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
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
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
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