Fear No Man

HELLO!!!!

hahahahahahahahahaha oh my word...of course you had that experience in Flaming Gorge!! I don't know why I didn't expect your bad luck to continue while I was gone... That is soo hilarious..but terrible..all at the same time!! I really hope and pray that I do not inherit your terrible luck! But hey, at least you have GREAT stories!!! I was laughing sooo hard when I read about your flat tire on the way home! Sounds like an eventful trip to say the least!!! I am so jealous you got to go to Flaming Gorge!! I love it up there! A sister in our ward just got back from there and I was wondering if you had went! Good to know that you had a great time!! LIZZY wakeboarded?!? Wow!! That's great!! I bet Ben loved the fishing! That is awesome!! I hope he ate it!! ;)  How was the 24th of July!?! I bet Lizzy looked cute on that float!! :)  Sadly there were no fireworks here in Maryland for the 24!!! But that's alright!!!

So I found out this week that Elder Greene is totally from Bountiful High!! He is Jake Parry's friend and my zone leader right now!! I had no idea who he was and I just barely figured it out..how embarrassing! Oh well! hahaha.  This week has been great though!! It is great to hear from you guys!!

We have had a fantastic week!!! We have been working soooo hard with less actives and finding new investigators.  So in case you have already forgot about me.. you know that I am very quick to get embarrassed!!! I do not like to bug people, and I get soo embarrassed when people slam doors or don't want to hear from us! I read the talk Letter of Elder Ricardi this week and my theme of the week was "Fear No Man!"  I realized while reading this talk that I do not need to be embarrassed at all, I am doing the Lord's work.  This is not about me, this is about him.  If people reject what I try to tell them, they are really rejecting Jesus Christ.  In order to try to get better at this I have had the goal of trying to stop every person that passes by me and talk to them and give them a pass along card! It has been amazing!! Do people still ignore me and laugh or grunt?? SURE! haha Do I still get a cherry red face?? YUP! But I am getting better at talking to EVERYONE about the amazing message we have to share.  As I have tried this week we have had sooo many more opportunites to teach others about the Savior! It is amazing what opening up your mouth will do!!! :)   We found three new investigators this week!! And two of them came to church!! We took them on a church tour on Saturday and each of them expressed how at home they feel when they are at the church.  I thought that was so interesting at first but then I realized that the reason they feel like that is because they once knew all of this!! The gospel has a familiar ring to it to most people because they heard it before this life! Heavenly Father has prepared each of our investigators for us! We even committed Edward to be baptized! It was amazing!! The only down side is that....him and his nephew are two younger single guys...so we have to pass them off to the elders! Which..is probably a good idea...hahaha.  But we are super excited!!!

One worldly miracle of the week that I have to share!!! haha So we have an old blackberry phone, and before I left the mission home they gave us this big lecture about how these phones are tools etc etc.. Basically if you lose them we get in big trouble... so we have been really careful! Well! On Saturday night it was POURING RAIN!!! We were at a member's home for dinner, and so we decided that we would run as fast as we could to the car so we wouldn't get wet! Good idea right?? Well we RAN to the car and jumped in and drove to the church to meet another investigator.  When we got to the church Sister Mortensen was like..."Sister Brown...I can't find the phone.."  She was the last person to have it (not that that matters.. ;)...okay maybe a little bit..) and so she felt sooo bad! We knew that it was probably in the road soaking wet and that we were in serious trouble!! We prayed and prayed that it would be okay, and we called the Elders in our area to go and look for it on their way home! They called us later, and guess what?!! THE PHONE IS ALIVE!!!!!!! It was seriously a miracle that it still worked because it was soaking wet!!! But hey it shows that Heavenly Father looks after his missionaries.. even their phones!! ;)

My mission is amazing!!! I am soo grateful for the opportunity I have to serve the Lord!!! I am sooo lucky!!  I love devoting all my time to help people come to know Jesus Christ!! I love talking to people from all different backgrounds and realizing that we are all brothers and sisters and just trying to get home!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! :)

Love,
Sister Brown

 P.S. lucky you here are some pictures!

I sent her a couple packages to the MTC.  Now who couldn't use a BIG smiley face:)!

Photo sent from Mrs. Mortensen, Elder Mortensen's mom.  He is the one up front.

Sister Brown with her Mission President - President Richards, and his wife.

Baltimore

Family!!

Hello!! How are you guys doing??! It was so great to be able to talk to you at the airport for a little while!! I hope you have hired a slave to take my place since I have left... and that Lizzy hasnt burned down the house quite yet....haha Anyways, it's P day in Baltimore and I am so excited!! Baltimore is BEAUTIFUL!!! Everything is soooo green! When you drive on the freeways there are green trees that come right up to the side of the road.  Right now I am in Ellicott City about 20 minutes West of Baltimore City and it is sooo stinkin hot!!! We walk outside and sweat our guts out...it's wonderful!!

So the night we arrived in Baltimore there were 39 other missionaries coming in as well! Needless to say President Richards did not have room in his house for all of us, so we stayed in a hotel...that's right, we stayed in a hotel!! This means that I got a big, fluffy, amazing, queen size bed to myself!! AND I only had to share a bathroom with one other sister.  I had never been so grateful to sleep in a hotel bed!! The next morning at transfer meeting I met my trainer Sister Mortensen.  She is 22 and from Washington State, I love her already!! The first thing she told me was that we would not have a car... I thought...awesome, I have crocs and sandals for walking and I dont know how to ride a bike!! After telling her this she took things into her own hands and BEGGED Elder Jones (The car man) for a car.  We ended up getting one the next day and have been grateful every single day.  Apparently there has been a heat wave this past week and man have I felt the heat! Heat + Humidity=wonderfully sweaty...Let me just tell you...we are lookin mighty fine! ;)

Regardless of the temperature, Heavenly Father has seriously poured out blessings to us this week.  I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to serve him so far, and I look forward to what lies ahead.  Every day since I got here we have been in member's homes eating dinner.  Some of the members and less actives that have fed us have so little but they still feed us.  Earlier this week we went to a less actives house for dinner and she lived in a one bedroom apartment with her six year old daughter.  They barely had anything, but they ordered pizzas for us and they are so happy.  It is so sad how we are so quick to forget how much the Lord has blessed us with!!!

This week we met three new investigators!! We had a few appointments cancel, and we were able to contact referrals from the members and found three that were interested.  It was amazing.  Right when we started feeling bad that our appointments didnt show or cancelled, we saw that Heavenly Father had another place for us to be at that time.  One of our major miracles of the week happened on Saturday night.  We had an appointment with one of our less active focus families, and right when we got there she texted us and told us she was "sick"....We were really disappointed, but we prayed to see where we needed to go.  A few minutes later we went down a list of referrals and decided that we should go visit Debbie.  We drove to her house and knocked on her door.  She opened it up and she came out on the porch and talked to us for about an hour. While she was talking to us she told us that a few days ago she had had a dream.. in her dream she was on a path with many big boulders.  It was dark and stormy and she couldn't tell where she needed to go.  All of the sudden she saw a light.  She looked to the light and saw Jesus Christ and he said, "Hold on and be good Debbie, someone is coming to bring you to me."  When she told us that we were shocked.  We hadn't even planned on visiting her, and came to find out that she had been prepared by our Heavenly Father to hear our message.  We taught her a little bit about our beliefs and prayed with her.  The whole time we were on her porch teaching her we heard a lot of thunder.  Right after we set up an appointment with her and got in our car it started pouring rain! I MEAN BUCKETS!!! We looked at eachother and thanked Heavenly Father for this amazing miracle! THE RAIN HERE IN INSANE! And my companion's driving is even more insane! She is a way good driver, but fearless!! hahaha.  I just close my eyes and pretend I have something in my eye when I get nervous while she drives!!

We have also had some very funny experiences this week! So on Sunday before our meetings I was really nervous to meet the people in the ward (bishop etc) We had two meetings and then sacrament at 9, and during our first meeting I noticed that my skirt was extra buldgey around the middle for some reason.. I thought to myself..there is no way you have gained this much weight....so after our meeting we had to go make some copies in the library and I went to tuck in my shirt and realized I still had my pajama capris on.....oh my... I was sooo embarrassed!! No one had said a word (not even my companion) the entire time we had been in that meeting!! I could not stop laughing...I pulled them off, folded them, and put them in my church bag.. So embarrassing... Later that night we went to go visit a less active family from Libya.  They came here and got baptized about  5 years ago and have been inactive ever since.  So my companion, me , and a member were sitting on the couch waiting for the Sister  to come out when all of the sudden her husband (big man) came bursting in the door.  Side note:  the other missionaries had warned me of this guy...he is kinda really really scary.. Anyways so my eyes bug out of my head and I stand up to introduce myself.  We sit back down and he just stares at us.  He knew exactly who we were because he and his wife had set up the appointment earlier this week.  A few minutes later he goes, "Sisters...I just got back from church!!" We are like.."Oh we are soo happy for you!! lalala" and then he throws us a huge curve ball and says, "Yes, I am starting my own church! My church is the only true church that has come forth in these days.  Come and be missionaries at my church and bring people to God.  We cannot worship your way, come to my church!" Keep in mind that he has the thickest African accent I have ever heard and the LOUDEST booming voice! And he kept getting really close to us and so I just kept scooting further and further away haha.  He then pulled out some "church business cards" and said.. "If you dont come to my church, my wife cannot come to your church!!! Do you hear me??" I was terrified and I didn't know what to say.. we just stared at him and he walked away. The visit with his wife went well though!! :) She loves church and the gospel!! After we left, I looked at my companion and said.. well that was interesting!! Apparently we have a lot of work to do with this family, but I am up for the challenge! If he can start a church with that much pazazz, he can be a great missionary for our church someday! :)

My mission has been amazing!!! That is just a little taste of what I have been doing this past week!! I love it and I would not want to be anywhere else right now.  My eyes have been opened to so many different kinds of people, and I have come to realize how merciful our Savior really is.  No matter the past, family situation, or personal weakness, the Atonement of Jesus Christ can heal and mend people's lives.  No matter the circumstance the gospel is the answer. 

So basically I am sick... and I need to get better fast!! I think it is something in the air here, but I have been trying those oils you sent me.  I am pretty sure I am not using them right or something because I have snorted so much peppermint that my eyes are stuck bloodshot and everything smells like a peppermint stick!! So if you could send me some directions of how to heal myself with those witch juices you sent me that would be fantastic!! ;) haha.  I will believe in them if they will heal me! ;)  I love you guys soo much!!! I hope you are all doing well!!

8767  Apt.D Town and Country Blvd. 

Ellicott City, MD
21043

There is my current address!!

I LOVE YOU!!

Love,
Sister Brown!!

Surprise!!!

Halo Again Family!

 

So Surprise!! I know you are not expecting to hear from me today, but I have some news!! I was sitting in class today and someone came in with a paper for me.  I just found out (2 days before I leave), that I will be temporarily reassigned to the Maryland Baltimore Mission! Absolutely crazy!! Apparently the MTC is having a lot of troubles with Vanuatu government right now and will be unable to send us there until the proper paperwork comes through.  My new travel plans are: Leaving SLC at 7:20 AM July 16 (Tuesday), Arriving in PHX at 7:54AM and leaving for Baltimore at 8:45am.  That means that I will be calling between 5-7AM Tuesday morning or 7-7:30 (PHX time).  If you would like to talk to me before I leave you should probably answer your phone!! :)

 

Although this has come as a complete surprise, I am so excited!  This means that I will have the amazing opportunity to serve two missions!!! :)  I know that there is a reason I am going to Baltimore, and that makes me all the more excited to arrive!! Heavenly Father must be pretty busy preparing people for me to teach in both Baltimore and Vanuatu!!!  We have prayed and prayed for our paperwork to Vanuatu, and I know that this is our answer. Heavenly Father will never give his children any trials that they do not think they can handle, so challenge accepted!!! :) I have learned that although Heavenly Father's plan is not always the same as ours, His is ALWAYS better in the end!! So I am SO excited to see what he has in store for me as I work hard!!! On the bright side, my carry on bag can now be a wopping 40 lbs!!! BOOYA!!! :) No more overweight bags for this Sista!! :)

 

Only two problems with this whole change of plans thing..... Firstly, I only have warm weather clothes.... so lets hope that the weather is really warm so I can wear all my island wear there!! :)  And Secondly, I was just told by my Branch President that this is an all bike mission............uh oh....that may be a slight problem...seeing that I can't ride a two wheeler without training wheels yet.... I can only imagine my first conversation with my Mission President: "So Sister Brown, is there any concerns you have??" Me: "Well President... you see... I can't ride a two wheeler without training wheels quite yet..."  hahahahahaha He will probably look at me like I am crazy!! I don't really know how this is going to work out, but I am willing to ride roller blades as my companion bikes if worst comes to worst! Oh how I wish I would have tried a little harder when Dad tried to teach Mike and I how to ride a bike!!!! How embarrassing!!!

 

In all honesty, I cannot wait to get out into the field and begin to put all of my hard work and things that I have learned into action! This message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important message that anyone could ever hear! No matter what phase of life people are in, the gospel will always make things better. I am SOOO excited to serve wherever the Lord wants me to serve!!! (except New York...haha just kidding...that would just take Joseph Smith faith... :)) I love you all!!! Thank you so much for all the love and support!! The packages and letters have been sooo encouraging and uplifting as things have been crazy here!! I love being a missionary, and there is no where I would rather be than doing the Lord's amazing work!!! :) READY OR NOT, BALTIMORE HERE I COME BABY!!! :)

 

Love you guys!!!  

 

Love,

Sista Brown

 

P.S. I got that amazing package today!! Thank you Thank you!! I got my camera cord and card that were in there, but my gray plug in the wall charger was not in there! I will be needing to charge my camera battery sometime on my mission, so a charger would be great!! If it helps at all, my camera is a Canon camera PC1732 4.3 V. Thanks!!! :)

 

P.S.S. I was in a meeting today with all the departing missionairies and I couldn't find MIKE!!!! :( I was looking everywhere!!

My Companion Is Hilarious

Hello Family,

So I sent a letter on the 5th, so I hope you get it!  Anyway, I will be able to e-amil you on Thursday, so hang int here!  But I have tons to say in my e-mail, so I wanted to write to answer your questions.  I have seen so many people!  I saw Mikey Jacobsen, and Jayne Edwards.  Sister Edwards still has 4 weeks in here!  Bless her heart!  It has been so amazing to see so many familiar faces.  P.S.  These letters rock!  It is so hard here at the MTC!  My companion and I have not stopped running to and from places since we have been here!  I am having such an amazing experience!  My companion is hilarious!  We have seriously done everything embarassing there is to do!  Sister Jex dipped the whole back of her skirt in the toilet yesterday and we laughed for a good five mintues!  We get lost all the time!  And this morning we locked our swipe cards (how you get into the building) and our keys to our room in our room!  We had to be at service at 6:00 this morning, we we just rolled out of bed and forgot.  We cleaned bathrooms (even boys) for an hour and a half and realized we were locked out.  We wanted to cry because we were so tired, but we laughed so hard.

I have had the most amazing experiences!  First, there are four other Elders going to Vanatu, and we found out we didn’t get our visas.  We were told we would be reassigned, and we were so bummed!  I mean, I would love to serve whereever the Lord needs me, but he knows it takes me awhile to get comforable!  So this past fast Sunday we fasted for our visas.  By the way, fast Sundays are not pretty here! haha.  So we get fed 3 times a day, so that means after dinner we don’t eat at all.  So we were fasting for about 24 hours.  While we were studying outside that fast Sunday I saw an Elder be rolled out of a building passed out in a wheelchair, and another puke up pink gatorade looking stuff with yellow chunks!  Needless to say, there is never a dull moment here!  But the gospel is still true:).  Anway, we were fasting and praying all that day, and then today we found out that even though we do not have our visas we can still go there for four months.  the Lord just wanted to humble us before we went out to serve him.

I leave Monday at 4:50 and fly into LAX at 5:48 and leave at 9:45 for New Zealand.  I fly from New Zealand toVanuatu.  I will give you more info on when I will call when I e-mail on Thursday, but it should be sometimes Monday night.

Another amazing experience I have had s teaching our investigator Josh.  We get to teach him every day and it is incredible.  We have developed so much love for him, and through sincere study and prayer we have been able to feel Heavenly Father’s love for him.  I will tell you more on Thursday!  Stay tuned!:)

To answer your questions:  Our schedule is nuts,  We are constantly in class!  Literally from 7-9:15 we are eating or in class.  Zero spare time.  But I have learned this.  “You are not here learning and studying for yourself, so stop acting like it.”  All of this work we are doing is not for ourselves, it is for the people we will teach.  It is amazing as I have been able to study and work hard, Heavenly Father has helped me grow so much!  I have learned that the gospel is so simple!  Heavenly Father wants us all to return to Him so badly that he has laid it out so plainly:  faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.  That is it!  That is all we learn in the MTC!  We learn how to teach and bring souls to Christ!  This opportunity has been amazing!  I cannot wait to continue to offer salvation and blessings to more of my brother’s and sister’s!  Ah!  I have so much to say, but I will e-mail you Thursday!  I love you all very much!  Jesus Christ is our only way back!  There is hope in the Atonement!  Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers!

I LOVE YOU!

Sister Brown

Diseases

Hello again!!

 

hahaha sorry, I thought I was completely out of time, but it looks like I have a little bit left!!! GUESS WHAT!?!?! So today I went to the health clinic to pick up my malaria medicine, and when I got to the front desk the nurse was like, "Sister Brown, we have been looking for you,come!"  So I followed her and all the Elders that are going to Vanuatu were in the back patient room.  I sat down and they were like... we have to get blood tests in case we get diseases so they can know how to treat us... I didnt know what to do... I was in a skirt so I couldn't kick...there were people talking in front of the door so I couldnt bolt so I just started breathing... I was hyperventilating...real bad!!! I could not stop myself!!! I didnt want to cry in front of the people I would be traveling with so I tried to be brave...but I couldnt stop hyperventilating.  I could feel myself sweating and my eyes started to get watery.  The nurse came in and looked at me and  said, "Sister....SISTER...SISTER!!! You have to stop breathing like that, you are about to pass out..."  I kept trying to slow my breathing down, but I couldnt! She got big eyes and was like.. "How old are you Sister?"  I wanted to say 10 or something, but I knew she would know I was lying so I just stared at her...haha She gave me this embarrassing giant bunny to hold, and did it! I DIDNT EVEN CRY!!!!!!!!! I got a blood test and i didnt even CRY!!!!!! I was soo excited!!! You should be a proud mama!!

 

Talk to you on Monday!!! PLEASE SEND THAT CAMERA CORD!!!!!

Love you!!!! again!!!

 

Sister Brown!!

Lone Wolf

Family!!

I am alive, and all is well!! Thank you SOOO much for the package!! I got it yesterday,and my companion and I have been enjoying all the treats!! Liz, thanks for all those cute stickers, I love them! So this is my first P day at the MTC and it has been very nice!! I have been trying to balance the weight in my bags all day!! I found out that my carry on bag can only be 16 pounds..bummer!! So I will be sending a box full of stuff home sometime this week! I have so much to say, so hopefully I will have enough time to fit it all! This email will probably be so all over the place because so much has happened this past week, so forgive me for jumping all around!

First of all, I am a lone wolf here at the MTC haha out of the 7,000 missionaries here at the MTC I am the only sister going to Vanuatu! There are four other elders in my district that are going as well, so maybe my mission president thought I was a boy or something!! haha. The elders that are going to Vanuatu keep telling me that there are only Native Sisters on Vanuatu's islands, and all the white sisters speak french and go to New Caledonia! But I have not learned any french, so we will see what happens!! I did not get a Visa, but apparently you dont need one for four months  in Vanuatu, so we are still going!! That is good news! Me and the other four Elders are leaving on Monday!! We leave SLC at 4:50 pm and have a layover at LAX from 5:48 pm to 9:45pm.  This means that I will be calling you during my layover at LAX! PLEASE ANSWER!!! I have a calling card, but even if you dont answer it still uses the minutes! I will call your cellphone mom!! BE READY! haha..unless you have already forgotten about me... Anyways we fly out of LAX at 9:45PM and land in Auckland New Zealand at 5:45pm.  From there were fly straight to Port Vila, Vanuatu! A total travel time of 36 hours!! Yipee!!! Because I am the only sister I get to have 4 Elders as my companions...great..And if I have to go to the bathroom they all have to come and stand outside the door...even better! hahaha. I am so excited to start this new chapter, but the travel does not sound like too much fun!!! REMEMBER: ANSWER YOUR PHONE PLEASE!!! :)

Anyways, I have been sooo blessed here!! My companion Sister Jex was sent straight from Heaven to me!! We get along sooo well, and she is amazing!! I am so sad that she doesnt get to come with me, but I know I will be in for a bunch of new great companions!! We laugh probably 24/7.  We have locked ourselves out of our room about 4 times, and had plenty of embarrassing moments!!

The MTC is a crazy experience! It is soo hard!! It literally is spiritual boot camp...I've always wanted to go to boot camp, so I guess that is a good thing!! I am exhausted!! I get up at about 5:50 every morning and I wake up every 30 minutes at night because my roommates make weird noises! Oh yeah, I am rooming with four other girls besides my companion right now! They are all spanish speaking and going state side.. They always talk in spanish whenever we are around and it is hilarious because Sister Jex and I have no idea what they are trying to say!!! We committed our investigator to baptism yesterday!!! I have been able to feel Heavenly Father's love for each of my investigators and it is amazing!! If you try to see people through His eyes it is so much easier to love them!!!! There are so many amazing blessings at the MTC!!! I love it!!!

I have zero time!!!

PLEASE SEND MY CAMERA CORD SO I CAN SEND PICTURES IT IS ON THE FLOOR OF MY ROOM STILL IN THE BOX!!

I LOVE you guys soo much!!!

Love,

Sister Brown!!

First Letter July 8, 2013

Halo Family!

I am alive!  Sorry this didn't get to you sooner, the mail was weird because of the fourth, and I have had zero time.  The MTC is nuts!  Over 800 came in on Wednesday, and there are 7,000 here right now!  Elder's and Sister's everywhere!

My companion is Sister Jex, she is from Pleasant Grove, so not too far from us!  I absolutely love her!

The fourth was so fun!  We had a normal day of class and such and then after dinner we were able to go to a devotional.   Brother Laney spoke and it was great!  After that, we got to watch 17 Miracles!  I loved it!  We actually got to watch a movie!  The movie ended at 10 that night and after that Prez let us go outside to watch the fireworks!  We had to stay within the fence, but we got our curfew extended until 11:00!  I couldn't really see all of the fireworks because there were trees in the way!  But, I got an ice cream bar!  So that was good!

Also, my companion and I got our first investigator!  His name is Joshanel.  He is the most amazing spirit.  I really feel like Heavenly Father prepared and led me to Josh.  He wants the blessings of the gospel in his family and knows about the Book of Mormon!  Our first lesson with him went great, and we can't wait to keep teaching him, and eventually lead him, and his family to the temple.

Anyways, I have been able to see a lot of people here! I saw Brother and Sister Moore... what is this their 5th mission?  I also saw Sister Welling, Jake Hunt (Mike's friend), and my friend Elder Olyelnod.  It is amazing to be able to see so many people serving the Lord!  I have no idea if I have my Visa yet, I am going to check later today!  So I have a bunch more to say, and some pictures for you, so you will probably be able to see those on my one and only P-day on Thursday!  Jesus is the Christ!  The gospel is true and amazing!

Love you all, and I will e-mail you Thursday!