Tripanionship

Speaking of companions, we have another one! Hermana Woodbury joined us, and we are now a trio! Or, as we fondly call it, a tripanionship. Hma. Woodbury joined us on Wednesday (emergency transfer) and she'll be with us at least for the rest of the transfer, until July 24.She is from Carson, Nevada and her mom is Thai. She learned her Spanish in Spain, in Madrid and Alcala de Hernares, and she makes awesome rice. She also plays the guitar, so I borrow it sometimes to fiddle with it........how does that work? :)

Yes, we are fasting out our natural man for 40 days. A few of the things I'm fasting out are my fear of man, thinking about video games and movies, and worldly songs. Things I'm doing to conquer these things are speaking when I'm terrified or have no clue what to say, refocusing on what I'm doing in the moment, and singing a hymn in my head when worldly songs come into my head. I'm still eating, though. Don't worry! :)

We had stake conference over here in Virginia yesterday. The topic was on the hastening of the work of salvation and all of its different aspects: Missionary work, temple work, family history work, and reactivation. So often, we think of the hastening as just missionary work, and this is not the case. As Spencer W. Kimball said, "I hope to see us dissolve the artificial boundary line we place between missionary work and temple and genealogical work, because it is the same great redemptive work!" (Preach My Gospel, 164). I learned a lot about how I can be more involved with this work when I come home. Mostly, I'm really excited to start working on Familysearch and Ancestry.com with you and also Find a Grave. It's a site that you volunteer to take pictures of graves that are in your area if someone asks you to find it. It's cool. I'd like to do it. 

As for now, life is good. We put a couple on date--We're gonna have ourselves a baptism! Marcia and Santos Hernandez. They are from El Salvador and have two boys who don't like speaking Spanish. It's a good family. We'll make saints out of them, yet. 

 

Love, Hermana Brown

Big, hairy, audacious goal

23 June 2014

We had exchanges this week and I got to lead out the area! It was a nerve-wracking experience, but it was also good because it helped me more fully realize that I CAN speak Spanish better than I thought I could, I CAN take charge, I CAN do a lot of things that I didn't think I could! It's so exciting!

So, we got comida demasiada yesterday. (We got a lot of food). There was a youth conference this last week and a member had bought cases of food for it using the ward budget. After the conference, there was still a TON of food left over, so she gave it all away to 4 sets of missionaries, us included. We were the last ones to get there, so she gave us all the rest of it, and our little Toyota Corolla was very packed in the backseat and the trunk. We took what we wanted and could fit in our fridge, and divided the rest between the English elders who live in our apartment plaza and a recent convert, less-active sister who needed food. We gave half of it to her--all the cheese, some applesauce, a lot of chips, hot dogs, hot dog buns--and what was cool was that, when we got to her house and unloaded it for her, she showed us what she had had before we came over--4 packages of meat in the freezer and some random things in her fridge. She had had nothing until we brought over that food for her. Someone knew, and let us know, and now we all rejoice together. :) We also took a box over to Manuel de la Cruz. You'll find out more about him soon. 

 

More about food. Yesterday, Hermana Wilcox and I started a 40 day fast to fast out the natural man within us. We fasted for 24 hours and made a list of things that poke at our spirit, or things that get in the way of us being spiritually strong. Now, for the next 39 days, we ask for help from the Lord in the morning to overcome these temptations, and in the evening, we account to Him how well we did in our endeavors. If we succeeded, we give Him thanks. If we failed, we ask for forgiveness and recommit ourselves to do better. I'm excited for this. I will be death-crawling by the end of it, but it's going to be good. 

 

As a district, we've set a big, hairy, audacious goal. We want to talk to 420 people in a week. Three companionships in the district, each companionship talks 20 people a day, for 7 days. 420 people in a week. When we reach this goal, our mission president is going to throw us a barbeque. We're still working on it, but it is the goal, the hairy, audacious goal, but we're going to make it. It'll be good.

 

We got a couch! We didn't have a couch in our apartment until this last Friday. The elders moved it in for us, along with the ward mission leader, Brother Snow. The elders tested it for us to see if it was study-worthy and failed the test. It's a very comfortable couch. :)

I gave my first talk in Spanish yesterday! Hermana Wilcox said she understood it, so that was cool. I know I messed up in my past tense, but that's OK. I'm still learning. 

 

I'm heading out! But know that I love you!

Love,

Hermana Brown

Hermana Brown

Compañera: Hermana Wilcox

Current Address: Hermana Naomi E. Brown

94 Heritage Way NE apt #306

Leesburg, VA 20176-3363

Next possible transfer: 24 Julio

Dinner at Gisseman's

Hermana Wilcox and Hermana Brown

Dinner at Gisseman's

22 June 2014

THREE phone calls in Spanish!

16 June 2014

Hermana Wilcox keeps telling me she's never seen so many cats on her mission until I became her companion...hm..:) The bad news is, now when I pet cats, my hands burn. Maybe I have allergies, but I sure hope not!

Guess what, guess what, guess what! I made THREE phone calls in total Spanish! I'm feeling so good about that. I had to practice them before I made them, but I did it! I'm getting better!

 

The temple was beautiful. There was a poem in there that started "Walk this floor as if it was made of gold and the walls were of jewels."

 

We had a lot of rain this week. So much that it flooded some streets here. Then we had a few good days of sun that dried everything up. 

 

Now that I have an SD card reader, let me show you some photos of my mission!

 

 

I went on exchanges last transfer with the sister district leaders. This is one of them-Hermana Weening. We're going on exchanges again with them this week. On Thursday.

 

 

The other one is what I would like to entitle "The evolution of a missionary." :)

This was a picture on the wall at the CCM. I thought it was a good one. :)

 

Lots of love and hugs for everyone all around!

Washington DC Temple

Hermana Wilcox and Hermana Brown at the Washington DC Temple

Friday June 13, 2014

 

 

 



 

Sister Gisseman and Hermana Brown at the Washington DC Temple

Friday June 13, 2014

Fear Not

Hola!

 

I made tortillas and pupusas this week! They're really easy. Pupusas are torillas with filling and tortillas are pupusas without filling. :) You make torilla dough from a torilla mix (it's gluten-free), and for pupusas, after you flatten the tortilla, put a bit of meat or cheese or vegetables on it, fold the dough over it, and flatten it again. Coat in oil and cook on a griddle. Ta-da. You have made pupusas.

I have not realized the importance of sticky notes until I came out on my mission. They really do work. They're useful for remembering what to study, our lesson plans for investigators, all sorts of fun things. 

I've been creating a kind of "Fear Not" calendar, where I copy down variations of "fear not" from the scriptures and plaster them on the wall. They say there's 365 verses in the Bible alone that have a variation on "fear not," one for every day of the year. If the Lord says it that many times, you have to believe it. But can you imagine if we found all the "fear nots" the Bible, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price?...:) Wow. One for...who knows! I've been writing them down as I read the scriptures. So far I've got about 15, all from Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, and Mark. Haven't done any of the others, yet. But I should. That would be cool. 

 

Anyway, that's all for this week. Love you!

Herman~a Brown

Hee hee!

Adopted sister

Hermana Wilcox and Hermana Brown

1 June 2014

Hermana Brown with the Deweys and Hermana Wilcox

 

Hermana Brown with the Deweys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hermana Brown with the Deweys and Hermana Wilcox



This week was good.

 

This week was good. On Saturday, we attended a baptism in the morning and the night before, the sisters who asked us to come also asked us to do a "song and dance" with the Plan of Salvation in it (lesson 2 from Preach My Gospel) in Spanish because the parents of the man who's being baptized are Spanish. We said we would go and translate for them, but we thought they were kidding about teaching the plan of Salvation. We go to the baptism, and meet the Spanish people, and we look in the program, and there we are! We're supposed to teach the Plan of Salvation! In Spanish! And we're not prepared! :) So, we made a really quick lesson plan and got up there and taught the plan of Salvation in Spanish. It was great. Probably not as good as it could have been, but it was still good. 

We had a second baptism scheduled for Saturday too, one of the old investigators that Hermana Wilcox had taught, and one of our investigators was going to take us and two of her relatives to it, but the man who was being baptized cancelled last minute because he had work that day. We were very upset. 

So, ya know, ups and downs of missionary work, what do ya do? :) Just keep smiling and go forward, because we know "This is eternal life. This is the salvation of the children of God. Eternity hangs in the balance...It is the most important path [anyone] will ever walk. But if he or she doesn't know that, at least you do! So take control of this situation. Teach with power and authority, and then be devastated if the first steps toward commandment-keeping and covenant-keeping have not successfully begun." (Elder Holland, as quoted in Preach My Gospel pg. 8)

Yes, I am learning. A lot. I realized the reason why I'm not happy is that I'm being tossed about by every wind of doctrine. I have a testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel and the church that houses it, but it's not as strong as it needs to be. And so, I'm not teaching like I need to be doing, I'm being taught, which is not my calling. To solve this problem, I need to study more, to believe more, to seek learning by study and also by faith. It's not enough to just to believe, or just to know. I have to know and believe the knowledge that I have is true, and then I have to stand firm against whatever the world throws at me. That's what I've learned this week.

I gotta go! but I love you very much!

By Small and Simple Things

May 26, 2014

The great thing about having I-pads is we can email on Monday holidays! Just find a spot of wi-if and off ya go! 

 

So, something I thought of this morning when I was showering was that our mission president has a vision of getting 756 baptisms this year for the whole mission. That sounds like a lot, but what it boils down to is 1 baptism per unit (ward or branch) per month. That's the English program's part. In the Spanish program, the one I'm in, his vision is 1 baptism per companionship per unit per month. It's a big testimony to me that "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass" and it emphasizes personal responsibility, because in order to help my companionship do that, I need to be prepared. "The Lord will put prepared people in the  paths of His prepared servants." That's what Elder Ballard told us and I believe it. 

 

A song that my companion shared with me this week is "beautiful for me" by Mercy River. I really like it. It talks about how beautiful we as women are on the inside and that Heavenly Father sees us that way. I recommend listening to it. 

 

Well, I gotta go, but I love y'all very much and I'll talk to you next week!

 

Tornado and court summons

19 May 2014

 

Aloha! Hola!...Hi!

 

This week...has been really interesting! Where do I begin...

 

There was a tornado that touched down in Ashburn, near where I and my companion live. That night had been raining buckets and the next morning, we saw, on our phone, an emergency warning for a tornado from 3:40 to 4:00 a.m. We had slept right through it, we were still in Leesburg, we still had everything, so life's good!

 

Next, we got summons to court...They were hanging in a bag on our doorknob one evening when we got home, and we took them in, took out the papers from the bag, and read them. They were a garnishment summons, for $107,460, for one Cesar Perez who used lived in our apartment before we did....Did I give you a heart attack? :) We were scared, called our zone leaders: "What do we do?" They told us to call the mission president (who's a lawyer), so we did, and he told us to call the sheriff and tell him we had nothing to do with it, we have no idea who this guy is, we are innocent. So we did and she (the sheriff is a she) said, "OK, you can throw the summons away." Yup, that was worth writing home. :)

 

Also, yesterday we had a conference with Elder Ballard! He told us, in essence, to keep doing what we were doing. During that conference, though, I was impressed to share this with ya'll, so I am: Our mission president noticed that members have a hard time getting their non-member friends to meet with the missionaries. He discovered the missing link. When you're talking to people not of our faith and they bring up a gospel subject, like temples or priesthood or cualquier cosa (whatever), tell them a little bit to get them interested, and then say "It's interesting that you bring that up because in about a week, the missionaries are coming over to teach about that (temples, priesthood, cualquier cosa). It would mean a lot to me if you would come join us." When they say yes, go home, phone the missionaries and say, "Hi, I'm so-and-so, and I just set up an appointment for you next week (date and time, evenings or in the middle of the week work best). The person is so-and-so, and you're going to be teaching about (temples, priesthood, cualquier cosa)." You can say it nicer, if you like, but that's the gist of what needs to be said. 

 

We have two new investigators, Dilia and Rosa Paz. We've been teaching them every night for the last half of the week, and they don't want to get baptized right now. Dilia says she wants to wait for 3 years and Rosa wants to go to church first and know for herself that it's true. The rest of our investigators aren't really progressing. The biggest problem is that Hispanics usually work or sleep on Sundays, so they don't really want to come to church at 9 in the morning. Yup. Life's great. 

 

Gotta get, but I love you all!