Filling The Bucket‏

¡Hola mi familia! it sounds like you guys had a great  week!! And dad, it sounds like you had THE best birthday ever!!! Mom i am so proud of you, those football tickets were a great idea, i think that sounds like a great birthday present! Thank you SO much for my package! It seriously made me so happy! and i got your letter as well! so that was great! please send me those letters because i just love hearing from you guys! It makes me the happiest girl in the world :) I feel awful about what happened to Mackenzie Jensen, she will definitely be in my prayers. I hope she keeps on healing and recovering. its so crazy that everyone is leaving and going on their missions! I hope Hayden loves it! I think he will do great!! he is a hard worker. Thank you so much for all you have done with my bike and stuff. If i need to use Elise´s i will if not, i will just tell them i need to get one. haha Mom i loved your shout out in the article! I hope all is going good with Carson and i hope he keeps doing good! The Ross family is definitely in my prayers as well. I have a ton to tell this week so i hope you buckle down and love it!

This week was really awesome! But also really hard but also really fun! So to start out with the funny things. Okay so Hermana Levao and i were teaching a lesson to our investigator (who is really our morning teacher, Hermano Ortiz) and I wanted to say "Jesus Christ ordained his apostles" how you say ordained in spanish is ordenar, well on accident i said "ordeñar" instead which actually means to milk... I said "Jesus Christ milked his apostles" my teacher was laughing so hard we didn't even have time to finish our lesson.... he then told me what I said... i definitely learned the difference of those two words and hopefully i never get them mixed up again. haha Okay so like i was talking about my teacher hermano ortiz, he is SO amazing. like one of my favorite people ever! he has such a strong testimony and really cares about our district. Every single day I will ask him to bring me a coke, because I am definitely having withdrawals, but they aren't allowed to bring stuff from "outside the walls" to any of the missionaries. Well on Saturday i was kinda having a rough day, just frustrated with everything and with life, and comes over and puts his bag next to mine, opens it, and THERE IS A COKE INSIDE. so i carefully, and sneakily put it into my bag and I was the happiest girl in the world. it was still a little cold too :)  Well after getting my coke Saturday just kept on getting better and better. We had this thing called TRC and its when volunteers come to the CCM and we have to teach them. I was really nervous, but it was the best lesson we had ever taught. We used no notes and totally just taught by the spirit. My mouth and ears were totally opened. I was able to understand everything our investigator was saying to me, and i was able to speak back. The spirit was so strong in that room it was hard to think that was real life. It was such a great experience to have.

On Sunday we watched a devo by elder bednar and it was awesome!! He talked about how to be a preach my gospel missionary. sunday was a really good day to just be able to feel the spirit. Elder Bednar´s talk was just the boost i needed. Last night we watched a live devo from provo and it was elder ballard. he also did amazing! He talked to us like one on one like he would with his grandchildren. his talk really helped me out. he talked about his struggles he had on his mission and what he did to over come them.  He also talked about our families and how they are so important while we are on our missions... i may or may not have had a tiny breakdown.... This week just has been amazing already. Tomorrow we have a special morning devotional and i think its two people from the mission office in salt lake, so that will be way cool! yesterday we learned about teaching with the spirit. and how we can teach a lesson with the spirit. it was such a cool experience. I am so thankful to be here and to be on a mission. its incredible how much our Father in Heaven loves us, and if we obey him and choose the right we can receive so many blessings. 

I am grateful to be here on my mission and i am grateful to be able to represent my savior Jesus Christ. I know that his is his church and that he lives. I know he died for my sins, and for the sins of the world. and i know that joseph smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and that the book of mormon is true. I love the book of mormon. I can just feel the spirit every time i read it. I love my family. You guys are the best and i don't know what i would do with out yall. I am nervous but excited to go to tennessee in 12 days!! I know that is where i need to be and that is where i can teach people the gospel! I love you soooo soooo much!

xoxo

Hermana Brown :)

 

my coke :)

beautiful sunrise

Hermana Hansen (Kalinee) She left for Peru today!!

 

Fiesta en Mexico City

Hola Familia!! How are you guys? Look how good my spanish has already gotten haha just kidding. Well, good news, this is the first week that I have actually felt like has gone by rather quickly! And that makes me so happy. And I am technically on my 4th week at the CCM and that makes me even happier! This week has been crazy but so fun!

Monday and Tuesday are when the Mexicans celebrate their independence day and wow they are crazy. Monday was a fun day, we got like "good" mexican food like tamales and stuff and guess what they had for dinner?! POZOLE!!!! I don't know if i spelled that right but oh well. I was so happy!!! i almost cried!!! it was so freaking amazing!! So after dinner we had an hour of study time then from 7-9:30 we had a mexican fiesta! So the CCM like you know, used to be a high school and so the old dance team came and performed and it was really cool! We had like a big flag ceremony and we all sang the Mexican national anthem. And like these fireworks went off and it was all crazy and stuff it was cool! It was nice to have a break from night classes for once. But wow we were up pretty late. The people outside the gates were going crazy and celebrating. They had music, fireworks, bells, the whole shabang! They were going hard all night! But it was pretty cool to experience, even if we are trapped inside a big cement wall, it reminded me of how the real world is haha

Tuesday night was really good too! Every tuesday night we have a devotional and last night was a live broadcast from provo with Elder Richard G Scott. It was a great talk! The provo choir sang and I actually saw a couple people i met up at USU in the choir so that was cool. Elder Scott gave a great talk. It was about prayer and how important prayer is to not just to missionaries, but to everyone. It was a great devotional!

 :) Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! I am so happy to have you both as my parents! You guys are amazing. You have taught me so much and I am forever grateful! And the cutest wedding picture ever!! Sounds like it was fun at the Alabama concert! i hope you guys took a ton of selfies haha Mom no matter what kind of concert you go to, there will always be "interesting" people there hahah i am sad that i missed salsa making, but now mom and Brit understand what it is like to have your arms get all burnt when you are stirring that dang pot for 3+ hours.. just kidding, that was my favorite job :)

I am happy to hear that Hayden rocked it at his farewell, i knew he would! He is a tender heart. How did Les hold up during the talk? Has she had her breakdown yet? Aunt Michelle is gonna have her hands busy with two really sad sisters...

That's so great to hear about how involved the community is with the Ross Family. They are in my prayers! Carson is such a sweetheart and i hope he just keeps getting better.This week i found myself a little more homesick than usual, but thats okay. I think thats just how it goes. I just have to try my best not to think about it and then i feel better :)

The spanish is coming along. I can teach a lesson using just a couple of flashcards, but the good news is, our investigator, Marco just committed to baptism! unfortunately he is really just my teacher, but it still is exciting to teach someone and have them understand you and you understand them. I got an email from Elise Johnson today too! it made me really happy and excited! I will forward it to you guys! I really like the ccm but i feel like i am ready to be out in the real world, interacting with people and hopefully drinking a coke sooner than later :) My night teacher told me if i completed all my language goals he would bring me a coke, so you know i have been working extra hard! I am happy to be serving The Lord. I think about life back at home and i miss it, but I know i wouldn't want to be anywhere else! Please send letters through that mexico mtc place thing (like how you sent the doughnuts) Because letters are the best things in the world. I got a dear elder from Natalie Gochnour (Theo´s Mom) last week and it was just so nice! I also got an email from Dana Adams, court wants you guys to email him too. I see courtland a lot and we usually play volleyball together every gym time. It will be weird when we actually leave the CCM but it will be good! I am happy to hear that brandon haley josh and britt are all doing good :) I really miss my cute family, i take my picture book everywhere to show people because it makes me happy. I hear from E every week and that makes me even more happier! I am so lucky to have such a great sister and to have someone know exactly how i am feeling. I love you all so much!!! I can't wait to talk with you next week!!

XOXO

Con Amor, 

Hermana Brown

ps i sent a letter on monday to you guys and there is a letter in there for Carly Adair if you would take it to her house when it comes, that would be great! I love you!!

 

pics of some friends

the pozole

the lunch room

me and courltand pointing to theos misison haha

me and hermana widdison (the bakers neice) courtland and elder webb we are all buddies here!

 

Enfermio‏

HELLO!!! 
Wow it seems like i was just emailing you, but it also feels like i haven't talked to you guys in forever! Okay before i tell you about my week, i am going to answer your guys questions! Gym time is really fun. we get 1 hour everyday except for Sunday! so that is really nice. I have gym the same time as my whole zone (who is awesome) and Cortland's zone so that is really fun. we play volleyball most of the time or just kind of hang out in the gym and relax outside or something. gym is always a good time :) The food has gotten a little better, but i think its because i just find things to eat now, so that's good. Tuesday is the best because we get costco pizza for dinner, i almost cried the first week :) I did use my own sheets. They give us new sheets every week to change our sheets with, but i just feel more comfortable with my own, so i just end up washing mine with everything anyway too. 

 it sounds like this week at home has been good. that is so crazy about all the rain!!!! i can't believe that. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE DOUGHNUTS!!!! I started to tear up a bit when i got them and your cute little card :) i sent you a letter with the address for that package thing so you should be getting it soon, so maybe more packages and letters would be nice :) hahaha But really, it made my Monday! and yesterday i got a cute letter from aunt Les and Millie and i started to cry again. but hey i have been pretty brave!! I get really homesick but i do my best not to think too much about you guys or else it could be a bad scene.  

I actually got sick this week.... I started getting a sore throat on Thursday and so i didn't want to get sick so i went to the enfermio, its like the clinic here in the ccm, and they gave me some medicine and it helped but i still was sick all weekend. then on Sunday i started feeling better but lost my  voice, now i feel like totally fine, but i don't have a voice, i have this weird cough and a little bit of a stuffy nose, but besides that, i am feeling so much better. 

Things with Spanish are coming a long good. I had a really cool experience this week.  we are starting on our second investigator and i was so nervous. i didn't want to just read a paper for the whole lesson like we did with our first investigator, i prayed so hard to be able to know what he was saying and to be able to actually speak back. AND guess what!? I DID IT!!!!! it was seriously such an amazing experience. i mean i didn't speak fluent Spanish but we were able to connect and talk. Heavenly father is so mindful of us. he knows our hearts and desires and if we just do whats best, he will bless us. I also had a really good experience too. On Sunday i was feeling really homesick and I was actually really missing E, and on Sunday nights we have like a devotional and then watch like church movies, well during the movie we were watching this one about the first sister missionaries and i was just thinking about E, and then at the beginning of the video it showed like a choir singing, and then all of a sudden E was on the screen!! it was a clip from when the missionaries sang at the general women's meeting last year! it was so amazing. and was just a tender mercy from heavenly father. i started to cry. 

I really like my companion she is a sweetheart.  overall this week has been a great one! I also almost have my testimony in Spanish down :) Also dad, i am sorry to hear about your poor flowers... that makes me sad! Maybe you should have mom get to work and start learning how to do all the flowers now, since she does yard work now.... ;) hahaha just kidding. I love you both so much and I am grateful to have you have my parents. You have taught me so much and because of that i have the testimony i have today. I love you!

xoxo

Hermana Brown

my room

some of the awful food i don't actually eat because its so gross

this is what the campus looks like

cuties

the fence around the CCM

my district

i saw this picture of the tuxtla temple and thought of josh :)

this is a picture of me and hermana widdison!! she is greg bakers cousin!! we have actually gotten to be best of friends!!! remember when kay told me to look for her? i found her!!

 

here is a picture of me and hermana levao with the krispy kreme hats from the doughnuts yous sent me :)

Daddy's gonna kill Raplhie...‏

MOM AND DAD!!!!!!! HI!!!! Wow it is so crazy and so nice to be emailing! Okay let me just start off by saying that wednesday tuesday thursday friday saturday and sunday i have been so strong and not feeling homesick at all! But then..... Monday night came around... and I lost it. and i was rather embarrassed... then last night.... then today... but now that I got to read your emails and am now able to email you back, the homesickness is starting to go away :) so that is actually good! How are you guys doing? okay the yard looks beautiful like always and it sounds like the 5k went well too!! I love the Ross family. Tell them I say hello! Okay anyway back to me. The plane ride to Dallas was good and the plane ride to Mexico was good too. I only got scared a little bit, and besides that I was actually rather brave. My companions name is Hermana Levao and is she is from Spanish Fork. She is 23 and actually just so freaking amazing!! I have been blessed with such a great companion. We both are so easy going and we get a long really well. I am hoping things keep going the way that they are. At the CCM we live in casas (houses) and they are okay. In the casa there are 5 bedrooms with 4 people to a room. There is a bathroom in each room, so I only share with 3 other girls. 2 sets of bunkbeds, 2 tables, 4 chairs, and 4 closets in the rooms. It is actually a lot nicer than i thought but not really nice. The bathrooms are ehhhh gross. They just remind me of the bathrooms at like flaming gorge, so as you can tell, they aren't nice at all. I wear flip flops everywhere in my casa and never ever go barefoot. Well except for when i am in my bed haha. The food here is actually worse than i thought. its awful. really. but i am doing my best to get by. the first 3 meals i had at the ccm i probably only ate one thing... and then on thursday night they had corn dogs, and i don't even like corndogs and i almost cried because i was so happy. you just kinda gotta make way and do your own thing to eat what you can. The ccm campus is so beautiful. I love it. I actually feel really safe here. the whole campus is fenced in with like guards at all the entrances and barbed wire fences outside the fenced area. The only scary thing is, probably at night like you can hear all the sirens and cars and like gun shots... its only a little scary. Mom and dad you will be so proud of me. I have seriously been so brave here.

I finally understand how a mission is the hardest thing someone will ever do. I have never felt so down in the dumps and so happy at the same time. Its actually rather weird. My spanish is actually awful. i was feeling really discouraged on friday and saturday. I wasn't getting like any better at spanish and I just couldn't understand anything. we had to teach our first investigator on friday and it was okay because i legit just read a script the whole time, then on saturday it went even worse... I was so mad and upset and just frustrated. So to spare me the gross meals and to do my best i started a fast on saturday night and fasted all the way until sunday night. I did a full 24 hrs. I have never fasted that long, but IT HELPED SO MUCH. ITS SO AMAZING. Heavenly Father has blessed me and helped me so much. When i went to class on monday i could actually sorta understand what my teacher was saying! it was seriously so amazing. I have been praying so hard and it truly has been working. its actually amazing how your whole mind set and life changes once you become a missionary. I know The Lord has been watching over me and blessing me so much. 

Sunday was an amazing day. We had relief society, then district meeting, sacrament meeting, mtc orientation, interviews with the branch presidents, dinner, devotional, and then a movie. Sundays really are so amazing. I have a great district, an awesome zone, and amazing branch presidency. I really am so happy to be here. To be honest the hardest part has been the language. There has been so many times i just wished i was going english speaking. I feel like i am ready knowledge wise of the gospel and i think how easy it would be. but then i remember that i can do hard things and that the lord has called me to speak in spanish because that is the language i can teach the gospel in, successfully. I just have to remind myself that. I pray so hard to keep that in my head and in my heart. I know that i can do hard things and with pray, faith, and trust I can learn spanish and be successful. 

It is rain season here in mexico and currently it is POURING outside. I am so happy that we got that umbrella and rain jacket! So the senior missionaries are awesome! Hermana jones is a sweetheart and we plan on taking a picture every sunday and she will send to our parents. 

I love you both so much and i am so happy you are my parents. It hard sometimes because you are my best friends to be away but i know you guys are thinking about me. And you don't have to question if i am thinking about you because you know i am!! :) I don't know how else to tell you how much i love you but with just i love you! I am so blessed by heavenly father to have you two as parents. It sounds like you guys are keeping busy and that makes me feel better, you know i just want you guys to be okay.

also... I broke my glasses. bad :( i am so sorry. I totally laid on them and ugh it was just bad... talk about Big Liz.... i should be fine these next few weeks but once i get to tennessee i will probably need you to send me my other ones.. 

i actually have made a lot of friends here! I see courtland a lot and that really is great. i have seen a couple girls from school, including Kalinee, its so nice having her be here! I see christian greene (garrisons little brother) a lot same with some kids who went to my high school.

OH also today we got to go to the mexico city temple/visitor center. It was really cool!! I bought some cool things to send you guys but you will have to wait 5 more weeks... lo siento (im sorry) I will send you some pictures!!! I really am so happy here. I love the gospel and I love my father in heaven and I love my brother Jesus Christ. I have never been so happy and proud to wear his name on my chest. I love you!

Love always,

Hermana Brown

ps SWAG

pss I dont know how to attach files yet so i will just send another email with my pictures in it.

psss i am in need of a coke asap so if josh can talk to the velascos or something... that would be buena :)

Beautiful Hermanas‏

My husband and I are Senior Missionaries at the Mexico MTC.  I already love your girls!  They are doing GREAT!

I MADE IT! (8/27/2014)

Hi mom and dad!! I made it safe and sound to the CCM! The plane rides were great and I was actually pretty brave. Yes i am so exhausted but today we get to have our own special free day. the only one we get until we leave in 6 weeks. here is all my info that i am suppose to send you,

This is from my mission President:

Your Missionary's mailing address is:

Sister Elizabeth Brown

06/10/2014  16-C

Carretera Tenayuca-Chalmita #828

Colonia Zona Escolar, Gustavo A. Madero

07230 Mexico, Distrito Federal

Mexico

The estimated departure date for your missionary is October 6. The use of the

above address on all correspondence will greatly faciliate delivery to your missionary

at the MTC. Please don't send packages.

i only have five minutes today but my pday is on Wednesday. I love you both so much and i am already missing you a ton, but so far i really do love it!! I love you!!!

xoxo

Sister Lizzy Brown