Week 23

Hello my wonderful family!!

Man I wish that video would have worked!! For some reason the video wouldn't download right... :( But still Columbia!!! Wow!!!! I had a little prayer in my heart that he would go some place warm and looky there! My prayer/dreams came true!! Oh man this has been the best news i could have received! Congratulations MAC-O! i wrote him a better email about it so i won't go too into my excitement, but know that i am just so excited for you yakcM!

From the sounds of things, things are CRAZY in the Brown home! That does not surprise me one bit ;) Things are always pretty crazy from Jan-May in the Brown home. Crazy is good sometimes though!

Things here are good. You're favorite Sister Missionary is workin real hard here in Bridlington trying to find souls to save. We're in the process of trying to find new investigators...which can be tough here in Brid but i know we can do it!

Have i told you about one of our investigators Nanci?? I don't think i have so i will tell you! She is wonderful! She's 17...pregnant...and in the middle of a divorce...oh did i mention she was a BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN. I hope there are people out there who can appreciate the fact we're teaching a Born Again :) But she's looking pretty solid for her baptism on the 9 March. :D I truly do just love her so much. She's had to overcome some WOW difficulties, but she's gone 3 days without smoking!

....but yesterday, ugh was SUCH a horrible day. So she came to church for the first time (woot woot!!) but after church when she got home her water broke :( She delivered her little baby girl Alice 5 months early :( And little Alice didn't make it through the night. It was horrible. Just horrible. I kept thinking, "Why her? Why now?! She's changing her life, she's excepted the gospel, she has a testimony, she's not smoking!!! WHY Heavenly Father?!" After talking with S. Stout about it and getting a good cry in, i just felt just such a peace about it. Not that the circumstances changed, not that anything was made right...but the spirit did come and it brought peace to my heart. We then later on went and visited her. She had the most AMAZING ATTITUDE ABOUT IT!! She just kept saying, "Everything happens for a reason, God is in control, Every trial is a blessing in disguise." Man I just felt awful. After seeing her i just kept thinking "Where is my faith?!?!?!?!?" Nanci is exactly right. God is in control. He knows all things. He knows why everything has to happen, and it's all for our good. Each day I just come to realize how comfortable of a life I've got. I've never really gone through any major trials. But these people i continue to meet show me that even in the face of the biggest trials you can find hope, you can find faith...and it strengthens our faith!

I'm so grateful for my mission. For the things I'm learning each and ever day. For he opportunity i have to work hard and be a Representative of my Savior! i love him so much! I love each of you so much too! i hope this week is just SOOO great!!

Congratulations again Mckay! I love you so much and I'm just so proud of you too!!!

Love you all to the moon and back!!

Love, Sister Brown

Week 22

I would like to take a moment of silence for my girl and diva Whitney Houston

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Alright! Man the things that happen while you're on the mission! Joey did Michael Jackson die while you were out?! I think he might have...I don't remember.

 

Hello Family!!!

Things here in Bridlington are just GREAT! You are right it is a small fishing village right next to the North Sea! It's right down the street from our flat! (Don't worry i took some pictures to send ;) ) Things here with Sister Stout are just great! We're workin really hard! Our teaching pool here isn't the biggest..but that just means we've got a lot of Gods prepared children to find which is exciting! I do miss my greeny area SO much, but it is nice to stread my missionary wings and actually become the missionary God wants me to be. I feel like i'm growing so much :)

My new address is:

74 Wellington Road

Bridlington, North Humberside

YO15 2AZ

I truly do love it here! The area is REALLY SMALL so we just walk everywhere we go which is SO nice!  Its so nice to be outside and actually talking to people. While in a car area you don't get a lot of chances to just street contact- we usually just knocked A LOT of doors, but here we get to walk everywhere which is really nice!

The highlight of the week was A BAPTISM! The second day i was here we had a baptism!! His name is Richard Marnick and he's 16! He is so amazing! One of the best 16 year olds i have ever met! He is another Golden Investigator! He just gets it! He's not your typical 16 year old. He has one of the biggest hearts and such a huge testimony of this gospel. I'm so lucky i was able to be here for his baptism. I actually got to sing at it :) They didn't have a pianist so I told them i could just sing something accepella (spelling) and he said i could but I'd have to sing for him first (hahaha so basically i had to audition to sing in his baptism haha he's such a goof) It was such a neat experience.

I'm looking forward to serving here and getting to know the branch (yes it's a little branch ha!) members and the area better :) I LOVE being a missionary! I love this gospel! I love the wonderful oppertunity i have to share it!

I love you all SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much! To the moon and back!

I hope you have a wonderful Valentines Day and can feel my love from here!!

PS. Mckay...YOU COULD GET YOUR CALL THIS WEEK?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I'm gunna be on pins and needles ALL WEEK waiting!!! Send a video!!!!

Lets see where do i think you're going.....man i have no idea!!! Just because I'm in the bitter cold (haha) I'm gonna say I hope you go somewhere warm! I'm gonna say Tonga :) I love you so much Mac-o! Study up on Preach my Gospel Chapter 3. Joey will get you all prepared for what you need to know! Have him give you some pointers!

Shout outs!!

Keith Goodrich! HELLO FRIEND! I got your letter! TYLER IS COMING HERE TO ENGLAND!!! AHHH!!! so exciting! COLE IS GOING TO TEXAS!!!!!! I almost cried when i got his letter! i need his mission address so i can write him and Tyler! Be expecting a letter soon!

Jillie-I LOVE YOU SISTER!!!

Love you all so much!! Cheers til next week!

Love, Sister Brown

Week 21

                                                               Tracy's Baptism!!

Sister Brown and Sister Sorenson

Dear Family....

I AM BEING TRANSFERED!!! I'M LEAVIN MY GREENY AREA!!!! So many mixed emotions. So sad to be leaving this place. I just love it here! I'm definitely going to be leaving a huge chunk of my heart here with the people i love. I'm excited for this new adventure though. SOOO sad that me and Sister Sorensen aren't together anymore. We really were the dream team. Just the best combination :) But she is gonna be a MOM!!! (Mission lingo for "She's training!!! Stanley is getting another greeny!) She's going to be amazing!! I'm so excited for her! She's going to be an EPIC trainer. Well you're all probably wondering where I'm going!

Drum Roll Please...

BRIDLINGTON!!! I'm going South to the Leeds Zone :) :D And my companion is....

Drum Roll Please....

 

SISTER STOUT!!!

I don't know if you remember Sister Stout but my very first transfer me and her got stuck in Derlington at the train station cause someone commited suicide and jumped out in front of the train...ya an epic memory with her :) I'll send a picture of her to remind ya! But yes I'm SO excited that we're going to be companions! She's super funny like Sister Sorensen! I think we're going to get along great!

I can't believe how fast time is flying! It's like I blinked and this transfer is over!

 Malory- WWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? So lame!! I know how you feel Mal, it happened my Senior year too. Man I can't believe it's over...jetts is over for you...your GRADUATING!!!

McKay- YOUR PAPERS ARE IN?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH :D!!! Let me know THE MOMENT you get your call!

Well I have to go! We have so much to do to get things ready for the greeny that's coming in and then me packin up all my things AND saying goodbye to all the wonderful people i love here. :(

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

cheers :)

Love, Sister Brown

Week 20

Hello my beautiful family!!

OF COURSE THE JETS TOOK REGION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gaaaaa!! Mal Jets is practically over! I can't believe it! Time is just flying!!! When is State? Probably soon!!! How is the play and everything going too??

Loved the pictures! Kate is getting SO BIG!!! And anita your hair is SO LONG AND GORGEOUS!

Well things here are just super duper! I wish i had more time today but one of the area authorities is taking a "Mission Tour" on the 28th of Feb so he wanted us to take a "quick servey" (ya it wasn't that quick) so I don't have a whole lot of time :( But just know that I love you and things are going great!

But I do need some help from my return missionary brothers....Jehovas Witnesses....so we had like the WORST LESSON EVER with a couple of Jehovas. It was like walking into the Lions Den!!!! Any suggestions on how to battle a J. Dub? haha it would be MUCH appreciated!

This week went by SOOO fast! This transfer has FLOWN by!

I hope all is well in the home land and that you're all stayin out of trouble ;)

I love you to the moon and back!

Keep the Faith!

Love, Sister Brown :)

Week 19

FAMILY!!!

Oh what a wonderful weekend it was!! Tracy got baptised on Friday and confirmed the newest member of the only true church on this planet on Sunday. The service was beautiful! The spirit was SOOOOO strong!! I can't wait to be able to tell you more about this women! I wish sometimes i could just call and fill you in on all the miracles that i get to see each day! But this email will have to do :) After Tracy was baptised she wanted to bare her testimony (which is VERY unusual for the Stanley Ward. Usually converts are too nervous or don't feel like they have that strong of a testimony to where there could stand up and bare it...but Tracy did :) ) So she bore the most humble of testimonies. The whole ward was just in Aww of how prepared she was. I TELL YOU SHE'S GOLDEN!! This women has truly changed my life! I know we're going to be best friends for life and eternity :) She's one of those I'm definitely going to keep in close contact with.

Now that Tracy's baptism is over we're kinda at a place of "Ok....now what?" Ha and that what is MISSIONARY WORK :) We just keep going out talkin to everyone, knockin on every door, working and doing the best we can to spread the good news! We're currantly spending a lof of time in Durham! It is a huge college town, full of college housing! I'm not gonna lie it's kinda weird teachin people your own age...teaching students....people that are just like you....people doing homework...things you were doing just 4 months ago.... haha  it's weird!! BUT sooooooooooo good! The work is in Durham! There are so many people there ready to hear the gospel, i just know it! It's been a huge step out of my comfort zone but that's where we grow the most! When we're doing good things that we're not comfortable doing it makes those things easier to do! As we keep at it, keep trying, keep believing that's when the miracles happen. Cause life...it's hard! One of our APs said, "If ever youre comfortable on your mission...you're doing something wrong. You're not being the best missionary you can be." It's so true in life. It's easy to be comfortable...but it's hard to serve others, it's hard to diet and excersice, it's hard sometimes to pray and read our scriptures every night. Thats one of my goals for this week is to not be comfortable. :) I'm going to keep doing thing that make me grow and stretch so I can be the daughter of God that I know my Savior sees in me! I love being a missionary! Where else would i have learned these life long lessons? Where else would i have met these people who have changed my life? Keep lookin forward to your mission yakcm! It's going to be the hardest best thing you can ever do for yourself, your family, your future family, for the people you'll convert and their families! IT'S DA BEST!!!

I love you all so so so much! To the moon and back I do! Til next week, Cheers!

Love, Sister Brown :)

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