Hola, Hola, Hola!

Happy last week of November!

This week has been full of miracles and just good stuff! 

On Wednesday we had a leadership meeting with Elder Arnold. It went well... we were feeling pretty spiritually drained to be honest. Haha. But it was good. Wednesday night we had a meeting with the Stake President, President Baker, and all the Ward Mission Leaders in the Stake with the Zone Leaders in the Stake for a training for the ward mission leaders which was good. It's always good to have a Ward Mission Leader who knows what he's doin'! :) 

The rest of the week we had some good lessons. We went on exchanges with the Gloucester Sisters and while I was gone, Sister Johanson and one of the Gloucester Sisters were tracting and totally found a less active/part member family that wasn't on the records!! The non-member is the wife and she was super excited to see them and said that she had always been interested in learning more about the church and getting involved with feeding the missionaries and everything--so she signed up to feed us right then and there! I was stoked to hear about that! 

And then last night we taught another less active/part member family and the husband became a new investigator and agreed to baptism! BOOYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. 

Seriously-I can just tell how worth it the end of my mission is going to be :) I've loved the whole thing but man...miracles are happening as I'm staying dedicated and enduring to the end. The church is true y'all. Love it. Love it, Love it!

Have a GREAT-ful week! :)

Xo, Sister C

Autumn in Virginia

Raking leaves with a helper

William & Mary Campus

Sisters Specialized Training

Ha, Ha!

So basically this has been the coolest week of my entire mission! First of all I can't believe that it is November 17th. Time is going quickly. I'll start by talking about what is most on my mind- The General Authority Tourrrr!!!!! So sweet. Ok ,so Mervyn B. Arnold came and visited my mission..I think I am still trying to process it all because I don't even know how to describe it. He started out the day with all the missionaries in Virginia, split into 3 parts-all the mission leaders were with him and President Baker in the cultural hall and then the all other sisters with his wife, Sister Arnold, and then...all the other elders went...somewhere... idk. Ha,ha. He started talking to us, telling us that he didn't come to our mission with any kind of agenda, topic, or outline but that he would take what we said as leaders the mission most needed to hear. Talk about faith to follow the spirit! We talked about so many things in the leadership meeting and he portrayed it perfectly when it came time to have everyone else in there. All throughout the conference he was so straight forward and just wanted us to be honest. He created such an open atmosphere and made it so easy to receive revelation! He made it so every single missionary got to participate in some way. Every time he was about to say something important he would say "write this down!" here are some of my notes....

-There is not a part of God's vineyard that has a hole

-Never make any excuses for anything ever

-Never talk negatively about anything or anyone.

-When was the last time you made cookies for your bishop?

-The only way we're gonna win this is to love love love love love love love love love love love the tar out of em!

-When you came into this mission, you promised to give Him your will

-Those that are for us, are much greater than those that are against us

-The greatest motivator is love- *with tears in his eyes:*....you've got to learn how to succor people

-Go home with no regrets- GIVE IT UP AND GIVE IT TO GOD

-If there's something you have done in your past and you've repented of it, don't. look. back.

-(In speaking of marriage) Go home and find your best friend who is going to be steadfast to you and the Gospel.

-It's better to be HAPPY than anything else

-Strive not to be seen, but for others to see Christ in you.

-The closer you get to God, the less relevant time is.

-Sometimes we are going to have "broken bow" experiences like Nephi. Are you going to sit on a rock and cry about it, or are you going act?

-You're poor if you DONT pay tithing.

-Sometimes he answers no because he knows better :)

After the conference, he interviewed all of the leaders in the mission. If my mission wasn't already made, that interview made it. it was the coolest experience so far in this whole experience. He asked me about my family. He asked me how long I had left on my mission. I told him about a month and a half. He told me how grateful he is for all the hard work I have done and told me how much I still have left to do! He said don't let up a single bit! You keep moving and working and becoming. He asked me if I had any questions and I sat there for a moment and almost said nope and walked right out! But then the spirit was like Sister Carlson...you are sitting across from a General Authority who just asked you if you had ANY questions. So, I said yeah, whats the best advice you could give to me right now? He said: Never lose sight of your potential. Don't let anyone or anything get in the way of what you want to do with your life. So many missionaries go home and forget who they had in mind for themselves. They forget about all the goals and plans they had. I can see so much potential in you, but you are going to have to work for it! Will you do that for me? 

Me: Yes sir. 

Elder Arnold: I want you to read your patriarchal blessing every week. Will you do that? 

Me: Yes sir.

And then as I was leaving he said: One last thing Sister Carlson, please thank your parents for me and give them my love and the love of the brethren, for raising such a steadfast, strong young woman. Will you do that? 

Me: I will!

XO, Sister Carlson

HAPPY 16 MONTHS TO ME!!!!!

 Sister Carlson with her new Companion, Sister Johanson

likely the last companion of her mission 

President and Sister Baker at Zone Conf. last week

The silly Zone Leaders with puppies!

 Elders Tolman & Archer are 2 of Cami's favorite people and they are her new Zone Leaders!  They are super valiant missionaries and a lot of fun too.

These pics were sent to me by a member on Saturday of the new companions.  

Looks like they are getting along just fine!  Sister Johanson is from Highland, Utah.

I was just about to log off when I realized I haven't even written an email for this week!

This week has been good! 

It was crazy on Thursday knowing that my brother was getting married! 

Last Monday we really just hung out at home and wrote letters and that kinda stuff. pretty low key. 

Tuesday we had a few hours of conference calls to get through. Sometimes that is a real test of my attention span! 

Wednesday we went to MLC (Mission Leader Conf.) which is always super fun! 

Friday we had Zone Meeting- Sister Johanson and I gave a training on helping others make and keep commitments and follow-up which was great! We had a lot of fun doing that- President and Sister Baker came to our zone meeting so...no pressure!! Ha,ha. Nahh, they were awesome. They are always so great to be around. 

Saturday we helped with the food order for the stake which I always love doing!!! It's pretty sweet how it all works. Saturday night our ward had a fish fry which was good- some people that we had invited actually came!!! we were stoked! 

Tomorrow we are doing a training on Divine Nature at the Sisters specialized training. Next week we have a mission tour with Elder Arnold. 

Lots of fun things going on!! :)

Have a blessed week y'all!!

xo, sister c

Transfers! Sister Harrison goes home!  

On their way to drop her off!

Another chapter completed...

Cami is going to miss Sister Harrison! 

Cami will welcome the opportunity to make another great friend/mission companion--

a new chapter has begun with Sister Johanson...

see the bottle cap below that she found on the way to drop off Sister Harrison.

HOLA HOLA HOLA!

Wow, what a week it has been. It has seriously FLOWN!! I can't believe its already been a week since I dropped sister Harrison off at the mission home. Everything is good though. I feel like I have had so many "companions" this week!

Monday we came back and I met up with Hermana Mardis, who was my companion until transfers on Wednesday. 

Wednesday morning I was with all 3 of the Hermanas...we drove to VA beach to drop off one Hermana...then back to Newport News and I spent the day with the other 2 Hermanas. They only spoke Spanish to me for a lot of the day and it was so sweet!!! I learned a ton. And they made me pray over the food at our dinner appointment! I was like freaking out but....the gift of tongues is real y'all! Wednesday night I went and picked up my new companion, Sister Johanson who I stinkin love! She just came from serving in Havelock North Carolina- which is pretty country/in the middle of nowhere. She was excited to see Café Rio and all the places to shop :) She is from Highland UT, and has been out for almost a year! We have had a lot of fun so far and have a lot in common so it has been good to get to know each other! We had a lot of good lessons this week but transfer week is always just wild. 

On Friday we got to teach a guy who we have been trying to get in contact with forever- we taught him the restoration and then we kind of just lost touch. We have been teaching his mom and trying to get in touch with him but she told us he had been out of town- so we decided to try stopping by his apartment just one more time and finally caught him!! we taught him and his son the Book of Mormon and committed them to baptism! GOD IS GOOD y'all.

This coming week and basically every week of November is going to be crazy. Mission Leadership Council and Zone meeting this week, Sister Specialized training next week, a mission tour the week after that with one of the General Authorities...its going to be a partayyyyy of a Fall!! 

AND THEN THANKSGIVING!! So yep. Life is good.

Have a blessed week y'all!

XOXO, Sister C