queso fresco

HOLA hermanos y hermanas!

Voy a hablar en espanol para todo el email (como se dice 'email' en espanol???).

JUST KIDDING.

Sometimes I like pretending I can speak Spanish. I'm working on it haha. Angie (recent convert) is teaching us Spanish, so I'll get there. Also I've been obsessed with queso fresco lately, so that's why I titled my email after it. That's basically the extent of the meaning behind it, so.

So with the new missionary schedule, we can only email every other week now, which is why you didn't get an email from me last week!

Haha, KIDDING again. That would be something, wouldn't it? Anyways, I have LITrally no idea why my emails didn't send last week??? So weird! I sent like four mass emails and apparently not one got them? I'm concerned. I will try and forward last weeks emails this week and hopefully you all get them. Hopefully you even get this one.

Anyways, HI!!! This week has gone by sooooooo faaaaaast ahhhhhhh time fliiiiiies. And transfers are NEXT week! Can you even believe that??? I feel like I might be leaving Fontana, but we will see. What even happened this week? Let's seeeee:

- we had dinner with an Asian family and we had to pray for the gift of tongues because it was very hard to understand them

- I've been eating healthier than ever before and I loooove iiiiitttttt

- yesterday there was a skunk by our car so we had to wait for like five or ten minutes for it to go away (terrifying, seriously. who wants to be sprayed. no one.)

- oh we had interviews with President Dixon and he said he likes how uncomplicated I am! Cool.

- went to church

- woke up at 6:30 every day

- ate food

Alllllriiiiight so clearly I have run out of things to say. Not too many exciting or spectacular things happened this week and I'm not sure what to include in this email. Ummm I don't know! This week I really came to appreciate this opportunity of being a missionary and just how wonderful it is. It really is such a unique time of life and I'm grateful to be able to experience it! I love it so much.

Ohhhh here's a spiritual story. last Thursday while President Dixon was doing interviews, Sister Dixon did a mini training with the other sisters who were not being interviewed. She asked us, "why do YOU go to church?" So I answered, and to be honest I'm not really sure what I said, but then Sister Hess answered, and she said something like, "I go to church because it's something I NEED each week. I look forward to it more than p days sometimes. I know it's not a waste of time and I'm there for a reason. I need it." And she started getting emotional! And I just thought, wow. She really needs church. That's why she goes. The sacrament is clearly a very real experience for her, and I was just so touched by that. It made me really think about why I go to church, and I really want to work on making the sacrament more meaningful! It is so easy to let my mind wander, and I really just want to focus on Christ. Like it says in Matthew 26:40, "could you not watch with me one hour?" Can we not take just those few minutes and devote them to the savior? The sacrament is a time to really think about your relationship with Christ and how you can improve it, and also to receive communication from heaven. I came across this quote the other day that expanded my view on the atonement of Christ: “Imagine, Jehovah, the Creator of this and other worlds, ‘astonished’! Jesus knew cognitively what He must do, but not experientially. He had never personally known the exquisite and exacting process of an atonement before. Thus, when the agony came in its fulness, it was so much, much worse than even He with his unique intellect had ever imagined! No wonder an angel appeared to strengthen him!"

It's hard for me to comprehend how the Savior suffered for every single person who ever and will ever live. I really can't comprehend it. But I know that it happened. And I know he suffered for me personally. Not only for my sins, but for all my pains, my sicknesses, my sorrows, anything I have ever gone through he has gone through too. And that is the kind of thing that should be thought about during he sacrament! And it involves preparing each day of the week, not just Saturday night or Sunday morning. I invite each of you to think of one thing you can do each day this week to better prepare yourselves for the sacrament on Sunday. I know you will see a huge difference in your sabbath day worship!

Okay well that's all I've got for today. Imma try and send last weeks emails, so hopefully that works. I love you all and hope you have an amaaaazing week! Send me pictures of your lives!!!

MUCHO AMOR

Sister Carina Brown