Sometimes missionaries can help with an initial push

Dear Daddy,
It so great to get emails from you. I really really appreciated your email. Cincinnati is stressful. We have flaky investigators, and just everything here is just in complete disarray and mess!!! We have about 304 inactive members of our ward, and about 100 actives. Among the inactives, there are about 250 of them who want absolutely NOTHING to do with the church anymore, who desire other religions, who have just been lead into such darkness! It's extremely disheartening. Less active members of the church are the meanest people I've ever met. It's almost like they just have the exact opposite of the Holy Ghost. Satan has such a strong grip on them! And so, it can take a very huge emotional toll when we are getting this spirit of hate towards us so much as we are here.

With so many missionaries in the ward (6 of us), it is hard for the members to feed us all.  So the ward mission leader had a great idea, he said that he would personally pay for food, if that was the excuse that people were making, because its not about feeding us. It's really about having us in your home, because we have been set apart with this special spirit, that the members of this church have the opportunity and privilege to take a part in. Which it was actually, because we went to go visit this less active the other night, found out that he attends another church now and has no desire to  come back to LDS church. So I told him that was fine, and just asked if he would be interested in having the missionaries in his home for a meal, just Christian to Christian. It was almost like his countenance changed from irritated and angry to taken aback. He said of course!! Then we found out that he was actually disabled, and does not get around very well anymore, which opened the opportunity for us to offer to then bring him dinner!!! Boom. Exhibit A. That was the perfect opportunity for that idea. Which then made me think, no one from church even knows him, which means that no one even knows that he is disabled. Which means no one from church has even reached out to him, probably, which means no wonder he has chosen a different church!!!

 I think that less actives would be more responsive towards missionaries going to them in person, taking the least over bearing approach, and just asking those who are not interested in the church anymore at all, if they can just share a Christian meal with them in their home, and if needs be, bring the food. 

The ward mission leader told us to take members out to their visiting teaching. Which, listen to this awesome experience I had with that. We were out with our favorite member in the whole world. And,  our lesson fell through, so we asked who her visiting teaching person was. It was this lady that we had been thinking about visiting early that morning, and then the sister confided in us that she had never visited this lady as long as she has been assigned to her!!!!! Which was the saddest thing I had ever heard!! Even a strong member in the ward, was struggling with visiting teaching!!
So we threw her in our car and drove down there. (This lady lives in a nursing home, which is a big part of the reason why she has never been down there to see her) and it turned out amazing!! She almost cried because she didn't realize how sweet this little old lady really was, and she felt horrible for never even going and visiting her and giving her a chance. Then the next day, the little old lady called us, and left the longest message on our phone about how much she loved us, and how thankful she was that we had all come to visit her. It really touched my heart. The power behind fellowship. I think if there is anyone in the ward who is struggling with home teaching or visiting teaching, I think it would not be too bad of an idea to have the missionaries go with them and just kind of give them that initial push.

Also, the ward just instituted the best idea ever! That if someone who is less active, comes to church and asks for a food order, that they have to schedule a dinner on a set day and time, with the
missionaries. Because then its like paying the service forward, and also, they can't use the excuse that they do not have enough food, or money for food.

Other than that, this week has been pretty okay. Maxine was gone. So it was quiet. There was talk of us moving out of her house and into an apartment. I do not want to. I like Maxine.

We need a lot of prayers..

Over the Rhine

DADDY!!!!!!!

I GOT TRANSFERRED TO CINCINNATI!!!!!!
This place is CRAZY!!!!!
They have only had sisters here for 3 months before I arrived. My new companion is Sister Corbridge. She only has two transfers left (including this one). We got doubled in!!!!!! So we knew absolutely NOTHING when we got here. And no one knew us. It was the scariest thing. Not to mention that no one in Cincinnati has really ever seen sister missionaries too much here anyways. The ward should be a branch. We got the ward roster, and there's about 30 actives and 300 inactives!!! There are so few people in the ward that the missionaries have to do a lot. Like we had to pray in sacrament meeting, we have to teach Young Womens, and help out in primary a lot. There are 4 Elders in the ward. Thankfully their areas cover the scariest parts of Cincinnati. Downtown. But daddy, we still have to drive through scary parts a lot. And, I've NEVER seen poverty. This place looks like a war zone!!! There are houses falling down, the streets are dirty, and smell. This place really is foreign. 

We have one large family with four generations in our ward and they all make up about half of our active members. We live with a member, this little lady named Maxine. She's 86. She's a retired English teacher and Home Ec teacher, so she says exacts what she feels and does exactly as she
pleases. She is super bossy and super strict and pretty much just runs the world! She and I go back and forth all the time. She's so brutally honest. Whenever she starts dishing it out, I dish it right back to her. And she just gets this twinkle in her eye, smiles and walks away. I guess no one has ever dished it to her right back. Also, she and I argue for hours. (Not like contentious arguing, more like debating. Like what our family does a lot) and I'm almost about as brutally honest as she is, I
make her laugh all the time!! My companion has never seen anything like me and Maxine when we get together. She just doesn't ruffle me at all like she does everyone else. And people just let her get away with whatever she pleases because she's so old. The older you get, the more things people let you get away with. But I don't like how strict she is. She yells at me a lot for not eating at the table, and for eating packaged food, and for not making my bed. But it just makes me wanna do that stuff even more!! but I make my bed now. 

Cincinnati needs A LOT of work. like A LOT. The first presidency has asked us, that in order to make sure that we are fulfilling our purpose as missionaries, that we extend baptism on the first lesson, and then extend a date for baptism on the second lesson whether we think that they really are ready or not. But the only people who have gotten baptized in this ward in the past 5 years have all gone immediately inactive. Listen, I didn't know what the plan of salvation was when I was baptized, I hadn't read the Book of Mormon, let alone the bible! I knew a few primary songs and maybe a few stories and that was it!!! These people are already 10 steps ahead, knowledge-wise, than I was when I was baptized. So it really is not, how much you know, that determines baptism. It is if you have felt compelled by the spirit and you have decided to act upon that compelling, to get baptized. I think that these people in Cincinnati just need to understand commitment, and responsibility to stick to the things that they commit to. So we are really going to need to just build up the ward member's faith in baptism and missionary work before we start converting anyone yet. So I need help daddy. I need help to know how to help strengthen this ward's faith in missionary work, and in us, and to help teach the people of Cincinnati about commitment and responsibility.

We helped clean up a house in the ghetto. It was so disgusting I wanted to just throw away my gloves and my shoes and everything else I wore that day. But I don't have another pair of shoes or gloves... So, I'm going to have to just really clean them well. And those are all the elders in our ward. They're pretty nerdy. 

New Companion, New Area

Here are pictures of me and my new companion!! Here we are with Maxine, the 86 year old member that we live with! Shes a spice. :] And, the sweatshirt I'm wearing was a gift from a member in Centerville, it says Sister Carnahan Ohio Cincinnati mission on it.

Then here we are making our new map! The other sisters left this teensy tiny map for us, so we borrowed on of Maxine's map books, and photocopied a bunch of pages from it and taped them together like a puzzle!!! I feel like we are literally building this town from scratch! Then here we are at the ward Christmas party!!

silly pictures

Here is an old picture. I was really hyper that day. It was us three missionaries that  served in Centerville together, but we call this picture the pterodactyl picture because of the face I'm making.  :]

Me and my best friend Rizzo!!! Seriously, everyone in Cincy owns a Pitbull. EVERYONE. Its a little ridiculous... But some of them can be really quite sweet!! Like this one here, Rizzo. He reminds me of Buster. :]

We made pizza one night. And then a 2000 piece puzzle that i finished finally.

Share the video - Amen

(Editor's note: we told Maggie that we posted her picture on the church bulletin board.)

LOL mom!!!!!! hahahahah
Did you use that huge 8X10 picture??? That was wayyy tooo big!! If you put ANY pictures up of me on the bulletin board at church, you HAVE to put something by it encouraging member-missionary work. I think that our ward NEEDS a lot more work on that!!!!  I will be launching efforts towards that as soon as I step off the plane! I don't think that as members of the church, that we realize how incredibly important, influential and beneficial member-missionary work truly is!!! People will become socially converted LONGGGGG before they become spiritually converted!!! And besides, we as missionaries, will never be able to find, teach, or convert ANYONE with out vast amounts of help from the members. The Lord is hastening his work, and that doesn't just mean for missionaries. It means for members as well. If you never said hello to a new face at church before. Do it. If you never had an investigator over to your house. Do it. If you've never had the missionaries over for dinner. Do it. If you've never gone out with the missionaries before. Do it. If you have never given the missionaries a referral or introduced them to any of your friends before. Do it!!!! That's what hastening the work really means!!! It means doing things that you have NEVER done before!!!
Mom, the church has just launched a new video that they have been playing in times square all Black Friday long. Yes, the church bought ad minutes in times square just to share this video with as many people as possible! It is called "He is the Gift" it is on Mormon.org, it is on lds.org, it is even on youtube!!!! I invite the Carnahans, as a family, to share this video with as many people as you possibly can this month!!!! It is a two minute Christmas video, it has no crazy doctrine in it. The only doctrine it holds is the doctrine that Jesus Loves us and that God loves us. As missionaries, we are required to show this video to 10 people a day, for the entire month of December!!!!! That is pretty dang difficult without any ipads!!!! But guess what??? You all have computers, phones, ipads. You have sooooo much more access to this video and you all need to be using that privilege, by sharing this video!!! It needs to be big. Share it in your offices. Show it to friends!!! Seriously. YOU NEED TO BE SHARING THIS VIDEO!!!!!!!! Share it on facebook! idc. Share the video.

By the way, mom, the socks were purple. :] Love you!
Share the video.
Amen
Maggie :]

Joy's brother sang!

Here is Joy and her brother who came to the baptism. He even sang at it! It was.... VERY interesting!! but he had a wonderful voice and marvelous piano skills. It was just a very... typical, passionate, Baptist sounding song!!! Everyone adored him and Joy and just embraced them both! And her brother and her brother's female friend that came, agreed to meet with the missionaries up in
Dayton where they live and even took home a Book of Mormon!!!!! They loved the baptism so much!!!!

The very best picture of the whole night!!! Joy and her brother, and the Mormon missionaries who changed her life! :P

Oh, what Joy!

Joy was soooooo nervous, she called Sister King and me about every hour, sometimes even twice an hour for about 34 hours before her baptism!! I felt really bad for her, but I understood. She lives alone, and she was sitting in her quiet house alone and satan was really working on her. She didn't have anyone for any kind of comfort or moral support. So I didn't mind her calling us so much. She needed us during that time. She really did. So sister King and I bought her some flowers from Kroger, cleaned out an old spaghetti sauce jar, and,then I found a white tule ribbon on some Christmas decorations in the closet and tied it around and made it so pretty. It was to remind her of the first time she got baptized when she was 12 into the Baptist,church. She told us that she had a big lace bow in her hair. So I thought it worked perfectly!! Also, we bought a white flower for her jumpsuit to "pretty it up" because she wanted to wear a dress for her baptism and she didn't like the jumpsuit she thought it was ugly so we bought the flower to put on it to make it prettier :P

Joy got baptized!!!!!! It has been such a long time coming!! This has

been the epitome of my mission so far. The crowning event. The most

glorious moment. It was unexplainable and undeniable! Absolutely the

greatest thing that's ever happened to me!!!