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

Conoce los frijoles?

It has been such a rollercoaster with the Torres family this week. They came to the baptism the Gutierrez twins this week!!!! Here's the catch. One of them has autism so he got really nervous and afraid to be completely submerged in the water, so he put up quite a fit and was screaming like a lot. That was kind of awkward having our friends their BUT I think it helped them to see that we arent perfect in our church haha we are still humans. Also it was really sweet because we all said a prayer together for him that he would be able to calm down. There was just a sweet feeling there which was cool. 

We finished our week long no sugar/word of wisdom challenge which was so fun. But unfortunately didnt quite inspire much change because the following day there was a big case of beer on their counter. Oh well, not everyone has an night to day conversion like Alma (Alma 36). We are going to keep working with them to strengthen their faith and desire to follow all the commandments of God!
Funny story.
Noemi was asking Sister Allen "Hermana conoce los frijoles?" Which in English would mean like "Have you had/tried beans before?" So after she asked in Spanish, she repeated it in English but she translated it directly so she said "Sister do you know the beans?" haha we were all laughing. I love that family so much!!!

This week there were so many times that we were in just the right place at just the right time. I gained such a testimony that God leads and guides us to touch the lives of those that need him most! 

People would say to us  "I was just praying right now before yall got here" "This morning we were just talking about how we need to baptize our kids." or "It's funny that yall came tonight"
 I felt like Alma in Mosiah 23 when he says "Nevertheless, after much tribulation, the Lord did hear my cries, and did answer my prayers, and has made me an instrument in his hands in bringing so many of you to a knowledge of his truth."
I have been so humbled by the impact a short visit and a few uplifting words can have in someone's life.

Les quiero. Cuidense mucho!!!

Hermana Brown

El sacrificio trae las bendiciones del cielo

OH MY GOODNESS I TOTALLY FORGOT TO SEND THIS LAST WEEK!! I had it all typed out and just didn't click send. Disculpenme por favor. 

Buenos dias amigos!!

Tengo algunas cosas que reportar. 

1. Estoy triste porque Yarah moved back to Los Angeles. Her work in the Melon factory ya acabo (finished) so I will never be seeing her again. Jokes, I'm totally gonna call her after the mission. But for now the ASL Sisters there will find her and help her. Super cool ASL miracle anyway. The Lindsay Sisters (aka the one and only Sister Connor and her beautiful companion) found BRIAN again!!! So I got to video call for just a few minutes and sign with him. So fun. 

2. We are trying to help the Torres family understand that the Word of Wisdom is a commandment from God. Sooooooo we have a nice little deal with them. Seven days of them living the Word of Wisdom while we go seven days sin azucar!!! (without sugar). Let's just say if that doesn't show them how much of a testimony we have of Joseph Smith and this gospel I don't know what will ;)

3. Marcelino is the most precious member missionary. We visited him this (last) week and video called his family to help them download the Gospel Library app on their phones and after I gave the phone back to him he just goes on and on to his son about all the good stuff on there. "Tu mama no puede leer entonces puedes leer por ella o pueden escucharlo juntos. Hay videos y las escrituras. Muchas cosas muy buenas"

4. WOW THE COOLEST MIRACLE EVER.  (Last) Friday afternoon we are doing weekly planning at the house and all of a sudden we get this call. It's from one of the Temple workers, Brother Brown (no relation). He told us a woman and her son went to the temple to receive a blessing. They didn't know where the local church building was, and they we told by the woman's Sister (who is a member in Mexico) to call the temple and ask. Well the temple was closed because it was being cleaned, meaning no one would be there to answer the phone. They decided to just drive to Fresno to find out! They arrived and some people helped them, and gave Carmen a blessing. She said that she had a headache when they got to the temple, but as soon as one of the men put his hands on her head, the pain went away! What a cool miracle in itself! Well they live in Dos Palos so we drove on over a few hours after they had gotten back and got to meet them and talk with them a little more about priesthood blessings. They are so amazing! It gets even better because (last) Saturday morning we get a call from an "unavailable" or "unknown" number. And it was the Sister in Mexico!!!!! She was so so so grateful that we were able to visit them, it brought her to tears. Shes been a member for about 10 years and she said shes been waiting for something like this so they could hear the gospel. God's timing is perfect! Carmen and her son, Saul, came to Church yesterday (last Sunday) and we are planning to visit them this week. I am so excited. The gospel is all about eternal families so what better way to share that than bring the family together through the gospel!

This was one day of water bottles given to us. 

No more Count Chocula for us this (last) week. 

Los Banos Tomato Festival!!! 

 

 

Something in the water

Here's part 2. So much has happened so I'll try and be as concise as possible with these hilarious stories.
As Sister Allen would say "there must be something in the water" here in Los Banos because everyone has either been yelling at us or creepin on us. Not literally yelling, but definitely some hardcore bashing in Spanish. And to make things worse, their arguments are horrible. For example. 

*Man trying to prove that the Book of Mormon is false because it contains the story of in Ether of the Jaredites going to the Americas after God confounds their language at the Tower of Babel.* "That's impossible. You know why? Because after the Lord confounded their language and when the flood came, Noah's family was the only lineage on the Earth and their names are recorded here". We calmly opened to Genesis and helped him see that he should reevaluate his argument hahaha. The flood (Genesis 7-8) happened before the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11). Aka the had plenty of time to multiply and replenish the earth before their language was confounded. He had a bunch more nonsensical arguments but there was no point in trying to help this man because he didn't want to understand.
Another lady told us "if you're going to go around and preach you really should know more of what you're talking about." As she tells us that the Jehovah Witnesses made the King James Version of the Bible. (In case yall didnt know, that's not true.)

Got a few men hitting on us too. Remember good old George who calls me his "Queen"? Here's just a snippet of the conversation we had with him the other day.
Brown: "How have you been?"
George: "Still single. Waiting for you."
Brown *ignores comment*: "George how do you like Fresno?"
George: "I like it but not the violence."
Brown: "Oh yea that's understandable"
George: "I cant do the violence. I wouldn't want to be walking down the street with our kids. You and me walking with our kids down the street. It's not safe."
Brown: "George we are not going to have kids together."
George: "I know we aren't going to be together. I would have to change my life around to be with you. But if we were I would be so lucky. To have a woman right with God."

Poor George just needs a little more of God's love in his life. 

Then we have Aaron who we met at a stop light and asked for our number. We said "we're missionaries so if you want to talk about God, of course!" He responded "perfect I'm Christian!" 1 minute later we get a call. "Que hermosas. So cute. I'm 28, how old are you two? Wow you're young. Also just so you know I'm married and have a kid. Yea if you could pray for my wife and our relationship, were going through some stuff. She gets so jealous. Honestly she's just insecure." We told him that of course we would pray for them and then informed him that if he would like to learn more, there are super cool Elders that would love to talk with him!
We realized that with every bash and every other weird situation that happened, God placed a nice little miracle in our path.
- Our favorite taco truck guy hooked us up with free tacos.
- Noemi and Dana came to the women's session on conference and loved it!!! Noemi said that Russell M. Nelson spoke with all his heart and that everything he said is true!
- We finally had another lesson with Tiffane. We found out that she has been working insane hours. At least 5 out of her 7 workdays is 5am to 3am THE NEXT DAY. That should not even be legal. But shes still super interested and is as sweet as ever! 

I seriously love being a missionary. There are hard moments, but there is always a lesson to be learned or a memory to be made within them. 

Love yall. Thanks for putting up with my super long emails this week. 

Have a great week.

Hermana Brown

Lengua de senas mexicana

These past two weeks have been absolutely loooooccccooooo. I didn't get a chance to send this one last week so I updated it a bit and then there is another on it's way right after. Sorry I know it's a lot, but I just want to share a bunch with ya'll.

First to keep you updated. The Elders in Honduras found Marcelino's family!!! He called us last week and was so so so excited. And then, they went to the Sunday morning session of General Conference this weekend. I'm just so grateful to Heavenly Father for helping the Missionaries find this family who lives in some 4 street town on the outskirts of another small town in Honduras. Marcelino was so happy. 

Yarah
We had a lesson with Yarah, our deaf friend, and wow it was honestly one of my favorites. It was so hard!! Pretty quick into the lesson we realize a few things.
A. Yarah doesn't actually know American Sign Language, just Mexican Sign Language.
B. She just read lips till she was a teenager. She didn't learn anything till she moved to LA. Aka this woman was not given the resources she needed and deserves.
C. There's even a lot of Spanish that she doesn't understand because she was never helped!!
D. She is so eager to learn.
This is what happened. We sat down and said a prayer (Sister Allen did it in Sign Language. So proud). I started talking about who God is and asked her a question but her response was super off topic. And that kept happening. So I tried to simplify everything and then that's when it became more clear that there were a lot of words that she didn't understand. So when there was a word she didn't understand I would type it out on the phone in Spanish and about half the time she would get it. Sometimes I had to explain through other signs and it would make more sense.
Example: make
I signed make, talking about how God made the Earth. She didn't quite understand so I typed "hacer o crear" in the phone. (Which means "to make or to create") neither of which helped her.
What was so cool about this lesson is that we taught her the Plan of Salvation. We told her that God loves her and the light that came across her face was such a a sweet joy. Also telling her that she will be able to hear when Christ comes again, when she receives her resurrected body, she got so excited and said "I'll be like you?"
Of course there were a lot of things that still went completely over her head. Not only because she doesn't know ASL but also because mine is a lot less than perfect. But it is perfect in that sense because we are both trying to help each other and that makes it so much easier to communicate.

My good man Salvador invited me to Mexico.
We walk up to him right as he's getting out of his car from work. He's just a sweet middle aged Mexican man. We talk for a bit about this and that, about what we do as missionaries, how we learned Spanish, we share a scripture with him and then gets this phone call. This is how the conversation went from there.
Salvador: "That was just a woman in Mexico who wants to get married, sabes que es casarse? (Do you know what to get married means?) We are going there for the wedding."
Hermana B: "yea! *puts fake ring on ring finger to show that I know what casarse means* what part of Mexico are you from?"
S: "Michoacan."
Hna B: "No way! I have a mental list of all the places I want to visit in Mexico and Michoacan is number 1"
S: "really? We invite you to come with us."
Hna B: *thinking it's a kind of empty invitation* okay sweet!
S: "we're going in December. Do you have a phone number so we can call you?"
Hna B: *slightly stunned.* "Oh hermano we cant go! We do this all day everyday for 18 months, we don't have time to go on vacations! And I don't get off my mission till January"
S: "that's okay I stay for 3 or 4 months. You can come after you get off your mission. What's your phone number? My wife will call you."
So that ladies and gentlemen was the sweetest human being ever and I now will be going to Michoacan January 2020. Looking for a travel buddy. 

Anyway moral of all these stories is God is good and being a missionary is always an adventure. 

Good old Los Banos

Hi Friends so I'm still chillin here in Los Banos, lovin life. This past week my beautiful companion Sister Connor departed from me. So I hung out a few days in Fresno awaiting my new (and also beautiful) companion Sister Allen!!!!

Pobrecita we got back to LB Thursday afternoon and we have been going nonstop since. We helped Hermana Rita Salazar prepare to get baptized!!! It was so fun because Eric (who just got baptized about two weeks ago) got to baptize her! She said it would be better for Eric to do it than her husband because she didn't think her husband would be able to get her all the way under the water hahaha she is quite the lady. Truly one of my favorite people. Sister Connor got to video call in to say congrats and Rita practically yelled over the phone. "Hi. I miss you. I love you." In her cute super thick Guatemalan accent. 

After the baptism we all stuck around for a bit to eat some pizza and I was talking to Juan (another friend who recently got baptized) and he was telling me all about how his wife, who is living in Mexico, went to church there and wants to be baptized also! It's so cool to see how one act can cause a ripple effect. I am so pumped. 

Also on Saturday we had the opportunity to go to the temple for Marcelino's first time! He told us afterwards that he felt the Spirit so strongly there. Pictures below. 

Basically the Lord is just raining blessings on Los Banos and we are striving everyday work with faith and diligence so that we can continue seeing them! Just like it teaches in Moroni 9 "And if there were ^amiracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he ^bchangeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles. And the reason why he ceaseth to do ^amiracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should ^btrust." aka when we have faith and trust in God, He will work miracles in our lives. I know it because I have lived it!

Cuidense. Les quiero muchisimo!! 

Hermana Brown

I know I know I know, I havent written an email in forever so here is a bunch of photos to try and make up for it. 

The past coulple weeks in pictures

Last Sunday morning we got a call from one of our members who told us that he left his car at the church with cantaloupes for everyone to have. When we got to the church, this homie literally left his car with the trunk open full of bags and bags of cantaloupe. 

This week we got to serve in the Lord's Vineyard. Literally. I've told y'all a little about this vineyard already. It's owned by the Church and is completely volunteer based. There is one man who receives money for working at the Vineyard (it's his full time job), but all other labor performed is by members and anyone else who wants to volunteer! The grapes produced are dried to raisins and are delivered to areas where they are needed. This past weekend we helped harvest the grapes. It was so much fun. While we were there I got to see some of my favorite people from my last area, Lindsay. It was one of those moments where your heart is just so full of love and joy!

THERE IS ANOTHER SISTER BROWN IN THE MISSION!!!! Her first name is almost the same as mine. And even crazier, her birthday is the same as mine, down to the year. 

Jose Carrillo got baptized!! He's such a champ. He has been experiences a lot of health problems but has NEVER used it as an excuse. He is still going strong, reading from the scriptures every night. We are planning on going to the temple soon with him and his wife. AND HIS GRANDSON WHO IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY! 

Thanks for all your love and support.

¡Cuídense!

Hermana Brown