wow...25 May 2011

Hello everyone!

So, i just read the article that you sent to me mom. pretty awesome. Terence looks pretty intense and scary in that picture. That is very awesome though. I am excited for you T! Keep doing well and keep yourself safe and healthy! Love you!!! Yes, and I need to tell grandma late happy birthday!!! I thought about you all day yesterday! And, it is very sad to hear about all the bad weather and that kinda news that is going on with floods and tornados. seriously, that is crazy, what is going on?! I really just pray that there will be a land for me to fly back to! That is very exciting to hear about Tanners mission call. What great news! and what a cool place to serve. Spanish speaking right? That will be awesome and he will have a wonderful experience on his mission! for this i know!

Lets see news for this week. Well, we have seen a lot of miracles happen. Which has been wonderful. The hand of the Lord is truly in this work, and He truly prepares people to receive the gospel. We have met with Ipara, and she has put her baptismal date back until she is off of work for the summer. She will be baptized in the first week of July. So, we are really working on getting her prepared, and we pray that satan does not have time to come in and destroy her faith. We had a new investigator on saturday who did not show up until an hour and a half later, and we had already left the branch. And luckily the RS pres was there when she got there and told her about church services on sunday. We called her later that night and she was like yea, I will be there tomorrow. And I was like wow, cool! So she not only showed up to church on sunday, but she showed up a hole hour and a half early! and she just sat and listened to the choir and really enjoyed all the meetings. Our district had 14 investigators at the meeting on sunday, which is a record for sure. It was awesome. And, after we had a meeting with this women and then set a baptismal date with her!!!!! The date is in two weeks.....but we are a little bit skeptical about that, because after we got so excited about this awesome miracle on sunday, She has not showed up to any meetings we have set up with her, and she doesn't answer her phone. Very strange. I don't know what happened. Part of me thinks, well, it was too good to be true. But then another part of me does not want to give up on her. We will see and I will let you know. And monday was awesome because we stopped by the branch for like 2 minutes to grab some more book of mormons, and just at that moment a women that sister dick and gorkavenko had contacted into the day before, came and wanted to talk to someone and say that she would not be able to come to church this sunday. we told her we could call the other sisters and they could come and meet with her, but she said no i don't have that much time to wait for them to get here. And so we asked her what she knew, and she said not much. Me and sister cianflone sat outside with her and gave her the first lesson. And the spirit was honestly so amazing. probably one of the most spiritual lessons I have had on my mission. She said she was atheist, and we testified so strongly that God exists, and that he has created a plan and a way to return back to him. We gave her a book of mormon and prayed with her, and asked her that when she reads and finds out the book of mormon is true and that joseph smith was a prophet, if she would be baptized. And she said yes, I would like to do that. So, it was a great lesson. Since the other sisters are the ones that gave her the church invitation outside, we gave her to them as their investigator. But we were very excited that we were there and that we were able to teach her about the restoration. It was really great. I hope it all works out for the other sisters to meet with her and bring her into the waters of baptism.

So this past week i received my "death papers". Those are the papers that you get that you need to fill out and tell you when you will fly home. So, i have been told that I will fly into the salt lake airport on August the 5th. and that is all i have been told. It is kinda crazy, and i like freaked out when I got the papers, not wanting to fill them out. but anyways, that is the news. the other day in district meeting we were playing a russian grammer game together and i was doing absolutely horrible!!!! and i got a little stressed out and down on myself, thinking, wow, i already have my death papers and I can't even speak russian fluently! I felt a little stupid and wondered what the heck i have been doing with my russian the past year and a half! oh well, i guess i just need to work harder and not worry about it too much. my greeny I swear almost speaks like better than i do already!!

ps....dman, we are sitting in the internet club and lady gaga with her "paparatsi" song came on. (sorry, i know i totally spelled that wrong. my english is horrible lately! I said the other day "He teached....and she understanded...." and they just sounded so right to me until my companion corrected me and convinced me that that was not correct english grammer. ahhh!! anyways, i totally thought about you when I heard that song! yea for d man!!!!! love you!!

Well, i love you all! It was great to hear from you. and I pray that everyone is safe and well this week! Until next week!

All my love!

Sister Brown

hey!! 18 May 2011

Hello my loves!!

well, after 2 weeks to the day, I am finally back in Kazakhstan!! it honestly seems like it has been forever! I am excited to be back and get to work with all our investigators again. It was lovely being in Nizhney and meeting the people there, but it is good to be back "home" too.

So yea, this past week I have just been in Nizhney working with the sisters there. I enjoyed the experience, but again it was kinda hard working in a threesome in an area I don't know to well, but it was good. and we had fun and got along great. So i really enjoyed the experience. I rode the train into moscow on tuesday and got my visa then. So, because of visa problems I missed the conference in almaty, for which i was sad. But, president let me stay wednesday in moscow, and I went to the whole mission conference that we as almaty missionaries never get to go to. So, it was pretty awesome. and i saw missionaries i haven't seen in ages, so it was really great. Elder Schwitzer from the general authority was there and taught us really well. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to be there, because it will probably be the last time i see those missionaries if i still fly home straight from almaty, which are still the plans as of now. When i was there i got my summer clothes back out from the office, because it is supposed to get pretty hot here. and i even bought a few souvenirs, just in case that was my last time in Russia. It was totally bitter sweet as I sat in the car with the mission driver as he drove me to the airport last night. it was a beautiful evening with a beautiful moscow sunset, and I just looked out the window and was thinking a lot. Weird to think how fast time has flown and reminisce about the first time i was in moscow. And it was weird to me to think that maybe that was my last time there....for who knows how long. crazy crazy. I got a little teary eyed, but I tried not to think about it to much. it was kinda weird. ok, anyways.

so yea, i am back in almaty. Got in this morning and unpacked, and now i am writing you! i am super tired, so i hope we can get our things done today and then maybe take a little nap before we go out and work again tonight. So Ipara's baptismal date has been put off. My companion told me that they all think this is a good thing. Her brothers are very strong muslim, and they all think it would be best for her to get things worked out with that before she is baptized. So, I think the baptismal date will be sometime in June. So, we will continue to work closely with her. I totally miss her! I am excited to meet with her tomorrow!

Oh my gosh! I totally forgot to tell you last week! But, there will be the first stake in Russia being formed on the 5th of June!! isn't that awesome! the stake will be in moscow, and elder nelson will come in june. We will not be there because the city of moscow is not our mission, but isn't that just awesome! A stake! in Russia! can you believe it! i am so excited. I wonder how long it will be until there will be a stake in our mission. Probably a little while. We need more priesthood.

Ok, well, i guess not much more to report this week. I love you all! Thank you for your support! Things are going well here. It was rainy in moscow when i left, and is rainy here too. So, we are all in the same weather boat! good joke right? I am a pretty funny person, and I think i have become funnier since being a missionary. haha (jk, angela and dman, that was totally all for you, because I know you just love my cheesy stupid jokes that aren't even jokes...and I love how you think that i am some strange nerdy missionary : ) ok anyways. Loves! Have a great week! Until next week!

Loves!

Sister Brown

party in the house!!! 12 May 2011

Hello!

I love you all! And as always, sounds like you are just partyin it up there in the Brown house! man, good good times. Angela I hope you had a wonderful birthday and gave thanks to all the people that were so wonderful to you on your birthday. I hope you gave dallin a giant hug too (one from me too) because knowing the amazing d-man, I am sure he really gave you a party there at home. well, thats awesome. I hope you had fun. It was so great to hear you all on Sunday!!! as always, it was hard to hang up the phone, but I enjoyed every minute that I got to talk to you. It seems like it has been forever, but at the same time, all your voices sound the same. For some reason I expected them to be different.

Anyways, this week has been good. I am still just getting used to some things here. And it is kinda an awkward stage here, because I know i won't be here for long. As i told you I am in nizhney novogorod. And I was expecting to leave today back to almaty, but there have been some problems with my visa, and so i have not received it yet. I really hope it comes soon! So yea, i am here with sister taggart (friend from freshman ward), and it has been pretty fun having this opportunity to serve with her, and reminisce about the good ole freshman year, chipman hall dormitory times! Her real companion, Sister Rosenblatt, is in Lativa getting her new russian visa. She is Estonian, and so she needs to go to Latvia to get a new visa. So, me and sister taggart have been together. I don't know much of the ropes here in the town, but I am tryin to really help out, and we are trying to get some good lessons, this week. After I talked to you on Sunday, we got Sister Rosseblatt off to the train station. And on Monday, it was Victory day in russia. A very big holiday here. So that day we were asked not to contact and we were allowed to go to the parade that morning. So we went to the parade, but sadly the weather was very cold and rainy, and with everyones umbrellas it was impossible to really see anything. So I have some nice pictures of peoples umbrellas and the backs of there heads : ) I told the other missionaries that it was funny, because for both victory days that I have had in russia, I have been in a city that isn't really "my city" where I am serving. A year ago i was in Lipistcks with the sisters there, waiting for my companion to come back from her visa trip. And now I am in Nizhney, on my own visa trip. Kinda funny. But that day was good, had some lessons, and also family night which was fun. The elders gave a great spiritual thought, and then we played a game. So we had lots of fun, and there was a good turn out of investigators there, so that was awesome. Also, Sister Muhina (my mini missionary that I had in January) is in the branch here. So I got to see her and that was lots of fun. That night we watched the fireworks from our 9 story apt. and we honestly had the best seats in town. So that was fun. Yesterday we had district meeting, and it went well. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve here in Nizhney and to meet other great missionaries that I don't really know since I have been in Almaty this whole time. So, it has been fun serving here and meeting them. Oh, and there is an Elder Brown in this district. And it has been fun to finally meet him and talk to him, because I feel like every city I go to, they all say "Hey! we know elder brown! Is he your brother?!" And i always just have to say no, no, he is not my brother. So now, I finally met my missionary "brother"! Anyways, district meeting. Sister Taggart and I were in charge of doing the training, and I think it went very well. We taught about helping our recent converts stay active, and activating those that are inactive. It was a very great discussion I think, and I enjoyed teaching it. Yesterday was also english club, and that was pretty fun. And, yesterday was angela's birthday, and I thought about her a lot!! Today is p-day, and we are going to get some things done, and then sister taggart wants to go shopping. and then i believe we will meet up with the other missionaries and do something fun and play games or something. I am excited. As I sat in the bus on the way to a lesson yesterday, I just thought really quickly about how grateful I am for the missionaries, senior missionaries, and members here. Throughout my mission, they truly have become my second family away from home, and I am so grateful for that. They are all wonderful!

Back to this visa thing, I heard that maybe MAYBE i might get my visa on friday, but most likely monday i will get it. And I am a little bit bummed and sad about that, because president is going down to almaty and there will be a conference there with the almaty and astana missionaries. And the reason I left early on my visa trip was so that I could be back in time for that. So, i just really pray that I will get my visa earlier than that, and that I can be in almaty for the conference. If not, that might have been my last one. But we will see, it will all work out for the best. And, I have been worried about the baptism of Ipara, but the sisters said that she has pushed it back until the 21st. So i should be there. And I didn't pick up on if she moved it just so I could be there, or if she moved it because there will be others being baptized on the 21st too. I am not sure, but I am grateful that I can be there for her on this very special and important day of her life.

So, all in all, things are going well here. And yes mom, at times I feel like i don't know much and that I am running around with my head cut off, but that's ok. I have felt like that most of my mission. just kidding. only sometimes. But anyways, it has been wonderful to see a new city and to get to know the members and investigators of a new place. I do miss almaty too, and I will also be excited when I can get back and settled in there again. I feel bad for my greeny companion. We have only served together like 3 weeks so far, and the transfer ends sunday. So, hopefully soon we can get back into the swing of things, and that we will see each other more.

Well, i love you all and thank you all for your examples and sweet kindness. It is great to hear from everyone, and was so fun to see that video of joe hitting the baseball. You are awesome joe! I love you! But make sure you don't eat too much ketchup. That is just not good for anyone. I can't believe that school ends soon. Crazy stuff. Well i love you. I love my mission. Everyday I am so grateful to my loving Heavenly Father who gave me this opportunity to serve on a mission. And I am grateful to all of you who were so supportive and happy for that "out of the blue" decision that I made not long ago to serve a mission. And I am grateful to this day for the support that you still give to me. I feel it everyday. I love the people of Russia and Kazakhstan. I love this work. I cannot even begin to express the joy that I feel because of all I have learned here. Of course its not easy. I don't think it is ever easy. But it is so worth it. So worth it. The joy that comes from missionary work is indescribable. I truly have been greatly blessed with this wonderful opportunity. Ok, well, i love you. have a wonderful week! Be safe and have fun! Do what's right! Until next week!

All my love,

the one and only,

SISTER Brown

Happy Mom's Day!!! 5 May 2011

Hello my loved ones!

I am in the office right now, and I am glad that I have a chance today to read your emails and to email you before I head off to some city somewhere for a week. Everyone sounds great, and I hope that the weather warms up for you there. The weather in Almaty is very warm right now and very sunny. But here in Moscow it is a little chiller, and kinda cloudy, but still nice.

So like i said in the early email, get a hold of Sister Moore and tell her the calling phone card information, because right now i have no idea what number you need to call. And then she will just pass on the information to me.

So I am a little sad and nervous about being here in Russia for this week. I mean, i love russia and it is great to be back. But Ipara is getting ready for her baptism on the 13th, and I won't be there to help finalize things and make sure she is calm and things are good to go. I left her in good hands, with Sister Gorkavenko and sister Dick and Sister Cianflone, but still, I really would like to be there. But its ok. Life goes on.

So I guess you have heard about the whole Osama bin laden thing, right? well, since almaty is an area with a lot of muslims, we have a few rules just to make sure we take good precautions. They don't want people knowing we are americans. and so on public transportation and buses and things we are not allowed to wear our name tags. and we should not talk in english on the streets like we were used to doing when we would invite people to our english program. But, yea, just a few little rules. No biggies.

So Sunday there were a few earthquakes in almaty. Now don't freak out. All it well. Me and my mini missionary were sitting in our apt. sunday morning at about 830 and we were studying before church. and then all the sudden the apt started to shake, and then it shook again a little harder. It was kinda crazy. I just thought to myself, oops, what do I do if it starts shaking again, and harder? Where to run? Where to hide?! but it was all good. And then in testimony meeting on sunday at church all people talked about was the earthquake that happened and how scary it was and how we all need to be prepared. And then that night, we were planning for our next day. And we get calls and information for ward members that all over the news they are saying there will be a huge earthquake, size 9, right in the heart of almaty. Sister Gorkavenko's mini missionary was already getting packed up and ready to run out the door. And members were already outside, sleeping in cars or staying the nights in the streets. Honestly, I didn't believe it. I thought," come on, you can't predict that an earthquake will be tonight, and that it will be a size 9, and that it will happen at exactly 1015." I thought it was all a little ridiculous and that people were just being way over reactive. So i didn't do anything. And then i decided to call the elders and see what they had heard. They said that yea, they had heard the same things, and that just to be safe they were getting together little bags and praying, ready to run out the door if anything happened. I thought come on, this is silly!!! I usually freak out about things, and so i decided to be chill about this one and play it cool, while everyone else was getting worried. Then the moore's called, and some of the elders were a little nervous, and so they decided that we would all get bags together of a few important things, and then meet at the branch building as missionaries. So we met there, talked about procedures and what we would do if an earthquake were to happen, and then we all went back home. We all said a pray together and were calm. And, in the end of all of it, there was no giant size 9 earthquake at exactly 1015. People said that there was an earthquake early in the morning at 230 and another at like 9 in the morning, but we did not feel a thing. I don't know why. I decided in the end that at least we were prepared if anything were to happen, even though i thought the whole thing was just silly.

So yea, this past week my companion has been in moscow getting a new visa too, and so I was with Sister Gorkavenko for a few days, and then I was with a mini missionary. It was good. We got more no shows then I wanted, but I think it was a good experience for my young little mini missionary. I think she had fun and enjoyed sharing her testimony. So yea, this past week we have just been working on trying to get Ipara ready for her baptism. And I pray everything goes well this next week when I will be in Tula I think. It will be fun to see a new city, and to meet some new sister missionaries here. I don't know anyone in our mission anymore. They are all new, and I have been down in Almaty where we see no one. When I was sitting in the plane this morning, I looked out the window and thought to myself, "wow, i cannot believe that it has already been six months since I have been to russia." crazy how time flies. And last night i cried myself to sleep, thinking about going on the plane. Because it made me think" wow, what will it be like when I really have to leave, for good." and it was scary to think about, and hard to explain. It is just a weird feeling. And I am doing my best to enjoy every minute, and not think about how sad it will be when I need to say goodbye to the families I have met here on the mission. anyways, lets get off that subject.

Well i love you all! Thank you for your support and encouraging words every week. Keep up the good work and have a wonderful week! and happy mother's day mom and grandma's!!! I love you all so much!!!! seriously!!! I don't think I have said that enough before. I love you! Until Sunday when we talk! and then our email again next week!

Loves, hugs, and kisses!!

Sister Brown

what up! 27 April 2011

Hello!

as always, it is great to hear from everyone!!! i just love it! I am glad everyone had a great easter and enjoyed being together as a family. thank you gma for those pictures, it was great to see everyone holding up all those awesome letters i wrote them. sister gorkavenko and her companion are here emailing too, and I showed her the picture and the awesome card she wrote you. She was excited. it is so weird that we wrote those letters, they traveled across the country, and now you have them!

So lets see. What did i want to tell you this week. well, it was kinda disappointing, but our "miracle investigator" turned into just one massive big no show. I honestly don't know what happened. We called her and she was so excited to come to the baptism and the activity and church, and then all the sudden she just showed up to nothing and she never answers our phone calls anymore. Really weird and lame. oh well. we will keep working i guess. Kinda strange how those things happen, i guess miracles just don't ever really happen that fast? So sunday was easter right? and so saturday night at midnight they had the midnight mass at the Russian Orthodox church. So president wanted us to go to experience the culture, and so we got together as a district that night and went to the mass. When we first got there I was totally a little creeped out. It was dark outside and there were just tons and tons of people gathered outside the cathedral. And there was this creepy sounding bell that kept ringing, and the mood honestly I felt like someone just died. It was interesting. And then we went into the church, and at midnight the priests filed in by chanting things and singing songs, and holding icons and candles and incense and stuff like that. Then we followed them out in this huge crowd of people. it felt like a mosh pit. And then the preists just kept circling the church saying "Christ is risen, Christ is risen" And we and all the people would say back "in truth, He has risen" and that just happened over and over again. People that night walked around with candles that they would then set in the church, and then all carried around this traditional cake that everyone makes for easter. After the ceremony though, it started to feel more like a party than church, because everyone was smoking and started drinking. it was interesting. But I really enjoyed the experience. I honestly thought that ceremonies like that were only in the movies. I didn't really think that people still did masses like that. And then we were just thinking about how this all came about. And how did the Russian Orthodox church think up to do all these rituals and icons just from reading from the bible. It was all very interesting to us, and i would like to read more and learn more about it all.

On Sunday, there was a special sacrament at church for easter. and then after church we had a lesson at a members house with an investigator that is american. she is here for work and has heard a lot about the church because her boyfriend in america is a member. But we are her first missionaries, so that is kinda cool. So, it was totally weird teaching a discussion in front of like 5 american people. I am just not used to it. And I kept on trying to speak english, but all my filler words (like umm and hmm and things like that) turned into russian filler words, so it just sounded kind of funny and me and the only other russian that was there just laughed about it together. So easter evening, all the missionaries and the americans around here gathered at an american's family home in the branch here. We had really yummy food and desserts. it was great. And sister cianflone and I gave the spiritual thought. I think it went super well. There were young kids there, and so we had to do a lesson that would keep them occupied and interested. So we thought what can we do? And then I remembered that when we were young you used to have those eggs that we filled with objects that symbolized the story of the resurrection of Jesus. And so i thought lets to something like that. And we thought they would enjoy to break real eggs, and it was difficult finding the plastic ones to buy. So, we took real eggs and blew out the egg in the middle by making the two holes on the top and bottom, and then we died them cool colors, and then instead of putting an object in because that is like impossible, we drew pictures of the object on little pieces of paper and rolled them up super tiny and stuck them inside. So for our thought we first had the children find the eggs, and then they took turns breaking open the egg and finding out what was inside and we would read the story together. It was lots of fun and I think they enjoyed it. So, we were happy.

So our investigator Ipara still has her baptismal date on. she is very nervous though, and I can really sympathize with her. She is strong to make this decision even though she is scared about her family. I just don't know how to teach and comfort her. But, I pray that the holy spirit will be with us to help us teach her. We went to here home on friday and she made us a delicious national meal. It was great to be there with her and fun to watch how she home made some awesome noodles. it was cool. she is great.

So today sister cianflone and the other greenies here are flying to moscow to get there 6 month visa. So, she will probably be gone for about a week our something. Which kinda stinks cause it gets in the way of our work a little bit. So, i will be with a young girl from the ward and sister Gorkavenko will be with another young girl from the ward. I hope it all works out ok. and then when they get back, I will soon after leave to go to moscow also to get me a new visa, if president is still planning on having me stay the rest of my mission here in almaty. We will see! and i will keep you updated for sure!

I just wanted to tell you all too that I absolutely love meeting with the members here. Hearing their stories and about their lives and how they came to the church and things. Their strength and courage is amazing to me. I absolutely love them. Lately, when I visit members, I just get so happy and just want to cry. I know this is bad, but I start thinking about, "what will it be like when I am home!!!" I will miss these people so so much you don't even know. All the members, and the investigators, and the missionaries and my companions. Every time I think about going home, that part makes me super depressed. Just thinking wow, what if I never see them again. That is horrible. I want to cry every time. The Lord has greatly blessed me with this opportunity to meet all these wonderful people.

anyways! I love you all. thank you for writing. It sounds like things are going well. Keep up the great work! I love you very much and never forget it! Until next week!

All my love!

The one and only, Sister Brown!