hello family!!

first off, thank you so much for all of your sweet words and prayers, yall have been so very supportive and for that i am extremely grateful!! i love you all so very much and even though we are not together right now i hope you never forget it. welp, it have been a pretty eventful and busy week for sure! lets see what is worthy enough and what i can remember to write to ya, ha. oh, well first off yes mom i did get the dear elder from dad last night (monday), but i never got a package slip or anything in the mail...so i don't know what's up with that. when i get back from my appointment tonight i will go check it out and let you know next week if them got it. ok, lets see, oh rhen and kori!...i saw kevin gonzalez in the mtc laundry room last p day doin some byu vending, so that was fun to see him! it is alwasy somewhat weird though to see people you know at the mtc becaseu everythingn is all so different!. This week was pretty eventful bc all of the older districts were getting ready to leave. The rest of them all left this morning, and it was sad and quite weird. now me and sister kelly have a 6 bed room all to ourselves for a little bit! kinda crazy. but yea, sleep has not been much lately. as coordinating sisters me and sis kelly woke up at 4:30 yesterday to check out the girls leaving. and then this morning we woke up at 2:30 and then 4:30 to check out the rest of them. needless to say i am tired! haah. but that is not quite unusual for the mtc. haha. but it was good to be able to see them off, and they are so sweet and will be greatly missed. So now our zone is like uber small! we have our two districts, and then only like 7 are comin in next week. i hope at least one is a sistter, that would be fun. and then the week after that only about 3 russians are comin over. i think two of those may be sisters so that will be cool. neddless to say, bc there are like no districts anymore, they are spliting our districts so that the other teachers are not left without jobs. i guess it was just kinda bad planning on there part, but oh well. ill have to let you know who ends up bein in my newer smaller district. i really hope i can stay with the teachers we have now, but we will just have to see. Ill miss my district alot, i mean ill see them in the hallways and stuff, but all the elders are just so hilarious...haha. the things they say just make me want to pee my pants sometimes. there funny. sat. night i made a fun vocab game for our district to play during study time, and the elders had so much fun!! it was funny to watch how compettivie and excited they got about it all. They want me to make up a game for every sat. night study time now, haha, so that should be lots of fun. i like games, haha. On sunday someone from the gen primary presidency came and spoke in rs, and at the end we sang that new song "i know that my savior loves me" that i helped play in primary when they were practicin it and all. i love that song and i really enjoyed sinsing it. and then after the song the wife of one of our branch presidency members turned to me crying and said "sisiter brown, if you just walk into every teaching appointment and sing that song to them, you will be set! it would invite the spirit just like that." so i thought that was super sweet!!! i wish that it was that easy sometimes, just singing and song, cause thats what i love to do!! haha. speaking of singning, this sotry is for d man. I heard that in moscow they are using the missijonarys that are good at art to do side walk chalk contacting. i guess it is pretty effective in the bigger cities. They draw these big murals etc. on the sidewalk about the churhc and try to get people more interested. how cool is that that they can use their ablilitties to further the work. you could totally do something like that on your mission dallin and that would be awesome!!!!!!ps dal, thnaks for the lettter and than awesoem drawing of me and you in russia. so onto the language, its coming along!! at least i think! again slowly, but surely. its tough and a challegne, but i lke it. We are now teaching 4 lessons a week in straight russian. it is still really hard for me to understand what the investigator is sayin back, but that will some with time. And i still have to take like 5 billion notes in to look off of and stuff for russian help, but hey at least its all in russian! oh by the way our progressive investigator dennis said yesterday that he wanted to be baptized!!!! cool huh? haha. so he is gonna be baptized on "april 3" if all goes well. it is amazing how nervous i can be before going into every lesson, but then once you get into them the spirit is just so strong and somehow i am calm. I come out not really caring what i sounded like or what i said or didin't say, but i just feel really edified by the spirit and pumped to teach people in russia. So spiritual thought for the week....the power of hymns. I can't even tell you how strong the spirit is when you invite it with good music. I love it! i have always loved the spirit that they bring, and sometimes they are the biggest testimony builders to me. Pay attention to the words when you sing hymns. i know that they will brin the spirit and strengthen your testimony! welp, im out of time. I will let you know how the appt goes today. that will be super werid to leave here and go upt to salt lake, passing the home on the way. but it will be ok. so yea ill let you know. and i don't have time to write about what has all been goin on with that, so i will send you a letter, and let me knowif you get it! i love you all! you are in my prayers and thoughts all the time! (maybe even a little tooo much!) haha, jk. i love you and prayer you are doing well! be safe!

спасиба. я люблю вас. сестра brown

how do i love thee?...let me count the ways!

Hello again to my dear family! Ok, here we go! first off lacee that is so exciting about your mission call!!!!!! oh my goodness you will love that place and i am totally jealous! haha. and kesley farmer! girl that is aweosme! Temple square?! how fun! to be honest with you i was a little bit jealous when i read that in the dear elder. haha. that was secretly my dream mission call. How fun will that be to dress all super cute and be tour guide barbie aroudn the visitor center! oh man so fun! Both of you, Lacee and Kelsey, will just have the time of your lives. Im so excited for you both! Let see, this week was of course the same old same old. hha. but if anything out of the ordinary happens i try to know write it in my planner so i can somewhat remember to tell you. Last wed. me and sister kelly gave our first lesson at the TRC in Russia!!!!! oh my goodness, it was crazy hard! but fun too. it was cool to see what all we could say(which is acutally very little haha) but it was awesome. One of the volunteers told me that i actually looked way russian to her. haha, don't know how, but i thought ot myself "oh why thank you, thank you very much" haha. So yes, wednesday i ran into both valerie jones and my old roomy heidi I. It was so fun to see them!! i like never seem than anymore really other than that first day, cause all the schedules are so crazy. But it was fun to see them then. And both of them leave the day after me! so that is cool. Oh, by the way, i have just seen soem confusion on my departure date on dear elder, and just so you know i leave the 26th of april as of now. wow, that seems so far away. But can you believe that I have been in this place already a month now!!! i feel like i am still totally new to everything and haven't gotten all the ropes down. oh well, i assume that is how it might feel my whole mission, haha, everything so new and different from anything ive everknown before. So exciting! but scary!!! I rememeber onw time in spencers email he said that there is no growth in the comfort zone, and there is no comfort in the growth zone. haha. oh man, that is the mtc and mission life to a t! but i love it none the less. So the older districts got there flight planes this week. so sad!!! they are all so awesome! I haven't know the mtc without them, so it will be weird when they and the natives head out next week. It will be so quite around here. There are about 40 russian learners leaving, and from what we have heard there are like only 7 new ones coming in. haha. Weird! but ill be sure to let you know. Oh man, the 4 other sisters in our room(sis wrigley, jones, meyers, and robinson) will all be leaving with them too. they are so awesome and fun and it will be sad to see them go. well, onto the language i guess. its coming along. not as fast as i would like but its coming. the natives giggle at us when we say stuff, ahah, cuase they say we soudn like little kids. man, that is totally how i feel!!! It is frustrating to teach lessons cause you feel the spirit and want so badly for the investigator to feel the spirit too, and you have this thing you want to say but you have no idea how to say it in russian! ah, kinda annoying. But it is truly humbling and hopefully in time i will have that one day when i am just like wow! i said what i wanted to say! yea!!!!! haha. the russian language is beautiful though. i love it. We are supposed to be teaching in 100% russian to all our investigators now. oh man! fun!!!!! haha. ok, well running out of time. Just wanted to add my quick testimeony at the end here of the power of preach my gospel. Never in my life ddi i understand the power in it until now. It is so strengthening, and so true!!! i love it, the words in it are so pure. Read it!!!!! i never understood before know how important it is, but it is! It is amazing what the spirit can teach to our hearts. Sorry, im running out of time, so that is my short little spiritual thought. funny story? um..we are allowed to shake hands now(cause the flu and everything) and everyone was so excited when they annoucned that! it crazy how much i took for granted those awesome family hugs. cause now i miss them so much!!!!!! well all my love! and im sending you a big hug too! loves! Sister Brown

time flies

hello family!! well, first off it was great to hear from all of you
again. Sounds like everyone is doing well and that life is just movin
along! oh man that was very funny to hear about joe. you tell him that
i think he is just so funny. oh man, what does he think sometimes!
thats just too funny. glad yall had fun at the cabin! sounds like a
blast! oh and i wish i could have seen that delish russian flag cake
yall made, sounds like fun. Well, thank you so very much for all of
the wonderful birthday wishes!! And no ange i don't feel much older,
its weird to bein sayin that im 21....im almost a full grown
man!!!!!(haha, that was a shout out to you rhen, hope you enjoyed!)
But yes, the birthday went well. Not like a normal birthday you would
have at home, but it was still very good. Had church and meetings and
such, studied, went to the sunday night fireside, watched the
testaments movie that night during sunday movie time, and then went
back to the residence hall and had chips and salsa and those little
cake things you sent with the sisters in my room. We took just a
couple pics so i will have to print those out and send those soon. Oh,
and dad you wondered where i got them printed off so fast? They just
have a little photo printer thing down in the bookstore and you can
just stick in your mem card and print out the pics you want. so there
ya go! Oh that is fun to hear that you met anne pearson at valerie's
talk. How fun!! tell her i am doin well and hope that everything is
going good for her also. And yes i will keep an eye out for sure for
sister jones, and also another one of my roomates named sister jones
comes in tomorrow I believe! im very excited to see them!! Ok, well
lets see. It's so hard to remember all that went on in the past week.
But yea, toward the beginning of the week it was just a little harder
to adjust to everything, but things are going pretty well now. I have
started to wake up at 6 and go to the early morning gym workouts that
they provide jsut for the sisters. So even though it is super hard to
get up that early, i have really enjoyed it because it helps me tohave
just a little more energy throughout the day, adn then i also attend
our zone gym time during the day and that helps out even more. So that
has beeen alot of fun. um lets see, russian is comin along slowly but
surely. Alot of memorizing and stuff, but we have been tryin to make
it funner to learn, so it has been better. Um...lets see, our district
is doing well and it is alot of fun. I don't know if i told you
already but there are 11 of us now, and 7 of us are leaving together
to the moscow west mission, and then the other 4 are goin to
napopistrosck(that is no where near the right spelling, but you get
the picture, ha) ukraine. So that is fun to know that alot of us will
be in the same mission together out in the good ol' russia. Lets see.
Last wed. we went to the trc again and had to knock on 4 different
doors and talk to each of them for 10 min. in russian just tryin to
get to know them. I think it went pretty well! it was hard to
understand what they were sayin back to us though because they are so
good at the language and talk so fast! Last night me and sis kelly
taught for a second time to our investigator (our teacher) and it went
better the second time. He is having a hard time keeping his
commintements, so we are really working on getting to the bottom of
his concerns and really trying to understand where he is coming from
on everything. Wed. night we go to the trc again and are going to try
to do the entire first lesson in russian!!!!! scary right? haha. I
don't know how long it will last, it might be a short one becuase I
don't know a ton of full gospel sentences in russian, but i will for
sure let you know how it all goes! Oh and im excited because tonight
is the devotional and word going aroudn the mtc is that someone really
cool is gonna speak tongith. haha. and we are singing come thou fount
in the chior so im really excited about that. i love that song!! Lets
see! i can't think much else what to right about. I know there is more
stuff but it is all just so much i can't even remember. It is crazy
though that i am entering my 4th week in the mtc!!!! man, time really
does fly! even though it is long and tired days here, I'm gonna try to
live it up as best i can so that I can be prepared to the fullest when
i fly out to russia. cause i know it will just come so fast i won't
evem know what to think. Ok, so spiritual thought for the week....I
was reading the talk by Elder Holland called "the best is yet to be"
love that talk! and i love the quote when he says "Faith is always
pointed toward the future." As we have faith in our Heavenly Father,
faith in our Savior, faith in ourselves, we look toward the future. We
don't look back at past mistakes, past decisions, past weaknesses,
etc. We look forward believeing and hoping that as we do the will of
the Lord and follow is commandments, that we will be blessed and
eventually win the prize. He talks about Lot's wife too. Let us learn
from this story, and not look back, whether it be worrying about the
past, or whether it be looking back just wanting to return. We are
where we are know, because this is where the Lord's needs us to be. We
learn from the past, but we don't look back, not for one second. We
look forward and have faith. Read Philippians 3:13-14. Welp, there you
go! umm...im tryin to thik oof anything funny that happened this week.
honestly i can't thnk of one right now. nothing to crazy is goin down.
just the same old same old. classes sleep and eat. but it is a good
same old same old!! cause we are getting ready to teach those awesome
peeople waiting for us in Russia!!! yahoo!!!!!!! im excited!!!!! ok,
welp enough from me for this week. Remember that I love you and pray
for you. As dad always says, "Be good, do well, have fun!" and don't
be stupid and be safe! haha. Love you all and thank you so much for
your loving support. I wouldn't be here if i were not for you
encouraging me every step of the way. All my love!!!! have a great
week!!! until next week!! Sister Brown (Ya Lubeat Nac! thats i love
you in english phonetics! haha)

happy tuesday!!

Hello again!! First off I was very very happy to recieve all the
emails. They were wondeful and all so very sweet. I love you guys! I
have to be honest ready those made me a little teary eyed and
homesick, but that's ok, ill get through it. And im so sorry that i
forgot to wish terence a happy birthday last week!! seriously though,
i felt bad. I thought about it at one time and was like dang it... i
forgot!! but i guess that's what you get for being so so busy all the
time. I have forget a lot of things now just cause so much stuff goes
on. But that's ok, ill remember everything eventually. Ok, so to
answer questions and stuff. um.... lets see if i can remember them
first. Oh ya mom, that sounds great. And also, I am tryin to eat as
healthy as i can here in the cafeteria, and so im tryin not to eat
much sweets, so do you think you could send me a big bag of those hard
peppermint candies, so that way i can just have one of those or
something, and they don't let you chew gum in the mtc so that will
help get rid of the nasty onion breath...hahaha. but other than that i
can't really thinnk of much else. Thanks for those vitamins! ok lets
see, what has been going on. well, today we went this morning with the
russian natives to the temple so that they could recieve their own
endowments. It was really great, and I got to be an escort to one of
the sisters so that was fun for me too. It was a beautiful experience,
and some of these sisters have given up a lot to serve missions. Some
of them haven't beeen members for long and have had to fight and
struggle with parents for them just to let them come. Kinda crazy, and
they are amazing girls. They have so much courage! Teaching here in
the mtc is crazy!!! I never thought it would be so hard! We taught in
the trc last wed and that went pretty well but only because our fake
investigator was really involved and asked a lot of questions. We just
taught our teacher who is acting as our progresssive investigator for
the first time yesterday (he goes by denise). And let me tell you!
that was not so easy! very scary! and it is tough tryin to teach with
the spirit when you don't know what questions to ask and when you
can't find out there concerns. But hopefully as time goes on I will
get better at listening to the spirit during lessons. It is scary, but
i just neeed to learn how to be calm and just not be afraid to open my
mouth. Maybe it will be a little different when i am actually teaching
real people out in russia. So the language!!! ahhh...comeing along a
lot slower than i expected. They want us to already start learning the
first lesson in Russian, and that is tough!! I honestly feel so stupid
sometimes, because learning has never in my life been this difficult
for me. It is rough by i am pushing through. I just keep looking at
the older districts who speak better russian and say that if they can
do it, then so can I!! Seriously though, and i thought when i took
those 2 spanish classes in highschool that i was goin crazy...man,
then i am definitly goin crazy now. haha. don't get me wrong, i LOVE
russian, it is a beautiful language. But it will not come without
extremely hard work and a lot of prayers. Sunday was a really great
day. At RS janice kapp perry came and spoke to us. and during her talk
we sang a medley of a bunch of primary songs. It was really sweet and
i started to miss those cute little primary kids that i got to play
piano for. Their humility and unweavering hope and small children is
really an example to me. sunday night we got to watch the jospeh
smight movie. oh man that movie gets better and bettter each time i
see it! totally loved it! in the movie he said something like "the
Lord calls us in our weakness, but He qualifies us for His work." That
really hit me hard, becuase right now i feel quite weak at what I have
been asked to do, but I know He will not leave me alone, and He will
help me to learn whatever He needs me to learn. In the movie it also
talked about how we cannot be satisfied with our loved ones and
families having the gospel alone, but we must go and teach it to all
of Gods children. I realized how I have been selfish and how i have
thought that as long as my family has the gospel, then i am ok. But
others need to have the gospel, and their families also need to
gospel. We are all Gods children. and those people in russia are not
going to learn the gospel utnil i humble myself, learn russian, and
then go out to teach them. I love this gosple! I lvoe my Heavenly
Father and my Savior! I know this chruch is true. Don't worry about
me...Im hanging in their. It seems like i may be in the mtc for years,
but everyone says it goes by fast! Well, my time is also up! thanks
again for all the emails. You are great and i love hearing from you.
Write back often! sorry if i didn't answer everything. ill try to
write a handwritten letter! Love you all and miss you! you are in my
prayers!!!!!!!! Love, Sister Brown

Hello world!! From Sister Acacia Brown

Tuesday February 16, 2010 at 10:40 AM

Hi Family!!!! Ok well, first off i'm having a hard time figuring out
this new email program they have set up. It won't let us enter so the
format of this email will be quite odd. hahaha. anyways, here we go!!!
How is everyone. Thank you fam for the loverly little valentines day
package. totally loved it! and sister bowers thank you so much for the
package and letter! that was so sweet! I will try to write and letter
to you in the next free time I have, but until then, sorry! ha. oh man
where to start!! i don't even know! ummm...so ill start you off at the
exact moment you dropped me off at this lovely mtc. So the host elders
helped me take my bags and I was given a host sister and taken to my
room, given my tag, etc. Then we started off with classes. oh man i
actually don't even really remember it feels like soooo long ago. I
think we had some orientation stuff that night and such and then
worked up till 9:30, had a little bit of free time, and then headed
off to bed. The first couple nights I kinda had a super hard time
sleepin, all that was going through my head were russian words over
and over and over again. haha. kinda funny, but kinda crazy. After the
first couple nights though i have been so absolutely exhausted that i
able to get to sleep pretty well. so that has been wonderful. Our
first teaching lesson is on wed. part in russian rest in english. Our
teachers are brat bradford and brat hansen. um there are 12 people in
my district. 10 elders and then me and my companion sister kelly. She
is totally wonderful! keeps me on task for sure! its good, cause there
are times when i wish i could be lazy, but i think we work well
together. man i am surrounded by a sea of boys here in the mtc! haha.
the elders in are district our hilarious, they make us laugh. um
brother harrison, aunt kanani's neighbor, is our branch president. So
there are 4 districts i believe in our zone. 2 are just elders that
have been here for about 6 weeks, and then there is a district that
came in with us with 3 sisters, and then ours. it was funny becuase
the elders were like super creeped out to talk to us and they said
they didn't know what to do. hahaha. kinda funny! oh man so sorry this
is so spaztic i can't even think of what to tell you. So the
language............haha. so so so hard!! its really awesome and cool,
but just even learning the alphabet and how to read and sound out the
words in quite difficult. my companion already knew quite a bit of
russian since she lived there for a few years when young, so that was
kinda intimidating and i felt kinda stupid, haha. but it's all good! I
actually know how to do some basic greetings now, bear my testimony,
and say a simple prayer all in russian!! pretty sweet right! so yea, i
was thinking man, this teachin the gospel would be a lot easier in
english, ha, but it is coming along slowly but surely, and I know that
the Lord his helping us all along. Um lets see, me and sister kelly
were called as coordinating sisters for the zone, which I guess is
somewhat like zone leaders but over the sisters. It is pretty fun, but
meetings and such cut alot into our study time, so we have to work
super hard in the time we have. I have really enjoyed it. This week we
actually have about 9 sisters who are native russian speakers coming
into the mtc, and they will be in our zone and so i am really really
excited. I hope to pick up a lot of great tips from them in the
language. I've heard they are just awesome!!!!!! Me and sister kelly
are in a room with 4 other sisters. 3 of which are learning russian,
and the other ukranian. the days here go by super slow! but the weeks
crazy fast! i can't believe ive been here almost a week already. well
family, i don't have much longer. the mtc has been a greater change
then i ever expected, seriously, haha. I never expected to be going
going going all the time, but we are! and we are alive! I know that
they Lord is blessing me with strength and energy, even though there
is rarely a moment we have to breath. we have classes from 7 in the
mornin till the time we go to bed. but none the less, it has been
wonderful!!!!!!! I cannot even count the times that i have felt the
spirit and love of God here in the mtc. So so many times. Every day it
is reconfirmed to me. Oh man, it is wonderful. really, it is. I know
that this church is true, and I know that this is where Heavenly
Father needs me to be. He will help me to do what he needs me to do.
Including teaching better, speaking the language, serving, etc. I know
that this church is true and I am so very greatful for my Savior. I
know that when one truly comes unto Christ, they can never be the
same. Coming unto the atonement makes changes in our lives, which then
make changes in us. I know that as we keep our heart and minds open to
the wisperings of the spirit, we will hear them. We will know the
Lord's will for us, and we will konw that He is always on our side,
guiding us every step of the way. I love you family! I don't know what
much else to say. I'm sure I forgot something. there is so much!! but
hopefully i will remember for next time. Know that you are all in my
prayers! and thank you for all that you have done for me, for I would
not be where i am now. All my love!!!! Sister Brown

---

Jan. 2010 Newsletter

We received this newsletter today about Sister Brown's mission from the mission office....
(i think if you click on the photos you will be able to see them much larger.)

a new chapter begins

so, my blog has undergone a little revamp, and I am set and ready to go to make my way onto Russia. Visit often to get weekly updates and a little sneak peak into the life of your very own sister missionary! haha.

ps....I spoke yesterday at church, and despite my anxiety, I think it went quite well. Thank you to my lovely family and wonderful friends who came to support me. You all are wonderful, and have truly blessed my life in countless ways. Thank you again! and know that there is much love coming from me, all the way to you....

adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

This blog is everything you ever wanted to know about me...and more! haha. i'm a student attending BYU, and i'm majoring in home and family living with an emphasis in interior design. (and as of now I am minoring in art history...) I love anything and everything that is artistic and creative. My dream is to own my own cute little flower shop when I am old and crinkly.