First week in Washington

Hello Everyone! 

So it's been a crazy week full of lots of changes! 

But first off, general conference, it was amazing! The spirit was so strong! Some thoughts I took from it:

- Giving your all brings joy (Elder Vinson). Give your all to God and you will have joy no matter your circumstances!

- It's not our successes, but our sacrifices and efforts that matter to the Lord. The Lord recognizes each sacrifice we make and blesses us for them.

- Choose to do the spiritual work required to recieve revelation. 

- Pray and read the Book of Mormon "everyday, everyday, everyday." (Elder Johnson). I have come to discover in my life that as I read the Book of Mormon and pray to Heavenly Father daily I am happier and am able to feel the spirit so much stronger! I encourage each of you to take time daily to do these things, even if it's only for five minutes. It will make such a difference in your day! 

Next I said goodbye to the MTC and left for Washington! I am now in Washington & am serving in the Woodscreek ward & am living in Monroe, Washington. It is gorgeous! It's been sunny pretty much everyday I've been here which I was not expecting. Most of my area is full of trees with the occasional house, haha. But I've been loving it so far! My companion is Sister Snowder and she is actually also from Sandy, Utah, but we didn't know each other before. She went to Hillcrest High School and also did a year of school at BYU. So that's awesome and very convenient when we tell people where we're from. She's been on her mission for five months now. She's been great so far! It's been a little crazy because we were whitewashed into our area, meaning we are both new to the area, so we have been trying to meet as many people as we can and just become familiar with the area. 

Since being here we've done tons of service! I've done yard work, sorted food at the local Food Bank, and scooped poop out of horse stalls at a Horse Farm. 

We've also met with members in our ward and done some tracting (knocking doors - terrifying! Haha but good!). 

Something that happened this week that was amazing was our lesson with our friend V. She was a referral from some Sisters in another area, so we called and set up an appointment with her Saturday. This lesson that we had with her was so so powerful! I felt the spirit so strong and she was super open minded! She had some amazing thoughts and seemed to understand everything we taught her about the Plan of Salvation. We invited her to come to church with us on Sunday and we ended up planning to do a church swap with her, meaning we went to her church service at 9:30 and then she'd come with us to Sacrament Meeting at 10:30. So I can say that the first church that I went to on my mission was The Rock Church, haha, which I think is pretty awesome. But she loved coming to church and stayed for Relief Society and participated in the lesson. She's pretty committed to her church, but wants to keep meeting with us so we'll have to see where things go! But it's been amazing to see all the ways that things have worked together and connected. The Lord's hand has definitely been in every step of her story so far and I am so excited to see where the Lord will take her next! 

That's about it for this past week! Washington has been amazing so far! I know that I was sent to Washington for a reason. As soon as I stepped off the plane I felt so much joy to be here and have continued to feel that joy as I serve the people here! I know that God has a specific plan for each of us and that as we turn to Him He will guide us in the direction that we need to go and lead us to places that we couldn't have even imagined before! 

Love you all! 

Sister Carlson