Poolside Planning & Last Transfer Blues

HEYYYYYYYY

ok SERIOUSLY this week went by crazy fast AGAIN are you kidding me help sos mayday mayday 

Yeah so can we please not talk about how this week I start my LAST TRANSFER IN THE MISSION FIELD.  I never thought I would say that and I honestly never thought I would get to this point. On Thursday morning I woke up and was getting ready to go exercise and I was like “oh my goodness it is already Thursday??” And the thought just came to me that time is going by way too fast and I don’t have a lot of time left on my mission, so I started crying.  but then I pulled it together and told myself that one transfer is still a long time and I still have one whole transfer to be on a mission and to be serving the Lord full time. So it’s all good, I’m fine, I know that the best is yet to come and I’m just going to make this the best transfer yet! 

We had a GREAT week! Also let me just rave about Sister Tomisin for a minute. She is just a hilarious little thing and such a hard worker and it is so enjoyable to do the work with her. Also she is a great communicator which I love! I love our relationship because we are able to communicate openly with one another and express our thoughts and feelings to each other without worrying about if the other person is going to get offended. It is soooo nice and I definitely want that kind of open communication with my future spouse! Also she is seriously so funny you guys. I JUST LOVE HER. 

Funny story:

On Wednesday we had dinner with the scouts for the blue and gold banquet (?) or something, and the theme was Harry Potter. So Sister tomisin and I were talking about the HP houses and I told her that I thought she is maybe a Slytherin with some Gryffindor mixed in there. So she asked me what Slytherins are like and I turned to this 10 year old girl next to me and asked her what some qualities of a slytherin were. Her response was SO funny. With lots of sass, she said, “they are MEAN, they are UNTRUSTWORTHY, they tell LIES” etc etc and sis Tomisin was like WHAT THE Sister brown why did you say I’m a slytherin?? Hahaha it was just hilarious. 

Also on Thursday and Friday we were sick! Sister T had a pretty bad migraine and I ended up getting a cold on the same day, so that day was rough. We were out for pretty much the whole day. Friday morning I was not feeling well so I slept for a while and then I felt better!

On Friday afternoon we went to Sister Griffins to weekly plan by her pool. let me tell you it was the most productive weekly planning session ever! Sister Griffin brought us snacks and it was a breezy 75 degrees outside and we have never been more focused during weekly planning. It was great! Pics to follow. I plan on swimming in Sis. G’s pool when I come back and visit the mission! 

On Saturday we had this ward fundraiser carnival thing! It was so fun. Marius came! Also we did so well on not having sugar, we only had one whole funnel cake and three cotton candy’s oops. Worth it though! I MEAN HAVE YOU HAD A FUNNEL CAKE, LIKE WOW. Delicious. We were able to talk to a member there who was able to tell us about two potential investigators in our area for us to teach! And we had dinner with them yesterday! 

Funny story from Saturday:

So everyone was at the carnival and the kids were on all the bounce houses and the blow up obstacle course and the mechanical bull, and then all of a sudden the sprinklers came on! So then we just see all these wet kids running away and screaming and AH it was so comical and hilarious, it reminded me of a scene from a movie. All the adults were just dying laughing. 

Yesterday at church I saw my old YSA Bishop, BISHOP THOMAS and his wife and their daughter Tori! They were in town for the Tennis tournaments which is going on like five minutes from my area, so they came to church in my ward! It was soooo fun to see them, I just love them so so much. 

Also forgot to mention St. Patty’s day on Saturday was sooo fun at Sister Griffins! We had dinner with her and there were four non members there! They are all so sweet and it was so fun to talk with them. 

Lately in our mission and in our stake, we have been talking a lot about apathy, and how it is a plague that has taken the hearts of many church members and people in the world. There has been a lot of emphasis put on the word “awake” and awakening people out of this unhealthy apathetic state. It talks about awakening a lot in the scriptures, for example, in Alma 5:7 (have I shared this scripture before?) it says, “Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word.”  

It is so true, that many people are “past feeling”. As I reflected on this subject, I realized that maybe I have fallen into that same trap. It is so easy to get into a routine of living the gospel that sometimes it gets to the point that we don’t care and are just going through the motions. Which is why it is so important to awake and to FEEL. Elder Ballard once said, “People change by what they feel and not so much by what they know.” 

Knowing can be a one-time experience, but FEELING is a DAILY experience. 

Here is a formula I created:

Daily “feeling” = daily changing >>> which leads to conversion. 

Are you feeling the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ in your life every single day? When was the last time you felt the power of the Holy Ghost in your life? I mean reeeally felt it? 

These are questions that I recently asked myself, and I invite you all to ponder on these questions. What do you need to do to FEEL? That is where the real power comes, and that is when real and positive change happens in our lives. It is not a one-time process, it is a daily experience. I know that as we work together to FEEL that the gospel is true, it will make an apparent difference in our lives, and we will be happier and more at peace in world that is in commotion. 

I hope you all have an amazing week! God is good. SO good! Don’t forget it! Love you ALL!!! 

ps WHOA this email is long, if you made it this far then way.to.GO. 

Sister Carina Brown

California Redlands Mission 

Discover.mormon.org

My background on my iPad in prep for conference 

Casually saw my mom in a bible video this week 

Italian sodas 

Sicky

Shoutout to you sis Angelovich 😘

Testing out short hair (I will NOT be cutting it anytime soon though) 

Bro peterson took a pic of us teaching Marius haha 

This week was chalk-fullllllll

HEYYYY WHATS UP
WOW ARE YOU KIDDING ME THIS WEEK WENT BY SO FAST (<< if I had a dollar for every time I said that)
IS ANYONE ELSE EXPERIENCING THIS SPEED UP OF TIME OR IS IT JUST ME

Quick thing I forgot to mention last week, sister Tomisin and I went off sugar on March 1st! We have been doing pretty well! There are some loop holes though, for example, if a member feeds us dessert, we are most definitely going to eat it 💁‍♀️

Wowowowow ok where to begin?? Something exciting happened every day so I’m going to go day by day GET PUMPED

Monday: pedicures with sista griffin, also I found a dress at Old Navy for $2.50 HOLLA, also for our ward FHE movie night we watched 17 miracles ❤️😢

Tuesday: we had a family history ZOOM (do you all know about that app? Awesome videoconferencing app) meeting with sister Dixon and some sisters from the missionary dept, on family history! I am so excited about family history now and talking to people about it in natural ways.

Wednesday: we went to a follow up training for new missionaries and their trainers. It was great! We road tripped to Highland! And sister Tomisin and I finally got a picture by the CRM sign.

Thursday: weekly planning and we volunteered at the Braille institute again

Friday: EXCHANGES in Borrego Springs (an hour south of our area, middle of nowhere) with Hermana Figueroa and Sister Trussell. It was great! We talked a lot about the importance of communicating with companions and those two were actually able to resolve some misunderstandings! I love missions ❤️

Saturday: there was a chalk festival in Indio and some missionaries were drawing something about family history so people could see! We talked to a few people but not a ton which was kind of unfortunate. I was able to draw the Just Serve logo in chalk which was cool!

Sunday: we spoke in sacrament meeting! We spoke on member missionary work and it went great! Sister Tomisin was soooooooooooooooooooooooooo nervous but she seriously did so well. I absolutely loooove talking about member missionary work, I am pretty passionate about it! 😀

Monday (today): we went hiking with our zone for a zone activity! We went to Mecca on this hike called Ladder Canyon. It was soooo fun and the Dixon’s came with us! Also it was HOT (well like 85 degrees) so we got a little sweaty but it was still just a blast.

At our follow up training meeting, Pres Dixon shared Ether 6:1-12 with us from the Book of Mormon. He related it to our mission, how sometimes we will face monstrous waves or be buried in the “water”, but we can have light continually as we rely on our savior Jesus Christ. Those verses are just a great metaphor for life in general too, so I want to invite you all to read those verses this week and relate it to your own life! Study it and figure out what you can do to have light continually. I know that those verses are so inspired, and as you read them you will feel the Spirit of Lord and He will teach you what he wants you to know.

Okay we have another great week ahead of us! Let’s make it a good one! Loooooove youuuuuuu alllllllll 😘😘😘😘😘❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️



Sister Carina Brown
California Redlands Mission
Discover.mormon.org

Weird candid photo haha 

Hiking today!

Nerf wars soften hearts

HEYYYYYYYYYY EVERYONE 

WOW ok this week has just FLOWN.BY. Seriously it was JUST Monday like yesterday. It has been a great week though! A lot has happened! 

On Wednesday we had a super fun Relief Society Activity with the theme “Drops Of awesome” (a story thing that has been going around Facebook or something - really cute and I highly recommend that you look it up). Our recent convert Pauline was there and also a less active named Sister Trevino that we have been working with was there too! It was great to just unite with the women in the ward and to build those relationships. Plus the whole them was just sunshine and lemons and it was so so cute. 

On Thursday we had MLC! It was wonderful as usual! Oh my goodness I seriously cry at any missionary meeting we have because I just love my mission. I was doing so well throughout the whole meeting I was like “look at me I’m emotionally stable I haven’t even cried once ha ha yay” and then we sang Battle Hymn of the Republic (which isn’t even a very tender song?? Idk) for the closing song and it just got to me and I cried during the closing prayer. That is one of my favorite hymns and I love the part where it says “as he died to make men Holy, let us live to make men free.” I just want that to be a theme for my life! 

On Saturday we had a powerful lesson with a less active/part member family (part member families are GOLD MINES btw) names the Duenas’ and the husband is less active and the wife is not a member. We taught the Restoration and the spirit was so strong, they were really listening and engaged in the lesson. So she is now a new investigator! Miracle! They really are just the cutest young family. 

Yesterday we had dinner with an AWESOME member family named the Cottons. They are seriously. so. FUNNY. Wow I just love them! We got to talking and found out that he works in film production! So I told him that I was a film major before my mission and we talked about that for a little bit, and then they told us that they used to have a YouTube channel as vloggers! They would vlog about their family and their channel was named “The Cotton Show” (I KNOW SO CUTE RIGHT, please look it up they are seriously hilarious and I can’t wait to watch their vlogs when I go home). So I ended up telling them about my vlog and they looked it up and it was all just really funny. It got me excited to vlog again when I go home! 

FUNNY STORY:

So we are at this dinner with the Cottons, and their son Brigham (8 ish yrs old) is just telling us about his nerf guns the whoooole time, he wanted to show them to us so bad. He was having a hard time sitting through dinner and didn’t really want to listen to the message we had to share. So we told him that if he listened to our message, then we would have a two minute nerf war with him afterwards! Hahaha so he willingly and quietly sat through our message about blessings and miracles and then we had a little nerf war with him! It was sooooo funny, and Brother Cotton took a video of it! So I will definitely send that to you all. 

I came across a scripture this week in my studies that I had just never noticed before. It is in Alma, right after Ammon had preached to King Lamoni and he became converted and repented of all his sins. It is a beautiful verse that just talks about King Lamonis experience: 

Alma 19:6 says “the light of the glory of God, which was a marvelous light of his goodness--yea, this light had infused such joy into his soul, the cloud of darkness having been dispelled, and that the light of everlasting life was lit up in his soul” 

Wow isn’t that verse just beautiful? I love when he says, “this light infused such joy in his soul” that the cloud of darkness over him was gone, and he was able to feel joy. What are some clouds of darkness that you are currently experiencing in your life? I invite you each to turn to the Savior. Turn to god. Whether that be through prayer, scripture study, improving your sabbath day worship, temple worship, serving others, etc etc, whatever it is you need to have your souls lit up with LIGHT. I know that Jesus Christ is the source of that light, and through him we can feel joy and peace every day of our lives. 

We have another FHE movie night tonight which will be fun (17 miracles!) and also Sister Griffin is taking us to get pedicures today so it’s going to be a great preparation day! We all have a wonderful week ahead of us, so let’s make it GREAT! Love you all so so much! 

Sister Carina Brown

California Redlands Mission 

Discover.mormon.org

Drops of awesome with Pauline 

MLC 

Elder pic 

MTC district pic 

Marius bday so we brought him balloons 

Açaí bowls for lunch 

Weekly planning outside 

SISTER GRIFFIN BORE HER TESTIMONY IN CHURCH WOO NEVER BEFORE SEEN also please ignore the fact that I took a pic in sacrament meeting 

NERF WAR