Now in Gallup 2nd ward!

Yat-teh-hey!

One downside to the mission...not being able to go to the temple as often as I would like...but we get to go next month!!! 

Wow this week has been one of the craziest of my life!!!! No joke!!! I don't want to explain the whole situation (for one because of time and for two I would hate to have anyone's reputation ruined) I'll explain the situation to you in 14 months (ahhh. I don't like that...too soon!) Basically Sister Hillam and I have been emergency Transferred into Gallup 2nd ward instead of 1st. There is nothing to worry about, we are/were not in any kind of danger. President Adams and our stake president talked together and just felt that this was best! We get Transfer news this upcoming Saturday, so we'll see what happens then.  In the mean time we are working with the Zone Leader's (Elder Thompson and Elder Hozman) in Gallup 2nd ward. To make things clear there are no missionaries in 1st ward and two sets in 2nd. It's been very interesting.  Essentially our companionship is in a way companions with their companionship. We have to do our daily and weekly planning with them in a member's home and we have Dinner Appointments together.  We may even be doing some teaching appointments together! It's been a little hard. We feel that we have to rely on the Elder's a lot to know what to do or where to go and we hate feeling like we are not self-reliant! It's been insane trying to get the whole situation figured out! Luckily we do however get to still teach a few people in the first ward. Those that are really progressing towards baptism like Vanessa, Sylvia and her Family, Bernell and Nichole, and Deb and we also get to still teach the Chee family because they are recent converts and we would hate to lose them! We saw Vanessa that week and she has been doing great! She is so sweet and so ready!

Our stake conference is coming up and we have two area seventy coming! I'm so excited for next Sunday (that's when it is)!!! And Deb is looking so forward to it too!

Since we have been working in 2nd ward we have been seeing this widowed Navajo lady named Margie that the elders don't get to see as often (unless they can find a member to come). She came to church yesterday!!! Which is a big deal! We were just super bold with her and told her that she needed to throw away the alcohol. We told her it was not going to make her happy or get rid of the problems she is facing.  She has been cutting back on it and we've seen some improvement just within a few days! 

Anyway all is well...just a little hectic...and crazy...and exciting...and stressful...and frustrating...and a whole mixture of feelings....but other than that all is well!

I love you all and hope that all is well.  I constantly keep you all in my prayers!

Love,

Shidasha Brown!

Me and Sister Southam

Mary! Our 99 year old investigator...that we no longer can teach...glad we got pics!

Me, Vanessa!!!! Sister Hilliam

I found the Pineapple!

Washing Sylvia's dishes! Evan stole my camera haha!
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Cookie-cutter missionary!

Yat-teh-hey!

We actually got to do a little bit of "camping" with a member this week at a dinner appointment. The Hansen Family (who are like my favorite ever...like family away from home!) we went down to their camping spot on their property and made ka-bobs over the camp fire and had watermelon and guacamole and fresh homemade salsa! It was great to feel like I was part of a family for a little bit! Brother Hansen also was talking about going by the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law and how missionaries get so caught up on rules sometimes that they aren't themselves and turn into just another "cookie-cutter missionary"...I really needed to hear that because I realized that that is kinda what I was turning into...a cookie-cutter missionary...I was not being myself...The Lord has called me...sister Brown...he needs Sister Brown...not just another missionary!  This week has been much better than last! 

We saw Vanessa a couple times this week and she is progressing so much! She is so ready for baptism we might just push her date up to the end of August if she is good with it! She is such a sweet heart too! I love her! She gave us some veggies from her garden too!...We got some jalapenos from her!!! :)

Sylvia and Justine are progressing quite a bit too! especially Justine! We saw her earlier this week and she was like...Did Nephi really cut off his head?! and then put his armor on?!...and then take that guy with him?! we were like: "yea, he did" ...haha then she said: "man, this is getting good!"

She (Justine) wants to go to seminary too!...we didn't even bring it up either...she did! Unfortunately one of their uncles died unexpectedly on Saturday so they were out of town with family on Sunday and couldn't come to church, which means they can't be baptized at the end of August like they wanted to (and like we had planned for).

We also had exchanges this week with Hollbrook sisters. I was in Gallup with Sister Southam on Saturday! she is new to the field (only been here for 4 weeks!) She is a sweet-heart though! 

The Elders were finally able to have a baptism this weekend too (which we were able to attend because Deb came along!!!) I'm happy for them! They've been working hard and definitely earned it!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Shidasha Brown

I understand fully the importance of sincere prayer!

This week was a little rough for me emotionally, I won't go into many details, but I want you to know that I have grown so much because of it and I am grateful for the hardships that Heavenly father has given me so that I have the chance to grow! I am so grateful for the power of the priesthood on the earth today and for worthy men who are willing and able to exercise their priesthood power whenever called upon! I know that my Heavenly Father loves me, and almost more importantly I know that I love my Heavenly Father! He has given me everything and I have never felt so much love for him before as I have this week! I understand fully the importance of sincere prayer and how I can turn to my heavenly father with anything! I know that these people in Gallup need me and that my Heavenly Father needs me here to help them find the truth!

We were able to see Vanessa a few times this week and she is doing so stellar! I swear she would probably get baptized without us...She is already living like everything within the gospel! She already had a testimony of the Book of Mormon too, she is just so awesome, and truly a blessing!

Sylvia and her Family are right on tract too! They are stellar people! They were all ready to go to church and really excited to go, but the ride that we had arranged for them never showed up...apparently there was some miscommunication or something!

We also saw Kimiko this week and she is going through a rough time! I just want to help her so badly! We weren't able to have a lesson with her or anything but we were able to let her know that we are here for her and she can give us a call if she ever needs to. We plan on seeing her sometime this week, so hopefully she is available, because she truly needs the happiness that this gospel brings!

Oh also Vanessa has this little niece who is one of the cutest, sassiest little girl's on the planet! She and our ward mission leader's girl would get along very well...both adorable and very much have a personality (think of Macy Knapp with possibly even more little girl attitude)

Deb still wants to be baptized but isn't sure when and she seems to be going about a lot of this logically. We are going to be keeping her in our prayers for sure and are going to have to help her understand that logic can only get her so far. We aren't entirely sure how to help her yet, but we have confidence that she will come around.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Shidasha Brown

It down poured!...monsoon season is here.

Yes...those are spider webbs! gross!!!

Lots of sunflowers grow around here and I love it!

Justine! One of my favorite people on the planet! (she is Sylvia's daughter)

Evan! One of the cutest little kids ever! (he is also Sylvia's child)

I am glad I am one of the missionaries that helped get two more people baptized.

Ya-te-hey! 

Funny you should ask about baptisms being postponed  because Bernell and Nichole who were on date for Aug. 30th to get married and baptized postponed until September 22nd because that is their anniversary of being together. And as for Sylvia and her family they came to church this Sunday except one of them and so the one won't be able to be baptized when the rest are because of certain requirements. So they might all potentially get bumped into the first week of September instead.

Words In Navaho that I know are shidasha which means sister (technically little sister) and hagoonee means goodbye and Gamalee (which I've used a couple times instead of shidasha) means Mormon. Atsili means younger brother, Shima means mom.

This week has been full of laughs with sister Hillam...she is so stinking funny! 

We met with Vanessa again this week and she is on date for baptism for September 10th!!! She said that it just feels right! We love her so much!!! Also this week we tried a couple of potential investigators and there was one who let us in and we were super excited only to find out that she let us in essentially so that she could teach us her religion instead and sort of bash on ours. She started saying some stuff about Joseph Smith that was not ok with us. Sister Hillam stopped her in her tracks and hit her with the spirit hard! She Bore one of the most powerful testimonies I have heard in a long time! We don't have her as a new investigator by any means but we did all we could! 

We talked to a kid named Daren and Gave him a Book of Mormon and as we were walking away saying goodbye he said "oh, um and I don't do drugs!" and we had to try so hard not to laugh! we were like "oh....um good! drugs are bad for you! keep it up!"

We taught Bernell and Nichole again and we talked about priesthood blessings. Bernell had gotten a priesthood blessing a while back and he talked about how they put the oil on his head. He was like "I just want to take a bath in that stuff!" Haha, we laughed so hard and explained that the oil on it's own (even though consecrated) wouldn't do anything...its when it's coupled with the blessing and his faith that it works!

Frank and Kim got Baptized this weekend and after the baptism we went into the bathroom to find Kim crying...we asked her if everything was ok and she said: "Yes, I'm just so happy!" I gave her a big long hug and she sniffling said "thanks for everything!" That melted my heart like crazy! She has had a long road, that lead her here and I'm glad that I was one of the missionaries that got to help her get to baptism!

We watched 17 Miracles with Deb this week and she loved it!!!

This week was overall pretty good!

Love you all! 

Hagoonee!

Shidasha Brown

Frank and Kim got Baptized this weekend!

We wrote this with chalk for one of our people that we've been trying and haven't been able to get a hold of.

Ha ha ha Eye lashes on the car!

When missionaries get bored and are waiting for people to show up for their baptismal fitting. The cup game.
Sister Hilliam