Last Hurrah

Hello Family!

First of all, I love the pictures!!! It is soo great to be able to see what you guys are all up to and see how big Mase is getting!! It is ridiculous! What a cutie! The birthday party was absolutely adorable! Great job Meg! And Benny your fish was soo cool! Typical Liz face...what a girl!! ;) I am so glad you are all doing so well! :) So I guess the cat is out of the bag...someone spilled the beans about my visa! haha. I found out on Tuesday and I am so sad! I am so sad to leave these amazing people that I have met here. However, I know that someone else is in charge! And so I am soo excited!! I can't wait to see what Heavenly Father has been preparing for me in Vanuatu! :) So here is the downlow as far as I know so take notes! ;) (I love finally feeling like the boss again!) I leave Sunday night at 6:00 pm Baltimore time (you do the math..because I don't know how!) I am assuming that I will have a few lay overs in SLC LAX or PHI. So...that means that I will be calling Sunday late at night or Monday? hahaha. Sorrry I cant be more specific, but I don't have any other information. All I know is that it is about 36 hours ish and so we will lose a whole day.  So word to the wise: if you would like to chat keep your phones on loud please!! :) I will be calling from a pay phone! haha and this will be the last time to talk until Christmas so PICK UP THE PHONE! Yeah Ben and Liz that means YOU!! :) haha.

This week teaching wise was pretty slow, but serving and loving people wise was crazy!! I think that sometimes Heavenly Father just needs people to help love His children, and that is what we have been doing! We had soo many great experiences of friendshipping less actives that hadn't been seen within the past 20 or so years.  It was so great to be able to just talk with them and get to know and love them. It is crazy as a missionary how fast you can grow to love someone! We would only spend about 40 minutes with them, but by the end I just felt this great love for them and I know that it was the love of their Heavenly Father for them.  We have been given many different opportunities to just help people bear their burdens.  I truly have come to know what Mosiah 18:8-10 really means. This life is not easy, and people go through such hard trials in their life.  It has been such a blessing to be able to help people here. Through service and even lending a shoulder to cry on or a listening ear, we have been able to show many different people how much joy the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring into their lives.  I have watched the countenances of these people change as they come to know that Jesus Christ knows what they are going through and that they really do have a loving Father in Heaven.  It is amazing how serving people really helps  you develop such a great love for them.  I love the people I have been able to meet while serving here.

So Friday as you have already heard, we went to the Orioles game!! IT WAS SO FUN!!!! haha.  Usually baseball is kinda boring to watch, but it was SO FUN! The entire mission got to go out and we had two interesting rules: no hugging, and no proselyting. haha. We didn't even know what to do with ourselves at first.. it was very different! But it was great! And I even was able to find some black and orange to wear to the game! A lot of the missionaries sat right together so we just talked and talked the entire time! It was a blast! My camera was dead, but Sister Mortensen was able to get a lot of pictures that I will send! AND THE BEST PART IS... DRUM ROLL PLEASe.... I got to get a hot dog with nothing on it but mustard!!! :) :) It was amazing! I enjoyed every second of it!! We sang baseball songs and laughed all night. And we had a 12:00 AM curfew...hello rebels! :) haha. Don't ask me the score though..because I wasnt really paying attention just enjoying the opportunity to be loud! :) I just know that we lost! Oh well!

Oh yeah! Guess what!?! Our recent convert Elham is going to the temple on Saturday to do baptisms for her family members that have passed on! This is sooo cool because she is from Iran so she has soo many people that haven't had their temple work done.  Even though family history is really hard to do for people from there she found a few names! And we get to go with her to watch! I am soo excited! What a great going away present!! :)

The work is amazing!!! I have had the most amazing time here in Baltimore, and I can't wait for the next part of my mission in Vanuatu!! The gospel is the same wherever you go because Heavenly Father loves and is aware of all of his children! :) I love you guys soo much! And I hope you have an amazing week! The church is true! :)

Love,

Sister Brown

P.S. Before I came to the library I had my first and last 10 piece from McDonalds. IT WAS AMAZING!!! People that say McDonalds is gross are nuts because it was amazing!! :) 

Kate at the Orioles game.