Week 18

Hi Family!!

How is everyone?! Things here are just fab! Wanna know why....TRACY PASSED HER INTERVIEW!! SHE'S GETTING BAPTIZED THIS FRIDAY!!! OH HAPPY DAYS DAYS DAY! She has been just golden from the very start! :D She is just so prepared and so excited for her baptism. The ward is getting pretty excited too!

Sorry this email is so late! Usually we email around 10:00 England time but we had our Zone P-Day today. It was pretty fun. We played Mofia and i was the narrator :) Ha it brought me back to the good ol days at Grandma Taylors playing it with everyone and all the cousins!

Yes Mom i got the package and can i just say that i wore the dress on Saturday and i got SO many compliments! Ha it's no surprise at all you see cause even back home whenever i'd wear something that you baught me or if it was Jillians i always got compliments and I would reply "Well thank you...I didn't pick it out so i figure it's gotta look good :)" ha thank you so much for the sweet package and notes! Mal thank you for that book! I look forward to reading it soon! Sounds like the Jetettes are still super great!! Live it up Mal you've only got just a few months left and then it will be all over!!

That's something i've been thinking about the past few weeks. Living life to the fullest. I have now been out 4 months and this transfer is half way over!!! Time is just flying. The sad thing about missions is that you get to love the people, the missionaries, all these people you're in contacts with. There are quite a few missionaries that i love that are going back to their homelands at the end of this transfer and each one have said how fast it goes! This life we're living is just such a small moment on the giant scale of eternitiy and this moment i have to be here in England is even smaller and so precious. Live each moment likes it's the last one you'll have people, love everyone like it's the last time you'll see them, make choices that will lead you down the path of righteousness!! (cause it does rock ;) ) I am so grateful for this oppertunity to be a servant of the Lord here in England. I am so grateful for the amazing examples that i have all around me. I am so grateful for a loving and supportive family who i get to have eternitiy with (YES!!!), I'm so grateful for my knowledge of the gospel. SO grateful for Sister Sorensen- Holy Cow, we're going to be best friends for life and I never would have met her if I hadn't gone on a mission. I never would have met all these wondeful people, i never would have grown as much as i have in the past 4 months. And there are still 14 more months of learning and growing :)

I hope all is still going so well for everyone!! I love you all so much! To the moon and back! Cheers til next week!

Love, Sister Brown

Week 17

FAMILY!!! Isn't it about...sundial? ;)

HOW ARE YOU ALL?! I hope you're as good as i am :) Cause I am doing GOOD! Wow i really felt your prayers this week, missionary work is not the easiest job but i truly felt carried this week through the wind and rain :) From the sounds of it things are getting back to normal. Things here are getting back to normal too. We got rid of all our Christmas chocolates and have a new goal of LOSING WEIGHT!!!! (Yay for New Years Resolutions) As you got a taste of...the chocolate here...is REALLY GOOD! But me and S. Sorensen are determined to be healthier so we can better do the work here :)

Things with S. Sorensen and I are brilliant! We get along so so well! We just laugh all the time. She truly is inspiring, she makes me want to be a better person and missionary which is so goooood! This email I wanted to talk about Tracy. I don't remember if i've told you about her yet but she is GOLDEN!! (Joey can explain golden investigators to you ;) ) She is a media refferal. Meaning that she ordered a BOM online and we delivered it to her. She has had quite the life, she's been through SO SO much! She ordered the BOM to learn more about our church because she's been looking for something to fill this huge whole in her life. SHE IS SO PREPARED!!! God truly prepares people to hear the good news of the gospel and she has competely excepted it :) I want to share an experience we had with her this week that ONCE AGAIN prooves that the Church is TRUE!!!

We went over to her house Friday night (Jan 6, 2012....can you believe it's 2012!?!?...it's the begining of the end folks...) and we walk in and of couse check in on how she's doing :) We do the whole small talk stuff and then I say the opening prayer. After the prayer she says, "Well...you don't need to teach me today...I already know what we're going to be talking about.". I look at her and kinda laugh and say, "Oh really? And how do you know that?" She then says, "Well i had a dream last night about me giving to others and it was through tithing...are we talking about tithing?" I KID YOU NOT THIS IS REAL LIFE!!!!! I look at S. Sorensen and the member that we had with us and I KID YOU NOT in my lap i was holding the Tithing Leaflet...I turned it around in pure amazment and showed her that yes, we were teaching her tithing!!!!

BACK STORY:

So Tracy is soooooooooooooooooooo poor right now. Her and her husband had no Christmas at all because of the lack of money this year. So we have been dreading the tithing lesson. How could we ask her to give up 10% of her income when there wasn't much of one anyways. So that friday night we were planning on teaching the law of chastity. But for some reason we both felt like we needed to teach the law of Tithing...so we followed the spirit and once again the spirit prepared her. She was completely prepared for tithing. She even said, "Well you don't need to teach me it. I already have a testimony of it. Can i give you my money now?" Not gonna lie i got a little teary eyed!! Her faith is so strong! All she wants is to be happy and to better her life. She has looked for years for the thing that will fill the whole that life has given her. And she has finally found it, she found the gospel.

The message of the gospel is one of healing. I've seen it time and time again heal people. Everywhere in England there are broken homes, families, drugs, alcohol, anger, hate, violence. But this gospel heals it all. If we truly live what we believe the GOSPEL WILL HEAL US!! I know it, i see it everyday!

Tracy is right on her way to enter the waters of baptism Jan. 20, 2012 :) Her baptismal interview is this Saturday :D :D :D :D!!!! I love this gospel, i love being a missionary, i love my savior, and i love you all so much!!!! I'm so glad that i get to spend eternity with my best friends! Thank you for all your love and support!!

Til next week! I love you to the moon and back! Cheers!

Love, Sister Brown

 

Week 16

Hello Family!

Ok i am SOOO SORRY!!! Ugh...england. England really likes their holidays...especially bank holidays. So they closed the library for 2 weeks....but now it's open and now i'm emailing my wonderful family who i love so so so much! Wow talking with you on Christmas was absolutely amazing!

So...TRANSFERS!!!

I am still in Durham :D Oh happy day! Sister Freeman got transfered to Sheffield in a NEW AREA SLOVOKIAN SPEAKING...ya she's such a big deal. So I'm still here and the wonderful, gorgious, SOOOOO FUNNY Sister Sorensen is my new companion :) (oh happy happy day!) She is so wonderful! She's from the Washington DC area and was going to UVU before she came out here on the mish. She was been out for 6 months and was actually in S. Freemans MTC group ha. So many things have happend since she's been here! A) a total reorganization of our flat (yay!) B) 7 new investigators last week (double yay!) 3) I'm laughing so so much :) I hadn't realized how long its been since i've had a good laugh until she got here. We laugh all the time! Oh how i just love her!!

It is stressful being the one who is escentially taking over the area, but as hecktic as things may seem right now we'll get into a good groove. :)

This week seemed to fly by but slug along so slow as well ha I guess thats the life of a missionary! This week we found 7 new investigators (which may not seem like a lot in comparison to other missions) but here in the Leeds England Mission..it's a lot! our goal for this transfer is to have 3 baptisms :) We know that through a lot of prayer, hard work, and faith we can make this happen!

I know this is such a wimpy letter especially cause it feels like SO much has happend in a the past week or so but just know that i'm doing good and that this missionary loves you all so so so much! Til next week!

I love you to the moon and back!

Love, Sister Brown :)

Week 15

Hi Friends!  This is Tay's sister Jillian :)  We didn't hear from her this week :(  But we got to skype with her on Christmas and she is so beautiful inside and out.  Stay tuned for next week's letter!!

Week 14

Hello my beautiful family!!!!

This is going to be a short email cause i'll be talking to you and seeing your faces THIS WEEK...whoa. Yes 7:30/2:30 works great and skype is going to BE AMAZING!!!! I can't wait to tell you all the miracles i've had this week....for starters...EDWARD PASSED HIS INTERVIEW!!!!! HE'S GETTING BAPTIZED ON FRIDAY AND CONFIRMED A MEMBER OF THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH ON CHRISTMAS!!!!!!! Best Christmas present ever. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers, this miracle wouldn't and couldn't have happend without it. I'll fill you in on the details on SUNDAY!!!! :D!!!!!

Love you all!!!

To the moon and back!!!

Love, Sista Brown :)

Week 13

Hello my wonderful family!!! Oh how i love you!

lets start by answering a few questions!

Boxing Day: Yes it is the day after Christmas...and i'm still not quite sure why the celebrate it... ha I think it's because it's when they clean up all the boxes and packages from Christmas...that's just a guess, i really have no clue!

Talking on Christmas :)!!: So you have some choices either we can talk early morning Christmas (around 6am-9am your time) or it can be around 11-1pm your time...which would be better. Either way it is probably going to be around the time church is. (curse you 7 hour time difference) And yes in both places i could call they have access to skype! So if you would like to skype i'm pretty sure we could!! :) Which would be so fun! I'll have about an hour! I would need to know your skype account and you would have to make me one...i think. So if you could do that and just let me know that would be WONDERFUL!

Transfer calls are the 26th. So i won't know whether i'm staying of going when we talk on Christmas. So it's the weird Pday thing. So the 26th you won't get anything from me but our Pday is on the Tuesday (27th) and then on the Wednesday is the transfer meeting and i'll know for sure who will be my companion and where i'll be :)

THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGES!!!! I got them on Tuesday!!! Thank you family and Grandma and Grandpa Taylor!! I haven't opened them yet cause we're saving it for Christmas but thank you so so much! You are so good to this Sister missionary! I love you all!

(Random thing: Raymond or someone smart (ok you're all smart...but we all know who the master tutor is in the family ;) ) Could you email me the formula to convert Fahrenheit (total wrong spelling ha) to Celsius (sp???) and Celsius to Fahrenheit. I know its like 5/9 + 32 or something like that...but they use Celsius here and I'd really like to know how cold it really is haha :) Thanks

This week FLEW!!! I can't believe it's Monday again and we've only got 2 weeks left of this transfer...CRAZY! Things here in Stanley are just great!! It's amazing to me A) How this is truly Gods work. B) How people use (or not use) their agency. C) story about the most amazing family I've had the pleasure to meet while here in Stanley.

 A) This is Gods work. No doubt about that. Why? Because he uses someone as imperfect, flawed, goofy, can't take anything seriously, Sister Brown. There is NO WAY I could be involved in these "coincidences" but it just being me. God is in control!

Story Time:

Once upon a time about 3 weeks after leaving the MTC here in Stanley I came across a man while street contacting. His name was Tom and he had recently lost his wife. She died just 2 years ago and he was still grieving her loss. Very bitter towards God and all that jazz. I prayed "Heavenly Father, this man NEEDS THIS GOSPEL!" I tried to schedule some time where we could see him but he was going on holiday for 3 weeks in Germany. I thought to myself "wow...that stinks. I'm never going to see this man again". Wednesday night (Dec. 7) We were knocking an area that we felt inspired to go to. Sister Freeman was on the phone with someone so i just went to the next door. So i knocked and waited (like usual) and this older gentlemen opened the door. I thought to myself, "Self...he looks familiar...like really familiar" but as you RM may know...we see A LOT OF PEOPLE it's hard to remember who you've seen and who you haven't seen. So i did a normal approach and we both looked at each other and did the whole "I remember you!" Family...it was TOM!!!! We knocked in to Tom...he had JUST gotten back from holiday that Monday. I tell you that this is Gods work. He knows his children and he knows where they are. All we have to do is be living worthy of the spirit and then following the promptings we do get.

B) Oh agency...its a tricky thing. When used right it's SUCH A BLESSING!! We learn, we grow, we are able to do so much good. But when we use our agency in line with Satan or give way to what he wants..well it makes missionary work tough. Needless to say we had that HUGE miracle with Tom-but he's an old man set in his ways. Not interested in progressing. So. Lame.

C) BUT on a lighter note. One of the joys of being a missionary is being able to meet so many people and to learn and grow from their example. Mom you will be so happy to hear this part of the letter because it is about the Robsons. I don't know if I've written about them yet but i've been meaning to. They are my "Mission Family" OH HOW I LOVE THE ROBSONS!!! They are TRULY inspiring! Their conversion to the gospel is a story that i'll have to save for later because who they are today is amazing! I wish i had more time to go into greater detail about them (oooo maybe i can for Christmas!!) but the short story is that there is Debbi and Gordon (Sister and Bro. Robson) and their 3 kids Garreth, Dean, and Shalina. I few years back Gordon was diagnosed with cancer in his leg and over years of ke-therapy and different surgeries to try to save his leg eventually it had to be amputated. He is a walking miracle. He may only have one leg but that doesn't hold him back one bit! He is a spiritual giant and helps us in every way that he can with out work. Debbi is truly our "Mission Mom". She (and the rest of the family) take SUCH good care of us. For example: They bought us groceries a few weeks back, they have us for Tea (dinner) as much as they can, and they always make sure we have everything we need. Whether it be soup for when we're sick, or helping us with our investigators. And their daughter Shalina, OH HOW I LOVE HER! She takes such good care of us too! Like buying us new shoes because the ones we have are hammered because of all the walking we do. I am SO GRATEFUL for them and all they do for us. They inspire me to press on when things are hard, to love everyone no matter what, and to be an eternal missionary. I wish there was a way that i could repay all that they have done from me and all that their example has taught me. (if anyone has any ideas how i could do that...that would be great :) )

I have learned so much while being here in Stanley. I really would hate to leave! I love being a missionary! Even though it has been the hardest thing i've ever had to do, it's been the most rewarding.

I love you all so so so much!! Good luck with finals, Mal and your audition, and everything going on!!

I love you to the moon and back!

Love, Sister Brown

Week 12

MI FAMILIA!!!

Hola! Como esta? (Welcome to the memory of Joey's letters...I'm so glad you could come ;) )

Ha just kidding! Lets try this again!

TERRAH MATES!!!

Hey ya! You allight?! (yes...this is how we great eachother here in jolly ol england)

How is everyone!? From the sounds of it my email had a virus on it and i gave you my cold mum. I'm so so sorry, if it's the one i had it waw CRUMMY! I just so happened to give it to Sister Freeman but her body seems to be fighting it better than mine did :S. Get feelin better Mum!

We saw many miracles this week but one of them SURELY came from the fast this Sunday. THANK YOU so much for the fast, i tell you MIRACLES HAPPENED on Sunday. So our goal for the mission is 425 baptisems this year and if each companionship in the whole mission gets 1 baptisem this month we'll reach our goal. So we started teaching this man/hobo (yes he's kinda a hobo but we love him...even though he does smell....YES we love him) and he's been coming to church for the past 2 years but hasn't let any missionaries teach him but FINALLY he said that we could. So the past week we've been teaching him and STRIVING to get him to have an answer to his prayers about being baptized this month. For some reason (the spirit it the best) we felt prompted that he needed to be baptized on the 17th so i dedicated my fast that he would recieve an answer. So ALL this week he's been randomly opening up the BOM and the passages he's been reading have been all about (drum roll please...) BAPTISEM! Coinsidence...i THINK NOT! But he still wasn't seeing that that was a SIGN FROM GOD that he should be baptized. So we fasted and prayed.......and at church i was talking to him and he just looked SO HAPPY! So i said, "Edward, you look so happy today! Did you get your answer!?" and he just smiled and said that he had. Earlier that morning he prayed and said, "Should i be baptized on the 17th?" and he opened the book of mormon to....3 Nephi....Chapter....17!!!!!!!!! And that was his answer, that he's supposed to be baptized on the 17th! I PRAY THAT ALL GOES ACCORDING TO PLAN!!!!! After being here for almost 3 months i've realized that Satan...he's a baller. He plays his game...and he plays it well. But i'm on the winning team, i just have to practice my skills SO HARD and pray with all my might. Putting as much faith as i can and i know God will help us!

I love you all so much!!!! To the moon and back!!! Take Care! Cheers!

Love, Sister Brown