Transferred to Saint Michales in Arizona!

The Quote for the week is: "If you are on the Lord's errand, do all that you can do with the talents and abilities God has given you and then lift up your heart and plead for God to hear your prayer and intervene on your behalf. Even though you may appear outnumbered, even though it appears that all is lost, our beloved Father in Heaven will reach out and take you by the hand. He will fight your battles! He will come to your aid!"

Yat-teh-hey!

This week was good! We have been teaching some younger children so we've been trying to make the lessons fun! So what we've done for a couple of our lessons is played spiritual CPR (Church, Pray, Read) Jenga. We bought a Jenga game and wrote some scriptures that go along with each of the topics and when one of them was pulled out we would read it and discuss it. Our younger investigators have really enjoyed it!

Friday the Elders had a baptism that we were able to attend! It was really good. Then on Saturday morning I was Emergency Transferred to St. Michaels!  The reservation!!!! In fact the only area on the reservation that Sisters are allowed to serve on at the current moment! :) And to make things even greater I'm with Sister Cardon again! I'm also with Sister Ledford! They are both just so fantastic! I will be here for the rest of the transfer. I have no idea if I'll stay any longer than that! So if packages are sent it would be best to send them to the mission office. 

For letters send to:   

                               Sister Jenny Brown

                               P.O.Box 203, 

                               St.Michaels, AZ 86511. 

For packages send to: 

                               Sister Jenny Brown

                               New Mexico Farmington Mission

                               400 W Apache St

                               Farmington NM 87401

                               United States

St. Michaels is great so far! I was actually surprised to see a couple of white people here, but most are Navajo! I've been able to learn some more Navajo since being here too! 

We were able to watch the Women's General Broadcast on Saturday night and it was so good! What I got out of it was to have more charity and to keep or gain a "bedrock understanding" of the doctrine of Christ! Our companion motto now is "Fourth floor, Last door!" because of Uchtdorf's talk!

The ward here is very small but so strong in their testimonies. This Sunday was testimony meeting and I felt the spirit very strongly as they testified! It is humbling to see the conditions that many of these people live in. I am so grateful for the many things I have been blessed with all my life! It's funny the things that we take advantage of and don't really appreciate as much until they are gone! 

Some of the hardest times I've faced have been on my mission and I'm sure it will only get harder! But those are the times that you are refined and draw nearer to God! 

I want ya'll to know that I love this gospel so much! I am so grateful for my trials and weaknesses because they help me to grow and draw nearer to my Father in Heaven! I love my Heavenly Father so much and am striving to rely on him always! I am weak and very imperfect but through Christ I can be made strong!

I love you all so much!

Ha-go-nee!

Sister Brown!

My new companions Sister Cardon and Sister Ledford

Temple Trip!

Yah-teh-hey!

This week was a little slow and a little bit rough! We had exchanges on Saturday though and that was nice to be able to see Sister Southam and get to know her a little bit better while Sister King was in Holbrook. We had 3 less Actives and 3 investigators show up to church this week which was awesome! We hardly ever have Less actives come....and if they do it's only ever sacrament meeting, but all three of these less actives stayed for all three hours! In sacrament meeting Sister King accidentally dropped the bread sacrament tray and bread went all over! I felt kinda bad for her, but that didn't keep me from laughing! The best part was that she took that embarrassing moment and laughed about it!

We got to go to the Snowflake temple yesterday! (Hence the reason there was no e-mail on Monday) I got to see Sister Cardon at the temple! And Brother Miller's father is the temple president there in snowflake and he and his wife said they were looking for a Sister Brown from whitefish...I was like "I'm Sister Brown!" (I knew that they were brother miller's parents, but I had completely forgot about it until they brought it up). They were like "we were at your farewell" and I started crying out of happiness and gratitude for this tender mercy and said "yes! I remember!" They both gave me a big hug! They are going to be coming to whitefish in a week or two so make sure to look out for them! The temple was a much needed day of peace and rest from daily hardships and labors!

Best Pajama's ever!

Sister Olive! 99 year old widow! Her famous one liner: "well you know: step by step!"

Nasty huge beetle on the temple grounds

At the Snowflake Temple with the Sisters from the Southern part of the mission.

Me with my trainer Sister Cardon

Me and my companions

Opps, I look like a tourist!

I am willing to give up everything I love to the God I love more!

Yat-teh-hey!

Sorry I haven't had time to send pictures in a while, so the ones that I am sending are from this past week and previous ones too!

This week we had exchanges so I was in Hollbrook with Sister Monson on Wednesday! While I was there in Hollbrook there was this member that we saw who on our way out was trying to close the door and it wouldn't close. She tried a couple times and was like "why won't it close.....ohhhh" then yelled inside "I got the frog!" haha, She was trying to close the door and this frog (that has apparently been bothering them) was stuck in the hinges!!! I couldn't stop laughing! haha poor frog!

Then Thursday I rolled my ankle but it seems to be doing ok! Saturday was Vanessa's baptism and it went well!

She was sooooo nervous! (she doesn't like being the center of attention!)

Sunday an investigator of ours that we finally saw this week came to church!!!! She seemed to enjoy it!

Deb actually won't be getting baptized on the 17th.  She needs more time. We don't think that she is ready yet. 

I printed out the temple name I found when we went to the family history center. We haven't gone to the temple yet...we go on the 19th! I am so excited!

I am so grateful for this Gospel! I am so grateful for the priesthood power and for men who are worthy to hold it! I am willing to give up everything I love to the God I love more! He has given me everything and deserves my all! I am giving up my frustrations, anger, pride, selfishness and weaknesses to him because I know that I can't do it on my own!

Vanessa ready for baptism!

Vanessa after she was baptized
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I got my ears pierced!

Sister Hillam, Sister King and Sister Brown We are in a threesome right now.

Me jumping in the puddles a few weeks back from the game we were playing "What are the odds"

Me on the rock in a picture of our hike a couple of weeks ago. 

Elder Brurude pretending to hold Simba!

5 months!

Yat-te-hey!

This week was pretty good.  A little bit of an adjustment getting used to having an additional sister, but it's good! Time is going by so fast I have already been out for 5 months! 

We were finally able to see Bernell and Nichole again. It seems like it's been years since we've seen them! They decided that they want to push their baptism AGAIN to February!

We were able to help a less active lady clean her house. She has a one month old and two other children.  Her husband is hardly ever home and on top of it she may have broken her ankle/foot, so she really needed the help! 

Deb still wants to be baptized on the 17th but she has a little bit of a hang-up on tithing.  After "digging into it" a little more she basically has a little lack of faith.  She says that she knows heavenly Father will take care of her but she doesn't necessarily trust it right now.  It's going to be a big leap of faith for her for sure!

Vanessa is still just on fire! She is getting baptized this Saturday! I'm so excited for her!

This week was a little bit rough.  A lot of our lessons fell through and so we found ourselves struggling to find people to teach, but those lessons that we did have were really good!

To lighten the mood a little, we played the game "what are the odds" as we went from house to house. I ended up having to jump into a big puddle!

I also got my ears pierced!

I love you all so much!

Love,

Shidasha Brown

Back to Gallup 1st ward!

Yat-teh-hey!

We are back in Gallup 1st ward!!!! We also will be in a trio...Sister Hillam, Sister King and I. I've met Sister King before on exchanges and she is just darling, I love her already so I am excited to have her join us. I am a little worried about having a trio. I don't want anyone to feel like they are a third wheel and that can sometimes happen when there are three of us. I have the same address.

This week was a little bit crazy once more, because we switched back to First Ward mid week after talking to president. I taught the young women how to make some jewelry on wednesday night for YW's. They really enjoyed it and now Kim Chee is begging her mom to buy her some wire and beads! haha! 

Deb finally decided on an actual date to be baptized!!!! She originally wanted June (of next year), then changed her mind to January and now she actually will be baptized on September 17th!!!!! She is so excited and I am so excited for her! It's been really cool to watch her progression! When we first started seeing her she said that she would never be baptized.  Now look where she's at! We were over at Deb's house on the 26th and celebrated Dailen's birthday, by having spaghetti and garlic bread and watching Ephraim's rescue with her! Deb even took a video of us singing happy Birthday to him on her phone and sent it to him!

Vanessa Also is going to be baptized on Sept. 10th! We finished up the lessons with her on Saturday. She also bought us these really cool coloring books with little religious sayings in them like "Pray always" and things like that.

One thing that the temporary switch helped me realize is just how much I truly love these people in the Gallup 1st area! I was heart broken a few days ago because Sylvia decided that she wanted to go back to her traditional ways to find happiness and peace and she no longer wants to be baptized. The hard thing is that I saw the joy that she has been searching for start to enter her life and now it is just gone! She is back to the way she was and its so sad because she doesn't see that she was truly starting to be happy! To make things even worse her daughter (Justine) really wants this and is so engrossed in the Book of Mormon, she is so ready to be baptized, but she can't have it because we don't want her baptized into inactivity...with her mom not really wanting it anymore. Seeing how far she had gotten only to turn away truly broke my heart!

Then Yesterday we had Stake Conference which was soooo good!

I love you all and hope all is well! Keep having tons of fun! I pray for you often!!!

Love,

Shidasha Brown