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 ️

Okay so on for this week

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 !! 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

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 :) 

christmas.mormon.org

 

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

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 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

 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 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 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 left😮

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

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 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 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

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 

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