I found her letter!!! I just KNEW she wouldn't forget us! :)

HAPPYYYY Monday y'all.

This week has been long. Not even going to lie. We dropped 7 investigators. So that was stinky. We had a good zone conference though on Wednesday! Sister Harrison and I sang a musical number with the Gloucester sisters...A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief to the tune of I Know That My Redeemer Lives. :) And then right after our special musical number we gave a training on effective companion study. so basically it was like the sister Harrison and the sister Carlson show for like a half hour. haha It went well though and I am always so grateful for Zone Conference because I always hear more than what is said. 

On Saturday we went on exchanges with the Hermanas. I went to their area...and I still don't speak Spanish. I am learning some stuff though! We went to a Spanish baptism of the Elders and I just sat there. Haha. I noticed in the closing prayer that the guy said "fiesta"...after, I asked the Hermanas- did that guy just say fiesta in the closing prayer? and they said "ya, he said there is a party in Heaven!" to which I said: "que linda!" which means "how cute." :) 

I liked Womens Conference on Saturday. I can't believe Gen. Conf. is already this weekend. Whaaaaaaaaaaaat? Anyways, these were my faves:

-there are 2 important days of a Woman's life; the day she is born, and the day she finds out why.

-divine nature prompts us to reach out and do for others

-see the good qualities and ignore the rest

-forever is composed of NOW

-move forward and upward...even when things don't work out.

-focus on the miracles and wonders of life

-God didn't design us to be sad

-the best things like homemade bread and orange marmalade take patience and time. :)

- No matter what has happened in the past, your story can have a happy ending

- with such a bright future, why worry about past or present challenges?

-exercise faith by filling your life with proactive, meaningful, fulfilling things

and that's all she wrote. literally.

MUCH LOVE! -Sista C

Exchanges, Comp in a Turkey Hat & a Gas Station Restroom!

This is all I got this week...she's still alive and well!  

Silly Sister Carlson...Did she write us all a letter of inspiration and not hit send?  Did she just forget to send it to her blog manager???

Mission Mysteries...

Stay tuned next week for more pictures and adventures of Cami Carlson in the Virginia Chesapeake Mission!

September 21st in Newport News, VA!

Sister Fairchild (Cami's 'Mission Mom!') and son as Stake Conf.

  

Cafe Rio opening in Newport News, VA!

And it was FREE!

Day of Service spent cleaning up the beach.  

Something tells me this girl is REALLY going to miss living by the beach!

Silly Sisters Sitting by the Seashore!

If you dress up like a pirate on Sept. 19, they give you a free dozen donuts per person so we did it and then delivered them to different missionaries in our apt complex. :)

HEY YALL.

This is uh...Sister C reporting live. This week has been pretttty good I guess. I must confess there are always good and rough parts of every week. This morning I realized this is the last full of week of September. 

Last Monday we pretty much just took it easy writing letters and doing laundry. Which...we needed a day to just "relax" and do "nothing" (whatever that means). 

Tuesday and Wednesday were just some good ol normal proselyting days...lessons....I/O's...meal apts...

Wednesday was also transfers and we were in 2 different trios with sisters who were waiting for new companions and making sure that everyone was getting where they needed to be. THURSDAY WE WENT TO CAFE RIO *pics above.* best day evaaaa. still so good! Mormons in VA be lovin the rio! 

Friday we had district meeting..and when I first got to this area, our district was: us as the Sister Training Leaders, the District Leader, and the Zone leaders. HAHA. So with this new transfer, our district dissolved and the district leader who was the other set of missionaries in our ward got taken out and the zone leaders got put into our ward and then we all got put into this new district with like all the Hampton and other Newport News Missonaries. Hope everyone followed that. So now we are in a bigger, less awkie district with more input and diversity. That was a good, much needed change. Friday night our ward had a chili cookoff..good times.....

And Saturday the ward also had a sea wall clean up service project on Ft. Monroe beach. So we went to that. Also good times. very hot, humid times. but good. 

Yesterday Rachel got confirmed a member of the church :) so that was sweet. 

A quote to sum up the week: 

 "We are members of the true and LIVING church, and change and growing pains accompany this blessing." -President Baker

Have a blessed week yall.

-Sister Carlson

This week in Newport News, Virginia!

Sno cones with Sister Hanahan who is our favorite ward missionary

And then there was this piece of plastic in my blow dryer and it was melting and freaking us out so we had to do emergency surgery on my blow dryer. its good now.

Rachel's baptism day! 

 And then we got poured on when we were doing I/Os....................

Hello hi!

some high lights from this week.....

-Rachel Grimes got baptized :)))))))))))

-CAFE RIO OPENED AND A MEMBER GOT US PASS FOR 2 FREE MEALS HALLELUJAH we'll be eating like queens on Thursday

-We got MAJOR rained on

-We went to stake conference and I got to see all of my Poquoson peeps!

-Transfer calls happened and I am staying here with Sister Harrison!

Have a blessed week!

-Sister Carlson

P-Day in Colonial Yorktown 

Silly Sisters!

More sites on Cami's 18 month vacation! HA!

Lookie there!  It's out cute girl.  

DANG, I miss her this week!  

Love you Cam!

The Elders made the Sisters cake!

Members gave them a magnetic cactus for their fridge.

New purse and new shoes, the old ones were worn to threads.  

I'll spare you the pics of those! Ew!

HELLO, HI.

We worked hard this week! And we are tired :) We taught 15 lessons, found 4 new investigators, have 8 people with a baptismal date, and got 147 I/O's which just stands for "invite others" which is how we track how many people we have gospel conversations with each week outside of lessons. So its basically to get us out talking to people. Life is good though. 

Wednesday was my first time going to Mission Leadership Council Meeting (MLC) in Portsmouth with all the other leaders in the mission and President and Sister Baker. It was sweet! 

Friday was zone meeting- the zone leaders asked us to do 2 trainings and they went well! We are over two zones- Newport News South and Newport News North. We decided to go to the North zone this month and President and Sister Baker were there! I get pushed out of my comfort zone every day and I seriously love it. In the short time I have been a Sister Training Leader I have role-played with President and Sister Baker twice- something that normally would have terrified me! It's amazing how the Lord qualifies those He calls. 

Saturday Rachel had her baptismal interview and passed! So her cute pregnant self will be getting baptized this Saturday! :) Yesterday we had a sisters preparation day and we went to Historic Yorktown for Labor Day! Seriously so much fun. It was soo so soo hot and humid, but worth it!

I found this story this morning while I was studying.. enjoy//

"A shipbuilding company had this statement in its advertisement: "All of our timber comes from the north side of the mountain." Why the north side? What does that have to do with timber? After investigation, I found that the best timber grows on the north side of the mountain because of the rigors of Mother Nature. The snow is deeper and the cold is colder, the winds are stiffer and the sun is not as warm as on the south side of the mountain. The harshness of the weather is a contributing factor to the toughness of the timber.

Human character is not much different from timber. Often the best in personality grows on the north side of the mountain. We grumble about our hardships and difficulties, yet those difficulties help us grow and become mature. Each of us can look at our lives and see that the times when we made the greatest personal progress was probably when we were living on "the north side of the mountain."  :)

Have a bless-ed week!

-Sister Carlson 

Cafe Rio!!!!

It's true!  We sent them Cafe Rio! 

The funny part about this is that Cami sent home a hand written letter last Monday saying she was would trade Southern Cooking for some Cafe Rio and that they were happy because there was one going in, in Newport News.  They are building one there and there is a sign up and everything.  She had no idea Taryn Fairchild was on her way with their own Cafe Rio for them.  She sealed up her letter and then on the sealed envelope, it said, we just got our Cafe Rio! They must have gotten it just before they went to the mailbox!

  It looks like they liked it! 

 This is some sort of cabbage that they make there that Cami says is super delicious.  

She is going to get the recipe and make it for us when she gets home.  

Stay tuned for that!

Sister Harrison has a torn Meniscus.  

This is them at the Orthepedic Dr.'s office.  

Favorite Saying

Sisters on exchanges.

Ha, ha! Amen!

Aug 31, 2015 on the Beach watching the Sunrise.  

This is what Sister Missionaries do for fun on their P-Day.  

They STILL get up early! :) 

Cami sure enjoys the beautiful that surrounds them in Virginia...

This week yall....I don't even know! EXCHANGES FOR DAYS. I went on exchanges to the Spanish area....I've never felt like such a white blonde girl in my entire life. Doctor appts. for days. Lessons for days. Baptismal dates for days--we have 5 with a date right now. Tired for days. Happy for days.

I found this when I was reading the Book a Mormon this morning:

"If ye should serve him with your whole souls, ye would be unprofitable servants..."

#devotionToGOD...today I am feeling just pretty grateful. Its the last day of August and I have to say this summer has been the refiners fire. I have experienced change and growth more than ever. I have been blessed with the courage to serve him with my whole soul and follow his plan for me. Hardest thing I've ever done. I still have worries and trials but its liberating to just let go and trust God. To just let the Atonement have my back after all I can do. 

This morning we went and watched the sunrise on the beach and I just sat there quietly counting my blessings. I thought about a quote my trainer sent me a couple months ago...

"Life has a way of testing our anchors and tempting us to drift. Nevertheless, if our anchors are placed correctly in the rock of our Redeemer, they will hold no matter the force of the wind, the strength of the tide, or the height of the waves." -President Utchdorf

Word. 

Have a blessed week y'all!

-Sister Carlson