BACK TO BOISE!!!!!

We got transfer calls! *Drumroll please!*..........................

Jk, you already know, I put it in the subject. haha

I'm going back to Boise!!!!! 

I will be serving in the Amity Stake with Sister Marshall!

Seriously, I am SO excited.  Like, I'm really really sad to leave Paul, Idaho.  I love the community, people, farm land, small town, mountains, and everything about it here! It's literally been a dream for me as I've lived here... But, it's been a wonderful round and change has to come eventually.

But on the other hand, I am thrilled to return back to Boise!  

There's not too much else to report this week.

Cody was baptized!!! Cody was actually re-baptized because his records were lost.  He is 12 years old.  He hasn't been active until recently and that's why we discovered his records are non-existent. It was cool because at his baptismal interview he told our district leader that he's glad he's getting baptized again because the first time he was baptized he didn't feel that he took on the name of Christ. Now he is ready to make that commitment! The Lord works in mysterious ways...

It SNOWED this week! I thought that part of winter was over, but apparently not!  It's still snowing today.  Crazy.  But with the snow and Idaho wind comes big snow drifts (Snow that just keeps piling up).  With the snow drifts come Sister Carling's adventurous driving through them, because we have 4 wheel drive....(Haha Jk, I'm not crazy)  Aaaaaand with that comes us getting stuck! S.T.U.C.K.  We had a giant road grader plow come get us unstuck.  That was fun.

On Saturday night we had a WONDERFUL lesson with Kayla! Her husband Seth wasn't able to make it, but I am SO sad to be leaving them!!! I feel like they are a reason I served in the Hazelton ward.  They are making progress and are gaining an understanding of and desire to learn the gospel that they've never had before.  We taught her repentance and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  We did an object lesson with bleach and food coloring to show that repenting cleanses our spirits.  We also watched a video about the debtor and Mediator.  Christ is the ONLY one who can and already has paid for our sins and salvation.  She really is grasping all of what we have taught her.  It makes me happy, but so sad to leave now!!

Ummm.... I'm tryin' to think of what else I can say.....

.....I got nuthin'.

This week is going to be an adventure, as I adjust back to city life.... haha  I sure am going to miss small town Idaho.  

Ponderize: Alma 42:15

And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made;

therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to

appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also.

 

I read Alma 42 this week.  I love these chapters that really explain the Plan of Salvation and how it works.  Mercy and Justice!--We can have both because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  It was cool to teach this principle to Kayla.  When we don't let Christ in to pay the difference from our sins, it's like having someone pay for our groceries and then leaving them at the store.  What a waist! Christ is our Mediator.  He makes us the difference...He is the difference!

Well.....Here I go, back to Boise! :D

XoXo

Sister Carling

Remember this picture from a few weeks ago...??

 

Then I hope y'all can appreciate this picture to go with it. Haha! 

Sister Fitt and I sure do have lots of fun. :)  Gonna miss her!

 

Cody's baptism!

 

When the snow came back...we were surprised!

 

 I got the car stuck.

 

Car selfie with Sister Fitt!

 

 

 

Thanks for the card Dad!!

Spreading the Love!

Hello to everyone reading this! Just wanna say I love you and am so grateful for the support I receive! I am so blessed.

Alright, let me gather my thoughts....

Valentines Day!

We had a great day spreading love to people.  We went around heart-attacking people's doors.  It was so fun! :)  I think about 3 people caught us in the act... Not sneaky enough, I guess. 😜

Cody is getting baptized this Saturday!  This week we taught him the Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, Tithing and Fasting, the 10 commandments, and reviewed the baptismal interview questions. Whew! haha  He's totally ready and excited.

We taught Carson the Plan of Salvation. He's a smart 9 year old! I asked, "So where do you want to go?" Of course, the celestial kingdom.  I said, "So what can you do now so that you can get there?" The first thing he said, "Not litter." Haha! Wise words. :)

We ate dinner in Eden, Idaho: population 405.  We walk in and I see their wedding picture is at the Mesa temple so I asked where she was from--Mesa! Then I asked what high school she went to. She said, "I went to a charter school." What charter school? "Heritage Academy." NO WAY, ME TOO!!!! Sooo she graduated in 1997 with a class of 15 people. Haha!! Seriously such a small world.  I found someone who went to Heritage in Eden, Idaho, population 405. Made my night.

We had an awesome lesson with Seth and Kayla with a few object lessons which made it a little more fun.  They said it was the best missionary lesson they had. Yay!!

Ponderize: Alma 29:9

I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps

I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.

To go along with last week's theme of joy, I know that missionary work brings so much joy and I am very grateful to be a missionary!!!!

From Idaho to you,

XoXo

Sister Carling

We bagged sand as a district to help for the flooding!

 

 Arial view of the flooding in my area

I love Sister Fitt!

Anybody want a stop sign?

Teaching my companion how to be a photographer. ;) haha

 

 

 Valentine's Day Fun!

 

The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up!

What a week! Idaho is flooding!  Rewind before that happened....

Last Tuesday we went on exchanges.  I was with Sister Merrell, from Snowflake, AZ! Go AZ! :)  Her and I had lots of fun.  We made some connections to people that we both know. Small world. :) #Mormons  That morning, we woke up to more snow!!  Remember last Monday when it was a "heat wave"? Yeah, well most of the snow melted, and it was completely a surprise to wake up to everything being white again!  When Sister Merrell and I tried to go out for the day... (in their 2 wheel-drive Chevy Cruize) and FAILED! haha There was too much snow and ice, the car wasn't moving.  We tried for an hour to push it out, but still failed.  Finally, when we gave up and were about to go inside, a member drove by and pushed us out. :) Yay!

On Wednesday we had district meeting.  I gave a 20 minute training on "Preparing Investigators for Baptism and Confirmation."  I started off by having our district leader do 100 push ups... He only made it to 57 then gave up.  I had another elder to it too, but he only made it to like, 12. haha  After this, I tied it in to preparing to do anything physically challenging, specifically running a marathon or an Iron Man.  Just like preparing to do that, we need to help investigators prepare to make the covenants made at baptism, otherwise it's going to be a lot harder for them, just like it would be harder to run a marathon if one was not properly prepared. 

Okay, so the rest of the week............................

THE FLOOD!!!!!

We started seeing the effects of the flood on Wednesday.  The water was rushing over the roads, flooding into people's basements, causing roads to collapse... CRAZY STUFF!  Wednesday night we went over the President Tateoka's house (currently serving as the mission president in Salem, Oregon) because the youth and many members of the ward were helping clean up.  His house got the worst hit.  The whole basement filled with water TO THE TOP. 8 FEET FULL OF WATER.  How sad! :(  They had to throw everything away and completely gut it out.  They were also hauling out buckets of mud.  Attached is a picture.

The next 2 days we went around offering service to people whose houses were flooded, but most people had it taken care of.  This has never happened here, so people weren't prepared... But man! It's been crazy!

Although this flooding has been happening, we have still seen success! We found 4 new investigators this week, and I am really excited to teach these people. I kinda just wanna stay here forever! haha

Yesterday, our afternoon ward was CANCELLED! Never in my life have I had church cancelled and this is the second time this year. haha  This was due to the country roads out north being so bad, it would be hard for people to make it to church... 

Ponderize: 2 Nephi 2:25

Men are, that they might have joy.

Yesterday at church (the ward that wasn't cancelled) all of the topics throughout the day focused on having JOY! Interesting, as everyone's houses are flooding...  It's so cool to see people come together in service and happy attitudes.  I've never experienced a "natural disaster" before, but I can say...Saints know how to do it right--JOYFULLY!  Even though it was a focus during church, I feel like it's been one of those topics or principles that I am learning to live right now.  When life is tough...it's okay.  Push along.  I also had the opportunity to ponder the blessings of living the Plan of Salvation to help my mom with her talk she gave yesterday... I came to the conclusion that the greatest blessing is JOY!  I have felt so much joy as I live it and as I see others start to live it. Yay for happiness!! :D

From Idaho to you,

XoXo

Sister Carling

Holding a baby goat last Preparation day! IT'S SO CUTE!  (This picture is very candid.)

 

Our stuck car.  I love Sister Merrell!

 

See the broken road in the background? We saw a lot of "Closed Road" signs due to the water damage.   None of that water is supposed to be there.

 

This is President Tateoka's basement and us at work! :)

 

 This is the Paul highway....Yes, the highway. 

 

We were clearing the road from icebergs (okay, really just chunks of ice).

 

This is a dirt road we were going to drive down...

Nope, not happening! It is now the Mud Canyon.

Car selfie.  I BOUGHT CAMOUFLAGE SUNGLASSES! :D #HappySisterCarling 

It's a Heat Wave!!

Guys! It's like 47 degrees right now!! I can hardly believe it.  It feels so nice.  

 

Sister Fitt and I are having adventures everyday.  We are good at having fun while doing the work.  This week we got lost multiple times, as we've been trying to figure out our new area.

 

On Wednesday we went out to Hazelton and found 2 new investigators! #MIRACLES!  One is a 9 year old boy, Carson, whose mom is a member but has been less active her whole marriage.  The other is the wife of a member who was less-active for a long time but in the last year has been active.  She's tried meeting with missionaries before and her husband has wanted her to progress in the gospel but she didn't feel ready... NOW she feels ready! Wahoo!  We are very excited to work with this family.  I can tell that we are going to find a lot of work out in Hazelton because they haven't had good missionaries working out there for a while. 

 

While we were out there, we also had dinner at the Mortensen's.  Fun family!  After laughing a lot, we headed out.  I tried to turn around in their backyard--which was covered in snow but for all I knew it was a driveway--and got STUCK.  Major stuck... It took about 15 or so minutes to get out, but all of us strong women that were there pushed us out! Well, I wasn't pushing, I was having fun in the driver's seat shaking the wheel and pushing the gas peddle while everyone else was pushing. haha  

 

On Friday we drove around a lot getting to know the new ward area and trying to visit less-active people.  At one house in particular I got out of the car and closed the door just in time to realize that I left the keys in the car...the LOCKED car.  It was 32 degrees outside! Yay.  (Sister Fitt and I just laugh the whole time.  We never complain when any of these things happen.  We are very happy people.:)  We waited an hour for our extra set of keys to come from Twin Falls.  Thankfully, we called Sister Mortensen to come let us sit in her warm car for a while so we didn't freeze our toes off for too long.

 

We "found" another "investigator" in Emerson 1st ward! Cody. We've been going over to their house (he lives with his grandma) since I've been in the area and we tried to get his records transferred over.... No one could find his records.  We called Salt Lake to confirm that his records are lost.  This means we get to teach and baptize him! He's so excited to get re-baptized. haha  We set a baptismal date for February 25th. :)

 

To end the exciting adventures for the week, last night we were looking for a house that the ward wants us to visit. We drove and drove and because out there the coordinates changed because it's on a county line, so we just got LOST. Again. For like the 5th time this week. (The funnest adventures happen when we are lost. haha)  We decided to knock on the door of a realllly big, fancy house that was out there in the middle of no where to ask for help.  I prayed that they would be nice, possibly Mormon, and would let me use their potty. ha  The prayer was answered! :D haha Except, it wasn't no one in our ward!  It happened to be the Bishop of a ward in a completely different stake!!! I hadn't even heard of this stake before. Anywho, they were very friendly, I used their potty, and they helped us find the house we were looking for.  When we found it, the guy told us he doesn't speak English.  Great visit... ha  That was a lot of miles just for that.

 

Ponderize: Alma 26:16

Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.

 

I really think the scripture says it all... Also, I'm out of time to do anymore expounding... Sorry! :P  Praise the Lord!!

 

From Idaho to you,

 

XoXo

 

Sister Carling

 

Hazelton.  This is supposed to be a picture of the 

population more than it is the speed limit. haha

 

We ran into some cows whilst we were lost on them country roads...

 

This made my whole week. haha  Some members bought us these Sister Missionary figures and another bought us the tractor because we were joking about taking pictures with one because that's how our life is as missionaries in Idaho! haha