FBI building-looks just like Sue Thomas FBEye!

This week we were really busy. We taught a lot of lessons. We even exceeded some of our weekly goals in some areas! It's just a sign that we need to step up our game so we can keep doing better and better! :)

 

Hna. Stanford has a bit of embarrassment because she's Canadian, but she doesn't know French. She says she should because both French and English are the official languages in Canada. So, this week, for fun, we started watching "The Testments" in French! It is VERY similar to Spanish, so it was a lot of fun listening to it and saying "Oh, 'yo soy' in French sounds a lot like 'yo soy' in Spanish and it means the same thing--'I am'!"

 

Finally went to Washington D.C. today! We wanted to go to the national Spy museum, but each ticket was $21.65! Can't afford that on a missionary budget, so we went instead to see the F.B.I. building! It looks just like it does in Sue Thomas F.B.Eye! I've attached a couple of pictures of the flags and the front of the building. It was a dream come true! I loved it! We had a bit more time, so we also went to the Museum of Natural History (which was free). It was HUGE!!! There are all kinds of exhibits in there, from dinosaurs and evolution of species (Hna. Stanford loved those) to Bollywood and animal bones (which were really cool). We didn't even cover a third of what was in there. It was so cool. I didn't take any pictures, though...should have. :) Here is also a picture of me doing my "Totem Pole Smile" next to an actual totem pole, courtousy of Hna. Stanford. :)

 

 

That's the fun stuff we can do on Preparation Day. Now it's back to work!

 

As for communication on Facebook, you can like my stuff, share it (please do). All comments you make on my posts need to be missionary-related, so no "You look so cute!" comments. :) The rule for messaging is that it has to furthur the missionary work, so, for example, my companion helped bring her less-active brother back into the church and she communicated to her mom about it. So I can communicate with you if you need help with understanding the gospel, etc. Things like that.

 

Have a good week.  Love ya'all.  Hna Brown

Impressions

Tomorrow is zone conference and we have to clean the car today. :) Inside and out. 

 

We had a really good beginning of the week. We began, Monday night, with something in every one of our key indicators except one. When you begin a week like that, you know it's going to be good. We also had exchanges, which were good. I learned a lot. Then we had a miracle happen!

 

We were trying to find a member who I'm going to call Alicia. Alicia has a very strict schedule, we could only go visit her between 2 and 4 in the afternoon, according to one of her friends. We were working on our area book when Hna. Stanford had the impression, "We need to go find Alicia. Right now." And as we were preparing to go, I had the impression, "We need to talk to the first Hispanic we see."

 

We go to her apartment community and as we're going up the walk to her building, we pass a Hispanic woman who I got a tiny prompting to talk to her...And I didn't. Neither did Hna. Stanford. So we continue to the apartment and we knock. No one answers, and it comes to me that we just passed Alicia on the walk. I communicate this to my companion, and we run back the way we came, but she's gone. No hay nadie (There's nobody). Then I finally tell Hna. Stanford that I had the impression to talk to the first Hispanic we see, and we didn't. Slightly frustrated, we drive home and we decide together to never ignore another prompting like that.

 

That night, we're planning, and I get the impression (and communicate it to my companion) that 2 o'clock the next day, en punto (on the dot) we HAVE to be at Alicia's apartment. So, next day. 2 o'clock, en punto, we knock Alicia's apartment. And she's there! She let us in and we had a nice little chat. She says, "Yesterday, you passed by me. Aren't you supposed to talk to everybody?"  Yeah....call to repentence...

 

Other cool highlights of the week: We got a drunk man to pray and we have an Athiest who's going to listen to the lessons. We're so excited!

 

Life is good and it goes on in the Washington D.C. South mission! Love you all and have a good week!

Work and Play

Our president is pushing us to knock big houses. This one was just
like the house-mansions we saw in Rhode Island. It was big. And there
was a big iron gate around it. Hna. Stanford and I looked at the
house, looked at each other and said, "well, we are brave when we
knock big houses." So we said a prayer, got out of the car, and went
to open the gate. But it didn't open, there was no way through the
gate, and everything was dark inside the house....but it's ok, because, according to

Preach My Gospel: "Your success as a missionary is measured primarily

by your commitment to find, teach, baptize, and confirm people,"

 it is not measured by baptisms or how many lessons we teach.

 



 

Play: We went to a Nationals baseball game! (I've attached a picture). We were allowed to go because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints helped with a week of service event and this was our thank-you for it. Hma. Stanford and I rode the metro, and I still have "Metro moments" when I get dizzy. The Nationals won, 11-0, against the Phillies, in case anyone wanted to know. But, the good part is on the way home.

 

Work: Our mission president asked everyone in the mission to make it a productive evening by placing a Book of Mormon with someone who said they'd read it. We call this a "Book of Mormon blitz." So, the car we were in on the way home was like a twinky; There were elders (in their white shirts) standing in the center aisle of the car, teaching the people (with their red, National fan shirts) sitting in the seats on the edges of the car. Hna. Stanford talked to a lady we were sitting next to and she gave her a Book of Mormon (thanks to the nice English elders. We only had a Spanish one!).

 

As for me, I thought to myself, "How in the world are we going to place our Spanish Libro de Mormon?" because I really wanted to. Well, in comes a Hispanic man who sits across from us. One of the English elders tries to talk to him, but the language barrier gets in the way, and the conversation quickly dies. I can see the curiosity in the man's eyes of this twinky of a car and our black nametags and I knew I could speak his language and I could give him a Libro de Mormon if I just went over and talked to him......I didn't. It took 4 stops for me to work up my courage enough to go over and talk to him and at the moment I was ready to go over and say, "Hola! Como esta," he got off the metro....Dang it! I was so...humiliated, to say the least. 

 

I give this as a bad example of how to do missionary work. The best thing to do is to just do it. Just abrir su boca y hablar. Just open your mouth and speak. I learned that this weekend. The hard way.

 

Hna. Stanford and I made it home safe at 12:30 at night.

 

Also, we had a confrence where President Riggs had us rip one of our shirts to pledge our consecration to the missionary work, just like Captain Moroni did with the people in his country. It was a very powerful experience.

 

The work goes on (intermingled with play) and life is good.

 

 

Junior Companion

Our investigators are doing great! They're still coming to church and Leslie is planning her wedding (which is going to be sometime this month). Good times!

 

Something exciting happened this week: Saturday, correlation started at 9 in the morning and we had a guest speaker (which we usually don't have), so correlation ended at about 11:30. There was a baptism at noon of one of the 8-year-olds in the ward which they asked me to play piano for, so I did. The service got done at 2. We had an appointment to go to at 2, but when we called her, she didn't answer her phone, so we ate something before we headed over (Hispanics incorporate food in every occasion. It's great!). We got to the place, and it's a lock-out apartment, meaning we need a key in order to get into the apartment complex. We didn't have a key....so we waited for a few minutes and some people came along who did have a key! Turned out it was the husband of the lady who we had an appointment with. He said they weren't interested and kindly shut the door on us. We said, "Well, we're here in this lock-out apartment. We gotta do something with this miraculous opportunity!" We knew there was an old investigator, Ana, in this apartment complex we were in, so we knocked a few doors, trying to find her, and we found her! We were also able to enter and teach her for a little bit while her boys were sleeping. So, that was a cool miracle.

 

Also, on Friday, there was a woman who, thinking we were solictitors, told us we should take off our nametags, and after we left her, we talked to each other and said, "What? Take off our tags?!? This is our lifeblood; our calling; our mantle! We can't take them off!" It was one of those moments that was scary, funny, and interesting all rolled into one little chunk.

 

Transfers were this last week, but I'm staying with Hna. Stanford in Bella Vista. Yay! I like Hna. Stanford. She's fun. Bella Vista's a good place to be, too. We have only a few investigators, but they're strong, and the members are so amazing!

 

I finished my 12 week training program! I am now officially a junior companion!

 

That's all the exciting news I have this week!

 

Hermana Brown