el servicio del senor

This week we helped a member move out of her house. The first few days we helped it was just us, then we finally got some other people to help out which was a life saver because there was no way we were going to be able to do it all ourselves. Best part of the whole experience was meeting Juan. This member's neighbors were always out and about when we were there helping so we would just wave and say buenas tardes or whatever. One of them in particular, Juan, stopped us and asked if we had already eaten. We told him yes but he still asked if he could buy us a pizza. We said no at first but after he insisted a bit we said yes. He asked if we wanted two but we said that one was fine (we eat a lot, but not that much haha). Sure enough, about 30 minutes later, Juan roles up with a pizza and soda. Later that night he came back to check in on us, he ended up letting us borrow a light because it had gotten dark and it was hard to see in the moving truck. So the next morning when we went to return it we had a good little conversation. Well first of all he asked again if he could buy us pizza. Then after that he asked what church we were from, he then told us he is going to come to church with us! We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and later he texted us a picture of his copy of the Book of Mormon with a bookmark in it!!! He is so cool and we are super excited to visit him and share with him more about the good word! 
We're also teaching a few people that are progressing so much towards baptism! One of them is planning on being baptized this Saturday! He sent us the coolest text this morning which said "Sisters. I have begun reading the Book of Moroni and I am convinced of its true nature. God has blessed me with His confirmation and I wouldnt have been able to do it without you two. Thank you" (By the way Moroni is a book in the Book of Mormon). He is so cool and he has such a desire to follow God. 

On Friday I got to see some of my favorite people!!!!! One of them being my old companion, Sister Vollmer. I love her so much. We got talking about my old area, Lindsay, and it brought back so many good memories!! Pictures included below. 

Here's some funny quotes from this week. 

*talking with the neighbor across the street about his church*

Sister Connor 'Hey George what religion are you?'

George 'African.' 

Sister Connor 'That's your religion?'

George 'And actually I have a little Irish in me and Native American on my mom's side'

*Teddy everything 5 minutes when he would try and help Sister Connor and she would say no*

Teddy "I'm not saying you're not strong enough to do it, I'm just saying I can help"

TRANSFERS!

I have a lot of stories from this week. First one is a testimony that God answers prayers, but he doesn't always answer them in the way you expect. Towards the end of the week I was scarce on food because it is the end of the transfer so I didn't buy a ton last preparation day haha and Thursday during dinner when I prayed to bless my food and I asked Heavenly Father to help me think of something else I could eat because at the moment the only thing on my plate was a mango. I didn't think of anything else I'm pretty sure I just ended up eating popcorn. But I felt fine, like not too hungry. Well we went to have a lesson with my favorite family ever the Salazar-Carillo's and during the middle of us teaching Hermana Salazar tells us she bought us a pizza and that it would be arriving soon. Not even 30 seconds later the doorbell rings. We tried to tell her that we had already eaten but she sat us down so fast at that kitchen table and put three slices of pizza on my plate. You cannot tell a Hispanic lady no so I ate it all and oh my goodness it was way too much haha. That same night we went to teach another friend and the lady he lives with made us eat some fish she made for their dinner. Well when I say "we" I mean me because she tried to feed both of us, but Sister Connor did a nice little "oh I'm okay, but Hermana Brown would love some". Moral of the story.The promise "ask and ye shall receive" got took a little too seriously this week.

On Friday we also had the oppourtunity to go to the temple with Emiliano and his family. It was so cool. During and after was reflecting a lot on the Spirit. Yall know the verse in Galatians that talks about the fruits of the Spirit? It says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." That is what I experienced this week! While I was in the temple, I just felt so much love for everyone that was there and felt so much peace.

We had Victoria's Baptism!! It was so cool. She was so excited to be baptized. 

We also had an awesome lesson with our friend Marcelino. It was so amazing to see how much he wants the gospel! Even better. He wants his family in Honduras to be taught by missionaries there too so that they can be baptized and one day be sealed together as a family in the temple. How amazing is that?! 

Sister Brown is a little preoccupied so Hermana Connor is gonna take over. 

We had transfer calls this week and if this scripture doesn't answer what's happening, I dont know what will

2. Neverthless, after many days in the transfer, yea, even weeks. The Lord did hear our cries, and did answer our prayers, and has pondered on keeping us together to be instruments in his hands, yea, even in bringing the people of Los Banos to a knowledge of his truth

3. And it came to pass that after much time in Los Banos, the sisters, being Sister Brown and Sister Connor, did recieve their transfer calls, yea, and they did rejoice with such exceedingly great joy, even unto the Lord their God. For behold, he did place them together, yea, even for another transfer

So we shall be together for 6 more weeks! Probably because Sister Connor really needs help with her Spanish and Sister Brown is super good at Spanish. 

Qué bendición! We helped this lady with her cats, this one cat had its arm ripped open because these dogs were trying to eat it? We helped save the kittens and the owner took the mom to the vet. We met some super cool people this week and had a lot of really cool experiences, but unfortunately we don't have very much time. Sorry! Sister Brown loves you all. Thanks for supporting her! 

Con amor 

Hermana Connor 

Bautismos por los dos lados del velo

29 July 2019

Wow wow wow eventful week! We had a super cool lesson with our friend Teddy and the Spirit was so strong. We invited him to be baptized and he said yes! He almost got baptized this past Saturday but he just needs to know a little more about the story of Joseph Smith and some more support from his family. It was so cool because when we asked him if he believes that the Church and Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored through Joseph Smith, he told us that he can't confidently say that right now, but he knows that the answer will be yes. It is amazing to see how the Spirit can testify so strongly to us of truth even before we have a complete knowledge of it!

Saturday was a crazy day. In the morning I went to the Fresno Temple with Hermana Segura and two of her boys. It was all over the place haha. The Bishop forgot to sign Hermana Segura's recommend so we had to try calling him from the Temple and he didn't answer so I was waiting in the waiting room with her then we finally got hold of Bishop so everything turned out fine. But because everything took so long I was almost late for our baptism in the afternoon haha. It was a close call but we made it friends. 

We are teaching a little 8 year old girl who is going to get baptized this Saturday. Sometimes she has a hard time processing and remembering information because, well, she's 8 haha. But we taught her the 10 Commandments using some hand signs so that she could remember easier and she did so good!!!! My favorite is for "thou shalt not commit adultery". In order to simplify it, we just taught her that we have one husband and one husband on only. And "we don't even look at other boys because we just have one husband" so now every time we practice them with her and we do the sign for number 7 she says "marriage" and we say "what about it?" so she responds, "don't look at any other boys". It's precious!! Gotta teach 'em young ;)

Our friend Shakira came to church yesterday!!!!! It was amazing because she gets really nervous around people but she did so good!! She also wants to be baptized this Saturday. She is so sweet and so so prepared. I have so much love for her. 

One thing that has been coming up in my studies a lot lately is how Christ's Atonement works in our lives and how we are saved by Christ. The scriptures teach us that Christ "should not come to redeem [us] in [our] sins, but to redeem [us] from [our] sins". He himself said, "Behold, I have come unto the world to bring redemption unto the world, to save the world from sin". I think that is so significant because it helps us to realize our personal responsibility to repent and to leave behind our sins. So cool!!! Because of Jesus Christ we can literally change our nature to become more like Him. Sometimes it requires giving up things that we love but that lead us away from God. But with faith and trust in Him, we will come to be someone far better and happier and have "no more desire to do evil". 

Love yall, 

Hermana Brown

un ano

Okay so these past two weeks have been crazy!! Honestly every week is crazy on the mission. But something even more crazy, this week marks exactly one year aka twelve months aka 52 weeks aka 365 days being a missionary but not only a missionary, a representative of Jesus Christ. Here are 12 funny/sweet experiences from the last few weeks that give you a small peek into the kids of experiences I live everyday. 

1. We have a neighbor across the street who says I'm his "queen". (He's a 50 year old black man haha). He got jealous this week because I was talking with another man. 

2. Jessica, a friend we are teaching, is doing so well! She committed to be baptized the 15th of September and we are so happy. She has stopped smoking and drinking so she is living the Word of Wisdom 100%. She is such an amazing example to her family. They surprised me for my birthday and got me a little gift and made me some posters. The Tuitupou family is my favorite!! 

3. A member who hasn't been coming to church for a while recently came back, so of course we went to go visit her and she is the sweetest!! She shows us love through fruit, hichews, milk, eggs, and seltzer water haha. We were doing service for her and my companion (Hermana Connor) was chopping of branches of a tree with a katana haha. I did it like once because I was scared to whack myself. Missionary service encompasses everything. We knock lots of doors and teach lots of lessons, but we also have the oppourtunity to serve in the more temporal things like cleaning a house for example which is what we did this week. The Book of Mormon teaches is that "when [we] are in the service of [our] fellow beings [we] are only in the service of [our] God (Mosiah 2:17). And in the Bible as well when Jesus Christ says, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40). We are so blessed, each one of us, to serve others and be an instrument in God's hand of lifting their spirits. As we do so, we are serving our Heavenly Father!

4. Speaking of service and cleaning. One day we went to the church building to do studies (aka to use the church wifi haha) and some tables hadnt been put away from an activity. So we went to go put them up and the storage closet was a hot mess. Friends, let's make sure to take care of the house of the Lord. We straight up found a the bone of a chicken leg that had been sitting in the back of the storage closet for who knows how long. 

5. We had a lesson with this man named Kevin. He had gone to church the week prior and he was soooooo excited about it. He went on and on about how it just felt so good and how it just all made sense. We taught him about the Restoration and he just was soaking it in like a sponge. He is already sharing with other people about it too. He said things like, "I just want to tell everyone! I was telling people that I didnt think would even be interested and they said 'oh that's pretty cool I'll have to go one day.' I'm gonna get a big group out here for you to teach." Haha he is awesome! Unfortunately him and his girlfriend are having some problems in their personal life so we havent been able to have another lesson with him but I have faith that soon we will get back in touch with them!

6. My companion is just the best. Haha here is an example of some of the crazy stuff we get into. Written by Sister Connor, "We found a girl who wasn't wearing any clothes and was in a hospital night gown.. We asked if she needed help and she said yes and said, "I just escaped a mental institution because I'm not crazy. Can I get in the back of your car?" We told her we couldn't allow that because it was a business car and she went "I'm serious, do you want the wrist band?" And tried to hand me her hospital band and I was like oh that's okay. "can you call my girlfriend" So we called her girlfriend and her girlfriend said "so she just escaped a 72 hour hold, the cops have already been notified and are looking for her. "Will y'all keep an eye on her?" So basically we done watched this naked lady in a hospital gown walk around in a square? She kept walking from one side of the street to the other and trying to act casual, while we was casually watching her from the car awkwardly. Hermana Brown kept staring at her while she was staring at us and I'm just over here escribinen this here story. The girlfriend got her before the policemans, which is funny because we're pretty sure the girlfriend just went and done returned her to the hospital place. My favorite part of that phone call was "I don't know who y'all are, but God bless" and of course ya gotta tell her exactly who we are "actually we are representatives of Jesus Christ" so yes, God bless. What an eventful 15 minutes."

7. We went to Walmart with one of our friends that we are teaching and we picked out a bunch of Sunday clothes for him to wear! It was so much fun. He didn't want to wear them, but we think he's warming up to them. The tie is still a little too much for him but we'll get there haha. 

8. A skill you learn as a missionary is speaking on the fly. I got asked last minute to speak last Sunday for the Spanish congregation. Then this past weekend we got asked to speak again this week in the Spanish Sacrament meeting. And during English Sacrament meeting we got asked to teach Spanish Sunday School. Those poor Latinos heard my voice so much yesterday haha because I also lead the music (in which no one sings so everyone hears me and the notes are really high haha. I'll let yall put two and two together on that one. I just hope the gift of tongues works for singing as well). But!!! Despite the fact that it is always last minute, you just smile and say yes because we are here to serve in whatever way we can!!

9. Va a la tema de número siete. Es mucho más fácil hablar en español ya que tengo un año en la misión jajaja. Mi español no está perfecto pero sigo aprendiendo cada día y a mi me encanta el idioma!! 

10. I love the Book of Mormon. My love for the Book of Mormon has like quadrupled on my mission. I know with all my heart that it is the word of God. I have found so much peace, comfort, and council through it's words. Right now I'm reading in Alma and I love verse 15 in Chapter 42. It says, "And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also." 

11. Just to give yall a little background on the missionary life scedulde. Everyday we wake up a bit before 6:30am. We exercise for 30min. Get ready for the day and start our daily studies at 8am. One morning we went to the church for morning exercise time and my companion played soccer while I played volleyball! It was so much fun. I hadnt touched a volleyball in so long. Literally all I did was practice passing to myself and hitting and wow it felt good. Another morning we went to the park and swung on swings. 

12. I see God's hand in my life daily, but sometimes it is just so obvious you cant help but be amazed. I may have already said this story in part but it just gets better as time goes on! One morning we went to the Church in the morning to do our daily studies. As we pulled in this woman pulled up behind us. We were kind of confused because it was really early in the day and a weekday so it's not typical for other people to be there. But we got out and started talking with her. She is this sweet Hispanic lady from Guatemala. She told us how she needs to do some service hours and as she was driving she saw us pulling into the church and thought well maybe these church people will have something haha. We said of course and explained how we could use help cleaning the church building weekly. We started talking with her more about her life and explained which church we are from and turns out she is a member!!! She moved here only a few years ago and didnt even realize it was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!!! Since that day she has come to help us clean but also she has been coming to church on Sunday! She is such a great example of what Elder Uchtdorf said in his most recent talk in General Conference "come and see, come and help, and come and stay"!! And she brought her husband and grandson neither of which are members, but they love it! Seriously what are the odds. I know and can testify that God places us in the right place in the right times. Sometimes so that we can answer someone else's prayer and sometimes so that we can have our prayer answered through someone else! 

I love yall so much. Thanks for all your support. 

Cuidense! Y que pasen una semana maravillosa! 

New companion, same old Los Banos

Wow there has been a lot going on these past few weeks. My new companion is Sister Connor. She grew up in get this... Japan! Haha it's so funny we are so similar in so many ways. But she's great. We have been working really hard to bring more people to the gospel and we are seeing the fruits of it!!

We are teaching a man and his father and it is so amazing to see how simply the Spirit testifies of truth. The dad went to Church yesterday and after we had a lesson with them and he was expressing how much he liked the service. After we taught him the Restoration we talked a lot about the Holy Ghost and how it is through those soft quite promptings and feelings that we know truth. He shared with us that he knows, after going and experiencing it, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true Church of Christ! People can discuss and argue for hours about what the truth is but I know that the only sure witness is from the Holy Ghost. 

Nuestro Padre Celestial no quiere que andemos en la oscuridad. ¡Él nos revele su voluntad y camino por medio de las escrituras, los profetas, y los impresiones del Espíritu Santo!

This week I experienced my first real earthquake! It was crazy I was sitting down in a chair and all of a sudden I felt myself and the chair swaying a little. I thought I was passing out haha but then I looked around and everything else was shaking as well. No worries we're all safe, but from what I hear it was a pretty severe more South. 

I love yall.

Hermana Brown

el Reino de Dios está creciendo

This week was monumental. 

Erick and Junior got baptized and their older brother, Cesar, baptized them!!! It was such a sweet experience to be apart of. Cesar baptized Erick first and you could tell how nervous he was because he had never baptized anyone before. Then he baptized Junior and you could just hear the confidence in his voice. It was precious. At the end, Junior played "Faith" on the Violin for the closing song and he did so good! I played interlude music at the baptism on the piano hahaha. No one can tell me God isn't real, because I could not have pulled that one off on my own haha. My companion and one of the other Sister Missionaries that was there, we all know like one song each so we took turns playing the same songs over and over. It was pretty hilarious. 

Many other amazing things happened this week but the baptism was the highlight of it all. Stay tuned. Many miracles to come. 

During one of my personal studies this week I ran into this quote, "The greatest decision I ever made in my life was to give up something I dearly loved to the God I loved even more. He has never forgotten me for it." 

I love you all dearly and that has been without a doubt the biggest sacrifices of coming on a mission. I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. And Heavenly Fathers loves us all so much, I have found that the least I can do is sacrifice my wants for His needs. I can't imagine being anywhere else at this time in my life. He has blessed me beyond my comprehension for being an instrument in His hands. 

I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's true Church on the Earth. I know the promise in the scriptures "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:" (Matt. 7:7) is true to all those who go to God in prayer with "a sincere heart, with real intent" (Moroni 10:4). Don't just take my word for it, try it. 

If anyone has any questions about God, our purpose in this life, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, learning/teaching the gospel in Spanish, what I do everyday as a missionary, how hot it is here in California, how much water I drink everyday so that I don't get dehydrated because it is so hot here, or anything else that comes to mind, email me! No tengan verguenza!! (Don't be shy/embarrassed!). 

Les quiero mucho. Espero que tengan una semana bendita!! 

(I love y'all a lot. I hope you have a blessed week!!)

Hermana Brown 

Los Banos

Hi friends!!!

I got transferred from Lindsay to Los Banos (literally I'm in the Baths). Actually it's called that because there are a bunch of lakes or something around. 

It is a little bigger than little 'ol Lindsay, but I know I am going to love it. 

The ward here is super diverse! It is my first time serving in a ward that is not puro Español! The service is in English and there Latinos and lots of Tongans!!!! The Spanish side of the area has been struggling because there needs to be translation (and yours truly has had the privilege of translating the meeting from English to Spanish haha. Fun stuff.) and the headsets are not that great so many Spanish people have not been coming. But this upcoming Sunday, we will start having a Spanish Group! So the Spanish members will have their own Sacrament Meeting. I am thrilled!!!! And not just because that means I won't have to translate anymore ;). 

One of the members who uses the translators, Benjamin, is my favorite!!! He's this sweet little old Mexican man who is so patient. Every time I looked back he would just smile and give me a little thumbs up. 

We found this new family who is my favorite ever (I say a lot of people are my favorite because I just love them all!!). We have slowly started teaching the whole family because ever time we go over we have a lesson with a new person haha. And they are all so prepared. One of the sons is so sweet. He said he doesn't know why but he feels so comfortable with us and he feels so comfortable sharing all his thoughts with us. But we know, it's because he feels the Spirit! He also wants peace with him always and I know that it is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we can find that peace! Not just when we are at church, but in every moment! 

The icing on the cake was our lesson yesterday with Jessica. She is the wife of a member. A lot of people just assumed she was a member because she has been coming to church so much. But she hasn't been baptized yet!!! She wants to be baptized, and I am so excited to keep teaching her, she already has such a strong testimony of the gospel and wants to be sealed to her husband in the temple. Needless to say, shes amazing. 

I'm so grateful for all the miracles I've seen this week!!! 

Love yall and thanks for being the best!! 

Cuídense.