Thanksgiving already??!?!?

This year has FLOWN by! I mean, really. I left home last January, and Thanksgiving is on thursday!! Ahhhh! My mission is going by tooooooo fast!! Everyone always said it flies by, and they weren't lying! We have FOUR dinner appointments set up for Thanksgiving, so... pray for me. haha

This week was really good. We had over 25 lessons and it was awesome! We have 57 member families in our area, and 32 of them are inactive 0_0 So, I mean.... we're keeping busy. It's almost a little overwhelming, but it's going to be okay :)  We have seen so many miracles, and we know we are meant to visit these families for a reason! This week, we met with one of our less active families, and we are teaching their little girl so she can be baptized, and usually they're all kind of running around, but they all sat in on the lesson and participated! The spirit was so strong and everyone could definitely feel it :)

On Saturday, we had our gospel principles teacher accompany us on a lesson. It was sooooooo powerful. It was with one of our investigators that is scheduled to be baptized next month but has been struggling to keep his committments. We taught about REALLY knowing for ourselves, and how we can do it. President Mortensen taught a very powerful lesson on it at our zone conference this past friday. During his lecture, I had strong revelation that we weren't teaching correctly. We were TRYING to, but we were doing something wrong. We as a mission have been trying to "master teach" or teach as the Savior taught, by asking inspired questions, and it's hard!!! It is sooo amazing, but it can be difficult sometimes to find the right questions that lead to the right answers, but it is amazing, and it works! I realized during that lecture that we were asking questions, but the wrong ones. So, when we went to see our investigator, we went in guns-a-blazing. haha. We were lovingly bold, and asked the questions inspired by the spirit. It was incredible! It was the first time I had seen his eyes really light up. He felt the spirit and RECOGNIZED it. That's the thing with master teaching. You just go in asking questions, and you find out what they know, and what they don't, and that's how the Savior taught. He taught and catered individually, and we are trying to do the same :)

Transfer calls are this sunday and I think I might be leaving this area :( Ahhhh! It's so crazy! It's not for sure yet, so don't all go freaking out. I will have a definite answer by next week :)

I have been getting questions about christmas packages. So, the things I would like for christmas, are basically just things I need. haha. Like new clothes, shoes, nail, polish, not suave shampoo... oh gosh. haha This is my life. But you all know, I am super easy going and love everything, so I would be grateful for anything :)

I love you all so much and hope you all have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving full of love and laughter! Have a great week!!

Les amo con todo mi corazoncito,

Hermana Carbajal

packages can be sent to: 26325 Northgate Crossing Blvd #1621 Spring, TX or 16623 Hafer Rd. Houston, TX 77090

LOVE YOUUUUUUU


On wednesday my comp played for the New Beginnings program in our ward, and I sang the 2014 Efy song "Come unto Christ" with them. :) It was so cute!

 It made me miss YW's sooooo bad!

 My little Leo and  his cute pic #babiesofhouston

 ​We made little Turkey invites for our Ward Thanksgiving Party! It was a huge turn out :)

 ​The Lindseys are leaving :((( But they made us their famous pancakes to say goodbye :) We love them!!

 Breakfast this morning with our district and the Lindseys :)

It's getting chilly!

Well winter has officially come to Houston! This morning was 36 degrees!! What the heck??? I mean, it was literally 85 degrees last week. Texas is crazyyyyy. haha But we are all so grateful for a change of climate!

This week has been soooooooooooo great. It was sooooo hard too, but the best things come out of the hardest situations! On tuesday night, I woke up with the worst toothache, so on wednesday we went to the dentist to find out I needed a root canal! Yikes! Obviously I was freaking out because 1. the mission doesn't cover dental insurance and 2. I just had all my dental stuff done LAST november before I left on my mission! So, it's been pretty hard because I was either in a crazy amount of pain, or super sick from the medicine that I was taking. Not too mention that we are still trying to figure everything out in this new area change, so it was pretty hard. But want to the know the raddest thing? Even though I was literally dying every single day this week, we still went out every day and I prayed sooo hard that the Lord would just give me enough strength to make it through the lesson without crying, and then it could come back as soon as I got into the car. And He did exactly that. He helped me get through every single lesson, and then He helped us set THREE BAPTISMAL DATES this week!!!! Yayyyyyyyy! Two with investigators that have been struggling for sooooo long, and the Lord softened their hearts because of the sacrifice I was making with my body. I know it. The Lord is so good. He gives us soooo much more than we deserve. We also found two new investigators and had 6 less actives come to church on sunday! Miracles everywhere!!!

He has blessed me more than I could ever express in words. He helps me be stronger every single day and I know it's only possible through His unconditional love and tender mercies. I know Thanksgiving is next week, but I'm already giving so much thanks to my Heavenly Father for always taking care of me. I am never alone and I am so grateful for it. We should always been showing our thanks to Him because without Him we are nothing! I love my Heavenly Father for all the sweet blessings I am given, and my sweet Savior for making it possible for me to return home to my Heavenly Father. The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us these principles of His everlasting gospel. I invite each one of you to learn more, even if you already know it, or if you are beginning to find it. It will change you forever!

I love you all so much and hope you have a great day and are staying warm. Unless you're in California, then go swim in the ocean for me ;)

Les amo con todo mi corazon,

Hermana Carbajal


Crannny spent all p-day with us!

 we made a bday cake for two elders in our district!!

 Jocelyn's Farewell!

 ​Izzy!!

 ​This week I worked with santa!! Check out Amazingsantaletters.com and see who's voice seems familiar ;) #itsme!!!

It's Fall Y'all!

Hahaha yes, I said "Y'all" don't get too excited, I've never said it in real life. haha Anyway, its actually not over 100 degrees and I'm wearing a cardigan today!! Eeeeeee. Al Fin! It's so nice to bring out my "winter" clothes and not sweat all day long. :) haha

This week has been sooooooo good! Since our area change we have been having a hard time meeting everyone because there are so many people to see! We have about 20 less actives in our area and not just like they haven't come to church in a couple weeks, these people haven't come in YEARS. But its okay, because we're going to get them there :) We have been seeing so many miracles and I know this area change was so inspired! We met a man on wednesday that hasn't received missionaries in over four years!!! But he opened the door to us and he was so kind! We are going to come by and see him this week and we are so excited! We also got in with a few other people that the Elders could never visit because they are single woman. So, yay! We are just so pumped and cannot wait to get them back at church!

We are still working with our "golden couple". We seriously love them so much it actually hurts my heart. They are amazing!! They just need to get married so they can get baptized!!!! We had talked about it before but nothing was happening so we fasted and prayed and felt super strongly about being lovingly bold with them and committing them to marriage! Well, we went over and taught about how our bodies our temples for our spirits and the importance of being clean of sin and how keeping ALL the commandments will bless us forever! We read Alma 34:32 "This is the time to prepare to meet God, and do not procrastinate the day of your repentance...." and so much more. That scripture is pretty gnarly and we committed them to read the whole chapter and that we'd talk about it the next day. Well, we came over the next day and asked them what they thought about it. The man answered that as he was reading the scripture, he felt super hot, like his body was telling him that this chapter, and those scriptures were for him! He said the feeling was so strong he actually closed the book, but then that he had a feeling that he couldn't stop reading it, so he opened it again and read the chapter over and over again. Of course I was dying during this story because we knew it was the spirit!!!! He kept saying that scripture was talking to him, that he felt like The Book of Mormon was written just for him! Ahhhhhh! I was almost screaming! We proclaimed it was the spirit and that experience was the answer to his prayers!! He still was like, well we need to keep praying and asking God, but we know we are getting closer!! -__-  Gahhhhhhh!!! The Spirit was so strong and we know that it has testified to them, they just haven't accepted it yet! They both know the BOM is true, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet! They even downloaded the LDS Library app! They are sooo legit! They just need a little more time. It's okay. Heavenly Father has taught me a lot of patience in these past 10 months and I've also learned that salvation is personal! There is no timeline to when a person can understand and accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. Obviously we want them too like right away, but it's not about us! It's about them! Our job is to continue to teach and invite, and they with the Lord will do the rest :)

Please continue to keep praying for our peeps! We love them so much and know that your prayers help!! I love you all much and hope you have a great weeek! Oh, also, don't worry that Elder Corbridge from the Seventy came to our mission this week and gave us a special Zone Conference. Also, don't worry that our district had lunch with him and his wife and that Sister Corbridge told us all about being married to a General Authority and their love story!! So cute!!

Being a missionary is the best! Everyone should do it! xoxo

Con todo mi corazoncito,
Hermana Carbajal <3

We are just so unified

 After our special zone conference with Elder Corbridge our district worked on our ward maps. Gahhh, it took forever!

 ​But then we went to Burger King and I got us all crowns, so then we were happy :) haha

 On Saturday we went to Old Town Spring aka The North Pole #itsxmastime!!

 ​We met the cutestttt man named Luis. He was playing christmas carols for all the shoppers!

 There was also carnival food :)
Funnel Cake #iategluten #lotsofit 0_0

 ​Fried Oreos #worthit

 sooo good

 ​And I have a visitor...HERMANA CRANDALL CAME TO VISIT!!!! #iluhhhher

 ​#bffs

Hastening His Work

Well this past week was awesome!!! Even though, I feel like I literally just emailed, we had a lot of really exciting things happen! On friday, we had zone meeting and had a really amazing meeting on prayer and recognizing the Holy Spirit in our lives. As a missionary that is something that has really been witnessed to me. Before my mission, I thought you only felt the spirit when you felt like goosebumps, or an overwhelming warmth in your body, or you just can't handle it so you just start bawling <--- (that was me). But in reality, the Spirit is a celestial being, thus it can testify in anyway it would like to, or feels appropriate. I have really come to recognize that even just a feeling of peace, or of simple comfort is the Spirit. The Spirit can only testify of good things, so if you are involved in something good, or meaning of God, it will witness to you that it is true. That is something that took so long for me to learn, so obviously people that are just learning about the church are NOT going to know that! So we learned new ways in how to teach the sweet lesson to our investigators. It was so awesome and I learned so much! We also made a zone goal to invite at least one person to be bapitzed... EVERY DAY. Ahhh! Sooooo pumped!! I feel like as missionaries sometimes we get scared and forget our purpose, but our purpose is to INVITE others to come unto Christ. And the only way that is possible is through repenting of your sins, and being baptized by His authority!! So, we accepted the challenge and have done it everyday since! Two for Two! Wooo!!

Saturday was a suchhhh a good day! We went on exchanges with the other Woodlands hermanas, and then met up later for our temple trip. A girl in my ward is leaving for the California San Fernando Valley Mission on December 3rd! Wooo! (I told her she was coming to california :)) Anyway, her AND her mom both went through the temple for the first time and it was sooo good! I bawled my eyes out when they hugged at the end. What a sweet experience to share such a wonderful day with someone that means so much to you. Ahhh, it was just so good! Also, we did the session en espanol!! Eeeeee! I've never done a session is spanish before and I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous because I wasn't certain I would understand everything, but DUH, of course I could. I speak spanish, and everything else I do is in spanish! haha Silly me :) Anyway, it was sooo awesome and a great experience to share with my companion and our ward.

Sunday we had 4 investigators come to church!! Wooo! So happy :) Then after church we had ward council and were able to really receive a lot of insight on how we can better help the ward. Then afterwards, the 1st counselor in the Mission Presidency walked into our building with his wife and asked us to sing in a interfaith choir! You know I was down! :) It was seriously sooooo fun! It was at a Lutheran church right next door to ours, and they make a choir each year for a Thankgiving event and make up a choir full of all kinds of faiths, races, and beliefs! It was seriously soo cool!! We are performing later this month and cannot wait to send pictures :)

At 6pm, we had our dinner appointment with a family in our ward and spoke on the importance of prayer. All of a sudden their non-member 10 yr old cousin from Honduras jumps in and talked about how prayer is the only thing that keeps her going. Her mom recently gave birth to her baby 2 months prematurely and she with the baby have been having serious health issues since. This little girl prays day and night for her mom and baby brother that they will be okay! Her faith and love for her Heavenly Father touched my heart so much and we explained to her that God loves His children and that God was listening to her sweet prayers. It was such a tender lesson and in the end we invited her to baptized and she accepted! Wooo! Soooo amazing. The spirit was so strong and we know we were lead to her because she is so prepared to let God into her life.

Being a missionary has opened my eyes to so many things. I feel unworthy of all the blessings I receive. The Lord is too good to us, and for that reason, we must give Him all that we can. I know that through service to the Lord we are building up His kingdom and hastening His work. There is no other place, I'd rather be :) I LOVE you all and pray for you daily! Have a great week!!!

Con amor,

Hermana Carbajal

p.s. I know I've been out almost a year but I mean.... I still like letters ;)
26325 Northgate Crossing Blvd #1621
Spring, Tx 77373

 Halloween (missionary) Fun :)  We went to a Pumpkin Patch :)

 8 week training with my besties

 ​Elders

 Hermanas

 Zone Meeting :)

 ​My Gold Halloween nails :D

 Besos from Tejas xoxo

 Our Halloween decorations :)

 ​We were stuck in CONSTRUCTION traffic for almost 2 hours so we had lots of picture taking time :)

 Last saturday we did service for the Red Cross in Conroe. (btw we had permission to drive the Elders no need to thing we're Apos :D)