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!! 

Time Management

Hola Famle!

Wow it sounds like things at home are busy as usual! I can no belief
that the Braves took state...it is about time! They always got soo
far, it is good that they finally took state!  It sounds like the
tradition of going to all the games is still going, that's great! Okay
that is nuts that all of these young kids in our ward have their
mission calls!! They make me feel old too much!! Sheesh! that is
amazing! They are going to kill it out here!  Poor Liz! I am
terrified of dogs now! They are soo freaky! Especially the big ones! I
hope her leg is doing better! We have tons and tons of dogs around our
house and sometimes they are nice, but when we come after dark they
always try to attack us! I am terrified and so now I always break a
big stick before we try to cross the yard.  Whenever they get too
close I whack them and run for my life!! (My companion and I decided
that when it comes to dog attacks every man for himself) My advice to
Liz is to do the same! Carry a big stick! :)

Another great week here in Malekula! Our main focus this week has been
on trying to strengthen our branch. The church is still pretty new
here and so we are working to try to train all of the leaders of the
branch on their callings.  Our goal is to help this branch to function
properly like a ward. We have been meeting with our Branch President
almost every day to try to help him understand what his work is and
what our work is.  We are slowly but surely making progress with him.
We had our first real "Auxillary" meeting this Sunday.  It went a lot
better than our last "Auxillary meeting" This time I made sure that
there was an agenda drawn and I politely kicked out anyone that was
not a leader in the branch. We were able to sit down and go through
each auxillary and figure out what we could do to improve.  The main
issue is that the leaders do not understand their callings.  You have
to keep in mind that all of these leaders are recent converts
themselves and do not know a whole lot about how the church works or
is set up.  This week we will be meeting with the Relief Society
president to explain what visiting teaching is and to help her
understand her calling a little bit better. In our meeting one thing
that I discussed was time.  Oh please, my patience has gotten SOOO
big. Our church is supposed to start at 9.  Yesterday we started at
11:30 and my patience was wearing VERY very thin.  So yesterday in our
meeting we discussed ideas on how to be on time.  Every auxillary kept
making excuses that they don't have a watch or clock to watch time and
so finally I said, alraet this is what is going to happen: we are
going to get someone's cellphone and set an alarm for 9,10, and 11 and
when that alarm goes off the Elders quorum president is going to go
and beat bamboo on the copper so we know that it is time to start the
next class. haha.  They all were a little surprised at my proposed
solution, but now everyone is arguing over who will get to hit the
copper with bamboo next Sunday..haha like I said it is a work in
progress still! :) But  I am so excited about the small spark of
progress that we have been able to make in our branch.  I know that in
order to help missionary work progress in this area we must have a
stable, healthy branch first! Slow and steady wins the race eh? haha

I really could not be happier out here! I love the work and I LOVE the
people here! They have seriously changed everything about me and I
could not be more grateful to have the opportunity to serve here! :)

I love all of you and I hope you have a great week!! :) :) Keep
chuggin through 2 Nifae!

Probs With My Car

Hello Family,

First of all can I just tell you that my heart is full too much! Today the couple came back from Vila and they carried all of our packages home.  I was shocked that I had two from all of you! I feel spoiled! I about died when I saw all the candy!! I have no idea how you all knew that the past 3 nights I have been dreaming of twizzlers and sour candies. I am not even lying...how pathetic…but don't blame me, it is my subconscious.   Thank you big wan!  All
of our neighbors wanted to pass a big thank you too! We all opened my packages and the kids went nuts!! I taught them how to roast starbursts in the fire and they think it is so neat. The best part is, they hate the sour candies. They close up flattened every other candy, but the sour ones are "too salty" for them. They put them in their mouths and spit them out. haha.  Thank you too much!!! I am excited too much to use the scar cream. The best news of the week, my rash is close up finished on my face! It only stings when I touch it. Before it was a lot of pain, but now it is close up finished. No more oozing face. Awesome!  I can not wait to use the medicine to see if I can look semi normal! 

Mother those pillow cases are adorable!! I am going to try to send a photo of us with them, but the internet here is not very good. We love them!! Thank you big one!! I loved all of the pictures that you sent this week. Everyone looks old. Mase is so big and I could barely recognize all of our deacons in that picture. I am glad that you and Mase got to have a day out on the town. He is the cutest! Tell Ben congrats about winning the games. He has always been a great ball player. I am glad too much that you all are doing so well.

Our area is a whole lot of hard work, but I absolutely love it! There is zero time for rest, and a lot of work to be done in organizing the branch and unit that we look after.  The church is still pretty new here, so part of our jobs as missionaries is to teach the leaders how the church is organized and teach them their callings.  The other week the Branch President asked me to call a Branch Mission Leader and interview him.  I kindly told him that I didn't hold the priesthood. He looked a little confused.  This week we were able to meet with him for a few hours and explain how sister missionaries can't make callings, or give blessings etc.  We are making progress though. One thing I have learned out here is patience.  Oh boy is this something I have had to pray and pray for. You all know I am not a patient person, but I am
getting better every day.  Sometimes it gets hard out here, but every hard day that we have we try to look for the "small progress."  By small and simple things great things come to pass.  I know without any doubt that is true.

This week we found one young girl at a school, her name is Ann Rose.  Papa God has prepared her to meet us.  We sat down and talked a bit at first and she shared with us about how she felt like something was missing in her life.  She told us that she wanted to
change.  We shared with her about Papa's plan for each and every one of us and she just lit up.  She is really, really, smart and she asked us if we could come see her every day. We have seen her about three times this week and she is progressing like crazy. We are planning on, asking her to be baptized this week and I could not be more excited! 

Louisanne and Marilyn are great! We are having to teach Louisanne a little slower because she is younger.  I really want her to understand what we are teaching before we introduce any more material to her. Her sister Marilyn brought all of her kids to her lesson and she had already taught all of her kids what we had taught her the time before. She told us the sweetest experience she had when she prayed and asked if Joseph Smith saw Papa God and Jesus Christ. These are the moments we live for as missionaries.  Now for the hardest part: This week I am determined to talk to her husband to see if he has any interest at all.  This is always the hardest part, but I will not doubt the abilities of Papa God to soften the hearts of these great people.

There is also this new church that just came to the island.  It is a"group" of youth that get together every single day and they have"gifts" (prophesy, healing, etc) they yell prayers until the wee hours of the morning and they fall down and see visions and angels.  All of
the people here are amazed by this new religion.  EVERYONE is attending (members, investigators etc.).  We are facing a hard hard time because everyone is so excited that a church is seeing angels and visions.  It is interesting because half of our members follow this group and the other half want to fight with them.  Needless to say we have been working a lot on trying to strengthen the members of our branch.

To answer some of your questions: My companion is Sista Tenge she is from Fiji and I love her! She is more blunt than Becky Parry:). Sometimes it is a good thing that she can't understand Bislama, because she would have something to say about what some of the members say.  My car is amazing, but one of my wheels got eaten by this dog.  Funny story: So we were going to go and visit an investigator and we saw a dog sleeping on the ground in front.  When it saw us it started running for us and barking.  The dogs here are pure evil and so I reached down, picked up a stone and threw it at him.  He stopped chasing us and was acting like a good dog.  After we took off our shoes and went into the kitchen to give a lesson.  When I came back out only one of my shoes was there.  I looked over and the stupid dog had eaten the whole back of my shoe...haha.  Everyone was dying laughing. The little girl said, "He (the dog) always does payback" hahaha.  Man, it reminded me of Bella and her attitude. Like I said my face is slowly getting better. It isn't as swollen, and no more oozing. Everything here is great!

I am glad that you are trying your best to make family scripture study. I know that it is super hard on the weekends but try your best to do it in the morning.   I promise you that as you all try to read every morning it will change the whole course of your day.  It will give you a shield against all temptation and hard times you will face. There is full up strength that comes from scripture study. One advice for Benny is at the distrubution center they sell these Story Books of Mormons.  I bought one in Bislama in Vila and they are amazing. They have pictures and they tell all the cool stories from the Book of Mormon. Something to try.

Thank you too much for all of your love and support!! I love you
all!!! Have a good week!!

Tautu

Raamsomee Takeme!!

Wowza Sakatene! It sounds like you all bin had a great week!!! I do not even want to hear these stories about Rio Grande because when I get home, after I eat my 50 piece McDonalds chicken nuggets, you better believe that we are going to Rio! :) haha.  But that is pretty gross that you found something in your food!! Sometimes when things like that happen out here I just close my eyes and pretend it is a spice! ;) haha.  Thank you too much for sending all my taxes in...haha I am already wanted by the police when I get home as is, so thank you for not making it the FBI too! :) Oh good ol YW basketball! I remember my first game as a beehive and dad came to watch.  In the first 2 quarters all I had done is fouled people and he got so embarrassed at my lack of skills that he snuck out at half time! haha.  Girls "camp"sounds like it is going to be amazing! Sister Wright always knows how to have a good time!! Please pass a hello to her from me!! Sheesh! I hope that you all have to sleep in tents and go to the bathroom outside a few times...if you are staying in nice houses you are not allowed to call it girls camp, but it must be "girls vacation!" I did not even recognize Mase in those pictures!! He is HUGE!!! You really need to make a life size cut out of me so that he will still like me the best when I get home!!

This week has been...haha. Great! It is sooooo hot!!! We have been facing a lot a lot a lot of opposition, but the work is moving slowly. In our area we cover three areas: Litz Litz, Norsup, and Tautu.  On Thursday we were walking to Tautu with a member when it started pouring, pouring, rain. I only had my umbrella and so I gave it to the member so at least she could stay dry! When the rain was not slowing down, my companion and the member kept asking me if we should turn back and wait it out. They were both pretty discouraged when I told them that we needed to keep going.  One thing I have learned on my mission is to never turn back.  Just keep going forward.  Well when we had walked in the rain for an hour, I heard some sniffling and I looked and saw that my companion's new missionary enthusiasam was completely gone(she just got here), and her smile was hidden with tears.  I turned to her and said, "Sista, these are the days of your mission that you will never forget.  Satan will always try his hardest when he knows that there are people waiting for us after the storm."  She took a little courage in my words and an hour later we reached Tautu.  That day we found a young girl Louisanne and her sister Marilyn.  They were sitting on the side of the road when I tried to talk to them a little bit.  They told me that they were Catholic but had not been in a long time.  They invited us to come to their house and now the whole family is investigating the church! We could not be more excited!! Prosperity is a great teacher, but adversity is a greater teacher.  I have learned through the hard times that when we are willing to push through hard things, Papa God will always bless us.  Some blessings come later than we want, but they will always come!!

I hope you all have a great week!!! :) I love you all!!!! :) :)

Litz Litz Malekula

Surprise!!!
I am so glad that you all got your letters!! I thought that I would be in Vila for awhile, so I thought that sending letters would be a good idea.  This week has brought a whirlwind of changes!  Last week my companion continued to be very sick! Finally we got her into a French doctor and he cut open all of her 4 boils and drained them.  They were really infected so he gave her an antibiotic.  She had never taken medication before so we spent a lot of time teaching her how to take them(she HATES it!).  On Tuesday morning last week I got a call from the AP's telling me that President decided to make a slight change of plans.  They told me that I would be leaving to transfer to Malekula (another island) on Thursday.  I was pretty shocked and it was really unexpected, but I have learned a lot about stress on my mission.  I have learned that when we experience unexpected changes in our lives there is no use in using negative stress.  There is no use in freaking out about things that we cannot prevent.  There is no use in excessively worrying about what future challenges we will have to face.  Needless to say Wednesday and Thursday were pretty busy.  

Thursday morning I left to serve in Litz Litz Malekula.  I got to the airport and met one other new sister that was going there too.  When we were checking in when  I noticed they did something a little different: when they weighed our bags and everything they had us get on the scale too.  I didn't think anything of it, and they called us to board the plane.  When I walked out to the runway I saw a small two propeller plane waiting in the runway...my first thought was "This is not going to be happen. There is no way that I am going to get on that plane."  You all know that that is one of my biggest fears.  I closed my eyes and put one foot in front of the other...talk about faith in every footstep.  I got onto the plane and there were about 8 other people on the plane with us.  It was so small that I could see all the controls that the piolts were using.(Dont worry, I was watching carefully the whole flight).  We took off landed on a grass pit stop and then landed in Malekula. 

After awhile of sisters not serving in Malekula us four sisters are the first sisters being let back to serve on the island.  When I got here I went and stayed with two other sisters that just got here while I waited until Monday for my companion.  We were all new to the area, so the next few days we went and met with members and tried to map out the area.  The church is not as developed on this island, but one of our zone goals is to get this island to have a stake before we leave.  We are aiming to work really hard with all of the members and branch presidents to strengthen the church on this island.  I am really excited to jump into this new challenge!! We haven't had the chance to do a whole lot of teaching during this transfer week, but we have been working hard to map out all the areas and make goals for the work here. The Lord blesses those who he calls and those who put Him first.  I love being here. I love being a missionary. 

I hope that you all had a great Valentines day!!!! I miss you all and love you!!! :) :) Make family prayer and scripture study every day..it will change your day every day!!

P.S.  I have no idea when I will get any packages now that I am out this far! But I will let you know when I get it!! Thank you too much!! :) :) 

Dunge Feva

Dear Family!!!

Man time is flying by, it bin seem like just yesterday that I was emailing you all. It sounds like all of you had another busy but great week!  Tell Benny I am proud of him for the Spelling Bee! That is awesome!  As for all the relative news wow...everyone is having a baby and getting married!! Tell everyone congratulations for me!! You no worry mom, when I get home I will go back to being the boss and doing all the grocery shopping!!

This week has been pretty..different!! haha. This week one of my companions went back to the house.  She is from here and so she just took a small bus ride back to the house! haha.  It is crazy to see people go back to the house! But at the beginning of the week we went to a family house night in our area.  Like I said before water is full up in our area and so mosquitos are all over!! My companion got bit by a mosquito and the next day she came down with Dunge Feva.  Man it is bad bad bad.  Every night she cries from night until morning and there is absolutely nothing that anyone can do for her.  It is a viral disease and they call it "broken bones disease" from se it is very pain.  She had a fever for 5 days and she would just sweat and sweat.  Ontop of that she has 4 boils that are pain too.  Needless to say she is in pain too much.  It is kinda not usual for a Native to get the disease, but I guess there is a first for everything.  She can't walk about so we have just been in the house for most of week.

But every week in the mission field brings miracles regardless of all setbacks:  Our first miracle this week was with two of our investigators Claudia and Sussan.  Missionaries have been teaching them for over a year and for that whole time their Abu has told them that they are not allowed to get baptize.  My companion and I have been fasting and praying for the heart of their Abu to soften.  On Monday we asked them to ask her back again and she said yes! Now those two will have their interview on Saturday! Every something works out in the Lord's timing!! Our second miracle this week was with one papa in our area.  He is not a member, but his son and daughter are.  His son just went to Samoa to go to an LDS school and so his heart has been really softened by all of the help and opportunities the church has provided for his son.  I decided that now is a good time to see if he is interested in hearing more about the church.  This week we went and visited him and just talked with him and bin invite to church. But after that day my companion fell sick so we weren't able to go back.  I was shocked when I went to church on Sunday and he was there.  He cried as he sat in Sacrament meeting and heard all the talks. After the meeting I went and talked with him and he said, "Sista, see you at the house on Wednesday" haha. Talk about a miracle!! :) I could not be more glad!

We heard transfers on Saturday and I will be training back again in my same area!!  I have no idea where my companion is from, but I am excited for a new adventure with a new companion!

oh yeah, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!!! :) :) :) Lavem yufala big wan!!! :) :)

Yolkokakaeek,

Sista Braon

Super Bowl

Hello all Family! 

It is Super Bowl Monday here in Vanuatu, and all the Elders from the states are dying here!! haha.  Everyone has been emailing family back home to know all of the scores.  Oh boy, I remember all the cooking stations from last year, I hope that Liz took over and made all of them back again this year! Don't worry when I come back I will boss again! ;) Wow, does Lizzy ever take a break?? She is looking so grown up it is freaky! Her costume was so cute, and I am sure that she did great.  She definitely got most of the talent in the family! Those pictures of Meg Sar and Liz are soo cute!! I didn't know that Meg cut her hair! It is so cute!! I will say that I miss all of the girls outings, but I don't missing the shopping yet-haha.  I remember chaperoning last year...oh man what a treat! You are brave to do that back again! I did not know that Liz was doing harp still! Good! Tell her and Ben to keep playing the piano too!! It is good to know! But you forgot to include an update about what you have been doing! How is having meg and quinn living with you all?? Do Sarah and Jordan have any human children yet, or Milo no more? I cannot believe that it is already Feb! Time flies by fast! 

This week has been amazing!!!  Last week I was trying to map out a mission plan for our branch.  I used about a half notebook trying to draft different plans of how to make missionary work come on top in our branch and area.  On Monday last week I finally got the final product and this week put it into effect! This week I learned that Papa God helps those who are willing to help themselves.  In life we will face full up trials and hard times, but if we want the help of Him we must first seek to help ourselves.  That means that we have to be willing to sacrifice our prayers, fasts, time, energy, talents, everything for our goal.  If we are willing to sacrifice everything we have for our goal he will help us.  It reminds me of a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants that tells us that we must first study things out in our minds.  After we study it out in our minds He will guide us as to what we need to do.  When we are faced with a challenge or trial we can either sit back and cry and about it and feel sorry for ourselves or we can stand up, tighten our sandals and push through.  

Like I said our area is a place of water and soft mud.  This week when we went to area there was a house that was filled with water.  Every something was soaked and there was about a foot of water inside.  We had come to the area for a few appointments, but after I saw the damage that had been done to all the house, I told Papa to hand each of us a bucket and we began filling up buckets, carrying them over to the "swimming pool" and dumping them.  Let me tell you something..this was no easy task.  The ground at the place was sooo slickery! I knew it was slickery and so I made sure to walk slow and plant my feet well.  Every time my companion would walk I would remind her to walk good.  It was the second to last batch of buckets and my companion about fell.  I was carrying a bucket on my shoulder and I turned to yell at her to be careful.  Next minute I was on the ground covered in soft mud and soaked with the water I had been bailing.  hahahaha I think that was Papa God telling me to stop bossing my companion....oops.  After we finished we were able to stori with a less active family.  We talked to them about the plan of salvation and how even though loved ones of ours pass, we will see them again.  We went back to the house because it got dark, when we came back the next day they gave us 6 referrals of people to teach, and a family.  The blessings of serving others are full up! Teaching in our area is great! We have 12 people including one family on date for baptism and I could not be more excited!! This week we have been able to see a lot of our investigators start to make big changes in the conversion of them.  It has been a great week!!! :) 

I hope that all of you have a great week!! I love and miss you all!!! :) :) 

Yolkokakaeek,

Sista Braon

P.S.  I am now a believer of those oils...my poor companion did not sleep the first two weeks she was here and she kept waking me up because of nightmares.  Now every night at 9 I come and brush her neck with 2 drops of lavender oil and she is out within 26 minutes (yes I do time it... :)) I am a believer!! :) haha