hello my loverly fam

Hello Family!!

It is great to hear from you as always, and i am glad to hear everyone had such an exciting and busy week! I hope you told everyone down in kanab hello for me. Dallin from what i hear your birthday sounded like a lot of fun! for that i am glad. So how is the driving going dad? and you broke your nose? oh my goodness. noelle already broke a bone and now you too? who next?! honestly dad when i heard that you would be driving buses around i got a little nervous! you be careful driving those big things around ok? Spencer!! I heard about the big engagement!!! CONGRATS cuz!! that is very exciting!

welp, missionary work is moving along as usual this week. We are still working with our investigators. Things are going a little slow, but we try to use all our extra time to find more people that are ready to accept the gospel. Oh, my companion and i have a new goal to find a family!!! Families are rarely found and taught the gospel here, but we always see this cute little family outside playin on the playground with their son, and we really have a desire to bring a family into the church. We are excited, and we continue to pray that we may be able to find those that the Lord has prepared, and that those the Lord has prepared will some how find us. The temple dedication for the Kiev, Ukraine temple will be on August 29, and everyone is getting very excited for it. It will be closer for the people here than the finland temple. Most of the members around here travel about 30 hours i think to get to the Finland temple, and the kiev temple will be a little closer so that is great! I can't wait until the day that we can see a temple built in Russia! I don't know how soon that will be, but when the day comes it will be amazing. The sacrifices people make here to get to the temple are amazing. And all we have to do is walk out our door and a temple is in sight. And if you drive 20 minutes north or south, you will see many more temples. Wow! I feel spoiled. My companion just laughs and thinks it is absolutely crazy at how many temples we have in utah. I told her maybe someday down the road Russia will be the same :)

It is has been extremely hot as usual this week. It has made the contacting and missionary work a lot harder. Not as many people seem to be outside because of the heat, and walking around in the blazing sun is just not so comfortable all the time. But you do what you gotta do. The last couple nights when we have gone to bed (10:30) it has been 90 degrees in our apartment!! crazy huh? and thats at night! I go to bed all nasty and sweaty, and i wake up again in the morning all sweaty. its fun. There is like no use taking a shower because the moment you step out your already sweating again. who knew it ever got this hot in russia? and why did no one tell me??? The days here often reach over 100 degrees, and its not dry like utah. I would actually compare it to south carolina with the humidity and everything.

So yes, my adventure to kiev was pretty eventful, and by the end of the day i was completely exhausted! Thursday afternoon i got on a night train with the other elders and sisters being transferred around. And this was the hottest night train i have ever been on! it was ridiculous. anyways. So we arrived in moscow at 5 am on friday, and headed over to the central church building there. And then we met up with the 7 of us who were going on the visa trip and headed to the airport. We just sat there and waited for a few hours and then got on our flight to kiev. We got to kiev, only stayed in the airport, grabbed our new visas, and headed right back to moscow on our next plane(after a little delay). Then we got to moscow in the evening, went to the mission office to get some paper work done, saw a few of the missionaries who were transferring, and then that night i headed back to voronezh on another night train, and got back here early saturday morning. I was exhausted, but i think all i really wanted to do was to take a nice shower because when we left thursday i never had the time to take a shower, because they turned off our water without telling us. and then by the time it came back on, the water was bright red from all the rust and nasties. Ah, oh well. its good now. BUT, i am grateful because i now have a visa and can be in russia for at least three more months, until i have to make another trip in october.

Well, i think thats enough for this week. Oh my funny story. Well its not something funny i did...but something funny someone said to me and i just wanted to tell you. So you know that the people here are kinda blunt right? ok, so we met with a woman the other day, and one of the first things she says is she tells my companion and me that it looks like i am getting fatter. I didn't understand at the moment, but i could tell that she said something a little fishy, So i asked my companion about it later, and thats what she said. I feel like normally i'd be really offended and upset about it, but i just had to laugh about it. I just think its hilarious that that woman felt that was an appropriate thing to say. But then again, here you just say what you think and there is nothing else to it!

dman, i heard about your birthday from everyone else but i want to hear about it from you! XOxoxoXoXOXo

Ok, sorry, well back to closing. I love you all! Stay safe and be good! Until next week!

All my love,

Sister Brown

hello!!

Hello family!!

Thank you family for the emails. As always, it was great to hear from everyone. Everyone seems to be doing well and just moving along with the fast pace life we have these days. Rhen that stinks about your finger, but i pray that it heals soon. Dad, what is this part time UTA bus driving job? Whatever it is I just hope that you like it and stay safe while doing it. As always, im praying for you.

Well, transfers were last week. President called me and I have actually been reassigned to the Cancun mission, with swimming rights. hahahaha. yep, i know that joke was lame, that's why i put it there. But nope, in all seriousness, I did not receive a transfer, and i will still be here in voronezh with sis. Gorkavenko. Im excited. The two sisters in our apartment received transfers (well one is going home because she is a mini missionary). So our apt. will be back to two. weird. and there won't be so many russian conversations going on. double weird! 2 of the elders in our district also received a transfer, so today we will get two new elders. One a greenie. Wohooo!!

But even though i am not making a trip to a new area today, I will be taking my first visa trip!!!!!! So i will get on a night train tonight with all the others transferring, be in moscow tomorrow morning at 5 (yuck!), take a quick plane ride with some others to Kiev, Ukraine. Get back into moscow, and then tomorrow night catch another night train back down to voronezh (by myself! ahhhh! we will see how that goes!) so that is my little adventure for the weekend. So while i am traveling ill think about you all traveling to the good ol' kanab. fun!

So, lets get down to business. No, Olga's baptism was not on saturday, but we are of course still meeting with her and working with her on setting a new baptism date. She just has such a sweet spirit about her. We also started teaching a new investigator on saturday, whom we met at english club. She is an artist and drew pictures of me and my companion while we were there. cool huh?! Sunday we were excited because we had two of our investigators come to church and stay for all three hours. It always feels good when that happens. Lets see, im trying to think if anything else went on this week other than the usual of contacting, teaching, and testifying. I can't really think of anything else.

My russian is still coming. It is weird because somedays i feel like im doing good and understanding more, and then other days i feel like i just haven't learned anything! But thats ok. At least i can tell that i know more than i did when i first arrived here. Sis. Gorkavenko has also been very helpful in helping me to learn the language. And she always talks slow for me and uses words that i mostly know when we are talking, so i can understand whats going on. Yesterday it is was funny because i was reading this english thing out loud for someone in an english lesson, and it took me like a minute to figure out how to say the word "truthfulness". it was funny and we all laughed. I kept on trying to put some weird 'r' roll on it! but then that night we went to a lesson and i felt like i just couldn't say a thing. I was struggling so hard to say what i wanted to say, and nothing came out right. it was annoying. Sometimes i feel like a mute here and i can't ever say anything or express myself like i would like too. its weird. but life i guess.

So culture section for the week. They drink tea (like the good kind, herbal and such) like all the time here. no joke. All the time!!! even when it is like so so hot!!! seriously. We were in a lesson the other day, and it has been so hot here lately. I even heard that russia has been on national news for how hot it has been in some places. But so we were having a lesson, and it was so hot we were, well at least i was, like just dripping sweat. And then, we drank steaming hot tea! and we did the next day too! oh my gosh. i don't know how they do it! but i better get used to it, cause i hear that happens all the time.

(DALLIN!!! yea!!! its your birthday! so here is a little birthday wish for you. "happy birthday to you! happy birthday to you! happy birthday dear d man! happy birthday to you!" Yeah!!!!! So for you birthday this year, i thought i would write you and tell you all the things you would love about russia and are really missing out on over here.

1. They absolutely LOVE lady gaga!! There is someone in our apt. complex who has been playing bad romance and poker face for the past week, every morning and every night. its funny and i totally thought of you!!!

2. Girls love to dress up in public and wear really nice clothes and high heels...

3. ...while the men wear really short shorts, flip flops, and t shirts. its super funny.

4. They have some really cool clothes here. I wish i could go shopping and buy everything. When i walk buy a store and see something cute in the window, its really hard to not think about it.

well..sorry i think that's it for now. ill have to add more to the list as time goes on. but i hope your bday is wonderful and that you have fun with family and friends and that you know i love you!!!! kisses and hugs!!!!!!!)

Well family, i am out of things to say. Have a wonderful week, and please drive safely to your awesome pioneer day celebrations. I will be thinking about you! I love you and hope everyone is doing well! Until next week!

All my russian love!

Sister Brown

Pics of our apartment: Bedroom and bathroom...

...kitchen, study room, study desk, view out our window and our district before everyone transfers!!

wow!

Family!!!

First off, I loved everyones emails! It was really great to hear from everyone and it sounds like everyone is doing pretty well. Terence and rhen, I am so happy to hear from you and glad that school and your families are doing well. I have to admit I am a little sad that football season is coming up....but you'll just have to kick some butt out there and then tell me all about it. Dallin, im sorry about that food poisoning and all. Keep doin well and keep yourself healthy, k bro? (and that is coming from your sister who has eaten more chocolate and ice cream on her mission then she has in her entire life!) anyways...so dad you asked about the pictures. yes, i took some pictures but i just forgot my camera today. So, i will try to get those too you as soon as i can. But no, our apt. is actually not ghetto at all. Pres. says it is the nicest apt in the mission he thinks. And i really really love it. It is very nice and clean. Pres. really likes our apt. to be comfortable and well lit and clean, etc...because everything outside just seems to be so crappy sometimes. And yea, that bread soda (kvas) is pretty good. But i just found out from the other missionaries and from even a russian elder here that buying kvas off the street (like me and my companion do) is actually not a good idea. He says that you have no idea what they put in it or how long its been there etc. So i thought, oh great!! Now i have some crazy disease and worms and i didn't even know about it. good times! But they said oh don't worry too much cause if you have worms now, every missionary who serves in russia takes pills at the end of their mission to get D-wormed, so you'll be good then. so i guess ill just have to wait until then! Oh yea dad, and i also thought that maybe in russia there would be ac, but yea, like NO ONE has ac like anywhere. The transportation, the businesses, etc. If there is ac, it is usually in the apartments of the rich people, and it is usually just one of those swamp cooler systems that sticks out the window. So yes, it has been really hot lately. And when at home it was super hot you would just walk into a building or go home or turn on the ac in your car. But here, there is like no way of running away from it. it always finds you. So needless to say, by the end of the day i and my clothing am just so gross and sweaty and wet that i just can't even think about it or ill be sick. I know its not as bad as central or south america. But it's pretty dang hot! Oh, and yes, that was nastia's brother in the picture. He is 19. and yes, women in russia get baptized way way way more often then the men here.

So, we are still pluggin along and trying to work really hard with our investigators. The work seems to have been slowing down a little bit here in voronezh, but we are doing our best to try and pick it up. Our investigators baptism has been called off. She came to meet with us and just said that she didn't want to get baptized anymore. Sad. We want to work with her on working towards another baptismal date, so if that is really what she desires, I pray her testimony can be strengthened and that we can do whatever we can too help. I guess a baptism just after another one was too good to be true. But....we did get another letter this week from our mission pres. And he said that our mission is doing a lot better than it was a couple months ago. He was telling us some numbers, and even though these may not sound great to other missions around the world, we are all very happy to see that we are still improving. To give you a little idea of the missionary work around these parts....for our mission in may we had 1 baptism. In june we had 3. And so far in July we have already had 5. IMPROVEMENT. thats good.

Yesterday all of us missionaries here in voronezh took a trip up to the city of lipitscks and did a little missionary "blitz". There were a total of 12 missionaries there yesterday, and we just contacted all day and handed out book of mormons in parks, etc. The work there i think has been quite slow for a while, so it was good to help out and get the 4 missionaries in that city some good contacts. I pray they all turn out well.

Oh, so transfers are next week! crazy crazy huh. We all find out tonight about transfers and the such. Pres. says that this transfer one missionary is going home and we are getting a new elder. So yea i think in our mission right now there are about 44 missionaries total or something. And pres. also said that this transfer is going to be a big one, so i guess we will see. I think I will just stay here in voronezh with sis. gorkavenko. Which i would be very excited to do. Cause she is great and I feel like i have just gotten started here in voronezh with getting to know people with my limited speaking abilities.

I love you all!! Keep up the great work! You are all in my prayers! I love hearing from you every week, and i pray this week is a great one for you all! Until next week!

All my love!
Sister Brown

PS. i just watched the new mormon messages video on lds.org. And i loved it!!!! I don't know if you watch those often or not. But here on the mission they are one of my joys. i just wanted to say to D-man and Ange....Watch this weeks new mormon messages video about our true identity. I loved it and i thought of you both when i watched it. Really listen to what elder uchtdorf says, and I hope you take his words to heart. Love you!!!!!!

my loves

Hey family!!

I was glad to hear from everyone! yeah!! I love you so much and pray that you are all hanging in there and getting stuff done but also having a little relax time too!

So this week was another pretty good one out here in the mission field! Friday at zone conference we had someone from the 70 i think come and talk to us, Elder Paul, and I enjoyed his talk very much. It was good to hear from him. After zone conference, me and my companion went with some of the elders to red square again (ps...red square never gets old! i don't care how many times you go...it's the best!) But so we went to red square and took some fun pictures before we had to head back to voronezh on our night train. speaking of night trains, they are fun and all to be with the other missionaries in our district and play cheezy games that we make up to pass the time until sleep, but i think im already getting a little sick of them. which is horrible because im only 2 months into the mission and there are im sure a lot more of those train rides coming...oh well, i guess it's just life. it's kinda fun to "sleep" to the rolling sounds of the tracks and all, but it is always sooooo hot on those, and the bathrooms are a nasty smelly breeding place for all sorts of nastiness.

So yes! Nastia did have her baptism on saturday and we were all so very excited for her! Her brother was able to baptize her, and her aunt and uncle spoke at her baptism. There was a sweet spirit there. It was kinda funny, cause you hear all these stories you know, about missionaries and how this just overwhelming feeling of the spirit and peace just smacks them right upside the head or something at a baptism. Well, it didn't really happen that way for me. But i did just feel a sweet spirit, and prayed that Nastia felt it also. I pray that because of this decision she made to be baptized into the church, that she will also be able to stay strong through lifes struggles. And that she will desire to keep the commandments and enter into covenants in the temple, so that her own family and children in the next generation can be greatly blessed through her desires to do what is right and follow the example of the Lord. After the baptism we had the ward picnic, and again there were some great members there to help support Nastia.

We are still working with Anya and Olya. Speaking of Olya, we committed her to baptism on sun and she has a baptismal date for july 17th!! I am very excited for her. She says she is nervous though because she doesn't know what her parents will think about it all, but we pray for her and for her family and that their hearts will be softened, so that she will be able to get baptized. Oh, so last night we did a "movie night" at the branch and showed the testaments and tried to invite like everyone in this town to it with fliers and through the members and stuff. The turn out was ok. We wish that members helped more with bringin their friends, but we talked to a few new faces. Our investigators came to so that was good. We are just tryin to be creative on how we can get more people interested in the church out here.

As always, the language is coming very slowly but surely. We were in a lesson the other day with a member, and I was able to understand a lot, for which i was very excited. But the funny thing is somehow i am always able to understand the most when people are like harping on us for something or telling us how we are doing something wrong. So i was a little annoyed when we were in this lesson with a member, because she was telling us how she doesn't really agree with our decision to serve a mission, like she thinks it is great and all, but she thinks that the most important thing is having a family and children. And we were like yea, we agree. And she was like well then why are you here. And we tried to explain that we feel this is where the Lord needs us right now, and we can think of a family afterwards. Well, she came to the conclusion that we are serving a mission and putting off a family so that we can receive the blessings from serving a mission and serving the Lord's children. And she said that still, we are not doing the most important thing we could be doing right now. I had to laugh, but also just sat there thinking, "who does she think she is"? Cause for one, i am not just serving a mission for the blessings. I mean, it's not like a mission is a little fun joy ride and you get some blessings along the way. It's hard. There are definitely things i could be doing right now that would be "easier". And yea, i do want to be married and have a family. That has been my desire my entire life. But the thing is, The Lord had a different plan in mind. And even though it might be really hard and stretch you where you may not even want to be stretched, I know that as we follow the Savior, and as we follow the promptings of the spirit, and follow the Lords will, we will find the most joy in life. Ya there will be hard days and times when you question what you've done and you just want to give up, cause the world tells you your doing something stupid, but i know that after all that, when we do the Lord's will, we will find true joy and happiness. And I know that the Lord keeps His promises!

So a few items of culture for the week. This week its about food. I was tryin to think about the weirdest things i have eaten here. There is nothing really. We don't get fed alot, so we just cook for ourselves most of the time. But they do have this type of soda that is sold like on every corner of every street by these little vendors. It is called kvas. I don't know how they make it, but it is basically made with like carbonation and bread. (and no, it is not alcoholic...i think if they did some other stuff and let it sit long enough, it would be, but its not) But it is real famous out here and everyone LOVES it!! When i tried it at first it was ok. It looks like root beer and kind of tastes like it at the first sip, but then you kinda have this strange bready after taste. Needless to say, I actually kinda like it. And it is yummy to have after a long day of contacting in the sun. The other thing they love to eat here is called akroshka. It is a cold soup that is made out of kvas or mineral carbonated water, and then they put green onions, cucumbers, boiled eggs, and sometimes potatoes in it. Oh, and they also put mayonnaise or sour cream in it. At first i was a little nervous to eat it cause it sounds super strange, like soda with cucumbers, but it is actually pretty good! I can only have a little bit though, cause after a while the carbonation gets to you, and i feel like im gonna explode. But i figure if i want to be a true russian, that i gotta learn to like this stuff, right?! So yea, thats the only food stuff i can think of. They put sour cream and mayonnaise on everything too. On bread, in soup, on pancakes, on cake, on cookies, in salad, on fruit. here you can put mayonnaise and sour cream on anything!!

Well i guess that's it for this week! sorry if i spent too much time on unimportant things and not enough time on the real missionary work. Love you all! Keep up the great work! Keep bein nice and doing what's right! Oh, and watch my favorite mormon message on Lds.org by elder holland. 'good things to come"....makes me cry every time. Love you all! Until next week!

Sister Brown

Pictures from Sister Brown 8 July 2010

Me, my companion and some elders at Red Square...again!!

Me, Nastia and my companion on her baptism day and then us with her brother in her pretty white dress :)

whats up?!

Hello my dear family!!

Once again, another email from another week. Grandma and Grandpa Brown, i just got your letter in the mail yesterday. Thank you so much!! it was great to hear from you and hear how life is going. I love you so much and continue to pray for you always! Dallin! so good to hear from you finally! Loved your email, and yea, it was kinda a long one. but thats ok, it's just good to hear from ya! im glad you are enjoying life. But other than that, it sounds like you all are just partying it up over there in utah. Dang!! is there any work going on over there?! haha. all i hear is we did this fun thing and then we did this and we did this and this. jk. Im glad you are enjoying the summer. I love reading all your emails and hearing how everyone is doing. I don't know why but i still get a little homesick and teary eyed when i read your emails. i really need to work on that. I am such a big baby when it comes to stuff like that. I really wish i wasn't. It would rid me of lots of problems.

And Gma, yes, i do know elder johanssan. he is one of the office elders. Next time i see him I'll have to tell him. And that is funny, but yea i do know Nizhny Novgorov. It is actually the name of a city here, not a sister member. My companion sis. gorkavenka actually just served in that city. I heard it is really beautiful there. And to answer your question, that man that you talked to from russia is actually pretty right about the complaining thing. They do seem to complain alot here, and voice their opinion about everything that is wrong in life. Sometimes it really gets my spirits down, but i just pray that i can do my best to stay optimistic and not let all the complaining that i hear rub off on me. Yes dad, we do have a keyboard here in the apartment, but anytime we are home we are always busy with studying or planning or getting ready for bed. Other than that we are out of the house, so no, i don't really play the keyboard too much. And yea, i will try to get some pictures of our apt. for you. JANAE!!!!! wahoo!!!! i am so excited about your mission call! Washington! When do you leave? Write me and tell me everything!

So lets see....this week has been..well....another week! But let me tell you. oh my gosh it has been so hot here. It is so hot and soo not fun when you are walking around contacting and getting fried by the humidity and sun and heat!! who would have known that russia would be hot in the summer? not me. People told me it would be hot but i didn\t believe them. well it is hot!!!! My companion laughs at me because i thought it would always be cold here. Oh man especially when you a taking the public transportation in the buses and the marshrootkas (i don't know how to spell that in english). There are so many smelly sweaty bodies all packed together and there are like no windows to open. It is so hot at times i just can't think about how hot it is on those or i will pass out or something. It's bad too because the heat is like a sauna there and i like fall asleep everytime i am on public transportation. but oh well, at least im not freezing! (we'll have to wait for the winter for that part). So tonight we take another night train and get into moscow tomorrow morning for the mission zone conference. wow, i think these night trains will eventually become my best friends. and then we get back here at about 7 in the morning saturday just before Nastia's baptism.

So yea, Nastia's bapitism will be this saturday! I am kinda a little stressed about it though because this past week it has still been really hard to meet with her because of school and then she got sick too. But she is still really excited about her baptism on sat., so we are trying to work really hard with her brother and aunt and uncle and see if we can get her taught before tonight. Im still confused about it all because you think if someone wants to be baptized so bad that they would really make an effort and want to meet with you every second of every day, right? But from talking with some of the elder's they say it is not always that way, and even if people really want to be baptized there are always excuses or things that seem to get in the way. But we continue to pray for her, and pray that we can meet with her, and that if she really desires to be baptized on sat. that we will all be able to make that happen. We are not teaching Kaceyna anymore. The other sister missionaries here are doing that. Last i heard is that she is not progressing very much. She is still not coming to church. I believe that we have really been blessed though this past week to have 2 new investigators. One is a young girl about 20 years named Olga who was walking outside with her dad and they wanted to know what the building was so they came inside to see. She has been to church and seems to really enjoy it, so that is great! The other is a young girl from our english club. Her name is Anya and she is 15 years old i believe. At first we were teaching her just english and she really enjoyed being around us and coming and watching us play at sports nights and things. But now we have started teaching her the gospel so that has been fun. She actually wanted me to teach the first lesson in english to her, and if she didn't understand, she would say so and we would try to translate it out for her. So i did, and it was WEIRD!!!! so weird. Speaking in Russian is so hard, but i can't even explain how weird it was to try to talk about the gospel lessons in english. Well i mean it wasn't out of this world weird, but im definitely not used to it. The words in english came out of my mouth but they just seemed strange. it was kinda funny. This week my testimony of fasting has really been strengthened once again. Us four sisters in the apartment decided to fast on sunday for our investigators and things. And so we did, and even though I felt like i was going to die because it was extremely hot that day and so sunny and drinking no water was no fun, i still tried my best to fast with the spirit and to do it willingly. And i know that the Lord has really blessed us with some opportunities to teach some wonderful people. I pray that the spirit will touch their hearts and that they will be ready to accept the truthfulness of the gospel.

Well i guess that is it for this week, i don't know much of what else to say. I love you all! Until next week!

Sister Brown