Hello from North Carolina!

Hello from North Carolina! Whew sorry this will be a short email because we just had a meeting with Elder Zuick from the 70 today. It was fantastic though.

This week started out with Zone Conference all day on Tuesday. Sister Craven talked about sanctification, and gave an analogy about a guy who went fishing and caught all of these big fish, but kept throwing them back because he only had a small pan to fry them in. She said to "pick up the pan" and raise our vision and our expectations. She is amazing. There are so many meetings (literally 2 or even 3 most of the day meetings every week) this month it is CRAZY. I feel like we hardly have any time in our area. Add exchanges on top of that, and it's ridiculous. But it makes us work hard with what little time we DO have in our area. 

We went on exchange with the Lake Norman Sisters, Sister Teoupa ( she's from Hawaii) (Hello free place to stay in Hawaii when I get home!!) :) She came to Huntersville with me and she is fantastic. Such a hard worker and a great missionary. 

About half the mission was able to go to the funeral of Elder Paige. It was an incredible experience. He died in a car accident on his mission in California, and was from here in Charlotte. I never served in his ward, or knew him or anything. But some of the missionaries did play ball with him and went to his farewell and things. It was a really moving experience and solidified to me that the Plan of Salvation is TRULY real. It was heartbreaking to see the mother say goodbye to her son for the final time at the Burial Plot as they lowered the casket into the ground. But she knows that he will rise again, and she was incredibly strong actually. She had already lost her husband, and the member of the 70 who spoke at the funeral said he and his Dad are serving as companions on the other side, and he just got transferred. I thought that was beautiful. We all sang "Called to Serve" at the graveside.

The family we had been teaching have kind of slowed progression, but we are still hopeful they will start soon. Basically changes at her work (SATAN is so dumb) now make her work EVERY Sunday and she has been going through some health problems too. She is kind of the center of the family and they do what she does so they won't really progress until she is able to. But we know they will. They just need some time. 

We have lost contact with some of our investigators.. but we are striving to find new ones! We know the prepared are out there. 

We took a lot of invitations to the Halloween party the ward is putting on next Saturday out to some people at the park and they were SO excited! It was very successful, and we hope to hand out a lot more this week! 

Today we had an amazing meeting with Elder and Sister Zuiick of the 70. The whole mission was there. It was incredible. They both are amazing speakers. They talked about our "spiritual trajectory" on our mission and throughout our lives and ways we can always improve and do better, and keep our trajectory going up today, tomorrow, and forever. NEVER stop learning, or hit a "plateau" was their main message. It was incredible. They were Mission Presidents in Santiago, Chile (TIFFANY!) and they are fantastic. She is an incredible speaker as well, that is what I was impressed with. 

It was so incredible to see everyone from the whole mission all together. I truly have made lifelong friends here, and it is like a big family reunion when we get together. I took a picture with all of my "daughters" a.k.a all of the Sisters I have trained :) They make me a "proud momma" 

I KNOW what I know. I know the Church truly has been restored to the earth today. I know we are lead by a living prophet of God on the earth today who has called ME HERE in Charlotte, for a reason. I KNOW I was meant to meet the people here, and there are people here who need me, and things I am supposed to learn from President and Sister Craven, my companions, investigators, and Ward Member. That was another point Elder Zuick talked a lot about, how we are called HERE to Charlotte, North Carolina for a very special purpose and directly from the Lord. He was prophetic in his talking about the Hastening of the Work and how it will go forth to the whole earth as missionaries and members work TOGETHER. Work with the missionaries! They are not here to do it alone. They are here to help YOU in your missionary work. I know there are people all around us who are ready to receive the Gospel right now. I know, and Elder Zuick talked about this too about how the Lord truly has a personal hand in all of this, and in all of His work, as it truly is his. 

I love you all, thank you for your love and support! This week will be crazy, AGAIN we have 2 exchanges to go on and an all day meeting on Saturdaywith another member of the 70 but it'll be great :)