Cyclone

Ol Famle!

You no worry! I am alive and well! I am proud to say that I
survived my first cyclone and not even a tear was shed. Okay
okay...a few times I got close to tears.I just
told my companion about the food you all ate at the young woman
breakfast and she is dying...she had a little break down this week
about the food here..haha.

This week the work was a little different than usual because of the
cyclone.  But it was still amazing! Lots and lots of opportunites for
service! On Thursday we went to our neighbor Mama Wendy's house
because her HUGE nambalanga tree got blew over in the cyclone.  She
is a young widow in our branch and has two cute kids! When we went over
in the morning I kinda thought that we would just leave the tree and
rake around it, but then she brought out an ax and bush knives. We
spent the next three hours cutting all the HUGE branches off of the
tree, breaking them and putting them into a pile.  Usually I don't use
bush knives because I am scared I will chop my hand off, but I could
see that if I didn't help we would be there until dark.  I took the ax
and started trying to cut some of the branches and everyone that past
by stopped and stared.  It was hilarious.  They were ded of laughing
at me. They kept saying, "Woman Vanuatu! Small woman but big knife!"
hahaha After the first hour we got tired so we came up with a new
"white man" program.  My companion and I would take turns hitting the
big branches with the ax and then the other one with mama wendy would
go and jump and swing on the branches so they would break.  It was
kinda fun! :) After three hours the entire tree was naked and we used
some man's truck to try to stand it up back again. That was definietly
the hardest service I have done out here, but it was kinda fun that
she trusted me to use the big knife! (Everyone else is too scared to
trust me with it!) haha.

Today we have two activies for the birth day of the Mama Relief! We
have one at our unit and one at our branch.  We are pretty excited
because we went and saw every single less active mama this week to
invite them to come. We have a bunch of activities we are doing and
then a combined family house night. We are expecting almost all of our
investigators to come too so we are excited! I never realized the
importance of Branch activities until I came out here. Activities are a
great way to pull all of the "lost sheep" back into the herd and to
nourish the new ones!

My companion and I get along great!! I love her to ded! I am trying my
best right now to help her adjust to life here. The hardest thing for
her has been the food.  She wants to eat real food bad. Every time we
go to the store and the shelves are a little naked she just gives me
"the look". She tells me that she dreams of the food that she had in
Fiji and every time we come home at night she looks into our plastic
box where we keep our food and says, "Sister Brown, I am so hungry for
real food".  I told her that after awhile she will get used to
it, but I don't think she believes me yet! haha. She is used to
eating meat every day and food that has flavor and so it is hard to
switch. Her bislama is really coming along well. She can teach in
Bislama and she can understand when they talk slowly. It is crazy
to think that I was the exact same when I first came out.  Man time
flies.

I am the happiest I have ever been in my whole life and I know it is
because of the great work I am able to be a part in.  Every day of our
lives we will face challenges and hardships, but every day we have the
choice to change and become better than we were yesterday.  It is
never too late for someone to change.  We must never lose hope and
give up on ourselves or those we love because Papa God will never give
up on any of his children.  He wants every single one of us to go back
to him. Always remember the words of President Monson, "There is no
time like the present to rededicate yourself" Become the person that
you want to be by changing yourself and becoming better every day.  I
love my mission.  I thank Papa God every single day for the chance I
have to be out here serving him.  I love all of you!!! And I hope you
all have a great week!!