ilumina al mundo

Buenos dias mis queridos amigos. 

We are thriving here in Los Banos!!!! Honestly I have been incredibly tired this week because there has just been so much to do!!! We have had less than 15 minute dinners every day this week because we just have to cram as much as possible into every day!! But wow, let me tell you, it has been well worth it. I know I've used this phrase before but it is just too true not to say again. "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven!!!!" Yesterday we had 12 friends come to church. We're talking t w e l v e people that we are teaching came to church!!!! The WHOLE Torres family and a whole other cute family we are teaching and wow wow wow blessings are just being poured upon Los Banos. 

Other than that we are starting to share LIGHT THE WORLD. And I am SO EXCITED. Yall have GOT to sign up. Basically you'll just get a text (or email) reminder every day during December of one way you can serve someone else!!!! What better way to celebrate Christ's birth, than to serve as he did!!! 

Do it do it do it!!! lighttheworld.org 

Les quiero mucho. Espero que tengan una semana maravillosa. 

Cuidense. 

Hermana Brown

Oh yea, also Zayden got baptized this past Saturday. So fun!!

And we got to go to the temple TWICE THIS WEEK! (Hina got to go for the first time which was so fun. She loved it. And Sister Connor was there as well) 

el Libro de Mormon

I think I start every email with "this week was crazy" but it is because it is TRUE everytime!!!!!! 

Yesterday Jose Chiquillo was baptized!! Sister Allen and I almost had a heart attack because we had texted him just to say "oh see you soon!" and two hours before when he was supposed to be baptized he texted us telling us it was not a good day because he was busy. Haha nice try buddy. Long story short we ended up sitting on his front porch waiting for him to call us back after we knocked and he hadn't answered the door or the phone. Hahah he finally opened the door (turns out he was showering when we knocked), and we helped him get over his fears, helped him to see just how important baptism is, and assured him that he was in fact super ready. It was so cool because he wanted the least amount of people possible to be there aka Sister Allen and I got to be witnesses for the baptism!! It was a really stressful but worth every second of panic hahaha. 

Also this week we started teaching Vinnie. He is SO COOL!!! We finally had a sit down lesson with him. He had read the chapter we gave him, Mosiah 2, and he gave us an in depth summary of the whole thing. It was awesome! We talked a lot about obedience and ended up teaching the 10 commandments. HE EVEN CAME TO CHURCH!! Ahhh I am so excited. He has such a desire to learn more and to grow closer to God. Good things coming for that kid.

I have suuuuccchhhhh a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I know, through the Holy Ghost, that it truly is the word of God. It is what helped Jose Chiquillo make the decision to be baptized and become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. And it is what is helping Vinnie (along with the Bible of course) grow closer to God and know what he needs to do to find true JOY in this life. Please please please, if yall have any questions or curiosity to know more about literally anything you have heard about the church or about God, email me. I live for answering those kinds of questions!!!!!! Or you could always ask the missionaries around you, they live for that stuff as well ;)

Have a great week!

Les quiero! Cuidense.

Hermana Brown

Las auguas del bautismo

This week was packed!!!!! So I will try and give yall a run down of the main highlights. 

Tuesday night we had to cancel sports, BUT we got to visit Lipe!! He's part of one of the Tongan families here and is my age and wants to come back to church. We had to sit outside because it was just Lipe home. But he already had fuzzy blankets in hand and cookies in the oven when we knocked. So we sat on Lipe's porch and ate cookies and drank milk as we talked about the Book of Mormon and missions! 

The next day, we tried to heart attack our friends door with candy and they weren't home so all their dogs were going crazy when we walked up. Sister Allen was extra bold and opens the gate, starts walking in and gets bit pretty good by one of the dogs. Pobrecita took one for the team on that one. Haven't quite gotten around to telling them that story haha, but they really appreciated the candy! Also Saul made us these SUPER cool spray paint paintings. He's super talented. I haven't taken a picture yet, but I will send one asap. 

Friday night was a little wild. We ran into some interesting people. One of the men was super sweet, but a little too sweet if you know what I mean. He is an middle aged man who told us he would like to have some fun with us which led us to quickly ending that conversation. He loves the Bible though so we are just gonna let him keep doing him and not ever go visit again haha. Not even 10 seconds after we got in the car from that experience we had a man who is a little crazy walk by our car, turn around and start walking back over to us, haha it looked like he was about to open our car door!! He asked us if we were church people and started going off about how he has been going to church for years. We told him how awesome it is that he goes to church and quickly wished him a good afternoon. On the drive to our next friend, we stopped by our only red dot in Los Banos (for those that are not familiar with Area Book. If missionaries talk with someone and it would be dangerous for other missionaries to visit in the future we can mark it as a "do not contact"). Well our red dot was outside in his garage so we stopped to talk to him. Not because we are crazy, but because the "do not contact" note was super vage and we didn't know if it would actually be dangerous. And out of all of the crazy things that happened that night, that was the most normal!!! We have a return appointment with him today!

HINA AND AALIYAH GOT BAPTIZED!!!! I love those cute little girls. This baptism has been a long time coming so I was really happy that they were finally able to take that step! 

Jessica BORE HER TESTIMONY DURING SACRAMENT MEETING yesterday!!! She's so cute she was talking about how she isn't a member yet, but that learning about the gospel has brought so much peace and joy into her life, and she knows that it is true. We had dinner with them after church and had such a great lesson. AND WE SET ANOTHER BAPTISMAL DATE with her!! I'm super excited. Jessica is so ready to be baptized. (p.s. Lovely, Jessica's sister in law, is going m.i.a. for a few months in New Zealand to bring back some little kids that are going to get baptized here too so Jessica is going to be baptized the same day as them and her son!!!!!)

Last one, promise. We started a 7pm Spanish Sacrament meeting for the people who have to work during the day on Sundays. Yesterday was the first one, and although we were few there, it was amazing because it was all people who needed it. There was a woman who came and shared how she has had to work everyday of the week for years because she is a single mom and she had been praying to God asking Him what she can do to be able to go to church, and BOOM! She got her answer! 

I know that Christ lives, that God is our loving Heavenly Father, and that Christ's true church has been restored on the earth today. As we search the scriptures and listen to the words of the Lord's prophet, we will never walk in darkness!

Les quiero muchisimo! Cuidense. 

Hermana Brown