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 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. ️

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