better audience than 200 beaming grandparents. We could seriously get up there and do anything and they’d be so proud. :) But plus I love it because the Spirit in the room and the love just radiates because the love that each of the missionaries and visitors in attendance carries. Their testimonies and love of the Savior radiate. The theme was Becoming One in Christ and at the end they did a video with clips of missionaries from all different parts of Nauvoo (performing missionaries, temple, Nauvoo Restoration, gardening, sewing room, teamsters, band, etc.) sharing their feelings about the gospel. Really just reminded me that as we all try to align our will with the Father’s, we become one in Him. We do this by making His highest priorities become our highest priorities and we learn in the scruiptures that His #1 priority, or rather His work and His glory is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” All of our most sincere, concentrated efforts in that area, whether that’s through parenthood, missionary work, being a good friend or good visiting teacher, will bring us closer to God because we are making our personal missions in life become the same as His.
After the sociable Sis Ludwig had us all over for an impromptu ice cream party. Gotta love it. :)
Ok, love you all!
Monday, June 23, 2008
"There are days when it's easy and days when it's hard, but if you are doing God's work, then there are no bad days."
This quote compliments of Amanda Lilly Menghini who found it in a book. Good find! Good quote. :)
FLOOD UPDATE
So really don’t ask me for an update cause we really haven’t been able to see how bad it is. Everything still seems fine here in Nauvoo but apparently there’s been tons of damage done in some of the surrounding areas. But the sandbagging has definitely helped. The coolest thing was that since the flood’s so severe, we got more chances to help sandbag. Tues we went back to the tiny town of Niota (by tiny I mean abt. 60 ppl) and then Wed they took all the young sisters off the schedules again, did serious rearranging and sent us all down to Quincy (abt 45 min away) for a full day of sandbagging. There we met up with about 70 missionaries from the Peoria mission and about 30 from St. Louis. Wow. It was quite the force. About 130 missionaries total. We all got those yellow shirts that the Church passes out now for natural disasters and on the back they say “Mormon Helping Hands” so there was no mistaking what group we were with—just in case people missed seeing the black badges. :) It really was amazing how many of us were able to go and we worked with the National Guard, the community members, and the convicts (they kept to themselves…) So yeah, it was way awesome.
MY NEW BEST FRIEND
So while we were sandbagging in Quincy I saw this woman there with her 3 little kids, ages 10, 7, and 5. They, obviously, weren’t the MOST skilled sandbaggers, the little 5-yr old taking fistfuls of sand to dump in buckets, but they were out there working as a fam. It was a little strange to have all those kids out there and even stranger cause they weren’t LDS. But I started talking to her and she’s totally my hero! This woman lives in Chicago (at least a 4-hr drive) and saw on the news that they needed help sandbagging on the Mississippi. She loaded her kids in the car (she thinks it’s vital that they’re personally involved with service as often as possible and takes them to soup kitchens at least once a month, among many other things), drove out to Quincy, rented a hotel room and are planning on staying until the river crests. Wow. She was so stinkin cool. We talked for a long time. She told me about how she never thought she wanted to have a family because she loved her career traveling as a filmmaker. However, as soon as she had her first daughter she dropped everything and now her family is the total center of her life. She was way excited to bring her kids to Nauvoo when I told her about it and even more excited when I told her about the Book of Mormon and how it’s another record testifying of Christ. I told her of all the things my family could’ve taught me, what I valued most were the teachings of Jesus Christ found in the Book of Mormon. She’d heard of the book before, but like most people, didn’t really understand what it was. It was so cool to talk to her. She said, “I believe you can always add to the truth you have” and she’s dead on. I’m so excited for her to get to read the Book of Mormon and see the changes in her life and her family’s.
Got 2 new sisters this week. Woohoo! Sis. Rancie and I moved into our little house down on the flats with 1 other companionship. It’s right there in the middle of everything.
Friday is the anniversary of the martyrdom of the prophet Joseph Smith so we'll be down in Carthage for that.
Keep up all the good work and remember that Heavenly Father loves you each enough to provide miracles in your lives. :)
Love,
Sis Cartwright
FLOOD UPDATE
So really don’t ask me for an update cause we really haven’t been able to see how bad it is. Everything still seems fine here in Nauvoo but apparently there’s been tons of damage done in some of the surrounding areas. But the sandbagging has definitely helped. The coolest thing was that since the flood’s so severe, we got more chances to help sandbag. Tues we went back to the tiny town of Niota (by tiny I mean abt. 60 ppl) and then Wed they took all the young sisters off the schedules again, did serious rearranging and sent us all down to Quincy (abt 45 min away) for a full day of sandbagging. There we met up with about 70 missionaries from the Peoria mission and about 30 from St. Louis. Wow. It was quite the force. About 130 missionaries total. We all got those yellow shirts that the Church passes out now for natural disasters and on the back they say “Mormon Helping Hands” so there was no mistaking what group we were with—just in case people missed seeing the black badges. :) It really was amazing how many of us were able to go and we worked with the National Guard, the community members, and the convicts (they kept to themselves…) So yeah, it was way awesome.
MY NEW BEST FRIEND
So while we were sandbagging in Quincy I saw this woman there with her 3 little kids, ages 10, 7, and 5. They, obviously, weren’t the MOST skilled sandbaggers, the little 5-yr old taking fistfuls of sand to dump in buckets, but they were out there working as a fam. It was a little strange to have all those kids out there and even stranger cause they weren’t LDS. But I started talking to her and she’s totally my hero! This woman lives in Chicago (at least a 4-hr drive) and saw on the news that they needed help sandbagging on the Mississippi. She loaded her kids in the car (she thinks it’s vital that they’re personally involved with service as often as possible and takes them to soup kitchens at least once a month, among many other things), drove out to Quincy, rented a hotel room and are planning on staying until the river crests. Wow. She was so stinkin cool. We talked for a long time. She told me about how she never thought she wanted to have a family because she loved her career traveling as a filmmaker. However, as soon as she had her first daughter she dropped everything and now her family is the total center of her life. She was way excited to bring her kids to Nauvoo when I told her about it and even more excited when I told her about the Book of Mormon and how it’s another record testifying of Christ. I told her of all the things my family could’ve taught me, what I valued most were the teachings of Jesus Christ found in the Book of Mormon. She’d heard of the book before, but like most people, didn’t really understand what it was. It was so cool to talk to her. She said, “I believe you can always add to the truth you have” and she’s dead on. I’m so excited for her to get to read the Book of Mormon and see the changes in her life and her family’s.
Got 2 new sisters this week. Woohoo! Sis. Rancie and I moved into our little house down on the flats with 1 other companionship. It’s right there in the middle of everything.
Friday is the anniversary of the martyrdom of the prophet Joseph Smith so we'll be down in Carthage for that.
Keep up all the good work and remember that Heavenly Father loves you each enough to provide miracles in your lives. :)
Love,
Sis Cartwright
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