Colds, Culture, and Comp Unity

HELLO!!!

What a WEEK! It really has been the weirdest most awesome week, and it went by so FAST! Seriously I feel like I just emailed all of you. The weeks go by so fast here, it blows my mind. Time is crazy. Anyways!

Fun random things:

- last Monday we got together with the other sisters in the zone and we played NERTZ! Oh my goodness it was so fun. At first I was like "we're going to spend our p-day playing card games...?" But then I found it we were playing Nertz and I was like "ALRIIIIGHT OKAYYY LETS DO THIS" hahaha. So yes that was a blast!

- we recently acquired a soccer ball from Sister Hess, and Sister Jamsa and I have been CRAVING to play soccer lately. There is a field really close to where we live, so we have been playing soccer in the mornings for exercise! So funnnn. Except half the week we were sick so we only did that a couple times.

Which leads me to the next topic of discussion!

On Tuesday we both started to get a cold. Which, funny story, that day we were teaching the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to someone and Sister Jamsa and I would take turns teaching and blowing our noses. So basically when one of us wasn't teaching, we were blowing our nose. Hahaha. So gross. Anyways, so on Wednesday it hit us both like a ton of bricks. It was rough. And it's crazy that we both got colds at the exact same time! If that's not companionship unity, then I don't know what is. So on Wednesday we basically stayed home all day (besides when we went to the store to buy tissues and medicine and soup) because neither of us were functioning properly. The elders came and gave us a blessing which was nice. It was so weird to stay home though! Basically we did a lot of personal study, we watched The Testaments and The District and took naps. It was weird because I felt like I wasn't on a mission! Luckily we are better now.

On an unrelated topic, Sister Jamsa and I have grown a lot closer this week for some reason, and now we laugh all the time and I just love her. It's great! She's hilarious.

Also I received a very vague email from my bff Blair this weekend about STORM LUCIFER and I was like what the?!??? What is storm Lucifer??? What is happening??? Last days orrr??? And it turned out to be a pretty chill rainstorm on Friday. Not bad. The streets were flooding though and we had to walk through the water to get to a lesson. It was so fun, I'll send a video! I'm sending a lot of videos this week so be prepared. I just want you all to live my mission with me! WOO!

Saturday was a FUN day. Seriously so great. We had 2 mini missionaries (laurels) from Yucaipa come with us from 8-4 which was a blast! It was really motivating and made me want to set a really good example for them, because they both want to serve missions. They were cuties. It was fun to have them with us! While we were out proselyting with them we saw the most ghetto ice cream truck that spelled the word "warning" wrong in huge letters. Hahaha it was so funny, I'll send a picture. Things Fontana has a lot of: ice cream trucks and people named Miguel.

Saturday night we had a ward Multicultural Activity!!! It was a BLAST. There are so many different cultures in the ward, so as ward missionaries we made this activity happen and had everyone bring food and family history items from their country/culture or where they served their missions. (I brought popcorn of course, that's my culture okay) It was a GREAT turn out! Seriously it was SO MUCH FUN. And the members brought a lot of their non member friends which was awesome! Go members! Also, we got to see dances from the Mexican, Hawaiian, and Tongan cultures which was so cool. I'll send videos of that too. At one point everyone started dancing, and I wanted to dance SO BAD. You have no idea, it was tough. Probably the hardest part of my mission so far. Haha, really though, i love dancing so much and i miss it, so it was hard to not get up and dance with everyone! I'll dance after my mission though, so it's all good. But the activity was just amazing, and we were so happy with the way it turned out. Activities are the best.

Something that has been kind of disappointing though is when people don't come to church/activities! We invited SO many people to the activity, and so many people said they would come, and none of our investigators came. It was sad. And it's weird because we will talk to people all the time and they'll be like "yeah I'll come!" Or "I'll do my best to make it" and then we call and call and text and call and text and they don't get back to us and we're like "what the? Why?" I think that's the biggest thing, is when people don't get back to us. It's just hard when you know you have all the truth and the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and other people don't realize that. I'm like "Restored gospel here! Any takers? Anyone? No? Not even for free food?" Haha. I know I need to have patience and trust in the Lord. They are in His hands! We just have to do our best and then let the Lord do the rest.

Anyways, lately I've been thinking a lot about my future children, and how they are going to be raised in the LAST last days, and I think that's a big reason of why the mission age changed a few years ago! Because God needed to prepare faithful parents to raise righteous and spiritually strong servants of the Lord in the last days. I just really want my kids to have their flames of faith burning bright. I know im here on the earth at this time for a reason, and you all are too! It's so cool that we have ALL the resources we need to spread the gospel, and we have ALL the truth. I love it. I found this quote in the Book of Mormon institute manual as I was studying Jacob 5 the other day: "You have come to the earth when the foundation has been laid for this great work. The gospel has been restored for the last time. The Church has been established in almost every part of the world. The stage is set for the final dramatic scenes to be enacted. You will be the principal players. You are among the last laborers in the vineyard. This is the yoke that is set upon your necks. This is the service for which you are chosen."

How cool is that?! These are OUR days! We were chosen to be here at this exact time when the gospel has been restored! So cool! Never forget how amazing that is!

Another scripture that has been on my mind lately is Helaman 5:12. When we have Christ as our foundation, NOTHING can shake us, nothing can break us down. Nothing! Because of him we can get through anything and everything! And it's all because he really lives. So many people we talk to think that he died for us and that's it, but he is living right now, today, and because of that we can get through everything and accomplish anything! I invite you all to think of one thing you can do this week to build a stronger foundation in Christ. You will see miracles, I know it!

Heyyyyyy I love you all! I'm about to send a lot of pictures and videos your way so be prepared. Have an amazing week!!! LOVE YOU!

Sister Carina Brown

California Redlands Mission

Discover.mormon.org

P.s. Whoa just realized this is a long email. If you got through all of it, you're awesome.