Six Months!!

Hey y'all!

Beyond stunned at how fast this week went. Well, beyond stunned at how fast these past six months went. Where did the time go? Really. This Thursday, Sister Jensen and I are celebrating our six month anniversary, being missionaries AND being together. It is so crazy how long we have been together. We decided that Heavenly Father NEEDED us to be friends, so that's why we have been put together for so long. I'm expecting a friendship like Dad and Mike Casey out of this one.

Where should I even begin this week? There are so many things that I wish I could try to convey to you guys, but there's no hope. I could never explain how truly wonderful these experiences are and how thankful I am for them. Let me just tell you though. Being a missionary is the greatest thing I could ever ask for. I learn so many things every single day, and I'm beyond grateful that I get to serve my Heavenly Father for another year.

One of the biggest things I learned this week was the love of God. I read the talk "The Atonement And The Value Of One Soul" by Elder Ballard, which really got me thinking about that love that Heavenly Father has for each of us. Can you imagine how much Heavenly Father loves each one of us? His love is greater than we can ever imagine, especially for giving us the gift of the Atonement. Can you imagine Him watching His Son suffer every pain and every heartache and allowing it? Hearing His Son cry out to Him, "saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42) and not being able to remove that pain?  Watching Him being tortured and crucified and allowing it to happen because He knows that's what WE need? I think of my own father and how much he loves his children. He would be devastated if anything close to that happened to one of us, wanting to help us in any way that he could. As I realized this, I came to begin to understand how much He loves us. My heart broke thinking about our dear Father in Heaven, watching His Son suffer so, but always knowing that it was what we needed. It's an amazing thought. The Atonement is perfectly constructed, with so much love, and I am beyond grateful that I am able to have that gift in my life.

I finished the Book of Mormon again this week. I'm in awe at how perfect that book is. As I've dug into the stories and learned from those prophets this time around, I've realized that all those stories relate to my life and the lives of our investigators. I can learn a lesson from each of them. That book is truly of God, and I am so grateful that I can read it every single day.

And the Relief Society broadcast? Crying. The ENTIRE time. How perfect was it? I loved every word of it. I think it was exactly what I needed to hear. I'm not going to lie, I had a pretty tough week. I was extremely hard on myself all week. I kept wanting to do more, more, more. And something felt like it was missing. It was. The Spirit. The biggest thing that I need in my life. All week, I was concerned about working as hard as I could, rather than focusing on the spiritual growth of the people we are teaching. My priorities were all sorts of mixed up. I found myself not being able to sleep at night because I wasn't working in the way that the Lord needed me to be working. From that broadcast, I learned that I just need to relax and listen to the promptings of the Spirit. Heavenly Father is the only way that this work works. I can't do this on my own. And that's a hard concept for me. I'm used to doing all I can by myself, but now, I have to humble myself and let Him help me. That's the only way that I will be a successful missionary. I have to do my part, but let Him do His. What a great lesson to learn this week, eh?

I'm thrilled for General Conference this weekend. Christmas for missionaries. I am so excited to be able to hear from our prophet and his apostles. How lucky we are to have them to lead and guide us! I'm so grateful for a prophet on the earth today.

I love Prattville. I get teary-eyed thinking about the fact that I could be leaving soon. Transfers are coming up next weekend, and I can't believe it. I know that whatever happens, I will be where the Lord needs me to be. I love the people here. I know that I will be friends with them forever. They have become like my family here. These people are so special to me. I pray for them each and every day. (And those of you reading this, I hope you know how much I love each one of you). I never imagined feeling this much love for a group of people, but I do. And it's the greatest feeling in the world. I am so grateful for this time that I have spent in Alabama. I would not change it for anything. Rebecca bore her testimony in church yesterday and hearing her sweet words about how she has come into the fold of God truly made everything perfect. I know I was sent here for a reason. I love Alabama more than I can ever explain.

The church is true. It's the best thing I have. I love it. I am so thankful that I get to serve as a missionary and to be able to teach all these people about it. It's the best thing ever. As I've taken some time just to slow down and really think about why I am here, I've come to know how much joy this gospel brings me. Yes, I need to do that even more, but I love this work. I love my Savior. I love my Heavenly Father. I am so priviliged that I get to be a part of this missionary movement. Watching all those Sister Missionaries sing at that broadcast... Absolutely amazing. There is no greater calling than that of a missionary. I love everything about it.

Thank you so much for all the love and the support that each of you show me. I have such a great support group at home, and I can't thank you enough for it. The letters and the packages (THANK YOU DANA) and everything I get keep me going. On an extremely hard day this week, when I wasn't feeling too great about what I was doing, I received letters from my sweet Brookelle and Lisa Petersen telling me how proud they were of me and how much they loved me. The Lord blesses me in so many ways, especially through other people. So thank you, thank you.

I love you all so much. I am so grateful for each one of you. The work is hastening. It's amazing. I feel like most of this email has consisted of how much I love this church and this work and these people, but I really do. I hope you all know that. I am filled with gratitude this week. Thank you for everything. I hope you have a great week this week. Y'all deserve it.

Sister Card

xoxo

Lunch with Chandra, Tara, and Lauren today! 

I could not love them any more than I do!

This sweet lady, Sissy, made us these coasters. 

She is the cutest thing in the world! I love her so much!

She thinks my tractor's... Pretty?

Hey y'all!

I hope you liked my "missionary editing" of that song. Ha. I'm hilarious. What a week it's been. Oh my word. We have been so crazy busy, it's insane. First of all, let me tell you all how much I love Alabama. I have never felt so country as I do now. I'm saying y'all, I'm eating fried foods, and now, I can say that I've worked hard on a farm and driven a tractor. Yes, you heard that right. Jazmyn Card. Working on a farm AND driving a tractor. Can't get much better than that. The entire time we were there, I kept saying, "my family is going to die when they find out what I was doing this week." Y'all should be so proud of me. I'm very proud of myself, that's for sure.

So here's the story. We met this lady at Walmart a few weeks back, and she was wearing a Tennessee Volunteers hat. That's like so against all Alabama culture, and with Sister Jensen being from Nashville, we HAD to go talk to her. Her name was Jen, and turns out, she lived in Nashville, AND her aunt and cousins were all Mormon. What are the odds? She told us all about her Angora farm that she has and how she would love for us to come out there one day and help out. President Hanks has been asking us to focus a lot on service, as well. So of course, we took her up on that. We called her up last week and asked what we could do to help her. She told us that she was having a bunch of girl scouts come up that weekend, so she needed us to come over on Thursday to help her get ready for them, and then Saturday to actually help with the 30 little girls. We called the APs and asked them if we could do it, and they said of course. So we headed up there, ready to work.

We spent Thursday scooping up rabbit poop and cleaning out chicken coops and feeding goats and sheep. Yes, I can't believe it either. I could not believe what I was doing, but it was a blast. I was so proud of myself. Jen kept laughing, saying I was this city girl finally getting some country in me. It's good for me, I guess. It really was so much fun though. Then, on Saturday, we took Alisha Nielsen up with us and helped those girl scouts feed the animals and learn about Angora farms. I didn't know much about them at all, but they are pretty cool actually. Now I'm like an Angora expert. Haha. I'm learning all sorts of new things on the mission.

Also, Elder Kopishke of the Seventy came and saw us this week. How cool was my week? Way too cool, that's for sure. It was the most amazing thing ever. I learned so much from him. I am so grateful that we have the leaders of the church. I know that these men are called of God. He started out talking about having a question in mind during our meeting and letting the Spirit be the teacher and answering our questions. He was so right. My questions were answered in so many different ways. The biggest thing I think that I learned, well that I was consistently reminded of, is how much my mission isn't about me. I need to completely forget myself and focus on the needs of the people here. I used to try to balance my study time focusing on what I need and then what my investigators need, but that's not how it is. I need to be putting 100% of that focus on my investigators. My time here is devoted to them and to the Lord. Jesus said, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on." (Matthew 6:25) What a huge lesson that is. How many times do we find ourselves only concerned for what we are doing? I know I do. Far too often. He also says, "He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." (Matthew 10:39) As long as I'm doing everything in my power to forget myself and serve these people and serve the Lord, I will come back and be the person that I need to be. Ironic how that works, eh? (Thanks for the thought Taylor). But yeah, it was an amazing lesson to learn. I've seen such a difference as I've started to apply those principles in my life just this past week.

Life is good. No, life is great. Every day seems to get better and better, yet shorter and shorter. I swear, my days seem only a few hours long. We have far too much to do and so little time to do it. Yet, I know Heavenly Father is there, helping us out, accomplishing miracles. I love seeing His hand in every single experience that I have. Sister Jensen and I were talking about that the other day. I want y'all to think about this: When was the last time you felt the Spirit? Because I feel it all the time. And it's not because I'm a missionary and He's letting me feel the Spirit more. It's because I'm looking for it in my life. When you're aware that Heavenly Father is there, you will see Him in the little things. A sunny day (or in my case, a rainy day is the real blessing), a sweet note you get in the mail, a pretty thought you have, reading beautiful words that just seem to get you, a scripture, or simply your relationships with the people around you. Heavenly Father is always there, no matter what. "Whatsoever is good cometh from God." (Alma 5:40)

I love you all so much. I am so grateful for this gospel and for the opportunity that I have to share it with the world. I found myself very emotional all week because of how much I love this church. There are things that just seemed to click for me, like how much my Heavenly Father loves me, the need for our Savior Jesus Christ, the importance of the Sacrament, the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ, and the perfection and precision of the Plan of Salvation. These things are true. I know they are. I am so grateful that I get to be here, having the greatest experience of my life. I would never change this for the world. I love being a missionary. I love this church. I love my Savior. I love my Heavenly Father.

I hope you have a great week this week. Go out and serve someone this week. Matthew 25:40.

Sister Card

xoxo

PS - Go to mormonchannel.org and watch the Mormon message "Mountains to Climb." Bring tissues. 

Alisha is so dang cute isn't she? 

We fed the animals animal crackers. Clever.

Angora bunny. Such a creepy picture hahaha.

Great Pyrenees dog at the farm. 

THIS DOG WEIGHED 160 POUNDS. 

I couldn't believe the size of it. Absolutely massive.

Great Pyrenees.

Hay ride with my ladies (:

Yes, I can't get over these dogs. 

THIS IS A THREE-MAN COUCH 

AND IT TAKES UP THE ENTIRE THING!!!!

Rainy day on the farm on Saturday (:

Sister Yow. She's the sweetest lady in the whole world. I love her so much.

The Angora goats (:

The Glovers' mantle... Right in the center. 

My family on the left, Sister Jensen's on the right. 

We finally joined the family!!! They 

literally moved the pictures of their parents so they could put us there. 

We're so loved.

The Glovers' with our "heart attack." So dang cute.

The turkey named Turkey. 

Probably the ugliest thing in the world, 

but probably my favorite animal on the farm. 

How does that work?

THIS HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I have a video, but it won't let me send it. 

Just wait til I get back. Best thing ever.

With the dogs. I LOVE THEM.

With Turkey (:

Yesssssssss.