hello hello!

Dear Family!!!

Hello my loves! First of all those pictures of the dolls were so cute and hilarious! how fun! We really laughed at the one of me with the awesome missionary nametag...the outfit was pretty rockin too! Well sounds like everyone is just busy as ever with school starting and jobs and football. I hope everyone is enjoyin it! By the way ange, i am in the process of writing a letter to you, so hopefully once i get it out it should be getting to you soon.

So this past week was a good one. Yes, i was sad that i didn't hear from you, but its all good. cause now ive heard from you! So i am still in voronezh with sister gorkavenko. Two of our elders in the district left, and then we are having another greenie from the mtc come in! so that should be fun. It is actually sister gorkavenko's birthday today, so elder and sister lowry are going to feed us breakfast. Sweet!!

so the humanitarian stuff went really well. We spent Thursday putting all the kits together. And then friday we drove three hours in the awesome popular and well known little yellow marshrootka to a small village where the fires had hit. We got there and there were a lot of people there, and as their family names were called they got to come up and we gave them all their kits. It was fun, and I think they were all very grateful. They knew that we were from america because Elder and Sister Lowry have worked on some projects there before, and I guess some of them were like surprised and like "hey, this is all products from russia, i thought they were going to give us products from america!" So i thought that was a little funny. but overall it was a great experience. It was amazing too to hear about some of the lives of these old babooskas that are here. It is honestly crazy how much stuff these people have been through, time and time again, and now their homes get burned down. But through all of this they still stay strong and do what they need to do to survive. Honestly, it is amazing to me how strong some of the people are out here. After all that they have been through, they still never give up. One thing that made me a little sad is that there was not enough kits for everyone on the list (thats why we are going back there again). But one of the people that did not get humanitarian kits that day was like "that's ok that's ok...I have never seen american's before and I am just glad I was able to come and see their beautiful faces, even if i didn't get anything." It really shocked me. And made me realize that honestly, I don't think we realize much of the time how blessed we are. So, count your many blessings.

No, our baptism did not happen on Saturday. so that was a little disappointing. We were all ready to go and then at the last minute that morning, things didn't quite come through as we had hoped or planned. But we are still working with her, and hope that she can be baptized this sat. I just think that she is scared and nervous, which is understandable. It is a big decision.

Sunday was the temple dedication and it was wonderful! I really loved it! It was great to hear the prophet speak. And i know that he is called of God. He is hilarious too. He even sang us a little song, and went on and on about how wonderful his family is. It was so cute. I am also very excited that the saints here have a temple that is much closer for them. I know it will be a huge blessing to them.

Well, i think that is it for the week. I love you all and as always love hearing from you. Thank you for everything and as always you are in my prayers. Hope school and work and everything is going good. Love you! Until next week!

oh ps...we have not had hot water for the past 3 weeks, and as it has been cooling down a little bit we were getting nervous and the cold showers were getting old. So sister gorkavenko told me that for her birthday all she wanted was hot water. And guess what, our little miracle. Yesterday we got home at night after a really long and tiring day, and there was HOT WATER!!! and there still was this morning! It was amazing, and we are happy!

oh pss...yesterday was the first day of school for everyone here in russia, and it is also a holiday. They come to school all dressed up in black and white and all beautiful, and they watch a concert and play and stuff like that. Today is there first day of actually learning. But this holiday is called day of knowledge. So....Happy Day of Knowledge!!!!!!

Sister Brown

another week!

Hello my loves!!

Well, i sit here and i open my email, and what do i see......nothing...haha. did you forget about me this week?? just kidding. We are writing today because we have switched our pday this week because of some work tomorrow. So i expected my email to be empty, because usually you don't write till tomorrow i believe. But that's ok! I'll just write you an awesome email right now and then hear from you all next week.

So first of all the reason we are writing today is because tomorrow we have some humanitarian work that i am very excited about! Elder and sister Lowry have worked with some people and tomorrow we will be putting humanitarian kits together all day for the victims of the fires around here. And then as missionaries, friday we get to go to the villages, and deliver them by hand!! I am very excited that something worked out and that we are able to help in some way. And this week is also especially special here because Sunday is the temple dedication of the Kiev Temple. So we are all very excited for that. I am excited to email next week and let you know how it all turns out.

We find out transfers this week, so you will find out next week if I'm in a new area or not. It is funny how big these transfers become in the life of a missionary. But seriously, this is like our life! It's like will i stay, will i go? i don't know! So its always kinda exciting around this time to see where your life will take you next!

So we continue to work with our investigators and do our best to invite people to be baptized. We actually have a baptism this saturday! But i am just a little bit worried because she did not show up to our meeting yesterday. And we know that her sister she lives with is very against the church. So we continue to pray for her and pray that she has the strength to do what she knows is right.

Well family, sorry i don't have more to write. This writing on wednesday thing has just kinda thrown me off a little bit and I don't know what else to write about. Oh the weather cooled down a little bit in the last week! This past weekend was beautiful! it was actually a little bit chilly, and just the smell of the air totally reminded me of fall. I love fall! I never thought i would say this, but now is the time that everyone is getting all ready for school....and i miss it. haha. When ever this weather comes around i think of school and friends and new classes and football games!, etc. But yea, i never thought in my life that I would say that i missed the feeling of a new school year starting but, now I'm saying it!!

ps..my companion wanted me to write and tell you that she is the bestest missionary in the world...and that she says hello!

well, i love you all and i hope that this week went very well for everyone. Remember that you are in my thoughts and prayers. I love you! and remember...God loves you!!! Until next week!

Sister Brown

mission fun

This is what you do for fun as a missionary. We had our zone training and before it started we decided we would be a bob sled team, with me being the leader. Here are some pictures from that. (and don't worry, my compaion is there. she is the one taking the picture) and as you probably have noticed, that was my hair before the hair cut ordeal!!