I Love Being a Missionary

Hiiiii!!! Hello! It has been an amazing week! So many good things happening. How are you all? I heard the Super Bowl was yesterday? It's so weird how you're all out in the real world. I just forget that the real world exists sometimes haha. Anyways!

Yes! It's been a great week! Oh my goodness, where do I begin???

HIGHLIGHT of the week:

On Monday night last week, the Zone Leaders called us and told us (Sister Jamsa and I) that we were invited to a special MLC (Missionary Leadership Conference) with Brother Lee Donaldson, who was the mission president in San Diego when The District 2 was filmed (for all you RM's, the mission president who taught Elder Moreno and Elder Christensen how to teach the law of chastity to German hahaha). This is HUGE! He is a proselyting specialist for the missionary department for the church, so basically he knows what he's talking about and is awesome. So MLC is normally just for the Assistants, Zone leaders, District leaders, and Sister training leaders, but when they called, they told us we were invited because President Dixon wanted a few of the new missionaries who would be the future leaders of the mission to be there. What! So cool! So we got to go! The meeting was on Thursday. Also, Sister Peterson is still an STL in her new area, so I got to see here there! It was great!

Anyways, this meeting was amazing. Talk about fueling my flame of faith. This gospel is the BEST! Brother Donaldson is an INCREDIBLE teacher, and everything he said was so inspiring and helpful. Also someone named Brother Webb was there who works at the MTC, and he gave some awesome insights too. I wish I could include all my notes from the meeting, but then it would take you all an hour to read this email. I will include just a few:

- The Lord is truly hastening his work through technology, and we are now going to start using Skype a lot more for lessons and member presents! This is so exciting. Also at some point in the future, our mission is going to use Facebook messenger. I'm hesitant about this but also super excited to see what happens.

- Facebook and Preach My Gospel came out in the same year! I'm not saying this means anything, but... it's still cool. Facebook is a HUGE opportunity to share the gospel with lots of people! Inspired, if you ask me.

- Quote: "Too long we have quarantined missionaries. It is now time to IMMUNIZE missionaries." How cool is that?? Sounds like some real end-of-world stuff! Technology is about to become a huge part of missionary work and it's going to be really great to see how the work progresses because of it!

- If someone is on earth and has a body, they were once a member of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Pre-Mortal Day Saints". We have to help our brothers and sisters remember that! There is a loving Heavenly Father who wants his children back home, and WE know how to get them there! So let's do it! Who's with me??

I just felt so PUMPED after that meeting, what a blessing it was to be there! I LOVE this gospel! It is just so perfect and so true! And I love that we have all the truth. We see Jehovah's Witnesses walking around sometimes and I just think it would be so hard to be a missionary without having all the truth and knowing it for yourself. We are so lucky! I also love how the gospel can answer any question. Too often we get people who are like "well what about this? Or that?" Etc etc but we have all the answers! I love being able to clarify things about Mormons, because there are so many misconceptions and it's just awesome to have the truth. Also, I love how we get to meet so many people every day. It really is the coolest thing. Not only do we get to meet with and talk to tons of people, we get to share the message of Christ's RESTORED gospel with all of them! How great is that? Man! Gotta love being a missionary.

Another great thing that happened this week is that Angie and Hector got MARRIED!!! (Have I even mentioned Hector yet?? Idk) Angie was the one who got baptized in December and who was so prepared, and Hector was her boyfriend (now husband), and he also got BAPTIZED on Saturday! It was so special, I just adore their family. And it is so cool that I will be here in year when they can get sealed in the temple as a family! I am so excited for them! They are truly examples of baptized converts. They're ready to throw down in the church. Haha. Love them!

Oh yeah, and we finally saw Lori this week!!! We haven't seen her in so long. She says she still wants to get baptized, she just has to get back on her feet first, because she has been hit with tons and tons of opposition lately. If only she knew that the gospel would solve all her problems!!! I had the opportunity to testify to her, probably more powerful than I ever have before, about how I just KNOW with all my heart that this is the right path for her, and if she will just follow Christ then she will find true peace and happiness. I seriously just want SO BADLY for her to know that this is right for her. It will make all the difference! Ah! I will keep you updated on her.

Also, on Saturday we couldn't go to our apt to get dinner because it was too far away, so we went to Jersey Mikes Subs and ran into some awesome members who paid for our dinner! It was so nice. They were like "do you want a drink? Yeah, they want drinks. The biggest size. Do you want chips? Yeah we're getting you chips." They were just so sweet! That's happened to us a few times that we run into members who end up paying for our dinner. Missionary perks and tender mercies! I just love it.

Oh yeah, Sister Jamsa! She's awesome. It took us a little bit to get used to each other, but everything is great now. I am learning so much from her. She is 19 and is from Missouri and she has been out one transfer longer than me, so almost five months. And it turns out I know her sister Shelby! I went on a trip to St. George with her and some other friends after I graduated high school. Crazy! What a small world.

Wow is this email long or what? Lots of updates. Just know that I know God lives, and He wants us to come home. And the way home is through Jesus Christ and his perfect gospel! Christ gave his life for us, and I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to be on a mission and give my life to Him.

I hope you all have an amazing week! Send me pictures of your lives! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Sister Carina Brown