dos mil veinte

Just to give yall a quick run down of the week we had. This past Monday we were playing basketball and I sprained my ankle. Supppppper sad because now I am on crutches and missionary work on crutches is NOT fun. Please please please pray that I heal quickly not only so that I can work more effectively while I am here, but also so that I can be better by the time I come home (which is approaching so so so fast. G-boro here I come Jan. 22).
Tuesday, Christmas Eve, we had to be in early, so Sister Allen and I decided to create a rap for the Holiday season.
Also on Saturday we tried a new taco place called "Mr. Taco". I totally judged a book by its cover and thought it was going to be super low quality and Americanized. It's actually delicious.

Bueno también hoy quería compartir un chiquitito parte de mi testimonio. Esta semana pasada mi testimonio se fortaleció mucho porque se bautizaron dos de nuestros amigos y fue una experiencia tan hermosa. Después de que se bautizaron, subieron en frente para dar sus testimonios. El Espíritu era tan fuerte y de nuevo recibí la confirmación que Dios en verdad vive, que Él nos ama y que nos ha proveído una manera para regresar y vivir con Él y con nuestras familias después de la muerte. Que tan agradecida estoy yo por las escrituras. Son las guías que nos ayudan en el camino para saber y entender el evangelio de Jesucristo. Sé que el Libro de Mormón es la palabra de Dios y testifica de Cristo igual como la Biblia! Lo sé con todo mi corazón porque el Espiritu Santo me lo ha testificado. Este año nuevo tenemos una gran oportunidad de estudiarlo cada semana usando el manual "ven, sígueme". Te invito a que lo hagas semanalmente para que seas guiados por Dios cada día de tu vida.
Si quieres aprender "Qué es el Libro de Mormón?" o "Como puedo usar la manual 'ven, sigueme' eficazmente?", me puedes mandar un mensaje o puedes buscar en el sitio de web de la iglesia "churchofjesuschrist.org".
Les quiero mucho. Cuídense y feliz año nuevo!
Hermana Brown

¡Feliz Navidad!

This week was full of fun adventures.

At Zone Conference this week I gave my departing testimony. Aka it is not a joke that I am going home soon. 

This week we went to the temple with Vinnie! We called up some other YSA (Young Single Adults... It's the program our church has for college aged young adults) and we all took a little temple trip. Such a cool experience. Vinnie had found a family name to take which made it even more special. #familysearch 

Yesterday was our Special Christmas Service. While we didn't have a ton of friends come, one miracle was that Gabriel (the cute little 13-year-old that was baptized last Saturday) got to pass the sacrament for the first time!!! He was so nervous but he did so great and it was so sweet to see him in his new white shirt and tie!

We had an amazing lesson with the Canady family. Danielle is so cute she wanted to know what her next step would be since she is already baptized. So we talked about temples and how to help her prepare to go!! We watch the Rome Italy Temple tour (10/10 recommend. Link below). After the video, and answering some additional questions about temples, Randy asked "So how does someone know if they are ready to be baptized?" WOW RANDY QUESTION OF THE YEAR!!!! We explained to him that if he asks God, He will answer that question for him through the Holy Ghost. So Randy will be praying to know if he is ready to be baptized. We know the answer is yes because the Spirit has told us, but we want him to receive that answer for himself. 

Jayduse and Lee were in San Jose this week sooooo about Wednesday we had a lesson over video chat (wow super blessed with technology) and it was so fun. They did so good and were so so focused!!! Till we had said the closing prayer and were saying bye. That is when the picture below happened. hahahahaha I love them!!! When they finally got back yesterday, we stopped by and had another lesson in person. We talked about obedience and some of the commandments and they are so precious. I either don't want them to go back to New Zealand or I want to go back with them because a. they are ADORABLE and b. they are really really good kids they just need good influences in their lives!

I am grateful for all the blessings that my Heavenly Father has given me. But most of all I am grateful that he gave his His Only Begotten Son (John 3:16-17), Jesus Christ, to atone for our sins, and pave the path for us to return and live with Them again one day. 

Les quiero. Feliz Navidad!!!

Cuidense mucho, 

Hermana Brown

and that is how our red dot became a light blue dot

Wow what an eventful past few weeks!!!!

This past weekend alone we went to the temple with a recent convert and we had two baptisms!! It was so fun. 

Gabriel, 13, got baptized and it was so amazing to see the joy he had. He carried around his baptismal program in his little backpack and was showing it to people at church the next day. 

Vinnie wow. He was so so happy. His dad came also, who is not a member, and even his dad remarked at how good he felt and how much he could feel the Spirit. It was so so cool. Also. Super cool so the first Sunday Vinnie came to church we found out the one of the couples in the ward were Vinnie's teachers in High School! Brother Betham was his Football coach! So it was really amazing because he got to baptize Vinnie! The Bethams were so so happy. 

We started doing family history with both of them so that they will have names to take to the temple! I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK.

We also started teaching some kids from New Zealand. Jayduse, Lupe, and Lee. Lupe was baptized a few years ago but we are helping Jayduse and Lee prepare to be baptized on the 27th of this month! It is going to be so great. When we taught them about the Restoration, and about Joseph Smith, we challenged them to all memorize a scripture from the lesson. Jayduse picked Joseph Smith History 1:10, Lupe had Amos 3:7, Lee had James 1:5, and we gave Lovely and Jessica no choice they had to memorize the First Vision haha. In return we told them that we would memorize Moroni 10:5 in Maori (the other language they speak). They took the challenge and went above and beyond!! It was so cool. One of them had the verse memorized before we had even left and they all had them memorized by the next day. 

Those kids are so amazing. We love them so so much!! 

I hope yall are enjoying the holiday season and continue finding ways to LIGHT THE WORLD!!!!! It's the best time of the year. 

Les quiero!!! Cuidense.

Hermana Brown

p.s. I cannot even express how much I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. And to be a representative of Christ. Wow. There is nothing better. Find out more at churchofjesuschrist.org or comeuntochrist.org

If you have any questions please send them to me! I love questions. I might even have a few for you in return!

Moroni 10:5

"Ma te mana hoki o te Wairua Tapu e mohio ai koutou ki te pono o nga mea katoa"

"And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things"

Here are some pictures from the baptisms and the temple trip!! The cute little girl is Maddy. We are teaching her and her family. They came to the ward Christmas party on Saturday and she wrote out her Christmas list for Santa. A puppy and a laptop. Haha her parents are going to have a fun time explaining why Santa isn't going to be able to deliver this year. 

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

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