Hello!!
It sounds like you had a great 24th of July!! I can't say that I am sad that I missed the shopping trip...yuck! ;) I am sure that everyone missed me finding the ugliest things in the store though! ;) haha. But I am sad that I missed the annual midnight McDonalds run with Ella at the sleepover!! Bummer!! I still haven't gotten to get some nuggets from McDonalds here yet, I guess I will have to change that pretty soon! :) I have worn the same pair of shoes every day since I have gotten out here! But hey, they are sooo comfy now!! haha. I love them though, they are the only flats I will probably ever wear in my life!! So I think I am alright with shoes..until September. If I don't get my visa before fall/winter I may be toast! I heard that it gets freezing and my companion has a full on trench coat in her closet, so I definitely believe her when she says it gets cold!! haha.
First of all....PREPARE TO BE SOOO PROUD OF ME AND SURPRISED!!!! So this week we went to a Sister's house from Nigeria for dinner. She is a less active in the ward that just barely started coming back! She is straight up African...literally. She is from Nigeria and came over here about 4 years ago! So before we even went over there Sister Mortensen was telling me horror stories about the food she has eaten over there before. One time she fed her agoosie soup (spelled that wrong for sure) which consisted of cow intestines and a bunch of other stuff..I stopped listening once she said cow intestines. I am a firm believer that intestines of any sort should not be consumed by humans. So anyway, I was sooo freaked out!! In case you have forgotten I am a rather particular eater, and I do not eat any fish at all!! I knew that I needed to eat whatever she cooked so I wouldn't offend her however. We walked in to her apartment and it smelled great!! We went back into the kitchen and there was a LEGIT FISH on each plate minus the head!!! I am talking scales, fins and all!! I didn't know what to do. I looked at it and started praying, "Heavenly Father I know I have to eat this, but you are going to have to make all my taste buds not work for about an hour or so..." Anyway so then she rolls this stuff out of a plastic baggie that looks like a brain. It was called mou mou or something. I about died....I turned to our host with big eyes and said..."So is it healthy to eat brain too?" She looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Yes, Fish brain is very healthy, especially for infants!" I knew the brain sitting on my plate was way too big to be a fish brain and so I said, "Sister, what kind of brain is this?" Her and all of her African friends about rolled on the floor laughing...She said Sister Brown, that is not brain it is mou mou...(yeah, because I know EXACTLY what that is! ;)) haha she explained that it is ground up beans and some other stuff! I relaxed a little until we started saying the prayer for dinner. I took a picture of our meal it was fresh cat fish, rice, and mou mou. I prayed soooo hard the entire time!
this Sister loves cat fish! She sat there and watched us eat as she sucked the bones of her fish dry. I ATE IT!!! Very very slowly and drinking about a gallon of grape juice while I did it, but I did it!!! haha. I don't know how I am going to survive doing that every day on the islands... haha.
But wait!! That is not all!!
On Friday we took one of the recent converts in our ward Elham to Sister Burgoyne's for lunch. So just a little background..Sister Burgoyne is about the healthiest person I have ever met. She is completely organic, makes her own salad dressing, grows her own food etc... So we get there and she was like.."We need to have some girl food!!" hahaha You know how much I love...girl food. (Is it even considered food?) She put together this beautiful salad consisting of spinach, fetta cheese(is that real cheese?), tomatoes, herbs, and homade girl dressing! I was like...here we go again! hahaha. But I didn't want to be rude and so I ate a small plate of it!! IT WAS A MIRACLE!!! But seriously, I am grateful to have meals from a lot of the members! They are wonderful!! Look at me growing up eating girl food and fishies! ;) After lunch we had an amazing lesson with Elham and she is going to the temple before transfers!!That means that a girl that was Muslium 2 months ago is going to be able to do baptisms for her deceased family members! And we get to go!! I am sooo excited!!
You asked about Debbie, so here is an update: She will not pray!!! No matter what we do she will not pray. We know that there is no way that she can receive an answer for herself unless she prays so we have been really trying to help her develop that desire to pray. Finally this week we tried a different method: During studies we decided that we were not going to leave Debbie's house until she prayed. We were going to be stubborn. So we get to her house at 8:00 and have an amazing lesson then ask her to offer the closing prayer. She of course refuses and we just kinda wait...and wait...and wait..we ask again...she wont...so we wait.. Finally one of the members with us said, "Debbie I don't think they are going to leave until you pray!" Debbie smiles and looks at the clock and says, "Well.. I know they have a 9:00 bedtime, so I will just wait.." What a stinker. We had to leave, and she thought it was hilarious!! We keep praying for her, and I know that she will develop that desire in the Lord's timing.
So we had an interesting miracle this week! Will is a less active who was baptized about 7 years ago and is all about the worldly life! He loves his big muscles, huge alcohol counter, smoking, and shooting guns! He owns his own realty business, and loves his money!! He told us how the other day while he was gambling he was 38,000 dollars in the hole and couldnt stop because he is addicted! Needless to say he loves all of his worldly things a lot more than any religious activities. The saddest part is that he knows the gospel is true. He has such a strong testimony that all the things that he is into are really bad for him and are of the devil. But he thinks he is just too far gone. Anyway we were with the elders on teamups and so there were four of us there. As we were leaving we asked him if there was anything we could do to help him. He said, "Well, I am trying to work from home and my internet isnt working" One of the Elders that was with us said that he probably knew how to fix it and would take a look. Will was SOOO excited! He said, "If you guys can fix this, I am coming to church!!" (he probably said this because he was confident we couldn't do it!) So that poor Elder was back in that computer room for a good twenty minutes....he had no idea what he was doing. We were out there just praying and praying that he would be able to figure it out!! All of the sudden we heard some swear words from Will and Elder Coker came out with a big grin on his face. Will said.."Well shoot...What time is church??" We were soo happy!!! It just proved to us that Heavenly Father is so aware of all of the details in our lives. If we turn to Him in everything that we do (even the silly things) we will see miracles!! Heavenly Father never ceases to amaze me!! :)
I love being out here! I have seen soo many miracles, and so many people's hearts be softened! I hope you all have an amazing week!! I love each of you and pray for you often!! :)
Love,
Sister Brown
P.S. CHECK OUT WHAT I ATE!!! I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING!!!
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