Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal‏

 FAMILY!!!! Merry Christmas !!!!!! 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 I can't decide which is worse.... YSA drama or Hispanic drama... That Latinatude can be pretty fierce...

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 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

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 ️

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. if you haven't see the video A Savior is Born, you need too ! (Josh, watch it in Spanish... It's better... ) 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 () 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 ️️

Les quiero muchiiiiiiiiiiisimo !!! 

XO

Hermana Brown

Sister Brennan and I , protecting ourselves with some piedras

Feliz cumpleaños Lupe

Clarks competition

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 !

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