Remember those weeks when I felt like nothing really happened? Well, this isn't one of them!

This week SO much happened! It really was incredible. The beginning of the week was kind of slow, and then I feel like my life exploded.

For the sake of how I'm going to write this email and your anticipation, we'll get transfer news out of the way now :)

I am headed out! I am really nervous about it, and really sad to be leaving these wards. But Sister Stuart is (already) needed as a trainer, and I am needed elsewhere. So we get trainer calls on Wednesday, and Transfer News on Saturday night. Sister Stuart will be working in the Volcano Ward, and new missionaries will be serving in the Ventana Ward. But Saturday, just before we received transfer news, I got a call from President asking me if I would accept the call to be an STL (Sister Training Leader). (I think I told you about that position a couple transfers ago). Basically me and my future companion will go to all the big meetings, and we will be over the sisters in 2-3 zones, to help them with anything that they need, and to go on exchanges with them, and I am probably the youngest STL in the mission. This IS only my 4th transfer. I'm terrified, but it will be really good :)

Anwyays,

Monday and Tuesday were more of the same. Except we were referred to go and see a LA family. We called her Tuesday morning, and set up to go and visit that afternoon. We realized how fortunate we were, because we caught her on her only day off. While talking, we shared a message on families, and realized that they haven't been to church in about a year, and her youngest son is 9 and not baptized. So they will be taught this week!!

We also went and taught Naomi. (They are the family that gave us the Elk roast). I was a little bit terrified, but it went really well!! We got to know her a little better, and talked about what she was feeling and what she wanted. Turns out she has taken the discussions a couple of times, and it always has come down to "you need to really read and pray". But, she hasn't really done that. So, we asked what was something that she wanted to focus on or learn about. She wanted a story about someone coming closer to Christ, so we read Mosiah 27, and talked about Alma the Younger. She had a lot of really good questions, and the lesson ended up being very powerful. There is no way that we could have taught that lesson without the spirit guiding us.

Then after Naomi we taught the minks about the 10 commandments. We learned some hand signs for them which was super awesome... because they actually payed attention! haha so their new bap date is Aug 24th. Way exciting :)

Wednesday was not much. We tried a few homes... and transfer news was the big thing.

Thursday Sister Stuart had a training meeting to go to, so I spent most of the day in a tri-panionship just hanging out and getting to know each other. So that was nice. Then dinner and we taught Louise. She is absolutely incredible!! I love her with all of my heart, and I am going to miss her SO much. The spirit was definitely present in our lesson, and we talked to her about letting Christ into our lives, and gave her the picture of Christ knocking, but there is now doorknob on his side. She even said that she went and bought 2 new dresses so she could come to church!! She is too cute :)

Friday we had a district meeting on diligence, which was wonderful, of course. We talked about how sometimes we know what is right and what we need to do... and then we just don't do it. And there are a slew of reasons and excuses, but we need to be diligent and obedient, and just do what we are asked and expected to do. Then we went to a park and finished our weekly planning. It was beautiful outside... until it starting pouring. Luckily, Sister Stuart broke a button on her shirt so we headed to a member's house to get it fixed, just before the torrents began.

But later that night, we had a lesson with Bobbie N. We discussed enduring to the end, and committed her to baptism. She said she is having a hard time thinking about giving up her entire lifestyle for the last 50 years, but she would like to get baptized! Again, the spirit was SO strong. A good member friend was there, and invited her to come to church. (And she did!). Sister Stuart will be setting a date with Bobbie to get baptized this week, probably mid-September. (!!!!)

Then after Bobbie we went and had a lesson with Tina, Christi's mom! (Just know, that going in we were super nervous, and I prayed like a million times). But we went, and she had a lot of questions from her experience in church a couple months ago, and from things she has just heard. So she told us everything, crazy or not, and we did our best to answer her questions. Again, this lesson HAD to be led by the spirit. It was great :) She is trying to understand everything because she loves her daughter (understandably and respectfully so). Sister Stuart will be meeting with her again later this week or next. Slow, but positive progress. And we meet with Christi in her home now. Miracles are happening!!

Saturday we talked with a LA family we have been working with... and they told us about how they have decided to not come to church anymore. I have learned a couple things on my mission. I've learned how to love strangers. People that you have never met, you learn to love with all of your heart. And you care for those you work with in a different way. So when they told us this, I was devastated. For their situation, and their struggles, and that I couldn't do anything. After I did everything I could, it’s hard to watch someone still struggle in ways you can't help. I've learned a little about how Heavenly Father must feel for His children.

Saturday and Sunday were kind of hectic. Flooded with saying goodbyes, which are always hard. We had 2 dinners. Again. (That’s what happens when you don't have a dinner scheduled at all, and suddenly everyone wants to feed the sisters, and you can't say no to all of them. we almost had 3 dinners). But one was with this cute old man, brother Stolworthy. He's kind of our adopted grandpa. His wife is not a member, and he comes to church every week. Just the sweetest man ever. We always go and talk with him, and though you have to talk loud and stand close so he can hear and see you, you can tell he loves you. He tells the best stories :) and when he really wants you to listen, he grabs your hand and holds it while he talks, or kind of holds your arm. And he gave me a book of all his family history on one side, because he said there was a lady with the last name of brown, and he wanted to know if we were related. Haha well, there a lot of browns, so I kind of doubt it. But, you never know I guess ;)

Hope that covers everything.

So pretty much, I'm going to miss serving here a TON. But, I know that somewhere else needs me. Or maybe I just need somewhere else. But the work of salvation is progressing, and it is such a blessing to be a part of it, no matter where I serve.

Love you all SO much!! Thanks for all you do. Keep working hard, and stay true to who you are. You never know when someone will need your kind words or smile. Truly, God works in mysterious ways, and we are all His tools. Make sure that you are where you need to be, when you need to be there, doing all that you are supposed to be doing. He knows, and loves, and will direct us always.

Love,
Sister Brown

sometimes you're best friends with your companion, and that's okay

This week was fabulous!!
So, we went on exchanges with the STL's (sister training leaders) on Tuesday, which I was actually WAY nervous about.  But, I finally got to go to a different area than mine!  so I went with Sister Rose, and she serves in a singles branch in Los Lunas.  Remember how I used to be terrified at hanging out with missionaries, because we're basically the same age, and I didn't want it to be awkward or anything.  You know...I didn't want to worry about flirting, yadda yadda.  Well, being a missionary is a whole other story.  So the youth of the church, no problem.  But on our way to FHE, she told me that I had to be super careful about who I talked to, and that I basically couldn't smile or laugh or be myself.  So I never want to serve in a singles branch because suddenly it's really awkward again and  feel like I can't be myself and it's terrible.
BUT, teaching the single adults is an absolute blast, because they are at a different stage in life, and are really getting settled and making decisions for themselves.  I learned a lot about planning, and contacting people  (I'm basically terrible at approaching people.  I mean...I'm a people person, but then I have to hand them a card and get their address and phone number and tell them about the gospel and I feel like a creeper.  But then you just do it, and it's only awkward for half a second, and then things get better, and you leave.  And then maybe teach and baptize and life is good.)  So Sister Stuart and I are trying to do a lot better at talking to everyone.  We have a few potentials actually!  We saw a family at a park...so we parked and went to say hi.  Turns out, they had been meeting with missionaries before, and so we'll talk to them again this weekend!  Also, there were two girls just sitting on their porch smoking and talking, so we talked to them too.  The girl that lived there had moved in recently and her family is looking for a church.  So she is going to check out mormon.org  and we'll call her this week and see if she wants to meet again.  We are WAY excited.  :)  We taught Kelly S. a couple times.  The lessons went well...better than the last couple weeks.  Bobbie and Tara haven't come in over a month.  we miss them a whole lot.  I'm worried that we may have really offended them or something.  But, we're having dinner with them next Tuesday...so we'll see how that goes!  The Mink Twins are doing good.  Courtney has come to church twice!!  Austin...still likes sleep more.  But the lessons have gone alright.  We'll see if we can get him more focused soon.  We are doing weekly FHE with a semi-less active family, and Courtney and Austin are coming to that too.  Hurrah!  But they have a new date to get baptized on Aug. 24th now, because of complications with their grandpa's schedule.

We had a meeting with President Miller because Sister Stuart is almost 6 weeks in.  So all the new missionaries and their trainers.  It was a way good meeting.  They all shared stories about the first time they committed someone to baptism, or shared the first vision, etc.  It was a really good meeting.  And there, President told us about contacting people.  (he really gave us the inspiration to talk to everyone.)  He said that he wanted every missionary contacting 10 people a day.  But say, each companionship only talked to 10 people a day, and you only did it 5 days a week.  So you were talking to 50 people a week.  If 2 of them got baptized.  We have 126 companionship.  And 52 weeks in a year.  That's about 13,000 baptisms.  And in his words, he was being conservative.  There really are SO many people out there that are being prepared.  There are people just waiting to be found and to learn the gospel  I can't wait to find them and teach them!!

The Lord also works in mysterious ways.  SO, we try to call our dinner appointment a day ahead of time to confirm and set a time.  Usually...we're not super good at this.  Wednesday, we were way on top of it , and called Thursday's dinner.  Turns out, the dinner fell through.  Well, we went to visit a LA/PM family, and they talked about how they used to feed the missionaries, so we should work out a time.  Well, our calendar is usually completely full, but I now had Thursday open for dinner.  So I told them that, and they invited us over!  We had a great time!! (We had and elk roast...so, good.)  Naomi, the wife, is not a member and has a lot of struggles with faith and Christ.  So she is officially our new investigator, and we are going to teach her this week!  We know that she has a lot of questions, and things that are probably going to stump us.  But we are excited to teach her.  : )

We also had interviews with president on Thursday.  Sister Miller said that the sisters no longer have to wear a blazer at all our meetings!  We can wear a blazer, or a cardigan.  I can't tell you how thrilled I am!!  I could probably go on for days about how glad I am to have them as our leaders.  They are fantastic!

Bobbie N. is doing just great too!  We didn't have an official lesson with her.  She hast to postpone once,and then we did service the other time.  So on Saturday we went to a birthday party for a member, so that we could serve and meet some of the girls and their mom's.  Then we went to help Bobbie paint an office.  We had dinner with a member, and the Bobbie asked if we had eaten and that Bob was making homemade nachos and hamburgers and wanted us to come over!  Well...we were pretty full. But we really needed to create a better friendship with Bob.  And sometimes...you just have to be hungry again.  SO< we went back to Bobbie's and had second dinner.  : )  We are still praying that he will be more welcoming to the Gospel and will sit in on a lesson soon.

Christi is still in MY...her trip got extended.  So, we're meeting with her and her mom this week, and hopefully she'll get baptized on the 27th!

Transfers are coming  up again.  I'm starting to get anxiety...of course I want to stay put and work here.  But you never know!!

Funny story for the week...we went out teaching with the Bishops wife.  And no one was home.  So finally she said, "Let's go teach my neighbor!"  So we dropped by and went in to share a short message.  She ended up doing everything, and it was incredible!  (That's why teaching with the member's is the best!!  Long story short, we are going back and reading with their daughter once a week.)  BUT, the daughter gave us a Twizzlers.  I took one, and then decided I didn't want to eat it, so I held onto it.  Then, the dog came up and licked it.  So I really wasn't going to eat it, but I didn't want to make the dog sick either.  So trying to be sneaky, I stuck it in my scriptures, and then stuck the scriptures in my bag.  The dog started licking my scriptures, and everyone joked for a long rime about the dog really wanting to read the Bible...little did they know, that I had licorice in my Bible...aye caramba.

And yesterday, the CTR 4 class learned about missionary work, so we both got a lot of sweet cards.  It was the best. : )  I LOVE being a missionary!!

Hope y'all have an excellent week!!  I love you SO much, and thank you for the support and prayers!!

Love,
Sister Brown

4th of July and other exciting things

SO, we went golfing this morning as a district. And we have exchanges tonight. (Thank heavens our dinner cancelled.....) Anyways, I’m way short on time. So I’m sending an email, but it's short and sweet. And I’ll do a double update next week. Deal?

Anyways, the beginning of this week was kind of difficult. I look back, and I didn't even write in my journal Sunday or Monday. Nothing specific had really happened.... just the stress of being on a mission I guess. But a good talk with the comp, and a priesthood blessing, and I'm back on my feet.

Tuesday we met the new president and his wife. And I am SO impressed. I can't wait to work with him and even in just the past week I have seen so much. His dedication and everything is incredible. They are both so personable, and just incredible. When he stood to speak to us, he had each of us stand and say our names and where we are from, and then made a comment. I told him I was from Atlanta, Georgia. He asked me to repeat it. When I did, he said, "You’ve got a little bit of a southern drawl. You wear that proudly, just like that beautiful smile."

I think we're going to get a long just great :)

We taught a lesson to Kelly S. I worry about him a little... Things have seemed a bit off lately. So, hopefully the lesson tonight will go a lot better, and we'll find out what is wrong.

We have a new date set for Christi! (Did I say this already?) The 20th of July. She gets back this Wednesday, so we'll meet with her on Thursday and see how that goes. AND, we have a meeting set up with her mom on the 16th! A little farther out than we had hoped... but it'll be great :) we can't wait!

The 4th was a total blast. We attended the breakfast activity for both wards. Then planned all day... and had 2 BBQ's that night. The members here are awesome, and we had a way good time!!! :)

Oh we taught Bobbie on Wednesday... and that went really well. This week she is inviting a friend to come. (The friend couldn’t make it last week)

Not really any more lessons this week. We painted, helped install a new sink, mopped floors, and re-cleaned that lady's pond.

It has rained almost every evening this last week. (When we were cleaning out the pond.... we got absolutely drenched! it was a blast!) We need the water so bad. Apparently NM kind of missed monsoon season the last couple years... so hopefully it will kick in this year. The drought is pretty bad.

I reached 4 months! Can’t believe how fast time has gone!!

Kay..... I’m sorry that is short and so scattered. I had a lot more I wanted to tell you. But alas, we will save it for another time. Love y'all!!!

Love,

Sister Brown

Well Hello!! --July 1, 2013

This last week has been more of the norm.  We go on exchanges this week...so I'm hoping that I'll get to leave my area for that, and get a new perspective on other ways that missionary work can happen.

Anyways, we're doing well!  Sister S. is feeling a lot better.  One of the benefits of her being celiac (well, we have to look on the bright side right?) is that we get asked a lot what we want for dinner.  So, we were good and had a big chef's salad one night.  That was actually one of the best meals I've ever had.  : )  We also have several gluten free families in both wards, so they give us random snacks, and pasta, and cookies, and lots of things.  Because they know that gluten free is expensive and hard to find.  So, when I say we, really I mean they give them to her.  But sometimes I get to benefit.  : )  It's the greatest.

We talked with Christi last week, and she is currently in NY until July 10. So that's kind of a bummer.  But we set a new date for July 20. She also said that we could go and visit her mom while she was gone.  SO, we went and did that on Friday night.  We were seriously nervous as all get out.  But, I thought about all of the miracles that have happened with her so far, and gathered all my faith, and we went to the door.  She recognized me from when I met her a month or so ago, and we got to chatting.  I just told her that we knew Christi was out of town, and were wondering if we could talk with her, or help her out with anything.  I was expecting the worst, but she said that it was a bad time because she was putting the kids to bed.  But we could get her cell number from Christi, and text her to set up a time to meet with her because she would love to talk with us!  God is good.  I was amazed, and we are working on setting up a time with her this week to go and chat. (!!!!)

So I told you about Jen last week...we have tried a few times to visit her with no luck still.  She either hasn't been home...or is now avoiding us for some reason.  I'm not sure what's up, but we'll keep trying a few times this week.  The elders commend us for all of the referrals we get.  I tell them that you just have to smile and bat your eyelashes a little and the referrals will come flooding in. haha just kidding.  It has taken a lot of building the trust with the members, and other hard work.  But the problem is now we are getting all of these referrals...and no one wants to talk with us.  I mean...we're cute right?  And we're sharing a message about Jesus Christ that will change your life.  I figure we'd have more takers. lol

There were two 14 year old boys that went on trek.  And we have now had dinner with a member family, and both of their families.  They are both going to Philmont in a week or so, but I think that we will be teaching both families after Philmont. Which is super awesome.  They are really good boys, and I can't wait to work with them and their families.  : )

Friday at District meeting the AP's  showed up randomly.  (Assistants to the President.)  I think it was a little intimidating, and made Elder Lee a little frustrated...but it ended up being a really good meeting on working with the members, and finding ideas, etc.   Which is exactly what we needed, so it was great.  And I got BBQ pulled pork for lunch, which I was craving, and it reminded me a lot of the good ole south.

We talked with Bobbie a lot about baptism.  She said that the idea kind of scares her.  So basically, she knows that this is the path she is going to take one day.  She just wants to take everything slow...which is perfectly fine.  : )  We are going to keep everything at her pace, and make sure that all her fears are settled, and that she is ready before we go too fast.  It's good.  : )

We got to have a meeting with Elder Villareal and Elder Echohawk of the 70 on Saturday.  It was incredible.  :)  We learned a whole bunch, and if I thought I was excited about being a missionary before...I'm way excited now.  We learned a lot about our purpose, and the impact that we can make.  It was also President and Sister Millers last big meeting with any missionaries, so it was kind of hard to see them be so emotional.  It was a tender moment.

Speaking of their last meeting, they fly home today.  In fact...they're probably already gone.  And the new President and Sister Miller are coming in today!  We are SO excited to get to know them tomorrow, and to work with them. They seem great!

Sorry I'm out of time again...It was Elder Lee's birthday yesterday, so we're doing sports and things for him today.  It'll be way fun...even though it's smoldering outside.

Love y'all so much!!!  Have and excellent week!!!

Love,
Sister Brown