Elder Cohen Carter

HOLA MIS AMIGOS!!!


My first email as a missionary, and I absolutely love it! Don't get me wrong I miss my family, my cozy bed and my puppies of course!


I'd like to start off my first email by saying I love my Heavnly Father and Jesus Christ! But right under that I love my Mommy! She has made sure I have everything I need time 10 and I'm so lucky that she's my mom!


The funniest part of my week so far has to be from last night. I was getting in the shower as another Elder walked in to shower as well. For those of you who know me, know I LOVE MUSIC, and this Elder walked in singing some Ed Sheeran, so of course I had to join in. We sang the whole time we showered. I didn't see who it was and when we got out a little Chinese Elder looks up at me with massive eyes and goes I could see your shoulders over the shower wall and I can't even reach my hands over it HAHAHAH. Everyone is so loving here because we're all in the same position, missing home but ready to serve. 


It is one of the most amazing things to sit in my room and listen to my 4 roommates heading to Romania practice their Romanian. We have Elders on our floor who are fluent in Manderin, French and Tahitain, and that is just the start. It's absolute chaos but everyone is bought into the work.

It's so spiritually uplifting!!!


I had one of the most spiritual experiences of my life the first night here! We had a devotional with all the new Elders, Sisters and Senior missionaries that arrived the same day. We watched a devotional that Elder Bednar had given to the missionaries a few years prior. It was about the characteristics of Christ. Here's a few I learned. Christ is selfless when the natural man is selfish, Christ looks out in times of struggle and anguish when we would look in. I am striving everyday to be more selfless which is going to he a life long pursuit but I look forward for the opportunity to repent and try to be better everyday. We had two guest speakers who shared some experiences during that same devotional. The one that hit home with me was Keely. Keely is the most bubbly, joyful and down to earth human I've ever met. She shared her story with us and I'm so grateful I got to he there to hear it! She told us that growing up she had a hard time believing she had a loving Heavnly Father because her home life wasn't very good. Once she graduated high-school, she started living the life she thoughttt would make her happy. When she found nothing but emptiness she began to attend church again and read the Book of Mormon for the first time. She told us she finally knew what real happiness was. This is where it took a turn. Keely was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and given a couple weeks to live. I'll leave out some of the details in between so this email doesnt get too long, but she was promised in her patriarchal blessing that she would experience the joy of motherhood. When she went in for surgery, and woke up the doctor told her he had removed a tumor double the size of a softball from her ovaries... but and she quotes there was "stuff" growing around her reproductive organs. She was miracously healed and all of her reproductive organs were intact. She is now married and pregnant with a kid of her own. 


Keely testified that God is a God of miracles and that he keeps his promises! We think of the stories of Jesus healing the sick and raising the dead, and think those things don't happen anymore. Keely is living proof that they do. I'd like to add my testimony on top of Keely's, God sent his Son to live AND die for us. He knows each and every one of you better than you know yourself. He truly loves you. Submit to the will of God be selfless not selfish. Someone shared in that same devotional that we have decieved ourselves. Meaning that we've told ourselves our whole life that if we just learn to be MORE kind, MORE loving, MORE MORE MORE, we'll be more christlike. That's the wrong equation. You + MORE doesn't = Christ. You + Christ = MORE. All things are possible through Chrisy and I know that to be true.


THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT WORK ON THE PLANT!!! And I'm so lucky to be a part of it!


I'd like to leave a scripture with you as I've grown a love for the scriptures over the past couple weeks! It is Matthew 4:1-12. Most of us know this scripture, and if you don't it's an amazing one. It is the story of Christ fasting 40 days and 40 nights, when Satan came to tempt him. The most profound part of this scripture is not verses 1-10 when Christ is able to stand strong through temptation although they are amazing. It is fact that in verses 11 and 12 he is sent an angel in his most mentally, physically and spiritually draining moment and instead he sends the angel away to minister to John in prison instead of himself. He looked out even in is hardest moment! HE IS THE SON OF GOD! The only perfect human to live on this earth and he still lives!


I'll end every email the same way! And that is by saying I love you all immensely and telling you that God loves you. Never forget that!! 

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