Hey y'all!! :)
How is everyone doing?! i hope wonderfully!! Especially after being blessed with such an INCREDIBLE General Conference weekend!! :) I just lOVE conference SOOO much!! :) It's AMAZING!!! :D One of our investigators came to watch the Sunday Afternoon session and really enjoyed it!! :) She said "it was wonderful!" and that she really liked the first 3 speakers and agreed with them! :) And said how nice it is to have a church where you meet together each week and things like that!! yay!! It was great! :) Her name is Xiaodan ("show-den") and she is from the Bejing area and is just the sweetest person ever! :) So other highlights of the week... We got to go to the TEMPLE!!!! :D the OKC Temple!! which MADE MY DAY!! :) We were able to take one of our recent converts, who is working towards going to the temple, and have a lesson with her in the waiting room!! :) Oh my goodness, the OKC Temple is DEFINITELY one of my favorites now!! It is sOOO beautiful! and has a fountain in the back!! I love it sO much!! And of course, took TONS of pictures!! It was a wonderful day! :) Spirit-filled and testimony-strengthening for ALL! What a great great blessing!!! :) I'm sO grateful to have a temple in my mission!! Tender Mercy!! :) (and to Have sOOO many close by and all around us at home- in Utah! :) ) Temples are truly the greatest and happiest and most peaceful places on earth!!! What a blessing for Heavenly Father to give us sOOO many throughout the world!! :) I hope each of us take advantage of this wOndErFuL blessing He has given us and gO often!!! :D I know i have received cOuNtlEsS answers to my prayers and problems i've faced in life as I have gone to the temple! I have seen sO many tender mercies and miracles wrought through temple attendance in my life! One being an exceeding increase of the SPIRIT that i feel in my life! :D and just how everything seems to work out so much better in life when we make it a habit/priority to go each week or at least each month! :)
So, Miracle Moment of the week!.. involves tracting! :) ha so FIRST (this is a funny one) we were tracting down a street and needed to find 2 more investigators on Friday. We were about done with that street but i felt like we should tract at least this one last house, so we did! and guess what?! He became a new investigator!! :) He's 25 and we ended up talking to him outside for almost an hour!! He is a very interesting fellow.. :) ha he is a cool guy and he liked some of the things we taught him. He's pretty open to learning more (i don't know how much he will want to change or be converted but at least we can teach him what we believe, know is true, and how Heavenly Father truly wants us to live our lives :) ) He cracks Sister Draper and I up! He is definitely not afraid to talk about ANYTHING and even invited us to come back with our swim suits and hot tub with him!! hahaha Ohhh the joys of tracting :) Anyways, we are going to go try and teach him this week again with another Sister and see how it goes :) hah pray for us!! Okay, so a more serious miracle moment :) (Spiritual one :) ) Later that night.. we had an appt. reschedule so we prayed to know what to do and if we should tract. We still needed one more investigator (to reach our goal) and had about 1 hour to do it! We felt we should tract this one side of the apartments we were at (after a member dinner appt.) and so we did! We started at the top and knocked on the all the doors and NO ONE was home (and all the lights were off.. I was thinking.. i guess this is kind of funny to be tracting when it's a Friday night and probably no one is home :) ha) We then went to tract the bottom/main floor and Sister Draper walked right past the first door (because the lights were off) and to the next door with the lights on- they were home!!! -but not interested.. hah I felt like we should go back to the door we had 'skipped' with the lights off and at least see if they are home or leave a card. so we did. Right after i knocked, the lights came oN!!! And they were home!!! And answered!! :) It was a cute 15 year old girl from Mexico (who was super sweet!) and her little 7 yr. old brother! :) We were able to go in and talk with them and teach them a little bit about the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ and were able to read the "Gospel of Jesus Christ" pamphlet with them! :) It was an incredible experience!! I felt the Spirit so strong and felt it fill up the room! It was truly a MIRACLE!!! :D It was so fun because i got to speak a little Spanish with them too (because the little boy is learning English) What a tender tender mercy from the Lord!! I am sO grateful for the great experience and that the Spirit prompted me to go back to that door! Even the smallest of promptings can produce miracles, when followed! :) We are going to go back and teach her this week! :)
And last but definitely not least.. General Conference!! Which is a miracle all in itself!!! The fact that the Lord has blessed us with a LIVING PROPHET still on the earth to lead and guide us and His Church is the greatest thing ever!!! I am sOO grateful for General Conference and for the wonderful things we were able to hear, feel, be taught, and now strive to apply! :) I am sO grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who continues to give us revelation through a living prophet today and also to us through the miracle of 'personal revelation'!! :) I love it! I love this gospel! I KNOW it's true!! And i know that you all know it too! :) What a blessing, what a miracle! Live it to the fullest!! :) Follow the counsel of the prophet and the apostles and you will be greatly blessed and have no need to fear in your lives! :) I love you all sOOO much!!! and i am sOO grateful for the AMAZING blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ! :) i love how Elder Hallstrom talked about the Church and how we need to all "be AcTiVE in the Church AND the Gospel (teaching of Jesus Christ)!!" :D I pray that we (including me) can all strive to do that more fully! And be able to witness the great great blessings that come from doing so! :) I love you all!! Have a wonderful and blessed week! and Happy Easter!!! :D I hope that we can all remember the AMAZING gift of our Savior's Infinite Atonement and strive to apply this great gift in our lives more fully each and every day! I am sO grateful for the healing and enableing power of the Atonement and how it not only frees us of our sins as we repent, but also helps us be able to progress, be healed, receive comfort, love others, and endure well to the end!! :) What a great blessing the Resurrection is as well!! :) Jesus Christ lives!! :) He loves you!! :D And wants you to have every blessing the Lord has instore for you! :) I love the hymn (#136) "I know that my Redeemer lives" because it has soooooo many things that Christ does and 'lives' to do for us!! :) (ex: wipe away our tears, calm troubled heart, lead us safely home, comfort me when faint, hear my soul's complaint, my mansion to prepare, etc. etc.) Because Christ lives and does SOOO much for us.. What will we now do to 'live' for Him?? I hope we can all prayerfully think of this question and what we can all do to live for our Savior, especially at this Easter season! :) I love you all!! Have a wonderful Easter!! And "Easter Preparation Week!!" :)
Love, Sister Carlini
ps. *QofW*: "Never delay a prompting." -President Thomas S. Monson
"What thinks Christ of me?" -Elder Neil L. Andersen
*Picture Descriptions!!* :)
1. OKC Temple Trip!!!! :D i lOVE it!!! what a WONDERFUL day!! :D
2. There may or may not have been a snake outside our house.. :) ha and yes it was sUper tiny!! but STILL a snake!! and ACTUALLY, last week, we were driving out in the country to visit someone and drove over a HUGE (normal sized) snake!!! it was CRAZY!!! Sister Draper and I definitley both shrieked!! :) hah
3. Ohhh how i just lOvE the giAnT bugs of Oklahoma.. those things are all over the place!! No one warned me about the bugs.. ha
4. The 'Doctrine of Christ' board!! At the Institute! :) The OSU Sisters made this (Sister Buckley is an incredible artist! :) ) And is our purpose as Missionaries!! -To Invite Others to Come Unto Christ- through Faith (in Jesus Christ and His Atonement), Repentance, Baptism (including sacrament each week-renewe Baptismal Covenants), Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost (living worthy of and following promptings) and Enduring to the End (doing all 4 continually for the rest of our lives :) ) i love it!! :) Share it with others! :)
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