Sorella Carter: Six Months

Novembre 1.....

I hit my six month mark on the mission which is completely ridiculous. I can't believe I have been gone for this long already. Today I wanted to write the six things that I have learned and realized in the past six months.

1. Although I am far from home, I have two things that I can always turn to to make me feel at home: the book of mormon and prayer. I have had moments where I have missed home and family but with these two tools I have felt at home during the mission.

2. How the gospel truely blesses the family. I have been able to see how much this church has blessed my family and how it also has blessed the lives of other families. I am grateful for this gospel because I can clearly see how it has brought my family more unity and peace in our home.

3. Heavenly father loves all of his children. I have felt that love as I have taught complete strangers. He has helped me to have that charity for his children even in the moments when I have been mocked by others or have heard an unkind word towards us, he hs helped me to see them as his sons and daughters. Which has helped me to have that love for them.

4. How the trials that we face are so perefectly fine tuned for us. Heavenly Father knows exactly what we need and when we need it. I have seen that here many times. There have been many things that I have had to deal with that have put me into the refiners fire that have pushed me to grow.

5. My testimony of the power of prayer has been strengthened during thes past months and I have seen how my prayers have been answered. Although sometimes the answer has come later or not the answer I wanted to have..but it came. I know that God answers our prayers and is so very much aware of each and everyone of us.

6. Everyday I realize how challenging life is by talking to other people and it make me realize how the gospel can help us as we face those trials or hardships. I am grateful for trials and opposition in life because the joy and happiness in life is so much sweeter.

I am growing in so many ways here in the mission: spiritually, mentally and physically (sadly. not to happy about that one..hah). I have learned so much in this short amount of time and it makes me so excited to see what I will learn in the next part of my mission.

This week has been pretty good. We have had many cancelled appointments so we have been doing lots and lots of casa which is always very entertaining. I am so amazed to think that I just go up to people o the street and start talking to them. Who would have ever thought that I would be able to do that! ha not me!

My favorite thing that happened this week was when we started talking to this woman about the church..But her face looked as if she was in utter fear. It was actually pretty ridiculous because we just look like normal human beings. hah It reminded me of the woman from the target snl skit. It was funny to say the least.

We were trying to find an investigators home but it took us such a long time to find it. Along the way we made friends that were trying to help us find the persons home in the rain. Which all of this reminded me of the wizard of oz. Well..the persons home didnt exist. ha note to self: always ask the person before to make sure you have the right address

I love my ward here in como. We had serata famigliare yesterday and we playd two gameswhich were basically italian tongue twisters..which was the funniest hing to watch. for example: we had to say tre limone tre limone otto limone.. and another one was saying a vegetable three times with you mouth closed such as cipolla cipolla cipolla. I love these people. Ah! Como will always be my second home!

Who knew that some Italians celebrate halloween!ha

The past six months I have learned so much and I am so excited for what the rest of my mission will hold.

love you all,

sorella rebecca carter