Week 46

Hello Family!

Yes I am one year older and wiser too ;) 24...yuck. But I think I have come to peace with it in this way...I have decided I'm going to be 21 for the rest of my life. Yep, problem solved. ;)

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all the wonderful birthday cards, packages, all of it!!! Wow it was amazing!! I truly felt your love and prayers this week!! I finally got the allergy package this week and I got the package you sent to the flat mum! I'll probably get the other things this Tuesday cause It's zone conference down in Billingham. Which....I'm singing at :S Gaaaa!!! It's moments like this that I really need my mum and my sisters to tell me I'm singing the right thing and that I sound ok!!!! I decided to sing, "Hold on, the light will come" the only real reason why I'm singing it (cause let's be honest, it's kinda a downer) is because the spirit told me to sing it. One thing that I've really been trying to develop is listening to the spirit and not doing what Sister Brown wants to do....we all know that gets me into trouble when I don't listen to the spirit. So I just listened to the spirit and now I'm so nervous. But I trust that God knows better. Someone at zone conference needs that song....ha I hope it helps.

My birthday in England was great!!! Sister Delucchi took good care of me on my birthday that is for sure! I got 2 birthday cakes!!!...and Mum you'll be happy to hear that I had Pringles for tea hahahaha!! But that shrimp stuff sounds DIVINE!! Good for you! My mum is a proper chef! I got all my FAB CLOTHES!!!! AHH! Thank you so much for those. I have been SO SICK of the clothes that I brought with me. I wear the same things everyday pretty much so it was nice to have something new :) I'm wearing one of the dresses at zone conference tomorrow! AND THANK YOU FOR THE FRUIT SNACKS!!!!! Holy guacamole I freaked out when I saw them!!! They don't have fruit snacks like we do back home here, so I was over joyed to see them in that wonderful box!

Man, I have the best family EVER!! Thank you so much for making my birthday so special! I just feel your love all around me that is for sure!! We had a great week this week!! We're finding more people to teach! Which is fab! I just love being a missionary! And Mckay said it exactly right, there is nothing like working your hardest all day long and then crashing on your pillow at night. It's just the best feeling in the world when you accomplish something big, something hard, something worth fighting all day for. I think everyone should have days like that. Where you work so hard, you do something outside of your comfort zone, and then you can say "Yes, look I did it! Look at what I did!!" It's the best feeling ever! I have truly gained a testimony of work since I've been on my mission. I used to think that work was a necessary evil (ok let's be honest I still have moments where I do still think this ;) ) But how are we going to accomplish anything without work? And it's those moments where you've worked so hard and you get done...and it feels SO GOOD! Cause you've worked so hard at it! Now does everything go perfectly when your working at something...it rarely does. Lots of times things get put in our way, things don't go according to plan, and yes...100% of the time, work is hard! But push through it, keep at it, GO FOR THE GOLD (USA! USA! USA!....Rumor has it that USA won the Olympics!! Yes...I'm still trying to convert Michael Phelps...it's difficult because he only wants me...not the gospel. I keep telling him he can have both, but he's got to have his own testimony...not just convert so I can be Mrs. Phellps (bahahaha!!! I wish!!) ) I know that those things that we work the hardest for bring us the most joy. (thank you Mr. Saxton) They really do! I'm so grateful that I get the opportunity to work hard everyday and it truly does bring me the most joy!!!

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

Love, Sister Brown

Week 45

MY BROTHER IN ENGAGED TO THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PERSON IN THE WORLD!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH....AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gash I have another little sister!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D Soooo happy, Soooo excited, SOOO much smiling!!!

Story time:

Once upon a time in September 2011 to siblings went on a double date. The brother chose a beautiful princess and the sister went with the brothers best friend (haha ahhw good times). During the course of the date the older sister heard the spirit say, "You're just gonna have to deal with them getting married while you're gone cause they are meant to be."

Yep. TRUE STORY! Joey and Tiffany I knew you two would end up together from the world GO! You guys are just so good for each other! I'm so happy for you two!! Congratulations! Tiffany welcome to the craziest family of your life ;) I love ya little sis!!

Holy cow my little brother is gettin hitched October 20th. I expect LOTS OF UPDATES and LOTS OF PICTURES!!! Engagement, Wedding, etc. AND I have only one request....I request that mine, Macs, and Tiffs little brother, all our faces great people at the door and say, "We welcome you from England, Columbia, and South Korea! Welcome to the biggest love fest of your life!" Yep that's what I want ;) (Ok maybe not those exact words...but something like unto it ;) ) Man I'm seriously so excited for you two!!!

So some items of business:

Malory, Oh my gash! I just about died of laughter at the title of the subject you sent me! Dad you're disgusting!!! BAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! And yes that one is definitely going in my planner (it's like a missionaries cell phone. It's where I keep all my funny missionary times haha yes I'm still keeping track of the funny moments in my life.)

Trish Ganowsky my LOVE!!! Congratulations you beautiful thing!! You're about to enter the best 18 months of your life!!! It is the best decision you have ever made so far! It will be the hardest, most refiners fireing, best most rewarding time of your life!! Watch out Taiwan here comes Patrisha Ganowsky!!!!!!! Congratulations Girl!!! You are going to be a stellar missionary!! So so happy for you!!

This week I learned a huge lesson that is going to effect the rest of my life and eternity. Communication. You would think that I Sister Brown would have no problems communicating. (Some things don't changed I'm still just as chatty as I was before...maybe even more haha) BUT I learned that there are times where you MUST communicate. I have always had this fear of "I don't want to offend, I don't want to be a burden, I don't want to ask for help, I can do it...if I don't say anything maybe they'll figure out why I'm so annoyed." Wow...that's so passive!! I learned this week of the importance of step 13 of Weekly Planning. (Joey and Raymond know exactly what I'm talking about but for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about go to Preach My Gospel to the Weekly Planning Session and look at step 13) In life we have people who we may not get along with, or there are people that you do get along with but you disagree. Hello we all come from different walks of life and a different way of doing things. So this is when step 13 comes in handy. You communicate. And I did this on Friday and WHOA the difference that communication makes. Never procrastinate communication. I learned that you can tell people who you're honestly feeling and they don't get mad. They don't take offence. They don't hate you for it. When you talk things through in a positive way and pray like you've never prayed before for the words to say...all goes well. It's in those sweet moments of communication where all the problems get fixed. You tell each other how you're feeling and then you work it out. IT'S SO GREAT! This jewel of learning is one I'm going to use everyday for the rest of my life. Don't be afraid to tell people how you feel, who would have thought right?!

And this is why missions are amazing! I'm learning SOOOO much!! Even in the tough moments...you learn so much!!!

Thank you my wonderful family for your love and support!! I couldn't do it without you!!! I love you to the moon and back! Have a wonderful week! Cheers!

Love, Sister Brown :P

Week 44

Hello Everyone!

I live in the land of magic, olympics, and toy story clouds!!!!

Things are crazy in England right now with the Olympics going on!!! It's so funny how people here my American accent and then fill me in on what's going on with the Americans teams haha (I secretly love it cause you know how much I'm obsessed with the Olympics!) From what I hear America is doing well but China is beating us in Gold Metals...China...I laugh at you, you're going down!!

Here in England it's either you LOVE the Olympics or you are just so sick of hearing about it. Theres been a big hype about them for the past year and they're all sick of hearing about it ha. It's so fun to actually be here while it's all going on. All of England (Even us in the North East) is Olympic decorated! There is Olympic stuff everywhere! It's such a small country so I guess it's easy to decorate!

Today we had an EPIC PDAY!! A couple that we see quite often decided to take me and Sister Delucchi all over Northumberland! We went to Berwick-Upon-Tweed (yes that's it's name), The GIANT Bamburgh Castle, and....drum roll please....THE SCOTLAND BORDER!!!!!!!!!! Yes my friends...I Sister Taylor Jean Brown have accomplished being in 2 places at once :) I was in England and Scotland today at the same time :D!! How great is that?!?! Don't worry I documented the whole thing! Basically what I'm telling you is I live in everyones fairytale. Yep...be jealous ;) We saw A LOT of really old stuff today, a TON of history! I would say that the majoritiy of the stuff was older than the home land (USA...ya England is old...). We had so so so much fun! At least I did!

This week in my missionary land of Hogwarts was a good week. Things are getting better. We're finding people and teaching them the best thing they could ever learn in their WHOLE eternity, and that is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I love how Mckay in his email said, "I encourage you all to be obsessed with Jesus" :) Ha I loved that, it's so true! Through him and only him EVERYTHING is possible. I mean the list could go ON AND ON AND ON of what things are made possible because of our Saviour. I am forever grateful for the things he's made possible for me. Here on my mission my wildest "spiritual" ha and temporal dreams are coming true and that's because of my Savior. I'm turning into this person that God needs me to be and I never thought I would!! It's the best!! And i just so happen to be living in England, during the Olympics, right next door to Hogwarts and Scotland...what a dream come true.

I love my life. I love my Savior. I love you ALL SO MUCH!!!! I am SO EXCITED TO SPEND ETERNITY WITH YA'LL!!! I know with all my heart that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Gods kingom once again restored to it's fullest! Have a wonderful week my family! Cheers til next week!

Love you to the moon and back!

Love, Sister Brown

Week 43

Hiya Family!

:( Polly is dead. Did someone say "Polly's a dog!" for me before she left this world?! Oh man, something inside me told me that she died this week. She just kept popping in my head. :( I'm not gonna lie I'm a little sad, but I'm glad she's not suffering anymore. It's gonna be weird coming home someday and her not being there....

RIP Polly P. Puppers

You always had a song to sing

And you always pooped in my closet...

You will always be a dog...

May you and (Grants dog...for the life of me I can't remember his name!!) be friends forever in heaven

God be with you til we meet again

Well in better news things here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are just brilliant. You should know....I made the quidditch team!!! It was tough, but me and my Nimbus 2012 made it onto the team. What a dream come true ;)

Well Mum you're right...it's my birthday in a couple of weeks and yes...i am NOT looking forward to it. Yuck, Mom I'm getting old! Can we just skip this one this year, just pretend like it's not my birthday...please? Please? Ugh.

I don't need a thing! I've got my wand, my Nimbus 2012, my wonderful family, I get to share the restored gospel with everyone! What else could a missionary need? ins I really am good though :) I'm just going to pretend like it's any other day. I plan on staying 23 for the rest of my life!

This week was about the same as last week. Just keep trying to find the prepared :) I know they're there somewhere...we just gotta find them! The amazing thing about missions is that when you go out you expect to be changing lives. (And yes you do!) But I never expected to be learning so much about myself and learning all these life lessons. It's true when they say that 2 years of your mission adds up to 40 years of life experience. It's SO true!! As a missionary you are thrown into SO MANY different situations. Different members, investigators, problems, companions (good and bad), homes, lifestyles, everything! These moments are going to shape the rest of my life and eternity. I am so grateful everyday for my mission. I'm also grateful for the hard times I've had, for the refiners fire. It's in those precious moments of heat and pressure where God mold us from coal to diamonds. Yes, the heat and pressure are sure uncomfortable at times and sometimes it's more than you can bare. But, if we keep enduring, keep trying, be believing, God will mold us into the person he has always seen in us. Someone that is better than we ever could have imagined being. Ha I've still got a lot of heat and pressure to go. I've got so many weaknesses but I know that through God I can be my best :) Ahh isn't the gospel great! Thats one part that I love about the things we believe is that we can always be better. Each day is a brand new day and we can make each day better than the one before.

 

I love you all so much! Thank you for your love and CONSTANT support. I could not do it without you that is for sure!! I love you all to the moon and back! Cheers from Hogwarts!

Love, Sister Brown

Week 42

Alright I'm gonna have to make this one quick!

Yes I am still at Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with Sister Delucchi :D No changes for this girl and for that I am GREATFUL! I hate transfers, they're always so stressful. So I'll be here for another 12 weeks most likely cause this will be Sister D's last transfer (yes I'm killing her ha!) and then I'll take over the area. So it's lookin like I'll be here til October! (TIME IS FLYING!)

How are you fam?! Ahh! My Bro's a missionary! I can't beleive it still! I'm so happy for him though, there is no better place for him to be!

Things here in Hogwarts are picking up! We've got a little bit of a teaching pool so thats great! We had a little miracle on Sudnay as well. This week we had no one confirmed for church. no one. So we prayed are little hearts off that someone, ANYONE would come to church. And a former investigator named James turned up at church!!!! So we're teaching James again and we're hoping he'll be our baptism for this coming transfer. Woot woot!

No mom I haven't gotten the package yet but I'll hopefully get it on Wednesday! (cross your fingers!) Thank you SO much for sending it!! Ahh I'm hopin it will kick my allergies in the behind!

Polly is dying!! Poor thing, ya just keep me posted! Could you tell her, "Polly's a dog" for me (in Joey's voice...you know the one I'm talking about!) So Polly has Dimensia...I've seen SO many old people who have this...and some of them bark at nothing as well hahah! Only thing you would see on your mission! (Joey and Raymond will understand the crazy peeps you see on the misson hahaha!)

This week I am so grateful for the power of prayer! Prayer is the real deal! I have had so many experiences where my prayers have been answered. If we ask God for help and we do all we can then we will see the miracle of our prayers being answered.

Example: So once upon a time in my glory days of Bridlington....We were out talking with people and I see this man (Ian...remember Ian!) So all throughout my mission I have been praying for the gift of discernment. I wanted to be able to see the prepared from afar so that i can run over to them and invite them to come unto Christ. So it this situation I saw Ian from a distance and the spirit told me that he would get baptized! So me and Sister Hall ran over there and immediately started to teach him. We then righ then and there on the street invited him to be baptized....4 weeks later he was baptized. I TELL YOU THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!! Prayers are answered and miracles are still there. Don't be afraid to pray for miralces. If this is the same Church that Jesus Christ established on the earth then the miralces and angels are still here! We can heal the sick, raise the dead, cause the blind to see, we can be and see angels! If we pray for righteous things I know God will answer our prayers!!

I love you all so much!!!

Send this one to Mckay cause I won't be able to email him this week :(

I love you Mac!!! Work hard! Pray harder! And have fun!! You're like me, if your not having fun then you get discouraged. Make everything you do a game, pull prank on your comps as well! That always that funnest ;) Have a great week fam! I love you to the moon and back! Cheers

Love, Sister Brown

Week 41

Hello Family!!!

Mac is a missionary...Mckay is an ELDER!! Have you heard from him at all?!?! When is his PDAYs?? From the looks of it I'm gonna have to wait til next week to get his email :( But that is ok! How was he when you said goodbye? Probably better than me, man I was a WRECK! It was so hard saying goodbye to everyone! I'm sure he was such a pro about it! Hows my family doing with it all. Ya I'm sure things are A LOT quieter!! But yakcM is where he needs to be! He's going to be an amazing missionary! He's going to convert all of Columbia!!! (umm...can I PLEASE have his myldsmail.net address!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! please!!!) I just hope he has a great companion and is having wonderful experiences in the MTC!! Keep me posted on how he's doing!!

Can you believe how the time is flying! I'll hit my 10 mark on Sunday...ON SUNDAY!! Whew...time has no limits of a mission. Yay for Merrick!!! He'll be comin over to these parts soon enough! I meet people from New Zealand all the time and they are seriously the best! So nice, so chill. There a good mix of Australlian and English :) The best of both worlds ;)

This week was good! We found 3 new investigators! We pray that things will keep rolling here in Alnwick! We're still focusing on finding the prepared, getting our teaching pool up! Don't worry we're still teaching Hermoine and she actually reffered us to Ron!! Ron's got word of wisdom problems (he smokes... :S) but he knows its bad for him and is trying to quit ;)

Just so you know next week is the wierd transfer week. I won't be emailing this Monday but I'll be writing to ya on Tuesday. Chances are I'm staying here with Sister Delucchi and it will be her last transfer!!! Ahh! So crazy.

Well I wish there was more I could tell you. The work is moving forward and your lil missionary is doing well :)

Keep praying for the Robsons. I got the phone call this morning...Bro. Robson's cancer is back :( He has two tumors in his lung. Lung Cancer. Keep their family in your prayers. He's had cancer before I have NO DOUBT he will kick it's trash again ;) Also could you keep Jade Nixon in your prayers? Mom could you put her name in the temple too? I love you all so much! To the moon and back I do!!! Have a wonderful week ok!

Love, Sister Brown

Week 39

Hello my beautiful Momma and family!!

How are you all! MAC YOU LEAVE FOR THE MTC SOOOOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOOOOON!! What is Mac's missinary address. Cause he's family I'll be able to email him each week :) Waaahhoooo!

Mac: I know your freakin out...at least I was. The MTC ROCKS!!! You'll love it! Just be yourself, work hard, pray hard and you'll be just fine I know it!

Well once again I am back in my greeny area!! I'm in STANLEY!! Cause I'm back in the Sunderland Zone I can come down for PDays if i want. I wish I was comin down for better reasons though...

I can't go into big details cause it's really not my story to tell but my missionary family...the Robsons...remember them at Christmas time. They're going through....everything. Basically they are Job (from the Bible). They're going through everything. Mom could you put their names in the temple for me? It's Gordon, Debbie and Shalina Robson. They need all the prayers they can get. Keep them in yours :)

But it's been so great being back and seeing them. Because of everything that is going on Sister Sorensen got special permission to come for the day so it was SO beyond good to see her too. We decided that we're best friends and that we're going to be neighbors for the rest of out lives and our future husbands are just going to have to deal with it :) It's just always good to be around people you love so much you know?

Well I wish I had more time :S but I don't. Just know that your missionary is doin just great! Mom you can send whatever you want to our flat. Chances are I'm going to be there for awhile. Don't worry about sending the medicine...well...ya send it ha! Don't worry about getting it in fast though. They have Clarityn here (yes they spell clarityn with a 'Y' here...) and it's working ok...I just take 2 a days instead of just one ha! But all is well in Zion. Just keep in your prayers that we find the prepared. Ugh, we still have no teaching pool...no investigators..nada...so we're just finding a lot. Just pray that I'll be able to do everything in my power to work my hardest all day long so I can find those who have been prepared for me and Sis Delucchi. I know they're here. I know we can get things rolling here. I know President sent me here for that purpose...to get things moving. :D Don't worry, "No matter you where you are, no matter the weather, always bring your own sunshine :)" I've still got my sunshine! :) Thank you all for all you do! I love you all SOOO much!!! To the moon and back!!

Cheers!

Love, Sister Brown ;)