On my way to New Mexico

On Monday I woke up at 2:30am and got ready to get on a train to ride to the airport. 

I got to call home and talk with my family while waiting for my flight. I fly to Denver and then to Durango from there we are driven to Farmington. I will stay the night at the Mission home.  Tuesday I will be assigned my companion and area. Mondays will be my Preparation day so I will not be able to email until next Monday.

Sister Brown at the Airport after talking to her family.

I had an eye opener when I was ask to think and answer some questions  in my journal about the things I have learned in the last few weeks.  I realized I have grown a lot in my testimony and understanding of the Gospel a lot more then I realized. I now understand that my job as a missionary is to invite and help others come unto Christ.

I had a neat experience with Domonic our investigator. I really felt the love that God has for him. It was an amazing feeling.

Sundays at the MTC are not much different then other days but a little.  We get to walk around the temple grounds in the morning for a half an hour which I really enjoy doing. Then we go to Relief Society, have a district meeting and then lunch.  After that we have Sacrament meeting and a few other things.

I didn't have that much more of  responsibilities as a sister trainer leader which is the Equal to a Zone leader.  I got to carry around a phone which I never used. And I checked in with the other sisters in the other district to see how they were doing.

Now my journey begins. My mission President and his wife are wonderful. I am excited and a little anxious to get to work.

An amazing Week!

Liz and Sister Brown

Look who the Lord sent to Sister Brown to help her know God knows her and loves her.

I was so happy to see Liz this week! I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw her!

I have an amazing district! they are seriously the best! half are going to Colorado Springs, CO and the other half are going to Farmington NM! I forgot to tell you last week that we get to go to the temple each week on our preparation day.

So many things happened this week that I don't even know where to start! This week was sooo amazing though! First of all my companion and I are the New STL's (Like district leaders but for sisters) until we leave which will be Monday the 25th.

When it comes to TRC investigators we only get them for a week and then we get to teach other TRC investigators the next week, but we actually got to keep Domonic this week!! He is the sweetest man you'll ever meet! He thought Saturday was going to be his last day with us, so he brought us flowers and gummy bears! Also Domonic is so Amazing we never have to commit him to anything because he commits himself before we can even get to it!!! 

Sister Anderson, Domonic, Sister Brown

Flowers that Domonic gave us.

I have grown to truly love the Book of Mormon with all of my heart! We did this thing called a book of mormon read, in class and we were supposed to write down a question that we wanted answered but regarding to our investigators needs and so we chose one of our investigators named Andy...the question we were searching an answer for was: "what can Andy do to draw closer to Christ?" the Amazing thing that happened is that the chapter we were reading to seek revelation was Ether 12 where the whole chapter is on faith. The answers that I received to that question didn't necessarily have anything to do with faith! The answers I received were that Andy needed to pray more earnestly and believe that God will answer his prayers and also that he needs to apply Christ's atonement in his life! We then taught Andy that night and because of that revelation, that we had received, we went into the lesson, and I don't even fully remember how we started or anything, but we talked about the atonement and how God and Christ love us so much that Christ came down to earth of his own free will to take upon him the sins of the world! We also mentioned that we have to be willing to forgive ourselves for the things we've done...God is willing to forgive, but we have to forgive ourselves as well! The spirit was so strong and Andy completely opened up to us about an experience that happened in his past and he feels that he doesn't deserve forgiveness! I was amazed at how he just completely opened up to us!

Our district with one of our teachers on his last night with us...brother Slavens! He's the one in street clothes (he was pretending to be an investigator for some teaching purposes, and so he decided to dress in street clothes to make it more real for his last night)

Another experience that I had this week was while we were Role playing in class...we were supposed to pretend to be an investigator...we were to be ourselves but at a time in our life where things were really difficult, and then image us without the gospel at that point! The first thing that popped in my head was when Grandpa Brown died (probably because it was the most recent)...so I went back to that time in my head, and then imagined myself not knowing that I would see him again and I literally started crying in class! I felt completely hopeless and devastated! I truly saw just how devastating his death would be without the gospel in my life! I realized just how much the Gospel means to me in my life, and I had this immense desire to let everyone know about the gospel! I don't want anyone to feel that death is the end! I want everyone to know just how much God loves us and that we truly can see our families again after death!

One of our new TRC investigators is named Kensey...she has read the B of M many times and even gone to BYU and church! she's prayed about the B of M multiple times and she feels that she still has no idea if it's true or not! after a few lessons with her, we have come to realize that she is comfortable where she's at in life...she says she really wants to know that the Book of Mormon is true, but what I see is that because she is perfectly fine with where she's at, she doesn't realize that she doesn't want to know that it's true as badly as she thinks she does! I want to help her so bad, but what it really comes down to is that she is going to have to realize that she really does need more in her life, and I'm not sure how I can help her do that!

Also there was a talk that we got to watch last week that is so insightful and amazing! It's called the Characters of Christ, by Elder Bednar. Find it and watch it or read it! It will change your life!

We also had a Devotional where the BYU Men's choir came in and sang to us....they are so good! The last song they sang, they played a video with it, about Christ and his atonement and I could feel the spirit very strongly!

I got my flight plans last Friday! I fly out of Salt Lake and have a layover in Denver then fly to Durango...we are then driven from there to farmington!

Sister Brown at the MTC

They have some pretty amazing art work at the MTC

MTC schedule and pictures

My companion and I decided we would do half of our emailing this morning, and half this afternoon!

A normal day in the MTC is CRAZY! 

• We wake up at 6:30 although the sisters in my room (myself included) wake up at 6 so that we can get ready in time to actually be in our classroom by 7:00.
• We sing a song, say a prayer, and go to breakfast.
• After that we have classroom instruction with a teacher (usually) and personal and companion study.
• A lot of the time we are alone with our district to learn things ourselves which is very different than what I'm used to!
• Lately we have a TRC investigator to go teach in the morning as well (that has been 45 min. long for us)
• Then we have lunch after lunch it's more studying and what not.
• We have our second TRC investigator around 3:30. Then more study sometimes after that.
• Dinner then more classroom instruction with a teacher...a lot of the time we teach them as if they were/are an investigator too!
• Eventually we get back to our rooms around 9:15pm or later and get ready for bed, write in our journals etc. and let me tell you what, by the end of the day, I am Exhausted!
• For exercise I run a mile (and sometimes more...I'm working my way up) then I play volleyball with some of the other missionaries in my district and zone, I have used some of the arm machines here too every once in a while!

I leave the MTC the 25th of April and we actually can possibly call home before we leave! 

Sister Jenny Brown and My companion Sister Taylor Anderson from Manassa, Colorado! 

Our outfits on the first day were so similar, it made me laugh! She  has a younger sister that will be going on her mission  soon...I believe she is going to Germany? Sister Anderson is going to Farmington New Mexico like me.

This is my district (with the map) starting from the back (left to right) it's Elder Blatter (pronounced Blotter...he's the District Leader), Elder Nacua, Elder Lee, and Elder Ronneberg
In the front is Sister Deim (pronounced dime), Sister Baughman (pronounced Bockman), Sister Angilau, Sister Smotherman, Sister Brown then Sister Anderson.

 Elder Ronneberg, Elder Nacua, Elder Lee, Elder Blatter

The sisters in our zone...minus Sister Deim and Sister Boughman!

                              

Elder Durst and Elder Cardnel from our zone
that were taking selfies with my camera!

Elder Durst eating Elder Blatters banana 

without him knowing.

           

Elder Blatter, Elder Nacua, Elder Lee, Elder Ronneberg, Branch President Marks,and the other Elders in our Zone.

Provo Temple

A roller coaster of emotions

I have had so many amazing experiences at the MTC already! Everything is going great! I feel a little inadequate, but I know that with time that will pass, and I have faith that the lord will strengthen me! My companion is Sister Taylor Anderson from Manassa, Colorado! She is great! 

For your Information there is a website called dear elder that you can email me at, then they print them out at the MTC here and it's like receiving a letter...my mailbox number is 56! I don't have much time to write today, but all is well and I Love you all so much! 

(The above information was written Last Thursday only one Day in the MTC)

Where to start! It has been a rough but good week! the MTC is seriously like the biggest roller coaster of emotions ever! Sorry I forgot to tell you last week that my p-days here are Thursdays!

I've learned a lot of things, and I have never doubted the things I knew until now, which shows me just how real satan is! I got a priesthood blessing a few days back because I felt that I was having a hard time feeling the spirit...after the priesthood blessing I felt so good the rest of the night and even into the next morning, but then we taught one of our TRC investigators (investigators that are sometimes members pretending and sometimes real investigators...but you don't know which ones are which) and she shut us down on everything we taught, and she knows the bible like the back of her hand and so it was really hard...it was after that, that I had so many doubts. Satan has been working so hard on me, but that has helped me want to be stronger than ever! 

We have done better with our next few visits with our TRC investigators. One who we know is actually a real investigator, because he flat out told us that he was the real deal! He knows a lot about the gospel already but he's heard the same lessons over and over it seems.  Sister Anderson and I have been teaching him about things that he doesn't know about yet like the Word of Wisdom and temples! 

A cool story actually, Sister Anderson felt that we needed to teach Dominic (our real investigator) about temples but she didn't tell me that yet, she said she felt like she knew what we should teach him about next but she wanted to see what I came up with first.  I prayed and thought about it and the two things that I felt he needed to learn  was baptism and/or temples. I told my companion and she was like, I have felt that we need to teach him about temples! When we got to the lesson, we told Dominic that we had been praying to know what to teach him and that we both agreed it should be on temples. Come to find out he had been thinking about temples the night before! Dominic has strong faith in God.

There is so much more I could tell you, but honestly I don't know if I can remember all that has happened this week! It feels as if I've been here for months!

love,

Sister Brown

The Beginning of a wonderful Spirit filled adventure.

 Sister Jenny Brown arrived at the Provo 

Mission Training Center on April 6th, 2016. 

                                                                     

Sister Brown was to be dropped off at 12:30. So we came early to take pictures and give our last goodbyes. Across the street is the Provo Temple and Missionary Field. Here we spent the last few minutes with our daughter and enjoyed her excitement and anticipation as the time drew near.
What an amazing experience to see your daughter grow and mature and have a great desire to serve the Lord.

Sister Brown will be learning at the Provo MTC for a few weeks and then will be serving in the New Mexico Farmington Mission. This is the 4 corners area which includes Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. 

Sister Brown stands across the street with the MTC in the background, on the missionary field.

Dropping her off was a very quick get the luggage out, hug one last time, smile quick for a picture, and she was led away by a sweet British sister missionary. Then mom tears started to come as we drove away leaving our precious daughter in the care of the Lord. She will be missed but we are excited to hear all her wonderful experiences these next 18 months will bring for her.