Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal‏

 FAMILY!!!! Merry Christmas !!!!!! Smiling face with smiling eyesSmiling face with smiling eyesSmiling face with smiling eyes I am so excited to talk with y'all this week !!! It will be SO MUCH FUN!!! Before I start talking all about my week, I just want y'all to know how much I truly love each of you ! Being on my mission I have truly come understand and more fully appreciate 3 things. 1 my Savior Jesus Christ 2 the gospel which he taught 3 how amazing my family truly is and how grateful I am for y'all. I am blessed to be born into a home where the gospel was not only taught, but lived everyday. I am grateful for parents who understand and have testimonies of the Plan of salvation and Jesus Christ and live accordingly to their testimonies. I am so grateful for my older siblings who truly have been the best examples to me in my life. I have always looked up to each of you, thanks for being awesome. I am so blessed :) 
Well as for this week, I don't even know if I will remember everything or not... I sure hope so. This week feels like it was soooo short but also SO long. I hope I will be able to remember most of what happened. 
I went on a few exchanges this week. First a cute Hermana, Hna Gamble came up here with me. It was so much fun ! We did a lot of random service for our investigators and such, which is always fun and makes me happy. If you ever feel down or sad or tired all you need to do is SERVE. We also had some weird run ins with A drunk guy who when we asked him who the savior is To him he just talked about El Salvador, the country and how if someone really follows the bible they don't dance or listen to music and weird stuff. the whole time I was just like I can't believe this is happening haha ... borracho.. Always a fun time. Haha 
I went on another exchange and I went down to Murfreesboro with cute Sister Hammond. We had a lot of fun and met a ton of cool people! The theme was that they were all from Memphis, worked at Amazon , and worked the 6 to 6 shift... Seriously EVERYONE WE MET! It was so strange. I felt like I was living deja vu over and over again. She is in the YSA down there and covers the Middle Tennessee State University campus, which was cool but was like a ghost town since everyone went home for Christmas break. But we were able to find a lot of people and talk to a lot of people so that is always fun :) we also ran into the middle of some of the YSA drama life too... Haha so that is always fun Winking face I can't decide which is worse.... YSA drama or Hispanic drama... That Latinatude can be pretty fierce... Dancer
Saturday we had our branch Christmas party ! It was so much fun !!! Hna Dansie and I actually made the piñata and it looked awesome ! The kids did a nice little program and they asked me and Hna Danise to sing... Oh joy... But it was a lot of fun and we had a lot of investigators and non members there :) I love this branch, they are seriously so awesome !! :) 
Yesterday I had to talk in church and Dad would be so proud of me. I spent a lot of the week translating the story "That Thy Alms May Be in Secret" into Spanish and I shared it as my talk. It was really awesome :) I love that story. And so did everyone else! They kept talking about it the rest of the block. Last week we learned about different spiritual gifts in our Gospel Principles class and we learned about the gift of translation.haha when I was translating the story I prayed that I could have that gift and I think I got it ! So that was cool. Lesson learned, pray for spiritual gifts, have faith you will get it, and go to work! So that was pretty cool, but totally all the spirit. The rest of the church meeting was great, just full of love and Christ. I just love Christmas time and the chance that I have to be a missionary at this time :) 
I am sorry this email is soooooo lame, but the good thing is, we get to SKYPE on FRIDAY :) 
I hope y'all have a great Christmas and have fun dancing around the Christmas tree Thursday night Winking face thanks for all your support and love !! 
remember, Jesus Christ is the good news ! Share it with the world :) D&C 76:40-42
LOVE ALWAYS, 
Hermana Brown 
PS I got the Christmas package, THANK YOU :) also, GO UTES 


It was as tall as our member... Big piñata or little person ?

 Pictures at the party

This sweet older lady in our branch gave me this ring for Christmas :)

Our sweet piñata


Thursday, December 17, 2015

Snow?? More like sunny and 75 ‏


Hello family !!! Wahhhhh I can't believe that it's only like less than two weeks until Christmas ! That's nuts!! But also so exciting :) thank you so much the pre Christmas package. When I saw the candy chains I almost started crying, thanks so much mom, that made me so happy :) How are y'all liking the snow ?! Haha it has been crazy this last week, it's been sunny and yesterday it got up to about 75 outside. Everyone is like wearing shorts and t shirts. Doesn't really feel too much like December, but I don't have any complaints Smiling face (black and white)
I am actually just shocked at how fast this week went by, it makes me nervous because I know these next few weeks are going to be flying by too.... Too many mixed emotions! 

To start off the week, Tuesday we had an all day zone Christmas meeting and it was really cool ! First off this guy from the mission department came and they installed these black boxes into our cars. They are called tiwi , and they are to monitor our driving and everything so that we are good safe drivers. We had some awesome trainings by the AP's and President and Sister Andersen. It was all centered on Jesus Christ and his birth. It was awesome ! After that we had a delicious lunch, which sister Andersen prepared for everyone ! It was ham, potatoes, salad, beans, roles, and dessert. Seriously so delicious. She is so sweet and the best ! After that we did a white elephant gift exchange with all the missionaries and then a scarf exchange with the sisters and the elders did a tie exchange. It was so fun ! I love my mission and my mission leaders, seriously the TNM is the best mission ever :) president and sister Andersen also had special temple recommend holders made for everyone that has the Nashville Temple on the outside and then on the inside our mission logo and mission theme. It was so sweet of them ! Now that is a good gift that I will have forever! We then had a Christmas talent show and it was fun, all the Hermanas sang a Spanish Christmas song but it was so incredibly awkward ! But really funny, I guess I don't really like performing in front of people, I was more red than a tomato.... But everyone seemed to like it, so I guess that is a good thing, right ?? Hahaha 

After that we went on exchanges and I went off to the great land of.... Shelbyville TN again haha it was fun like always. I went with a cute sister, Sister Brennan, she is amazing and such a good missionary ! She has been out for about 5 months and I am just in shock at how good of a missionary she is. I was like taking down notes of everything I learned from her, she is amazing. We had to bike, which I don't mind, but the only probably is, I am too tall for all the bikes ! And everyone in shelbyville has like HUGE dogs, but none of them are on leashes or anything. Like we almost got attacked by 2 pit bulls and a German Shepard. It was HORRRRRIBLE. The worst part is that I know dogs can smell fear and I have like fear of dogs oozing out of me... It was so scary.... So I rode my bike with rocks in my hand to throw at the dogs when they came near me, it was pretty good self defense.

As for the rest of the week I can't remember too much, it just consisted of a lot of driving and a lot of tracking, which I don't mind at all :) it's been awesome to share the new Christmas video with everyone. I love it ! Seriously the spirit it brings and how easy it is to relate back to the restoration of the gospel . I love love love it. I am so thankful that I have the chance to spend 2 Christmas on my mission, it truly is the best time of the year! I am so grateful for my savior Jesus Christ and that he came to earth to save me, and everyone of us. It truly is the best gift we could ever receive. Smiling face with smiling eyes if you haven't see the video A Savior is Born, you need too ! (Josh, watch it in Spanish... It's better... Winking face) I think my favorite line in it is "The only one who could save us, from our sins, from our sadness." I LOVE IT! And it's soooo true, everything that is good, that is happy, and is joyful is because of Jesus Christ ! He truly is the light of the world! He is the light that shines in the darkness. 

Our investigators are doing really well ! We had a pretty big miracle this week ! It was with one investigator, Maggy. She had been taught and was coming to church and really started progressing, but then her husband said that they needed to go to the Catholic Church.... And put their kids in  catecismo classes (sorry I only know how to say it in Spanish...) to prepare them to be baptized in the Catholic Church... Well so we would occasionally stop and visit her, but nothing was really happening, which was pretty sad because her 9 and 7 year old sons Carols and Santi really love the gospel  and learning and reading from the Book of Mormon and everything. Well Monday night we got in and I was scrolling through the contacts on the phone and I saw maggy's name and so I was like "let's call Maggy!" So we called her and she seemed really surprised we called and said we could go over this week. So we went over and guess what ?! SO apparently carols and santi were about to get baptized and something had with the priest and they ended up not getting baptized (Smiling face with open mouth and smiling eyesSmiling face with open mouth and smiling eyesSmiling face with open mouth and smiling eyesSmiling face with open mouth and smiling eyesSmiling face with open mouth and smiling eyes) and I guess there were just some bad feelings there and such. So then Maggy is talking to her husband and is like "I think this is sign we aren't supposed to be baptizing our kids in the Catholic Church, and that they needed to go to the Church of Jesus Christ." AND THEN WE CALLED HER !!! I love how the sprit works. I have such a strong testimony of acting on the small promptings that we receive :) we have another lesson set for this week so we are praying all will keep going well :) 

Lupe is still doing good and progressing ! It was his birthday yesterday and so on Saturday the Burgos family took us all out to dinner, it was so fun ! Lupe is awesome but I am just like "come on! You know it's true , just get baptized already.." But I have been learning a lot of patience on my mission and I know that it's something I need to be patient with and trust in the lord and his timing. 

I think thats about it for this week, sorry my emails are always so long ! But I hope y'all are doing well and know that I am praying for y'all. I am seriously so blessed to have just the best family ever ! I am soooo excited to skype in just about 11 or so days :) have a great week !!! Be safe in the snow Smiling face (black and white)Snowflake

Les quiero muchiiiiiiiiiiisimo !!! 

XO
Hermana Brown

Sister Brennan and I , protecting ourselves with some piedras

Feliz cumpleaños Lupe

Clarks competition

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

It's Santi Claus and his little elf‏


Hello family ! Happy December !! Seriously the time is just going by way too fast! I feel like it was just Monday a couple days ago, that's stressful. But the good thing is only 3 more weeks until we get to SKYPE :) woot woot ! I am excited for that :) the weather in Tennessee right now is very nice. It feels like the beginning of October and I love it. I don't know if I can come back to cold November and December months... We will see how that goes... As for this week I will try my best to remember all the great things that happened ! 

One day last week, I don't remember when, we were driving down the street and stopped at the 3 way stop light thing and our light was red and there was a car turning, whose light was green but he wasn't going and so I looked over and there was just this guy sitting in the driver seat like knocked out! Head tilted all the way to the side, mouth wide open... And I was like "do you think he is okay ???" So we pulled over and his window was down so Hna Dansie was like "hello? Are you okay? Hello ????" And nothing ! I was like freaked out a little bit because I was like "is he dead???!!!! What should we do ?! " so we pulled over behind him and went and knocked on the window and he like woke up and we were like "are you okay ?" And he was like "woah. What? Yeah" then he just drove away.... Hahaha it was so funny and so weird. 

Okay another cool experience I had this week was we have occasionally been teaching this family , la familia Cervantes, but they aren't progressing much so we only see them every now and then, but on Wednesday night we decided to go and visit them. So we go over and there and their house is just full of people. All of the wife's cousins and stuff just got here and are staying with them. It was crazy ! But they were so nice and we sat down at the table and at first there were people outside, watching tv in the living room, doing dishes in the kitchen, just like people everywhere. But we sat down and they all came into the dinner room area. It was cool!! So we started talking and getting to know everyone and such then we shared the new Christmas video and started teaching them about the restoration. It was crazy. It was like the Cervantes family, mom dad and 4 kids, and then I think 10 men just standing / sitting around the table listening to us ! I felt like that picture mom has of the first missionaries in Denmark, seriously it was so cool! I felt the spirit so strongly as we testified of the Book of Mormon and the restoration. :) such a powerful moment !! Then we asked them if they would like a copy and they all said yes !!! :) we gave out 10 book of Mormons at one lesson, it was awesome :) and we have another appointment with them this week. Let's just say.... Christmas miracles ! Father ChristmasClapping hands sign

As for our investigators go, things are going well. We had another good lesson with the Gutierrez family, the single dad the two sons. Sadly they didn't come to church last week or yesterday do to work and such so we had to move Eric's baptism but we are still feeling pretty good about it all :) Eric is awesome and just is a seeker of truth ! And something I love is if feel like they are actually learning. Like people are actually listening to what we are teaching ! Haha it's such a struggle. It's so hard because here everyone has their church, everyone has their beliefs and everyone knows their church is true.. Most of the time when we share the message of the restoration we just get "yup the church is on the earth, praise the lord. Go talk to someone who doesn't know about Jesus Christ." .... But it makes me happy to know at least one family is learning and growing in the gospel :) 

We also set another baptismal date with our miracle investigator Romelia ! For January 2! I am pretty excited. She is so awesome too and is just READY for the gospel :) she has to work on Sunday so we are in the process of her switching shifts and whatever and finding a new job. Please pray for her !! :) 

This last week was a great week, but at the same time a little rough. Sometimes I just can't understand why people don't understand the message we bring, or why they won't just give us 2 minutes to testify about Jesus Christ when they say "he's my best friend!" Or why it's so hard to get people to come to church. but I read this quote from President Monson today about patience. He said, 

"Life is full of difficulties, some minor and others of a more serious nature. There seems to be an unending supply of challenges for one and all. Our problem is that we often expect instantaneous solutions to such challenges, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required.”

As I read that quote today I could mom say, "Patience is a virtue, Elizabeth. " And now I feel like I am truly learning what that actually means while serving my mission. I love the Lords counsel he gave to the sons of Mosiah when he told them  "...go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success."  I know that is the same for each of us and our afflictions that we are each faced with in this life. When we can really obtain the Christlike attribute of patience, patience truly does become a virtue :) 

I think that's about all for this week.... I hope y'all have a great week !!! And enjoy all the Christmas parties !! I love y'all soooo much ! Thanks for all your prayers and support. Know that I am praying for y'all !! 

XO
Hermana Brown

Monday, November 30, 2015

Bueno‏

Hello family ! 
It sounded like y'all had a great thanksgiving and that makes me happy to hear :) this week went by super fast ! I am amazed and kind of freaked out how fast the time has gone by... I am down to my last 12 weeks... Like what ?! That's crazy ! Well as for transfer info goes.... I am staying here in Buena Vista for another transfer !!! Annnnnnd with Hna Dansie ! Like what ?? That will be 4 transfers here... And I am killing her, meaning this is her last transfer ! Which also might mean that I might stay here for the next two transfers as well ! :) I would love that !!! Needless to say we know there are gonna be some BIG things happening since we are staying together for another transfer. We are hoping for a white Christmas, not necessarily with snow, but with too many people in white baptismal clothes being baptized Smiling face (black and white)
Okay so on for this week Thumbs up sign
Thanksgiving was awesome ! We spent most of the day visiting investigators, members, and less actives and sharing short gratitude messages. I'm not sure if y'all remember me telling you about our miracle find of a less active, Ausencia, but we have been working with her for quite some time just trying to get her to open up more with us and such. Well we went over to her house Thursday to share a thanksgiving message and she then asked us to eat with her and her family (Meal #1..) which is awesome because knowing Hispanic people if they offer you food, you know that they like you :) it was great and it's been awesome to watch how much more opened she is with the gospel. Poco a poco :) 
Then we went to visit Aida and Jose (meal #2...) I love this family and we got the BEST news ever !!! So they have literally been investigating and coming to church now for a year... They have wanted to get baptized but can't because they aren't married and Jose isn't legally divorced from his last marriage yet. It's been this crazy long messy problem, but the thanksgiving miracle is that they got a letter in the mail saying the divorce will be legalized on DECEMBER 19!!!!!!!! WHAAAAAAT!!!!! I am SO happy and so excited :) I know this has got to be one of the reasons why Hna Danise and I are staying here for another transfer together. 
Then we went to our branch presidents house (meal #3.....) and it was awesome :) I seriously don't think I can express the love I feel for this family ! Seriously they are amazing. It was such a fun thanksgiving and our investigator Lupe came too which was awesome. Lupe has been coming to church for the past like 5 months now ! And yesterday we had an amazing lesson with him about baptism. He said he wants to be baptized and now he understands why he needs to be baptized! I feel so blessed to be serving here in this mission and this area at this time :) 
Remember the family I talked about last week ? The single dad and his two sons? Well this week we had a great lesson with them. We followed up on their prayers about the restoration and being baptized and then The oldest son Eric just started testifying to his dad about how he knows the things we are teaching are true because he can feel it! He says he just feels so much peace and happiness and how he just loves to pray. Like what ?! So then we extended a baptismal date for December 19 and the dad just kind of was unsure... He said that he has a hard head and that it would be hard for him to change from being Catholic (like every person we teach....) so then we asked Eric, if it was okay with his dad if he could be baptized, if he would want to be. Eric looked at his dad and his dad said "if you want to" and Eric just looks down, then back up, raises his right hand and says "yes!" It was AWESOME :) so that was a sweet miracle we had ! We are confident that as Eric starts to progress the dad, Heriberto will too :) 
Also this week there was another BODA !! Bride with veilMan it was for a less active we have been teaching, who well is now active and back to the temple with one of the recent converts in the branch! Diana and Jorge. SO CUTE !!! Seriously. We were here when they went on their first date and now for their wedding. I am so happy for Diana ! She and her son Jazer have gone through a lot the 5 years and Jazer really just needs a dad in his life and Jorge is the perfect guy for them both. It was awesome :) Hna Dansie and I were the damas! Aka the bridesmaids :) it was fun ! Also I got some good ideas for my own wedding... Haha they do this really cool dance called the dollar dance and what it is that everyone at the wedding just pins money onto the bride and groom and then you can dance with them until someone else comes and pins money on them. Like what ?? And everyone like tries to pin the most money on the bride and groom. It's so funny ! And a good way to get some nice pocket money Winking faceBanknote with dollar sign
I think that's about it for this week. It was great and I am sooooo excited to see what this transfer has in store for the Buena Vista branch :) I know that this work is truly the work of salvation and that if we are willing to do the Lords work we can be great instruments in his hands :) 
I am so blessed to have such an amazing family ! Thank you for everything y'all have ever done for me. Laughing at my jokes, supporting me in all that I want to do, putting up with my craziness and always loving me. I hope y'all have a great week!! Thanks for all the prayers ! Know that I am praying for y'all too :) I love y'all ! HAPPY DECEMBER. 
XO
Hermana Brown 
Ps have you seen the new Christmas video from the church ?! ITS AWESOME. Check it out. A savior is born :) 

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Fuego‏


Hey cute fam ! HAPPY THANKSGIVING 🦃 I am so thankful for every single one of you !! I am blessed to have the best family and people in my life :) thanks for being so amazing. I can't believe it's already time for another thanksgiving again. This past year I have seen so many miracles and been able to see the hand of the Lord in my life soooo strongly. And to that I am truly grateful because I know it has changed me into a better person and is still changing me to be who the Lord needs me to be.

This week was definitely a week for the books. I hope y'all are ready to hear about crazy Lamanite dreams, hitch hiking across the highway , and our epic roll up to stake conference in a Cadillac Escalade full of random Hispanics... If you think this sounds a little like Napoleon Dynamite I would have to say you are right. Enjoy Thumbs up sign

So to first start off the week I have to tell you about the cool new family we are teaching ! It's a single dad, Heriberto and his two sons Eric and Fransico. So Hna Dansie met them while tracking while on an exchange and they said we could come back. Well the next time we went back it was a Saturday night and the son Eric answered the door and said that that night wasn't the best night to come by. The house reeked of cigarettes and beer and the dad was just sitting there at the table drinking... We made a return appointment but weren't too hopeful about it. BUT we went back and we had an amazing lesson with them about the restoration. These kids are amazing and seriously just want to follow God. And it's been cool because the dads interest to learn more is starting to grow as well! We invited them all to be baptized and they all said yes !!! :) I am excited to see how the gospel will help this family more and more in their lives ! 

MIRACLE : so we were tracking this street this last week and we had never been on it because it's like on the edge of our area, so decided to go and try to contact some potentials that lived over there. We then decided to just try tracking the rest of the street. We met this nice American lady and she was awesome and gave us tons of referrals to all her Hispanic neighbors Thumbs up sign we knocked one of the houses she told us about and this little boy answered and told us to come.. We were like ... "Uh is your mom home?" And then she came out of the kitchen and was like "hey!! Come in, come in!" We are like "okay !" So we sit down and we are talking to Gilda and she is like the nicest person ever and we all just clicked super fast. She told us about 3 years ago the Hermanas use to come visit them and teach them but they had gotten super busy that time just went on and they didn't see the missionaries for awhile. She said they had even gone to church a few times and that they really loved it ! WHAT. So then we continue talking and she goes "I really really want to learn more. I know this is something I need in my life." WHAT. So then we set up a return appointment and everything and it was just awesome. Like the spirit and everything was just so strong inside her house and I could really truly feel so much love for her and her family. And the love that God has for her and her family. We end with a prayer and left. As Hna Dansie and I are walking to the car she goes "wanna hear the craziest thing? I had a dream about that lady 2 weeks ago. In that exact living room and in the exact places we were sitting and everything." WHAT! Oh my gosh. We were freaking out ! How cool :) Thankfully Hna Dansie is half Hispanic and has some of that Lamanite blood in her . God is good!! The work is rolling forward :) 

So the CRAZIEST thing also happened this week ! We were driving to stake conference for the adult session Saturday night and we were driving with Our member John and another member Hna Olga. We had missed our turn and we're making a u-turn when we started to go but the tire like was dragging and the car just wouldn't go. So John tried to go again , and it just sounded bad so he got out of the car and he goes "get out of the car the freaking tire is on fire !! " so we are like oh crap. So we just grab everything and go to the middle of the highway. So we are there and like the tire isn't just like smoking or something like that, it's legit in FLAMES !!!!!! Like flaming with sparks flying and everything. So we start throwing water on it and start taking stuff out of the trunk and John was going to translate at the meeting so we have these two big briefcases full of translation equipment with us on the side of the road. So then pulls over in the median with us, this big Cadillac Escalade full of Hispanic guys and they jumped out and just start throwing water and powerades and stuff on the car and thankfully the fire goes out. So we still needed to get to the conference to translate so John was like I will stay here with the car but you three, us and Hna Olga , need to go to the church. So we asked the Hispanic guys if we could get a ride and they said yes and like legit it was us three in this nice Escalade with four other Hispanics haha so we put the briefcases in the trunk and jumped into the car. These guys were super nice and really such a blessing. So we are driving to the church and they start talking with us and stuff. They are just like "are there drugs in those cases?" Hahaha We told them it was translating equipment for a meeting that we were going to the church for. Oh wow they totally thought that we had drugs with us!! We cleared that misconception up really quick Winking face

 So that was a crazy adventure but all in all we ended up hitching a ride with some awesome Hispanic guys, who we actually got to teach them a little and gave them more information about the church and made it to the session without anymore fires or car explosion. And the session for stake conference was incredible ! All about keeping the sabbath day holy. One question that was repeated a lot was this one "Are you really willing to change?" It made me think, am I really willing to change to the little things in my life to make the Sabbath day more holy, and more of a day to reflect on Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ ? After this week, and seeing so many miracles and the Lord's hand so much in my life, that is a complete and undeniable yes ! God is good and miracles happen :) and I know that he truly is watching over His missionaries! 

Oh also this weekend we got a new stake presidency and the guy that got called, President Pennington is family with like almost half of the spring hill Ward I served in in Columbia !! So I got to see so many people I just love!! It was awesome :) oh and we don't have a stake center yet for our stake so we had the Sunday session of stake conference at a hotel... Talk about a nice continental breakfast Winking face haha 

Seriously though, this week was AWESOME. Missionary work is awesome, and the gospel is awesome !! :) I am excited for another week full of turkey, tamales, and pozole. The best Thumbs up sign I hope y'all have a great week and a happy thanksgiving !! I hope you are able to really think and ponder about that which you are grateful for :)

"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I am learned in whatsoever state I am, there with to be content." Philippians 4:11

 We have so much to be thankful for ! 

I love you all so much !!! 

XO
Hermana Brown 

Ps this is also the last week of the transfers..... Saturday I will find out my fate... Only two more leftFace screaming in fear😮

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Teach, testify, invite, BAPTIZE‏

Dear cute family,
 
Wow can you believe that another week has already gone by?? that's just absolutely nuts! it sounds like yall had a good week but that it got a little bit colder with some rain and a little bit of snow! crazy. nope, no nieve here yet but maybe soon? I think it might just rain for awhile, we'll see! Thank you SO much for my package. I loved it! and I Think the contacts are better too, so yay :) and I love those socks, they are SO comfortable, I love them! yall are the best :)

Well as for this week, it all went by so fast and was filled with so much awesomeness I hope I will be able to remember all of it ;)

To start off on Tuesday we had MLC with Elder Zwick, and it was awesome. He really focused on how our job as missionaries is to teach simply and clearly, testify of what we know to be true, invite them to be baptized, and to BAPTIZED. Elder Zwick is sooo missionary minded and is just in love with the work, its so inspiring. He served his mission in Argentina, was a mission president in Chile, and in Puerto Rico and his Spanish is perfect! After the meeting with him we were eating lunch and Hna Danise and I started talking to him, seriously the nicest, coolest guy ever! He was asking about our investigators and we told him how we have so many awesome people prepared for baptism but they just needed a push from someone other than "the missionaries" haha well we found out that next week he is coming to our stake conference to put in a new stake presidency and that he said he would love to talk to Aida, Jose, and Mario ! I am pretty excited :) He is just like so full of the spirit that like literally it just attacks you at any word that comes out of his mouth.

Wednesday was out mulit-zone conference with Elder Zwick and it was amazing. All my companions were there and so that was fun to see everyone and such :) Can you believe my bestest buddy Hna Torres goes home from her mission in like 2 weeks?? I cant believe it! :( But it was awesome seeing her. Elder Zwick gave some incredible tranings and so did President and Sister Andersen. I just have to say how much I love President and Sister Andersen. They are sooo amazing and I truly feel so blessed to have them as my mission president and wife. Something that I really learned from our Wednesday meeting was how important it is as missionaries is to testify in the name of Jesus Christ while teaching lessons. As we role played how to be better testifiers my desire to share the gospel with everyone sky rocketed! So that was awesome :) 

As for the rest of week it went by wayyyy too fast. But some fun cool things did happen :) We were able to invite 5 of our investigators to baptism! They all said yes! As of right only one of them have a set date. but the others are praying for a date and so they should have a set date by the end of this week ! MIRACLES!!

Also another miracle. One of our members signed up to go visit people with us on Tuesday night but we were kinda of freaking out because we had no set lessons, and we had planned on just tracking... well it would have worked out perfectly if our member wasn't 80 years old who was coming out with us.... haha Hno Ambriz is such a sweetheart! So we decided we would meet at a trailer park close to his house. There is a family in the trailer park that we have been trying to contact but they moved and we didn't have their new address. We first tried a potencial but he wasn't home... so then we just decided to drive down the street and try a couple of houses that might have been the Carcamo's (the family we have been looking for) , God is good because... the first house we tried, IT WAS THEM! it was awesome :) she even had her book of momon sitting on her counter top! yahoo :) So that was a miracle. we had a great first lesson with her and her family and set up another appointment for this week!

Oh also my life long dream came true too! I got a baby named after me!!!!! yessssss! haha our enterigator, Ozmara, she had her baby this week! Her name is Amaya Elizabeth :) ahhhhhh yeah! I am so happy :) haha dreams do come true.

This week I also ate like a ton of Pozole! that makes a happy hna brown :)

As I was studying this week I came across this scripture in Ether 4:19

"And blessed is he that is found faithful unto my name at the last day, for he shall be lifted up to dwell in the kingdom prepared for him from the foundation of the world. And behold it is I that hath spoken it. Amen."

I know that as we trust in the promises of the lord and stay faithful to him, we will be blessed ! Always remember the promises of the Lord are true promises, he will never let us down.

Thank you family for all you prayers and support. I feel so blessed! You are all in my prayers! I love being a missionary and I love teaching those around me about what I know to be true with all my heart :)

Have a greeeeeeeat graaaaaant week :)

XO
Hermana Brown

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

The reason why her hair is so big is because it's full of secrets‏

Hello family !!! 

Wow your trip to Washington looks like so much fun!!! Your picture made me so happy :) i am glad y'all had such a fun time ! Also I am so happy that the Utes won too ! Even better :) also I am glad John brought over the package I sent. I hope you enjoy all that delicious Mexican candy :) oh btw the thing that looks like a chocolate candy bar isn't a chocolate candy bar. You put it in a drink to make it :) if you don't like it just give it to josh, he might Thumbs up sign oh and I am glad you ate at panera bread, SOOOOO good! I love the turkey avocado BLT . 

So this week .... What a week. I'm gonna be honest with y'all, this was a hard week. But that's okay. I don't know how else to explain it, just a tough one. But at the same time it was great. A mission is like bipolar haha but God is a god of miracles and boy did we see them this week ! :) this might be a long email but I hope you enjoy it ! 

So first off Monday night we set a baptismal date with our investigator Mari ! Yahoo ! For Dec 5 :) which is awesome. And she came to church yesterday. It was the primary program and I think Mari really liked it . I love this woman . Then later Monday night we had our weekly noche de hogar with la familia morales y Cardiel and it was amazing. Our inv Mario gave the lesson on enduring to the end and it was so spiritual and amazing. I can see him being like a bishop in 10 years. But let's just focus on the baptism thing first Winking face haha 

TUESDAY WAS A DAY OF MIRACLES 

So in the morning we didn't have too many set appointments for the day so during comp study we were looking through our areabook and writing down people's names that we haven't met or seen before. So I was making a list and I found a name I had never seen before her name was Romelia Tolentino. As I wrote down her name I just had such a strong impression we needed to go and see her. Anyway we finished making our lists and got on with comp study. Well as the day went on we went to try and visit our investigator Ozmara. When we got to her house her car wasn't there but we thought we would just try anyway. As we got out of the car another one of our investigators who lives on her same street , Reyna called us. She said she saw us drive by and asked if we could just come over for like 5 minutes, we said yes and hurry and walked over. Well we walked in and that's when we met Reyna's sister in law Romelia.... I heard her name and inside I was like "oh my gosh no way this is the same person I wrote down earlier I today" well we start talking with her and I just kept thinking "oh my gosh this is the same person. This is a miracle holy cow ! But wow she is such an amazing person. The first thing she asked us was "so what do I have to do to come to church?" Hna Dansie and I just looked at each other and said "nothing, just come" she smiled. As we started talking she started opening up to us. She has a lot of things going on in her life right now and all she wants to do is find God. She knows that he is there and Jesus Christ is too but she just doesn't know quite how to strengthen that relationship with them. Well, isn't that was the missionary purpose is ? To invite others to Come unto Christ ? I think so ! :) the spirit was so strong as we testified that as she meets with us and comes to church that she will feel her life change and find the peace she is looking for. Tears were rolling down my face as she said, "that's all I want. Peace." We then get her contact info and set up a return appointment. We got her number and Hna Dansie asked for her last name. You better believe it, Tolentino. It was her ! My smile was so big it probably freaked everyone out, but my heart was so happy ! We said a closing prayer and left. As we walked to our car Hna Dansie goes "wow well that was a miracle" I turned to her and said "the craziest thing about it is that today I wrote down her name and just had the strongest impression to find her." We were both in shock. It's times like these I just wish I could just press a pause button and stay in those moments forever. This truly is the work of salvation :) 

We also had exchanges this week and I have to tell you about this funny thing that happened. I stayed in the area and was with another sister. Well we had a lesson set with this guy named Pauplino at 7. Well I had never met this guy before and Hna Dansie met him when we were on another exchange and said he was kind of creepy and drunk when she met him ....... Anyway he keeps calling us and wants us to teach him so we set an appointment and call a member to come with us. We go to pick up our member and she cancels right then... So I'm just like uggggh I don't know if we should go or not... So then we just decided to drive over to where he lives and check it out (after being a missionary I have become a professional stalker..) let me just paint you a picture of what this neighborhood looks like. The sister I am with says "are we in the projects??" Hahahaha unfortunately  the area we were in was actual a nicer area compared to other places we go to... AnYway we like park our car outside the house (across the street of course) and I am just like not having a good feeling. So we decide to pray wether we should knock the door or not. After the prayer we decide just to call him. So we are sitting in our car talking to this guy and he seemed pretty nice. We told him we couldn't come over but that we could talk about the pamphlet we left him over the phone. So we start talking and I am thinking wow this guy is a pretty nice guy, maybe he is pretty solid. So we are talking and I look down the street and I see this guy walking with a bag holding alcohol and talking on the phone. I lean over to the sister I'm with and say "that would be hilarious if that was Pauplino" well I spoke to soon. IT WAS HIM !! Hahahah so he gets closer and I'm like "duck!" So there we ar hiding in our car talking to our investigator on the phone and he is walking right towards us. Well so then he gets close and this big truck pulls up at his house and this lights are like beaming into our car btw we have like the lowest tinted windows in then world. So we are still hiding and talking on the phone when Pauplino is like "why don't you send me a photo of you. I want to see you." AHHHHH. I put the phone of mute, start the car and speeeeeed away. Then he keeps talking and is like "I am looking for you." WAHHHH we hung up and then he kept calling and so we just kept rejecting it. Hahahaha the best part was that the sister I was with is an English missionary and doesn't know any Spanish hahaha she had no idea what was happening. So that was hilarious :) a little creepy but makes a good story Face with stuck-out tongue and winking eye

We also went out to eat with our branch president and his family and our investigator Lupe to Buffalo Wild Wings. It was so fun and guess what ? My companion , Lupe and 2 of presidentes sons , Byron and Heber did the Blazin challenge. It was hilarious. I will send you pictures and videos. Lupe and Hna Dansie were the only ones to actually eat all 12 wings in the 6 minutes. Hahaha it was so fun ! 

Well I think that's about all for this week. I hope y'all have a great week !! Be safe on your travel home :) thanks for all y'all do for me ! I love y'all !!! 

XO 
Hermana Brown 

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

NOVEMBER‏

Dear cute family , 

HAPPY NOVEMBER !!! I am still just shocked that it's actually November again. Where is the time going ?? Talk about like super fast ! It sounded like y'all had a great Halloween and a lot of people over for scones, always so much fun :) The Garth Brooks concert sounded AMAZING !!! I am so jealous. Hopefully I will get lucky one day and knock into his door Winking face this week was a great week and I am excited to tell y'all about it ! 

We did a couple of exchanges this week. I went down to Murfreesboro for a couple of days and it was great. I first went to the stones river area with a cute sister, sister carbine. She has been out for a little under 4 months. She is so sweet and her desire to serve is so strong. We didn't have too many set appointments so we did a lot of finding, which I love ! I learned a lot on this exchange about  the importance of remembering that the gospel is for EVERYONE and how I can't say who will or won't accept the gospel. I learned this while we were knocking doors in a neighborhood. a couple houses down from where we were was this guy sitting outside, smoking and drinking, with tattoos all over his arms, and in general, just looked pretty sketchy. I asked myself "should we talk to him?" Then I thought "what kind of question is that ? Obviously !" Then sister carbine said "should we talk to him?" And as easy as it could have been to just keep walking down the other side of the road, I said to her "thirty seconds of insane courage" so we walked over and that's when we met Andrew. He was seriously one of the nicest guys ever ! He seemed very interested and even set up a return appointment for the next day ! As we walked to the next house I looked over and he had put his cigarette out and was reading the pamphlet of the restoration we had given him. That was a strong lesson I learned, the gospel truly is for EVERYONE :) 

Then on Thursday I stayed in Murfreesboro but I went to the YSA area. Oh man. That was so much fun but at the same time sooooo weird ! I stayed with sister Wayment, who actually was in my district last transfer , so it was fun to see her again. It was such a fun exchange but it was really different teaching like everyone my same age, and having like all the members be my same age as well, but at the same time I felt like it was so easy to connect with these people! since we are all in about the same walk of life. There is a college in Murfreesboro  , Middle Tennessee State University and so we even did some contacting on campus . It was crazy and made me think of when I was back at Utah state. So weird !!! That night we went to institute and it was so awesome. The institute teacher is amazing and I learned so much ! Definitely a good spiritual boost that I needed :) although it was fun being in a YSA for a day, I was so happy to come back to hermitage and be with all my Hispanic people again. Smiling face (black and white)

This week we found 9 new investigators which has seriously been an answer to our prayers! And we have a good feeling about most of them so that makes me happy :) we also did a special fast with our inv Mari so that she could get work off and be able to come to church on Sunday. The Lords way is always the best way. Although She wasn't able to come yesterday she talked with her boss and she can come next Sunday ! Yahoo I am so excited :) I have really learned that when we fast we truly are calling down the powers of heaven. 

Also the big news of the week, our friend Santos from our English class got baptized !! So that was awesome. We got permission to go to his baptism and let me just say, I am so happy for this guy :) on Tuesday he called us to see if Hermana Dansie would give the talk on baptism and then he asked me if I would sing a special musical number. I just started laughing and said "sure" jokingly because we all know I can not sing, but then he was serious ..... Thankfully my companion is good at singing and I convinced her to sing with me so I could just hide behind her voice while we sang. But it was a great baptism ! I can't wait to see what the future has in store for Santos ! 

Halloween was fun ! We made little Halloween candy jars with one of our members this week and we took them out to some of our investigators and less active members and then, since it was the same day as Santos' baptism our Branch President and his wife took us to the baptism. Let me just say, I love the Burgos family so so much. They are seriously amazing. I feel like they are my Hispanic family. Seriously. mom and dad don't worry I am being taken care of very well here :) after the baptism they took us out to eat at Panera Bread, which is like the most delicious place ever. It's like a mix of Kneaders, Paradise, and Zupas. Talk about delicious! Then since it was Halloween we had to come in early, so that was fun, but also strange. We did our planning for the week and then went to bed. It was amazing getting a few extra hours of sleep, something I think every missionary always needs :) 

Sorry for a long email, but this week was great :) I know I probably say this every week, but I am just so happy and I am so happy to be a missionary especially at this time in my life. I think I always knew deep down inside that I would serve a mission but in high school and such it was far from my mind. I am so truly grateful for good parents who raised me in the gospel and for the Lord never giving up on me and always giving me the opportunities to grow to where I am now. I am blessed to have such amazing older siblings who really are the most amazing examples to me. I am so blessed ! I love y'all so much ! I hope y'all have a fun and safe trip to Washington this week !! 

XO 
Hermana Brown


Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Happy Halloween

Hello family ! 

How are you ? It sounds like yalls week was really fun but also busy ! I am sad to hear that the Utes lost :( but I am excited for Sarah and Jordan, so exciting for their cute baby girl. Can you believe this week is Halloween. Sad to be missing some delicious scones and chicken noodles soup, but I guess I will just have to wait til next year! 

This week was a great week but I am semi having a hard time remembering everything that happened. But I will do my best to inform y'all !!

So first off great news ! Wednesday night we were driving home and I got a call from the Hermanas in Columbia.  I am not sure if you remember me talking about our investigator Angie or not when I was serving in Columbia, but she is awesome. She has such a strong testimony of the gospel and of the priesthood but wasn't able to get baptized because she wasn't married to her husband , and he was a little anti getting married as well, so it was just hard, but Angie still came to church, and she just loved it. Well the Hermanas in Columbia have been working really hard with them for like the past year and they called to tell me that they were getting married Saturday and Angie was getting baptized Sunday!! I was sooooo excited !! My heart just filled with joy :) I am amazed at how the lord truly does bless and love his children. So it was awesome I got to skype into her baptism yesterday and talk with her. I am so happy and feel so blessed that I was able to know Angie and now, I am so happy that she was able to get baptized. It was also really cool because we were able watch the baptism with our investigator Lupe at our branch presidents house. So that was awesome. 

 Friday night we also had a branch activity and it was so much fun ! A ton of members, less actives, and investigators came ! We had a ton of games for the kids, candy, and of course, delicious food. I feel bad for being so grossed out that time josh put mayo and hot sauce on his corn on the cob, because it is seriously delicious !!! I love it. As well as some chicharrones with valentina sauce, delicious. What was awesome was that our investigator Ozmara came too, that was a miracle and she brought her two kids, Isabella and Joel. It was a blast :) I love this little ramita here :) 

This week was kind of a weird week. We did a lot of finding and saw a lot of less active members. So that's always good :) we did have one super weird day finding. We were driving and we got lost and so we just decided to park and do some tracking. So like literally every house we knocked we met someone really interesting. First we met this very very flamboyant man and it was just weird, then we knocked into this atheist family , then a lesbian couple, and then a really crazy / passionate church of Christ lady. It was one of the most interesting neighborhoods I have ever knocked before. 

Oh I need to tell you about what happened last night. So it was awesome because we had a great lesson with Aida and Carmen and we got home at 9, and then we start our nightly planning and we pull out our phone to text some members , and guess what ? Yup.... I left our phone at Aida's and she lives like super far away, like 25 minutes.... We thought we would just go today to get the phone so that we wouldn't have to call president since we would get back after 9:30, but then we realized that it was Sunday night and we needed to call and give our numbers and we thought that maybe people would get freaked out of concerned or something if we didn't answer our phone. So then we left and got to Aida's and luckily they were all still awake, so that was good. We got the phone and came home. It was a crazy night. I have problems leaving our stuff places. This last week i also left our keys at either our investigators house, or members house and by the time we got to the car we had to go back in and get them. My mind is all over the place! 

I can't really remember much of what happened the rest of this week, but it was a good week ! Our investigators are still doing good! Thanks for praying for Mario he is getting there step by step. November is his month, I know it :) 

I hope y'all have a very happy Halloween ! I know I will because our friend Santos from our English class is getting baptized ! So that's awesome and president said we can go ! But we also have to be in at 6 on Halloween.... Who knows what we will do... But it should be fun :) thanks for all y'all do for me. I hope you have a great week ! I love y'all ! 

XO 
Hermana Brown :)

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Go Utes !‏

Hola mi familia ! 
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE AMAZING PACKAGE !!! It was like the best surprise in the world !!!!! I almost started crying eating the snicker doodles, they were just so delicious. Thank you. And that skirt, I LOVE IT! I have the best family. 

Well this week went by like super fast ! Last week of the transfer and boy did we see a ton of miracles ! It was awesome. First off, transfer info !! Are you ready for this ? I am staying here in Buena Vista for another transfer , with Hermana Dansie !!! I am SO happy and SO excited !! I just know we are about to do big things here and see huge miracles :) 

First off I have to brag about how awesome the branch members are here. Like seriously they are so amazing ! And what is even more amazing is that our branch is a pretty small branch. It's like bigger than a group but not super huge. Probably more like a stick... Haha but what is so awesome is that literally everyday this week, a different member came out with us to teach our investigators and less actives. Seriously these people have like the strongest testimonies ever and literally the gospel is their life. I feel so blessed to work with these amazing people ! They truly do want to share the gospel with everyone they know! Their righteous examples have really helped me want to be better and truly have the gospel of Jesus Christ engraved onto my heart. 
We did our last exchange of the transfer this week and it was really fun. I stayed in the area and sister Hammond came here with me. She is darling and just now finished her second transfer. She truly wants to baptize nations and wants to be the best missionary ever. She is also hilarious so you can guarantee we had some greats laughs together. 

We switched back from exchanges on Thursday morning, which happened to be Hna Dansie's birthday, so before we switched back sister Hammond and I made a "¡Feliz Cumpleaños!" For Hna Dansie and wrapped her presents. Which we didn't have anything to wrap them in, so I used a Walmart bag haha BUT it actually didn't look that bad, so that was good :) anyway it was a great day and we had some great lessons! We taught our awesome investigator, Gloria, who loves reading the Book of Mormon, loves everything in the gospel, but won't come to church.... Soooooooooo annoying ! But we had a great lesson with her about the spirit. We noticed as teach her every time the spirit is strong in the lesson she will purposefully get up to do something or something to like make the spirit go away. But we had a great lesson with her about the importance of the spirit, and the spirit was soooooo strong ! Yay happy day :) please pray that she will come to church soon ! She is amazing. 

Oh also Thursday night we had our English class too, and it was a lot of fun ! Something cool is that this guy in our class, Santos and he is so cool ! He actually doesn't live in our area, he lives in Madison which is like 30-45 minutes away but he decided to come to our English class and he loves it ! We asked him if the missionaries in Madison could go visit him and he said yes ! Well like two transfers ago we kept bugging and bugging and BUGGING the elders in Madison to go and visit and teach him and they never did.... Imp so then we just decided well we might as well teach him when he comes to English class, so we did and then we started coming to church on Sunday's too ! (Btw santos literally lives like 5 minutes away from the Madison church building...) well remember how last transfer we had the multicultural fair ? Well it was at the Madison building , and so santos finally met the elders and now they are teaching him and he had a baptismal date for Halloween !! Sooooo awesome. Santos is just so cool and I am so excited for him ! English class brings miracles and people unto the gospel. It's a real thing ! 

We are still working with Mario Cardiel... I love this guy but he also makes me so frustrated.... Like he gets so close to baptism and then he just gets like cold feet .... I have faith that this transfer is his transfer. I will not give up on him !! Tonight we are having a noche de hogar with them and the last few weeks we have been focusing on the principles and ordinances of the gospel, and tonight we are teaching baptism. We told him we are going to do a live visual and just bring the font to his house... Haha pray for him ! 

I think that might be it for this week. It was a great week ! Lately my studies have been super focused on putting and giving all our trust in the Lord. I love the scripture in Mormon 9:21 "Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth."  I feel like I have learned so much and still am learning so much about the importance of putting all of our faith Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. I feel like a lot of times we have the faith to start building ourselves upon the rock of Christ,  but then we don't have the trust to finish building, but I know that as we trust in the lord we won't fall! It made me think of dad's favorite hymn, How Firm a Foundation. We truly are held up by God's righteous, omnipotent hand. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ keep their promises, they will never let us down !

Longest email ever, but I hope y'all have a great week ! I am verrrrrry happy to hear about my Utes doing awesome and I hope they keep winning ! Thanks for all y'all do for me. I am so blessed! I love y'all so much !! 

XO 
Hermana Brown 

Ps I ate cow stomach this week 
menudo cow stomach soup. It's pretty good
found these creepy dolls that look like us...