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