San B is not for me

HELLOOOOOOOOOO whats up everyone

Actually I'll tell you whats up:

- SHOUTOUT to my dad because it is his BIRTHDAY on friday!!! Happy Birthday dad!!!!! I love you so much. Keep on running.

- Also on friday, the time has come, the bff Blair is getting married. WHAT. I CANNOT EVEN BELIEVE IT. So happy for you Blair and Derek, I will be there in spirit and in cardboard. Love you both.

So, this past week was GREAT! It was pretty weird actually. Weird in a good way. Missions are a lot of things, and sometimes they are weird.

We had Zone Conference on wednesday! We talked all about finding, and I am super pumped to find God's prepared children. I know there are prepared people out there, we just have to find them! We revised our finding plan this week so we are excited to implement some new ideas and feel the fire that comes from preaching the gospel. YEAH.

Also this week, we put Linda on date for baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you even believe it??? We have been teaching her the ENTIRE time I have been in this area, and she was being taught long before that too. Eternal investigator. But! She feels that she needs to be baptized! We read Mosiah 18 with her on thursday and she got emotional and said it was something that she really wanted to do. So, she is on date for August 19th! WOO!!! YAY LINDA! So excited.

Also this week we went on exchanges with the Highland sisters!!! I went to Highland with Sister Brindley while Sister Vest stayed in Smiley. Sista V totally rocked it of course. Also, I don't know if you remember, but I've gone on exchanges with Sister Brindley before! It was during my first transfer, and she was in the tongan ward at the time. I love her so much, she is hilarious. She goes home in October. We were getting ready for bed that night and she was sitting on her bed, and all of sudden she just whips out this afghan she is making and said, "i've picked up crocheting." hahahaha it was SO FUNNY.

So yeah, Highland is right next to San Bernardino, aka SKETCHIEST OF THE SKETCH. It was actually shocking, it made me realize that I have been taking Redlands for granted! Redlands is sooo nice, the people are nice and fairly well-off, its safe, its a beautiful city, palm trees line the streets, the members are amazing, etc etc. And San B is basically the opposite of that. Its the poorest city in the NATION of its size, and the crime rates are through the ROOF. So it was just really different from Redlands and I learned a lot and gained a lot of appreciation for being in Redlands in the Smiley ward. I better cherish it because I know my time in this area is short, and getting shorter.

While on exchanges, we taught someone in prison! Don't worry, we didn't go to the prison, but we skyped him. He is the husband of less-active member and we skyped him at her house. I know, strange situation, but he was super nice! The highland sisters call him prison mike. So funny. He actually has two life sentences. Crazy. Sister Brindley told me that they were too apprehensive to ask him why he was in prison, so when we were skyping him I was all, "Mike, I have a question for you. Why are you in prison?" and everyone in the room goes OHHHH and mike goes "oh shoot" but he didn't say shoot, and his wife actually ended up telling us why he was there haha. He even invited his celly (cell mate) to join in on the lesson too. Anyways, it was cool! Gotta love San B.

Ohhh another cool thing we did this week was teach during the third hour of church on sunday, because it was the fifth Sunday so everyone was combined! We made it fun and first had everyone stand up to get the blood flowing because remember "sitting is the new smoking" (you'll see me in some pictures that Sister Kuaea sneakily took of us, it looks like im leading the crowd in some stretches haha), and then we told them to journey with us to the MMTC, the Member Missionary Training Center. We had some of the members act as investigators and the congregation had to act as the missionaries and answer their questions and resolve their concerns. It was way fun! We had a blast doing that.

Side note: watch the new Mormon message "The Music of the Gospel." I am obsessed with it. It can be found on lds.org.

At Zone Conference we watched a few minutes of Elder Hollands talk at the new mission presidents seminar, and it was SO GOOD. At the end he said, "welcome to the work of salvation." It was just so powerful. He also talked about how we need to include our third companion, the holy ghost, more throughout the day. The spirit is not just something that we need during lessons, or during church, etc. Its something that we need to be worthy of ALWAYS, in everything we do. One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Nephi 32:5 where it says that the Holy Ghost "will show unto you all things what ye should do." What a comforting promise! There are A LOT of times when I don't know what to do, and I am so grateful to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost to help me out there. I need it. We ALL need it. I invite you each to think of one thing you can do this week to have the Holy Ghost with you more constantly. I KNOW that as you strive to include the spirit in all that you do, you WILL find that you are guided and directed in all aspects of your life, and your joy will increase!

Hopefully this email wasn't too long. I hope you all have a faith-filled week. Who's ready for some MIRACLES?! YEAH!

ok LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!

<3 Sister Carina Brown

xoxoxoxoxoxo