2015

Hey! Well not too much has happened since we last talked. I LOVED talking on Christmas. But it also made me a little homesick afterward... Oh well that's good I guess! So after we talked we went over to our investigator, Irene's, house and had some pozole and pan dulce. Some of my favorite things! :) we shared a really good Christmas message with them. They are a great family! But they have a hard time actually taking the steps which they need to... I just know that if they will come to church, they will get a confirmation that these things are true and Joseph smith was a true prophet... On the plus side our church is changing times to 1 o'clock next week so I just know we will have a lot more success with our investigators coming to church :) 

We are kind of running out of miles for the rest of the month so we decided we should start walking some more, well on Saturday the day we decided to walk it POURED. like the worst rain storm I

have seen since being here in Tennessee. Haha that was wonderful we found a lot of people and set up return appointments. Oh ALSO we got transfer calls on Saturday. Hermana torres and I are staying here for another transfer, which I feel okay about. We had a huge miracle Sunday. We had set a goal to have 6 investigators at church on Sunday. But Saturday night we were a little worried we would only have four. But guess what? SIX!!!!! And it was a huge miracle. We had the 3 girls, Natalie, Amanda, and Melanie, Sabu, Felipe, and Beto!!! Okay so Beto and Felipe are the miracles. First Felipe's phone hasn't had service all week. And we haven't been able to contact him or even find him! But he came to church. And he actually wore slacks, WHAT? That never happens. So Beto, he is angele's boyfriend and I don't think even too interested in the gospel. We went over on Wednesday and shared a little message with him and angele's and Then I guess on Saturday night he texted sister noble and said he wanted to come to church and if she would wait for him so he doesn't go in alone (angele's has to work some Sunday mornings) well he came!!!! With angeles too!!! But she had to leave after sacrament and he stayed for all 3 hours!!!! WHAT. then we asked him if he wanted to start taking the missionary lessons and he said yes!!!!!! And then later that night he had sent a text to sister noble saying how he was pretty excited. What. Miracle. It was awesome. We taught him last night and it went pretty good! He likes to try and not understand something's we teach him, but he knows it's true.... He just needs to soften his heart. 

This next week should be fun! On Thursday we get to sleep in until 8! Then we have a super p day from 10 am to 8 pm. That should be fun. President is letting us get together with the zone too. He even is approving a list of g or oh rated movies to watch. That should be great :) we have a ton of return appointments too. I'm looking forward to this week and this next transfer. :) 

I am so thankful for technology and the chance we got to FaceTime. It was great seeing you all. I hope you like the Tennessee shirts! They are pretty cool I think ;) hope you guys have a great week and a HAPPY NEW YEAR be safe :) 

Xoxox

Hermana Lizzy brown :)

 

 

Christmas in Dixie....‏

I have wanted to title my Christmas email that since I got my call.... I hope you enjoyed and sang a little bit of the song with it.. Haha I get to see you on Thursday!!!! I am freaking out. Best Christmas ever!! Also I got your package. And I loved the little nativity, so cute, so thank you :) I am honestly shocked that this week is over... How did it happen so fast? I have no idea, but that's okay! This letter might be a little shorter than normal but we get to talk on Thursday! Yahoo. 

Best news ever. So we decided to help Felipe want to read the Book of Mormon more, and so we started giving him questions to find while he reads. It's great. So we had this awesome lesson about faith with him and sister noble and we left him alma 32 to read, well the next day we were close by his place so we thought we would just say hi, well we did and when we asked him if he read (expecting he wouldn't have cuz he never does...) HE READ!!!!!!! He showed us his Book of Mormon and he had high lighted all the answers to his questions. WAHHHH!!! We were freaking out. I might have almost started crying.... Haha it was seriously so great. 

I still haven't been able to go to the temple yet... We go every six months and they went like 2 weeks before I got here... Sad. But we went to Franklin this last week for a couple days and we stopped by the temple and took some pictures. It seriously is just so super tiny. The stake center is next to the temple and is bigger than it... Haha I feel like I could jump and touch angel Moroni. But it's so beautiful!!! 

Well the little girls we have been teaching are doing great too! They came to church again this week :) that's 3 weeks in a row. They are the sweetest girls in the world and I love them to bits and pieces. We taught them the plan of salvation and they really liked it and could understand it. We are hoping to teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ this next week and talk with their dad about being baptized if it's okay with him. They are so sweet, cute, and smart. I love them!! 

Saturday we had our Ward Christmas party and it was so much fun! Santa came and brought toys for all the kids! It was a blast. I love the ward here! On Sunday we also had the Christmas program  in sacrament meeting. The Spanish group sang La Primera Navidad... It wasn't tooo awful but not good haha my ward is great but let's just say not too much music talent... But it was still a nice meeting :) 

This week was great and sorry I'm not writing much but we get to talk in 3 days!!!! Yahoo :) 

I love you so much!!!

Love always,

Hermana Brown :) 

Also! GO UTES!! I started doing the Utah man when I read they won. Hermana Torres thought it was weird.. Oh well. Go Utes!! 

 

These are some of the girls we teach. The cutest. Left to right. Hma Torres, Natalie (9), Zuly (2), Melanie (8), Amanda (7), me :)

Christmas pics with our district... Kinda weird haha

Me and my buddy hma Torres :)

                                                              

We made a mega "Él es la dádiva" (he is the gift) thing on our wall...

 

Funny pics....

La primera Navidad‏

Wow this week went flying by. It was so busy!! First couple of things, I got your package with the paper Christmas tree and everything. I love it :) I put it up right then! I will have to get a picture of me by it or something to send home. So thank you! And dad thanks for the book, it will probably make me bawl like a baby but crying is sometimes good, right? Haha so this week was great!!! So we had noche de Hogar with the hales family on Monday with our investigator Franco and when we got there he had brought his friend Sabu. But it was a little tricky Sabu doesn't speak Spanish. So we had our lesson half and half. We would discuss half in English, translate to Spanish and vice versa. It was actually really fun and we learned a lot! And Sabu is so cool!! Like he really wants to know the truth. He was also very excited about reading the Book of Mormon too. Franco couldn't come to church yesterday, but Sabu did and he stayed for all 3 hours and he really liked it. So that was awesome!! 

Well we did exchanges with the STL's again this week.... And I stayed here in Columbia... Me and all my little Spanish. BUT it went great. I was so nervous and I don't think I have ever prayed so hard on my life before. And my prayers were totally answered!! So me and sister carpenter went to our night appointments. We couldn't get in anywhere because the families were leaving or weren't home. We decided to stop by at one of our potential investigators, Jacinta's. And I just have this love for her. She is just this amazing lady and is so close to the spirit. Well we have taught her before, we taught her the restoration about a month or so ago but haven't been able to see her again because she is always working and busy. But we drove past her house and her car was there and all her lights too!! I was kind of nervous but just so happy to see her. We went in and starts talking and recapped the restoration. She had a lot of questions about the apostasy and Jose smith. So it was really good to go over it. Over all it went really good!!! And I could understand all she was saying. Seriously. It's such an amazing blessing and tender mercy from the lord. After we had missionary correlation and then we went to stop by and see Felipe. Well usually he is like "come in come in" and we never can because Olivia isn't there but it was so cool! He just grabbed his jacket, turned a movie on for max and came outside. It was incredible! We talked a lot about the temple and life and the scriptures and baptism. Usually Felipe just kind of messes with me because I can't speak Spanish all too well but he was serious the whole night. It was such a tender mercy! He is such a cool guy. 

On Friday we had zone conference so that was way fun too! Elder Rundlund from the seventy came with his wife. He is way cool!! Overall it was a really good zone conference and I got to see Hermana Levao so that's always fun :) she is a cutie! Let's just say her companion and I are a little different so I think she is struggling a bit. But it's good for her :) 

On Saturday it was sister nobles son, Alex's baptism. It was really and cool. He is such a sweet cute boy! That night was sister nobles daughter quincera! We stopped by for a bit to grab some food, talk to some less actives and find a few new potentials. That was really fun too! Also we went and visited one of our progressing investigator family in spring hill and earlier the mom was telling us that her son just really wanted a Christmas tree but they just didn't know if they good be getting one this year or not. Well there was a tree at our apartment with lights and ornaments and we decided to go and take it to them and decorate with them. It was so much fun and they kids were so cute!! I don't think I have just been filled with so much love and happiness. I'm so grateful for the chance I get to have to be a missionary right now at this time. Let alone a member of this church. I also just love this Christmas time when the whole world can truly focus on the Savior and his birth and life. 

Also miracle!!! We had an amazing lesson with Felipe!! We decided to have it at the church and wow that really brought the spirit. We read 1 Nefi 8 all about the tree of life and everything and it was great. He was just eating it all up :) we even asked him to say the closing prayer and usually we will argue it and Hermana Torres and I will end up saying it after about 10 minutes, and this time he just said it. And it was a real sincere heartfelt prayer. It was so amazing. I can't believe how crazy it's been at home, but busy is always fun I think :) I'm sad to say I missed the Santa party... But it looked like it was fun like always. I am stoked to hear about Murray basketball and the Utes!!! Thanks for all your love and support and like Brandon would say, keep it crunk. Haha

Love always, 

Hermana Brown :)

On Monday night we were visiting Hermana Angeles and she totally caked me for no reason....

Me and Hermana Torres

Sister nobles son, Alex, got baptized on Saturday! Cutie.

Amy and Edy jr by the Christmas tree. SO cute.

 

You scared Marv?????‏

How did this week go by so dang fast??? Oh well that just a good sign I feel like! Sounds like everything at home is going good too :) I was actually saying on Tuesday night to Hermana torres, because we drove past the high school and I said "$10 bucks says my parents are at the high school basketball game right now" and oh how correct I was! :) okay this week was really fun! First off, good news!!!! We got a full time car!!!!!!! Yahoo!! We were struggle the last few weeks and we finally decided to call the AP's and ask for their advice what we should do. We just couldn't get to our people that we needed to see. Well last week the AP's called us and told us we would have the car full time now! Seriously such a blessing. 

Okay this week was really good. On Monday night we had a FHE with our investigator Franco. He is just such a cool guy and is genuinely wanting to find and to know the truth. We had it at the hales house. Their house is SO cool. Mom you would love it. They live out in the country and like their house is just like this way cool cabin and it's like on a farm. They own so many acres of land too. And they 130 chickens and like this huge green house too. Well we had dinner and then had like a way good lesson about the restoration. And brother and sister Hales killed it!!!! Franco loved it. So much fun. 

Also We met this lady Maria who we have been trying to contact and visit. Finally we were able to have a lesson with her! She is great. Way cute lady with 3 really cute boys. We taught her the restoration and she seemed to really like it. Also we invited her to be baptized on the first lesson! What. We have never done that so that was a little scary. But it was good. We just did a soft invite and asked if she came to find these things to be true would she follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. She said yes!! Woot woot. We can't wait to go back and meet with her. 

It was sister nobles youngest sons, Anthony, birthday this last week too and she invited us for dinner and cake. We had fish tacos and they were delicious. Who would have come to see the day when I would eat fish tacos?? Haha well it came and it was delicious. The mission is really changing me..... I also had a burrito this last week that had tons of guacamole and I loved it.... Who am I becoming? Haha just kidding but really. It was a fun time! That family is great!!! And so awesome to us missionaries. 

On Friday we went up to Franklin and had a great lesson with this guy Richard, who was actually found by the elders in Franklin and given to us. He is way cool. He is super involved with his church but loves the lord more than anything I think. We are hoping to help him understand priesthood and the restoration of priesthood. 

On Saturday we had a great day too!!!! The best. We went back to the hales but this time we had a lesson with Felipe and Olivia!!! It was great. They brought their kids too. We had a great lesson on families and we read the proclamation to the family together and discussed it. It went great and Olivia was all over it. After they invited us to stay for lunch. It was so cool. Hermana Torres and I got to go and cute the lettuce from the green house and everything! So fun. And then we got to go collect the chicken eggs and feed the chickens too. We forgot to bring our iPads so we didn't get any pictures... :( but we will be back up there in the next few weeks and we will get some more pictures!!! 

We also have been teaching this family, we call them "the 7 girls" because it's a family that has 7 girls ages 17-2! Crazy. But we have really only teaching the dad and 3 of the girls. The mom is never home because she is always working, it's pretty sad.... Those girlies just need a mom. The dad is really cool. But yesterday the 3 girls came to church!! Natalie (10) Melanie (9) and Amanda (7) and they loved it!!!!! Their dad couldn't come but is going to come next week :) we get to have fast Sunday in Spanish and we had 30 people come this last time. It was great!!! :)

Overall things are going great. The weather has been pretty nice and not too cold. I am really starting to love this area more and more. I am so grateful for the chance that I have to be a missionary at this time. Also we are have a member of the 70 come to our zone conference Friday!! Crazy. His name is elder Rundland, I'm not sure if I spelled that right or not... 

Sounds like things are going good back at home. I'm glad Megan's funeral went well and everything. She is such a sweet heart. I'm sorry to hear about no snow yet.... The worst! I'm actually hoping we don't get any snow because if we do I will probably get homesick and we all know we don't want that to happen. Haha. Are you guys having a Santa Claus party too??? Sounds fun. Also exciting about the utes! $10 says you all get your Christmas gift and a trip to Vegas..... Haha that will be fun! Well I love you all so much! Have a great week :) 

Love always, 

Hermana Lizzy Brown :)

December already??????

Mi familia! Hola!! Como estan? Espero todo es bien con usteds! Haha how is my spanish?? Well first off, HAPPY THANKSGIVING and HAPPY FIRST DAY OF DECEMBER!! I can't believe that it's already December... So crazy. Well it sounds like your thanksgiving was good!! I'm going to be honest.... This thanksgiving was definitely different..... But it was okay :) it just is weird to have holidays on your mission... I am so excited for Christmas though :) president said we can skype!!!!!!!!! Yahoo!!! I'm so stoked. I will get more info and let you guys know when and how and how to add me and all that jazz. 

Anyway this week was so dang hard. But it was a good week. We struggled a lot and walked a lot more, but we also saw tons of tender mercies from the lord. Always the best!! We decided not to be in contact with Felipe this week and just kind of let things be. We ended up seeing him at one of our members birthday party and it was good!! This member is Hispanic so they invited us and we were able to talk and contact a ton of people!! It was actually great. We got a new Ward mission leader, and he is American but speaks Spanish and is married to a Mexican lady and he was just fellowshipping Felipe the whole time at the party. The best part is that we are having a family home evening at their house tonight with felipe! So let's see how that goes :) 

Besides that we did a ton of contacting and finding and trying to visit some of our potential investigators. On Wednesday we walked so much and so far and when we finally got to the house of a less active we knocked and no one was home. We went and knocked a few more houses and decided to go and try the house again. We knocked and knocked and knocked then it started pouring and storming. We decided just to wait on the dry porch for a little longer and wait for our ride. We decided to knock one more time, and Luis answered!!!! We were able to talk with him about his baptism and everything. Hopefully we can get in and get him back to church. 

Also!!!! We are trying to build up our priesthood in our spanish so we can start a branch sooner if we have so many Spanish priesthood holders. Well we were talking to this guy at Walmart and he told us that his cousin is a member and served his mission in Monterrey Mexico too and he just moved back here but he didn't know where the church was. Well yesterday we got a call from The guy!!! His name is Daniel and he is an RM and everything. It's just what we need!! :) 

Onto thanksgiving. It was different. We got ready and went around and shared little messages about being thankful and gratitude. The thing we were scared of was that every Hispanic we go and visit will want to feed us. And so We went to the Abacs and they forced us to eat... It was really good. We had turkey and rice and beans and tortillas. Haha it was different but really good too!  After we had our dinner appointment at the cooks. It was good as well!   it was so nice of them to feed us and it was really good too!! Then our dinner at margaritas.... Hahaha she canceled on us.... Joy. We ended up going to say happy thanksgiving to our less active Beaty, and they invited us and it was so good!!!! This way good pork, and noodles, and pancho and that was good. It's like a little bit like wassel but different at the same time haha. Overall it was a great thanksgiving. And I have so much to be thankful for in my life :) 

This next week we have a ton of appointments and are even going to try and set a date with this guy named Franco. He has been to church the last 2 weeks and he loves it!!! He even asked one of our members what he needs to do to be baptized. WHAT. Please pray for him. He is just such a cool guy and kind of reminds me of Pedro off of napoleon dynamite. Hahaha he is great!! :) 

Dad, the house looks great!!!! I love the white lights around the windows. It looks great. And mom the tree looks really good too. I need a picture of that camel in the window though!!! I'm glad it was fun to have brandon and haley come up too. They are the best!!! Also mad props to you all for doing that 5k!!! I want pictures. I love you all so much. I am so blessed  to have the best family ever. I missed you guys this thanksgiving but I am more thankful that we are gonna be together forever. Have a great first week of December hopefully some snow will come too to add to the house :) 

Love always, 

Hermana Lizzy Brown :)

Gobble gobble 11/22/2014

Hello family! It sounds like you guys are all doing well!! Also sounds like utah is getting cold... Tennessee is so bipolar... One day it's super cold, the next in the high 60s or 70s.... But luckily I have my handy dandy knee, so I can tell if it's going to get colder or not. Its a little achy right now so let's see how the week unfolds... Haha this week was a good week!!! We taught a total of 30 lessons!! Cool right?! I was pretty excited. I'm still trying to figure out how this week went by so dang fast... I seriously can't believe that this week is thanksgiving!!! It will be fun to have Brandon and Haley home this next week! Don't do anything too fun without me ;) haha and now Brandon can eat all the garlic he wants and I won't be there telling him how gross he smells... Haha But maybe don't sleep in my room... Who knows how long that smell could stay in my room.... Hahaha just kidding :)

This week was really good but also just kind of disappointing.... Satan is the worst! Things went well with Felipe when we had another lesson with sister noble. The spirit was so strong and wow it was great. Then it just goes back to the same old... Felipe just doesn't want to put in the effort... We decided we are just going to give him some space and time to realize what he wants  and needs to do with his life. We got Irene and her kids to come to the Wednesday night activities and it was great. They loved it. We then just had a lesson with them. It went really good and then Irene said the most heartfelt prayer ever. On Thursday we also had a really good lesson about the Book of Mormon. We showed the Mormon message of elder Hollands testimony of the Book of Mormon and it is so powerful. You could tell that it really touched Irenes heart. She definitely seemed more interested in reading now. But then Satan got a hold of their hearts and they didn't come to church on Sunday :( Irene kind of has depression and anxiety... And some days are just better than the others... We are still working so hard with them. Please pray for them to come to church!! But we did have a cool miracle. There is another family in the Ward, the Hales family and they are amazing. The mom is Mexican and the dad went to Costa Rica on his mission so he speaks fluent Spanish. Well they have told us about their friend Franco who is interested in the church. He came to the breakfast for dinner dinner at the church and then he came to church yesterday!! It was great. We didn't have much time to talk with him after, but he stayed for all 3 hours! The cool part though, we were walking to some investigators houses yesterday and guess who we see driving? Franco!! He pulled off the side of the road and we ended up talking and teaching him for about and hour!! He said that he has been to a lot of different churches but he just feels something different here.... He is so amazing!!! ALSO another tender mercy!!! We got a referral from the English elders in Thompson station so we went to go visit them and they are amazing!! It's a mom, Angie a dad Eddie and two kids Eddie Jr. (4) and Amy (2) and they love the gospel. They have been seeing English elders for the past 2 years but not much has happened.... And now Angie just loves the gospel and wants to get baptized. The only problem is that they aren't married.... And that is all that is stopping them from getting baptized... So hopefully we will be hearing some wedding bells soon... :)

Also funny story of the week, We were walking in the trailers and we walked up to the yard and walk around the side and there was this Hispanic family, just in the yard gutting a deer. I just stood in shock because I had never seen that happen before, then I just started laughing because what!? The guy just is holding the leg while the other one skins it and just is like "hola buenas noches" then it was weird so we said bye and I thought Hermana Torres was gonna pass out walking back to the car. 

Thanksgiving should be fun this week! We are allowed to got to two dinners. We are going to one with an American family, the cooks so that should be really fun! Then we are going to another at our less active, margaritas house!! It should be fun to have like an American Hispanic thanksgiving. I'm a little sad to be missing thanksgiving this year... But it just sounds like so much fun!! Dinner at aunt cindys and then at grannies on Friday! Is grannie having more missionaries over again?? I wish I has a couple like grannie and grandpa in my district. They are just so dang cute! :) sad to hear about the Utes.... I actually knew about the game before your guys email.... Oops. Haha we went to dinner Saturday night and I just was sitting there and I realized the ute game was on tv..... I only looked for about 1 minute..... There was only 4 minutes left of the game.... It was sad... I was hoping maybe I would see you guys in the stands... Hahaha 

Well this week was good and I look forward to this next week too :) I love you all so much! And happy thanksgiving!!! :) 

Love always, 

Hermana Lizzy Brown

Ps have a nice glass of swag juice for me too