Hermana Carter

My heart has been humbled this week. 

I have been blessed with the most amazing companion. 

Hermana Carter. Wow. She is a blessing. 

She has taught me so much. She is incredible. I just can't say enough good things about her. She is kind, obedient, honest, open, loving, and dedicated. She works so hard to learn the language, and I KNOW that our investigators can feel her love. One of her strengths is working hard and working with heart. I admire that so much about her. 

She is from Provo Utah, she went to BYU for a year, has studied Spanish for 4 years, was in the advanced program in the MTC in Provo, and LOVES the work. SHE is the example to ME! 

My new companion, Hermana Carter

Already I have been changed because of her. I am really looking forward to the next 11 weeks with her. 

Together we are taking on Jersey City little by little. This last week we had some really hard experiences together. Saturday we had a FULL day. A set appointment for every hour of the day. We had confirmed the day before, we had them all planned and were really excited to share these spiritual messages with each investigator, but I guess Heavenly Father had something else in mind. We went to our first appointment and they weren't home, so we tried our back ups, not home either. We went to our next appointment, not home, and on our way to our next appointment they cancelled on us. That happened ALL day. Every single appointment fell through. We had tried all of our backups and we had no idea what we were going to do after that. After talking about it for a minute we decided to pray. We prayed that we would know what to do and to follow the spirit to where we needed to be. 2 minutes later, as we were walking down the street, we contacted a man who was putting fliers on cars and fences. We told him that we were the missionaries, and he said he knew who we were. He was a member but had been less active for a few years. He was baptized, but then shortly went inactive because of his job. Turns out he was baptized in our ward 3 years ago. We got his information and told him we'd get a hold of him later. We looked in the records later and he wasn't in our ward list. I know Heavenly Father needed us to talk to him. He had lost his Book of Mormon, so we gave him a new one. The Lord is with us. He knows exactly what we need and where we need to be. For the rest of the day we we saw miracles like that. 

We contacted a former and she was about to kick us off her porch, I could feel it, and before she did, I prayed that Heavenly Father would put the words into my mouth so that she would let us come in. As she was closing the door and getting ready to say goodbye I opened my mouth without knowing what would come out of it and just asked for a drink of water. We must have looked really hot because her heart softened and she let us in. She let us sit down while she got the water and we started making bracelets with her little girls. The girls LOVED having us over to play with them. Well, our quick little water break turned into a lesson, and a return appointment. 

It is so amazing how the Lord works. I know it is because of Faith. Faith is the tool that Heavenly Father uses to perform miracles. Without faith, it's impossible. 

Now fueled with faith, Hermana Carter and I are ready to be the tools that the Lord needs us to be. 

We are helping Jorge, our investigator from Cuba, prepare for baptism within the next month. He just needs to stop smoking. He has been taught everything and is ready to pass his interview, but he smoked again this last week. I know with combined faith, he'll be able to tackle his addiction. 

I love my mission. I love my companion. I love my Savior. I wouldn't trade any of this for the world. 

Hermana Childs

Hermana Carter after allowing me to cut her hair.