The Gospel Truly brings Joy!

Ya' ta' hey!

I love moments where a scripture or experience that you've had and forgot about or an analogy or whatever it may be comes to your head and it helps the person your teaching understand! #teachingbythespirit!

My week was wonderful! The Gospel truly brings joy! To be honest I don't remember half of what happened this week because it went by so fast, but I'll do my best to remember!

Monday night we had a lesson with Mike (a less-active). We talked about enduring to the end and really having a reason to keep going and to fight against Satan. We talked a little bit about the title of liberty. Javier (an incredible member that is helping fellow ship Mike) gave a lot of really great insights in the lesson. The spirit was definitely present and I cannot express just how much I love Mike and seeing the progression in him! I know that he's going to make it to the temple someday and he will find that lasting happiness that I know he's looking for. We actually had a second lesson with him later on in the week and we talked about the Word of Wisdom. It went really well and we built off of a great analogy that he started. Mike learns so much better when there is an analogy involved! 

Tuesday we finally saw Joe again! He became a new investigator about a month ago. He is soooo prepared by Heavenly Father. The only struggle is being able to meet with him on a regular basis. We read the first chapter in the Book of Mormon with him and the spirit felt so good during the lesson. He really opened up a lot more by the end of the lesson and asked all sorts of questions. We were able to clear up some confusion that he had from what a preacher from another church had said. I hardly know this kid, but I seriously love him so much! I wish he could see his potential!

Wednesday we saw Malachi (a less-active) who has been struggling lately. He feels like Satan is just working so hard on him. We also had a brief lesson with him on Sunday and he said he got a priesthood blessing for help and he also got his temple recommend!

We finally saw Arlo (a less-active) on Wednesday for a lesson and read the Book of Mormon with him, and just really dived in! Arlo is a deep thinker and very spiritual. We also saw him Thursday for another lesson and Sunday we had an unplanned lesson with him too! He was able to tell us his conversion story (which makes me just want to work even harder! I love conversion stories!!!) We were able to help him remember why he decided to get baptized in the first place. He said he would come to Family Home Evening tonight and church on Sunday! 

Wednesday night we were finally able to have Cassie's first recent-convert lesson and it went soooooooo well! She doesn't even quite realize her own conversion but through asking a lot of inspired questions we were able to recognize the point of her conversion process.

Thursday we had zone training all on Christ-like attributes and we did Family History with Cassie! We are trying to help her find a name to take to the temple for the temple trip that the Young Single Adults have this up-coming Saturday! She was getting really into it!

Saturday we had our volley-ball tournament that we've been planning for a while. We had a great turnout! There ended up being a whole team of non-members and the other teams had a few less-actives and/or some non-members. There ended up being about 7 or 8 non-members. None of them accepted an invitation to learn about the church but the team of non-members won and the prize is a BBQ dinner put on by our branch mission leader and of course we are going to go and share a little message!

Then to top off the incredible week, yesterday was Fast-Sunday! Seriously my favorite! Call me crazy, but I love fasting and fast-Sundays!

I love you all so very much! Never forget who you truly are! Have a wonderful week!

love,

Shidasha Debelchee (Sister Brown)

We sticky-note attacked Antonio's door!...Surprise him with inspiration and love!

   Grumbling Gretchen has been quite annoying from friday 

and on this week!....our fridge's moter (we think anyway) has
been making really loud  annoying noises and we think
that its about to die.

Kammie and some other members made us t-shirts for the
Volley-ball tournament! Haha...inside jokes are the best!

Back of shirt

Daily Miracles!

Ya' te' hey!
My week was soooo good and flew by, but at the same time it seems like the things that happened this week were ages ago!....mission time is weird.

The Branch fast is going great! We've been seeing little miracles every single day and this past Sunday the sign up sheet got completely filled! My fast is going pretty well. A lot of the things on my list I've already improved on and so its been great!

This week we were finally able to see Manuel. He's still trying to pick himself up after all that's been going on in his life.

We had exchanges this week and I got to be in Kirtland (no...not Ohio) for a day with Sister Elwood. Unfortunately that means that I missed institute and meeting with Austin. That was our last lesson with him because he's going back to Albuquerque, he did give us a referral though! :)

Thursday night we had dinner with our branch mission leader (we found out latter that he got engaged to his girlfriend a few days after) #YSAproblems.

Friday we were finally able to see Joe again, we didn't have time for a full on lesson but we were at least able to re-schedule and talk to him after what seems like forever! 

Saturday was kinda funny, we were doing some tracting and found out that where we were tracting is where our district leader and his companions live...haha. Later that night we were trying some people in the 3rd ward area (the area of the AP's who are the other elders that are in our district) and we ran into them. To make it even funnier, we were knocking on the same floor of these apartment complexes, just on the other end. After no one answered we went on to try someone else in the next apt complex over. The next thing we know the elders are right behind us once again trying someone on the same floor just on opposite ends! Haha #StalkingTheDistric all day Saturday! The Young Single Adults is definitely a different experience considering everyone else's area is also our own.

Yesterday we had dinner with Kammie! We had taco soup and it was delicious! and we were able to have a lesson with Thomeson! He opened up a lot more this time and he is going to work towards the temple! :)

I hope you all have the most wonderful week!

Hagoonee!

Sister Brown

On Exchange with Sister Elwood.

         Fun awkward hugs after companion prayers are the best!

Daily Miracle #'s (Hashtags)

A little background on this: I think it was Monday night, as we were saying companionship prayers the idea popped in my head that we should text a daily miracle to the district leader with a # or two. Well, We decided to make it a daily thing and now they text one back and the other Elders in our district text the district leader too and then he forwards the miracles to us! We really liked a lot of the #'s so we decided to make a wall with the daily #'s! It helps us recognize Heavenly Father's hand in our day and helps us become more unified as well! I love it!

Through the hard times, you have the opportunity to be refined and turned into something better!

Ya' Ta' Hey!

My week was crazy! I always try to make my emails sound cheery and happy because you don't need to hear about all of the negative stuff, plus who wants to remember them anyway. People always make missions sound like they are nothing but fun and success. Can I just be real for a second...Life is hard, It's not always fun and happy, its full of trials, ups and downs. My week was hard, but I am grateful for it! Through a mission, through the hard times, you have the opportunity to be refined, polished and turned into something better. Life isn't always happy or easy, even with the gospel, but it is always worth it!  When you turn everything over to God, and I mean everything: your wants, wishes and desires, the good as well as the bad, You begin to truly see outside yourself and look at the greater picture. Heavenly Father knows what is best, even when we don't. When you truly love your Father in Heaven more than anything or anyone else, you begin to truly see what is important...his will and not yours! 

I won't go into details of my hardships, because that's not what's important, the important things are the growth that has been made and the over all outcome and refinement of it all!

Know that I am soooo grateful for a Father in Heaven who cares! I truly love him more than life! I am so Grateful for the priesthood and for worthy men who hold it. To you worthy priesthood holders: Thank you, I mean really thank you for being worthy of God's power, to bless the lives of others! 

Miracles still happen! God lives and he cares, truly cares about each and every person! Trust him, rely on him and he will make you more than you can ever make of yourself!

Our branch started a 40 day fast for missionary work (a different branch member fasts for one day, for 40 consecutive days) and it will be over the Friday before General Conference. Sister Thompson and I decided to also do our own 40 day fasts, but not from food instead it will be from things that poke at the spirit. There are sure to be miracles this transfer, not only with-in missionary work, but with-in ourselves as well! I am excited to see where the Lord takes us!

I love you all so very much! Have a wonderful week!

Hagoonee!

love,

Sister Brown

Sister Thompson, Cassie's Baptism, Sister Brown

Made Breakfast for my companion.

 

Gave Kammie a smoothie and cookies

Washed dishes for this family

We painted prayer rocks.

We helped carry in dinner with some members. 

Sister Thompson made my bed.

Sister Thompson made me a Planner cover.

We gave Cassie cookies

Mission Tour with Elder Arnold. I am 3rd person on the left 2nd row up.

A goal for 23 acts of Service in a day!

Ya' te' hey!

We had a really nice sunny week until Sunday and today it's snowing. 

This week flew by! Probably because preparation day was on Tuesday. Tuesday night we got to teach Austin again and he is doing soooo well! He is preparing for a mission and had a lot of questions! The spirit was very strong in that lesson and it was incredible!

Wednesday was Sister Thompson's 23rd Birthday and I made her breakfast! She wanted to do 23 acts of service on her birthday to help her stay turning outward to others. We only were able to get 8, but oh well. I loved the Idea and I think I'll do the same for my birthday (only it will be 21).

We had a lesson with Cassie Wednesday night about the temple again just to help her focus her sights on the temple since that is her next step! Also that night we had dinner with some of the Young Single Adults and we gave them 8 minutes to make a list of every non-member they know and have known. We then all got down on our knees and prayed and asked Heavenly Father who on their lists are ready for the gospel. We sat for another 8 to 10 minutes and they put a check-mark next to those that they felt prompted to do so. We will be following up with them to see if they contacted any of those people (because that's what we committed them to do). This was one of the things that we learned from Elder Arnold when he came! The Assistants had already started it (because they got to spend a little time with Elder Arnold before the mission tour) and they have found a lot of success through it already!

Thursday we met a new less-active named Jessen who wants to get back into the church. She's really nice and likes a lot of the same things that I do. We also went to go do some family history with Cassie, but the Family History Center was closed because the building was being  deep cleaned for the week :(

Friday we got a new investigator named Brandi! Mike brought her to stake conference last Sunday and introduced us afterward. We then set up an appointment and got to teach her this Friday! I love her already! She is excited to learn more, and loves the idea of eternal families. She also loves that we focus not just on Christ's death, but also his life (because she asked why we don't have the crucifix)!

Saturday was Cassie's baptism!!!!! It was such a good baptism and I know that she loved it and felt the spirit because she gave me the biggest hug afterwards! (and normally her hugs are pretty soft). We also got to spend some time with her family afterward and I really like them. They are not really interested, but they are supportive of Cassie!

Yesterday, (Sunday) we saw Thomeson for a lesson (as well as at church!). We taught him all about eternal marriage...which is always interesting teaching considering I haven't gone through that yet.

We also got to have a lesson with a girl named Morgan who is one of those people that the Assistants to the president got from that list activity that they had done with some members. It was a little different because we were with the family who referred her and the Assistant's were there too. We felt a lot of pressure, but it went really well!

I love you all! Hagoonee!

Sister Brown

Sister Brown, Grace Craig, Sister Thompson
The sisters ate at this members family's home and taught
 their friends a sweet lesson.

Started walking so we could meet more people!

Ya' ta' hey!

Here seriously feels like spring and I forget that it's still snowing there! I hope you stay safe on the roads!

I forgot to tell you last week that the missionary Schedule changed! You might know about it, but in case you don't, we now do daily planning in the morning instead of the evening and it's designed now to be more flexible so that we can use our agency more. Studies don't have to start exactly at 8 and companionship study can be at any time of the day now. We still have to be in by 9/9:30 but we can basically go right to bed instead of having to plan for the next day. I really like it! 

This week was full of hard work! Sister Thompson and I decided to do more walking since you can't really talk to people when you are in a car and I rather like it! Not a lot happened during the week other than lots of walking/street contacting/less-active finding etc. but the lessons that we did have went pretty well! We found another less-active to teach! 

Cassie passed her baptismal interview! She's getting baptized this weekend!!! :)

Precious finally made it to church this week after we had a lesson with her on Friday where we really focused on the temple and helped her set her sights to it! This week was stake conference actually and it was really good! Elder Arnold (of the seventy) came and spoke in both sessions and, wow, that man and his wife are sooo funny! 

We had a mission tour with him and his wife yesterday (which is kinda like a zone conference, but with someone from higher up in the church) ...that's why preparation day is today instead of yesterday!

The mission tour was really good! Very spiritually draining, but the spirit that was felt was incredible! Elder Arnold has an incredible testimony and soooooooo much faith!

We were also able to get a new investigator on Sunday after church! His name is Robert and he seems to have a lot of potential! After all he's been coming to church for the last month on his own (after being invited the first time by a co-worker)! (We kept trying to get a lesson set-up with him, but he never knew his schedule, and he didn't have a phone either, so Sunday we decided to try and corner him with our ward-mission leader and one of his member friends and see if we could meet with him right after church and it worked! :)

I hope y'all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Brown

We went bowling last preparation day!

Sister Thompson

I lost horribly! haha....someone's got to lose, it might as well be me!

This tree is strange! It kinda looks like a giant tumble weed!
or a dried up, dead willow tree thought this was hilarious!

A member bought us Jimmy Johns and this is
one of the tables that they had in the restaurant.

Fun pictures with Kammie!...#compgoaltotakeapictureaday!

Sister Thompson wrote "Happy 10 Month Sister Jenny Brown!"
I can't believe it's been 10 months!!!

The Spirit will guide us to know what to teach!

Ya' ta' hey!

This week was full of tons of finding and a lot of meetings!

Monday (as a part of Family Home Evening) we played volleyball and it was tons of fun! It was a great way to get to know some of the less-actives that we've been working with! We had a lesson with Mike after the activity and he has been reading his scriptures more and really seems to enjoy it! We talked about faith a little bit with him. It was pretty cool because we originally planned to teach him the' Gospel of Jesus Christ 'lesson and as I was studying with him in mind, I felt that he just really needed to hear specifically about faith and trust. As we talked in our companionship study, Sister Thompson had the same impression! I love having those kinds of experiences! It helps you realize that it really is the spirit and not just you!

Tuesday we were finally able to have a lesson with Precious again and the lesson really seemed to hit home. She said she would come to church on Sunday and seemed pretty sincere about it, but for whatever reason she wasn't there yesterday! :(

We also had the opportunity to teach a guy named Austin. We thought he was originally a less-active, but he's actually active, but he wants to meet with us to be able to really strengthen his faith. He loves New Zealand and wanted to learn the Haka dance and so Sister Thompson taught us a little after the lesson (I've been wanting to learn too! #foreverstrong!) 

Tuesday night we also taught Mike again because he called us and asked us if he could have another lesson...he's been really bogged down with all of his past mistakes and just really needed help! He hasn't been asking for forgiveness in his prayers because he feels unworthy. We told it to him straight. He has to ask for forgiveness! We had him say the closing prayer and we told him to ask for forgiveness in that prayer! Ever since that lesson, he's seemed a lot happier!

Wednesday we met with Manuel and we couldn't find a 3rd female to come with us so we had to have the lesson outside.  It started snowing pretty hard and we were all pretty cold, especially Manuel because he only had a thin little hoodie to keep him warm, so we had to make the lesson short. He wasn't at church yesterday unfortunately, but it was for a pretty good reason. 

Thursday we had our last lesson with Cassie.  We'll be having her mock interview tonight and her real interview on Thursday! We also met with our branch president and discussed how we can try to get the branch more involved with (and excited about) missionary work (specifically finding). 

Friday we got a new investigator named Joe! We taught the restoration and we could tell that he felt the spirit because he just looked like he was thinking: what on earth is this feeling? I've never felt this way before!

He seemed pretty excited to come to Family Home Evening (because we invited him to it) so we'll see if he comes tonight. He also seemed pretty excited to have another lesson with us so he seems pretty promising!

Saturday we had interviews with President Adams. We saw Mike yet again Saturday night and we had the chance to help him see the improvement he's made! I love being able to help people see their progression! He's pretty hard on himself so he doesn't always see the good that he does or the progress that he makes.

Sunday we got to go to Jeff's for dinner and we had delicious ribs, baked potatoes, and green beans and homemade buttermilk ranch! Yum! We had a lesson with him after we ate on Eternal Marriage. That kid seriously cracks me up! He was making jokes a lot of the time, but it was still a great lesson where the spirit was involved. 

I love you all! have a wonderful week!

Hagoonee!

Love,

Sister Brown

I found some pictures of Sister Brown that others have posted.

 Baptism Jan. 14, 2017

Baptism gathering Jan.14, 2017

Interview Day with President Adams Jan. 28th 2017

Sister Thompson, Sister Adams, Sister Brown

Christmas Devotional Dec. 21, 2016
 Farmington/Kirtland/Bloomfield Zones 

I love being a missionary! That I get the privileged of feeling a fraction of what Heavenly Father feels!

Ya' ta' hey!

This week was pretty exhausting! Missionary work is usually pretty draining, but this week was even more so. I was able to really feel a little more of what Heavenly Father feels for each of his children though! 

We really focused on finding this week and even though we didn't find any new investigators or less-actives we have a few that are some great potentials for this up-coming week. 

All the people that we are working with are progressing but a lot of them are having a lot of personal struggles and I have been able to feel just the slightest extent of what Jesus Christ feels for all of us, meaning that I care about them so much that it hurts me to see them hurt. I obviously don't know what it's like to have children, but I would imagine that the way I care about these people is the way that a parent would for a child.

We had the opportunity to teach Cassie this week and she is beyond Golden! She has been full on studying her scriptures and writing down questions that she wants to pray about! She has also been coming to Family Home Evening, institute, and even going to the old folks on Sundays with the branch to do a little 30 minute sacrament meeting with them! She is right on track for her baptism on Feb. 11th!

Mike came to church yesterday for the second time! :) He only ended up staying for the first hour though! :(

Jeff has been doing really well although he didn't come to church yesterday :( not sure why.

Manuel came to church yesterday and he stayed for all 3 hours! :) he also stayed for mingle (a little snack and chat) after church! He got a priesthood blessing as well since he has been going through a difficult time. 

Saturday we went over to Antonio's for dinner with him, his Girlfriend and a few others from the branch. We had a pretty fun dinner conversation. It reminded me a little of being in the Young Single Adults branch at home, just having a blast and laughing a lot! We had a lesson after with Antonio and he is still doing pretty well! We taught him about the priesthood again since that is his next step!

Thomeson is doing soooooo well! he's been reading his scriptures every day and doing better on both his morning and night prayers. He only missed one day this week! I might not have to make him a prayer rock after all!

I love being a missionary! Even though it can be quite spiritually exhausting/draining it is worth it. I love that I get the privileged of feeling a fraction of what Heavenly Father feels! 

I love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Hagoonee!

love,

Sister Brown

Beautiful Sunset

Sister Thompson, Me, Nakhia and the cool, ghetto truck!

Nakhia

Sister Thompson and I Making Snow Angels!