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 

EARTHQUAKE ALERT

HELLO EVERYONE YES YOU HEARD ME SERIOUSLY WE FELT AN EARTHQUAKE LIKE AN HOUR AGO OK OUR WHOLE APT SHOOK WHILE WE WERE DOING PERSONAL STUDY

AND WE WERE SHOOK 

Yes so we were just quietly studying and our apt started shaking and we were like WHOA and ok I’m probably making it a big deal but it lasted like 5 ish seconds and it was kinda scary! We thought maybe people were wrestling downstairs or maybe a car crashed into our our apt building? Realistic I know. But then we texted the Santa Rosa sisters and they were like WE FELT IT TOO and they are like 10 miles away so we were all WHAAAAT and then we freaked out for a good ten minutes, pretty sure Sister Tomisin peed her pants while laughing and crying at the same time (HILARIOUS), and now we are fine just sitting here and calmly emailing. So it’s been a fun morning. We also went to Winco this morning so that was lovely. 

Ok anyway hello! It has been another great week! On Tuesday we had ZONE CONFERENCE! President Dixon gave an awesome training on Joseph Smith and the Restoration and basically we are all PUMPED to go out and unapologetically testify that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God. I know that he is! Also I got to see Sister Vest there so that was sweet. I have pictures of course. 

Also basically I love Sister Tomisin she is so hilarious I want you all to meet her ok

Oh yeah and last week we went to the fair with the Griffins! IT WAS SO FUN and guess what, the Griffins paid for us to go on some rides! Best pday ever! Never thought I would go on rides on my mission but hey it was so much fun. 

Also this week i went on exchanges with Sister Trussell! So that was fun. Also yesterday Ashley came to church again! She is seriously the cutest, she reminds me of my sister Gracie.  We had an POWERFUL lesson yesterday with Ashley and Pauline about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pauline testified so strongly that she knows this is all true, and we were all crying, and we all basically took turns testifying and then we asked Ashley if she wants to be baptized and she said yes! We don’t have a date yet because we are waiting on approval from Ashley’s mom. So please if you could, pray for Ashley and pray that her moms heart will be softened! Her moms named is Maritess. Thank you! 

Also yesterday we met with the Bishop and our Ward Mission Leader and we had a REVELATORY meeting about our ward mission plan. It was so cool, we were all counseling together and receiving revelation for what the ward needed and how we could help and we were just bouncing off each other with ideas. Seriously, the Spirit of God is so real and the Church is true everybody. Also Sister Tomisin and I are speaking in sacrament meeting in two weeks on member missionary work and I am SO EXCITED.

While we are on the topic of member missionary work, I read a talk this past week called “Ask in Faith” by Elder Bednar from the April 2008 general Conference. I invite you all to read it, it talks a lot about prayer and how we can improve our prayers and ask in faith. One thing he talks about is how often as members we will pray for the missionaries but then we won’t go out and do missionary work ourselves. My favorite thing that he said was “missionaries are the full time teachers, and you and I [members] are the full time finders.” I just absolutely LOVE that quote. It’s true, we as missionaries are here to do the teaching, but we are most successful in finding when the MEMBERS are on fire about missionary work. A quote from the missionary dept went something like this: “If you want to find people to teach, go knock on doors. If you want to find people to baptize, go work with members.” The most solid investigators ive had on my mission have come from members. I invite you each to pray for missionary experiences this week, and to ACT when you receive a prompting from the Holy Ghost. This may not mean that you give someone a Book Of Mormon this week or invite someone to meet with the missionaries, but it DOES mean that you could naturally bring up the gospel in a conversation, share something uplifting on social media, etc etc. it’s the simple things! I know this is the greatest work on the earth, and it is a privilege and blessing to participate in it. 

Ok I hope you all have a wonderful week! I LOVE YOU ALL! 

mwah 

Sister Carina Brown 

California Redlands Mission 

Discover.mormon.org

Fair pics, zone conference, etc

Wrong scripture reference but cute pic someone drew