93 degree, humid weather

3 August 2015

I'm at an Hermanas activity right now. I'm playing volleyball in the 93 degree, humid weather! :D it's ok. I'm almost used to it. The humidity, I mean. :)

Yesterday, we were in the Primary (I was playing piano). But we had forgotten that we had agreed to help in Relief Society! So, Hna. Peabody rushed over to help, and I stayed at my station on the bench. It all worked out.

The mosquitos continue to bite us. But it's ok. We'll live. :)

We had dinner on Saturday in a restaurant where a member works, and he said, "Hermanas, I'm so happy you came to visit me!" He was really cute about it. He's one of the ward missionaries.

Eventful week

 I drew this in personal study yesterday, trying to grasp more about

the plan of Salvation. My drawing skills still aren't the best in the

world...:)

Sister Frei and I at the Washington DC temple!

The temple was wonderful!

This week was eventful! We met a lot of people and taught a good amount of lessons. Our area is HUGE! We cover the Oakton Stake and half of the Ashburn Stake. City-wise, we cover Herndon, Reston, Sterling, Ashburn, and a corner of Chantilly and a corner of Great Falls. Sometimes we go into Leesburg if we have a member or an investigator up there. 

Investigator-wise, we had three who were really progressing who are just simply hard to get ahold of, so we can't teach them well, and they don't come to church, so they're not progressing as fast as they could...it's frustrating.

There was a baptism in Old Town that I went to on Saturday. It was two kids I had been teaching before I left, and the mom didn't want to give them permission before, but one day, she just had idea to give them permission, and now they're baptized! I was so happy! 

I had my first lesson with an older Hispanic who has Alzheimer's. She's so cute. She kept introducing her son to us and asking where the church was. It was cute. 

I made pancakes the other day, but I burned them and set off the smoke alarm! It was so sad, but funny, too. :) The alarm also went off when I burnt my bacon, too. Smoke alarms and I just don't get along, I guess. :) maybe I just need to refine my cooking skills. 

Other than that, there's nothing really new. Next week is going to be crazy, because we have an Hermanas activity on Monday, Spanish Forum on Tuesday, transfer meeting on Thursday, my temple trip on Friday, and the baseball game on Saturday. :) It'll be great. 

The first stranger the cat trusted

13 July 2015

This week, we found a couple with a cat and the poor kitten had just gotten her long fur trimmed back because she's a long-hair cat and it's a hot summer. She looked like a little white lion. But as we were talking to the couple, the cat came up to me, her eyes HUGE and she touched her nose to my hand. The wife said that I was the first stranger the cat trusted. It made me feel good. :) That couple was interesting. They believe in all the faiths and they read all the books that are considered holy-the Torah, the Koran, the Bible. We asked them if they had a Book of Mormon. They didn't, so we gave them one. :) Now they can read that, too!

The baptism was good! There were leftover refreshments, so the missionaries got to take a good portion of it. :) chips and soda for days, man...I'll just get some guacamole, it'll be fine! :)

I'm doing good with my Spanish goal! I'm actually a little bit ahead, which is good, because life threw some curve balls at me, like Zone Conference this Friday, we'll be going to the baseball game in August-that'll be fun for the TIWIs! I was just thinking about last year, and how we didn't get home until midnight....and the TIWIs mark if you're out later than10:30....yeah, we'll need to figure that out. :)

This week, we got a document about health-related things, like how to identify ticks and chiggers and poison ivy and hives and all that good stuff-only it gives me the heebie-geebies whenever I read it. But that's OK! It helps me to know I'm healthy, and it's good information to know. :)

This next week is zone conference. Next week, we'll also have interviews with President Huntsman. We didn't do both with President Riggs in the same transfer, but since President Huntsman is new, I guess that's why we're having both in the same transfer. I dunno.

Yesterday, I decided that I need to read the institute manuals. I've never been to institute, but I think I can learn a lot from it! So, I'm excited.

This is me, Hna. Mensinger, Hna. Moleli, and Sis. Otteman at the zoo! (Hna. Otteman is the one taking the picture, smiling at the camera)

A member gave us this interesting fruit. It looks like a red urchin, cause it's got lots of spines on it, but then you peel it open, and the fruit is white, with a white, almond-shaped seed in the middle. It's really sweet, not much flavor, but it's good! I forget what the name of it is.

This is the stainless steel mural that's in the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress. It's pretty cool. Artists are still trying to figure out how it was made.

Ordinances

6 July 2015

Well, this week has been hard. I'm going through a period of growth right now, and it hurts, but it's just growing pains, right? :) Mostly it has to deal with over-scheduling. It's very stressful, I don't recommend it. What happens is that I'll say to a person, "Yeah, we'll see you Wednesday at 7!" and then to another person I'll say, "Yeah! We'll see you at 7 on Wednesday!" And then my sweet companion Hna. Peabody or the Holy Ghost will remind me we already scheduled something for Wednesday at 7 with the first person. Then I have to go back to person #2 and explain that we already have an appointment, can we reschedule?.........Merg. It's frustrating, but oh, well. It'll all work out.

We met the Huntsmans this week! President and Sister Huntsman have 8 kids. 5 of which are still living at home. President Huntsman is a soft-spoken, small person, but he's great. We love him. Hna. Peabody and I talked to a newer sister who came out on her mission a week ago and we asked her her opinion about President Huntsman. She said, "I love him! I don't really know much of anything about President Riggs, 'cause I only knew him for a week, but President Huntsman is going to be great!" So, all around, we're all excited. :)

We got our TIWI fixed! Turns out the problem was that it was falling off the window! One of the glue dots was loose, so the technician took it off and glued it back on again, and then Elder Lowe, the fleet manager, asked us to take it for a spin. It took us to reset it before it worked properly again, but it works now!

We taught the Young Women's class yesterday! All about ordinances. So, we started off with "What's the difference between an ordinance and a covenant?" Then we listed off all the ordinances, identified the saving ordinances, and did a little practice-teach with the girls where they explained to a friend why they needed to be baptized/needed to be rebaptized. I told them there are three things baptism needs to have in order to be acceptable before God: the proper authority, the age of accountability, and it has to be by immersion. They thought that was really cool.

I have come up with an ambitious Spanish goal. I counted, and to go through one of the books I wanted to finish, about Spanish, it has 39ish grammar principles that I want to go over before I leave, and I had a little less than 12 weeks when I calculated this. So, the ambitious Spanish goal is to cover 1 grammar principle every 1 or 2 days until the Monday before my release. I'm doing really well, so far. Granted, it's only been the first few days, but it makes me excited!

This next week, there's a baptism in the ward. They asked me to play piano for it, so we'll be going and inviting everyone to come. It'll be good.

Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him

29 June 2015

My new companion is Hna. Peabody! She's from Park City, Utah and she is amazing! She didn't even know she was being transferred until transfer meeting! They called out her name and she said, "Wait, what?" Usually, we get the call two nights before that we're being transferred, but the assistants forgot to tell her district leader, so he told her she was staying. So it was a good thing it was a whole mission conference because if it wasn't, she wouldn't had known she was getting transferred, and I would have been companionless! But, she was there, so it was good. 

We had a dinner appointment, so we went to that and then went back to her old apartment to pack her up. We got home late, but we got everything except the toothbrush and the toothpaste! Those we just bought the next day. Also, we took home 2 elders in our car (yes, we are allowed to take elders to and from meetings) and 3 bikes from transfer meeting-two for the Chinese elders and one for the Russian elders. Now I know how to work a bike rack! :) We had to take it off as soon as we were done delivering the bikes because Virginia law says it's illegal to have a bike rack on if you don't have any bikes on it! The elders helped us to do that. Thank heavens for the elders!

But, yeah, we're getting along great! She's still kind of in shock from being transferred on such short notice, but she's settling in well. This is her second area.

One of the great things about goals, beyond the fact that they're not set in stone, is that often God has us set goals higher than we can reach, but He has us set those higher goals because He knows we wouldn't get to where He needs us to be if He didn't have us set those goals. When I learned that, I realized that was why I didn't make many of my goals before my mission. God helped me to set higher goals than I could reach so that I would get to where He wanted me to be, even though I felt horrible that I didn't reach those goals. Now I understand better about goal-setting, and I'm not too scared to set them anymore. :) I'm still scared, but not too much! :)

I also forgot in my email last week about how we can achieve goals. Because the ultimate goal is to be like Christ, but how do we do it? Moroni 10:32 has the answer: "Come unto Christ and be perfected in him." I love John Bytheway's explanation about this. He quotes someone about a "spiritual dyslexia" and then says "It's like not going into the doctor because you're too sick. Can you just hear the doctor?--'Mr. Jones, you look terrible. Why didn't you come in sooner?' 'I couldn't come in, doctor, I was too sick!' And the doctor says, 'but I help sick people.' Or like not going into the orthodontist because your teeth aren't straight--'What happened to your teeth?' 'Well, I couldn't come in with crooked teeth, so I straightened out my incisors with the pliers!' And the orthodontist says, 'But that's what I do.' It's not fix your car and then take it into the mechanic-- 'Honey, I can't take our car to the mechanic! Do you want him to hear the squeaky fan belt? Have you no shame?!' Then they get there and the mechanic asks, 'why does it smell like I-hop in here?' 'Oh, I put bacon grease on the fan belt.' And then the mechanic says, 'but why didn't you come to me? I fix cars! That's what I do!' It's not stop the bleeding, set the bone straight, stitch yourself up, and then go to the ER--'Dude, did you stitch yourself up with fishing line?!' 'Yeah, I couldn't find the stapler. Or the duct tape.' And the paramedics are going, 'But that's our job. That's what we do.' And this one--'Honey, I thought you were sick and asked your sister to come help you clean the house.' 'Yeah, but I don't want her to see the house in this condition!' 'But that's what housekeepers do!' And too many of us think that we have to be perfect before we come unto Christ, and Christ is saying, 'no. You'll be perfected in me. That's what I do.'" That's why I'm so grateful for the Atonement, because I know I can change through it and eventually be perfected in Him.

There's another baptism coming up! Last night, I accidentally locked us out of the apartment (left the keys on my desk), so we walked to the church while we were waiting for the elders to come bring a spare key and I got a call from some Hermana missionaries from my last area and they said, "Gilberto wants to talk to you!" So Giberto got on the line and he said, "Hermana Brown, I told you before you left that you would be the first missionary to know when I was getting baptized. I'm picking my date right now." And he picked July 18! I'm so excited! He's come such a long way! He'll need all the prayers he can get, though, so please pray for him. 

President Riggs and his family are leaving this week! From what I understand, President Huntsman and his family will fly in, and he and President Riggs will spend one day together, and then President Riggs and his family will fly out! We're going to miss President Riggs, but we know President Huntsman is going to be just as great!

So, I have a confession to make, and that is that mother knows best. I know you warned me to be well-hydrated and drink lots of electrolytes, and I thought I was doing really well! But last Monday, we taught a lesson outside, in the hot humidity, and I almost passed out. Then the next day, after district meeting, we went back home and I slept the whole day. And I feel bad because it was Hna. Mensinger's birthday! But she was ok with it. So, I'm repenting and drinking lots of water and Gatorade and the Emergen-C Now hna. Peabody is kinda suffering from heat, too, so we'll work through it together! :)

Self! You're forgiven

22 June 2015

Speaking of tornados, it's true what they say about the sky turning green before tornados. There was a tornado warming for our area on Friday and we didn't realize it, so we were out and about, driving to our next appointment and I saw the sky was turning green, like a dark marine color. Then it poured out rain and so when we ran from our car to our appointment, we got soaking wet, water pouring from our eyebrows. Then Hna. Mensinger lost her watch, so we ran back and found it in the grass. We got to eat a really interesting-looking, really sweet fruit at our appointment, though. So it was worth it. :) We stayed there until the tornado warning was gone, then we went home. And then we found texts from the zone leaders asking us if we were ok because we were supposed to text them when we got under cover, but we didn't know, so we hadn't until we got home...yeah, that was fun.

This week, I tried to make dinner rolls without a recipe. I started off with the gluten-free flour and water, then hna. Mensinger helped me figure out that I needed to put a bit of baking soda, sugar, salt, and an egg. then I made six globs of dough on the pan and put it in the oven at 450 for 20 minutes. The end result was pretty decent. They tasted a bit like crepes. Couldn't complain.

I'm buying a GPS today. Hna. Mensinger's leaving the area with transfers this week, and she's taking her GPS with her, and our area is huge, so I'm getting a GPS to know where I'm going. :)

So, because of the service activity on Monday, we split our preparation day. We emailed on Monday, and then had the rest of the time on Wednesday because of Spanish Forum on Tuesday. So, on Wednesday, Hna. Mensinger wanted to get her hair done for her birthday. She wanted highlights. We have an investigator who is a hair-styling student, and she said, "Come to my school! We'll do your hair!" So we went there (took the Metro) and when we get there, we find it's a Hispanic hair school. They weren't available until 2, and then, 3 hours later, her hair was done..Hispanic style. Three bold, bright stripes on top of her head, and a lot more interspersed throughout her hair. She was horrified and devastated. So, later, she bought some stuff and made more highlights so that it looks better now. I didn't get any highlights, though. Then we also went shopping and we got toilet paper, then came home and realized we had gotten paper towels! :) ....TP and PT...don't get the two confused! :)

Spanish Forum was good! Just about the whole thing was in Spanish, except for President Riggs' address. During Spanish Forum, a returned missionary gave a talk on the doctrine of goal-setting. Because we read in Proverbs 29:18 "Where there is no vision, the people perish." So, we need a vision. Matthew 5:8 and 3 Nephi 12:48, Christ gives us that vision-we are to be perfect. And in order to reach that vision, we need goals. Setting goals are acts of faith, and we need to set goals that have meaning for us. So, if the goals change along the way because things we need to work on change, that's ok. Because goals are not set in stone. They are changeable. When I learned that, I was a lot easier about setting goals. We were invited to make 5 goals. Bold goals. And, honestly, simply setting the goals was bold enough for me. It was hard. But now I have them, 5 little things to work on everyday and I feel like I have more purpose in my life, now that I set goals for something that I really want to do. And sure, the past haunts me, but when that happens, I say to myself, "Self! You're forgiven. You don't need to think about that anymore. Let it go. 'Era yo, mas yo no soy.'" I'm so grateful for the Atonement!

We're also finding people to teach, so that's also exciting! People are finally accepting return appointments! Yay!